I managed to cross a few things off my to-do list over the weekend.  I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning out a flower bed and planting flowers in it, and in the front flower beds.  If they all live, that is all the planting I am dong this year, I think.  I would really like to put in a garden, I just don't think I will spend the time in it once it is planted (i.e. I hate to weed!!!)  I got the tree and leaves put on the afghan, and part of one giraffe.  Hopefully I can get the giraffes on tonight.  I am planning on picking up the backing material today.  I also spent a couple of hours out in the garage.  I inherited the Boy Scout's new and used clothing.  AJ and I went through and inventoried it.  I thought we were all done, and AJ found three more boxes to do.  They can wait!  I'll get them next weekend.

The boys and I went for a walk yesterday afternoon.  They were busy skipping rocks, and I was watching a killdeer across the creek from us.

I have way under-estimated the time needed for the afghan!  I MIGHT get it finished today - we'll see.  I do need to put a back on it, so I will need a trip in to town for the material.  That's IF I get to that point.  Right now, I have probably 3/4 of the tree on.  I still need to put 40 or so leaves on, sew the giraffes, the grass, actually make the clouds, and then sew them on.  Probably not all happening today!!!  Oh well - it was a self-imposed deadline any way, so no harm, no foul, I just won't get it done.    We'll see how far I do get on it.  Maybe I'll surprise myself!

Here are pictures from Baltimore.  We didn't have a lot of time for sightseeing - we were actually working!  The conference kept us busy most of the time - from breakfast at 7:30 till dinner/entertainment until 9:30.  No wonder I was pooped when we got back.

This is the "Inner Harbor" of Baltimore, and the Constellation - the last sailing war ship.

Out in the harbor were the pedal boats - too much fun!  You could rent plain old pedal boats, but I didn't see many of them.

Wednesday night, dinner was at the National Aquarium.  It was closed to the public, so we have 'heavy  hors d'oeuvre' and all the wandering around the aquarium we wanted from 6:30 to 9:30.  The 'heavy  hors d'oeuvre' weren't that heavy - we walked back to the hotel afterwards (all of three blocks, I think) and stopped at Cheesecakes for dinner, we were still hungry!!  The aquarium was very cool - I had hoped to go there anyway/

We did wander around a bit when we first got in to town - the area around the Inner Harbor has all been redone so it looks old.  From what I understand, it used to be an area that no one wanted to go visit.

I'm procrastinating.  I have (almost) all of the parts made for the baby afghan, and have started sewing them on the fleece.  I'm taking a quick break - time for some chocolate and some ice tea!  I need to find my white yarn to make the clouds, and then I really will have all the parts made.  So far, so good - it looks okay on the fleece.  It is a lot easier to sew onto the fleece than a crocheted afghan. I do wish I had started it early enough to have done the whole thing, but....I didn't.  

I didn't take as many pictures the second day we were in DC (yes, ALL the picture up to now have been from the first day!!!)  The picture below of the Metro is late Sunday night, the rest are from Monday.  We decided, looking at the weather forecast, to do the outside things on Sunday, and do the museums on Monday.  Monday was supposed to be in the 90's.  Way too hot for us, since we were still used to the cool weather in Redding.  It turned out to be a good decision.  We spent the morning at the American History Museum (we saw the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner) and the afternoon at the Air and Space Museum.  Too much in either place to see in just a few hours, but we tried.  Our brains were on overload, so we caught the Metro to the ballpark, had dinner, and watched the Nationals play a game.  It was my first professional ball game - fun!!

Here is the Metro late on a Sunday night - I think we were pretty much the only people getting on at our stop.  Monday was a holiday in DC.

At the Air and Space Museum, they had a display for the P47 Thunderbolt - the plane that Ralph's Dad flew in WWII.  I don't see a lot of mention about it, and was surprised to see that it was credited in destroying more German fighters in the Spring on 1944 than the P51 Mustang.

Here we are at the ball park!

I'm glad it's Friday - I need a break!  The week flew by, it was a busy one.  Work was hectic - we had auditors in (a normal occurrence any more - there are so many different agencies that come in that it seems like we always have one set either coming or going.) and they reviewed over 200 loan files in under 3 days.  What took so much time for me was that the files had to be arranged in a specific order.  The files were pulled from three offices and sent to us, and we had the pleasure of arranging them all.  The auditors left yesterday, so now we get to unravel everything and send the files back to their respective homes. We have another set of auditors coming in a couple of weeks, so we will get to start all over again.

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  My new house-cleaner came this week, so the house still looks good - I hope to get some crafting time in this weekend.  My list of crafting to-do's is growing:

1)  Finish baby afghan for co-worker - she's due in less than 3 weeks!

2)  Bookmarks for the book club - we meet in a little over 3 weeks.  The books this time are the Hunger Games Trilogy, and I actually found a crochet pattern for the Mockingjay pin on line that I am converting to a book mark.  Too cute!!!  I have the prototype done for the most part.  Now I need to fine tune it a bit so it looks a little better!

3)  Finish the quilt I have started.

4)  Start the next quilt.  We meet in 2 weeks, and I haven't even started the next quilt!!!  

5)  I started a sweater for me while I was in DC - I need to pull that out and add some more rows to it.  

6)  Make some baby booties and toys to go along with the afghan that I don't have finished yet.

7)  Make some baby booties and toys to go along with an afghan that I do have finished.  That little girl is due in June.

I think I may be in trouble - there isn't enough time this weekend to do all of these, even if I don't have to clean house.  Since the weather is supposed to be nice, I would also like to get some more flowers planted outside.  I got the patio and pool area planted last week.  Now I need to plant the front area and the flower area.  Yep, I'm definitely out of time!

I pulled out another set of photos - the last of our first day of sightseeing.  The Jefferson Memorial:

The Vietnam Memorial - It was just turning dusk when we got there.

The Washington Memorial and the Capital lit at night.  I tried for a better picture, but....it just wasn't working for me.

The Memorial for the signers of the Declaration of Independence - it was fully dark by the time we made it here, so I couldn't get a good photo of the Memorial.

More photos from DC!  This is the Korean War Memorial - one of my favorites.  The wall behind it has 'ghostly' pictures on it - the camera doesn't do them justice.  

Here is the wall:

This is the WWII Memorial - much more traditional.  I do want to find out more about the symbolism used in the memorials.  One of the trolley drivers was telling us about some of the symbols used in this memorial, but there was so much, I know I missed half of it!

This weekend flew by!  I got the housework caught up from being gone for a week, and it was warm enough (90's!) to hang my laundry out on the line to dry.  Lovely!  Ralph and I made our first trip in to shop for flooring options.  We only went to Home Depot - just to see the options.  We plan on getting the flooring from a 'real' store, but - they aren't open on Sundays, so....off to Home Depot we went.  It did give me an idea of what kind of budget we will need, and the salesman was very helpful in explaining the different types of flooring.  We will try to get to a flooring store soon to see what they have.  Since we were in Home Depot, Ralph checked out the BBQ's - his is beginning to need a lot of help.  After our trip - he came home and checked out on-line sales, and ordered a new BBQ last night.  He should have it this Friday!

I did pick up some bark and flowers to dress up the back patio area as well.  I got them planted, and with AJ's help, got the bark spread out.  It looks good for now - we'll see if I can keep these plants alive!

More pictures!

The Jefferson Memorial - a long walk from the Mall, but worth it - beautiful!

The Lincoln Memorial - I didn't realize we were so close to the airport - a huge jet flew by every few minutes.

Me at the Lincoln Memorial

MLK Jr gave his "I have a Dream Speech on the steps of the Memorial - they carved this in on the landing area.

The Washington Memorial

Arlington - we were able to see the Changing of the Guards - Awesome - in the 'filled with awe' sense of the word.  I was able to locate where Rod was buried, but not able to go out there.  You can't just wander around in the cemetery.