Old and new

On Friday, we had beef k-bobs.  I opened my grill and saw that one of my grates had split and started to rust.  I'd been pondering on a new grill for a while, wondering if I should replace the insides of the old one or replace the whole grill.  I'd replaced parts three times before, meaning my old grill was old...really old.  We'd spent many years doing battle over food and the fact it only had two temps; arctic snow and fires of mount doom.  Despite the fighting, we made a lot of good food together...and a lot that had to be microwaved to finish it...and a lot of char.  

Goodbye old friend

Hello new friend

We were fine with the smaller grill.  There's just the two of us, but the smaller grill was the same price as the larger one, so we went for it.  We'll see how it works when I do some burgers this week.  

We had trees cut last week.  We had a limb come down in the wind and since the tree guys were here, we got an estimate to do some additional work, including taking out the dying maple in the front yard.  This was one of my favorite trees.  We think it was put in when the house was new in 1978, so it had a good long life.  The arborist told us long ago that this tree should not have thrived here and it must have tapped into some water source.  Over the last few years, it's started to slowly die and we'd been having pieces cut off it.  This year, only half of what was left leafed out and dead limbs started to fall off it in the wind, which was dangerous.  And, for a while, about every three days, someone that was cutting trees in the neighborhood would ring my bell to see if I needed it cut.  When they cut it down, it was dead in the center and only had good wood around the edge.  

I miss you tree, mostly because the leaves that grew on this side shaded my office window from the afternoon sun.

All that rain we got a couple weeks ago has brought on its own set of problems.  Mosquitoes are swarming everywhere and just walking around in the back yard, I get multiple bites.  I can wear bug spray, but if I don't want to smell like that all day long, I put on long pants and a long sleeved shirt to go out and do stuff.  Yesterday, I was out in full sweats with the hood up to set up the grill, but I didn't get bit at all.  I wore the same outfit to do some hand watering last week and it worked then too.  

The other problem it's brought is mold.  Every day I'm taking an antihistamine to get through the day.  That happens in summer around here, but not usually for this long.  I keep reminding myself that the garden looks great because of that rain and the water bill was lower last month than it's been for June in years.  Everything has its good and it's bad.  

I didn't take a lot of pics last week.  It's hard to get a pic outside when I'm running through the yard before the mosquitoes can find me.  I barely think 'that's a pretty flower' before they zero in and attack.  

When they were cutting the trees, Dottie was freaked out.  Rob took her on a walk that day and she wiggled out of her harness and got away from him.  He called me and I started driving around the neighborhood.  I found her on our street, running fast as she could for home, tongue lolling, clearly panicked.  I tried a couple times to get her to stop, but she wasn't having it and eventually crossed the street to avoid me, but then crossed back over and ran for our front door.  I cornered her there and got her inside, then went and picked up Rob, who'd been running behind her, wearing his work clothes and shoes.  

They both hurt their feet.  Dottie tore her front pads up and for a couple days, walked around on her toes, something I'd never seen a dog do, but then things got better and now, she's ready to be walked, but her pads are pink and tender, so we're going to have to build her back up to the long walks she was getting before.  I still see Rob wince once in a while, but his feet are doing better too.  

With all the things going on with the crook-in-chief, the one I care about the least is epstein.  I have struggled to understand why his followers care so much.  They thought they'd catch the dems up to no good and now trump is trying to keep his own no good out of the news.  I mean, with all the sexually deviant things we know about him, surely no one is surprised that he needs to keep his friendship with epstein quiet.  I wish that this would be the thing that would take him down, but you know he and his crooked clowns are trying to think of a sufficient distraction, like bombing Greenland or some other such nonsense bullshit.  While the letter and whatever else they're squealing about right now doesn't feel important, it would be great if Murdoch turned on him.  Let's face it, Murdoch is into him because the stupid shit trump says is good for ratings.  When torching trump is good for ratings, Murdoch will do that too.  And, that day can't come soon enough.  

I hope Stephen Colbert finds a new place.  Someplace courageous enough to let him keep his platform.  The truth must be spoken and if CBS has lost the will to speak it, then someone else will get a try.  We don't lose until the last one of us stops speaking truth to power.  

Everybody have a great week!  Find something you love to do and a comfortable place to do it and relax.  Find peace, love and joy for yourself before trying to assist others.  

Lane

I should have written that down

During the week, I come up with all kind of funny things that Rob and I say to one another and I think, that would make a great story on my blog.  And, then, here I am on Monday morning, wondering what I'll talk about.  

It's still raining here.  Not all the time, but almost every day.  The yard and garden are loving it.  Normally, things would be winding down by mid-july, but it's still going strong.  So much green and even though it doesn't show up so much in these photos, there are still a lot of flowers.  There's a robin that's spending considerable time in that birdbath while I wash dishes.  He's very entertaining as he bathes and preens.  Sometimes the hawk will sit on the edge of it and try to drink, but it's not really deep enough for him.  

I made another macrame hanger this weekend and put the fern in it.  this one looks good enough to bring in the house.  

On Saturday, I bought a new pair of shoes.  Well, I bought a pair on Tuesday and a pair on Thursday, but the Tuesday pair was too big (and too flat and had no arch support) and the ones I bought on Thursday were so narrow that I don't think a baby could get it's fist in the toe.  But, the ones I bought on Saturday were just right.  (Now bring me 3 bears!)  The first two were online purchases but on Saturday, I got to try them on before I bought them.  

Buying new shoes had gotten to the point of having to get rid of old shoes to make room for the new ones.  Or asking Rob to build more shelves, and I still have some pride, so wasn't going to ask for that.  I packed a large box of shoes to donate.  It's a really big box.  And, it is full.  

I even gave away my dancing shoes.

I would not be exaggerating if I said those brown boots have a couple thousand miles on them (mostly going in circles) and have been re-soled at least twice.  But I was afraid if I got my foot into it yesterday I wouldn't be able to get my foot back out.  I bought them in Fort Worth at the Stockyards and they were my first grown up pair of boots.  I also bought a hat that day.  I already had the jeans and shirts and a belt to complete my urban cowboy ensemble.  And, I wore it well.  Good times.  

Happy to report that grocery shelves were well stocked yesterday, as shown by the lovely Carol Merrill.  We seriously hated taking anything off this aisle and messing up this lovely fronting.    

I spent a good bit of the weekend basting the wedding ring quilt.  First, I sewed all the way around with the machine and a quarter inch seam, then folded it back along that line and basted it down by hand.  This is now my prepared appliqué edge that I'll sew onto the border fabric.  I plan to assemble the border like a frame, lay the quilt on top of it and pin it all the way around, then machine appliqué the top to it with a blanket stitch.  All 10 fingers crossed.

I also sewed the pony-tail hole shut in two ball caps that I bought, not realizing they were women's hats.  I bought them for the color and I still like the color, so I found matching thread and sewed them up.  I have enough trouble finding hats without wondering if they're gender specific.  

Everybody have a great week!  I'm hoping for a better week than last week.  We're being audited at work and had to supply data last week, so it was hectic and stressful.  There was a file that wasn't important.  Then, someone said it wasn't important and my boss took that as a challenge to find something important, so I spent two days on that...and I found it.  And, it was bad.  So, I guess that made him happy.  He can never be accused of accepting the status quo.  

I hope you find something wonderful to focus on.  And, that it's not wondering how many times trump is mentioned in the epstein files.  They hoped they'd find a democrat and instead found their leader in the middle...I'm thinking about starting a pool where everyone gets to pick which lie they think he'll tell and the winning lie wins the pot.

Lane

Wet

We were on the rainy side of a tropical depression breaking up last week and it rained for 3 days.  Nothing like what they saw in Kerrville, but lots of rain.  Everybody but Rob and me stayed home.  We went out and ran errands.  We laughed and joked and got wet and parked close to doors so we could stay dry.  Stores took advantage of it to play some really good music.  There were maybe half as many customers in Goodwill as employees and they were trying to sell speakers, so they really cranked it up and everybody danced a little.  We laughed about not being able to work in the yard and how much time that freed up for us to spend having good fun.  

Friday was our anniversary.  We didn't have much planned and that turned out to be a good thing since it rained most of the day.  We watched Independence Day themed movies and I made a good lunch that was supposed to be a fantastic lunch...best laid plans, right?  And, we spent parts of the day together and parts of it doing our own thing.  I was using this little quilt as my leader/ender and got really close to the end and decided to just power through and get it finished.  At the end of the movie The Patriot, the narrator says that Burgoyne was surrounded and I told Rob that was the name of the quilt block I was working on, Burgoyne Surrounded.  

I pulled out my book by Elizabeth Hamby Carlson because I want to make some more of these.  They take a good sized piece of background, but everything else can be cut from small scraps.  Dreams, dreams, dreams of quilts to make.  And, there's at least a dozen unfinished hanging in the closet.  

Piecing is fun, quilting is work.  

It shouldn't feel that way.  But, that's how the longarmers are making money.  

Quilting changed and I didn't.  I think that happened to my mentor and I know several other quilters it happened to.  It looked like they were stuck in the past, but maybe they were just choosing what they preferred.  I like what I do and I like the stash I already own (well, most of it anyway).  I don't need to change.  Just get back to sewing.  

I'm toying with buying a new machine.  Not even dating the idea yet, just cruising it over my shoulder when it walks by.  I love my Berninas from the 80's, but I have to face the fact that they are old and they have many miles on them.  

I used this glass bowl as an open terrarium (how's that for an abrupt topic change?) and the plants quickly proceeded to die.  Like, it was a race to see who could die first.  I like the idea of using the bowl this way, so decided to plant just one fern in it.  I found my fern and it looks great!  And, it's lived a week without any yellow fronds, so I'm calling that a change in trend.  This should be the perfect place for it in summer, but in winter, it's below the ceiling vent and whatever I put here has to stand up to a blast furnace blowing on it periodically.  

I also wanted this one that was way too big for my bowl, so I got it too, and am searching for a good place to put it.  

I finished my first two macrame hangers.  They're not fancy, but they'll keep a plant off the floor and in the sun.  I say finished, but I might make a couple changes to the one with the green beads.  It's kind of long and needs a wider pot, which might mean changes near the bottom.  

We painted the inside of the house a couple years ago, except for the foyer and the small hallway (can you call it a hallway if it's basically a square room with a door in each wall?).  When we had the windows done a few years ago, we had a larger window put into this space and it needed interior sheetrock work done.  Rob's working on that, and he's painted it and we decided it needed a new curtain.  This is the old fabric.  It was meant to keep the space behind the TV dark...and it did.  Very well.  

But, we decided to try something that would let in more light and we're trying this white curtain.  If we like it, I'll look for a nicer fabric to replace it with.  

Tariff chicken and ugly bills.  Just because there's an emergency declaration doesn't mean there's a FEMA to make anything happen.  There was produce on the shelves yesterday that was overripe and I can only assume it's because there wasn't fresh in the back to bring out.  It's not a bang like I expected, but instead a series of small pops that are each slightly louder than the one before.  

In the meantime, make something you like and enjoy doing it.  Don't worry if anybody else likes it.  Find your pleasure, find your fun.  And, smile like everybody's watching, because they are.  Be the difference the world needs.  I'm moved by how many people smile in response.  

Lane