Having a John Deere mower sitting in my shed made me go look at his bio on the web. It doesn’t mention about him having a brother, but maybe two sisters (births seem not to be registered at that time).
The old family story went like this-that John’s brother (my gr, gr uncle supposedly) went to see him and that he was not interested in getting into the business and became disowned by John. I forget the name of the so-called brother, but William is standing out in my head, and that was John’s father, so why couldn’t he have a William, Jr. ? All I know is that my great grandmother was Lillian Deere and they decided to pronounce it ‘Da-ray’ like the Europeans. Gr grandmom was born in 1871, so that makes sense as the elder Deeres were born in around the 1840s. My relatives never had any big bucks either.

That’s the amount of leaves my husband said he cleaned up in the fall. No way! I was just out there cleaning up more-it seems to never end! I was waiting on Brian’s new ‘toy’, a John Deere riding mower. Too bad I am not ‘in’ with my long lost family. (My gr, gr uncle was John Deere and that was my gr grandmom’s maiden name). It’s a snazzy looking mower. The guy had trouble getting it out of the cage and started it up with no gas in it. Now we have 3 riding mowers, the other two are Sears mowers bought back in ’89. One use to belong to Bri’s dad. How do you dispose of old mowers?
My tummy muscles seem so weak this year. I guess it’s basically moving stuff now stop since December. And now the yard clean up. I so hoped for a flat tummy-but that’s not going to happen.
Off to get my hair done in a few. Man, it needs it.

Thanks to Karin for this:

German rabbit breeder Karl Szmolinsky presents his giant male breeding rabbit ‘Robert’ in Eberswalde, eastern Germany, February 2006. In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit.(AFP/File/Michael Urban)

I could not believe my eyes when Bri and I went into the local Big Lots store last night and there was a huge display of discounted books-mostly hardbacks-nice books-like cross stitch books-and all for $3-5!! There was only a few of each, so I got the ones I didn’t think I had. Most are Kooler Studio-fun designs for all seasons and Christmas ones. I think I found one Marie Barber book also. I have a ribbon embroidery book for mom and a thank you book for a friend who sent me some nice Easter gifts. I am excited because the only bookstore around here is almost half an hour away. We do have a resale book shop in the next town, but they moved and I would have to tackle lots of traffic and a tight parking lot to go there.
Bri just left to look at riding mowers as it’s the last day for the no payment for a year promo at the Home Depot. He was not happy to find this out as he is the #1 procrastinator in the family. I am still after him to get a new digital camera with a better zoom. Look how long I had to wait for the kitchen!
Late last night I was proofreading Sean’s stem cell research paper. It needed some defining and he was not happy that I was suggesting these at midnight. I told him I wanted to see my TLC shows first.
Not much else is new. We now have the microwave set up in the dining room. We’ll probably take down the table (a small round one) next weekend and move the love seat in the family room.
Off to the grocery store in a few hours.

I just had a little snooze on the sofa-I am just plain worn out from cleaning up inside and out.
I had another very nice salesperson here today from the Home Depot. Another 1.5 hour sales pitch. Their warranty is really good-if you get a hole in the glass, they fix it free, that kind of thing. The other window people didn’t even show me a warranty.
We are getting the garden window for the kitchen with glass that will help the plants to grow with tempered glass. I am getting a bay window in my living room. This is something extra, but it’s something I always wanted, so I am going for it. Everything will make the house more valuable. I can’t wait for these!
I mentioned to the man that Trading Spaces, the cable show uses Home Depot. He told me he was on the show one time as a HD consultant when they filmed in nearby Hockessin, DE. He also mentioned he was involved with local Philly rock groups, one of which was ‘The Hooters’. After he left, I looked up Hooters info and didn’t see his name mentioned (unless he changed his name which could be as he didn’t want to be associated with an 80s rock band anymore). I looked at some photos of old band members and was not sure if this one guy was him or not. But that was cool! ; )

Q. Do you stitch “on the go?” (On the commute to and from work, during your lunch break, waiting for the kids, etc.) If so, do you have a specific “travel” project or do you just grab whatever you happen to be working on and take it with you?
I only take projects on vacation that I am currently working on. I guess I would take a project along if I was stitching several rows of one color. Stitching to me is a private thing and my attention needs to be focused on it without distractions from other people, etc.

I got this email from Anita over at Cyberstitchers Wed. night. What do you think? And I did send a photo too.

Dianne,
I mailed the UK Cross Stitcher magazine a letter regarding Cyberstitchers a
few months ago and they would like to feature the site in an upcoming issue
of their magazine. They would like a few pictures of some of the gallery
owners so I thought I would ask to see if you would be interested in
submitting a photo of yourself. I am not sure what pictures they will use so
I can’t guarantee they will use the picture you send me. I will understand
completely if you don’t want to participate but thought I would ask anyway.
If you are interested, please email me a photo as soon possible. Thanks and
enjoy your evening.

Anita
Update-The Cross Stitcher magazine will be out in England on May 11th (June issue) and available at Barnes & Noble soon after. Crossing fingers! I think it’s cool that Cyberstitchers is getting this publicity.

I love Victoriana-the big houses with turrets, the gilded furniture, the palms in the corner, well almost everything about it. So I was surfing on eBay and ran across an English woman selling 20,000 Victorian lady images. The photo she had on the auction was a little risque, but I just thought, well how many of them could look like that? I was planning on making art cards-they are the little trading cards that sell like hotcakes on eBay.
I got the CD today-wow-that was fast from overseas! I put the CD in the computer and up popped all these Victorian nudies! Man, she didn’t even mention nudes at all in the auction. I guess she really isn’t allowed to sell nudes maybe? I wrote her a note and complained that I really had no use for the CD. I told Sean about it and he said-‘ naked Victorian ladies-gross!’ Maybe I can just use their faces?
Update-I got a ‘partial refund’ for ‘full’ frontal!