Good to know

Yesterday after church I was having a wonderful conversation with a couple that are long-time members of our congregation. Until recently they had always sat rather close to the front, often filling a whole pew or more when all their children and grands are here. Mrs. K. mentioned to me that since they moved toward the back, sometimes they have trouble hearing the people making announcements and such. I asked, "Did you have trouble hearing me read this morning?"
"Oh! No! We never have trouble hearing you! You project!"

Jacket update

Well, welcome to "One of several reasons why I haven't sewn lately," and this is before machine had been moved to the more convenient location than its normal corner. Except this doesn't include the help I got from the dogs.

 

 

Once I had the machine going, she was helping me by trying to catch the moving fabric, whapping the moving thread-take-up thingy, and then she decided it would be most helpful to just steal the spool of thread and run off with it while I was sewing along. I don't have a separate room to sew in, though I could lock her up in her (bath)room. Of course, then I would just have to listen to her banging the door and Sadie whining about how much her cat was suffering.
In addition to all this help, I defiantly don't have enough of my fabric, so will need to start over with the cutting. It may be just as well. One of my sleeves seems to have gone missing overnight. Who knows when it will turn back up. No, it isn't in the dog's water dish (one of the first places I looked).
Maybe some of those things will just be stuck in my head for a bit longer. Or maybe I will pawn her off on some other family member whenever one is home. Poor person.

Today I started a sewing project.

Sewing is something I used to do a lot, but now it is a bit sporadic. That little fact is a bit unfortunate as there are a lot of things inside my head, just waiting to get out at the sewing machine. There is a varity of reasons why I don't sew as much as I used to and would like to, but I digrese. Today I started a jacket that I am supposed to have ready for the "How to Finish Step" class on Monday. Now I am not sure I have enough of the fabric to finish. This is not really a good thing, I can't run off and buy more. I am using fabric that I dyed years ago.
By the way, a cat and a rotory cutter are not a good mix.

This morning at our house

1. Wake up to cat poking me to move over so she can curl up and sleep on the bed. I have no idea what was wrong with the completely empty other side of the bed. Oh, right. She's a cat.
2. Go downstairs to get a cup of coffee, carefully stepping over the cat on the top stair while holding onto the railing. Carefully watching the cat the whole time to make sure I know where she is to keep from being thrown down the stairs unexpectedly.
3. Go upstairs with cup of coffee, watching carefully for cat to appear out of nowhere to attach me and/or my ankle on the stairs.
4. Look in shower for a cat, coasters, and other cat toys.
5. Put drain screen back where it belongs in the shower after it has been used as a cat toy.
6. Turn on water for shower so it can heat up.
7. Recheck shower for cat and coasters.
8. Take shower and notice an orange blob watching me through the shower door. Be glad I have doors on the shower instead of a curtain like the other shower. (People using that shower often have a cat in between the two layers of curtains, "helping," if they forget to remove the cat from the room when checking the shower for the cat.)
9. Climb out of the shower, very carefully stepping over the orange blob on the bath mat. Remember to hold onto something and watch blob for movement while stepping over it.
10. Open contact container while keeping orange blob away.
11. Put in contacts and the orange blob turns into a cat. Keep cat from drinking contact solution in container before I can dump it out.
12. Go downstairs for another cup of coffee, watching the open linen close door for something to jump out at me.
13. Tell the cat that she can't go outside this morning as I need to leave in an hour and I am sure she won't be back by then, no matter how wet and cold it looks to me.


So, how did you start your day?
Can you guess what today is?

Well, here it is,

a new basic phone. Well, as basic as they come these days. Is a camera in a phone really all that basic? I don't need my phone to take pictures; I have a pretty dandy camera for that job. I don't need it to play games to entertain me; I have books, knitting, pets, and family to do that job. I need it to make and receive phone calls, and take the occasional message; isn't that a phone's job after all? Oh well, it all worked out, and the people were very nice, helpful, and didn't try to sell me anything more than I wanted/needed. Gotta love that!
It doesn't have the pesky external antenna to break off when it gets dropped, and I think its internal antenna is stronger than the ones on my previous phones; it actually rang inside the house tonight! That is pretty much unheard of for any of our phones unless one of the girl-almost-not-children have their phone very close to a window. Our house is covered in steal steel siding and for some funny reason that seems to interfere with the signal. Thus, the reason why my phone lives in my car. Well, that and I have a perfectly good "in the house phone" and I consider the cell phone job involves "not in the house." Like car trips to The Cities to see friends; or in the case Hubband or children, to be able to call home when out of town.

Just another day

As I am sure you know by now, Miss Oribel loves to dash into the Great Outdoors any chance she gets. I decided to let her out this morning, but there was no dashing involved. In fact, she had to think about the whole idea for a little bit and look around before venturing out at all.









Once she did finally go out, she stuck to the areas under the eves and bench.

 

After awhile, she did wander across the deck, but there was a fair amount of leg shaking involved.

 

Sadie, being the most excellent babysitter/worrier she is, was quite concerned about Oribel being out there too long. She kept going out in efforts of convincing Oribel that she should come in out of the cold, but of course she paid no attention to a silly dog. Then Sadie would get cold and come in, and I would have to listen to her whine and tell me all about the fact that the cat was outside, unattended, and all. I was getting to the point that I wanted Oribel to come in just so Sadie would shut-up be quiet! I am not sure if either one of them would have even gone out if we had had as much snow as they did to the west of us. Sadie may have had more fun though. She could have made tunnels/paths for Oribel! (Not that I would have considered even opening the door for them if the wind was still at gale-force!)

Last weekend Hubband and I went to some friends to get some firewood for the patio. I asked him if he just wanted to leave it in there on a "as needed basis" so that he would have some weight in the truck this winter and it would stay nice and dry. Of course, that would kind of defeat part of the purpose for owning a truck. (Last year we never managed to even get the snow tires on the truck, so were a one-car couple for a fair potion of the winter. It worked then, but won't so much this year.) I guess finding a better spot for this is the next step.

My plans for tomorrow involve going to The Twin Cities to see my friend J from Idaho Falls who is there taking care of grandchildren. She told me the other day that she loves her blue socks and was beginning to worry about wearing them out. I assured her that there was no need to worry, as there can always be more where those came from.
Since tomorrow involves a long drive and iffy weather, today involves going to the local mall to discuss my cell phone with the nice people again. When I decided it was time for our family to have a cell phone plan about six years ago (it involved new teenage drivers, old vans, country/winter roads; aka peace of mind for the mom), we got two brand-new phones to start with. One for me and one for the new driver. Hubband was sceptical at first, but decided within six months or less that life would be easier if he had one too. (Yes, he used to travel without one at all and yes, we are all glad that changed!) Then we got DTY her own when she started driving. Over the years everyone else in the family has had new phones for various reasons, and I have mostly stuck with my original one. At some point I switched to DTE's original phone (which was just like mine and being unused) since mine had been dropped in a parking lot one too many times (thank goodness for transferable SIM cards!). Then I switched to another hand-me-down phone when that one got dropped too many times, which lead to having a flip phone which was a "step-up" as far as my pockets were concerned!
Well, it seems that it may finally be time for me to get my very own brand new phone after all these years. This one has stopped getting a signal at all.

Oribel has an obsession.

Well, she really has several, but for today, we are focusing on just one. Oribel loves her kitty treats. When she was a wee small thing, she would come running for them, jump up on her step-stool, and wait for them. Of course the dogs wanted to get in on the act, and since they always have to sit for most anything to happen in their lives, they would park themselves on the floor next to her stool, waiting their turn. Somehow, Oribel decided that sitting was an important part of getting treats, and started parking her behind on command along with the dogs. (Sorry, as many times as we have tried over the months, it is really hard to fit/catch all three of them doing it together.) Her treats also come in handy for getting her to come most of the time when I want her to; kitty treats make a very distinctive noise when shaken in a glass jar that gets Someone's attention almost every time.
Oribel also knows exactly where her treats are kept in the pantry, and is more than willing to run over and show us, just in case we forgot. (Right, like we are going to forget where the one thing that might be able to control her is kept?)

Apparently the other day while I was out, Oribel decided she wasn't going to put up with Hubband not giving her anymore treats and would just have to get her own. (He wasn't ignoring her as much as she thought as you can see here.)

 

When he told me the tale, he explained how she kept trying to get the jar, but couldn't quite see it, reach it, and stay on the shelf the right way all at the same time. Later that night she decided the boxes of mac and cheese were in her way and tossed them to the floor. I decided I had better consider moving her treats to a plastic jar so that when she does manage to get a hold of it and toss it to the floor, she isn't walking in and eating glass. We could go with the "remember to keep the pantry door shut" thing, but we all know that won't work all the time. Plus, a closed door is always more desirable than an open one, and how can I cook with the pantry closed?
So on Monday, while at the store, I got a couple of new containers of kitty treats in plastic containers, just in time it would seem. This is what Hubband found on the stairs when he came down this morning.




Silly obsessed cat.

 

(Don't forget to check out Whiskers on Wednesday.)

Thank you everyone

for being kind to your poll workers yesterday; it was a long day for a lot of us. Poll workers start an hour before the polls open (at least here) to make sure everything is ready for voters, and stay until everything is counted and cleaned up. For me, that meant being at the polling station from 6 AM until 11:30 PM. It also meant I was up at 5 AM and not even home until after midnight. The head judges probably were still on the clock delivering stuff until after midnight.
Some of the high points of the day? Helping a lady register to vote for the very first time after finalizing her citizenship within the last six months (and seeing how proud she was to show me her certificate!); having a brand-new mom come in to vote, even though it meant a temporary discharge from the hospital and leaving her baby there; lots of people that care, one way or another, about their country and the process of having a voice; being able to give one of my best friends a hug when she came to vote (and finding out they closed their small business a bit early yesterday so they would have enough time).
If you have never been a poll worker, think about it. It is an interesting and informative process and has good training. You don't have to work all day, half days are an option, some of us are just gluttons. Of course, it also meant we missed out on watching stuff on TV that the rest of the country may have been tuning into. But I think it was worth it.
Have a great day (and I will be back later with your weekly Oribel update)!

Do you all know what today is?

Not only is it Election day (go vote if you haven't already), it is "Be Kind To Your Poll Worker Day."
See You all tomorrow!

Signed, sealed, and delivered,

well, I guess that really is "Knit, bound-off, and delivered." The shawl will be blessed at the first service and given to the baby at his Baptism during second service.
Tomorrow I will return to regularly scheduled knitting.