Pride and Prejudice meets Dr. Who!!!!

Combining two of my favorites from Britain = wacky and wonderful!

90 years YOUNG!

This map is even worse!

NO SCHOOL because.......

This is starting to get just a LITTLE bit ridiculous!!!

Here we go again!

What a GREAT birthday present!

Latest Scrapbook Page

Quick post! Here's my latest page for the Family Heritage album, done with My Memories Suite. The picture is my Mom and her friend; years later I played with her daughter. I loved having generations that knew one another at the shore- it was a wonderful thing.

I got several pages worked on this weekend- will post more in the next few days. Until then- hope everyone has a good week!

Flowers!!

So I posted that I was doing well with the 365 Project- and then promptly had a week where I only took one picture. Jinxed myself, I guess.

This is my scrapbook page, done with Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus, for the one lonely picture from this week. I used a Click N Fill layout and the papers are from the Romance collection- seemed appropriate since the flowers are an early birthday gift from DH.

Otherwise, it was a terrible week. 'nough said.

What else would this week's scrapbook page be about?

I've been pretty good about keeping up with my 365 Project. Not every day, but enough pictures each week for a scrapbook page.

This project has also stimulated me reading a little about photography, and I've found some interesting pages/groups to join on Facebook.

My goal today and tomorrow is to see if I can find out how to make the falling snow show up in photos. The good/bad news is that I will actually get another shot at such pictures- can you believe they are calling for 6 inches+ here tomorrow night and Tuesday????

What a GREAT way to enjoy a blizzard!

I bought this last week- the 21+ hours miniseries from 1978-79, based on James Michener's book. I had read the book when it came out in the 70's- yes I am a Michener fan and really did read his books all the way through!

Is this the greatest miniseries ever? No- although dozens of user/reviewers on IMDB would disagree. But, it is a great pleasure to watch and especially in a short period of time. It covers 200 years of Colorado history and incorporates so much of our nation's history by putting things into the personal contexts of the individual characters. It has a strong environmental message, and also tells the brutal, savage and tragic story of how this country treated, and continues to treat, Native Americans.

It has a cast of hundreds, and we especially enjoyed seeing good work from actors no longer with us, like David Jannsen, Dennis Weaver and Brian Keith, as well as signature work from Richard Chamberlain, Robert Conrad, Alex Karras, Gregory Harrison and others. Overall, the cast is excellent! It would take pages here to list all the actors who made a strong contribution to this film.

DH and I watched this over the last three days. We really enjoyed it very much. It encouraged us to look lots of things up- we were checking maps, historical pictures, and lots of websites to find out which events and characters had actual counterparts in real history. Centennial can certainly be enjoyed and appreciated passively by just watching it, but it also can stimulate a lot of interest in finding out more. We actually kept either my laptop or my iphone handy during all the episodes and frequently stopped the film to check something out.

Visually the entire film is gorgeous- the scenery is spectacular and the sets and costumes are lush. Intellectually it is intriguing; emotionally it is moving and satisfying.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants a good story, good acting, good production, a long lesson in American History, or just a good film.

Hey Maw, looks like the wagon is buried until spring!

I guess that's what comes of watching (so far) 20 hours of Centennial, the 1978 miniseries based on James Michener's book about the settlement of Colorado.

I've been reading and watching the news and reading on Facebook and I think I am getting annoyed. No, I KNOW I am getting annoyed!!

What is WRONG with people??? Who are the lunatics/greedy bastards that think that business is SOOOO important that THEIR businesses must be open no matter what the weather?

I got an email last evening, while the blizzard was raging, when the white-out outside our house was so bad that you could not see across the street. The email? From ACMoore, the craft store- encouraging people to shop today!!! The city is officially shut down, all non-essential workers have been told to STAY HOME, but hey- getting some extra yarn or some scrapbook supplies is definitely necessary- NOT!!!! I guess the management of ACMoore doesn't care if their employees take their life in their hands trying to get to work as long as their stores are open.

Read about a Panera Bread shop that is open- even though they have no power!!! Does that strike anyone besides me as ludicrous?

This causes such a ripple effect. Public transit workers must risk to get to work and drive through dangerous areas because idiot employers insist their employees must get to work. Police, fire and paramedics are stressed because they must deal with the results of those on the roads- and the results are often tragic. Those brave souls who are trying to clean our roads are hampered in their efforts by people already ON the roads before they are ready to be used.

Are there people who should try to get to work? Certainly! Hospital workers should make every effort because there are folks who have been working round the clock through this and they need relief. Power company employees should be trying to get to work- too many folks out there have no electricity and some used that electricity for heat. But the idiots on the roads, and those whose bosses are idiots and are on the road for fear of losing their jobs due to stupid and callous employers, are only making things more difficult for those who really NEED to be out there.

Personally, I am trying to find out the names of all the companies which are totally NOT essential and yet are forcing their employees to come to work today. I will NOT be buying from or dealing with those companies again. Any company which thinks its profits are more important than its workers safety is not a company that I am willing to spend my money with.

There used to be a time when things like major weather events brought people together. Now it seems it brings out the worst in some companies- and those companies should be held accountable for their greed. I don't know about anyone else, but *I* will be doing that.

It is finally over!

Well, the National Weather Service said the blizzard warnings were in effect until midnight and they were just about perfect. I have now "officially" been part of the snowiest winter on record in Philadelphia!

Lots of pictures and some scrapbook pages later.

Round #2 of Blizzard #2- THIS WEEK!!

So, it stopped for a while this morning, but here we go again!

Like I said, I just keep laughing

Yeah- we're in that pink part, lol!

Snow Day= digital scrapbooking work

I've been using the snow day for some routine stuff- laundry and such- but mostly I've been getting better organized for my digital scrapbooking, and making my computer work better (I hope) in the process.

I'm moving all my pictures, my digi-scrap supplies, and also all my music off the computer. I've saved on an external hard-drive plus I am putting the files I want easy access to onto several flash drives. Believe it or not, I am on my 2nd 8GB flash of pictures, and filled an 8GB with digi-scrapping stuff!


Friday was "Oldies Day" at school, so here are a few pages I did using Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus to scrapbook. I am really, REALLY learning to like this program!

More pages later- now off to make dinner and move more files.

Oh- did you hear? After the record-breaking snow storm of Friday night- Saturday, they have just changed out forecast for Tuesday night into Wednesday! Now they are saying 18"-24". It's so ludicrous that all I can do is laugh! What else is there?

Stay warm!

More pages

Make sure you check today's earlier post below!

It snowed and it snowed and it snowed!

So I played and I played and I played!
I spent most of the day playing with Creative Memories' Storybook Creator Plus, making digital scrapbook pages. I took a series of similar pictures at various times during the storm and here are how I used the results.







I have been using CM's SBC+ now for several weeks. The more I use it, the more I like it. I am still very happy that I also bought Polaroid's My Memories Suite, but I think I will be using that mostly for its multi-media options rather than pages I will be printing for albums or photobooks.

I also made some other pages but they will be for later to show off, lol!

So, where have I been for almost 2 weeks?

I don't think I've ever been away from my blog this long before. The last two weeks have been totally CRAZY busy! So, here's the quick rundown:

Early last week was final exams. We are on block scheduling at my school, so I had to give "end of the course" exams. Writing, printing, giving and grading the exams, along with reading term papers, took up the early part of the week.

Then we had to have our final grades calculated by Thursday morning to report course failures. Since I gave my last exam on Wednesday, that was a TIGHT schedule. I got it done, but was I ever tired!

Thursday also included an important meeting after school- add more time and stress.

Friday started a brand new semester with all new students and a full course load.

Friday afternoon I left for a 4 day retreat with students. It was a wonderful, exhilarating and spiritual experience, but also devastatingly tiring. Got home Monday night and was back at school less than 12 hours later to teach.

Wednesday night was Back-to-School night so that was another 14 hour day.

So, I am tired, Yes, I am STILL tired! However.....

Here is the BEAUTIFUL snowstorm that is bombarding Philadelphia!

I am taking this weekend to recover and recuperate from two very stressful and tiring weeks. I'm going to play on the computer, read a lot, maybe do some stitching (even *that* might be too strenuous, lol!), watch some TV, only cook comfort foods, and generally cocoon!

The above picture was taken at 9AM this morning and it is still snowing now. The snow next to the wall has now grown to meet the snow on top of the wall. I'm taking a few pictures every couple hours and will have a digi-scrap page or two to show off later.

I really hope I can get back on track here. I have missed reading my sidebar blogging friends, I have been out-of-the-loop with my challenges, I've totally missed/skipped my 365 Project and I have done no crafting of any kind. It wouldn't bother me if it kept snowing a LOT longer!

Off now to read some Agatha Christie! Hope you are warm and safe, especially those in this storm. Have a GREAT weekend, everyone!