Finished

Finished the one and only squirrel quilt.
Finished Round 3 of the vaccine trial.
Finished fighting a cold and just gave in.
Finished thinking I need to read a book to the end, just because I started it.  I am tired of reading Ayelet Waldman's whining.

Finished my October quilt.
Finished the laundry.
Finished uploading some new music, new to me anyway. 
Finished being licked to absolute distraction by the kitten, damn she just started again.

Last weekend Ned and I hung out together, the big kids had other activities.  Ned wanted to go down to Ft. McHenry.  He ran everywhere, helped unfurl the big flag, climbed trees, ate a picnic lunch, watched the park police ticket a bicyclist, and just reveled in having undivided attention.  A nice aspect of the east coast is having all the historical sites to visit.

This flag is 30x42 and was the size flown the day after the British gave up on taking the city of Baltimore.  It was the battle of 1812 and the motivation for our national anthem.  The winds have to be greater than 5 knots and less than 12 to fly it.  It takes 3-5 park rangers to hoist it up.  They need a new flag every couple of years.  The original flag was wool and weighed 50 lbs.  It is at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian.  The original flag was made by Mary Pickersgill.  I have been to the fort one time when the big flag was flying.   The other days they fly a flag half the size. 

If weather cooperates and no one is sick we will go down to the mall next Saturday or Sunday.  Lockheed is sponsoring a weekend of science, there will be a thousand science exhibits set up.  I think that is what Maddy told me, she will be working in a portable planetarium. 

Bag Lady Mom

There may have been something to our parents having us at a young age.  When we reached the teen-aged years our parents weren't older than dirt.  Parents were in their young 30's and had the potential to be cool.  I guess quite truthfully, as much as it hurts, I do not have that potential.  I am old, frumpy, grumpy (I sound like a dwarf) and extremely embarassing.  This week, I was asked not to go to a game, because I cheer too loudly.  I could change this behavior, but why go to a game if you aren't going to cheer?  I try to cheer generically - GO ORANGE! I am not even that loud, half my life is spent repeating myself since no one hears me the first time.  My cheering makes my children cringe in shame.

Tonight Ian had an indoor lacrosse game, yes I was cheering.   May I point out there is always a parent yelling AT their child.  I am criticized and I am yelling FOR my child.  After we got home,  I realized that I probably really was an embarassment.   I have a cold, so look stuffy.  I also got a massage, so the masseuse had run her hands through my hair and massaged my face.  After the massage I put my hair in a ponytail and forgot about it.  I looked in the mirror for the first time since 7:30a.m and I pretty much look like a bag lady.  Then, Ian told me he doesn't want me to sniff around him, I make a scary face.  With the bag lady hair and the scary cold sniffing I feel like a million pesos.  I have been sniffing this way for 45 years and presumably look frightening.

Add to this my own adult embarassing moments and my self-esteem is not so high.  I helped out at the school doing an art project.  We were stacking tiles in piles of 10.  One of the other moms asks me how many tiles we had made.  I count the number of piles.  I know each pile has ten.   I can't do the math.  I stand and smile.  She asks me again how many are on the table, I still can't do the math.  I stand at the table and smile like an idiot.  I didn't want to say to a room full of strangers that I had a brain tumor and can't do math, way to be a buzz-kill.  Instead I just look like a moron.   I guess not only do I look like a dork, but I look like a dork. 

I really do find the humor in things and can make a joke, but it does make me feel bad when I am letting my kids down. 

Y-seams and Chaos

Over five years ago I bought a quilt pattern and fabric in Alaska. The quilt is to look like a blanket that the local Raven Clan wears. Teri even sent me a bag of bone buttons - very cool!   It has been sitting and sitting, partly because I know it has Y-seams.  The quilt has four of them.  The pattern makes me mad, the artist didn't need to do it that way.  I have completed two Y's, with a lot of teeth gnashing, swearing, seam ripping and acceptance that seams won't match.  I do not like the quilt at this point!  I also very stupidly did not buy matching flannel for the back.  The only bright side is the quilt show in Houston will probably have a vendor with a fabric match.  I also sewed it incorrectly and it won't look like this.  What I like is the free-floating small triangles - mine doesn't have that. ARGHH!!

This little bit of sewing chaos leads into Ian's big chaos.  The big guy is really a literal thinker, exasperatingly so! Last Wednesday he had a freak-out meltdown over the word CHAOS.  He is shouting and waving wildly all because the word is not pronounced CHOWSE - the way it is spelled.  Ian's class is studying greek mythology, so they have been reading about CHOWSE quite a bit.   I had a "read and vomit" book named "Chaos" on the counter and he just fell apart over the "stupidest word ever."  Two years ago we had this same episode over the word aisle.   I keep telling Ian to memorize the word and not think about it. 

This last part is misc. stuff.

I read in a Woman's Day magazine that you should vacuum at least twice a month.  Whoohoo, that makes me a great housekeeper!

Riley is getting old, frail, deaf and blind.  Ned said, "he can't see, he can't hear, but he can still feel."   Cute Neddy.

Kittens are crazy!  It is amazing how one tiny little creature can knock over such big things. 

The kids emphatically did not want me to make squirrels next year as a quilt project.  Who knew they would react so strongly?  They want me to continue with a monthly fun reminder, maybe next year everything fun will remind me of squirrels.  I am almost finished with the one squirrel quilt I have made.  I think it is quite adorable and will be a Christmas door hanging.

The keyless remote has stopped working on the big green behemoth.  The key is also not working on my side.  I have to lock and unlock the car door from the passenger side.  I am off to get it fixed tomorrow, exactly how I wanted to spend my afternoon.

I picked up my winter coat that had been at the dry cleaner since March.  It took me awhile to figure out why it wasn't in the closet.  At least it is clean!!

I got a haircut today and it looks nice.  This is the first time EVER that a hairdresser put absolutely NO products in my hair.  No mousse, no gel, no hairspray!  I can't get my hair out of my face, it is making me nutso!

Fall is really here.  I love fall, but am not ready yet.  Turning the calendar to October was sad, another year winding down.  Don't get me wrong, I am so glad to be here!  I want time to slow down a bit. 

When your retreat roommate announces, "oh my, I am getting flatulent!" is never a good thing.  I can honestly say I have probably never uttered that phrase before.  Not because I don't have gas, but have never said it quite like that.  I might have walked outside and not really said anything.