Weekend Fun

I still think of it as "the weekend" even tho it makes no never-mind to me now! LOL!
I've been keeping occupied, if not real busy, with some of the long put off chores on my list. One entire day went to emptying the pantry, scrubbing it down and painting the floor then restocking it after careful editing. MICE had moved in, and they promptly got moved out as soon as we knew about it, but they left a few things behind. A few stinky things. 'Nuff said. Here's a Pretty to make you quit thinking of mice in the pantry:

Say -- "oooo, aaahhhhh.."

This spectacular flower is called the Passion Flower after the Passion of Christ, because the stamens look like crucifixes. My big vine is about to explode with them and I can just sit and be awed by them for long stretches. Most of my week has been spent outside, installing drip irrigation all over my yard and planting and weeding and all the rest. On of my former patients told me about planting tomatoes upside down in hanging buckets so I thought I'd try it - if nothing else it sure gets conversation going!

Oldest DGS age 16 -- "Hey gramma - how come your tomatoes are upside down?"
"To see if they'll grow all the way to the ground" (they're about 6 feet up)
"Then why not just plant them in the ground to start with?"
Boys are too logical.
My 4 year old granddaughter came home from a camping trip with a tic behind her ear, and her Mama bravely twisted it out but the head stayed put, as these things will. So off to the doctor with the offending bug in a baggie, and everything is fine. Madeline carried her bug-baggie around for the rest of the day, and late in the evening her Mama heard her talking to it - taunting it really -- "You thought you were gonna drink all my blood but my Mama tore your head off and now you're kinda dead, ARENT' CHA?" My daughter relates that she nearly had her first bathroom accident in 34 years over that one, and so did I. Oh man, that kid is hysterical!
Not too much sewing going yet -- trying valiantly to get the sashing rows of the Civil War fabric, but unhappily the bias edges of all those little triangles have done what bias edges do and grooown some. Some of those blocks are a good 1/2 inch bigger than they should be and forcing them to fit the sashing is frustrating. Oh well -- it's only for me and "it will quilt out", right?

In other sewing, I have a mountain of cotton scrubs that I won't be wearing anymore but no way can I chuck them so I picked out a few to re-work. Cut off the sleeves, gather up the shoulders and take in the sides and suddenly I have a bunch of cool summer shirts. With pockets! The best thing about scrub tops is the pockets - mine always had strange things in them - paperclips, blood tubes, syringes, pens; lots of pens - notes, vials of meds -- who knows? Another top is on the block now possibly to become an apron. I'll show you that one if it comes out OK. Right now however, there's some cookies about to come out of the oven and suddenly a bunch of guys hanging around the family room. Think there's any connection?

Day 2

Yesterday was Day 2 of my new freedom, Monday being a holiday and all. No one to whine at me, no phone calls......OK, 3 phone calls from the clinic -- but I didn't HAVE to answer them! OK, so I did...... quit picking on me, lol! I had a blast on my first full day -- went shopping, pulled weeds, shoveled and hauled 10 big wheelbarrow loads of, ahem......by-product out of the horses yard and into an area that will be a garden. I did some cleaning up and some planting and some sitting -- I even watched TV in the middle of the day! Total waste of time, but my back needed a little break. Hunny took me out to dinner -- because he's worried about my cooking -- and afterwards I got 2 UFOs done:

Two little donation quilt tops that have been sitting around for heaven knows how long. All they needed was quilting and binding. Wanna hear a strange little factoid about me? I LOVE bindings -- that's right, I do. Someone has to! And now I have 2 hand projects to do while I sit in my taxi-cab yellow chair and sip limeade! Staying in the spirit of finishes, I pulled the fans out -- time for them to be a quilt.

They will require a trip to town for the finishing touches, but I'm tough - I can take it. That 40% off coupon will help......

This morning I actually cooked breakfast for myself - yes Kim, I finally did some grocery shopping. They made me show ID but I made it, LOL! I made myself waffles from scratch, and they were great! Strawberry jam and cool-whip and fresh home-made coffee........ahhhh! I could get used to this. I've started a pot roast for Hunny, another first, and have a girlfriends recipe for buttermilk biscuits. Oh man - this is the LIFE!

My weekend of parties was as fun as I thought it would be, except I missed the bluegrass due to back whining. The rest went off without a hitch and were great. Saturday was my new boss's party, and while we're still on the QT, I can show you 'cos you don't know her!! This is Dr. Chris - Wild and Crazy Physician. Hmmm....maybe her cards need to say that? We had a giggle making little double entendre jokes here and there that no one else could possibly get, referring to my future - I love that kind of thing and clearly she does too - kindred spirits I guess.

Now that Day 3 is off to a crawling start, wonder what I'll get into today? Who knows?

Remember

Never Forget.

GONE!

A Fiery Horse with the speed of Light,
A cloud of Dust
And a mighty HI YO Silver!

Or, as Montegomery Gentry sings it -

"This ain't no temporary tearful goodbye, uh uh uh
This is GONE, Gone, GONE, GOOOONNNNE!!

Any way you look at it -- I'm Done. Fini -- over it. OK - so it was an emotional day, lots of laughing, tears, scared people, teasing, panic.......oh yea, and LONG. Got to work about 6:30am and got home at 9:30 - pm. They gave me a great send off:

Beautiful huge basket of plants

Balloons.........

Chocolate roses.......and chocolate covered strawberries

Ice cream sundaes and banana splits.....


Pitchers of margaritas.....



What? Oh - you can't see the ice cream or margaritas? Hmmm.... I wonder why that is?
On my first day of long vacation (remember this is 6 weeks or so) I slept till 6 am! I staggered into the kitchen and fumbled for some eggs and coffee, but couldn't find eggs or coffee so had to settle for cold cereal and diet Pepsi - (note to self; if you're gonna eat at home you should stock some groceries. Just a thought)
Next up -- feed the cat, checking e-mails, showing you what's left of my loot, and get some hand work ready for tomorrows bluegrass day. Or since it's all cloudy and drizzly and sleepy looking outside maybe I'll just go back to bed. LOL -- because I can!!!
Strangely I still have a few clinic related problems swimming in my head but hopefull they'll drown and nothing else will make it's way in. I'd like to be a bubble head for awhile.
Now I can read every blog in the ring and even leave comments!!

10, 9, 8, 7, 6........

It's nearly time for blast-off from the world of high stress, panic and chaos - a move I've been praying for and anticipating and planning for over a year. Then all my hard hearted determination fell apart yesterday when I broke the news to a little lady in a wheelchair and she took my hand in both of hers, crying her eyes out - "Oh no Sweetheart! What will I do without you?" Several of the patients cried, much to my shock, and one grizzled old guy has been inconsolable all week.
I am officially scum of the Earth and shrunken from 5'10" down to a full 2 inches tall.
In a meeting last week, my duties were split between the woman hired to replace me, and 8 other staffers. NINE people. What the heck??? How come I couldn't get so much as ONE assistant but now it's going to take nine??? Oh well.........

In September 2006 I met a docent in a museum 6 or 7 hours away from here. We hit it off immediately and gabbed like old friends for 30 minutes or so, then Hunny and I continued on our trip. Now it's a year and a half later, I get a call out of the blue from her - in the course of our conversation I had mentioned, (among a million other things!) that I was watching out for a Singer treadle sewing machine, in good usable condition. She not only kept my phone number all that time, but when someone showed up with one for sale she remembered me!! AND my phone number! Hastily written, as I remember, on the back of a business card. Amazing, just blew me away. Quilters are the most amazing people on earth. Will I get it? Not sure yet - that's several hundred bucks worth of gas in our truck for something that's not a sure thing, and suddenly that's a pretty expensive machine. Still --- it may be worth it to go see that gal and give her a big ol' HUG! Amazing....
We have a party packed weekend ahead, holy cow! Friday night is my going away party from co-workers, Saturday a party at my new employers house, Sunday a private day-long bluegrass music festival for 250 close friends, Monday a big party at DS and DDIL, and somewhere in there I have to go find my youngest son and birthday him all up. Retired for 2 days and flopped from exhaustion. The bluegrass fest is a fantastic relaxing day. I take some hand quilting and sit in a comfy chair under an oak tree next to the creek and listen to music all day. I always have lots of visitors who want to see the quilting and sit and chat - it's just a wonderful day, I can't wait. Yesterday I got a recognition award at a company luncheon in Old Sacramento, but the funnest part was that we made a bunch of wrong turns and got a stoplight tour of the capitol. The conversation went something like this:
"Where do I turn -- here?"
"Yes -- turn right"
"now?"
"YES!! Get over!"
"Wait -- "
"NO -- get over now!!"
"missed it. We'll just go up a block"
"You can't, it's all one way"
"No it's not, we can turn right here"
"Uh-huh, right into a parking lot!"
"Is this ninth st?"
"There's the Capitol building, so no it's not 9th"
"Look at all the cops! This has to be 9th"
"No, it's L street"
"Do you think Arnold is home?"
"Wait, that says P street"
"Q! It's Q street! -- you have to go left from here"
"Look - there's more cops"
"Please Lord, keep my hands off her neck"
"Hey - how'd we get back here?"
And so we drove all the way around downtown Sacramento. Twice.
It was a blast. Arnold, for non-Californians, is Arnold Schwarzenegger, also known to us as "The Governator" after his Terminator movies. We never did find out if he was around, but the presence of 284 cops might have been a clue.
I promise pictures this weekend - none today because my life is boring.....LOL!

Old Men

The old man had lived on his farm for 50 years, and early on had built a swimming hole and picnic area for his family down at the creek. With his wife passed on and children all grown and gone, the old man hadn't been to the picnic area in many years. One day he decided to take a walk down there and he took a bucket with him, remembering the delicious plum trees along the creek bank. As he got closer he heard giggling and shrieking glee and parting the bushes saw a dozen young ladies skinny dipping in his pond! He made his presence known before emerging, causing the young women to huddle in the deeper water. One called out to him - "We're not coming out till you leave!"

The old man replied "I'm not trying to make you get out naked or sneak a peek - I'm just here to feed the alligator"

Moral - Old men may move slowly but they can still think fast!

And the winner is......

This is amazing, incredible beyond reason. And this really, truly happened this way, as far fetched as it seems. I printed out all the comments and cut them up then dropped them into the bottom of this big vase. I had DGD Madeline stick her hand waaaay down there and stir them up for a long time, no fair peeking.
"Why can't I peek?"
"Because that's the rules"
"Who made the rules?"
"Umm...everyone agrees and it becomes a rule"
"Can you peek?"
"No, Baby, not me either"
"Then how did you put them in there?"

So she did a fine job of mixing and pulling out a name without looking. Here's where the odd part comes in.

The winner is my own darling friend ROSY from Fabricfarie!!!!

All your wonderful comments from all over the globe, and I pull my friend!

Honestly, this is exactly how it happened. Rosy Honey -- I'll be hand delivering this and we'll do lunch!

Thank you everyone for playing along. This is a great way to lure out you lurkers so we get to "meet" you - I've found some really fun blogs and fantastically creative ladies and been so surprised by who stopped by - it was a blast. Hmmmmmm.......what can I cleebrate with a drawing next?

Today was Mother's Day for my girls - 3 of them, anyway. I wanted to take the mommies of my grands out to thank them and acknowledge a job well done. We had a blast, and I got lots of smoochie time with the kids. Here's the girls with their respective kids:

The middle guy Jayden will be 11 months old in a couple of weeks and the kid is WALKING all over the place! Holy cow - I was shocked. Do they really walk that early now? I brought the two on the right home with me, so I'm signing off to go play -- Have a wonderful Mothers Day!

4 Season Swap

My little swap quilt arrived, and it's so cute! Heidi from My Happy Turtle made it and it just looks like a new garden to me. Love those fabrics!
(Shhhh -- be vewy vewy quiet - the baby is sleeping with her new quilt in her new crib)

She also so generously sent along this awesome zippered bag she made:

How cool is that? Love the handle and clasp - I put it in my purse right away and put all my loose change in there. Wallets just don't have change pockets anymore, have you noticed? My purses get full of loose change I can never get to when I need it. Anyhow, THANK YOU Heidi! Go check out her Happy Turtle blog - she has some fantastic bags ----
The crib came from a girlfriend who found it at a garage sale for a dollar. ONE dollar! I've been stalking e-bay trying to find a wooden doll crib like this but I didn't want to pay the huge prices they're bringing, plus 30 or 40 bucks shipping. ONE dollar! What you can't see in the pic is the cute flower decals on the headboard and footboard. The varnish is all crazed and it's pretty dirty but so perfect. We figure it's from maybe the 40's, and looks like a kit some nice Daddy put together. So cool.
Now that the Commish is gone I've rebounded by making more civil war blocks, I can't stop! The blocks finish at a very odd 8 and 3/4 inches, but who cares, they're all the same odd size........

I'm having so much fun playing with the combinations of fabrics. To me, civil war repos tend to look muddy so I'm trying to punch them up by color and value combinations and some careful cutting.

Besides the 30 blocks up on the wall now, there's 12 more on the sewing table that will be done soon. I won't get it pieced together this weekend tho, 'cos it's a Mothers' Day extravaganza! Saturday I'm heading south to take all my grandbabies Mamas out for lunch. Just to thank them for providing me with all those cute kidlets! Saturday evening my kids are planning some kind of fete, but last night we got word that my DDIL's grandfather has died, at age 90. She and my son will be heading to the Bay Area to be with her family. My DD and DGD will be following me home and spending the night and Sunday we'll see what kind of mischief we can get into.
I finally have a few flowers blooming in my yard (now that I planted some, lol) and these are all newcomers this year:

The snowball bush is actually 3 years old now, and this is the first time it's bloomed. Love those big pom-poms, and they last for weeks! The tulips put on a heck of a show, these changed colors from a pale yellow to the bright red-orange, in stages like paint has been dripped down their petals. And the shy lupines are suddenly 4 feet tall and screamin! Ahh, Springtime.

There's still time to get in on the drawing for the shelf sitters - I'll have my DGD draw a name Saturday night and post on Sunday. Just leave a comment on the previous post and tell a friend! I've met some way cool bloggers new to me this way, what a bonus for doing a giveaway.

Have a wonderful MD weekend!