it was just the weekend...

... I swear, it was just the weekend. Today is Wednesday. Where did the last few days go?!?!? Kind of weird that this week is going by fast, or so it seems. I haven't felt like this in a LONG time. Could be that Auntie Margaret came in on Friday night so I got to go to a movie by myself at 8:40pm. Could be that we celebrated Mother's day on Saturday night. Could be that I finally sat down and figured out flights and schedules for my summer vacation. I think it's the last one.

I was originally going to purchase my ticket and use miles to upgrade. But then I found out that upgrading to business class required 40,000 miles (not bad) plus $400 EACH way. Say what?!?!? Basically, the additional charge would bring my cost up to a full economy fare. No thanks. There was NO way I was going to spend $2000+ to fly to Hawaii and back. My Continental mileage bank read at 88,000+ miles. I played with the dates and finally settled on leaving on June 18th and returning July 8th. There went 80,000 miles out of my mileage bank. For business class. Roundtrip. But then I had a technical problem come up on the continental.com website. So I called the local office. At the end of the day, 70,000 miles was deducted, paid $17 for processing and I still get to fly business class. I do have to return home the circuitous route from Honolulu to Narita to Guam. But, it's business class. I can handle that. Now, I don't plan on staying in Honolulu for three weeks. I'll be there for five days/four nights and attend my cousin Kim's Catholic wedding ceremony and visit with some friends.

So, more playing around on the computer. Orbitz and expedia were my friends. I wanted to visit Shannon in Portland (actually Battle Ground, WA) and Patsi in Vegas. I was going to do Vegas then Portland, but it works out better for everyone if I do Portland and then Vegas. Honolulu to Portland to Vegas to Honolulu... $658 on expedia. Apparently, I got a good deal according to my friends. Those flights are Northwest flights...or should I call them Delta? At least, Uncle Jimmy will still have a paycheck since I contributed to my hard-earned cash to his employers. This will be the cheapest trip I have taken since I started working. Even if I stay in a hotel in Honolulu (I'm so leaning towards this), I'll still come out spending under $1100.

Something to look forward to. Spending time with friends. Shopping...the only time I can stand to be in a mall is on vacation. Go figure. I seriously cannot stay on this rock the entire summer. Only TEN more school days (eleven more work days). Then three weeks after that and I'm gone. I have about three weeks left of summer vacation when I return and then school begins again.

Now, I'm off to watch "The Phantom of the Opera" on DVD because I am going to see it (for the second time) in Vegas.

NSD Layouts

Here's another layout for the Studio Calico challenges... April's mist challenge, Tina C.'s white space challenge and MLE's self-portrait challenge. I finally figured out how to use the timer on my camera and mounted it on my tripod. I used two different textures on top of the photo in photoshop.



This second one for the day goes with Stephanie's something old...lots of old stuff -- kaiser buttefly, heidi swapp frame, glitter thickers.



It's a dreary, rainy Sunday here. My throat's a little scratchy and this weather does not help in the allergy dept. I'll probably fall asleep soon... love naps on Sunday afternoons especially when it's raining.

April in a nutshell

I totally dropped the picture a day ball. Just became too much of a chore and not much fun. Instead, I've chosen 30 pictures taken from random April events to highlight life in the fourth month of 2009. From our first visit to the newly opened Chili's restaurant to Allie's 14th birthday to Easter and new clothes, creating things and discovering new supplies at the craft store, taking self-portraits and spring shows, getting a bigger working surface and dancing. It's still all meaningful for me.

Today is National Scrapbook Day! I'm jumping among Willow Traders, Studio Calico, and The Scrapping Spot this weekend. I have a challenge going up at The Scrapping Spot at 11am Eastern Time. I'm kind of glad we're a day ahead so I can still do some challenges posted around cyberspace and still get entered for some prizes... I did one layout for 5 different challenges at Studio Calico!



This ONE layout encompasses 5 challenges at SC: stitching, 3 patterned papers, using mist, something old and ledger/graph.