Random life stuff, again

Don't you just love hearing about our random life around here? (I guess if you don't, you know how to move on to another page/window of your computer.)
Some of you may have been hanging out here at Casa Coffee Yarn to remember me telling you about Oribel's love of bubble wrap. (If not, you might want to go read it, but only if you like stories about her.) Anyway, she also happens to like playing with tissue paper. Balled up tissue paper is really great for batting across the room and chasing, and of course flat tissue paper is one of the best things for pouncing on and hiding underneath, not to mention biting and ripping. Saturday I got a package in the mail and as usual, Miss O laid claim to the tissue paper that was used for protection and stuffing in the package. No, no pictures of her and her precious tissue paper, but I can show you what I got in the mail.
I had signed up for a Dumpling Bag Swap and mine came, complete with tissue. (What is a Dumpling Bag? See here and here.)
(Bloggless) DiverJan was my upstream partner and has a great sounding day job as marine biologist/ecologist and I told her I loved the Squid bags she had made and would be more than thrilled with whatever she decided she wanted to make.
Well, I got a super-cool Squid Bag of my very own! I love how the squid wraps all the way around the bag and has cool beads in select spots.

 

She also sent along some treats from Florida, even though no extras were expected or required! (I'll show you the one I made after my downstream partner gets it, if you all have any desire to see what it looks like.)

 

I have been doing some sewing lately, but haven't taken any pictures of that. Maybe I'll try to remember to get some later this week. I have had this weird desire to make aprons, and fortunately DTE has been rather accommodating in that regard. She asked me if I could make one for a friend of hers, and of course I was happy to say yes. She also was wondering if I would be willing to make a different one for her and again, "Yes" was the happy answer. I should really make a couple for myself I think. I don't usually wear an apron when I cook (DTE pretty much always wears one when cooking is involved), and it becomes rather obvious when flour has been involved with a quick look at my jeans. Several aprons around to wear and throw in the laundry would make more sense than having to hunt up a clean pair of jeans to go out. 'Cause maybe I cook a lot, and it often involves flour or other messy stuff.
My car started making a funny noise a few weeks back, so today we dropped it off to be looked at. For some weird reason it needs a new wheel bearing; I say weird because it had two new wheel bearings in January of 2008. The guys at the shop are going to submit the info to the proper place, even though the warranty was for 12mo/12,000 miles and it has (obviously) been over 12 months and I have at least 20,000 miles since they were put in. He said they might give a partial refund and it never hurts to ask. (Yes, that is 20K in about 14 or 15 months. What can I say? We live miles out of town, drive 400+ miles north and back several times a year, to the Big Cities 90 miles north, and such.Yes my car gets to do most of the driving, rather than the truck. Well, and the truck didn't get used last winter at all since it didn't get its snowshoes out of the shed in time. But there is a reason we have an all-wheel drive car. Because we knew we needed to drive a lot in the snow/winter/ick. It has a job to do and it does it well, what more can I ask? OK, maybe to have a wheel bearing last a little longer, but oh well.

FYI, for you non-sewers out there; sewing patterns are quite often printed on tissue paper.