When is it time to give up a hobby?

I told the story of reinventing the wheel back in January of 2011. I wrote about the difficulty in getting embroidery designs out of my computer and onto my machine's embroidery card. The problem is my new-newfangled 64 bit computer.

I tried to get new drivers for the card converter box, aka The Amazing Box. Look at this guy:

It didn't work, and there goes 2 full afternoons that I'll never get back. I could get a new box but I'm sick of having to buy something every time I want to use the machine. But I've only wanted to use it a few times in the last 7 years. It's not worth keeping an old computer around just for this.

Maybe it is time to give it all away. Machine, purchased embroidery designs, threads, stabilizers, and the whole big box of stuff that goes with it. Is it time to throw in the (un-embroidered) towel?

Political observation

So the big story in the news is Mitt Romney showing his true feelings about Obama supporters. The fact that he paints all "non-taxpayers" as self proclaimed victims, and folks with entitlement issues is just too ironic. Who feels more entitled than a rich white guy in the USA?

 

I'm trying not to bomb Facebook with my feelings, because so many are sick of it already. But really, could he be more insulting to half the country?

 

One of our patrons at the library is convinced they leaked the story themselves, just to solidify his extremist, right wing backers. He is right when he says a good chunk of us cannot be convinced, and he's right in saying we're not his problem, but only as it concerns the election. If he really feels that way about us as president then we have big, enormous problems. Even bigger than W. As much as I didn't agree with his policies, I never thought W dismissed us as unworthy, lazy, leaching slugs.

 

For the record, THIS taxpayer is an Obama supporter, and I can't be convinced otherwise. Where does that put me in the percentage game?

Tropical storms are freaking WET

Tropical storm Isaac dumped over 10 inches of rain on Boynton Beach before Sunday night (August 25) was over. I went to work on Monday, and surprise surprise, it rained all day. When I got home around 9 PM the lake was up to the palm trees on the right of this picture. Yes, that's my patio directly to the left. Normal level for the lake would be at the right of the shrub line.

That is just too darn close, people. I am not in a flood zone, but you better believe I bought the flood insurance. This picture was taken Tuesday morning, and you can see it had already receded several feet by then. Thanks be to God. It could have been so much worse.

He's a good boy!

Everywhere we went on our vacation, Mr Raleigh got lots of attention. Lots and lots of it. Well, he is a beautiful basset hound, and not too drool-y either.

He is, however, afraid of people he doesn't know. If you approach him, he will back away. As a rescue dog, we really don't know what happened in his former life and we can only love him as he is. He's my sister's dog, by the way, not mine.

He is a GOOD boy! He doesn't pull on his leash, he is impeccably housebroken, and get this -- he comes when he's called. How's that for a basset?

And look at that face! What's not to love?

Guilty pleasure

I confess, I watch In the Kitchen With David on QVC every Sunday afternoon. That man makes the best yummy faces!

I just have to get stronger about not buying stuff.

When you are craving crunchy, zwieback to the rescue!

When you are craving something slightly sweet and seriously crunchy, zwieback toast is the answer. The only problem is it takes 2 days to make it.

Well worth the trouble, even if there is no instant gratification.





Here's the link to my recipe. I highly recommend it.

King Arthur Flour Zwieback recipe.

Through the windshield in Boynton Beach

Yup, I was so bored at the stoplight that I whipped out my camera and took a picture of the Boynton Beach skyline. I was at the corner of Seacrest and Boynton Beach Blvd, looking toward the east, with its skyscrapers.

I seriously started to take more and more photos at traffic lights, and the one thing I could count on is the view of the back end of other cars.

Until I decided to take a detour over to West Ocean Ave.

Now, there were no cars directly ahead of me, but they were going down Seacrest, a lot!

Here's the northwest corner of the library:

 

Yes, that is a bicycle riding down Seacrest. He isn't even on the sidewalk. That guy has buckets of guts, let me tell you. I have seen the way we drive around here.