Saturday, September 5, 2009

Lazy Saturday morning

Jill asked for some book recommendations. I belong to a women’s group, PEO, and every May we all do book reviews then one of the members puts together a Summer Reading list. Some that have been recommended and that I have read include: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, Out Stealing Horses - Per Petterson, Sarah's Key - Tatiana deRosnay, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Book of Air and Shadows, Michael Gruber, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (an older book). A few others that I have not read yet, but that have been recommended – Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson, Annie Freeman’s Fabulous Traveling Funeral by Kris Radish, Penny in Love by Lisa See. Do you want more?

School starts on Tuesday and DD will be a senior—that doesn’t seem possible. She left early this morning to go somewhere with her boyfriend and his family—he started college a few weeks ago so she doesn’t see him as often. DH left early for Vegas for a wedding. We were both going, then cancelled, then he decided last minute that he should go. So, I have a whole day in front of me to just play. Yesterday I worked on some banners for church. Nothing fancy because they are just decorations for a breakfast we are having in a couple weeks, but they don’t look too bad. I ran out of heat and bond so will get back to that project as soon as I pick up a little bit more.

Guild also starts next week. In Oct. we are supposed to bring in a UFO that is at least a year old and then sign a pledge to finish it by May. That might be just the kick-start I need to get some of the oldies (but goodies?) finished. We also have a quilt show in March so I know there are a few things I want to have done by then—one being the quilt with the blocks a lot of you made for me two years ago. I have the fabric for the sashing and it is at the top of the priority pile. Well, off to enjoy the day. Hope you all have a great day and long-week end as well. Joleen in MN

Friday, September 4, 2009

checking in

Well, it's been ages since I signed in and read the posts here!

JANE IN NC -- That bronchitis must be going around. A friend of mine had it, too, a couple weeks ago. DH picked up some sort of bug that has left him with a croupy cough that is slowly improving. He refuses to go to the doctor of course, and has been playing golf all along, so I know he's not feeling poorly.
And how awful about your refrigerator. Refrigerators, air conditioners, and washing machines all have a life span of approx. 7 years anymore. I didn't know about the Freon issue, so that must be why A/C compressors last no more than 7 years, too!!! As for washing machines.... I'm keeping my 15 y/o one alive for as long as I can. Every repair guy tells me the new stuff is total !@#$&. Consumer Reports finally advises people to buy a service contract for appliances now. One friend of mine knows someone whose brand new-fangled computerized refrigerator had a short in the computer part, and it caught on fire along with the kitchen. So much for technology.

Summer is almost over and I cannot believe it. It has been a very different sort of summer: sufficient rain and moderate heat temperatures. We had very few days over 90° (perhaps only a dozen) and in all, a very tolerable season. I hope our autumn will be nice, too.

ROSEY P. --- when I had salmonella four or five years ago, it was a full year before my lower G.I. tract was completely normal. I'm not sure it really ever returned to normal, though.

SOPHIE UPDATE --- Sophie, at 9 months old, keeps growing and is more at the filling-out stage. Housebreaking is going well but she's got terrible skin allergies. I believe they are environmental, and there's not much we can do about that. I suspect grass. Argh!

Hugs to all and have a wonderful Labor Day Holiday weekend!

Doris W. in TN

Hello everyone!


It's been so very long since I've posted & my reading hasn't been much better. Jane I feel your travel pain! I did a short trip to Mi to having a little family get together & visit my Dad in the nursing home where he spends most of his time in bed with severe dementia. I couldn't even get out of Portland without problems. My flight to Atlanta was delayed destroying any chance of getting into Mi, so I opted out & left the following day. On my return I went thru MN & was stuck on a tram for half an hr with no air conditioning and an angry mob! Their trams are so weird, they are on the out side of the building high above the street, sort of a scary trip! Had to high tail it to the next connection, Salt Lake(don't ask why) where they were loading when I got there. In Salt Lake I had 45 minutes to connect & asked an agent when I got off where my next gate to my Portland connection was. He said in a sweet southern drawl a71 so I was booking! After a ten minute OJ trip something didn't seem right & I hunted for a monitor where I leaned my gate was e71 not a71, the distance between E & A is some distance as you might imagine! So for the 2nd time that day they were loading when I got there, seesh! What a trip.
I hate buying appliances & my frig is 20+ and my dishwasher 30+ should I buy a lottery ticket?
Oh I bought my freezer used over 35 yrs ago, eck....I suppose they will all die soon.
Am so looking forward to the 3 day weekend not that we have any plans. The elderly "Dyna" needs pretty close attention so no "family" trips until she's no longer.
I thought I would want a dog right away when she was gone but it's been so difficult that we may have to think twice about a dog right away, cats are so easy by comparison.
Our summer in the NW was grand, although pretty hot. Our air went out the day we had a recordbreaking 105! But I still love the long days of summer best.
I love fall but it's a reminder of winter looming!
Movie review: A bunch of us quilters went to Julie & Julia, just adorable!
Need some good book recs (Mayme?) no good ones lately.
No quilting lately, but did get back an appliqued top that was quilted by hand at a local senior center. I'll take a picture when the bindings on. A couple of us have started a jellyroll quilt called Jubilee,very fun. I have to make my own jelly rolls since i have soooo much fabric.
Of course I must throw in a picture, maybe the elderly Dyna? Hi Brenda! I miss you! Jill

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Thursday evening

Jane, only you could find humour in a broken down refrigerator just before leaving for CA. Don't you just hate to spend money at our age on a new appliance but I'll bet when you get your new frig you'll keep opening the door to admire it.

Brenda, good to see you posting again. Have fun with your quilting buddies and the new quilt.

Mayme, I also miss driving to Fla. We used to do it late March and stay three weeks, then return as springtime returned from south to north and enjoyed the redbud trees and other blossoming trees coming north. Now I fly down to visit my friend in Sarasota but miss the drives. One year we stayed in the mountains south/west of Jane where they were having a mountain biking contest. I couldn't believe what people were riding over, fallen trees, roots, up and down and around precarious hillsides. NC is sure a beautiful state.

Had an appt. with a homeopath today as a year ago I had food poisoning at the time Listeriosis (sp?) was bacterial-infecting foods from a meat packing machine. It's taken nearly a year to heal and even yet, I have a malsorption of foods. Few food allergies, which is interesting. One that I hate to admit because Jean predicted it and I hate it when people are ALWAYS right...lol. Wheat is a very common allergen, along with dairy, which I'm intolerant to anyway. And of course, my old friend, yeast in my bloodstream, since my hysterectomy years ago.

Visited with a real book author today in a city nearby. She's written a book on Lucy Maud Montgomery, (Anne of Green Gables ). Very interesting to hear how much research she did over a period of 35 yrs. in order to eventually write the book.

I can see by the nightsky that a full moon is sitting up there. The coyotes will be out...good illumination for hunting. When I worked at a health food store, a full moon seemed to bring out some very strange folks or strangeness in folks that seemed normal except for once a month at full-moon time.

Time to pack it in for the night. It's been a long day. Jane, tune in from the mountains with your next adventure. Life is not dull for you, that's for sure. Glad the wedding went well...or did it. Any observations of the cast of characters?

Rosey

West Mi reporting

Hi Brenda, I remember you. So nice to see a post from you.
Didn't you move just over the border from MI? You and your DH
could always take a drive down and visit me.
We had a wonderfully cool Summer here. Only a few days of heat and
humidity. I love Fall. It is my favorite season of the year.
DH is having a nasty bout with Gout. He has never had one last this long.
He is still busy working on the farm part time. When corn harvest starts
it will be full time, plus. We have most of our Winter wood in. Hopefully we
won't have to use any of it too soon. It has gotten down to 39 degrees a couple
of mornings. I try to get out and walk at least 5 days a week. When it gets too
cold, I will go back to the fitness center. There is always lots of quilting to keep
me busy. If I would stop reading so much I might get more quiting done! I have
some chicken noodle soup cooking. Hard to fix meals when I never know when Don
is getting home from work. Last night it was almost 8 PM.
Sara, I hope things go well for your DD and her family. I miss my trips to FL. Guess
there comes a time when all good things come to and end.
I wonder if a lot of people don't post because they don't realize they have to use the
email address they signed up with even if they don't have that one now. Just a thought.
The quilt shop in the town three miles from me has to move and I'm trying to get her to
buy an empty church here in town. It would make a great shop and would only be a couple
of blocks from me.
Karen it was good to see a picture of you and the boys. I can remember when you had
Isaac. Congratulations on the quilt wins.
Hugs to all, Mayme

Woohoo! I remembered how to get here!

I've been reading for months but forgot how to get in. Realized today that I needed my old email address. Moving really shakes you up and confuses you. Hello to all who remember (and to those who don't).
Jane, I'm sorry you're not well. I've been thinking of you because I just finished reading Cold Mountain. I had seen the movie quite some time ago, but the book is a whole 'nother thing. I can't wait for DH to read it; it's just his kind of book. The area sounds beautiful.
We moved from the bush to a small city in June, and I'm still trying to get settled. DH and I have decided that it's hard to build a new life without a job at it's centre. Neither of us has found anything yet. DH has quit smoking several times over the summer. :-< Need I say more. At the moment he's smoking, but I see a prescription for Champix sitting on the table, so I guess we'll be on that roller coaster again soon.
I finally got my sewing room organized (as much as I can with much less space) and have made some tentative forays into it. I have no quilting buddies as yet, and it's hard to be a solitary quilter. My quilting buddies from Manitouwadge are gathering in Sudbury next weekend, as the one from furthest away (New Brunswick) is in the area. There are 5 of us and we are going to spend the weekend making a 60th birthday quilt for the last of the husbands to turn 60. The men will do their own thing. I'm looking forward to lots of sewing, laughing, eating, talking and more laughing.
When DH and I get down, we both console ourselves with the grandchildren, especially 3-month-old Henry who is a chubby, cheerful, cuddly angel. His big brother, Jack, is 2 and has the personality and mood swings of a menopausal woman. Ah well, soon he'll be 3. Their cousins are Heather, 16, and Alex, 8. Heather is mostly a woman and very charming to all except, at times, her parents. She is very polite and patient with Grandma. The way to Al's heart is through his stomach, so we get along very well. They're great kids and I love having fun with them and then sending them home!
I'm so happy to be able to post again. Hugs to all.
Brenda in Nn Ontario

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Well, here I am barely functional. Before heading for the wedding in CA a dose of bronchitis hit that took two separate rounds of anti biotic to beat. I felt so puny I stopped the exercise regimen and began eating anything that presented itself with minimal effort on my part. We all know the consequences of that.

The trip was grueling. I’ll never fly out of Asheville again. One as to leave in the pre-dawn hours just for the 25 minute connection to
Atlanta. Then the the 2.5 hour layover providing plenty of time for breakfast, then the 3.5 hr. flight to Salt Lake City then the last leg to Ontario, CA. DD and DSIL both live east of LA and only a half hour at most from that airport. LAX can mean a three hour drive in the usual day time traffic. Anyway, it all meant two nights in motel in Asheville.

At just about the time I planned to leave home with enough time to check into motel and have a leisurely dinner and very early bed as I had to get up at 4AM I realized my 5.5 year old refrigerator wasn’t working. Lights and motor were okay and sure enough, after calling six service businesses, waiting a bit over and hour the guy came and rendered the dreaded diagnosis of a dead compressor. The prognosis was pretty bad too. After market compressor would cost $400 with a one year warranty and almost that much in labor and he advised just replacing the whole thing. Remember the days of heritage refrigerators that lived beyond 20 years and passed from mother to daughter? He says those days are gone for good. Ever since they stopped using Freon gas as a refrigerant some air pollution has been traded for land fills full of shiny 5-7 year old refrigerators. Looks like the EPA traded a headache for an upset stomach. He asked for $45 for the trip and headed for home. I cleaned up the melted berry juice, called the woman (friend, neighbor) who cleans for me and asked her to come over at her leisure and take what was edible and toss the rest.

I came home to the refrigerator problem staring me in the face and suffering from jet lag and post party syndrome to find the @#%^ telephone not working due to the recent rains. Whenever the ground is wet which has been the case for a week, there is a deafening buzz on the line rendering the phone useless. Verizon said Friday that someone would be here today and it is now 5:29 PM! Unfortunately, the weather prediction for the rest of the week is for sunny skies. So I will have phone service but have to go through this all over again.

The new refrigerator, purchased on 8/26 with money I really don’t have will allegedly be delivered Thursday, 9/3. In the meantime I am surviving with the Igloo cooler, my little trucker fridge of very little capacity and recently a little dorm room type fridge my beloved cleaning lady and her husband delivered to me. The cooler is actually less than full. I have a little 5 cubic ft. freezer in the garage originally purchased to store the pheasants Al used to bring home from SD. By the way, all the new refrigerators come with a whopping ONE year warranty.

I have a huge collection of polar packs lying around out there from the two years of medication delivered monthly for two years for daily shots for osteoporoses. I trade them out twice a day and am glad the polar packs are so useful because I lost bone density during the two years I was shooting myself at great expense. I’m now doing the annual infusion that Medicare pays for). Any way, I’m out of shape big time and at Weight Watchers last week discovered that I’ve gained TEN pounds since early July. ARRRRGH All I want to do is sleep and watch re-runs of cop shows and chick flicks.

I’m now back on track on the eating regimen but having a very difficult time getting exercise as my hips, especially the left one that has carried the burden of having to favoring the right knee and foot for so long is complaining loudly. As soon as I acquire a bathing suit, heaven forbid, I’ll join the water aerobic program offered to the general public at Western Carolina University down the road.

I’ll take some cheese (reduced fat) with the foregoing whine

Wedding report sometime in the near future.

Jane

It has been quiet

I am out here, but very busy. Progress reports go out at school on Thursday, and we're still hand-writing them on the triple carbon forms. I know, it's the 21st century, but I can remember hand lettering report cards when I first started teaching, and at least I don't have to do that anymore!


I went to the Huntsville Botanical Gardens Saturday, and spent a good bit of time taking pictures of butterflies in the indoor butterfly garden. None of those pictures are particularly impressive. Then, when I went out, I got the photo here. This butterfly literally landed within 6 feet of me, and stayed there long enough for me to get three photos, changing angles after each one.
They had a kaleidoscope set up, with clear glass in the device, but aimed at a pretty flower bed like a telescope. I tried to take a picture through the lens, but just got blur...
I should be working on my mom's quilt. Another summer has gone by...
Laura in Alabama

Where is everyone?

Hi, It's Tuesday at 3:50 PM, and I seem to be the only quilter who is bloging. Where is everyone?
Jane--did you return from the wedding? How was it?
Anyone being touched by the fires in LA? They seem really terrible.
We are having tons of rain, I'd like to send them some. The weeds are so tall, they are taking over what was the atractive butterfly garden in the front yard.
Just finished the top of a pinwheel quilt. My GF showed me how to do it when she was in town. It is yellow, red and black and white. Have no idea what to do with it, but it was fun to learn a new tenique.
OK-It's offical the offspring and her gang are going in Oct. to Osnabrock, ND. I'm sure it is a pretty place in the summer and fall. I'm not crazy about their moving, especially since they seem to be under the influence of someone that I think has "CULT" stamped all over him. I really hope I am wrong about this one.
Maybe it will so cold and snowed in that DD will take up quilting, just to keep her family warm.

We have 2 people here puting up the tile backsplash in the kitchen. It will look great when finished. I had to drive to 3 Lowe's stores to get all the tile yesterday. Tomorrow I'm hitting home depot for a different color grout.
That's all the news I can think of.
Sara in Fla.