Dinner with The Spawn

Alex and Samantha joined me for dinner on Mothers' Day at my invitation. Sam came over early as she did not have supplies for making a card for me and hoped to make use of my craft stash. I had hoped to get a nice picture of Sam & Alex together while they were here, but as you can see, cooperation was in rather short supply.

An Old Sew and Sew

Aunt Rita's birthday made me actually break out the sewing machine. She's recently started using a walker. It's made her more confident in her balance and speeded her up amazingly. She'd been getting slower and slower walking anywhere; with the walker she's back to her usual energizer-bunny speed. Of course this means she does not have a free hand to carry her things around. This is an important issue because she's settling in at the nursing home and we've been encouraging her to get out of her room to meet people and get outside when the weather is fine. Like everyone else she feels better with a little exercise. Obviously she needed a tote bag for her walker. I looked around online to get an idea of how they were made, and set out to make one for her that would suit her taste and give her something original.

With some upholstery fabric I already had in my stash and a few fat quarters from the quilt shop around the corner I was ready to go. It took me most of the afternoon, but I ended up with a bag I think she'll love and that will hold the things she wants to take along with her. I double stitched the seams and generally made it as tough as I could because Rita has an amazing capacity to tear things up. The bag is lines with two different prints, with two smaller interior pockets. The exterior pockets are embellished with borders cut from the interior fabrics, embroidery with gold thread and beads. For some reason this detail is not showing up in the pictures. The rosettes on the front are made with both fabrics from the exterior pockets and centered with a knot from one of the interior fabrics. The straps are lined with the fabrics from the exterior pockets. Lots of detail, and it really came out the way I had hoped. The best thing about sewing projects is the instant gratification I get. Four hours of knitting would not have resulted in a finished item.

I learned a couple of things from this project. For one, I now understand why quilters have such big fabric stashes. The Savage Quilter just around the corner from me has so many beautiful fabrics that if I had not gone in with a pretty specific idea of what kind of additional colors and prints I wanted I would never have been able to decide. The ladies in the shop were so friendly and helpful that I will surely be dropping in again. The other revelation was that The Mighty Rowenta I pressured Shana into buying for me when our last cheapie iron gave out was worth every penny. The giant bursts of steam it gives out make the pressing involved in any sewing project so much more effective.

And even better - Shana is slipping over to the crafty side! She created a heat transfer on the computer to make Aunt Rita a T shirt for her birthday gift. I can hardly wait to see what her next project turns out to be.

This weekend we had Vivian staying over Saturday night, and Aunt Rita came today to spend the afternoon on Sunday. I had hoped for some cycling time, but every moment when it was not actually raining it was cold and miserable. No bikes for us, so it was a good weekend for visiting.

Vivian came over after supper Saturday, and I made a tactical error settling her down for the night. I'd been putting her down in my crafts room because usually when she's here I have other overnight guests. She's settled down comfortably down on a pallet on the floor with a minimum of crying. I did not anticipate a problem settling her down in my bedroom - why would that not be even better? It's quieter and there are many fewer distractions around. Well, of course it's a room she has never seen much of, so she was not happy at all. I lay down next to her for a bit, and when she stayed a little restless I thought I'd bring my book in with my book light (it never bothers Shana). Turns out that is enough light to stimulate a little person. Vivian ran around the bed for a while, tugging at my book light cord and hair alternately. After a while I gave up and turned the light off, after ascertaining that "Let go" was a sentence she knew well!

We had a fun time, including "Be Nice To The Dog" lessons, a shower followed by running through the house naked while is chased her, and intransigent demands for more and yet more bananas. She's becoming a little person with ideas of her own, and is experiencing some of the frustration of the fabled "terrible twos". Vivian has a lot to say and it's not always possible for me to understand her. Jumping up and down and screaming next to the bananas was pretty easy to figure out, though.

With only two weeks to go until vacation it's all Grand Canyon all the time around here. Now in addition to the basic list of equipment and a rough schedule of activities we've got the grocery list ready to be filled.

Rocky Mountain Sighs

This year I visited Colorado in April. Some may say it was an effort to drag my birthday celebration over as many miles and days as possible, but I say I was just trying to bring some moisture to the Mile High City. And incidentally get more cake. The rain started halfway across Kansas and continued for the first two days of my visit. A lot of Colorado got huge amounts of wet, heavy snow, but Brighton only saw a few inches of the white stuff.



By the time I left temperatures were in the eighties - whatever I pack for Denver in the spring I always wish I had brought more of something else. You could get a good idea of my priorities these days by checking our what I put into the car for a week's visit. My clothes took up one carry on bag. The dog's luggage took up about the same space. Then there was the "stuff". Huge quantities of stuff. Three knitting projects, two cameras (I forgot the memory card for my big camera - that's another issue altogether, but as it happened I did not take many pictures) Two books - and my mother always has masses of books around. Chargers for everything, of course. Two books on CD, freshly reloaded IPod, music CD's. Car snacks, Starbucks' cup. Apparently I though I was headed off into The Wild for a month.



I had my usual good visit. Richard and I went to the movies, to Starbucks, Target, and to his PT. It's easy to see why he's enjoying his therapy. In addition the good results he's getting, the clinic is staffed with some very cute young therapists. Very motivating indeed!

Mom and I went to Target, Starbucks, and the local yarn store. Mom's plan was to get in some walking to kick off her spring walking program, so one day we walked downtown to check our Deer Pants, a recently opened fiber arts store in downtown Brighton. We met the owner and she was good enough to show us around and demonstrate the wonders of a knitting machine. She's so personable, knowledgeable and friendly. I'll definitely add her store to my yearly plans. The store is really attractive, with exposed brick walls and a loft.

Since we had already had our yarn crawl in Brighton, Mom and I drove up to Golden for a visit to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum . Golden was socked in with snow on Saturday, but by Tuesday there was not a speck to be seen. The quilt museum is rather small, just two galleries. As it turned out, it was just the right size for us. The quilts were so beautiful and so detailed that had there been more of them we'd have worn out our brains examining them. With a small number to see we could really appreciate the beauty and detail of each one. I had been hoping they would have some modern quilts on display. The ones they were showing the week we stopped in were very traditional, but I still enjoyed them very much. There was a little museum store just crammed with yummy things for us to resist. And resist we did. I had never been to Golden other than to tour the Coors Beer plant, so I was happy to visit downtown Golden. Mom and I enjoyed strolling around eating ice cream and window shopping.

Still Going Like Sixty

For the closing event of the Big Birthday Week Shana and I hosted a Birthday Brunch with the WAACOs plus Shelley. Shana made a beautiful ham and an egg casserole; friends brought fruit salad and sweet potato biscuits. We drank mimosas and sat down to our feast at a table decorated with colorful party ware (Hobby Lobby has everything!). Shana ordered a cake from Sweet Memories just around the corner from us with a picture of me taken from a snapshot after a cycling event and it was SOOO cute! The bike was absolutely identical in color to Big Blue. And to make it even better it was coconut. There were cards and lovely presents and funny stories and it was wonderful to get together with my friends. We've made plans to get out for some rides this week and get our training off the ground, providing the weather cooperates. Forecasts are not completely encouraging. We discussed swine flu and TV shows and what everyone is up to and generally had a good time reconnecting.

Saturday Alex and Vivian joined Shana and I for breakfast at Beverly's. Vivian is growing up amazingly. While she's still not much of a talker, her potty training proceeds apace and she's mastering the use of a fork very well. As usual, Alex successfully resisted all my efforts to get an image of his face. Digital photography, with its rather slow shutter speed, is not my best ally in this effort.

Going Like Sixty

The Evil Day came and I am now 60 years old. On the good side, I will surely qualify for some senior discounts. On the bad side - well, I guess that's whatever you make of it. I started the celebrations in Denver where I was visiting last week. I'll post details of the visit in a later post. I had cake and cards with Mom, Allie and Richard. We forgot to get ice cream, but that's a bit of absent-mindedness that was probably all to the good, since I seem to be unable to stop eating lately.

On the actual day I had cake and cards at the office, and later went downtown for my choice of birthday dinners. Shana treated me to fancy cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at Nonna's in Bricktown. I'd link to them, but it's a madly annoying flash site. Google if you want to see it anyway - it's a beautiful restaurant and their Purple Bar has the prettiest lighting around. It was lovely and low key. The weather was perfect so we sat on the balcony and watched the activity in the street while we enjoyed our treats. Today I'll have breakfast with Shana, Alex, and Vivian. Sunday I'll have a delicious and festive Birthday Brunch at home with friends - way to drag out a birthday!

A Week in Ordinary Time

I've had a pretty quiet week. It's a good thing for life, not so great for blogging, as I feel like I should be supplying some worthy entertainment with every post. Some bloggers find that the discipline of daily posting gets you over that hump, because there will not always be news, but there is always something to write about if you set the bar low enough. I agree; I love to read about their daily doings and I for myself I enjoy having a quiet life where I can have the pleasure of the little details of life without the exhaustion of great drama or excitement. One day's adventure was getting out of the car to get a closer look and some pictures of a beautiful display of orange and yellow pansies and tulips. I'd been feasting on the sight of them every time I passed, and finally decided to get a closer look before the exuberant Oklahoma Wind blew the tulips to bits.



I also had the great pleasure of getting back in contact with a dear friend from high school. I had not spoken to Emma for about 40 years, but had often thought of her and wondered where life had led her. Now I know a little bit, and will know more as we fill in some of the blanks. It's made me think a lot about friendship and time, and about my own somewhat reclusive personality. I feel like I've played a lot of parts in my life and when I was done with the various phases I just stepped away, closed the door, and never looked back. Getting in touch with Emma has made me look at what parts of my experience I want to reclaim, and what I want for myself in the future.

Maybe it's no coincidence that I'm giving this a lot of thought this month because I am turning 60 in just a few days. I feel good - still healthy and strong, but it's one of those big birthdays that makes you take stock. Some of the things I thought I would like to accomplish are now forever beyond my reach. If I thought I'd like to replicate the voyage of the Kon Tiki I've surely waited too long. Some things I can still do, but given time and strength I will probably end up scaling back a bit. I may hike and backpack on the Appalachian Trail, but I will not be likely to do the whole thing at one go.

And a few completely unrelated bits of information: Because it's spring and there are cute animal babies about I have been looking at quite a few animal cams where you can watch the activity in real time. This one, from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, features an eagles' nest including a chick. One thing that stands out for me after watching quite a lot of them, is how little animals do from one minute to the next. All of those Disney Wildlife films I grew up on led me to believe there was a lot going on all the time. Knowing a little more now, and thinking about it a bit, I imagine that if wild animals led as active a life as tight editing had led me to believe, they'd have to eat a whole lot more food!

I've cast on the for the Float Stole from Interweave Knits. I'm hoping that because the stole is worked lengthwise I will have the benefit of the beautiful hand dyed yarn without disastrous pooling or flashing. I'll be bringing it, Mr. Foster, and at least one sock in progress to Denver with me this week for my annual visit. I probably won't do much on any of them, but I hate to arrive anywhere without a project, and one to work on if I don't feel like working on the original. Lord knows yarn is not sold in Denver!

If you are in the habit of picking up the occasion bunch of flowers for your table or for special occasions you could do a lot worse than check out the local Asian market. I was feeling rather blue yesterday, and on her way home Shana picked up some flowers for me at Super Cao Nguyen to cheer me up. For about the same price a the large mixed bunch of flowers at the local American grocery, she got about eight fresh beautiful sprays of orchids. The moral of this story? Don't shun your local ethnic markets. I love to visit them, and prices are generally excellent.