Rolling (literally) Along

OK, so Ted has lost 12 lbs. since his surgery.  Hhhmpph. He's doing very well (thanks for the well-wishes!).  He's eating 3 meals a day and ice cream every night.  And STILL has lost weight.  Why can men do this?  It would take me 3 months of daily cardio and a diet of celery sticks and water to lose 12 lbs. 

I suppose the homemade eggrolls don't help much.  Uptown Girl and I learned to make them a week ago from her wonderful Asian coworkers who were willing to share their personal recipes and tips.  We attended an "eggroll party" and about 20 of us made somewhere between 200 and 300 eggrolls.  So, over the weekend, Uptown Girl and I thought we'd try it on our own and made another 35 of them.  Yum!  (They are gone now.)  The fresh guacamole and chips probably didn't help my hips either.  Well, the guacamole is all fresh and healthy, but portion control continues to be a . . . well . . . problem.  Jamie Oliver would not be impressed with the weekend diet at our house!  And yesterday - I made a banana blueberry cake to bring to work.  Just because the recipe sounded different, and I wanted to try it.  I left just a few pieces of that at home since I was getting questioned as to whether or not I was bringing the WHOLE thing to work to share.  (The office is a great testing ground!)

Now that I got a little kitchen dabbling out of my system, I can get back to finishing the doilies I have started.  This one is the Gerbera Doily I started back in January - and really need to finish.  I have used white size 20 thread, and Jellybean and Spring Green Lizbeth.  As you can see, I started out gung-ho but haven't added much.  All that's left is the final round consisting of the center flower repeated around the edge.  I won't count this as one of my 25-Motif Challenge pieces until it's done.  (How's that for self-motivation?)

I will also finish this one that I started in Yarnplayer's Summer Trail HDT:

This is the Starlight Doily from the book The Tatters Treasure Chest. Only 2 more rounds on this one to finish and accentuate those points.  It's really a beautiful pattern, and one that I've been looking at for quite a few years but never thought I could do it.  So I'm trying to take my time and not hate it by the time it's done.  Again I won't count it until it's finished.  More motivation!

So, tatting, reading, kitchen experiments, garden prep, and helping the English Major get ready for her trip to the Dominican Republic are filling my days. (See the blog she has started to keep us updated on her trip here.)  Not to mention the daily weekly housework drudgery and the job.  Actually I'm counting my blessings.  Life is good!

And, by the way, I see my labeling is horrible.  I really must add cleaning that up to my list of things to do.