The Mews at Windsor Castle                                          Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I sort of inadvertantly started a project this week end that I've been meaning to get around to for a couple years.  You know those old photo albums that keep the pictures in place with a sort of static electricity, and how after several years the pictures no longer stay in place?  Well, I have quite a few of those and everytime I get one of them out out some of the pictures fall out.  I've been wanting to take all the pictures of all of those kind of albums and put them in the kind that have slots for the pictures to fit into. I started late yesterday afternoon and today I finished my 6th album.  Six down and 8 to go.  Maybe I'll just try to do one album per week end until they're all done.  One added bonus I'll reap out of this project is that they will all fit on my bookshelf now without laying them on their sides.  The old ones had to be laid on their sides because they were too tall. 

And I'm happy to report that I did ABSOLUTELY NO OFFICE HOMEWORK this week end. I'm proud of me.

Sea Island, Georgia beach                                           Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Gee, my computer just told me that it needed to be upgraded.  Yes, it did!  Ever so often when I boot up it tells me that it needs something or other upgraded and this time I let it do what it wanted. So now my Internet Explorer is somehow better, although you couldn't prove it by me.  I just really wish someone could and would do something about all the stupid spam mail.  Everytime I fire up my computer and open up Outlook Express I spend the first 5 minutes deleting junk mail, some of it disgusting junk mail. I even set up about two dozen rules to filter out obviously filthy stuff, but for some reason the rules quit working two or three days after I set them up.  And you can't even rely on just blocking the sender, because they come from a different person each time.  So frustrating. 

But I shan't worry about that now.  It's Friday evening and I have a WHOLE WEEK END in front of me.  This has been a particularly trying week at work and I was very grateful when 5 PM rolled around.  But now that the week end is here, I'd like the time to go by ever so slowly, thank you very much.

Sea Island, Georgia                                                                                     Photo and Enhancement by Chris Duffy

I tell you, I felt like going home in the middle of the day.  Cut to the quick I was!  One of the new temporaries at work, a young man about 30ish,  who is assigned to the mail room / shipping & receiving room was delivering a package to me today and out of the blue he asked me if I had relatives in Michigan . . . because I sure looked like his grandmother.  His GRANDMOTHER?!?!?  I could almost have taken it if he had said like his mother . . . but his GRANDMOTHER?!?!   I'm not sure exactly how I responded; something like I didn't really think I had any relatives in Michigan, and that I was raised in Illinois.  It threw me for a loop so much I forgot to put on my "remembering cap".  Anyway, I think he got away without realizing he'd ruined my day, and after a few minutes I started to see the humor in the situation and related it to a couple of my "older" buddies at work.  One of them sent me an email a few minutes later saying that she didn't think the guy would have left her office uninjured, to which I replied, "He wouldn't have, except that I couldn't get my walker turned around quick enough".   I heard her laughing six offices away. 

Arbor Hills  Nature Reserve  in Plano, TX                                       Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

There is this park about 3 or 4 miles from our house that I like to take walks in.  It's not so much a park as it is a preservation of how this part of the country used to look before all the people and houses and businesses took over.  It's not gussied up with flower beds; it's just a piece of land with a creek running through it.  The only accomodations that have been made for the public are 2 rest rooms, drinking fountains, a picnic pavilion and a concrete walkway meandering through the park.  This picture was taken after we left the walkway to get a better look at the creek. 

A house in Chipping Camden                                                                                     Photo by Chris Duffy

Doesn't that just look like a house straight out of a story book?  One of the brochures on our trip to England had told us if we wanted to see thatched roofs we should go to Chipping Camden, so of course we went there.  We drove around and around and didn't see a single thatched roof.  Then three days later we had to drive through Chipping Camden on our way to somewhere else and we stumbled onto a neighborhood that was almost all thatched roofed houses.  Poor Mike; he was having to stop the car every block or so for me to snap another picture, but I thought they were all so charming.  Looks like this one might have been a B&B because it had this nice little parking lot. 

Our back yard Valentine's Day Morning                                                                                                    Photo by Chris Duffy

This is the way our yard looked when we got up to leave for San Antonio.  I immediately thought of the 5 hour trip we were facing on the snow covered highways and wanted to cancel.  But my husband who isn't the least bit afraid to drive on snow or ice said the trip was still a go, so we went.  It snowed on us for about the first hour and even then the roads were not icy.  I'm glad, because although I love him dearly, my husband's driving scares me spitless.  It's not like he's had a lot of accidents. On the contrary, he's only had two that I can recall in the 38 years we've been married and they were both non injury ones.  It's just that he follows too closely (I think) and goes too fast (again my opinion).  He does have very good reflexes though, but I just wish he'd allow for other drivers doing stupid things. 

Anyway, it had snowed in San Antonio also so I was thinking it would be slick and dangerous all the way there, but by the time we got to Waco the snow was starting to melt and by the time we got to Austin there wasn't any snow left on the ground.  We had a wonderful time with the kids and managed to make it back home safe and sound.

The little town of Rissington                                           Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

I can't believe how quickly this week is going.  I'm not complaining mind you.  Heavens no.  I just hope the week end doesn't go by as quickly.  We're going to San Antonio for my son's birthday and I'd hate for it to be over before we even get started.  It's a 5 hour trip so we'll be leaving very early Saturday morning and only time will tell how well we do on our diets while we're on the road.  We're trying the South Beach diet don't you know, so we'll take a bunch of the little cheese stick snacks with us instead of stopping for latte's and cream horns.   We won't make a big issue of it while we're at their house if they serve something that we're not supposed to eat. . . like potatoes, or rice, or bread or chocolate cake with butter cream icing. (sigh)  We'll just take small helpings if that does happen.

HIDCOAT GARDENS in England                                           Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

One of the things I absolutely loved about England were all the old stone buildings and fences.  They have sooooooo much character and beauty.  They just don't build buildings like that any more.  We build them now-a-days to last maybe 20 or 30 years.  Then we knock em down and build another new one.  These buildings have been there for years and years and years.  Why, the cottage that we rented last trip was older than the United States of America.  Can you imagine that?. . . . staying in a house older than our country!  

I really don't know why, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for all things that have somehow managed to survive from one era to another.  I go into antique shops and I marvel at some of the things that have somehow made it through the years in tact.   Some of them I don't even know what they were used for, but you can tell they're old and well used, but not used up. 

Arlington Row in England                                           Photo and enhancement by Chris duffy

Like I said before, I'm getting excited about our upcoming trip to England, hence the picture of Arlington Row from our previous trip there.   I went out this week end and purchased another 128MB media card and 2 extra camera batteries.  I also was looking for something (had to be smaller than a laptop, because I don't want to lug my laptop to England) that I could plug in my media card from the camera each day and download the pictures on so that I'd then have an empty media card for pictures the next day.  In addition I thought it would be great if that gismo had an LCD screen for viewing the pictures somewhat larger than the 7/8" x 1 1/4" display on my digital camera.  I was beginning to think they didn't exist and that I would suggest that to our R&D department for a future product.  But alas, someone had already beat me to inventing it.  They DO exist, they're just too expensive for me to get one.  They're a portable hard drive.  They make them with and without LCD displays.  The ones without the LCD displays are around $250 and the ones with them start at $500.  Needless to say, I opted to buy an extra media card instead.  

An Episcopal Church in Palm Beach                                                                                      Photo and enhancement by Chris Duffy

Boy am I ever glad it's Friday.  It's been a long week at work and I'm ready for a nice relaxing week end.  I have a few things on my TO DO list that I need to get done this week end, but at least we'll not be papering the guest bathroom . . . paper hasn't come in yet.  YEAH!  Actually it would be a good thing if it was in, because we won't be able to paper next week end either.  Maybe I'll strip the old paper off and that way I'll be way ahead when the paper does come in.  Well, there went the relaxing week end.