September 2004 Archives

This is the view of the herb garden on the North side of my home. I leaned out the window one day, early last May and snapped this with an instant camera.
The garden has been in place for about 15 years. The trees and shrubs to the west have been encroaching, and I cut some of them back this summer.

If you look carefully, you can see the tips of the fern fronds at the bottom right of the picture. The ferns fill the area where the back wall of the garage joins the house. The faint line from the right of the picture that runs across the bottom of the herb garden, is the path the chipmunks have worn through the grass to the bird feeder.

The front right corner of the garden has garlic chives, a chrysanthemum, regular chives (the pink blooms), oregano and winter savory. You can see day lilies in the bottom left of the garden. In the center box, a dame's rocket is in bloom with more chives, and the rest of the area is waiting for basil, rosemary and several other herbs to be planted. The arbor holds a deep purple clematis that is just beginning to leaf out.

The veggie boxes are covered with plastic. I have a weed that I couldn't kill off any other way, so I tried solar heat for the summer. We'll see how things turn out next spring.

And all the way to the back is Dear Husband's pride and joy, the Arr!! It's a 32' Bayfield cutter that is moored in Lake Michigan during the summer, and boards with us the rest of the year. Any time you can't find DH.....check the boat!

I want to thank Stu for starting the "View" meme. I have wanted to post this picture all summer and he gave me the incentive to work with my stepson to get it scanned. If you have a view from your home that you would like to share why not join us? And thanks go to Blue Witch, too, for sharing Stu's meme with us.

UPDATE: Stu's meme is called the Skyline Project.

I'm home!

I had a wonderful weekend with my youngest sister and her family. They had a ton of stuff planned and we filtered through it and settled on one thing here, and another thing there, and it turned out to be a laid back visit that was still jam packed.

Well, actually, I won't be roving....but making a trip to my youngest sister's for the weekend. Roving would imply that I am going to wander. Even though I plan to take a new route, I still have a definite plan, and destination in mind.

Dear Husband and my mother and I will be making this same trip in mid October. I don't usually make the trip more than twice a year, and sometimes just once. So, when Younger Sis asked me to visit, I had to think twice about it. The answer, of course, was...WHY NOT??

Wednesday, September 22, is our wedding aniversary. We've been a couple for twenty years, and have been married fourteen of them. We plan to celebrate in a low key way. Our favorite restaurant is about thirty minutes east of us, and we'll pack Mother into the car and head off to dinner. No dancing, no huge party, no gifts (at least, I don't think there will be any gifts.)

Hmmmmmmm....I wonder if I should be looking for a gift tomorrow? What can you buy a man who has almost everything he wants other than a sixty foot sailboat? He can't sail a 60 foot sailboat by himself....so that's a moot point.

Happy Anniversary, Dear Husband! My gift to you tomorrow is not having to eat my cooking! *G* Have a great day, hon.

I had to make a quick trip to the doc today. Sunday, my right eye developed a problem. Well...actually, it started with the skin around the outer corner of my eye. It felt abraded and stung if you touched it. By Monday morning, my eyelid was puffy. Now, the good thing about this was that it got me out of a visit to the dentist. She has a policy about colds, etc. If you're coming down with something, you're supposed to reschedule. So, I called, and they moved me to next week.

The doctor's office was able to schedule me to see the newest member of the practice this morning, and she decided that I had a virus. I'm doing the two eye drops every two hours routine, and antibiotics for ten days. My eye is already feeling better. I was sure that it was an allergic reaction to something that flew into my face when I was weed eating on Sunday, but it seems the doc may have known better.

So, what does this have to do with Audubon? There weren't many non-parenting magazines in the doctor's office. I settled on the October issue of Audubon. I wish I could remember all I read. It was fascinating! I'll have to see if there are still any issues at Borders.

Did you know that a resting hummingbird's heart beats 250 times a minute? More astounding than that is the fact that when in flight their hearts beat up to 1200 times a minute! A group of volunteers are banding hummingbirds in the US. There are over 300 varieties of this species, but only 20 or so migrate up into the United States from Central America and Mexico. It seems that those birds return to the same gardens every summer. I can't imagine the job of banding a hummingbird. I don't think my hands would be gentle enough.

Habitat seems to be the subject that is on everyone's minds. The hummingbirds are loosing the habitat they need as they migrate back and forth. They are having to depend on gardens and landscaping around homes to replace their natural habitat. The Florida panther is loosing it's habitat, and there are now just 100 of them left. The raccoons here, have lost their habitat, and have adapted by trying to become house pets.

While we consider blacktopping over huge parts of the world, maybe we need to listen to the world around us, and see what we will loose. I understand the concerns of loggers, and farmers, and construction crews, but we have an obligation to be good caretakers of the Earth. If we disregard Nature around us, we could kill off species that hold the keys to our future. We need to find ways to co-exist. Maybe the hummingbirds can lead the way.

Alright, everyone. Next spring I expect each of you to plant trumpet vine for the humming birds!

I think every home must have a story that the inhabitants, if asked, would say was the most memorable thing about the house. In our case, it might be the raccoons.

Two...maybe three summers ago, I hired two handymen to do some outside work on the house. I needed to have the dormer over the front door repainted, and I wanted to have a gutter repaired.

Well, Dear Husband came home and found them at work, and I had to admit that I had hired some help. A few days later, it rained, and it became apparent that we now had a leak in the roof....perhaps in the location of where one of the men had been standing, and the gutter could still be improved.

DH went out to the front of the house, and ripped out the soffit, announcing that we would leave it open to determine where the leak was.

A year later, a lady raccoon found the open soffit, and discovered that she could make a nest between the brick wall and the drywall in my mother's sitting room. That spring we could hear her babies calling for their dinner. When she scritched her fleas, her feet would thump against the walls. We could hear her run across the roof. Later that summer, we took up viewing posts in the dining room, and watched the acrobatics as she left the wall, and curled up onto the roof. She used the valleys of the roof as her personal highways, and taught her children to follow her.

I assume that she hibernated in the wall that winter. We talked about the need to lure her out and close the soffit. I probably talked about that a LOT as she chewed her way through the rigid insulation, and began pulling out yards of fiberglass insulation. Each morning I would look out the front door and find wads of it festooning the newly emerging perennials in the sidewalk garden.

Then, we realized we had TWO female raccoons....two PREGNANT raccoons.

DEAR HUSBAND....we NEED to CLOSE the SOFFIT! DH would nod his head in agreement.

So....the raccoons found their way into the attic. One night, I was sitting in the "green room." That's the area off the kitchen where we have shelves of plants, and it's where we eat informal dinners. Over my head there was an incredible fight, with high pitched screaming and thuds. The raccoons were establishing pecking order, and territory. Evidently one took the corner over our closet, and one found a nook at the edge of the great room, and they must have divvied up the green room as a straightaway to the exit. Their choices were astonishing! They instinctively chose places where we couldn't get to them.

A month or two later, we could hear the babies trying to scramble up the slope of the cathedral ceiling over the great room. Those little suckers were cute little balls of fur....but I wanted them OUT of my house!

Dear Husband heard about it regularly, as the raccoons pulled more and more insulation out of the house. It was a warm summer, and the attic is hot, despite the fan and the vents. Every now and then I'd catch the raccoons snoozing near the opening of the soffit......a foot hanging over the side, and gentle snoring competing with the bees.

So...last month, DH finally cut a temporary patch for the soffit. We were agreed that the babies were old enough now to survive outside. We felt it was necessary to give them adequate time to find another home before winter set in.

I know you wonder why I didn't just call an exterminator. I did. Actually, I called a "trapper." I didn't want to kill these animals. Their habitat has been eaten up inexorably. Houses have marched across the fields and into the groves that were their home, and we had one of the few places left that seemed a refuge. I didn't expect them to become our dependents. At any rate, the "trapper" wanted $50 to visit and scope out the situation. Then, he wanted $35 a piece for each raccoon he caught. AND.....he would have to kill them once he caught them. We figured there were nine of them. The money wasn't the issue. Killing the babies was.

My soft-heartedness came to an end when we started hearing stories about how dangerous they were to both pets and human health. It was time for them to go.

It's quiet above me tonight. The soffit will have to be opened so that insulation can be blown into the attic, and we'll have to paint, and clean. I'm glad they are outside where they belong, but I miss them.

It was the right thing to do, if only to give Dear Husband a little peace.

Although my blog roll is on the small size, I read a fair number of blogs. I try to visit some of the blogs that my friends have listed on their blogrolls, now and then. There's certainly a lot of variety out there.

I have political opinions, but I don't care to have a political blog. While I have a sense of humor, the things that tickle me are not easily shared in a blog. The bloggers who I really envy are those who are able to share their personal thoughts and problems. I'd like the depth of discussion that might result, but I'm uncomfortable with the idea of hanging my laundry out for all to see. And, it could be really upsetting to make my life public, and find out it's trivial and uninteresting.

So, my blog has become more of a daily journal, a record of the repetative tasks that flow through my life. Even I find it dull some days.

I'd like to be able to spin a yarn like Scherezade, or write like one of a dozen authors. I'd like to have the diplomacy, empathy and wisdom of a person like Jimmy Carter, and the mature beauty of Sophia Loren. I'd like to understand economics, and philosopy, and be multilingual. I'd like to be as creative in problem solving as my husband, and as confident in crisis as my oldest sister. I'd like a large dose of determination from my youngest sister, I'd like to have gorgeous gardens that flow from one into another, and enhance the land, and I'd like to know, that when I pass away, I won't be forgotten in a day.

Instead, my days are filled with weeding, bookkeeping, cleaning, meal preparation, and the running of errands. I've been waiting for a time when my obligations eased to allow me to fit other things into my life, but it seems that maybe I shouldn't wait. Maybe the time I spend blogging should be put to use improving the quality of my life. Variety is the spice of life....and I need more spice.

A little allspice, anyone?

Do you remember your first kiss?

I have to admit, I can't remember mine. I can guess who my accomplice might have been, but for the life of me, I can't remember the kiss. Underwhelming, huh??

Can't you just see me sending a note to each of the boys in my graduating class, asking if THEY were the lucky one? On second thought, that might be in bad taste. I wouldn't want to hurt their feelings if they fondly remember the kiss. After all, I could have been a terrific kisser! Besides, I don't need to tell half the class that my memory is already going.

Kissing is a GREAT activity! I was appalled when Henry Fonda asked Katherine Hepburn in "On Golden Pond" if she wanted to "suck face." It's not the sucking part, or technique that bothered me....it was the offhandedness of the remark. I'd make a comment disparaging old guys here, but Broad at Bat is teaching me to be careful about dropping generalizations about guys. Besides....I know that I should take the comment in the sense of humor, fondness and familiarity that it was intended.

So...to that anonymous guy who started me off on a lifetime of great kisses, thank you.....and so sorry I can't recall the moment. ; )

It's come to my attention that most of us are not spending enough time when we wash our hands.

Here's a tip to help you. As you wash, sing "Happy Birthday" to yourself twice. If you're going to be doing food preparation, sing it four times.

The Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety suggests that you wash your hands:

after using the washroom (includes changing diapers),
before and after eating or handling food,
after touching raw meat, poultry, or fish,
after handling garbage,
visiting sick people,
handling infected animals.

To prevent the spread of germs, avoid touching your eyes, mouth or nose.

The U.S. Center for Disease Control gives these guidelines for hand washing:

First wet your hands and apply liquid or clean bar soap. Place the bar soap on a rack and allow it to drain.
Next rub your hands vigorously together and scrub all surfaces.
Continue for 10 - 15 seconds or about the length of a little tune. It is the soap combined with the scrubbing action that helps dislodge and remove germs.
Rinse well and dry your hands.

Two other suggestions to consider, take off your rings, and be sure to clean them occasionally, and when preparing food, use a one-use, disposible towel or paper towel to dry your hands.

And, I'm sure that my dermatologist, if she read this, would say: USE HAND LOTION if you are washing your hands when you will not be preparing food.

I've been talking about meal planning lately. I've always planned a week at a time, until recently. Now I plan half a week at a time, and shop more often, because we're eating more vegetables. I thought I woud post what this week's meals have been, and seeing it in print is scary! I've been struggling with my weight, and I can see why!

Sunday, we had visitors at our table, so we probably went a little out of our way to prepare a large meal, and Tuesday nights my niece and her sons come to us for dinner. Otherwise, there were four of us at dinner, each night, covering three generations.

Sunday:
Roast Pork, Browned Potatoes and Gravy, Carrots, Acorn Squash, Salad, Garlic Cheddar Biscuits, and Gingerbread with Ice Cream.

Monday:
Broiled Flank Steak, Yellow Wax Beans with Onions, Cauliflower with Bread Crumb topping, Sauteed Mushrooms, Salad

Tuesday:
Antipasto: Turkey, Ham, Chicken, Tuna, Hard Boiled Eggs, Swiss, Cheddar, Colby Jack, Feta, Olives, Sweet Pickles, Cherry Peppers, Pepperoncini, Dill Pickles, Cucumber, Plum tomatoes, Cauliflower, Green Onions, Romaine, cheesy garlic bread, Canteloupe, Applesauce, Lemon Meringue Pie and Peach Crisp

Wednesday:
Baked Chicken Cordon Bleu, Asparagus, Broccoli, Salad

Thursday:
Beef Chop Suey, Cashew Beef, Egg Foo Yung, Rice

Friday:
Pizza

Saturday:
(Dear Husband will be on the boat) Tomato Soup, Oyster Crackers, Salad

Sunday:
Pot Roast, Browned Potatoes and Carrots, Green Beans, Salad

You can see that the meals got simpler as the week went on. We normally don't do things that require so many ingredients as the Antipasto, but were were trying to cover the tastes of four generations with that meal.

We have made the shift away from fried foods. We grill, broil, roast or bake, and when something needs to be sauteed, we use broth, Worchestershire sauce, or juice in place of butter. We offer bread and desserts when we have guests, otherwise, we have cut those carbs and sugars out of our diet. Our veggies are generally steamed and served without butter, but the topping on the cauliflower was a combination of bread crumbs browned in butter, and green onions, so you can see that I have places I can still refine the diet.

My plan is to cut back a bit, still having two veggies and a salad, but I want to get to simpler preparations, and less time consuming meals. Still....you won't see any frozen dinners at our house.

and the way my family communicates.

Second hand, I have been told that my sister has been released from the hospital to go home to her cat and dog. Apparently, she is on some type of drug, in pill form, for pain management. She is not on steroids. I don't know if she is still on morphine.

A friend is going to take her to the library so that she will have something to occupy her mind as she sits and waits for this problem to abate. I wonder if I need to make meals for her, of if the effort of reheating a meal will be too much?

I need to heat up the grapevine and see what her kids are doing to help. Wouldn't you think, with something as serious as this, that someone NOT on drugs should be involved in making decisions about what Sis is doing?

I suspect that there may be blessings in growing older alone, but this is not one of them. When you are ill, you need someone you trust to help you make sensible choices. In our family, Sister #1 probably holds that position, and it's a good thing she's coming back from Australia soon!

My mother is addicted to butter!

We happen to be out of butter for the first time in fifteen years. We normally have a back up box of butter, and as soon as someone touches the back up box, Mother announces that it's time to go shopping.

Well, somewhere along the line, we used all the butter, and now I'M in the dog house. It seems that it is MY responsibility to make sure that we always have butter! (snort!)

When we go grocery shopping we both have lists. I'm surprised that butter doesn't head her list. I'm not sure why I'm the bad guy here, but I'm not going out to buy a pound of butter right now. It will have to wait until tomorrow, and I bet I will hear about this for the rest of my life!

What's with men and applesauce??

Is it unmanly to eat applesauce?

Is there some rite of passage where a male child stops eating applesauce to show the world he has become a man??

Last night we prepared an antipasto. There were sliced meats, cheese, a variety of peppers, pickles, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine, eggs, crusty bread and assorted dressings. In addition, I put a dish of applesauce, and one of canteloupe on the table.

Of course, there was too much food, so there was fruit left over. I was talking to Dear Husband about eating up the left overs and he agreed, until I mentioned applesauce.

I swear he has a male union card, and it's written in the by-laws that any member caught eating applesauce will immediately be ridiculed and ousted from the union, to the accompaniment of loud jeers. They probably let the air out of your truck tires, too.

When you prepare dinner, how long on average does it take you?

I was listening to the radio, and this was being discussed. On average, it takes us close to 45 minutes to prepare dinner. We are now eating mostly fresh veggies and salad, in addition to meat. Salad preparation seems to take the most time, with veggies eating up the rest. And, now I'm getting more help in the kitchen preparing dinner than ever before, and it STILL takes us around 45 minutes.

I use a crockpot occasionally, and we also have a wok. But we eat a lot of soup in the cooler weather, and soup takes time to make.

There are a number of cookbooks out there that feature 30 minute meals. I rejoice when I find a 30 minute meal that is tasty. Unfortunately, a lot of them taste terrible. My palate has passed the point where I see a TV dinner and go "YUUUUUUUMMMM!"

I don't mind giving up casseroles for healthier eating, but I'm surprised at the time it's taking us in the kitchen. How long are you willing to spend on meal preparation?

Do you have one family member you call first when there's a problem?

I have three sisters and a brother. Two of my sisters are older than I am, and so is my brother. The family falls into "girl, girl, boy, girl, girl" formation.

My oldest sister (the nurse) is the one I call when there is a family problem. Unfortunately, right now she is in Australia. She's a jet setting Gramma. Her daughter, and her daughter's family are living in Australia, and my sis has been visiting for a month so that her daughter and son-in-law could attend a conference. I can reach her by computer or by phone, but she'll be home on Sunday, so I hate to ruin her visit.

My second sister was admitted to the hospital Monday night. She is in extreme pain, and the doctors don't seem to be able to pin down exactly what's causing the problem. It could be a pinched nerve, or something having to do with spinal nerves. At any rate, she couldn't deal with the pain and they admitted her to the hospital. She had an MRI and a procedure on Tuesday that didn't work, and today they have added steroids to the morphine drip that she's been on since Monday.

I would try almost anything to avoid surgery, but she's been in so much pain she wants the doctors to take the surgical approach. It sounds to me like they don't know WHAT to cut.....so I hope they find some alternatives for her.

Normally, I'd be chatting with my oldest sister, trying to find out what she knows about the situation. As a nurse, she usually has a different take, and certainly more knowledge, and it can be reassuring to talk with her.

So, we are in "wait and see" mode, hoping for a miracle to make my sister comfortable.

A for real storm, not one of those man made things. We've been without rain for weeks. I've been schlepping water to all the container plants, and talking myself out of hooking up the hose. We really NEED the rain, but it's going to come in hard and fast. What we need is a gentle rain.

The day started sunny and hot, and gradually the cloud cover has come in. It's rather still right now....the calm before the storm. One of the sites I visit online is the NOAA radar for our area. Based on their information, I'd say the hardest early storms are going to hit north of us.....LOOK OUT WISCONSIN! But, we should see some of that rain, and a bit more, through out the night.

I was a bit under the weather this morning. I think it's mostly due to allergies; I feel this way each Fall. I spent a quiet morning in the office, tidying up loose ends and getting ready to make a back-up of the company files for the CPA. I need a day to house clean, or maybe that should be "office" clean. I have some filing to do, and I want to pitch some things, and reorganize others.

What I'd really like to be doing is sitting in a comfy chair, wrapped up with a quilt, a mug of apricot tea at hand, and a good book. But, my eyes are scritchy, and I suspect I'd just fall asleep in the chair. Maybe if I blog for a bit, I can stave off snoozing.

I'd like to fall asleep later tonight to the sound of rain on the roof. I miss that sound.

You are a fiery witch. Your charisma and sensual
beauty draw many to you. You are creative and
full of vitality and inspiration. Never one to
blend in, you're appearance is bold, bright
and..er.. fiery :) You draw your power from
fire and may be a bit of a pyro.. for pretty
sented candles at least.


What kind of 'witch' are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I was visiting at Blue Witch's blog, and saw the Quizilla test "What Witch Are You?" I figured it was worth a try, but I'm a bit surprised at the results. I feel the need to mop up the spilled wine.....

I had a little time to myself this afternoon, and I spent it visiting blogs. I have a short list of blogs that I follow, and I still have time getting to them all regularly. So, it was a pleasure today to check in with everybody, to see how you all are.

Dr. D.....Happy Birthday late, hon. I'm glad to read that your roof held despite all that Ivan threw at you.

WichiDude....Coongratulations on a year of blogging. I thought you had started blogging before I did, so I was surprised to see it was your blog anniversary. Keep up the good work.

Blue Witch has been adding to her foul...er fowl collection. Go see the pictures.

Jamie was sending shouts to missing friends (me included), and they've celebrated Q16's birthday.

Desiree has interviewed for a job, and they are going to sell their house and move.

Bogie and WS are back from a trip to Niagara Falls, and she's more than busy pet sitting.

PJ has been out living life and painting bedrooms. He's working on starting a paintball business, but found the time to blog and let us know he's among the living.

Broad at Bat is making lists, and saving them, and remaking them, and saving them.....

billy is off on a road trip, or will be soon.

RedEagle1 ( who hosts my blog ) is the mom of three boys, and her middle son just learned to water ski!

Legomen IS.....off drinking.

Essay, at Stupid Angry Canajun, has been goaded into recycling newspapers, and is caring for a multitude of creatures while her significant other is away for the weekend. Go give her advice! lol

-=e=- has a DREADFUL post on self dentistry....

Mad Bull and his folk came through the hurricane okay, and kept us posted on Dr. D.

Ms. Roberta has suggested that some of us may need an amnesia pill. to forget political goings on.

Jim at Parkway Rest Stop linked up to a site with complaints about New Jersey tollway collectors that was eye opening.

I still have a few more of you to visit, but I want to thank you all for continuing to visit, even though I have occasionally come up missing this summer. It's nice to have a feeling of connection.

The City of Chicago has amost 2000 surveillance cameras, and will be adding another 250 by 2006. The cameras are currently set up at O'Hare International Airport, in public housing overseen by the Chicago Housing Authority, on the city transit lines, in parks, and in schools. These cameras will be tied into the 911 center.

The cameras will be checking for bags abandonded in stairwells, for movement in areas off limits to citizens, for a person falling, and for erratic behavior, among other things.

Mayor Daley was quoted as saying "We own the sidewalk. We own the street and we own the alley." Since these cameras are only in public areas, according to Daley, there will be no invasion of privacy.

In designing the system, representatives studied how the casinos and hotels in Las Vegas used their surveillance cameras. The Pentagon, and London have similar systems. When cameras were installed on the streets of the west side of Chicago last year, drug trafficing cut back, and there were fewer calls to report the sale of drugs on the street.

I'm torn. I can see both sides of this issue. As a law abiding citizen, I don't mind being watched in a public place. If this were to give law enforcement a leg up on detering the incredible incidence of crime, and it seems to function that way, it should be a good thing.

But.....I worry that this could be the start of the slippery slope. If we are observed as we walk to work, or as we drive past certain intersections, will someone eventually create software that will track our activities? I know that it's possible for lawyers to petition the tollway for records showing that someone has used the IPass on a certain day, at a certain time, so we can't be far from it.

How do you feel about it? Give up a little freedom to cut back on potential terrorism and make our streets safer? Or....no cameras....no loss of freedom, but greater risk?

I'm one of those rare women. I really don't care to shop. Well.....I don't care to shop for anything other than quilt fabric. But, today was a day of errands and shopping.

Dear Husband is trying to get in all the sailing he can before the ARR!! is brought in for the winter. We know that it will be craned out October 9th, so there isn't a lot of time left, just a few weekends, really. We went out to breakfast early, and then he drove to Lake Michigan, and I went to the Farmer's Market.

I picked up veggies to get us through the next four or five days, and six bright sunflowers. I stopped at the bee keeper's stand, and bought some almond flavored lip balm, and two body bars. A few booths down, I picked up two more cedar planks for grilling salmon. Peaches from SW Michigan, and mini portobellos, and I was loaded down. I hate to have to make two trips, so I called it quits and headed home, filling the gas tank and stopping at the ATM on the way.

Mother was scheduled for a perm. We decided to make a stop at the quilt shop, on the way to the salon. I needed fabric for backing and borders on the batik quilt, and some fabric to make a pink and white quilt for one of my nieces. Mother bought a wild velour for a robe, and material for a 1930's reproduction quilt. WOW! Has quilting fabric gotten expensive!

So...I dropped Mother off for her perm, and then started my errands:

Bath and Body Shop for shower gel (I'll be smelling like a peony for a bit.)

Michaels's (OOOPS....gone out of business sale....nothing left but fixtures!)

Hobby Lobby (Silk flowers for a wreath, candles)

Car wash (Car wash....what else??)

Meat Market (Pork roast, flank steak, cordon bleu chicken)

For a woman who doesn't care to shop....that was more than enough. I still have most of it to put away. It was a great day. I've got enough fabric to hold me for a day or two, I can finish the Fall wreaths, and I'll smell pretty when I shower. What more can I ask?

....seems to have gone on a walk-about of his own.

We have this deal. He gets to go out as early in the morning as he can con someone into opening the door. He comes back for breakfast anytime from ten minutes later to 9:00 a.m. From then on, he's in and out like a yo-yo. And close to 2:00 in the afternoon, he's in for the day.

This hasn't seemed to be a hardship on him, particularly as he's aged. He's gotten to like the comfort of a snooze in the sunlight, where he didn't have to worry about enemies or predators sneaking up on him. He's taken over my chair, and wants to take over the table where my computer sits.

So, today, we had errands to run. The cat (Ed, is his name, after Edwin Scissorhands), went out early, and has not been seen since. We've called him every 10 or 15 minutes for the past few hours....and NO CAT!

Now, every other time this has happened, it's been a glorious day (like today). He never disappears in the middle of a snow storm, or when we're getting 17 inches of rain. I shouldn't be worried, but I am. I can't help wondering if he's been hurt or run over.

He's probably adopted a second family.....one who has a better brand of cat food. Or maybe there's a pretty little lady cat down the path.......

Darn cat! I wonder where he is!

UPDATE: He's home. He was gone long enough to scare me, but when I walked out at 9:00 to call him, he came running to me as though nothing had happened. Darn cat!

I'm trying to figure out just where the past year has gone! A friend recently asked if there comes a time as you age when time slows down again. I asked my mother how she felt about that question, and she felt that time continues to spiral away from us faster with each day we live. So far, I have to agree with her. Just yesterday, or so it seems, I was talking about four test blocks I had created.

I decided to depart from my usual quilting style and make a block that is a one of a kind creation. This is not a quilt based on a historical pattern, but on a pattern that a friend created for me, so that I could feature a piece of batik I had owned for years.

I posted about those test blocks on January 31, 2004! I went on to make the blocks, and they were finished, and waiting to be assembled into a quilt top, when spring hit. I think the last time I got to sit at my sewing table was back in MAY!

Last weekend, I laid the blocks out, and the sewed them into seven rows. As I looked at them, I decided that I really needed one more row to complete the design that recurred over the face of the quilt. So, last Sunday, I cut out the pieces for five more blocks.

Last night, I sewed those pieces into five blocks, and then laid them out in the last row. I changed a couple of them around until I was satisfied, and then I pined them together.

The cat kept me company as I watched a movie and pinned six of the rows together to be sewn today. I figure that the top will be assembled either tonight, or by tomorrow morning. YEA!!!!

I had hoped to have this project finished by April, so that I could send it off to be machine quilted. I am fully four months late...and it could be a little longer, if I decide to add borders to the quilt.

Where does the time go? Is it moving faster? Am I moving slower? Do I have more to do now than I did thirty years ago? I'm sure everyone ponders these questions. When you have the answers, come visit me. We'll have to have a long chat.

Or, rather......rideabout. At 87, my mother finds traveling through the farmland in the Fall to be very satisfying. She is tired of seeing the constant upheaval from construction in our area, and complains that every inch of the world will be blacktopped over in her lifetime.

So, at least once a year, and sometimes more frequently, we load ourselves into the car and take off on a trip. Yesterday's trip was a bit longer than she had expected, but we came home wit a vehicle so full that we couldn't have stopped at one more shop.

We took off west out of the Chicago suburbs and when we hit the farmland, we turned south. Our first stop was at a huge farm discount store, to buy birdseed. We crossed over the Kankakee river and traveled a little further south before turning east.

One of her grand daughters lives in the area we were visiting, so we made a stop. I had a plate of Chocolate Almond cupcakes with fudge frosting to drop off, and we wanted to visit Granddaughter's shop. She has wonderful country items, and she creates clothing and housewares with applique. We tried to buy her out, but she had a couple of thing left by the time I pulled Mother out the door.

On their recommendation, we had lunch at "The Polka Dot Diner." It's a fast food place that has both a drive up and interior seating, and the theme is 50s and 60s TV and movie memorabilia. Mother thought she was ordering a club sandwich, and ended up with a burger with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. They were forgiven, when she pronounced the onion rings were excellent!
We were surrounded by James Dean, Beaver Cleaver, Rickie Nelson, Superman, Elvis, and a horde of other personalities.

Our next stop was a Ben Franklin store. We used to call them "five and dimes," meaning that the items cost a nickle or a dime, but in times of gross inflation, that term no longer exists, and unfortunately, most of the Ben Franklin stores have disappeared too. I shopped for Halloweeen decorations, and Mother bought two red hats, seven yards of blue plaid flannel, and three huge pots of chrysanthemums.

She was flagging at that point, so we loaded our finds into the car, and headed home. My car made one brief detour. All on it's very own, it turned into the parking lot of a quilt shop I had never visited. Since we were there, I HAD to go in, but it was a sign of how tired she was, that Mother chose to stay in the car. I made my stop very brief, and we finished our "walkabout," driving home amid thousands of cars all seemingly headed to our house.

It was a really pleasant day. I'd like to do a couple of shorter versions of that trip for her, and we'll do at least one, possibly two longer trips before winter closes in. We have a weekend trip to visit my youngest sister and her family in October, and I'm contemplating a trip up into Wisconsin to a town that has THREE quilt shops. Sounds like heaven to me.....farmland and quilt shops!