Tuesday

I'm going to have to remember to think about the trees when I tell someone they can park their 65' rig in front of the house.

Yesterday, as I already posted, I stayed home from work while we got our new windows installed, leaving only to take Fern to the orthodontist to get her braces on. When I got back they were all in place and the house was getting warmer. The actual ripping out of the old ones and the setting in the new ones goes quite fast, it's all the caulking and finishing that takes a long time.



While the installer guys worked on that, I worked on the living room. I had bought that book case a couple weeks ago and only got half the stuff back in place. Add to that an unbuilt K'nex kit or two spread all over the floor along with migrating sewing room paraphernalia and you need a snow shovel to navigate the room.

I cleaned and vacuumed and was able to lay out one of the quilts I've been working on. This is the One-Block-Wonder (OBW) quilt I'm making for my mom.



I started the center of this quilt almost a year ago, like in April or May. Then in July I had trouble with the borders, got disgusted, and put it away. I took it to the retreat with me this past weekend determined to get past the disgust and make some progress. I'd seen a cool border on another OBW in Houston but I forgot to print out the picture of it for reference before the retreat so I designed the one you see here on my own, with lots of input from a fellow quilter (Thanks Cap!).

I need to take a close-up picture of the corner block. When I drew it up I didn't realize the number of partial seams there were: all but one. Sheesh. I could have altered the pattern to make it easier and not as pretty, but I pretended partial seams weren't hard and knocked out the four rather nicely. For you non-quilty folks, a partial seam is where you have to sew together two pieces of fabric part-way, then add another piece, then finish the first seam. Here's a picture of a quilt block with them.

After Fern got home from school, she and I went to fetch Kevin from his after-school program. All the while, her new braces were irritating her gums so she called the ortho office to see if she could pick up some wax. She could. While we were in that neighborhood, I suggested we go to Bob Evans for supper. Motion approved.

We were mostly through our carbo-laden dinner when my purse started vibrating. I didn't hear my phone ring but Fern felt it. It was my baby brother. He had just seen a sign for Bowie on I-97, he didn't realize how close he was to me. I told him we were eating at Bob Evans and invited him to join us. He has a new job driving trucks for Swift. He's not on dedicated runs so he never knows where he'll be next. Just like he didn't know he'd pass close to Bowie on his way from Columbus to Easton until he saw the Bowie sign. At that point we were only about 8 miles out of his way and he hadn't eaten all day, so he made the detour.

After supper he called the company his load was for and couldn't get a hold of them. He hoped to unload ahead of schedule but it wasn't to be, so I invited him to stay with us. That's when I told him there was plenty of room to park a truck in our neighborhood. I hadn't counted on the trees.



Here's my brother taking a picture of his rig. Don't those new windows look great?!



I'm so glad my brother got to stop at our house for the night; I don't get to see him often enough. This morning I made him a couple sandwiches and fixed a bag of snacks and sent him on his way. I hope he can make his way by here again soon.