Soldering Project

Duane wanted to make an apparatus for a back drop for photography, which could be folded down to a size that could be easily handled. Max and Duane decided to make one with copper pipe and fittings that would unscrew instead of folding. This was Duane's first try at soldering and he did an excellent job. The project turned out well, but we did not get an opportunity to try it - hope it will do what he wants. It is difficult to see the finished project, but it did turn out the way they had expected. They seemed to enjoy their project in the garage.

This weekend is moving way to quickly and I will be very sad to see the Ellison family leave and head back toward the desert. I know we will see them again soon, but no matter what it is a difficult time saying goodbye.

Later . . .

That's My Boy!

The camera man was hard at work when we went downtown to see the colored fountain in the center of town. Duane was busy taking pictures while I was busy taking pictures of him taking pictures (maybe "goober" runs in the family)! Actually Duane got some good shots and I took a couple myself. One in particular I liked, which is this one on the right. Needless to say we made it a family affair except for Denise and the baby - cause as you can see it was a bit cold.

It has been really fun to have the entire family here for the weekend. We have been having a great time. They are staying until Tuesday and it will be hard to see them go. Deanna has been growing so quickly and watching her observe the dogs and the world in general is a treat in itself!

Later . . .

The Ellison Family Arrived

The Ellison Family Unit arrived safe and well from their long drive. Kodi decided to settle right in with the kids when it was bed time. Kodi has always joined the kids when we make them beds on the floor. It is such a joy to have the whole family here (even if we don't actually have the room).

We gave up our bedroom for Duane, Denise and the baby. The dogs were a bit confused because they have their beds in that room. Needless to say they found a place to sleep! Two adults and two big dogs on a queen air mattres is a bit much!

It was a trip to have the whole family in the dining room. Very cool to watch everyone coloring (I was involved previously). Duane and Devin coloring - like father, like son! Then there is Desirae using her Daddy's camera to take pictures (the camera is as big as she is) - like father, like daughter!


With all the camera in this house we should be getting some good shots. We have been having a great time and this evening Kathy, Paul and Michael are going to join the family.


The addition of Deanna is just a blessing because she is such a delightfully happy little thing (not to mention cute as a button)!
Later . . .

More Embroidery Blocks

I have only had time to do a few more blocks, but I like the additions. I need to make 7 more blocks and then I will be done with the embriodered ones. Unfortunately, I had to alter my plans because I cut the blocks prior to the embriodery and with the embroidery I lost about an 8th of a inch on the blocks. I am changing from 8 inch blocks to 6 inch (will be easier to cut them down to 6 inches and keep the embriodery centered). Since Duane and family are coming for the holiday weekend, I won't be getting any more blocks done until next week.

This little guy is the planned two middle blocks in my project. I have always liked elephants and he popped up with a search for "hearts". I have found some more interesting hearts and have the additional 7 planned. I am really anxious to get this project put together. No matter what happens, I have been having fun and that is what retirement and having a fancy sewing machine is all about!

Hopefully between Duane and I we will have some good family pictures for our blogs this weekend.

Later . . .

Busy Embroidering Heart Squares

I decided what better way to see what some of my designs look like than to put them on squares and make a light-weight sheet/blanket. I am suffering with night sweats since I had to stop taking my medication and was told by my oncologist that the hormone therapy I have to do after my radiation is only going to make it worse. So I have been searching for "heart" designs and am going to make a quilt top and just back it with something light-weight. So for the last couple of days I have been searching patterns and doing embroidery. I am having a good time and hope this project actually makes it to completion. Good, bad or indifferent, I am going to finish this - good practice for me. It is nice to see the designs on fabric - some are better than their pictures and some are worse.

Later . . .

Yard work & embroidery

Today was a beautiful day so we decided to do some work in the yard. Max needed to put up the trellis for the tomato plants. She had seen the idea in a gardening book and it seemed to be a neat idea. She stuck rebar into the ground and then set electical conduit pipes set on top of that. She attached the conduit with copper 90's and a T in the middle and then added gardening netting across the conduit. It actually looks like it will work really well. I decided it was time to mow and edge the back yard. I mowed twice with my new electric mower and the yard looks really nice. I have all the potted plants placed around the yard and garden (more to come because I found some extra pots). I have all my humming bird feeders filled and hung and hopefully my little friends will come to visit.

Yesterday I worked with my sewing machine and am very happy with the results. I did pillow cases for Devin and Desirae (our grandkids) and made one for Michael. I feel much more confident in what I am doing with my embroidery now - so there will be no stopping me! I need to do some of my practice shirts to make sure I actually am on the right track and then I can start doing things that are not for practice. I am looking forward to starting on quilt projects and I have something in mind to get me started (it is developing in my head and this coming week I plan to try to put it together).

Later . . .

Sewing

Now this is what I call HARD at work - kicked back in my chair watching my machine do the embroidery. Max took these pictures and I though my light on my machine was burning out every time the flash went off (funny). I am very excited about the things I learned yesterday and am pleased that I have been able to put the tools to work and come up with satisfactory results. Of course I can do nothing without the assistance of Darci (she is always close at hand and in the way).

Later . . .

Busy Couple of Days

I finally drug out some of my pots and planted some flowers. I wanted to get some more marigolds around the garden to keep the white flys down. I would like to do some more planting of actual flowers for decoration to be placed around the yard and patio. My lavender is now blooming and it smells great. The marigold plants all have to be moved off the shelve and into the garden area. I already have quite a few pots around the open area for the garden and they are keeping the white flys down.

I had my sewing lesson today and it went pretty well. The nicest part was probably the fact that I know much more than I thought I did. I received some excellent pointers (probably not worth the cost), and reinforced the fact that I do know what I am doing most of the time. I learned they have a "sewing get together" every Thursday where women bring their machines and work on projects and generally help each other out. Kind of a social gathering where they share ideas and projects (good business for the shop). It goes from 10:00 AM to 4 PM. I think I will try to go this coming Thursday, but not stay until 4 because of the traffic going back over the hill. The real BONUS for the day was when Max purchased the designer matching set of Gingher scissors! They are really beautiful and the flower design is subtle, but gorgeous!

Unfortunately, I guess I am going to have to rack my brain to see if I can remember how to do macrame again. I did many beautiful things during the 70's, (and that seems like acient history) but have not tried it for a very long time. I knew I was making a mistake when I hung the macrame hanger with the glass fishing balls out in the elements. The hanger I gave to my mother YEARS ago (she hung it in her house with plants) and the glass balls also came from my mother. I knew the weather was rotting the bottom jute and yesterday the ball dropped. I bought some jute and I think once I look at the hanging I will be able to duplicate it without a pattern. If I can't figure it out, I may just make individual hangers and leave it at that.

Lawn Mower & Fishing

I am not quite sure why I hesitated in buying an electric lawn mower. When we got to Sears we almost changed our minds because the sales person mentioned they were not very efficient and gas mowers had much more power. I made the decision that I was there for an electric mower and came home with one. I am very pleased with it. I do not mind the cord and it is sooooooo easy to start and it is easier to push than the heavy gas mower I was using before. I love the way I can turn it off and then start it again with great ease (makes it possible to use now and not mess with my arm - which is STILL sore).

We made it fishing around 8:00 AM and had a really fun time. The weather was beautiful and there was a nice breeze up until around 11:00 AM. The breeze went away and the temperature rose AND we forgot to bring any sunscreen (a bit of sunburn was the result)! As you can see we caught three nice trout (I caught the big one) - two for me and one for Max. We had not been fishing in a while and it was really nice to throw some lures (my arm gave me some trouble with casting, but I managed).

After fishing we came home (Max cleaned the fish), we messed around in the yard a bit and then caught up on the Tivo shows we missed during the week.

Later . . .

A Day of Sewing

Okay, so I messed up my project from yesterday, good sport that I am, I decided to try it again. I also decided to pay CLOSE attention to the instructions and not ignore that little piece that says "MAKE SURE YOUR SEAMS LINE UP SO THE POINTS OF THE STARS WILL MEET". Not that I did a perfect job, but it is a MUCH BETTER job than the previous. I just picked some old material and cut some squares and gave it a try. I am thinking that squares on their own would not be as difficult to get lined up (or maybe they just would not show as much).

It was a challenge, but I had FUN! I am thinking there must be a scrap quilt in my near future.

Since I have nothing to actually quilt, I decided to play around with embroidery. I have some patterns that I have been wanting to see what they look like - so I made a fishing towel (we are going fishing tomorrow morning). I also put a design on a tea towel to see how it would look and I like it. I put a flower design on the back of my "practice" shirt and it turned out well. The design required 26 thread changes (which only means it took a long time to finish it, since the machine actually does all the work). The flower design measures 8 1/2 inches high and 4 1/2 inches wide! It looks very nice on the shirt.We are headed to Dublin to our favorite Chinese resturant and then to Sears to purchase a new electric lawn mower. Since Max is off tomorrow this is our Friday!

Later . . .

First Quilt Project

I finally decided I was going to do the quilt project Denise gave me for Christmas. I have been wanting to try quilting and the books have some great information and techniques. Unfortunately I am not very precision and making the star design was a bit difficult. I do feel I made progress (even though the green triangle on the bottom is smaller than the others). I plan to try another and cut the squares myself so they all start off the same. Not much point in continuing with the wall hanging or pillow since it does not line up and is VERY noticeable. I also remembered that I have a foot for my machine that does 1/4 inch and that might help.

When I do embroidery on my machine I do not have to worry about the stitch - so I guess I need MUCH practice on making a STRAIGHT 1/4 inch seam. Nonetheless, I was pleased with myself and had FUN, which is a very important part of trying something new.

I also did some mending and made an appointment to get some lessons from the Pfaff dealer in San Jose next week. I am really excited about that because my machine does much more than I am capable of learning from the book.

Allergies are killing Max and Kodi, but Darci and I seem to be doing fine.

Later . . .

Lettuce and radishes fresh from the garden

Dinner was most delicious tonight because we used fresh picked lettuce and radish from the garden along with store bought tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado and green onions. All the rest of the vegetables are coming up, but not actually ready to be picked. Radishes grow in 28 days – so they are always ready. We will have to plant more soon. Unfortunately, it is starting to get hot and I don’t think the lettuce will last too long in the heat. It will be nice when the only thing we have to buy at the store for a salad will be lettuce (avocado – but it is not really necessary). There is something about the taste of lettuce from the garden that just cannot compare with anything bought from the store. We always have enough lettuce to share with the neighbors and Max usually takes some to share with the people at work. To go with the salad we had steaks and rice.

Later . . .

New Bike Rack for New Bikes

After patiently waiting for the arrival of the new bike rack we ordered from Sears, it arrived today. Max immediately put it together and our bikes now have a new stand to keep them in the upright position. Our garage is pretty crowded with everything except cars and the addition of the new bikes just about excludes the possibility of bringing anything else into the garage(really, there is no more room). When you have so much stuff in the garage it ends up being important to have a place for everything. Since neither of the bikes have kick stands, before we had the bike rack the bikes would sometimes fall over (probably from the dogs rushing in the garage to get in the house and brushing up next to the one on the outside). We did a lot of searching and investigating on how to store the bikes and I think this is going to work well.

Later . . .

More Special Olympics

Kathy, Paul, Debby, Max and I went to Pleasanton to watch Michael play Volleyball. His team did really GREAT and they will be going to the play offs, sporting GOLD MEDALS! Go #35! They played against two different teams (best 2 out of three games) and they won all of their games.

After Volleyball we all went over to Debby's (Michael had to go to work at WalMart) and we had dinner and helped Debby get setup with her new Sony Notebook. She is moving into the computer world and is very excited about it. Her DSL was suppose to be working since yesterday, (did not happen) but she connected to someone's network in the neighborhood and was able to get online. She has even purchased a digital camera and was able to put some pictures on her computer.

Welcome to our world, Debby!

Later . . .

Grooming the dogs

Whew – I worked on the dogs today and could not complete the job. It was not that the dogs were uncooperative, but my sore arm gave out on me. I did manage to get half a bucket of hair off Kodi and gave Darci a quick once over. I will have to continue the job tomorrow. I wish I would have gotten pictures, but maybe I will have Max take some shots tomorrow.

Well, being the Sudoku addict that I am, I found a Sudoku CD for my computer and one for my PSP. I must say it is much easier to play the harder games on the computer and not have to do all the “tiny” little numbers and keep erasing. I have tackled some of the hardest ones and made my way through. I guess I am turning to Sudoku because I am stuck in my video game. I am in a “boss” fight and I just cannot get accurate enough, fast enough to progress through the three parts (it is a shooting battle). I know that it will just take practice, but I am not that steady with the controller and it requires extreme accuracy with a VERY short time limit. I am about ready to look up a health cheat or something to get me past it.

Nothing of great interest happening around here - so I will sign off.

Later . . .

Summer is almost here

I was really frustrated when I was working on the blog and my computer kept freezing. I guess I am going to have to remember to do all the writing in MS Word and save the information as a draft and then add the pictures. At least if I have to shut down I will not have lost the written information. I don’t actually have any pictures to post anyway, but there were a few shots of the garden and the growth of our baby vegetables. We have sweet peas, beans, lettuce, green beans, cucumbers, beets, carrots, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, mint, squash and zucchini. We have planted cauliflower, but they have not sprouted as yet. I love the beginning of the garden because it is such fun to plant the seeds and watch for the plants to pop their little heads out of the dirt. I have a real problem with the thinning process and think that everything that comes up should be allowed to grow. Max, however, continues to explain to me that they need space for the roots and they MUST be thinned. We will be able to start eating the lettuce any day now as we thought the seedlings were dying and we bought some small lettuce plants. The tomato plants are sprouting flowers, but I am sure it will be a while before we actually get some of those “sweet one hundreds”.

I am hopeful I will be able to enjoy my humming birds soon. I have seen a few flying around the yard, but I have not actually seen any eating from the feeders. The food level is dropping so I am assuming they are eating. Since I don’t intend to stand at my kitchen window watching for the birds, I guess I need to start spending some more time in the back yard. The weather is turning really nice, but unfortunately for Kodi that is interpreted as HOT! He is already starting to search for the cool places in the house – he has ended up in the bathroom, but has not made it into the bath tub as yet. Most of the summer he likes to lay in the tub because it seems to be one of the coolest places in the house. I need to do some serious grooming on both the dogs and make sure that Kodi’s undercoat is thinned out as much as possible. It will be time for the plastic swimming pools that he loves so much to be brought out. He is so cute when he plays in the water. He puts his whole snout under the water and blows bubbles. He runs around the yard and then jumps in the pool to cool off his massive chest. Darci has not taken to the water, but they both like to play in the sprinklers.

Unfortunately, with the summer also comes the allergies and I need to get a jump start on Kodi’s ears and feet. As long as I stay on top of his medication and keeping the yeast down in his ears and feet, I should be able to keep him away from the vet. The first summer he ended up with his allergies I had to cut all the hair from his feet and between his toes and pads – now that was a funny looking “big footed boy”. Everyone around is suffering from allergies, so it is time to stock up on medication for the entire family. Thankfully, Darci does not seem to have any problems in that area. She WANTS to get whatever Kodi is getting, but she does not need it (and does not get it).

Max started riding her new bicycle to work today and liked the process except for not having a “to go” cup of coffee. She plans to continue to ride her bike to work everyday and get some good exercise. It is 6 miles to work and that is a nice ride (12 miles total). I worry a bit later in the summer when the heat gets up there that it might be pretty difficult to ride home – time will tell and I can always go pick her up with the truck.

That is enough rambling …

GOOD News Finally Arrived

I am VERY happy to report the results of the surgery and biopsy - NEGATIVE for any cancerous cells!! It was a long weekend (with very positive thoughts and attitude) and we had to wait until almost 5:00 PM to get the results.

I have an appointment with my surgeon on the 8th and will be referred to an oncologist for the radiation treatment. My understanding is that it will begin approximately 4 weeks after the surgery (time for healing) and last for 5 weeks.

I want to thank everyone who kept me in their thoughts and prayers (I am a firm believer).

Perhaps life will get back to normal - whatever normal is.

Later . . .

(I tried to do a post over the weekend because we worked out in the back yard with the garden and the sprinklers, but my computer kept crashing and would freeze up when I tried to upload pictures - frustrated, YES)!