One coat for The Boy - done!

I finished the wool winter coat I was making for The Boy this past Friday. Yippee skippee! (Does anyone else remember Miss Piggy saying that on the Muppet Babies cartoon?)

Isn't that special? (Another quote that dates me.)

Tonight it is super-windy at our house due to the weather moving North from Hanna or maybe Gustav. I've already lost track of which storm is to blame. The Husband's parents called a bit ago to say they had lost power. Our lights have flickered a few times but so far it's been nothing but an inconvenience as the Kiddies are scared of the wind. My heart goes out to all of those people who are displaced, lost, injured or worse because of the hurricanes. Sigh. It always has to be something, doesn't it?

Oh. Another thing. I have recently become hooked on Project Runway. What the heck. Why did it take me so long to get turned on to it? I like sewing, right? I guess it is mostly because we only have one television at our house (we're practically in the fifties! Though it is a color model with a remote control) and The Husband is most often dominating it. If I want to watch a show of my own, I have to tape them and watch when he isn't around. Then I eventually get sick of being so far behind because he's always around and I dump them without even watching them. But lo, The Husband actually watched it with me (I think he was trying to ring up some points--if you know what I mean) and proclaimed it to be "pretty cool"! So now I can watch it without guilt and without having to make up some crazy contorted television schedule.

I know. A normal person would just get another TV. I guess you don't know me very well if you think that I am normal.

In other news, The Girl started a ballet class and she is freakin' adorable about it. And we are trying very hard to convince The Boy that Indian Guides or Boy Scouts would be a fun thing to do. And keep my mom and uncle in your prayers - in a few weeks she will be heading to Seattle to donate something or other blood-related to her older brother who is suffering through his second bout of cancer. She donated um, something from her blood a few years ago when he went through his first round. He was eventually declared cancer-free but it has unfortunately made a return trip. I am sure I have been told exactly what the thing is that she is donating but since it is technical jargon and I am terrible with names--even names that are not associated with people--I won't even attempt to say it because I'm sure I'll say something crazy-impossible and folks will wonder what is wrong with me, or my uncle's doctors.

Oh! And this is my 199th post. Look for a giveaway when I do my 200th...which should be sometime this year. Oi.

Fitness Update

Hey, fellow bloggers! Long time, no blog. Actually I am reading blogs. I'm just not doing much commenting or writing of blogs.

So The Boy started first grade last week. There was much drama since the school sent him home on the bus to an empty house instead of sending him to the Y program that I'd spent good money for to make sure someone was watching him. Sometimes I cannot believe how immobile people are. The school knew that they didn't know who was supposed to be in the Y program that took place after school in their own cafeteria...so instead of calling up the Y and saying, hey, wassup with my lack of list? They. Did. Nothing. I'm so glad people capable of such rational thought patterns and actions are educating my kid. Actually, I have to say that the teacher attempted rational action. It was the principal and secretary who dropped the ball, IMO.

That's thankfully all been ironed out now, though, so I can stop being bitter about it. Right?

In fitness news - I have cut back the length of my runs because it is getting dark out earlier. (Wah! I hate when the days get shorter.) But I am still running 3 or 4 times a week. Most days I do a 2 mile circuit that takes me about half an hour. I know, I know--I am probably the slowest jogger in the history of jogging. Most people can probably walk 2 miles in half an hour. But hey, I am off my behind and doing something. So you gotta give me that. Just call me pokey.

In sewing news - I finished the blankie for my cousin, who has just moved and now my excuse for not sending it is that I don't know her new address. Really it's just me being lazy but it is also true that I no longer know where she lives. I am coming round the home stretch on The Boy's winter coat. It is turning out quite well. It's the first time I've tried an Ottubre pattern and while I wasn't too keen on transferring the pattern & having to add my own seam allowance, it has come together pretty well. I had a few moments of huh? while trying to read the instructions. There are no pictures so that puts a visual/spatial person like me at a disadvantage, but I eventually figured it out. Basically all I have left is hemming the bottom, adding a few lines of topstitching, and putting on the toggle buttons & snaps. Woohoo!

Goals for September:

• Finish The Boy's coat
• Start The Girl's coat
• Maybe finally bind The Girl's quilt
• Get moving on Halloween costumes! The Boy wants to be Annikin (sp?) and The Girl is waffling between a computer, a cat, and Sleeping Beauty.

Finding a daycare stinks!

The plot grows thicker with our daycare troubles. I actually had to call the place that said they would call us and let us know if they found a spot for him. Of course they didn't, which is probably why they didn't call. Why call someone you can't get money from, after all? I mean, why be courteous or professional and do what you say you are going to do even if you know it isn't what the customer wants to hear?

In desperation I called the other place. Get this. They no longer have room for either kid. So what now? When I was a kid daycares weren't commonplace around our house or maybe we were too old or it was too expensive. I'm not sure. But they sent us to the YMCA for afterschool care--called "latchkey" at the time to indicate the abandoned nature of the children.

So I called them up. And thank goodness they bus to his school. I went right up there and signed him up & paid in full so they couldn't turn me away later. Then they inform me that his application has to be approved. What?! NOoooooOOOooooo! So after a few pointed questions I found the reason he could be rejected is that his bus is full, and that she can find out if it is full by calling the director. I then insisted that she do so right now with me as her witness. And she did, and he said there was room, though it's been two days and I still haven't received approval. Grr. The Girl is now signed up at the place where The Boy is still on the waiting list. This would be because we want to pick them up and drop them off at the same place. Eventually.

In other news, lest you forget that this blog is actually about quilting and sewing:

• I finished the guild challenge and turned it in. I didn't win a prize, but since I basically threw it together in a month and attempted my first free-motion quilting on it, I didn't expect even the nice compliments I got.
• I sewed up three pillow cases. One for The Boy, one for The Girl, and one for The Husband's cousin who was in the hospital. Poor kid. She had some kind of bacterial infection painful enough to require a morphine drip. :(
• I am almost finished sewing up a minky baby blankie for my cousin who had her baby about a month ago. Oops.
• And on the upcoming agenda: winter coats for The Boy, The Girl, and--get this--me! I almost never get to sew for me. We'll see if it gets done. Fabric.com says my fabric should be arriving today. I can't wait to touch it! The Boy chose a royal blue wool that is already hanging from the line downstairs, waiting for me to transfer the pattern & get moving. The Girl chose hot pink wool. And I mean HOT!

Fitness progress

I look the picture of fitness here, don't I? We went on a trek to the Cuyahoga Valley Railroad this past weekend. That's me looking surprised to be on a train. Or that would be the apparent source of my surprise, anyway. Next is a pretty view on a bridge over the Cuyahoga River.
And here's our conductor, punching our tickets. He nicely did not comment on the possibly contraband snacks I brought for the kiddies.

Oh yeah...fitness. This week I got in just a smidge under 7 miles. I was hoping to get in 3 miles tonight but events consipired against us. We went to visit a new potential daycare for the kiddies and then out to dinner and that just blew away the whole evening. When the kids were finally in bed the weather was turning dark & rainy so I did a placeholder lap and that is the end of it.

On the subject of daycare: it is for us a necessary evil. I don't like the idea of anyone other than us watching the kids, but this is the way it is for us right now. Their current center is no longer able to bus The Boy to school so unless we can figure a way to teleport him there we have to find a new place. We have a choice of 2. So I visited one and was impressed with The Girl's new potential room, but not The Boy's room. Tonight we visited choice number 2, and we took the kiddies with us because it was an open house.

We arrive and the asst. director asks some questions, then she talks to the kids. I hear her ask almost immediately, what school do you go to? And The Boy answered (correctly, even.) And we begin a tour. We get to the end of a 30-some minute tour (long because I basically demand a full speech on everything, these are my offspring after all and they must be cared for properly) and I happen to mention why we are leaving our other center. She cocks her head at me and says, oh, I think our bus to that school is full.

What? WHAT??? Full? How can it be full, if your enrollment is not full? And why did you not mention this 30 minutes ago, before showing my children your happy shiny activities and bribing them with sno-cones when my son explicitly answered your question of where he goes to school?

I was quite annoyed. She went and checked the list and, well, yes, the bus is full. We are now on a waiting list. OMG. They will be starting at their new center August 18th...only 11 days away. We could just give up and put them in the other place...but my gut tells me this is the place they should go. She said she would let me know next week. Gah. Can we push it any closer? If this were a cussin' blog, there would be rip-roaring profanity right now.

On a happier note, here is a long-promised photo of one of the sunburst blocks. This one is my favorite so far, and I have 4 of 16 complete. I haven't been able to work on it because I'm working on a guild challenge but that is a secret reveal so I can't show it here yet. At least, I think it is a secret.

Wish me luck on the daycare dilemma. Sometimes I just cannot believe our luck.

Educational Research

A woman in my guild is doing some research for a paper and she is collecting data from quilters. Her online survey is for people who have taken their quilts to a professional for quilting and takes 20-40 minutes to fill out, depending on how detailed you get. Help a fellow quilter in her educational pursuits and give it a go!

I'm joining up!

Wendy over at The Running Quilter has started a group with the goal of getting creative & fit. Sounds like a plan to me! Jog on over and join (though running does need not be your chosen mode of fitness to join)

Hmm. My picture doesn't seem to work...maybe I'll have to add that later.

Quilt giveaway!!!

Yes, you heard me right. Someone is giving away a quilt! Dana at Old Red Barn Co. is giving away a super-gorgeous quilt made from the Ginger Blossom line that Portabellopixie designed. It is really beautiful. Hop on over and enter!

CVS deal

I am up in the middle of the night. I'm on call and just got my third post-bedtime call. Sigh. Now even though I am freakin' exhausted I am not falling asleep anytime soon. The buzz you get from the pager going off is like mainlining a Big Slurp of Dr. Pepper.

Anyways. So I thought I'd post about a deal I got at CVS today. I happened across part of it at "Cent"sible Sawyer and I figured out the rest on my own. So here it is:

2 peg packs of Lifesavers
2 Water Babies face sticks
1 pack of Chocolate Skittles (impulse buy for The Husband. He believes all candy should have a chocolate alternative. He was not right about Skittles needing one. Blech! But the kiddies did eat them.)

Sale:
Lifesavers are b1g1

Coupons:
b1g1 Lifesavers from newspaper insert a few weeks back
2.00 ECB

Total:
8.47
ECB bucks received:
10!!!!

Wee! That was fun. Can I ride it again?

Also, lest I neglect the quilting topic: I finished my June goal. It was to complete a block from the Starburst quilt. I finished it on the bus to and from the NQA show. I even managed to start a new block. 4 down, 12 to go!