My latest

Here is my latest creation. A tropical big block quilt. Nice for snuggling on the couch in FL it is pretty thin but I quilted over the whole surface and added the binding with a cool detail so this was a good project. I am working already on my next ideas...

Up close "free motion" quilting


The upper right is a glimpse at the backing fabric which is my favorite, very water like :) Sorry if the quality of photo is not the best, they were taken with my phone.

Let it Flow

I climbed out of the shower this morning around 5:30am and heard the thunderous roar of the rain that is only possible in southern FL. I had the pleasure this morning of "validating" urine samples for our random drug screening for the athletes. It is a morning filled with crabby athletes awoken from a nice slumber and then being told they have to "void" into the cup with me watching, all of which is usually a surprise to them. To top it all off for the poor kids they had to trudge through the many lakes and puddles that had formed overnight and throughout the morning of RAIN to get to the Greene Complex.

The picture is one I found of rain off of the coast of palm beach, it is MUCH prettier than the rain we are experiencing now, I feel like crawling back in bed and falling asleep to the sound of the rain pound the roof.

So, after the last female filled her cup to the red line, I ventured out on the roads to get my morning coffee, since they were not open at 5:45 and I was not about to make my own coffee that early in the morning. I have been doing good, however, I had made the decision to stop buying coffee at Starbucks, I guiltily admit it was an every day occurrence. Over the course of a month I guesstimate we spent easily over $120 on coffee. So I decided to start making my own at home and it has really been going well. I guess this month and February we may have only spent $20 at the store.
But I have a new rescipie using 2 TAZO Organic Chai tea bags, use about 10 oz. hot water and steep for 5 minutes, then fill the 16 oz. cup with milk, add a teaspoon of sugar and stir.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

On a day when many are dressed up in green to avoid repercussions, drinking Green Beer, kissing the Irish, and celebrating all that shamrocks and St's have to offer, I sit at work perfectly sober.

I thought in all my free time I would do a little digging, here is a link on the history of the holiday, much like Christmas or Halloween there are historical roots in the holiday that go far beyond what we know it as today. St Patty's day

Shuttle Launch

I am sure pictures will soon be posted on the Flikr, but last night we watched the shuttle Discovery launch at Cape Canaveral from the beach. It was great with the sun setting the smoke trail it left was a rainbow of beautiful colors, we could feel the rumble and hear the take off about 30 seconds after the actual shuttle was in the air. From where we were standing we could see the shuttle rocket boosters separate. It was pretty cool. Not something you see every day and obviously something that everyone in the area wanted to see because soon after the launch we had to make our way back to WPB, and the roads were so busy that it took us 2 hours to get to I95 from Pops and Grams place, and a whole 5 hours to get home. And just to put it into perspective it should have only taken us 2.5 hours to get home. We picked up a very sleepy puppy at about 1 am and headed home to bed! All in all a good weekend, I got some sun, got out of WPB, spent some QT with family. But now it is back to work and life as usual.

Flikr

Enjoying the beautiful weather here in South Florida! Check out our new Flikr page with a lot of great new photos. Our flikr Make sure you check out the awesome Sea Turtle pics I (Greg) got from the locks while visiting Pops N Grams! Also, if any of you are on twitter, I'm now the official social media guru for PBA so check out my new twitter page (PBAAdmissions) as well as (SailfishJack). One of the perks of being the communications guy at a college is that you get to play on facebook and twitter and flikr and all those fun addicting sites AND i get to play with the great photography equipment i'm now in charge of, all while getting paid for it! So keep your eyes open for new photos and updates from the Hill family. Check to the right of this blog and you will find a new slideshow linked directly from our Flikr page. ENJOY!!!!

You know it is Spring time when...

Stores start coming out with all sorts of candy in egg shapes and pastel colors. One of my favorites thanks to my mom is Brach's Chicks & Rabbits. Greg would rather lap up vomit than eat these candies but I find them irresistible. They are like Circus peanuts but in the shape of bunnies and chicks, and I gotta say nothing says Spring like a bag of candy. Unfortunately the only place I can find them is at Target which is a 10 minute drive in the opposite direction of anywhere I am usually headed. But after my long week, I made the trip.

I arrived back from my 4 day trip yesterday after a 10 hour bus ride, with not much to show for the trip other than finishing one book ("Sundays a Tiffany's" by James Patterson), starting a new one ("Blood Brothers" by Nora Roberts, recommended by MIL), and managing to leave a couple shirts that I didn't have time to wear in the closet which I had to pay to have shipped back to me. I was in Greenville, SC with the MBB team for the regional tournament for the NCCAA, and we lost. But it is good too be home.

Andy and Jordan (Greg's buddy's from HOPE) were here to keep him company in my absence, Andy is on Spring break from grad school. They have managed to keep Greg well fed while at the same time cleaning up their dishes as well as getting FRIED in the hot FL sun. It hurts to look at them but they are confident they will be going home with a tan.

Ps- I finished my tropical big block quilt today too. I learned after putting the binding on Will (Lauren's baby) quilt that I had some practicing to do on that, sorry La, you gotta start somewhere.)

Fall Like

In spite of my poor Jetta giving up on me more and more lately I have had a few great days. The pantry is finally full of food, my quilt is on its way to being finished, it is jacket weather out, and we get to drive to Orlando tonight to get some Chicago style Pizza with Greg's dad.



I have discovered the world of making my own chai tea lattes at home and it has been a great journey. This morning I was taking Mya for a walk with Chai in hand and I was thinking about how Fall like it was outside. There were actually leaves on the ground, and Mya managed to find a pine cone. We have the lamest "pine" trees, but she likes the pine cones, so I snapped a pic of her, and then was a mean mommy and grabbed it out of her mouth and threw it away not much before she made a nice choking sound from the pieces she managed to pluck off and get stuck in her throat. Aren't puppies cute?

ps- Mya turns 1 year old on March 5th. We are going to the pet store and she can have anything she wants :)