In the ditch

Unless you're a new follower, you know I'm not fond of ditch work, but it's a requirement for me to quilt on a domestic machine.  It breaks the quilt into working zones that I can focus on for the free motion quilting that I love.  The ditch work on the double wedding ring quilt will go around every piece of fabric...and those arcs have a lot of little pieces of fabric.  It's very precise work and therefore very slow.   It takes about 45 minutes to get warmed up.  That's when I get relaxed enough that I can drop my shoulders back where they belong and lean back and just go with it.  

I have theories about the precision of ditchwork.  Don't try to fix every error, but there are some errors that just need to come out.  Sometimes, I'll get out of the ditch and it will be a couple of inches before I can get back into it.  I need to stop and pick that out.  It's not going away and it's not getting better.  But, if it's just a little error, I leave those until the end and then fix what I can find.  For one thing, this is the beginning of quilting and most small errors will not be visible after all the quilting is in.  And, for another, my standard of perfection is different at the end of a quilt than it is at the beginning, and I'll be willing to accept a lot of little errors rather than go back and pick them out.  

After the first round of ditch work, go back and fix any puckers in the back.  Do it now, before you get too far into the quilting because later, they'll be locked in by all the quilting and the only way to fix them will be to hand sew them down.  And, a pucker at this point may be large.  

Yesterday, I was out in the yard doing some watering.  I heard a sound and looked in a bucket and found a baby.  It must have fallen in and the mother couldn't get it out.  Based on the amount of poop in the bottom of the bucket, I think it had been in there a day or two.  Glad I found it.  I laid the bucket down next to the deck so it could get under there.  I noticed that something had dug under the greenhouse and now I know what it was.  The possums go there every year to have babies and my little bit of edging did not stop them.  They just found a new way in, so I feel pretty confident he was reunited with his mom last night.  

I have finished the drapes for the sewing room/office.  Finally.  You can see how they wrap around the corner of the rod and go back to the wall.  That blocks a lot of light from this westward facing window.  

And, they look nice open as well.  This is my favorite place to do appliqué or hand sewing.  It's so light and bright.  

This week, I got pictures of the plumbago, which is going nuts right now.  I don't grow a lot of blue flowers, so this is a nice treat.  

The hummingbird bush.  This is constantly full of hummers and butterflies right now.  

And, this clematis that came from my Mom's.  She had bought a bag of clematis tubers and then got sick.  I brought them home after she passed and this was the only one that was still viable.  It's a real beauty and has done better this year than I expected it to.  It's currently in a pot, but will be going in the ground in this same spot before cold weather.  

Rob was looking at paint chips for work on Saturday and I saw this display and it just sang out to me.  I love colors.  I love mediums more than darks and lights.  I guess we all do.  But, if you've ever tried to make a quilt out of just mediums, it doesn't go very well.  You have to have the dark and the light to make the stuff you love show up.  

The indictment of James Comey is a new level of corruption.  As citizens of the U.S., we are not used to this level of corruption and we aren't prepared to deal with it.  And, Trump knows that.  That's why he's doing it.  It's a surprise attack.  Shock and awe.  

I have no solutions.  This is Texas and there's no one to complain to because the politicians here are so experienced that they're teaching trump new ways to be corrupt and racist and bigoted.  

Everybody have a great week!  I hope you all find the equivalent of a baby in a bucket to rescue and feel good about.  We need things to feel good about.  

Lane

Just right

Okay, so not everything I did last week was just right, but some of it was just as right as the third bear's chair, bed and porridge.  

I've been looking for just the right lamp for my desk and I found it last week while I was walking the dog, and it cost my favorite price; free.  One man's trash, right?  It's a little scuffed and could use some touch up paint and it was covered in sawdust and took a while to clean up and it needed new bulbs.  I set it up on the side of my desk, where it was easy to access, and I used it on Friday.  Being lit from above instead of the side took 10 years off my face in teams meetings.  It turned out to be perfect.

When I pulled my desk out to set it up on Saturday, I forgot how short I'd wound my cords and I pulled everything off the back of the desk except the laptop.  My 20 minute project turned into a 2 hour ordeal where everything got moved except the monitors.  That was the beginning of a day that had considerable swearing in it, come to think of it because half the day turned out that way.  

By the end of it tho, I had found a happy place.  I had everything cleared off and pulled in the quilt and got started on the ditch work.  This is a huge quilt and getting the center of it into the machine so I could stretch the dinner plate sized portion of it that I was working on was a chore.  A lot of it was getting back in the swing of it and as I worked, I remembered things slowly and hunted down a pair of quilting gloves and pulled my shoulders down from around my ears and before I knew it, I was on my way.  

I'm doing a continuous line...okay sort of continuous.  I've gotten out of the ditch a few times and had to stop and unquilt and start again, but mostly a continuous line along the outside of the ovals created by the arcs.  Next, I'll do the insides of the ovals and quilt between each of the pieces that form the arcs.  Then, I can do something in the squares.  But, I don't know what yet.  It's going to be a while before I get there, so I have plenty of time to decide.  

The fish finally stopped being mad at me for cleaning their house and came out so I could see them.  It took a couple days.  It's only been a week and the nitrate levels are almost as high as they were before.  They're not at a dangerous level, but they are high enough that one error or a missed water change could push them into the dangerous level.  

One of the things I grow pretty successfully is citrus trees in pots.  I'm usually giving away Meyer lemons around Christmas.  I also grow key limes and Valencia oranges.  The limes are always ready at Labor Day and I usually make a key lime pie.  This year, I got lazy and didn't make the pie, but yesterday, I knew it was time to do it or give up on it, so I did.  They are so tart!  But the pie is perfect with the graham cracker crust and a little whipped cream to cut the tartness.  I make a baked custard when I make lemon and lime pies.  

Last week was pretty discouraging for the blog.  After Charlie Kirk died, there was no tolerance for dissent or disagreement here or in our country.  I didn't think what I said was very bad, but others disagreed.  Anonymously, of course.  I think I handled it well in the end, but there was an edit before that was pretty rough.  My apologies if that's the one you saw.   I am truly done with people going after me and then pretending that they're the victim tho.  

I believe we are at a crossroads where we, if not reverse course at least get into neutral.  But it really is hard to feel neutral in the face of so much all out attack against everything, everywhere, all at once.  Everything that I value.  Everything that I think is important.  Everything that I based my future on is under attack by people who see me being equal as somehow making them less equal.  And, they believe it so strongly that they're willing to destroy everything rather than let it happen.  Willing to tolerate corruption.  Willing to tolerate lawlessness.  Willing to pay more to get revenge against the concept of real equality for everyone.  

Everybody have a good week.  Find the love, find the tolerance.  Or, if that won't work, find enough peace to keep smiling.  

And, Liz in London, you had just the right words at just the right time.  Thank you!

Lane

A lot of not much

This week really was a lot of not much around here.  There was a lot of focus on pets and still more cleaning and a little yard work.  And, while I'm thankful it's cooling down for fall, 95* is still hot.   

Bella has been "off her feed" for a few days.  As she's gotten older, her food needs have changed a couple times.  I keep an eye on her and it didn't take long to realize she was having trouble getting wet food out of the bowl...it kept packing into the corners and the dry food we were feeding was too big to swallow whole, and she doesn't have many teeth left.  Saturday, we found the perfect size nuggets, designed for the little toy breed dogs and she's been scarfing it down and still getting to enjoy a little wet food on top of it.  It's still just a reprieve tho.  So, we focus on making sure every day has a little bit of good stuff in it.  And, hope that when I'm 85, someone does the same for me.

I didn't take many photos last week.  I meant to get a pic of the plumbago, which has gone nuts now that it's not being hidden under an umbrella (it was for the best).  But, I didn't get to that.  I did get a picture of these.  I don't understand them.  A couple times a year, the leap from the ground and bloom a proliferation of red flowers and then they recede again.  They're not the rain lilies that are common here.  Anyway, I was rinsing dishes (yes, I still do that before putting them in the dishwasher) and noticed this burst of red flowers, and it was these.  Out of the blue, they popped up and bloomed.  Our neighbor dug these up from around a tree and didn't want them anymore.  I took them all.  They're no trouble and don't take up any space and things can grow in and around them, and then suddenly they're there.  They'll last about a week and then they're gone again.  

I've been on the hunt for a new office chair.  When you move and your chair squeaks and someone asks what that sound was, it's probably time.  I'm cheap, so it takes a while to find the right chair.  I sat in one a couple weeks ago that almost came home with us, but it just wasn't quite right.  Then, I sat in this one on Saturday and for $9, it came home from Goodwill with us.  

I even gave it a test drive over the weekend and finished a small work/high impact project I walked away from Friday evening.  Having a new hire mentee is opening up some avenues for me to get attention.  I'm designing a file that she can use to share important info with her boss.  Getting that file built and in front of him quickly will get me some of the attention I'm trying to build back up.  When I announced I was retiring, I started shining spotlights on other people.  It didn't take long before they were the ones being talked about.  Now that I'm not retiring as quickly as I'd hoped, and I need to bring some of that spotlight back on me.  

I watched A Star Is Born with Gaga and Bradley Cooper last week so, of course, now I'm trying to learn to play Always Remember Us This Way on the ukulele.  I still practice every day.  My uke playing skills certainly outshine my ability to sing (damnit!)

I've been having trouble with my aquarium for a while.  I should have taken care of it before I started restocking it with fish, but I didn't really realize how big an issue it was going to turn into and it didn't seem to be hurting the fish, so I monitored the nitrate level, but didn't do much about it.  Plants flourished, but recently, algae eaters started to die.  It takes a lot to kill an algae eater.  Something really bad.  I decided I needed to do something about it this weekend, so I took all the plants and hard scape out of it and vacuumed out 40% of the water, thoroughly cleaned the gravel and then put it all back again, but in better places.  It took all afternoon, but the nitrate level is back where it needs to be.  It was still cloudy last night, so I didn't take a pic.  I tried to take one this morning, but the fish wouldn't come out.  I even fed and they wouldn't come out.  But, at least you can see the nice clean environment they live in.  

Before I can quilt the double wedding ring quilt, I need to clear up space in the studio.  I'm going to have to take apart a sewing station and I needed to put away the ironing board that was just gathering clutter.  Before I took down the ironing station, I did all that ironing that had built up on the end of it and before I took down the sewing station, I did that mending I needed to do and made some cloth bags.  I think I was really postponing taking it all apart, but whatever.  Now it's done and I can get started.  

I hate that we are falling into political violence.  I heard the things that were said right after Charlie Kirk was killed and I observed how all that talk about violence against republicans stopped when it turned out the shooter was from a religious republican family.  But, they're just waiting for a reason to declare war.  And, even if it had been a leftist lunatic, surely they understand that if they keep punching us, we're all eventually going to fight back in whatever way we feel like we can.  And, maybe that's the point.  Keep punching us until we fight back and then scream about what victims they are.  

I mean, nobody would enjoy watching n. mace get punched in the face with a big old sledgehammer fist more than me.  And, nobody would deserve it more than her.  But, I'm just not there yet.  Yet.  

Everybody have a good week.  Find something good in your life to hold onto.  Let that be the focus for a while.  

Lane

If you're reading this and about to anonymously post some "whataboutism" or some bullshit about how the killer was indoctrinated, I have a question for you.  

Why are you here, reading my blog?  I've asked you to go away nicely.  I've asked you to go away harshly.  Why do you keep coming back here?  Go find people that think like you do.  There are plenty and they are loud.  They should be easy to find.  

I didn't start this.  I was just some quiet gay quilter, raising a daughter and a flowerbed and making plans for a wonderful future.  You wouldn't even know me if I didn't write this blog.  My maga dad voted for the orange lunatic to hurt me so that he could feel more special about being a white man, even though I never did anything to make him feel less special.  I didn't do anything to any of you, except try to get my fair slice of the pie.  But racists and bigots think all the pie should be theirs because they're special.  

You're here to annoy me.  You want me to say something mean so you can whine about being a victim.  But, your little anonymous posts don't annoy me at all.  There's a "delete" button that takes care of them all.  I care what you think for exactly as long as it takes my pointer to get there and click it...and poof! you are gone!

Busy, busy

A lot has happened in the last couple weeks.  The person I liked in the interview process was hired and I'm going to be her mentor.  That's a good thing because one of the reasons I recommended her for the job is that she's going to be difficult to work with for a few months until she settles into what the job really entails.  She thinks it's going to be exciting every day, conquering foes and helping customers, but most days it's just adding 6 + 4 all day.  I have another co-worker that someone took a chance on that I've watched go through the same.  He's been the job about a year and is doing great and I'm hoping my mentee does the same.  I'm excited about what I have to offer to get her started.  

The supplies came in for the double wedding ring quilt.  

And, I got it pin basted.   Supervisor Bella was making sure I got all those lines straight.  I hope to start quilting next week.  I was going to get the machine set up, but I have a lot of stuff to do in the sewing room first.  I've set up my piecing machine in the way of my quilting machine without realizing it.  (It's been too long since I quilted anything big, I guess.)    

I didn't want to move things around because I'm also customizing some inexpensive drapes I bought.  The inexpensive ones seem to all be 52" wide and that's more than I need so I've bought them and am cutting them down to the sizes I need.  More about that later.  It's been quite the adventure and I'm going to end up with some beautiful custom drapery.  

I also took a break over the long Labor Day weekend to put this together.  A while back, I lost all control and started piecing a bunch of little quilts.  Then, that steam ran out this has been sitting in a to-go salad container in my sewing room for a bit.  (Salad containers are great for storing projects!)  Anyway, it's together now, Y seams and all.  Now I can move it from the stack of unstarted projects to the stack of unquilted tops.  The adventure never ends.  As I look at this picture, the colors are better in real life than the photo.  I wonder why.  That's not usually the case.  

There must have been millions of these little kits made.  I still find them once in a while on eBay.  It came with everything except the backing, including a square of poly batting that I plan to use, because why not?

This little shrimp plant is blooming.  For some reason, it's the only one.  The other one doesn't look like it's going to bloom at all and I can only assume it's now in too much shade.  It's the color of a cooked shrimp but this one is pale green and pink.  It was in too much sun and I moved it this year.  I swapped it with a yellow lantana that was in too much shade.  They were both nearly dead, but this year, they're recovering and both have bloomed.  They're still small, but I have high hopes for them next year.  

My sweet Bella.  Nearly blind, almost deaf, but she still enjoys food and wandering around outside and playing with Dottie.  I watched her trip in the back yard the other day, fall, roll on her back and wiggle around in the grass and then stand up and look around like "I meant to do that."  I love this picture.  She just couldn't be bothered with climbing the rest of the way into the bed so she slept this way most of the day.  

We filled the CRV with gas the other day and it takes a couple miles to adjust the MPG when we do.  We watched the MPG climb and at one point, Rob even coasted down a hill to see how high we could get it.  I think it got all the way to 113 before settling down to the 39.6 that we usually average.  I wish I was getting 105 mpg.  

Okay, that's about it for me today.  Trump bragged about declaring WAR on Chicago.  Then when a reporter asked him about it, he turned TACO.  Said he didn't say the things he'd said and belittled the reporter.  RFk jr said the same thing in his hearing last week.  Do these monkeys not understand how cameras work?  When you're recorded saying something, you can't pretend you didn't say it.  There are facts.  And, there are lies.  

There are not alternate facts.  

The fact is that there are at least 4 cities in the U.S. that have higher crime rates than Chicago.  But, they're safely in red states where it's okay...almost encouraged...to carry guns to kill one another.  Believe me.  I live in one of those red states and I know what I'm talking about.  

It's getting harder and harder for them to keep up with the lies.  Just like every liar, they're getting tangled up in their own web.  Twisting only makes it tighter.  

Everybody have a great week!  Watch your back, but also spend some time looking at the flowers.  All we can do is hang on and try not to get thrown out of the ride.  

Lane

C'mon baby!  Let's do the twist.  C'mon baaaby.  Let's do the twist.  And it goes like this!

After

 It was another busy week.  I still can't believe how many meetings I was in last week.  And of course, the fun never ends.  I have meetings this week.  My boss is going to be in town, so I'm going to the office tomorrow and then to dinner with upper management.  It should be good food and probably a parking nightmare.  

Last week's interviews were fun.  For me at least.  Probably not for them.  There are some obvious choices to be made.  Several of them thought they knew what the job entails, but few actually understood how many responsibilities there are.  They thought they were applying for the next level of their current roles, not understanding that should only be a small portion of what they'd actually be doing.  But, more importantly, managers would be hiring people with limited skills and a "small" business mindset.  Some people can't move beyond that, so there's a risk.  But, I got to talk to some really nice people and I was really good at helping them relax and we had a lot of laughs.  I think giving them the opportunity to show their best selves is the best thing I can offer as an interviewer.  

I spent as much time organizing this weekend as I have for the last month, but this weekend, it was small stuff that took lots of time.  I realized that's why a half dozen little piles of stuff got left behind.  They were the hard stuff to sort and put away.  I continued to go through old pictures and probably tossed another 50 that were all duplicate pics of the last house I lived in.  It was a cute little house, but little is the operative word.  Sadly, it was in a flood plain and several years after I sold it, the city bought it and tore down all the houses on that side of the street rather than spend the money to clean out the creek that caused the flooding.  

This week, we went to a different Goodwill.  This one is near a nicer neighborhood and they get some nicer stuff.  I got all three of these casserole dishes for $10.  I've since priced the two Corningware Etch red casseroles and they'd cost at least $40, but I paid $4 for the large one and $3 for the smaller one with the lid.  

This little casserole was an impulse buy.  I couldn't help it for $3.  It intrigued me.  It's three pieces.  A casserole and lid that sits in a warming dish.  

It's 6" by 2.5".  And, now that I own it, I'm trying to figure out what it was for, or what I could make in it.  So, I'm asking y'all.  Anyone know what this was made for?  Also, any suggestions for things that would be small servings that need to be kept warm?  We've thought about hot dips at a party, like artichoke dip or a cheese dip.  But, really, that's all I've come up with so far.  

My tools have never been this organized.  I've always wanted to label this little drawer cabinet.  Rob needed to update his nail collection, so we went to Home Depot and while he bought large boxes of different kinds of nails, I bought a few small packages of nails and screws to boost what I had on hand (Rob moves his around and I can never find what I need, so keep my own small stock now).  And, when I was going to put them away, I decided to sort through everything and label it.  And, I tossed a lot.  I don't need to keep old, used rusty nails that I pulled out of something anymore.  I have new ones, so I tossed a whole box of old stuff.  Next time I get the urge to build something, I should have what I need to do it.  

I have two more home org tasks I'd like to do.  Neither is going to be fun or easy, but both should be very fulfilling when I'm done.  I saw my doctor the other day and she asked how the new dosage was going and I said I'd reorganized my whole house and lost some weight and was enjoying work, so it's working quite well.  And, I'm going to ride that high as long as I can.  

Sending armed troops into American cities to control the population is a bad precedent.  Today, he says it's about non-existent crime, but we must assume that's how he's going to handle protest going forward.  I don't understand why people keep talking about future elections as though that was going to be an opportunity to make governmental change.  If it's not going his way, there won't be future elections.  He's making that obvious.  The best we can hope for is that his diet catches up with him.  I don't believe any other leader could draw this kind of loyalty and I believe his party will rip itself apart trying to find one.  That feels like our only hope Obi-wan.  So, let's bring on that stroke!  

Everybody have a great week.  If you get the chance to make someone else feel good, give it a try.  It's very fulfilling to see them smile.  

Lane

Archeology

 No, not digging for mummies in Egypt.  Not looking for gold in Peru.  No pottery shards and arrowheads in the desert.  

I was in my sewing room closet.  This is a storage area for all my crafting, plus other stuff.  Every few years, it gets so disorganized that I have to go in and tidy it up.  That generally means pulling everything out and dusting it and putting it back again.  This time, I didn't really sort through fabric.  I've done that and have space to store what survived.  It just needed re-stacking.  

I had several boxes of memory stuff; pictures, things from high school, momentos, acknowledgements, stuff like that.  I got a little bogged down in the photos and probably spent more time there than I should have, but I was in the mood and gave myself some time to reflect.  Saturday was my Mom's birthday and while it wasn't my intent to be nostalgic, it worked out that way.  I had a medium sized moving box full of framed photos.  I have no sentimental attachment to the frames, so I pulled out all the pictures and boxed up the frames for donating.  And, I sorted pictures into large groupings.  Family, vacations, events, people.  There was an envelope of pics of old beaus that was fun.  I enjoyed laughing at myself for the lengths I was willing to go to try to make some of those relationships work.  And, of course, there were a couple I couldn't get away from fast enough.  I'm not sure if there was a camera I owned that took dark pictures or if they've darkened with age, but there were a lot of photos I couldn't tell what was going on.  Those went to the trash.  Blurry, dark, duplicates, unflattering pictures, people I didn't know, all of that went into the trash.  All the rest got grouped and boxed for me to go through again later.  There's one box of family photos, including some that are really old.  I'd like to get them labeled with the people's names while I can still remember some of them.  Some of the names I've already forgotten and others I never knew.  

I found these and wanted to post them.  These are pictures from a Christmas in the 80's.  At some point, my Mom decided she wanted to host Christmas, so instead of everyone going to my Grandmother's house like they had forever, they came to our house.  When I tell people that the men ate before the women in a very old tradition, they look at me like I'm crazy.  How sexist.  But, it was so practical.  The women got everything ready and they fed the men and the children.  They also washed all the dishes and put them away and they made some things fresh for their table so they weren't just getting leftovers.  Then, while the men visited and the kids played outside, the women had a very relaxed and peaceful lunch.  By the time I was an adult, my Dad and a couple of my uncles and me and some cousins were doing the dishes while the women ate so they could enjoy their afternoon more.    

This was the way.

And, I remember it being some of the best food I ever ate.  

Anyway, I only took out about 2/3 of what was in the closet and it covered every bit of available space in two rooms.  They looked like this.  The open spaces are where I was sitting to go through it.  It's all cleaned up now except a couple boxes that need to be moved and a couple things that I just wasn't up to dealing with that went back in the closet on the floor.  They're small things that I won't have trouble putting away later, but I wanted to sort through before I put them away.  

There were hundreds of greeting cards and I kept thinking who are these people that sent me all these cards.  I would have liked to get distracted by sorting through them, but I never would have finished if I'd tried.  The pictures were enough.  There was also a stack of letters that I'd like to go through as well and a lot of very bleak poetry that I wrote when I was young and trying to figure out what my heart felt and for whom.  Not sure I ever want to go through that and considered tossing it, but it survived, for this go-round anyway.  

I did something a little different this time.  Usually, I empty it from left to right and then put it back in an organized way.  But I end up with things at the end that have no place and get separated from the things they belong with.  This time, I emptied by category; knitting, quilting, paper, memories and went through everything in that category before putting it back in.  I ended up with similar things together, so all the knitting is in one place and all the sewing in another and all the shirt making in another.  

The closet ended up looking like this.  It's still full, but at least I can walk in and find things again.  

Couple pictures of flowers.  This is the turk's cap.  The red flowers draw hummingbirds.  There's a clump near the house and one further away.  Sometimes, I see the leaves shimmering...just a little movement and a flutter.  If I watch long enough, I'll see the little hummingbird in there trying to hit every flower.  

And, a little cinco de mayo rose.  I love that these are pink and orange and red and yellow, all at the same time even though the camera only caught the red this time.  

I've had to put the shade cloth up in half the greenhouse.  After we had trees cut, the sun is too much in there in the afternoons.  The plants that were suffering in too much sun are starting to perk up.  It makes a huge difference and there's plenty of morning sun that comes in on the other side.  

I'm interviewing today for the first time in at least 20 years.  I used to be a really good interviewer with a high success rate (people I interviewed and recommended did well and stayed long).  Over the next two weeks, I'll be helping interview 7 people for a job in my job group.  It's exciting to be part of the future of my job, even though I hope to be out of it by time these people have made names for themselves.  

Trump.  Enough said.  The emperor truly is so out of touch that he may as well be naked.

Everybody have a great week!  Find something you enjoy and make it accessible again so you can enjoy it.  Maybe smile at a nice memory.  See if you can find a way to enjoy what life has to offer.  

Lane

Bucket

Boo-kay residence, lady of the house speaking.

It's spelled Bucket.

It's pronounced Boo-kay.

If you're not familiar with Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping Up Appearances, then you have truly missed out.  Poor Hyacinth wants so badly to be upper crust and everyone around her is common as dirt, making the pretense very difficult.  In many ways, she reminded me of my own Mother.  

Anyway, our front porch this week reminded me of that.  I needed a 5 gallon bucket for cleaning the grill and in its usual fashion, the universe paid off in spades.  Suddenly people were discarding 5 gallon buckets and I dragged them home and we became the bucket house.  And, I cleaned the grill, so the buckets came in handy.  

I used to clean my grill once a year, in spring.  I'd replace worn parts and give the inside a good cleaning.  It would take hours and made a huge mess.  Turns out that if you clean the grill more regularly, it's easier and takes less time and makes less mess.  Good thing, good thing and good thing.  I knew a guy once that cleaned his grill back to new condition after every use.  I thought he was an idiot.  We had identical grills.  Mine was a mess.  His looked like it just came out of the box.  I guess he was onto something.  

Last week was kind of crazy at work.  There was an in-office day on Tuesday, and on Wednesday I started setting up my new work laptop.  I'm glad to have a new work laptop because my old one was worn out.  Even though I hardly used the keyboard, the keys in the middle stuck...the ones I keep my fingers on, like I was taught in typing class.  If you press the L key, you're likely to get 14 of them before the next letter starts and I had to press the space bar firmly to get a space.  Now that's gone and I can start fresh with a new machine.  And, all those problematic settings I've accidentally activated over the last 5 years will be shipped back to the company headquarters.  

There was more organizing this weekend.  I cleaned up my tool area.  I used to keep my tools in a tool box, like my Dad did.  But, when. I needed a tool, I had to dig for it.  There were tools I forgot I had and had been borrowing from Rob.  No more.  I bought a $13 hanger for my screwdrivers and pliers and pulled some extra storage bins that I wasn't using in the house (never throw away storage.  It will come in handy later).  Add the label maker and I ended up with a nice, well organized tool storage area.  I can see and find my tools now.  Doesn't mean I'll use them more, but I can find them.  

We went shopping with a home organization shopping list on Saturday.  We got some new nonslip rugs and I got some bins to keep oil in the pantry.  I had stored my oil bottles in disposable aluminum baking pans for years, but I moved them and sometimes need to take them out to get to what is behind them, so I needed something more sturdy.  I got these bins really cheap and they're perfect!

I also got a new skillet.  My good teflon skillet had started to stick on one side and I'd been reading about how we needed to stop using teflon, so I bought a ceramic lined skillet.  I used it for the first time yesterday and it worked perfect.  I use small skillets a lot and if I keep liking this 10" one, I plan to replace my 8 and 12 inch skillets eventually.  

This week's egg casserole has a Mexican theme.  It's the same basic recipe that I shared last week, but instead of ham and Swiss, there's breakfast sausage and cheddar, and I added 3/4 cup of salsa to the egg mixture and increased the sour cream a little.  It should be delicious!

And, the complaining begins:

Google sucks.  They're probably okay if you devote your entire life to them, but if you just want to use some of their services, they suck donkey butts.  The last interaction I have with them is this blog.  And, it has gotten so difficult to blog that I've spent many Monday mornings thinking about just discontinuing the blog.  Right now, I'm thinking about moving it to a new service.  Just thinking about it for now, but if any of you have suggestions for other easy to use blog servicing apps, please share.  

I'm so proud of Democratic TX State Legislators.  It feels like they're running away and I'm sure some news services are presenting it that way, but in reality, they're playing the same dirty game that the pubes play and it's refreshing to see.  I'm so enjoying listening to the little pubes whine and cry about how they're not getting to be the only ones up to dirty tricks.  They're such spoiled little babies, thinking they're the only ones that get to misbehave.  And, when someone shows them what that looks like, they cry and wail about how unfair it is.  

It's funny how I've gone from swearing at them to laughing at them.  Maybe it's the new med.  Not sure.  Don't care.  Their beliefs are a joke.  Their politics of cruelty is a painful joke.  Their pretenses of doing what's good for the country is a joke.  Their ability to govern is a huge joke.  

Early in my career, I learned that you can't corral an angry group.  If you make people mad to get them to support your cause, they will eventually turn that anger back on you.  And, despite the whirlwind of crazy that trump spins to create distraction, I see that anger solidifying against him.  Not as fast as I wish it was, but solidifying nonetheless.  It's like they thought they'd be exempt from his cruelty, only to find that they're the actual victims of it.  

And, I don't feel sorry for them.  Not one bit.

Everybody have a great week!  Live, laugh, and love your way through the week.  Refusing to bend is resistance.  

Lane

A little of this, a little of that.

It was another busy week of work and pets and stuff needed doing.  My boss was on vacation, so I had plenty of time to catch up on things and focus on little problems that needed more time than they were worth to resolve, and I cleared out my to-do list.  

I spent all day Saturday in the kitchen, rearranging cabinets because I was tired of having to take something out to get to what I wanted.  How does it happen that the thing I want is never the thing on top of the stack???  This time, instead of organizing dishes by set, I have one cabinet with just plates, one with just bowls and one with the things we never use like cups/saucers and butter dishes...because when we collect something, we don't go half way.  That left me with a cabinet that looks like an antique store.  

Next up is the garage.  And, after that, my sewing room closet, which I had to work hard not to get distracted by this weekend.  

I got some nice pictures in the garden this week.  All the rain we've been getting has really made a difference.  There's still a lot of stuff burning up in the heat, but it's the stuff that's supposed to this time of year.  

Plumbago season is just starting.  I'll get these pretty blooms during the hottest part of the summer.  

The roses had a good week last week as well.  

This is a ginger that I had to move the other day.  After we had tress cut, it was getting too much sun so had to move it closer to the house.  The blooms have petals that are white, pink and a green tint.  It was an expensive, but good purchase.  

And, my Texas red star hibiscus that's in too much sun.  But, I saw another seedling and I think this bloom might have made seeds, so I'm hoping to find just the right place where this is happy.  

How about a recipe?  I make an egg casserole every Sunday.  I get a little of it and Rob takes the rest to work where he and a co-worker eat it for breakfast.  I started out making frittatas but potatoes don't heat up well in the microwave, so I've cut the potatoes out of it.  I have several versions of this and don't usually measure, it's hard to mess it up.  

Ham and swiss Egg casserole

3/4# diced ham

3/4 C chopped onion

1/3 C chopped bell pepper

1 clove garlic minced

1/2 C sliced fresh mushrooms

3/4 C shredded Swiss cheese 

sliced green onions

6 eggs

2/3 C bisquick

2/3 C small curd low fat cottage cheese

3/4 C milk

salt and pepper to taste

Saute the ham with the onion and bell pepper til the vegetables soften.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and let them soften.  Layer this mixture in the bottom of a casserole dish that's been sprayed with cooking spray.  Add the cheese and the green onion.  

Stir the eggs and bisquick until well combined.  Then add the cottage cheese and milk.  S&P to taste, but remember the ham is salty.  Pour the egg mixture over the meat, vegetables and cheese. 

Bake 350* until brown and firm on top, about 40 minutes.  

I used an 8x10 casserole and the small casserole that I'll keep for myself.  If you want to make this as a 13x9, increase everything by half.  Or, just increase the egg mixture ingredients.  

Subject change:

I heard once that you can't make a prize winning quilt on a Singer sewing machine.  What a snob.  A sewing machine is a tool.  Sure, a different tool may make the job easier, but it's still just a tool.  A few years ago, I bought a Singer because I needed a machine that would make a good blanket stitch.  It's the only thing my Bernina 930 won't do and this little machine does it very well.  I've pulled it out to blanket stitch the wedding ring quilt to the border.  I got started yesterday and got the stitch set right and was moving along, but decided I'd chosen the wrong thread and picked it all out again.  It's okay.  Anything worth doing is worth doing again and again and again until I get it right.  

The orange man that said he'd bring the price of groceries down, even though he didn't know what the word groceries meant should have been in the store yesterday when I paid $20 for a canister of Folgers coffee.  I'd a given him an earful!  But, they warned us and that's why there's 10# of coffee in my garage.  And, a few pounds of chocolate, too.  And, two small roasts in the freezer with some steaks.  I can hardly wait to remind one of his loyal followers that this is what they wanted.  This is what they voted for.  Turn the world upside down so they can feel free to be bigoted and racist.  They'll whine louder than anyone when they have to give up their cigarettes and lose their healthcare.  When there's no one left that will pick their lettuce.  And, when all the home health nurses have been deported.  

On that bleak note, it's time for me to go.  Everybody have a great week!  May your cup run over with peace and may you find joy in at least some of what you do.  We deserve it!  

Lane

Clean my house

When I'm happy and I know it, I clean house.  When I'm happy and I know it, I clean house.  When I'm happy and I know it, my home will truly show it.  When I'm happy and I know it, I clean house.

There's a line in The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires that goes something like this; "Go home and vacuum your drapes, Grace.  You'll feel happier." I read that book with book club a couple years ago and for some reason, that line has stuck with me.  Probably because it is so unbelievably old-fashioned.

I remember my Dad telling me that when his Mom was stressed and couldn't sleep, she scrubbed her kitchen floor with a brush.  

I'm the opposite.  When I'm stressed, or depressed, or both, I sit.  I might look like I'm getting a lot done, but it's just me doing the stuff I want to do and letting the rest, the drudge part of life, sit and wait until I want to do it.  

I saw my doctor a couple weeks ago and she talked me into increasing the dose of my "don't go after people with a baseball bat" medication.  I'm feeling the "high" that comes from that...and I gotta admit, it feels good.  I'm confident.  I have my "I can do that" attitude back.  I'm less worried about the future and I have a more objective view of what's going on in the world.  It feels good.  

I spent the weekend cleaning house.  Way back in the corners and under stuff.  Veni, Vidi, Vici.  But instead of I came, I saw, I conquered, it meant I dusted, I vacuumed, I scrubbed the kitchen cabinet doors.  It was a lot of work and it felt so good.  And, I hope I can do it two more weekends.  That's about how long it would take to get things back in order around here after months of spending all my energy being angry and afraid and not focused on pushing my life forward.  Don't get me wrong.  I haven't spent those months sitting on the sofa eating potato chips.  But, I have been taking a very narrow view of what taking care of my business means.  

If you need help, ask for help.  It's intimidating and it's hard to admit, but there's help available, you just have to access it, ask for it, and accept it.  I don't believe in medication as a solution.  But, it sure helps calm things down while I wait for the solution.  That's my PSA and I'm sticking to it.

The umbrellas are up in the yard.  We're not consistently at 100* every day yet.  But, we're getting close.  And, it's gotten dry and windy, so the water just gets sucked out of the ground.  I can only water once a week, so my solution is shade.  And, I use umbrellas to create that shade.  I have a couple new ones this year that Rob got for me.  They are on tripod stands and work very well, but have to be staked to the ground to keep the wind from blowing them over.  

The hot summer bloomers are all doing well.  This Thryallis looks great!  I moved four plants to happier spots over the last couple years.  And, I definitely made good choices.  All four were struggling and barely hanging on and I gave them one last chance and they thrived.  There was this thryallis, an oak leaf hydrangea, a lemonade salvia and a yellow shrimp plant.  They were all in too much sun or too much shade, so I swapped them around and now they're "just right".  It's hard to see, but this is covered with little yellow flowers.  

I read an article last week about feeding the hummingbirds as they migrate south.  The thryallis, the hummingbird bush and the phlox are definitely doing that.  And, I must be doing something right because there are about a million of the little green geckos that are out there eating bugs.  My private army.  

We bought this collectible edition of Monopoly in Goodwill this weekend.  I haven't played monopoly in years and Rob doesn't play games, but I made him promise he'd play this one with me.  We'll see if he actually does.  $4.  A bargain.  

Someone sized extra large must have decided he was done with Hawaiian shirts, so I also got several of those, some were even from Hawaii.  Rob and I are both focused on buying shirts that are not plaid and Hawaiian printed shirts are definitely not that.  To free up hangers, I pulled out shirts I don't want to wear anymore so I could donate them back to Goodwill in the cycle known as "renting clothes".  

Rob and I have been talking about my kitchen remodel.  I am ready.  I'd like to say we've made some decisions, but I really never know if we've settled on a solution until the solution is paid for.  Not sure what he's thinking, but I saw this and have decided to go with it.  

This play set was abandoned in the parking lot of the restaurant where we had dinner on Saturday and I couldn't resist a picture.  On one hand, it's not good to leave your garbage in a parking lot.  On the other hand, it gave great exposure to something I hope was picked up and is currently giving some child a great deal of joy.  After all, we put my old grill out on the street on Saturday and it was giving someone else joy within a few hours.  

Do you have a secret pastime?  Something you can watch someone do on YouTube and relax and enjoy?  Mine is watching people use their lathe to make things.  I like the ones where they put something you wouldn't expect in resin and then lathe it down to something equally unexpected.  

This was straws that were one color inside and a different color outside.  He packed them into a bucket, filled the bucket with resin and let it harden, then used his lathe to cut it down to this urn.  

This one was wood scraps that he packed into a bucket, filled with resin and then cut down to this bowl.  The bowl is beautiful, but the bucket was really big to end up with a bowl this small.  

When I was cleaning, there were places I didn't let myself get bogged down in.  They would have taken all the time I had, so I left them for another day.  One was my sewing room closet.  So much work needs to be done in there.  Every couple years, I have to take everything out and put it away again.  Because I am truly the worst about putting things back where they belong.  THE WORST!

Find your joy, find your peace, find your happy.  Watch your back with one eye and your neighbor's back with the other.  In a world where being your worst is getting rewarded, remember to be a beacon of what's best about being a good person.  

Lane