Weekend Round-up, Among OtherThings

I'm not usually one of those moms that dash off to the ER at the sight of blood, but when the sight of blood wasn't ending, I took The Boy in. I knew there was nothing to stitch up, since the edge of his left index finger was gone, but I knew I couldn't stop the bleeding by myself. He was cutting salami.

Dan was in Tampa for the weekend golfing with his friends.

I did a lot of laundry this weekend. The last load is in the dryer right now. It's the "everything else" load. Usually I pick through what is on the floor of the laundry room to make a load of like items, darks, pastels, colors, whites, towels. The "everything else" load is the stuff that falls through, the stuff that doesn't pass muster on previous sorting rounds. It's the load you hate to put away because it's usually a bunch of mismatched socks and shirts that are too small for your youngest child. You know. I'll have that load waiting for me tonight. Oh joy.

Lost is back tomorrow night after a nine-month hiatus. I gotta make sure the DVRs are set. Yes, both of them. I started a Lost marathon yesterday by rewatching season 5. This interrupted a Lois & Clark season 1 marathon and ended up being interrupted by watching How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days because we wanted to send it back to Netflix.

I found Season 1 of Lois and Clark on eBay for The Girl (and myself!) because I enjoyed it 16 years ago and thought she might like it, too. "Like it" turned out to be an understatement. She loves it and thinks Dean Cain is wonderful, gorgeous, and very good-looking. He was quite yummy in that show, wasn't he? I found Season 2 on eBay and she had that watched in a heartbeat. Now she's dying to have Seasons 3 and 4, but I can't find them as cheaply as I found 1 & 2 and I'm not willing to pay $61 per season at Borders, or even $40 at Amazon. She'll get her homework done and I'll keep looking for bargains online.

I've had 21 Girl Scout vests to work on this month. I didn't think my stack would ever diminish, but it's down and I now have only four to go, then it's back to personal sewing/quilting. Yay.

The quilt retreat is coming up at the end of next week so I've made a list of projects to take with me. It's a small list, only ten or twelve things. Sheesh. I probably ought to take my ritalin with me so I can stay focused and not get overwhelmed. And get stuff done. There are three guys in my office whose wives are due with babies and I've promised them all baby quilts. Silly me. The nice thing about baby quilts is that you can make them small and no one will complain.

I ordered a portable sewing machine table with some birthday and badge-sewing money. It should be here in time for the retreat. This new table will make it easier to do machine quilting at retreat, where it was impossible before because the table was not flush with the bed of the sewing machine.

Since I haven't had a proper blog post in a while, I'd better stop here. I can't give away all my secrets at once, and, I still have real work to do even though the crush is (almost) past.



 

Free Money

Last Thursday I got the notice of my bonus at work.

Then, over the next couple of days I received and cashed some checks for my badge sewing work, got a $10 gift card for placing third in the "Maintain - Don't Gain" contest at the gym at work, JD Powers sent me a survey to fill out about the not-so-new-anymore Honda Fit I bought last summer along with a very crisp $5, and I got a $25 gift card from the pharmacy for a new prescription.

The nice thing about being on a controlled substance for my ADD is I get a new script every month. While is it a pain having to get a new script and not having refills to count on, I can use the coupons for all the different pharmacies for gift cards for new or transfered prescriptions. Target usually gives $10 gift cards and CVS gives $25. Eckard has coupons for $25 gift cards, but they never have my drug in stock. I hate that, it's like they don't want to give me money. Go figure.

Snow Day

Schools are closed today so I'm staying home with the kids. My goal for the day is to make my sewing room habitable, and maybe get some work done. Here's the "before" picture. (I'm having trouble with the real camera acknowledging the memory card so I'm stooping to the camera phone. Blah!)

I should go take my ADD meds so I can concentrate long enough to make progress.

 

Holes

When you give Anne an adjustable ball latch she'll want to install it.

Well, no one actually gave Anne an adjustable ball latch, she went out and bought two for the french doors in the bathroom so the doors will stay closed, but that little fact doesn't have the same literary ring, does it?

If she wants to install it, she'll have to take out the old one first.

When she takes out the old one she'll realize the new one is a bigger size and won't fit in the old hole.

When she needs to drill a larger hole she'll need a 13/16" drill bit.

13/16"? Are you kidding? 7/8" maybe, but who's got a 13/16" bit?

When she can't find her large diameter drill bits she'll ask her neighbor if he has that size. (Who does because he has a huge workshop in his garage.)

When she starts to drill the new hole she'll forget the drill was set to remove the old screws and wonder why the hole isn't getting any deeper.

When she changes the direction of the drill she'll drill too deep in the hollow door and drill through the top.

When she drills through the top of the door she'll make a mental note not to drop anything in the hole because it'll be lost forever.

When she tries the new catch in the new hole she'll realize she'll need to recess the strike plate so the door will close.

When she realizes she needs to recess the strike plate so the door will close she'll know she needs a chisel to increase the cutout from the old catch.

When she searches for a chisel, even though she doesn't think she has one, she finds her large diameter drill bits (1/2" and 1" so they wouldn't have helped at all).

When she goes to the hardware store to buy a chisel she will also buy two 4-drawer basket sets to hold her newly sorted and folded quilting fabric.



When she gets the two large boxes into the back of the compact car she'll make her son sit in the front seat and hold the cake which she'll need to drop off at church for the Halloween party.

When her son holds the cake he'll pokes holes in it and will get sticky.

When her son pokes holes in the cake Anne will stop at the grocery store on the way to the church to buy a can of frosting to cover the holes and will dig past the chisel in her purse to find money to pay for the frosting.

When she covers the holes in the cake she will get sticky.

When the holes are covered she will take her sticky self and her sticky son home in her sticky car.

When she gets home she will wash her hands and her son will unload the drawer kit boxes.

When the boxes are unloaded she will help her son put together the first unit together.

When the first unit is together she will set it in place and will fill it with fabric, blues and purples on the bottom, greens and yellows in the middle and pinks, oranges and reds above that.

When the drawers are full, she will sit down to work on the wedding quilt.

After she quilts for a while she will remember she should check her phone for messages.

When she reaches in her purse for her phone, she will see the chisel and will take it up to the bathroom to work on the door.

When she tries to see where to chisel she won't be able to so she'll go in search of reading glasses.

When she finds reading glasses next to her sudoku puzzle she'll try to place a couple numbers and gets stuck.

not really, but the diversion sounded good here

Now that she could see what she was doing, she'll remember she doesn't actually know how to chisel out a recessed area on a door.

But that won't stop her, she'll get it to work well enough to get the latch in and the door closed.

And after that, she will get the second drawer kit put together and the center part of her quilt done and she will sleep very well.

Weekend Round-Up

Well, I'm really rounding-up a lot more than the weekend, it's been a long time since I've been able to sit down at a computer and blog. I've been away from the office, too.

At the crack of dawn on Thursday I took the Acela to New York with a colleague to do some usability testing on a new instrument for work. After the last interview, I headed to SoHo for an appointment with Lina for a new haircut. I needed to get the mess fixed from the last cut I got. The new do is fab. I guess I'm too old to talk like that. The new haircut is great, especially a day later after all the stylin' was washed out. When I went to pay I was told my bill was five-twenty. $520? I don't even pay Nick, the owner, near that much. I say out loud "$5.20?" After a consultation with another clerk I was charged the proper amount.

I headed uptown to Times Square to the TKTS booth to meet my colleague to pick out a show to see. Whilst considering our choices, a man with two tickets ($76/seat) to August: Osage County offered them to us for $50 total. The show is pretty new, we'd never heard of it, but this man "swears" it'll win the Tony next month. (He was dumping the tickets because of a Rangers' game, or so he says.) Anyway, we took them and enjoyed the drama, although it was over three hours long and we didn't get back to the hotel until almost midnight.

Friday: another interview for work and lunch and the train home. Friday night, Kevin had more swim team practice, he has a meet on Sunday, and I spent the time cutting fabric for another quilt I'm working on. Yes, another quilt. No, I never finish anything, just start, start, start.... It's called ADD, thank you.

Saturday I took Kevin to his activity and went over to the Honda dealership to look at the Fit. I'm very tired of the 20 mpg my van gets, so I'm dreaming of a more efficient car. The Fit is a compact station wagon, the trunk holds at least two bags of golf clubs and a couple suitcases, that and cruise control, what else do I need?

In the afternoon, I fired up the newly tuned-up lawn tractor and mowed the front yard. I dumped all the clippings around the trees instead of bagging them. It's a lot easier, but I still get stuff all over me. And in my hair.

Sunday after church I mowed the back yard. As I circled back around for another lap I noticed gobs of bunny fluff. At first I thought I hit a rabbit, but then I couldn't remember actually hitting it. And, there was no blood on the fluff. Alas, I'd uncovered a nest. The babies are about 3 inches long with brown fur and long skinny legs. I tried to be careful not to touch the area so the mom would come back and take care of the young'uns. I tried to take pictures of the critters, but I just got blurry fur. They sure do move around a lot. I showed Fern later and she thinks there are about seven future flower eaters in the nest. My words, not hers.

I wanted to get the Living room and sewing room vacuumed, that meant I had to pick up and put away the erector set that Kevin had so graciously placed dumped all over the room. I cannot just scoop and dump, I have to put every part away in the proper compartment, every little nut, every bolt, everything. (Again with the ADD/OCD!) This, of course is the slow way and Kevin comes down stairs to check on me before I'm finished. Oh well, all this work for naught. i prepare myself for the undoing of my work. But it doesn't come. He doesn't get upset I'm cleaning. I'm floored. I'm so floored, I'm still trying to get up. I'm seeing a tremendous change in maturity in him, with this incident and the legos on his bedroom floor last week, I'm just amazed. He is even doing his homework with out balking, Dan says he sought it out earlier today to do. Oh, and he is 70" tall, now. Last Tuesday, Dan and I met with his teacher for his annual IEP meeting. She, too, has noticed great changes in him. Who is this child and what has he done with my son?

Monday I played golf, already wrote about that. Today and the most of the rest of the week, I'll be in a pre-retirement class. More time away from my computer, another thing to keep me from blogging. Darn.

Here are some quilt blocks I've done with the fabric I cut on Friday night. What do you think? So far I have 63 blocks done and 36 to go, but I'm kinda tired of it so I'm taking a break.

Another Day, Another Project

Here's another quilt I'm working on. I lead the mystery quilt at our quilter's retreat in February '07 using the delectable mountains pattern I found on the 'net. I did all the demo blocks ahead of time and started to put it together at the retreat but lost interest in it when some of the seams didn't line up right. Then, a few months ago I read The Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. It's a story about antebellum Pennsylvania, the Underground Railroad and a quilt the protagonist (I could have said main character but wanted the bump in reading level) makes to help runaway slaves. Inside the cover on the endpaper is a drawing of the quilt. (Click here to see a picture of the author's quilt.) It was basically the same block unit I made for the mystery quilt, the story's quilt is just bigger, but I was nonetheless inspired to work on the abandoned quilt again. I took apart the blocks I'd sewn together and reassembled them in this pattern.

This picture was taken before the blocks were all sewn together, but were just laying out on some of the background fabric. The center space is 12" square and I'm not sure what to about it. I think I don't want to leave it empty, but I haven't come across any blocks I want to use there. I want to finish this top soon, but it has stopped talking to me. Anyone have any ideas?

Catching Up

I started a new post last week and just never got around to finishing it. I've left it at the bottom of this one.

This weekend was a big one for my son. On Friday, he got to go to the greatest place on earth. And no, it wasn't HOM¹. We made our semi-annual trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg, land of indoor water slides. He had a good time. I'll post pictures when I can download them from my camera, I don't have a cable with me now. He's grown so much over the last year, he's easily identifiable from a distance. He's tall and scrawny. I saw him from across the water park carrying his tube up the steps to the slide. His profile took me instantly back to when I was a kid and my brother walked the same way.

Sunday, my son went skiing for the first time. He's participating in a skiing program for Special Needs Teens and Adults. For five weeks they take the skiers up to Liberty for the day, give the participants rental equipment and a lesson. One of the staff members told me when we picked him up last night, Kevin didn't follow instruction very well, he made no turns, just went straight down the mountain. I'm going to have to send a camera next week just so I can see him out there. I don't ski. I've tried a couple times in my life and I just don't have a fondness for that much snow in my face. Or my face in that much snow.

Last Thursday's Post

I've been contemplating new year's resolutions. I always want to do better, be better, but to actually declare a resolution to the world feels like I'm being set up for failure.

I need to resolve to be a better housekeeper and parent, which are the means to the end of being a better wife. Or is it the other way around?

I know better than to set the bar too high, but I still need to have goals. I've already mentioned balancing the checkbook. I paid some bills last night and wrote them down, even though some were paid on-line.

I need to remember to get a load of laundry through the whole cycle so I don't have to wash stuff over again that sits in the washer too long. Dernit, there're loads in the washer and dryer I need to move. Wonder if I'll remember to do that when I get home? I need to take care of my own clothes and get around to purging the clothes I haven't worn this century.

I need to plan meals better so we don't resort to delivery pizza and Chinese 4 times a week. Wednesday, I subscribed to a menu service for three months. I'm afraid no one else will be on board with me about it and I'll end up doing all the cooking and eating, they'll veto the menu and we'll end up having the same three dishes over and over all year.

I need to keep the paper piles down on my desk at work. So I can find things. And get work done.

I need to remember to take my new ADD med to help me remember to do all the things listed above. I finally went to see a psychiatrist and now I have no excuses.

Then, in the middle of all this contemplating, I get an email from my daughter's algebra teacher, two days into the new quarter, mind you:

Just as a "head's up", I wanted to let you know my findings about Fern's performance in Algebra. I honestly don't think unless the pressure is on, that she is doing what is necessary to earn passing grades in this class....

Last quarter Fern could have done much better if she had only turned in assignments, ... I then informed her that if she didn't do her part, her grades will continue to suffer. Fern claims to understand this, but she is easily distracted in class... she still didn't turn in any homework already for the this quarter. ...

Two days into the quarter and she has missing assignments! This is the child who wants to go to UVA and is failing high school algebra anyway. Now, I have to add to my list of resolutions to check behind my daughter and make sure she's done her homework. she says she has. What next, follow her to each class and make sure she turns it in? It put me in a real depressed mood when I got this news. It's hard enough to deal with my ADD, now I'm going to have to deal with hers.


¹House of Mouse, a.k.a. Disney

Controlling the Flow

Have any of you seen my Channel-locks? I think our hot water heater is circling the drain. What else could it be? Every couple weeks I have to take the kitchen faucet head off and clean out the little white crystals that collect on the little filter screen because they build up and block the water flow. These little buggers have wreaked havoc on the shower head too and there is no way to clean them out, no filter. Water squirts out where it's not supposed to. sheesh.

So Saturday I went to Home Depot to buy another shower head. Now, I like a shower with a lot of pressure, not some mamby-pamby trickle, but enough force to actually rinse the shampoo out, not just water it in. I picked out a $40 shower head, very pretty, "euro design" and removed the water-saver feature and installed the head. Had to use the adjustable wrench since I couldn't find the Channel-locks. OK, they are really Craftsman groove-joint pliers, but "Channel-locks" is easier to write. Sunday morning I take my shower and I was in there for-ev-er because there was no pressure. Sheesh. I hate that. So I box the fancy new head back up and return it to the store. After church, not right then with a towel wrapped around me. It turns out the head had too many nozzles so the water was distributed too much and the pressure drops to nil.

This time I pick out a smaller $14 model and install it. And the flow is marginally better, but not good enough to keep. Maybe I'll put it in The Girl's bathroom. The guy who made up the 2.5 gallon per minute regulation on all shower heads must not have any hair. I guess I need to get one from Canada. Before you tell me to get one like the model I had before, I need to explain it was part of a set, not sold separately. Might still be under warranty, I'll have to check on that.

In addition to the shower drama, sometime over the weekend I have to clean out the filter on the kitchen faucet again and I'm reminded I might need to address the washer again. About a month or two ago I had to pull the washer away from the wall and clean out the intake filter. Man! that's no easy task and it was full of these little white particles. This is driving me nuts! Is this a symptom of a dying hot water heater? Maybe I should call my dad and ask, he'll know.

I wonder. My Channel-locks might just be on the shelf above the washer. I'll have to look when I get home.

Aye Yi Yi

I had a doctor's appointment this morning to have a pain in my neck checked. No, not Fern, but I will discuss her later. I have pain in a gland on the right side that I've had for a long time. While I was there I got to donate blood for routine lab work. Except the donation part was not routine. The first lab tech finally found a vein that she could use in the right arm, but it kept rolling and she couldn't get the needle all the way in so she tried a vein in the back of my hand, again with no luck.

At this point I'm feeling very faint, after all, this is for fasting tests. The first vampire leaves and a second vampire comes in. More tourniquets, more prodding and she finally finds a usable vein on the left arm.
The lights are almost out in the room, it's very dark and I'm not sure how she could see to get all three vials of blood. After a short nap, the lights are back on and I prepare to leave. But, wait, that's not all, can you leave a sample in there, too? sheesh. How much more do I need to give here for a pain in the neck? In addition to the referral to the ENT guy, I asked for two other referrals, one for a beloved mammo and one to a psychiatrist so I can get meds for my ADD. My doctor doesn't know which doctor to send me to because a lot of them are not taking my insurance anymore. I guess psychiatrists don't want to help people who cannot pay to see them.

Before my trip to the doctor's office I had time to fold up a load of laundry that was partly a load I started mixed in with a load the princess started (princess said with the utmost contempt, by the way). There are three baskets of clean unfolded laundry around the washer. The princess, it seems, will start a load of her clothes for school and, when it's time to put them in the dryer, will move anything already occupying the space in a basket and leave it there, cold, wrinkled, and unwearable. Three baskets full. Sometimes I can fluff the unwearables back to life in the dryer along with a wet towel, sometimes they are just too far gone. I gave the princess a piece of my mind, you have to fold what's in the dryer, now I have three baskets to deal with, you can't just leave it there..... sheesh. Think she'll remember next time? I doubt it, too.

I don't have to worry about clean pants for a while. I got my order from LL Bean the other day. I have a hard time finding pants that fit me because my hip-to-waist ratio is so big and my legs are so long. If I find a pair of pants in a department store that seem to fit and seem to be long enough, they never are after washing and drying. on LOW heat mind you; they're 2" too short. sheesh. I need to gather them all up and give them to AM, her legs are shorter than mine. LL Bean sells long pants and promises they won't shrink. I ordered four pairs. Yesterday I wore the cotton chinos in "soapstone" and promptly dropped food on them. This, of course, is after I spoke to the aforementioned princess about wearing pants more than once before she puts them in the hamper. sheesh. Today I'm wearing "rosette" Adirondack jeans. And look! no spots!

How is your day?

Knitting with ADD

This is what happens when you have a hobby and ADD. (Compare this with last Thursday's picture.) As with my quilting, I start lots of projects and bounce around between them a lot before I finish anything. The second sock of the red pair is two inches along the length of the foot out of six inches total before I start to work the toe. The sweater body is about seven inches done out of about 14. And now I've started the new pair of socks. The cuff is almost done and in a few more rows I'll start to work the ankle and heel. I could write a litany of unfinished quilting projects, too. Remember the quilt for Fern I wanted to finish in June. Still not done. That's the tip of the iceberg.

I had been seeing a psychiatrist for my ADD, but she left that practice, which didn't take my insurance any more so I was paying out of pocket, and I never went in to see her replacement, nor did I follow through with a new doctor referral from my primary care doctor. So, I've been off my meds for a while now, maybe two years, I've lost track. And my primary care doctor won't prescribe the psych drugs.

I should probably think about going back on the meds. Trying to think without them is sometimes like waiting for a sticky bicycle chain to engage when you're shifting gears. It takes a while for the message to click through, to comprehend it, form a reply, and actually speak the reply. I lose my train of thought easily. I often grasp for words that were just on the tip of my brain. What was I saying? Oh, yeah, I can picture the process in my head, the gears clicking, but I can't get the words out in a timely manner. I know it irritates the people around me and without meds conversations can be hard. Are hard. Maybe that's why for any given conversation with my friends, I do about 80-85% listening and only 15-20% of the talking.

What was my point?

I started my past post trying to write about my weekend at the beach in Chincoteague and ended up writing about last years trip to the same place for Pony Penning Week. I have all these blog entries in my head, but when I sit down to write, they get jumbled up and a bunch of nonsense comes out. What was my point? I can't remember. Do I ever have a point?

I'm not as disciplined at CG is with her blogs. She takes notes, keeps back-ups, and if she's had a boring day, she'll always have a good story to tell anyway.

I was at her rained-out pool party yesterday and when her basement flooded, so I was worried about mine, too. I kept wanting to go home and check it out. We're in the same neighborhood, so when her power goes out, you can bet mine was out too. My husband kept reminding me there was nothing I could do about it anyway and not to worry. OK. I'll try not to be anxious. Our power was out only about 45 minutes versus the 5 or so hours at CG's house, so my basement was dry, the sump pumps worked. My husband was right not to worry.