Shopping

Just back from a shopping trip (for the store) in Las Vegas!  (Got stuff for ME too, of course)  Spruced up my feet and hands at a fabulous spa, aaahhh so relaxing ... avoided the sea of slot machines ... decided I didn't want to lose any money, maybe next time ... got to see an old friend, what fun.

The trip began on an interesting note with an eventful walk through security.  Got a body scan PLUS a pat down PLUS they swabbed my hands!  Like I look like a terrorist.  It must have been the salt on the bottom of my pants.  I had shoveled and salted the sidewalks at the store on my way to the airport and forgot to wipe the salt away.  Oh well, makes life interesting.  Thankfully, that was as dramatic as the trip got.

I hadn't been to Vegas since ...... I'm not telling how long its been except to say that I was in college and me and a few friends drove there for a long weekend once.  It is completely different from what I remember. For one, I can't remember so many tall buildings and they are all so close together now.

Flying into Nevada was so beautiful!  The colors were AMAZING and the flight was PERFECT!  No turbulence.  Unbelievable how close the airport is to the strip.  Nice to have such a short drive to the hotel and the hotel was great.  Stayed at the Venetian.  LOVED it!

The floor tiles were enough to make my head spin.

Found some fun new things for the store, including some great embroidery patterns.  One that I am very excited about is the Old Glory flag embroidery by Hoopsisters.  It is brand new and we will have it soon!

But then it was time to leave and come home. Much too short of a trip but nice to get away for a bit.

Blizzard

BLIZZARD.
 
The word brings up connotations of bitterly cold windy white out conditions.  A great time to be stuck inside at home - sewing, quilting, and embroidering, of course.  Not a good time to be in a car unless that car is inside a heated garage.  Through all my years, I don't remember the weather service ever calling a snow storm a blizzard before. I've heard them talk about blizzard like winds and blizzard like snow but never an actual blizzard.

So, I went home early last Tuesday after the wind picked up and closed the store so the employees could make it home safely.  We stayed closed on Wednesday because - well - anyone would have been nuts to try to navigate the streets before the snow removal crews had a chance to clear them.  It was after all our 4th biggest snow storm ever.  

The snow was beautiful to watch and made some awesome looking snow drifts.  I loved the way it left an empty space at the base of trees and poles.

Yes, the store's sidewalk is in there somewhere between the blue reflector and the top of the mostly buried urn.


It left a huge snow drift on my front sidewalk and buried my neighbors car.   I don't think my neighbor thought it was beautiful.

 

But, then came the hard part...... finding and shoveling the sidewalks at the store! It took about 2-1/2 hours to make a small path to the front and back doors and more time the next day to widen the path.  It would have gone faster but I forgot to put on long johns under my jeans!  So, about every five minutes I had to go inside to warm up my legs.  At five degrees below zero, actual temp not including wind chill, it was c-c-c-c-c-cold.  I remembered several pair of socks, hats, shirts, even brought extra pairs of boots and gloves but forgot about my legs.  :-(  I won't do that again.  My top half was burning hot while my bottom half was burning cold from the bitterly cold temps.

So next week its back to the regular grind, barring any future snow storms - like the so called dusting that left a few inches on my driveway early today.......