Here it is, the second day of Fall, and it’s already cold in the mornings here in Orlando. By “cold” I mean 68° (20° C) which, for me here in Florida, is sweater weather.  It doesn’t usually cool off until the middle of November, so this is quite a treat for us (here in Florida where 68° F is sweater weather). I hope the weather holds because it would portend an early end to hurricane season and good-bye to the mosquitoes for another year. Usually when the weather begins to cool down I switch from walking on the treadmill to walking outdoors, but this time I’m not walking for exercise at all because of the foot thing. I am, however, getting exercise and that’s the lead-in to my sort of travelogue for this week.

First of all, please remember that these places were short stops along a transatlantic cruise to Amsterdam where Bill and I were meeting up with our friends Loes and Theo. It doesn’t cost much more to cruise across the Atlantic than it does to fly; it takes about 15 days and you arrive without any jet lag. If you have the time, it’s the sensible way to go. Anyway, we were gadding about with a group of new friends. In La Coruña, Spain, we had only a few hours. We were on our way to find a place where I could say “una cerveza, por favor” (“a beer, please”) when I tripped and fell on some steps. One of the fellows with us said that he was at first concerned, but then he saw that I knew how to fall and I’d be okay. Yes, I do know how to fall. I do it a lot and I’ve found that once I start down the best thing to do is just relax and let it happen. I wasn’t hurt, but I did skin one knee. Another time we were in Montmartre, France. I had just come out of a café holding a very hot chocolate when I walked right into a pole, spilling most of the chocolate down my front. By this time our friends knew about my tripping propensity and expressed more concern about the spilled chocolate than they did about me. If anyone took any pictures they didn’t share them with me, so I don’t have a scrapbook page to share with you. So, what do these two little stores have to do with exercise?

Feeling very flabby and fluffy after lying around on the couch for four weeks, I decided to invest in a Wii, with Wii fit. If you’re not familiar with Wii, which is hard to imagine if you’ve got any kids at all in your life, it’s kind of like a wireless video game that you hook up to your television. Wii Fit comes with a balance board, and the first time you start the program and introduce yourself you stand on the balance board for testing. After I finished the balance tests, and keep in mind that I’m favoring one foot . . ., the television said to me, “You are unbalanced. Do you fall a lot?” I’m not kidding! I’ve been doing the balance exercises for at least 20 minutes every day (keep in mind that I’m favoring one foot) and every day my television tells me, “You are unbalanced. Do you fall a lot?” I don’t mind the question so much, but that “you are unbalanced” thing is starting to get to me.

Some cutting remarks: You know how when you’re wearing some store bought item with embroidery people will ask, “Did you make that?” And, of course you reply, “Didn’t it come out nice” or some such. Not lying, of course, but not admitting to store bought. Well, take a look at the back of some of those store bought embroideries.  Can you believe the sloppy trimming of the stabilizer? Yours look SO much more professional, right? On the left you’ll see the back of a store bought tee shirt (1) and the back of something I made myself (2). You’ll also see the two pairs of scissors I use for trimming stabilizer. I already had the duckbill pair (3) for trimming appliqués. They’re good for trimming stabilizer because you can get in pretty close without accidentally snipping the fabric. The smaller pair with the curved blades (4) I use for getting into tight spots. You need to be careful with them, though, as they WILL catch the fabric. As far as washing embroidered garments, I wash in warm or, preferably, cold water and line dry. In the rare instances that I need to iron something, I place the garment face down on a towel so I don’t smash the embroidery.

Responding to some comments on my last blog: Yes, Sabrina IS beautiful, isn’t she? Thanks you! But she doesn’t look like grandma. She looks like her mother, or perhaps her abuela, her maternal grandmother.

 It’s easy to have sexy toes. Get a pedicure with bright red polish. It’s one of my few and favorite indulgences.

 Susan, I know that no matter how anyone might feel about the war in Iraq, every one of us is thinking about and/or praying for all of our young men and women over there and we’re grateful for the service they’re giving to their countries. I, as well as many of us machine embroiderers, am from a military family and we understand fully the difficulties and heartaches that you are enduring. We thank you for your service, also.

 Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers about my foot. It’s coming along.

 A little reminder: If you ask a question in a comment on one of the blogs or the Welcome to AnnTheGran page, please remember to come back to see if there’s an answer there. Better yet, post your questions in the forums where someone knowledgeable will always see them and try to help you out.

 Until next time, take care of yourselves, and don’t forget to sometimes turn off your computer and sew something! TTFN