Bad Blogger!

What have I been up to for the last 2 weeks?  Obviously not blogging.

I did some sewing for gifts/thank-yous.  Luckily the recipients didn't point out my sewing flaws, which there were many and my mom did point out when she saw one of the journal covers.

There was a quick trip down to San Diego (home of the parental units) to take a car-load of stuff down.  Princess Annie took the chance to use my pillow as her throne, since she's usually shut out of that room.

There was also a quick stop in Las Vegas, since its a great half-way point between Utah and San Diego.  Super quick review of the Cosmopolitan, one of the new hotel/casinos in City Center.  Public areas look like the designer didn't have a cohesive theme, and was using just whatever was leftover from other hotels/casinos and cheap (which would make sense since Deutsche Bank bought it out of bankruptcy and decided to go into the casino business).  The rooms were fantastic, which is good considering they were supposed to be condos.  Almost all of the rooms have a balcony, mine was on the 35th floor, looking right over the fountain at the Bellagio.

That was the good part, now for the bad.  Water pressure in the shower could have been better (but the soaker tub with champagne bubble jets more than made up for it), and I never could get the lights or climate control working through the TV remote like it was supposed to.  The restaurants I ate at were either fantastic (Milos) or a dismal failure (Va Bene - the cafe).

The real kicker about The Cosmopolitan and the reason why I'll never go back is being treated like a criminal at check-out. There were 2 charges made to my room, that weren't mine.  I didn't even recognize the name of them and had to ask.  I was told it was one of their restaurants, and the charges were at 6:30am.  Impossible. I had complained about housekeeping barging into the room at 8 am, and if they wanted to review security logs, they'd see the only entry I made to my room was at 10 pm the evening before, nothing after that.  How could I charge something to the room from a restaurant when I wasn't even there?  Front desk staff kept questioning me, not believing what I was saying, but refusing to get the information from security that would prove I was right.  The end result was them finally saying they'd do me the favor of letting me fill out a dispute claim.  Thank you Cosmo, your rooms might have a great view, but I won't be back.  Deutsche Bank, stick to banking and get out of the casino business.

Sheesh, I still get riled up, even a week later.  On to something else, if anyone is still reading this.  I did get some stitching done.  Part 6 of the iStitch SAL.  Totally love the scissors Carol added, and I added a new color.  I had to make the scissors a grey.

Raven's Roost, by the Good Husewife.   This is sort of cheating, since I started this last year and it was about 905% finished, I had just forgotten about it.  Oh well, a finish is a finish and I'm claiming it.

My biggest finish was BBD Greetings, from their Christmas book from 2004.  I started this a few weeks ago, and actually had a half-way pic to post, but it never got posted.  This is actually a scan, since I want to try and print it on some cards to make Christmas cards.

The next pictures are all finish-finishes.  All stitching was done over the last year or 2, and had just gathered in a pile needing something done with it.  Pumpkin Row got stuffed with a lovely mixture of cloves, cinnamon sticks, whole allspice, dried ginger chunks and anise seeds.

Such a lovely smell!

I've also done some baking!  Chocolate Pumpkin Spice cake with a Cinnamon Glaze (totally yummy, you'd never know it was good for you and low fat).

And just out of the oven this afternoon, Apple Buttermilk cakes.  One of these will go into the office tomorrow.

Thank you to everyone that made it through this post, and my rant!  I've been reading blogs, but barely commenting.  I'm sorry about that, but life has been a bit hectic the last couple of weeks.  Hopefully I'll be back to my routine, for at least another month, before it all goes upside down.