Sticky Stuff

I've worked very hard lately on a project that involves cutting out vinyl letters on my Cricut Expression- a nifty electronic toy used mostly by scrappers, meaning those who preserve photos, etc. in a very attractive manner costing a lot of money. I am not a scrapper but I love the Cricut. I am making a banner for a presentation on prevention of influenza - avian or H1N1, or whatever. Today I was finally ready to peel and stick my nicely formed letters to a pristine white banner. First I had to measure. I measured 6 different ways to Sunday, got out my calculator, multiplied, divided, added and marked. I truly believe at this point in my life that I must measure many times and cut only once, or, in this case, stick only once. I have screwed up so many projects because I can't make sense out of a ruler so I was determined to get it right. Finally, a flash of brilliance! Keen observation revealed that the manufacturer had placed a grommet slap dead center at the top and bottom of the banner - directly opposite each other. Bingo! I was home free so I laid out the letters, side by side, in preparation for the big peel.

Recently I have noticed that I am not as good at this sort of thing as in the past so I cautioned myself to be especially careful, attentive, and deliberate. I started in the middle and worked outward. The word was "separation". By the time I got to it I had managed to come up with a process that was working rather well - not perfectly - but OK. I was feeling fairly confident. I had also determined that once these sticky letters hit the vinyl banner they were there for good. I confess to a few wrinkles, but I used the "gallopin' horse" adage on myself and declared that no one standing 5-6 feet above the wrinkles would ever notice them. Oh, did I mention that this was a banner that people would be walking on SO THEY WOULD NEVER NOTICE THAT I LEFT OUT THE "A" IN "SEPARTION"?

Tomorrow is another day. The Cricut will go with me to the church where the "A" is waiting to join the new letters I will cut out to replace the squiggles that resulted when I tried to unstick, move and restick the misplaced, evil, sticky, stretchable, offensive, disgusting and absolutely tormenting black, vicious and misshapened members of the alphabet! The moral of this story is measuring don't do no good if you don't pay attention to what you are doing anyway.

Thoughts on Cruising

I took a Fall Foliage Tour from NYC to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was too early and there was not a single fire-kissed leaf anywhere. I also realized that I have been immensely spoiled by living abroad for extended periods of time. Being on a cruise, to me, was like being with the people who lived on military bases and never shopped anywhere but in the American Exchanges or Commissaries, or learned the language, or did anything but take arranged tours to places of interest. I guess the exception was The Netherlands, where there was no family housing and everyone had to live "on the economy." But activities and shopping were, for the most part, confined to the military bases nearby. I was bored. I didn't hang out in the bars or Casino on board, and one can only eat so much. And the lines. I really hate lines. Years ago I decided I would either be first in line or last - or, planning ahead to be in line, taking a book to read while waiting. For a meal I know I will have fewer decisions to make if I go last, because there will be less to choose from - except on a cruise, where the line seems to never end. As often as possible I opted to go to the Dining Room where I could get table service - especially for breakfast. I learned my lesson one morning when I got up for another coffee before I had my last bit of meat and cheese and returned to find my place cleared. Very efficient. Very annoying. They offered to get me more of what I had, but when I returned myself to find the meat and cheese what I had before was not to be found.

I also found that I was glad to never have cruised before. I had nothing to compare my cruise to and could enjoy what I was doing - not constantly comparing this cruise to the 5 or 7 others I had experienced. I actually met someone who had been on 54 cruises - WHY? Can't they cook?

The tours were nice, but the New Scotland can hardly compare with the Old, and there was too little time to muck about in museums, etc. I could have opted to go off on my own in a taxi or on foot, but could not have managed to get to three lighthouses in Portland that way. I did learn interesting historic facts about all the areas, and nice stories about locals. The guides were locals from the villages we visited and it was apparent they were very proud of their little towns and their histories. These were all founded by loyalists transplanted from the lower 13 after the Revolution. They prevailed in very difficult terrain most of which was impossible to farm.

My most exciting moment of each day was to return to the stateroom to see what towel "critter" had been folded by Carlos and placed on my bed. I went to a "towel-folding" class and bought a book. I will be holding a class at the next R-Ranch get-together. It was so entertaining. I also sat through a 3-hour art auction - just for the experience, and did see artwork that I loved. My favorite was an oil portrait of Mohammed Ali. Another artist, named Agam I believe, did wonderful linear work that really appealed to me. Unaffordable but appealing.

I enjoyed the train ride up from Harrisburg to Penn Station and learned how really easy it is to get to the heart of NYC. Getting on the ship and off was easy and I encounter no real delays, etc. Of course, I went armed with my motto of "No expectations and no disappointments." I was not disappointed. I also have little to no desire to do it again - unless my husband is with me. It would be a good adventure for the two of us, and the reasonable price makes it attractive.