miscellaneous

posting to my calendar 2 upcoming shows on my favorite news programs: on monday the 23rd, Jon Stewart will have Rod Blogojevich as his special guest... now THAT will be worth watching! and on Sept. 8 and 9, Stephen Colbert says: The Colbert Report announces its celebration of our troops service and sacrifice, "Been There: Won That: The Return of the American-Do Troopscape" for September 8 and 9, featuring an audience made up of veterans and active military and guests Joe Biden, General Ray Odierno and more. Read more about it on the Indecision blog.

it's hard to believe the combat troops... the last of them... have been withdrawn from Iraq... today! which means the war is OVER. how much did you hear about this today? it is really an important event and day to celebrate! i only wish that all the troops were coming home now!!!

Robin left this morning to go back to TN... sure do wish she could get out of there and that's her fond wish also. eventually she'll make the move back to the PNW.

Kate and kids are in Australia for another week or so, then on to NZ. her photos and travel stories on her blog look like a fabulous adventure... and tweak my travel itch a bit. we won't be doing a big trip again til spring... easter in Crete again. bravo! i'm truly enjoying being home and not working on plans for being away. have even started diving into the storage room in the basement which we filled when we thought we'd sell the queendom and move north. i found several things i'd been wanting... the quilt that my great grandmother made for me when i was 2 yrs. old... it's really tattered and worn, but it is after all an antique at this point. not quite sure what to do with it, but might put it in a frame with the inscription she sewed on it showing prominently. it says "made for Sandra Lee by her great grandmother, Emma Miller, Dec. 13, '40"... sweet.

also found the report from the Genographic Project which found out from my DNA (swab from inside my cheek) that i'm part of Haplogroup K which migrated from Africa up into Europe along what is now the east side of the Black Sea and up into the Scandinavian area. it says "tests have revealed that Otzi, the 5,200 year old remains of a copper age man frozen in an alpine glacier, belongs to haplogroup K". so, i guess it would be hard for me to claim any Greek heritage.....humph.

the projects for the next week or so involve painting. i found a really sweet little chair at an "antique" store that i'm going to paint multi-colors.... stripes and dots and flowers and vines and stuff. chair goes in the guest bedroom

and i might also paint the old sewing machine table that's already in there. and there's an old school desk that might get the same sort of treatment. haven't been doing much spinning or knitting because of the shoulder pain. (and, no, Terry... they didn't squeeze the wrong part. as part of the efforts to get all bits of the mamms grammed, my arm had to be held as far behind my back as i could get it... that's when the hurt to the rotator cuff happened). i 'spose it's part of the "golden years" thing...