Journal: Pies & Mugs & Brussels Sprouts & Birthdays & Quilting

 

Last week, a friend who lives in Florida had a birthday.  She sent me pictures of her get-together with family and friends at a local restaurant.  There was a sign on the restaurant’s outside deck reading, “Please do not feed the birds or ducks.”

“What a pretty place,” I commented.  “But... but... ((whispering...)) can I feed the birds and ducks, if nobody catches me??”

She replied, “When I got there, two of our group were feeding the turtles.  There was no sign saying don’t feed the turtles!”

That reminded me of the time, way up on Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, when Lydia was feeding a Least chipmunk broken bits of crackers from her hand.

A girl who looked a lot like Pippy Longstocking came marching indignantly along, pigtails bobbing righteously.  “You aren’t supposed to feed the wild animals!” she huffed at Lydia.

Lydia, who was about ten, turned around and looked her over.  The other girl was about 6 inches taller than Lydia.

Then Lydia said, said she, “But your Mama feeds you, doesn’t she?”

That girl’s face looked sooo funny. 

Lydia grinned at her and went back to feeding the chipmunks.  (The ‘wild animals’ tourists shouldn’t feed are more likely elk, deer, moose, etc.)

It rained a good part of the day Tuesday.  Authorities were worried about ice jams on the Platte from Columbus to Ashland, and in various spots on the Loup and Elkhorn Rivers.

Tuesday, since it was Valentine's Day, I emailed this to Larry.  He of course came home announcing that he wanted his box of chocolates.  😄

A lady on my MeWe quilting group cut her finger with her rotary cutter.  It wasn’t a terribly bad cut, but it wouldn’t stop bleeding, as she is on blood thinners.

Another lady suggested, “Use Super glue.  It’ll stop the bleeding, and is safe to use on cuts.”

Larry once used Gorilla glue on a cut.  Then he had to see the doctor anyway, because the cut was bad enough that no glue was going to handle it.  

The doctor was first aghast, saying, “I’ve heard of using Super glue, but never Gorilla glue!” and then laughing, because Larry shrugged and said, “I guess I thought of myself as more of a gorilla than a Superman!” 🤣

After dealing with a few financial matters, I got several hours of quilting done that day.

I keep telling myself, ‘Somewhere on that front bar is the end of this quilt!’

My left eye caused me a good deal of trouble, burning and watering.  Various eyedrops didn’t help much.  Finally, when I was done quilting for the day, I put in a thick gel by Thera Tears.  It’s supposed to be for overnight, so that eye was soon a blurry mess, but at least it didn’t hurt so much.  I went to sit in my recliner, and set the vaporizer going right in my face.  That usually helps.  I sure didn’t want to exchange eyes that were at least okay at home most of the time for eyes that hurt, and are blurry, on account of being irritated!  ☹

Little adobe house in Lincoln

The wind kept picking up steam, until by midnight there were wind gusts of 55 mph.  The house was rattling, and the few metal roofing pieces up there on the roof were howling.

When my eyes are being troublesome, I like to listen to the Bible (and sometimes sermons, or commentaries, or biographies and autobiographies of godly men of yore) when I retire to my recliner at night, as opposed to reading it.  I like to listen to it on Bible Gateway, and I often have it on while I’m quilting or editing photos, too.  There are three reading voices for the King James Version:  an American, a Briton, and a ‘dramatized’ version.  I didn’t listen to the dramatized version for the longest time, imagining something I wouldn’t like at all; but when I one day clicked on it and started listening, I discovered it’s just different voices reading the different parts – female voices when females are speaking, male voices when males are speaking – and soft, nice music in the background.  Nothing really ‘dramatic’ at all.  The readers are good.  I liked it fine.  I started listening to that version back in... ? maybe... hmmm...  August? September? and finished Revelations last week. 

I started over again at Genesis with the British voice, making it through several chapters; then I didn’t have a chance to listen to it for two or three days, and Wednesday afternoon when I was going to turn it on, the webpage had reloaded at Genesis 1.  I couldn’t remember which chapter of Genesis I’d been on, so I started over again.  I got to chapter 43, verses 29 and 30, where Joseph’s brethren had returned to Egypt for corn, and Joseph saw his brother Benjamin for the first time since being sold to the Midianites and carted off to Egypt when he was only about 17 years old.  The brothers had not yet recognized Joseph.

²⁹ And he lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother, of whom ye spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.

³⁰ And Joseph made haste; for his bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.

 

It was approaching 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening when I got to that part of the story, and it gets to my heart, every single time.  I know this (I hardly ever could read it to the children without shedding a few tears), but I couldn’t stop listening (I love this story so; I think it’s my favorite in the Old Testament, maybe) (but I say that about a lot of them)... and sure enough, just like always, I was going to cry over it. 

But I didn’t want to go to our midweek service looking any worse than I already did, with my red, watery eyes!  I don’t cry like a movie star, looking all tragic and lovely, oh, no.  When I cry, my nose seems to grow, and turns into a bright red tomato.  I quickly stopped the quilting machine at a strategic point, dashed over to my laptop, and hit the pause button.

I would finish listening to that story Thursday, when nobody would have to look at me whilst I did so.  😉

I am now approaching the end of Exodus.

When I posted this picture, a quilting friend wrote, “Look at this!  How did this loveliness happen?! 💗”

I answered, “I have no idea!  I came out of that spiral and the petals... made a couple of filler circles... and then, before I knew it, those circles-in-circles had followed the ‘stem’ all the way back to the shaped feathers!  Then, since I didn't want to detract from that, I just did crosshatching in the background.”  Then I added, “No one but another quilter would have any idea what I just said.”

Lydia made Larry a promised coconut cream pie, and told us we could pick it up on our way home from church Wednesday night.  Lydia is busy, busy these days, working to fill online grocery orders early in the morning at Hy-Vee, and then working for a few hours in the afternoon with a local photographer, with breaks to go wake her children up and get them ready for school... take them to school... pick them up at lunchtime and feed them... take them back to school... and pick them up after school.  So it’s no small wonder that, late that afternoon, she stuck two pies into her oven – and then either accidentally turned the oven off, or forgot to turn it on in the first place.

Right before church, she hurried into her kitchen to get the pies out of the oven – and discovered them sitting there in a room temperature oven, unbaked.  Plumb deflating, ’tis.

She quickly turned on the oven, set the timer, and sent everyone else off to church.  She came as soon as the pies were done, and was just a little bit late for the service.

But the pies, one for her own family and one for us, seemed to take offense at this inconsiderate treatment, and refused to set up.  We hoped a little more refrigeration would solve the problem.

While we were at Lydia’s house, she filled a lidded container with several generous ladles of her delicious roast beef stew, and sent that home with us, too.  Mmmmm... she’s a good cook.  (Especially when she turns the oven on.)

I held the pie carefully all the way home, while Larry tried hard to drive into every pothole between here and there.  Well, that’s what it seemed like, anyway.  Fortunately, Lydia had put the pie in a tray with sides, so the few drips that sloshed over the edge didn’t hurt anything.

I put the pie into our refrigerator; we would have it the next day.

The stew, we gobbled down pronto.

I slept soundly that night for almost five hours, which is longer than I usually sleep without awakening.  Then I got up... reset the thermostat a degree lower... put some eyedrops in my eyes... and went back to bed, sleepy enough that I figured I could easily sleep another couple of hours.  I got all nice and comfortable... and then I wasn’t.  After a short while of scrambling about, uncovering, recovering, rubbing a bit of lavender/eucalyptus analgesic here and there to no avail, I got up.  An hour of doing that is about my limit.  There are things to do, for pity’s sake, rather than lying abed in a state of fidgety uncomfortableness!

A steaming shower with the showerhead on pulse, a piping hot cup of coffee whilst I blow-dried and curled my hair and read the news and some email, followed by a piece of buttered toast with honey from grandson Ethan’s hives on one side and peach preserves on the other (that’s the left and right side, not the top and bottom side, ha), and I was ready to git bizzy.

First order of bizness:  I washed the bedding.  In a couple of hours, I got it out of the dryer and remade the bed.  If I fidgeted that coming night, at least it would be in clean, fresh-smelling sheets!  (Not that they smelled bad in the first place, you know.  😏)

Meanwhile, I filled the bird feeders.  Snowflakes were coming down, faster and faster.  The little birds anxiously tried to land on the feeders right while I was filling them.  By afternoon, it was bright and sunny, and the squirrels were helping the birds devour the seeds.  Ah, well.  They’re awfully cute, after all.

And I quilted.  My left eye – the one that lady eye doctor injured several years ago – was causing some troubles, but not as much as it had the previous day, and definitely not as much as it had the day before that.  It seemed to be getting better.

It wasn’t long before I rolled the quilt forward.  The bottom edge of the batting was now a quarter-inch off the floor.  It’s always a hopeful sign, when that happens!

By a quarter after ten that night, The Birds of Colorwash Patch was more than two-thirds of the way done.  I rolled the quilt forward again – and there was the bottom pedestal of the birdbath.  The batting was now two whole inches off the floor.

That night, a lady wrote to a longarm quilting group about her computerized machine:  “My computer is out of memory.  I haven’t added files or other programs, either.  I have done all of the computer software and security upgrades.  I’m worried I won’t have enough memory for upgrading to Windows 11 and the new changes for my machine.  Has anyone else run into this problem?  What have you done?”

One of the menfolk on the group wrote with this sage and pithy piece of advice:  “I think you’re memory with storage.”

Now there’s an answer for ya.  I should not have laughed so much as I did.  Whatever did he mean to say, I wonder??

A quilting friend wrote to me Friday morning, asking, “I always wonder how you decide on what pattern to do.  Have you got a design in mind before you start the quilting?  Or do you look at is as you go along and decide what would look good on each section as you do it?”

My answer isn’t going to help her much, I’m afraid; but it was truthful:  “I just sorta go scribbling along, and these things happen as I go!   I do like to look at pictures of other people’s beautiful quilting to give me ideas.”

Another friend asked, “Do you keep track of the time you put into it?”

“Yep, I do,” I responded.  “I have 124 hours in the quilting alone, and another 100.5 hours in everything else, including designing (EQ8), cutting, piecing, and appliquéing.”

Once upon a time, a friend(?), having learned I keep a tally of my hours (using Excel), demanded, “Do you stop and restart your stopwatch each time you pause to refill your coffee cup, or take pictures of birds at your feeders, or answer an email??!”

I replied, “No, I cheat, and sneak in extra minutes on my chart when no one is looking.”

I thought we were kidding around, but she was not amused.  🙄  You’d’ve thought my shirking and time-frittering was taking pennies right out of her pocket!

Ah, well.  Maybe she was cranky because she had a hole in her pocket.

I once did some fancy quilting on a customer’s quilt.  In each wide triangle in an outer border, I did two side-by-side swirls, with a bigger swirl underneath.  I took pictures... went downstairs to my recliner upon finishing for the day... downloaded and edited the pictures... did a doubletake... and went back upstairs to take a second look at that quilt.

You know, once your eye sees bug-eyed gargoyles marching around the rim of a lovely quilt, it’s as good as impossible to unsee them.  😬

There were waaaay too many of those swirls to even think of removing them, particularly as they looked quite nice, until they turned themselves into gargoyles.

I did not mention the illusion to my customer when I returned the quilt.  But I winced every time she mentioned the quilt, from that day on.

When Larry came home for lunch, he finished off the last of the coconut cream pie.

I sent a note to Lydia:  “The soup was scrumptious, and so was the pie.  Thank you!”

She replied, “Sorry the pie was so runny.  Must be from sitting in a warm oven not baking like I thought it was.  😏”

(I had hoped her family’s pie had turned out just fine, and then we wouldn’t have to let her know ours had not set up; ’cuz, knowing Lydia, she’ll fret about it until she makes another one – and she has more than enough to do, without thinking she needs to make us another pie.)

“Well, it sure was good puddin’!” I responded.  “Daddy is just finishing the last of it with his lunch.  He says, ‘It tastes just as good as if it was firmed up!’”

So that made her laugh, and will hopefully keep her from worrying about it any further.

I learned from looking at the local obituaries a day or two ago that Mr. Ryan, my 6^th-grade teacher, passed away last month.  He was born in March of 1935, making him a couple of months shy of 88.  He and his wife Gailya were married July 15, 1962.  Since Larry and I were also married on July 15, seventeen years later in 1979, Mr. Ryan would call to wish us a Happy Anniversary almost every year.  Sometimes he gave us flowers – taking them one year to a friend’s automotive/body shop, whereupon the secretary called me, and I went to retrieve them and greet Mr. Ryan.  He often lost my address and so sent anniversary and Christmas cards to our church’s address.  Maybe he was just the typical ‘absent-minded professor’, but the last time I spoke with him, he was not remembering things like he used to.

He and Mr. Jackson, who was my typing, shorthand, and Business Administrations teacher in high school, were my favorite teachers.  Mr. Jackson died last July at the age of 89.

I quilted most of the day Friday.  It’s hard to see the quilting on the dark plum-colored patches, but I include a picture of it (above) so you can strain your eyes trying to see it, just like I do whilst I’m a-quiltin’ it. 😂

Saturday, a quilting friend wrote, “Love how you treated the two different sides of the feather stem differently!!!”

“It was a matter of logistics,” I told her, “i.e., ‘That won’t fit on this side.’”

“You solved that problem beautifully, and it looks planned!” she answered.

That’s how I used to make clothes:  Sew sew sew sew sew --- Ooops!  Hmmm... now what?  **idea** … … … **revamp**  Sew sew sew sew sew --- Oooops!  Hmmm... now what? — repeat, ad infinitum. 

Friends:  “Where’d you get that pattern??”

Me:  “Ummmm...”

I was looking at some old class pictures from elementary schools of long ago.  In one, I spotted a set of twin girls.  If they were not identical, they were very, very alike.

Teddy had identical twin girls in his kindergarten class.  The older kids were remarking at suppertime one evening how they could not at all tell them apart.

Teddy, big blue-gray eyes totally sincere, said, “Oh, I can always tell them apart!”  ((pause))  “Unless they’re not in their desks.”

The child was a bit startled when we all burst out laughing.

Those desks had large name cards affixed to the fronts.  hee hee

Saturday, I went to visit Loren.  I found him in the dining room when I got there.  On the other side of the table was a lady named Dottie.  I’ve seen her and greeted her a time or two before, but didn’t know her name or her circumstances.  I learned she lives at Prairie Meadows with her husband Fred, who has Alzheimer’s.  She is frail, and uses a walker, but her mind is sharp.  She’s a sweet lady, probably in her late 70s or early 80s.  Their room is near Loren’s. 

“We enjoy having breakfast with Loren each morning,” she told me.  “He’s always friendly and cheerful, with pleasant things to talk about.  I think he’s happy here.”

I was glad to hear that.  I pretty much thought that’s the way it was, but it’s nice to hear it from someone who is around him often. 

I’ll betcha life is not always easy for that nice lady, living at the nursing home fulltime.

Everyone had a little dessert of baked peaches in a small individual paper pie plate, with a vanilla cookie wafer stuck in the side.  Loren’s was empty, but his plate was still full of food, including some type of UFO (Unidentified Food Object) (no, actually, I think it was meatloaf, and it did look tasty), Brussels sprouts, and a salad of some sort, either lettuce or slaw. 

I teased him, “I see you’re still eating dessert first!” 

He laughed.  I asked him if he liked Brussels sprouts, and he assured me he did. 

I asked, “Did Mama used to cook those when you were little?” 

He said yes, and again said he liked them.  (But he wasn’t eating them.)

After he had most everything gone except a couple of Brussels sprouts (I think there may have been three, when I first saw them), one of the staff brought out a tray with more peach desserts, asking if anyone wanted another one.  Loren did.  She gave him one, and he launched right into it.

I pointed at his Brussels sprouts and remarked, “It’s a good thing you didn’t eat those, or you might not have had room for another dessert!”

He laughed even more, and Dottie, across the table from us, laughed, too.  I told Loren I really should get him a sweater that reads, “Life is short!  Eat dessert first!”

I saw four bald eagles on the way to Omaha.  There were Canada geese everywhere, even in cornfields right beside the road.  I saw a hawk swoop out of the sky, make a quick touchdown beside the road, and then take flight again – with a little dark brown something-or-other in its talons.  The hawk had a lot of white on its front, with flecks of brown; it could’ve been a Cooper’s.

Speaking of ‘little something-or-others’, I saw the Siamese cat that prowls around these parts go trotting down our front sidewalk early that afternoon – with a poor little dark-eyed junco in its jaws.  Arrgghh.

As I traveled to Omaha, I took the main routes, in case the county roads were snow-covered and would take too long to travel.  But on the way home, I turned north from the nursing home and went toward Bennington, then to the bypass around Fremont.  The roads were fine.  I find the lesser-traveled roads much more enjoyable.

I went to Wal-Mart on the east side of Columbus before coming home to get Ian a couple more things for his birthday, and was thankful again that my eyes were behaving, even if they did hurt.

I stopped at the mailbox on the way up Old Highway 81, and found a box with a mug I’d ordered.  I happily went on home and opened the box – and found this:  

A picture of a mug with the correct printing on it was printed on this mug – sideways.

We’d already had a bit of a dustup when they first said they needed a higher-quality picture (though the one I sent was 4MB), and I said I didn’t have one, so never mind about the order.  They then assured me they would try – and proceeded to send me a preview wherein Chimera was cropped totally out of the picture (though his name was still at the bottom).  I said no, that wouldn’t do; kindly refund my money – but they begged another chance, and I’d given it.

I was therefore plumb aggravated at this newest blunder, and coming to the opinion that this company is a fraud and a sham.

Accordingly, I sent the following message to the Gossby company, from whence said mug had come:

“What on earth?!!!  Are you going to try to tell me you actually think this is right, how you made this cup???!!!  This is the most absurd and ridiculous way of ‘filling’ an order for a cup or mug that I’ve ever seen. 

“Were you trying to be troublesome??  Because I can’t imagine anyone doing such an idiotic thing by accident.

“Just look at these pictures (I attached a couple).  You printed a picture of a mug on this mug.  Sideways, to boot.  Good grief. 

“I want my money back.  No redos, no ‘let us try that again’.  Give my money back.  Immediately.”

I heard from them late Sunday night:

“Dear Sarah,

“Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. 

“We truly apologize for the imperfect product you received.  We understand that it didn’t meet your expectations and how disappointed you must be.

“Hope that we can have your understanding in this situation since this is not our norm and we never expect this to happen to our valued customers like you.

“If you can give us your precious chance by sending you a replacement at no cost, we will do our best to make this right.

“You don’t have to return the received item in this case.

“Just please be advised that the processing takes 3 - 5 business days + shipping of 5 - 10 business days.

“Is it convenient for you?  Let us know your thought so we can quickly process a replacement for you.

“We hope you find this solution very well and accept our humble offer to make up for the inconvenience this has caused you.

“We look forward to your response so we can immediately sort things out for you accordingly. 

“Sincerely, 

“Gossby Support Team”

 

Being a sucker for sweettalk, I mellowed a bit: 

“Can you explain to me what in the world happened, that a picture of the mug was printed sideways on to this mug?  How do I know it won’t happen again?  I really am getting fonder of the money I threw away than I was of the mug in the first place.  ☹ ”

 

Again they answered:

“Dear Sarah,

​“My sincerest apologies as I am unable to provide you the specifics of what happened. 

​“We have correctly sent the design to our supplier, the design we have also sent to you. 

​“It must have been a mishap while printing and should be a single occurrence. 

​“No worries, I will go ahead and consult this once first with the team before requesting the replacement so that we can make sure that the supplier is made aware of the issue. 

​“I will get back to you as soon as I heard back from them. 

​“Thank you.”

 

Just watch me gradually getting nicer:

“This is the picture I said I liked, and it was just right.  And then this picture, the entire picture of the mug, was printed sideways on the mug.  🙄

“Have you ever had that happen before?  It would be hilarious, if it wasn’t sort of expensive, for a mug! 

“All right.  If you can see that whoever does the printing has their heads screwed on nice and straight whilst they’re a-working, go ahead and try it again.  But this will be the last time.  No ‘third time’s the charm’.

“Thank you.

 

They replied (do you believe them?): 

“Dear Sarah, 

​“No, this has never happened before.  To be honest with you this is the first time that I see a mug printed this way, for the entire time I am working with the company. 

“No worries, I have already raised this with the team and management.  They will check with the design and production team first. 

“Once we have their response after the consultation, that is the only time we will process anything on our end.  We will keep you posted. 

“For now, we will be asking for your extended patience and understanding.” 

 

Now look at me, answering sweettalk with sweettalk: 

“Okay, thank you.  I appreciate your helpfulness.

“I really was looking forward to getting the mug and giving it to either my grandson or my son-in-law for a birthday gift.

“So let’s try it again.”

 

They responded with great delight: 

“Dear Sarah,

“You are most welcome. 

“This is the least that I can do and I really want to help you out. 

“Thank you for much for giving us another chance to make things right. 

 

30 minutes later, I heard from them again: 

“Dear Sarah,

“Thank you so much for your patience. 

“We have just heard back from the management and we have been advised that we can go ahead and process the replacement request. 

“Please be advised that we have just done so.  You can check the replacement of the Ceramic Mug.

​[They attach a picture from their original web ad.]

“Once the replacement process is completed, we will immediately arrange this for shipment.  You should receive an email confirmation from us containing the tracking details.

“The processing time for personalized items takes 3 - 5 business days + shipping of 5 - 10 business days. 

“You may check the shipment directly as well on your Gossby Order Confirmation Page.

“We will pay attention carefully to this re-sent order and still support you anytime, even after you receive the item.  Rest assured that we are doing our best to deliver your package as soon as possible.

“We once again apologize on behalf of our team for the unfortunate experience you had.

“If you require any additional assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.  We will be glad to assist you.

“Stay safe and healthy.

I should doubtless watch my credit card, to make sure they don’t charge me again, hmm?  And as for their ‘team’... it’s probably one little kid in a back room printing sublimation ink on paper, heat pressing it onto the mug to transfer the image, and then blowing on it to cool the cup, whataya bet? 

But even a very young kid should be able to tell when a picture is sideways.  Or when you’ve transferred a picture of a picture.  Maybe he was going for an infinity image?  A picture of a picture of a picture of a picture of a picture of a mug?

“You’d better start with a bigger mug, kid.  No, not the one on the front of your head.”

Oh, and I (belatedly) checked out Gossby with the Better Business Bureau.

Guess what their rating is?

It’s a big, fat F, that’s what it is.

Larry wasn’t home yet, and I was starving, so I ate a bowl of clam chowder, with applesauce for dessert. 

Remember the young boy Benjamin who often sits next to me at church, and who is so helpful with the communion plates, and for whom I sometimes sneak little doodads onto his Bible case as thank-yous?  I put this 5x7 picture on his Bible case Sunday morning after he’d gone off to his Sunday School class.

After our church service this morning, we had a lovely dinner at Jeremy and Lydia’s house.  It was Ian’s 7^th birthday.  We gave him a police car Lego set, a polo shirt, a small tape measure/level, and a soup Thermos with a folding spoon in the lid (which doubles as a bowl), and a bag of dried chicken noodle soup.  He liked the tape measure/level because his Grandpa got it for him at O’Reilly’s; and he was delighted with the Thermos, especially when I told him it would keep soup warm for at least six hours.

Caleb, Maria, and Eva were there, as were Kurt, Victoria, Carolyn, Violet, and Willie.  Why didn’t I have my camera???

After the evening service last night, we got New York Royal Cheesecake Blizzards from Dairy Queen, picked up a grocery order at Wal-Mart, then stopped at Hy-Vee for eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, and Mozzarella, Colby, and Colby Jack cheeses.  (Yes, I could’ve ordered all that from Wal-Mart.  But when I placed the order a couple of days earlier, there were still quite a few of those things in the refrigerator!)

This afternoon I had a thorough eye exam at the Optometric Center here in town.  It’s been over ten years since I had an exam there, and I had never met the doctor before.  I liked him.  And, surprisingly, he knows and understands Benign Essential Blepharospasm, though the receptionist was totally blank on the subject when I called to make the appointment.  I don’t think she’d ever heard of the ailment before.

All looks good with my eyes, and the irritation from the Botox injections is subsiding.  Their camera takes such detailed shots of the inside of the eye, it almost entirely eliminates the need to dilate people’s eyes, which I’m quite glad about.  I’ve had my eyes dilated a couple of times, and both times I wound up with a bad headache, feeling a bit sick, and couldn’t see much the rest of the day and part of the next. 

One year, back before AOP (the Age of Printers),  I was trying to fill out Christmas cards in this condition.  I gathered up the tall stack of cards, envelopes, family pictures, and a good pen, situated myself in my recliner, and employed one of the children to read out the names in my address book, another to put a finger where I needed to write the addressees’ names and then sign our names, and another to drop our family photo into the card, insert the card into the envelope, and tuck in the flap.  We got it done, team fashion, and had fun a-doin’ it, too.

I will be getting new crafting glasses.  My regular graduated-lens glasses are 2 ½ years old, but the prescription is close enough that they’re still all right.  I had new nose pads put on them, and they’re almost as good as new.  I don’t want to use up the money in the Health Savings Account, as I may very well need it for more Botox injections around my eyes, if the insurance company doesn’t pay for them.  And they may not.  I’ll fill out the papers tomorrow.

For supper tonight, we had the last of the spiral ham a friend gave us at Thanksgiving, with all but two slices cut up and put into scalloped potatoes, along with a vegetable mixture of peas, green beans, lima beans, carrots, and corn.  I also had a Fuji apple, some Black Cherry Oui yogurt, a few bites of a banana, orange juice, and a piece of Colby cheese.  I’m full.  🙂

The death toll from the three earthquakes in Turkey and Syria – measuring 7.8 and 7.5 on February 6, and 6.3 just today – have killed over 45,000 people.  That would be like entirely wiping out the Nebraska cities of Kearney (33,558) and Beatrice (12,276).  Unimaginable.

Saturday night, I opened the Watersafe test kit I recently purchased, figuring it was high time to check our well water again, especially in the light of recent studies showing a high concentrate of nitrates in water across the state.  Two of the tests, one for copper and one for iron, took just a couple of minutes.  The nitrate/nitrite test took only one minute, the pH/hardness/chlorine test took 15 seconds, the lead/pesticide test took ten minutes, and the final one, a bacteria test, took 48 hours.  I just checked the results on that last one.  And now I can say with assurance once again, our well water is still cold, and tasty – and safe.

Bedtime!  Tomorrow I have some housecleaning to do... the aforementioned insurance papers to fill out... and then I shall quilt.

,,,>^..^<,,,          Sarah Lynn          ,,,>^..^<,,,