Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Mr. Big writes another chapter of How Can I Embarrass My Owner





We had an new hot water tank put in this morning.  All installed, up and running by 1pm.  Old tank in the Windstar, Mr. Big jumped in his seat and off we go to the scrap yard. 

Before reaching the main roads, Big was on the floor shaking in his boots. The water tank had broken away from it's barricades and was rolling from side to side in the back of the van when I turned corners. 

By the time we got to the scrap yard, he was trying to crawl under my legs. I got to the loading dock, was directed to the 'other' yard for scrap appliances. Back to the car, down two drives, no big deal.............. unless you have a dog crawling around the floor trying to under your feet.  Got to the scale without incident, semi in front of me and behind me. I can't move; Big is now between my feet, I can't reach him, can't find the gas or brakes, dog in the way, slam car into park.  I open driver side door, to get out and grab said dog and he bolts from the car into the middle of the scrap yard!!

EVERY VEHICLE IN THE YARD STOPS DEAD!! Big decided it was time to play "catch me if you can".  Several of the semi drivers jumped out of their trucks to help with the 'catch', by this time the office people were hanging out the windows watching the chase and the guy on the forklift just kept driving along watching the circus.  Big finally gave up, went belly up in the middle of yard and three of us dove on him. 

Put said dog back in car, weigh in, dump water heater holding said dog so he wouldn't take off again, weigh out of scrap yard.  They flag me into the office.  I'm really ready to crawl under a rock somewhere.  Park car, lock said dog in car, roll up windows so he can't escape that way. 
 Sheepishly walk in office, they want to know what kind of dog I have.  I tell them, a dead one when I get home. 

They hand me a receipt for the water tank, I have to redeem it at the little building outside, scan bar code and it spits out money. MONEY?? What money?? Are they paying me for the entertainment value?? I hand the receipt to the good Samaritan behind me (driver who joined the 'chase') I couldn't get out of that crap yard fast enough. Said dog was glued to his seat all the way home, he seemed to be smiling....................

Monday, February 23, 2009

Magic Stars




Our weather this weekend was cold, windy and snowy.  The snow was supposed to stop yesterday afternoon, but somebody forgot to tell Mother Nature. This is the snow still coming down last night. 

I spent the weekend cutting out blocks from a book by Nancy Johnson-Srebro called Magic Stars. I got one put together. They use a lot of background fabric but I like how they come together. I got 10 cut out, each block has different measurements so it was time consuming. Here's the one I did finish. It wasn't my intention to make so many but I wanted to try out the different blocks.  I'm sure the snow hasn't given up yet, so there will be more snow days to work on them. 

Always The Gentleman


Dinner time here is usually short and crazy. Whatever you do, don't get between the dogs and their dinner. They will knock you over to get to their food with one exception......... Put down Mr. Big's dinner and look who's waiting for it....... Scribbles. Mr. Big lays there waiting, patiently, till Scribbles gets all he wants then he eats what's left. 

It's not like Scribbles doesn't get enough to eat. He has all the cat food he wants whenever he wants, the cats free feed. I don't know what is in that dog food that Scribbles thinks he has to have every night. He doesn't eat that much so Mr. Big isn't going hungry.  Mr. Big, always the Gentleman, even with his dinner.  He's such a sweet little guy. 

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Tropical Twist Borders


I worked on the pinwheel border blocks for the Tropical Twist today. 

I also decided to join in the new Stashbusters Ugly (not so ugly) challenge BOM. There were some pretty ugly fabrics being used. The two requirements are all fabric must come from stash, each block must contain orange or yellow along with the ugly fabric. Two blocks will be chosen each month, you can do either or both. My fabric isn't really ugly, but it's one of those where you wonder, "WHY" did I buy this. It's a green and red paisley on black with gold flecks.  Ok, so it is ugly. The solid green and yellow compliment it and doesn't look too bad. 

Monday, February 9, 2009

Tropical Twist


Math-----------my nemesis.  While assembling my Tropical Twist I decided it was a row short. I counted, recounted, still could not figure out where I went wrong. I had as many pieces as in the directions........... how could I be short? After adding another row of blocks,  I realized, I wasn't a row short, now I had an extra row. The Tropical Twist turned out very nice. 
Here's the center with the correct number of rows. :-)))) The purples worked well with the blues and greens.