It's over!

For us anyway.  Hurricane Irene has gone north.  The Sailor Son is still out to sea as far as I know.  In New Jersey, one daughter is trapped at home as the river is in the road,

and the other one has downed power lines blocking her street.

My brother (at the Jersey Shore) reports that his yard is a mess and they lost several trees.  Here in central North Carolina we were just west of most of the action.  It's been really bad for some folks though.  :-(

So what do you do on an unusually stormy day?  You (hopefully) feel secure in your preparations.  We went out at the last minute and bought two of these 5 gal Coleman water containers.  Very cool.  When it was clear the storm had passed I asked The Tramp to get them out of my kitchen sink so I could make dinner.  He put them on the kitchen table for me and we figured we'd use the water over the next few days.  But what did I find this morning?  They leak!  Water all over the table, soaked into a chair cushion and spreading on the floor.  Sigh.  Some security.

What else do you do on this stormy day?  You keep checking out the windows to see what the weather is doing.  The birds were bereft.  Where in the world had the bird feeders disappeared to?  :-)

You watch and wonder if there will be enough rain to overflow the pond. (Nope)

Then, while you wait for the kitchen timer to say the eggs are ready,

 you amuse yourself teasing your parrot with the camera.

But he doesn't mind.....because he always gets goodies when you're cooking.

And the dark day becomes a bit cheerier with warm egg salad for lunch.

And finally, you sit down for an afternoon of sewing with the cool fresh air blowing in.  But you have to anchor your fabric pieces down or they keep blowing on the floor!

And you finish one churn dash memory quilt top.  (Phew!) (borders not chosen yet)

And finally, you go out one more time for a look at the stormy sky reflected in the pond.

Goodnight Irene.