Archive of Marcia's Musings March 11-17, 2002
Sunday, March 17, 2002
As you would expect . . .
We didn't do much of anything around here today. The usual Costco and grocery store runs along with laundry upon our return. This afternoon, Brian gave Sally a bath. It has been cold and rainy here today so I made a chicken soup from scratch for dinner. Warmed us through, I know that much!!
Right before dinner, I updated the quilting page to include this week's latest accomplishments. I've started another quilt that is intended for a niece's Christmas present-- once again, it is a bit harder and has different techniques incorporated into it. It is definitely a challenge but one that I'm looking forward to working on!!
Off to bed for us soon-- have a nice evening/morning/day!!
Saturday, March 16, 2002To Catch You Up . . .
Well, last night we had dinner with Myrna & Roger and Pat & Nathan. They met at our open house in September and we've been trying to find a date for the six of us to go out to dinner ever since! Last night, we finally got organized and got together. We went to Hunan Gourmet, our favorite Chinese restaurant and had a lot of fun laughing and talking. After dinner, we came back to the house and had a dessert, picked out special by Brian (I'm really quite surprised he didn't take pictures of it!). After a tour of Brian's office for the guys and my sewing room for the girls, we had our dessert in the living room with more laughter and chatting.
Neither Myrna nor Pat had seen any of the stuff that I'd been working on with quilting and they were quite surprised at the amount of things that I've finished. Actually, I'm fairly amazed by it myself! Pat and I chatted for a bit about the wall-hanging that I want to make for her, too.
Quilting Progress
Yesterday afternoon and this morning, I put a border on a cross-stitch that I had made-- in fact, its the cross stitch that took me so long to stitch, remember? This afternoon, I made a wall-hanging from a gift that was given to me last year-- it is about to be given as a gift this year for Christmas. I've now got four different projects to quilt (including the one that I'm working on) so I decided that I needed to do some diligent work on the hand-quilting stuff that I want to do. Since about 4pm this afternoon, that's what I've been doing, too and, I am actually enjoying it.
This morning, I had my last class for the beginner quilting class. I went but I didn't stay for the class; I did sign up for a new one but I'll get to that in a second. Anyway, so I went to the class and, the instructor (Diane) and a couple of the students asked why I didn't have my sewing machine. I simply said, "I won't be staying for the class-- I don't think I need this part." One of the women looked at me, with my paper bag chocked full of projects and said cautiously, "What have you been doing?" "Oh, you mean this?" I proceeded to take out the class project which they all ooh-ed and aah-ed over and then, I took out one of the runners (I thought it was overkill to bring them both). Then, I brought out the quilt-top that I just started/finished this week and, of course the quilt that I made from scratch. I told them about my new sewing table and how much fun I was having doing the piecing and the quilting.
After we shared each others quilts, I left the instructional area and signed up for the free-motion class. "Free-motion" is how you get curves, whether its heart-shapes or paisleys, in the quilting part of a quilt and this is definitely something that I want to learn! Its a 3-hour class on a Thursday night and, even though I'm pretty tired by Thursdays, it should be fun. One person cancelled yesterday and that let me, as the only person on the waiting list, be able to sign-up for the class! I'm looking forward to that since there is a design that I want to do on the quilt that I made this past week.
Yes, I owe you some new pictures and, while we've been taking them, Brian's been busy working on the tutorial so he hasn't downloaded them yet. Hopefully tomorrow or certainly by Monday. Bear with me-- you'll see them!!
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More quilting to be done!! Have a nice evening!
Friday, March 15, 2002This Date in History . . .
This date did happen, it just caught me off guard so that I didn't end up posting!
Thursday, March 14, 2002Play-Girl
When we first got Sally, she didn't know how to play with anything beside a ball. She didn't know how to cuddle with you on the sofa. She barely knew to come to get scratched or petted! The poor girl!! Because we got her around Christmas time, there were a lot of gifts and one gift box in particular was toys that Barbara sent to Sally from The Boys. One of those toys was a plush toy-- at the time, I thought it was hopeless-- Sally didn't have a clue of what to do with it.
In the last few months, Sally's learned quite a bit: She's learned how to cuddle and look adoringly at us so that we give her cheese as a snack and, most importantly, she's learned how to play!!! The plush toy that she didn't know what to do with is in very tattered condition now! The rope toys (she has two-- in varying sizes) are in better shape than the plush toys but none of them is perfect-- anymore!! She's really enjoyed making a mess of those toys, too!!
The Better to See You With . . .
Because of getting my eyes dilated, I couldn't work on my quilting last night. I'm glad I got a little time in before I went to the eye doctor appointment. Brian remembered that they had done this the last time that I went but I didn't remember. I really don't like it because they keep putting these drops in your eyes and, frankly, after the second set of drops, my eyes feel like they have to be pried open with a crow bar to allow any more solution in them! Then, once they're "frozen", they feel like they're three feet thick!! Yeesh!! And I somehow was supposed to go look for new frames!! Yeah, right!
A funny thing about the frames . . . they have a sign that says "$99.95 for frames and lenses" above a rack of normal looking glasses. I chose a few pairs off the rack, tried them on, and showed Brian. A woman came up and offered assistance. First, she proceeded to argue with me about what a gentlemen at their store had told me about the rimless glasses (which is what I have). Ya know, if it was some Schmoe off the street that had told me negative stuff about the glasses, I could see arguing with me but it was someone who worked at her store!! The next thing that she did that I found frustrating was leading me over to one of the expensive racks of glasses-- sorry, I don't need "Designer Frames". Do I look like the kind of person that cares about "Name Brands"? I don't think so, Tim.
One of the first glasses that I picked up is what I went with and we proceeded to process the order for the lenses. Grand total?? More than $350!!!!! Yes, we were in a bit of shock!!!! Brian pointed out the sign and she clarified it to us: "It is for single vision glasses only" . . . ah, its funny how it doesn't say that, isn't it? Truth in advertising-- oh, so satisfying for the consumer, eh? She ended up giving us a "discount of $75" but only after we protested quite a bit. I do remember it being a little pricier because of the fact that I've got progressive lenses. Again, Yeesh!!
One More Day
Work is busy but not as busy as it is at the end of the fiscal year. That's a good thing-- I couldn't handle that right now!! I'm constantly being asked questions by sales reps and administrators alike which is good because it means that we're not doing things the wrong way but it does tend to break my concentration easily.
Ah, well, tomorrow is Friday and then its all downhill from there!
Quilting Progress
Today I brought one of the runners and quilts with me to the office to show to people-- they ask because . . . I think they don't believe that I sew, I'm not sure!! Then, when I got home, I proceeded to finish the quilt top for the quilt that I started on Tuesday. They're so easy to sew together!! That one probably won't be quilted for a few weeks-- I want to make balloons on it but I haven't had my free-motion class yet so I can't do that yet. I'm going to save this to be the project I work on after I've mastered turns-- its okay since it is intended to be a Christmas present for our nephew, Robbie. Anyway, it is time that I started working on other Christmas presents, too-- I've got a couple of ideas for a couple of people and, since I obviously want to get things done on time, I'm going to start now. You can never tell what'll happen if I put it off!!
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So I'm back at it-- Thanks for coming by and, have a nice evening!
Wednesday, March 13, 2002Nothing Tonight . . .
I'm blinded-- I've had an eye exam and, they always dilate my eyes. Things are quite blurry right now . . . interesting. Yes, I'm getting new glasses-- I had hoped to hold off but my prescription is different (my left eye has gotten worse) so it requires new glasses and frames. Always not cheap and quite annoying deciding.
More tomorrow night, I'm sure . . .
Have a nice evening!
Tuesday, March 12, 2002A "Good News" Note:
We received news from my sister: the words "benign" and "not malignant" were throughout the biopsy report!! YEAHHHH!!!! Thanks again for the "Happy Thoughts", "Prayers" and "Whatevers"!!! It is hard for us with her being so far away-- they have good doctors in Brazil but that's a long, long ways away from her family. She has her husband with her but it isn't the same as having one's kids and family with you when you're struggling with something big like this situation. Thankfully, email helps us stay in touch!!
Working with a Dog!!
Sally went to work with me today. Its been over a month since she's been to the office but she reacquainted herself easily and, of course, held court in such a way that only Sally can. She's such a cutie!! Everyone loves her at the office and comes over to get their "doggie fix" when she's in the office.
Sharing
Whatever it was that was making Brian feel icky on Monday morning hit me on Monday evening and now I'm still feeling icky! Don'tcha just love it? I love him to death but there are some things that I would rather that he didn't share with me. I swear that I would not be upset if he didn't share everything with me-- only the good stuff!! I ended up coming home from work "early" (after only a 7 hour day), took some Excedrin, slept for a little over an hour and now feel much better. I'm not taking any chances, however-- tomato soup and crackers for dinner, thanks!
With that in mind, however, tonight's activities are going to be simple: crocheting! I can keep the afghan on my lap and stay warm and finish the afghan finally!!
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Lately, I've gotten a lot of email from people who have found my site while searching the internet for "things"-- Welcome! Come back any time!! Thanks for coming by and have a nice evening!
Monday, March 11, 2002Fading Fast!!
Wow!! I am amazingly tired!! It seems that Mondays are getting harder and harder to deal with!! Of course, the fact that I worked, came home and rode my bike and cut out a new quilt before making dinner doesn't have anything to do with it, does it? Nah, I didn't think so!
Okay, I'm concentrating . . . I can't think of anything new and exciting!! Whoops-- I just thought of something: if you haven't been by since Friday, you should go to my quilting page to see not only the runners that I finished but also see the table that Brian made for me over the weekend! Phenomenal!!! I'm definitely going to be sewing up a storm now!!
Current Reading List?
Saturday morning, I finished "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets". I gotta tell ya-- I really like this stuff!! Its not juvenile and it is well written enough that it can hold an adult attention span. Tonight, I'll start Book 3 of the series "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"-- sounds exciting, doesn't it? Really-- this is a good series and highly worthwhile, no matter what the age of the reader.
Also on the nightstand is another Barbara Kingsolver book but it is of short stories so I'm not as interested in getting to it just yet. Eventually, yes, but not right now. I'm really a one-book-at-a-time person-- always have been.
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On that note, I'm going to go finish the afghan (one more row!!) and then I'll probably turn in a little early to start the new book! Have a nice evening!!
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