Roomba -- a vaccuum or a carnival ride?

OK, when I think of a Roomba, I usually think of the SNL commercial... and want to stop thinking about the Roomba immediately! But I followed this link from mental_floss today, and it's 46 seconds of good clean amusement... it could be the centerpiece of a feline amusement park ;) Watch and smile. Then, imagine 25-lb George-the-cat attempting this...

Friday Flashback... on Thursday

I thought I'd borrow a page from Dorothy and do a "Friday Flashback," although it's only Thursday. You'll get over it :)

I snapped this not-so-great pic the other day when I went out for lunch... near the office, there are a bunch of ginko trees, and they were dropping their leaves. I immediately thought of eighth grade science class, where we were required to do a leaf collection. Pretty much everyone thought it was a waste of time -- especially our parents, who had to ferry us around trying to find enough different leaves to earn a respectable grade. Of course everyone could get the "usual" leaves and needles, like oak, pine and maple, but western Michigan wasn't exactly a overflowing with a wide variety of trees from which we could pluck samples.

But there *were* two ginko trees, outside the main entrance of a factory (I think) on a busy road in the next town. So my mom took me one afternoon, and I think I ended up running up the rather long sidewalk while she waited in the car, blocking a lane of traffic. Today, I wonder why I didn't collect a bunch of them, then sell them to my classmates :)

I think the trees are gone now... if memory serves, that location is now a Rite Aid. (Which of course, is directly across the street from Walgreens!)

Nine Holes in 15 Minutes

Nope, not the world's fastest trip through half a golf course, but my doctor's appointment this morning! I had to see the allergist, since he changed all my allergy and asthma meds two months ago. We're reasonably happy with my progress, so will stay the course for another four months and re-check before the joys of spring set in! I was diagnosed asthmatic 28 years ago, so this is all rather routine at this point. (Wow, did that make me sound OLD!)

Anyway... you're wondering about the holes, I'm sure ;) Doc insisted on an allergy skin test, which is much different than it was 28 years ago. There are eight prick sites on the inside of my right forearm, and, although they were extremely itchy, it was kind of fun (in a sick way) to watch how quickly they swelled up! As expected, I reacted strongly and quickly all eight of the allergens. Doc suggested I live in a bubble :) I'm all for it, as long as someone else will clean it... Any interest? The pay sucks, but I am mildly entertaining...

Then it was flu shot time... that went in my left arm, in the usual location. It doesn't hurt at the moment, but I always have a local reaction to it, so I expect I'll have soreness in that area for a few days. If I could ice the injection site, I wouldn't have the soreness, but I'm told that negatively affects the efficacy of the shot, so... we'll see. I really need to work on my birthday blocks for November this weekend, and another secret project... We'll see what happens!

Posting from my new Blackberry

Really, this is more of a test message than anything else, so I apologize for cluttering your feedreaders!

Happy Howl-o-ween ... And happy birthday, Dad!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

October block done!

That was fast... I sat down to watch a movie and finished the handwork completely during that time. Yay!

The vertical seam to the left is a whipped backstitch with silk ribbon for the "whipping." The top sort of horizontal seam is just a buttonhole stitch; I stitched it onto the flower fabric, then came back on the little check. The bottom sort of horizontal one has little red grosgrain ribbon just stitched with pink running stitches. I also added the pale blue french knots above the red rickrack, and the button.

The white rickrack... well, in my head, this flipped back onto the block. In reality, that would be two layers of rickrack and six of fabric along that edge, since it's on the seam allowance. Wish I had thought of that first! I'll let Diane tell me if it's OK to leave it as is, or if I should open that edge and remove it. (Oh -- you figured out that my month is February, right?!)

On an unrelated note... I finally broke down and replace the power cord/brick for my laptop. It was a mess, and probably dangerous, since there were frayed, exposed wires. Gee, that was only $118... Now you know why I was avoiding this problem!

October Birthday Block - in progress

In progress - Diane's block
Originally uploaded by AJB30

Some work on Diane's birthday block for October. She picked a crazy quilt BOM from victorianaquiltdesigns.com. I guess I'd say it's a calendar theme -- we were each assigned a month and need to make a block that reflects events, holidays, seasons, whatever for that month. Can you guess my assigned month just from this much work?

My mom sent me a package with some scraps of trims -- laces, ribbons and rick rack -- to use for my block. She's making a cotton crazy quilt, so she has a big black box of goodies like that. (Lucky me -- saved me money and shopping! Thanks, mom!)

I've got two seams to "cover" with hand embroidery, some buttons to sew on, and I have to put something in that plain red fabric on the right. I also could take it off and use something more interesting since it's the last seam of the block. I dunno. Less of it will show in the final product anyway, since the white basting thread marks the 1/4" seam allowance, and there's another 1/2" of extra past that at the moment so I don't wreck the block completely by handling it. I hope!

Of course, I didn't see the little dark thread on top of the block until after I uploaded the photo... Ah well. I'm hoping to get this done this weekend, since it's actually a WORK-FREE WEEKEND. Yippee!

I am alive...

But life seems crazier than usual. Not sure why, but that's life. I'm OK... stay tuned.