Two Stages of Life

Here are the prospective parents-to-be sitting on our deck last month.  We've had lots of rain this spring, so everything is beautifully green.  Iltflinthills has a regular checkup today, so I'll be eager to talk to her tonight.  (Poor thing.  I just can't leave her alone.  I hope I won't be an annoying grandma.)

Today is also my parents' 53rd wedding anniversary.  I telephoned them to wish them a happy day.  However, Mom and Dad are justifiably sad.  They've just learned that Uncle B. (my dad's older brother) has to move to a nursing home.  Aunt L. will stay in their apartment.  Uncle B. and Aunt L. have been married for 65 years; this is the first time they will live separately.  This really is one of those times when getting older is not such a wonderful thing.

Thirty-four years ago I worked as a temporary office helper for Uncle B. while his secretary was on her dream vacation to Europe.  I hope I never forget just how kind Uncle B. was to me, especially since I was really only good at answering the telephone.

I think I'm one of the lucky ones.  I have the next generation to help remind me to enjoy the present and anticipate the future since I can't do anything about the relentless forward march of time.

I'm Surprised I Still Remember My Xanga Password

Wow!  Is it easy for me to get out of the Xanga habit!

However, I have been busy sewing.  Here is a photo of The Professor's niece's high school graduation quilt.

The recipient had requested a quilt with pink, yellow, and orange.  The orange print squares are much more pink in reality than the browser shows.  (Also, the yellow squares are actually made from a print fabric, too.)

Because the quilt is so big (queen size), I chose a simpler pattern, so I could finish it by May.  The quilt is professionally machine quilted with a variegated thread.

The photo above is a section from the back of the quilt.  I think the woman who did the quilting did an awesome job; she certainly made this the most beautifully quilted quilt of all of the ones I've made.

Last week The Professor was in Shanghai, China.  He said the air pollution was terrible; there was no way I could have coped.  While he was gone, I made curtains for Iltflinthills and IMO's basement.  I was pleased with how carefully I managed to keep the curtains' dimensions correct without having the windows there to check and recheck on the accuracy of the curtains' size.

Also last week, while The Professor was gone, I celebrated my birthday by spending the day with Iltflinthills.  She and I went to see IMO at work; then we saw the movie The Counterfeiters.  The movie was very sad but quite good. 

The next night Tremor3258 took me to see Iron Man.  Tremor3258 had already seen the movie once, but my comic-culture expert son wanted to be sure I saw Iron Man in the theater.  He was right about it being a good movie.

I was actually quite touched by how Tremor3258, Iltflinthills, and IMO kept checking with (or perhaps, on) me while The Professor was in Asia.  Their concern made me feel really loved.

ESL	ESL	ESL
ESL	KISSA:	ESL
ESL	THE UPDATE	ESL
ESL	ESL	ESL

I've been busy quilting lately, so my poor Xanga has been neglected.  The most exciting news lately (besides the prospective grandchild) is we finally got the new steps into the lake.  IMO and The Professor went kayaking on Sunday afternoon; everything was so much easier.

This morning I was sweeping out the garage in preparation for the arrival of the new stove and oven.  (Hurray!)  When I moved Kissa's sleeping bag away from the steps to the kitchen, I was disgusted to see four, forgotten hunting achievements.  Luckily The Professor was still home, so I did not have to be brave.

It is so much easier to be happy about natural vermin control from a theoretical viewpoint than the actual practical reality.

Tomorrow the Windstar is going in to get a oil (?) leak fixed; that means the heater can also be repaired now that the weather is too warm to use it.  Oh, well, better working than not.

Marisol did get an unpaid internship at the congressman's local office.  She will be working during July and August.  She probably needs to find a part-time job to cover the cost of the gasoline.  However, the internship should be excellent experience for a political science major; the man who interviewed Marisol was really happy about her fluency in Spanish since, at present, only one person in the office speaks Spanish.

Tomorrow, if the car repairs do not take forever, I will try to post some photos of the new steps and the newly painted house.  It's probably obvious that I am excited about all the sprucing up we're able to do this spring.

BIG, BIG, BIG NEWS

Devoted readers may recall that I have mentioned the Lee's Summit Quilt Guild quilt show which was last week and how excited I was that The Professor, Tremor3258, Iltflinthills, IMO, and I were all going there on Saturday afternoon.  Tremor3258 arrived punctually, like always, but IMO and Iltflinthills were about fifteen minutes late. 

I was anxious to get to the quilt show before it closed, but IMO and Iltflinthills insisted that we go into the house first; they had presents for Tremor3258, The Professor, and me.  IMO and Iltflinthills had participated in an Earth Day walk that morning, so I just assumed that they had souvenirs for us.  The two Kansans gave each of us a small gift rolled up in wrapping paper (which confused me because Iltflinthills rarely uses anything but old comics for wrapping paper) and insisted we all open our gifts at the same time.

Here is what The Professor and I received.

Tears of joy just started rolling out of my eyes (no doubt solely because Saturday morning I took some Restasis® drops).  Needless to say, Tremor3258, The Professor, and I were thrilled.  It is still really early in Iltflinthills's pregnancy, but if all goes well and as expected, we may have another family member this Christmas.  IMO and Iltflinthills are not telling their grandparents yet; they want to wait until the pregnancy is farther along.  However, I am so excited that I cannot keep this wonderful news quiet (and my parents do not read my Xanga).  My heart is singing.

Yesterday we discussed this news with Marisol on the telephone.  She feels sort of strange because she has been the youngest for twenty years; when she becomes an aunt, that will change.  Marisol also blithely reminded The Professor and me that now we were officially old.  We replied that if we were fortunate, we would continue to age; however, now, if all goes well, we would have a grandchild to love.

I need to make some quilts.

Lee's Summit Quilt Guild Quilt Show

Today and tomorrow is my quilting guild's annual quilt show.  Last night I joined about twenty members and a couple husbands to help set up the PVC pipe quilt frames.  It only took about an hour and a half, plus I enjoyed talking to the members while we worked.  I was impressed by how well organized the quilt-show-powers were.

This morning we delivered the quilts we had signed up to display.  Only the Asian Aspirations challenge quilts were displayed at 8:30 a.m., but they surely are beautiful.  I think my challenge quilt is the only one without any red in it; is that good or bad?

Now to more mundane issues.  We're going to get a new oven and a stove.  The current Jenn-Air models (which we did not choose and are living up to their reputation for a lack of reliability) have several features that no longer work; the worse problem is that the oven thermostat is all messed up.  The new appliances we've chosen at Factory Direct Appliance also cost much less than their list prices.

If a double oven will fit in the space where the oven and microwave are now, we're going to get the double oven.  Oh, bliss!  Meals will be so much easier when I can be using two ovens at different temperatures at once.  Also, we are buying a smooth top cooktop.  No more messy drip pans and burners!  Plus we will have four burners instead of two and a nearly useless grill (because no one wants to clean it up).  It is embarrassing how deliriously happy I am to think about preparing Christmas dinner with four burners available at once.

Keep your fingers crossed that the double oven will fit!  People from the store are coming on Wednesday to check our kitchen out to make sure the appliances will fit.

Also, in other home improvement news, the construction of the steps to the lake has been delayed on account of rain.  If the weather is good, the steps will be put in next week.  Kayaking will become so much easier because we won't have to carry the kayaks so far.  I have high hopes that our children will come here and enjoy the lake on the weekends this summer; maybe we can spend post-church Sunday afternoons here.  Even Marisol is planning to be home this summer, so the whole family can be together.  We are so fortunate that my children live in the area.

Am I Getting Old or Just Normal?

Last week Kansas City area quilt stores held their annual Shop Hop.  Oh, the shock I felt when I realized that my compulsive urge to travel to all the shops just wasn't there this year.  I did not feel like spending the time or the gasoline to go to the farthest stores.

I concentrated on the five local stores but did drive to Eudora, Kansas.  That town has a wonderful quilt store, Quilting Bits and Pieces, which doesn't participate in the Kansas City Shop Hop.  However, I was rewarded to discover that this store has its annual 15% off sale (not coincidentally) during the Shop Hop, so it was definitely worth my time to go there.  The store in Lawrence was less than ten miles away, but its stock includes many scented candles.  So, I, with my allergies and asthma, just didn't have the energy to risk it.

I've been working on my quilting guild's scrap quilt challenge quilt.  We have to use at least part of each of the 65 five-inch squares of fabric they gave us in the quilt top.  Other than that, there are no restrictions.  I'm making an alphabet quilt, so we'll see how that works out.

Also, I finally mailed the taxes in on Thursday, so I feel as though a big burden has been lifted off me.

No News = Good News?

After last week's motorcycle accident, I scoured the web for three or four days, looking for information that would (I hoped) tell me that the cyclist had survived.  Believe it or not, but this accident wasn't "important" enough to be reported by any local news agencies.

However, that's good; right?  If the cyclist had died, it would have made the news.  I hope the cyclist's parents are sitting by and tending him as he recovers and giving him lots of good advice about how to change his careless ways.  Let this be the cyclist's wakeup call.  Tempting fate is dangerous, and he is far more fortunate than his actions deserve.

The accident was mentioned as an "injury accident" in the Lee's Summit police blotter, so I hope with time, all the injuries the foolish cyclist sustained will heal completely.

Fame!

In a completely unrelated but much happier story, Iltflinthills was featured* in a news story on KCTV-5, our local CBS affiliate, last night.  If you click on the link above, you can watch the actual news story about a Kansas scholarship program for prospective ESL teachers.  When I posted this Xanga, Iltflinthills and one of her students were in the photo link to the video.  Iltflinthills is earning her ESL certification from K-State but is not part of the specific scholarship program discussed during the video.  However, the ESL students at her school are photogenically adorable and make for nice background footage.

Iltflinthills only appears briefly.  However, The Professor and I didn't need a television station to film a story at her school to be proud of the work she is doing.  Iltflinthills may only be a first-year teacher, but I think she is really making a positive difference in her elementary school students' lives.  Now that is meaningful work.

*If featured can now be defined as fleetingly or momentarily appearing.

All week long my stomach has hurt after I have eaten, so last night I rationalized that I really needed to try a turtle sundae.  Maybe the frozen custard would soothe the nausea.  And, thus, I headed out to Culver's.  (The custard idea actually worked, but that is not the subject of this post.)

Therefore, unusually for me, I was driving eastbound on I-470 around 9:00 p.m. because I needed to buy some saline for The Professor, who is trying contacts again.  I was hoping Price Chopper carried the particular brand he wanted when . . .

ZOOOOOOM!  ZOOOOOOM!  The noise, even with all the minivan's windows shut, made my ears hurt.

A line of speeding motorcycles appeared out of the darkness behind me and started passing all the cars on the interstate.  The motorcycles must have been going 90 to 100 mph; they were moving so fast.  If that wasn't bad enough, the motorcyclists were weaving from lane to lane; they would cut ahead of a car so closely that it looked as though at least one collision was inevitable.  I think there were eight or ten motocycles, but I'm unsure of the exact count because at the time I was more concerned with not being hit.

Honestly I was frightened.  Then I was angry.  Why were these idiots endangering all of us with their foolishness?

This motorcycle incident happened more quickly than it would take devoted readers to peruse the above three paragraphs.  After all, the speed limit is 65 mph on that particular stretch of the highway.

View Larger Map I-470 curves, rather sharply, northward where Colbern Road crosses above it.  One of the last motorcyclists had just passed me as I was approaching this curve.

As always, physics ruled.  This last motorcyclist couldn't handle the curve at that high speed.  The motorcycle skidded somewhere into the black.  I could vaguely see the motorcyclist's rolling body knocking up puffs of dust.

I saw one car stop.  Since I didn't have my mobile phone, I stopped at the next exit to call 911; the operator already knew about the accident and said emergency vehicles were already there.  I've checked the Internet this morning.  Nothing is posted about the accident, so I don't know the end of the story. 

It's entirely possible that I witnessed a death last night.  A totally, senseless, needless death or serious injury.  Why do people indulge in such stupid behavior?  A life very well might have been destroyed.

I understand Marisol's emotional reaction to her bus accident a year ago much better now.  The image of that rolling motorcyclist is burned into my brain.  I see him even with my eyes open. 

Why don't people take better care of their precious lives?  Don't we have enough tragedy without encouraging more to happen?

The painter was here again yesterday.  He's almost finished the trim in the front.  I really like how it looks with the trim painted an accent color.  I also love how the new color blends so much better with the stonework.

I finished the taxes yesterday.  The Professor has to double-check my math; then I can prepare a clean return and make copies.  I was disappointed to figure out that we owe money and will not be receiving any refunds.

Today is another dismal-looking day.  So, here is a photo from Monday of our first crocuses of spring to bring a little cheer to the morning.

The big whitish, triangular rock to the right of the crocuses is on top of Sunnie's grave, so the crocuses popped up in a most appropriate place.  Sunnie was a good cat.

A Nightmare in Paint

Our house is being repainted.  On bright, sunny Monday the painter finished all the spray painting, . . . or so he thought.

Can you tell the difference?  I couldn't.  Nor could the painter until he arrived on cloudy Tuesday morning with his partner.  We had two different colors of paint on the siding!  Even I could see that.

Paint is expensive, but its cost doesn't even begin to compare with the cost of the painters' labor.  I felt physically sick.  Also very angry at Lowe's, where I had purchased the paint.  I had purchased ten gallons first; then last Saturday after the painter told me he needed more paint than that, Marisol and I returned to Lowe's with the same paint chip, with "Light Raffia" carefully circled, in order to buy ten more gallons.

It turned out the extremely young woman working behind the paint counter erred on the color.  It was close, but our house had a curious striped effect.

The Professor, one of the painters, and I all drove to Lowe's to complain.  The manager was very understanding.  He gave us gallons of new paint, tinted correctly, and promised to pay for the extra labor necessary to correct the error.  If the manager keeps his word, not only will I be a Lowe's customer for life, I probably will drive out of my way to go to his Lowe's.

The status right now is that the siding has been painted one color.  The painter is working on the trim in front, but he may not be able to come today because of the chilly weather.

I have to do taxes today.  I began yesterday but still have a long way to go.