I go away for a week and this is what I come back to.

See how much it's grown!

Last week:

This What Happens When

...the carefully cut pieces for our bee swap quilt block get all jumbled up. Now, to make sense of it and get it put together in time for my bee meeting.

Almost...

Ta Da!

This Will Be in the News on Thursday

The news last week of Abby Sunderland sailing around the world solo reminded me of another sailor who will be in the news this week.

According to his blog, Reid Stow has been sailing around the world solo without stopping, without resupplying for the past three years, and he is scheduled to be sailing home under the Verrazano Bridge Thursday, June 17th having been at sea for 1151 days. I am amazed by this.

Summer Games

The Special Olympic summer games were held at Towson University again this year over the weekend. Kevin and I headed out of town Friday afternoon. I went the "wrong" way going up I-97 instead of my usual way of the BW Parkway. Turns out, it was the better route and traffic was horrible the other way.

PG County athletes waiting to enter the arena for the parade of athletes into the opening ceremonies. Too bad we couldn't hear what they said when they announced us. Since I was a chaperone, I walked in the the teams. Cameras and lights everywhere.

Kevin is a couple rows in front of me. PG county had about 100 folks in the contingent of athletes, coaches and chaperones.

The calm before the storm.

Kevin in lane 5 for the 25 yard freestyle race.

We had tickets for an all-ages They Might Be Giants concert (packed with tots!) Saturday afternoon and made it down there after Kevin's 4x25 relay race. The team ended up getting DQ'd because one swimmer left early but two swimmers got staged out of order and he was confused. This is the audience area of the Ramshead Live in Baltimore during the show with the confetti machine blowing full blast. The kids loved it.

Last year Kevin didn't have any races Saturday afternoon so Dan met us at the zoo. The problem was, Kevin didn't want to go back to the Olympic village afterward, he wanted to stay with Daddy. We ended up sleeping in Bowie, then driving up early for his races on Sunday. This year I managed some heavy bribing and he went back to Towson without a lot of protest and with a burger from Five Guys in his belly.

Kevin in the staging chairs for his last race, the 241st race of the weekend.

Kevin with his bronze medal for that race.

Kevin with all his medals.

On Flying Things

Yesterday started with a bird flying into our house.

We keep the garage doors open in the mornings so we can hear Kevin's bus come. So the bird had easy entry. Thinking about it though, it's kind of surprising no bird has ever flown in before now.

Dan had the bird cornered in the kitchen near the door, but couldn't get it unlocked and open before it flew into the living room. It tried to fly out the window, which was closed. I got the front door open then used a broom to guide it out.

Last night I found a unexplainable dark purple stain on the sofa. Hmmm. Related? I don't want to think about it.

 

Quilting Pattern

Do you know this person?

I created it from this site.

 

Squealing with Joy

What you are looking at is a brand new bloom spike on my Oncidium orchid. It wasn't there last Friday. I'm so excited. Orchids are easy to grow, but finicky at the same time. They need the right light and water to be happy. I guess this one is happy.

So for the next several weeks I'll be on 'orchid watch' waiting for this baby to bloom. Of course I'll post pictures.

Random Stuff

Today is the graduation of the Bowie HS class of 2010. Nothing too alarming about that, except if Kevin weren't the Kevin we know and love, I'd be the mom of a diploma-carrying high school graduate right about now. As it is, he has four more years of school to the end of an attendance certificate, and hopefully enough acquired job skills to be employable.

The high school is closed today because the faculty and staff will be attending the graduation. I took the morning off to hang with Kevin and took the opportunity to get some errands done before I went to work.

I spent the morning at the Social Security office to get Kevin a replacement social security card. They were calling person 'A7' when I got there and my ticket was for A20. I thought it might take two hours but the pace picked up the last 30 minutes and got out in 1.25 hours. I had planned to stop by the MVA for a state ID for Kevin and to drop off the tags from the Corolla but ran out of time.

We donated the corolla to Melwood. It's our third vehicle to them. They provide job training and opportunities for people with disabilities. And, they are a local organization helping local people. And, we may need their services one day. Like, sending money to UVA to help a child get admitted. Guess we can stop that now since her grades are nowhere near good enough for UVA.

Melwood contracts with an auction company to pick up donated cars and sell them on their behalf. The corolla was picked up yesterday. On the way home from work yesterday, I remembered I'd left the garage opener and a visor sleeve of CDs in the car. Sheesh.

I called the company that handles the cars and told them my problem. The lady told me the holding lot closed at 4:30 and wouldn't open until 9:00 today. Anyway, turns out the lot is near work and I was able to pick up the CD sleeve this morning, and yesterday the tow driver saw the garage opener before leaving our house and left it in our front door.

Here's the 1999 corolla sitting at the auction lot with 168,100 miles, good bye!

Please Pass the Tomatoes

Success!

A couple of years ago I bought a cheese making kit to make fresh mozzarella and made several successful batches, even posting pictures here. Then, they changed the temperature of pasteurization. As it turns out, the difference of five or six degrees in that process is the difference between good cheese and a big vat of mess.

I was recently tipped of by a Facebook friend, the milk sold at My Organic Market (MOM) is pasteurized at the lowest possible temperature. We have a new MOM in town so I ventured in there for the first time on Sunday to try their milk. I got a gallon of whole homogenized milk for my test. (You can buy un-homogenized milk, too.)

I gasped at the price of a gallon of organic milk, almost $2 more than grocery store milk per jug. Even though the milk is more expensive, it made more cheese. My directions say one gallon of milk yields ¾ lb of cheese and I found that to be true when commercial milk worked. My Sunday batch with the organic milk yielded almost a 1 ¼ lbs! I guess organic cows have richer milk?

The cheese itself turned out good, but maybe a little stiff, almost 'squeaky.' I don't think I need as much rennet as I used. I'll have to try another batch soon. Anyone have any tomatoes in their gardens yet?