• April 3, 2013 •

Good morning! What a long & productive day yesterday was for both myself & my Sim Michael. By the time I was finished blogging yesterday the mail had arrived so I sorted through that, made French toast for breakfast, & then hand knitted. I had almost finished with the upper part of the sweater when I decided it was time to clean the house or I'd just happily knit all day. :) I cleaned the bathroom sink, dusted the bedroom lights & dining room wall decor, neatened the kitchen drawer where all the foils & wraps are kept, dusted the

audio system, mopped the bedroom, processed another book from my inbox, fed the pets, & swept the living room. I checked the daily deals & still nothing new, so I turned on my office TV for background noise & put it on FOX Business. I surfed eBay, made beef stew for lunch, took the dogs out, was going to work on our business site but Pete hasn't finished setting up the e-mail address I created yet, listed a bunch of stuff for my business, picked Kyle up from Princeton, checked facebook & took

my game turns, then sat down to check out the Inkle loom my best friend built for me. It's the 1st time since it arrived that I've had a chance to look at it. I finished off the starting setup she had on it just to get a feel for the way the actual weaving part works. I removed everything from the loom & then was about to try to figure out how it all works so I can give it a try myself, but Pete got home just about then. I went into

the kitchen to make a quick dinner of Hamburger Helper & while that was cooking I was staring at the Inkle loom book that I bought & trying to figure out how it all worked. This is all brand new to me, so I'm lost. I'm not used to being completely clueless where a craft is concerned. I tried searching online for some sort of idea how the pattern stuff works. I mean, how do you get the actual fancy patterns in the

belt? I know Ann-Marie had it set up as a starter, so there was only white twine on the loom with tan yarn on the shuttle. Yet after it was woven, the ONLY thing you saw was the tan yarn going left to right. You couldn't see the white twine at all. Yet these patterns I'm looking at use different color thread on the loom & THOSE threads are what you see & create the pattern. I'm so confused. Maybe it's just the types of

materials that made it turn out the way it did? Maybe if I use different materials it'll show the long threads instead of only the material on the shuttle? I'll figure it out eventually. Next I needed to figure out how to thread up the loom if I ever plan to use it again. I've got the back & forth part down with the shuttle, but that 8 miles of thread on the loom looks difficult. I searched for directions on how to do that &

came across a video that was wonderful. Explained it perfectly & made it look so easy! OK, I've got that part down now. 1st video & probably the best. What great luck! Dinner was done now, so that was the end of my Inkle loom until next week. I REALLY wish there were more hours in a day. There's so much I want to do in this life & it seems like NO time to even scratch the surface. Pete & I ate dinner & went into to

our nighttime routine. I was so close to finishing the top part of the sweater that I couldn't help it, I was knitting while Pete & I were watching TV. I finished the top part & excitedly put the sleeve stitches onto holders, got a fresh ball of yarn, & finally chose the pattern for the main body. It's called 3-Color Scottie Tweed (2nd pic). The colors shown in the pic aren't what I'm using though. Remember I'm using Ruby

Bernat Sparkle as my main color. For the additional 2 colors, I chose a very fancy & shiny kinda light greenish ball of yarn I had & also some pink yarn. I got 7 rows of the pattern done before we headed to bed & it looks great! It took me a while to find 2 other yarns that matched the thickness of the main yarn. It had to match or it wouldn't come out well. I love the pattern, it looks great! My Sim, Michael, had a very

busy couple of days, too. I took a bunch of screenshots of Maplegrove (3rd - 7th pics). While he was sculpting a neighbor came over to visit him (11th pic). After greeting his new neighbor he spent some time with his dog (14th pic) & then went back to sculpting until he gained a level in that skill. He still needs the other 2, so he then went over to the inventing table to work on that one for bit (10th pic). He gained a skill

there & then went for the final skill he needs ... painting (13th pic). He made himself mac & cheese for dinner (9th pic) & then headed to bed (8th pic). The next day he woke up & painted for a while & finally gained a level of that skill making all 3 needed skills even across the board with Level 1 each. He spent some time with his dog & then invited the only person he knows over for a party. What luck! His

neighbor brought a friend & she's single! I was wondering how long it would take for Michael to meet a girl & here she was (12th pic). They were married by the end of the night. I know that seems fast, but remember that a Sim day = 1 year IRL, so technically they were married just inside 1 year. She's a pretty Sim, too. :) They're also expecting a child. YAY! 2nd gen on it's way. Somewhere in between the courting &

Sim-baby making, he managed to make waffles for breakfast, shower, gain another level of sculpting, pay his bills & get to bed. Back IRL, I started today with taking the dogs out & checking up on my banking. I started a new game for today called Modern Condo, a beautiful home built by my favorite Simmer, Curtis Paradis. This is a beautiful 4-story home with 2 very nice & expensive cars in the garage (15th - 19th

pics) that's placed in Sunset Valley. I created Victoria (1st gen) for this home. She's a neurotic slob who's nurturing, a savvy sculptor (just like Michael from yesterday), & handy. She decided, unlike Michael, to get a job outside the home & so she decided that her lifetime wish is to make it to the top of the military career. She likes shawarma, custom music, & the color Lilac. She's an Aquarius. Her furry 

companion is a Bengal cat named Hazel who's a hunter, noisy, & proud. This game started off in the spring. The 1st thing she did was join the military career & then she invited her boss, Jack Bunch over to get to know him better. By the time he left for the evening they had gone from strangers to friends. Back IRL, Milligan Water Meeting Monday @ 7:30p.

7-Up was originally marketed as a cure for hangovers. That's why the original recipe contained lithium citrate, a mood-stabilizing drug.

Bribe the snack-delivery guy into letting you put personal items belonging to a co-worker into 1 of the corkscrew slots of the candy machine.

Countries that've been the most popular international tourist destinations for the last 2 years top 10:

1. France
2. USA
3. China
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. United Kingdom
7. Turkey
8. Germany
9. Malaysia
10. Mexico

"Fast & Furious" is top opening-day car movie (2009):

"Fast & Furious," the fourth film in an action-movie franchise centered around the world of illegal street racing, debuts in U.S. theaters on April 3, 2009, kicking off a record-breaking $72.5 million opening weekend at the box office. "Fast & Furious," starring Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster and Michelle Rodriguez, recorded the all-time highest-grossing opening of any car-themed film, besting the 2006 animated feature "Cars," which raked in more than $60 million in its opening weekend and went on to earn more than $244 million at the box office.

The road leading to "Fast & Furious" began with the sleeper hit "The Fast and the Furious," which opened in theaters across America on June 18, 2001, and was followed by 2003's "2 Fast 2 Furious" and 2006's "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift." The "Fast and the Furious" films, which feature dramatic car scenes, pulsating music and good-looking actors and actresses, received mixed reviews from critics but were popular with audiences and spawned a line of video games.

In addition to the "Fast and the Furious" franchise, street racing has been depicted in such popular movies as "American Graffiti" (1973) and "Grease" (1978). The 1976 movie "Cannonball," starring David Carradine, was based on a real-life, illegal, cross-country race called the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. That race was first held in the early 1970s, in part to protest America's new 55 mph speed limit. (Cannonball Baker refers to Edwin "Cannon Ball" Baker, an auto and motorcycle racer who became famous for his record-setting cross-country drives in the early 20th century.) In the 1980s, the actor Burt Reynolds also starred in a series of films inspired by the outlawed race: 1981's "The Cannonball Run," 1984's "Cannonball Run II" and 1989's "Speed Zone!"

France averages 76.8 million tourists a year & I'll bet almost none of them ever miss seeing the Eiffel Tower.

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It was so wet that up on Hollywood Boulevard, a guy opened his raincoat & underneath was another raincoat. So wet, a guy on Sunset walked into a massage parlor & asked to be blotted. -Johnny Carson 1978

Next time you catch yourself inappropriately using 1 of the autobiographical responses - probing, evaluating, or interpreting - try to turn the situation into a deposit by acknowledgement & apology. ("I'm sorry. I just realized I'm not really trying to understand. Could we start again?")

Put lids on pans when bringing water to a boil; it's faster, & it uses less energy.

Relax your jaw - or smile! Both improve your ability to hear faint sounds. Tiny muscles in your jaw can disrupt the action of your eardrums & eustachian tubes (the latter, which control inner ear pressure, are what make your ears feel blocked on an airplane).

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Guides for LA, NY, Portland, SF and Vancouver. Austin, DC and Chicago coming soon.
Designed for locals, travelers and voyeurs, this app will uncover the unexpected, off the beaten path and highly interesting places that only a few people know about. We have hand picked Curators that are truly experts about things to do, eat and drink in selected areas. They have crafted themed experiences like Best Dive Bars, Art in the Streets, Vintage Shopping, Food Trucks, and many more. Not only does the app guide you on cool places to go, it also includes Curator Notes which provides things like what night to go, what to order, what's the history and essentially what's up at different spots.
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• Curated experiences
• Places to go
• List creator of your favorites
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Why do tourists hate other tourists? It's simple: they make all the lines longer!