(no subject)

The sweltery hot weather has broken for the moment, and so I'm back out on the porch today. Hagen is free in his newly-fenced backyard, and I see him peep out from the jungle with sticks and things every so often. I bought him a large horsefeed bin which is filled with water for his drinking and splashing pleasure. So far, he seems to be enjoying himself.

It's been a quiet few days here at Foolish Pleasure. We had duty Friday night, and then Dana pulled a shift up at Richmond -- if things go well, he only has two more shifts there and he should be DONE with everything needed for his medic class. Then it's just studying and drilling until his test in August. Monday we visited a rescue squad up in the city -- Soupy, one of his instructors, is a member there -- and filled out applications. Being in the city, there are a lot more interesting trauma calls than we see down here, plus it's right around the corner from a Krispy Kreme, which makes ME tremendously happy. We hit Nacho Mama's in Carytown for dinner (being foiled in our attempt to eat curry), and spent some time visiting with Soupy who is just lots of fun.

Yesterday we'd planned to go see the new Superman movie, but never motivated sufficiently to leave the house. Dana got some mowing done before the truly evil heat set in, and I did a bunch of laundry and cleaned, and then we retreated to our computers for a while. I won an Entourage keychain, which I care nothing about, except that it means I no longer have to enter that particular sweep (one of the most annoying entries EVER, but the grand prize is either a trip to CA *or* a big pile of cash, so that was worthwhile).

Dana's car is up in Springfield having the wiring checked out, because when they installed all the lights and radios there were a few bugs. They were very nice to drive down here and pick up the car, but that means that we're limited to just my car and the Harley, and the weather's been too mercurial to depend on the bike much for long periods. Dana got soaked coming home on Monday.

There is a tremendous amount of splashing coming from down below. Such a happy boy.

(will post separately about quilt project)

Quilt project

I Zouted and washed the quilt with Woolite, and got some of the stains out, and reduced the severity of others. I may re-Zout before any further steps -- I've found with my regular laundry that generally twice will do it. (I can not say enough good things about Zout. Anything that gets old oil stains out of clothing that has been washed and dried several times gets my vote.)

The fabrics did not run, and nothing raveled. These are Good Things.

I'm going up to Hancock Fabrics tonight to get the Janome Sew Mini on the say so of Liz. I was going to order it online and then I realized that not only is there a Hancock nearby, I've been IN it, and even with gas being so pricey it's still cheaper than shipping. I've never owned a sewing machine, so I'm excited. My sewing skills are minimal at best, but now I'll be able to turn out simple things like chemises or bloomers or what have you. And maybe learn a thing or two in the process.

I'm going to keep the backing on the quilt now, and hopefully keep the same binding fabric as well. My next step (after another washing) will be to unstitch the back from the top so I can perform repairs. I should be able to handle that without supervision. Then I'll need to rebind it and put the batting back in -- and there I think I'll definitely need supervision.

I'm a little leery about starting this, for the dumbest reason. I've only just picked up a cross-stitch project I've had under needle for years, but haven't done a thing with since just after we were married. I've decided I'm making it for a family friend who was VERY kind and wonderful when Mom died -- so there's a sense of obligation to get it done (not the least of which stems from my not finishing another project I was doing for a different family friend, who died -- the same one who made me this quilt).

I'm trying very hard not to get sucked into the world of quilting -- not that I don't want to do it, but that I don't want to end up with a million patterns/kits/fabrics that I won't have time to start. I'm doing the July FabShopHop, so I'm looking at what's out there, and trying to get a sense of what kinds of quilts I would like to do, before I start buying things in a frenzy. The lovely thing is that I HAVE projects -- both stitching and quilting -- so it's not that I'm bored. :)

Social Networking

I just tried to fight my LiveTrumps card, and they're down for usage issues. There was a link to "100 Million Spiders" which is a social networking experiment (like SixDegrees was). I started my network here if you would like to join -- I expect our friends and our friends' friends will quickly be very large. :)

Whee!!!

I just got a call from ABC, and I've won grand prize in the ABC/Entenmann's "Desperate for Dessert" sweepstakes! The prize includes:

* Roundtrip airfare for two to NYC
* Two nights hotel accommodations at a New York hotel
* Lingerie shopping spree for $250
* Yoga lesson for two with a celebrity trainer
* Dinner for two at a gourmet restaurant
* Two tickets to a Broadway show
* Limousine transportation for the day(s) and/or night(s) of planned activities

Love love love the trips! :)

Posty! McPosterson!

Won a $10 coupon off $50 at Party City -- just click the link and print it, if any of y'all are throwing a party.

(and if you have a party and I'm not invited, would you at least send me some chocolate chip cookies?) :)

This message brought to you by the Council For Feeding Faith Cookies.