Got One Sewing Project Done

I ended up running a couple errands, grabbing lunch, and then getting caught by a silly game show before I made it downstairs to sew.  I decided that I should see about covering the support dowels to (almost) finish LC's tepee.  I set up the tepee, took precise measurements of the distance between legs, cut the square dowels to size, then used nearly all of the rest of the bias strips I had cut to make tubes for them.  It came to me to make the tubes a foot longer than each support and use 6" on each end for ties to hold them in place.  It worked just fine.  It was a little tricky sewing across the ends to keep the dowels in (I am familiar with the magical powers of destruction in the common toddler, not that ours is common you understand) but I managed.  They work.  It's not perfectly rigid because I didn't make one for the front side (no tripping hazard), now all I have to do is find some leather shoelaces, drill holes where the dowels cross, and get some nearby Boy Scout to help me lash them together.  Then it'll be done done and someone can set about playing in, around, and through it.  Today the hat gets made (because I realized that I hadn't washed the fabric for that so I did a couple loads of wash while sewing the rod casings, might as well multi-task, I was in the basement already)


I picked some roses.  *gasp*  I know!  I usually don't pick flowers because I hate to see them die before their time but I took a stem of them to knitting Friday to show off to the other gardeners and realized how much I liked having them nearby, so I snipped off some early this morning.  I'm thinking that as soon as I see the first Japanese beetle I'll cut them all to bring in.  They might as well die in vases in the house as die being beetle food.  The buds on the stargazer lilies are getting bigger.  Pretty soon...!

Last night after supper I whipped up a batch of Zesty Chicken soup for the next couple weeks' lunches--except I wanted to use up a piece of cooked turkey breast out of the freezer, then I thought that our homemade stock would be better than water, our can of Rotel tomatoes was way out of date so I substituted a big can of crushed tomatoes for the can of Rotel diced and regular diced and put in the can of chopped green chilies I was going to leave out if I put in the Rotel.  Let's see... what else did I change?  Oh, I used half of the garlic (garlic is mean to Durwood), half of the chili powder, and a bit less cumin.  It looks like tomato soup with veggies in it but I was determined to use what I had on hand; the only thing I had to buy was the zucchini, so it's like the soup recipe, kind of like a Palauan breakfast of eggs, hash browns and sausage is like an American breakfast of the same.  See when we were there years and years ago on a family dive trip Durwood and DD ordered eggs, hash browns, and sausage for breakfast and got eggs, Tater Tots, and fried hot dogs, kind of the same but not.  DS ordered the Asian breakfast which was some kind of vegetable soup-gruel stuff, very unfamiliar, but he loved it.  I ordered pancakes and got three salad-plate-size ones that I couldn't finish, so the next day I ordered one pancake.  The waitress said, "okayyyy" and brought me one gigantic pancake on a platter.  Evidently the cook made one pancake out of enough batter for three.  I'd have loved to see his face when he saw the order and how he flipped the thing.  I love traveling to other countries.  I miss it.

June 28--James Visser, Haircut.  Carla loved getting her hair cut.  Francis always began with a scalp massage, his strong fingers digging into her hair to untie knots in muscles she was unaware of.  The salon didn't smell of permanent wave chemicals or clashing shampoos that made her sneeze.  She thought that the soothing aromas of honey and lavender must be piped in, like Muzak for the nose.  Instead of rows of stations lined up along the walls they were places so that one stylist's clients weren't watching the next person and overhearing all the conversations.  Everyone knows that your stylist functions the same way a counselor does only your insurance doesn't pick up the tab or a bartender without the hangover and you remember what you've done and said.

That right there is what happens when you don't go to bed before 11 o'clock.  Boring writing.  I'll get better.  Really I will.  Promise.  Cross my heart even.  Time to hit Aldi because they've got pineapple, strawberries, and blueberries on sale this week and I need fruit salad.  I need it.
--Barbara