My Week In Review

This may be the norm for my blog for the next month or so, we'll see.  I'd like to be posting more frequently, but I'm preparing for my vacation trip to the north, which begins on 3 July and I'll be gone for the better part of July.

I'll begin with last Friday, having completely been caught unprepared that it was Flag Day!  When I was in elementary school, our local American Legion provided the school with a list of Flag rules which we students were to memorize and then pass a little quiz, and once passing it, we were than awarded a little cardboard certificate honoring our accomplishment.  We were taught loyalty to our country and to our flag.  The flag was to be honored and not disrespected.  It always bothers me to see our flag disrespected by rabble-rousers.  If they think our country and our flag are so bad, I'll gladly give them boot and send them somewhere else.   Frankly, I don't think they'd find ANY country to their liking as the only like causing mayhem and angst :)

I went to Costco last Friday; I hadn't been in quite awhile.  Didn't spend a lot but there were things we needed that I typically only buy there.  I hadn't been wearing shoes at home because I feel so very hot in the summer when I have to wear shoes and socks.  By the time I got to the check out, my feet were cramping and that continued until I was almost home.  I could feel the muscles contract too.  Later in the day I also did my Walmart shopping, so more on my feet in shoes time, and those dogs were not happy.  I know, it's probably bad form to show feet pictures, but this is what my toes do these days when my feet decide they need to cramp up on me.  

See how those two toes next to the big toe pull down?  I couldn't intentionally do that if I tried, and they feel really weird when it happens.  I had just taken my shoes & socks off so the tops of my feet still have the sock imprint too.  I think in part, I had them laced too tight which cuts off circulation resulting in cramps.

We'll now jump to Monday, and my excitement for that day was this,

You know how sometimes there's just a little bit of something in a bottle in the fridge and you want to be able to get it out of said bottle so you grab bottle and swing it down so that the force flings the sauce to the opening?  Well, someone didn't put the lid on tight and I didn't check it and I ended up with barbecue sauce everywhere but on the country pork ribs that I wanted it on.  So I the spent the next half hour or so cleaning cupboard doors, walls, refrigerator, cat bowls, and obviously, the floor.  So God has a sense of humor in making me do something I hadn't gotten to in a long while, cleaning floors.  They really need a deep scrub with bleach - the grout is supposed to be cream, not brown!   But then, the grout would also have to be re-sealed and I'm just not into that right now.  Besides, that tile was destined to come out with the kitchen remodel that may never get done until we decide if we're ever selling this house, lol.

Now these, this is what that barbecue sauce was supposed to go on, and thankfully I had a full, unopened bottle in the pantry.  They look almost burnt, but they weren't.  Marty thought they were a little tough, but I used a knife with my fork and didn't find them to be tough at all. All I did with these was place them on that foil lined pan in my large toaster oven, season with a little S & P and baked at 250 for 90 min.  After that, I basted them about every 1/2 hour for the next 4 hours or so, turning each time.  

And sauteed mushrooms make a good accompaniment to ribs in my book.  Along with a nice potato salad, which I didn't get a picture of but referred to as mashed potato salad as I managed to overcook the potatoes just a bit and add too much dressing made from mayo, pickle juice, mustard and spices.

Earlier in the day, I had also pulled all fabrics of a certain type for the project I want to take to quilt camp in mid-July.  In so doing, I realized I had very few lights and needed an equal number of those, so on Tuesday, I first checked the only two places in town that carry any fabric at all.  One is Joann's - and well, I really dislike our Joann's, it's old, not well maintained though better than it was a decade ago, and they just didn't have a single piece of anything I was looking for.  So I went to the other place, and they only had three fabrics I was happy with.  I came home again, and just was not satisfied that the three plus the ones I had were enough, so I decided I'd travel to a couple stores out of town, about a 20 - 25 mile one-way trip, ugh!  I found four more pieces I was satisfied with at the first place and was surprised they didn't have more as they're a huge place, but they tend to be heavier on batiks and a good sampling of all others but minimal on 1800's, so I drove even further on to the other place that I knew had a lot of 1800s repros and found six more pieces.  This is the project and some of the fabrics from my existing stash, I didn't take any pics of my purchases:

 I can't give a week's worth of updates without at least one kitty pic.  Here, from Wednesday is laser cat, revealing why her name is Flame, who was caught studying for her piano practice recital.  The pink striped mousie in the background is Raven's.  It's funny how the cats have chosen completely different toys to play with and call their own.  And they don't take each others!

Also on Wednesday, well, to be more exact Tuesday night, but they had it all day on Wednesday, my car went to the car doctor for it's annual check up which included oil change, new drive belts, timing belt (eek, that one's expensive), and a bunch of other stuff.  So yesterday, after getting my car back Wednesday afternoon, I drove Nick to his piano lesson and on the return stopped at Petsmart to get cat food & litter (can't have Marty run out of that while Nick & I are gone).  When we got back into the car, those three lights came on, and stayed on.  So why are they on just one day after getting my car back from the spa?  I drove on home without incident, and looked them up in the manual "Take vehicle to Toyota Service Dealer", ok, so I call and arrange to take the car back this morning, which I did, all the while with these lights glaring at me.  I also had to get up early to do this, no happy camper here!

I reached the dealership, stopped the car and turned the ignition off.  The assistant service manager, who had processed my car a couple days before, came out, I started the car back up, NO IDIOT LIGHTS!  What?!! So the dude tells me there's no way of knowing what caused it, but it 'self-corrected'.  And, IF, they come back on, bring the car back.  When the lights go off, the car's diagnostic computer resets/erases whatever info was indicating a problem.  He insisted it must've been the gas cap and even opened the gas door and further tightened the cap for emphasis.  Wrong!  I've been there/done that and none of those are the lights that come on when the gas cap hasn't been put on correctly, and besides, the gas cap hadn't been touched in 209.7 miles since I'd filled up over a week ago.  Surely the light would've come on before this, and certainly only one light, not three different ones!  Now I'm a bit worried about having a problem on my 900+ mile drive in a couple of weeks.  If there is a real problem, hopefully those lights come back on before then, and I'll go straight to the car shop!

Over these last few days, I've been starching, pressing & cutting all those fabrics so that when I get to quilt camp all I'll have to do is sew, sew, sew and be happy.  As I'm cutting, this is adding just that much more to my scrap bins, and of course having had to make new purchases, also added to my stash. 

I'll be back on Sunday for sure with my stash report numbers....headed in the wrong direction, hehe.