On Wednesday, July 19th, I received an invitation in the mail to attend a BBQ at Rusch Park as a thank you for my loyal service to Surewest, our telephone company. I tried to RSVP to no avail, after I invited the darling daughter to come home and go with me. Turns out the contact number is a mailbox which was full before the 19th--probably because it was the contact number for two events. The invitation directed me to go to the web site, but that won't come up. It is a Surewest site and I have Surewest Internet. Shouldn't I be able to get on?????
Anyway, it is all about being loyal to Surewest. Since I moved into this house April 19, 1985, we have had Surewest--which began as Roseville Telephone. They had a monopoly. We were stuck with Roseville Telephone because of where we lived. No digital television, always the last to get anything because we are on the edge of the service area. Now they are Surewest and we have a choice. I could get rid of my landline and just go with ATT. We finally got digital cable while all the rest of the world had been enjoying it for years. Not us.
Now the BBQ is full. I have to call and change plans. It is annoying and really hurt my feelings--just enough to make me unhappy. I am not feeling so loyal now.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Saturday, July 21, 2012
The Daughter Moved Out
My darling daughter has moved out of her parents house into a small apartment. I miss her for many reasons. She was my clean-up girl. She did the laundry. She kept the refrigerator stocked with beer and soda for her father. I fall down on all these jobs. Hard to miss her though. She calls me at least twice a day. One day she wanted to know what she should wear to the state fair (80* weather). Another she wanted to let me know she couldn't find her corkscrew she bought and was it in my car? Do I want to take advantage of her discount???? Of course!
I am trying to clean up the mess that surrounds me. I am not having success. One problem is that my husband wants to take the cottage cheese ceiling off and put in wood flooring down. I haven't put anything in that room except this computer because of that. I am rapidly changing my mind. I don't see any of this starting before the middle of August. So, I am going to stack stuff and occasionally decide what to throw away and have it all done by August 12th.
I did get the 120 flying geese for my Thimbleberries group done. I have until September to turn them in, but I wanted to get this out of the way. Next will be the Christmas Joy quilt to be completed. I had a question and emailed Tracy Souza, the designer, and have gotten no response back. I am disappointed. Sigh!!!
Off to make dinner. Now that the daughter has left the nest, I am the cook again. That I can still do well....
I am trying to clean up the mess that surrounds me. I am not having success. One problem is that my husband wants to take the cottage cheese ceiling off and put in wood flooring down. I haven't put anything in that room except this computer because of that. I am rapidly changing my mind. I don't see any of this starting before the middle of August. So, I am going to stack stuff and occasionally decide what to throw away and have it all done by August 12th.
I did get the 120 flying geese for my Thimbleberries group done. I have until September to turn them in, but I wanted to get this out of the way. Next will be the Christmas Joy quilt to be completed. I had a question and emailed Tracy Souza, the designer, and have gotten no response back. I am disappointed. Sigh!!!
Off to make dinner. Now that the daughter has left the nest, I am the cook again. That I can still do well....
Monday, July 16, 2012
I had the best time!
I am still happy from the retreat I went on. There were 12 of us. Before we even went up to Auburn, there were a flurry of emails about who would bring what, who needed rulers for a specific project, etc. One of the topics was snacks. I bet each of us brought at least three snacks. The "snack" table measured 120"x32" and was absolutely covered with cookies, pretzels, chips, tail mix, candies, etc. I brought breakfast cookies. These are truly delicious and they are full of things you eat for breakfast.
Breakfast Cookies
From The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham
1 stick of butter at room temperature (softened)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats or unsweetened granola
1 cup broken walnuts
Preheat oven to 350*. Grease two baking sheets.
Cream sugars and butter together until smooth. Add vanilla and egg. Beat well.
Stir in flour, salt and baking soda. Add cereal and walnuts, blending well.
Lightly flour a surface and turn the dough out onto it. Roll out the dough to 1/8" thickness.
Cut the cookies out with a 3-" cookie cutter. Place the cookies slightly apart. They don't spread.
Bake 12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on wire rack or waxed paper,
Just to give you a quick idea of how things NEVER go as planned:
Friday, June 29th
The retreat starts at 2pm. We got special permission to be there two hours early. I leave at 10:40am. I should say here that I live approximately 25-30 minutes from the far side of Auburn. I drop the darling daughter off at work and then go in and shop at JoAnn's. I stop at the bank (just across the parking lot from JoAnn's). I am supposed to be at Paul's house by noon. Paul is a family friend who moved to Auburn in June of 2011 and I had never seen his house. I knew I would have all this extra time and seeing the house seemed like a good time killer. By 12:10pm I was lost. I get lost all the time. I must say that this time it was Paul's not so good directions. When I finally found it, I got the grand tour-- three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen with dining area and a livingroom. We discussed the plans Paul had for remodeling and at 1:15pm went over to Chevy's to have lunch. After a very yummy lunch with an extremely good margarita, it was 2:45pm and I was definitely late for the retreat (although I did have until 4pm to get there). Because I left the directions to the Mercy Center at home and was coming from a completely opposite direction, I had to call and ask for more directions. I was the only one not there and my friends seemed concerned since I was expected an hour ago!!! I got there in one piece and Jill took my stuff to the room and then showed my how to get to the quilting room. I was ready and in place by dinner!
Despite this being a time away from distractions to quilt, we were required to work for our keep. And it was such arduous work!! We had to make our beds up the first night--Friday, and take them apart when we left on Sunday. We had to set our table for each meal. The dinners, lunches and breakfasts were wonderful. The first meal was salmon (after all this is a catholic convent and it was Friday. Jill, Valerie and I were the first three people in line and not one of us took the fish. I had had a big lunch and only ate the vegetables, but I don't like salmon. All three of us don't like salmon. Every meal was fantastic. My favorite was the giant breakfast burrito. We shared our meals with two other groups. One was an intensive healing group, but we didn't find out what kind of intensive healing was going on. The other group, Abundant Life--about 20 black women dressed up like they were going to church with hats and gloves--had a message for their group. It was MISSION POSSIBLE. Isn't that just so uplifting???
We quilted whenever we liked. Some until the wee hours of the night (I went to bed at midnight) and some beginning in the wee hours of the morning--Cordelia.....Vonnie told me someone snored loudly and kept her up at times. I know I snore and her room was next to mine, but Jill was on the other side and said she didn't hear me. Sorry Vonnie. The first night I sat down to read before I went to sleep and found I had left my book in the quilting room. I was already in my pajamas and didn't want to walk the few feet, so I read the Bible in my room. It is a convent--nuns live there--there was a Bible in every room. We had music in the quilting room supplied by Kimberly. We finished enough squares to make two donation quilts for the Mercy Center. Quilts were finished. I made a purse, started a quilt for my friend, Sandy, and studied the blocks I had for my Linda Ballard project--Now You See It, Now You Don't. Valerie brought her daughter's lap top and she and Jayma watched the Harry Potter movies. It made me want to watch them all over again. I will when I find the first movie that I have hear somewhere!!!!
The center was wonderful. There was plenty of room to walk and see the beautiful grounds. Jill and I walked the Stations of the cross. I was winded at one point. I must start walking again at home. I am so out of shape......
I am sure I left so much out, but I am at the end. I am all set to go again next year!
Breakfast Cookies
From The Breakfast Book by Marion Cunningham
1 stick of butter at room temperature (softened)
1/3 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup rolled oats or unsweetened granola
1 cup broken walnuts
Preheat oven to 350*. Grease two baking sheets.
Cream sugars and butter together until smooth. Add vanilla and egg. Beat well.
Stir in flour, salt and baking soda. Add cereal and walnuts, blending well.
Lightly flour a surface and turn the dough out onto it. Roll out the dough to 1/8" thickness.
Cut the cookies out with a 3-" cookie cutter. Place the cookies slightly apart. They don't spread.
Bake 12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on wire rack or waxed paper,
Just to give you a quick idea of how things NEVER go as planned:
Friday, June 29th
The retreat starts at 2pm. We got special permission to be there two hours early. I leave at 10:40am. I should say here that I live approximately 25-30 minutes from the far side of Auburn. I drop the darling daughter off at work and then go in and shop at JoAnn's. I stop at the bank (just across the parking lot from JoAnn's). I am supposed to be at Paul's house by noon. Paul is a family friend who moved to Auburn in June of 2011 and I had never seen his house. I knew I would have all this extra time and seeing the house seemed like a good time killer. By 12:10pm I was lost. I get lost all the time. I must say that this time it was Paul's not so good directions. When I finally found it, I got the grand tour-- three bedrooms, two baths, kitchen with dining area and a livingroom. We discussed the plans Paul had for remodeling and at 1:15pm went over to Chevy's to have lunch. After a very yummy lunch with an extremely good margarita, it was 2:45pm and I was definitely late for the retreat (although I did have until 4pm to get there). Because I left the directions to the Mercy Center at home and was coming from a completely opposite direction, I had to call and ask for more directions. I was the only one not there and my friends seemed concerned since I was expected an hour ago!!! I got there in one piece and Jill took my stuff to the room and then showed my how to get to the quilting room. I was ready and in place by dinner!
Despite this being a time away from distractions to quilt, we were required to work for our keep. And it was such arduous work!! We had to make our beds up the first night--Friday, and take them apart when we left on Sunday. We had to set our table for each meal. The dinners, lunches and breakfasts were wonderful. The first meal was salmon (after all this is a catholic convent and it was Friday. Jill, Valerie and I were the first three people in line and not one of us took the fish. I had had a big lunch and only ate the vegetables, but I don't like salmon. All three of us don't like salmon. Every meal was fantastic. My favorite was the giant breakfast burrito. We shared our meals with two other groups. One was an intensive healing group, but we didn't find out what kind of intensive healing was going on. The other group, Abundant Life--about 20 black women dressed up like they were going to church with hats and gloves--had a message for their group. It was MISSION POSSIBLE. Isn't that just so uplifting???
We quilted whenever we liked. Some until the wee hours of the night (I went to bed at midnight) and some beginning in the wee hours of the morning--Cordelia.....Vonnie told me someone snored loudly and kept her up at times. I know I snore and her room was next to mine, but Jill was on the other side and said she didn't hear me. Sorry Vonnie. The first night I sat down to read before I went to sleep and found I had left my book in the quilting room. I was already in my pajamas and didn't want to walk the few feet, so I read the Bible in my room. It is a convent--nuns live there--there was a Bible in every room. We had music in the quilting room supplied by Kimberly. We finished enough squares to make two donation quilts for the Mercy Center. Quilts were finished. I made a purse, started a quilt for my friend, Sandy, and studied the blocks I had for my Linda Ballard project--Now You See It, Now You Don't. Valerie brought her daughter's lap top and she and Jayma watched the Harry Potter movies. It made me want to watch them all over again. I will when I find the first movie that I have hear somewhere!!!!
The center was wonderful. There was plenty of room to walk and see the beautiful grounds. Jill and I walked the Stations of the cross. I was winded at one point. I must start walking again at home. I am so out of shape......
I am sure I left so much out, but I am at the end. I am all set to go again next year!
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Free at Starbucks
On Friday, July 13th, from 12-3pm Starbucks is giving out free tall refreshers. There is a berry flavor and a lime flavor. Yummmm. My favorite is the lime flavor. Go get one every one!
Saturday, July 7, 2012
We all need a quilting retreat!
I was all prepared to write a post about my quilting retreat and I can't find my notebook. What a blonde I am today. So, instead you will have to wait until I clean off my table and the indispensable notebook appears.
I have been busy with my community service quilts. I have a pile of them to quilt. Our community service people have put their foot down and won't accept just quilt tops anymore. I confess that I am very guilty of that. I like putting the tops together more than the quilting of these baby/small child quilts.
Christmas Joy Quilt: Tracy Souza has a Christmas quilt called the Christmas Twist. A couple of my friends and I are taking the class. It is more how to color and embroider the borders than how to make pinwheels. The instructions for the class ask for the quilt to be ready with borders attached (in an ideal world). I helped my friend put her quilt together. The border fabric (of which I wrote about April 23, 2012) is a bit flimsy and it has waves. I am really concerned about doing the embroidery without a stabilizer underneath. I am willing to put stabilizer on all of the borders (thinking it will give it more stability to this flimsy fabric). This is just one more lesson in how you make a fuss about something and it turns out not to be the best thing after all. I saw Tracy's quilt on the wall and it laid perfectly, so I am not upset and/or obsessing, justhave a small concern. Soooo, I will email Tracy for more information.
I'm off to look for my notebook with all my carefully recorded notes. Wish me luck.
I have been busy with my community service quilts. I have a pile of them to quilt. Our community service people have put their foot down and won't accept just quilt tops anymore. I confess that I am very guilty of that. I like putting the tops together more than the quilting of these baby/small child quilts.
Christmas Joy Quilt: Tracy Souza has a Christmas quilt called the Christmas Twist. A couple of my friends and I are taking the class. It is more how to color and embroider the borders than how to make pinwheels. The instructions for the class ask for the quilt to be ready with borders attached (in an ideal world). I helped my friend put her quilt together. The border fabric (of which I wrote about April 23, 2012) is a bit flimsy and it has waves. I am really concerned about doing the embroidery without a stabilizer underneath. I am willing to put stabilizer on all of the borders (thinking it will give it more stability to this flimsy fabric). This is just one more lesson in how you make a fuss about something and it turns out not to be the best thing after all. I saw Tracy's quilt on the wall and it laid perfectly, so I am not upset and/or obsessing, justhave a small concern. Soooo, I will email Tracy for more information.
I'm off to look for my notebook with all my carefully recorded notes. Wish me luck.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Getting Ready
I am so excited. On Friday, I will be going to a quilt retreat. It is a mini-retreat through my quilt guild. Every year a bunch of our fellow guild members go up to Zepher Cove for a full week of quilting happiness.
Not all of us are able to afford that--either in money or in time away from work. So, Natalie got the idea to have this little retreat. We are going to Auburn to the Mercy Retreat Center--run by the Sister's of Mercy.
From Friday at 2pm until Sunday at noon, we will be in quilting heaven.
I am bringing my red/blue stars, my Linda Ballard quilt, a purse project and a pink and brown quilt. I am thinking about changing my mind and taking one of the Saturday Square quilts. This is more than I need to bring. There are some projects planned to teach us techniques, but I am not sure I care to join in with those. One big surprise is for my friend Jill. Just had a thought. I don't know if Jill reads this, so the surprise will have to wait. I'll take a picture......
New book I am going to start is a John Grisham--The Litigators
Not all of us are able to afford that--either in money or in time away from work. So, Natalie got the idea to have this little retreat. We are going to Auburn to the Mercy Retreat Center--run by the Sister's of Mercy.
From Friday at 2pm until Sunday at noon, we will be in quilting heaven.
I am bringing my red/blue stars, my Linda Ballard quilt, a purse project and a pink and brown quilt. I am thinking about changing my mind and taking one of the Saturday Square quilts. This is more than I need to bring. There are some projects planned to teach us techniques, but I am not sure I care to join in with those. One big surprise is for my friend Jill. Just had a thought. I don't know if Jill reads this, so the surprise will have to wait. I'll take a picture......
New book I am going to start is a John Grisham--The Litigators
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