Why does every task take so long???

I swear, the Universe is plotting against me; moving clocks forward when I'm not watching. I had so many things I wanted to do this weekend and I got to so few of them. Mostly because working on that Kenmore sewing machine took TEN HOURS. I kid you not. That ended up being so frustrating by the time I got finished that I just wanted to scream. And, by the time I got finished, there was no time to sew on the bloody thing.

First, the special three prong plug I bought was not wired to work the way I wanted it to, so I had to learn that skill...and it took a while and I bet I put that plug together 10 times. But, she's rewired and mounted in her original cabinet again. I was able to salvage her original knee operated speed control. And, I worked out all the little clicks and tings and scrapes and growls that a machine that hasn't been used in years develops. Most difficult? I had put the needle shaft in turned around, so just when I thought I was finished, I broke a needle and by the time I figured that out and got the shaft fitted to send the needle exactly in the center of the needle hole and got her threaded again, it was time to go out to dinner.

And, to top that off, I took a great picture of her in her cabinet this morning and somehow managed not to upload it. Hmphh.

But, I did get plenty of other pics. Most of which won't make sense.

Here's another little project that took too long. I needed to back and pinbaste a Linus quilt.

First, there's calculating the size I'll need for a back. Mr. Flynn to the rescue.



Then, I had to cut the back diagonally and sew it back together.

Then, I had to sew three pieces of batting together by hand. And, three hours after I started, I had it pin basted and ready to quilt. Again, a missing picture. And, what didn't help was I decided to try quilting on my Singer 301, so there was 45 minutes getting it set up and an hour of trying to quilt with it and then 45 minutes of taking it apart and getting my Bernina set back up. I got a small corner actually quilted and August is over and I'm behind on my Linus. Hmphh.

But, I did get lucky at a garage sale. She was selling some small drawer units and a quilter can never have enough drawer units to hold fabric. Never. The only one of us that had any cash was Sydney and she grudgingly handed it over and I counted $10 of quarters into a baggie and headed out. I got lucky. One of the drawer units was busted, and she was up front about it and offered it to me for 75c, but I left it there. The other one, she charged me $4 for, and I was glad to pay it. She had this quilting stuff piled on top and wanted another $5...

And, this large ziplock full of vintage buttons for $1, so she got my whole baggie of quarters and I got more stuff to find a place for. Everybody was happy.



Brief synopsis of the rest of the weekend, just so I can remember it when I'm writing my memoires...

We took Sydney for Thai food. Here's how the evening went; I'm out of my element, the menu's too big, what is this stuff that looks like a stick, I ain't eating no (lemongrass soup, sauteed leaves, mushrooms, brown stuff), what did you just order, this is good, I like this, we can come back here again. 13 year old girls can be quite fickel. She liked it, but that didn't stop her from picking up every new thing and making a face at it like it was a piece of poo before putting it in her mouth, chewing, and relaxing. Poor thing has no adventurous spirit.

We watched Pan's Labyrinth...because it was in spanish. She needs to hear the language spoken. It wasn't the movie I expected it to be. But, it was good and I think Rob even stayed awake through the subtitles.

We stayed inside because it was 112* outside yesterday. I think everybody stayed inside. I heard little traffic, which is unusual. By 9:30 both mornings, all we wanted was to sit in front of an a/c vent. But the governor has declared that he doesn't believe in global warming and therefore, in the great state of texas, we will act like it doesn't exist. Freakin' moron.

I want to give an update on cutting my meds, cuz we're really all in this together, eh? First few days, lots of withdrawal. I have found that I am less likely to hold things in and explode, but more likely to voice my disapproval as things come up. Friday was real hard. But, ya know, I got through it and every day since has been better. Oddly, I've started to see dirt. And, cobwebs. Everywhere. Like Rob said, it's not like we live in a dirty house, but there are things that I just didn't see building up and now I see them. The only thing that's changed is the med. Unfortunately, that means I'm likely to do something about it. And, here we are, back to the title of this blog. Why does every task take so long??? Like three times as long as I want it to. Because, really. How happy am I going to be if I don't get my sewing time? And, chasing down that smell in my fridge is interfering with my sewing time.

Lane