Virginia!

no pix yet, but I'm enjoying my first night in F-burg.  I got to see fireflies!  We do not have these in the Pacific Northwest.  Tomorrow, I'll see if I can talk anyone into a thrift store excursion :-)

Team HBCL!

I should let Katie announce this, as she is the driving force.  But she's a terrible blogger, so...

Somehow she talked us into signing up to do a 5K.  The Portland Color Run to be exact.  Meg is joining Pia, Katie and me (and hopefully THE B will too, plus anyone else who wants to join in)

Our team name is my brilliant idea:

Team Harper Beckham's Chubby Legs

As Katie explained on the entry form, "Because this is the only thing the Sundstrom Women have in common with a member of the Beckham Family"  Check 'em out.  Harper Seven could def. be one of us.

Sooo.. This will involve running.  Which I haven't done in at least 10 years.  So I'll be starting from Ground Zero: "Run for 30 seconds. Then die.  Repeat"  I will commence the torture this week.

Only A Week Until Summer

And yet I feel I should be dressed in something like this today.  It's 55 degrees and raining, for the love of god.

Where's the warm weather?  All I ask is a few days of sunshine so I can mow the lawn.

Progress!

I've gotten re-inspired to actually DO the Weight Watchers program since winning my ticket to England.  I swear that Cara and I were the only fat people in London when we were there, and I'm determined not to let that happen again.  Plus I want to be in good shape so I can spend hours a day walking.

Tonight, I finally hit my 20 pound weight loss milestone!  Yay!  I'm starting to feel like my clothes are a bit looser, and I look a mite slimmer.  Long way to go still, but I'm really happy that I've gotten this far.

BTW, that picture?  My favorite plot development on "Mad Men" this year is Fat Betty Draper Francis.  She's started going to WW too, which is a lot of fun.  My first time with WW was 25 years ago, and it had already changed quite a bit from the program of the 60s.  Betty glumly eating a piece of Melba Toast and a blob of something for breakfast was priceless.  Then rushing into the kitchen and squirting Readi-Whip straight from the can into her mouth. 

We've all been there, Bets.

Margaret

Poor Margaret.

She is the doll I bought at the thrift store for 5 bucks to model my "Weldon's" doll projects.  She's a real scrap noodle.  No one would mistake Margaret for a classy doll like an American Girl.  She's strictly down-market.

Katie and I thought she needed a name (or a better name than "the scrapnoodle doll I bought at Value Village") and Katie came up with Margaret.  We agree this is the perfect name for my little ragamuffin.

Poor Margaret had to get her legs broken in order to model for me.  I didn't realize she was a "sitting" doll, which doesn't work for me.  So now Margaret has a bit of a handicap as well as being ratty.

But I love my raggedy grandchild Margaret.  She suits my style perfectly. 

Artfest

Must be close to summer, art fair season is upon us!  Last weekend was our local fair, and the three of us (Lulu didn't get to come this year, which was too bad bc the place was crawling with dogs) paid a visit in between rain showers.

This year's fair was really quite good.  I generally expect to see the same types of wares every year: pottery that all looks pretty much the same, photography that looks pretty much the same...but we were pleasantly surprised at the excellence of the artists and the variety of things we haven't seen before.  Pia got a very cool piece of "kaleidoscope" art from LaGrave Designs: the artist formed pictures by cutting and layering many photos of the object (Pia got the Eiffel Tower):

Very cool!

I stuck to my $40.00 budget (though it was hard) and bought a pack of cards with my favorite chickens:

I like to send Mimi a card every week (she loves to get mail) and I think she will enjoy these.

I also got a little housewarming gift for our soon to be Austin-dwellers.  Austin is known for the colony of bats that roost (?) under the Congress Bridge:

This little guy will look cute hanging by their front door :-)  And bats are a Chinese symbol for good luck, so it couldn't hurt to have one right?

It's the Diamond Jubilee

and in honor of Her Majesty's 60th year on the throne, I give you this adorbs picture of the Princess Elizabeth attempting to knit while annoying little sister Margaret bugs her.