Archive of Marcia's Musings June 30-July 6, 2003Saturday, July 5, 2003
That Was Fun!!
My cousin, Barb, and her husband are traveling to and through Alaska via Canada, Montana and various other States and countries. They're having a blast with the exception of cell phone coverage which makes you wonder where the "Can you hear me now" guy is since you CAN'T hear anyone when there are no cell repeaters. Apparently there is a lot of wilderness in Alaska-- not a surprise to all.
ANYWAY, I digress: Barb called tonight to talk about my new baby, "D1", since she has a baby by the same name. We compared a few things and she asked my advice about a repair issue but she is overall thrilled for me. There is a possibility that she and Leon will be able to be back in Michigan by the time that we are there for my nephew's wedding. That would, of course, be wonderful since it has been a couple of years since I've seen her (and we've never met Leon!).
Other Than That
The day held the usual errands: Pedicure for me to start the day and then the usual warehouse and grocery store run, followed by an intense nap of 3+ hours. I made dinner tonight: Chicken Cordon Bleu and broccoli and fresh beans from our garden. Brian said it was better this time because he doesn't like a lot of crusty stuff on it. Hopefully I'll remember that for the next time that I make it . . . whenever that is!!
The rest of the evening was spent sewing on my wall-hanging for my office and new designs for my D1 to stitch out. Christmas is coming so I've started on some Christmas gifts since my time may be limited after the surgery.
Subsiding, Thanks
My headaches seem to be subsiding now that we've got the humidifiers running upstairs and downstairs. That's good since the pain was rather intense and nothing I would like to feel repeated.
While this may seem a little quick, I'm going to go read for the rest of the night and head off to bed.
Take care and have a good evening and/or night!
Friday, July 4, 2003Happy 4th of July!!
I woke up early in the morning with a headache so I took it easy this morning trying to get rid of it. I did finish the embroidery for my "flower garden" quilt that I'm making for a wall-hanging for my office at work. At some point over the weekend (probably Sunday), I have to get some fabric for the binding and a ribbon or two for embellishment. This one's going to be a little different so I'm having to think it through a little more than usual.
After I laid down again for awhile, Brian came in to tell me he was going to cut the grass-- in 90F heat, that makes perfect sense!! Anyway, he did that and I got showered and ready to go to Lee & Jim's house for a nice picnic.
While we were there, we met a lot of different people and had lots of fun talking with everyone. Ebony kept coming over by Brian and me-- he knows us best, I think. We stayed there until it was time to come home and feed Sally. I laid down on the sofa and 2-1/2 hours later, woke up. The interesting thing is that I'm already feeling tired. (I think I'm still wiped out from the end of the quarter stuff.)
Brian and I watched a couple of funny television shows and now I'm putting up this post. I'm going to pop a couple of aspirin in anticipation of another headache tonight (I swear I feel it coming on already-- it has to do with the humidity or lack of it in the house) in hopes of avoiding it this time.
Take care and thanks for stopping by-- have a safe holiday!!
Wednesday, July 2, 2003Downtime
As is usually the case, there is a lot of downtime this week: the new quarter has started, John's on vacation (okay, its really a long weekend-- who are you fooling?), a holiday weekend is looming on the horizon and everyone's exhausted! We need downtime, believe me!
Judy's on vacation for the rest of this week and all of next-- she and her husband, Jim, bought a house here in Maryland and moved about a month ago. Now, they hope to unpack the boxes so that they can get dressed in the morning!
Me? I'm a sewing fool!!! I've got the hand-sewing left on the jacket of my outfit but the dress is finished. I've also almost got the sewing machine "placemats" that I'm making for my sewing table. This way, the three machines will be easier to slide around. I'm finding other things that need these little placemats, too like the box that I've got my tools and notions in and the box with my embroidery thread. Then there's the tote bag/purse that I'm making. I do not like my summer purse so I'm replacing it with a large tote bag that will be suitable for use this summer. Yes, I can stuff it full of stuff but then I won't be able to carry it-- if I make it too much like a "purse", then Brian won't help me so I have to keep it reasonable in size. Then I've got the pinwheel quilt to finish and the embroidery for the flower garden quilt that I'm making. See what I mean? I'm a sewing fool!!! (But, man, am I having fun!!)
Relax? What's that??
I do, however, need to relax before going to sleep so I'm going to go read for awhile. No, I'm in no danger of reading through my supply of books before the surgery: I've currently got six books in my "to be read" stack and that doesn't include the magazines that I'm putting off reading until late July or August. I'm far from running out of reading material!!
So now that I've written this short bit for you, my gentle reader, I'm going to head off in the direction of the bed to read a chapter or so in my book, "The Runaway Quilt". It is actually more like a novel than a mystery; it is one of the books that I bought when the Thompsons were visiting us and the most important part: I'm enjoying it!
Take care, thanks for stopping by and have a great evening!
Tuesday, July 1, 2003Happy July!!
Oh, my!! This means that half of the year is gone and we're on the down-ward slide toward the end of another year! Yikes!!! I hate when time goes that fast, don't you? It seems that we just don't have the... time to savor the time!! Oh, man!! There's just never enough time!!!
Not Good News
The other day at the store, I'd heard about a particular sale that we were having and thought of one of our regular customers: Jeannette. She had just asked me about that item so I told the manager that I'd give her a call. My manager told me not to call: She'd heard that Jeannette had gotten her orders. As an Army Nurse, she was on her way to Iraq and now was definitely not the time to buy something new. Oh, man!!!
Since I'd been told that quite late at night, the next time I was on shift I called Jeannette's house and left her a message: I said that she would be in my thoughts and I hoped she would stay safe and keep her head down so that we would get to see more of her beautiful quilts as soon as she gets back. Tonight, Jeannette and her husband stopped in the store-- she thanked me for the message that I left her and was genuinely pleased that it wasn't just as a customer that I cared about her.
That's one thing that I like about this job: people are not customers-- they are friends and we're all exchanging ideas and thoughts and concerns for each other whether its here or over in Iraq. She'll keep her head down and stay safe and we'll look forward to seeing more of her beautiful work in the future.
Take care, be well.
And This is a "Slow Day"??
Usually, Tuesdays are notoriously slow at the store. That's the day we dust or vacuum or do whatever there isn't any time to do in the store usually. That's "USUALLY" however, it wasn't tonight!! I sold two machines!!! I sold a low-end and a mid-high-end-- the mid-high-end was the hardest because the people have been in the store at least three times before "just looking" and "just talking" and it was hard to get them to commit. They finally did and we got the sale done to find out that there wasn't any stock on the machine. At least there isn't any stock until later this week but they got a lot of good deals and will get the machine soon enough so that's a good thing.
This is really too much fun, ya know?
Anyway, I've got a couple of email to respond to so take care and thanks for stopping by the site! Have a great evening!
Monday, June 30, 2003Not So Bad
At least now, when we have to get up early because its my "End-o-Quarter Day", it has started to get light outside. Were we still in California, I'd've gotten up this morning prior to the crack of dawn to be at work by 5:15am. As it was, we were awoken by the first alarm at 5:30, out of bed by 6:15 and, for me anyway, at my desk at 7:15.
No, I'm not bothering to wear make-up these days-- it would just slide off my face with all of the heat and humidity anyway, so why bother? But that's showered, teeth brushed and hair washed and combed out and at my desk at 7:15am. No, I don't bother to blow dry the hair because, again, it doesn't make a difference with the level of humidity we have in the air.
The contract that was the worst was "done" by 12 noon-- I was happy and the customer was happy. Then, I got a call at 2:15pm, 3:45pm and 4:25pm with "just another couple of changes" in each call. Good grief!! It was finally signed and faxed tome at 4:35pm!! John was happy and so were the sales rep and his director. This was a hard quarter for me-- people were very demanding, even if they were nice to work with but many things didn't hit until the last two days.
New Projects
You know I had to start new projects, right? I'm working on so many!! I've started a quilt of flower embroideries that I bought a few months back. I would've been able to do them on my other embroidery machine but it is so much easier with the D1!!! I was too tired to work on the hemming of my dress for the wedding outfit so I decided to do something mind-numbing and work on the embroideries instead.
Tomorrow night is a store night so hopefully, some more things will fly off the shelf and home with customers, as opposed to onto me!! I really need to stop enjoying this so much, you know?
I'm really tired-- Brian's wonderful for getting up with me and not complaining about it. Its hard on him, especially after the weekend that he had outside.
Anyway, its been a busy month and next month will be even more so-- thanks for stopping by (all 12, 522 page reads of you) and have a good evening!
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