dcor's blog

Hard at work from last night and this morning on tidying up the content and layout of the Sunyata Retreat Centre with Marion's daughter Heather.  Communication is great and I'm looking forward to seeing the final product! There won't be any changes of theme but I have hot-wired things so that there is less clicking around (thanks to the criticsm of the site that Heather was good enough to write, 5 pages!).  Hopefully now things will be more streamlined. We've ripped out a lot of repeatitious links that were really unnecessary.  Now if only I can figure out how to make information appear via views in a shadowbox - that would be cool.

Another nice detail is to be able to register for retreats online using a credit card!  This was in place but we never properly converted all of the existing retreats.  There were quite a few views related issues for me to answer, especially the admin side interface so that the center has full control over all of the content! 

Finally, what to do about shrinking the number of pages with detailed content?  Well, that's Heather's department and for that I'm forever greatful!

I'll post again when the changes go live.

My first experience with Boston Organics - so far - and being on the Friday route (as mentioned in the previous post).. is two thumbs up!  I received my green box, the delivery man rang the buzzer to alert me as I had requested.  Opened the box to reveal my 2/3 fruit/veggie assortement priced at $29. 

I was surprised to find 1lb of bananas is equated to 3 bananas.  But the collards looked amazingly fresh, there were enough potatoes to make even Steph happy, a handful of carrots (considering I'm still to use up the last batch we bought at the store) which should last the week, a broccoli, a beautiful head of salad leaves, a smallish cabbage (but I'm not sure what to do with cabbage and it'll be an experiment, so maybe its a good thing there isn't much of it!), small box of mushrooms, several onions, apples, pears, and oranges.  I don't think I've missed anything. 

I've set up for a delivery every other week, first see how long it takes us to eat through these veggies - may upgrade to the $40 box or stay the same.  I will be reporting back over the next month and if so - may use their handy service of giving them a key to leave the box on the inside of our front door!

I'll still have to buy my leeks for Mamie's leek tart which I promised I'd make for Steph - courgettes/zuccini would do as well but don't have any.  But I don't see myself buying much else to supplement the fresh fruits/veggies for the week.

Ok.. Maya's crying her heart out because all the other dogs got to go outside to pee/poop & play.  Hasta Mañana!

Continuing on the theme of home made crafts - i.e. knitting - is cardmaking.  I recently invested in several materials for the purpose of making my own cards.  Admittedly the first few were terrible!  But I think I'm starting to get the knack for it.  At least, the rule - Keep It Simple, Stupid - definitely applies.

I LOVE rubber stamps and whenever I see any on sale am slowly building up a collection.  Trying not to go absolutely crazy but I love the look of black ink on white paper.  I really wish I'd had the time and frame of mind to hand make all my wedding invites.  Even the thank you cards were printed.  Well, maybe the next time something comes around.  I suspect my christmas cards may end up being hand made this year (I only did a small selection last year).  The nice thing is all of the christmas stamps are currently on sale!

Today is a bit of a lazy day - going to make another last ditch attempt at finishing the 1st ball of wool (see aforementioned post on knitting) and start on the second.  Also, aiming to take a swing at picking up the dusty guitar and going through my lesson book.  I still need to set up lessons with our neighbor downstairs - provided she's willing!

Attempting to make a shawl for my younger sister, on her request.  Bought two balls of yarn (see picture) and it's a relatively easy knit, purl, pattern.  Problem is its taking FOREVER!  But I'm keeping at it, adding a few inches every day.  So far, the first ball that I started around christmas time has still not come to an end. Granted, I haven't exactly been efficient in finding time to knit in the months of January and early February. 

I'll be sure to post the final product.  I'm looking for some nice baby wool for my next project.  But before I even talk about that, I need to finish this one!

In other news, things are good - survived the rain storms of the last few days.  The entire apartment shook with the strong winds, reminding me that we're living in what is essentially "the attic" of the house.  I'm sure the people on the first floor don't even feel it.  Maya was hibernating the whole time and finally got a good run in twice today.  I'm happy to say I walked 2.6 miles from Harvard Square home.  It only started pouring once - bought myself a bright yellow umbrella from CVS - then of course it stopped. 

"Borrowed" the photo from Revere.org.  This is a NICE beach.  A gentleman who had just come out of the water (and was still bare chested, in this wonderful February weather) assured me that the water is quite shallow for quite a ways in.  I think he was still 'high' from his dip BUT its not much colder than some days in Galway and who am I to question his desire to polar bear (though no ice!).

We decided very early in the morning that we were finally going to do something different this weekend.  I wanted to go to the beach and this was the one we picked.  It's straight East of where we're living.

We took Maya along and she really wanted to get at the fat gulls.

After that, we went to Wholefoods for our usual shopping.  Recently we've been debating whether to have organic vegetables delivered via Boston Organics or to keep shopping for them at Wholefoods.  My price comparison as of today, as well as the bad reviews on Yelp for Boston Organics from people on their Friday delivery schedule (which we would be) have convinced me that its more worthwhile to get our veggies (at least in the winter) from Wholefoods.  I might reconsider come summertime - but then again there is the local farmer's market which I have yet to check out.

Besides, we're not so nutty for organics that we'd rather go for cheaper grub from time to time.

Oh, so in other news I kicked Steph's butt at Risk (he is my personal slave until the rematch, as all conquered enemies should be!).  Ah yes, and we made Foccaccia last night - it's dry today... next time will need to store in plastic.