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!

On her way Home (and a SURPRISE!)

4 Season Swap - (Spring) is all done and on her way to her new home......and there's another one being born even as I write. I couldn't let her go, you know? I just had to make another one to keep. I had a blast with the quilting on this - in lots of colors and lots of glitter.

And lot's of headaches!!! What is it about working on something for someone else, specifically (not in the abstract) that makes me crazy? I had a ton of problems on this - constant thread breakage then a horrible stretch of needle breakage!

I broke 4 needles in about 30 minutes! Gaack!! I finally took the needle plate off and could see where the needle was hitting it. When I put it back on I scooched it as far forward as the screws would allow and that seemed to fix it. What a pain! - But, I'm tickled with how it turned out.

At long last The Commish was delivered and the check nestled into my bank account and now I can forget about it, right? WRONG!!!!! I sent it with DH to work because The Guy works with Hunny and I didn't particularly need to see him. I folded it carefully and safety pinned a note to the outside explaining quilt care and hanging and washing instructions. I also wrote a little note to The Guy saying that I had folded the quilt in an exact way so there wouldn't be any fold lines going thru any of the picture transfers. So this evening over the Greek/Italian chopped salad with olives, goat cheese and creamy balsamic dressing I asked DH if The Guy had ever said anything about liking the quilt or not? Anything? Nope - get this - HE NEVER EVEN LOOKED AT IT!!!!! huh??? really?? are you kiddin me??!!! The Guy simply put it into a box and wrapped it up!!! As I was choking on my macadamian nut crusted halibut with lemongrass sauce, Hunny said "He was afraid he wouldn't be able to fold it back the right way" Holy cow - can you imagine??? I nearly dropped my sauteed baby bok choys into the grilled polenta. I had to take a huge swig of my mango-lime martini before I could breathe again. Oh well.......to each his own I guess. At least I enjoyed my dinner!!!!
On the job front, word has gotten around. Some of the newer, younger staff were told that I am retiring and it's no big deal to them. Our Medical Director was very sad - I worked with him in his private practice years and years ago so we've been together almost 20 years. Last week we had our new Regional Director and new Vice President visiting and neither of them said a single word, but the next day I was adjusting something in one of the staffs' timesheets and I happened to notice that I magically got a big fat raise. Hmmmm...... and without a word - how ODD, ya think? This morning I received an invitation to a luncheon in my honor to be held in Old Sacramento 2 days before I'm done. Old Sac is only about 4 hours from here!!!! I have to laugh, why not? Heck, I told my work buddy she has to come too, and we'll hit some quilt shops in the Big City while we're wasting a day. Kim? Any ideas? What's in Old Sac?
Also today I got a call from the director of a rival dialysis corporation 50 miles south of us, a lady I knew way back when, when I was in the private practice and she was in my position at the local dialysis clinic. She visited a bit then asked if I would be interested in coming to work for them -- LOL!!! I thanked her politely and said what a compliment, blah blah blah, and inside my head was screaming - "O hell no!!!!" Nice to be asked tho, huh?
And so my final duty to wrap up now is gather up all the Guild membership stuff and hand that over this weekend then I'm almost a free agent. I feel 10 years younger already. At this rate, by this time next month I should be about, oh, 25!!! ROFL!

PS - I almost forgot!!! I hit post number 200! You know what that means, right? A giveaway! Yaaa!!! Leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a name on May 10th, for these cuties:

Good Luck!

Happy Weekend!

One week down, 4 more to go as a short-timer. **titter**
Remember this little bitty that I thought might be a Spring Swap quiltlet? It measured out at 24 1/2" by 20 1/2 and the original idea was that I'd put some kind of fanciful flowers on the larger rectangular patches.

Once again, a 3 am playdate struck and it might have been something I ate, because I came up with a very "un-like me" idea. You might call it a wild hair - or psychedelic flashback maybe. (I saw a show on the Biography channel about the Monkees - that could explain it!) At any rate, when I came to later that day, look what I found!

ROLF - and I love it! This picture looks darker than it really is, those colors are POPPIN I tell you! And it was a ball to do! Now to quilt it with a bunch of fun crazy threads - metallics and glitters and shiny things. **giggle** it makes me laugh just to look at it. Will my swap partner like it?
I got some quilts loaded into the china cabinet and it does look great - maybe a bit of re-arranging and some more quilts. Neat display case - I love the look.

This is going to be a busy weekend - I have 3 yards of cocoa mulch waiting to spread in my flowerbeds, (smells heavenly!) and final stitches on the Commish, which is STILL hanging over my head. When I am un-employed I will finish all these UFO and make some more. Right? RIGHT??? And sleep till noon and paint the deck and clean out the storage sheds and and and.........

3 Weeks???

Really? BAD, BAD blogger - gee, what a slacker! Actually, it's been a hairy 3 weeks, and like Mama always said - "If you can't say anything nice don't say anything at all" So I haven't.
Fortunately the cranky has lifted and I'm human again.
I took on an outdoor project last weekend that seemed like an quick easy fun day. It was not.

Love me some adirondack chairs, huh? Sooo comfortable, and big arms to set drinks and pincushions on - they're great. But mine, as you can see, are looking a bit tatty and aged. So in the best tradition of adirondacks I decided to paint them with high gloss enamel in a nice bright color. Like Tijuana Taxi yellow! LOL! Great idea, huh? Don't be fooled, not for a minute. My former standard for comparison for rotten jobs was to say, "I'd rather change the sheets on built-in bunk beds" But now if it's a crummy job and I don't want to do it, I'll say "I'd rather put 6 coats of paint on an adirondack chair" AArrrgghhhh!!!! What a PITA!!!! One coat of primer and 5, count 'em, FIVE coats of paint 'cos that yellow high gloss paint doesn't cover worth a damn! And do you have any idea how many odd angles and nooks and crannies these babies have? I'll tell you --- 8,426.

Good thing it came out looking good because that's the only thing that will get the other one painted. That and the new paint sprayer that I intend to buy before tackling the second one.
In more fun news, WAAAY more fun, check out this picture of my 10 month old grandson Jayden flying high:

How cute is that? I got several great pictures of him in mid-air squealing like crazy - what a blast. Having these guys around makes everything OK, no matter how awful things get. I officially gave my notice at work so now I'm a short timer. My last day there will be May 23rd which is 31 days away. Then I am a free woman till July 1st!!! Can you believe it? Five weeks of not working - wow! All I have to do is survive those last 31 days, and it's going to be rough. Oh well -- I can do it. After that, I won't have any obligations at all because (get this!) I got fired from my position of Membership Chair at guild! LOL!! Too funny - because of my job! Our Prez thinks it would be better served by someone who doesn't have job responsibilities that could interfere with guild duties. Besides, someone else wanted it. Oh well. Worser things have happened and the world still wags and now I don't have to be at guild early to set up and don't have to juggle all those membership forms and stuff. I'm really going to be a freebird!! In the meantime, the Commish is on the quilting table. From this picture what you don't see is the HAPPY BIRTHDAY 2008 in the center square, but otherwise I'm calling this one DONE and you won't see any more of it. And neither will I. I expect it to be in the arms of it's new owner by Weds and good riddance.

As soon as that's gone I can get busy on fun stuff! I have so many huge plans for what I want to do while I'm off work that I really need about 5 months to do it all. Quilt quilt quilt till I drop, for starters! And work out in the yard, and lounge around reading, and lay in bed while DH gets ready for work, whining "Can you turn off that light? I'm trying to sleep in!" ROFL!! I want to clean out all the cuboards and closets and have a yard sale. I want to paint the entire back deck, all 2 acres of it. (no, not Tijuana Taxi yellow!) My former SIL gave me a pool, one of those soft sided things that's 15 feet across and 5 feet deep so I intend to spend an inordinate amount of time submerged. And I plan to go have lunch with friends!!! I've not been able to do that because my lunch "hours" are actually 30 minutes, and that's not enough time to actually leave the building. Now I can! Also, my two granddaughters are already scheming to come spend a few days here so we can make cupcakes and eat them for breakfast. (?!?) I want to make a pond or some kind or water feature near the French doors in our bedroom so we can listen to it at night. I just saw on TV a pond pump that runs on solar power and heaven knows we have a lot of solar in these parts. ***sigh*** This is the Life!

The Commish

The Commish. That's my new working name for "Where the Weird Things Are" because since I convinced him to rein it back in a bit, I'm not hating it so much. It sure is pink ----

In fact, it's ok. If SOMEONE were to give me a quilt with all my family on it, I might even love it. You can barely see musical notes (instead of the Beatles) in the lower left, and a bouquet of flowers in the upper right. (instead of Hello Kitty) The other corners will have a speedboat and palm trees, respectively, instead of Jeeps. Gram and Gramps are the top trio of pics, from the 1940's and their 50th anniversary. Daughter and son on the sides as babies and now, and on the bottom is Commish guy and his honey, as babies and currently. The center square will say Happy Birthday 2008 in pink, what else? I didn't use that printable fabric because it felt so nasty and it's really expensive! These are done on t-shirt iron-ons, and I'm really really pleased with the way that worked. The pictures came out so much better too! And it's washable, etc..... It really is kind of a cool concept I have to say -- but executed the way he originally wanted it would have been a crime.
You know how when you've eaten too much candy you have to have some bread or meat or something, to cut all the sweet? So all that pink candy made me want some meat --- Bonnie just finished this one and it's one I've wanted to do for quite awhile, with a twist. I've always envisioned it with a more defined 9 patch in the center, so that's the way I'm going with it. Somehow, I doubt I can do mine as fast as Bonnie did!!

Awhile back I told you about the antique china cabinet I scored at the auction. It's from the turn of the 19th century, and still has the original glass! It has a gentle double bow in front, and curved glass on the sides. It's great old glass -- has that slight wavy look to it. I'm going to fill it with quilts and my teacup collection as soon as I cover those wood shelves to protect the quilts.

I'm so tickled with it -- the shelves are even reversable! One side has plate rails and the other side has kind of a carved edge.
So - what do you know about tulips?

What the heck?????? They're miniatures, to say the least! I bought the tallest ones I could find, they're planted in enriched soil and they all got a bit of bonemeal at planting time. I'd be mad if it wasn't so ridiculous -- a whole bed of teeny tiny tulips to tip toe thru!
This post is number 199 -- you know what that means? YEA - next one is #200!!

Oh Noooo!!!!

Anyone need another distraction? Not enough things in your life to get in the way of sewing? Well, here's the cure for sure: Patchwork Puzzle game.
My apologies in advance for addicting you.
I made it to level 33 - how far will you go?

Happy Easter!

Comfy? This is a long one -----
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Blessed Easter - I know we are. We were out early this morning to breakfast at church, then a lovely service, then home to slippers and jeans, whoo-hoo! Later today we'll venture all the way across the street where our neighbors put on a HUGE egg hunt complete with giant bunny mascot. Six of our grands will be there and untold dozens of other kids, and it's always so much fun!

I have a favorite Easter gospel song that gives me shivers and makes me cry everytime I hear it. It's called "He's Alive" by Dolly Parton, please check it out. Huge powerful song.
Last time I wrote, Cuervo had been to the vet with a couple of bad teeth. Well, it got worse, way worse. The vet called me early Tuesday morning with very bad news from the blood tests; kidney failure, my worst fear for human or animal. He suggested a short term treatment in case this was an acute process, meaning not permanent. I was to inject 100cc of fluid under the skin 4 times a day, get him on Pepcid and keep him quiet. Well, obviously none of that was going to happen while I was in the midst of moving the clinic, so I had to leave him at the vets till Friday afternoon. He was MUCH better by then, but he's still getting extra fluid.

He's so much better that he's even started to bite me again, in play. He's very good about holding still for his needles and doesn't cuss too much. He's NOT too good about eating, tho - we need to work on that. He's down 3/4 of a pound in a week - very bad. Over all he's SO much better, and I am so thankful. Yesterday I spent most of the day sewing. (After sleeping in till 8 am!! DH thought I wasn't breathing - scared the bejabbers out of him, he really thought I wasn't going to wake up. Yikes!) I worked on the "Where the Weird Things Are" quilt, then had to take a break from all that pink weirdness and made this -

It's clickable for a better look - Cool, huh? I love love love orange, and there's not too many cool ways to use a lot of orange. (Orange cat?) This was in a new mag I got 2 weeks ago and just now had time to look thru -

There's a LOT of fun projects in this one! Usually a magazine has maybe one project I think about; this one has about 6 - check it out!
I have some strange tulip pictures coming up also - I'll post those later. What do you know about growing tulips? Meantime, I better get busy - I want to sew today, and go to the egg hunt party, AND get the house picked up for the house cleaners tomorrow, AND get my laundry done, AND paint my nails. What are my odds?

Bad Karma

What kinds of things give you bad karma? Well, that's an interesting thought. There's -
Being mean to animals.
Stealing anything.
Telling fables.
Throwing away baby clothes or furniture (!)
HITTING A HIGHWAY PATROL CAR HEAD-ON!!!
Ooops - yea, that could do it.
I had to cut short my thrilling day at work yesterday to take Cuervo to the vet; he was so sick over the weekend that DH started preparing me to lose yet another old friend. Thankfully, the problem turned out to be 2 badly abcessed teeth which the vet said was not uncommon for an 84 year old cat. (84? Seriously??) On the way home I relaxed, took the back roads and did a little mind wandering. Now, back roads in our neck 'o the woods are really back roads. Little traffic, few houses, not much going on. At one point I turned left from a little road onto an even littler road, and at the apex of my turn ran right into a highway patrol car that was whipping out of a really tiny dirt driveway. (What's he doing there?) We both slammed on the brakes so hard we thought we had collided. We both got out, and if we did bump it was indetectable, but it was that close. No damage except to my last raggedy nerve. He knew it was totally his fault, I had the right of way and he was in my lane and he was chagrined. I called no foul but he's obligated to report it just in case I decide later that I'm permanently injured. Besides, they have to account for every minute of their day, and he spent 10 or so talking to me. Probably to make sure I didn't keel over from a heart attack although I have to think his pulse was a tad elevated also!
Maybe that was all part of a bigger plan to prepare me for today - I'm off to the hospital then to the clinic and face the inspection by the state examiner - aka Dragon Lady. If she objects to the WAY we sign off on something, she can ding us for it. "You need to write out your whole name, not just first initial and last name" stuff like that. Here goes nuthin'!

Must be Springtime

If there are teenaged boys in my yard, it has to be spring! DGS's # 1 and 2 are earning money for a church trip to Mexico in a couple of months, and they're very anxious to do anything that pays. For the next few weeks my yard will look great!

That's 16 yr old Zach on the left and 14 y/o Colton on the right. Those 2 worked most of the day and did all the weeding and cutting and raking there was to do - it looks fantastic!
I've been awfully quiet lately because I'm so exhausted I can hardly move. Work continues to spiral out of control, and now the State has thrown us a curve ball and we're having to deal with that on top of everything else. The mental and physical toll is very wearing. Usually I can pull out of these slumps pretty quickly, but not this time - I'm a whipped pup. I've also been sick - a doozy of a cold which of course takes advantage of tiredness....... I'll be SO thankful when this is all over! In honor of National Quilting day today, I laid around and read quilting magazines, does that count? Last weekend I did manage to get my Spring Swap quilt finished but no pic yet - my camera batteries were dead when I went to take it tonight. Tomorrow, I promise!
DH has been a busy boy in his shop, so I thought I'd share his latest project with you - it's a 1936 Lion Front slot machine, originally made by Mills out of Chicago. Hunny finds old wrecked hulks and restores them to this glory:

Gorgeous, huh? He restores every part of them, from the mechanism to the paint and oak cabinets. When they're done they're a work of art.
Now if only I could get a project finished......I have to shake this off and DO something! I have a huge new pile of Civil War FQ repos I want to play with, and that ghastly comission quilt to get out of my hair. Maybe I'll just plow in and get that thing over with..........Yea, that's what I'll do. Clean up tonight and start cutting tomorrow. Check back and keep me honest!

Show me your -----

Libby has challenged us all to show our ironing boards. Now just think about this a minute...........In what other society, anywhere on EARTH do people show off their commonest, meanest household items? LOL -- we are a strange breed alright. And not only do we show them off, but we LOVE our ironing boards!! Humble, royal, pristine or grungy, we leave them up all the time and can't get through a day without them. Speaking of grungy.......... don't tell Sharon -- I'm just sayin! So in the spirit of wretched camaraderie, (or soulful sisterhood?) I present my humble ironing table, and it's CURRENT hot occupant:

I made this topper myself, to go over the cabinet that DH made. It's a 2x4 sheet of white laminated shelving with one layer of cotton batt over it, and topped with this heavy cotton duck I got on the clearance table for a couple of bucks. It's been on there for close to 3 years now, and I've taken it off to wash once. Looks like it's about due again, I guess. It's a nice hard surface and seems impervious to abuse. Good thing, considering it's lot in life, eh? And what's that piled up on the left side? Well, there is ALWAYS a stack of fabric there, I don't know how it gets there. This time it's pieces left over from a 2 a.m. play date this morning, looking a lot like a SPRING SWAP wannabe:

The idea is that it will have some sort of appliques in the biggest blocks. Meeybe yes, meeybe no. I see now that the lower right has a serious bigtime problem that's going to prevent it from ever seeing the light of day, but that's how the creative cookie crumbles. Playing with my new toy I finally finished the quilting on the Spools quilt, and the borders look so cool!

That's a King Tut variegated thread and I just love how it pops - something tells me there's a lot of that thread going to show up in my mailbox soon.

I'm off to a comatose day at work - LOL!!! I have to sit all alone in the abandoned clinic waiting for deliveries. Awww, darn it anyway. No phones - they're forwarded to the other place. No fax - it's gone. No visitors - front is all locked up and dark. No patients, no whiny staff, no crazy families. Jes' lil old me and my celly, and what will I do with all that time????