Category Archives: Uncategorized

Mean parents

Posted on by
5

Will and Joe are the most underprivileged 12 year olds on the planets: they do not have cell phones.

“ALL” of their classmates have them. It’s really sad, you should pity them.

Except! We had decided that this Christmas we’d finally cave and stop being so darned mean to our poor, deprived children.

Our wireless plan is a data plan, so any new phones would be $40 per month extra, each. $80 a month?? We are getting a 20% discount off that, but even still: we had no intention of spending an extra $64 per month for the boys to have phones.

But we had this great idea! We’d add them to my Mom’s account! As far as we could figure from the limited information available (have you ever tried to actually get good information from a wireless company’s website? good luck with that…), it seemed that it would only be $10 per month per basic phone.

Um, no. As it turns out, her plan is so old that we couldn’t just add, she’d have to upgrade to a new plan. I bet you can guess the difference between her new plan and the old one.

$80 per month.

And that was just for plain phones with texting. On our plan, they could have smartphones.

But apparently we are still major grinches, because even I cannot justify spending $720 a year for the boys to have phones that they will have a legitimate need for…maybe…once a month?

Sadly, until they start driving, Will and Joe will have to continue borrowing their friends’ phones to call home, and will have to suffer without access to text messaging at all hours of the day and night.

Somehow, I think they’ll manage.

Even more quilting!

Posted on by
3

I know:  two posts in a row about QUILTING, it’s just crazy.

This is another repeat for my MQResource friends, but I think it’s worth it, it’s so cute:

IMG 1053 Even more quilting!

IMG 1055 Even more quilting!

IMG 1056 Even more quilting!

IMG 1059 Even more quilting!

ON this one, I tried to do the bows freehand and the one I did was…hooboy, it stank.  Partly because I just charged right in and didn’t actually draw it out first (I know, duh!), but partly because bows aren’t my thing — I’ve tried them before and haven’t been happy. Instead:  I let my Intelliquilter do the work on this one.  The design is from Designs by Vickie, with some modifications that I made (cutting and pasting the streamers so there were 4 and it was centered).  Could I, with practice and thought have done this freehand? Maybe.  But there were 42 blocks, and…I was happy to let IQ take this one for me…

Summer Vacation 2010, Part 2

Posted on by
1

Continuing on from yesterday, July 4th was pretty much just a travel day.  We had to drive across Nebraska, and I hate to say this…Nebraska, you are really boring.  You are home to a lot of really nice people, but the drive on I-80 is just…boring.

We did finally hit the next state on our travels:

IMG 0161 Summer Vacation 2010, Part 2

And you can be sure that we commented on the irony of a brown and white sign that proclaimed “Welcome to COLORFUL Colorado.”

Mark wanted to see MOUNTAINS in the worst way, and from the second we crossed into Colorado, he started asking:

“Is that a mountain?”

No, that’s just a hill.

“Is that a mountain?”

No, that’s also just a hill.

“Is that a mountain?”

No, that’s a COW.

“Is that a mountain?”

IMG 0163 Summer Vacation 2010, Part 2Yes, that was finally a mountain.  Waaaaaaay off there in the distance, above the treeline at the horizon, those are mountains.  I know.  It just looks like clouds, but it really was mountains.  Or foothills, anyway.  Something that was taller than the stuff around here.

What, you can’t see it?  How about a different view.

IMG 0164 Summer Vacation 2010, Part 2Oops.  Stupid camera.  Focused on the bug guts instead.

How’s this:

IMG 0166 Summer Vacation 2010, Part 2

Or this:

DSCF3793 Summer Vacation 2010, Part 2We stayed in Loveland, the hotels in Estes Park (30 miles closer) were either full or awfully expensive.  We were in a Fairfield Inn, which was perfectly adequate — exactly what you’d expect for that kind of hotel.

We had supper at IHOP — kids eat free, so we ordered 2 kids meals, and us adults ordered larger meals, with the plan that we’d share our extras.  I know I said “They’d both like the Silver 5.”  She brought one.  And when she asked if there was anything else, I said “Well, how about HIS meal,” and I pointed at Will.

“Oh, I thought you only wanted one.”

Uh.  Yeah.  They may be twins, but they aren’t Siamese and they don’t share a stomach.

Luckily, it didn’t take long and Will had his half of my pancakes to tide him over.

The next excitement was back at the hotel.  Mark went to exercise, and I started to get the boys ready to go to the pool…only…we couldn’t find their swimming trunks in their suitcases.  I trotted out (in the pouring rain…) to the truck to check if they were magically in one of the Rubbermaid totes.  Nope.  The boys apparently PUT THEM AWAY instead of packing them in their suitcases.

That got a major eyeroll from Mom.  The only time they put their laundry away is when they aren’t supposed to???

Luckily, there was a Target just around the corner, and they found some cheap trunks.  I let Mark handle that excursion.  I went and Ellipticized.  Don’t be too impressed, it was the only time I officially exercised the whole trip.  But that’s partly because a lot of our trip was spent hiking…

Transition

Posted on by
3

I’m finally caught up on mailing out shop orders, and am mostly recovered (however, the pressure in my ears suggests a possible ear infection, so I’ll be letting the Dr. peek in my ears tomorrow…ugh…). We were able to get a lot accomplished this weekend: quilts off the walls, yarn moved home, extraneous furniture hauled over to the auction house), and some fabric moved home.

The shop is looking empty and my studio is looking…well..chaotic. It will continue to be a half-baked, messy work in progress until everything gets moved home, partly because I can’t put everything away until more of the shelves and cabinets come home.

And yes, if I’m completely honest,  even once everything’s in, it’ll be a messy work in progress…

4416721527 b4a984e812 o Transition

The longarm will stick out into the middle of the room, just like it did before, with one end up against the bay window.

The shelving on the north wall is new, I’m not entirely sure what will live there, but right now, a stack of quilts waiting for binding is taking up space:

4417501150 59cc1abe3e o Transition

There used to be a couch on the wall where the sewing machine table is sitting.  That had to go, no room for anything extraneous like that.  Right now, some wire cubes are sitting there, but in the future a cabinet with doors will be occupying part of that space.

Everybody keeps asking me where everything is going to go when it moves back home, and the honest answer has been “I’m not entirely sure.”

That’s still my answer, because, I still don’t know how it’s all going to work.  I do know that I finally have a use for the big tub in the bathroom that no one every uses anymore:

4417482980 8499aa5e93 o Transition

Garbage bags full of yarn fill it up quite nicely.  Don’t worry, though, I don’t intend to keep them there permanently.  I don’t really want to have product that’s for sale in my bathroom…I’ll stick to my personal stash living in there…

You did what?

Posted on by
Reply

Last night, as we were leaving our dinner meeting, Mark was fussing with his cell phone.  Apparently, the screen was blank, and he was messing with it to see if he could get it to work.

I asked if something had happened to it, and he got this sheepish look on his face.

“It took a dunk in some water,” he said.

Wait.  What?

Apparently, yesterday morning, he had his cell phone in his shirt pocket and…he was checking on our leaky toilet.  When he bent over, the phone slipped out and into the toilet.

Of course, he wasn’t flushing at the same time, and was able to quickly pull it out and dry it off.

After we got home, he pulled the battery and spent some time blow drying his phone.  As far as I know, it’s OK now, but he does NOT get to give me a hard time about my cell phone anymore.

pixel You did what?