The 99th Post

Tree in blossom in my yard, as taken through the window.
Looks kinda soft-focus, doesn't it?

I'm leaving tonight to visit my Sweet Pete in England. I have a few moments to chillax and do a blog posting, my 99th one. Woo!

The answer to the mystery photo contest: it's an ice pack for my back. Those spheres are supposed to be like peas, and the manufacturer claims it's supposed to be like putting a bag of frozen peas on your back. A bag of frozen peas is a lot cheaper, but it doesn't come with a nifty sleeve thing with velcro for securing it to one's body! I have also discovered icy/hot patches. I buy the CVS or Walgreens store brand (same for the heat patches). They are covered in menthol, which, as I learned on wikipedia, tricks the nerves into thinking something cold is on the skin. They never seem to get hot, or even warm, but the cold feels good, though it's a bit slimy to remove.

I've had 6 therapy sessions for my back. I think it's starting to get a bit better. Sometime I'll write a bit more detail about that. For now, I will say that I can instantly tell at meetings who has back problems and those lucky folks who do not, just by the way they sit in their chair.

My coworker watched Oprah's Earth Day special. Apparently O discussed the amount of plastic that is in the Pacific Ocean (that mass of plastic that's floating around), and featured such horrors a bird who swallowed a lighter and a turtle that got its neck stuck in a plastic ring as a baby and now as an adult still has the ring around its deformed body. I felt like my coworker had the same epiphany I did after watching Addicted to Plastic. It's really shocking.

My coworker and I have both stopped using plastic bags at the grocery store (and sometimes other stores) and we're both using metal water bottles now. I've been doing pretty well in this post-no-bottled-water year. I had a glass bottle of Evian when Pete and I celebrated our engagement (the tap water at the restaurant tasted, well, toxic) and I had some plastic bottles of water during my trip to San Antonio (I was foiled at EWR because the water fountain wouldn't work). The hotel conference rooms had SO MUCH BOTTLED WATER, it was really surprising to me. Oh, and as I wrote in my last post, I have been hording all plastic containers and reusing them, like for giving away cookies (instead of using a new ziplock style bag) and the like.

When I return from my trip, there is a lot of sewing to be done!
Some shirts (check out the jabot on S2599 there in the lower right corner!):


Some dresses (that McCalls one is calling me--nicegirl made it on SPR and now I must have it):

and even a nightgown?

I am inspired to make the nightgown because of this post. Check out the third picture, you won't be disappointed!

The next time I post, it will be from England! Tally Ho!