Wednesday (W)rambling

Do you have those times when you just don't feel settled enough to stick to any one thing for any length of time?  I do, and I don't like it, and wish I weren't that way.  But I am, so it is what it is. 

I see it's been several days since I last posted; just can't figure out how that happens.  Re-read first paragraph. 

I've been staying up late entering genealogy information into my Family Tree Maker software database.  It's time consuming, and I research at the same time over at Ancestry.com and several other sites depending on what information I'm trying to uncover.  I'm simultaneously adding to my tree at Ancestry.com.  The FTM software, I believe, has the ability to allow me to work in one and it's entered in both locations, though I could be mistaken, but there is some information on some folks that is best left to just my eyes and not to be seen by those out in the who-knows-where parts of Creation, so I enter the data separately.

And, because I've been staying up late, I've been sleeping in as Nick is now out of school for the summer.  Tomorrow however, I'm expecting the A/C man at 8:00 a.m. so I need to be up and ready for the day before he gets here, so that means to bed at a decent time tonight.  Our A/C is keeping us plenty cool, but the problem is that we have three zones controlled by three controllers and it seems a damper motor has stopped working as one of the two upstairs zone's controller, when activated, is cooling not only the rooms it's supposed to cool, but the entire downstairs as well, which is a single zone.  It gets way too cold downstairs when all one is trying to do is cool 1/2 the upstairs.

Raven decided this morning was a very good morning to play fetch again.  And she was a very good girl at it too.   She happily ran off chasing that green-striped stuffed mouse and trotted head held high to bring it back squarely to be dropped at my feet.  It's been awhile since she's been so obliging.  Oh, she's still played, but would only bring the mouse half-way so I'd have to go get it, or she just wouldn't bring it back at all, or she'd come in and mewl like she wanted to play, but not have the mouse, or the puff-puff, with which to play.  

What she's really saying is "please! let me down! I don't want to be held! ever!" She doesn't like to be held and always turns away from anyone trying to hold her

What do you do when you have this who-knows-how-old fabric, that looks, and feels like sheets from the 1960s?

A ruler added to show size of those blue roses.

This is what you do: you cut it into big squares and use it as foundations for a string quilt :)

The squares from each piece.

Leaving a strip of the original fabric showing in each block.  These blocks will be further cut and moved around before being rejoined.

Before sewing any strings onto the foundations, I sorted through my string bin and pulled what I thought would work for the look I was going for, both color-wise and print-wise.  The two different fabrics have different string fabrics for the most part.  And do you know, the bin seems to have no less in it now than when I started plus the fabrics I pulled from the bin seem to still fill the two containers I'd set aside for them.  How does that happen?  So, one of the things I've been trying to figure out is, how do I whittle that down even more?  Guess I'll be pulling some more ugly fabrics for foundation squares, and I may make the foundation strip not show at all or be skinnier at least.

I also have Nick's Washington DC trip on my mind.  He leaves early Monday morning.  He's never been away from us, nor we from him, for this long, nor this far before.  I guess this Mama is just a wee bit nervous about that long air flight even though there are about 27 adults going along with 35 or so students and one is the mom of Nick's best friend, and she's my friend as well so I know she'll watch over him like a hawk.