If I Tweeted

A weekend round-up tweet style:

10:35p
Taking home Fern's BF. Why can't his parents drive more often?

11:30p
Finished two GS vests before bed, glad to get them off the stack.

7:00a
Why am I up so early on a Saturday? Oh yeah, Special Olympics State Games for basketball.

11:30a
Will these opening ceremonies ever end?

12:30p
First game finally started, down @ half 18-10 against a Howard Co. team.

Sad loss for our player development team: 34-28 final.

Second game, a win against Anne Arundel Co. 20-10 for the Bronze medal.

6:30p
@BJ's with Dan; bought two grape vine plants; need to figure out a place to plant them.

9:30a
Kevin wore his medal to church.

11:00a
@Noodles & Co for Kevin's favorite lunch. Trying to oust the current mayor on Foursquare.

12:30p
Off to our guild's quilt show, working the admissions desk 1-2; white glove 2-3;

Don't think my quilt got the best display location but it wasn't a winner anyway. Still sad.

4:30p
Back home in time to see the last minutes of VCU's win over Kansas. Go Rams!

6:30p
Finished another GS vest, 4 to go.

7:45p
Picking up Three Brothers for supper, then home to watch Amazing Race.

8:30p
Wish I hadn't lost my VCU class ring, maybe I need a new VCU shirt for my collection

11:30p
Really wish I were sleeping.

Weekend Stuff

The weekend ended with more rain. We had gotten 5.12 inches from Wednesday evening to Friday morning. Saturday and Sunday were pretty, but the rain started right after I filled the tank on the ride back from Winchester and the rain gauge collected another half inch over night.

Fern and her boyfriend and I went out to Winchester for my mom's art show reception. She didn't know we were coming, it was a nice surprise. My mom has been a member of the Blandy Sketch Group (not just for sketchers) for several years now and they have an annual show of members works.

Something has happened to Fern. I'm not complaining, I've just noticed. I think maybe her "terrible teens" years are over, or in remission. She's been pleasant, I've been getting hugs, she's not defiant, and she wanted to go to see her grandmother, whereas in the past, no way, "Grandma's weird…do we have to?" And, she wanted to take the BF with us. When we got home she said he had a good time and wanted to go back.

The rest of the weekend was boring, I got 5½ loads of laundry done (the other half load is still in the dryer). I got caught up on some of my shows on the DVR, but now have Amazing Race from last night to watch. I did watch a lot of the Ryder Cup over the weekend, too. Oh, speaking of golf, I bought a new set of woman's irons last weekend and tried them out on Saturday. Not good. I need to break them in before I play with them.

Maybe I'll try to post more often, work is in my busy season so no promises.

Summer Games

The Special Olympic summer games were held at Towson University again this year over the weekend. Kevin and I headed out of town Friday afternoon. I went the "wrong" way going up I-97 instead of my usual way of the BW Parkway. Turns out, it was the better route and traffic was horrible the other way.

PG County athletes waiting to enter the arena for the parade of athletes into the opening ceremonies. Too bad we couldn't hear what they said when they announced us. Since I was a chaperone, I walked in the the teams. Cameras and lights everywhere.

Kevin is a couple rows in front of me. PG county had about 100 folks in the contingent of athletes, coaches and chaperones.

The calm before the storm.

Kevin in lane 5 for the 25 yard freestyle race.

We had tickets for an all-ages They Might Be Giants concert (packed with tots!) Saturday afternoon and made it down there after Kevin's 4x25 relay race. The team ended up getting DQ'd because one swimmer left early but two swimmers got staged out of order and he was confused. This is the audience area of the Ramshead Live in Baltimore during the show with the confetti machine blowing full blast. The kids loved it.

Last year Kevin didn't have any races Saturday afternoon so Dan met us at the zoo. The problem was, Kevin didn't want to go back to the Olympic village afterward, he wanted to stay with Daddy. We ended up sleeping in Bowie, then driving up early for his races on Sunday. This year I managed some heavy bribing and he went back to Towson without a lot of protest and with a burger from Five Guys in his belly.

Kevin in the staging chairs for his last race, the 241st race of the weekend.

Kevin with his bronze medal for that race.

Kevin with all his medals.

The Weekend and More

Wow, it's Wednesday already and I haven't posted anything of substance in a while.

Hold that thought, the fire alarm is going off, need to evacuate the building.

That was fun.

Anyway, we have a new vehicle, a silver Kia Sorento. Bought it last Thursday, got it home, and not thirty minutes later Dan was on the way to Chicago for the weekend for his mother's interment. He got home at 03:00 on Sunday morning with 1500 miles on it. I guess I need to post a picture of it, huh?

Friday, Kevin went to swim team practice and I headed off to Costco with a pocket full of camera memory cards. It only took an hour to load 1900 pictures into their system and pick almost 300 to have printed on real photo paper. And then it only took an hour to actually have them printed. I was impressed with that part. I also had a DVD made of all the pictures so now I have digital copies available at work since my work computer won't read the memory cards. When was the last time you had real photo-paper prints made? Been a while, huh?

Saturday was pretty much a blur, I cleaned the kitchen and baked a rhubarb pie, but that's all I remember I got done. I hadn't baked a pie in a long time and forgot to set the timer to remind me to turn down the oven after 10 minutes. Yup, the crust was a little dark, but not too bad. Oh well.

Blogging friend Lorraine is in town this week for a conference and had time in her schedule to hang out with me on Sunday. She got to experience the new vehicle. I gave her nearly burnt pie, took her to church, then took her to Baltimore's Fell's Point. We had tapas for lunch and swapped stories of our teenage daughters who don't turn in homework. I got her back to her hotel in time for her event. Our time was much too short.

I had Kevin and Fern and her boyfriend with me to Baltimore so after we dropped Lorraine off, I took the kids to the Mall. There were lots of events going on so parking was at a premium. I found a place a couple blocks away from the National Gallery of Art, so that's were we went. Kevin had been there before and made a bee-line for the basement. We spent most of our time riding the moving walkway connecting the East Wing with the West. The other two kids were on their own to explore for a while.

I haven't been quilting in a while, and I've missed it. After I got my quilt done for the show, I've focused on getting my badge sewing done. I've had several vests to work on since before spring break and now am almost finished with my backlog. When this last vest is done, I get to go back to quilting. I still have three baby quilts to finish for the aforementioned fertile office mates.

And now, here's a picture from our spring break cruise. Now that I've got these on DVD I can post more pictures.




 

Connected or Not

Our modem died at home so we've had no DSL for the past week or so. It's amazing how we've become accustomed to having the 'Net available all the time, surf this, look up that. Now I've had to read my FaceBook feeds on my phone, as well as other web look-ups. Not so fun on a 3" screen.

I like that some sites/companies have streamlined sites for mobile devices, but sometimes they are too streamlined. Amazon and mobile eBay are fine if you know what you're looking. I don't always. I like to surf around.

Oh, and I can't print out quilting patterns from my phone, either.

We started having trouble with our service around the same time we turned down Verizon's generous offer of Fios service, phone and 'Net for $80/month. Currently we pay $50 for phone and DSL, and that includes taxes. Why do we need to pay more, right? Dan assures me it's purely coincidental our DSL service is going out at the same time they want us to upgrade to Fios. Really?

Anyway, after resetting the modem and router on my own, I called Verizon the other night for help. The guy stepped me through the modem reset procedure and tried to get a connection but it failed, we need a new modem. Good news is, they are going to send us one. The bad news, another weekend without the 'Net.

We've been toying with the idea of a DVD recorder for a while and Dan saw an ad for one at Kmart a couple weeks ago, but we missed the window. If we have one and get it hooked up, we can save stuff to disc from the DVR and therefore not worry about disk space.

Yesterday I was at Costco ordering new glasses for The Girl and noticed they had a Sony DVD recorder. I bought it. I didn't unload it right away, it sat in the trunk for a couple hours until the hubbub of the evening settled down. By the time I brought it in, the store was closed. I mention this because there is no manual in the box. And we have no Internet so I can't print off a new copy. Grrr.

Now I'm back to work, and Internet access, but I can't remember the model number of the DVD recorder I bought. Sheesh.



 

Of Work and Golf

Wow, I can't believe how quickly I get behind in the blogging world. I worked from home yesterday and got a lot of real work done. Sometimes I think I get more done from home than at the office. Something about the combination of not having the office distractions and not wanting my working-from-home privileges revoked if I don't get a decent quantity of work done. Anyway, the point is, I didn't take the time to waste time blogging.

AM and I flew to Florida on Friday for a weekend golf trip. We flew into West Palm Beach and stayed at the PGA resort. They have four courses on-site and one more ten minutes away. We played the Palmer on Saturday and the Squire on Sunday, the two "easiest" courses. Ha. Lots of water in play is never easy.

It was hot, humid and rainy on Saturday. Thunderstorm-kind of rainy. We finished our round after 7:00. Actually, we really didn't finish since we stopped after 16 holes with more thunder in the area. And this was with an 10:28 tee time and a major storm delay. Newsflash: Florida is humid. I'll never wear a nylon golf outfit to golf in again, even if it was a gift from AM, and as cute as it may be. I was so sweaty-stinky at the end of the day, eesh. I needed tongs to remove it from the laundry bag. Cotton is better for me.

Sunday we had an 8:12 tee time and finished at 12:15. No rain! We were paired with a couple who lived on the course and evidently plays there a lot. After several holes the wife started pushing us to play faster, "We're behind pace...we're 15 minutes behind...we have to do everything we can to pick up the pace...." She had lipstick on her teeth. She bugged me. I started out playing well on the first several holes but then I went downhill, coincidentally with her nagging. This other couple decided two twosomes can play faster than one foursome so they played on ahead of us at 11. We never saw them again, good riddance, and we still finished in good time, no course marshall ever scolded us. The nice thing about them leaving was my mojo came back. I hit great drives after that, even got a par on a par 4 hole and a one-over on a par 5 hole. I finished the back nine with a 51.

We had plenty of time to drive around West Palm before going back to the airport. We got to see the famous Worth Drive where all the fancy-schmancy shops are. But it was a ghost town, the shops weren't open on Sundays so there was hardly anyone around. We found a nice upscale Italian place open for lunch with valet parking, but the valet was getting off work so we parked ourselves for free.

The flight home was uneventful, unless you count a thunderstorm over Tampa which delayed our incoming jet, which delayed our departure by almost two hours, and then the baggage carousel got stuck at BWI making us wait 45 minutes for our suitcases. The golf clubs came our almost immediately at the large item door. No wonder folks like to carry bags on.

Now it's Wednesday already. What's up with that?


 

Weekend

My weekend went great until I stopped doing things on my to-do list.

Saturday I bought and installed blinds in my daughter's room. She has curtains in there already, but needed the blinds, too. I got 2" blinds in a coffee color; they look like elegant wood.

I bought new blinds for the hall bathroom, but didn't get them installed.

I wanted to get a timer for Kevin's room but couldn't find an adequate one at Target, either it was too fancy or took up too much space on the socket and you couldn't plug in anything else. Kevin will sometimes fall asleep with the light on, wake up later, and be up for hours. He doesn't know he's supposed to turn off the light and go back to sleep and not to wake up anyone else. I want a timer to turn off his light for him to try to curb this.

I wanted to get the patches sewn on the next Girl Scout vest I need to work on. It's a catch-up vest where the mom brought me two years worth of stuff to sew on and it won't fit. She bought a sash to sew around the bottom to add more space, but I can't get motivated to get it done.

I've started keeping a ledger of the vests I have to work on, when they arrive and when I'm done with them. I got a bunch, 10 or 12, to work on this summer and I would often forget which I've had the longest and which I should wait to do. The ledger is helping with that, but I still have a backlog of about five to get done. The nice thing is it's time for these moms to start renewing their plan so I've got a little bit of cash in my pocket.

I did get to play golf with Dan twice over the weekend, once Saturday evening and once Sunday morning also with Mark and CG. I didn't do too badly, my short game is getting better, but I still need to get some distance on my fairway shots.

Surfing

Have you ever been channel surfing and it always seems like the same thing is always on the same channel? Like TNT is really the "Law and Order" channel and BBCAmerica is really the "Gordon Ramsay" channel. What else? How would you rename the channels? Yeah, OK, there's always news on CNN, but that doesn't count.

Quick Weekend Roundup

Kevin doesn't have day camp this week, therefore Dan and I are splitting the workdays this week; school starts next Monday so I might be back on a "normal" blogging schedule then, if I ever was on a normal blogging schedule.

This past weekend we went to Dan's family reunion down near Blacksburg, VA at Claytor Lake. Sunday the four of us hiked up to the Cascades. It was two miles each way and I am so bummed I didn't have my "walkometer" with me to record the hike's distance and elevation. I took pictures instead:








 

Weekend

It's crunch time at work.

My survey I've been working on is going to sponsor testing this week and external usability testing next week. That just means I have no time to blog.

OK, so I'm making time, which is why this'll be short. Sort of.

We went to the in-laws on Saturday to visit Dan's folks. When we got back yesterday, I started working on my 55 gallon fish tank.

The tank is set up in my bedroom along the rail that separated the sitting area with the sleeping area. I've always had algae problems in this tank for some reason, but never in the tank down in the family room. The difference? Dunno. Both are neglected. I don't vacuum the gravel nearly as often as I should, but I think the tank upstairs is in direct sunlight part of the morning.

I was so inspired walking in the Caribbean to get my tank clean and stocked again. We had seen a school of small fish so large it cast a gray shadow in the water. I walked into the school and just stood there watching thousands of these small fish swimming back and forth around me. I decided to stop procrastinating and get my tank back in shape. I wanted a school of fish.

So yesterday I siphoned all the water out (it was so green, I hadn't noticed there weren't fish actually swimming any more) and took out and washed the gravel. I cleaned out the filter box and bleached the plastic plants. I got the stand moved to the opposite wall and Dan helped me get the tank back into place. Now it's full and the water is cycling through. Looks good, but I think I'm going to set up the diatomic filter too just to make sure the water is sparkling clean.

Tetras are great schooling fish, so I want to buy a large school of them for my newly cleaned tank. I talked to the owner of the pet store here in town, he places orders on Mondays for Tuesday shipments. I should be able to get about 50 fish for a near wholesale price, and I'll order whatever small tetras are on his order sheet today, green or black neons would be pretty.



Despite the work I did get done, I could have gotten more accomplished. Every time I went downstairs for something I was sucked in to the TV. Dan had the travel channel on. It was running a marathon of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. If you like travel or food, or drinking, you'll like this show. Except for the fact it renders you immobile, you just have to keep watching. Tony travels to a different place each show and learns about true local cuisine and drink, not necessarily the food we Americans think of when we think of that country. Far too captivating. We finally turned off the TV at 10:00. Sheesh. I think the new season premiers tonight at 10:00 pm.


 

Going for Gold

It seems they, the big bad big brother "they," boogered up our computers so we can't upload images from cameras any more.

I can't post pictures from the Maryland State Special Olympic Games while here at work. You'll just have to close your eyes and imagine it. Hey!! [tap-tap-tap] not now! open your eyes, finish reading first. sheesh. I'll try to publish photos between kid events later.

Friday

Friday after school Kevin and I went up to Towson for the Games. Somebody at school put him on the bus when they weren't supposed to, so I had to meet the bus at the community center and ultimately, we were 45 minutes late. [image of angry mom, arms crossed, tapping foot]

We moved into our dorm room and joined the team for dinner. It was raining so the opening ceremonies were held inside. They didn't do the parade of nations counties so no hankies were needed. All the contingents were seated in large sections of the floor and spectators were in the stands. Since I had a chaperon credential I stayed with Kevin and the team the whole time. [panorama image of the Towson Center from the floor, people, athletes, coaches, police officers everywhere with Kimmy Misner and Joe Flacco on the dias]

The program lasted over two hours. I wanted to go to bed. There were hundreds and hundreds of athletes and coaches trying to get back to the dorms on the buses so Kevin and I walked. I told our coaches my plans. One was worried, it's night, it's far, do you know the way... I said, I have a map and a degree in geography, I'll be fine. The other coach laughed. Kevin and I made it back probably a full 10 minutes before the others and that's only because Kevin walks slower than I do.

Saturday

I didn't sleep well, too cold. I don't mind a cool room, but I counter that with a heavy blanket, except I didn't have a heavy blanket.

Kevin and I got up to join the team for breakfast. After breakfast it was on to the pool. There is a lot of hurry-up-and-wait time with this sort of event. The swimmers generally just stay in the team circle until it's time to be staged. This was our first time at States so I had to learn the routines and keep track of The Boy. He was swimming in event #62 25M Free. Although the listings all said 25M Free, I think the pool was only 25 yards long. Oh well. Anyway, right before he was to be staged, Kevin decided to explore. He wanted to watch the races. We finally found him.

I was impressed with the way the events were run. The small qualifier meets we'd been to before were not near this organized. The swimmers were called up to pre-staging by event numbers. They sat in rows by their lane number. As the front row was escorted into staging, the other groups moved up a row of chairs. [image of Kevin waiting with his fellow swimmers]

Eventually, each heat group was taken into the next room, row by row, then to the pool deck. There were places for five heats on the deck. I stayed with Kevin the whole time from pre-staging until his group was escorted onto the deck, then I went to sit in the stands to watch. [image of Kevin ready to swim or maybe an image of his heat in queue on the deck]

He swam well, really used his arms. The qualifying times of his competitors were all within 4 seconds, I thought he might have a chance to win. I reminded him the whole time waiting in staging, long arms, reach... Sometimes he gets lazy and doggy-paddles. Coming down the stretch I guessed Kevin was going to finish 5th or 6th, it was a tight race. He got to the end and forgot to touch the wall and when he did, it was a 7th place finish. [image of a line of eight wet towel-draped swimmers on the medal stands, Kevin on the far right, receiving ribbons and medals for their accomplishments]

Kevin didn't have anymore events for the day so I took him down to the Baltimore Zoo. I invited Dan to drive up to join us and he did. [arty image of elephant trunk and underwater image of swimming polar bear]

Something triggered in Kevin's brain and he didn't want to go back to Towson after the zoo. We tried to distract him with a trip to the mall where we bought some shorts for him and two cool deck chairs. He still didn't want to go anywhere but home.

So Dan took him home.

I drove back to Towson and cleared out the room and drove back to Bowie. I was heart broken, sad because Kevin loves to swim but he didn't want to swim any more.

Saturday night at home was fine, I don't remember much. Kevin was fine unless he was asked about swimming, NO Swimming!. I did ask him if he wanted Five Guys for lunch tomorrow.

I couldn't do laundry since the washer was dead. The new one is being delivered Saturday. The first load will be towels. I think I can last that long with what we have now. I'm trying not to need to go to the laundromat. We have a busy week, there's no room in the schedule for a trip there.

Sunday

I woke up at 5:30 ahead of my alarm. Dan, Kevin and I were in the car back to Towson by 6:15. At that point all Kevin knew was if he wanted Five Guys for lunch, he had to get in the car. At some point in the ride Dan asked me what Kevin had that day, and all I said was "50 Free and 25 Back." Kevin went ballistic again: "NO Swimming!" but I kept driving.

When we got to the university we found the team in the dining hall for breakfast. Did I mention how bad the food was? Horrible. Catered by the same company for years. They oughtta be fired. We ate on the way up. The coaches were so glad to see Kevin'd come back. Kevin's mood was better when he saw them, too.

The 50 Freestyle was the second race of the day after #144, the 1500 Free. Kevin's event heat was #163 so we waited in staging for a long time. I kept coaching him over and over: long arms, touch the wall, swim back. He's forgotten to turn and swim back right away in qualifiers before.

I joined Dan in the stands when Kevin's group was escorted to the pool deck. He'd been watching the women's heats of the 50 free. They run the heats slowest to fastest putting swimmers in groups so they have no more than a 15% difference in qualifying times. I had just missed the fastest woman's heat. Dan told me the woman who won finished in 27-point-something seconds, impressive. I looked up on Towson's Pool Record board, the record for the 50 free was 22-point-something seconds. Kinda makes the the SO win even more impressive.

Kevin swam brilliantly, touched the wall and remembered to come back. His qualifying time was 1:40, he finished in 1:11 winning first by 17 seconds. He even would have won the next heat with that time. [image of the field with Kevin in a big lead] [movie of the medal ceremony with Kevin, blue towel wrapped around his legs, in the center on the top step fidgeting until his name is called]

We got a short break before we were back in staging again for the 25 back. This time I coached him "head back long arms." This time the race was tight, maybe he was second, maybe he was third, couldn't tell. This time he turned over too much to touch the wall at the end. "Shoulder past vertical" was the DQ explanation. Didn't matter much. Kevin stood on the medal stands just like before with a big smile on his face. To him, life is good, gold or not, and better with a Five Guys burger for lunch.



 

In Case You Were Wondering

So if you saw the photos from Sunday, you might be confused for two reasons. The pictures were backwards chronologically, and why there is a skating photo in the middle of a series from Universal/Islands of Adventure? That's quite simple, actually. I posted pictures from my phone as the day went on, newer pictures were posted after the older ones, and that's the way things happened.

All-in-all it was an OK weekend. We went to Orlando so Fern could skate at the 50th Anniversary National Championships. She was up against a lot of tough competition there and didn't do as well as she would have liked. She was 5th out of 5 for her technical program and third out of three for her rhythmic program.

Saturday night was the big team events, Bowie skated against a "local" team, a team from Tampa. I was surprised more teams didn't skate, but it is expensive to bring a large team down as we did.

Anyway, they had on-ice awards for the large groups at the end of the evening. I was a little nervous. At the local events you always can kinda get a feeling of how the teams do and which one might win the event. Saturday night, our kids skated well, even though Fern fell on a spin, and I just could not see the other team was better or worse. I'm not a judge, I still don't know all the criteria on which they are evaluated, but I could just not get the feeling they were better. So I was a bit nervous at awards time.

They announced the second place team, and it wasn't Bowie. I let out a loud "eeep" and tried to contain my excitement until they announced the first place team.

We got to Universal pretty early on Sunday, about 9:30 and went into Islands of Adventure. We headed towards the back of the park where we got on two rollercoasters right away. Not at the same time. Then we went round the park counter-clock-wise and rode more rides. I was impressed with the length of the rides, the duration was a lot longer than other rides at other parks. I was not impressed with the number of rides to go on. We'd ridden on everything that interested us but the Hulk ride by 2:00. At 2:30 we left so Fern could skate in her last event where I thought she did very well, didn't bobble, didn't fall, and got 5th out of seven. The competition was tough.

We went back to Universal to try to get on the Hulk. The waiting line had been 70 minutes before, now it was only 30. Fern and I got in line while Dan and Kevin waited elsewhere, But, alas, it was not to be. The impending storm pended and all outside rides were closed. When we got out of the waiting queue area it was pouring and I asked a drink vendor for a couple trash bags to use as rain coats. That kept us kinda dry on the way to the car. Kinda. My feet were drenched inside my shoes. Oh well.

Monday we flew home to more thunder storms and rain. Lovely.

I just checked the ISI website and The Bowie Ice Arena came in fifth overall based on points. The four teams ahead of us were all "local" teams—central Florida teams—with a lot more skaters so they were able to earn more points. Still, fifth is very good out of 43.



I'm glad to be home, even to a boat-load of email here at work to sort through. blah.


 

Letter City

Recently Kevin painstakingly stacked all his letters by letter. The outcome was a mini-city of letter buildings occupying a lot of real estate. Click to enlarge.

Mother's Day

Dan went golfing and I drove out to Winchester to see my parents on Sunday and took the kids with me. I originally thought I'd meet my folks at the plant fair at the State Arboretum at Blandy, but they went on Saturday. That meant driving to the homestead and visiting there. Mom's knees were bothering her so I couldn't talk her into going back to the fair on Sunday. But Dad went with us. At first the four of us stuck together, but Dad is very social and stopped and talked a lot with the folks he knows from his years of volunteering there.

I bought a lot of plants, not a lot a lot, just a flat's worth, but now I have to find places in the gardens to put them and plant them before they wilt. I suppose Greeny is going to want to know what I bought. A pineapple tomato and lantana. And a bunch of stuff I can't spell or pronounce so I'll have to look at the tags and tell you later.

Saturday

Kevin swam in another Special Olympics qualifier and did well this week. First in 25 free, 4th in 50 free, and first in 25 back.

That's it, that was my weekend. Pretty boring compared to others. I didn't even get any laundry done. It's getting deep in there. sheesh.

Fore!

Monday afternoon our golf cart looked like the inside of the family car after a long trip.
A long camping trip in the rain, to be more precise.

We had soggy towels, at least four. We had soggy golf gloves. At least four.
Left-over sack lunch bags.
Empty M&M bags and chip bags.
Soggy pair of socks.
Dripping umbrella-ella-ellas.

Dan and I joined AM & Mark again for a charity golf event. Rain or Shine. My rain gauge measured almost an inch of rain on Monday. We were a little damp. Mark got the closest to the pin on the par-three contest hole for a $50 prize and I didn't even come close to winning the Ladies' longest drive contest again, as I did last year. I didn't play so well. The company was good, but I was a bit tired of the rain.

Other Weekend Stuff

Sunday morning, raining, I took Kevin to a Special Olympic swim meet qualifier. He has to compete in at least two qualifiers so he can participate at the state games in June. When they arrange the heats, they group the swimmers according to their seed times they already have in the system so no one competes against someone who is a lot faster or slower than they are. By the luck of the draw, Kevin had the slowest of the seed times in each of his heats and finished third, second, and third in the 25 free, 25 back, and 50 free, respectively.

Afterward we went up to G-Street Fabrics. They are moving store locations so everything is on sale. Sewing machine presser feet, which normally sell for $30 and up were 30% off and an additional 25% off if you had a coupon. I did, so I got a couple. I didn't buy any more fabric. Yes, really.

I got back to Bowie in time to pick up Fern from play practice. We stopped off at the library on the way home so she could get some books. She didn't have her card because it was in the other car so I checked them out on my account. She better not lose any of them, that's for sure.

Fern dashed off right after we got home to an award ceremony with her friend. They got second place in the county in the Write-a-Book contest. I stayed home, I don't think The Girl minded, perhaps she was relieved I wasn't in the audience making a big deal out of a little thing. I'm still proud of her.

Saturday was less rainy. Dan and I double-dated with AM and Mark. We played par-three golf to practice for Monday's tournament and then had dinner at Moulin de Paris. I had a nice time out. I don't know about the other three.

Fern's spring ice skating show was in the afternoon, the last 'home' show before they close the rink for maintenance. Now all her lessons will be at a neighboring rink to prepare for the Championships in Orlando at the end of the month. She's skating in 3 solo events and one with her team.

Before the skating show, I took Kevin out to the Arts Fair at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center. I only 'lost' him twice. He likes to explore new territory and usually stays close to where he thinks I'll be so he's pretty easy to find. I took him into the ceramics studio with me and gave him a hunk of clay while I worked on some of my pots. I still am having a hard time centering my clay on the wheel and don't have many quality pieces to show. I bought another 25 pounds of clay last night so I have lots to practice with. I'll have to photograph the glazed pieces I finished. Oh, and the piece Kevin made.

I don't remember much before Saturday. You'll have to trust me I survived it all.


 

Weekend Round-up

OK, so the weekend was busy but not nearly as crazy as it may have sounded it could have been.

Wednesday I went to the Trash to Treasures" sale at my Quilt Guild meeting. I sold $40 in sewing machine feet plus other trinkets and my sewing machine cabinet for $50.

Thursday we visited a family about adopting their 8yo fox terrier. Fern fell in love with the dog immediately, as I knew she would. Kevin was afraid of it, as I knew he would be, but as long as it was held and her mouth faced away from him, he would pet the dog's back. I got the impression the dog is ours if we want it, they will quit advertising it's available. Kevin has to warm up to the idea. Fern needs to show us she's responsible to have a dog and it starts with HOMEWORK!

Friday Fern and I took Kevin to Special Olympics swim team practice and went to eat chili at Hard Times Cafe.

Saturday AM took Fern to Wonka auditions and I took Kevin to Swim-n-gym. I opted not to take him to the Special Olympic swim meet because it was too much trouble to get him there and back and it was the last day for his usual Saturday program.
I picked Fern up at the auditions at 11:15 to take her to her 11:30 ice skating lesson, then went home for some quiet. I got the kitchen cleaned up a bit before I had to go back out to collect Fern at the rink, then Kevin at his thing. The plan was to drop Fern off at the Lacrosse field so she could watch her friends play, but she wanted to go home first for a quick bite and a shower. Shower? really? You're going to be in the hot sun. You're going to get sweaty anyway. Yeah, but I need to shave my legs. Sheesh. Did I forget to mention it is Boys Lacrosse?

Fern got a call-back for Wonka and AM took her daughter and Fern back after the LAX game so Kevin and I were free for a while. I went to the fabric store to buy more fabric I made Mom's quilt with. She wants to redecorate her bedroom to match the quilt and wanted the fabric for pillow shams and valences.

I got home to put the lasagna in the oven for the Basket Bingo Fund Raiser at church. I was not lucky at bingo! this time, didn't win, didn't tie. I was close a couple times, but nada.

Sunday I went to church by myself. The kids were non-responsive. My sewing machine cabinet buyer came by to pick it up in the afternoon. I offered to take Kevin to the pool with the slide, but he napped instead. And consequently, he didn't go to bed until after 2:00 last night. I took the kids out to Bob Evans for supper, just to get out of the house, but the service was painfully slow and the waitress didn't even try to make up for it. It took over 8 minutes for the check and a to-go box. I left a 10% tip. I wasn't happy.

And now the week starts all over again.


 


Post Script
Fern got the part of Mrs. Bucket in Wonka
 

What Lies Ahead

Dan is leaving tonight for a work trip. After work on Friday he'll be staying on to visit a friend and play golf. Since work is paying for the flights, he is limited to contract flights home and they are all full until Monday morning. Which means I'll be a single mom all weekend.

I don't mind being a single mom for a weekend, I just have to remember everything, all activities and be there on time.

Tonight:
Quilt Guild meeting where we're having a "Trash to Treasures" sale. I've actually been setting aside some items to get rid of so I want to go. I am even taking an old Bernina 1010 to sell. I'm thinking I'll ask between $200 and $300 for it, plus extra for the special presser feet. The goal is make money and get rid of clutter, not spend money and acquire more stuff. I shouldn't bring anything back, right? Right. [clears throat]

Thursday:
Kevin ready for the bus at 07:15, don't forget to put money in his backpack for his field trip
Me at work at 08:00
Science tutoring session for The Girl at 08:30 (transportation?)
Leave work at 16:30
Pick up Kevin from After-Care at 17:15
Visit a family about adopting their mature fox terrier at 18:30

Friday:
Kevin, bus; me, work; Fern, school, etc., etc.
Get Kevin to Special Olympics swim team practice at 18:00 picking up dinner for The Boy on the way in plenty of time as to not push the 30-minute rule.
Does The Girl need to be somewhere?

Saturday:
Kevin to Swim-n-gym at 10:00 or to the Special Olympics swim meet at 09:15, which one? It's the last day of the Swim-n-gym session for the spring, but he should attend the meet so he can go to the state games in June.
Fern's ice skating lesson?
Auditions for Willy Wonka at 10:00 if Fern wants to
Fern's ice skating team practice at 12:00
Call-backs for Wonka 15:00 to 17:00
When is the swim meet over?
Can I possibly get to the ceramics studio somewhere between 12:00 and 16:30 and put a handle on my mug before it get too dry?
Basket Bingo Fund Raiser at church at 17:00, Fern to help work and I've volunteered to bring 24 cans of cold coke and a baked lasagna. When am I going to buy coke and bake?

Sunday:
Day of rest
Get myself and kids to 09:30 church
Think of some activity for the kids so they don't play on the computers all day
Is homework done?
Laundry?
Don't forget to feed the kids.
Is the toilet still leaking? Try to get to Home Depot before they close to buy a kit

Monday:
See Thursday and Friday
 

What I did

I told you about my dilemma with the make-up I bought. I'm pretty sure it was an honest mistake, leaving the price of one thing off the ticket so the totals were different. And the person who put the prices on the tickets was not the person who totaled them up. They worked for different companies.

I took back two of the items on Saturday, the other four things I felt good about and kept. I'll be getting back a bit into my account. One of the things I kept was an indigo mascara which looked very good on me. I wore it yesterday and by the end of the day my eyes were stinging. So, that's going back, too. Oh well.

Other weekend activities included cleaning the kitchen, and not just a cursory wipe-down of the counters. I promised Fern money if she washed the cabinet fronts for me. I still owe her for that. Bought a book of Japanese quilt block patterns at Borders along with Jennifer Chiaverini's new book The Lost Quilter and went to Ikea again to get the last set of castors I need for the new shelf in the sewing room. They are still out, but I managed to still spend money on other things.

Sunday Fern and I drove up to Newark Delaware for Fern's District ice skating championship competition at the U. of Delaware, and had lunch with my college roommate and her husband, too. I hadn't seen them in several years, we had a lot of catching up to do but not enough time. We ate at a place called Matilda's and Fern had the Roo Burger. Tasted like very lean beef. I didn't like it much. maybe it was too cold by the time I got a taste, or maybe it was too lean, but 'roo is not for me. Fat tastes good.

Here's my college roommate, looking puzzled because she didn't know I was taking her picture (sneaky iPhone camera):

FaceBook

Yeah. I went there.

If you know my real name, you can find me.

There's stuff I don't get yet, like how some folks have stuff all over their page and I just don't see how's it's done. It's cool, though, people are friending me, is that a verb now "friending," I don't remember requesting. I even found my flute teacher from when I was in junior high.

Weekend Round-Up

We had a busy weekend

Kevin participated in the Maryland State Special Olympics Basketball event on Saturday morning.

Fern had her usual Saturday morning skating lessons and production team practice. The last one before the competition Saturday night. She had slept over at a friend's house so I had to taxi her from there to the rink.

We got a notice of suspension of the registration of the corolla because we didn't report back to the MVA we'd gotten the windshield fixed. The suspension was effective on Monday. I had to get the car inspected, the forms signed and delivered. I was hoping the state police barracks in Forestville was one of the places where I could turn in the form. It wasn't. The barracks, however, were a couple blocks from the Special Olympics site so I was able to hang out with Dan and Kevin for a while.

Fern arranged to hang out with her friend after skating so I didn't have to pick her up.

I got a call from Mom. She and Dad would be coming to the quilt show but their GPS didn't understand the destination and they'd call me for the final directions. Two hours later I still hadn't heard from them and I was getting worried.

I hung out at the quilt show in a building with bad cell reception hoping my parents were alright. I'd already called them six or eight times with no answer. Finally my pocket buzzed, their call got through and they were in town. I went to get them so they could follow me to the show.

Mom loved the quilts, she loved the two of mine, liked the pebble quilting on the piece I made for my cousin and her new husband. Dad liked the quilt I made for him, but told him he couldn't have then. We left the show and my parents came home with me even though it wasn't prepared for company. There weren't too many dishes on the counter.

I showed Mom the finished top I've made for her. She loved it. I'm so glad. She even asked for a scrap of fabric so she could redecorate the room around the quilt. Now I just have to finish it, huh?

When they left, we left too for the Skate Annapolis competition. Fern had a 7:00 pm call time for 8:00 perform time. They were running late so we didn't get out of there until after 9:00.

We stopped at 49 West for desserts on the way home.

Sunday I didn't get up early to walk. I woke up at 9:10. Fern had a 9:00 call time for a 9:55 solo compulsory event. Kevin was asleep next to me. Where was Dan? Where was Fern? Dan had taken her to Annapolis on time, I missed early church but Kevin and I went to late church. Dan and Fern were back when we got back.

At 1:15 Kevin and I left for his Special Olympic swim team practice and Dan and Fern left for Annapolis again. She had to be back for her freestyle program event. Kevin much rather swim than be cooped up in a cold ice arena, so I missed Fern skate again.

While Kevin was swimming I got a storm at sea quilt basted. I'm trying out wool batting for the first time. It's a lot fluffier than the cotton I usually use. It'll be certainly different for me to work with.

He took an enormously long time to get dressed afterward and come up to the lobby. I was starting to get worried. Evidently, he took a shower and probably played for a while. A long while.

We then went to Costco for the ever important bar soap and toilet paper. You know they didn't have any deodorant soap? Just beauty stuff. Sheesh. I got milk and light bulbs, too. I don't tend to get anything "fun" when I shop alone. Dan is always disappointed when I stick to the list.

The quilt show closed at 4:00. They usually take down the quilts, clean up the standards and are waiting anxiously for the last person to pick up their pieces by 6:00. Some years they even start calling if you're not there by 5:45. Kevin and I arrived at 5:53. They weren't done cleaning up yet. Kevin used to attend the school where we have the show, so he made himself right at home. So much so, that when I finally got my quilts, I couldn't find him right away.

When we got home, Dan and Fern were already there. We ordered pizza for dinner. PapaJohn's is having a .25 special, buy a large three-topping pizza and get a medium for 25 cents. Except for two weeks in a row now, they've been out of the medium doughs. Sheesh.

Results

Kevin got a gold medal in basketball.
Fern got two silver medals for compulsories and program and her team got a gold for the group event. (See picture below.)
I got the inspection forms mailed to the MVA.
And no speeding tickets were actually issued.
 

I didn't realize I hadn't posted since Wednesday!

Sheesh.

Over the weekend I finally finished that monster Girl Scout vest I'd had for months, the one with about 70 patches to sew on. It is such a relief to be done with that. I've officially raised my rates to $35 per year, up from $25. It is just too much stress with some of these girls and all the patches they earn. Some girls just bring their vests by once a year, but others have many sets of patches several times a year. I've been told by several parents it's still a deal and they don't mind paying me more.

The quilt top for Mom's quilt is all in one piece now. I need to trim up some edges and seams, but the important thing is that it's done, or whole, or in one piece, you get the picture. I need to unregister it for our guild's quilt show next month, however. There is no way I can get it quilted to my satisfaction by the 20th. I have two finished off my other two entries as well, which are a lot closer to done, so the third quilt, just ain't happenin'.

Kevin participated in the Special Olympics basketball qualifier on Saturday. He does the Skills event; the other events are 5v5 and 3v3. One of the coaches told me they want Kevin to move toward the 3v3 team events, but he just doesn't have the wherewithal to comprehend defense and competition for the team events. This year Special Olympics has a new event, a transition 3v3 team, with two special athletes and one player-coach, who is in the same age group as the athletes. These player-coaches play in the games but cannot shoot. What basketball-loving teenager, who is willing to help, will be able to hold back on shooting when they have the ball? Our coaches haven't found anyone yet, so they are unable to field a team, but they want Kevin to participate when they do.

Kevin brought home a gold medal for his basketball skills in his age group! The state games are in March, I believe the same weekend as our guild's quilt show. Go figure.

Weekend Round-Up

This weekend I finished 12 scout vests. I often use a glue stick to hold the patches down while I sew them. I learned this weekend there is a window during which I need to sew after I glue, too soon and they're not stuck enough and too long and the glue is completely dry and the patches peel right up. I went through 3 glue sticks on 9 of the vests. Good thing I buy in bulk.

It feels good to get the big backlog out, now I just have three to go, one of which is a monster. This girl has been in scouting for many years and brought me about 75 things to sew on. The front got done right away, everything has a specific place, it's neat and orderly. The back of the vests is for participation patches and they just go where ever they fit. So this monster vest, I've be stalling on finishing it for a long time. It just overwhelms me, trying to get 50 patches of all different shapes and sizes on the back so they all fit and there is room for more. I finally came up with a plan I'm happy with so I should be able to knock it out this week.

Last Wednesday I bought two bookcases from Ikea, one was to be for my sewing room and one was for the living room. I'm getting rid of my ironing board in the sewing room and replacing it with a bookcase (on its side) on casters with an ironing surface on top. My logic was (actually I got this from someone else) there is just dead space below an ironing board, so why not? Now I'll have more storage available.

The first shelf went together just fine. The larger one for the living room, not so easy. I love putting stuff together, have been assembling Ikea pieces for 20 years, I have never had this much trouble before. It just didn't fit together like it should, there were gaps everywhere where the shelves didn't seat properly. I tried to take it apart and start from the beginning and that's when the dowels broke off in the shelf and I couldn't drill the pieces out.

Saturday & Ikea. Yes, I am nuts, there is a bed waiting for me at St. E's, btw. Anyway, I had a plan. I went to customer service and pulled my number: 90, now serving: 61. I had a 29-person window. I went over to the warehouse to find another set of casters for the shelf unit in the sewing room (I originally bought two and they recommend three) and to pick out a box that fits in the shelf for fabric scraps. No casters, but found a clear box, and went to pay. I actually found a "short" line, paid, and made it back to customer service. Now serving: 85. Whew.

When it was my turn I explained the problem. Evidently, since the shelf was shipped in two separate boxes, it possibly came from two different suppliers, and even if the specs are the same, the actual pieces might not be exactly the same. I got a new shelf and shorter dowels. The clerk told me if I still had trouble, bring it all back and they'd give me a whole new unit, no problem. I got it to work.

Fern and I went to week two of our ceramics class Sunday. This week we used the wheel. I love the wheel but since it's been so long since I've thrown, my skills didn't appear until about half-way through the class. I got to make four pieces. The first got totally warped when I cut it away from the wheel to move it to the drying board. Blah! The rest I'm pleased with, especially since it's been so long since I've thrown any pieces.



Next Sunday will be our last class, we will decorate/glaze our pieces. Next Sunday is also the Valentine Invitational. The Bowie Ice Arena hosts the first ice skating competition of the season in our area and Fern has been getting ready for it. She's skating in five events. Luckily, they are all scheduled for after our ceramics class so neither of us has to miss anything.

Fern is scheduled to skate her freestyle program at 3:37, then events in solo compulsories, jump & spin team, interpretive, and production team at about 45 minute intervals after that. I don't remember which event is when, but I'll be there for the duration anyway. If you live in Bowie, you're welcome to stop by to watch her skate.

Her production team had a practice last night at 6:00. That's when they could get the ice time. Go figure. Anyway, the second The Boss tells us to step away from the guacamole I get a text: come get me. I put Bruce on pause and fetched The Girl.

Somewhere between the ceramics class and picking Kevin up from skiing I went to a nearby quilt shop. It's typical for quilt shops to have big sales Super Bowl weekend. I was in a fabric mood, so I went. I took with me a filled-up punch card which entitled me to $20 off my purchases.

After all my fabric was selected, cut and written up, I had a large stack, probably over $100 of pre-sale fabrics. (Thank goodness for sale prices!!!) I handed the clerk a spool of thread, my fabric and my punch card. It was so old she'd never seen one like it, they use a different style now. And, get this, she wasn't going to honor it because it was so old. Hey--
1) I paid for the card, probably a buck or two, not much but it wasn't free.
2) There was no expiration date on it.
3) They should honor it.
I told her forget it, I'll just take the thread, not the fabric. But the fabric has already been cut. I immediately got passed off to the owner of the shop. I told her the same thing. She let me use the punch card. Really, why was this ever an issue? sheesh.
 

Weekend Round-Up

One of the springs that holds up the garage door broke a month or so ago. I was so good about buying replacements. But then the weather was so bad I didn't get to install them. It was cold on the weekends or warm on the weekdays but dark by the time I'd get home to attend to the job. Then, when I had the time, I found out I needed another part from the hardware store. Grr.

Yesterday the weather was fine, in the 50's, and I got a part from Lowes, and finally got the new springs up. The door had been operating on one spring for so long one of the guide wheels had gotten out of the track, but a good whack with the hammer fixed that.

We're going on a cruise Christmas week (can anyone give us a ride to the airport?) and while we're gone, my neighbor/walking buddy, L's out of town guests will stay at our house. That means we have to clean it. Dan and I took off work on Friday and started to tackle some of the neglected areas. He did a fabulous job on the spare bedroom, I got a lot of laundry knocked out. For some reason, in our house we don't use dressers. We pile clean clothes on top of them. I hate that habit but that's how I am. So I spent some time clearing off my dresser, got some stuff hung up, socks put away. The rest is now in a pile on the floor. Sheesh. Maybe I'll re-learn the art of putting clean clothes away. Yeah, right.

I started to work on the shower in the master bathroom. Criminee. It hasn't been thoroughly cleaned since we canned our cleaning service. I tried the automatic shower spray, which helps except when Kevin finds it fun to play with. I got the Comet cleanser and made some progress but it's not done yet. I want to coat the tile with Rainex when I'm done so it won't get so scummy so quickly.

And while I took Friday off, look what they did!

From 12/8/08

From 12/9/08

From this morning.

For comparison's sake, this was taken on 9/19/07 before the landscaping was put in, and before the start of the demolition of the old building.