Weekend Wonders

We had to take a run to the condo this weekend to test the oven.  Since I am redoing my craft room at home, everything has been emptied out of it and into the spare bedroom and, really, every other open space that I can find upstairs (she hangs her head in shame).  So..........we decided to spend Easter weekend at the condo which is my home away from clutter.  Last time we were there HWNSNBP attempted to heat a frozen pizza in the oven only it took so long and hardly defrosted that; 1) he gave up and went out to get himself a couple of slices, and 2) we kind of thought that there was a problem and it should be replaced (we think it was the original oven and would be quite old).  So we hurried down there after work on Friday and luckily we were in time for the sunset.  

The sun was actually greatly to the left of this area at this time of the year but this was the show that the light was kicking up on the clouds as the sun set.  I was so thrilled to get the pink reflected in the water which is pretty high right now.

We bought an oven thermometer to check and sure enough the oven wasn't heating properly.  You get to a point where you have to decide if it is worth calling someone to repair it, or replace it.  It is a gas oven so replacing it on our own is out of the question (and HWNSNBP wasn't even insulted when I told him that I would not be comfortable with him doing it).  Like I said earlier, it is old and doesn't owe us anything and we really don't need anything with bells and whistles for down there, just something that will get to the right temperature so we left pretty early Saturday morning to go order a new one.  

On the way there, the only way out is still along the bay beach as they are not yet finished with the bridge repair, and as we travel by that area I always glance over at the marshy area across the street from the beach.  This time both HWNSNBP and I caught a glimpse of this swan very near the road and he immediately knew that I wanted to turn around to get some pictures.

He (and I'm assuming it was a he because of the thickness of his neck) was all along and actually looked quite sad.

He didn't get nervous as I approached but kept a safe distance.  There were other swans further out and I couldn't help hoping that his mate was not too far off.  Or it could be that he was a young male and had not yet found a mate.  I silently wished him luck as he swam away.

When we got to the mall to order the oven, on the way out of the store I happened to look up and saw these clouds.  I remembered reading about this type of cloud recently and never had seen one but I'm pretty sure that you call this a fallstreak hole or a hole punch cloud.  See where the hole opens up in the solid cloud and what was in the hole seams to drain out of it.  I know I'm a kook but these kind of things get me excited.  I wonder how many times in my lifetime I might have actually seen this but not known what they were?  Thanks for bearing with me.

I managed to steal a few minutes from my room project to color these images.  I got a MISTI as a Christmas gift and I really wanted to give it a try.  (For those of you who don't stamp a MISTI - which stands for Most Incredible Stamp Tool Invented - is a tool that helps you stamp an image repeatedly in the same place to get the clearest possible image and works like a charm on textured paper like watercolor paper.)  I used my Zig Clean Color brush markers to color these and later today I need to make them into cards. 

My Sunday morning treat is a bear claw from Panera that HWNSNBP picked up for me while I was oversleeping due to the time change.  Thank goodness I have him for a real-life alarm clock during the week (so I can blame him if I'm late this week).  I can only imagine how many late passes I will be writing out tomorrow morning at school!

And one last share, as I was catching up on some Facebook posts there was a video with instructions on how to fold these origami butterflies which I just had to try.  I've seen it before but this morning I had some paper within reach to give it a try.  I was so pleased how the stripes on the edge met up.  I think I'll be making some more of these.

Now, since HWNSNBP has pointed out that he found me exactly where he left me when he went to do his errands, I'd better get moving. 

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!