Characteristics of a Bad Blogger

1.  They go on vacation and don’t inform you.

2.  While on said vacation, they take very few pictures.

3.  Once they have returned from vacation, they don’t post the few pictures to the blog.

4.  They procrastinate about doing any blog posting because they are busy trying to catch up on work and laundry.

5.  They make a gift quilt, but they don’t post any pictures.  (A blog post about this WILL occur soon.)

6.  They are busy eating fresh fruits and veggies from the garden but they do not share pictures of these wonderful things, or the recipes that they prepared.  (SHAMEFUL!)

7.  They hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend… oh wait!  That’s a GOOD thing!

RESTAURANT DILEMMA (Changing subjects here)…

Last night while visiting with friends at a local pub I had a bad food experience.  I ordered Philly Cheese Steak sub.  When the food came it actually was chunks of beef ROAST  with no seasoning.  Needless to say I was very disappointed.  I asked them to substitute steamed veggies for the fries, and the veggies were covered in cheese.  That totally defeated my purpose of getting the veggies.  I blew a BUNCH of my Weight Watchers points for this very wrong meal.  Here is my question to you…  When you have a bad food experience in a restaurant, do you tell them, or do you not say anything when the waitress asks how the food was?

I did not say anything, but I’m thinking maybe I should have.  How can they tell you they are preparing STEAK and instead give you chunked up roast beef?  Where is the “truth in advertising” here?  And it was not a cheap sandwich… it was one of the more expensive ones on their menu.  In our group of 8 people, I think 3 or 4 were pleased with their food, and the rest of us were not.  The pub atmosphere at this spot is wonderful, but the food… not so wonderful.

Now, I am off to a very special party for a new family member.  I’ll tell you all about it in a day or 2…. with pictures… I promise!

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

KAT

Why Do We Do It?

Why do we do it?  Why do we take many hours of our very meager “spare” time to commit to making huge quilts, or knitting sock after sock, writing blog posts, or ___________ (Insert your favorite leisure time activity in there.)

My blogging friend Helen has so well answered that question in her latest blog post.  And while you are there, spend some time looking around.  She has wonderful pictures of life in Switzerland that I know you will enjoy!

Be blessed today!  I’m off to the “big city” to indulge in some much-needed shopping, food, fun, and Starbucks (Such a treat when we live with no coffee shops around!) with a friend.  Oh, and there just may be a visit to a quilt shop thrown in there (like our FIRST stop of the day!).

KAT

The Battle Rages

UGGGHHHH!  I want to be quilting, or knitting, or just about anything other than what faces me!  Can’t you tell?  Here I am sitting down in the middle of the day doing a blog post… procrastinating on returning to the battle field!  No pictures with this post… you really don’t want a visual of this.

There is a battle raging at my house.  Those pesky little 6-legged, hopping, biting things called fleas have decided to move in with us.  I knew it was coming with all the rain we have had… it produced a bumper crop of fleas outside.  It doesn’t help that PJ, our pampered pooch, freely roams from outside to the inside.  It also does not help that her favorite spot to go during warmer weather is WAAAYYYYYYY under the house where no human can reach to do anything about what critters might be residing there.

DH has closed all access points to underneath the house… PJ is not happy about that.  He has mowed and spread bug granules over the yard.  He has sprayed all porches, edges of the house, favorite sitting/lying down spots of all our critters.  Today I am vacuuming, spraying upholstery, fogging some rooms, washing all bedding, PJ covers (She loves to lie on her own special quilts and be covered by her own special covers.  Did I mention she was a pampered pooch?)

Since we don’t have carpet to deal with, hopefully this will take care of things without having to fog the entire house, but only a few days will tell us if that is so. 

UGGGHHHHH!  Did I mention I’d rather be quilting, or knitting?  This too will pass.   Sword (bug spray)? CHECK!  Shield (vacuum cleaner)? CHECK!  Cannon (fogger)? CHECK!  Looks like all weapons are gathered and I must get back to the battle… I feel like I am fighting Goliath!

Be blessed today, regardless of what battle you are fighting.  If God be for us, who can be against us?

KAT

Top 10 Reasons I Hate “Frogging”

Frogging:  reverse quilting, or ripping out the quilting you just put in (Rippit, rippit, rippit!)  because you made a big “oops”! 

I just spent 3 1/2 hours frogging on a customer quilt. That is 3.5 hours leaning over the machine while picking out stitches, because this quilt is HUGE and I don’t want to take it off to rip stitches and then try to reload it… things will never line up as they should. 

I knew what I was doing might cause problems because it has happened before.  The border on one side was very “full”, plus the seams did not line up straight down on the one side.  I proceeded to do some smoothing to the left side and some tugging to that side until I had everything lined up as it should be.  I quilted… 6 rows.

When I advanced the quilt I noticed that the rows where I had tugged to get the quilt to line up, had several tucks on the lining.  Time to “frog”.  UUGGGGHHH!  Thankfully I was able to remove about 1/4 of 4 different rows and then work the fullness in the lining over.  Next time I will use the side clamps to hold the lining taut while I am tugging and adjusting the quilt top!

TOP 10 REASON I HATE FROGGING!

10.  It makes me want to kick myself for doing something stupid, again.  I should have known better… this has happened before.

9.  I have a much better use of my time, like for instance, FINISHING the quilt on the machine rather than ripping out.

8.  Oh, my aching back!

7.  Customer quilt = being VERY careful (and therefore SLOW) with ripping.

6.  The pay per hour for frogging sucks!

5.  Now there are needle holes all in the lining fabric.  (I will sprits these with water after the quilt is finished to help the holes close up.)

4.  OH!  My aching BACK!!

3.  I had hoped to be finished with this quilt today… not going to happen.

2.  I have to exercise that “fruit of the Spirit” called PATIENCE.  NO ONE likes to practice that one!

And the #1 reason I hate frogging…   (drum roll, please!)

1.  OH, OH, OH!!! My ACHING ACHING BACK!!!

Ice packs and “Dancing With the Stars” are calling my name.  Hope your afternoon went smoother than mine!  No “sympathy” comments are necessary… but thanks for letting me whine a little.

Tomorrow I WILL finish that huge quilt, and perhaps another one as well.

BE BLESSED!

KAT

The View From Where I Sit

When we got to the lake early this morning fog was rising off the water…. BEAUTIFUL!

It disappeared quickly.

I love the spillway tower.  I have so many wonderful childhood memories of swimming, water skiing, and fishing on this lake!

 

Water lilies are not quite ready to open yet.

But they will be ready soon.

  

DH, getting in just a few more casts before we head out.

 

I caught 22, and he kept 14.  Of course, one of his was a good bit larger than anything I caught.

We fish in water shoes since we wade out into the water to get on the kayaks.  How do you like my tan?  Yes, it really is a tan and not dirt.  I think perhaps I need to find some time to sit with my feet in the sun without shoes to try and even things out.

The weather was absolutely awesome, with a little bit of wind.  A wonderful day on the water!  And I caught the most!  :)  That always makes for a good day.

KAT

Good News / Bad News

I love to carry my sock knitting in this little bag (made by my niece).  It has a long strap and I can just sling it over my shoulder… very handy!  Today I was heading for an appointment (and running late, of course) so I grabbed my purse and knitting bag, slung them over my shoulder and dashed out the door. 

Being distracted at my age can cause all kinds of things to happen!  I noticed that my cell phone was completely dead, so I hopped in the car, closed the door, and plugged my cell phone into the charger.  Then I happened to think, “Where is my knitting bag?”  I thought perhaps I had left it in the house because it was not on the car seat with my purse.  Can you tell I do things on “auto-pilot” sometimes and they don’t even make a mental impression?  I opened the door to go get it and discovered I had the bag on the other shoulder, and because it hangs down so far, I had closed the car door on my bag.

   

Yes, we have a casualty.  Knitting needles can not win the battle against a car door.  This is not the first time I have done this, and it is a most disturbing (and expensive) mistake.  Thankfully I have an extra set of needles this size.

The good news… I am almost done with sock pair #4  for this year.  Just a little TV time tonight (Hello, Dancing With the Stars) and I will have these finished.

And the pair for next month…. already cast on.  I am going to once again try the 2-socks-at-a-time method and see if I have better luck now that I am more proficient at sock knitting… we shall see.

Perhaps I need to tie a knot in the strap of my bag to shorten it a little?  Maybe that will keep it from doing battle with the car door, again.

KAT

Organization Tips – Part 4

Oh boy, do I need THIS lesson!  I have tools and gizmos stashed all over and can never find what I am looking for!

So go check out Teresa’s tips for getting it all together where we can find our wonderful gadgets… it’s a good thing!

KAT

About Yesterday…

1.  Yesterday I totally blew off working.

2.  We went kayaking/fishing in our favorite spot.

3.  I asked DH to remind me to take pictures because I have been forgetting to do that.

4.  The fish were not really active, or so I thought.

5.  The weather was beautiful and so pleasant to be on the lake.

6.  Five hours in a kayak is very doable when the weather is awesome.

7.  It was pretty windy, but we dealt with it.

8.  DH reminded me to take photos before we loaded everything up.

9.  I think he did this because he out-fished me (again).

10.  He kept 22, and I kept 10.

11.  That’s OK because last trip I out-fished him.

12.  Of course, he did not remind me to take pictures of THAT trip!

13.  Every chance we get to go this spring we will.

14.  Because soon, the weather will be hot and miserable, and 5 hours in a kayak will be a very L-O-N-G day.

15.  Now, back to work today, making up for lost time.

16   .  It was SOOOOO worth it!

KAT