How do you spell potatos?

On Saturday I dragged myself out of a sick bed to go to the sale at my local fabric store. I bought a few pieces, one of which was this:

I'm not sure what I'll do with it. You'll have to stay tuned. Just be aware that sometimes stuff sits in my stash for years until just the right project comes to mind. But I do still have my food quilt simmering in the back closet. My good friend, Claudia, emailed that she's enjoyed my recent rash of blog posts. I've been spending a lot of time on the computer lately....what with the cold and all....and not feeling like doing any housework....and having a good excuse not to for a few days. I've also been camping out in the upstairs bedroom because I'm not the most pleasant roommate when I'm coughing and sneezing all night. Mr. Gadget (a/k/a the Master of Euphemisms) has been a real prince about it. He tells me I occasionally breathe loudly at night. He's been in an especially good mood lately. Maybe that's what a good night's sleep will do for you. I wouldn't know.

So I decided to move an artificial plant from the bedroom to the living room to see how it would look there. After a few days, with nary a comment from Mr. G, I asked him if he had noticed. He looked a little sheepish and said, "You just put it there, right?" I told him this didn't surprise me, but that I certainly thought he'd notice the big gaping hole in the bedroom corner from whence it came. Nope. He hadn't. So I'm thinking I'll just put dusting and vacuuming on my once-a-year chore list....

And another thing.....

How is it that a gal can gain weight on a cruise if she just eats sugar-free desserts?

This issue has been so perplexing that I let Mr. Gadget convince me to take a 5-mile drive down the road tonight for a world-class cannoli.

I guess there's always tomorrow.

So I thought I'd share a few pictures of Cartagena. It was a lovely city in spite of our lousy guide, Herbert.

Here is Herbert demonstrating the gallows at the Museum of the Inquisition. Maybe he got wind of how low he scored on the Macaroni Tour Guide Scale and considered taking early retirement......so to speak...

All gussied up

Most cruises have formal nights when passengers dress up for dinner in the main dining rooms. For those who choose not to don their fancy duds, there's the buffet option. But Mr. Gadget and I go the whole nine yards. He wears his tux--purchased off the formal store clearance rack for under 50 bucks, and I wear a long black skirt or pants, and a fancy top--all of which can be thrown in my suitcase and pulled out wrinkle-free. We've learned how to play the game.

There is a challenge involved in taking along fancy clothes however. This comes when trying to pack them, along with all the other clothes you might need on a two-week vacation, in a suitcase that will not exceed the airline weight limit for the flight home. This is not easy. But Mr. Gadget, ever-so-clever, has managed to solve this dilemma.

Randomness with Kleenex

Last night I decided some cold medication might help me sleep, so I quickly reviewed the medicine cabinet. There were 2 bottles of Nyquil--one with an expiration date of 2007 and the other with 2009. The later vintage seemed to do the trick, so I'm thinking those dates are just ballpark estimates. "You threw out that really old bottle, didn't you?" asked Mr. Gadget. "No," I confessed, "but I will as soon as I'm feeling 100%." I don't know about you, but I can't be bothered with little details like that when I'm hovering between 65 and 70%.

And how is it that furniture can get dusty when no one is living in a house?

I discovered a little problem with the blog after I got home. The right sidebar stuff was gone. I guess it went missing as soon as I started blogging by email from the ship. Not that it's all that important, but that right-side stuff does give the blog a pleasant balanced look. I did a search for help, but, as is usually the case, one must be technically savvy to understand technical help instructions. So I was forced to take matters into my own fumbling hands and I deleted all of the posts from the cruise. You'd finished reading them, right? Now they are gone and the sidebar is back, and all is well with the blog. If you ever find yourself in need any technical help, just let me know.

And did you know that long vacations are tough on cable boxes? Especially if you disconnect the power to them. Apparently they like a small steady dose or they'll keel over and die.

So here are a few more pictures from our trip that I find amusing and rather amazing. Our Panama Canal transit happened on St. Patrick's Day. How did those canal workers have time to decorate?

Back-to-Reality Blues

Mr. Gadget and I are now back home in Connecticut. We had hoped the captain would sail right by the port in Ft. Lauderdale, but no such luck. We were evicted from our stateroom and sent packing.

I'm now fighting a cold and not feeling too chipper, so here are a few pictures with some short captions. I'll be back with more to say in a day or two.

School kids in "Wa-TOO-co" (Mexico) on a field trip to visit our ship

The Farmer-in-the-Dell and Old Mother Hubbard dancing on the pier in "Wa-TOO-co"

Our transit through the Panama Canal. (Notice the higher water level beyond the lock gate in front of us.)

Sculpture in Cartagena, Colombia

The cruise chicken

House with birds - Cartagena

Our ship - The Coral Princess

Aruba

Party hat

Part of the fun of cruising is having a festive hat. I've never had a festive cruise hat, but I've observed other passengers wearing them and having loads of fun. On second thought, maybe it was the strawberry daiquiris.

After I finished sewing the crocheted flowers and leaves on my hat, I considered adding one final touch.

But then I thought better of it because maybe less is more. Although I do think the dragonfly might look cute sitting up on top...and I could feel special that he singled me out for his landing spot.

While I was outside photographing my hat, I noticed that dear ol' dad's fig tree is sprouting some new growth.

That means there'll be lots o' figs this summer. I'm not a real big fan o' figs, but I do enjoy them occasionally and eat them in honor of dear ol' dad. I like to think he's looking down and smiling, especially when I manage to edge out the birds.

Big City Girl is in Florida for a few days, having flown there with a girlfriend in the wee hours of this morning. They were sick and tired of snow. At precisely 2:34 a.m. this morning I received a text message.. ...to let me know she was on the plane, taxiing to the runway and expecting an on-time departure. Isn't it a real pleasure to get a call from a kid in the middle of the night with good news? That's something almost as rare as a festive cruise hat...

Blue chicken blues

By now you must know I enjoy stitching poultry. After I finished this blue chicken I was really at a loss about what to do with it. So I sat on it for a while and finally hatched a plan. I'd make a pillow, applique the chicken on the front, and mail it off to my friend and former workmate--the one who sent me the chicken postcard.

She's always been a fan of my stitched pieces and even has some of my earliest work--lunch-hour creations she managed to rescue in mid-air between my hands and the garbage can.

I'll probably stitch this blue chicken again, along with the yellow and purple ones, and make a three-pillow set to decorate a bed or a chair, or Mr. Gadget's office. They could be the central motif in a room with farm-themed decor. I'm excited just thinking about the possibilities. Pigs, cows, ducks, goats, sheep, and all manner of barnyard bric-a-brac.

In other news.....Mr. G and I will be departing the Calcondo on Sunday, along with our friends from Connecticut who will be arriving in a couple of days, for the local cruise port. At 4:00 p.m. we will set sail for the Panama Canal. A couple of weeks later we'll disembark in Ft. Lauderdale and fly home to Connecticut from there--after the snow is all gone, of course. That's part of the deal. This was all Mr. Gadget's idea. He thought we should take a more leisurely trip home with less flying time. What could I say? He twisted my arm again.

So my plan is to blog along the way. I've figured out--thanks to Blogging for Dummies--that I can post to the blog via email. I will be testing this feature before we go. I'm thinking it can't possibly be as easy as they say. I won't be posting pictures however, as they take a long time to load on the slow-poke ship computers. But I promise some as soon as I'm back on dry land.

So I guess I'd better make a grocery list so I'll have something to cook for our guests when they arrive. I hope they like chicken enchiladas....