Boring Post

The dog days of summer have definitely arrived here in North Texas! August is the hottest month of the year for us and the second driest month historically. Hot and dry, a wonderful combination! We've been at or over 100º for the past 3 days. I feel like I'm in the fiery furnace when I look outside!

Stitching-wise there's not much going on that I can show you. I should finish up my little complimentary exchange piece tonight and then get it ready to ship out to its recipient next Wednesday. It's such a cute piece! If Jan doesn't like it, I hope she sends it back to me! I don't see that happening, though as I have stitched several exchange pieces for her and she's never sent any of them back.

The garden continues to decline and roast under the hot sun. Unfortunately, most veggies, except for okra, don't tolerate our heat very well. We've pretty much eradicated the ugly leaf-footed bugs by using the shop vac on them in the morning and evenings. The cantaloupes have pretty much given up the ghost and the watermelons are on the way. The cukes have slowed down and I'm not sure they'll make it to reproduce in the fall, but we're trying to nurse them along. The bell peppers are filling out and producing, but the peppers get sun scald, which makes them pretty much inedible. The okra & jalapenos, however, are going like gangbusters! Here are pics of today's harvest:

Today's harvest basket was full of cucumbers! We have 4 White Wonder, 5 Lemon cucumbers, and 1 Marketmore 76 cucumber as well as a handful of jalapeno peppers.

Mark harvested the smallest of these watermelons late last week and then the other 2 were harvested yesterday and today. I think I'm going to be eating watermelon for awhile! That's okay though since ice cold watermelon is a great way to cool off on these hot summer days.



On the kitty front, Mr. Tumbleweed is settling in nicely. He's such a good kitty! We did have to take him to the vet for a tapeworm issue, but other than that, no problems with him whatsoever. I did think I'd lost him yesterday when I couldn't find him before it was time for me to go to work. We needed to feed him and put him in his room before we left. I spent 20 minutes calling and looking for the little twerp to no avail. Finally, I put some food down for Hannah and he came out of hiding when he heard the crunchies hit the bowl! This morning, I figured out where he'd been sleeping...under the couch!

He and Hannah are learning to play together. She still hisses and swats at him occasionally, but each day they do better together. He and Hannah tend to spend the most time together. I think he's trying to convince her to be his friend. They've played chase and wrestled a little bit, so I think he's close to winning her over. Callie pretty much ignores him unless he tries to get in her space and then she'll hiss at him. They have been seen running around and chasing each other, though. :o) Tumbles has full run of the house when we're home and awake. He goes back into his room at night and anytime we're not home. This is mainly because we're not here to supervise him with the girls in case something were to happen and because he's so tiny, we don't want him to slip out the door when we open it. He's afraid of the noise the door makes, which is a good thing, but since he's not chipped yet, we don't want to take any chances.

In this pic, he was going to jump Hannah, who is behind the curtain, but he was distracted by a jogger outside the window.

Here Callie, on the ottoman, and Tumble are looking out the window at something.

This is one of the best pics I have of the unique coloring and pattern to his coat. He's looking less like a brown tabby and more like a gray tabby boy.

The Olympics are Good for Stitching

Like many of you, I've been following the Olympics. I am not a huge winter sport fan, but when it's time for the Olympics, I love rooting for my country. Who cares that I don't have a clue about snowboarding or luge and wouldn't think of putting my body on a pair of ice skates! I still like to watch and get caught up in all the excitement. In the evenings, I have almost 3 hours of stitching time while the Games are on, not that I stitch for that long, but it's nice to know I have something to entertain myself with while stitching. Even though he's not an American, I think the whole world has fallen in live with Canada's Alexandre Bilodeau, the men's skier with an older brother who has Cerebral Palsy and they absolutely adore and support one another. He won Canada's first Gold medal on home soil! Yay for Bilodeau and for Canada! To see the medal count, click on the link below. I tried to get a little image to insert here, but that didn't work, so you get a link.

Olympic Medals: Gold, Silver, Bronze : Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

I have been stitching on a little exchange piece, so I can't show you the progress I made during last night's Olympic watching. But soon, I will!!

In other news, I'm still hacking and coughing and going through Puffs like crazy! I did call in sick to work yesterday and haul myself to the doctor, where I spent almost 2 hours. Good thing I took along a book! The DH went along as well, but he was more into napping than talking and keeping me entertained. The doctor was totally surprised that it was me who was honking and coughing so loud he could hear my down the hallway! (It's usually the DH who sounds like this.) After listening to my lungs and proclaiming they sounded "rough", which he was less than thrilled about, he had the nurse give me a big ol' shot in the right glut (which still hurts this morning!), made me sit for 30 mins to make sure I didn't have a reaction to it, then sent me on my way with 3 prescriptions. One is an antibiotic so I'll have to make sure to double my intake of acidophilus. One is a steroid inhaler thing (yuck!) to help open up the bronchial tubes. The last one was another prescription for cough syrup which makes me hyper. LOL It eventually does quiet the cough, but takes about an hour or so to kick in. Not that I like taking drugs, but I'm glad I went to the doctor. I'm really tired of coughing and blowing my nose!

Closing in on a Finish & Other News

My latest progress scan on Heart of America. It's creeping ever closer to a finish!! I've run out of English Ivy which is used on that bottom swirly thing that's not finished, but never fear! I have more in my stash closet, I just have to put my hands on it. I so want to get this one finished before starting on my new incentive piece, so I'm torn as to what I'll stitch on today. Do I try to finish this or do I go ahead and start "Give"? Decisions, decisions, decisions!!

In other news, I had a little gardening accident this past Tuesday while out harvesting bell peppers. I tried to lop off the side of my finger using my hand held pruning shears! OUCHIE!! This resulted in a trip to the minor emergency clinic, a DPT shot (diphtheria, pertussis aka whooping cough, and tetanus) in my arm that is STILL bugging me, and 5 pretty stitches on my finger. The stitches only impaired my stitching for a few hours. LOL I go back to see the nurse practitioner (a fellow stitcher btw) on Tuesday for the removal of the stitches. Things are healing nicely. I'm still putting some Neosporin on the wound and also some vitamin E gel on it to reduce scarring. At home, I try to go without a bandage, but if I'm going to be out and about, like at work, I put a bandage on it. I'm down to one band-aid now. Progress!

Here's the finger, all mummified after my visit to the clinic, with Callie investigating and protecting me:


When I first cut myself and was sitting on the couch trying to get the bleeding to stop, Callie immediately jumped up behind me and settled down on the blanket up there. She wouldn't leave me as she knew something was wrong with me. She was watching over me and wouldn't let Mark move her one inch! LOL When we got home, she followed me around constantly and was either on the floor near me or laying next to me at all times. I just love that cat!

Here are my not-so pretty stitches:


Surprisingly, I've not experienced much pain from the actual wound. Most of the pain and some bruising I've experienced were from the nerve block shot the NP injected into my finger to deaden it before beginning her little stitching project. I did experience some throbbing in the finger the day it happened and some tenderness, but mostly it's been pain free. Of course, if I manage to whack it on something, then it hurts, but left alone, there's no pain. I can even type normally now.

We have a few firsts in the garden! We have a pumpkin! After battling the squash vine borers, drenching rain, and heat, we've discovered at least one baby pumpkin on the vine. Woohoo!


We also have our first winter sown Purple Coneflower (echinacea)! I planted the seeds for these way back in February of this year. They've been slowly growing but have really taken off with the cooler temps and rain we've recently had.


Lastly, our first Green Zebra tomatoes! This was one of the heirloom tomato plants we got for $0.50 at a local nursery in May. We've babied these all summer and now they're producing babies! This tomato will not turn red, but will stay green with greenish stripes. If you click on the pic to see it larger, you'll see the green stripes already starting to form. Will be so fun to watch them mature. There's a total of 3 babies on the plant so far.



Fall is definitely here with football season well underway, the temps down to near 90º, and the days getting shorter. This is my favorite time of the year. Enjoy your fall!

Of Life, Old Friends, and Facebook

I have the wonderful opportunity to work with a bunch of kids. Most of them are in their early to mid twenties and are in school, either college or seminary (graduate school for people who want to enter into the ministry). Many of them are from other parts of the US and move back to their hometowns or home states upon graduating. Sometimes they leave our store and take ministry positions at churches in the area. I'm always hearing from my co-workers how this person or that person is doing and they found out on Facebook. So, several weeks ago, I took the leap and joined Facebook. I joined mainly to catch up with former employees, but little did I know that I'd also find 4 cousins and scads of friends from school!!

Even though I grew up in a big city, I was fortunate enough to live in the same house for the majority of my growing up years. In fact, my dad still lives in that house. Many of the people I graduated high school with I'd known since 2nd grade. We played softball together or against each other. We were in Girl Scouts together. We swam at the local pool together all summer long. We had sleepovers and birthday parties together. Still others, I'd met and befriended, or at least knew who they were, in middle school, which was 6th-8th grade at the time. So some of the people in my graduating class I went to school with for 7 years. Then there were those who'd gone to a different middle school and I didn't meet until my freshman year in high school, so we only spent 4 years together. Add into all of this the fact that I had an older brother who had a whole group of friends that practically lived at my house, which meant I knew many people in his graduating class as well.

I must confess that while I knew the vast majority of people in my graduating class, I didn't really have a lot of close friends. I only kept in contact with one or two after graduation, but that stopped as soon as life happened. You all know how that goes. I've always wondered how some of the people in my class turned out. Did they grow up? Did they get their acts together? Have they married, divorced, had kids, become productive members of society? Do they still live in our hometown? You know, all those normal things inquiring minds want to know.

Little did I know that when I signed up on Facebook, one of the first questions asked when setting up your profile is the high school you attended and the year you graduated. If you include this information in your profile, you're added to the list of graduates for that particular high school as well as the list for your graduating class. I perused the list for my HS class (TR '84!!) and really didn't find anyone that I was just dying to know how their life had turned out, so I proceeded to find family members and former/current employees. I was quite content with my Facebook experience.

About a week into my life on Facebook, lo and behold, someone from my graduating class sent me a friend request! I was quite shocked and surprised because I didn't really figure anyone would want to know what had happened to me. After all, we hadn't kept in touch over the past 25 years. I recognized this girl's name, thankfully she used her maiden and married names, so I approved her request. Come to find out, she lives about an hour south of me! Soon, I found several people I'd know since elementary school! If you know anything about Facebook, you know that once one person finds you, everybody and their dog will find you. I've been able to reconnect with lots of old friends. Some of them we go way back, all the way back to the playground at the elementary school. It's been so much fun catching up with them and seeing how their lives have turned out. I've also come to realize that I really did care about these people more than I wanted to admit. Now, I'm really hoping we can pull together a 25 year class reunion (yikes!) so that I can hug all these people's necks and talk with them face-to-face. I'd really like to see them in real life, not just chat via inbox messages.

The one thing that really bothers me is a comment made on one of my pics. This was my 4th grade school picture.



He says, "Absolutely cute! That's how I remember you." We then spent the next 6 years together. It disturbs me that he doesn't remember me like this, my senior picture.



Guess I wasn't as "cute" then!! LOL LOL LOL I must admit, I really like that 4th grade picture, especially my hair color. What I wouldn't give for that color now!

(o: