Cracker Crumbs

Double Nine Patch

2008-12-07T14:49:00.000-08:00

It has been a while, hasn't it? I have been busy the last few months, doing this and that. There have been so many other things going on that I neglected blogging until now I am embarrassed about the length of time I've been absent.

Da is completely recovered from his surgery. It is like he never had a life threatening episode this past summer.

While he was mending, I started another quilt, imagine that!

I can, and have, made a wedding quilt in under a week, but I decided at the outset that I wanted to try out and learn some new techniques so I was not going to allow myself to get all stressed out about making any self-imposed deadlines. I just needed to relax after the stress of Da's surgery. I figured that the intended wedding couple would stay married long enough to get a present three months late, and they did.
Onyx really wanted to be a part of this quilt. That little tail of hers kept flipping in and out of the sewing area. I'm sure some of her fur is well preserved in the depths of the stitches. She was not harmed in the making of this quilt.

I find this kind of pile very satisfying. It means I was on a roll and getting lots done.

I am still learning how to make quilts. Or rather how NOT to make quilts. I intend to learn something on each one, and that is why I attempt new things and techniques. I had a physics professor say that one hasn't really learned anything until one has made all possible mistakes. I learned a lot on this quilt.

See the bread rising in the background? It must be close to me and in sight because I get too involved while I'm sewing. I don't know how many times I have allowed the loaf to overflow its pan and make a mess. Then it gets so ugly that I have to start all over in order to have something presentable for B of B meeting. Don't worry, Da and I enjoy eating ugly bread so it doesn't go to waste. Besides, can you think of a better use for those hand weights?

This technique is one I won't do again. It may look okay, but it was just not worth the struggle. I wanted to use my new embroidery machine to embellish the large, plain areas of the quilt but it was just too big and unwieldy to wrestle into position and keep track of. (The close-up has funny lighting, it really is brown on brown.)
This is a much better use of the embroidery machine. I now have my favorite "wedding verse" which I designed on my computer saved on a memory stick and in my machine's memory ready for the next pillow.

Yes, I did use some of that three months to learn that computer embroidery program and I even took a refresher class in how to get the embroidery machine to do exactly what I wanted. Time well spent.

The other new thing I learned with this quilt is how to set the blocks on point so that the little squares go vertically and horizontally instead of diagonally. I made a bunch of mistakes but I will use this technique again. I like how it changed the whole character of the quilt.

I hope the couple enjoys this quilt, I had fun making it.

Home again

2008-07-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

I can breathe again. Da's surgery went well, the aneurysm has been repaired. And we are back home. Whew!

Da was in the operating room for seven hours, not the 4-6 that we were expecting. Da doesn't do things by half, oh no. Extravagant, excessive, over-the-top, more and better than anyone else, yes, that's him. I betcha didn't know that about him. He didn't break just one eye, it had to be both of them. He didn't have just three cardiac bypass grafts, he had to have six. He didn't marry someone just ten years younger, try twenty-two years.

And he also didn't stay in the hospital the expected 5-10 days. No, he came home after four. He was doing so much better than expected, the surgeon saw no point to him staying any longer. He can rest and recuperate better at home where it is calmer and quieter than a busy hospital. Besides, he knows where things are at home and people don't move things around here and make incessant and alarming noises. Okay, things get moved, but I do (usually) tell him about it and he can shush me if needs be.

Here is a big thank-you for all the cards and flowers and visits and especially the prayers sent up on his behalf. That is why he did so well, I'm sure of it. HE truly is a GREAT physician.

So here we are, trying to get back to our normal routine. He has to live downstairs until his re-check, but meanwhile... who is going to get the mail and take the garbage out?

Isn't it funny how one never realizes just how much someone does until he doesn't do it anymore?

Everybody, go appreciate that one.

AAA

2008-07-24T15:22:00.000-07:00

We are still here.

This has been a crazy month or so. Da and I have logged many hours on the road back and forth to the hospital/clinic. About 25 hours anyway, I guess. That is the only thing we don't like about Kaiser, it takes over an hour to get there.

You see, Da has an abdominal aortic aneurysm or AAA. It is big. The normal aorta is about 2 cm. Da's is 6.8 cm. Not good. He found it himself when he lay down in bed and felt his tummy throbbing. He thought, "Have I always had this? Has this always been like this?" He didn't know but he thought not. It was strange anyway so he made an appointment with his doc and then we went to Hawaii. (Or he might have made the appointment after we got back, I don't remember.)

Anyway, he saw his doc on June 10. Just a regular check-up. He mentioned the throbbing and some other minor problems. He got scheduled to see an ear-nose-throat specialist (6/18) for one, and had a barium esophagus scan (6/20)for another. Then he had an abdominal ultrasound (6/26). We go on living like normal. No big deal.

Then at 9 pm on a Sunday night (6/29), his doctor called us at home. Now, our medical plan, Kaiser Permanente, is a huge corporation. They normally don't call us on Sunday night after gospel meeting. That in itself gave us a clue as to the seriousness of the situation.

Dr. Tan confirmed that the throbbing was indeed an aneurysm just as they both had thought. He wanted Da to see another specialist right away. And have more tests, right away. So we meet Dr. Kim (7/1). He looks at the collected test results and orders even more tests and schedules surgery for 25 days. TWENTY-FIVE DAYS! Wait a minute, this is my husband we are talking about. Why 25 days? Why not today?

Dr. Kim is the vascular surgeon. He cancels Dr. Tan's tests and orders his own. He doesn't like Da's blood count. It is way too low, he is bleeding somewhere. I'm thinking that the aneurysm is leaking or something. Somebody, DO SOMETHING!

Good old internet. I do some surfing and end up worse. What if... what about... Did they think of this?... This is no good. Call the doctor. It is Saturday evening, after hours. We can leave a voice mail. ARGhh. Oh, wait, we have Dr. Tan's e-mail, let's send a message. Maybe he'll read his mail before Monday. Shoot the message off and talk some more. Call Chuggy and Bill, they are not home from Lassen yet. Leave a message. Talk some more. Bill calls, they got home an hour after I called. Yay, finally some consolation in this thing. Go to bed and cry. This stress is getting to me. I can't sleep, I get up and play spider on the computer. Oh, check my neglected mail. Hey, whadya know? Dr. Tan answered our questions 5 minutes after we sent them. Our fears are not warranted. Why didn't I check my mail 'til 7 hours later? Nothing like borrowing trouble.

Now, why isn't Kaiser doing anything? Okay, they are. Five different stress tests and a CT scan on 7/7. That takes, oh, only eight hours or so. I am having my own stress test of my own making. Where's the bleeding? Colonoscopy (7/15). Nothing much, but more tests are indicated to rule out something or other. After we take our first bites at Black Angus we realize that we should have gone to the lab first and gotten blood drawn for that fasting test. Da had been fasting for the colonoscopy. Doh! Oh well, we will be back soon anyway. Complete history and physical. Isn't this rather redundant? Not really. Get that fasting test done and a chest x-ray(7/17) . Upper GI exam. Nothing at all. Maybe a small hernia. No bleeding(7/21). Pre-op appointment with Dr. Kim. Meet the anesthesiologist, Dr. Tedla (he's from Russia). Even more blood tests. (No wonder Da is anemic.) Rush to get a baseline EKG. That section is closed. No, the tech is still here. Whew. Done.

We try a new restaurant on the way home. It is our new favorite (7/23). I Check the blood test results when we get home. I love it that the results get posted immediately on the Kaiser web site. Da's blood count is up! Some good news finally. The anesthesiologist had wanted to give a blood transfusion before the operation, now he won't have to, I think.

Da called Kaiser this morning as directed to see what time he is to check-in tomorrow for surgery. It is at 5:30 am. We will stay at a nearby hotel tonight. I will probably stay there the whole week.

Your prayers are felt and much appreciated.

Chase

2008-06-03T22:13:00.001-07:00

He was a big dog. He weighed 120 pounds and measured 28 inches high at the shoulder. He had a long tongue and really big ears and a super long tail (which he would catch on command), but it was his heart that was the largest part of him.

Yes, he was a big wuss. A crybaby, really. But that is what endeared him to us. That, and his love of peanut butter. He had character, all right.
He kept us safe from marauding bumblebees.

And oh, how he loved the water. He was always happy to help me make sure the sprinklers were working. He would run and stand in front of any spraying sprinkler he found on our walks to get a drink and get his tummy wet. Sometimes he would forget to get a drink, even, just getting soaked was what he wanted. He would race to the percolating ponds in the riverbed just to swim in a wide circle a couple of times before continuing on the walk.

Because of careless breeding he had bad hips, a common ailment of German Shepherd Dogs. His were really bad so we got one of his hips replaced when he was just two. He did okay. He loved to chase rabbits in the riverbed behind us.

After a tussle with a visitor in our hallway earlier this year, he snapped something in his knee. How would he do without his regular walks? Not well. We got him a dog wheelchair so he didn't have to. He took to that quickly and did great for a while.

But this morning it was his kidneys that gave out. He was 39 days from his eleventh birthday.

Chase, I miss you.

The Big Island

2008-05-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Without fanfare we did it. Da and I visited our favorite island, the Big Island of Hawaii. It has so many different kinds of places one never gets tired of it.

I think these ferns are intriguing, all curled up and ready to unfurl.

We took Da's sister, Em. She had never been to Hawaii. Here she is with her brother on a black sand beach.
The volcano is still erupting and causing a weird weather phenomenon the locals call Vog, volcano fog. That is the crater behind us.
From the helicopter we could see evidence of a lava tube.
We also traipsed through an old one. It had cooled signifi- cantly.
No trip to Hawaii would be complete for me without a visit to my favorite orchid nursery. I didn't have this color orchid. Now I do.
This one, though not unusual in looks, was so very fragrant even the cashier who works amongst the flowers was impressed.
I am not much for baking in the sun so we did not bask much as this local denizen apparently does.

2008-04-02T13:36:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Da!

White Diamonds

2008-04-01T22:50:00.000-07:00

April is for diamonds. Diamonds are many colors, even white. So this month's project can be anything. I'll do white.
Here's an old picture of a sunrise. Beautiful, I say. I wonder when I got up early enough to see a sunrise? Must have stayed up all night for that one.

I did work on my white garden. It is on the west side in that narrow space between my house and the neighbor's house.

(a very old picture, before nice camera)

I knew it could be a forgotten area so I planned for it to be special. Only white flowers are allowed here.

A white bird feeder was a gift from SAJ. It is perfect for my white garden and is seen full of thistle seed hanging from a branch of my ivy covered Chinese fringe tree.

Several years later it is still hanging but is empty and the tree trunk is even more covered by the ivy.

My poor azalea. She came with us from the Bay Area and is struggling. The soil is just too alkaline for her needs, but she makes a valiant effort and blooms every year anyway. I'll have to try some soil amendments before she succumbs, coffee grounds are not enough.

Onyx thinks she is white. Don't tell her she is not.

The Chinese fringe tree! I read about this tree in the Sunset Garden Book and had to have one. My local nursery was able to procure one for me after searching all their suppliers. I stressed how it had to be a female tree, not male. The first few years I had it I despaired that they had given me a male tree after all as it did not bloom. I was disappointed.

But this year it really surprised me. It is blooming just like the Sunset book said, like a giant lilac. It is so pretty I'm kind of sad it is not in a more prominant place and more visible. It is a perfect tree for a white garden, though. You must click on the pictures to see its true beauty and glimpse the pink balloon and streamer it caught.

Not in my white garden but still in my yard are the Lady Banks roses. They cover the east fence on my slope. There is not enough sun for them in the white garden.

A baby geranium. My grown-up geranium all but died in the freeze we had a year ago so I told him I would get another one to help him fill his space.

Home Depot had geraniums on sale for 50 cents each. This one cost a little more because the ones on sale were on sale because they didn't know what color they would bloom. I needed white. I got the sale ones for the dog yard, I don't care what color blooms there, just so they are hardy and do bloom.

These Chinese chives were a gift from Gramma. They faithfully bloom every year. So delicate.

I thought I had gotten rid of the white potato vine but I guess not. I love the flower but the vine is so tenacious. It sprawls over everything and smothers the weaker plants. It killed my white clematis and denuded a thuja I was using as a divider. It covered my white wooden arch and created a sail which caused the arch to break out of its cement footing in a windstorm. It tried to grow down the slope which is a good thirty feet away from its roots. So I removed it. It came back. I haven't decided what to do with it.

I have not been very good at doing the right color project for each month's birthstone--or even writing about one, at least. Forgive me, Knittery.

Tilted Pinwheel(?) Quilt

2008-03-29T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is how it starts. The fabric is waiting to be pre-shrunk. I always pre-shrink my fabrics. I don't want to be surprised when something runs (and red is notorious for that), mutilating all my work and I want to be in control of how things shrink up in the end. I don't pre-shrink the backing, I want it to shrink after the quilt is done so that everything puckers nicely and mistakes are hidden.

Now you see the strips all cut and ready to be sewn together. Wait...they are different than those of the first picture. Yeah, well I changed my mind. I didn't like how they were just sort of blah except for the red which shouted at me and wanted out. I didn't want to be stuck doing a blah quilt. The time to change your mind is before you start sewing. Actually, only the black made it. Besides, the bride likes green.

Now all the strips are sewn together.
I tried another ar- rangement first but it didn't sing to me. It made black stars and they were depressing so I tried this one...it makes me happy.

Okay, now the fun part. I have never tried this technique so was kind of unsure of how to go about it. The directions said one thing but I saw that it wasted a third of the panel. Not acceptable. I don't like wasting stuff, I save everything. What for? I don't know. Yes, I do. I might need it some day. And today I did. See the cardboard squares? I needed a template (or four) that was nine inches square. Printer paper is 8 1/2 X 11. No good. I don't want to piece it and it is too flimsy anyway, even card stock. But I always save the cardboard that comes with all those calendars we all get every year. A few cuts and it's just what I need. Yay!

Make a few slices through the panels at an angle. That's at least 20 panels making about eighty funny shaped blocks.

I didn't realize I had to keep where the corners of the template fell on the panel in mind until after I had everything all sewn together. Oh well. I learn as I go.

How can you make anything with this shape you say?

Just square it up and there you go.
Guess what? I saved all the scraps to make another quilt. I just have to design a pattern or something.

Sew all those blocks together and you get stars or pinwheels or something.

I don't have a name for this quilt but I like it. It is more traditional looking without being traditional. Maybe I'll call it "Tilted Pinwheel".

Onyx thinks it makes a good bath tub.

...and this quilt does match her eyes and collar and fur, see?

2008-03-10T17:57:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh... I wish you could smell these flowers.

The daffodils are winding down but my hyacinths are blooming like crazy. They have such an intoxicating scent that I had to cut some and bring them inside. Da likes to sit in the sun on the south side of the house and these grow in the north yard. Nobody but me enjoys them there. So I have vases all over the place and the house no longer smells like Chase--one vase in the kitchen, one in the breakfast nook, one in Da's office, one on the key shelf by the front door and this one upstairs by my computer/sewing area. The next vase will go in my bedroom.

In other news--I have quit doing quilts for the time being. After finishing three quilts in two months I am all quilted out and no longer want to see another quilt. Too much of a good thing and all that. I want to crochet now. I even bought some nice blue yarn as if I didn't have enough yarn in my stash already. Come the hot days of summer I'm sure my tune will change, but for now, crochet it is.

Except I have ideas and plans... I did go to a quilt show last month... it made me feel like such an amateur--I need to get more experience... they were so colorful and pretty and nicely done... not like last year's show at all... oh well, maybe next month.

P.S. I will post pictures of the last quilt after it is gifted on Saturday.

Another Spring

2008-03-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

I like the end of February and the beginning of March. Even last year after such damaging freezing weather the spring flowers were beautiful. This year, after a very mild winter, the bulbs are coming on strong again. The snow-in-summer is lush and will bloom nicely later. My gophers don't care for my daffodils, probably because they are poisonous, so they come back thicker each year.

I wish I could say the same about my dutch iris. They did not survive the ravages of the hungry gophers and I have given up trapping them. I just do not like emptying the traps. Ewww. Any iris I get in the future will go into pots. They don't seem to perform as well but they do survive and I must have dutch iris. Maybe next year. I'm just glad the daffodils thrive.

The pink jasmine will bloom soon. We missed them last year because they froze to twigs. They are about ready to pop it seems.

I like my mallow. The bush doesn't seem to have a very long life but it valiantly makes any effort worthwhile.

These are a pleasant surprise. White violets are springing up all over my back yard in all kinds of places. Very cute.

You can barely see it in the picture just above the green grass and down an embank- ment at the end of the tracks but you can sure hear it. The river behind our house is dry most of the year and has been dry for several years now even in the winter because of our extended drought. This year it is rushing and gurgling, even roaring to get to the sea. It is so pleasant to leave the windows open and listen to it as one drifts off to sleep. Only once, in an El Nino year, have I seen the entire river bed full to the brim, and then some. This has been just an average rainfall year.

Last year I was perturbed at the rabbits because they destroyed what little was left after the freeze but this year is different. There is plenty for them to eat and so we share the yard. Here is a zoomed in shot taken from inside of one of three baby bunnies that I spied out back. They seem to scatter at the slightest noise. As they get older they will become more bold like their parents but now it is a treat to see them.

Irish Oreo

2008-02-15T16:32:00.001-08:00

Ta is now an official quilter.

She has a friend who saw one of her quilts and he wanted one, too.

I told him to go to a paint store and get me some paint chips of the colors he liked.

There weren't many.

After much time and debate, Ta and I settled on a pattern and got this one started.

Onyx, of course, helped.

My, and now Ta's, quilting gives her more places to stretch out.

I'm not sure whether it is the quilt or the warm lamp, but Onyx is always in the thick of things.

She does still use her box bed in the background, really.

And it is done, TA-DAH!

Onyx would disagree but Ta did most of the work on this one. I helped only a bit and Onyx did almost nothing.

It looks very complicated and optical illusion-y, but it really is pretty simple.

An Irish Oreo quilt for an Irish Oreo.

Amethyst is for February

2008-02-15T16:12:00.000-08:00

This is so February and amethyst and everything. Even the different shades of purple are what amethysts do.

Can't get any more February than this.

It is too bad that the wisteria behind is not blooming but then it wouldn't be February, it would be April or something.

I'm just sorry I can't take any credit for this. Well, maybe... I did buy the yarn with Da's money but that is all. Ta made this for a friend who really likes purple. She finished it and I took the pictures. The end.

The color of January is GARNET

2008-01-31T17:23:00.000-08:00

If Knittery can post on the last day of January with her garnet colored project and get away with it, then so can I.

Since my Green Bargello quilt can in no way be construed as resembling a garnet for the month of January, I will have to do something I am adverse to do. I will have to publish a picture of a quilt before the intended recipient gets it. I think it is okay because I don't think she ever looks on here and it is in such an early stage of con- struction that she will still be surprised if she does. So here it is-->

This is how most of my quilts start--lots and lots of strips. This one has two sets of garnet-y color so I am forgiven (by me) for doing August's color in January. This will also be all you get to see until after I give it away in March.

I did finish a garnet colored project, too, but I, as is so often the case, forgot to take a picture of it before giving it away. Just imagine a deep, red, fleecy blanket with Chuggy's initials, will you?

Green Bargello Quilt

2008-01-23T18:20:00.000-08:00

Here I have all the fabrics just back from the store and ready to be pre-shrunk. I had to lay them out in order and take a picture because this pattern is really a stickler about being kept in order and I couldn't trust myself to remember.

Two of these fabrics didn't make the final cut. I will probably use them in another quilt some day.

And this is my cat, Onyx. She will be telling the story from now on.

I have a perfectly good bed which I like. I spend a lot of the time in it. Yeah, it is old and ugly, even dirty, but I like it anyway. Except to add insult SHE put it beside a WIP that is RED! I don't like red, see that look on my face? Come on!

Ahhh... This is much better. Room to stretch out. And doesn't it bring out the green in my eyes?

What do you mean, there is another cat bed behind me? Where? I don't see it.

Here I can roll over...

...and take a bath.

I think these orderly strips should really be a little more mussed up, but SHE objected.

See, without my help SHE couldn't have done this.

This is where I sleep at night. I can't wait to see how warm it will be.

Closer...

...and closer.

A corner here showing the new stitch that SHE was playing with on HER machine. It kinda goes with the whole theme of this quilt, being leaves and leafy.

Okay, it doesn't really match my eyes.

Now will you go away?

I can't find MY quilt.

SHE had the audacity to give it away before I could even sleep under it.

I want a green collar.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

Hey, how about that? I skipped all of December! I also skipped all of October. Maybe I just don't like even numbered months. Nah, that is not it because my birthday is in an even numbered month and I like that month.

But this is a new year and I get to start fresh again. My tradition is to recap the past year as the first post of the year so here goes (It's not really a tradition but I'm going to make it one.):

January--Cold snap--13 degrees. Lots of plants freeze making me not want to garden anymore.
February--
March--Pink and black quilt. En moves to town.
April--Taffy baby quilt.
May--Start another diet.
June--Help En move to her own place.
July--too hot to think
August--My much loved dog, Brigadoon, died. She is missed. Broke camera during lunar eclipse.
September--Acquire two new machines, sewing and embroidery (and camera).
October--Attend classes all month to learn new machines.
November--Start a Bargello quilt.
December--Earache to beat all earaches.

Hmmm. Not a very eventful year.

The diet is slow going--about 2 pounds a month, but hey, I'm getting there. Sixteen pounds off is good.

When I get more comfortable with my new camera, then maybe pictures will happen more often, maybe not.

Shall I resolve to use my treadmill for more than hanging quilt pieces on?

Boxes

2007-11-18T21:50:00.000-08:00

Isn't this horrendous? What does your garage look like? There is a perfectly good pool table under all that stuff. It is just too easy to put something there instead of taking the time to find a good home for it.

Why do I keep empty boxes? I have a three car garage that barely fits two cars in it because of all the boxes. Well, them and the pool table and the unused sectional sofa and bikes and old computers, but they are completely covered in boxes so it might as well be just boxes. Nearly all of them are empty, too.

I should just toss them out but I can't do that. I might NEED them some day and if I throw them out then I won't HAVE them anymore. Being a compulsive pack rat is not pretty. My only redeeming feature is my love affair with organizing stuff. I have empty box inside of empty box inside of empty box ad nauseum. I challenge you to get more useless stuff neatly packed away than I do.

(I hear you Kedge. I will be over sometime this week.)

I want my garage back. And I want to play pool on my pool table sometime, too.

There, I did it. I put over 40 of the boxes where Da can trip over/find them the next time he feeds the dog. Then he will squash them and put them in the recycle bin for pick-up tomorrow. Hopefully, I will still be asleep. If I don't see it done it is not as painful. I think it will take more than one pick-up, though. When he is done with that batch, I'll get the rest. Right now I can't get to them 'cause some other boxes are in the way.

Edit: The egg crate mattresses on top of the pile are kinda the color of November's birthstone, the topaz.

Almost sapphire blue for long gone September

2007-11-11T22:51:00.000-08:00

This post is for KnitteryKate.
She wanted to see what could be "Lovely lavendar and blue, soft and cuddly".

Not bad for a first project on my new machine.

It is a monogram on the corner of a fleecy blanket for Gramma's birthday, in case you couldn't tell.

I could have chosen an easier first project but I hadn't had any lessons or anything yet and how can one know how to do things at first without trying? And besides, those who know me know I never try the easy way first.

Good Intentions

2007-11-11T21:27:00.000-08:00

I always have good intentions and then I just don't follow through. What is the major problem here? Is it even a problem?

I've been reading all kinds of blogs because of this nablopomo thing. It is nice. Lots to read and stuff. And then I think, "I haven't blogged in ages. Why?" Hmmmm. Let me think...

Is it because I haven't done anything worth writing about? No.
Is it because I have nothing to say to anyone? No.
Is it because nothing ever happens around here? No.
Is it because I want to keep my life secret? No.
Is it because Spider Solitaire is so much easier? Partly.
Is it because I am basically lazy? Mostly.
Is it because I am not disciplined enough to make myself do things on a regular basis? You got it.

I know I've gotten hundreds of visits and page views and these (you) poor people see the same un-new page most of the time.

How rude of me is that? Very.
Can I fix it? Yes.
Will I fix it? Time will tell.

No pics

2007-09-24T00:39:00.000-07:00

I finished two more small projects and they both had blue in them!

Silly me, I forgot to take pictures of one of them before I gave it away. Then that smile guy up and went to Arizona for the weekend so I couldn't take pictures. Oh well. The other project has not been given away yet, it would have been but that recipient escaped to Arizona too, before I knew it. I don't want her to see it here first, so I'm just filling up space here since I haven't posted in a bit.

Now I'm rambling.

Now I'm done.

Northern Star Quilt

2007-09-10T16:46:00.000-07:00

Ahh, September and I don't have a sapphire blue project done, not even close. Does it count that I have one started? Does it count that I worked on it a little? My "studio" has just been a little too warm to really get into any project very far. It is starting to cool off these days so I can't use that excuse much longer.
I'm going to count this one even though it is not truly a sapphire blue. It has blue in it, and that is what counts. I made the rules, so there.

This quilt is a challenge because of all the triangles involved.

The preliminary paste-up.

I do this to determine if I really like the color combination and to figure out the best placement of each color.
Here are the actual quilt pieces partially assembled. They don't really make blocks, more like blocks and strips. As you can see, they are different from the paste-up. I got some feed back from others in the quilting group and I listened!
I can do that.

My trusty work table. It is on stilts to save my back. I could even use another one. (It is also very good for assembling jig-saw puzzles.)

You can see part of my halfway organized stash in the background. When Kedge moved her business, she weeded out a lot of stuff and some of it ended up here. I have all kinds of ideas and plans for it. They mostly involve organizing at this point. I like organizing and can do it anytime, even when it is hot. When it cools off and I get going my quilts won't take me long to finish.

You can also see part of another WIP (work-in-progress). It is the red and white thing draped on the chair. The rest of it is on the ironing board behind me. Ironing is not my favoritest thing to do. It makes me hot and my already hot room hotter.

My computer also produces a lot of heat but I don't complain about it. I like my computer. I don't really like my iron.

BrigaMOON

2007-09-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

I will have to talk about blue because I can't take any more pictures. You see, I broke my camera. Oh, plahh. I liked that camera.

The night after Brig died was also the night for a total lunar eclipse (8/28/07, 2:52 am). It's kinda reddish, it should have been a BLUE moon. Because of the day and all, En called it the "BrigaMoon". She texted me to remind me so I got my camera and headed out on the balcony. It faces north, the moon was south. I needed a tripod or something to steady my hand since I didn't have time to relearn how to change the exposure settings as the eclipse was already in progress. So I headed downstairs to go out front. Da doesn't sleep very soundly, so I was being quiet, trying not to disturb him. I didn't turn any lights on, either. Then... I missed the last step and went sprawling on the tile entry floor. In spite of my stealth, the clattering of the camera woke Da as it lost its batteries all across the room. Stunned, I just lay face down on the tile for a bit. I can't remember the last time I fell so well. (I think it was when I was pregnant with En.) Us handicapped people NEED lights.

In the end, I got some pictures but the camera kept losing the date/time and turning itself off. It will cost too much to repair so I think I will be getting a new one soon.

Today is a week after my fall and my knees are a nice shade of BLUE. The right one is still all puffy and swollen and gooshy and gross. It doesn't hurt, though. I will survive.

Brigadoon

2007-08-27T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today was a very hard day for us. Our dog, Brigadoon, died peacefully in our arms at home, a little past 7 am.

She was a beautiful German Shepherd Dog with a perfect temperament. We got her as a puppy and had the most fun training her. When she went deaf at a young age she still remembered all her commands because we had used hand signals with each one.

Here she is letting us know she would like a cookie out of the pantry. She had us well trained, too.

Our first dog training instructor commented on her manipulative ways when she was just twelve weeks old. He knew.

Here we are on one of our many walks down in the riverbed behind our house. She loved those walks but not the hosing down required before coming back inside.

Yes, she was a house dog. She could always be found in the same room as I or just outside it in the hall. A very constant companion.

She is showing her age here, looking a little tired. She was over 13 years old so it was time, but that doesn't make it any easier. Her passing leaves an empty hole in our lives and lumps in our throats. We will sorely miss her.

(I absolve myself from posting about green today.)

Birthstone blogging

2007-08-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

Knitterykate and I have come to the conclusion that we need some kind of impetus to keep us blogging more regularly. After more than a year it seems we have run out of steam or something. So this is what we came up with on the way to the airport yesterday.

At least once a month we will write about something that is the same color as the birthstone of that month. We can write more often but the color has to be mentioned each time. We also must do a project of some sort each month using that color. We have to rationalize using a different color if we do. I know Knitterykate can come up with some really crazy rationalizations if she is not watched, so can I. Maybe more so if we are watched.

This is our way of getting back into blogging more regularly and also, getting more projects done. If you would like to join us in our zanity, please do. Leave a comment so we know who you are and so we can peek in on you.

This is August, the birthstone is the Peridot. The color is a sad, yellow-green and it is kind of a dull stone. It reminds us of sleepy sand in the eye. It is not very pretty. We can say that because it is ours. We will skip August and start with the pretty stone in September, the Sapphire.

Ready Knittery? Get set, GO!

I'm back!

2007-07-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Ha! It has been so long since I signed in to Blogger that I forgot how. It took me about eight tries and then I had to do that squiggly letters thing and then it still didn't work. Perseverance paid off and I finally remembered the right things to type. I shouldn't let that happen. Maybe I should write down my user name and password some place safe... there, did that. This memory has too many holes.

Anyhow, I have been keeping myself busy, but I don't know doing what. Probably organizing things because that is what I do when I don't have anything else to do. I love organizing stuff. It makes me happy and content.

En Has found a new place to live and is all moved in. It is really nice, too. Gramma was all set to come and see it then she decided to go to the hospital instead. Harrumph. Some people will think of any excuse, it seems. (Just kidding, Gramma.) Gramma is better and is back home so maybe she will feel up to seeing it now.

But... maybe we will wait on that because En is battling the ants that come marching in. I have never seen so many ants! Where do they come from? Why do they like dry, sealed instant breakfast packages? and dry cat food? and dry dog food? Dry kibble? Yech. I can see them coming after the hummingbird feeder but they have left that alone. Crazy ants. En has been scrupulous in keeping things clean. All food, not in cans, is in the refrigerator. En sprays Windex everywhere. We even had a pest control service out to help and yet they keep coming back. We think each time that they are gone but, no, they are back again the next day. I can't get the cupboards organized when she has to keep emptying them to get the ants. How rude, those ants are really annoying that way. I NEED to organize. En is halfway considering moving again.

Any suggestions anyone?

En has a Fit!

2007-06-02T17:25:00.000-07:00

Why is it that I have not blogged in a while? Hmmm, I dunno. Things are happening around here, but not very fast.

As most may know, En has been living with us since the beginning of March. Many things contributed to her decision to move back to California. Seattle and she did not agree. A California girl through and through, living in a basement in the rainy Northwest was not to her liking. It didn't help to have a near record breaking siege of rainy days to start out. She expected that, kinda. But family was absent. She didn't expect to miss us so much. Then, her truck started acting up and then just quit. How could she ferry her housemate to appointments without a vehicle? Then the house water heater burst a pipe. Then the upstairs toilet broke and flooded through the floor. Can one ever get dry in Seattle? How about wet houses? Can you smell the mold and mildew from where you sit? That only exacerbated her life long battle with asthma. And there you have one unhappy person.

It didn't take much to convince me to go up and help her move back. I didn't like her living so far away in the first place. After seeing her living conditions, I was sure that Seattle was not the place for her. So she moved back. She donated her old truck to some outfit that wanted it. It would cost far more to fix it than it was worth. I couldn't see even trying. We packed all her stuff into a U-Haul truck in the rain, carrying the big and heavy things around the house and up the hill rather than negotiating the narrow stairway. En drove the whole way south. I was a little intimidated by the large truck, so I was designated entertainer for the trip.

First off we needed to get her a vehicle. Da and I have never liked the idea of buying used cars. Something about "why did the previous owners not want it anymore?" En has always driven used cars. She is fine with them. But now Da and I thought it was time for her to get a new one. But which one? Research, research, research.

She finally settled on a Honda Fit. It is a cute car, good mileage and small, and not too expensive, just right for En. But hard to find. People seem to snatch them up right off the transport truck. We test drove an orange one but, no way could we buy that color. We put in our bids for a blue one at all the nearby dealerships.

What a run around! "Sure, we (will) have a blue one, come on in." Then,"Oops, did we say we had one in stock? How about one of our used cars?" We opted to go with the dealer that treated us with respect and didn't just tell us what he thought we wanted to hear. Very straightforward was he. He even delivered it right to our door when it finally did come in for real. We live over an hour away from the dealership so we didn't have to make that trip again. I know, most dealerships will do that but, it was nice of him anyway. I'd recommend Jim Rist of Honda of Corona to anyone.
Isn't it cute? In Europe it is called the Jazz.

I think she should name it Clark because in trying to describe the color to her father En likened it to Superman's tights.

En doesn't relish living with her parents at her age but she acquiesces. We have had good times together, though. We have helped each other lose weight, even! So far about 20 pounds between the two of us. We commiserate about wanting to eat everything in sight. We go for walks. Actually, En is the one that gets me out and going. I'm not much for self motivation.

Maybe next time I'll tell about her house hunting.

Irises, then

2007-05-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

Knitterkate likes irises. I do, too. I grow my orchids indoors and my irises outdoors.

A Japanese iris.
<--------

Here are my Japanese irises enmasse.
-------->

A yellow Dutch iris.
<--------

A blue Dutch iris.
-------->

A bunch of Dutch irises before my resident gopher thinned them out for me.
<--------

A yellow German or bearded iris.
-------->

A blue German iris. This one is really bearded.
<--------

Another blue German iris. More regal. I think he keeps his beard well trimmed.
-------->

Yet another variation of a German iris. This one has more pink in it with a golden beard.
<--------

I didn't realize that I have not caught any of my maroon or white irises on camera. I must be sneaky and catch them when they bloom.

More orchids

2007-05-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Da and I went to the flower fields in Carlsbad last Friday. It was a tour thing where someone else does the driving. I like that kind of thing.

We left at 9:30 a.m. and the first thing we did when we got to Carlsbad was stop at the Sizzler for lunch. Ehhh. I wasn't hungry yet and neither was Da. It was only 11 o'clock. I don't like salad bar things. Or cafeterias. I eat way too much at them. It is complicated going through the line getting food for two people when one doesn't know what everything is called and can only guess at the ingredients. Describing everything takes so much time and I always feel like I should be going faster because it always seems like people are piling up behind us. Give me a regular restaurant or even a fast food joint any day. What to do? We did what anyone would do. We ate with the other 40 people from the bus. Who knew when the next opportunity to eat would be? We could have starved, you know.

Back on the bus for a few minutes brought us to the flower fields. They were very pretty, but I think I'm a little spoiled. We used to live next to flower fields when we lived in the Bay Area. Nothing beats walking the dog next to the gladiola fields when they are being harvested. When the buds on the stalks have already started opening they can't sell/use them so they just throw them away. The harvesters think it is great that someone walking by might think the flowers are too pretty for the trash pile. They try to pile them on you so high that you cannot see where you are going. Forget controlling a hyper puppy.

So we enjoyed the wagon ride through the fields of ranunculas, but they didn't give any away for free. Then we went back to the sweet pea maze. I like mazes and we had fun figuring this one out. The fragrance of the sweet peas was very pleasant as we strolled through, taking our time. People passed us all the time but that was okay. I didn't feel like they were backing up behind us and we could learn from their mistakes, anyway.

My real reason for visiting the flower fields this year was just ahead. I had saved it for last as I wanted plenty of time to peruse the merchandise. There were orchids and more orchids. Hundreds, maybe thousands of plants, mostly in bloom and for sale. And there were growers to talk to about any problems one might have. It was wonderful. I have a weakness for orchids. I like them very much. Da helped me pick out just seven more plants to add to my collection. Yes, he did. The fragrance of some of these is just indescribable, some are spicy, some are sweet, some are chocolaty, some are lemony--as varied as the blooms themselves. (I didn't get a picture of the lemony one while at the show and the one I brought home isn't blooming yet.) It was worth the wait, this anniversary trip of ours.

Wouldn't you know. There was a hot dog stand by the orchid booths. Da and I both love hot dogs. We would not have starved after all. I wish we had known.

Chirp Chirp

2007-04-20T19:31:00.000-07:00

Smoke alarms are a great invention and I'm glad our house is well equipped with them. We have seven sensors in our house and they are all connected to the house wiring so if one goes off they all do. One just cannot sleep through the alarms blaring nor get away from the screech. They also have batteries and if I don't replace the batteries on time I hear that annoying chirp that we all love so much.

Our smoke alarms have been touchy lately. They have been going off at the slightest perturbation. That's probably because they are 12 years old and overdue to be replaced. It doesn't take much to discourage me from cooking, really, I'd rather go out to eat, thank you very much, but showering? Come on. A little steam is not something to get alarmed about. Really. We now walk nonchalantly to the whole house fan switch whenever someone is in the shower. And we don't cook, but that is nothing new.

Yesterday was such a pretty day. The sun was shining and the breeze was clean. Someone was either cooking or showering so we had the doors and windows wide open as a preventive effort. Besides, it was a nice day. Leaving the front door open is all fine and good except we have no screen on the front door. We do have the three dogs to let us know if anyone is approaching.

Well, we had an intruder and no one noticed. It started getting cool so we shut the windows and doors and went about our business. I heard a bird singing a stupid song, very monotonous. It only partly registered in my thoughts. Then Da decided to close the windows in the living room. I told him they weren't open, but he was sure they were. They weren't. But the intruder made him think they were.
There on the upper window trying to get through the glass was a very frantic House Finch. He was a male in all his spring splendor, very bright and intense. And very intent on getting out again. He was fluttering around the upper window and singing a very boring song like a dead battery smoke alarm. Ahhhh, so that was the stupid bird song I had heard. Poor thing.

I don't know how long he kept at it but it was hours. I quietly opened the window below him and took the screen out, but he would have nothing to do with the lower window. He wanted out the unopenable upper window. What to do? I got my long handled duster, which I obviously don't use for cobwebs and such, and carefully prodded him over to a corner of the sill and then he just stuck his little feet into the long fibers and held on so I lowered him to the open window and he happily flew away, but not very far.

He was so tired that he just made it to the fence and then stayed there resting for quite a while.

I know they are called House Finches, but I didn't know why, now I do.

Taffy and rosebuds

2007-04-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

I am so good at procrastinating. I am the best procrastinator you know.

The notice for the "baby shower in a box" had a deadline printed at the bottom, three weeks away. Okay, I can do that, no problem. Then the writer of the notice told me personally that it was a soft deadline and that if I needed more time I could have it. Bad move, she shouldn't have said that. I took her at her word. I did no more than think about the project until the afternoon before the deadline. Then I wasn't happy with the fabric in my stash and had to go out (the day of the deadline) and buy more fabric. Then the store didn't have what I wanted. Then I got waylaid at the quilt book aisle. Then I had to eat the yummy dinner that En prepared. Then I started in earnest. It is done now and I like it so I'm happy.

Here it is, my latest quilt. It took me all of 5 hours to make. I would have had it done sooner if I had only started it before I did.

Doesn't it look like salt water taffy?

The backside is solid white flannel with little pink ties. Very delicate and feminine looking.

While it was in the washer I frantically called Chuggy to see if she had mailed the box yet. Nope, not yet. Whew, I made it in time. One of these days I'm going to miss a deadline and feel really bad. Not today, though. I know how to procrastinate and still make deadlines.

I told Kedge when she asked how it was going that I still had to wash it. That was true at least. I also had to do everything else, but I didn't tell her that. When she called the next day (the day of the deadline!) to ask a favor of me she found me in my car. She asked if I was on my way over to deliver it to Chuggy's, I said, "No". I didn't tell her that at that very minute I was on my way to the fabric store to get more fabric and I still had to cut it out and sew it and quilt it, too. My bad. I didn't want her to scold me, or take away my personally softened deadline.

When making a quilt for a baby I like to use flannel. It just feels so soft and cuddly. The problem is that flannel is not durable. It wears out so quickly. My solution is to use all the shortcuts I can think of so that I don't feel like I put a lot of sweat and tears into something destined to be short lived.

Short cuts:
use large pieces
use a simple pattern
tie rather than quilt
don't make borders
use the inside-out method
don't do hand stitching anywhere (except in tying)

It turned out better than I deserve.

Now I really have to get to work on the project for which I am taking a class. I am so far behind the others ...

Tagged

2007-03-31T18:07:00.000-07:00

Knitterykate tagged me. She thinks she has a difficult time thinking up interesting things about herself? Ha.

1. I married my Sunday School teacher 32 years ago.
2. I love spouting off trivia that nobody wants to hear.
3. I think untangling things like yarn, floss, string et cetera is fun.
4. I can read Greek and Latin.
5. Graph paper is my friend.

Now I tag Ta. You're it.

So whudya think? Pink!

2007-03-31T15:43:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are pictures of my latest quilt. I used the Trip Around the World pattern with Prairie Points edging.

I am really happy with it.

While it was on the table getting the quilting lines taped, Onxy thought it was a new place to get comfor- table.

I made myself refrain from posting the pictures until the recipient got to curl up in it. I think she loves it.

It is just big enough to cover her but not drag on the floor as she traipses around the house.

Too bad it is two and a half months past her birthday and starting to really warm up around here.

Maybe she will get more use out of it next winter.

Happy Anniversary to us!

2007-03-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

Today Da and I have been married 32 years. Whoo hoo. We are going out to eat at my favorite restaurant in Temecula in a few minutes. It is called Bailey's. We should be able to make it back in time for meeting tonight. When things settle down around here we may go on a little trip somewhere. No definite plans for that, yet. Maybe I will have to finish the memory book for last year's trip to Washington D.C. before I can have another trip. I just have too many things on the burners now--and too many WIPs. (Works in Progress) I think I need to slow down a bit. Or maybe just buckle down and finish some things.

stuff and more stuff

2007-03-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

Twin Falls is a far way away. Da and I made the trip up in two days. Books on tape make the drive bearable. The weather was icky around Salt Lake City, though. Snowy and rainy. But it was moving along. We got to see some of Utah between the clouds, and it is beautiful. We drove into Twin Falls in the daylight. It was cold. We took Ta out to dinner and found a motel to stay in. The next day after work, Ta showed us around Twin, as they call it. The Shoshone Falls are spectacular even in winter. It was so cold my camera wouldn't work. The batteries were too cold or dead. Probably both.

We packed up most of Ta's stuff and went back to the motel. Then it started to snow! Pretty. On and off all night. By morning there was about an inch or so. We were in no hurry to get on the road with that, so we let the sun come out and melt the stuff a bit. We finished loading up both cars with stuff.

Finally, we left. I found out that my car does not like snow and ice. It has never been so dirty either. Intermittent snow and rain and slush from the road. Yuck. The radar sensor got covered up with slush that froze solid so no cruise control. I didn't want to bother getting out the manual to figure out how to work it without the radar, I know it does somehow. Then the parking assist sensors balked at the snow covering. I had to turn it off or endure the beeping. We made good time, though. Only a short stretch, maybe five miles, was icy. Ladybug had told me how to tell. When the truck tires aren't spraying water and it still looks wet you have ice. We had to call Ta and remind her to slow down. We made it to St. George, Utah and stayed at the same motel we had stayed in going north.

Well, we got Ta home and all her stuff. I could not wait to get the car unloaded of stuff and washed. The garage is full of stuff. We have too much stuff, the two of us. Da has stuff, too. I am not good at getting rid of stuff. I am good at cramming a lot of stuff in a little bit of room, though, so that is what I will be doing for a while. Thankfully, Ta will be taking some of her stuff with her for her short stint in Nevada. She leaves when I do, on Tuesday. She will take me to the airport and continue on.

I am going to the airport because in two days I'll fly up to Seattle to get En and all her stuff. Yep, she has had enough of Seattle. She is coming to sunny southern California. But where to put all her stuff? I don't know. While I'm in Seattle with En getting her stuff, we will have the carpets in the house and garage cleaned. That is, if I can clear enough stuff off them to make it worth while before I leave. And if I can get Dauber to move the car in and out of the garage. Da doesn't want to try.

When I get back I will finish a January birthday present. It is nearly done. I promise pictures when it is. Then I will start another series of quilt classes, the northern star pattern this time. Then I will clean up and defrag my hard drive and finally install the latest expansion pack to my favorite game, the Sims 2. It is sitting on my desk already, waiting and beakoning me and teasing me, but other things take priority. I am enjoying reading the guide book and getting dizzy with anticipation, though.

I keep myself busy.

Spring has sprung

2007-02-19T21:13:00.000-08:00

We lost a lot of plants due to the cold weather last month but not these. These are my tete-a-tete daffodils. They are very cheery and do a lot to encourage gardening. They are just so little and so cute even amongst the dead foliage.

The asparagus fern at the far right didn't make it but it looks like it will be a great year for the squill in the background. The snow-in-summer ground cover seems to be making a valiant effort to come back after freezing to nothingness.
We finally got some much needed rains so I scattered scads of wildflower seeds to help beautify the denuded canyon. It is supposed to rain again later this week so that will give them a fighting chance of germinating. I hope the rabbits and birds will give them half a chance. My neighbor says I was just scattering rabbit food seeds. (That black stuff is my effort to control the weeds this year.)

Missing

2007-02-19T21:00:00.000-08:00

In other news...

Today we took Ta to the airport. She has to go back and finish up her internship in Twin Falls. Actually, we made arrangements for her to come home for her birthday a while ago but that was before she was hired for a job in the Mojave desert studying the desert tortoises. So she came for a visit and now has to go back for her last nine days.

Just so you know, always allow twice the travel time as you think you need. Her flight was scheduled to leave at 4 p.m. It takes about an hour to get to the airport so we left at 2 p.m. That leaves a good hour to get through the security and everything. Our airport is little and that is always plenty of time. Not today. Everybody and his brother and sister was traveling west from who knows where after the long weekend. But it was rush hour. They should have been going the other way. Then there were two, not just one, two four-car pile-ups on our route. One would have been do-able. We got off the freeway that was really just a glorified parking lot and detoured for a bit and got back on and then just decided to stick it out. No one was going anywhere fast. We finally got to the airport ten minutes past flight time. Oh well. We did our best.

We dropped Ta off so she could see what she could do to get back to Idaho. Da and I went to a nearby Starbucks to await her call. I like sitting in a Starbucks much better than driving around and around an airport. And why spend money on parking when you can spend it on a mocha? We were just hoping we wouldn't have to repeat the trip tomorrow.

We were very pleased to hear from Ta in half an hour. At no extra charge they put her on the next flight to Salt Lake. From there she has to go standby to Boise, which was where she had originally planned to fly. I hope that the housemate that she had arranged to pick her up will still be able to.

So Da and I drove home with everybody else and his brother but not sister. The trip home was much nicer. What should have been a just over a two hour jaunt turned into a five and a half hour ordeal. (Of course that includes a stop at In-N-Out for a burger.) Next week Da and I will drive out to Twin Falls and help her bring all her stuff home before she moves out again.

A month gone already

2007-02-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

I am not a good blogger. It has been nearly a month since my last published post and I don't even feel guilty. I read somewhere that the best bloggers write everyday or at least every week. If one doesn't blog at least every ten days he will quit for lack of readers. Hmmmmm...

I did write a draft of a post weeks ago but Da advised me not to publish it as I was quite irritated when I wrote it. It still sits there unpublished. The only reasons to write and publish about unpleasant things are selfish and childish. So there it sits. It's off my chest. I'll delete it someday.

But it did make me not want to post for a while. Too scary to see what can be said in the heat of the moment that might be regretted. This is not a good place to vent. I vent to Da, he is good for me. We agree on things.

But I missed the recap month of January.

So.....

The year of 2006:

January
--Da has surgery on his eye
February
--En visits
March
--I get new glasses and Da gets a new prosthetic eye
(New eyes all around!)
--I get a treadmill
(I have not made a regular thing of using it yet)
--We go to Williamsburg
April
--We go to Washington, D.C.
(I need to post the pictures still)
--We get new computers for Da and me
(I love this machine)
May
--Ta goes to Chicago
June
--Ta goes to Idaho
--Ta walks in the graduation ceremony at UCR
--En visits
July
--very hot and muggy weather
August
--I get a speeding ticket
(my bad)
September
--I make two pinwheel quilts
--I have a colonoscopy
(not as bad as I thought it would be)
--Gramma has 80th birthday party
October
--I make a triple Irish chain quilt
--We visit Springfield
--Esperanza fire out back
November
--Papa dies
--We visit Springfield again for funeral
December
--En visits
--We go to Burbank conference

What did you do last year?

Buzzing Hummingbird

2007-01-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

Here he is, my resident Costa's humming- bird. He has a purple head and throat. I have three feeders for humming- birds and he keeps all the others away, except for a female which I think may be his mate. Hummingbirds are so territorial and aggressive. He even buzzes around me trying to scare me away. But I'm bigger.

Notice the gorget that sticks out behind his neck. It is purple, too.

Now I just need to get the sun to cooperate and shine into my backyard.

Nevermind that I have a two story house and the backyard is on the north side of it.

To do him justice, this bird must be seen in the sunlight.
I will keep trying to get a good picture.

I spied him in the mallow bush which is closer to the sunlight. Click on the picture and you may get an idea of the intense metallic purple that this bird is known for.

I think he is beautiful and he may buzz me anytime.

It'S NOT, it's rambling

2007-01-05T12:14:00.000-08:00

I'm done with this cold and I'm not doing it again. I don't remember the last time I was sick. That is a good thing but, I forgot what it was like. For those of you who don't remember, it is not fun. I like not getting sick better.

The hummingbird that keeps frequenting my feeders is not cooperating. He has a beautiful metallic purple head not the red of an Anna's and not striped like a Calliope. I think he is a Costa. He won't stay long enough for my camera to turn on. Maybe soon.

My Sims are doing fine. My being sick was good for my Sims.

I got the back yard covered with landscape fabric so the weeds can't get ahead of me this year. Cupcake and I cut holes to let the good plants through yesterday. I'm kinda sorry he got the job that he interviewed for yesterday. I have so much work to do that I'm not able to do myself. I hope he can still do some on his off days.

Chase and Brig are getting old. Both of them needed help getting back up the hill. Brig made it up half way before she tired out. Cupcake carried her the rest of the way. She weighs about 80 pounds, I guess. I and she appreciated the help. Chase sat at the bottom of the hill and wouldn't move. Rapunzel worried about him so we all went back down and discovered he couldn't stand up. He just whimpered. No amount of coaxing did any good. Finally, using a beach towel sling and the strong arms of Cupcake and a neighbor, we got all 120 pounds of him up the hill. Once inside he refused to budge. I had visions of having to carry him outside for potty breaks. I gave him a double dose of Rimadyl (pain killer) and left him by the fire while I went upstairs to get ready for meeting. When I got back downstairs, he had made it through the dog door and outside. Whew. But he just collapsed out there. And it was starting to rain. Silly dog. The cold and damp are what make your arthritis flare up. Laying out in the cold drizzle is not a good remedy. Using the towel sling, I got him over to his water bowl, which is what he wanted, and back inside. When we got home from meeting he was back to normal, and spent the night on the upstairs sofa.

Hiatus

2006-12-12T01:17:00.000-08:00

I'm not gone, I'm right here.

So many things to get done after the funeral. Some things that got dropped as we flew back and forth across the country. Other things to tie up all the loose ends of Papa's life, not that there were many, he was a very organized person, but still.

Then En arrived for her long planned visit. She has been here for a week now and we have been having fun doing things together. We've done lots and lots of jig-saw puzzles. Seven, anyway. Lots of bulbs got planted and some house plants got repotted. We have even spent some time at Schnickle-fritz's shop cooking her books and organizing her stash of fabrics. (No more yanking fabric out and stuffing it back just anywhere, please.)

All that is not to say that I couldn't have blogged anytime I wanted to. I just didn't. I didn't have anything to say, not that I do now but maybe I do...

This blogging thing reminds me of taking tests in a way. The short answer or essay kind. I remember one test specifically. It was in Genetics. We were given several three line questions each at the top of a blank page. I answered them in a few lines wondering why we were given a whole page to write our answers. I look for clues like that when taking tests. I got a little concerned after glancing around the room and seeing other students frantically filling the pages. What all could they be writing? The questions were simple and I answered them simply. Oh well, leave them there, hand in the midterm and go home. Next class we got our papers back and I had the highest score. I guess I could have filled the blank pages with something but why? Same with blogging. When I have something to say, I will say it.

Ooops

2006-11-24T16:36:00.000-08:00

Poor Snutch.
His birthday was the last one of our family growing up and so was treated poorly.
Us kids had usually run out of money by then.
This year it fell on Thanksgiving and got lost in the shuffle.
Sorry Snutch.
Happy belated birthday.

I miss him

2006-11-21T15:56:00.000-08:00

I didn't miss the colorful leaves in Springfield after all. We missed the peak but that is okay. There were other things that needed to be done.

The squirrels there are bold. This one just stared at me so I stared back. I think he has an acorn in his mouth.

I believe these are sugar maple leaves. Isn't that blue sky something?

The day before the funeral was beautiful.
Then it turned stormy and cold, gray and windy.

I like this tree near Murl's grave. The bark has such an interesting twist to it.
Nobody knew what kind of tree it was so we took some fallen leaves back to Emby's house and her daughter, Swanut, with everyone's help and a dichotomous key, identified it as an American Basswood or Linden.

We may be wrong, though, as the Worldbook Encyclopedia at home shows that tree to be much more pyramidally shaped and not so round.

I just needed some kind of reference point if I was ever going to be able to find the spot again.

All the grave markers in that area are the flat kind which makes it a very serene place but difficult to get ones bearings.

So that nobody is under the impression that the fall color of the leaves on the trees in California are not as pretty as elsewhere, here is my Chinese Tallow.

I just love her, even if she is a bit crooked.
And you can't get these colors just anywhere.

(Go ahead, click it.)

Edit: Can you believe it? These trees are considered invasive and are outlawed in many places. Lots of people hate them.

I am dismayed. I will have to check with my wildlife biologist. Ta?

Full of days

2006-11-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

Papa went to be with his Saviour this morning at about 7:45 am CST. He was 106 and a half years old or nearly 39,000 days.

I am so glad that Da and I were able to have such a nice visit with him just three weeks ago.

We will remember how he enjoyed that meal from KFC and how he enjoyed hymn 162--What rich, eternal bursts of praise...

Here he is with his family when he was the youngest, circa 1900. Yes, he is wearing a dress. They did in those days.

We are returning to SPI just in time to see all the colorful leaves ...
gone, wouldn't you know?

Pillows

2006-11-04T16:02:00.000-08:00

They are all wrapped up and ready to go to the shower tonight, but I thought to get a picture before they leave my house. The bride very kindly gave the quilt back temporarily so I could decide how to make the pillows.

Two matching throw pillows with an odd one.

Close up of the odd one.

My favorite verse for newlyweds.

This is called cheating. I didn't want to get my navy bedskirt out and go through the trouble of getting it under the mattress and everything so I just used navy sheets and wrapped them around the bed before putting the quilt on. Looks nice, I think.

Bye bye kitties

2006-10-29T16:16:00.000-08:00

This is what our hills looked like yesterday. You can hardly see any evidence of fire. Just a little smoke if you know where to look. It is so much more dramatic at night, don't you think?

The fires have died down quite a bit. We have our nice blue sky back and we can breathe much easier.

Today I caught the fire fighting bulldozers going home. They could be Caterpillars or Deere, I don't know. I call them kitties just to make Chase go crazy. Their flatbed trailers along with the cabs and little trucks that carry the "wide load" signs had been parked at the end of our street for several days now. They did a good job and now they can go home. Thank you CDF (California Department of Forestry).

You know, I was slightly irritated earlier this summer when the local water company contracted with somebody to clear the dry brush off their land that abuts our back fence. It ruined the view of the wilderness in my and my neighbors' opinion. It no longer looked like one might see a zebra or giraffe strolling around among the grass and trees in the riverbed. They did not just disc the grass, they cleared it completely. They even dug huge holes in which to bury the brush. They kept going over it again and again for days. I thought maybe they were going to build a golf course or houses or something down there. I'm not irritated anymore. Of course. Now I'm glad they built such a good fire break on their land. It makes me feel a lot more secure since the Indians don't seem to be very competent to patrol their land which is just beyond that of the water company.

It seems that all the rabbits that lived in the brush are now in our back yard eating everything. The rabbits drive Chase and Brig wild when they see them out the back door. I will have to reinstall the Nestle's cookie poster over the glass in the door to obscure their view and restore peace in the evening. I've made a point of keeping the bird feeders full for all the displaced birds. I have been able to identify several that I have not seen around here before. Even though it doesn't look as nice as before, the wild life have been driven closer to us and thus are more visible. Even the coyotes sound a lot closer.

They made the firebreak very smooth but hard to walk on. It is dry, powdery, sandy dirt that isn't so smooth when one gets right down to it. It is all huppy-duppy. It gets inside one's sandals and between the toes and is gritty. I don't like to wear hiking shoes when it is so warm. Our old paths to the riverbed were obliterated when they cleared all that brush. The dogs and I will need to tramp them out again but I will wear more substantial shoes. Maybe I'll do that once the rains start.

I wonder if it would be okay to sow some wildflower seeds out there?

Ashes, ashes all fall down

2006-10-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

Well, we have as good as a front row seat to this fire, the Esperanza fire they call it. I don't care to get any closer. According to the news reports, it started less than ten miles from our house. Poppet Flats is about seven miles NE as the crow flies.

We woke up to the strong smell of a brush fire. It seemed strangely overcast--kind of an eerie yellow light. Da listens to the radio every morning and it had already burned some 8oo acres in five hours. We went on with our normal routines. Da had a doctor's appointment in Riverside so we drove in. Now it is at 1000 acres. It was weird to drive into cleaner air. It usually is much clearer here at home than down in Riverside, smogwise. They had blue skies and sunshine. A very nice day, really. Driving back home it was ominous looking. The "overcast" was almost a chocolate color, kind of like milky hot cocoa. The ventilation system in our car worked so well it was a surprise to get out of the car in our garage and breathe that stuff. We had no idea it had gotten that strong. Now 8000 acres were burnt. We had asked Chuggy to keep us updated as to the danger to our area when we left. No news was good news.

Looking directly east of us, Mount San Jacinto had disappeared into the smoke. Now 10,000 acres.

In the daylight we couldn't see much because of the smoke. As the sun went down and it got dark we could see where the fires were blazing. A deep orange glow behind our hills made it seem like the sun had set directly to the north of us. Only this "sunset" didn't grow dimmer. And it wasn't just in one spot. If you imagine north to be twelve o'clock, the "sunset" covered the swath from ten o'clock to one o'clock. When we drove to the end of our street on the way to meeting we could see the actual flames in the distance. Just the short time out at meeting was enough to make us get scratchy throats.

All day yesterday and today a very light snow seemed to be falling. It was the ashes. They just drifted down ever so lightly and seemed to disappear. Everything got a little gritty feeling. I found some caught in a spider web.
It was so strange to be hearing of the fierce winds that were fanning these flames as we had a very calm day. No wind at all, not even a breeze. That was a good thing, too. Later in the evening, on the news, I learned that in the beginning of this fire, Hemet had been threatened. Guess who lives on the northeast edge of Hemet? There is only wilderness and the Soboba Indian reservation between us and the conflagration. Over 24,000 acres burned now. This thing has really moved.

It is dark again and I just went out to check on the progress of these flames. I thought the wind had driven it to the west, and it had. But there is a flareup NE of us, in the direction of Poppet Flats, near the source of the fire--and closer, too. Our hills are not supposed to be this color. It is scary. And much too close for me.

Now 39,900 acres.

At least there doesn't seem to be any wind here yet.

Ladybug's birthday

2006-10-25T12:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Ladybug!

Don't fret, we are all close behind you.

Ta-da!

2006-10-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the pictures of the triple Irish chain quilt that I just finished. It was a hit at the general shower. People just oohhed and aahhed over it so I guess it is not as funny looking as I had feared. Or maybe everyone was just being polite and didn't want to hurt my feelings. Either way the bride-to-be and her mom sure liked it so I guess that is all that matters. The bride's mother said that the bride already has a navy dust ruffle and navy pillow shams. I think that is what is missing in my mind. My pale bed skirt just doesn't help. I can see how it could be very striking with the navy background and accent pieces so I think this quilt is redeemed in my eyes. It really needs the toning influence of navy blue. Now that is all the incentive I need to go ahead and make some matching throw pillows. They will be for the personal shower for the bride. I know, not very personal, but she can throw them.

We missed it

2006-10-19T16:14:00.000-07:00

We are back from Springfield.

I thought we would get in on the fall colors. Nope. They were just getting started as we left. Oh well. Another time, maybe.

The squirrels were active with the acorns, though.

I have to get everything unpacked as soon as I walk in the door or I find that things are still not unpacked a week later. That meant that I was up until 2 am. That is not bad considering that I am usually up at that time anyway. But this was different. My body was still on Central time so it was really 4 am to me. And I tried really hard to be up early for Emby's sake while back there, so it really felt like 4 am does to everyone else. Add in the fact that I had gotten up at 7:30 CTD which would be 5:30 am here, and we had a delay in the puddle-jumper first leg of our trip which made us miss all the connecting flights...an extra four hours in the SFO airport and I was exhausted. So there. We finally got home around 11 pm. It seems that my body likes to be on CDT because I am finding it hard to stay up until my normal bedtime of 3 am. Jet lag is good for something--like making me write convolutedly.

The bags are all unpacked and in the garage. The laundry is done and a few groceries are bought. The checks that were in the mail are now in the bank. I even made it all the way down to Walmart to get the newest expansion pack for my Sims. Its for Pets! In my weariness, I purchased some clothes there, too. I will need Kedge or Ladybug to tell me if they are okay. That was yesterday.

Today, Da and I compiled a few verses and hymns to put in large print on cards for Papa. He is so very tired that he feels ill and gets fearful after a bit of exertion like coughing. Reminding him of his favorite hymns really calms him down. The trouble is remembering them ourselves. Before we left Springfield, I went through his old Bible and noted some of his favorite verses. Those, and some peaceful ones are the ones I put on cards for him. He can't read fine print.

We took him out to eat one day, but that over tired him way too much. Then we brought in his favorite meal from KFC and they forgot his mashed potatoes and gravy. Arrgg. Grrrrr. Otherwise, he is doing well. His memory of things is mostly long term. His short term memory is gone. He sleeps a lot and doesn't do mornings. He's my kind of guy.

I am back to blogging. Where is everyone else?

Going to Springfield

2006-10-09T19:46:00.000-07:00

I may not be here for a week. Da and I are going for our yearly visit to Springfield, Illinois. October is our favorite time back there. The summer humidity and heat are gone and the winter chill has not set in yet. It looks like we will get to see the fall colors at their peak this year, too. Sometimes we miss them, one can never really predict them that well. I always look forward to seeing them anyway. I'm taking my camera just in case.

More importantly, we also have relatives to see. Papa is 106 and a half! He reminds me of the energizer bunny--he keeps going and going and going. Da's sister, Emby, is there also. We will spend a lot of time with her, I'm sure. She knows Springfield very well, as well she should as she has lived there most of her life. Maybe I can get her blogging, too.

Emby's daughter and her husband live nearby, too. We won't see them this trip because he has recently retired and they are having fun traveling. He tells such tales out of school. You'd be amazed and amused at what a high school principal puts up with.

This will be a bittersweet trip, though. Papa has been in an assisted living facility for a year now and we are to start getting his house ready for sale. He has lived in Springfield all of his life and in only three houses, too. He was born in one in 1900. When he married in 1925 he moved to his second house and, shortly before he retired, in 1964 he moved to this house. There are a lot of memories there. Thankfully, that branch of the family doesn't exhibit any pack rat tendencies.

Triple Irish chain quilt

2006-10-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

The triple Irish chain quilt that Gramma and I were working on is now done, or almost. I just have to cover the seams in the back where I sewed the panels together. I'll do that tonight after I make potatoes for ADM. I told Gramma I would get it done before I left for Springfield, and I did. I would post pictures but I don't know if the intended recipient sees this blog and I don't want to ruin any surprise. I'm not very happy with it, though, because it is very busy and the quilt pattern gets lost in the fabric. After this experience I have decided to take the advice of another quilter and not work on quilts unless I have full say in the fabric selection and pattern. That way I won't be stuck spending hours on something that I really don't like. I'll post pictures later in the month and you can tell me what you think.

KEDGE

2006-10-05T18:37:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Kedge!

Double Pinwheel Quilts

2006-10-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

I said I would do it and I did. Whew! This project is finished.

I started work on these quilts August 18 by going to a class. Gramma and Ladybug were going to do it, too, but they decided not to. I think Ladybug had too much on her plate at the time. See Camp Chaos.The first class session was a little confusing and I think that deterred Gramma. I was determined to learn something new.

The first assignment was to choose, buy and pre-shrink the fabric. Then we had to do a paste-up of the quilt block. That is just for archiving and reference. It helps to have a "finished" idea of what is supposed to happen.

See the different pinwheels turn in opposite directions.

The second class session we started cutting the strips. I had to finish at home. Notice the risers on the table legs. Lenie, the instructor recommended them. She told us they were on sale at the local hardware store if you had a coupon. I ran home and dug my coupon out of the recycling bin. They sure were nice in preventing back pain and strain from bending and cutting so much.

Lots and lots of strips.

I cut 96 strips in all.

Chase helped.
Then I sewed two strips together. Next, I put two sets of strips face to face and proceeded to cut them into squares.
Lots and lots of squares
--288 double layered squares, to be exact. (Give or take a few.)

Brig kept me company.
Now the fun part. I sewed two parallel seams diagonally through each square. Then I cut between the seams and pressed the seams open. Voila!
Two very different squares with perfect triangles and matching points. This was so cool.
A little trimming off of points was in order. Why I didn't use my handy pink waste can that you see in many of my pictures, I don't know. I must like to vacuum, or something. I also don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the blocks being sewed together. Even the backside of the blocks was cool. To get the seams to lay flat I had to form cute, little, tiny pinwheels on the back. I wish I had a picture.
I guess I was on a roll.

The last class session I took advantage of the large tables and helping hands to get the quilt tops layered and centered and pinned onto the batting and backing. I also just had to take both the quilt tops to the last class to show them off to the instructor and the rest of the students. They were impressed. I think it was the most ambitious project in the class. Some people do small projects like wall hangings or lap robes to learn on. Not me. I do two, co-ordinating twin size quilts. That's me, ever competitive.

Above you see me trying to do the actual quilting. Except there was nowhere for me to sit because the quilt was in the way. Oh well.

I finished Smile Guy's first. He got it three days after his birthday.
Then I finished Marsh-
mallow's. He got his today, almost six months after his birthday.

Each quilt has 35 blocks in it. I had two extra blocks to make little pillows for the guys to throw at each other.

Thanks, guys, for accepting my learning project. I'm quite pleased with it.

p.s. Happy Birthday, En!

Viva Pinata

2006-09-28T02:34:00.000-07:00

I like to finish projects, but I have a lot of them going on right now. I am finishing them, little by little. Since Jenny has finished her work on the Viva Pinata site, I thought we should take a look at what a finished product actually looks like, just for reference, of course, in case you have never seen one.

Just click on the apple.
Tell your young friends, too.
(turn the volume down first)

Go here
to learn more about Jenny.

A Mother in Salem

2006-09-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

For Gramma, on her birthday, I attempted to write a pantoum in her honor. Please don't laugh, I do not pretend to be poetical. I found this an awkward form, probably because it goes against my tendencies to have everything match. This doesn't, but here goes. Laugh at another post today.

MOM
A mother in Salem, so true and wise
From islands to continent she flies
A thousand tales she pens
Her heart so cheerfully gives and spends

From islands to continent she flies
From near and far her children do hail
Her heart so cheerfully gives and spends
She reaps what she did sow

From near and far her children do hail
Proving to all that prayer does not fail
She reaps what she did sow
Grandchildren and their children abound

Proving to all that prayer does not fail
Quilting, cooking and tilling the ground
Grandchildren and their children abound
The family tree she lovingly tends

Quilting, cooking and tilling the ground
A thousand tales she pens
The family tree she lovingly tends
A mother in Salem, so true and wise

Gramma's Happy Birthday

2006-09-21T23:27:00.000-07:00

I wonder why she calls us gooney birds. We had so much fun and all the more because we were able to pull it off. Nobody snitched, not even Snutch. We were afraid to surprise her too much for fear that she would have another heart attack. But she didn't.

Tuesday night somebody retrieved Snutch from the ONT airport. Wednesday morning I got Knittery from the SD airport. I dropped her off at a grocery store where Chuggy retrieved her in the middle of school pick-up rounds. I tootled over to pick up Gramma (and Bobby) for our regular Wednesday afternoon quilting session. We quilted away the afternoon, (actually just cut fabric strips). Then Kedge came by after work to take Gramma (and Bobby) home.

Kedge (1) had arranged to take Gramma out to her favorite restaurant for a quiet dinner, just the two of them, on the night before Gramma's birthday. Unbeknownst to Gramma the rest of us watched from a nearby parking lot. We watched them drive in and park and hobble into the restaurant. Gramma's back was really hurting because of the afternoon spent quilting. We gave them time to get seated and settled.

Then Da and I (2) walked in and over to their table. We said we had heard they were coming here and we were hungry, too, could we join them? Sure, let's just move to this adjoining table for four. Okay. We admired a larger table obviously set for a much larger party, all decked out with flowers and ribbons and balloons. But then Ladybug (3) walked in and there just wasn't enough room for her so we told Gramma that that special table was really set up just for her! She painfully, but cheerfully, got up and started to move to the pretty table.
But before she could get up to move to the larger table, Chuggy (4) traipsed in carrying a large basket of flours sent from Snutch. It had all sorts of flours, whole wheat, gold medal, cake, even some corn meal. None of this real flowery stuff, that was too mushy and girly. Gramma was tickled that Snutch remembered her that way and went to the trouble of sending it.

We all found our seats and were getting situated when a heavyset waiter offered to refill Gramma's already full water glass. She politely refused saying that she hadn't had a chance to drink any of it yet. He insisted on topping it off anyway and she looked at him slightly irritated, then turned back to get settled. Then she whipped her head back around to get a better look at this pushy waiter. She did the classic double-take. Yep, she had recognized him. It was her son, Snutch (5), all dressed up as a waiter! He had flown all the way from northern California to be here. (I was enjoying this too much to watch it from behind a camera, sorry.)

That's when the tears started, she was so pleased and over- whelmed.

As we were perusing the menus Kedge's cell phone rang. It was Knittery (6), calling from Canada to wish Gramma a very happy birthday. As Gramma talked to Knittery on the phone, Knittery was walking up behind her and finally just put her arms around Gramma and gave her a hug. Then she hung up the phone. Gramma had all six of her children around her for her 80th birthday dinner.

And she never had a clue!

Jamestown and Williamsburg

2006-09-13T01:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, Kedge, you win. I really should have done something already with all the pictures I took on our trip back east. I still have all the makings of its scrapbook waiting in my project room. It is such a big job, but the longer I put it off the less likely it is that it will ever get done. Maybe this will jumpstart the process. I can relate to SAJ when she says she gets overwhelmed with vacation pictures. So here is a tidbit.

Da and I had wanted to go back to the historic sites in Virginia for a long time. True, I lived near there for a brief time, but I was just a kid and besides, residents of a place don't appreciate what is in their backyards. We visited when En was just a year old, but how much sightseeing can one do with a toddler in tow? Years later we breezed through on a cross-country trip, but Da didn't meet up with the lot of us until we were well past the area.

So now we did it for real and on our time for our 31st anniversary and Da's birthday.

Late March is still pretty drab in Virginia, but you can tell spring is just around the corner. The forsythia was just beautiful here near the James River. Not much else was blooming at first, but daffodils abounded. On our drive from Dulles airport to Williamsburg I often saw whole hillsides of them, but I'm not good at driving and shooting pictures at the same time.

Here Da is trying on a helmet outside the armory in Jamestown. He is such a good sport.
My timing was perfect when I got this shot of a re-enactment in Jamestown. I know I jumped out of my skin at the noise but it came out okay.
I love maps like this one. So does Da. This is at the visitor's center in Williams- burg. After a day there, Da and I were getting disoriented. This helped straighten us out a bit. Click on the picture to see all the little itty-bitty houses.

A little tavern where we had lunch one day. Serving period food. We shared a very salty ham sandwich, quite tasty.

The obligatory picture. I would have posed for this if Da was any good at aiming a camera.
No, really.

(DC and Maryland will have to wait for another post.)

the Procedure

2006-09-07T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well the "procedure" went fine. I have a clean bill of health and don't need to have this done again for ten years. Any blood relatives take note: your risks just went down because I came through with nary a polyp or pocket. It is good to be related to someone like me sometimes.

The worst part of the whole thing was the second dose of the "stuff". Drinking the first dose was just tolerable. Then not being able to eat anything but clear liquids for a day was tough. I do like my food. I don't consider jello a food. It's like 7-up, it's for sick people. I like ginger ale, though. I have been depriving myself of soda pop for several years because of what it does to my blood sugar levels. Ah, but now, I was told to have only clear liquids. Give me an inch and I'll take a mile so I drank ginger ale till there was no more. Let's just say that I did not have a problem with low blood sugar after nearly starving to death on clear liquids.

The "procedure" was a walk in the park. Very easy, simple, quick. (Except the LVN learning how to do an IV.) I even got to watch on closed circuit TV. I never saw the inside of me before. (Except my mouth.) I was in and out of there in less than an hour and a half. I even got pictures to take home. Anybody want to see?

I was perplexed on how to arrange the logistics of this appointment. Kaiser would not do the procedure unless I had a designated driver to take me home. They also wouldn't release me unless I had a responsible adult to accompany me. Da was all set to check us into a motel for the night but then I didn't just find one, driver I found two! Or they found me and volunteered. Sisters are so valuable! One left her sick kids at home and took me in. Thank-you, Chuggy. The other came straight after a hard day's work leaving Gramma to fend for herself and picked me up. Thank-you Kedge. Da came with me because the clinic closes before Kedge could get there. Kaiser considers Da responsible. We know better.

We even had time to have a yummy and leisurely meal at the Black Angus across the street. I was very hungry. I'm not silly, with a thoroughly cleaned out gut I started slow with just soup and salad. We decided to forego going to reading meeting though. I felt fine and dandy, especially after the large, hot mocha with whipped cream, but they pumped me full of air. It was clean air but it wanted out, and not just a little at a time. And not just once. Nothing like being in a quiet room full of serious people when that happens. So I stayed home.

Matchy, matchy (edited)

2006-09-03T21:50:00.000-07:00

See, see, see! I match! I love things that match. I especially like blue things that match. Now I'm all ready to blog in the winter. Knitterykate knitted me some socks to match my favorite afghan. (Click the picture, it's better close-up.) It's the one I wrap up in when I'm up late in the winter after Da has turned the heat off and gone to bed. That happens every night. He's a lark, I'm an owl. What can I say?

My feet and ankles always got cold 'cause I would take my shoes or slippers off so I could sit Indian style in my computer chair. Then the afghan would slip and my feet would peek out and get cold. Then I would have to rearrange everything and then my shoulders would get cold. But Knitterykate has saved the day. What a great solution to my dilemma.

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you.

Now I only have to wait 'til it gets a little cooler than 106 degrees. That is what it has been outside lately. It's not quite that bad in my computer room, but it is the room that is the farthest from the AC/heating unit and it doesn't seem to get very cool or warm compared to the rest of the house. That is good in the winter, Da likes the thermostat set higher than I do. But we get along.

Here they are, on my feet with the blanket in my lap. Not a very good picture but then it is quite warm yet. They fit just right. A little snug going over the heel but that way they won't be falling off when I run down the hall to answer my cell phone that I'm always leaving somewhere besides where I am.

(My matching compulsion makes Gramma crazy because I have to have the quilt fabrics match just so, too.)

Jenny

2006-08-27T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is Jenny. She is 25. We will call her brave. Only she is not feeling very brave right now.

You see, she has had epilepsy since childhood. The epilepsy precludes her from getting a driver's license. So she walks and takes public transportation everywhere. One day, in 2001, she was crossing the street (in the crosswalk), as a pedestrian, of course. A truck ran a red light and hit her, throwing her about 15 feet. Her right hand has never recovered and she now has intense chronic pain.

She is a programmer and depends greatly on her typing skills to earn a living. She is clever, though. She has learned to type with a modified keyboard with only her left hand. (My left hand is just about useless.) She filed a lawsuit with the at-fault-driver's insurance company. After three years the case finally crawled to the courts.

Then in September of 2004 she was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma. That is just about the scariest diagnosis to get. They gave her five years. She has gone through immunotherapy with the interferon stuff but she couldn't finish it because it made her have bad seizures besides making her feel really awful and tired. This was on top of the court appearances. The stress from the lawsuit and chronic pain probably contributed to her lowered resistance and may be the reason the cancer was able to take hold. When the bad guys found out she had cancer they tried to lessen the amount of her award because her expected lifetime earnings would now not be as high as before because cancer shortens people's lives, don't you know? She settled for a paltry amount because she just could not make it through all the added stress. Then her boss laid her off because she was not productive enough.

En moved up to stay with her and help by driving her to the many doctor appointments (and now work commute). Fast forward a little. No one can keep Jenny down. After being out of work for some months she couldn't stand the inactivity any more. She applied to and was hired by Microsoft.

To see an example of her work, click on the apple. (turn the volume down first)

She is now working on some games for the site.

So far her CT scans and/or MRIs have come back clear--no recurrences of the bad stuff. Every time something changes she fears the worst. Right now she is having trouble breathing. It could be just a cold or something more. She is scheduled for a CT scan this week.

She is a very intelligent and talented and scared young lady.

And she needs your prayers.

Me! Me! Me!

2006-08-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to me!

1000 visits

2006-08-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

My 1000th visitor was someone in Guadalajara, Mexico!

Quilt trip

2006-08-22T16:08:00.000-07:00

Gramma and I want to make a quilt for a bride to be married in November. That's good, plenty of time.

It all started several weeks ago. Gramma suggested that she and I should do just that. I agreed. A few days later I read in the flyer that comes from the local community college about a course that they were offering, for free, on a kind of quilt I had never attempted before, a double pinwheel. Something new. It intrigued me.

We attended the first class. They needed more students to keep it going so I called Soup on my cell and she came running over. (The class is held about three blocks from her house.) Now there are enough students. We listened to the instructor instruct us on how to choose fabrics for this particular quilt. We even learned stuff. We bought two books between the three of us.

Gramma and I raided the enormous stash of fabrics in Kedge's shoppe. Why spend $$ when this stuff is calling out to us, right? Decisions, decisions. We were getting swirly headed just looking at the stuff. Then Da called and reminded me that a bidder for our yard work was scheduled to arrive in a half hour. Eeeek. We weren't done choosing. I grabbed a bunch of promising fabric and herded us all out to the car and to Gramma's bank (she needed cash) and then my bank (Ta needed a deposit). We even managed to make a quick stop at JoAnn's to take advantage of a coupon expiring that day and I bought a set of squares to square the squares with. So far so good. I dropped Gramma and Lithelady at Chuggy's and hurried home for the bidder.

Now this is the same guy that was scheduled to come a few days ago and he didn't show up for hours. Then he called and had some excuse, I forget what, and so softhearted Da rescheduled him for later. I got home just in time, I thought. Three hours later he showed up. Oh well. I'm not impressed with him, to say the least.

But I do have my own stash of fabric, too. It is even bigger now that I have raided the shoppe. I was feeling frustrated so I organized it. It is all measured and stacked in order of yardage. See my measuring marks on the table and Chase keeping me company on the sofa?

This quilt is a challenge, but I like challenges. The colors, values and "reads" must be just right or it won't "work". In my stash there is either not enough or there is too much of any suitable fabrics for this quilt. We will have to buy more.

Gramma informed me that she doesn't want to do the double pinwheel anymore. She doesn't want to go to that class either. She wants to do the good, old, reliable double Irish chain.

I will probably do both.

More globbers

2006-08-22T00:35:00.000-07:00

We have a new addition to our ever expanding mess of globbers: Teenuh.
And we have a long awaited reactivation of an old globber: Trucker.

Check out the links to the right--------->

Reading all these blogs ought to keep us out of trouble well into the night. Or afternoon. Or morning.

No bid

2006-08-16T17:43:00.000-07:00

Here I sit waiting for the first guy to come and make a bid for the clean up of the back yard. It is starting to get to me again. Ten years ago I would be out there doing the clean up or most of it. Now about all I can manage is to make a list of what needs to be done. I have designed it to be mostly low maintenance/low water use but since the irrigation is what needs the most attention it is not as low maintenance as I would like.

Things are dying.

My favorite flowering shrub, a blue hibiscus (Alyogyne huegelii), succumbed to the heat this year. That made me very sad. Even dead it is pretty, in a dead kind of way.

Maybe I can get the irrigation system revamped so that there will be enough moisture to the right places to get things to grow thick enough that the weeds can't make it through while the pretty things get what they need. Then it will truly be low maintenance as the weeds are what make all the work.

It is so pleasant to just stroll the paths pulling a weed here or there and not have to see a whole hillside of dead grass/weeds between dead shrubs. Why do the weeds survive so well while the supposedly low-water-need plants don't?

SAJ spent a few days here and very kindly got me a bird feeder. It looks nice in the white garden, doesn't it? Only a few white flowers are blooming now and none of them are near the feeder. Oh well. Getting the feeder from SAJ gave me the incentive to put up another feeder that my kids got me a while ago. I put it up on the back patio where I can watch the birds from the family room. The birds haven't discovered either one yet.

The first bidder will not be getting the job as he has not shown up yet. He is 2-3 hours late. That is very bad if he wants my business.

The first birthday of the season

2006-08-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

A happy birthday to my sis, Kafryn. For 15 days she will be two years older than I am. Wheeeee. She has the first birthday in the original family. Now we have birthdays all over the place. I need to make a chart or something. I have everybody's birthday and anniversary in our home meeting on a spreadsheet. I got it by being obnoxiously nosy. I can sort them every which way. I need to do that for this crazy extended family of ours, too, so.... Email me a list of the pertinent dates of anybody even remotely connected to us and I will compile a list. What I will do with it, I don't know but it will be fun to have. It will also be fun to see who is connected. Those poor, poor people.

Oh yeah, Cupcake, has the same day. A happy birthday to you, too, Cupcake!

P.S. If you don't give me the year then I will just add ten years to what I think it is. And if you don't submit anything then you won't have a chance of getting your hands on the final project, whatever it turns out to be.

(BTW I love to organize data.)

lab results

2006-08-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

That was fast. I already got the results from my blood tests done yesterday. Kaiser sent them at 3:39 am!

the Expressway

2006-08-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

Today was not my favorite day. I got up at my usual late hour, showered, and set off for Kaiser. I had no breakfast because I was going in for a 14 hour fasting blood test. I took my morning pills with water, though. I had had a midnight snack of cheese and crackers and grapes so it was not difficult to fast until 2 pm. I went in that late because I had an appointment at 2:45 for a class on the different tests for colon cancer. Ewww, yuck. I don't even want to think about them. My doc says that Kaiser likes to start them at age 50 and I am almost 51 so it is time to start already, already.

So I'm driving along on Ramona EXPRESSWAY going expressly fast for no reason except that everyone else is going expressly fast, too. Go with the flow, and all that. I'm not late, just driving along. Then I see a black and white car do a U-turn and start following me with red and blue lights flashing! Oh, plaahh. I pull over and fumble in the glove compartment for all the right papers. Do I have the registration? It's due soon, is it expired? No, Da would never let that happen. Why are the dates on the insurance card so old? Will he notice? Where did I put the current one? What about that car ahead of me that was going even faster? At least the picture on my driver's license is decent. Does he care? I patiently wait for him to go back to his black-and-white and do who knows what. He comes back and gives me all my papers back along with a long yellow slip. Guess what? I got my third ticket in 34 years of driving. I hate driving even more now. He tells me to drive safely. What? I'm going to be bad now? I carefully turn on my turn signal (En would be proud) and get back on the expressway that is not really an expressway to me anymore and continue on to Kaiser. I carefully go the speed limit and ignore all the tailgaters. I feel like waving the long yellow slip at them as they impatiently pass me. I remember how I impatiently passed people like me all the time.

At Kaiser I have enough time to get a LARGE hot mocha before going downstairs to the lab for my blood test. I need consolation. They put so much whipped cream on top that I cannot attach the lid to it so I just lay the lid on top of the whipped cream and hope that it doesn't make a mess as the cream melts into the coffee. I cannot drink it until after the test. Thankfully, I am the only patient in the lab and get to go right in, no waiting. They take my blood and I can drink my mocha.

Down the hall and around the corner is the conference room for the class. I am not the last one to arrive. In fact, I have time to do some embroidery as I wait. I love whipped cream. I already know everything they are teaching. Except I didn't know that one can refuse any test. I thought one has to do what the doctors say. Hmmm... In my mood I think refusing all tests is a good option. I don't feel like doing what I'm told to do anymore. Why must I drive 55 mph, anyway? At the end of the session I sign up for the most invasive test because it only needs to be done once every 10 years. And they use sedation. I need sedation. I find it ironic that I resent being forced to drive safely as I sign up for cancer screening. Do I want to live or not? I am so NOT ambivalent. Now I just have to find a driver that is willing to give up 6 hours of their time for me since they won't let you drive home afterwards because of the sedation. Really, I don't need to be sedated. I just need to find someone else to drive because I quit.

Another Glob

2006-07-31T03:57:00.000-07:00

The sun has moved a little farther away. It is cooler and almost bearable. It seems a lot more humid, though, almost like Illinois. I was going to show you a picture of the sunset last night to prove that the sun has returned to its proper place but I can't seem to get it uploaded. Since Kedge is also having problems, that makes me think the site is having problems and it is not us. I hope that is it anyway. I don't want it to be us because I don't know how to fix it and Kedge will lose all faith in me.

Edit: I can upload now, so I fixed it, Kedge!

In other news....
We have a new addition to our family that globs together. Check out the link to IOI on the right. Welcome and welcome. Such a cute picture to start off with. How will she be able to top it?

Molten Lava

2006-07-25T22:24:00.000-07:00

See how big that sun is? That is why it has been so hot. The sun has come closer than ever to the earth and is in the process of melting it to molten lava. This picture is proof.

Even the rain could not cool down the poor earth. It only made it more miserable for us inhabitants. The person taking this picture (me) was trying to stay out of the rain and the thermometer said 105 degrees. I did not want to get scalded! It cooled down to 75 degrees and then was right back up there in a matter of minutes only lots more humid. When I got back inside you couldn't tell I had not been out in the rain.

Eewww, yucky, sticky skin.

(Click on the picture and get the larger version to see what I'm talking about.)

Rapunzel times

2006-07-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

Does anyone have any hints on teaching the times tables? I am trying to teach them to Rapunzel this summer. We use flash cards and timed tests, punctuated with bouts of ruining Sim's lives and snacks and games with Chase. I see a lot of progress but is there an easier way? She is enrolled in summer school for help in Math but reportedly they are only doing Art and Reading and PE so her parents asked me if I would help her. I advised them to leave her enrolled to get all the extra reading practice she can. One can never read too well, right Kafryn? Rapunzel will be going into the third grade. We want her to be up to snuff. (Not that I want her to sniff snuff.)

Stargazers

2006-07-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

I brought them in 'cause he won't go out to enjoy them. I won't either 'cause it is just too hot, and humid. ICK. When I first brought them in I had to take them right back out again. It seems that everybody enjoys them. After I knocked off a grasshopper and some spiders I allowed them back in. These are Stargazer lilies of the Oriental hybrids. This bunch scents the air all over the house! I have them in a pot because the gophers enjoy them too much. When they drop their petals they will go back out, but for now we are enjoying coming home to a lily scented house. The Oriental lilies are the ones that smell so nice. These are called Stargazers because they look up, unlike other Orientals that are always nodding down.

Bro wants a piece of the action

2006-07-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

Hey, hey, hey! Snutch aka Dump City of America aka doughboy aka your bro wants in on the action. In a round about way, through our techno-phobe expert Kedge, he requested a blog be set up for him and so it shall be. Check out the link to the right and if there is nothing but a test entry get on his case, okay?

Now, let's get to work on Ladybug and Chuggy.

A family that blogs together, globs together.

Organizing and stuff

2006-07-12T01:48:00.000-07:00

I discovered, after lengthy research, that blogging is no fun if there are no readers, and thus no comments. I am not a writer by nature. I am an organizer. So while a lot of my extended family were on vacation or in the hospital I organized my Sim's lives. They are so entertaining. I started a new neighborhood with four brothers. I got them to the top of their respective careers and now I'm working on getting five successful businesses for one of them. That will take me several more nights. I play the Sims2 at night because it is too hot in the day in my computer room. Also, I like nights better.

In the daytime I went over to Gramma and Kedge's house to look after their plants. With my magic touch I got their gardenia to bloom! Ha. Not really. It would have bloomed with anyone watering it. I almost killed their ivy growing in the dining room until I figured to give it a good soak in the sink. It was dry as a bone so the water just ran around the rootball and out the bottom onto my head. I figured out how to water the plants on the other side of the fence. Then I broke their garage door opener. Then I completely forgot to go back on the last day I was supposed to and clean up. Ooops. They will think seriously about having me do stuff there again, I think.

It is hot here, and will be hot for quite a while yet. So I rearranged some stuff to make room around my sewing machine. Then I cut out a sundress. Then I chickened out of sewing it. What if it doesn't fit? Then I remembered why I don't like sewing for myself anymore. Nothing looks good when one is 30+ pounds overweight.

I also updated the meeting room list. Look for it on the meeting room entrance counter. It is pink this time. That is, if I get the one error corrected. 992 not 922. After I discovered that error I then got update number one for next time. I do go around to everyone and ask if there is any new info to put in, new email addresses, new phone numbers, etc. first. It seems that when people see a new list that is when they think of making a change to their entry. No problem. My rule of thumb is to make a new list when there are five changes. We are 20% on the way!

A question for anyone: How do you grow Vanda orchids? I got one for Present Day last month as a challenge. A challenge it is. I did not really know what kind of orchid to expect but it was pretty in the picture. When it arrived in the mail I took it out of the box and the aerial roots were five feet long and it had no pot, just a small basket. The roots were just dangling. Great. Here you see it with the roots kind of looped around the basket to keep them out of the sink. The literature that I could find on the internet said that it does best outside in the summer. Do they know what summer does to plants here? No way am I putting it outside in this dry heat. It is now hanging from the chandalier in the dining room and it gets taken to the sink everyday for a drink. The roots still seem to be drying out and that is not good.

But it is blooming!

Gramma coming home soon!

2006-07-06T22:33:00.000-07:00

Da and I had dinner with Gramma today. They have pretty good food there and we both ate more than we should have. We were both primed for lasagne which is what they said it would be over the phone. We had Ortega beef sandwiches instead. Gramma had grilled cheese. CC dropped in on her way home from work and we all had a nice visit. Then I took down a list of things Gramma needs because Gramma is scheduled to come home on Saturday! She is so happy. Actually, she will not be going home to her house, but rather to Ladybug's house because Kedge won't be home until Monday/Tuesday. I have the only way of entrance into her house as I have been keeping the plants alive so I am to collect the things she might need in the few days she will be at Ladybug's. My house doesn't have anywhere for her to sleep without going up a steep flight of stairs. Cupcake has promised to help get her up the few steps to Ladybug's living room where she will be ensconced in the recliner for the duration. She so loves to cook and has been missing it, I think. She tells me each time we visit about this recipe or that that she wants to try. She is already planning what she wants to cook for AllDayMeeting. I suggested to her that that might be a little much for her to do so soon and there won't be that many people 'cause most will not be home from Lassen yet. She doesn't need to bring anything, right? Ladybug and I will bring extra so she doesn't feel she has to. Her cough is about gone and her color is good. It doesn't hurt to breathe anymore, but she still tires easily. She is going to try for BofB and dinner and then just skip the rest of AllDayMeeting. I think that is a good plan. Easy does it.

Dog Days of Summer

2006-07-01T01:39:00.000-07:00

We are getting back to our normal summer weather. That means we can open the windows at night instead of running the AC nonstop. I like it much better. How can anyone stand to live where the humidity is that oppressive all the time? Give me the desert over the tropics anytime.

Even though it was hot today I got the drip lines on the slope checked out. It was good that I forgot (?) to walk the mile on my treadmill this morning (?) because I went up and down the slope at least four times. That is the equivalent of 14 flights of stairs for anyone interested. My poor knees. I had the red face/white nose look, too. The dogs were happy to help for a while but they soon retreated to the back yard where they sprawled in the cool grass under the pistache tree.

The ever present birds gave me incentive to get the drip lines in good repair. As I was checking out the last line, the one that has been giving me so much trouble, I saw a mockingbird swoop down out of the chinaberry tree (I think there is a nest there) and drink from the gently bubbling dripper. It was just the right size fountain for him. Then my resident quail family (parents and eight little ones) descended on it en masse. That is the line that automatically fills the bird bath so now they will have plenty of water. That is, they will have plenty of water if Chase doesn't get it all. Chase thinks the bird bath is just the right height for a water bowl.

Of course checking out the lines always means a trip to Home Depot because no matter how many spare parts I have, I never have the right ones. So off we go, stopping at the shipping store and bank on the way. Since we were right there we had to stop at Quizno's and Cold Stone again. This is becoming a habit! Next, off to visit Gramma. She is doing better but she sure does tire easily and noticeably.

Home again to put the newly purchased parts to work and figure out the electrical problem. No, I'm too hot and it hasn't cooled off yet so I just do the electrical thing. The dogs and I decide to plant the petunias I got earlier in the week. The color bowls on the front porch were starting to look bedraggled again. Soon Brig wants back inside. It is too hot for her. Chase stays with me because he knows I will turn the hose on soon. He so loves water. I use the bird-watching binoculars to check the drip lines as they run to see any problems. I make notes so I remember what to fix. I don't want to do the hill again today. Maybe tomorrow if I get up before it gets too hot. Hmmm, yeah, I admit there is some advantage to getting up before noon. But I function so much better at night.

What color is your eye?

2006-06-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back! I didn't even go anywhere. Just had a bunch of things to do, is all. Still have a bunch of things to do. Yesterday we took En to the airport after stopping to let her say good-bye to Gramma. Then Da and I went to his appointment in San Bernadino for getting his new prosthetic eye. I really don't like that place. It seems that they think we have nothing else to do but wait on them. I don't know how many times they have had us come back. After all, Da had the surgery to fix the eye socket in January. Allow healing time. Get checked. Allow more healing and shrinking time. Get checked. Make the new eye. Wait all day while the guy paints it. What is there to do in San Berdu? I leave Da there while I go to Riverside and get a mammogram. Oooh, fun. Without my supervision they have decided how to paint the new eye. It looks yucky. They matched it to his real eye and that looks yucky. Why did they do that? Oh well, I'm the only one that really sees it anyway so it doesn't really matter. Go back again to see how the fit is. There has been more shrinkage of the transplant. Need to build the prosthetic up some more. I asked them why he made it look yucky. Some stupid answer about balance or something. Since they have to build it up he says it is no problem to paint it a better color. Who wants to see scarred corneas? He only has one, why make it look like he has two? I get to pick what color eye I want Da to have. Yay! We stupidly forgot to bring his old prosthetic to match. It was a copy of a copy of a copy anyway. Go back again. I have lost track of how many times we have gone back there. Yesterday he had to build up the back instead of the front. He had to make a mold. He used molding stuff that a dentist uses. He apologized for the cherry taste. Da's eye socket didn't taste it. After he put the gunk in the socket the office manager (his wife) called him out of the room urgently. Da is wondering how long he has to have this ooey gooey stuff in his eye. I am doing a logic puzzle. Thankfully he came back after just a few minutes. Then he tells us to come back in an hour and a half so he can finish the eye. What? What is there to do in this 106 degree heat in San Bernadino again? Might as well eat. We used the navigator in the car to find a Cold Stone Creamery. Yum. It was right next door to Quizno's so we had a sandwich first. Go back to the office. The eye is done and we don't have to go back for six months. Everyone is happy. On the way home En called. She got back safely to Seattle while we were still on Ramona Expressway.

Reboot

2006-06-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Whew. The day is at a close now. Da and I had our teeth cleaned. Then I took Da home and picked up En for an outing. We picked up some flowers at Stater Bros. and took them to Gramma in the hospital. She looks okay but very tired. She didn't want to let go of En's hand when it came time to leave, but I figured she needed to rest more than visit. Kedge was due to arrive in half an hour and Bcky and the Twizzler popped in and out as I was putting the flowers in a vase. She doesn't sleep well in the hospital and I was sorry we had woken her. Off to Kedge's. Finally. Gramma was too tired and not feeling well enough for us to disrupt her rest on Monday as I had promised so we postponed til today. With En at the keyboard we finally got Kedge and Gramma's internet connection all figured out. The router/modem only needed to be rebooted. How were we to know? Did you even know that you can reboot a router? I thought I would have to reset it but no, rebooting did the trick. En checked everything and figured that was the only thing yet to be tried. She even got a semblance of a network going between the two computers. She downloaded a good spyware utility, too. The printer is hooked up, the driver is loaded and printing happens, howbeit poorly. I cleaned the nozzles and realigned the print head. I think the print nozzles are still a little clogged. It has been sitting around for a good while so I think it will fix itself with a few printing jobs. I put shortcuts to her blog on her desktop. Now we have to get Gramma well and home and rested enough to write something for us.

Pomp and Circumstance

2006-06-20T02:15:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the hottest of the year so far. We sat in the sun with umbrellas waiting for the ceremony to start. We had to laugh in unison as our arms were wet with sweat and we stuck to each other in the closely spaced chairs. But it was worth it to see Ta get her diploma. Except we couldn't see her because she was so far away. We did hear her name called out and we took a picture of the stage at the appropriate moment. We all wished she hadn't given me her cell phone to carry because she lacked pockets in her robe. She later told us that others were on their phones constantly. She could have told us where she was in the crowd on the stage. We could have found her easily afterwords. Moral: Always keep your cell phone with you in a crowd.

You can see the necklace I gave her. It is a turtle that I got at the Supreme Court in Washington DC. There it represents the slow but steady pace that justice takes. I thought it was fitting for Ta. Here she is! I'm so proud of her.

Clear Polish

2006-06-16T00:22:00.000-07:00

Today was not very productive or interesting. I feel all deflated because of the internet connection problem at Gramma and Kedge's. The printer is too fancy for the new/old computer. I have an extra printer for Gramma so that is okay, but it takes a USB port and the pc only has two. They are being used for the keyboard and internet connection. So I found an old keyboard that I think still works. I can't get over there to fix it all up until Monday, so I have to have an unsolved problem hanging over my head. I don't like that. I have no idea how to go about solving the internet thing. I want to eventually set up a network between the two computers so they won't need two printers, but the internet connection takes priority. Meanwhile Gramma needs to print her stories for her writing club. I think she is still using her old word processor machine. I did get to polish my nails, though. I use three coats of clear so they don't break and peel.

Do I have to eat that?

2006-06-14T00:11:00.000-07:00

I looked out the window and I saw two birds cuddled together on a rock. How cute is that? Lovebirds in my backyard. The next day they were back. I got my binoculars and bird book and identified them as Black Phoebes. Then I watched them for a while. Pretty soon a third bird came to join them. Then a fourth. The latecomers would flitter off and come back to the "lovebirds" and stuff bugs down their throats. The "lovebirds" were actually fledglings being fed by their parents. They could fly but were not quick or agile enough to catch anything. So Ma and Pa did all the catching. Quite fun to watch. After a while, one of the fledglings flew up to the fence and sat there while Ma caught another bug. She stuffed it down the little one's throat and flew off after yet another bug. No sooner had Ma flown off than the little one spat out the bug. I guess he didn't like Ma's choice for lunch. Kids are kids no matter where you go.

Piddly-doo things

2006-06-12T23:19:00.000-07:00

I got a little worried there for a minute. SAJ wanted to come over and see my garden. Yikes! It is really not looking very nice right now. When I take a walk through it I can pick and choose what to photograph. When someone else walks through it, they see it all. I still have not checked out the last four sprinkler lines. They are the ones down the hill. When I look over the edge, it looks all dry so I'm sure there will be major problems with the lines. I hate that job 'cause my knees don't like going up and down the hill so much. Checking sprinklers means a lot of up and down, back and forth. There are a lot of fox tails, too, and they get stuck in my sandals. Ouch. But I will get to it soon. Instead, though, I weeded and planted half a flat of zinnias. That is more fun and I can do it sitting on my bum. Then I had to check out the Flylady's web site cause you know SAJ might still come over. The first thing the Flylady said was to polish the kitchen sink. Oohck. The grout has been deteriorating and it looks very bad. Hmmm. Idea...use the dremmel rotary tool that I just got to grind down the dogs' toenails. Worked like a charm. All nice and recaulked. It still is not cleaned and polished. I'll do that tomorrow between loads of laundry. (I am almost ready for you, SAJ.) I had to go online to investigate refinancing student loans as the one Ta has is a variable rate and they are threatening to hike the rates substantially. She only had to borrow for two quarters and she needs to start a credit history or else we'd pay it off. Then I went on to Kedg's blog and fixed the problem she was having (and Kafryn too). Gramma's blog is ready for her input as soon as she gets internet access. Make your links. Then I played a lot of solitaire. Now you know my day. How was yours? I think I'll go play my Sims now.

Ta's blog

2006-06-10T04:57:00.000-07:00

Ta is now blogging! She gave the go ahead to post her address so look to the right and go!

Jus' Walkin'

2006-06-10T03:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a bit of advice from Kafryn, I went outside in the daytime to take pictures. The orchids do look better in the daylight. The only problem is that the breeze makes it difficult to focus. Oh well, I will practice. While out there I took a walk around the yard and discovered other things blooming so I will subject you to pictures of them. HA. First is a bloom of the chilopsis tree out front. Notice any similarity to an orchid?

Next is an agapanthus about to burst open. It is the first one this season.
Then a daylily. It seems to glow from the inside.

I'm moving to the back yard now. Here are some asiatic lilies. You can tell them from oriental ones because they look up and don't have a fragrance. They are trying to hide the drying foliage from my dutch iris and not doing a very good job.

Moving down the hill I come across the first blooming frond from one of my butterfly bushes. Yes, they really do attract butterflies.

It looks like this will be a good year for apricots, doesn't it? My poor trees get neglected too much yet still produce.

I'm almost to the bottom of the hill now.

I see that my other variety of chilopsis is also in full bloom. This is a dark red one. I like the form of this multi-trunked tree/bush. It makes the last terrace an inviting place to stop and rest on this walk.

At the back gate I have a chitalpa tree. Actually, I have two because I like them so much. Both of them are in the lower part of the back yard which I call "the flat".
I think it is one of the prettiest trees for this area. It provides a nice shade and doesn't care for a lot of water. It is just now starting to bloom and it will continue blooming through all the heat of our summer. I wonder why we don't have more of them? It is related to the chilopsis but is a more substantial tree.

Lastly, I see that some Mexican hats have once again sprung up. They are the only flowers that come back reliably every year from a wildflower mix that I strew years ago.

Now I have to climb the hill again, thanks, Kafryn.

P.S. Hey, did you know that if you click on a picture you will get a large view of it? Try it on the daylily and the chitalpa tree.

Orchids

2006-06-08T00:03:00.000-07:00

I love orchids. Who doesn't? They were the flower of choice for my wedding bouquet.

I have been intrigued by them since forever. They are so intricate.

Right now I have 21 plants of assorted varieties. Some are easier than others but I like them all. Of those 21, three are blooming
(see them?) and four more are in bud about to bloom.

And the blooms will last for weeks!

Some of them even have a fragrance that will fill a room. Not these ones, though, they are just for looks.

I wish my photographs would do them justice. These photos just do not show their true color and pizazz! Maybe if I tried doing it in the daylight?

Nah, night time is my time.

All fixed

2006-06-07T01:38:00.000-07:00

Yay! I have it all fixed now. I did it my usual way--ignore the problem and it will go away, and it did! But just to make sure that I don't get the problem again, I went in and deleted the music from my web pages. Sorry, you will have to do without that irritating music. It was hard to read with that noise in the background anyway. My other problem that I never told you of was with my printer giving me communication error messages instead of doing what it was told to do, that is, print something. I spent about 20 minutes with Dell tech support and we fixed the problem. Now I don't have to feel like returning the printer anymore. I like having two printers connected to my PC, the laser for fast stuff and the photo one for color stuff. Now they both work. (I like HP printers better.) Someday, when I am really stressed for time I will figure out how to set up the fax capabilities. Not now, though, I need to do it when I need it done already.

Links

2006-06-05T00:47:00.000-07:00

I have added some more links to my links list on the right------>
The problem is that my website over at Verizon is giving me grief. I thought it would be nice to have music playing on the site as you read the stuff. So I found some music and figured out how to put it on. Oops, the files were humongous. Search for smaller files of music. Found some, actually a lot. Quality suffered alot but it was okay. Now, I have decided to link to this page and when I try to navigate around those sites I get an ActiveX error message and IE crashes. every. time. I can't even get in to edit and take out the music thing that is making it crash. If you want to look at those pages, be sure to maximize the window first and then move the error message out of the way so you can read the page before clicking on okay. When you click okay the thing crashes to desktop. If anyone knows how to fix it, please let me know. If it works for you, let me know that, too. Especially page 2 of Crafty Things and page 2 of Orchids.

Ta Ta for now

2006-06-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

Ta has left. She is on her way to Idaho for 5 months. It is such a bittersweet feeling even though I know she will be back in two weeks to walk in the graduation ceremony at UCR.

Still, she is gone. My baby is all grown up.*wipes away a tear*

While Ta is not really known for procrastination like some others, she does do things on her own time table, which is certainly not mine. We finally got the hiking boots and socks she needed and an air mattress yesterday along with a mouse and case for her laptop. We rediscovered that neither of us really enjoys shopping all that much. It was nice to have that one last outing together, though.

<--Here she is studying some birds in Hawaii several years ago. Very typical.

She is going to be sharing a house with four other girls. One of the girls is from Alaska and she has been in Idaho since the orientation was over in Chicago. She has spent the week scouting out a place to rent for all of them.

Kind of difficult to satisfy five different girls over email. I'm glad the guy on the team said he'd rather get his own place.

I set up a blog for her to keep me updated on all she does up there and will post the address once she gives the go ahead.

Topiary

2006-05-30T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've seen topiaries around at various gardens and they look kind of nice as a focal point or something. When I see one at the store, however, it always says "too expensive" for what it is, just a pruned bush, but I have one now and it wasn't expensive at all.

A few days after a neighborhood garage sale, I went out in the front yard. I rarely do that anymore because the dogs are getting too old to go for walks and if I'm going out, it is usually in the car and I don't touch the yard. This time, though, I had to go and put away the bikes and lawn spreader that I had tried to sell at that big garage sale. I had left them out hoping that someone would just help themselves and get them off my hands. My part in that garage sale was a dismal failure. My sister, Sue, is a master at them, I'm not.

I digress. Nobody was kind enough to take the stuff, but there, tossed on the lawn, was a decrepit odd thing. The pot looked like it had been shredded by a weed whacker and the chicken wire cage was just hanging onto the pot by a little wire. The ailing plant was not inside either the cage or the pot. Its roots were all exposed and dried out, but it was attached, somehow. I lovingly brought the contraption to my potting bench and proceeded to salvage what I could. New pot, fresh dirt, some "nyeting" and lots of water and I have my very own topiary! For free! I think it will survive. Somebody must have thought that my house looked like a place that would care for orphan plants. It is.

Soaked

2006-05-27T14:06:00.000-07:00

I am cold and wet. I just got finished checking out the sprinkler system. Six of the ten lines are okay now. The other four will have to wait for a warmer day. That's a tedious job. Back and forth, from the control box to the yard carrying a screwdriver, scissors and pliers to make sure each head is functioning properly. Only had to replace two heads and clean out three. Nice to get it done, though. Chase loved helping me. He is so happy playing in the water. He is even more soaked than I am.

Ta home

2006-05-26T01:08:00.000-07:00

Ta is home again. For a week anyway. Her flight was delayed for two hours which caused us to miss reading meeting. She called us when we were 15 minutes from the airport to say that she was just then getting on the plane in Phoenix. I guess we should have called the airline before leaving home like they always say you should. We usually do, but not this time.

I tried to call En to have her check on her computer when the flight was expected to arrive but her computer wasn't on and we didn't have the flight number and she was groggy 'cause I woke her up. She keeps even stranger hours than I do. Oh well, maybe I need a laptop.

We used the extra time to eat dinner at Taco Bell and have a coffee at Starbucks. Then I read the whole of the Taco Bell nutrition guide. Turns out that bean burritos are more nutritious than tacos. That is good because that is what I always got for Ta and En when they were little. Easier for little kids to eat, anyway. Then I reorganized the navigation system in the car. Got rid of stray markers and markers that I don't go to anymore and set new markers for the different airlines at the airport. With both kids soon to be living away from SoCal I think we will be going to the airport a lot more frequently. I sure hate to have nothing to do. Should keep a copy of Reader's Digest in the car or something. I don't have any portable handwork going on at the moment. Just don't feel crafty right now.

Ta seems excited about the internship. It is hard to tell with her, though. She is like her dad in that she doesn't show her emotions much. When we got home, she handed me all the papers and pamphlets that they gave her at the workshop in Chicago and then disappeared into the shower. Then she went out to see her friends. That is exactly what she did when she found out that she was accepted into the program, too. I'm starting to see a pattern.

In those papers she handed me, I found essays that previous interns have written and it looks like she will be having a great outdoor adventure slogging through creeks in flood stage, getting 4x4's stuck in the mud, catching, measuring and counting lizards and butterflies and sage grouse and seeing where all the sage bushes grow. All that interspersed with boring bouts with statistical analysis. She likes statistics, though. And she really liked the course she had on geographical information systems. That means putting all that stuff on a map. I think she was cut out for this job.

The first post

2006-05-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

This blog place seems to be very easy to handle.

Ta is coming home from Chicago tomorrow. She has gone through the orientation thing for her new internship that starts next month. She will be in Idaho for 5 months. She has a week before leaving to buy all the stuff she needs like hiking boots and jeans and then pack up her car. We already got it serviced and fixed up to go. After being there about a week she will fly home and walk in the graduation ceremony at UCR and then turn around and fly back. I hope her arms hold out.

After rearranging rooms and stuff, I finally have the big room upstairs mostly organized. I even had room to make a quilt for the new baby girl of my niece, secret-agent-josephine. Well, she is not exactly new, she turned 4 months old last week. The quilt turned out very nice, it is all red flannel and red satin on one side, and a creamy soft terrycloth on the other. Very rich looking. I forgot to take a picture before I gave it to her but she promised to take one for me.See more here

I am doing good in using my new treadmill--30 minutes a day 3-4 times a week for a week now.
Today I feel like I accomplished a lot. Treadmilled, vacuumed the whole house, even the stairs, folded all the laundry that I forgot about yesterday, and spent hours in the yard planting flowers and pulling weeds. Got sweaty and a little sunburned. Da and I rearranged the family room again and I finished reading this week's US News and took a nap. I even started a new blog!

The cyst, that I had removed yesterday, itches now. Driving to the surgeon and back took up 2 hours so that is why I forgot the laundry. That and the fact that I had to stop at Home Depot to get some new flowers and then start refilling the color bowls on the front porch. Da had put the loads through the machines for me but he doesn't do folding. Then we had dinner at Mom's and then meeting.

Maybe nothing will happen tomorrow. No, I go to the airport...