Fiber and Pulp

Loose Ends ...

... all over the place. :( I slept until noon today -- my joints did not ache (miraculous in itself!) and I was so cozy (we put the flannel sheets on our bed for winter), it was very hard to pull myself out of bed. ;)

I had today 'off' but had several errands to run. Hugh and I had a nice lunch at Pizza Hut (they just put a buffet in to our local joint -- was pretty good). Then we went to the post office (had to go inside and stand in line -- I can tell the holidays are well upon us, lotsa folks mailing) and to Giant. I left my shopping list for the grocery store at home but managed to remember it all (was dictating it to Hugh as I drove -- and he wrote it down on the notepad function in my Palm; his writing is more legible than mine:). By the time I got home, we were both tired. (grin)

I still have not heard from the Clutterbuster folks. (grrr!) I am going to try again to call them tomorrow and then move in to another company. Of course, it does seem that our home telephone might not be working again. (sigh)

Thought you might enjoy seeing my current leaf-in-progress:

Here is a closeup that (I hope) shows the beads I'm adding:

I have embroidered five of the six leaves and am now adding beads to them. 'Course, that magpie gene of mine want to add a million beads...but I _do_ want to finish these within my lifetime. (grin) Soon as I get the sixth one done, I've got to lay them out and see how I want the whole thing to go together. I'm starting to accumulate (in my back brain:) the things I want to 'diagram', too. :)

Blurry!

That's how my day was today, in retrospect. Some of it caused by the rain and dense fog I had to endure all day -- spent three hours driving to and from Gaithersburg (to the southwest of Columbia) to a meeting of the Quest shop owners. We drew prize winners and discussed lessons learned from this year .... volunteered for new (to some of us) jobs for next year ... decided on dates for next year ... and a quilt theme ... whew!

Also blurry 'cause there was so much going on inside my skull. (sigh) Dealing with way too many 'items' on my 'plate' right now. :P

I did manage to spend a couple of hours this evening sewing with my friend Barbara B -- putting more beads on my leaf pieces. I do like how they are coming along; maybe I'll get some pictures eventually.

Miss my daughter ... and my mother. Odd feeling of being split into tiny pieces today. (sigh)

Evening Walk

I've worked up to walking Foxy a bit farther than we had been going. Still only down the court, across the street, up as far as the next block, across and then back home. He and I are both enjoying the outside, though. Tonight it rained a bit as I was driving home around 5:30 pm but by the time we went out around 9 pm it was dry. The sky is overcast and sort of glowing (downside of living near a lot of other people -- sky shine:). The air is fairly warm (in the 50's) and damp -- it smelled of leaves, wood smoke, and fall. Both of us get friskier when the temperature drops. ;)

I have a call in to Clutterbusters. Gonna be a bit expensive, but I am determined to get the house tidied and more livable. :P Wish me luck. :)

Interesting ...

This has been an (ahem!) 'interesting' week (in the sense of the Chinese curse:). My desire to de-clutter my home has taken a sharp turn closer to resolution. This cartoon I found online pretty much sums up my home:

We will be gutting the downstairs of our house, pretty much -- ripping out the carpet and tile, fixing and sealing the subfloor and walls/ceilings, and then painting -- starting shortly (soon as I can make appointments with contractors). :P I am still trying to decide whether to be 'frugal' and doing the actual painting ourselves or get a painter in, too. :P

Here's how I feel whenever I consider the enormity of the job:

At least the weather has been glorious this week (we did have a little rain on Friday)! The Japanese maple trees and tree-lets in our front yard are in bright color (some blood red, some golden yellow). Looks nice against the blue house. :)

Ups and Downs!

Well, we did get to vote yesterday. We went to the local polling station at our neighborhood elementary school (which both my children attended:). I've been voting there since 1981 and I have NEVER seen so many people there! It was exciting to see such great turnout. :)

We went to the Mall for lunch and a short walk after voting, then home again. Before I started doing housework, I thought I'd balance my checking account (had piled up two months worth of statements). Well, THAT put an end to any hope for housework -- someone has obviously hacked into my account. :P The September statement was fine but October looked like an explosion of red ink. :P

Spent two hours at the bank this morning filling out fraud charge papers and opening a new account. (major pita!) Total came to just under $2000 for various not-made-by-me debits to my account. :P This won't get cleared up for a while, I'm sure. :P The 'relationship banker' was a nice young fellow named Sean -- did a GREAT job helping me. :P

I've been marking time somewhat today -- packed up a baby quilt to send one of my new great-nieces (Rae) ... and a pretty wall hanging to send my daughter's new M-i-L (as a thank you for all the great help she gave Eva with the wedding) ... and a couple of mail orders for the store.

Sure hope the rest of this week is less negative-eventful!! :P

Oh, and I am extremely happy that Mr. Obama won the election! Sadly, Maryland voters did approve a motion in favor of slots for race-tracks. :P

Eating and Thinking ...

.... what a strange day it was today! The store has been pretty quiet all day. The weather was very cloudy and I thought for sure it would rain, but I haven't seen any. I"m thinking that all my customers are busy with election day jitters and maybe saving their pennies and plotting their courses for the Quest that starts on Thursday this week. (shrug)

It got so quiet this evening (we don't have any classes tonight) that I decided to close at 7 pm (instead of 8) -- I said we should put up a 'closed on a-count-a boredom' sign on the front window. :) Sent the ladies home and am eating my supper here at my desk.

Last night when Skip and I went grocery shopping he bought a big jar of pistachios to bring in for the staff and me. It occurred to me as I was snapping open nuts just now to munch on those green innards that I have NO idea what a pistachio tree looks like, flowers like, etc. ;)

Google image search to the rescue! Turns out they are very pretty (I wonder if p. trees would grow in Maryland? I forgot to look for zone maps:)

With flowers:

Bearing nuts:

This must be a slightly different variety:

And, in fall color:

Ah, what a boon to the idle mind is the Internet. (grin)

Tomorrow is my day off. Skip and I are going out in the morning to vote ... and then I think I will do some housework for the afternoon. You know things are 'bad' when I am actually _looking forward_ to doing housework. :)

Happy Halloween!

The weather has been gloriously fall - like this past week ... and today is perfect Halloween weather (not raining, not too cold, smells crisp and there are 'cornflake' leaves on the ground to swish through:).

I dressed up today for the first time in years -- as Autumn. I wore my dried flower garland and a brown dress. I told the customers who smiled that I had overslept and that's why the flowers were a bit dusty (still brushing myself off:). LOL

I managed to tie a small quilt sample (45"x60") today -- tomorrow I will bind it. I finished the Quest quilt top on Thursday and sent it off that evening with the machine quilter ... I feel an inch taller today! :)

First comes time changing ... then the election ... then four days of Quest (quilt shop hop) next week. Gonna be a busy time!!

:) Linda

Mea Culpa!

Well, I screwed up royally today. (sigh)

I actually went to bed to sleep last night at a few minutes past midnight. This is important as it contributes somehow to my terrible day. I did NOT wake up this morning -- in fact, I remember shivering and then boiling and tossing and turning, but NOT waking up -- I did not wake up until 4:39 PM. :P Mega :P (sigh)

I can only assume that I am/was sick ... as my alarm did go off (well, I assume it did) at 9 a.m. but did not wake me up. I was _supposed_ to be working on the sales floor at my store today. (sigh)

I assumed I'm going to catch hell from the two people who got stuck working without me (we usually have three people on duty on Saturdays). I'm going to have to stand still and let them hit me, repeatedly. :P

This sleep apnea/insomnia thing has gone on long enough! Gotta go see my Dr. again and see what help he can give me -- I don't care if sleeping pills _are_ habit forming. Getting up in the morning is IMPORTANT! (sigh)

Yum!

I forgot to say in yesterday's post that Eva and Alan had an incredibly delicious cake -- there was white cake with raspberry filling and lemon cake with chocolate filling and icing. I don't know if you can see it properly in the photo -- it was iced with very good chocolate (not too sweet, like most decorated cakes) and covered with pumpkins and leaves in icing. (slurping good!) :)

I'm 'off' tomorrow but I have to drive down to Gaithersburg (about 1.5 hours away) to get the completion prize bags for Quilter's Quest (the folks who finish the entire circuit get a very nice tote bag to commemorate the event as well as being entered into the prize drawings). My friend Pat S is going with me -- I"m hoping we can find a bead shop down there (or somewhere in between) so I can get some beads to put onto the leaves I'm embroidering.

Maybe, if I have enough energy, I"ll manage to sweep up my bedroom floor, too. (fingers crossed)

Tidbits

My daughter posted an informal photo of her and Alan cutting their wedding cake that I thought I'd share here:

Eva's dress was made entirely by her (with a bit of help from her friend, Danielle), including making the pattern itself. :) It is a copy of an 1893 French couture gown in two pieces (skirt and bodice). Eventually there will be photos from the formal side of the house and you'll probably get to see more details. :)