About Me

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West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

September 27, 2016

I'm a failure as a blogger AND a mother!

It's common knowledge that my blog languishes most of the time but I just realized yesterday that I had not posted anything about Chris's Labor Day weekend visit.  And it wasn't just the weekend - he arrived Thursday afternoon and stayed until Tuesday morning so that was really nice for me.

I think the two main things we did were a trip to Charleston because he wanted to try one of his newest lenses for photographing the interior of the state capital dome.  He took some beautiful pictures there.  If you'd like to see them, he has a gallery at http://www.chrisbudny.com/ - just click on the red "new images".  He just added several pictures he took of the recently unveiled subway terminal for the 9/11 plaza memorial in NYC (none of which terms are correct, probably) but the Charleston photos and also the ones he took on our trip to Maysville are still there.

The trip to Maysville was kind of an embarrassment as far as the miniature museum went because we went on Saturday and I had called to see if they were open Sunday and was told they were but only from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.!  Why bother, is what I privately thought.  But they were open Saturday and I thought she told me from noon or 1:00 to 5:00 p.m.  Got over there around 2:30 Saturday, went in and I explained we were there to see the miniatures and she said "oh, we close at 3:00!"  But, we went ahead in.  If it had been my first visit I would have been devastated because the miniatures are absolutely fabulous.  But I've been several times.  Chris was disappointed because he couldn't take any pictures but at least since he couldn't, he probably saw more of the exhibit than he otherwise would have.

So we then went in search of a late lunch and found a nice restaurant where I had a fabulous grilled cheese sandwich.  Maysville has really changed since my first visit to the museum however many years ago.  On that visit we searched long and hard before we finally found one little cafe for lunch.

Anyway, then we wandered around the town which is obviously undergoing a restoration of sorts.  Lots of work being done and lots of wonderful turn-of-the century buildings.  I took pictures there as I followed Chris around so I'll post those here.


 If I remember correctly this was a bank building and I took a
close-up of the lockset because it was just so beautiful - doesn't show up all that well here, but it was lovely.

 As you can see, we had a beautiful day for our visit.  This is probably my favorite photo - the two buildings were blindingly white against the blue sky.  Chris has almost the same shot in his gallery but changed it to black and white and it's stunning!

I took several shots of this hidden away "almost shanty" type building.  It sat on  a hill behind an office type building.  I'm not sure if it's still in use but I think it probably is - and it's not shanty-like in size - it's three stories!  Certainly secluded though with such rampant vegetation all around it.

 And these last ones are just flora - no fauna...




So with the nice lunch and new subjects for photography and a too brief glimpse of world-class miniatures, I think it was a nice trip.

Other than that, we just took it easy - Sunday we did my Starbucks thing and Chris bought the New York Times and we worked together on the crossword and another puzzle I've tried now and then and working together we finished the crossword puzzle by Monday(!) and reached "genius" level on the other one.

I cooked a pot roast dinner which was all right.  I don't think the meat was very tasty - I think they're making food animals bigger and bigger faster and faster and I believe it's really taking away flavor and in some cases tenderness.  Chicken breasts are like turkey breasts and when I looked for the pot roast they were huge!  Sad...

I'm going to try to do another post in a day or two.  I started a cooking regimen and so far haven't made anything incredibly delicious but I've been enjoying the process.  And I've been stitching a little and adding bits and pieces to my little Etsy shop.

But for now, I'll sign off.  Oh, I want to apologize to those who receive the posts in their inbox - I don't know why we all got the post a couple of days ago about my aquarium visit last fall in Genoa but I got it and Chris said he did so probably we all did.  Kind of embarrassing...



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