Holiday hangover

No,it's not THAT kind of hangover. We're all suffering from that post-vacation lazy feeling, where we feel stuck on Hawaii time (and thus unable to get up at our normal morning time) and we feel like we'd really rather be sitting around drinking tropical drinks and gazing at the ocean. But real life requires other activities, I'm afraid.

While on Maui, I was able to find a shop in Lahaina that featured needlework and quilting supplies. It wasn't a fabulous shop, geared perhaps to the casual stitcher on holiday who might want to learn basic Hawaiian quilting... but it was fun to browse around and look at the hawaiian style quilting supplies.

I did come away with this book:



It had a range of beautiful quilt in it, as well as interviews with current Hawaiian quilters. AQ blogger Dianna Grundhauser is featured in this book--a lovely surprise! (Do check out Dianna's blog and her link to her website, which features some beautiful quilts.)

I did pick up a few batik fat quarters...


And I couldn't resist some fat quarters of souvenir-ish novelty prints, too.






(Note the pretty blue drink!!)

No quilting action going on yet...I'm still doing laundry and putting away stuff and getting ready for a big work week while Caroline goes to the county animal shelter's "Animal Care" day camp.
Um, and maybe I'll get a nap today, too.

The thirsty traveler

We are back. Phew.

First, a quick note to Debra and DebR and a few others who emailed me to tell me to NOT PACK LIQUIDS and gave other good and useful airport advice.

Unfortunately, I didn't read my email after wednesday afternoon and didn't see them. And, as Roger and I were in true vacation mode, we had not been watching the news or reading the papers and didn't know anything at all about the latest airline threat. Which was probably a good thing, actually, as we'd have both worried ourselves sick the night before.

When we were packing up to go, we found that we had an abundance of beverages in our condo fridge, apparently having over-estimated our likely thirst while on vacation. We'd also anticipated eating more dinners in than we actually did, so we had Perrier, beer, a full bottle of red wine, and various sodas and juices left. I wandered around outside for a bit and met incoming folks to whom we passed off our left-over drinks. They were especially thrilled with the beer! And, lo and behold, it turned out that the woman went to my high school and knew my brother!

Still, we held onto an unopened bottle of wine, two bottles of water, and two juice boxes to take in our carry-on bags.

So, imagine our surprise when we arrived at Maui airport, checked our luggage with the curbside porter, and were told we couldn't bring beverages in. We figured he MUST have been wrong about the unopened drinks (and we had no idea why this rule was announced, so we figured it was some odd quirk of Maui's airport security) and we proceeded. I took Caroline to finish checking in the luggage while Roger left to return the rental car.

Inside, we were met with a very long security line which was focused solely on liquids. They were asking people to dispose of all liquids or other lotion-like items, including eyedrops, sunscreen, perfumes, etc. And it was apparent that most of the people in line -like us -- had been in oblivious vacation mode and had no idea why. The security folks seemed tense and cranky, and of course, we realized why later.

As Roger was carrying the wine and coming behind us, I knew he'd be unhappy to leave that behind--but he was able to give it to a helpful baggage guy. He was most unhappy that they took his little travel-size bottle of Purell hand sanitizer which he keeps in his backpack. At the gate, where Caroline and I checked in and relaxed to wait for Roger, I got a bit more information, enough to understand that there'd been some strange issue with liquids somewhere.

At that point, people were re-stocking their beverage supplies. All of the airport concession stands were selling bottled beverages as usual, of course...and I think a lot of people figured that since they'd gotten through the airport beverage-screening process and abandoned everything, they could buy stuff inside the security zone.

Not so. Before they began to board the airplane, the gate clerk announced that no beverages at all would be allowed on board, even if they'd been purchased in the airport. I saw quite a few people looking really annoyed at having to either gulp down or abandon the drinks they'd JUST BOUGHT. There was a lot of annoyed eye-rolling and grumbling. But people complied.

Oh, and lining up to get on the airplane? They had way more security people watching people get on, and they had us line up BY GENDER. Males over there, females over here. Hmmmm. I couldn't figure that one. Because terrorists are probably male? In case they had to do a quick strip search?

Once on the flight, all was fine. The attendants came around often to offer water, so it was clear that they understood how people have come to depend on carrying water with them. We had several crying babies on the flight (oh, how I remember those flying-with-a-baby days and oh, how I appreciate NOT doing that this trip) and I wondered whether the moms had to abandon the baby bottles loaded with formula. My mom told me later that she'd seen on the news that at SF airport, security was letting baby bottles go through IF the person carrying them would drink some of the contents in front of the security people to prove it was milk or formula.

At any rate, despite that confusion, we had a very pleasant flight. Caroline played happily with her Pokemon game and drew pictures. Roger slepted and listened to his ipod. I listened to the newest Tim Gunn podcast on the latest Project Runway episode (if you're a PR fan, go listen to Tim's podcasts! They're great behind-the-scenes info!) and I FINALLY finished Michener's Hawaii. It wasn't until we arrived at SF (at 8:30 pm California time) that we learned the specifics of the airline threat and understood what the whole liquids thing was all about.

It felt great to get into our very own car and head toward home. We stopped for a very quick dinner on the way home (Hello, In-and-Out Burger!!) -- no Blue Hawaii for me-- and were feeling pleased with our progress until we ran into inexplicably stopped traffic on the freeway north of SF (in Petaluma, of all places) and inched forward FOR TWO HOURS to go about 15 miles. We figured it was some really bad accident, but no, it was CAltrans doing road work and funneling everything down to one lane. Once we got through that nasty snarl, we spent the rest of the drive home discussing 1) whether one could sue Caltrans for the delay (with me, the litigator, saying NO), 2) how Caltrans could have managed that more effectively, and 3) which Pokemon characters evolve and what their best attacks are.

We got home at 1:15 am. A long travel day, to be sure, but we're home.

Thanks again for all the nice travel thoughts. I can see that it won't be long before they're banning electronic devices, too. I mean, really, if you were a terrorist, wouldn't you try to rig something that looks like a cell phone?

Anyway. Caroline and I fly again in a few weeks, just an hour's flight to Southern California for two days, and I'll be sure to check the restrictions up to the last minute. But I'm gonna beg to get that Gameboy on, I can tell you.

Another day, another beach...

We are so relaxed that we are bordering on catatonic. I think this is the perfect vacation.

Yesterday was Roger's and my 13th wedding anniversary, so we celebrated with a day Ka'anapali Beach. The other day when we were there, we had the presence of mind to reserve a beach cabana on the beach at Black Rock. That meant that we spent the day on comfy, cushioned lounge chairs, protected by a movable canopy. It was lovely.

You can actually watch the Ka'anapali beach from the Sheraton at this live webcam! Here's the view we saw when we looked south from where we were sitting:



It was especially nice to be able to walk into the water and find good snorkeling right there. We were also glad we'd gone to the Maui Ocean Center early in the week, as it made us especially excited to see fish that we'd seen at the aquarium, but in their natural habitat. Plus, we were able to identify some, so that was fun as well. Caroline was especially good at spotting eels hiding among the rocks.

For our anniversary, Roger gave me this beautiful necklace. Isn't it pretty? I don't know what the stones are, but I love the colors. The pendant part is about an inch and a half long.



After we cleaned all that sand and salt off, we went to the Seahouse Restaurant right here in Napili for dinner. It sits right on the beach so we had a wonderful view throughout dinner. We ate outside on the deck (see those umbrellas to the left there?). I deviated from my ongoing taste test of Blue Hawaii's to have a Napili punch cocktail with Roger... they were orange and passionfruit juices with dark rum added. Yum. And, you know-- passion fruit? A good anniversary choice, don't you think?



Dinner was delicious. I went for a very Hawaiian option and had macadamia nut-encrusted mahi mahi with a pineapple salsa, which was heavenly. Roger had sauteed sea scallops over linguine, and Caroline had her favorite pasta with butter and cheese. We were all contented.

Speaking of delicious dinners, the night before we explored Whaler's Village (an upscale outdoor mall in Kaanapali) and ate at the Hula Grill. For those of you who have been to Art Quilt Tahoe and dined at the Sunnyside Restaurant on Lake Tahoe, Hula Grill is owned by the same folks and has similarly delicious food. And yes, it's right on the water...we ate under those grass umbrellas, to the right.



We were quite happy sitting and watching the beach and listening to great live music. So far, they had the best Blue Hawaii, in case you're wondering.



Today we were in vacation-wind-down mode. Roger took Caroline for a horseback ride through pineapple fields while I stayed to do laundry and get a start on packing. We leave bright and early tomorrow morning in order to get our snorkel gear and rental car returned before we fly home.

It's still sunny and bright and breezy here, in case you were wondering.



Tonight, we'll head to Lahaina for a bit of wandering and for the requisite visit to Hilo Hattie's (just BECAUSE). We'll go to Kobe Steak and Sushi for dinner, one of those Benihana-style places where they cook right in front of you. We figured Caroline would like that.

So, tomorrow will be a travel day. I'll be working to finish my novel, Roger will undoubtedly doze, and Caroline will be engrossed in her Gameboy Pokemon game. (Thank goodness for Gameboy on airline flights, I say.)

Aloha!
7

Land ahoy!

WOW! We're having a great time!

We had a lovely time on Kaanapali beach, which is about a 10 minute drive away from our condo. This beach is billed as the #1 beach in the US, and we can see why. The view is gorgeous, the winds gentle, and the slope of the sand is wide and even. The whole area is bordered by luxury hotels (Sheraton, Marriott, etc) and (for a fee, of course) handsome men will obligingly set you up with umbrellas and lounge chairs.



Being the inexperienced first-time Kaanapali visitors that we were, it took us a while to catch on to the protocol. They pile all the umbrellas and lounge chairs next to a big sign that says "Public Beach" so we thought, "How nice! They provide these for free!" We started to carry off an umbrella and were waylaid by a polite hunky Sheraton employee who explained the rules -- and fees. We rummaged through our beach bag and came up with enough cash for the umbrella, and THEN had a lovely time enjoying the shade.

You can see part of the Sheraton hotel there on the right, with some surely expensive lodgings on the cliff above.



Caroline got more instruction on the finer points of body surfing (ie, how NOT to get half of the beach's sand in your bathing suit).



Here's a typical shot of Caroline, representative of what she has been doing all week. (Usually I'm right in there with them, but it's hard to take pictures while rolling in the surf.)



On Saturday night, we cleaned the sand out of our hair and nether parts to go to the Old Lahaina Luau, which everyone assured us was a not-to-be-missed event. Caroline cleaned up rather nicely, I thought.



These shots show the setting of the luau, on the shore in Lahaina. It was lovely, warm and gently breezy.


9


We got to watch as they took the roast pig out from it's dirt oven... Caroline says she'll remember this for the rest of her life.



It was really scrumptious. There was a free, open bar for the entire evening. I enjoyed my hawaiian vacation drink of choice, the Blue Hawaiian (which mainly amuses me because it is such a bright color of blue and usually comes with lavish decoration of pineapple slice, cherry, umbrella, etc.) while Roger enjoyed Mai Tais. The food was yummy...pork, pineapple glazed chicken, a stunning deep purple sort of sweet potato, various salads, and of course Poi, which we all ate in small amounts. (Caroline announced that it was like a very plain babyfood pear-sauce.) Since then, when hungry, she announces, "I'm so hungry I could even eat Poi!"

Anyway. After dinner, we gathered more drinks and the show started. I discovered that it is impossible (with my camera, anyway) to get a clear shot of hula dancers DURING the hula.



So, here's a still shot. You can get the hula effect if you picture 10 of these women, wiggling their hips very fast. (Or go back to that link and watch the video on the website).



It was definitely a fun evening.

Yesterday morning, we rose at 5am and headed out for a morning snorkeling cruise to Molokini on a large catamaran called the Four Winds II. We booked the trip despite the advice of our travel agent Leslie that, in her view, we'd get better snorkeling in Napili bay and right off of Kaanapali. Still, we thought the boat ride would be fun, and it'd be nice to see Molokini, and I remembered a really fun snorkeling cruise when I was here before.

The good news? The boat was comfortable, and it was pleasant chatting with other passengers. The views of Molokini and Molokai were pretty, and we saw sea turtles bobbing around the boat. Barbecue lunch was served on the boat, too.

The bad news? It was SO windy that the trip was really, really ROUGH. Despite having been dosed with dramamine beforehand, Caroline was miserable for the hour-long boat ride and we spent the time hovering at the back so if she lost her breakfast she'd do so into the water. That chatting with the other passengers? It was all about how queasy everyone was feeling. Caroline adds that, for her, the highlight of the excursion was when, just when the boat docked within the cove at Molokini, she threw up into the water...and about 30 fish appeared instantly and the evidence of her sickness totally disappeared. Gross, but interesting. This brought other passengers to the side to watch all the fish, unaware that the fish were excitedly swarming because they were being "fed" by Caroline.

We plunged into the rough water for 90 minutes of snorkeling. From a mom perspective, it was scary-- that water was ROUGH. Caroline is an excellent swimmer, thank goodness, and she wore a flotation device as well, but she and I snorkeled holding hands the whole time because I was freaked at how strong and rough the water was and I kept imagining her being washed away from me. Roger swam nearby, playing with the cheap underwater camera we'd bought at the drug store. And truthfully, in snorkeling position with head in the water, the water didn't feel TOO bad, although large waves would swamp the snorkel from time to time so you'd get salt water in your breathing apparatus.

Caroline felt much better in the water, so she really started having fun, then. Roger, who'd also taken dramamine, did okay, but that rough water was tiring. Me? I've never gotten motion-sick before and usually really like the feel of riding in a boat over active water. Still, after 90 minutes of being bobbed wildly about in the ocean, I was feeling queasy myself. We hauled ourselves up to the boat, where the crew remembered how ill Caroline had been and stationed us at what they claimed was the least rocking part of the boat. She slept all the way back, while Roger and I just sat and, along with everyone else, clung to parts of the boat to keep from being thrown about. It felt like a VERY long ride back, and by the time we docked I think half of the people were kissing the ground and thanking the heavens to be off of the danged boat.

Ah, well. One of those memorable vacation experiences. We will now faithfully believe whatever Leslie the travel agent tells us, because she was right. We were glad that we'd introduced Caroline to snorkeling first in the bay near us, where it was much calmer and more fun. That trip would have been a miserable introduction to snorkeling.

We are told that cruises in the summer are often rougher because of the constant trade winds. Maybe it was the fact that I last came here in early October that explains why that Maui snorkeling cruise was so much more pleasant.

Anyway, we are recovering today with a day on land. I am off to explore a fabric store in Lahaina. Dianna, our AQ blog member here in Maui, recommended a shop in Kihei but I don't think I want to drive that far today. Roger and Caroline will play on the nearest beach, and tonight we are planning to explore Whaler's Village, a nice looking mall at Kaanapali, and then we'll have dinner overlooking the water.

No more boats for us, today. (Is this keyboard rocking, or is it just me?)

Aloha from Napili!

This is what we were greeted by this morning at 7am, Maui-time.



Yes, we DO feel as if we are vacationing in paradise. Which is how vacations ought to feel, yes? We are having a wonderful time.

We are staying at Napili Point Resort, in west Maui. Here's the actual view from our living room and lanai:



I think that's Molokai in the distance. It's the perfect view for gazing, especially while holding a tropical drink in one's hand. (We have invented a drink we call "the Napili": white rum mixed with Dole's strawberry-orange-pineapple juice, over ice, in a tall glass. All it needs is the cherry and pineapple wedge and umbrella decoration.)

And, if you exert yourself to turn your head to the left, here's what you see:



That's another Napili resort. The other day we walked over, entered the bay via those steps, and Roger and Caroline had their first-ever try at snorkeling. We had a great time and were astonished at all the amazing, exotic, bright fish under the surface.

Oh, and if you turn your head to the right, toward the ocean, you see this:



Caroline has made friends with the 10-year old girl staying in the condo nextdoor. They are both dedicated artists, and the other evening sat and shared their drawings with each other.



The flowers are exquisite.



By the way, you should be impressed at how well these pictures turned out. The trade winds are blowing constantly, which makes for a lovely breeze no matter how hot it is...but it also makes it hard to take pictures when everything is jiggling.



We've had a lot of time at the beach, for just wave-gazing, body-surfing and snorkeling. But, having had several days in the sun (with the resulting pink shoulders and noses) yesterday we opted to go "inland" to the Maui Ocean Center. What a wonderful aquarium. Here are Roger and Caroline braving the wind to play in the touchable tide pool area.



Here's my favorite fish of the day... some sort of Butterfly fish. Don't you LOVE these markings? (This is the best shot I could get of this fabulous fish, sorry about the blur).



This guy was quite photogenic.



And of course, there are the wonderful sea turtles.



We see them poking their heads up in the bay outside of our window.

Dude! Welcome to Maui!

Aloha!

Some weeks ago, I joked here about having gone to Hawaii as a reward for Roger finishing the textbook he's been writing, like, FOREVER. At the time, the idea was pure fantasy.

Well, Roger DID finish his book and as we were talking about how to celebrate this momentous event, he suggested that what he'd really like to do... is go to Hawaii! We looked at our calendar, found the one window of opportunity, called our travel agent, and next thing we knew, we'd booked a trip to Maui for 10 days! This is especially exciting as we've never really taken a vacation like this as a family. Since Caroline arrived 10 years ago, our vacations have usually involved visiting family and friends (in great places like Maine and San Diego), but still...this will be quite fun.

So, we are in BIG PACKING mode, as we leave bright and early Tuesday morning.

We'll be staying in Napili, which is just north of Lahaina... On this map, it's on the far left-hand side of the island.



We have a condo rented, which our travel agent assures us will be comfortable and perfect for staying with a child, near good beaches. We'll be somewhere in this complex, facing the water:



Looks gorgeous, huh? We are planning a whole lot of beachy relaxing, a horse-back riding outing, an evening at the Old Lahaina Luau, and, of course, plenty of snorkeling.



We are armed with a travel guide to Maui, all of our friends' recommendations about where to eat and what to do and (from my brother) the best place to buy fish for dinner. I have set out my pile of paperbacks for vacation reading, but I have already started rereading James Michener's Hawaii to get me in the mood.

So, if you don't hear from me for 10 days or so, you'll know why. This time I really AM in Hawaii. Really.

Aloha!

What I did on my vacation...

Look at all these nine-patch blocks! After all that strenuous floating on the lake and reading and chatting, I was able to summon the energy after dinner to do a bit of sewing. Luckily for me, the Tahoe house has a large, open plan main room, so that I could sit at the big dining table and stitch and still participate in the evening chatter with the family. Vacation bliss! And I can attest to the fact that a gin-and-tonic or two didn't impair the matching of seams on these...much.

I've been WARNING you all that I'm in a jumble-of-pattern mood these days. So, um, here's MORE of it.

A few years ago, I made a quilt like this (inspired by Kaffe Fassett's "Leafy Garden Quilt" from "Glorious Patchwork") as a gift for my sister. Laura brings that quilt as part of a display when she sets up her needlework design booth at shows, and as simple as the quilt is, it gets TONS of compliments. It's all that floral, leafy pattern.

So, I'm making another for my gardening-obsessed aunt, and having a grand time doing it.

Now, if only I can make my actual garden show such a gorgeous profusion of color!

Notes from vacation

We are back after a very pleasant week away with family. We had one of those quintessential summer vacation holidays, with lots of family and sun and water and laughter.

First, we travelled to Grass Valley for a family reunion of folks on my mom's side of the family. It was lots of fun, and I met cousins I'd never met before. Caroline was especially pleased to discover that she has a 3-year old cousin Evie from the same city in China where she was born!

No, these aren't family photos! At my aunt's house (where I stopped to make the artichoke dip my aunt requested I bring) we found these wild turkeys wandering in her yard.



From there, it was an easy drive to Lake Tahoe for our annual week with Roger's two sisters and brother and their families. Roger's sister has a house just outside of Tahoe City, and we converge there to catch up and relax and be lazy. It's the one time of year when Caroline sees her cousin Dash, who lives in Oregon.

Most days, we wander down to the lake to sit on the pebbly beach, swim, read, chat, and engage in other similarly strenuous activities. Here's the view of the lake from where we hung out all week.



Yep, that's snow on those mountains! Hard to believe given the heat we were having (and are still having) but it was gorgeous to see in the distance.

Of course, we all made it into the lake for aggressive water sports....that would be bobbing around on floaty chairs, mainly.



The trick, which we've all mastered, is to hook a foot around the rope which lines the swimming area...that way, the wake from passing boats and jet-skiers doesn't just roll you back onto shore. You can see all of Roger's siblings lined up here, floating strenuously.



When she and Dash weren't diving under the dock for crawdads (they caught the same ones each day, I think, then dumped them back in each evening) she was floating, too.



So, a fun time was had by all. I read a lot (made my way through a fun thick trashy book by British writer Jilly Cooper, called "Pandora" about the effect a painting has on a big, wealthy English family) and even did some sewing in the evenings to piece some nine-patch blocks for a gift quilt.

Now it's back to real life, and mountains of laundry, and piles of work...But it was worth it!

Gone Fishin'

I am pausing from running around the house in panicked packing mode to tell y'all that I won't be here for the week. We are headed up to Lake Tahoe, for a week with Roger's family at their house there. Should be lovely and peaceful. The smell of the Tahoe pines is SO heavenly. As always prepping to go away is crazy-making, but once I smell that Tahoe smell, my blood pressure sinks to near-catatonic mode and I will be quite happy.

On the way, we are staying over in Grass Valley for a family reunion orchestrated by my mom's sister, my wonderful Auntie Carole. Should make for an interesting Saturday. Caroline is most excited to meet a new, distant 3-year old cousin who is also from China.

I have a hand-piecing project (which should be interesting as I've never done any handpieceing) AND I am taking my sewing machine. Evenings tend to involve a lot of sitting around talking about family stuff -- fun, but I get restless after a few nights of that -- so I figure I can sit at the table in the corner of the room, participate in the chat AND get some sewing done. We'll see how it goes. It could be that the machine never comes out of the case, but at least the option will be there.

Make lots of great stuff while I'm gone, everyone!

Finally, an Art Day

Yesterday, Caroline and I decided we needed an art day. So we set up out on the patio, and got out the fabric paints. Much of this batch is stuff I got at the great yard sale about a month ago. We were experimenting with Golden acrylics (liquid form), Versatex paints, and Jacquard acrylic paints on muslin.



Gemma was thrilled and ready to participate.



My strategy? Slop on a bunch of paint and see what happened.






Caroline had fun splashing paint around, then decided to try a beach type scene.



Here is an assortment, drying. We discovered that the colors dried much paler. Perhaps we diluted the paint too much. Hmmm. More experimenting will tell.



Unlike Nancy Crow and Melody and Tommy and Gerrie and others with to-die-for (hah! note the pun) dyeing areas with sinke and everything, we use the hose under the kitchen window for our rinsing of brushes. It's not the best set-up, but hey, it worked for us.



Gemma grew bored when we wouldn't let her play with paints. I think she is sulking, and not appeased by the rawhide chewy.



I now need to heat-set everything with a good pressing. My art group's current challenge (due next March or something) is a "muslin challenge," where the only fabric you can use in the piece had to start out in your hands as plain muslin. (You can do anything to the piece, any painting or dyeing or embellishment, and theme for the quilt--but the only fabric you can work with is muslin.) So, perhaps I'll be able to use some of this for that project...we'll see.

We had a grand time. Caroline is looking forward to experimenting with free-motion quilting on her seascape. She has grand plans.

Workmanship

I've enountered a number of discussions lately on what makes an art quilt a successful art quilt. In this relatively new art arena (in the scope of centuries, that is) it is not surprising that there are many different views on this.

Ricky Tims has posted something about the value of workmanship in art quilts on his website that is well worth reading and considering. Check it out here.

My views have tended to evolve. But at the moment, I have reduced the issue to this: a "good" art quilt is one in which the concept, the composition, the techniques, and the materials all work together to convey something. I find myself lately looking at art quilts and thinking, "why is this BETTER because it's in fabric?" In the art quilts I admire most, I find that there is some aspect which is different from what could be done with painting or paper collage or an ink print, and the quilt's imagery wouldn't be the same or as successful if it were not a layered, sewn, fabric piece.

Anyway. Well worth thinking about. Rayna Gillman has also started an interesting discussion, and you can pop into that here.

We're SO popular!

I have not been an efficient blog ring mommy lately. People apply to join the blog ring through Ringsurf, and I get a nice little email telling me someone else has joined the queue. If I have time, I'll go peek at the blog... and when I have a few minutes, I go into Ringsurf and work through the queue to decide "yes," "no," or "wait and see." It's been a while since I've done this, I'm sorry to say.

But I've spent some time with the queue this evening, and that means there are several new blogs in the ring. Welcome, Noobles! (This is my own coined word for New Blogs.)

But I thought you would want to know of a major development in the art quilt world.

Here it is: art quilting is apparently so popular that the big drug companies and telephone companies are getting into the act! Really! And they are getting involved with blogging AND they are applying to join our ring!

Why, just tonight, I was greeted with applications to join the ring from "Free Ringtones!," "T Mobile Ringtones," "Buy Didrex," "Phentermine," "Elavil," "Xenical," "Hydrocodone," "Xanax," "Cheap Fioricet" and "Ambien." I regret to say that the quality of their quilting art isn't up to our standards here, so I was forced to reject them.

I did email Cheap Fioricet to tell her that I think she is undervaluing herself and she should probably seek out counseling (and medication) for her self-esteem issues.

Anyway, if you want to check out the Noobles, hit the "previous" button from the link on my blog page. (up there....to the right, UP THERE) That'll take you backwards around the ring, newest to oldest. I mean, most senior. I mean, earliest applicants. Yeah. That's it.

The day after

Well, a wonderful weekend was had by all.

We saw my family for a lovely barbecue on July 3, which was fun. I was charged with bringing dessert, so I decided to feed the kid in all of us and make s'mores. Caroline and Roger and I roasted a bunch of marshmallows on skewers, assembled them, and arrayed them on a platter decorated with mini-pinwheels made from red and blue tinsel. Very adorable! The adults initially bemused and sorta hesitant to try them, but as they ate they all looked so delighted and the rather huge pile on the platter disappeared VERY quickly. I'd read somewhere about putting peanut butter on the graham cracker before you mush in the chocolate and roasted marshmallow? Oh my goodness...it takes s'mores to a whole different level. Gourmet.

And on the way home, we saw the fireworks show from the next town over (they always do them on the 3rd, don't ask me why) so that was a nice surprise.

The 4th saw us lounging around the house, Caroline and me playing games, Roger taking a master-nap. (You have to work up to that level, to nap that long and that well. :-)) I opted to stay with Gemma during fireworks time, which was good because she was quite disturbed by the distant booming noises. Me, I sat and watched the Boston Pops on tv and enjoyed the Boston fireworks display on the small screen. Which is how I like it, as you know.

Today, a few of my art quilt friends and I met to start an inspiration mini-group. It'll just be six of us, but we all get along well and we seem to be at relatively similar commitment levels. None of us is driven to compete or sell quilts, but all of us want to make interesting art quilts and grow. So, it was a lovely morning. We brought various things to share...books, magazines, quilts in progress, and inspirational stuff in general.

One thing we decided ... loosely, because we all have a lot of other stuff in the works -- is that we will commit to work in a series, so that each month when we meet we can talk about how what we've done and what we are doing moves that series forward. The details are up to each of us to work out.

We each brought our own lunches and had a grand time talking and laughing and looking at stuff. It did just what I wanted...inspired me to go MAKE something.

Oh---I will pass along a few interesting distractions:

Check out www.live365.com -- an online radio station where you can find all sorts of interesting music combinations to stream over your computer, and it's free.

And www.isketch.com -- let me tell you now, if you've ever liked Pictionary, this is seriously addictive! You choose your "room" of players (sorted by language and difficulty) and away you go. It is very fun. My friend Sleen, with whom I recently connected online after 10 years, is a big player and I blame all the time I wasted this weekend playing isketch on HER.

It is REALLY fun.

So many fun things to do.....

One word about...

I can't resist a good meme. This came from Deb R:

One Word for -

1. Yourself: scattered

2. Your partner: busy

3. Your hair: straight

4. Your Mother: comfortable

5. Your Father: handyman

6. Your Favorite Item: books

7. Your dream last night: blank

8. Your Favorite Drink: champagne

9. Your Dream Home: Lakeside

10. The Room You Are In: cluttered

11. Your pleasure: fabric

12. Your fear: clowns

13. Where you want to be in ten years: contented

14. Who you hung out with last night: Roger

15. What You're Not: neat

16. Your Best Friend: Beth

17. One of Your Wish List Items: laptop

18. Your Gender: female

19. The Last Thing You Did: work

20. What You Are Wearing: Linen

21. Your favorite weather: Rainy

22. Your Favorite Book: [I can't answer this in one word, so I'll answer favorite author]: Stegner

23.Last thing you ate: muffin

24. Your Life: secure

25. Your mood: distracted

26. The last person you talked to on the phone: Laura O.

27. Who are you thinking about right now? Caroline