On a different note about Saturday’s adventure: I saw several places where maple sap gathering was taking place. The first place I saw: a grove surrounding a pickup truck. The bed of the truck contained a large white plastic container. Another similar container was on the ground and many many yards of plastic piping fed into more piping that eventually emptied into this container.

Thinking this was a not unpleasing and distinctly New Englander solution to gathering this cash crop, I drove a few more miles before spotting another stand of maples, each decked with a roofed, galvenized pail. While less efficient perhaps in gathering the sap, perhaps it was targetted at the even more important tourist dollar.

Regardless of technique, my impression that the tree tips were reddening while I watched, waiting to burst out in blossoms, was buoyed by the fact that if it’s maple sugaring time in the peaks and vales of New England, can Spring really be far off?

There’s nothing like a day off to make your head and psyche feel better. Having a long “to-do” list, some seriously overdue, makes it even better. Once you close the door on the guilty “I really should do those things” feelings – you’re FREE. Free to go do things that are fun, rewarding, refreshing. Free to feel like a real person, doing things that make life worth living and not a slave to the to-do list.

That’s how I spent yesterday. I drove to a small place in Massachusetts, through the Berkshires, over winding, steep, sometimes death-defying hairpin curves to get to a small historic village. In one of the village buildings – a dance. We spent the afternoon doing dances from the 17th century. Music was provided by a harpsichord, some recorders, a bunch of violins and a cello, as well as a bodrhan (drum). Dinner at a local restaurant and then back to the building to change and dance a while longer. Then back home, over the winding, curvy and starlit roads. Read a few pages of a book I’d never looked at, even though it was quite late, and then plopped off to bed.

This morning my to-do list is still there, tugging at me to “just do it” but first I’m off for breakfast and some sunshine.

Wheeeeeeee — free as a bird!

If you’re looking for some new resume material, Evil Overlord might be a good option.

some “cool” refrigerator-related quilts

some other cool quilts – Fine Focus 2002 50 quilts will rotate through this page, four at a time, so if you like what you see, be sure to bookmark the page!

On a different note: How to write a better weblog

And finally, in the category of best reporting from the SLC Olympics

TGIF! Another strange week becomes history.

I’m thinking of running off tomorrow and doing something fun by myself. Non-quilting, non-family, non-work, non-computer related. I’m thinking about it. Trying to decide that I will get stuff done Sunday if I declare tomorrow an official day off from life as I know it! How’s that for mysterious?