After I finished changing out the pullover zipper for a full-length one in Durwood's birthday gift, I got started on the quilt blocks because we're leaving next Saturday morning for a 2-week vacation.
The blocks this month are both stars, Ohio Star and Double Star. I enjoyed making them both, especially my first foray into making flying geese for the Double Star.Figuring out how to place the ruler to cut out the center of the Ohio Star took some time but I managed.
I'm happy with the contrast of the dark blue, yellow, and the blue with orange (looks kind of universe-ish, I think) in the center. I was looking for an opportunity to use those three fabrics for months. I think I made the right choice.With the passage of each month I'm more eager to get to November when we learn to assemble the blocks with sashing between them (dark cocoa brown) and put it all together with the batting and backing, and in December when it's time to machine quilt and bind it.
Guess what day it is? It's my beloved Durwood's 73rd birthday. He's the same crazy goofball that I married lo these many years ago and still the only person I want to spend a 2-week car ride with. Oh, I lose patience with him every once in a while. I can only imagine that he loses his with me far more frequently. But his is still the voice I love to hear when I pick up the phone at work. I've made Mother Malcolm's Coffeecake to take along for dessert at Family Supper later which is what he said his favorite dessert is. He couldn't resist cutting into the least attractive coffeecake this morning (saving the better looking ones to share) for his breakfast and said that I hadn't used enough brown sugar. Hmph, I was sure I'd put in the right amount (you just grab some out of the canister and sprinkle, same with the cinnamon) but the birthday boy is the decider so I whipped up some caramel glaze to drizzle over them. I think this might be the first time in all the times (probably close to 50) I've made this that I've put frosting on it. Can't hurt. I talked to my cousin out in Yellowstone yesterday and got lots of travel tips (like that the Beartooth Highway between Billings and Silvergate, Montana is the prettiest in the States and the Lamarr Valley when we first enter Yellowstone is the best place to see wolves and the buffalo are in rut which should be very interesting) and made arrangements to meet him for supper the night we arrive. The coolest thing is he's hoping to take a day off while we're there and tour around with us for the day. I'm sure he knows all the best stuff to see, and maybe a secret spot or two. Now I'm more excited than trepidatious about going. Oh, don't be concerned, this is my normal "week before we go" silliness. I'll dither around in a mild panic all week, flitting from pillar to post, mentally packing and trying to make sure that everything's just right, nothing left to chance, and then be okay once we're a few miles from home. Buffalo! Starlight! Wolves! I'm hoping that I'll be able to find Wi-Fi so I can post a bit but if it's quiet I know you'll understand.
August 5 -- Herman, Paul, and Jean de Limbourg, Saint Eustace Loses His Sons. "The poor son of a bitch." Gina looked at her husband. "What, Ernie? Who?" Ernie gestured toward the framed page. "This guy. He's stuck in a stream, a wolf is carrying off one kid and a lion's munching away on the other. He should be angry but he's smiling away." He shook his head. "See the light coming from the sky?" She nodded. Ernie went on, "They call that "God light. Looks like a UFO to me. Besides what loving God takes a man's sons? Huh?" She put her hand on his arm. "So why do you say he's a poor SOB?" She couldn't bring herself to say the words. He hitched up his pants and turned away. "Because he's stuck and his kids are both dead and there he is smiling, not knowing that his world is destroyed. People are fools about religion." Gina stood looking at him walk into the next gallery. They'd been married for 35 years and he could still surprise her.
I have an almost irresistible urge to go spend an expiring coupon at JoAnn Fabrics but I'm going to try to resist. Maybe if I go cast on a dishtowel that'll help. I'm ripping an audiobook version of To Kill A Mockingbird so I can plonk it onto my Kindle and take it with me. Maybe I'll see if I can't zoop over the manuscript that I want to work on at The Clearing next month. Anyway, I'm outta here.
--Barbara
Last night as we left Harmony Cafe after yoga & knitting the moon was rising big and orange over Toys R Us so I stopped in the deserted parking lot of Cub Foods to take its picture in a spot where there weren't any wires or light poles in the way. I had parked (well, stopped dead in the middle; I'm practicing for driving through Yellowstone week after next) and was just about to turn off Beverly when I saw headlights approaching behind me. I waited for the van to go by but it stopped right alongside. It was Mitch, one of the knitters, wondering if I'd run out of gas. No, I said, I want to take a picture of the moon. He drove on but then doubled back to take his own pictures of the moon but from way farther back trying to get the moon to look like it was sitting on top of Beverly. Didn't work, and my shots don't look as orange as it looked in real life, but I'm happy with this one especially and I'm happy that I'm working to learn what's behind all those buttons on the back of my snappy red Nikon Coolpix. I am also happy to report that I unearthed some smaller shorts yesterday and they fit. FIT! They're not a lot smaller, only one size, but with the way my weight loss (non)progress has been going this last year it means a lot to me. That and the realization when I carried in a 40# bag of birdseed from the car on Tuesday that 40# is the amount of weight I've lost over the last few years since we started eating the WW way, and that bag of birdseed was HEAVY. I will admit that the pounds came off a lot easier (a lot) when we stuck to the old Quick Start exchanges plan, but Points Plus seems like a way I can eat the rest of my life and it also looks like the way I can maintain a weight loss which I have never been able to do in my entire life. I've probably lost at least two Barbara's worth over the years and put it back on gradually through going back to my old eating habits. Not anymore, not now that I have Chef Durwood cooking yummy WW-y suppers and tolerating my lunatic ideas, like making scads of 100-calorie snack packs to take on our trip. I think it'll be so much easier to grab a snack baggie of pretzels or Reduced Fat Cheez-Its (be still my heart) or Chocolate Chex with dried cherries or cranberries than to buy (as in purchase at a gas station/mini-mart along the interstate for too much money) Cheetos or a candy bar to munch on, and it'll keep me closer to the straight and narrow. I have no illusions that I'm not going to hare off into "bad food" territory on a daily basis but if a little concentrated pretzel and cracker counting and cereal weighing now can help minimize the damage I'm doing it. *nods confidently* Today's Photo A Day theme is "where you sat." I immediately thought about my sewing chair and the hours of fun I have in it.
August 4 -- Joseph H. David, Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Otis and Child. They sat like that every evening before supper, Daniel reading the newspaper and Betsy holding the baby on her lap. The miracle baby, Betsy thought of her small daughter. They had been married nearly twenty years before the interruption of her monthly cycle made her think that her barren womb might finally bring forth life. Daniel had never seemed to care one way or another about children. He went to his bank every day but Sunday, read the paper when he arrived home, and expected his evening meal at six precisely. He was not a sportsman or a hunter where having a son to teach might be a good thing. Betsy ached for a child. She suffered near crippling jealousy whenever a young wife came to church big with child or carrying a tiny scrap of humanity wrapped in swaddling clothes. Finally last year the miracle happened and baby Patty was born after a long and hard labor, but she was worth every pang to Betsy. Daniel paid very little attention to her; she was a girl after all, unable to inherit his bank and property.
Ah, Dan, you moron, don't you know that girls can do just about anything? Tsk. Now I'm off to snag my audiobook copy of To Kill a Mockingbird before the Ashwaubenon Library closes and then it's down into the dungeon, better known as my studio (spoken with a nasally, fake-British accent), to sew up that quilt block in the picture and make it's sibling because I'm really excited to see how those fabrics look cut out and pieced together. Then later I made coffeecakes. You totally wish you were here for that. Totally. (I'd send you some, DD, if I thought it'd survive the trip. Love, Mom)
--Barbara
I sat and listed the few things I want to get done today, "few" being a euphemism for "crap-ton" (ahem) so I'll try to keep this short. (heh, like I don't ramble on into infinity once I get started) Maybe I'll start where I usually end... Today's Photo a Day theme is "coin" so I took a picture of my coin cup. It's a red plastic picnic cup that holds about a soda can's worth of Coke; it sits under the paper towels on the kitchen counter. At the end of every day I put my coins into it (I try not to spend any coins) and when it's full I cash them in for paper money that goes right into the "mad" zipper pocket of my wallet. I think that I'll take it in on Tuesday or maybe next Friday even though it's not quite full so it can be "trip" money instead of "mad" money this time. That'd be good, don't you think? I also need to check that we have the ingredients to make coffeecake dough tonight and the coffeecakes tomorrow. Ooh, it's going to be difficult not to cut into one before dessert time at Family Supper on Sunday. We might have to have a taste test to make sure it's good enough for the rest of the fam. I want to do some sewing; put the zipper in Durwood's fleece pullover I'm reworking into a jacket and maybe knock out the August BOM quilt blocks while I'm at it. Or maybe I'll do those first as a kind of warm-up... NO! fleece first, then quilt blocks. No fooling around, Barbara, work before play, set a good example. And I need to pop into Office Depot to return something, get a new black cartridge I just discovered that I need when the pages I printed came out blank (I hate when that happens), and look into maybe getting a mobile hotspot to take along if it's not too pricey. I'll see. I might be learning thrift in my old age. Might. Hey, I'm trying. Durwood lectures me (gently) quite often about my spending habits because he doesn't see the struggles I have not buying things, he only sees when I do buy things. (I am totally the grasshopper and he's the ants in this marriage. Aesop's Fables, click the link to read the story) I'm learning, really I am. I am being very conscientious about knitting and sewing with what I have on hand, only buying the barest minimum of things that a project calls for if I don't have the item or a reasonable facsimile. For instance, I already have long separating zippers to put into Durwood's fleeces; I just need to buy a couple of barrel clamp-y things to keep the elastic cord from sucking back into the bottom casing. See? Not much to buy at all. Although I think I might have a coupon... No! Geez, Barbara, get a grip, you want to have money for the Yellowstone trip and to go to The Clearing next month (next month!!! woohoo!!!!) and to Nova Scotia next year. Dollars add up, especially when you don't spend them. Imagine that. Do you even have times that you'd like to scrape out everything in your house and start over? I'm feeling that right now. I want less stuff (not hobby stuff, stuff stuff) and I want the house to look different. Maybe I'll paint in the fall and rearrange the furniture. Maybe the flooring fairy will come while we're away and lay down new carpeting... nah, probably not, there probably isn't one, just like there was never a "Bridget" to clean Mom's house. Okay, this is getting long again, I need to eat and tackle my list. Errands first, sewing second.
August 3--Syria, Plaques in the Form of Sphinxes. "They're looking at me." "They are not." "Yes, they are, I can see that they are." "They're not real, not alive. See?" (knuckles rapping on bronze) " They look alive. I think one of them blinked." "No, it was a shadow flickering on it; neither one is alive. They are bronzes from the eighth century B.C. B.C., Jean, nothing can be alive that long." "Shh. Did you hear something?"
That's just weird. Sometimes even I wonder about myself. The oddest thing happened on Wednesday night. We ate at Tony Roma's and I used the little towel they give you to wipe my lips and I evidently wiped the base of my nose and alongside it because it hurt like I'd been blowing my nose for days (you know, that mid-cold feeling?) and now it's dried like a healing burn. So beware of the caustic towels at Tony Roma's. Jeez. I'm a veritable festival of weird. Toodles.
--Barbara
Okay. I can't quit casting on preemie hats. I change yarn color between hats and yesterday at work I finished the Chocolate Mint one (brown, green, pink) and didn't have another color with me. (Evidently the color changing thing's a rule, if only to my inner-Hitler) After a tiny frisson of panic I went on Ravelry and chose another pattern. Zip-bang-boom--a little beanie/watch cap is OTN (on the needles, for the non-knitters). That's the tiny little ribbed cuff that'll be turned up when it's done and it'll need a pompon. I can't imagine how cute a teensy pompon's going to be. Kootchy-kootchy-koo. 
Monday DS borrowed my car to go to the pool with a student since he didn't think his scuba gear, her scuba gear, and 2 tanks would fit on the back of his bike. This was no problem; since they were predicting storms for the late afternoon Durwood followed me to DS's job, I handed over the keys, Durwood took me to work, and picked me up when I was done. Easy. Once DS was done at the pool, he drove to our house and I drove him home. (DIL1 was working later.) On my way home there was a break in the storms and the nearly full moon poked out of the clouds. There was lightning in the clouds. It was awesome so I stopped in the bank parking lot across from the park to take some pictures. Digital cameras don't have the same adjustability as film cameras, especially at night, but I think I did okay. Moody, eh?
Last night I went out to water the herbs and saw a lot of red in the garden so I moseyed on over and picked a skirt full of tomatoes. You can bet we're having a tomato salad with our supper tonight.(Mosey, heh, I think I'm practicing my cowboy for being out in the Wild West the WEEK AFTER NEXT. Ahem, sorry. I'm not excited, no sirree, not me. It's Durwood, he's the one capering around the kitchen. Me, I mosey, I'm cool.)
I'm not sure why. Well, I know why it's hot, it's August, it's summer, it's Global Climate Change (I was tempted to type that last one all in caps since people tend to holler that as if it's the reason and blame for everything weather-related but I didn't want to holler on your morning). The gas prices thing they're blaming on the pipeline leak last week and a little problem at a refinery in Illinois. That Illinois, they're a thorn in Wisconsin's side, I'll tell ya. They come to Door County (the thumb part of WI that sticks out into Lake Michigan) in droves, clogging the roads and spending all their money in the shops and stores... oh, wait, that last part's a good thing, isn't it? Plus even though I'm not any kind of a football fan I know that Illinois has "da Bears" who are the archenemy of our (mostly not my) beloved Green Bay Packers, who are back in town having training camp even as we speak. Well, not at 7:48 AM which is the actual "right now" but soon (today's the last 2-a-day practices) and you can bet the railbirds (yeah, it's an old photo but it still looks pretty much the same) will be there in force. Plus the kids with their bikes. That's my second favorite part of football, after the flyovers. Kids adopt one of the players and let the players ride their (little) bikes (scroll through the pictures in the link, it's worth it) down from the locker room to the practice field while the kid runs alongside carrying the player's helmet or rides the pegs. The players develop relationships with the kids and go to their games and keep in touch in the offseason. It's very cool, and Green Bay's the only place that happens. Naturally it was getting out of hand a few years ago so the team stepped in to set down limits and rules, but it still goes on. On a happier, non-football note look at the tomatoes I harvested when we got home last night! A whole skirt-full of red, yummy goodness. We'll definitely be having a tomato salad with our supper tonight, with a little sliced cucumber and maybe some minced basil. We aren't growing cukes but we've got basil to burn. Well, not burn, but we've got a lot. The Japanese beetles have pretty much chomped up the 2 "fancy" basil plants that're in a hanging planter on the garden corner but they've left the regular, sweet basil in the patio planters alone. (Watch, now that I've said that they'll move over and start munching. "nope, nothing to eat here, move along.") I should whip up some pesto to put in the freezer. Wonder if we've got enough walnuts... toasted walnuts are tastier than pine nuts, I think, cheaper too. I should get a move on; I have to shower, etc. and go to work. Maybe if I'm lucky Mrs. Boss won't come in again today. She sure disrupts my quiet working days with her "do this, do that" thing. As if she's the boss of me... oh, wait, she is. Ah well... Anyway, it'll be another skirt day because it's supposed to be hot and humid. Seems to be a refrain this year, doesn't it? Today's PAD theme is "one" so I took a picture of my one and only Durwood. He's my one, yes, he is. He's not getting off easy, I'm telling you.
August 2 -- Paul Gauguin, Still Life with Teapot and Fruit. Cali felt like she was pushing through wet gauze as she walked from the house. The humidity had to be up over eighty percent and there wasn't a breath of air stirring. She walked down the sand and coral gravel road toward the sea. There had to be a breeze there. Maybe she'd walk into the lagoon until the water came up to her chin and just stay there until dark. Milo wouldn't let her go out in her bikini. He insisted that she wear shorts and a tank, at least, and he thought a loose dress would be better, more modest, he said. How can he preach modesty to me when half the young women run around topless?
I think Milo's in for a surprise. Cali's about ready to rebel. And who's on the beach ready to help her with that? Heh, heh, heh... maybe if it's quiet at work I'll put pencil to paper and find out. Better toss a notebook in my backpack. Not that I don't have a little pad but I might need something with room for more than 10 words on a page. Ha, there's the "day book" Robin passed out in a poetry workshop a few years back. Perfect. The pages are even unlined, my favorite kind. Thanks, Robin.
--Barbara
I chipped my left front tooth somehow on Monday (@$#%&) right on the narrow edge and it started to ache so I called Dr. Mike and he's on vacation this week (the nerve) so I had to call the guy taking his emergencies. I got an appointment in the late afternoon and drove out along Lineville Road through 4 roundabouts to his office. The chip was so small it didn't show on the x-ray but since I'm convinced that Mom put me together with spare parts (no, really, Dr. Rick said that the nerves to my teeth and mouth aren't in the right places which made freezing things before extraction or drilling an adventure) I asked him to fix it. He has a laser drill, very cool, and it turns out that his office used to be... in the building in our backyard, in the basement with the entrance facing our backyard. That would have been a tad more convenient although then I wouldn't have gotten to try out the new on-ramp/off-ramp/3 roundabouts Mason St.-Hwy. 41 interchange that just opened on Saturday. I liked it, it worked well for me. (Don't ask Durwood how he feels about it unless you want your hair blowed back, he's not a fan.) After supper I sat at the kitchen table (better light and a solid surface) picking the zipper out of one of the fleece pullovers I want to turn into a jacket for Durwood to take out West. Izod or the Eastern European sweatshop that makes them sure used a lot of thread. A lot of thread. I am pleased that I was able to retain the short facings and will be using them again when I install the full-length zipper, probably Friday. That's really all I did yesterday once I finished my small errands. I felt kind of off so I just listened to my iPod Touch (I'm falling behind in my library book listening, darn that Mrs. Boss being at the dive shop) until time to go to the dentist. Durwood mentioned that he's never read To Kill A Mockingbird (gasp! then I remembered that I hadn't read it either until DD started her summer reading plan a few years [well, maybe more than a few years] back) so I checked and the library (I love the library! Free books! Free! Your tax $$ at work for something that isn't graft or pork) and reserved a copy on CD so I can download it to the iPod to take on our trip. And since it's August 1 (already?) the quilt BOM patterns are online, so I printed them off and will get to make them this weekend too. Oh, can't forget to make Mother Malcolm's Coffeecakes this weekend so we can take them for dessert at Family Supper in Shawano on Sunday. Sunday is Durwood's birthday (73!) so we're having a par-tay. In Shawano since soon JZ & HZ's kitchen will be torn down and redone so they won't be able to host again until Thanksgiving. Actually it won't be all that long, it'll just seem eternal to them but if we host in September (Weiner-Off!) and DS & DIL1 host in October, ba-da-bing ba-da-boom, it'll be their turn in November. Works like a charm. The Photo a Day theme (I seem not to be able to stop playing) is "outside." This is what I see when I look outside from where I'm sitting right now. It's one of my faves. See my maple tree? You're jealous, I know you are.
August 1--South Netherlands, The Pentecost. How many people had knelt and contemplated the enamel hung there, Nora wondered. She had spent hours in that spot when she had been a student here at St. Maarten School but Sister Maria Rilke had not had such a beautiful thing hung on her wall then. It was hard to remember what she'd done to earn such frequent trips to Sister's office. Probably talked too much. It was a problem she'd had her whole life. She liked to talk and didn't see why she needed not to at times. Now she was back at St. Maarten having been hired by the diocese to catalog all the art for insurance, and she suspected that they planned to sell off a few pieces to keep the place going. She was sure the old nun would be surprised that she had turned out to be a success.
I learned my lesson on Monday, I'm not (not, do you hear, NOT) wearing long jeans. I have a lovely cotton patchwork skirt and pale yellow tee that I'm wearing to work today. I still need to wear my round-bottomed fitness shoes so my feet don't ache at the end of the day but I'll be cool and cute not hot and skinnier-looking. It's a trade-off that I'm willing to make in the interest of not sweating like a hog when I carry tanks or do anything other than sit on my duff. *nods decisively* I haz spoken. (remember Mammy Yokum from L'il Abner? *sound of crickets* anybody? Google it, you young whippersnappers)
--Barbara
The blocks this month are both stars, Ohio Star and Double Star. I enjoyed making them both, especially my first foray into making flying geese for the Double Star.
