Mileage

When last I posted, I was under the influence of narcotics.  Not only did I take that awful photo of myself.....I actually posted it!!!  Yikes!  Anyway, I saw far too much of this view.  Five (long) dental visits in just over a week.  OMG  What did I do to deserve that???

On a more cheerful note, the new (again) transmission in Red seems to be working fine....for now.  On the way to one dental session I managed to get the best gas mileage I've ever had in this car.  Something must be working right.  :-)

Last week was ED and LZF's wedding anniversary so we did a bit of babysitting.  I made pasta for dinner.  What fun we had with it!

And the bath afterwards was great fun too.

In his own playroom where he can be safely let loose, he walks and walks and walks.  The Engergizer Bunny has nothing on The Viking!

I get tired just watching him put miles on those sturdy little legs!  :-)

However, after sitting on my butt for a couple of weeks nursing my tooth, I realized the weather is now too nice and there is no excuse for not getting out and doing some walking myself.  In the early mornings with a dog....

or in the afternoons and weekends with The Tramp.  Not much color in the trees yet, despite the cooler weather and passing the official first day of autumn.  The house will be emerging from the foliage soon no doubt and we'll be getting our exercise raking.

Today I was thrilled to pass 10,000 steps.  Woot!  Mileage!

The other item on the agenda for this weekend....and week....is to put some mileage on the sewing machine and finish up Lilly Pilly.  I backed the top with batting and completed the machine applique this morning.   Then spent a couple of hours playing with quilting designs on practice pieces.

And do I need practice!  I dug out my Quilting Modern book for inspiration.  This looks like fun and it's a bit like the quilting design on the pattern picture.  

And I think I can do it around the tree and birds too.  Fingers crossed!

So this evening I got it layered with the backing fabric and ready to go as soon as I finish a couple of t-shirt quilt tops.  Getting started always seems to be the hardest part for me.  Sigh.  But now I can't wait!  :-)

Chemical soup

Since last Friday it's been all about the tooth.  #5 tooth apparently.  And of course health matters always come up on Fridays when it's too late to do anything about it before the weekend.  Sigh.

Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable weekend.  The Sailor Son ran a 5K in Morrisville Saturday morning.  The Viking and his parents came to watch.  It was nice and cool!

And they're off!   That's Sailor Son in the white shirt.

We had a fun time waiting for him to come back to the finish line.  We jumped on and off the curb and played with the pine straw.  Pine straw is fascinating stuff when you're 11 months old.  

And there he comes!

Yay Uncle Sailor Man!

While I slowly faded due to the tooth, the Viking had fun at our house.

And at his own house.

In preparation for the weekend I Furminated the dogs.  Wow.  That's a whole 'nother dog!

By the time Monday came around the tooth was extremely painful.  This meant narcotics.  The narcotics make me itch.....so that meant antihistamines.  It also meant penicillin.  Which meant another round of thrush....which meant another round of clotrimazole troches.  The sinuses ached and stuffed up.  Which meant decongestant.  We won't mention the migraine, sleeping sitting up at night and only eating foods that don't require chewing.  Sigh.  I'm a walking chemical reaction.

In between naps I did do a bit of Santa stitching.  I'm on number 10 of 12!  :-)

And finished up this colorful t-shirt top.

This morning was root canal time.  Never fun.  The Tramp and I upgraded our iPhones with IOS 7 last night.  After the procedure and when the narcotics kicked in, and the resulting long nap sitting up in my chair, I sat quietly in the dim afternoon light exploring the new IOS features, including the camera upgrades.

Don't ask me why that included taking some selfies!  Must have been the drugs.  I sure look like I'm on drugs!  Goodness gracious.  What a train wreck.

I'm pleased to report the drugs have mostly worn off and I actually do feel better.  I may even be able to sleep laying down in my own bed tonight.  Yay!!

Changes

Life waits for no one.  I suppose it's a function of growing older, but I have many people to pray for these days, both happy and worrisome.  

However difficult some issues are, there are also some pleasing things that never change.  Animals/pets are wonderfully comforting, they are so predictable.  Did you know dogs like parrot food?  More than you can imagine!  In this photo Charlie is enjoying a Nutri-Berries treat and Maisy is standing absolutely still staring at the floor in hopes of falling bits.   Funny dog.  The only surprise is Ivy isn't there with her.  :-)

The Sailor Son has passed his test and purchased a motorcycle.  Hmmmmm.   Not a change I have to like.

Is is nice he's been getting involved in 5K runs.  Clearly he had some fun at this Neon Vibe run!

They let him in a store like that!  lol

This handsome t-shirt quilt went out the door recently.

Then I was able to get ready for my rail trip to New Jersey on Amtrak.  Business class is very comfortable, which is good as it's a ten hour ride.  I had a pleasantly chatty seat-mate for half the trip then I had the two seats to myself.

In New Jersey I was treated to lunch with old friends.  What fun to catch up on all their changes!

I stayed at Stardust's house.  She is two going on twenty.  Such a busy little girl.  :-)  We had lots of fun playing, dancing, drawing, showing me her iPod games....

and snuggling before bed.  My talented SIL recently illustrated a new children's book about a character called NiNi, so my grandmotherly name has morphed from Mimi to Nini.  It's fun when the children sort out the name thing for you.  :-)

The trip to New Jersey was to help out ED and LZF with their move to North Carolina.  Talk about a change!  Lots of very hard work, but the truck finally got filled to the rafters.  When all was said and done they were lucky to get the door closed!  

I rode back to NC with ED, The Viking and the dogs.  Patrick is not a happy traveler so he spent the whole long ride drooling between the seats onto my knees.  At the first rest stop we stopped and dug out a towel to protect my jeans from getting soaked!  (yes, he's wearing a doggy seatbelt)

The Viking was a good traveler.  He slept, ate, we played and he suffered only one meltdown.  Not bad on a twelve hour trip!

We are so lucky to have fabulous friends in West Virginia who opened up their house to us on the strength of a last minute phone call.  We had a wonderful break while the baby crawled around, the dogs made friends, and ED and I were fed.  Such good friends should be visited more often, don't you think?

Once the cars, trailer and truck had arrived, and been unloaded the next day, Mom and Dad treated us all to a dinner at Golden Corral.  It was life saving!  :-)

The Other House is happy to have new occupants....despite the fact we've had the HVAC people out three times and the plumber once already (that never changes....sigh).  My former sewing room turns out to be a perfect baby playroom.  Even the outlets are up out of his reach at that end of the room.  

As we all get better acquainted, we now know The Viking loves the wind in his hair.  :-)

I guessed that ED would enjoy Zentagling so right away I dragged her off to Cary Quilting Co. for a class.  I think she's hooked!

These huge caterpillars have taken up residence in our neglected vegetable garden and have decimated the parsley and such.  I'm hoping they get the opportunity to change into something beautiful.

I've been "assigned" my grandmother equipment, a car seat and stroller.  I tested the stroller out on Saturday with a walk to the park, a change from walking the dog.

We followed the Yellow Brick Road.

And apparently it was so exciting it zonked us out.  :-)

I've also been promoted to nap mat.

And witnessed lots of happy activity.

And he WALKS!  Much like a drunken sailor still, but it's walking.  I didn't catch a pic of him coming towards me.  lol

Family dinners are becoming the norm.  A nice change.  Isn't it fun to be fed by a great-grandmother!  Mom started taking care of babies in the wartime nurseries in London when she was 14 years old, and came to this country as a nanny.   Our very own Mary Poppins!   She does have a lot to share.

Change is non-stop with wee folk.  Every day is an adventure.  Apparently yesterday was the first bubble bath.  What will it be today??

The Evil Step-daughter and her family also moved house over last weekend.  I'm hoping their internet connection will be up soon so we can see how they are enjoying their changes.

One more memory quilt top done and delivered yesterday.  Almost all the memory and t-shirt quilts signify a significant change for an individual or family.  Some happy and some sad.  It's an interesting business to be in.

Both of my bees met this week which reminded me how much of my own sewing is waiting to be done.  Hmmmmm.   Vacuuming first, then I think I can easily find a project to stitch on.  :-)