Practice Makes Perfect

 Sixty four folks ..... it's a NICE sixty four degrees on this dark morning.  Anyone notice how you used to go to sleep when it was still light ... and now it's dark once again!!  Unless you are night owl.  Of course that makes mornings come pretty early, but that's okay!  I have to let Mr. Coop Dog out early anyway.

Meet Lizzie ... she lives in the rosemary bush in the back yard.  She's quite tiny ... maybe only 3 inches long.  Gizzard lives on the front porch and T-Rex lives out by the garage under the spikey fern.  I'm surrounded.  You can see them most every day around noon ... out scouting for yummy critters to eat.  I put up a big sign ..... FREE ANTS!!  COME AND GET 'EM!!!

I think I may be getting my head around the electrical system on the van ... maybe ... just a little.  I still want to know if the 12 volt fridge HAS to have the inverter to run whether on shore power or not.  Can't it just run off the batteries?  

Turns out, according to the manual, the inverter is under the front passenger seat.  This noisy thing may be something else.  Mr. Ed sent a picture of a CHARGER with two big fans.  I'm guessing that's what this is.  So anyone know what ITS job might be?  And how do I put a rag in its mouth??  I guess more reading is required.  I may be too old for this!!

SO ... it's time for an outing.  They say do not leave it parked for too long because the engine battery needs to stay charged.  How long is too long?  I've no idea.  A couple weeks they say, probably because there is so much electronic stuff going on in the dash ... like the list of ASSISTS a mile long.  

Good grief ... I looked at the Settings tab and found a BUNCH more.  I'm learning how to turn them all off.  Here's another weird one ... you cannot lock all the doors unless the engine is OFF.  Why oh why wouldn't you want to be able to lock all the doors at any time?  

At any rate, I think I'll actually do this every two weeks because it's good practice for being on the road.  The more I turn on and off everything, store everything and run through my check list, the better.  Practice makes perfect.  

It's super easy to drive.  We took off just driving for driving's sake.  I have no idea how FAR or how LONG I'm supposed to drive it.  Mr. Cooper came with me, but he wasn't the best of company.  I think he gets car sick in the beginning, then finally lays down to sleep.  

Over hill and dale ... not really, there's no hills or dales around here, but lots of really bad roads to practice missing potholes.  I thought that one road went through, but alas, I ended up in the middle of a field, having to do a 39 point turn around.  I also noticed I can hardly see out the bug encrusted windshield, so a van-washer tool is in order.

Once home, I parked it like a champ.  One who lost the fight.  I already marked the concrete with black paint so I could see better ... and I could, but to save me, I cannot park exactly straight.  I never have been able to.  Horse trailers ... perfectly straight.  Motorhomes of any kind or size ... not a chance.  She's all tucked in for a couple weeks unless I find some place fabulous to travel to.

While out roaming around, I passed our local Panda Express.  I have to say THIS one makes the BEST food.  Some of them aren't that great ... overcooked comes to mind.  The cook at this one however, is definitely good.  Lots of sauce and SO tasty.

There's enough food here for three days.  Not a bad deal for $11.00.  Unfortunately Coop Dog doesn't get any, so I had to make something special for him.  Pork chops!!  Yup he's a spoiled pup!

In other news ... I'm finally biting the bullet and getting internet service at my house.  There will be no more of those fancy meals in a box delivered.  Turns out one of those will pay for a month of service.  Everyone else in my neighborhood uses this company ... not with glowing recommendations, but with okay ones.  The good news is I can cancel any time if I want to.  We shall see if they work any better than the MiFi.

And there's more good news coming down the pike, but it can wait a day or two when I'm SURE it's going to happen ... especially since it's been five months in the waiting!!

Just Another Day In Paradise

 There's nothing better than tearing something up when it's cool outside and you need a break.  My yard is falling a bit behind and SO much stuff needs to be trimmed up.  I took the branch cutters to this little tree that somehow grew into a monster.  It took me over an hour to get all the trash out of my hair.  Note to self .... next time wear a hat.

You know what I'll be doing THIS morning ... cutting it all up into tiny pieces to fit in the trash can.  Underneath it are two very old lavender plants that died, along with about 4 inches of trash, which also has to be raked up.  Oh the fun!!

Here's the good news of the day ... besides looking at this cute little face ... I got my PG&E bill.  Believe me, folks have been ranting and raving around here about their bills having doubled this year versus last year.  They were nice enough to give everyone a big rate hike just before summer, plus it's been hotter than normal.  

Apparently I had my solar panels cleaned at the exact right time.  Instead of the $2,000 bill my fiends got (NOT kidding, their bill was THAT much) ..... MY bill was a $168.00 CREDIT.  I can't believe it.  I ran my AC more than I EVER have because this is the first summer in seven years that I stayed here and the heat was the worst in TEN years.  I was pretty shocked to say the least.  I guess I'm doing something right!

Maybe I can even afford to buy Mr. Cooper another ball!!  Yup this is his favorite that he absolutely refuses to give up.  I threw it away once.  He stood at the trash can in the kitchen and barked until I gave it back.  He doesn't seem to care if it doesn't roll any more.

Once cleaned up and cooled off, I began to quilt the quilt.  I really don't have any cowboy appropriate patterns, but this Castle Scroll looked like the swirling wind kicked up by the horses.  I know, I have a weird imagination.  The second one is just circles that I was able to make fit (more or less) in the border space.  I'm actually having lots of fun being able to program the computer to do this!!

Instead of doing every square with something different, I decided to do the center with this longhorn pattern.  New patterns are $20.00 each, downloaded to your computer, then transferred to the longarm computer.  Apparently COWBOY is not a popular one unless it's stick horses.

Yessiree ... I spent an entire six hours quilting this thing.  There were a couple of minor errors, like forgetting to make this one a tad bit bigger, but I was able to FLIP it upside down for the bottom border.  As long as it was inside the edge, it was fine with me.  

TA-DA!!  It was finally done ... and of course Cooper approved.  I'm not thrilled with the backing since it couldn't be further from COWBOY, but it matches a couple of the squares, so there's that.  I'm loving the challenge of quilting different parts with different patterns.  Thanks RAY for the lessons and for poking me with a stick to figure it out.     

And so ...... on to the next quilt since you know Nancy cannot sit still for any length of time.  

Today I'm on a mission to contact PleasureWay about the rig and get solid answers as to the exact route electricity takes.  At this point all I know is to unplug from power and turn the inverter off.  I'm wondering if I'm plugged in, can I turn the inverter off so it's quiet at night?????  SO many questions!

It should be an even MORE exciting day since the CORRECT piano hinge should arrive for the doggo ramp.  Let's see if I can mess THAT up!!!

BEER WORTHY

Another day, another dollar ... spent!  I ordered a different kind of hinge for the dog ramp.  I'm determined to make this thing work!!

It's another lovely morning, but someone turned up the heat a bit.  Maybe it's Ernesto in the Caribbean.  We are almost at 70 degrees and it's only 5:00 am.

What's the chicken you ask?  It's an iPhone advertisement of course.  Weird .... very weird.  At any rate, the hotspot on my phone works ... worked would be a better word.  Here's the thing.  Why do you have to do an immediate update on the brand new phone you just bought?  

Apparently the hotspot would not work because the BRAND NEW PHONE was not new enough to connect with the new computer unless updated.  Now everything on my phone is different.  Different settings, different screens and everything works differently.  I spent much of the day putting back all of my security measures and settings.  Of course now, it refuses to connect to my computer.  BIG SIGH!!  

I gave up at noon and loaded the cowboy quilt.  Apparently my dexterity is not what it used to be.  After a frustrating hour trying to get the red snappers to work (I think my bars are smaller and therefore harder to get the fabric straight) ... I gave up.  Yup .... I pinned it.  

Next up ... hunt down several patterns for the squares.  I have maybe three on the machine that might work, but nothing that really flipped my skirt.

So I tried shopping online.  It didn't take long before I was falling asleep at the wheel.  There are 79 pages of designs.  By the time I got to the good ones, they were $20.00 each and I could barely keep my eyes open.  Maybe I'll have lunch instead.

In the meantime, I called PleasureWay about a question I had on the van.  Every time I go in, the inverter is running on high speed.  That can't be good for it.  I'm plugged in, so it's keeping the computer screens running and the outlets active.  Can I just turn all that stuff off?

Yes he said ... I can.  But unlike my other rig, I have to unplug the van completely, turn off the electronics main switch and turn off the inverter main switch.  So what is going to charge the lithium coach batteries?  Nothing I guess.  So won't they die?  And how long might that take before I plug it back in?  I just can't wrap my head around all this electronic stuff.  Can I plug it back in but leave the inverter off or is it the inverter that charges the batteries?

Sewing is SO much easier.  Sort of ... but at least if you make a mistake, you can take it all apart and make it good again.  Which is exactly what I had to do with this one when I discovered after it was all done, that the bottom of the third row was stitched on upside down.  Oh my Great Aunt Sally!!!!  

I ignored it as long as I could.  I am not fixing it.  I am NOT fixing it.  It's just fine!!!  I'm fixing it.  I just couldn't stand it.  Magically, I might have just learned how to do it, because if I held one side down, my little ripper just breezed along between the layers and didn't cut anything it wasn't supposed to.  It was MAGIC!!  I finished sewing it back together and it all took maybe 15 minutes.  

 

And then I finished it up with borders.  DONE!  Backing will be a challenge on this one since this fabric is probably ten years old.  It's pretty hard to match design and color, but I think it turned out pretty nice.  Beer worthy, to say the least.

What's that you ask?  The Gooding Pro Rodeo is held in Gooding Idaho every year.  They have been breaking attendance records consistently.  What's different is the rough stock are some of the best in the business.  If you ride them and the BEER WORTHY sign is held up, the rider runs over to the specially approved LADIES BEER STAND in the grandstand for a beer.  

Let's be honest ... they get a beer for riding, for falling off and for just being a cowboy!!  

SEW ... (see what I did there?) THIS is my new coffee cup, stolen from Mr. Ed's Facebook account.  I NEED THIS!!  

I'll be back on the computer today to see if I can find any more patterns, so maybe ... just maybe ... I'll order this coffee cup so I can surf the web and stay awake at the same time!!

Some Times You WIN!!

 We are hanging out on the patio this morning in the 60's!!  Boy oh boy does it feel nice.  Even better, my fan brought in enough COOL to last until 3:00 when the AC finally came on.  I'm loving it!!!  I'm pretty sure wonderful friend Elva is parked under a blanket!!

I was met with this shining face this morning ... let's play the ball game Mom!!  I smile every time I see him.  He's becoming an old man with all his grunts and groans every morning.  Just like his Mom!!

First things first ... the computer of course.  I finally called Apple Support ... a free service with folks who are better at the NEW than I am.  The reason I GOT a new computer is because the latest and greatest banking apps (which I use almost exclusively now) do NOT work with old computers.  Their firewalls and security measures will not connect.  I can't connect unless I upgrade the computer.  I can't upgrade the computer because it is incapable of working with the new technology.  Believe me I tried, because as you know, new computers are pricey.

While roaming around in the depths of that old computer, I happened upon this image that brought back lots of memories.  I ran this marathon five years in a row ... back when I was a young 55 years old.  It was held in San Francisco every year, when it was a fabulous place to visit.  I don't have the patience for the practice now!!  Yes they let men run too, but very few ever did.  Far as I know, it's been discontinued.

So here's the computer update.  Most all of my problems are because I do not have a good internet connection.  Once they showed me how to hook up with my phone ... now a completely different way than I was doing previously (which made all the difference in the world) ... most of my email problems disappeared.  

As for Google and blogger, they are not quite as compatible with the NEW computer since they use older technology.  No one has any idea how or why Dave Burdick's name is showing up on my blogger comment emails.  I deleted that portion altogether, so maybe I'll add it back in a few days and see if it continues.   YAY ... SUCCESS!  

But NOT with the doggie ramp!  I went to Home Depot first and picked out the board I wanted.  I asked for someone to cut it and they pointed to two kids.  They were putting long fence pickets on a cart ... stacking them quite high.  The kid said he would help me in one minute.  Then they took the boards OFF the cart and put them back.  I waited.  They moved a bit and did it again.  I waited.  By the time they completely loaded and unloaded that cart THREE times while I stood there, I had seen enough.  There's certainly no SERVICE around here!!  

I headed out the door to Lowes where I got instant service from a nice kid who cut the boards for me.  Not that it mattered, because no matter what I did, I could NOT make them work like the guys told me.  Let's face it ... I do not have a MAN brain that can figure out stuff like this.  Carpentry is beyond my skills.

These two pieces should be connected by a hinge, but I couldn't fit the screwdriver in there to screw it down, and it should have metal side braces.  No matter HOW I put those braces on, they would not work.

No kidding, I think I spent four hours on this dumb thing and got nowhere!!  Yes, it looks steep here, but it's not really.  I spent the next hour hoping to find something on the internet I could just buy.  The problem is I only have an 8" wide space.  They don't make them that narrow.  

Since my carpenter friend is off on a 6 week vacation back East, I guess this will have to wait.  Actually, I'm thinking I'll just get one long board with a block on the end to hook on to the couch.  Anyway, that was a nice failure for the day.

This gave me a good chuckle.  I swear, it happens to me every time!!!

After watching lots of rodeo for the evening, I was tired enough to fall asleep on the couch.  NOT Mr. Cooper's favorite place since he likes to really stretch out.  He woke me up with some really good barks, making me think someone was at the door.  Sneaky little kid!!  We headed off to bed where he stretched out as far as he could.

It's FRIDAY and another week has flown by.  Actually HALF A MONTH has flown by.  Time to put another quilt on the frame for one of two things ..... frustration or SUCCESS!!!  I vote for success!!

The Surgery Went Well

 Oh what a day!!!  It was COOL ... or at least COOLER!  I struggled with the new computer and internet connections for an hour before giving up.  The new one will connect to the Verizon MiFi, but NOT to the iPhone hotspot.  It says not compatible.  Are you kidding?  Frustration groweth!  That's a word, I'm sure of it!!

What better way to start out than to go to the Dentist.  I have a thing about dentists, so I stay far far away as much as possible.  Luckily I have good teeth and a good friend who is (was) a dental technician.  Now retired, she forces me to go, even if I'm kicking and screaming.  It's only a cleaning.  You'll survive!

I was exhausted from a late Bingo night and no sleep, so the second I got back and hit the couch, I was asleep.  I woke up to SOMEOME licking my nose.  Mr. Cooper wanted out.

Since I was up, I decided to commence the surgery I had in mind.  For those that recommended getting a new battery, this thing is twelve years old.  It's toast ... meaning even if I got a new battery, which I'm sure can't be had, everything is so outdated that it won't connect to the internet.  

EVERYTHING requires an internet connection nowadays.  And a good one to boot.  There's so much security required with my computer (which is a good thing), that it will not connect to my banking accounts unless it is completely up to date.    

The big problem is getting the hard drive out, which contains all the important data.  I grabbed my screwdriver (the surgical one) and put on my scrubs.  It was really hard to get those teeny tiny screws out.  I lost two completely, which I later found on the floor when I stepped on them.

The battery was so expanded that the last screw would not come out.  I had to pop the bottom plate off.  So here it is ... an amazing array of tiny dots and connections.  That's the hard drive, top right according to Google ... who by the way, explained to me how to extract it.

I was pretty leery of the battery exploding when the pressure was released, I mean what do I know ..... so I took it outside on a box destined for the dump.  Looking down the side, you can see the black battery is distorted.

Kind of like pulling a tooth, I unscrewed the frame piece, grabbed it with pliers and pulled.  One more connection and it was out.  No fuss, no muss.  By the way, Apple no longer uses Toshiba hard drives since they are not compatible.  Uh huh ...............

More teeny tiny dots ... this is the back side. 

And so .... feeling oh so accomplished .... now I have to take it to the dump.  There is a special place for electronics to go, a spot that I'm sure will cost me an arm and a leg .. like a cemetery for computers.  

When dinner time rolled around, I tried my same surgical skills on dinner.  It didn't go so well.  That is a chicken breast (hardly recognizable) in a watery apricot jam sauce that tasted terrible.  How can Chefs make such good sauces out of practically nothing, while I use primo ingredients that end up having no flavor?  All I can say is the salad was tasty!!

On my list today ..... head down to Lowes and buy the wood required for the doggie ramp.  I'll let you know how that goes.  

In the meantime, I'll be on the phone with Apple Care to find out WHY oh WHY my computer will not recognize my iPhone hotspot.  I'm thinking most of my computer problems are from not having a good internet service.  I guess we shall see!!

Another Episode of The Magic Castle

 Is it a full moon?  I know I ask that question every Tuesday night ... but really, is it a full moon?  It sure FELT like a full moon.  Maybe it was the solar flare.  Please don't tell me THAT affects Bingo!  There's already enough stuff for a LIFETIME, let alone adding on to the confusion!

It's a lovely 61 degrees this morning.  I think that's why I sleepeth NOT.  I arrived home at 10:30 and was still wide awake at 2:30.  I finally gave up at 5:30.  I was COLD.  Can you believe it?  I may just have to put a blanket back on the bed!!

I arrived at the Magic Castle of Bingo just in time to be confronted with a few problems.  It's like that every week.  We got our electric true-up bill for the month and it was a whopper!  Now finally able to check our output via an app on my phone, I looked at two months ago versus now.  Oh yeah ... that solar panel cleaning is going to be dramatic.  At least I HOPE it will.  Otherwise, we are going to have to get creative and print our own money!  Just kidding!!  

The keeper of the thermostat will be admonished to do a better job!!

Next I tracked down two Knights of the Round Table (in the upstairs bar) to ask a favor.  If I buy the lumber, can you cut pieces so I can make this?  I need a doggie ramp in the RV for Cooper.  I would just buy this one, but they range from $79 to $179 and it's too wide.  

They jumped right on it and completely redesigned the project into a foldable very complicated version.   When I walked away, they were still talking about it ... and completely redesigned a THIRD version by nights end.  You've got to love those helpful Knights.  I'll be working on this as soon as I get exact measurements.  That should be fun, yes?  A female with a skill saw! 

Next up, the Bookkeeper tracked me down to say she had a carload of quilts to give me.  Apparently she was cleaning out her mother's house to discover piles of quilts handmade by her grandmother.  I mean original ... all stitched by HAND ... quilts, from scrap fabric.  My Jeep now runneth over with the lovely smell of OLD.  That's why they are still in the Jeep!!  I'll get them out into the sun today and take a few pictures.

As for the Magic Castle ... I started out on the wrong foot.  I was too distracted by a couple of problems that kept my brain screaming for the first hour.  I counted the cash wrong right off the bat, followed by the Infernal Machine running out of paper in spite of me checking it twice like Santa Claus.  That brought out the pitchforks since the line became slower than usual.

We again had new folks who think it's your straight-line kids Bingo.  You should see their eyes get big when they see how the games are actually played.  In no time we were off to the races.  I put fives in the TEN DOLLAR slot and twenties in the FIVE.  I KNOW it's a full moon.  

Things went along as smoothly as can be expected until a man and his wife showed up, having heard about our dungeon fun and games.  Since they were new players, we went through all the explanations.  You both have to buy in.  She's blind he stated.  Oh ... okay, then she can sit with you while you play ... for the minimum $20.00.  

An hour later I looked over to see her dark glasses on her head, looking intently at his cards.  Wait ... isn't she blind?  She was even pointing at the numbers.  Pretty soon he caught sight of me looking, gave her THE LOOK and she instantly put her glasses back on.  Ummmmm what's going on here?  Maybe she can see after all?  

You see ... or maybe not ... it's a rule that if you are in the building, you have to play.  You cannot just sit and watch.  Unfortunately there's no way to prove it one way or the other, so they were allowed to stay this time.  

The infernal machine hassled me all night long with things like Received on Account instead of a payout.  Those are really hard to fix.  In no time I had a big mess trying to balance.  I was $200 off.  Lucky for me, I discovered the abacus I was using had a flaw.  It was the user of course.  Once I gave it a good whack on the side, it balanced perfectly!!  I literally RAN out the door.

There definitely won't be much going on this morning.  If I'm lucky, I'll fall asleep after breakfast and catch up on the ZZZZZ's I missed last night.

Here's a picture of Jonathan since he doesn't get to make an appearance very often.  He's actually sleeping.  You can see his eye is weird ... cataracts I suspect.  He can't see very well any more, which is why most birds don't live this long.  Once they can't see, they get eaten in the wild.

Besides the doggie ramp build ... I have to find some lumber first ... THIS will be my project of the day.  I tried to get a picture of the battery bulge on this old computer.  I looked online to find directions on how to take it apart.  It should be an easy thing to do.  I'll take out the hard drive and toss the rest.  

There really are a ton of pictures on here that I would like to save, including all of my Alaska pictures.  Yes I put them on an external hard drive, but it crashed and burned several years ago.  Nothing electronic lasts forever I guess.

And so I wish you a cool end-of-summer day.  School starts here this week.  Aren't you glad you don't have to deal with THAT any more?  

Dave Burdick ... Where Are You???

OH BOY .... it's a FABULOUS 61 degrees here this morning.  I'm enveloped in COOL and it feels SO nice.  The back door is open and the fan is bringing in all the wonderfulness.  It makes the days much more palatable!

So here's Dave again .... I'll try to explain.  Google wants to know every tiny little thing about your business.  If you do not accept their COOKIES (not the sweet kind), they will not let you have admin rights to your OWN account.  The only way my name would show up if I commented on mine (or any other blog) was to accept the cookies and let them track my every move.  They suck!!

When I allowed that, Dave Burdick's name began to show up.  On this account, I have added my email address to receive an email every time someone comments, including myself.  Not my choice, it's just how they have it configured.  All of a sudden, all of those emails from this Google Account have Dave Burdick's name on them.  There are several Dave Burdick's, so maybe it's a hacker ... I've no idea.   Today I'll just remove that email notice and see what happens.  

This actually happened once many moons ago.  It added the name of a friend I met in Oregon.  All of my google account email notices were coming from a lady I met up there.  There's no way she could or WOULD have done such a thing ... so I think it's just a glitch in their system.  Makes you wonder though .....

On with the day ..... I took the quilt off the frame, still needing the side borders to be done.  At the suggestion of ladies with much more experience on the same machine, I turned it sideways and pinned it back on.  Notice I said PINNED.  There was no way I could use the red snappers with the weight, and it needed to be as straight as possible. 

I can't believe I did it!!  I was actually able to figure out how to flip the border so it looked the same on both sides.  WOOHOO!!  Not sure I could ever do it again ... AND I skewed it so it fit perfectly in the "box".  It was even COOPER APPROVED!!!

I have two more quilts to practice on, so maybe I'll get a little more proficient at red snappers and quilting within the lines!!  

When lunchtime came around, I was trying so hard to be good.  As you know, I'm terrible at decision making.  Here's what it looks like on paper.

And so I whipped up a HUGE grilled cheese sandwich with extra sharp cheese ... LOTS of it.  It smelled so good I didn't even take time for a picture until it was almost gone.  YUM YUM!!  So much for healthy eating.

It was kind of a weird day ... the ghosts of Kissack Kastle were out in force.  My TV suddenly died with a message NO SATELLITE CONNECTION.  What?  It just quit?  I thought it was the Cowboy Channel, who has trouble on occasion, but NO ... it was the entire system.  Well that's not good!

Of course my first question is "is it ME or THEM".  I tried to find the signal strength section, but it was elusive.  In a last ditch effort, I unplugged the entire thing and plugged it back in.  There was the usual six minute wait time for it to load and VOILA ... I had TV once again.  What the heck was that?  No clouds, no wind, no nothing ... just complete signal loss.  Maybe a sun flare .... they blame a lot of things on that nowadays.

And SO I went back to SEWING on this quilt.  Progress!!  Though there was a big OOPS when I stuck the last row up ... it was upside down ... but it was fixable.  No sewing today ... I have to gear up for the ever wonderful and exciting pitchforks and flaming torches for tonights session of Bingo.

Dinner looked surprisingly familiar.  Ummm wait ... didn't I just have Dutch pork with carrots and potatoes?  I'm pretty sure this is the EXACT same meal, with a different name.  

It actually turned out quite tasty.  I am getting a little tired of all the carrots, but I guess it's easy to include ... they will last forever in that box they send everything in.  Maybe a Habit Burger is in order ... or TACOS!!

The night ended with another bit of a sunset.  Any sunset is a good sunset around here, since we rarely have clouds.  When they say sunny California, they mean it.  

Time to put on my steel underwear and body armor vest in preparation for a rousing night of BINGO.  Maybe I need to borrow a couple of good luck charms for my desk.  It might help with Google.

I DID IT .... Nope ..... Maybe .... Kinda Sorta

 Good Morning to every wonderful blog reader out there!!  It's a FABULOUS 64 degrees this morning.  WOOHOO!!  Maybe, just MAYBE the last example of Hell is over and done with.  We get it ... we are all trying to mind our P's and Q's because none of us can take THAT kind of heat!!

I splurged right off the bat!  I discovered I still had half a bag of these pastries from THAT store in Utah.  Obviously, I almost left them in the air fryer too long, but can you say crispy crunchy and delicious??  I was a big piggy and ate every single one.

First things first ... let's say hello to Dave Burdick.  No kidding Dave, every time I comment on my blog, I get an email from you.  If I click on your name, it says NANCY KISSACK.  This happened to me once before many moons ago.   I never could figure out how or why.  The emails come from Google.

I'm pretty sure it's a bug from something I opened by mistake.  I would give anything to know how to do it in return to whoever sent it to me.  I changed the email address in blogger several times, to no avail.  And so every morning I just say HELLO DAVE.  At this point I'm just thankful I was able to figure out how to get Blogger to work.

Done with that for the time being, I headed out to start the generator in the rig.  I prayed that I didn't have the same troubles with this thing.  Can you imagine???  

I unplugged and started the generator, then after a few minutes, very tentatively hit the AC button ... the snowflake on the bottom.  It came on.  YAY!   It died.  NOT YAY!  Apparently that is a good sign that the generator does not run on diesel.  I went outside and turned the propane on.  Holding my breath ... please please work ... I turned the generator on and let it run for a bit once again.  I tapped the snowflake and sure enough, the AC unit came on.  It's weird because it's a soft start.  

I let it run for about 15 minutes, then shut everything down.  You probably heard me sigh ... thank goodness SOMETHING is working right!  

Taking that as a sign that the ghosties had left the property, I headed straight for the longarm.  Let's see if I can mess THIS up!

I decided to start out slow.  I would do the borders in one pattern and the entire center in an edge to edge pattern.  The first border actually went fairly well.  There is a SKEW button that puts the border in the area you outlined, even if it isn't straight as an arrow.  It makes it fit perfectly with one tap of my finger.  

So far so good.  On to the center portion.  I had to do a little fudging here and there because the fabric was not perfectly square in spite of all my pulling and tugging.  What can I say, it was 1/4" off in one spot.  I know, I'm a perfectionist!!  I did think it was appropriate that the spider landed right on her head!!

There were a couple hiccups like running out of bobbin thread and trying to figure out where it was in the pattern.  Well actually, it was ME trying to figure out where to start.  How do you know unless you are standing there watching it every second?  

At long last I was at the bottom.  Here comes the BEST PART!  The pattern was 7 inches long.  I only had 5 inches to quilt.  Figuring out how to cut the bottom off is HARD.  It's called cropping.  BUT ... lookie here!  Beginners luck I think, because it came out just fine.  

I finished up the bottom border and took it off the machine.  Now to turn it sideways and do the other two borders.  It's much easier than trying to sew a vertical border.  

By the end of the day, sitting out on the patio admiring the rare sunset, I decided that all the computer problems can't be all ME.  After all, that quilting machine is all computer operated too!  

And so ended another day of feeling accomplished ... sort of ... at least I'm getting better at it!!

Happy Monday to everyone ... I hope your day is cool and problem free.  Maybe a margarita will help!!

Now to figure out why my computer can't find my AT&T hotspot.  It can only find my not-so-great Verizon MiFi.  What's up with that??

SUCCESS ... Or Maybe NOT

I had a lovely morning sunrise picture for you ... some nice color coming over the horizon due to the cloud cover ... but alas, it has chosen NOT to go flying over the airwaves and arrive at my in-box. 

Sometimes you just have to be patient.  As you well know, that person is not me.  I guess I can be more patient with people than I can with THINGS, which of course includes computers.  However, being the stubborn old gal that I am, I'm tenacious.

After another three hours on the new computer yesterday, I discovered Google is a shark in Nemo clothing.  If you do not accept all their cookies, regardless of what info they collect on you, you cannot OWN your google accounts, causing havoc when it comes to Blogger, which is of course a google product.

While I actually got it to work, now my email seems to have been hacked ... weirdly ... because all the notices that I get from Google are from Dave Burdick.  No kidding ... how did THAT happen?  Even if "I" comment on my blog, an email comes from Dave Burdick.  Who knows what's going on ... and now none of my emails work on the computer OR my phone.  BIG SIGH!!!!!

And so I just snuggled on the couch with Mr. Cooper for awhile, to soothe the savage beast.  Me, not him.

Let's try something different.  Let's get even MORE frustrated by trying to use these new red snappers on my quilting frame.  I imagine you get used to them, but I spent twice as much time on this as I would have if I just pinned it on like normal. 

Not that they are hard to get on, but I simply could not get the bottom edge even CLOSE to even.  There was either way too much fabric showing out the bottom, or none at all, meaning it would not hold.  The fabric really needs to be straight and even when quilting.   I will reserve judgement until I quilt this Halloween fabric and see how it turns out.  That is if I'm not too stressed out about not getting my emails this morning.

At least here is some good news.  The license was due on my truck.  What?  It's $300 cheaper this year?  How did THAT happen?  Am I still in California?  I almost missed the tags taped inside the envelope.  Is this a joke?  Why would you do that?  Thankfully one thing went right ... the tag stuck to the license plate.  It's the little celebrations that count, yes?

And so to keep myself distracted from the screaming in my head, I went to sewing on this quilt.  That's when I discovered I made a mistake on one piece.  Thirty minutes of taking everything apart and putting it back together again and I had ONE example of a square.  Then I found the SECOND mistake.  I'm not fixing it.  Sometimes you just have to let it go, even if little men are stomping on your brain with spiked boots.  NO ONE WILL NOTICE.

I did take a few breaks, taking Mr. Cooper outside to grass in the grass.  The clouds were a nice change of pace and 94 degrees was better than 105.  

I tried to fix the email again ... no luck whatsoever and now my phone won't get mail either.  Maybe it's the AT&T hack thing going on.  I tried to be calm and go about my business.  How did we get so addicted to these things?  

So let's fix dinner ... parmesan chicken and couscous.  I don't know why I picked this.  I don't like their couscous and I don't like roasted broccoli.  Here's the should look like picture.  A nice WHOLE piece of chicken ... burnt broccoli ... and raw couscous.

This was MY version.  That chicken breast above was sliced in half to make TWO pieces.  I mean really, why do you advertise it like the picture, but give me half the amount.  Oh there was lots of broccoli, but I didn't ruin it in the oven .... I nuked it with butter instead.  The couscous ... well it wasn't quite done, so a little crunchy, but it tasted okay thanks to the ton of chicken stock and lemon peel.  

I keep thinking I will quit this delivery stuff again, but gosh darn it's convenient!!  I just have to make better choices, though I will admit, I used to get a BIG piece of chicken or pork, and now I get half that amount.  If you want more, or the "fancy" meals like steak, you have to pay up to $10 MORE for EACH serving.  That's not going to happen ..... so I may have no choice but to stop with the tasty meals.

Back to sewing once again, the hard part of this quilt is done, but not until I took apart another 14 pieces because I sewed it wrong.  You really have to concentrate with this complicated stuff.  Obviously I didn't have enough Pepsi to keep me on my toes.

Today I'll try to finish it up with the inside pieces and the outside borders.  I really like this pattern and the colors, but I have no idea what pattern I might use to quilt it.  Hummingbirds or snowflakes just doesn't seem appropriate!

And so ended another day that went by as fast as lightning.  One last thing ... I called the computer guy last night at 8:00.  Yup he's as crazy as I am ... he works from 9:00 in the morning to 9:00 at night.  He said to bring that old battery-expanded computer in and he would take a look.  On the other hand, I might just open it up and pour in a bottle of bleach!!!