Footsore

My feets took a beating yesterday. Hips too. The Madison quilt expo was a mob scene, a MOB scene, with every aisle clotted with women (and a few men) ricocheting from booth to booth, vendor to vendor, looking for the latest in technique, pattern, fabric, machine, or any quilting doodad you can imagine--and then some. I did not take my camera but believe me it was an adventure. I spent most of my money right away at the Nancy's Notions booth where they had fat quarters and half-yards of batiks on sale. About a row and a half later of battling our way through I was done but Cookie and I soldiered on. Very smartly, Skully abandoned us newbies to make her own way around. She did a "make and take" and rocketed past things that were ho-hum to her and a revelation to us. Cookie is just getting into quilting so patterns and kits attracted her; I was just interested in the pretty fabric. I found the most interesting print fabrics at a booth from Nicholasville, KY just down the pike from Lexington where DD & DIL2 live. The woman ahead of me in that line was from Sturgeon Bay, and the women who shared the table with us at lunch were from Green Bay too. Small world! After a quick lunch we zoomed through the contest entry quilts (another brain-overloading experience) and left. We found a couple of yarn shops where Cookie bought a book on Tunisian crochet and Skully a skein of mink yarn. MINK!!! They had a cowl on display that felt so soft it was unbelievable. She's going to knit one too. Nothing really called to me so I just enjoyed looking. We stopped at a custard stand to revitalize and then sought out a bead store as Skully and Cookie both like to bead. Then we took off toward home with a stop in Oshkosh at Land's End, Corning, and Eddie Bauer outlets. (DD, it wasn't nearly as good pickings as when we used to go together. Not nearly--and the Candle Cutlet is no more. Sad.) We stopped for supper at Rocky Rococo and then came on home. I will admit that I was totally pooped out when I got here.

September 9--Germany, The Adoration of the Magi. I'd have called in a psychologist if I had been Mary. The idea of a trio of foreign kings showing up to worship my newborn son would freak me out. The whole thing had to have fostered an uneasiness between her and her husband Joseph. Can you imagine how he felt being told that he wasn't the father of her baby? That had to change how he treated the boy. And what did they do with the gifts of the Magi? Did they sell the frankincense and myrrh for food or living expenses? I would have.

And that's when I decided I was just to sleepy to keep going, and I wasn't really going anywhere anyway. Adios.
--Barbara