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.
 

Weekend Stuff

First, thank you all very much for the good birthday wishes. It seemed I had a real blog party. I even won Carmi's weekly "Caption This" on Sunday. I've gotten honorable mentions before, but it was a first to get the win.

As described in Saturday's post, Dan planned for me to take Fern and her friend to a afternoon concert at the Ramshead in Annapolis. There were three acts, Curtis Peoples, Ernie Halter and Tony Lucca. The girls loved loved loved it. Tony Lucca didn't end up playing Devil Town but laughed along with us when I told him that's why we came and that he had ruined my birthday. All three acts hung out long after the show to sign autographs and talk with folks. The girls got lots of pictures; it was hard pulling them away. This is Curtis, see why the girls loved him...

Eventually we got to the mall and didn't get a lot of shopping done. I guess I wasn't hip enough to know "shopping" really involves spending an hour in Sephora trying on all the make-up and walking out empty handed.

Sunday was a quiet day, I'm not sure where the time went. The kids and I went to early church and stayed to be greeters at the late service. I had to bribe Kevin with Five Guys to get him to church so we headed there after our greeting duty. We had the place to ourselves since it was still very early in the business day. Their CD player was stuck on California Girls. About the third or fourth play through Fern decides it's time to learn the lyrics and starts to try to sing along. We got half-way through the first verse when they fixed the player. Oh well.

I made two blocks for the block-of-the-month project for my quilt guild. The pattern this month is a tiny 2" paper pieced heart. A heart at Thanksgiving? Huh? The BOM coordinator thought that if you made the blocks in advance, maybe the quilt would be finished by the holiday it actually represents. So the winner of the hearts should have a finished piece done by Valentine's day. Theoretically. My first block came out perfectly. The second block was done from a different copy of the pattern printed from a different printer and came out almost a quarter inch too small. Oh well. I'll have to post pictures of them if I can wrangle my camera back from Fern. That girl needs her own. Sheesh.

Sunday night Dan and I had dinner at Marcel's on Pennsylvania Avenue near Foggy Bottom. The menu lists selections in seven courses, you can pick anything from any course for a starter or entree, or you can pick items to construct your own tasting menu. Dan and I each chose a five-course tasting menu. I had a duck ravioli, Dover sole, diver scallop, lamb in phyllo, and finished with a cheese course, St Andre served with ultra thin slices of raisin toast, almonds and dates. Dan had the diver scallop, turbot, bourdin blanc (chicken & pheasant sausage), bison, and hazelnut souffle. Our waiter found out it was my birthday and also brought me a glass of champaign and an array of mini desserts. Dan and I give Marcel's four thumbs up.

Tonight Dan planned for Kevin and me to go to Cirque du Soleil, so I'll have to post about the rest of my birthday weekend tomorrow. I'll be tired though, the show doesn't start until late. I'm tired now, what am I saying?

 

Remains of the Cake

I'm sitting on the terrace of the Park Lane in Birmingham feeling quite stuffed. The food was too good. It was mostly hors d'oeuvres buffet style. The bride even chose to have a shrimp and grits bar. We don't get shrimp and grits in Maryland.

I can see the bride through the window dancing with her friends and the groom working the room. They were dancing a slow number a few minutes ago.

The cake became self-serve after the initial rush, and I was the lucky one to get the next tier servable by removing the support plate and crumbs from the decimated layer above. I was just trying to get myself a piece and before I knew it, there were six people wanting pieces next to me.

Fern was quick to find and hang with the posse of new friends, children and cousins of the bride and groom, and of course embarrassed to have parents dancing close by. Oh well.

I'm home right now, in the middle of the day, bread in the toaster for a sandwich, waiting for the delivery guys with my cabinets. They should be here soon, my window was noon to 6, now it's 11:30 to 12:30.

I need to clean up the kitchen a bit, empty the dishwasher, etc., and get some before pictures taken before my builder starts the work next week (I think that's when he's coming, he's on vacation this week). I'm not looking forward to a week or two without a kitchen. I wish he could have done with work while we were out of town, but the timing didn't work out that way.

Mmm, good sandwich, peanut butter on wheat toast. need some chocolate milk with this. Ah, that's better.

I was thinking about making more chicken salad for lunch today, but decided it was too much work. I made some for Miss Kingsfield's Independence Day Pool Party yesterday. I make it curried with raisins, apples, and pecans. It disappeared in a heartbeat and I got complements on it, so that made me feel good.

The party was fun, and my kids seemed to have a good time, for the most part. Thanks CG!