It is way too nice outside to be stuck inside. And wouldn't you know it, the building is freezing!
I promise you I'm going to finish up the chicken quilt any day now and take more photos of it!
Spring cleaning season is almost upon me, and I'm still making my lists! To be done: paint hallway, touch up foyer paint, regrout foyer floor, CLEAN windows (!), and I'd like to get a cornice for the living room up. And maybe one for the family room.
I also want to find a new spring wreath for the front door. Believe it or not I still have the Christmas one (live) up. It's not dead yet, but I'll change it probably this weekend.
I think somebody stole my supergenius sign.
Listening to: Gorillaz - Dare
Reading: Franz Kafka - The Complete Stories
Drinking: nothing
Freecell game: 4822, hoping to get to 4900 by the end of this week.
TGIF! This week has been particularly long for me, for some reason. I dunno if it was the disappointing end to the US Men's hockey team, or the fact that work has been really bad lately.
My mom is coming in for the weekend. She wants to shop, Carl wants to go to the home show downtown. I guess we'll do both, and then probably work on turbans again. I still haven't finished her quilt...I'm down to the last border and I'm kind of dreading putting it on. I hate finishing projects, it's a real letdown.
So I was thinking in the shower this morning about Ralf and Alice. Ralf will be 10 this summer...that's so hard for me to imagine. Alice just turned 3, and I thought by now she'd be settling down some, but this morning they were at their usual antics racing around the room, jumping and playing together. It made me think about what we'll do when something happens to them.
I don't see us getting another dog right away if something happens to Ralf, unless Alice is still very playful and puppy-like, like she is now. But if we didn't get another dog, I think that after something happened to Alice, I'd like to get into Pit Bull rescue. These dogs are so often just misunderstood. I keep thinking about when we were getting Alice, and they told us they hadn't been sure about adopting her out. She had a really sweet disposition, and hadn't given anyone any reason to not think about letting her go home with someone. I just can't imagine how bored we'd be if she wasn't in our lives. I fully realize that not every pit bull is as sweet as she is (and she's not full PB, we aren't sure what else she is other than a strong mastiff resemblance), but I think any dog that's been subjected to bad humaning deserves a second chance.
Off the soapbox for today
Well, the chicken quilt is almost done. Last night I got the 2nd border attached, and then realized that one side was upside down, but I'll have that fixed tonight. I'll be glad when this one is done, although it has been fun (and easy!). I'm ready to move onto something a little more challenging.
Next on the list:
Finish up the blocks of the month that I'm doing from Calico Heart Quilt Shop, and go through my fat quarters until I have 20 for a FQ quilt. Once those 3 projects are caught up and finished, I need to finish putting the binding on my MIL's red/white/blue quilt and then come up with an idea for my FIL's quilt. His birthday is in July and I'd like to have one for him.
Sounds like enough work to keep anybody busy, huh? I still have 3 other people in my mom's family that are getting quilts for their birthdays this year!
Listening to: Dvorak - Symphony No. 9, 4th mvmt
Reading: AIX manual
Drinking: water
Freecell game: 4682! That's right, I'm over halfway to my goal for the week :)
Man, I love this show. Now that Dr. McSteamy has shown up, I'm really hoping he sticks around. He and Addison can still hook up, and that would leave McDreamy for Meredith. But then there's still poor George. He needs somebody, too!
Ugh, my brain kind of goes to candy while I watch that show, I think.
Not much on the schedule for today. I need to create a new page for the quilt I'm making for my mom, and load up some new pictures. I'm skipping the auction tonight in favor of working on the quilt. I think I can get close to being done with it tonight if I'm careful.
Work sucks as usual. But it's Monday, so I guess that's to be expected. I was sick some yesterday. I think it was the barbecue we had on Saturday, but I can't be too sure. Carl also was not feeling too well, and kept lamenting that he had "the itis", whatever that is.
Friday night's auction didn't hold much for us. They had a Singer Featherweight, but it sold for $350...a little high for a machine that has no guarantee to work. I know they're simple machines, but I also know I can do better.
Still waiting for the Viking dealer to call me back about the transformer recall. Supposedly I'm on the waiting list. In the meantime I'm unplugging the machine when I'm not using it.
Listening to: Bloodhound Gang - No Hard Feelings
Drinking: nothing yet
Freecell game: 4625. If I play 25 games everyday for the next month I'll hit 5000 before St. Pat's :)
Another cold day. We got up early and went to the 8:00 service at church, and by 9:30 we were home and I was in my pjs. I think we're going to look at a house this afternoon, maybe.
I've been cutting out turbans for my mom to sew. We have a new pattern that requires the fabric to be cut perpendicular to what it normally is, and it's a real pain. Last night I think it took almost an hour to get 3 of them cut out! I want to go back to the old pattern.
Alice is having a great time with some squeaky toys. She killed the one in the duck we got her for Christmas, and just this last week she FINALLY killed the hedgehog squeaker. I've never seen a dog love squeakies more than this one, and Ralf hates them. She'll grab one and go around squeaking it, and every time it squeaks Ralf barks. It's enough for anybody to get a migraine, but they have a great time playing together.
Listening to: Squeaking, duh!
Reading: Nothing at the mo
Drinking: Nothing, yet ;)
Freecell Game: 4603
I found another book of cds tonight! Woohoo! Included are: Rusted Root, Porno for Pyros, Disturbed, Tommy Emmanuel, Foo Fighters, System of a Down, Pink Floyd, Michael Nyman, The Verve, and about 50 others!
I finally got the virus off this pc that had been plaguing me ever since I got it (at auction...the guy who had it before me was too stupid to own a pc. Hooked up to DSL, no anti-virus or firewall...) Anyway, it's working like a champ now, and I ended up not losing any data in the fix, so it's all good.
We went to St Louis today. Started out at Jackmans in Fairview Heights while Carl hit Home Depot, and then went to REI, Whole Foods Market, Penzeys and Crate & Barrel. We ended up getting something at every place except REI. Sometimes I just have to go there to get a sense of what summer will be like, when I can get back to being outside. It was really cold today! I think the high was 17.
I'm so psyched about finding more cds! There are a couple that I don't really know for sure who they are, since the cd itself doesn't have any identifying marks. Can't wait to see what they are!
Tomorrow is a chili cook-off at church. Can't decide whether to take some of my Penzeys chili powder and make up a batch or not.
Listening to: Tommy Emmanuel - The Sweetest Love
Drinking: water
Reading: Times Square Sewing Complex newsletter
So it's the winter olympics again, right? And they're in Italy, which is 7 hours ahead of central time, which is all good. But I want to watch them live, and I can't. Instead, I get to wait until prime time when they'll show some highlights if I'm lucky. Well, take this, NBC! I've been going to eurosport.com and while I can't watch the games live, I can read the live commentary. So yesterday when USA tied Latvia (what the heck was that about, anyway? C'mon guys...) I knew it right away, and that I didn't need to watch the game that night, if it was even going to be on at all.
And while I'm on a rant, I'll throw this one in here, too. A major pet peeve of mine is when someone is having a problem, and they want advice, but then every idea is shot down as "tried it, won't work, not possible". As far as I'm concerned, once you've heard good ideas and refuse to even try them, I don't want to hear about the problem much anymore. Seems fair, right?
Well, naturally, I leave town and we get 8" of snow overnight, with more on the way. I'm at my mom's. But driving home tomorrow should be interesting.
We worked at grandpa's house today, cleaning up and cleaning out. Took a big load to the salvation army in Marion, and I still can't tell that we got rid of anything. Hit Home Depot for stuff for Carl, then Sam's, then Hburg where my gray got covered.
Alice is snoozing in her crate here, probably just waiting to go home. I opened the trunk after we got home from Sam's to put her new bed in, and she wanted to jump in. I think she just likes to go for a ride, I don't think she really much cares where we end up. Tomorrow morning she'll get in the backseat and fall asleep for the whole trip, probably.
Listening to: The Chemical Brothers - Where Do I Begin
Drinking: nothing, it's 10pm!
Reading: Numbers in Nature