Hey Buddy, ya got an extra 100 for souvenirs?

Have I confessed my love of buying souvenirs? 

No? 

Uh Yeah, well, I have one. 

Every trip I go on I bring home a little something for my family and my staff.

Let's see, when I was at the Library of Congress I brought home T-shirts for the boys, ink pens for my FTE staff and pencils for the student workers.

The Raleigh trip I brought home T-shirts for the boys and little tiny baseball bat keyrings for my staff. 

The list goes on.

Here is some of the loot that I brought home from Ottawa. 

I brought home lots of maple syrup. The little 3 pack I gave to my staff. The big maple leaf shaped one is for the family. Maybe pancakes for dinner tonight? JR and Candace are big sweet eaters so the maple candy is just for them. JR is a big salmon fan. So the pate is for him. 

I added some things to our various collections. Remember the artist I flirted with chatted it up with? The two big pieces are his. The skaters on the canal is an original watercolour, the other is a limited print. Good thing the new place has a lot of wall space.

I collect postcards. I justify my postcard collection by saying that it takes up very little space and I'm honoring a tradition that JR's grandparents started in the early 1900s. That's my story anyway. 

The blue native looking thing is a ceramic tile. JR and I collect these together. We have tiles from all over the United States so it is fun to pick up something from outside of the U.S. I think this makes about 15 or so.

The pin and the earrings are for me. I have what some would call an unhealthy attraction to earrings. I'm not even sure how many pairs I have. 

Not shown is the beaver dressed like a Mounty. I could resist. Sher said I had to get at least one beaver dressed like a Mounty and I did. 


I'm leaving for New Orleans tomorrow morning. Who knows what I'll pick up there.


Love,
M

Ottawa

So the presentation went well. I think. People told me it did. I'm not sure I believe them. Okay, I'll take their word for it. I'm pretty happy it's over. One more presentation on Saturday then I don't have another one for quite sometime. So all my insecurities can be lulled into a sense of well-being only to be dashed against the shores in September.

Here are a few of the photos that I took while in Ottawa. Can I just say that I love my phone. I didn't take my camera. All these photos were taken with my phone. It did a pretty darn good job.

 This is the canal. In the winter it freezes over and then people skate on it. I don't understand why. Ice skating sounds cold. I'm not real fond of the cold. It has a very pretty park that runs along both sides. It was in this park (right side of this picture) that my eyes and sensibilities were assaulted by the sight of a very large old white man in a Speedo. I'm not sure I'll ever be the same.

 This street artist and I sent quite awhile talking about art. I bought one of his originals and one of his prints. I can't wait to hang them in the new place. Isn't he cute as a button?

 They (the compassionate Canadians) pick up stray cats. They get well taken care of in these nice little houses. These cat houses (teehee) sit right next to the parliament building. I think its ironic that they put a cat house (teehee) next to the country's capital building.

 Isn't this pretty? It's the Gadadafsifenf river. Sorry, I can't remember the name. It starts with a "G" and it empties into the St. Lawrence River. Have any of you seen the St. Lawrence? I drove across the St. Lawrence on my way to Montreal once. It is beautiful. It was in the Thousand Islands area. There wasn't any pickles or ketchup in sight.

 I found this gift shop on Sparks street. All the merchandise was made by local artists. I'm pretty proud of the fact that I did my part in supporting the local economy. I increased my earring collection. It (the earring collection) has become rather profane. 

 I thought this was a church at first. Turns out it is one of the parliament buildings. I didn't get a really good picture of the actual parliament building because they were erecting this big stage in front of the building. They were preparing for a party on June 30th and Will & Kate were coming to visit. Everyone was all atwitter.  

 This was the side of the agriculture building. I just had to take a picture. What do these look like to you? Sometimes, my 12 year old boy gets the better of me.

There was a quick trip through Ottawa. I'll share some photos of the goodies I brought back. Then it is off to New Orleans to party with a zillion librarians. 

Love,

M

Waitin' on a Spin

It seems that I spend a lot of time waitin' 

Just this morning I woke up 30 minutes before the alarm went off. I waited until it did to get up.

Just this morning I waited for the coffee to brew or would that be steep in my house since we drink french press coffee every morning. And, a lot of it. And it was worth waitin' for.

I finished a paintin' last night. I'm waitin' for it to dry before sending it out. I'd show it to you but I promised I wait. 

 

I'm waitin' until my Nessa dog learns to pick up her babies (toys). I'm pretty sure I'll be waitin' a long time. At the present time there are baby arms, legs, and guts strewn around the house. We now have a paraplegic monkey. The new babies were bought on Tuesday as a reward for being good at the vet and groomers. I use the term "being good" loosely. I'm a sucker; she would have got them anyway. 

I'm waitin' for my trip to Ottawa. I've never been before. I also get to use that nice shiny new passport. 

I'm waitin', rather impatiently it seems, to go to Florida this October. (Jen and Casey, we'll be rolling into Orlando on Sunday night.) We are makin' plans, weighin' our travel options and saving our money. 

I'm waitin' to move. We found a large townhouse with a small fenced yard in town. My studio will almost double in size. While the kitchen is small, I'll get over it since the living space is big. Like, 700 square feet bigger big. I'll get 3 walk-in closets. Okay, JR will get 1. Still, leavin' me with 2. You know, he doesn't really need a whole walk-in closet. I think I'll put my shoes in his.

I'm waitin' until we move in to paint pictures for the covered porch. The light is kind of dim so I'm wantin' to brighten it up with something like this but since I want to take up most of one wall I'll need to wait to see how big the canvases need to be.

 That's all the waitin' I've got to do. People at work are waitin' for me to get there. I really wish I could find that job that didn't actually require my attendance. Now, click on the Spin Cycle button at top to visit other Spinners.

Love,
M

PS: sure I could and should credit the pictures above that I stole off the internet but since I didn't keep track of them we'll just let them speak for themselves.