WEEDS AND PIZZA!!

 Good Morning California!  I admit, I would much rather be saying ALOHA!  Even though it was warm there, it was much cooler than here!  They had a breeze blowing 24-7 and we had the quietest overhead fan I have ever known.  Turn my ceiling fans on here and they grind so loud it keeps me awake.  I guess there is something to be said about BOTH locations.

It was early when I headed out for a run so I would beat the heat.  My inner clock has moved forward an hour for some reason, so it's plenty light at 6 am.  In spite of no rain and lots of heat, the sunflowers are in full bloom.  It took a bit to get my lungs to open up, but I see progress.  There was more running than walking this time.

It was a mistake to go in the back yard when I returned. The weeds around the outside edge and into the flowers beds were epic.  I once again have a gardener that mows and goes.  I pulled 10" high handfuls and threw them on the lawn.  I want him to SEE what he should have been taking care of.  Either hit them with the weedeater or spray.  This is unacceptable.  The worse part ... ants take up residence underneath the weeds.  Just walk near and see how many bites you get!

Kitters tried to make it all better.  She marked her territory by rolling in the sandy corral before coming in the doggy door and depositing a PILE of sand ... and I mean a PILE!!  I thought I must have drug all that back from Maui in my clothes.  Were did that come from?  One quick pet of her back and I knew.  I had to sweep the entire hallway it was so bad.  She is quickly becoming a pain in the patoo!!!

I spent the next couple of hours sewing the binding on this 250th celebration quilt.  It will be auctioned off at the Elks Lodge to make money for our Veterans account.

Yeah, trying to look all innocent after bringing in all that dirt.  She spends most of her time on the arm of the couch .... keeping VERY close.  She literally follows me to every room like a puppy.

Time went by very slowly and I was bored to tears.  In Maui you are going and going.  Always something to see, something to investigate, going out for lunch ... keeping busy.  Here I'm sitting on the couch for hours wishing I was back on the island.

In desperation I finally decided to try out Shirley's cauliflower crust pizza.  You know what?  It turned out VERY good.  Who knew??  It doesn't TASTE like cauliflower and acts just like regular pizza crust.  There is actually a lot of pepperoni under there, but I put too much cheese on top.  Thank you for the tip Shirley!

Dessert was a little slice of that cheesecake I made before I left.  I put a little homemade plum jam on it for added flavor.  Boy was it GOOD!!!  Here's another good thing about being in Maui ... you don't eat dessert every day like I do here, saving me a few pounds while on that trip.

Finally, only out of complete boredom, I set up the quilting machine for the next quilt.  Of course ever since I had it "fixed", it doesn't work right at all.  The computer program hangs up here and there, I'm sure because they updated the program on an old iPad.  

I messed with it for two hours.  There are crosshairs that should move when you move the machine, and they do NOT.  There's no other way to line things up.  Though it stitched okay this time, it was way off by the end, meaning I had to delete the entire pattern and reenter everything from scratch, just to get the last row done.  

Add to that the instructions I have to do things like cropping, do not match what I see on the screen any more.  The buttons they tell me to touch, are not there.  It's become frustrating every time ... making me not want to quilt any more. 

I got this one finished, but I'm not happy with it.  I suppose no one will notice, but "I" will.  And of course it's not Cooper approved.

Kitters is doing her best to keep me occupied, but it's just not quite the same.