Alex is back in South Korea again - by the skin of his teeth and the kindness of strangers. We left here at 6:20, for a flight that left at 11:25 - usually plenty of time.  Not so in this case.  Between traffic, not knowing which  lane to pick (I always picked the wrong one), an ambulance required at the toll booth, construction, high winds closing lanes on the bridge, etc., we got to the airport at 10:55.  I dropped Alex off out front and went to park the car (they needed to see my credit card, since it had purchased the ticket - that was a first for me)  I had to park on the 6th floor, and the elevators were running very slowly, so I ran down the steps to the 3rd floor to cross.  (Only one slip on the stairs, but it caused my shoes to slip and cut into my feet - ouch!) and then run through the airport trying to find the ticketing area for Korean Air and/or Alex.

I found Alex first - wandering around waiting for me.  There was no one at the ticketing booth, so he assumed he missed his flight.  Okay - what's next???  Neither of us knew, but.....there was a nice elderly gentleman at the information desk right by us.  I gave him a quick run-down, and he directed us to the very end of the ticketing booth for Korean Air, where, almost hiding in the dark, were 3 Korean Air employees, finishing up paperwork.  They were able to get Alex on the flight!!!!  He landed in Seoul about 1:10 our time - and once again, was not able to sleep on the plane.  Poor baby - he also came down with the community cold before he left, and he feels terrible.  Add that to no sleep, air travel, a foreign country......poor baby!

Book club was last Wednesday, and here's the bookmarks I made for us:

We read Silver Star by Jeanette Wall (it was an okay book - not one of my favs).

The book mark was quick to make, and turned out pretty nice.  The link to the pattern is here.

We've all been fighting the sickies here.  Alli started it, and it turned into an ear infection on her.  She seems to have recovered, but still has an occasional cough and a runny nose (but that could be allergies too, who knows!)  She gave it to Ralph, and it turned into a sinus infection on him.  He seems to be on the mend from that now too.  Ralph gave it to me, and I got the slightest bout of it.  I lost my voice for a while, and still have the occasional cough - but once again, that could be allergies.  Alex caught it too - he thinks it was from Alli, but by this time......it could be from any of us.  He's trying to get rid of it as soon as he can - he flies out tomorrow to S, Korea again.  He's not looking forward to having a cold on the plane.

Work was surprising slow on Friday, and I took advantage of that - a rare occurrence for me.  I left a little bit early, and went shopping before I picked up Alli.  I joined Curves a couple of weeks ago, and really needed new shoes.  The shoes I had are ratty and falling apart, not to mention there's not much cushion left in them.  (That's what happens when they get washed a few times).  I stopped in at Payless Shoes to see what they had and.....found these:

On sale for $19.00 - black and red plaid heels.  Just too cute to pass up.  I also got a pair of leopard print flats (on sale for $9.00) and a pair of workout shoes (also on sale - $24.00)  At least I did get what I started out for - plus a couple more.

I hate not feeling well!  It started Wednesday - I was very tired at work, and not hungry at lunch (that was a shocker!)  By Wednesday night, I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed, which I did right after Alli went down,   Thursday morning I woke up with a pounding headache and a severe sore throat. I figured the throat was from getting dry during the night, so started on my day.  I had to sit down to rest after packing Alli's lunch - not normal!!!!  I got everything together, put Alli on the bus, shot a text to a coworker, and went back to bed.  I slept until 11:00!!!  I felt so much better after I got up that I considered going in to work, but decided to take it easy.  

I woke up Friday with my right eye red and swollen - allergy season is here!!!!!  (and since I was sick the day before, I had forgotten my allergy meds - and the dogs all sleep with me, as well as two of the cats.)  I went in to work on Friday, felt fine, but tired all day. Woke up Saturday - my right eye was better, but now the other eye was swollen,  Lovely!  Did my normal Saturday stuff - still tired and my throat was a bit sore but that was it.  I fixed steak and scampi for Valentine's dinner.  Margene came over and we talked until 10:30. When I woke up Sunday - my eyes were fine, but....now I had no voice.  I'll be glad when everything is back to normal!!!!!

I took it easy yesterday and worked on my quilt.  I got the top of the baby quilt done!!  I really like this one!  I had to go by work yesterday (we had some computer work done and I needed to test some stuff) so I picked up backing for it too.

I picked up Valentine's Day cards for Alli while I was at the Dollar Tree getting things for the goody bags at work.  As I was signing them for Alli, I found out why they were there.

I finally took the plunge and joined Curves last week (what timing, right??)  I did my first workout Friday, and have another today.  Curves is just down the street from work,so I should be able to get in before work at least three days a week.

I don't think you fully appreciate something until you don't have it.  I  know I appreciate modern conveniences, but  REALLY appreciate them after a power outage.  We lost power due to the wind storm Friday night around 11:30, and got it back on Saturday around 2:30.  Alli did great, thanks to AJ pre-loading Pokemon episodes on the laptops, and on my phone.  The lap tops run through power pretty quickly, but I can recharge the phone in the car.  I don't think my phone will be the same though.  She likes poking at the screen while the movie is playing, and since it's a touch screen phone, my icons got quite scrambled.  I don't think she deleted anything, thank goodness.

I took some time yesterday and got sucked into the interwebs - looking for a pattern for a bookmark,  I really only meant to check out what was out there - I have plenty of heart patterns saved already, but....an hour later, I turned the computer off and started making hearts.  I did find a very pretty pattern that is very quick to make up:

I also dropped of the last Christmas presents yesterday.  Dawn is moving into a new place, so I dropped of her afghan to her- finally finished after almost 6 months!!!  Maybe it will help the 'new place' feel more like home.

I like how it turned out.  It is the pattern for the corner-to-corner afghan that I've made a ton of times, but worked in rows rather than corner to corner - a new twist to an old favorite.

Sandy posted some pictures of Allison playing games with the other kids at daycare.  Too cute!

Since I was going in to town yesterday to drop off the afghan, I decided to shop for valentines day goodies for work, and stopped at the Dollar Tree.  Score!!!!  They had some boa yarn in colors that I use for my gloves for a $1, and one skein of a yarn for a scarf that is just wrapped (the purple on the right.)  I made one in red and gave it to Meredith for Christmas.  The colors are gorgeous.....maybe for next year's Christmas list?  I should get started on handmade items now......(probably not!)

Allison has a cold - and it will keep her home from school today.  Poor baby - she is sniffly, sneezy,coughy,and sleepy (and did I mention cranky?)  I think Ralph will be the same way (cranky and tired) by the time I get home today after watching her all day.  He does get a break - he has a doctor's appointment today at 1:00 so I will take a long lunch break and come home and watch her.  Poor babies.

I did find a light green bedspread that matches the quilt!  I think if I keep the quilt at the base of the bed, I can still enjoy it, and not worry as much about it being ruined by the animals.

I added a new skill to my repertoire yesterday - I learned how to clean the filters on the pool.  The pool had become a pond - green and yucky - over the winter, so yesterday was 'cleaning day' outside.  AJ and his buddy Jeff made 3 dump runs with green waste for me (and still have a few more to go - cleaning up for the solar panel removal created a huge pile, as did all of the wind storms that we had.) and I cleaned out my rose area and then tackled the pool.  My ankle is killing me today (and kept me awake part of the night) but it looks so much better out there!!! Definitely worth it!  My new goal is to keep the pool up now instead of letting it get so bad.