First Installment of the Banana Slug Chronicles

It was a dark and stormy night.....

Oh wait, that is another story. This is the story of the search for the elusive Banana Slug.


On Saturday, February 16, 2008, the Queen B, Sam, and I left the Tartine Bakery, which has THE BEST croissants in North America, and headed off on our day trip to Muir Woods and then to the Sonoma wine country of Northern California. The night before the Queen and I sat down with MapQuest and plotted out our turn by turn trip so that she could be my personal Carmen and tell me where I needed to go. It was a gorgeous day as we drove across the Golden Gate bridge and headed to the Muir Woods.
















We found the park in record time in part thanks to the Queen's navigation, Sam's coffee and croissants, and my Dale Earnhart driving abilities!! The group enters the park and marvels at the beautiful trees. Well, actually we spent half of the time looking at the ground in search of the elusive Banana Slug. It wasn't until about half way through the short trail, which we opted for so we could get to the wine drinking that much faster, that we decided to look up and at the trees. Of course, this looking up immediately made me dizzy, so I had to go back to scanning the ground for the elusive BS otherwise I would have fallen over and that would be the end of the trip to Muir Woods and wineries.


We finished our travels through the park with no sign of the elusive BS aside from the paintings of them as captured by the spectacular photography of the Queen.


After much consideration, and in honor of the elusive Banana Slug, the three of us decided that we would henceforth be known as the BS Club when we are out in woods together in search of wildlife.


Please check back soon for the next installment of the Banana Slug Chronicles where the BS Club ventures into the deepest, darkest regions of Sonoma in search of the Elixer of the Girls....

Hump Day

So far this morning has been GREAT!

First, I talked to my folks and my dad has made it back home from visiting my Grandma in the hospital. This is good for the following reasons:

1. Grandma is doing better and had her surgery, so Dad felt comfortable leaving her.
2. Dad is home in his own bed, which always makes people happier. It also gives him the chance to have some different clothes to wear since he has been at my Grandma's for a couple of weeks and I think he probably left with only a couple of days worth of clothes as he didn't think the trip would last nearly as long.
3. Mom has Dad home with her so she will have human contact and somebody to talk to. I know that she has missed this when I called her last week and could barely get a word in edgewise as she was using all the words that she had saved up from NOT having somebody to visit with.

Second, I am working at the North Campus facility this morning which is SO much nicer than the office that I normally go to. It is open and airy and people have intelligent conversations and I don't have to listen to the ridiculous conversations of the people that sit on the other side of the wall from me at my old cube. It also doesn't have the barn smell going for it that the 1451 office tends to have.

Third, it is Wednesday. That means that there are only two more days left to the week. I have a full day planned and I think I will actually be able to get some real work done today, or at least I hope.

Fourth, well, I can't really think of a fourth, but so far, my day is going really great!! I can only cross my fingers and hope that it stays the course!

So I'm A Little Late

Sorry, I'm a little late in getting my post up today, but it has been a bit hectic.

First, I need to send a big THANKS! to Sara, my blonde, Aggie, Aries friend. Love the car-pooling. Not only do we lesson our Carbon Footprint (see me talking all Green and California-like) but we also get to enjoy the pleasure of one another's company in the morning. And, I have to say that talking to somebody else in the car is SO much nicer than conversing with myself; I tend to be a bit of a bitch!!

Second, I'd like to send her another thanks for going and picking up lunch for me. You Rock!! I LOVE Wahoo Tacos!! Although I don't actually like their tacos, per se.

Third, well, I don't really have a third. I have to apologize to Sara regarding NOT riding home with her, but she has to stick around for that blankety-blank Ops Excellence meeting and I'd rather go take a walk with Vanessa.

Okay, I have more that I'd like to talk about, but don't really have the energy at the moment and I have to go to another fun AND exciting training session.

Shop Hop Tour Complete

Well, I finished my tour of the Bay Area Quilt Shops that participated in the Shop Hop. I put about 400 miles on my car and only got lost a couple of times and that was mostly due to the fact that the shops were tucked away in some odd-ball shopping center with bad signage.

For the most part, I liked the shops, however, doing a Shop Hop in California was very different than Shop Hops that I have done when in Texas. For one thing, the shops in California did not seem to have quite the hoopla as the Texas ones did. It was more of a "oh, you are doing the shop, yeah they'll stamp your passport back there." Of course that may have also been because I was going on Thursday and Friday rather than on the weekend when most people were probably participating. The other thing that I found to be interesting was the Shop Hop quilt that the shops worked together to create. Here they did a block exchange with each of the shops and then the shops set those however they wanted to. In Texas, the shops came together and designed a full quilt then each shop put it together based on their own color choices. The Texas quilts were actually much more fun and exciting. I have to say that the shops in Texas are also different. Yeah, they all sell fabric, and kits, and tools and what not, but the ones in Texas had their own "flair" their own "flavor"; the shops in California all seemed to be cut from the same cloth, if I can use that analogy.

Now on to what I got out of the trip... I bought stuff, duh!! I picked up a couple of new books with some new quilt ideas, which I'm very excited about getting started on. I also picked up some patterns with people in mind. I'm very much looking forward to getting started on all of my new projects. I just have to finish my current one first. I have two sections left on my psychedelic sampler that I'm working on from a Shop Hop in Texas (I'll post a picture as soon as I have all the parts together). It really is so much more interesting than the patterns from my Shop Hop this past weekend. Oh well, I'll make that quilt as well and donate it or something....

That has been about all I've done this weekend. Shop Hopped and sewed. Not too exciting, but it is my life and this weekend was a good weekend...