A meme for today!

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

Lilies July 2008

Lilies July 2008
Originally uploaded by PegiF

Last but not least...

Lilies July 2008

Lilies July 2008
Originally uploaded by PegiF

Eye Candy part 2!

Lilies July 2008

Lilies July 2008
Originally uploaded by PegiF

Eye Candy as promised!

Slow Friday

Guess what -- the dog threw up AGAIN last night! Big surprise! This time I took him to the vet. They did x-rays and an ultrasound, and decided he's ok. Of course they sedated him, too, so when I took him home last night he was nice and sleepy! That's ok by me. He did lose it again this morning, including what I hope is the last of his personal yarn stash, so I think he'll be ok in the kennel this coming week. If not, they'll call -- they're wonderful down there, and take very good care of him.

So, today, I'm doing last-minutes stuff before I leave in the morning -- cleaning, garbage, laundry, getting digital cable installed.... oh, didn't I mention that? Turns out it's cheaper to get digital cable WITH a TIVO than to have the cable and satellite I have now! Go figure! So, this gives me an excuse to hang out and knit while I'm waiting for the guy to show up. Works for me!

I'll see everyone when I get back. Meanwhile, look further on my blog to see piccies of my gorgeous lilies!

ETA: Back to the vet this afternoon! This time the dog's back right foot was folding under when he walked. Turns out it's just a muscle "belly" -- like a knot -- in his back right leg that's impeding the nerve reaction in his foot. All that's required is a little massage on the area and some ice occasionally, then he should be all set. Hmph. This dog is rapidly becoming a PAIN! I guess this is to make me really appreciate my vacation next week!

I discovered No-Knead Bread!

As I was looking through the boards on Ravelry -- my favorite thing to do these days! -- I found a recipe for No Knead Bread that sounded fabulous. I've always loved to make my own bread, and this is the simplest recipe ever. I guess it was published in the NY Times almost 2 years ago, and made the rounds of the blogs at that time. Of course, I'm late to the party, but I'm going to make my second loaf tonight. The fun part is that you mix the dough the night before, let it sit, covered, on the counter overnight, and then let it rise again for about 2 hours the next morning. Then you bake it for about 45 minutes all together -- 30 minutes with the top on, and about 15 minutes with the top off. I just love the taste of this bread -- it has the taste and texture of a really good bread you get at a nice restaurant, like Ardeo's for example!

Here's a blog post about it, where the author has her 4 year old son mix the bread -- it really is that easy! http://steamykitchen.com/blog/2007/09/10/no-knead-bread-revisited/

Oh, and I went to Hammond Castle for the first time last Friday --- check out my Flickr pictures of the castle... http://www.flickr.com/photos/21969818@N03/sets/72157606159621384/

This is one of my favorite rooms, the "small chapel" right next to the Great Hall:

Don't it just figure??

So, of course, since I had the carpets done last week, the dog had to barf on the living room floor on Sunday night. Of course. At least I went with the Scotch Guard, so it cleaned up easily, but isn't that always the way??? It's like washing your car -- it always rains right afterwards. Hmph.

In other news, I'm going to Mount Vernon, in Virginia, in about a week and a half! I'll leave here on the 19th, drive to NJ and stay with my boy, and head to Woodbridge, to my step-daughter's, the next day. I'll be leaving there on the 23rd, so I should be back home on the 24th, barring any traffic or automobile emergencies... here's what I'll be doing there: http://www.mountvernon.org/learn/teachers_students/index.cfm/pid/1105 Ok, it's a history geek's version of fun, but I'm ok with that! The dog will be in the kennel while I'm gone, getting a bath and nail trim, and being spoiled by the people who work there. They love him, for some unknown reason! Actually, I love him, too, I just need a break from him right now... can't wait to go to VA and get that break!

Pics tomorrow, I promise...

Almost the 4th

My first venture into blogging -- it might as well happen around the "country's birthday"! Although, historian that I am, I consider the country's birthday to be closer to the end of the War for Independence, but I also love tradition, so we'll go with it.

Happenings: I had to have the carpets shampooed this past Tuesday, after the dog had a panic attack and pooped on my new family room carpet last Thursday. They did a good job in the living room -- it looks new! -- but I still smell animals in the family room. Specifically, cat pee. Maybe it's just me -- or, as my friend Elise says, it's "stuck in my nose." Not out of the question!

I'm also deciding whether to continue teaching, or whether to move on to something else. I go through this every spring, it seems, and I keep thinking that, if I were truly happy with teaching, I wouldn't go through a period of feeling like I want to get out at the end of every year. This, especially, was a hard ending to the year -- for the first time, I had parent complaints about my teaching methods! That's really a blow. The problem with looking for another job is that there are not many jobs that call for a history degree and the ability to control a room full of 14-year-olds. I'm checking out the Dept. of Ed. and textbook publishers for now.

On a positive note, my lilies are starting to bloom, and I think they're more beautiful this year than ever before. Am I biased? Of course I am! I'll take pictures tomorrow and post them. The Asiatics are about half out, and the first Oriental is about to bloom. I think it's a Stargazer, but I forget every year which are planted where!

Off to knit some more wash cloths -- I'm trying to get ahead of Christmas stuff this year. I think the wash cloths will go in a basket with some lotions and soaps, and maybe some lavender sachets -- I bought a big bag of local lavender at the Farmer's Market last week. I wonder if I could knit a sachet? Hmmm...

That Book MemeThe Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they’ve printed.
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.2) Italicize those you intend to read.3) Underline the books you LOVE.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (Just FYI -- this is the first of Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" books)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson7
5 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (in French, in high school)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo