Posting Again - More Randomness

I'm behind.

Again.

Story of my life really.

I've got sewing homework due tonight I haven't finished. I am supposed to make 18 blue exchange blocks. I've got 14 blocks cut out and partially sewn. Then the bobbin ran out and I quit. I should have been working on the blocks this weekend but started a strip quilt instead. Oh well, never could get my priorities right.

I've got a girl scout vest that needs attention.
Not to mention it's that time of the year when I'll be getting a lot more vests to work on, too.

Back in March I planted a half pound pack of pea seeds. They came up nicely, growing wonderfully, I was looking forward to yummy peas right off the vine until the rabbits had a salad.

Fern is interviewing at a private high school today, she is tired of the general population at Bowie HS. for example, she's taking the HSAs this week, those minimum standard tests needed for graduation in biology, government and English, and some of her fellow students who don't take the tests seriously cause disruptions. She's just tired of it all. I don't blame her.

Ever since she took the PSAT in October she has been inundated with recruiting propaganda from colleges all over the country, most I'd never heard of. Her SAT equivalent theoretically was 1800, is that good these days? She wanted to take the SAT this spring instead of waiting until fall of her junior year so I signed her up for the session in June.

Kevin has a swim meet this weekend. Its the PG Special Olympics county meet, which is usually a big one, most counties attend, but for some reason only 47 athletes from four counties have registered so it should be over quickly. That means in the noon-2 window instead of the 4-5 window. They will be running the long races, though so that does take a lot of time. But still, fingers are crossed. I'll be there all day to time races. If anyone needs volunteer hours, I can hook you up.

Then we're off to the State Games in June and swim season will be over. yay.

I've broken part of my molar and I probably ought to have it checked out. It doesn't hurt, but it's kind of achy. Sheesh.

 

Random Bits of Info

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.

It's my busy season at work, I've got three huge surveys going live in January and I'm trying to make sure that'll happen. I've got oodles of developing to get done and I hope none of my clients throw a wrench into the process.

For Fern's birthday in July we gave her a weekend at the beach for her and two of her friends. This past weekend was it, I took the girls to Ocean City. It was a lesson in patience. It takes about an hour for three teenage girls to wake up in the morning and to cycle through the bathroom for showers after beach time. I tried to give the girls their space at the same time as being the parent on duty. I think everyone had a good time.

I've finished the rush of Girl Scout vests that were dumped on me during the summer. My in-box is empty, but I still have many other projects that require attention. Like the new pair of socks I'm knitting, because I just had to have a new ball of yarn from that shop on the boardwalk.

Long-time readers of this blog may have noticed I haven't posted anything about my Mendoza line in quite a while. That's because I've been over my I-shall-never-be-over-this-weight weight for almost two years. I was successful losing some weight last spring in preparation for our 10-day cruise so I could get into summer clothes. After we got back, I gained it all back and then some. It would have been very easy to just throw up my hands and change my Mendoza line, but I didn't want to, I didn't want to settle for that. I was past the edge where I should buy the next size larger clothes. I didn't want to go up that next size, I didn't want to discard what's in my closed (again) for new, bigger stuff. Dan's been doing Weight Watchers now and has lost some weight. I was watching what I was eating and lost a little, but wasn't really getting significantly nearer my Mendoza line. Now I'm doing WW with Dan and all I can say is "Wow!" First of all, I never realized how much I was eating until I started writing it down and assigning points to it. Secondly, when I started eating within my points range, the weight started to really fall off. The "just one more" mentality does make a difference. I didn't need just one more. It's getting easier to retrain that part of my brain that wants to snack all evening to a) eat a smaller snack serving, 2) eat a healthier snack, and iii) skip the snack altogether. I'm still above my line, but it's within sight, and I'm very excited about that.

I got called a "good mom" by a woman who was about to get her nipples re-pierced.

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!

Oh, a Bunch of Random Stuff

Over the last several months Fern has been watching Gilmore Girls on the TV in the sewing room. She records it from the ABC Family channel every day. I started absorbing the show by osmosis when I was working on my quilts. Then the next thing I know, I'm hooked. I'm wondering how wise it is to learn parenting-a-teen-girl tips from Lorelai Gilmore.

My grandmother would have been 94 today, but died at 86. I still miss her. Happy Birthday, Grandma. It was hard for her to celebrate, however; she lost her son this same week in 1984 and then her husband in 1992, the same week.

Today, Census is having a quilt display to honor Women's History Month. I'll be displaying two quilts. I'm hoping I'll meet other quilters from the building and we can form a once-a-month lunchtime group.

My regular Bowie guild is having their annual quilt show this weekend and my quilt is almost ready, just need to put a label on the back.

I was the only person to show up for my group session last night at the personal trainer's gym so I had a private session at the group price. My arms were very rubbery afterward with all the different things he had me do.

The new dishwasher, a couple weeks old now, is doing fine, very quiet. The capacity is a bit more and the tines have a different arrangement than the old one, so I'm still trying to learn the best loading/running procedure. It's that sweet spot I'm looking for, don't want to run it too empty, but if I wait another day, I'll have more than enough to fill it.

I think I'll make a cup of tea.

Quiet

The house is quiet, I haven't even turned the radio yet. The refrigerator kicks on, it seems so loud when there's nothing else. I hear the mailman's truck stopping and going outside. I've just dropped the kids off at their Saturday morning activities, Fern to skating and Kevin to Swim-n-Gym, so I'm "free" until I have to retrieve them. Dan left this morning for a conference in San Francisco for the week. I'm torn between taking it easy this morning with some quilting and trying to get some stuff done while no one is in my way.

Maybe I'll do both.



 

Puzzling Randomness

The low-pressure-in-my-tires indicator light came on Tuesday on my way to work. I was ticked. I hate when dashboard lights come on. It was not paradise. It had only been 2000 miles since I had service done which I believe included a tire rotation, which means they should have checked the pressures in the process, but didn't. But then I recalled this happened last year when the nights got cooler, cold air==low air pressure. Monday night the low was in the 50's which explains the warning light on Tuesday. I added air and the light is off now.

My daughter bought a Lost puzzle at the Five-Below store over the weekend. She loves Lost. So do I, and I love puzzles too, but I wouldn't have bought a THOUSAND piece puzzle. She is not an experienced puzzle buyer, and didn't notice the picture on the box only shows a small part of the whole thing. Since then, she's declared she's no good at puzzles and now I'm the one glued to the table every night working on this darn thing, just one more piece, then I'll go to bed. I can see the TV from the puzzle table so at least I'm getting something done. Here's the current state of things:


Maybe I'll do a google search to find pictures of the completed puzzle so I know what the goal is.

Glee premiered on Fox last night. It's good, better than I thought it was going to be, hard not to sing along. Might have to add that to my DVR list. Good to watch while working on a puzzle.

Castle and Big Bang Theory should premier soon, I love those shows. More good things to watch while working on a puzzle.

There's stuff on the written on the back of each of the puzzles in glow-in-the-dark ink that fits all together. Maybe I'll need to find the other three puzzles .... maybe not.

The tree guy is coming tonight. They want to take down a bunch of trees in our backyard because they interfere with the power lines. They'll give us money to replace them with shorter varieties. Is it too late to get some crepe myrtles planted? I know it's not too late to plant trees, is it too late to find decent nursery stock?

I think I need a coke.

Randomness

Eight days until the premier of Project Runway on the Lifetime channel. Wonder if my DVR will find it?

I'm collecting MyCokeRewards points, those codes on the inside of bottle tops and cartons. If you're not collecting them yourself but are a coke (or related product) drinker, email or text me your codes. I'd appreciate it. It's like collecting S&H green stamps, remember those?, except I don't have to paste them into booklets before cashing them in. I'm saving up for a shiny new mixer. No, wait, that was for the green stamps.

I've volunteered to bring in bagels to the office tomorrow so I had the secretary take everyone's order so I don't have to stand there in the morning trying to decide which ones to order.

I'm in need of a large table or clean floor so I can finally baste my mother's quilt. I can't find a 9 x 9 foot table. The tables in our conference rooms are 5' x 10' but there are too many people around and I'd need to drag in tables from another room to make it big enough and there are too many people around.

I'm still so far behind with girl scout badge sewing, probably about eight or ten vests in the queue. This summer has been full of activities and when I do have evenings at home, there is Top Chef Masters and Better Off Ted to watch.

The fabric shop where I bought my sewing machine is closing at the end of September. The repair guy there has a fabulous reputation, I'd like my machine to have its annual cleaning before he's gone. I called Monday about machine service. At that time, there was a line of 35 machines waiting for service, they would stop taking machines on Saturday. I asked if there was a waiting list so I can bring it in when it's my turn. No. Fabric is 40% off though, might need to visit the shop anyway.

School starts in a week and a half. Both kids will be out of the house by 7:30. Unless buses are missed. I'm not sure about the stress levels of getting two teenagers up and out at the same time. Which saint covers things like that? Probably St. Jude.

I learned about remote-controlled golf carts yesterday. I want one. Look here and here for examples. Of course I really don't need one, but wouldn't they be fun? But why stop there, I could go to the grocery and Fern could drive this to school. If I let her.

I think I need a snack. And maybe a coke.


 

I learned something yesterday

You can't covertly peer under the partition in the bathroom to see if you recognize the shoes of the person throwing up a couple stalls down because the automatic flusher will give your presence away.

Considerations

1. Don't plan on going to back-to-school night and quilt bee on the same night.


2. Don't expect to know what time it is when you look at your watch. It might have become 20 minutes slow over night.


3. You can't hide in an orange car.


4. Your watch might be 20 minutes slow the next day too, even if it was correct at bedtime the night before.


5. You can't expect to be seen in an orange car.


6. Your clocks are in cahoots. The kitchen clock will be off by 5 hours on the same day when your watch is slow.


7. Don't have a fiberous lunch on the day of a water aerobics class.


8. Don't buy fragrant deodorant, you're children will want to use it. Yes, both of them.

Random Stuff

AM is in London with Mark and their respective kids. My other walking friend, L, is in Florida on business so I have to walk alone in the mornings. It's so tempting to stay in bed but I've made it out twice this week without them. Yay me. I've taken my iPod and walked to tunes and have tried to keep up a fast pace. I think when the three of us walk together we tend to slow down a bit and it takes us more than 30 minutes to complete the circuit, but this morning on my own I noticed I finished it in just under.

One of my motivating factors to keep walking is that my weight is hovering at or above my Mendoza line. I hate that. It was below it for so long, and now, I just can't seem to get it to budge. I'm not even eating that much junk!

I've had this pain in my neck for a while and have been under the care of an ENT. I could feel a lump and he put me on antibiotics to clear up what he thought was a chronic infection in a lymph node. The lump is gong but recently the pain is up higher, right under my ear in the crook of my jaw. And it's sharper. So now I'm using Nasacort spray. The pain is better, but not perfect yet. Then just this morning, I realized something: the nose spray has steroids in it, and don't steroids have a side-effect of weight gain? Uh-huh, I thought so. So I'm trying to be at peace with my weight level for now.

If my daughter reads this, OK, she'll know the secret in advance. I upped her message allowance for her mobile line yesterday afternoon. I didn't go all out with unlimited, but I think the number will be plenty. It better be.

I got the promised sixteen Cadette Girl Scout vests delivered on Monday evening and last night I got everything ironed on in the proper places to all of them. Now I have to stitch over it all so it stays put. I got two more vests delivered last night and an email from another lady who wants to drop off her daughter's vest tonight. All these 19 vests need to be done by July 7th because all these girls are going to Savannah to the Juliette Low House. (Birthplace of the founder of the Girl Scouts, in case you didn't know.) I don't want to turn away business, but it's getting close to that point, time is getting tight.

Fern helped me out last night by getting the badges and numbers ready for me to iron on. She might be ready and willing to learn how to do the sewing. She's motivated byt the idea of me paying her to help. Two things concern me: my not-so-new-anymore, expensive sewing machine and teaching her to use it without either one of us driving the other crazy; and her attention span to finish the work she says she'll complete. Following up on a half-finished job can take as long as doing yourself in the first place.

I'll just do the nineteen vests myself, I'd be too nervous to let her learn on them. And I'm pretty sure I can get them all done in the next two weeks. Except next week the kids are going away to camp and Dan and I will be going to Vegas to get married. So I really don't have two full weeks. Yikes. Maybe I should take a picture of my sweat shop for you to see.

My Dad is having his knee replaced today. Pray the hospital food doesn't kill him.

Trying to be Creative

My mom never reads my blog, so I feel pretty safe in posting this picture. Her birthday is tomorrow and I made this fabric postcard for her last night. She loves daffodils and some times I can actually find them this time of year, but usually it's too early. I put this card in the mail this morning so she might get it tomorrow.



Friday starts our annual quilt guild retreat. I've decided not to do the mystery quilt this year. The fabric requirements are 240 7"x 1.75" strips, half in dark fabric, half light. I dunno, seems like too much cutting to me. I still have last year's mystery project to finish. That was the one I lead. I had prepared all the examples and just never put it together in the end.

I've been wandering around lately without a plan, without a clue, too, but mostly without a quilting plan. I have several unfinished projects that need my attention but nothing is really drawing me in, calling my name, wanting to be finished. I think that's why I'm having a hard time getting ready for the retreat. I don't know what to pack, I don't know what to take to work on, and I don't know what I want to finish.

I've glanced at my to-do list over there in the sidebar of my blog for inspiration, so maybe I'll start there when I pack. I have a long-standing list in my Palm, too, of things I take to the retreat center every year so I don't forget supplies, but I always manage to forget to put something on the list. I hate over-packing, it's just too much to carry in from the car and back, but I hate not having all that I might need. You never know when inspiration might strike and when it does you don't want to not have that perfect bit of fabric because it's a home.

Maybe I'll pack lightly and just take a couple books and knitting to my quilt retreat.

Notes on Other Topics

Thank you, Greeny for reminding us "Dame" is the female equivalent of "Sir" for being knighted. so, may I present to you: her royal knightress, Dame AM Kingsfield! TaDa!

Dame AM has my kids today since school is closed because of election day, proving her well deserved knightressness.

Just Me commented to me about me being in front of computers all the time and being anti-technology. To that I remind folks there is a big difference between a computer user and a computer programmer.

I'd like to post replies in the comments, do you go back and look? Are you used to that? Should I start?

OK, that's settled. I'll start posting comments, and you'll have to look back for my answer.