to cool you off. Most recently Ron bought some canned beer
for a recipe he's going to cook this weekend but what to do
with those beer cans.
Well, I've got left over wire coat hangers, fish wire and of course the beer cans.
I decided to have some fun and make my own Texas Lone Star Mobile which
I have hanging from the tree in front of our house.
Here's two photos.
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1) Using wire cutters, cut beer can top and bottom off and cut one side
opening up can into sheet.
2) Clean can
3) Take the cutout shapes and using adhesive glue; glue them onto can.
In my case, I used a map of Texas, a Star and a Longhorn for my shapes.
- Mood:
cheerful
In 2002, Ron and I had our first trip to Puerto Rico.
One of the locations I had an opportunity to capture on video
is the Arecibo Lighthouse, Park, and Musuem.
For you viewing pleasure. Enjoy.
Saturday was a beautiful day in Austin for having the Skillshare weekend event. We arrived at the Space 12 community facility on the east side of Austin. Colorfully painted and more people arriving. We crossed the threshold into this very spacious facility. At the entrance we were greeted by Charity as we signed in and looked around. On the left just behind the greeting table I saw a group learning “Sewing with a pattern” and moved around clockwise I saw the following “Public speaking”, “Computer Navigation”, “What do Doulas do?”, and “Puppet making”. Each location had about a handful or more of people enjoying the discussion or actively participating.
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After corresponding with Cory of Skillshare via email, I finally to meet her in person. Cory and the Skillshare volunteer has done an excellent job making this event happen. Bravo!!!
Charity showed us where we were going to do the workshop. We got our materials for the Digital TV Coat hanger antenna and set it up in the dining area of Space 12. It was ideal for us since it has four good size tables to make these antennas. After a while of checking out the other workshops, it was time for us to set up and get our workshop started. Here is Ron's post on preparation: Skillshare Austin: DTV Antenna: The Prep
We had a good size group of participants curious and excited to learn to make their own antennas. Ron and I made our introduction then Ron began the workshop while I passed all the materials, instruction sheets, templates, and checklist of steps taken to the each participants.
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We stayed a little longer to see the Capoiera but we were tired and decided to leave with the hopes of returning the next day.
I want to see the video that Matt took when he teaches his workshop on Sunday titled “Video editing”. There are several good workshops lined up for Sunday to satisfy our preferences.
Special Thanks you to the following organization and people who helped to make the Digital TV Coat Hanger Antenna Workshop possible:
Donations of Coat Hangers:
Top Drawer Thrift Shop
Assistance League of Austin
Second Time Around
St. Michaels Academy Thrift Shop
Junior League: JLA Resale Shop
Aida Prazak
and finally very special thank you to
Ron Nelson for supplying the rest of the materials needed.
Furthermore, those are interested our local newspaper the Statesman
published this:
Austin workshops about sharing skills
Group holds two-day event encouraging self-reliance.
By Laura Heinauer
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
- Mood:
cheerful
the Northern Lights over
the Chicago Skyline.
Let me know what you think?
Enjoy.
Further info: Northern Lights Project
Well, I’ve been busy lately. I made my own Digital T.V. Coat Hanger Antenna and later this month I’ll be teaching a workshop on it with the Skill Share Austin group. Ron did a nice entry on it here: The Best Digital TV Antenna After making it, at first I was quite skeptical of whether or not it would work but once connected and the T.V. power on, I was quite please to see it working beautifully. Thanks John Park and Make Magazine for a wonderful afternoon project.
Now for the purpose of this entry is to talk about my latest project the “Northern Lights.” Ron and I were looking for a way to repurpose our broken Dell laptop screen (no thanks to the airlines after we shortly arrived Puerto Rico).
Ron took apart the laptop screen to see how it was made. Very cool the things you learn when you’re taking them apart. Aside from the screen itself being damaged the rest was okay. My task was to come up with a way to simulate the Northern Lights using the remaining part of the laptop. We measured out the space were we thought would be ideal for the LEDs to be flush with the edge of the backlight material. Luckily there was some space there to work with.
Ron made me a sample strip to see how the LEDs would look and I took that strip and began to prototype. I connected each LED on the strip to the 16-bit Serial Input Constant Current LED Driver which was then connected to the Arduino. This took me some time to figure out but at last I was able to get the two chips communicating and then I began to write the code to create some interesting LED effects.
inside the Dell Laptop screen wired 16-bit LED driver
Somehow the look and feel didn’t seem right and one evening we both approached the screen and said at the same time, aha, it’s missing a silhouette. So, I used the Chicago skyline as my silhouette. The silhouette took some time to do and when I
brought it all together then did the Northern Lights come to life.
We still needed a base to hold the screen upright. The next day Ron made the base and I painted it black. I added to the screen a RS232 connector to make it easy to connect the LED driver to the Arduino.
Front view Back view
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The modem next to the base above will be repurposed to become a control box where the Arduino will reside. I'll post video soon.
I’ve been to the Smokies before during the summer 2008 (In the Smokies)
but this was my first time during winter season. Wow, what a difference?
But I’ll leave this topic for another day.
I want to share the waterfalls we visited. This time we explored the
northeastern side near
and hiked about 2 miles toward our first waterfall called
As we walked the trail we enjoyed the sights of the mountains. They
are beautiful. I could actually see the earth and where the pine trees
were located compared to the summer where it’s harder to see amongst
the entire green canopy that covers them. After two rests stop we arrived
at the base of
and watched two families taking photos there. After some time, I worked
my way down further at the base and took this nice video of it.
located on the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Mingo Falls stand 120 feet
tall compared to Hen Wallow Falls at 90 feet and it’s a much shorter hike
about half a mile except for the claim up to was more strenuous. Once we
were there, it was quite a sight. Let the video speak for itself:
Lastly, on our return we went to
and Cherokee on Hwy 19. This fall is well worth seeing since it’s composed
to two waterfalls coming together and it’s just off of Hwy 19 and it has a
viewing deck.
You’ll need to be a little careful getting from the side road to the viewing
deck but once there the view is spectacular.
All of these waterfalls were nice to see and enjoy and if you find yourself
in the
- Mood:
peaceful
Prior to our trip to the
were signs of life. Trees, flowers and bushes started to grow and
rain announced its arrival. The air felt different and the day grew
longer. It’s nice to be able to have fresh air in the house.
I leave the window fan running all night and I’m awoken by the sun
rising and the scent of freshness over comes me. I took a few photos
prior to our travel to compare how much has changed when we returned.
Yesterday I had a chance to take a few photos. I was curious to see what
happens in a month. Here’s what happened:
Then I saw the flowers are really taking off after a few days of rain. There are
roses in the backyard while there are clovers in the front and side of the house.
Their colors are so rich, deep and bright.
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I started an herbal garden. Right now I’ve been able to germinate about
7 out of 8 herbs. I’ve already transplanted a few into the yogurt containers
but soon I will have to transplant them into bigger containers. Ron and I
have plans for a vertical garden setup for the herbal plants in the backyard.
For now, I’m waiting for the herbs to get bigger and stronger for the final
transplant. Pretty soon Ron will have fresh herbs to cook with.
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The more rain
greener
Pretty soon we’ll be hitting the hiking trails. There is so much to see and
do in the Hill Country that I’m looking forward to taking more photos
on our adventures.
- Mood:
happy
This poem was written a long time ago. I don't know exactly what
inspired me to write this. It might have been a movie I saw or a
dream I had. Either way, I wrote it down and now years later I'm
sharing it with you.
Enjoy. ~Evelyn
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO
Let me hold you tight, if only for one night.
Let me keep you near, to ease away your fears.
It would be so nice, if only for one night.
I won’t tell a soul, no one has to know.
If you want to be—totally discrete;
I’ll be at your side, if only for one night.
If only for one night, your eyes say things
I never hear from you and my knees am shaking, too.
But I’m willing, to go through—I must be crazy
Standing here this way, but I’m feeling no disgrace for asking…
Let me hold you tight if only for one night.
Composed by Evelyn Nelson
Copyright 2009 - Evelyn Nelson
Wow!!! There were so many dogs. From big dogs to tiny ones
and of sorts of breeds and colour. At first I thought the weather
wasn't going to clear up but it did when I got to the dog fair.
The sun popped out from behind the sky and the park was alive
with people and dogs. I went solo since Ron's allergic to animals.
I walked around and after a while, I took some photos. Here's want I saw:
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Near the end I went over to the dog tricks and was able to take this video:
Hope you'll enjoy it. I wonder if there are dog fair's in your area.
Also while I was there, I met the wonder people who took care of
Hydro before he became apart of Becky's family. I took a photo
them and a close up of one of their grey hound.
Oh, you'll like this photo -- Frisbee Catching. It took me some time to bring it
together. Pretty good action. :-)
- Mood:
cheerful
A decade ago, Ron and I stood at the alter of a very special church
and there in front of families and friend we shared our wedding vows.
What started of as a poem that I wrote ended up being our shared wedding vows.
Today, I would like to share it with you.
| Evelyn: | Ron: |
For each breath I take, | |
For each new day, you are the rays lighting me up | |
For each new night, you are the stars surrounding me | |
For each step I take, you are right along side of me | |
For each new challenge, you are the strength helping me to overcome | |
For each tear I shed, you are the cloth comforting me | |
You are all of this and more | |
More than anything else, your unconditional love is what I cherish the most | |
You are the fire burning passionately within me | |
I pledge to thee my all | |
To comfort thee in times of distress | |
To giveth thee support when feeling down | |
To challenge thee when bored | |
To share with thee when in joy | |
To adventure with thee when in search | |
To giveth thee my love | |
And when the time cometh to giveth the the precious gift of life | |
Together we shall pass on our knowledge, our faith, and our love |
| Together: |
This I pledge to thee. From this day forth may we continue to experience life together. |
Composed by Evelyn Nelson
Copyright 2009 - Evelyn Nelson
I wrote this poem a long time ago, March 23, 1994.
I just came across it this week and thought to share it with you.
I look at the cemetery and I see its beauty; the stones of loved ones long gone.
So many have passed away and yet when spoken of they seem to be alive
filled with an enormous amount of love and warmth
To live life fully
To leave an impact on others
Therefore they will find their immortality by the ears, eyes, and mouth
of those who knew them
For each time that you remember them the more you love them
To dream of immortality is to be dead
To feel the earth’s coldness in the winter
To feel the earth’s warmth in the summer
To know that you’ll suffer no more is a pleasure beyond any dream
Life is full of many different experiences
When death occurs, it’s another experience but at a spiritual level
that no one can ever fully understand but can only assume
Death is beautiful in its own special way
It is the unknown that makes the Human fear death.
Composed by Evelyn Nelson
March 23, 1994
Copyright 2009 - Evelyn Nelson
unpacking. During this process I wondered
why people hold on to so many things. In my
case, I held on to things from my High School
days. Boxes after boxes, cloths after cloths,
things after things; I could not believe how much I had.
I try not to just toss these things instead I donate where
ever I can. For example, cloths tend to be a little bit
more complicated because sometimes the item is
slightly damaged or very worn out. I tend to wear
jeans to death and have a hard time tossing them.
Recently while unpacking I found those very jeans.
I got to thinking how do I re-purpose these jeans.
I got two ideas. The first idea is making a picnic
blanket and the other is a pocket rack. The picnic
blanket is still in progress but the pocket rack I
finished this morning.
Basically, I want to use most of the jean material
when re-purposing. Here's how I did the pocket
rack. I used 5 jeans for this project.
Step 1: Take old jeans and cut it into shorts.
Step 2: Cut the shorts along the seams to
separate the front panel from the back.
Step 3: Place the first back panel above the next.
Step 4: Align each piece top down.
Step 5: Use pins to keep each piece attached
Step 6: Bring in the side and hold with pins
Step 7: Sew
Step 8: Cut left over material
Here's the photo:
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What do you think? I made this to put my tools
and other items in. I like the way it hangs.
Next to re-purpose the left over material. I'm
using the legs to make the picnic blanket and
that will take me some time to do. I'll post
a photo when done.
When I was going through one of the boxes today I found
Guy's famous photo. Luckily I had already unpacked the
scanner and was able to scan it. It's one of my favourite photo.
This photo of Guy in a doll's dress was taken by me one afternoon when
I had my camera out and wanted to do something creative. I took the doll's
dress of my stuff bunny and dressed up Guy. He's so funny. He did not
fight me. Than again, I was the one person that could do almost anything
to Guy and get away with it. Maybe because I played with him so much that
he just did not mind. What a character! jejeje No one else in the family could
do such a thing to him. Still miss him ( read more here).
He's still my sweetie. Enjoy.
- Mood:
happy
Since my last entry on Peggy2, I’ve been spending some time
learning to program the Peggy2 with existing Peggy2 library examples
and tinkering with my own code via those examples from the library.
If you are wondering how am I programming the ATmega168-20PU microcontroller? I’m using a 6-pin USB TTL-232 cable that I had gotten from an earlier project to communicate from the Arduino software programming environment to the board.
Today, I got so excited that I was able to make Peggy not only do a circle but with a press of a button I could change circle size. To my surprise when pressing the button down to select the circle size there was an effect that created a spinning spiral. Take a look:
Here are some photos I took in slow motion:
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Next up, I’ll be setting up the Peggy2 board onto a black wooden base since the board became a little heavy after soldering 625 LEDs. My goal is to attach the wooden base to the black glass top table. The challenge would be to have it firmly attached and yet have easy access to the control panel.
- Mood:
cheerful
No wonder this country is in such a mess.
What happened to quality, to integrity, to listening,
and caring for a job well done?
Within the past few months, I’ve had to interact with individuals
who lacked all of the above. Given we are living in a time of
technology were it’s said that technology will improve the quality
of life and minimize the paper work and streamline the workload.
Obviously that is not the case since I’ve had to go in person to resolve
issues generated by the customer service. What’s wrong with these
people and big companies?
Isn’t there enough competition to force them to do their job right in
the first place? What’s changed over the last two decades for such
poor services?
No wonder this country is in such a mess.
People are no longer being held accountable for their actions.
Everything is being tailored to the lowest common denominators
as not to offend those very individuals.
The problem here is that the quality, performance, efficiency, and
integrity of customer service have all degrade. Simple task are now
almost impossible because customer service fails to listen, explain,
and/or just don’t care.
work hard, pay attention to good quality work, be efficient and
provide a positive experience to clients and customer.
By dummying down the system, it has introduced more complications
and fails to address any issues in a timely manner. See Ron’s rant:
“Let’s Bring Back Competence!”
For this country to change people need to do their job right, they
need to care and take pride in a job well done. If they fail to do that
then they shouldn’t be there. It’s costing not only me time and money
but ultimately these very companies that have poor and inefficient
individuals time and money as well.
Furthermore, companies need to think through how their database
are set up. For example, why can't the customer service database
communicate with sales, tech support or accounting? Why do I have
to every time I call repeat for the nth time my situation to each department?
Here's a tip. If you don't want one department messing around with
the other why not have a comment / urgency flag with detail description
of the situation so that all departs are aware that there is a problem
with a customer and each would collectively collaborate to help resolve
the customer's problem. Instead these database are separate and in
some cases I'm talking to an outsourced customer service who have
limited access to my situation. Actually there's no excuse for older
corporate companies. They've been around to have worked out these
sorts of technological internal communications systems.
From now on, I'm going to focus on doing business with locals and
small businesses since the larger ones don't care to deliver good
quality services in a timely manner.
Today is the day. :-)
I made Sweet & Sour Unstuffed Cabbage and Brussels Sprouts & Shallots. Since it was my first time making these recipes, it took me little longer and a little more mess. I followed the instructions and slowly started to see the dishes come together. Finally, I was done and couldn’t wait to eat.
Here’s a presentation of the two recipes before I devoured it. Once I placed the bowls on the table I realized that I still needed something else. I returned to the kitchen looked around and ah, why not toast two slices of wheat bread and that will help with the presentation on the plate. The nice thing about the toast is that it absorbs the juices from the Sweet & Sour Unstuffed Cabbage.
Later on today, I had been pondering another recipe but this one is my own. A while back I had a thought and then starting craving for mini-pound cake with guava filling. Don’t know what triggered it but boy-o-boy, that craving had been slowly intensifying. I decided to do it. Here’s the resulting photo:
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Doesn’t it look delicious? It was totally divine. Yummy, yummy to the tummy goodness!!! That craving has now been satisfied. :-)
- Mood:
happy
This week I've been learning and tinkering with the Peggy2.
I'm becoming familiar with programming the Peggy2. It’s fun.
Today I did a little programming in the morning but the purpose
of this post is to share my two other home projects.
Let’s start with the Vertical Snack Bar. Why such a thing? Well, we don’t have enough cabinet space and even though we have a nice long counter top we don’t want it to be cluttered with bags of chips. I was trying to figure how to solve this problem and mentioned it to Ron. Ron pointed out a dead space by my workspace and the kitchen. After awhile we came up with the next best thing, hang the chips vertically like the store does. Here are the photos:
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My next project was to take the Buffet table and cover the underneath as not to see the clutter. So when I was out running errands today, I took the opportunity to check out our local thrift shop and see if they had any fabric that would compliment the hunter green of the buffet. Luckily, I found two fabrics (a soft velvet pale yellow and a beige heavier fabric) and I spent less then $10. The beige fabric was 200 inches long by 50 inches wide. It’s a petty good deal. At home, I took the fabric and placed them by the buffet to see which of the two would work the best. The winner --- beige heavier fabric :-)
It's been a long day but a productive one. Now the buffet area looks so much brighter and less cluttered. Well worth the effort.
- Mood:
cheerful
He soldered the control part of the Peggy2 one evening (posted: The Peggy 2.0 Project : First Light) and recently we decided that it was best to order white LEDs. So he order 625 10 mil LEDs and while he was at it he recalled my comments on the Meggy Jr RGB when we were at the Make Faire this past October.
Right before our move we received the package from Evil Mad Scientist. Once we were settled in our home, Ron couldn’t wait to open it and begin to build the Meggy Jr RGB (posted: Evil Mad Kit Assembly) and for me to work on the Peggy2 board.
This week was my turn to work on the Peggy2. I finished soldering the last of the 625 LEDs yesterday that’s 1250 soldering points. Best to section the work is smaller grids.
Two things I learned while working on the Peggy2 (posted: Peggy 2.0 Soldering Complete):
1) Double check the soldering.
When I turned on the Peggy2, I noticed three LED seemed not as bright as the other LED. So I noted their location, flipped the board, came back and touched up the soldering work and this time when I turned on the Peggy2 and all of the LEDs were working fine.
2) Using construction adhesive to hold the LEDs in place
At first, I thought positioning the LED in a row and using tape to hold them would keep them flush but somehow that doesn’t work. Another thought was to put them into a small grid and flip the board and place the whole thing onto the workbench surface but that too did not guarantee a snug fit. Ron came up with the idea of using the construction adhesive. Dab a little on the edge near the anode so that when inserting the LED on the board it would hold when you are ready to solder. When I would complete a small grid I would wait a few minutes before flipping the board to then solder that group of LEDs.
Once I had completed each grid I would flip and turn on the Peggy2 thus I would validate the quality of my soldering. Furthermore, the construction adhesive comes off nicely when cleaning up the LEDs. :-)
Today, I spent some time reading, recalling and using the Arduino, Processing and programming the Peggy2. Thanks to those who have contributed to the Peggy Library I was able to get quick satisfaction. Next up learning more programming. I’m still new to the Arduino and Processing environments. ;-)
- Mood:
cheerful
I’ve given up on the whole deal with “New Year’s resolution” that for me doesn’t work. I prefer to have three tier goals, ranked from easily obtainable to unobtainable. Hell, shoot for the stars and then go beyond, I say. Another aspect that I like to keep real is the time factor since we’re taught to early on in life to have deadlines; which for me (through some hard lessons) I’ve learned to keep it flexible. Having the time factor flexible has helped greatly to reduce the levels of unwanted stresses. I like my three tier goal setting because it allows me to take baby steps but all along working my way towards meeting the more difficult goals and gradually I’ll obtain some of the more challenging goals that at first seemed so far gone.
Also, I’m learning to balance and enjoy different aspect of my life. At first it may seem hard to do but when I changed parts of my lifestyle such as the endless T.V. watching to something more rewarding. I somehow had more time available. Not to say that I don’t enjoy watching T.V. shows or movies but I detest commercials and any sort of advertisements whether it’s via T.V., Cable or Internet. I learned by changing the way I watch T.V. I reduced the amount of time wasted which does add up pretty quickly. That time was re-routed to do other better things that at first I thought I never had the time to do. I’m so happy I changed parts of my lifestyle.
I’m looking forward to some unexpected events. I know it’s going to be positive, motivating and whatever “it” is; I’ll learn from it. Maybe I’m a bit too optimistic and it’s just the way I am.
I welcome 2009. It’s the year of opportunities. It’s time for some action.
As for me, I’m in. Are you?
- Mood:
optimistic
in and wondered if we were still on for tonight since it was quite cold.
I reassured her that she was in good hands and that we're going to
have our movie night and watch Holiday Inn.
She got her coat, hat, keys in hand and she locked her home and off we went. Soon after we arrived and as I'm pulling into the driveway she commented how festive the area looked. I parked, got out and went around the car to escort her to the entry way. It's nice living on ground level and she liked that very much since she currently lives in a second level apartment.
I recall when I first meet Francis I was pleasantly surprised to see someone
of her age moving around and about without any assistance of any kind. Wow!!!
She's three years younger than my grandfather (who recently passed away) and my grandfather had no choice but to conform to using either a walker or at times the wheel chair. So naturally I was very much impressed to see her moving around and so alert. We became good neighbors but in the past year or so we've become friends.
So tonight we had planned to watch Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire in Holiday Inn. She's a great fan of them and well, me too. :-) We sat down and began to watch the movie. Since it's so cold outside and even though we have the furnace up I still felt a draft so I went and got us each a blanket for additional warmth while watching the movie. We laughed and made comments at times during the movie. We were nearing the end. It was about 15 minutes away so I got up and made us some tea and serve it with slices of German chocolate cake.
I returned to the movie and waited for the right time to pause it so we could enjoy the tea and cake. During which time, I asked Frances if she had a moment I would like to show her something. She replied yes. As I walked away from the dining room as her back faced me, I went over to the closet to get her mother's rug and returned.
I said as I laid out the rug next to her " Here's something that belongs to you" as she finished laying her fork on the plate and turned her head to look at what I was doing then did she realize that it was her mother's rug...
Her voice cracked, she had a smile, and with an "ahh", her eyes seemed to water as she raised her hands to her face saying, "Oh my, I can't believe it, there are no words to describe this..."
I quickly said, "Do you agree with this?"
She replied, "Yes, Yes, I do, I love it.
How can I ever repay you?"
I told her, " There is nothing to repay, this is your mother here and now, she is with you and you should enjoy it. " Then I went over to her and gave her a gentle hug and a kiss on her forehead. She was in awe.
She asked were I had gotten the fabric and I told her as we returned to our tea and cake. Soon after I cleared the area and we return to see the wonderful ending to Holiday Inn.
The ending was GREAT... she loved it and so did I. We had a great time.
And right before leaving we got to talking about the rug again and why for her this was the best Christmas gift she could receive. She started talking about this very topic of gift giving and at which point I asked her to following me to my computer. I wanted to show her that I totally understood what she was referring to, so I pull up this site and showed her my journal entry about “Gift Giving Idea " which she read.
I told her that I like to talk/preach about certain topic but not only do I preach I do my best to practice it. Then I showed her "New life to an old rug" which she also read and was so deeply moved by it. She kept saying "I want you to send this to my son. I want him to see it."
I will when I get a chance.
I told her, " Oh, but there is more, there are comments regarding your mother's rug, you and me." I clicked into "New life to an old rug" scrolled down to the comments section. She read, pointed, and bobbed her head in agreement. She was so moved that people from out of town had read about this and care about her happiness.
THANK YOU!!! You totally topped Frances's wonderful evening tonight.
For additional fun as I drove her home, I decided to go up and down the neighbor streets seaching for decorated homes. We were having so much fun spotting them. Frances was laughing just as much as I was. Finally, we arrived at her place. I escorted her to her home while holding her by one arm and with my other I held onto her rug. She was so excited when we entered her home she said I want to display my rug but not in an area were there would be high traffic. Funny thing is that while driving I was trying to figure out where her rug would look the best. The minute her door swung open I think we both knew instinctively, it would be in the center of the living room underneath her table. I moved the table and placed the rug and we both returned the table back on top of the rug. Frances was pleased and very happy—me, too. And with that we gave each other a hug and said our farewells and
Good Night.
- Mood:
grateful
