June23, 2009

Here I Go Again!

You would think after nearly 20 years in the business, I would be smart enough to either get out or get used to it instead of looking forward to "It".  That It?  The end-of-quarter/month/fiscal year rush!!  I still enjoy it-- trying to get every last deal done!!  At least my cold has subsided so that I can enjoy it properly this time!

After work, I cycled-- yes, I can breathe well enough to cycle again!!  Instead of cooling off downstairs watching television, I hied into my sewing room to continue running out some designs.  One of the big problems I've got is that one of my embroidery hoops has a broken screw-- last night, it popped out at a most unfortunate time so, I'm going to try to re-hoop it tonight and continue.  That rarely works but, here's hoping!


June 22, 2009

Feeling MUCH Better!!

WOW-- I'm just about through this cold I think.  I woke up this morning actually FEELING better-- it's been awhile since I felt that way! 

On Saturday and Sunday, I ran out about 7 of the 9 designs I need for my quilt for the baby's nursery.  Only 2 to go!  It was only while I was sitting there, working one of 45 color changes, that I decided what and how I was going to make the baby's quilt-- I haven't got a clue if it'll work or not.  Just gonna hope for the best! 

Gotta get to work!!



June 20, 2009

Still "Cold" Here!!

And yes, I'm talking about our weather and my health!  I was teasing my brother-in-law as they left last week, thanking him for the cold he brought Brian and me but I think that this is a variation cuz it sure seems rougher than his or Brian's was!!  I sorta-kinda took a sick day on Thursday-- as much as you can at a quarter/fiscal/month-end time.  I checked email, laid down, checked email, laid down, checked email, created a PO and laid down again in about two hour intervals all day.  I was still beat on Friday but there was work to be done and that comes first-- got bills to pay and mortgages to keep . . . no, that's not how that goes but it's how it seems to go for me!

Anyway, today I'm on a sinus decongestant to hold down the "not being able to breathe" thing and hopefully dry out my sinuses-- HOPEFULLY, that'll work!!  In between blowing my nose, I'm running MORE designs for my niece's nursery.  Now I've realized that there's only six weeks to the shower and I've _*GOT*_ to get the quilt done by then (the bumper-pads, too)!!  I don't care about the dust ruffle or the tote bags but I've gotta get the other two things done so I'm running designs, as I type, and will hopefully be closer to getting all of that finished SOON!! 

I still can't tell you how I'm going to do the quilt because what I'm doing is, once again, very unique cuz it's coming out of my brain-- don't know if it's gonna work til I get it done, either!  It'll be interesting when it is finished!!

Still running laundry-- I think I'm up to an even dozen loads for the week.  Next week will be more normal.  The leftovers are also finally gone-- what hasn't been eaten, is too old to be eaten and is gone anyway.  It sure is quiet around here!!  I miss the kids and Barb & Mike!!  It was fun having things to do with them on the weekends!!



June 17, 2009

Wow-- Two Days in a Row!!

You'd think this was getting to be a habit or something!  I just came over to update you on my cold-- yesterday I had an incredibly sore throat!  I thought it might even be tonsilitis or something but no, it's just the cold getting worse.  Thank you very much-- I've sneezed more today and my nose has taken off in a direction that I don't want to know about (running I mean).  Anyway, I'm not pleased.



June, 2009

Gone but never forgotten . . .

Alas, my in-laws have left <sigh> to continue the kids' summer off at their own home.  Bummer for us!  I really love my in-laws-- all branches of them are wonderful.  Rob (my 9 year old nephew) came back for a second hug good-bye so what's not to love there, eh?  The house is so empty without them!  Molly is truly hang-dog-- she loved having the Boy Child pay attention to her!

Although I could only go with them vicariously, listening to their tales in the evenings around the dinner table of what transpired during the day, it was fun to hear the kids' interpretations of the days events.  Weekends were spent with them in-depth.  We went to Mount Vernon on Sunday-- we'd never been there and it's less than an hour from us!!  It was a gorgeous day for it with lots of sun, lush green lawns and trees and almost tropical breezes to enjoy.

Mike, Barbara, Alex, and Rob are sorely missed already-- give yourselves a hug from me when you read this!  Miss YOU all!!!

Clapton

Wow!!  That about covers it, okay?  Fabulous concert!!

Cold-Sharing

My turn and my symptoms are not milder than Brian's, just different.  While he sneezed about a hundred times while he was home from work last week, I sneezed once but I've got a really sore throat-- not fun!!  It is also taking me a long time to wake up in the mornings-- Yesterday, I was ready to go back to bed up until about 9:30 or so and then my energy woke up and I was fine for the rest of the day.

The good news is that I work from home all the time and the dogs don't catch or spread colds so I won't have to worry about giving it to them and passing it around all summer.



May 27, 2009

Whoops!

Forgot to let you know the results of the MRI-- I do have a torn meniscus but it is in the same spot as the worst of my arthritis.  Having a surgery to trim the meniscus won't do any good-- I'll still have pain because of the arthritis.  Thanks to my sister the Nurse (in Maine) I know about a medication called "Mobic" which, given at 15 mgs, is FABULOUS for averting the pain of arthritis.  My knees feel wonderful all the time-- they don't hurt after being strained or walked on for hours!!  That's a relief!!

We had a fabulous time at Carmel Cove Inn in Deep Creek Lake-- caught fish but we threw them back in to get bigger for the next time.


May 19, 2009

New Things!!

We went to a new-to-us used bookstore in the area tonight-- LOTS of books for a really good price!  $2 for mass market paperbacks in both of main genres-- GOOD STUFF!!

Other than that, new things are developing at the sewing machine, i.e., embroidery designs are being run out for the bumper pads for the crib.  I'll need 24 in order to make 12 bumper pads with the "2" and the kind of animal on it, like "2 Monkeys", "2 Armadillos", etc.  Really cute stuff but very intricate in some of the designs!!  It'll make for a nice bumper padding though so that's worth the time it takes to run the designs out.  I've got a little over half finished.

Then there are the designs that are needed for the quilt I'm making the baby and the designs to go on the sheers for the windows.  Then there are a couple of tote bags and burp pads and I'm sure I'll find other things to make just for good measure.  Can't have the baby wanting for anything!


May 11, 2009

Good News-- No Replacement Surgery!!

Bad News-- Why am I in SOOOO MUCH Pain!!

News later today after the MRI gives results, I guess.  My arthritis isn't bad enough for surgery so we're going to do a MRI (today) to find out why I hurt, specifically in my left knee.  That hasn't felt good since last year's surgery; the therapist probably screwed something up! Anyway, more news later . . .



May 6, 2009

New Discoveries

The other night Brian and I took Linda Rose out for dinner to "pay" her for watching our babies while we were in California.  I ordered stuffed flounder and shrimp al fredo and pasta.  I just realized that I ate very little of the pasta-- there was probably half of it left.  I made sure that I removed all of the shrimp but didn't really enjoy the pasta the way that I used to enjoy it.  Hmm . . . taste buds are a-changin'!

I went to the orthopedic doctor today-- great guy, of course.  He liked my theme: "If its spring time, it must be knee surgery time!"  What can I say-- old habits repeat with me.  Anyway, he was able to shift my right patella with pain to me so that told him that the problem with my right knee is the patella, not the meniscus.  Whew!  One down and one to go!  My left knee has arthritis bad and locking and a whole lot of other things that make it generally unpleasant to deal with on a daily basis.  We talked about knee replacement surgery.  We decided that it is a strong possibility that I'll be getting a knee replacement surgery in the fall-- probably October.  I shouldn't need to be off work for 6 weeks because I work from home-- yet another advantage to working from home.

My sister, Karen, had her first knee replacement when she was two years younger than I am now and is still going strong on it fifteen years later-- good enough for me! 

The doc ordered some x-rays.  I'm still waiting to hear from him but he generally agreed that knee replacement was certainly something that will be happening in my very near future.  Oh, well-- I'd rather get it taken care of now while I'm young rather than waiting another ten or fifteen years when I'm older and more prone to problems post-surgery.

That's about it from here . . .


May3, 2009

It's a Good Thing I Can Sew!!

Cuz I take lousy pictures!  Unfortunately, everything's already packed up and ready for shipment so I can't get it back out of the box to take more pictures.  Hopefully she'll do a better job of picture-taking!



May 2, 2009

Been A While . . .

Hiya!  I've been busy-- no rest for the weary over here!!  Planning a baby shower, sewing for the nursery, flying to California (and boy are my arms killing me, even if I haven't lost any weight or built muscle there!), worked, worked out, doctors and a little bit of sleep in there, too.

I'm going to be getting a box out to the parents-to-be via Faye's mother-- her father's home during the day most days to get the UPS/Postal package so it makes sense.  I'm also going to be getting a package to my sister Sue in Brasil-- pudding and books along with a CD with the wedding pictures and a Selah CD that I bought but turned out to be a duplicate.

I've got some designs to run on t-shirts that someone is paying me for so I'll probably finish them in the next week-- there's about a dozen or so t-shirts.  I'd just rather get them out of the way before I finish up the baby stuff.  I'm hoping to have everything except the quilt, which is my gift to the baby, finished by the end of June-- I hope!

I took pictures of the things that were finished up to the Diaper Stacker-- just finished that at 5PM and was too tired to figure out how to "display" it.  The other things (Valance and Pillow/Pillowcase) were taken against my display velvet (velvet used for displaying finished sewn items) and I'll put them up tomorrow or so-- sometime sooner, rather than later, okay?  This stuff is turning out really cute!  I'm really pleased and I'm sure the new parents will be, too.

More another time-- who knows?  It could happen!!



April 16, 2009

Well, DUH!!

I'm not posting much here but I am doing little tidbits on Twitter-- yes, I've joined the Twitter-generation!  I've got to take pictures of the valances that I've finished and the pillow-case-- no way to take a picture of the crib sheet.  All three of my machines have been out for annual servicing these past couple of weeks.  I'm a bit behind on that because of my brother's vests but at least I've got it done now.

Other than that, nothing else is new . . . much!

March 29, 2009

Not to brag . . .

Much!!

My brother in his new Peacefield Farm vest!


Rich and Lorrie showing off the logo on the back!


Rich and Lorrie showing off the front of their vests . . .

Yes, they obviously fit and they love them, needless to say!!



March 23, 2009

Poor Brian!!

My mom had two siblings (total of 3 kids in the family) and I think my father had 7 siblings (for a total of 8 kids in his family).  Then my parents had five kids and, by the time you get done, I have a bigggggg family!  He does very well with faces and names-- which is amazing-- but then he'll end up meeting a new cousin or two at each of the weddings.  As it turns out, there were about 4 cousins and their spouses that he met at the wedding reception on Saturday night.  I met a few spouses that I hadn't met before, too-- one cousin I hadn't seen for at least thirty years!!  There's only one brother of my father that's living now and since I used to hang out with one of his kids when I was much younger, and she didn't get to the wedding, we met them for breakfast on Sunday so there's another new face and name for Brian. 

My sister Susan in Brasil didn't get to come to the wedding.  The poor economy here is affecting their donors-- some of whom have had to stop donations-- so they couldn't afford to come up for the wedding.  My sister from Maine did come in for it though-- it was good to see her and meet her new friend.  My brother and his wife received their vests earlier in the day as they pulled into the church entrance at about the same time that we did-- they loved the vests but I haven't heard from them since-- I hope they fit!!

Gotta get the pictures from the wedding off to my sister later this week, too!



March 13, 2009

Whew!!

I'm finished with making the vests for my brother's business!!  YAYYYY!!!  I'm going to ship them to my sister in Michigan along with a gift for my great nephew and then I'll start work on a couple of tops for myself for spring and a set or two of pajamas-- they're so easy to sew up with my serger, there's no point in buying them!

Anyway, I'm beat but I thought you'd like to have an update on my sewing-- yes, after the "couple of tops" and jammies, I'm going to start work on the nursery for my niece's baby.  That's going to be fun!!


March 3, 2009

Mass Production!!

I have all four of the designs run on the backs of the vests I'm making for my brother and his wife.  This design is about 11 inches across, in an oval shape; it takes two hours to run JUST the background on the oval!  I ran all four of them on Saturday and Sunday and began running the left front of each vest's design-- a smaller version of the oval.  Unfortunately, I only got one done but, tonight I'm running BOTH of my Designer 1's in embroidery mode-- I did this on the weekend, too.  It makes it kinda tough to sew-- because I can't-- but without it, I'd be running the designs out until the end of March.  This way, I can get all 8 of the major designs run out in less than a week-- much better!  If I get everything run out before Saturday, I can actually start putting the vests together on Saturday!!  Yes, a picture will be forth-coming-- I'm going to make them model the finished vests for me!!

Other than that and work, nothing major has been happening around.  That's a good thing sometimes!  There was about 10 inches of snow on Monday-- reached the bottom of Molly's belly!!  Lucy loves to dig her face into the snow to look for the grass-- or at least, that's what I think she's doing.  It's cute cuz she just loves to get her face all snowy!!

I'm gonna go read some magazines as I run out these designs-- it shouldn't be long now!!




February 21, 2009

Comes and Goes!!

So much happening in (what seems like) such a small space of time!  My birthday-- really cool weekend!!  I took Friday and Monday (no, I only get like 6 paid holidays!!) off and sewed a gift (a Christmas tablerunner) for my cousin's daughter's wedding.  I know-- I've got the first year after they marry to give them their gift and I'm cutting it far closer than I would've liked!!  I worked on that most of the weekend but I also cut out the vests that I'm making for my brother's business.  Over the course of the past month or so, I've been working on the logo design (with the help of my wonderful hubby!!) and it's just about finished.  Actually, the design that's going on the back of the vests is finished but the one on the front left side of the vest is giving me grief.  I'm working on cleaning up that design because it'll be easier to work with if it is cleaner. 

Today, I finished the table runner which will probably take me three more weeks to wrap and I worked on the pen pocket and cash pocket on the lining fabric of the vests.  I've also started the front pockets for the vests; the vests are made of denim so I'm going to use some of the orange top stitching thread you see on jeans for the pockets.

Of course there's work which has been sorta-kinda busy but in the off times, I'm reading my Psychology book which is less than thrilling but needs to be done.  The dogs keep me laughing during the day, too-- their faces are becoming more expressive as they age. 

I haven't started work on the nursery stuff for my niece yet but I do have all of the fabric; all of the fabric is washed and ready to work but, the vests need to be finished first.  Not a problem-- I should have them done by the end of March with still five months to work on the nursery stuff!  Plenty of time!!

Yesterday, as I was coming up the stairs, I tripped by stubbing my big toe on my right foot and my water glass and ramiken of almonds went flying!  I drenched the floor at the top of the stairs really good and then, had to mop it all up and pick up the almonds before either dog got to the nuts.  I think they were both too surprised that I fell to figure out that they were supposed to go for the nuts!

Anyway, yesterday and today my big toe is killing me-- I doubt it's broken but it is certainly jammed up into my foot!!  Hurts like crazy!!

Tomorrow is grocery and laundry day-- I was going to move laundry to Monday but I keep forgetting and doing it on Sunday instead.  I've got Burn Notice to watch and tomorrow night, a date with Brian to watch Hellboy II.  Linda Rose is sick with a chest cold so we won't be seeing her this weekend-- we'll miss her but will catch up with her soon.

That's all for now-- hadn't been here for awhile so I thought I'd drop by!!

February 10, 2009

Yes, I was Taking a Legal Studies Course . . .

And then we found out that I could teach the course!  It appears that in the State of Maryland you can be qualified to teach a class if you've been doing whatever the main course agenda is for nearly twenty years.  Since I've been doing contract negotiations for nigh onto 20 years, UMUC and I agreed that it was a waste of my money and time to stay in Legal Studies. 

I was actually disappointed since I really wanted to STUDY the law.  I like the law-- I find it interesting but I don't find it interesting when my student peers can't spell "law" without errors.  The class wasn't a good fit and someday, if I truly want to become a lawyer (NOT!), I'll study law.  In the meantime, I'll go for my English degree, I guess.  Should be interesting, anyway.

Finally Catching It

While I was in Dallas, Brian caught a head cold from someplace.  I've been trying to catch it ever since I got home.  Today I've had a fever on and off so I think I'm finally catching it-- lucky me!!  Just in time for a 4-day weekend for me!!  Lovely!


January 29, 2009

Come Fly With Me!!

All of my bad airplane juju is used up for the year so now is the time to fly with me!!  Talk about a problematic trip!!  Okay so Monday's flight took off okay and I was enjoying being crammed with other passengers on a very full flight to Dallas until . . .

The pilot announces that we're going in for a landing.  I hear the gear go down and then, nothing . . . uh, did he start the landing in Texarkana?  Shouldn't we be on the ground?  Oh, yeah, here's a really bad sign: Flight Attendants flocking to the Exit Row seats and talking to the passengers sitting there.  Nope, not a good feeling at all.

The pilot comes back on the communications system and says "Well, that didn't work!" or words to that effect.  It seems that the light that indicates that the nose gear is down wouldn't come on so, they made the pass to land but then had to circle around again.  Went through the book of instructions (why they don't KNOW this stuff by now is beyond me!) and were going to make another attempt to land and, oh, by the way, don't get nervous 'cuz you see all of that emergency equipment waiting for us on the ground.  YEAH, RIGHT!!

My heart started beating, I said a few prayers and . . . we were down on the ground.  The nose gear held and applause went up from the cattle-car!!  Whew!!  Of course, it was another hour and a half before I was able to meet my manager at the car rental cuz the plane had to be inspected to ensure that the nose gear would hold during taxi-ing to the jetway.  Once that was secure, I had to wait on my luggage and then, the bus to go to the rental car facility. 

Tons-o-Fun to be had by all!! 

Interestingly, I received an email of apology from American Airlines today.  They understood that it was a stressful situation but they hoped I would fly with them again.  Did I have a choice--my ticket being already bought??  I could only hope!!

On my return flight, the airport started out backed-up because of the freezing rain that went through the Dallas area (and most of the rest of the country to the east) on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.  My flight was rescheduled from 8:20 to 9:10.  No big deal-- I could deal with that.  Okay, the gate was changed from what it said online but I could deal with that, too.

The plane came in, got cleaned, we got loaded with passengers and baggage, moved away from the gate, and . . . then we had problems with the right engine.  Moved back to the gate, deplaned, sat for an hour, got moved to another gate, sat for a half hour, got the plane loaded with luggage and people in our respective locations and, the co-pilot had run out of time to be able to fly.  Oh, joy.  We had to wait for another co-pilot to come in on his flight from wherever he was and then over to our gate and then . . . we had to be de-iced. 

YEESH!!!  We finally got off the ground and I don't care what time we took off-- I just want to get home!   When we finally landed, I called Brian, waking him out of a good sleep so he could come get me.  I should've just taken a taxi but he wouldn't hear of it so he came to get me.

SOOOOO, I'm good for the year-- all flights have to go better than this set!!

I think Barbara Thompson said it best:

I don't know how your stay in Dallas was but it sounds like your trip out and 
back was exciting.

There is not enough money in the world to pay me to get on an airplane.

January 21, 2009

I can't stand it!!

Years and years ago, when I was very young, my sister had a bathrobe.  She loved that bathrobe and wore it and wore it for YEARS.  Suddenly, she stopped wearing it and I never figured out what happened to it until last night-- Michelle Obama had it and wore it for a BALL GOWN!!  Yeesh!! 

Who is her stylist?  Whoever it is, should be fired!!  What an awful dress!  I saw some of the hopefuls (including Michael Kors) who were vying for the honor of designing a dress for the new First Lady and she should've taken ANY of the other gowns over this one!! 

This dress looked like a giant chenille bedspread had been used for the fabric and there was way too much fabric!!  Full skirts with an asymetrical top is just wrong!!  Asymetrical tops belong with straight or A-line skirts-- something that balances the eye!!  This dress made her look chubby and tall at the same time but worst of all, was the "Used Tissue" look that was scattered around the dress. 

Definitely needs to get a new stylist!!  Michelle Obama is a beautiful woman with all of the presence and poise for a woman of her new office-- First Lady-- but somebody NEW needs to help her pick out FORMAL dresses!!



January 9, 2009

Why I'm Not Here