RVODYSSEY

20091231 - Year end

2010-01-02T15:51:00.002-08:00

2009 was a very busy year for us.
We did a fair amount of traveling. We:
1. Went on an Exotic Mexican Cruise (Zihuatanejo, Acapulco, and Mazanillo)
the first part of February,
2. Visited Mazatlan in March-April,
3. Went on a Baltic Capitals Cruise (Copenhagen, Berlin, Tallinn, St
Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm) in May-June,
4. Visited family in Arroyo Grande in September,
5. Went on a Western Caribbean Cruise (Tampa, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Belize,
Isla Roatan) with neighbors in September-October,
6. Went on a RV Trip with neighbors to Moab in mid-October,
7. Visited family in the Northwest over Thanksgiving, and
8. Went again on the exotic Mexican Cruise (Zihuatanejo, Acapulco, and
Mazanillo)

I was invited to join the community Activity Committee but after attending several meetings decided it was not a good fit for me and declined. I was also invited to join the Communications Committee and have decided to join. They are working on setting up a series of web pages for the community. Every club and activity has one or more pages. I am currently working on the pages for the Wellness Committee, the Quilters and the Diabetes Forum. I have something out there for all of them but it is not very sophisticated so I am trying to learn a bit more about HTML and CSS so I can do a better job.

I am finishing a 2 year term as one of the Program Committee Co Chairs for Valley Quilters Guild and just beginning a the second year of a 2 year term as Lead Coordinator for the Quail Creek Quilt Covey. This year the Quilt Covey is putting together a request for a Long Arm Quilting Machine. One of the really nice benefits of the Guild job has been that the non-local lecturers have been staying in our Casita. It has been a real joy to get to know these women.

The year was sort of up and down as far as my health goes. In 2007 I joined Weight Watchers and did pretty well for a period of time. Last summer I completed a finess challenge but between the 2 I started having serious blood sugar lows which scared me. It is odd but during the low my mind is so fuzzy that I am not scared, but after when I imagine all the things that could have happened I get scared. Anyhoo, I started erring in favor of too high sugar, stopped exercising and stopped doing a good job of counting anything. So, as you can imagine my blood sugar is not good and my weight is creeping upwards again.

Rich is doing well although not biking as much as he wants to. And Max is still recovering from his ACL surgery. He seems to be OK but the muscle on his injured leg is still substantially smaller than the other.

Happy New Year to all.

200909 - 200910 Cruise

2009-10-09T16:21:00.031-07:00

Rich and I went on Caribbean Cruise out of Tampa. We drove to Phoenix, spent the night in a very nice hotel, flew to Tampa, spent another night in a very nice hotel, and left on the cruise. As usual before you even leave port you must participate in an emergency drill. You can see how much fun this is but it is a legal requirement (or at least they tell you it is)

As we left the dock we had a very pretty view looking back at the city

As we traveled toward the ocean, we went past some very beautiful homes

The last home had this lighthouse

Some pictures of the very last bridge as we entered the ocean

We traveled with a group of friends and neighbors. Somebody commented that we clean up nice. I agree.

In Grand Cayman, our first port, the Legend shared anchor space with the Carnival Destiny and the Carnival Valor.

Rich and I went snorkeling in a park 5 minutes walk from the dock in the morning and walked a little around the town in the afternoon.

In Cozumel, Rich and I walked 1 kilometer to Discover Mexico, a craft museum.

They also had an outdoor area devoted to scaled miniatures of important Mayan, Aztecan, and current buildings in Mexico.
These first buildings are Mayan from Chichen Itza

These are Aztecan from Teotihuacan

These are buildings from Mexico City

Late in the afternoon of September 30th as she was leaving the port of Cozumel, the Carnival Legend was hit by an unexpected gust of wind and was blown into the Enchantment of the Seas. There was minor damage to both ships but neither was prevented from continuing their voyages. Our cabin was on the Port side so we saw the whole thing happen.
We crunched

The Enchantment of the Seas was damaged

We were damaged

They photographed

And looked

And looked

And looked

And cleaned up overnight

But we were crunched

In Belize we went cave tubing. I do not have any photos as we do not have a wet camera (Have to get one one of these days). We drove to an underground river that went into a large limestone cave. The tour guide outfitted us with headlamps (It is dark in there) and inner tubes. 6 of us linked up (my feet under her arms, etc) and we proceeded through the cave. Every so often the guide would have us all turn off our lights so he could point out formations. The trip was great.

In Roatan, Rich and I took a Zip & Dip tour. The Zip portion was 12-15 zip lines (we forgot to count) in the canopy in the foothills. We had a great time. Since I had the camera, I took several pictures of Rich as well as other members of our tour. We started with 12 people, broke into 3 groups of 4 each with a guide per group of 4. The guide went first and then helped stop us at each of the platforms. We were not in the first group so we had a chance to learn the first thing to do - jump off (If you did not, the platform hit you in the butt as you started down. We went from platform to platform, sometimes climbing a few stairs or walking a hanging bridge to the next platform.
This is the pair of us waiting to go

This is of Rich in the gear

This is a couple of the other guys

We sometimes climbed to the next platform.

Some guys got pretty crazy

Rich on one of the lines coming in fast

Some of the lines were pretty long

The Dip portion was a trip to a luxury condo beach and swimming pool. After the heat of the Zip the Dip was awesome. We had not brought our Snorkling gear with us for this excursion so although their was an awesome reef there we did not get to see it. Maybe next time.

On our return to Tampa we went to Busch Gardens.
When we first came in to the park we saw the stilt walkers. I love them - so graceful and alien.

The first thing we did was ride the Skyway to get our bearings

Next we rode the train

We were very hot so we cooled off

Then we rode one of the 5 roller coasters

And then we rode another but this one had 1 too many loops

And we were very hot

So was this tiger who backed into the water and laid down

Who could resist a road rally

with a busted bridge

You cannot be in Florida without seeing crocs and turtles

And birds

And more birds

And even birds on the walkways

200910 - Max

2009-10-09T16:04:00.003-07:00

We just got back form a Caribbean cruise on Monday (I will be publishing some photos very shortly) When we picked up Max at the Kennel he was not using his right back leg at all. The kennel had a bunch of small dogs so they let them play together and it seems that Max was having a little too much fun. The kennel said it had happened on Sunday and they thought it was something wrong with his hip. We went immediately to our vet who took X-rays and diagnosed a torn ACL. I did not know this happened to dogs as well as Skov soccer players. Anyway, long story short, Max had surgery yesterday and is back home with us today. He seems to be in a lot of pain. He is talking a lot and walking not at all. Poor baby. We are not supposed to let him jump or run which right now seems easy but when he starts feeling better, who knows. They shaved his entire leg and he has a bandage from his toes to his hip. The surgeon said his knee was supposed to have a groove in the patella and he did not have one so he (the surgeon) made one while he was in there fixing the ACL. Sounds awful to me. Max is supposed to take it easy but still get a little exercise for the next 2 weeks. After that he gets the bandage removed and we will be giving him some PT. Sounds like manual stretching the leg. Should be very interesting. Hopefully the pain will be long gone by then.

20090924 - Quail Creek Quilters 200909 Round Robin

2009-09-24T20:59:00.007-07:00

My small quilt group had the final reveal today of our 200909 Round Robin. We divided into 2 groups of 5 and made the round robins. For you non-quilters, (A Round Robin is a process wherein each participant makes a central block, then the blocks are passed to each of the other participants as they each add something to the quilt (generally a border). In the end the creator of the initial block receives back a quilt top. These came out great. Here they are. The first one is mine.
Sue

Pam

Sally

Ann

Carmen

Nancy

Carol

Jeanne

Margaret

Judy

20090921 - Arroyo Grande

2009-09-21T23:47:00.018-07:00

Rich, Max and I just got back from a family reunion with Rich’s cousin John, his wife Ruthanne, and three of their sons and their families. John and Ruthanne have a 2nd home in Arroyo Grande, which they have been fixing up as a vacation site. It is lovely place to visit family. Here are some photos of the families:

Everybody enjoys reading

Eleanor, Josh, Ann Marie (Girl’s Mom) and Georgia

Lucy

Max

The kids at play:

Josh & Eleanor in the trailer

Georgia, Eleanor, and Josh form a train

Chris (Dad) and Lucy

Lucy and Max

Several of us went to Pismo Beach

Max enjoys the mud

Josh, Georgia, Eric (Girls Dad)

Chris (Dad) & Josh

Louise(Mom) & Lucy

Eric & Georgia

We also went Wine tasting, and Rich and I walked around Solvang during Danish days but I forgot the camera on both of those occasions. All in all we had a great time seeing out cousins, nephews, and grand nieces and nephew.

20090803 - Busy July

2009-08-03T17:39:00.002-07:00

July was a very busy month for me. In May, I had this idea for a Christmas in July Charity Sew for our Quilt Guild. I thought making Christmas Stockings would be fun and maybe nice idea for some charity. I checked with the Green Valley Assistance Services to see if they could recommend an organization. And they were the one! Turns out that they, along with the Salvation Army, make up Christmas gift boxes for the local families in need. Last year the families that they provided for had 492 children.
I modified a pattern I had of a Christmas Stocking to make it simpler and easier to make. It is just a matching stocking cut from 2 fabrics one of which becomes the lining and the cuff and the other the outside of the stocking. I made a sample stocking and a presentation to the Guild Board and they approved the idea. Part of the idea was to publicize the event to the Guild Members as both a stash buster (most of us have Christmas fabric in our stashes) and charity sew-in with the goal of making 500 stockings. We asked people to donate any Christmas fabric they had during May and June and provided copies of the pattern and instructions to anyone who wanted to make stockings ahead of time.
Along the way, the Quail Creek Quilters decided to help so they too began collecting fabric and making stockings.
The Guild Charity Bee took the early fabric and made up fat quarter kits. On July 9th the Guild Board, the Guild Program Committee, and the Quail Creek Quilters had a “Prime the Pump” Party where we made more stocking templates, cut stockings, and made more kits so that the members arriving to the Sew-In would have something to start with no matter what task they wanted to do. I and my Programs partner made up 60 baby stockings as Thank You’s and name tags for the participants at the event. The babies are the same stocking pattern just much smaller
On July 23rd the Guild had an all day session where about 40 ladies made about 300 stockings. We started the day with 100 Stockings that members had already made so by the end of the day we had close to 400 stockings. We spent from 8:00am until 3:00pm working, with a lunch break for Pizza. People arrived and left according to their own schedules. Some folks cut Fat quarters sets, others cut the fats into stockings and linings, others sewed the stockings and others were turned and ironed the finished stockings. It was a great day!
On July 31st the Quail Creek Quilters had their sew day. We also spent a full day with about 20 ladies working. We had 95 completed stockings at the end of the day. We also had some stockings at the beginning of the day.
Regina Ford, Lifestyle Editor for the Green Valley News came to the Christmas Charity Sew on July 23rd and took pictures for the newspaper. It has already bee published, although I have to admit I did not see the photo or the article.
I pretty much used up all my “Moving & Shaking" energy for the month as the lead for both events. I believe that leading a group takes “Moving and Shaking“ energy. Moving & Shaking energy is either a different kind or different level of energy and there is a limit on how much I have at any time.
We will not be delivering the Stockings until October so we are continuing to receive stockings from both groups. The Guild members have completed at least 85 more stockings and the Quail Creek Quilters have another 20-30. I believe we will have in excess of 600 stockings. Pretty exciting!
Green Valley Assistance Services usually provides their families with school supplies in September but this year the Salvation Army is going to do this. Then in December, Green Valley Assistance Services will provide a second set of school supplies with their Christmas. The kids will get 1 wish gift and additional school supplies (I expect in the stockings).

20090729 - Predisposed to getting lost

2009-07-29T17:04:00.001-07:00

Ever since my little “low blood sugar, cannot find my house” episode I have been trying to understand how our ability to remember directions works. Several times during that evening I was at streets whose names I remembered as being near my house but I still could not put together the directions (picture) of how to get home. Even when not confronted with a blood sugar low, I have a hard time figuring out how to get to places. When I am remembering directions, my mind remembers a series of left and right turns. Since I have a finite list of things I can remember in a list I have a hard time remembering more complicated routes.
Anyhoo, I have been wondering how other people do it. I have always assumed that other people see more of a birds eye view of the route. Is that how you do it? Or do you see the route in some other way? Please comment if you are one of the lucky people who having driven somewhere once, can always find it again.
When I was younger I thought that having good fashion sense was an innate ability. However, one of the Asimov Robot books presented the idea that a robot could learn from books and show a woman how to do it. That got me to thinking that it was interest not skill that was innate. Which meant anyone who wanted to, could learn. Recently I read The Outliers where Malcolm Gladwell presented the idea that practice was the deciding factor. So instead of believing that I am genetically predisposed to getting lost, I am thinking that maybe if I could identify the skill and then practice, perhaps I could get better at this. Not 10,000 hours worth of better, of course, but better for me.
So, now I need help identifying the skills involved (since obviously I completely lack them). And of course, that begs the question how come I missed it. But let's not focus on the past but instead the wonderful future when I do not immediately turn the wrong way when leaving a building. (My husband’s observation about my lack of any sense of direction).

On another note, I have done a couple more things as a result of the low.
1) I give myself half the normal amount of Humalog insulin at the meal prior to exercising. This was my doc’s recommendation in response to my low.
2) I now have blood sugar monitor in the car. So the plan is:
If you feel low, park the car and check your blood sugar. If it is low, take 4 sugar pills (turns out they only have 4 carbs each), wait 15 minutes, check again and repeat as necessary. DO NOT START DRIVING again until the blood sugar is 80 or above.

20090727 - Odds & Ends

2009-07-27T16:56:00.001-07:00

One of my quilting friends here in Quail Creek recently died. She was the leader of one of the small quilting groups. We met at her house on Monday afternoons. We rotated bringing food to the meeting and since most of the members cook, we generally had some kind of home made treat. Since she has been gone we have been rotating the meeting site and we decided we did not need to have food.
Last week her husband spoke to one of the members and asked us to meet at their house again for old times sake. He also mentioned that he looked forward to a “treat”. So I started thinking about what his meals might be like now that his wife was gone. And from there I started thinking about what Rich would be eating if I were gone. Suddenly I realized that since he is the cook in our household, he would be eating what he eats now, The real question is What would Sue be eating? How many times a day can you eat eggs?

20090722 - Sugar Low cont.

2009-07-22T12:20:00.002-07:00

Last time I said I thought there were more things I need to have learned. Here are a couple…
1) You know when the ad says talk to your doctor before you try… Well, apparently I am one of the people who need to do it. The last big low I had was after I started Weight Watchers. I take 2 kinds of insulin: 1) Humalog which I take with meals and match the dosage to the carbs I eat and 2) Lantus which I take at night to provide a base level of insulin. As I started eating differently I changed the Humalog dosage to match the carbs but I never thought to change the Lantus dosage. And eventually that led to a big low. And to a discussion with the Doc where we changed the Lantus dosage.
This time I added exercise to the picture without changing either of the insulins and I expect that that was what led to this second big low. I have an appointment with the Doc this afternoon, so hopefully we can work out a new plan,
2) In the past my eyesight was affected by sugar lows. When I spoke to my doc he said it was not my eyes that were having the problem but my brain. It did not have enough fuel to process all the information my eyes were sending. I used to say that if my brain did not have fuel to process vision, imagine how good my judgment was.
So my sister (the nurse) is trying to convince my dinosaur brain that the my first thought after realizing I am having a low is “GET HELP”. I am not sure how to get that thought into that part of my brain. It never feels that bad in the beginning and so I keep making poor judgments. At least the thought is in there now. Hope it comes out.

20090713 - Sugar Low

2009-07-14T14:09:00.001-07:00

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog know that I am diabetic. Last night I experienced my second major blood sugar low. Here’s my story, and I am sticking to it.

I entered a fitness challenge July 21 (to “walk” to Page, Arizona) so I have been trying to work out most days. I started out walking on the treadmill, but now I bike about 4-6 miles. Yesterday evening, as I had not been to the fitness center yet, I decided to go after dinner. I normally eat dinner and within an hour have some popcorn and ice cream so I figure the snacks into my dinner insulin shot. So I took my shot, had dinner, and left for the fitness center. I carry sugar pills (just in case, since the first incident) and while I was biking took one, and after biking my 4 miles, I left the fitness center to go home. Well, in between my genetically inherited poor sense of direction, the darkness, (because of the proximity of Quail Creek to a telescope, Quail Creek does not have street lights), and my sugar low, I could not find my house. Mind you, my house is within 5 driving minutes of the fitness center. Nothing was recognizable to me, lots of fairy (small yard) lights, and no street names I could see or read. I kept driving around thinking I would eventually recognize where I was but it did not happen. I also kept eating the sugar pills but they did not seem to help (I was not giving them time, I just wanted to get home). In between the exercise and the delayed snack my blood sugar just plummeted. I drove to dead-end streets and kept thinking there were no dead-end streets in Quail Creek. Actually there are, and in fact, one is about 3 blocks from my house. I finally ended up out at the guard gate and thought to myself “now that I know where I am, I can find the house”. Unfortunately, that was not true, I still did not recognize the turn. Luckily I was staying on the main roads and they keep circling around. The second time I came to the gate I realized I needed help, and that the gate was the perfect place to get it. So I stopped and told the guard what was going on and asked for help. They looked me up (to check my address) and one of the guys volunteered to drive or lead me to the house. Finally, 1.5 hours after I left the fitness center I arrived home. And still did not recognize it, if he had not stopped I would have driven by it again. Rich came out, parked the car, and I was home.

What did I learn?
One, Always take the cell phone, you never know when you are going to need it.
Two, Either change the insulin, or no exercise after dinner. (Most likely no exercise after dinner since it solves 2 & 3.)
Three, Do not drive after dark, things here do not look the same.
Four, How lucky I am to live in Quail Creek (a limited place to get lost in) and to have the Patrol. I am always grateful to the guard who greets me with “Welcome home” when I come through the gate (such a warm feeling). Now I have a more personal reason to be thankful for existence of the gate and the Patrol who man it. Thank you guys!
Five, If what I got was a small taste of dementia, I do not need a bigger taste, thank you very much.
Six, Well, I am sure there is a six, seven, etc but right now I can’t think of them.

2009 07 Critters

2009-07-11T11:18:00.002-07:00

We had another monsoon the other day. I happened to be at the fitness center when it arrived. That is a very cool place to be, lots of windows to view what is going on. First came the wind, followed by thunder, lightning, rain, some hail, and then lots more wind, thunder, lightning and rain. The only scary thing was that there was a gentleman in the pool when it started. I was wishing he would get out but when he did, he was hanging on the metal handrail which did not feel very safe to me. He made it out OK. Since I was at the fitness center and had to drive home, I decided to do something I have wanted to do for some time: drive around the compound and take a look at the washes while they were running. It was interesting but the most interesting thing was I finally saw a bobcat. People have been talking about bobcats in the compound but I had never seen one and now I have. I would not want to run into him (or her) alone and outside but in the car watching him enjoy the rain was all right.
The hawk has been hanging around our backyard again. First I saw him watching one of our bushes. He kept flying in, hopping around and flying out again. That bush is near an animal hole so I was hoping he was after that critter but he started swooping around so we decided he was trying to flush out a bird. With that in mind I went out to scare him off. No bird flew out so I was peering into the bush to see what he was after. I saw some movement and was peering closer when it occurred to me it might be a snake. You should have seen me jump back.
The next day another bird killed itself flying into my quilt room window. This time it was one of the quail which made me very unhappy. Pretty soon the hawk was back to get his prey. He walked onto the patio and jumped on the bird and hopped around to get a good grip and started to fly away. I say started because the quail was too heavy for the hawk. He got as far as the top of the wall before he had to stop. He set the quail down, hopped around for a while and finally had to leave it. I also left it, thinking perhaps a stronger hawk or a coyote would get it. And someone did since it was gone later that day. Also later that day there was an adult quail calling and calling. I hope the darn hawk is not planning to use our yard as his hunting ground and my quilting room window as a weapon.

200907 - What Bird is this?

2009-07-05T16:14:00.002-07:00

This little guy came to the hummingbird feeder, drank a bit, and then flew to this perch, and sang his thanks. What is he?

200907 - Fourth of July

2009-07-05T15:23:00.006-07:00

Rich, Max, and I went to the 2nd Annual Quail Creek Fourth of July Parade. I think it id the first Fourth of July Parade I have ever been to as a adult. In the past they have been too crowded, to difficult to park, etc, etc. This one was less than 5 minutes from the house (by very slow Golf Cart), No parking problems, and as someone told me, My friends were there. It was, of course, little. But the RV Club (we just joined) won the Grand Prize for their entry. And I did know a lot of the people there. Here are some photos:

These guys apparently live underground for 10 months, come up with the monsoons, mate, have babies, kill dogs who lick them and go back underground.

Max will go anywhere with anyone in a golf cart.

Waiting for the Flag, and the National Anthem

These are some of the entries in the parade, not just golf carts. Top Right is the winning entry from the RV Club.

The monsoons have arrived. July 3rd evening we had a major rain. This is a photo taken in the early afternoon on the fourth of the normally dry wash across the street from us.

200907 - Health Care Reform

2009-07-04T00:30:00.002-07:00

I am still learning and thinking about Health Care reform and of course I have strong opinions. If you know me, you know I rarely have weak opinions. I thought I would share some ideas on the subject. If you too have strong opinions, feel free to share them via comments. All evidence to the contrary, I am able to change my opinions on occasion. And needless to say the opinions expressed here are my own.
Three of the most important items that must be addressed (in my opinion) are:
1) We must have some kind of universal medical coverage that is available to everyone at a reasonable price. I believe that all taxpayers (and their families) should be covered by this insurance. By taxpayer I do not mean you have to pay taxes - but you must submit a tax return to the IRS. Many people feel that medicare may be the start of this.
2) We must have additional health coverage available for those people who can afford it and want it and
3) We need to eliminate the too high administrative expenses of the health care providers created by dealing with many different insurers.
As you can no doubt see these three items are in direct conflict. What I suggest to resolve this is to establish a single payer system for the health care providers. That is, the health care provider bills only the universal medical coverage system and the patient. The patient with additional insurance will then work with their insurance carrier to get reimbursed for covered items. Among other benefits, this should encourage the insurance carriers to simplify their systems in order to keep clients.
I also find myself wondering “Should we take the profit out of insurance by requiring insurance companies to be Mutual?” Seems to me that in the beginning Insurance Co-Ops were formed by groups of people working for their mutual benefit. Maybe we should consider returning to the system where the benefits (read profits) of not misusing the system were shared by all of the insured. That thought also addresses another issue facing the health care system: the “why not, it does not cost me anything” thinking.
Another important item which must be addressed is our health records. I think it is crazy in the 21st century in the USA that all my doctors cannot see all my records. Yes, I am a complicated patient. And yes, I have a lot of doctors, but for them to depend on me for detail medical information is ridiculous. I hear that the VA has a good system. Since it is already in the public domain - lets share it. Every doctor in the USA should have access to view history and on-going treatment plans for their all patients.
Another sore point for me is prescription costs. First, I believe we should make it illegal for drug companies to market directly to consumers. The health care system pays twice for that service; once when the marketing costs are passed on the consumer and second when the advertisements artificially raises the demand for the drug. I would like to see all generic drugs covered under the public insurance plan. Somehow we need to create a powerful negotiator working for the general public to lower drug prices. I have to ask myself: How is it that some Chain stores (Walmart, Fred Meyer, etc) are able to charge less for certain prescriptions than the insurance co-pay for the same drug?
I know there is a lot more that needs to be done but these items seem doable to me and as such are a place to begin.
I would also encourage anyone interested in Health Care reform to view this video. Just "play chapters" at http://www.ourailinghealthcare.com/

200906 - Quail Addendum

2009-07-03T11:41:00.002-07:00

You remember earlier this week I said that the baby quail could not get into our backyard. Well, I was wrong. Apparently they learn to fly much earlier than I thought. This morning when I went to feed the birds, I interrupted 2 families of quail: 1 large (8-10 babies) family of very young birds (3-4 inches tall) and a smaller (3-4 babies) family of larger babies (6 inches or so). As I opened the slider the birds just scattered. All I saw was babies heading for bushes. I immediately closed the door and left the area. In a few moments the adults from the larger family were collecting the babies on the patio. It was very cool to watch. Unfortunately by the time I found my glasses (I lose them at least 20 times a day) and got the camera the family was scurrying across the gravel to the bushes and the fence. The other family stayed around for a little bit longer but it is very hard to get a good picture of them while they are on the gravel. They blend in so well. Also unfortunately (for the quail) in the desert it seems like almost everything except bunnies and lizards eat baby quail; snakes, coyotes, road runners, other birds, etc..

200906 - Quilt Challenges

2009-07-02T13:52:00.002-07:00

My local quilt guild “Valley Quilters Guild” has 3 challenges going on right now. One is a guild-wide challenge and the other two are associated with Bees that I attend: The Out of the Box Bee and the Beading Bee.

The VALLEY QUILT GUILD 2010 CHALLENGE
The theme for this year's challenge is Simply Delicious. Members are challenged to celebrate the bounty of our tables and kitchens and portray the festive and nourishing foods and beverages that enrich our everyday lives and special occasions. Challenge Rules:
1. The quilt may be no larger than 120 inches measured as the sum of all sides.
2. The quilt must include at least one piece of appliqué (hand or machine)of any size on the front of the quilt.
3. The edges must be bound or otherwise finished and the quilt must be quilted or tied.
4. The back must have a sewn label with the maker's name, phone number and the title of the quilt.
5. The quilt must be new work.
6. Deadline for delivery of the quilt is the guild meeting on the fourth Thursday in January 2010.

The Out of the Box Bee focuses Art Quilts and embellishments. The theme for this years challenge is “Out of the Box”. Members are challenged to think outside the box with the freedom to do something out of the ordinary. Challenge Rules:
1. The quilt may be no larger than 120 inches measured as the sum of all sides. It can be variety of sizes and shapes. Do something Out of the Box.
2. The quilt must have a “Box” on the front but it doesn't have to be a 'cardboard' box, with flaps or a lid. A box can also be a square.
3. The edges must be bound or otherwise finished and the quilt must be quilted or tied.
4. The back must have a sewn label with the maker's name, phone number and the title of the quilt.
5. The quilt must be new work.
6. The quilt must include a new technique for the quilter.
7. Deadline for delivery of the quilt is the OOB Bee meeting on the third Thursday in January 2010.

The Beading bee started out using beads but now has branched out to making beads. Challenge Rules:
1 Make 1 or more beads from “Fabulous Fabric Beads” by Kristal Wick, “Creative Beads from Paper & Fabric“ by Ann Kristen Krier, or your favorite Bead book and use them in a project.
2 This project can be jewelry, a wearable item, a quilt, a purse, a scissors fob or anything else you want to put beads on.
3 Deadline for delivery of the project is the February Beading Bee meeting (Feb 18, 2009).

I love challenges like these but have a real problem with long term delivery dates. I have a new idea every month. Since I am constantly being exposed to new techniques, I keep thinking of how to use the new technique in a new design. Since I change my mind so often, I don’t start. Since I don’t start, I don’t finish. You get my meaning, don’t you.? Currently, I am actively working on the Out of the Box Challenge, actually drew out some designs, and selected potential fabric. So far I have gone 2 months without changing my mind so maybe I will actually finish this one before the very last moment. I also have initial ideas for the other 2 challenges but we will see if I actually do something. My hopes are high. After all, I have been blogging again.

200906 - Quail

2009-07-01T10:49:00.001-07:00

We have baby quail running around the area. You see them everywhere. Unfortunately, since our backyard has a tall fence we don’t get babies until they can fly over but my friends do. Last week I was visiting a friend when she had a family of quail come running across her patio. The babies look like walnuts (or cotton balls) with toothpick legs but they are fast and so so cute.
Another friend tells this story.
She opened her front door to go out to pick up something in the front of the house. All of a sudden these 2 quail started cussing at her. She said she had never heard such language from a bird before. She left the front door open and went into her living room and noticed a baby quail, and then she noticed several more running around the house. She and her husband tried to corral the babies and shoo them out but the babies were too fast.
Finally she thought “I’ll let mother nature take over”. So she and her husband sat down and stopped moving. Pretty soon the parents started clucking and after a short time 4 babies ran out of the laundry room and out the front door. Still they waited. And after a few more minutes several more babies ran from the another room and out the door. And Mom and Dad and the babies outside started to leave. Now my friend and her husband are getting worried. They know there is one more baby in the house and the family is leaving. Finally that one last baby runs from under the couch, out the door and chases after the family. With quail as with many other families there is always one straggler!

200906 - Fitness Challenge

2009-06-30T16:49:00.001-07:00

The Fitness Center here in Quail Creek issued a Summer Challenge to all the residents to use the aerobic equipment in the center and the pool to “walk” to Page, Arizona. If you logged enough mileage to get ½ way there, you will earn an achievement award. They selected a “scenic” route which worked out to be 528 map miles. They decided that 6 laps in the pool or 2 aerobic machine miles equal 1 map mile. The challenge began June 21 and ends September 21 and I accepted the challenge. The first week I logged a little more than 8 miles on the machines (16 map miles) which means I need to do a little better if I am going to earn the achievement award. They figure if you go 5 times a week at 2.03 equipment miles you will complete 264 mile trip in the 13 weeks. This week I am ahead of schedule but since we will be gone some portion of the time I need to get ahead of the curve. I will keep you posted as to my progress.

20090518 - Lucy’s Quilt

2009-05-19T01:59:00.004-07:00

I finished a family quilt. (Only 3 more to go so far this year.) Lucy, your quilt is in the mail. Hope you enjoy it.

In addition to finishing the quilt, I had a very good visit with my cancer doctor. The tumor markers in my blood test are normal, where normally women with recurrent breast cancer have slightly elevated markers. If my next checkup (in 6 months) is as good as this one was I will begin annual checkups and will be able to stop taking Femara, my cancer med.

Now I am getting ready for a 15 day trip to Europe. We fly to London where we will board the Norwegian Jewel for a 12 day cruise on the Baltic Sea. We will visit Copenhagen, Stockholm, St Petersburg, Tallinn, Berlin, and Helsinki. I hope to have lots of photos when we return.

20090503 - Cactus in Bloom

2009-05-03T01:17:00.004-07:00

Last week, while Rich was recuperating from surgery and I was walking Max, many neighborhood cactus were blooming. So, as I walked Max I shot these photos. Aren’t they lovely?

20090426 - Chaos

2009-04-26T16:18:00.001-07:00

This last week has been pretty chaotic. Monday was pretty standard, but starting Tuesday….

Tuesday Richard had 2 hernias repaired. It was laparoscopic surgery so he ended up with 3 little holes which were covered by 3 band aids, but it was still surgery. We went into the ambulatory hospital at 6:30AM, his surgery was scheduled for 9:30AM (but actually started at 10:30AM), he was in recovery at about 12:30PM, and we were home about 3:00PM. He was still pretty much out of it for the rest of Tuesday and most of Wednesday. Tuesday evening I went to a Public Health presentation on Chocolate. Did you know that they sell dark chocolate based on where it was grown? Almost like varietal wines and coffees. As part of the presentation “Eat Chocolate, Be Happy” they brought chocolate from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, and Madagascar for us to sample. I could actually tell the difference between some of them.

Southern Arizona’s Quilt Shop Hop was this week so on Wednesday I went Shop Hopping with a friend. There were 11 shops in this years Hop: 2 are southeast (a little farther away then we wanted to drive); 3 are in central Tucson (we went to these on Wednesday); 4 are pretty far north (also a little farther away then we wanted to drive) and 2 are in Sahuarita/Green Valley (I went to these on Saturday). Last year several of us took 3 days and went to all of them. Just with those three (and a little shoe shopping) I was gone from before 8:00AM until 6:00PM.

Thursday I had lab work done at 8:00AM. One of those “do not eat from midnight on” tests. Then at 9:30AM I went to a Quail Creek Quilting group session where we worked on charity quilts. Last year we decided to make charity quilts for the Sahuarita Police dept. They took us on a tour of their new offices and were really pleased with what we gave them. This year the chief wants to have 3 quilts in every car (they like to end every encounter by giving the victim a quilt). They have 48 cars so we are really hustling to get them their quilts. Then we need to find out how quickly they need more. At any rate the group is working hard to get quilts to the police. By 11:30AM I was at the Valley Quilters Guild in Green Valley for a guild meeting and lecture. I am the new Senior Program Committee Co Chair (starting in April). We had a committee meeting from 12:00PM to 1:00PM and then the guild meeting until 3:00PM. The guild schedules a lecturer on Thursday and a workshop with the same person (whenever possible) on Friday. Michelle Watts, our guest lecturer from Roswell, New Mexico, spent Thursday night in our casita. She and I went out to dinner that evening as Rich was not yet up to visitors.

On Friday Michelle gave her workshop and as one of the Co Chairs, I angeled the class. To angel the class means to set up for the class, to be there to give assistance to anyone who needs it, especially the instructor, to pay the instructor, and to clean up after the class. You cannot really take the class as you cannot focus on helping and learning at the same time but you do get to see a lot about the technique. Michelle’s class was on stenciling on fabric using Shiva paints and was excellent. I was there from 8:30AM until 3:00PM.

By Saturday Rich was feeling a little more energetic. Because he is the dog walker, the grocery shopper and the chef, I struggle with Max and meals when he is down. I have to remember to allow time to take Max out especially in the morning and figure what I am going to eat at dinner. Saturday Rich felt well enough to go grocery shopping with me and tired enough to let me finish the Shop Hop in the afternoon.

Sunday we met a gentleman selling a class ‘C’ RV and bought it. It is a 24 foot 2003 Four Winds Majestic. We still need to pay him and get the title before it is ours. After that we will need to figure where to store it and begin to stock it because, of course, we got rid of everything we had for the fifth Wheel. Then we will begin exploring the southwest with Max the dog.

Busy, busy week Big breath.

20090414 - News

2009-04-14T15:46:00.006-07:00

I told you we sold the truck. Well, we did not last long as a 1 vehicle family. This week we bought a Golf Cart. It is not new but has been re-conditioned. We will use it to get around Quail Creek since we do not have to License it if we stay on campus. Over ½ of the things I do are in Quail Creek and the Golf Cart is electric so we should save on fuel. It is a little strange to drive - no seat belt, no sides, no speed, and no noise. You just sort of glide around. Here’s a photo of this newest member of the family.

I belong to the Out Of The Box Bee in my Quilt Guild. One of the Challenges we set ourselves was a “Crayon Challenge”. With this challenge everyone takes 2 crayons out of a paper bag. Then you design and execute a quilt using those 2 colors (and 1 other optional color). You may use various shades of the colors. It must be a quilt, that is quilted. You must use some technique you have not used before. We have been working on these for months, we keep delaying the due date. I must have had a dozen different designs. Well, today they were due, and last night (actually this morning) I finished mine. My colors were Red-Purple and Red-Orange. Colors that I actually like. I used a technique where you cut a design and use it as the background on one side and the foreground on the other. (Actually I cheated since the purple was not reversible. In addition I used Shiva paint sticks to paint the vase and to create the Geckos. The Geckos were a little too subtle with just the paint so I used sequins and beads to liven them up. Here it is.

20090327 - 20090403 - Mazatlan

2009-04-07T01:18:00.016-07:00

We spent a week at the El Cid Marina Resort in Mazatlan, Mexico. We had a great time and are planning to go again sometime in the future.

Day 1 was mostly a travel day. We left early in the morning and drove to Phoenix where we had a direct flight to Mazatlan. We originally planned to drive but the US State Dept was sending out warnings about the road and Rich found a cheap airfare so we decided to fly. In between staying up late to pack and getting up to leave early I slept pretty much all the way from Green Valley to the Resort. Once we arrived at the Resort, we unpacked and walked around taking pictures.

This first collage is of our room from the outside (our room is the first sliding glass door on the lower floor, and from the inside (2 big beds and a sitting area). I love the clean white, blue, and tan coloring of the room.

This is a collage of the some of the other areas of the resort: the entrance to the Marina; our building from across "our" pool; the ferry running from the Resort to the beach; and the pool bar in the "other" pool.

This is a collage of some of our fellow sunbathers. Sometimes I felt like I had traveled to the Jurassic Park Island and they were getting ready to leap.

Day 2 We took the El Cid Shuttle to the other 3 El Cid’s in Mazatlan. They each had their own special items but we were very happy with our choice. (Especially with Rich’s love of all things nautical.

This is a collage of the pools and beach area in the other resorts.

Day 3 We took the ferry across the marina entrance to the beach area and spent the morning on the beach and the afternoon by the pool.

This is a collage of: Our Building from the marina entrance; Part of the marina itself; The beach looking back towards our building; and looking down the beach in the other direction.

Day 4 We took a sailboat to Stone Island, not a real island but an isolated peninsula which is easier to reach by boat than driving.

On the trip to the island we saw a small island of sea lions as well as several rock islands that the birds have been painting for decades.

Getting closer to Stone Island we saw the lighthouse (the highest active lighthouse) (somewhat misleading as it is quite short but on a tall island). This breakwater is augmented with I think of as giant toy jacks. That sailboat was our tour boat. And the beach where we spent the day.

Stone island itself was a study in contrasts. As part of our tour we were able to do 2 activities. The first activity we chose was a horse driven carriage around the “town”. The town felt like a sleepy Mexican Fishing Village. No real streets, some trucks, lots of horses, lots of construction, but with tourists everywhere. You could take a horseback ride, a horse drawn carriage or an ATM.

For our second activity we decided to take the banana boat ride (that is Rich getting on in the front and me trying to figure out how to get on in the back.) Definitely not a sleepy ride.

Day 5 We took the shuttle into town and walked around the Golden Zone. I did not take my camera (not sure why, but I am sure I had a good reason) 2 years ago we drove to Mazatlan and stayed in another resort while we visited with our friends Bob & Connie who were staying in their fifth wheel in a RV Park (since closed - we tried unsuccessfully to find it.) This day was full of “this is where we *** with Bob & Connie”. In addition we revisited the hotel where we stayed that time, and the shop where we purchased several items for the house. Since we were traveling by air this time purchasing items was not an option. I did manage to get plenty of steps on the step counter.

Day 6 We took the Mazatlan City Tour.

The first place we stopped was the big public Market. Mazatlan's answer to Walmart. You can buy just about anything you want, pretty good prices, just not one owner. I went for color here not odd. I did get some photos of the Pig’s heads and the whole steer they had for sale but decided not to share.

Next we went to see the Cathedral. Lovely from the outside and the inside.

Then we went for panorama views from a hilltop: Including the main Boardwalk and beach; the smaller beach area; one of the 2 Cruise ships in port that day; and the Cathedral from a distance.

And lastly we went to see Mazatlan’s Cliff Divers.

Day 7 We hung around the pool all day saving up energy for the next big travel day

Day 8 Was the reverse of day 1, although at the end of the day we were not completely unpacked and definitely not ready to continue with life at home. We were very happy to see Max, as was he to see us.

20090325 - RV Status

2009-03-25T15:23:00.001-07:00

Last month we sold the Fifth Wheel and today we sold the truck. We are now officially out of the RV Lifestyle. From now on when we travel we will be staying in H/Motels. I am not exactly sure how I feel, hope we still travel in the US, there are still a lot of places I would like to visit.

20090218 - Western Mexico Cruise Part 1

2009-02-18T16:02:00.011-08:00

We took an 8 day cruise starting January 31 down the western side of Mexico from San Diego to Acapulco, Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa, and Mazanillo. This is the first of several blogs I plan to do on that cruise. Today I am talking about the ship. Upon arrival to the ship Rich and I usually try to walk the shipand to discover as many things about the ship as we can. The ship we took for this cruise was the Carnival Spirit: not the largest or the smallest of cruise ship available. It is not real new (someone told me that it was going to be refurbished fairly soon. It is very elaborately decorated.

This is the interior atrium. It was very nice. Our stateroom was very near these elevators so I was always able to find my way to the Atrium and the dining rooms. Not so much the exercise area.

We especially wanted to find the Sports Bar to see if that was where we were going to watch the Superbowl. Unfortunately all they had were small TVs and smokers. So we ruled that out fairly quickly. In the end we watched most of it in our stateroom (Missed the end for dinner & as it turned out we were not sorry to miss that end).

This is a photo of our room and its balcony - pretty standard

This collage shows several other interior views of the ship as well as our towel critters (love those little guys)

On the first day of the cruise - before you leave the dock, you must attend a Life Boat Drill. They are so much fun - thought I’d share.

The Carnival Spirit has a water slide. It was a little odd in that you did not slide into a pool. Instead the slide just ended. This is a picture of the top of the slide.

And this is Rich arriving at the end. This picture is before the big splash back

And this is Sue arriving at the end This picture is after the big splash and as you can see the photographer is hiding behind a shield.

20090216 - Cruise Crafts

2009-02-16T16:17:00.002-08:00

Most cruise lines have Craft Instructors who teach free 2 hour classes on ‘at Sea’ Days. These Instructors get free cruises to teach. As you can imagine many of these crafts are pretty ‘crafty’ (and I do not mean that in a good way). This cruise to Western Mexico was on the Carnival Line and since we had 4 ‘at Sea’ days we had 4 Craft Classes. Two of the crafts were pretty standard: Needlepoint on Plastic Canvas to make a Carnival Logo ID Card Carrier to wear around your neck, and Needlepoint on Plastic Canvas to make a Carnival Logo Square Scissor Carrier. I have not finished either of these. The other two were much more interesting to me. One was a Colorful Visor that we painted with glitter glue. Unfortunately you cannot see the glitter in the photo, but it is there. And the last one was Beaded Bracelets. I photographed the Bracelets before I had finished cutting the string so they are not quite finished in the shot. I thought both of these were casual and fun and I might actually use them. Actually I have already worn the Visors.

20090216 - Projects

2009-02-16T15:55:00.002-08:00

This is a picture of my second completed project for 2009. My original plan was to finish them on Christmas, but that did not happen. I finished all the machine work the last week of January and took them with me on the Western Mexico Cruise (1/31-2/8) and finished them on board the ship. They start out as upholstery samples that have been discontinued. The shops donate them (they need to get rid of them to make room for the new choices). I select the colors and textures that I like and go together and make them into purses. Each one is unique since the fabric pieces are small and the buttons and straps are different.

20090129 - Sudoku

2009-01-29T17:18:00.003-08:00

This is a picture of my first completed quilt in 2009. It is also a number of other firsts for me. It is the first guild challenge I ever submitted. It is the first quilt I have ever put into a quilt show.

The idea for the quilt came to me some time ago. Several members of my family like to solve puzzles especially sudoku puzzles. One time when we were discussing them I wondered how would they be different if you were working in colors instead of numbers? Would you use different parts of your brain? It not easy to do since most people do not have easy access to colors when working puzzles. From there I went to the idea of making a quilt. It is actually a fairly simple quilt. The most challenging thing in the construction is to not twist the squares.

Then this challenge came up. ‘Something Old is New Again”
This challenge will make you think "outside the box" by taking an old, traditional pattern and adapting it to look like it's from the 21st century. It will get you to use your imagination and creativity to construct an original design. A "then and now" challenge. This challenge is for all levels of quilters.
The colors used are to be shades of black and white (solids and/or prints) with ONE accent color.

The basic quilt pattern is a simple 9-Patch. Thinking that Sudoku puzzles were old I looked them up on the interent and they are fairly recent, so my project was a go. I took a completed puzzle, made a key (fabric to number) and built the quilt, being very careful not twist any of the squares. I decided to do very simple quilting to not take away form the puzzle itself. And now it is done and submitted. WoHoo!

20090106 - Health & Misc

2009-01-06T15:30:00.002-08:00

My Health:
I saw my doctor this morning. He does not believe I experienced a stroke on Christmas. Because my symptoms were very fleeting he believes it is more likely I experienced something with my inner ear. (He had a name but I did not get it). HOWEVER, as a diabetic I am at high risk for a stroke and since a stroke could be devastating, we are going to do some further investigation.
1) A CT scan during an ischemic stroke does not show anything, so I am scheduling another CT scan about 2 weeks after Christmas. If there has been additional damage to the brain (from the strokes I experienced 15 years ago) it should show at that time.
2) Since I have some Carotid stenosis and my last Carotid Doppler was about a year ago, we will repeat that test.
3) He has referred me to a Vascular Surgeon and
4) I will be seeing him again in about 3 weeks.

The GV Area Health Care Discussion/Obama Transition Team:
The facilitator published the meeting notes to us that were sent on to the transition team. It was very exciting for me to see that our (and especially my) concerns were addressed in the document. In a couple of places even my words were used to describe the concern and where Rich expressed his annoyance (through me) at the number of choices in the Medicare System, it also made it into the paper. They sent 4 pages of single spaced typewritten health care stories and concerns to Obama’s people. There is a lot on his plate and we went significantly beyond what he says he will address at first but we will see what happens next. It was and is an exciting process for me.

My 2009 Resolutions
I am still working on resolutions for the new year. I don’t exactly do resolutions, but I do like to have some goals and objectives for the year. This year the one thing I am going to do is try to spread the objectives out throughout the year. I’ve seen a plan where each month you start a new habit. There are always so many things I want to change that it is overwhelming maybe this way I can accomplish more of what I want to do. What I need to do first is establish some real priorities. So far I say health is my #1 priority but that is not the way I behave. I need to understand why this is so, so I can change it.

20081226 - Snow

2008-12-29T01:05:00.002-08:00

It even snowed in Green Valley, Arizona. Although I guess a more apt statement would be it dusted for about 10 minutes and it didn't stick for that long. Here you can see the Quail digging through the snow (sorta) to look for food. Those white streaks are snow falling (I don’t have the fastest camera in the world.

20081226 - Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T13:05:00.002-08:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas 2008 - The Plan
Sleep in a little, Get up, Have breakfast. Wrap the White Elephant gift for Christmas dinner. And spend most of the day listening to Christmas music and finishing Christmas presents for my family. Admittedly they would be late arriving but I would have a great day. Then around 4:00pm go to my friend Pam’s house for Christmas dinner and spend the evening with friends.

Christmas 2008 - The Reality
I woke about 9:00am (slept in a little) rolled over in bed and had a dizzy attack. It went away so I got up, had breakfast and wrapped the White Elephant. While I was putting the wrapping away in the Garage, I had a second dizzy spell. This one was so strong that if it had not been for my being able to grab the car, I would have fallen. This one scared me enough that decided to tell Rich what was happening. 15 years ago I had 2 little strokes. The first one presented with a dizzy spell at my office that had me vomiting in my waste can and unable to sit up. Rich was worried enough to suggest that I call the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Nurse and hear what she had to say. After the nurse and I spoke for a while she said that considering my history she would recommend that I go to an ER. I called my friend to warn her that we might be either late or no shows for dinner and to find out where the nearest ER was. She said the nearest ER was in Tucson and suggested that we call 911. We did. The ER operator said that considering my history they would send out the EMT unit
While we waited for the EMT to arrive I got out my prescription list and my medical history. Something the operator suggested I have to give the EMTs. They arrived: 1 fire truck and 1 ambulance carrying 4 firemen, 2 EMT, and a woman (maybe nurse?). They took my blood sugar (96), my blood pressure (182/xx), an EKG (normal), my history (oh so long and complicated), my prescriptions (so many), my eye focus (equal), arm and hand strength(also equal) and more that I can’t remember. Eventually they too decided that with my history I should go to the ER. They tucked me into their stretcher and we drove to Tucson to Saint Mary’s Hospital’s ER.
Once we arrived, they tucked me into a bed in the ER and the EMTs left to return to Green Valley for the next call. The new staff took my blood sugar, my blood pressure (much, much lower), an EKG, my history, my prescriptions, my eye focus, arm and hand strength and more that I can’t remember. They also took some blood, hooked me up to an IV, and wanted a urine sample. Eventually I even went for a ride in the donut hole (not my words, the CT scan tech‘s but I like the description). In between the various tests I dozed and Rich read the book that he so cleverly remembered to bring. Me, I put together a purse with blood tester, insulin, sugar pills (in case I got hungry), wallet and then totally forgot to bring in the ambulance.
After several hours of testing, waiting, observing, and reviewing results, especially the CT scan we (mostly the doc) decided it was not a stroke and they released me to come home. They could see on the scan evidence of the previous strokes but no current problem. She said I was a little dehydrated, a little anemic, some chemistries were a little off and told me to take the test results to my Doctor to review and compare with his results. She also said my blood sugar was a little low (70) but after eating only breakfast and being tested 1round 6:00pm I’m thinking - not too bad.
So, we called 911 at about 1:30pm and got home at about 9:00pm. We spent Christmas in the ER at St Mary’s Hospital, Tucson Arizona. Not the plan, but a good outcome none the less. At the Health Care Reform meeting last week a rep from the Green Valley Fire department told us that 75% of their calls were EMT related and that 1 in 10 people called 911 for medical assistance each year. Well, I did my bit. Now hopefully I won’t need them again for the next 10 years.

20081222 - Health Care Reform

2008-12-21T23:34:00.002-08:00

I can't believe that the last time I published anything was over a month ago, but it was. Once again I am very behind in publishing. And once again I am going to skip over the past and focus on the present.
During the summer I took a couple of classes from OLLI (Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Arizona) one of them was Health Care Reform: Is it Possible? The class was very interesting, mostly talking about the current status and issues of the American Health Care System with some compare and contrast with what other industrial nations are doing. At the end of the class we were working on a proposal for USA Health Care Reform.
As a result of the class I have been invited to participate in a local Health Care Community Discussion for the Obama-Biden Transition Project. We were given some material to read along with a very short survey. I am very excited to have been invited to participate.
When Obama was elected I was very hopeful and energized. It reminded me of my feelings when Kennedy was elected. Which is interesting since Obama’s election in many ways is the culmination of the policies & programs begun by Kennedy and Johnson. What made me hopeful was the sense of participation by many people and the air of inclusion. It seemed to me like another opportunity for individuals to make a difference. In Kennedy’s time I responded by joining VISTA. Now I want to do something different. But what? I am interested in our Health Care System and its problems but my fear is that since I do not have specific knowledge about it I will not be able to add much. but the class helped a lot. And who knows?

20081110 - Hawk Story

2008-11-10T00:47:00.010-08:00

Last week I was in my quilting room with my back to the window when I heard a laud crash on the window behind me. Periodically, birds will attack the bird in the window but this seemed much louder (read harder) than usual. When I went to see what had happened I found a dead dove on the patio with a broken neck. Being the girl I am I brought Max into the house but left the bird for Richard to take care of later. And I went back to work. A little bit later as I was ironing I looked up and saw a hawk on our back wall. (Perhaps someone can id him?)

Later, he moved in and was actually walking on the rocks near the patio.

But something spooked him (it could have been me) and he flew out to wall seats around the fountain.

And then back to the wall,

and then to our neighbor’s tree behind the wall. But always watching.

Eventually he flew back onto our large garden stones and checked everything out.

And then he came across the rocks to the patio and took what was his.

And I understood why that dove had hit the window so hard he broke his neck, and why the hawk had been so patient. And why my backyard had been so quiet for the last few hours.

20081110 - Quail Story

2008-11-10T00:06:00.005-08:00

Yes, I know I have not blogged in over a month. When I get that far behind I think I have to update you on everything at one time so I get behinder and behinder. To combat that thought process I am just going to post little items 1 at a time and hopefully I will eventually get back to the future. Today I am starting with a little picture story about our back yard quail covey.

We have a covey of quail who feed in our back yard these days

But when they get spooked they run through the yard

And up on the wall and away they all go

20081003 - I couldn't post

2008-10-09T02:48:00.002-07:00

20081003 - I couldn't post

I haven't been able to login for several weeks now. I finally figured a way around the problem so I should be able to post again soon. For right this minute, I am too tired and frustrated to do anything, but I wanted to let you know I would be back.

20080920 - Small Courtyard

2008-09-21T11:46:00.002-07:00

We have had a very nice monsoon season with lots of rain. This is a photo of the small courtyard (between the house and the Casita) with lots of blooming rain lilies. They really enjoy the rain.

20080920 - Max On Guard

2008-09-21T11:39:00.003-07:00

3 out of 4 mornings Rich gets up early and bicycles for a couple of hours. Max and I wake up but frequently don’t get up right away. This morning was nice and cool so Rich opened up all the windows before he left to let the breeze in. So, the wind was blowing and papers were moving around in the kitchen. Max could hear the noise but wasn’t sure what was going on so he was laying on the bed facing the door and growling. My little house guard growling at the enemy from the bed. Not nervous enough to get up, just enough to growl at the noise. Here is a picture of Max guarding the house from the bed. You will have to imagine me in the bed behind him.

20080912 - Misc.

2008-09-12T14:36:00.002-07:00

Health issues
Richard was pretty annoyed with me after he read my last Blog and especially after my sister (the nurse) called and yelled at both of us. She yelled because everybody knows that if you suspect a stroke, time is critical for a full recovery and you need to call 911 ASAP. What I did not write (because I did not remember) was that he got on-line, looked up the signs of a stroke, and questioned me about my symptoms. I apparently answered no to all the questions, so although he was still worried he no longer suspected a stoke.
Since that time I have substantially lowered my Lantus insulin (from 95 to 70 units at bedtime). And I bought some glucose tablets in case of another serious low. Most of the items I chose to eat to treat the low were slow sugar and what I needed was fast sugar. My Doc and I discussed the lows I am experiencing at great length. He lowered my Lantus (to 60) and we are watching my overall blood sugar levels to get a better handle on my insulin needs. We are dropping the Lantus and will push it back up if it gets to be too low.
Good news, my cholesterol and triglycerides are down substantially. In part because of the weight but also because I have started taking Lavaza. I am hoping to find another equally good form of fish oil (this one is very expensive).

Max
One day last week when Richard and Max were out walking they met a young coyote on the trail. The coyote wanted to play so Max and the coyote played with each other for about 10 minutes. I have mixed feeling about this. On the one hand, it presents a fun picture. On the other hand what if Max now thinks coyotes are friends and the next one he meets thinks he would make a nice snack. We do have coyotes here. One of our neighbors saw one walking on our wall. I try not to let Max outside without human presence, he thinks everything should love him.

Facebook
I found out that some members of Richard’s family use Facebook to keep in touch so I joined. It is kind of cool. My siblings and I have a family page we use to keep in touch but in general the next generation doesn’t seem to get on as often as we do, so it was a nice surprise to see them in Facebook. This gives me a chance to keep up with their lives. Starting out, however, was a bit of a time sink. Now that I have pretty much found as many family members as are out there, I think, it is settling down a bit. In the beginning, finding people, then searching their friends and family for my friends and family took some time.

Quilting
I took a class in Fabric Stamping. It was very fun. I find myself seeing fabric everywhere to paint and stamp. This is especially true for the fabric for the little purses my group is making to sell. I took one piece of fabric with me to the class and stamped it. It came out great. When I got home I was so excited I called one of the other purse makers to show it to her. I will take some more pictures later to show you.

Glass
I also took a introductory class in glass. This class is a requirement if you want to do stained glass or fused glass here in Quail Creek. I want to make some fused glass items. I just don’t know where I can find the time for this. I have been planning to do this pretty much since we got here and so far have not found time.

20080831 - Blood Sugar

2008-09-01T12:07:00.002-07:00

This week I had a pretty dramatic blood sugar low. Eleven weeks ago I started Weight Watchers. At the time I knew I was going to have to modify my insulin (yes, I am a diabetic) and I started right away changing my humalog (the insulin I take with meals to correspond to the amount of carbs in the meal). When my blood sugar was still dipping too low I also lowered my Lantus (the slow acting insulin I take to at night to manage my general level of sugar). Everything seemed to be doing OK, my blood sugar was a little too low as opposed to a little too high but that seemed better and my Doc was OK with it.

Until yesterday, yesterday afternoon I felt a little low so I ate a nectarine. When that did not help I ate some of my left over chocolate (the ones the nicer hotels leave on your pillow). Just before dinner I was a little out of it (couldn’t follow the television, the program did not make sense). My before dinner blood sugar was 48. During dinner I couldn’t make sense of my point counter and kept telling Rich that I was confused. After dinner I was still confused and now so was Rich. If it was blood sugar why didn’t the meal resolve it. So he was thinking stroke and I couldn’t track anything at all. He kept asking me if I needed 911 and of course I did not know. Finally, after a couple of hours, things started to make sense to me again. My before bed blood sugar was 248 - I had been too worried about the low to take a dinner humalog.

Now I am trying to prevent another episode by looking at what I did wrong in this one. First, I should have eaten something high-fast not low-slow. Most of the sugars we have in the house are low-slow (better for me normally). I have a couple of boxes of 15 carb apple juice. I'm thinking thtey should be high-fast sugar. I will drink 1 of those, wait 15 minutes, test my blood sugar, and if the blood sugar is still too low, drink another. Somewhere I have a sheet of instructions for low blood sugar. I need to find it and put it where Rich can find it. I also have some instructions for lay testing for possible stroke. I need to find them also and post for Rich. Any other ideas? Please comment.

20080822 - Quilting

2008-08-22T15:15:00.006-07:00

This my latest homework, Chapter 3 from ‘Art Quilt Workbook’ by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. This chapter was about making a collage. I wanted to follow my theme and was able to find a fabric with a nice saguaro cactus. I really like the idea of abstract representation. What I would really want to be able to do with my quilting is get to the point where I can using traditional quilt patterns to somehow depict the nature of things. I am not expressing myself well here, but have you ever seen a line drawing where with a very few lines the artist is able capture the essence of something (like a fox)? That is what I want from my quilts. Not realism but the essence. I am not sure it can be done nor if it can be done by me, but that is what I wish.

One thing I learned here is that as with all art you cannot just skip the initial training. Even Picasso had to paint realism before he could do abstract.
I am pretty pleased with the progression so far. But I think I am going to have to adjust my theme a little for next month.

In order to make money to buy supplies to make quilts for charity, my quilting group is making things to sell at the Quail Creek Fall Festival. These are some of the items I made.

Purse from donated upholstery fabric samples. This was something I have been wanting to do for some time so it was great fun. The fabric in the base of the purse has a very interesting texture. I plan to make several more using a variety of these upholstery samples.

We decided to make eyeglass cases; easy, fun, and not too expensive to make or sell. The larger more dramatic ones are for sun glasses the smaller are for regular glasses.

20080822 - Birds

2008-08-22T14:49:00.003-07:00

We are finally making some headway with the hummers. I bought some new food for them and it seems they did not like it and the bees did. I finally had to throw one of the feeders away. The bees kept crawling into it and dying. I found where I could buy the old food, Bought some, bought a new feeder and they are finally back. We have two feeders; one in the front that we can see from the dining area and the study, and one in the back that I can watch from the bedroom, great room and the studio. The feeder in the front has a bird every 20 minutes or so during their feeding time and the feeder in the back will have several at a time. Hummingbirds (at least the ones here) don’t share well. We have a wooden parrot outside in the back and a hummer will sit on the perch and watch the feeder. Any time another hummingbird comes around she will swoop in and chase it off. I’m guessing ‘she’ because she is not very brightly colored. After some time she will leave and then after doing some dancing around we may have three or four birds feeding at the same time. ‘Dancing’ meaning chasing each other around the feeder. In between the butterflies, the finches, and the hummers, the back yard is alive. I love it.

Parrot and the hummer The large and the small

Hummingbird feeder with 3 birds and one in flight.

These are some of the other feeders. I think mostly finches? They are very happy to share

Can anyone identify the bird on the top right?

I also saw a road runner in the back yard. I just glanced out there while I was on the phone and he was running through the yard. You can imagine how surprised I was. He was too fast for a photo.

This is a photo of a bird on the fence. It did not look like the doves or Quail we usually get. Any ideas what he/she is?

20080822 - Wedding Family

2008-08-22T11:12:00.023-07:00

20080822 - Family

I can’t believe that it has been a month since my last blog. The big reason, I think, is that we went on a trip to California for a wedding of one of my nephews Justin, and then for a short visit to Las Vegas with Steve and his family. In between finishing a quilt (the wedding present), getting ready for the trip, making the trip, coming home, and getting back into the groove, apparently a month passed. I took my camera on the trip but actually took a very few pictures and none at all at the wedding, although my niece Rachel did take some wedding photos. I will identify her shots. This trip was very cool in that all five of my siblings were there for the wedding. My sister Sandy (from Portland) with her daughter Rachel (the photographer) and Rachel's daughter Lexie, my sister Christine (also from Portland), my brother Fred (from Alaska), my brother Steve (from New Jersey) with his wife Sally and their two sons Scott and Dave, and my brother Mark (the father of the groom). Here are some of the pics.

The Sorensen Siblings (From the left Steve, Sandy, Mark, Sue, Fred, & Christine)

Richard (My sweetie)

Sandy (Sorry Sandy this is a bit fuzzy but at least your were smiling)

I did not get a single photo of Rachel, not sure how I missed her unless it was because she kept hiding behind her camera.

And granddaughter Lexie

Christine (This is a great shot if I do say so my self)

Fred (very serious, pretty much his standard look)

Steve (I like this shot too)

Sally

Scott (This is his look)

Dave (and this is his)

This one is from the wedding, Thank you Rachel. I’ve heard Blues brothers, Matrix, and Men in Black, but whatever, a great photo - they clean up nice

Mark (Father of the groom)

Darcy (Mother of the groom)

Skylar (Brother of the groom) (Thanks Rachel)

Margo (Aunt of the groom)

Alexis (Margo’s daughter - Cousin of the groom)

Lee (Grandmother of the groom)

Herb (Grandfather of the groom)

Holly (Bride)

Justin (Groom) (Thanks Rachel)

Justin and Holly (Great shot Rachel - I love yoour title So In Love)

20080718 - Quilt Donation

2008-07-18T13:16:00.004-07:00

This week we took 23 quilts to the local police department. In my several years of creating donation quilts, this was the first time I was there when the donation was made. It was very nice. The police use the quilts to give to people who have just suffered some kind of loss. They like to leave the quilts so that the encounter with the department ends on a positive note. This department moved to a new facility in February which they are pretty proud of so they took us on complete tour of the facility. It was pretty cool.

20080718 - TV - Greatest American Dog

2008-07-18T13:13:00.002-07:00

We started watching the Greatest American Dog because well with Max in the family, how could we not. I was a little disappointed the first week because with the title GREATEST, I thought these dogs would be something very special, very well trained and with some especially significant gift. That does not seem to be the case. In fact, in some cases, the dogs are not well trained at all and only a couple seem to have unique gifts. I was very disappointed that first week not only were the dogs not what I expected but the dog in the pair sent home seemed to me to be both cute and fairly well trained. I was so disappointed to see him go home that I decided not to watch the show again. As I watched it this week (I changed my mind) I realized that what the judges are looking at is not so much the dog but the relationship between the dog and the owner. Each owner claims to feel very strongly about their dog. I still do not know if I will watch again but,,, I am starting to be curious about the individual competitors. I do think the show has a bad title, though I could not find a better one. Who would watch “The Greatest American Dog/Human Team”?

20080709 - Chapter 3 Homework

2008-07-09T17:59:00.003-07:00

You remember last month I published a picture of my Chapter 2 homework from ‘Art Quilt Workbook’ by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston. When my group looked at it, they wanted to turn it upside down and make what I saw as the sky, water. They had several reasons for doing this but when I got home and thought about it, I realized that what they really wanted was a horizon. Even upside down the piece was split too evenly split between the sky and the horizon.

This was my Chapter 3 homework. After the last homework assignment I decided to put a horizon into this one. In addition, I spent the month really looking at the mountains and trying to see what color they were at various times of the day. I also took some photos from our back yard to get a narrow view of them. Then I decided to put something in the foreground. I did not want to use the saguaro (it seemed like it is overdone) but it worked out to be the one that I could actually do. Then I saw a different way of doing the background appliqué, so I decided to try that. Overall I like this one a lot better than the first one.

On to Chapter 4. I already have some ideas for that one. This process is really cool.

20080706 - New Quilt, New Visitor

2008-07-06T10:05:00.005-07:00

I finished another Charity Quilt

This one is another split 9 Patch but for this one I had all the center squares red and varied the colors in the middle squares. I made this one before the peach quilt and like the peach setup better. The common middle fabric seems to blend together better. I had to really work to keep the directional fabrics right side up. This one is still a cute kids quilt.

We had another visitor. He was resting in the dust pan outside the Casita. The monsoon season has arrived. The other evening we had .8 inches of rain in a few hours. It is hard to imagine a frog in the desert even in the monsoon season, so I suppose he is a toad. (I wouldn’t know the difference) Not the prettiest being I have ever seen. And certainly not worth kissing even if you were looking for a prince.

20080702 - New Bird

2008-07-02T10:13:00.002-07:00

This morning we had a new bird at the feeder

Is it a Cardinal?

20080630 - Finished Projects

2008-07-01T18:47:00.007-07:00

Last week I took my UFO (UnFinished Object) list to my quilting groups hoping that sharing that list would provide me with a kick in the Ass to finish some projects. It did, and last week I finished 4 Charity Quilts. Now in all honesty some of them did not have a lot left to do but… I had not done it.

This is the oldest quilt in the group. I got the blocks as an unfinished quilt from the Voyager scrap box 2+ years ago. Someone had started the quilt, cutting the nine patch blocks and sewing about half of them together in this basic design (without the solid blocks). I did not like the shape of the quilt (almost but not quite on-point) so I added the solid squares and the corner pieces to make a square quilt with a floating center. The top was finished some time ago but I procrastinated about making a back (it was too large for a single piece of fabric), making the sandwich and on the quilting. Part of the delays in quilting was due to the idea in my head that I had to free-arm quilt it. I decided to do straight quilting with a serpentine-like stitch and I liked that look so well I did rest of these same way. This quilt has been sold to give the quilting group some money to buy batting for future charity quilts.

This quilt is another of the older quilts in my UFO list. The Quail Creek Quilters made the Noah’s Arc blocks almost 2 years ago. I took them home to put them together. It took me a long time to come up with the ocean waves design of the alternative blocks and an even longer time to make those blocks. And then it waited in my UFO box to become a sandwich and be quilted.

This was a fun little quilt I have not had for very long. Someone in the Quail Creek group made a quilt with the little horse squares and had 12 left over. I took the 12 and added some bright nine patches and ‘Viola’ we have a cute little child’s quilt. I have had the top, back and binding in the UFO box for a while but now it is quilted and finished.

This is the youngest quilt of this group. When I finished the brown quilt above, we liked the design so much that a group of us decided to make something similar. One week we made a group of Nine Patch blocks. The next week we cut them up to form these blocks. And the third week we made 6 quilts, each with a different solid. I got the peach one to put together and quilt. I built my center a little differently and I did not end with my signature bias stripe but I like the results. And it so nice to have finished these quilts.

20080630 - Groomer Has It (Animal Planet)

2008-07-01T18:39:00.003-07:00

Did anyone watch Animal Planet’s Groomer Has It? It was one of those reality competitions. I generally enjoy these programs. I feel like you get a glimpse into what those professionals think are the important skills for their profession. This one was to find the Groomer of the Year. I started watching hoping to get some tips on how to groom Max. They did give some tips but in the end that was not what kept me watching. The skills they valued, the competition and the competitors were interesting. But in the end the judging was the most interesting of all.
One of the challenges was to groom a dog in a center and get that dog adopted. The winner was going to be the groomer whose dog was adopted first and the loser (being sent home) was the groomer whose dog was adopted last. One of the dogs was in really bad shape. His coat was so matted that every move was painful for him. He really needed a groomers help. The first groomer to chose a dog was torn but decided that it was too risky in the competition to take that dog. The second groomer took that dog saying something like how could I pass, he needs me.
In that moment I think the competition was changed. It became What kind of image do groomers want for their profession? If it’s not about taking care of dogs, what is it? That dog had to be shaved and his skin was in bad enough shape that he ended the day wearing a Victorian collar. Groomer 1 was right, that dog was not going to be adopted that day. Later in that same challenge after Groomer 2 took some people to see his dog and they passed, he introduced them to another of the groomers, allowing him to become the winner of the challenge. Groomer 2's dog was not chosen making him the loser. The judges did not send anyone home after that competition.
So in the course of that one challenge that groomer displayed twice that dogs were more important than the competition. From my point of view the contest was his to lose from that point on. Having said that, I really did not expect him to win. He was not the most experienced nor the most skilled groomer. He was young and new to grooming but he learned fast and paid attention and most important of all his heart was right. And he did win. Go Artist! Go Groomer Has It! Go Animal Planet!

20080622 - Fabric Painting

2008-06-22T16:33:00.011-07:00

Last Friday I took a Fabric Painting Class. I had a great time. The instructor demonstrated and we used several different techniques for fabric painting.

This is the classroom and several of the students. We spent the first 30 minutes of the class protecting the room from the paints: Garbage bags on all the tables and chairs, drop cloths on the floor, and aprons on the participants.

This is my wall of painted fabrics. Can you see that I like vivid colors?

Sun Printing - The fabric is out in the sun with the leaves on the it. For this technique we painted the fabric, then layered it with leaves and took it outside to dry.

The results of the Sun Printing. This is not one of my favorite pieces. The color is too pale and I did not press the leaves tight enough to the fabric. As a result you do not see the shadows very well.

The Scrunched fabric drying in the sun. For this technique we painted the fabric, then scrunched it up and took it outside to dry.

The results of the Scrunch. This is a very dramatic piece and one of my favorites. The fabric here is flat but the paint gives it a lot of texture. The top edges dry quickly and the paint pigments stay, hence the look of folds in the fabric.

This is another one of my favorite pieces - not so much due to what I did but the way the white on white fabric took the paint.

This piece resuted from a scrunch that dried slowly so the folds are a little more subtle.

This piece resulted from a rope wrapped with fabric, then tied into a double knot, then paint squirted into the knot. Not exactly tie dyed but close. I like this look a lot.

The results of some of the other techniques were not as visible so I decided not to share the detail photos: We tried some salt on the wet paint. I am not sure my piece was wet enough, but for whatever reason, the salt did not collect the paint. We tried wax paper, bubble wrap and saran wrap on top of the paint to create texture. These results were also too subtle for me. A couple of other pieces resulted from using cloth to clean the paint from various surfaces.

20080622 - Other Projects

2008-06-22T16:12:00.007-07:00

I have been trying my hand at other fiber arts (other than quilting).

I crocheted a series of dish cloths in different colors. In general my crocheting has been very uneven but these are so small that it is not a problem. I made several of these to give as gifts. This is one of the ones I kept. I like to use them to keep the sink dry.

I am learning to knit by knitting a scarf for myself. It is about half done.

I love the look of this eyelash yarn, however, working with it is problematical for me. The good news is: because of the ‘eyelashes’ the stitch problems are very hard to see. The bad news is: because of the ‘eyelashes’ the stitches are very hard to see and I have a lot of problems. I keep seeing these scarves and wanting one but my friends keep telling me how easy they are to make and that I should not buy one. You see my dilemma, don’t you? Can’t buy one because I could make one, should make something with easier yarn, but want this. Oh well, it is coming along and as time goes on it is getting easier. Maybe some day I will be able to call myself a knitter.

One of my quilting groups is working through the ‘Art Quilt Workbook’ by Jane Davila and Elin Waterston.

This is my Chapter 2 homework.

Now on to Chapter 3.

20080520 - Family

2008-06-22T14:33:00.020-07:00

I am very late in publishing these but here are some of the family photos I took while we were in Seattle. We visited 3 families:

Eric & Ann Marie and their two daughters Eleanor & Georgia

Eleanor was a little shy when we first arrived

But she warmed up after a bit

She enjoyed running around the yard

Georgia is a little cutie pie

For some reason this pose reminds me of her dad.

She has already got that over the shoulder look down pat.

I really like this shot of Ann Marie

Chris & Louise and their son Josh

Josh just stole Eleanor’s treats, can you tell?

What a little devil.

And an Angel

And serious too

Greg & Monica and their daughter Olivia

Monica and Olivia

One of the few smiling shots I got of her.

Greg and his ‘other’ girls

Most of the time as soon as I pointed the camera, Olivia got this wide-eyed doe-in-the- headlights look.

Olivia and the girls.

20080524 - Northwest Vacation

2008-05-24T11:59:00.003-07:00

We have been traveling for the last couple of weeks. May 3rd we drove from Tucson to San Diego and boarded the MS Ryndam for a 4 day cruise to Vancouver, Canada. The weather here when we left was sunny and beautiful, and San Diego was about the same. We drove to a parking lot near both the cruise dock and the airport and took a shuttle to the ship. It took us very little time to board the ship. After we got on board we had lunch while we waited for the stateroom to be made up for us. This cruise was a continuation cruise for some passengers so there was a mix of people enjoying the sun and people just boarding. Before we had finished lunch they announced that all the staterooms were ready and we went down to our room. From there we began a tour of the ship. We like to go to the top and walk down and through everything to get a lay of the ship. At around 4:30 we had the standard boat drill and shortly thereafter the ship left San Diego and the sun.

That evening it turned cool, but the next day it was downright cold. I spent most of the day reading (bad plan) by afternoon the ship was really rocking and rolling. I don’t usually get seasick but…. I don’t usually read this much or get this hungry or have a stateroom at the front of the ship. Before dinner I threw up, at dinner I threw up, after dinner I threw up. Luckily for me and the tables near me I had just gotten a seasick bag from a waiter at dinner and I was so discreet that I don’t think anyone saw me besides Rich and our waiter. The captain was right in the middle of announcing that we were facing 50 knot winds and 18-20 foot seas, but that the ship was not in any danger. Who thought it was? Of course, about this time empty seasick bags started showing up in baskets on the hall and stair rails. (only the second time I have ever seen them in all our cruising). That evening our stateroom attendant brought me some tablets and before too long I was feeling a lot better.

The next day was still pretty rough. I was now afraid to read anything. Because of the wind the captain had had to slow way down so instead of arriving in Victoria at 2:00pm we arrived at 7:00pm. Of course by that time the weather had smoothed down completely. The next day we arrived in Vancouver. In Vancouver we took the sky train to the Amtrak station where we were scheduled to take an Amtrak bus to Seattle. While we were in line to get our bus tickets a bell began ringing and the security people began chasing everyone out of the station and across the street. Turns out the bell was a fire alarm and it was not a practice drill. Eventually the fire department showed up and determined that a maintenance person had crossed some wires and set off the alarm. At that point we were all allowed back into the station. With the exception of 2 people everyone in the line took their same place. Canadians are sooo nice. So we caught the bus, and rode it Seattle.

The bus dropped us off at the Amtrak train station and we took a taxi to the airport to pick up our rental car. Interesting thing about the rental car - we had asked for a mid-sized car. First he offered a SUV for $20.00 more, then $10.00 more, and finally $5.00 more. With driving and parking in Seattle we did not want a big car. With gas prices he had more SUVs then he needed and not enough of the smaller vehicles. Eventually we got the car and drove to Seattle.

The rest of the trip time was spent visiting family. First our nephews in Seattle and their families: Eric & Ann Marie and their kids Eleanor (age 2) and Georgia (almost 1); Chris & Louise and Josh (age 2); and Greg & Monica and Olivia (age 6 months). We had a great time visiting, we had never seen Olivia, and the others had grown a lot since the last time we visited them. It drives me crazy that the boys did not start having families until we left Seattle.

Then we drove to Portland to see my sisters, my niece and their families: Sandy & Dale, their daughter Rachel and her daughter Lexie (age 5); and Christine & Steve. We had a great time visiting plus Christine (another quilter) and I went Fabric Shop hopping, always fun for me. Before we left I installed EQ6 on Chris’s computer and we had fun teaching and learning this software.

After leaving Portland we drove back to Seattle where we dropped off the car and took a plane to San Diego, picked up our car and drove to Arroyo Grande to visit Rich’s cousin Mike and his wife Ruthanne. Unfortunately, they live out in the sticks and we did not have exact directions. Soooo, we got lost, tried to call on the cell, no cell service, drove back to town, tried the phone again, lost cell service, drove back again, and finally had to have them drive to town to lead us to their house. (All of this at 9:00pm after getting up at 4:30am to be at the airport on time.) So when we met Mike drove Rich, and Ruthanne rode with me so we all made it their house safely. We had a lovely visit with them. This was the first time we had seen this house and really spent time in the area so we spent some time exploring.

After several days we headed back to Tucson. We left at 7:00am and arrived home in the early evening. It’s nice to travel, great to see people you haven’t seen for a while, but it is wonderful to be home again.

We have been home for a week now and I am almost back to normal. In between unpacking & laundry, catching up with my quilting groups (5), cancer labs, cancer doc (I am still cancer free), and checking into a Lifelong Learning Program I was pretty busy. Plus the weather was very odd: first record setting heat with major winds, and then cold, cold rain still with the wind. Finally, it has turned very nice, cool and sunny with a nice breeze.

20080418 - Survivor

2008-04-18T22:34:00.001-07:00

I was going to start back reporting on our South America Trip, but I was so pissed about what happened on Survivor last night I decided to write about it instead. Survivor is one of our favorite TV Programs but after episodes like last night, I wonder why. In my brain I understand that it makes sense for the weaker players to band together and keep the stronger players on their team until the merge and then to vote them off as quick as possible. I understand it but I hate it, it just seems wrong to me. Part of me understands that this is a game where strategy is a major part of winning and blindsiding them to get rid of the strong players makes sense. Part of me still responds as if it were real life and represented the character of the players. I have seen what bringing the best (read least liked) player to the final can mean ($1,000,000). But using someone then discarding them because they are strong just drives me crazy, and gloating about it makes me see red. Cirie and Jason were just plain evil last night. In some ways Ozzie did it to himself not playing the idol, but that he had to still makes me mad. James, beware. Hopefully the rest of the players will see Cirie for what she is and vote her off soon, along with Parvati and Jason.

20080413 - Quilting

2008-04-12T17:22:00.007-07:00

I am going to take a break from the South American trip to talk a little about the present. I have been pretty busy with quilting the last few weeks. I took a class in free-hand machine quilting. I still wish I had access to a long arm quilting machine but in the meantime I decided I need to get better at quilting on my standard sewing machine. The primary thing seems to be practice, practice, practice.
I also took a class on quilt embellishing with beads. Some time ago I made a Ricky Timms Convergence quilt. I decided to take that quilt to the class to work on. I had in my mind that after the class I would have a beaded quilt. Tee hee hee was I mistaken. Beading takes lots and lots of time.

Here is my quilt.

And here is one of the beaded sections.

And this is another technique used to add something like a cabochon This beading is going to take a loonnngggg time

I have been working on making quilts from leftover scraps in my (and others quilting stashes)

This is a quilt top I made from scraps from a quilt a friend made.

This is a quilt top I made mostly from scraps from baby quilts I have made.

This another quilt from scrap blocks from a friend along with fabric from my stash.

This a quilt top I made from 4 Noah’s Arc blocks I got from friends. I decided to add the Ocean Waves blocks. It has taken me a while (almost a year since I got the original blocks) to finish this top. Took some time to get the inspiration, and some more time for it to float to the top of ‘My Work on Me Now’ list.

All of these last four quilts are going to be practice, practice, practice for my machine quilting. It is much easier to practice quilting on smaller quilts.

In addition to actually quilting I am co chair for the Program Committee for the Valley Quilt Guild (our local Guild). Right now I am learning about our job by writing a Job Description for the Co Chairs as well as Policy Statements, Procedure Documents and various other forms we need to do our job. It is a lot of work but it is getting me involved in the Guild which is a lot of fun.

Additionally, I joined the Out of The Box Bee at the guild. We are currently working on a Crayon Challenge, something very different for me. I will share some photos as time goes on. It’s due in October. The Bee is going to start working through the book ‘Art Quilt Workbook’ so I just ordered the book. We are working the first chapter on our own and then will work as a group. It’s pretty exciting and way out of my box.

20071231 - New Years Eve Party

2008-04-02T17:10:00.006-07:00

On December 31 the ship had a big New Years Eve Party. It was pretty cool. I generally am not able to get Rich to go out to real Party. We have stayed at a Hotel with a small group of friends, but the idea of driving home after a Party is pretty scary and neither one of us wants to be 'designated'. On the ship, we were able to stay at a party with a large group of people, drink, listen to the music, watch the new year come in and then just walk home.

General decorations

Balloons in the central Atrium ready to come down at 12:00

Things got pretty crowded as it got closer to time

And at 12:00 midnight!

20080102 - Recife, Brazil

2008-04-02T16:20:00.011-07:00

On January 2nd we docked in our second Brazilian city Recife.

As we were coming into port the ship practiced launching, running and retrieving one of the smaller life boats.

Recife is a city of rivers and bridges, sometimes called the ‘Venice of Brazil’. It is the capitol of Pernambuco State and the fifth largest city in Brazil.

This was a prison that had been turned into a tourist shopping mall, It was shaped like a cross with cells on both sides of the corridor and 3 flights of stairs. Each cell was a tiny little shop. Please forgive my fuzzy shots, the camera automatically adjusts to diminished light, I do not.

This last shot is an empty cell. They were very tiny

I just love these dolls

They have some great beaches, but you need to stay inside the reef. Recife means reef.

There was also one of those exercise walks (parcourse?)next to beach.

There were interesting sculptures and buildings here and there in the city.

20080104 - Salvador, Brazil

2008-03-28T16:42:00.014-07:00

On January 4th the Star Princess docked in Salvador, Brazil, our second stop in Brazil. Salvador is the capitol of Bahia State. North East Brazil is poorer than Southern Brazil. The population is made up mostly of descendants of African slaves and their Portuguese owners and claims to be the ‘real’ Brazil. Southern Brazil has experienced ‘waves’ of immigrants from other areas of the world (Japan, Germany, etc.) We took a tour of Salvador’s old town which was on the upper cliff. It was quite nice, passengers we talked to who stayed in the lower city did not like Salvador very much.

This is a piece of the Fort.

The interior of a gold Church,

Many of the female guides were dressed in costumes.

Some of the Old town buildings

And some of the refurbished lower city buildings

This was a great square

with this wonderful building on the top of the hill

and this amazing view down the hill. Even standing there I could not believe it was real.

Much of the art has an African feel. These were fun Art pieces too big to take home but we loved them,

These little pieces were also cool

and these were more of my favorite curly haired dolls.

Our guide told us about some of the African gods who have been somehow integrated into the catholic system. These are some statues of/to these Gods.

I took these shots as the ship sailed out of the harbor.

Old town:

Cable car from lower city to old town:

Tunnel from lower city:

Downtown area. This was as close as we got.

20080106 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2008-03-23T10:32:00.028-07:00

Early January 6th we sailed into Rio de Janeiro. I got up early to see the city as we came in. It was beautiful but there were not many lights. Sailing in through islands is a beautiful way to meet the city. I love these south american cities - there is great exuberance but also great poverty. That day we took a tour of the city and rode the cable car up to the top of Sugarloaf. From Sugarloaf you get amazing views of the city and the surrounding area. The tour also took us to the Cathedral of Saint Sebastion. The Cathedral is a beautiful modern structure with amazing stained glass windows (see photos at the end). Unfortunately, that evening I was too tired to stay up late to see us leave. I forgot that city lights are better at night. I was thinking that since there were not many lights in the morning there would not be many lights at night. I understand I was wrong. We will have to visit again. Once again I had close to 500 photos to edit. I hope these are not too many.

As we were sailing in we could see Christ the Redeemer in the distance. It was sort of foggy. Later in the day it only occasionally peeked out as it was a cloudy rainy day there.

Botafogo Bay is a small bay behind Sugarloaf with many small boats.

Guanabara Bay is Rio’s large bay.

Busses waiting for us (and other cruise ships) to arrive. There were a lot of passengers on the three cruise ships that docked that day.

City of Rio. It's beautiful city in a lovely setting

These are some of the many Favelas (Shantytowns/Slums). Some have great views on the hills overlooking the beach areas, in fact, some of the best views of the city are from the Favelas. For many years they did not have any services now the city is trying to bring them in to the tax base by offering services beginning with water and electricity. Many are run by Drug lords and most middle class Brazilians avoid them. Some foreigners, however find them exciting. No services includes no roads just winding stairs and paths.

Sugarloaf from several vantage points

The cable cars on the way up to the top of Sugarloaf.

The views from Sugarloaf

Ipenema Beach from Sugarloaf

Copacaban Beach I think, (after all I am directionally challenged).

I love these dolls especially their curly metal hair.

Following are photos of the Cathedral. It is an awesome structure.

This the exterior view of the Cathedral. Certainly different.

These are the four amazing stained glass windows.

This is the top of the stained glass. It is open to allow the hot air to escape and the building to remain cool.

These are pictures of other areas of the Cathedral to give you some idea of the scale of the building and some of the other design elements.

20080109 - Montevideo, Uruguay

2008-03-16T03:31:00.027-07:00

I am going to start posting more about our South American Cruise. I am still working from the end to the beginning. The last time I posted about this trip it was January 10th and we were in Buenos Aires.

On January 9th the ship docked in Montevideo. I took almost 500 pictures so you can imagine the editing job I am doing. I am just guessing you are not interested in viewing 500 pictures here, especially of a place you never thought of visiting. Because I want to share the sense of the city with the photos not a detail view, I will be using a fair amount of collages (4 pictures in one), sorry if you hate them. Montevideo is a very beautiful city. In the morning we walked a bit around the city, then in the afternoon we took a tour of the city and the area around it..

The city has many tree lined streets,

Beautiful old buildings,

Amazing details on roof lines,

Some wonderful modern buildings,

Street vendors,

And wonderful sculptures.

This building had a very cool figurehead.

Poor people collect recyclable garbage with these horse carts to survive

We went to Plaza de la Armada - a park with a sculpture dedicated to people who died in the Sea.

We drove by the river beaches:

Rocky beaches

Swimming beaches

Hotel beaches

Marinas

These trees were full of green parrots - this was as close as I got to a good photo

When we left, we had to have a tug push us out. The first time we had ever seen this, most of the time the ship‘s bow thrusters are up to the job.

That evening on the ship was the final formal dinner so they served Baked Alaska. This our bus boy with our Baked Alaska.

20080109 - Montevideo, Uruguay

2008-03-15T23:07:00.005-07:00

I am going back to our cruise to South America. I am still working from the end of the trip to the beginning.

On January 9th we docked in Montevideo. I took almost 500 pictures so you can imagine the editing job I have been doing. I am just guessing you are not interested in viewing 500 pictures here, especially of a place you never thought of visiting. It’s a very beautiful city. In the morning we walked a bit around the city, then in the afternoon we took a tour.

The city has many tree lined streets,

Picture 2292 2325 2342 2458
Beautiful old buildings,

Picture 2459
Amazing details on roof lines,

Picture 2314 2439 2446 2547 2560 2566
Some wonderful modern buildings,

Picture 2276 2289
Street vendors,

Picture 2305 2312 2316 2447 2462 2469 2477 2479 2388 2397 2502
And wonderful sculptures.

Picture 2684
This building had a very cool figurehead.

Picture 2410
People collect recyclable garbage with these horse carts as a business

Picture 2605 2608 2612 2617
We went to Plaza de la Armada - Sculpture to people who died in the Sea

We drove by the river beaches:

Picture 2578 2579 2580 2645 2646 2651 2653 2663
Rocky beaches

Picture 2647 2648 2659 2660 2675 2678
Swimming beaches

Picture 2671 2672 2673
Hotel beaches

Picture 2668 2670
Marinas

Picture 2618 2619 2620 2625
These trees were full of green parrots - this was as close as I got to a good photo

Picture 2712
When we left, we had to have a tug push us out. The first time we had ever seen this, most of the time the ship‘s bow thrusters are up to the job..

Picture 2737
That evening on the ship was the final formal dinner so they served Baked Alaska. This our bus boy with our Baked Alaska.

20080312 - Quilting

2008-03-13T17:09:00.013-07:00

I have been working a lot on my quilting since we got back from South America

This is the baby quilt I made for my grand nephew JJ.

This is JJ’s label.

This is the quilt I made for Olivia (Chris’s twin) Greg’s new baby girl.

This is Olivia’s label

These are blocks I designed and made for February’s Block of the month.

This is the quilt top I am working on as a wedding quilt. Our quilt group each made 20 blocks and exchanged them. We each then create our own settings. This is mine.

This is a quilt top where the individual blocks were made by friends. I decided on the chevron setting, selected the borders and put the quilt top together.

This is a quilt top I made for charity from a design called crazy 9 patch. That's Rich peeking over the top.

This is a quilt top I created from a pattern called Syncopated Rhythms. The original quilt was in rainbow colors, mine is Arizona Sunset.

20080311 - Visitors

2008-03-11T19:46:00.011-07:00

In the last month we have had 2 set of family visitors.
Over Presidents day, my sister Christine’s son Jason, his wife Maggie, her 4 year old daughter Keara, and their 3 month old son JJ visited us from Temecula, California. Jason and Maggie are moving from California to Pensacola, Florida later this month so we were very pleased they could fit a visit to us into their schedule before they moved. We spent most of their visit getting to know them a little better. Neither of us had a large enough car to take two child seats and 4 adults. Keara and I took Max on several neighborhood walks. (I thought I could wear her out, instead she wore me out and Max had a blast.) Keara was fun and into everything.

Jason, Maggie and JJ cuddling on the big chair

Keara in the office

And then from Feb 28th to March 3rd our nephew Chris, his wife Louise and their 2 year old son Josh visited us from Seattle. When they inadvertently left the child seat in Seattle we discovered that our neighborhood has a lending closet of child items (including car seats, highchairs and strollers) for all the visiting grandchildren. Chris brought his golf clubs with him so he and Rich played 18 holes - Rich‘s first time here in Quail Creek. Chris also played golf in Tucson with a friend from Phoenix. While Chris was playing golf, Louise and Josh were enjoying the sunshine and our backyard fountain. Max also enjoyed extra walks with the three of us.

Chris (one of the infamous twins)

Josh - a very active 2 year old (active + 2 year old being somewhat redundant)

Louise and Josh

Max enjoyed both visits; extra walks and someone his own size to play with.

Our new (running) fountain

20080110 - South America - Buenos Aires

2008-01-27T11:27:00.003-08:00

We’ve been back from our trip for almost 2 weeks now and I am finally coming out of the fog. When we got home we were both sick with colds, so it has taken me a while to get it together. I still have close to 1,000 photos to transfer to the computer and organize so I am going to start at the end of the trip and gradually talk about the beginning.

We ended the cruise on January 10 in Buenos Aires. We did not make up our mind about taking a ship’s tour of Buenos Aires until it was too late (The tours were all booked up.) As a result, we got off the ship, waited in a long line for a Taxi to our Hotel, and arrived at the hotel too late to take a tour of the city from the Hotel. Luckily our Hotel was in downtown Buenos Aires and we were able to walk around the downtown shopping area. This was one of the main shopping ‘malls’ in Buenos Aires.

It was a very busy Pedestrian Mall. Very European in style.

The whole street was a study in contrasts, modern contemporary buildings next to very old, highly decorated buildings.

Old Sculptures, Churches, next to Modern shops.

Old buildings housing modern businesses.

Modern building housing old facades (Felt a little like Las Vegas)

And in the middle of it all Burger King and McDonald (I couldn’t find the shot of McDonalds, though I swore I took one)

20080111 - South America - Buenos Aires Airport

2008-01-27T11:11:00.002-08:00

On January 11 we were due to take a plane from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. Our flight was at 8:30 so we were up at 5:00 to arrive at the airport 2 hours early. We arrived at the airport and joined a very long line which appeared to be moving extremely slowly, but was moving so we were not too concerned. As we were standing the line gradually came to a complete stop. We became very concerned that we would miss our flight so Rich went and changed our tickets to an afternoon flight and we got out of line to eat some breakfast. When we returned to the line it was even longer and still did not appear to be moving. One at a time we went to the front of the line to see what was going on. Earlier I had seen some very angry passengers in a section of the airport near our check-In counters. Later they had moved to another section of the check-in counters and now they were sitting on the counters and luggage check-in areas. As I found English speaking people I discovered that these were Bogotá passengers whose flight had been cancelled at 7:00AM and they had shut down the Check In counters for Airline Argentina (our airline). It’s nerve wracking to be in a situation where something is going on, everyone is getting excited and as a result you cannot understand anyone. At this point all the Airline Argentina and police people had disappeared from sight. Rich immediately went and booked us on a later flight with another airline and eventually (11 hours after we arrived) we left the Buenos Aires Airport.

The rest of the Story:
In Santiago we watched a news program that spoke of the 2 day passenger riots in the Buenos Aires Airport. We experienced the first day of the ‘riot’, luckily we had the forethought and finances to purchase a ticket from another airline. On the second day all of the airlines were shut down for a period of time. Here's a copy of the story -

"Stranded travelers tossed computers in the air, shoved security guards and attacked ticketing counters at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza international airport Saturday after Aerolineas Argentinas suspended most of its flight there.
Tempers flared as hundreds of travelers awaited word on suspended and canceled flights. Aerolineas Argentinas attributed delays to a labor conflict involving a pilots' union and a union for airport tarmac workers. But union officials said the disruptions were caused by overbooked flights.
Ticketing counters were abandoned in the afternoon after passengers assaulted a worker at a check-in desk, said Maria de los Angeles Aguer, a spokeswoman for the Association of Aeronautical Personnel.
The strike for higher wages had sparked delays at the airport in a Buenos Aires suburb since Friday.
"There's no one from the company, no one is showing their face or telling us when we're going to fly. We're stranded with children and the elderly," a woman whose flight to Venezuela was canceled on Friday told local TV.
Aerolineas Argentinas is 95 percent controlled by Spain's Marsans, with the remainder held by the Argentine state."

20080111 - South America - Santiago Airport

2008-01-27T11:06:00.003-08:00

After an uneventful flight from Buenos Aires, we finally arrived Santiago, Chile. We collected our luggage and took our passports to go through the immigration line only to discover that as US citizens we needed to pay a $132.00 reciprocity fee per person for a visa to enter the country (translate to leave the airport). In addition to that news we discovered that their credit card machine was down and we needed to pay it in cash before we could leave. Needless to say after our day at the Buenos Aires airport we were not very happy campers, but as luck would have it, we did have the cash so were able to leave the airport and take a taxi to Santiago. The fee attaches to your passport so as long as we have these passports we can return to Chile without additional fees. After the fact (well after the fact) Rich said he vaguely remembered reading something about an additional fee. Of course this is the risk you take when you make your own arrangements, you do not have an experienced ‘other’ who can forewarn you of various ‘surprises’ you might encounter.

20080112 - South America - Santiago

2008-01-27T09:41:00.002-08:00

On January 12 we took the Turistik Bus tour of Santiago. You know, the buses that tour the town and allow you to get on and off all day (the one in Barcelona where I got lost). It was a great day; sunny, not too hot, a little smoggy. (The mountains were a little washed out). Santiago is a very beautiful city, very clean, very modern, and in a very beautiful setting.

This was the the view from our hotel room. There was major development project building a convention center across the river from the Radisson.

One of the Turistik Buses - Red double deckers.

Some of the older buildings we saw on our tour of the city.

And some of the more modern Buildings (condos and office buildings) Many buildings, many shapes and many with trees on the terraces made for a beautiful skyline.

There were tree lined streets outside of the downtown area - some are shopping areas some are residential. One of the nicest was home to many designer shops.

Several glacier rivers flow through town. Here are 2.

Two of the many sculptures we saw around town. Some were traditional and some very modern.

2 Shopping malls we visited.
Parque Arauco - a very large, very modern mall

and a small handicrafts area.

One of the areas we decided to walk was St Lucia Hill. A small, tall hill with viewing area at the top.

Some of the stairs we had to climb to get to the top.

From the near the bottom looking up at the top.

The views from the top. As you can see the mountains were not very clear that day.

And finally, the monument at the bottom of the hill

Can you tell we liked Santiago?

20080114 - Travel

2008-01-27T09:38:00.001-08:00

The last 2 days of the trip were spent traveling home. Day 1 we flew from Santiago to Bogotá, spent 6 hours in the airport in Bogotá, flew from Bogotá to Miami, and finally drove from Miami to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale. Day 2 we flew from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Tucson. Both were long days and full flights. Both of us arrived in Tucson with colds, and boy were we glad to be home.

20080114 - Max

2008-01-27T09:36:00.002-08:00

While we were gone, Max had his own adventures. As usual we hired someone to come in twice a day to feed, walk, and play with Max. Sometimes they would let Max out in the back yard to play outside. Well on January 1st, Max discovered how to squeeze out through the back gate. The babysitter let him out, left the back slider open, and left. Max got loose. Neighbor 1 saw him in the street and called neighbor 2. Neighbor 2 tried to get him but he would not come to her. She got her husband out of bed and he was able to catch Max with the promise of a treat. He took Max through the back yard and into the house. Neighbor 1 called the babysitter to tell them what had happened.

In addition to this excitement, the babysitter told us that Max had not done well during the first 2 weeks. He was not eating or pooping up to snuff. And the neighbors told him that they could hear Max crying at night. So he took Max to his house for the rest of the time. They have 2 dogs and the three seemed to get along great so Max spent the second 2 weeks eating and playing and generally having a great time. Looks like we need to farm Max out when we leave him in the future. He is just a social guy.

20071209 - I’ve been thinking - Technology

2007-12-09T23:54:00.000-08:00

About a month ago we had visitors in the Casita, the Singing Quilter and her husband. They gave me one of their CDs as a thank you gift and I bought the other three. On our drive to Seattle, when I was driving we listened to the CDs and I loved them. I listened, I laughed, and I cried. Many of the songs tell a story. Most of them are somehow related to quilting. Many are funny, some are glorious, and some are sad. I decided that it would be wonderful to share them with my quilting group by listening to them during one of our work sessions. But, we do not own a CD Boombox, just personal CD Players. So I asked Rich for one for Christmas. And being a helpful wife, I started looking for one that he could buy me. Guess what. I couldn’t find one. It’s old technology! What they have now in the stores are iPods and MP3 docking stations on Boomboxes, not CD players. The kid at the store (who has kids) told me that the CD player boom boxes are for little kids (play radios and cars, etc.), as the adults now have iPods or MP3 players. When did I get to be so behind the times. I am still hoping to find one, even looked on the internet although it was a little hard for me to tell what was what. I’ll let you know what we find.

20071202 - Northwest Trip - Skovs

2007-12-02T15:01:00.000-08:00

We spent 10 days on a series of visits to our relatives. First we drove to Seattle to visit the Skov Family. The senior Skovs are Rich’s cousin John and his wife Ruthanne. They live in Spokane but as 3 of their sons and their families live in Seattle they planned to have Thanksgiving with them and joined us early for a visit to all of the families.

Grandpa John

Grandma Ruthanne

John and Ruthanne’s oldest son lives in San Francisco with his wife Karen. They decided to spend Thanksgiving in Seattle this year and luckily for us arrived early enough so that we got a chance to see them before we left.

Mike having a very serious conversation with Eleanor.

Karen - Not sure what she is looking at sooo intently

Eric and his wife Ann Marie have 2 little girls Eleanor (age 2) and Georgia (4 months). What delightful little girls.

Papa Eric

Mom Ann Marie

Big sister Eleanor

Little sister Georgia

Chris and his wife Louise have a little boy Joshua (16 months). Josh is so like his dad at the same age.

Chris & Josh

Louise - Such a nice smile

Josh - so like his dad

Greg and his wife Monica are about to have a little girl (12/1/2007?)

Greg & Monica

Monica & Baby

We had a wonderful time and are looking forward to visits from several of the families in the not to distant future.

20071202 - Northwest Trip - Sheridans/Scotto

2007-12-02T14:47:00.000-08:00

After Seattle we drove to Portland to spend Thanksgiving with my sisters and their families. My sister Christine and her husband Steve are building a wonderful new house, so we stayed with them. Christine set a lovely table.

Steve - I not sure about this

Chris - You can run but you cannot hide

Lovely house - Lovely Table

My sister Sandy, her husband Dale, and their daughter Rachel joined us for the day. Unfortunately, Rachel’s little girl Lexie was with her dad and could not join us. Rachel is planning a trip to Tucson with Lexie in February so we will get to see them both soon.

Dale - Reminds me of someone, who can it be?

Sandy

Rachel - Where did that canary go?

After a huge meal we all rested and watched their big screen TV

I can't believe we at all that.

20071202 - Northwest Trip - Norris

2007-12-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

Rich’s brother Ken turned 60 on Nov 24 so after Thanksgiving we drove to Ken and his wife Tina’s house for the birthday bash. We spent a couple of days with them in addition attending the bash in Vacaville. They have a beautiful new house.

60 year old Ken.

Much Much younger Tina

Their Bichon Wasabe - Looks a lot like a small Max

Tina’s daughter Tami and her daughters Kailani (age 2) and Malia (age 3 months) are staying with Ken & Tina so we got a chance to know them a little better.

Tami and Kailani on the carousel

Kailani, what a sweet little girl

Malia (AKA Moi Moi (Little Sister) Sweet Baby

Ken’s daughter Stacey, her husband Jonathon, and their son Mathew joined us at a children’s park before the party.

Stacey soon to be Mom to two

Jonathon - Super Dad

Soon to be big brother Mathew

20071202 - Northwest Trip - Sorensen

2007-12-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

After we left Placerville, we drove to Temecula to visit my brother Mark and his wife Darcy. They both work so we did not stay long but we spent a lovely evening with them.

Mark

Darcy was busy playing with Keara.

Since Christine’s son Jason and his wife Maggie also live in Temecula, they joined us for dinner with their daughter Keara (age 4)

Great grin Jason

This was the first time we met, but I've heard so much about you I thought we met before.

Another cutie pie in the family

20071202 - Max

2007-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

I love Max and most of the time he is a wonderful little dog, however…..

We went for a walk at my sisters house. It’s in Portland so the ground was a little wet. Now for the record, before we left Arizona, wanting Max to appear at his best I groomed him to within an inch of his life. I especially wanted him to make a good impression on Ken (Rich’s brother who also has a Bichon) So, back to the walk. Max found a puddle, and proceeded to do a Bichon Buzz through the puddle (Bichon Buzz => Run as fast as you can, turn on a dime, and run back as fast as you can. Repeat). After the Puddle Buzz he found a pile of dirt and rolled in it so that any remaining white spots would have the opportunity to turn brown. This was at Chris’s new house. Luckily Steve was able to spray most of the dirt off and I was able to dry him so he could at least enter the house, but no more little poof boy.

Now you remember I wanted him to be wonderful for Ken. Ken and Tina have a beautiful new house. New everything, elegant everything. When we arrived at the house Max raced around the front yard smelling everything. He then ran into the house, raced to the couch on the new carpeting and lifted his leg. Argghhh. Both Rich and Ken saw him and yelled which stopped him, just a little too late. He is a wonderful dog. He is a wonderful dog. Most of the time.

20071111 - Quilt News

2007-11-11T22:58:00.000-08:00

This week was the Southern Arizona Shop Hop- “The Great Fabric Round-Up!”. This year there were 10 shops involved in the Hop and we hit them all. On Thursday we (9 women from the Quail Creek Quilt Covey) went to 1 shop in Casa Grande, 1 shop in Catalina, and 4 shops in Tucson. We were on the road from 8:00am until 6:30pm. On Saturday I went by myself to the 2 shops in Green Valley. And on Sunday 8 of us drove to the 2 shops in Sierra Vista. This time we were gone from 10:30am to 5:30pm. Those were a couple of days with long drives but we had a great time. Every Quilt Shop has it’s own vibe as well as the owner’s stamp on the fabrics they sell in their shop and the quilts they display. I walk into some shops and see a million fabrics that I love and other’s I see very little that interests me. This was an awesome opportunity to visit shops with other quilters. Each shop had a quilt pattern and other gifts for the shop hoppers. I actually ran into quilters from Voyager (the Tucson RV Park where Rich and I stayed while we waited for our house to be built). But the best thing of all was the opportunity to bond with my neighbor quilters.

Additionally, tomorrow Cathy Miller (The Singing Quilter) and John Bungee are performing for the Green Valley Quilters Guild and tonight they are staying in our Casita (very cool). We had dinner with them. They are near the end of a concert tour and the guild was lucky to have them perform for us. They currently live (when not on the road performing) in Victoria, BC so we had an opportunity to share our experiences about the Pacific Northwest as well as life on the road.

20071105 - I’ve been thinking about control (or lack thereof)

2007-11-05T10:57:00.000-08:00

When I was working I had a recurring dream where I was driving (too fast) a large vehicle (a van or a bus) on a dangerous road (cliffs on both sides) from the back seat. I would not be able to see the whole road (I was up too high for the front window), I would not be able to reach the brakes (I would be asking the front seat riders to brake), and the steering wheel was very loose and unresponsive. Well, you get the picture - Out Of Control. Do you remember the ad that played during the Super Bowl a few years ago where they were trying to herd cats? That was similar to the kind of job I had. Since I retired I haven’t had the dream… until recently and I am trying to figure out what part of my life is currently out of control. Must be projects, my studio is a mess with all the things I am trying to finish. At least now I am the only one I am trying to (unsuccessfully) control.

I was cuddling Max last night and thinking how sweet and loving he was and how much I wanted to protect him from all things painful. I jokingly tell everyone that Max is of the opinion that all humans were put on this earth to love him. I want him to always believe that. I want him to always see the world as a loving place. I know I cannot really control his world and protect him from all pain but I may be able to do a pretty good job of it . He does not have to grow up and away from my care. Human babies do. And their parents cannot protect them, they can only prepare them, and support them through the hard times. Parents, I salute you! You have a most difficult job - in addition to the most wonderful of times, there are the most awful of times.

20071104 - I’ve been thinking - Nineteen Minutes

2007-11-04T15:18:00.000-08:00

Nineteen Minutes

I just finished reading Nineteen Minutes; A Novel by Jodi Picoult. It got me thinking about bullies; both kids and adults, and what I define as behaving like a bully. I don’t remember any bullies growing up but I am not sure if that is because there weren’t any or I just don’t remember them. I am an army brat and changed schools almost every year. I can’t even imagine knowing the same kids all through school the way the kids in this story did. In addition to that I had Bright’s Disease (Acute Glumerial (SP?) Nephritis) when I was very young and was left with high blood pressure. At that time the only medicine used to treat High blood pressure was Phenobarbital (I think a sleeping pill now and not used at all for BP). At any rate I was an out-of-it kid living a lot in my head. In this book the kids were pretty unsophisticated with a lot of physical bullying even through highschool. Adults on the other hand don’t have to resort to physical bullying. If I say to someone that I don’t find something funny and ask them to please stop, and they continue to ‘tease’ saying that I need to get over it, am I displaying a thin skin or lack of a sense of humor or are they bullying me? I guess it all depends. At least adults don’t shoot up schools and (as I think about it) the adult doing the shooting is more likely the adult bully than the adult victim (or is that really true?)

Changing the subject. This week Quail Creek had two fairs; A Wellness fair with all kinds of exhibits promoting health, including one table put on by the Quail Creek Diabetes Education & Resources Forum (for which I am one of the 2 coordinators) and a Crafts Fair with all kinds of craft tables including one table from the Quail Creek Needleworks Club (of which I am a member) As a result I worked from 7:00am until 2:00pm on Friday, and from 9:ooam until 12:00noon on Saturday womaning tables at these fairs. It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. I met a lot of people. My table at the Wellness Fair was near the table doing Arterial ultrasounds (boy was he busy) so I was able to sneak over and have my neck ultrsounded. Not good, but I knew that. He drew me a picture of my plaque for my doc. I got a lot of ideas at the Craft Fair. I was especially excited to learn about Quail Creek glass fusing. I am going to have to join up with that group. I love the look of their products.

Happy Halloween

2007-10-31T23:17:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. Since there are no children here we did not have a traditional Halloween. We didn’t even buy any candy this year, thinking we would just be forced to eat it all. We did have an interesting event though, one of our neighbors came by to trick or treat. They were not in costume but their dog was. He was dressed as a very cute pumpkin. Then instead of coming with an empty bag and asking for treats, they came with a full bag and delivered treats. What a great idea, perfect for us. We get to experience part of halloween without having to dress up. Next year we are going to visit the neighbors with Max in costume.

We will be traveling soon

2007-10-22T01:01:00.000-07:00

We’re planning a couple of trips in the next few months. First, in November we will be driving to the northwest. We will visit Seattle, Portland, Placerville, and Temecula. It will be a very quick trip. We will spend a few days in Seattle visiting Rich’s cousin John and his wife Ruthanne and their boys (our virtual sons) and their families. Since we left Seattle, we have gained 3 ¾ virtual grand children. We have met the first 2 and are looking forward to meeting the next two. (One not yet arrived, but due any time now.). After we leave Seattle we will drive to Portland for Thanksgiving with my sisters Christine and Sandy and their families. Portland will also be a very short visit as Rich’s brother turns 60 on the 24th and we are going to Placerville to help him celebrate. Then we will be traveling to Temecula to see my brother Mark and his wife Darcy, and my nephew Jason and his family. We will only be gone a little more than a week but will be packing a lot of visiting into that short time.

Just about 2 weeks after we return we will be flying to Fort Lauderdale where we will be boarding the Star Princess for a cruise down the east coast of South America. The cruise is 21 days, but we will be gone from December 19 through January 14. We will be traveling from Fort Lauderdale to Dominica, Barbados, Grenada, Port of Spain, Fortaleza, Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, and Buenos Aires. After the cruise we will fly to Santiago for a couple more days before we return to Fort Lauderdale and then back to Tucson. In addition to the new Caribbean countries we will see Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chili. Aside from Fort Lauderdale, we have never been to any of the ports, so we are really excited about the trip. On the other hand we had to get yellow fever, Typhoid, and HepA vaccinations as well as a scary introduction to the potential risks with mosquitoes in South America. It felt to me like we were going to be traveling into the deepest darkest jungles.

We’ve been busy, I’ve been scattered

2007-10-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

Hello, I’m back, well sort of back. We got back from our cruise the end of August and I had almost 1000 pictures. And as I was organizing my thoughts and the pictures, my hard drive died and the wizards were not able to save anything and I had not backed up anything since last February. And somehow among all that, writing became a oughta instead of a wanta. And it was competing with all the other oughta’s associated with recreating everything in your life that was on a computer. So long story short (if it is not too late) I’ve decided that instead of trying to get all caught up, I’m going to start here and now and hopefully over time I’ll recover all the things I meant to write about in the last 2 months.

I've been tested

2007-08-31T03:55:00.001-07:00

I was getting caught up with others blogs (it is always easier to read than to write and found the site that gives these tests and allows you to publish to the world. I'm not sure I agree with Multiple intelligences results. I think I am more verbal, less musical, than I tested but I think the test was spot on in the last one (the Sorensen get lost quick). Thank you Sheila. If you are interested see my niece's site I have not discovered how to put in (go to's)

I’ve been thinking - Odds and Ends

2007-08-13T01:05:00.000-07:00

I’ve been thinking - Neighbors

I am really enjoying getting to know our neighbors here. I don’t know if it was Max, me, or working but I don’t think I ever really got to know my neighbors before. Here whenever I run into most of my neighbors we stop to talk. People smile and wave when they go by and since many times they are in golf carts I can actually see them. The people across the street occasionally sit out in their front courtyard and have a glass of wine in the evening and I take my glass and join them. Somehow when they are out in their front yard it invites people to stop, whereas their backyard seems more private. This is the first home we have ever owned with a front area for sitting out. I like it a lot. Of course everyone (especially those with dogs) knows Max and since we walk him twice a day and he needs to meet everyone; we meet almost everyone. He is a real people and dog magnet.

I’ve been thinking - Boxes

I think my foot doctor was wrong about my foot when I saw him and he told me that the pain I was experiencing was from diabetic neuropathy. I also had a small corn on the inside of my toe and when I treated that, the pain pretty much went away. He did a simple test of pressing on my ankle and determined that I have neuropathy but did not do the test that other docs have done to evaluate the amount of feeling I had in my feet. I think he heard diabetic and began treating a diabetic not Sue Norris. People tell me that we need to be able to categorize others so that we can respond quickly. Unfortunately, when we put people in boxes we neglect to remember that no person is the box, the whole box, and nothing but the box. I most likely do have some neuropathy, but not to the extent he said, not yet.

I’ve been thinking - Visitors

My brother Mark and his wife Darcy were supposed to come for a visit from Aug 2nd to Aug 5th. Darcy had too much work to do to get ready for the new school year so she was unable to come. Instead Mark brought his younger (age 19) son Skylar. We had a great visit with them, albeit short. We spent one day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a world-renowned zoo, natural history museum and botanical garden, all in one place. We became members since we expect some of our other visitors will want to see the Museum too. The next day Mark and I walked around our neighborhood to see the landscaping and Mark, Skylar and I visited our model homes. Later we went out to dinner. Most of the time the weather was warm and sunny despite our hoping for a real monsoon storm. It rained pretty hard when we were going to dinner but we did not see/hear any thunder or lightning.

Mark and Skylar - Skylar may be younger but he aint shorter. It's hard for me to believe that my baby brother has a son taller than he is.

Mark and Max our little cuddle pup.

Skylar and Max

We are leaving this Friday for a Mediterranean cruise. We will visit Rome, Monte Carlo, Florence, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Le Goulette, Palermo, Naples, and Rome again. It’s a 10 day cruise with 2 at sea days and several days going and coming. I will post pictures after we return August 30.

My sister Christine and her husband Steve are coming to visit September 16th. They will be staying 10 to 14 days. Rich’s cousin Mike and his wife Ruthanne are coming October 3rd for a 3 or 4 day visit. We are very much looking forward to these visits.

I bought a finch sock because I love these little birds. Sometimes there will be 6 on this little sock. One day the wind was blowing the sock all over and still the birds were feeding; right side up, wrong side up, who cares.

Another Stormy night, if it were a painting, I would swear it was not real.

I’ve been thinking - Birds

2007-07-24T15:39:00.002-07:00

I have been filling a bird dish with a song bird mixture every day for several weeks now and we are getting more and more bird visitors. We have a hummingbird feeder in the front courtyard and this saucer thing in the back along with a water dish. Even though the back is completely fenced in with a brick wall, I have been hoping to see some Quail in our yard. (I see them running all over the place here, ‘Quail Creek’ don’tcha know.) Anyhoo this week I bought a Quail Block - a big block of seed I assume Quail like to eat. The first day it was out, none of the birds seemed to notice it. The second day, a few birds poked at it. And on the third day I saw first 1 Quail in the yard and then a little family of quail, 2 adults and 2 little ones.

Here are some of our frequent guests. I especially like the little red headed ones.

Quail Block with adults on top, little ones on the side, and water dish in the background.

They are so pretty and so fun to watch as they race around. One day I saw about thirty, mostly little ones. One grouping consisted of 2 adults at the front of a line, 10-12 little ones in the line and another adult behind hurrying all of them on.

After a while, this one stood on the wall and watched as the other adult and the little ones ate and rested.

We have been having a fair number of stormy evenings with great thunderstorms. I and my camera are not quick enough to get any lightning but here is a photo of the sky.

I’ve been thinking - Monsoons

2007-07-17T12:51:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night we experienced our first Monsoon. It rained like a son-of-a-gun, but the next morning everything was completely dry. With all the gravel there is not much evidence of the rain. Thursday I just could not get the weather straight. I spent the afternoon working on quilts at the clubhouse. When I was ready to leave I heard thunder so I decided to leave my things there so as to not get wet. It was not raining. After I got home, since it was not raining, I decided to go back and get my stuff but then it started to pour so I ended up getting wet anyway. In the evening it was just barely raining, so I took Max out to get the mail. As soon as we got to the mailbox it started to really come down. By the time we got home Max and I were drenched. Rich was standing outside under the eaves laughing at his drowned rats family. Since then we have seen lightening, heard thunder but no rain here in Quail Creek. We keep thinking it’s coming but it does not get here. It is supposed to rain this week. We’ll see. After Seattle it is amazing to me how much I am looking forward to monsoons.

I’ve been thinking - A day in the life

2007-07-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

This week has been pretty warm - I think up to 110°+. I walk with Max & Crystal (a neighbor) on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. Since it has been so warm, we have going at 7:30am. The neighbor across the street walks his dog at 5:30am (a little too early for me). Rich rides his bike in the morning for 20 miles 3 days on, 1 day off, 3 days on, etc. That way I never know whether today is a ride day or not. He also rides at 7:30am; early enough to still be a little cool but not so early he has to set an alarm. On Tuesday mornings I go to a needlework group meeting and on Thursday mornings I attend a quilt group meeting. That’s a fair amount of meetings about quilting. Both groups offer classes some mornings and work sessions others. Afternoons are too hot to be outdoors now and soon will be too wet for outdoor activities, so we work indoors on the house, on the computer, or (in my case) on my quilting. Rich spends part of that time planning trips. Right now he is planning two cruises; one to the Mediterranean in late August, and one to South America in December. (More about the cruises later as they are closer)

I’ve been thinking - Monsoon Summer

2007-06-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Monsoon Summer
Per Pima Community College Desert Ecology of Tucson, Tucson has 5 seasons: Spring, Dry Summer, Monsoon Summer, Fall, and Winter. During sometime between July - Early September (the average start date is July 3) we enter the monsoon period. It starts officially after 3 consecutive days with daily mean surface dew point of 55 degrees F or greater (representing an influx of moisture into our area). Dew point - The temperature at which air becomes saturated and produces dew. The increase in dew point occurs when the prevailing winds shift from westerly to southeasterly, bringing more moisture in from the Gulf of California (mostly) and the Gulf of Mexico. Days often begin clear and very warm, but as the heat of the day builds, huge clouds build and tower above, cooling the temperatures somewhat (but increasing relative humidity) and often dumping huge quantities of rain in a very short time. This translates to clear mornings and rainy afternoons we think. In July 2006 we had 5.40 inches of rain, although the average rainfall is 2.07 inches in July, 2.30 inches in August and 1.45 inches in September. In addition to the rain there is lightning. While I was looking up this stuff on the web I found awesome photos of lightning in Tucson, ‘the best place to view lightning in the world’.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Monsoon Summer as it approaches. It is important enough that a significant amount of landscaping is focused around dealing with it: making sure that land is graded and covered with rock to move water and only water away from buildings, making sure that there are openings in walls to enable water to move, etc. For some folks this is their favorite season. It is not what I expected of summer in Tucson. It is going to be interesting for us. I think I am looking forward to it. It reminds me of visiting my brother Steve in Colorado where it rained and/or hailed every afternoon.

I’ve been thinking - Misc

2007-06-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

Diabetic Neuropathy
Last week I had an appointment with a podiatrist. I have been experiencing some new pain in my feet. Apparently I have some neuropathy in my feet. I thought that that would mean lack of feeling. In my case, however, it is similar to Carpal Tunnel, except that it is in my ankles not my wrists. The diabetes causes my nerves to swell, the swelling nerves get pinched in the ankle tunnel (it probably has a real name but I don‘t know it), which then causes a burning sensation in my toes. The good news is that there some meds for it which may slow it down so that I do not have to have surgery to enlarge the tunnel.
House
We finished installing the master closet. Now we can begin unpacking more of the boxes in the garage. It is so nice to have a real closet with drawers and shelves.
Family
My sister Christine’s son Jason is expecting a baby in December. We are very excited for both Jason and his wife Maggie as well as for Christine and her husband Steve as it is their first grandchild. Two other nephews (Eric and Greg) are also expecting babies; one in August and another in December so our next generation is happening.
Quilting
I have been doing quite a bit of quilting. Not finishing anything yet but working on a lot of squares for various projects; baby quilts of course but also projects for the quilt group and classes. I will be starting a new class on Convergence Quilts later this month.
Cruise
We booked a 10 day Mediterranean Cruise for late August. We will going to Rome, Monte Carlo, Florence, Barcelona (hopefully I won’t get lost this time), Palma de Mallorca, La Goulette, Palermo, and Naples.

This Morning

2007-06-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

as I was answering email a little hummer came in, had a bite to eat, came over to the window, checked me out, went back to the feeder, and buzzed on out. I love this feeder. I will soon have to post the camera here on the desk so I can identify these birds.

I’ve been thinking - Hummingbirds and Books

2007-06-10T02:26:00.000-07:00

Hummingbirds
Our house has 2 courtyards. The smaller of the two is between the casita and the main house. The window in the study looks out into this courtyard. A couple of weeks ago I was working on the computer and looked out the window and saw a hummingbird in the courtyard. He buzzed in, looked in the widow at me, and buzzed out. Up until that moment I thought that this courtyard was too small and too enclosed to draw birds, but I figured if he could come in and look at me he could come in and have a sip to eat. So we bought a shepherd’s crook pole and a hummingbird feeder, set them up, and waited and waited and waited. (Apparently I still need to learn patience.) After a week I cleaned the feeder and changed the food but still no birds. After another week we had a big windstorm and the feeder was blown around so much that all the ende up on the ground. That next morning a bird came by but of course there was nothing in the feeder and he left. I quickly refilled it and that day we had 4 visitors. I spent that day fighting with the computer so perhaps we had so many birds because I was in the room to see and hear them. Since that day I have seen several birds at the feeder. I hope this feeder will be popular. I love seeing them.

Books
I just finished ‘Snow Flower and the Secret Fan’ by Lisa See. If you read and enjoyed ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ I think you will enjoy this book. I personally could not put it down.

I’ve been thinking - Home, Health, Quilting, and Friends

2007-06-04T01:21:00.000-07:00

Home
In the last month we have visible progress in many rooms including:

the study (where we now have 2 desks - this is Rich's, mine is too messy to show you),

the studio (where I have my fabric pretty much set up in the closet

and the book shelves which are also pretty much good to go, but I still need tool storage setups),

the great room (which is pretty much furnished although it still lacks decorations) (no new photo), the casita (which has a fridge but no lights)(no new photo), and the master bedroom which still needs bedside tables and a closet setup. (also no new photo)

This my first good display of some pins from my collection. (This is from the kitchen.) I am hoping to use several of these throughout the house.

Health
I have now had my first appointments with all my regular docs and most of my special start up appointments. My diabetes seems to be in control, my A1C was the best it has been in years, although I am showing some problems with my eyes. My Oncologist did not find anything to worry about so no news is good news. I had a special appointment with a dermatologist to do a skin scan since I was a California girl for many years and am now back in the sun. He gave me a clean bill of health as well, not even much damage from the sun to date. I am looking to help start a Diabetic Support Group here, which will help with my diabetes.

Quilting
I belong to the Quail Creek Quilters. We have several programs going on even though it is summer and many members are gone. Each program is monthly. Batty for Batiks involves bringing 12 10 inch blocks of batik fabric once a month to be split up among all the participants. So once a month I bring in 12 squares each of 2 colors of batik and go home with 24 unique squares: so far we have done Green, Purple, and Anything goes. It's a great way to add small pieces of batiks to your stash. For the Block of the Month group we each make a specific block with particular color fabrics. If you bring in a block you are entered in the drawing where the winner takes home all the blocks. So far we have made:

Black & White Friendship Stars,

Green & Pink Courthouse Steps,

And Blue & Yellow Road to Oklahomas (I do not have a photo of this group yet). I have been working on baby quilts as well but have nothing yet to show. It is still difficult to work in the studio. It's just not as big as my Studio in Seattle and if anything I have more not less stuff.

Friends

If you are a regular reader of this Blog and we have not been in touch for the last 6 months or so, please get in touch: send a comment, an EMAIL, a letter or just call. Please let me know how you are doing.

Tucson summer has arrived

2007-05-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

Summer seems to have arrived here in Tucson. It is hot. This weekend we hit 3 digits. And the neighborhood seems to emptying out. Luckily for Rich and I, the electrician just finished installing our ceiling fans in the Study, Great Room, and Master bedroom. That coupled with the fact that the builder did an excellent job insulating the house has kept us comfortable without using the air conditioning. The car, however is a different story. The garage is not insulated nor is the car. That means we get a blast of heat every time we go anywhere.

Tomorrow I have my first appointment with my new Oncologist. He came here from Seattle and was recommended to me by one of my doctors there. When I spoke to my Seattle Oncologist’s nurse about sending my records, he (the nurse) knew him (the doctor); always a comforting sign.

Today Rich and I built my fabric shelves in the studio. As soon as I get it all organized, I will take some photos. I think it is going to be awesome.