sooner or later

He bought a jar of low-fat mayonaise. I feel a little dizzy, maybe I'm just dreaming this.

I planned to stitch up a storm last night, but instead I watched the SofU speech. Monday morning, I fused some rusted fabric and other fabrics in ripped strips onto Peltex. It's going to be ATCs once I get it all quilted to death.

Last weekend was shorter than usual. We spent some time looking at dining sets. I want to replace our old one, it's falling apart and we can't seem to find what we want for the secret budget that the grill king has in mind. I would love a set of old library chairs. I think we should hit the flea markets next. We did see a wonderful granite table on powder coated aluminum at Sam's. It's an outdoor set - the chairs are comfortable but too huge for my dining room and our outdoor area doesn't require anything that fancy. So if we bought that for outside, I would be stuck with the old stuff in the house and you can't eat outside that many times during the year. It wouldn't be worth it. The table is way too heavy and would be impossible to move if it was in the dining room when we need more room for the holiday tree or whatever. Rats, I hate shopping.

Then the kids came over for grilled burgers and general messing about on Sunday. Grandkids are growing up too fast - I must take photos next time.

The squirrels were on alert with tails waving and squaking loudly when the grill king and I returned from having steaks (yea - meat grilled by others!) at the local Roadhouse.

This large raptor posed for a few closeups and then decided to look for his dinner elsewhere. He sailed towards the east keeping the fading sunlight behind him.

The squirrels settled down quickly. But not one of them promised to leave the pecans alone in return for saving their fluffy little tails.



We just saw Charlie Wilson's War and I'm thinking about keeping a list of favors owed.

Sometimes in a frenzy, sometimes in awe, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve. Many of them handmade with love and thoughtfulness. The store bought ones selected carefully to please the recipient no end.

My English muffins from scratch turned out great. The grill king did his magic in the evening. We toured the neighborhood to see the lights. The travelers are off today on visits to family in other states. The weather here is beautiful and crisp. We are quietly getting to know our new toys today and enjoying the sweet goodies leftover from yesterday. Later I'll try another new recipe, crab cakes with wasabi mayo and we may even go to the movies.

I've been emptying a bobbin every day at the loom and feeling very virtuous about it. Also, finished off the coffee cup cuff that J started yesterday. One last gift for the coffee enthusiast in Fort Worth. I also got a little time at my work table. All in all, I'm enjoying the long weekend and not looking forward to going back in to the office. At least, things are at a stand still because everyone else in the world is taking long vacations and no business other than retailing is taking place. The phones will be quiet. Hopefully, no crisis will occur until 2008.

Four day weekends are grand. I could use one of these every month. I worked so hard yesterday, I am sore from head to toe today. I tried to work smart - lots of things going at once: the printer, the laundry - while I carried the holiday decorations downstairs with each run down to check the laundry or up to check on the printer. I have just about all the album pages printed for the Art Camp gang.

I found a new paper called ViaStone. I am not affiliated. But it looks pretty good and is not made from trees. Maybe it's recycled? I dunno, the labeling is kind of secretive. I also bought ink of the new Vivera Plus variety. Looks better than usual. But the old one was completely out of yellow so I couldn't do a side by side comparison.

I also worked on my homework for a virtual class in art quilts that I signed up for last week. It is a two way learning opportunity. We are learning while the teacher learns about how her virtual class software works with input from us. Fun!

Cleaned up selected areas around the house and in my workroom, too. But something always bursts out of place when I do that. Like fabric when you're looking for just the right scrap of color. And dishes seem to pile up when the grill king takes control of the shopping and cooking but not the cleaning. Never mind, he does a really nice steak and we had pumpkin pie with pumpkin sauce on top and pumpkin sauce on ice cream and cheesecake and pumpkin sauce as dip for ginger snaps as well. We are heavy into desserts right about now and seem to have a self perpetuating container of pumpkin sauce.

The granddaughter is painting pictures (and sniffing) while I type. She has a cold but the Boogie boy was better last night. Not so cranky and needy and he ate a better dinner than he did the last couple of times at bat. Usually there is more around the bull pen than in the strike zone.

This is the Boogie Zone of the tree.

She and I decorated the tree last night. She caught on quick that some things can't be hung down low since we'll have a toddler in and out of the house over the next month or so. So with each ornament, she asked, "Can this go in the Boogie Zone?"or "This one will be fine in the Boogie Zone!" Some things are too fragile, some things are too tiny, some things are too precious, some things have special memories. She loved pulling things out of the boxes, some she remembered from last year. She liked hearing about the things that her mom had made a long time ago and reading the years written on them as though it were so long ago...1986???? Wow!

One of the reason my muscles are sore is that I tried to come with a way to wind a warp that wouldn't strain my shoulders. Instead the muscles on the top of my theighs are aching! I put the warping board on the trunk and tied it leaning against the weaving bench for support. Then I sat on the sofa and wound the top part while standing and then sat down to wind the bottom half and so I was constantly sitting down and standing up. Quite an aerobic method. My shoulders are okay, but man, going up and down the stairs today is killing me. It's always something, isn't it, Rosannadanna?

One of the round robin collages came to me on Friday. I'm the last stop on this one. I was gonna think about it but they really are like a monkey on my back. Once I see them I can't seem to stop thinking about them till I add something. This one needed some buttons and some Shiva paintstiks to carry the colors around the whole piece. I think it looks super. I wish I could post it a scan of it but since it's a collaborative piece I'm not sure of the protocol on this. I should ask that group what they think.



I missed a frog last Friday so here's one to satisfy your need for green.

I dreamed someone had removed the shower curtain and I was taking a shower without it and no water was hitting the floor. Must have been because I was thinking yesterday that it was about time to take it down and wash it.... so I did today. Dreams are powerful incentives.

Then I got my hair cut. Just walked in to Supercuts after using my coupon at Hobby Lobby for Peltex and there was an opening with a stylist who has straight, thin hair so I figured I was pretty safe in her hands. She did just what I asked her to efficiently and confidently and I like how it turned out. The grill king commented on it positively. Another item crossed off my to-do list.

Dinner tonight with the kids to celebrate my daughter's birthday some more.

I have been using Picasa Web Albums to host my photos here since I was in danger of using up all my alloted free space on blogspirit.com with photo albums. But I only just downloaded their photo software (Picasa2) today and I am blown away by the way it works. It has lots of interesting features and editing capabilities and the fact that I can now upload an entire pile of photos instead of just five at a time is just the ultimate in time saving. Wish I had known that before I uploaded the cruise photos - I would have done all 283 of them instead of just 50 or so.... well, maybe that wouldn't be a good thing from your point of view?

Both our cars were dead this morning. I was two hours late for work and the grill king had to catch a ride with a co-worker. His was "fixed" while we were on the cruise but died about a mile from home. When he called me to rescue him, mine wouldn't start. So he called his garage to tow in the little truck and come give mine a jump start. The suspense is killing me. Will mine be dead again this evening when I try to start it after work? Film at 11:00. Seriously, I will take a photo of the darn thing sitting there not running if it comes to that. This could be the year I make it into a raised flower bed. I could easily calculate the amount of potting soil necessary. I'm thinking maybe, bananas in the middle seat so they could grow right up through the sunroof, daisies on the dashboard, and ivy trailing out the liftgate in the rear.

The 50th anniversary party was great fun. A family reunion of sorts. Great oldies band with a full dance floor including the honorees.

Amy & Clint can really cut a rug. I'm exhausted from the trip and I didn't even try to keep with the old geezers dancing the night away. Slept in a room with a snake - my nephew's - who was molting - the snake, not my nephew. Although the nephew was sporting a new shorter haircut, so you could say he had shed quite a bit of hair.
Caught up on all the news from near and far. Heard stories about relatives. My grand niece was married recently - didn't know, have to warp the loom for a gift.
I experimented with my new smaller camera. I like almost everything about it. I have to try more things and work out some lighting issues. It has very good menus. Took some unblurred photos through the car window as we raced along at breakneck speed. The only problem there was dirty windows.
On the end leg of my flight, I chatted with another happy grandma going to visit her newest grandson in Texas. She's a quilter and has a neighbor with a long arm machine. Her mother and her grandmother were weavers and so she has things from them. She crochets and I was working on a making a tiny ball and other things just to pass the time. That's how we starting talking. I recommended she go to The Painted Pony in LaPorte - my favorite quilting shop and that she needs to think about coming to the International Quilt Festival as an excuse to see the grandkids again.
It was good to pass the time quickly as the flight had left late and I was late getting home and then the grill king had been sick all weekend so he was in bed early and feeling miserable. He cooked for the kids on Saturday and evidently they had a good time as lots of things are in new places around the house, evidence of the defense against the ground level attack of the toddler.
I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns which is an excellent book by the author of The Kite Runner. I probably wouldn't have taken the time to read it if I hadn't had a plane flight. As it was, I was glad I also brought along a ball of crochet cotton because it led to a delightful chat with Nancy on the plane.

Seems like this past week went by kinda fast. The hours passed slowly but the week was gone in a flash. I haven't slept very well lately, keep waking up and tossing and turning.

We celebrated the grill king's birthday - he grilled the steaks. Corn on the cob was cheap and sweet as candy. The key lime pie didn't have time to set up - party was moved up a day and then I burned the first crusts so we started over and kinda rushed the recipe. But key lime pudding is just as tasty. Fortunately key limes are in season at just the right time as it's his favorite dessert.

I bought him a high tech toy and ordered a handmade card from etsy. The card hasn't arrived yet, but it will be cool even if a little late - a little book of squirrel haiku and illustrations. The toy is a turn table. We have some old record albums and the old stereo system is not hooked up properly any longer (but of course, we can't get rid of it....). This is one of those new turn tables that transfer records to MP3 files and comes with software that is supposed to clean up the noise of very old records.

The most amusing thing about it is - once you've done all your records, you don't need it any more, right? So we're passing it around the family and then maybe it will find its way to eBay. Of course, we won't get rid of the record albums ever. We live in The Museum of Useless Stuff, you know.

I had lunch on Friday with a weaving friend. We went to the Moveable Feast near my office. She applied for a position which I think would be perfect for her. This could work out well for everyone concerned. I can't help but look forward to this on so many levels.

The granddaughter is sleeping over and all that includes. A long bath, cartoons on TV in the morning, pancake making, and some little art project that is fun and quick to do.

We had brunch this morning with my daughter and the grandkids at a new place in Richmond and it was pretty good. We went early and the kids ate well and behaved nicely. Almost no food landed on the floor.

There was a really interesting old building out back. Looks like a journal quilt about to happen.


And what are these? They were in the yard behind the restaurant.

My daughter is in a sewing phase and I off loaded a lot of stuff, thread, zippers, interfacing, fabrics and doodahs so she can keep going without spending any money on supplies. Her new year’s resolution. My stuff is already paid for and gathering dust. She may as well use it and possibly sell the products at the sale in a couple of months.

Typing that just gave me heartburn… what am I going to be selling? Only a couple of months away! Aaaak. Too busy focusing on the day-to-day finishing of little projects, I haven’t thought about my own handwoven items for the sale.

I had lunch with Livia from North Texas on Friday. She was in town with her grandkids and we met up at Joe’s Crab Shack. She brought me the next round robin book (it's about Time, no she wasn't late bringing it... it's about TIME!) and we chatted about all kinds of things. She gave me sage advice and a few tidbits of information about how most people gain 40 pounds while on a cruise. Delightful. Doom and gloom setting in - must not let this happen to me. I am mesmerized by food. I think I gained weight when I went to see Like Water for Chocolate. I know I felt full when I left the theater after Waitress and actually burped after we saw Ratatouille. I should maybe plan to take a suitcase full of crafts supplies and just hide out on our balcony with an ipod and a camera. Eat only what the grill king brings back hidden in his beard.

By the way, you missed some great steaks on Saturday night. The grill king leaves mine without any spicy rub and I really like them with just the amount that rubs off when he stacks them on the plate to bring to the table. The perfect amount of salt and seasoning.

We really need a high chair at our house. The tiny tank was desperately unhappy with any arrangement we tried for feeding him. Didn’t want to sit on anyone’s lap, didn’t want to be in the playpen right beside the table. He is really independent and wants to feed himself. And he wants to be part of the action – at the table, reaching for everything within two feet of him.