Photo Catch Up

I have lots of photos to share today. First of all, I found a picture of the cargo ship that will be taking the books I collected to their destination in Malawi (via Swaziland, I think).

This is a photo I don't think I ever showed you. It's the stacks of boxes at the post office here in L.A. 22 boxes in all!

Here are a couple pictures from Summer's 16th birthday tea last week. We invited the girls from our knitting group and had tea sandwiches and cake. It was such a nice way to spend an afternoon.

And now, the photo you've all been waiting for the completed quilt!!! (Along with some close-up detail shots.)

This is my favorite detail on the quilt. Instead of quilting the borders with the machine I embrodered little flowers over the blue flowers on the fabric.

And here is Charlie, all scrunched into a box.

And, I don't believe I ever introduced you to Lily. She is my neighbor's psychotic cat.

I was feeding her last week while my neighbor was out of town. I started out going over to feed her in my bare feet, and by the end of the ten days I was wearing long pants, boots, and using an umbrella to provide a barrier between my body and her claws. She has serious issues. She purrs and rubs against your legs, but if you move she turns on you and hisses. She also does this low kick, kung fu thing when you're trying to walk past her (I have scars on my ankle to prove it!). Thankfully my neighbor is home now, though I don't know how she can relax with that cat in the house. Lily is a recent addition to her household–she came from a friend of my neighbor's who had to move into a nursing home–so hopefully with time she'll mellow out a bit.

And now, since today is the first day in months that I don't have any previous commitments, I'm going spend it giving Jerry my complete attention. So, I'm off to watch him play Borderlands, and maybe even try it myself.

Quilts, Guns, & Pizza

First off, here's the top of the quilt all pieced together. It looks bigger than it is. It's only 42.5 square inches. I changed the middle block from the previous picture. It was supposed to be green, but the baby's room will be blue and white, so I wanted the blue to be more prominent. I don't think I'll have time to work on it today, though because...

I'm having a sweet 16 tea for my niece, Summer. Our knitting group friends are coming over and we're going to have lunch and cake and stuff. It should be really nice.

I found out that the guy who was responsible for bringing eight police officers and their weapons to our street is going to be evicted. It turns out that he was arguing with his mother, who also happens to be his landlord, and he pulled a gun on her! The guy who lives directly across the street from us told me that he was minding his own business at home when there was a knock at his door and he opened it to find six police officers standing there with all six weapons pointing at him! He told them they had the wrong guy and then left town for a few days. He said it was really scary. Anyway, I'm relieved to know the crazy guy will be leaving because every time I look up that driveway I can't help but think about that gun.

And now the pizza story: Jerry is a really "selective" eater. There are about 11 foods that he will eat (not including m&ms, and ice cream) and he has eaten the same thing for lunch and dinner for the past four or five years. You may think I exaggerate but, if anything, I'm erring on the side of caution. So, the other night when he said, "I think I'd like to try pizza," at 9:45 pm, I rushed to the phone to order a pizza. Actually, first I said, "Now?" And he said, "Yeah." And I said, "Could you try it tomorrow?" And he said, "I probably won't be in the mood to try it tomorrow." And then I rushed to the phone.

Twenty minutes later the three of us were seated around the kitchen table. Warren and I were eating pizza. Jerry was eating crust (the only part of a pizza he's ever eaten) and kind of poking at the rest of the pizza on his plate with a disgusted look. He did not try the pizza. But, thanks to Ronnie and her talk on shame at the LIFE is Good conference, I did not say what I was thinking (which was "I rushed out to get you a pizza at 10 pm and now you won't even take a little bite!?"). I just said, "That's OK." And ate my pizza. And it was fine. Thanks Ronnie.

Summer Break!

My last class is over! Woohoo! I'm officially on summer vacation. :)

And, I'm liking the quilt so far. I was a little worried about how it would turn out, so I was relieved once I got the blocks made and laid it out. I think it looks nice. And not too baby-ish.

That's all I have to say, really. I was going to tell you about how Jerry decided he wanted to try pizza, but I have to meet someone at 7 tomorrow morning and it's after 11, so I guess I'll have to save that story (and the one about the guy with the gun–yes, I have details!) for another day.

Good night!

Telsa Coils, Quilts, and Fans

I recorded ArcAttack's stellar version of the National Anthem played with Tesla Coils at the Maker Faire. But I couldn't figure out how to save it as a Quicktime file (yes, I can build a computer*, but I can't save a video) so I was all bummed that I wouldn't be able to share it with you. But, then I found this!


Also, I'm making a quilt and I wanted to show you the "before" picture. It's for a baby shower we're going to next weekend. I know it looks a little wacky now. But, I'm hoping that by a week from today, it will have come together (Magically, perhaps? Or is that asking too much?) to make a really cute (but not too baby-ish) quilt.

*By the way, Jerry's PC (the one we built) was broken and we took it to a fabulous PC repair guy who was able to get it in working order. But guess what was causing the problem? Well, you know how I said I can build a computer? It's only partly true. I can build one, but not exactly the right way the very first time around. It turns out that we didn't install the fan correctly (it wasn't latched) and we didn't put the hard drive in the right slot (in front of the other fan), so the computer has been overheating all this time! The guy said he was surprised the mother board hadn't burned out. Luckily for us, we just needed to replace the hard drive. So it's up and working and now Jerry and I know how to properly install a fan and where to put the hard drive for the next time we build one. Ah well, live and learn!