Learning Curve

The cute little camera that Jerry bought will take pictures through our tinted window. I had to read the owners manual to figure it out. There is a lot of information in those little books. It just takes time to "get up to speed".
And now Jerry went out and got us each an IPod. The little instruction manual with it is less than a page and not all that helpful. We bought an "Ipods for dummies" book. Jessica is in town and will be able to help tomorrow. Until then I'll be reading and trying to comprehend what it is saying.
Brian says it's a snap and I shouldn't have any trouble doing it. He forgets this brain is older than his and it takes a while to get things to sink in.

Merry Christmas

What a wonderful time of year!
Yesterday, all the beautiful music at church. Lovely dinner with 1/2 of the family here. Opening of presents with some grand kids. Great evening service. Love all around.
Slept in this morning. Have the evening meal in the oven awaiting the other 1/2 of the family.
Jerry got me a new camera - 7.1 pixels, small, light weight. Great for upcoming travels. Down side - it doesn't take pictures through our dining room windows, so I have to use the old camera to take pictures of the birds at the bird feeder. Got a great shot of Marvin (on our table)watching a Flicker sitting on the fence outside.
I got Jerry a new DVD of "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." He was truly surprised with it. Seems his previous one "broke" - actually, I think he thought he was watching it too much and destroyed it.
Just talked to Robin. Her whole family is down with Strep. Ugh! What a way to spend Christmas.

Hope all is well in your part of the world. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Tuesday

Almost done with the Christmas preparations. Have to shop for two family dinners and finish a quilt.
I used the iron on batting and didn't look at the back very closely. Stiched in the ditch on the cross wise sashings and discovered that I had a monsterous buckle in the back fabric. So out comes the ripper.
Jerry bought me a new camera for Christmas. I haven't loaded the software to download from it yet. I'll get to that after I finish ripping out the quilt.
I'm planning on going on a Mission trip to Korea in May. Sent in the down payment today. Will update you more as time draws near.

Cell Phones

StillSuckin'Air related a couple of stories of "women" talking on cell phones while driving. He naturally notices when the driver of a vehicle is female but I digress. My comments are to the obnoxious use of cell phones by all ages and both sexes while driving. Have you not been in your car at a red light and counted the number of people driving with half a brain while talking with the other half of their brain focusing on the phone conversation? It is unreal. Commute traffic is the worst. Breadwinners (notice I didn't single out boys or girls) hurrying to work, to school, back home, yacking. Some states are seriously thinking of banning cell phones while driving. Hmm. Doesn't work for drunk drivers or people who have had their licenses revoked. What makes them think that putting a ban into law will stop the practice? Maybe slow it down for those of us who give a _____ and don't want a ticket. But the majority of cell/drivers will take the chance that a cop is not in the area and go ahead and dial that number.

The lost is found

Found my Keys!!! They had fallen out of my pocket while I was seated in Genevieve's car. She called me this morning with the good news. Not before Jerry went to the hardware store and had a new house and car key made. We needed a spare set anyway.

Keys

Today we needed two cars. I had a Project Joy performance and Jerry had to pick up the grand girls - both at 3 PM. So, he dropped me off at Genevieve's and she drove me to the performance. He continued on with grandparent duties.
I know I had my car keys when I went out to the car because I opened the doors with the remote. I then put my keys in my pocket and used his keys to drive us to Genevieve's (Jerry doesn't like to drive unless absolutely necessary.)
It was a good thing that Jerry's duties got him home before me because when Genevieve dropped me back at home after the performance I had no keys. So I should pray to St. Anthony? Is he the one for lost items?
Seems to me there is this little ditty "Tony, Tony yada, yada, yada" . Oh, well. It is just inconvenient.

More birds

Some feed has been kicked out of the feeder. Since there are over 30 birds they wouldn't all fit on the feeder anyway.

The cats love to watch them. I couldn't get TJ to look out the window until I said "bird" it cat.
The sparrows have discovered the bird feeder. I fill it in the morning and by afternoon they have scarffed up two cups of seeds. We purchased a suet feeder today so that the larger flickers will have something to eat too. The sparrow either have not found it or don't like it.

Birds

While decorating the house for Christmas today, I glanced out the window to find two flickers trying to get a snack from our bird feeder. There was a small sparrow on the feeder and the larger bird chased it away.

These birds are quite large for our feeder. Guess I'll have to get a bigger feeder for these bigger birds. But then I'll attract magpies and crows. MMMM better rethink that.







Wish you could see the front of this bird. He really is quite handsome with a red turtle neck under his dark sweater.

Time sure goes by when you're having fun

There was nothing on the calendar for this week. Why then did it go so fast?
I started a quilt for Josh (see his cute little face in last weeks blog below). It's just a simple nine patch with fire helmets and dalmation dogs. I decided to put a fire related embrodery on all the connecting sashing squares. Had a great time picking them out & downloading them from the web. Figuring out where each would go. Deciding how to quilt the squares etc. I am on my final three embroidery squares and the fabric flips into the embroidery design and gets stitched in. Only someone who does machine embroidery would understand. Anyway, I stop the stitching when I discover it and commence to remove that square from the quilt. I'll redo the design, cut the square and reinsert it into the sashing. One more flame and a small fire truck and I can start looking for backing.
All this work because Josh's dad has applied to become a fire fighter. He is a member of the volunteer FD/Rescue Squad. For over three years he has dutifully taken every test they require from aptitude to physical. He has come out on top every time. Last year he was in the top ten. (They weren't hireing). This year he was at the top of the list and he was sure he was a shoo in. All the right hoops. He got his rejection letter two days after Thanksgiving. My theory is that he is either too old - 40 - or too white. I hope Josh will still like the quilt even tho his dad's not a firefighter.
Hope to get the tree up tomorrow. Have a dress to sew for Jhary and probably one for Uma too. But other than that I'm only sewing with the sewing group I've started at the church.