I spent Friday and Saturday in all-day seminars having to do with my HandiQuilter.  I learned a lot, even though I’ve had my machine for 3-1/2 years!  Lots of fun had by all and then, the owner of the store and her husband stopped by to give my machine the once-over tonight . . . I had a problem that I mentioned before the seminar on Friday and it was diagnosed today:  rotary hook problems.  They’re going to order one for me and put it in when they receive it but that’ll be a couple of weeks out, probably.  <sigh>

Since my hip surgery, I have had problems getting to sleep and staying asleep at least one night a week.  Most of these nights, it starts out that I’m tired and so I shut the light off and lay down.  After 30 minutes, I’m frustrated because I’m not asleep.  After 45 minutes, I’m pissed off that I’m not asleep and getting wound up about it.  After an hour, I’m really upset that I can’t get to sleep PLUS I start getting what I call “heebie-jeebie legs” (or restless leg syndrome).  Last night, I actually FELT my legs tingling and that was AFTER I’d taken the medication to stop it.

At about 2 (I think), I got out of bed and went downstairs to read.  I shut the light off at 3:30 and stared at that ceiling for at least a half hour before I slept restlessly in the recliner.

ARGH!!

I’ve got a doctor appointment in a few weeks and I _*WILL*_ be mentioning this to her, trust me!!

Well, thought processes being what they are, it takes a bit to think of stories and story-lines so that’s what I’ve been working on instead of being here.  I’m not going to self-publish or Amazon-publish either so I want to make sure that I can get a contract when I’m ready to do so.

Research being what it is, I’m trying to figure out if I’ve got the time and the background information needed to take a research trip before the snow flies.  I don’t think I do but if I time it right, I can do most things by phone for awhile and then I’ll head out early-ish next year (March, since I’ve got surgery in January).

Well, I said it out loud to my husband last night so it must be true:  I’m going to start writing again.  By writing, I mean that I’m going to take a stab at a story idea that I have and have wanted to develop for a couple of years.  Its been percolating in the back of my brain so I think I’m going to try to get it down on computer (as opposed to paper).

Don’t know if I’ll succeed at writing it but the fact that I’m going to go back to it is fairly motivating to begin with.  Of course, that’s after I get through quilting and the dresses/outfits that I want to make for winter and spring.

Nope, nary a dull moment in my life!

So, I’ve lost 43 pounds and have no clue what I look like!  I say this based on the fact that I bought a new sweater online.  It arrived and I took it out of the package and thought: “Boy, this is never going to fit me!” and then it did.  <sigh>

I mentioned to Brian the other day that if I thought I was going to be this successful at losing weight, I would’ve taken a before picture last February!  Yeesh!

It does not help that the weather doesn’t seem to want to cooperate.  Please, either be warm/hot or be cool/cold– I keep trying to put my shorts away for the “winter” but keep having to take them out to wear because its so warm out!  Yeesh!!

Fooled ya!

Okay, so last weekend, Brian and I went to Deep Creek Lake for three nights while Lexi went to our vet’s boarding center for three nights.  While Lexi was deeply unhappy, Brian and I were very much refreshed and happy.

We drove up on Friday, got settled into the condo we rented and went fishing from the docks outside of the condo.  Lovely!  We made dinner in that night and then went out for ice cream (a real treat for us!).  We woke up Saturday morning when we wanted to (in other words, no alarms were used in the effort to raise us out of bed) and after getting set up for the day (breakfast and sandwiches, etc.), we headed out to rent a boat.

We rented a fiberglass craft from a local boat place and had purchased night crawlers from a nearby local store so we knew exactly where to go to find the fish!  Unfortunately, the fish knew exactly how to hide from us but, all in all, we caught a couple of little fish.  I actually coat about a 10″ yellow perch but a 10″ yellow perch does not dinner for two make so it went back in the water (happily, so I must admit) and we went out to dinner at Ledo’s. Yes, I know not very imaginative but it really did suit us for that evening and especially since we followed it up with a trip to a candy store and the ice cream place.  Vacations are wonderful!

Sunday morning was blustery so we headed over to the state park to fish from the docks– I even “learned” to bait my hook.  It was more that I learned not to throw up but whatever, I was doing it myself!!  It was too windy there though and when the rain came in at about noon, we happily left and went back to the condo.  It rained on-n-off all afternoon and after dinner, we played cards and, yes, you guessed it: went to get ice cream!  (The bad news is that my tummy is not used to such rich foods and I paid for it after we got home!)

Monday we “checked out” and drove home, picking up Lexi (so happy to see us!) on our way.  We were all united and very happy on Monday night.

Wednesday I had an epidural in my neck which means that I spent much of the night fearing that I would over-sleep so I got little to no sleep.  The worst part comes later because they tell me that I can’t do anything for the rest of the day which means that I don’t do anything to make myself tired which means that I don’t sleep that night!  This makes sense in whose book?

After having about 45 minutes of sleep, Brian came downstairs (where I had moved to at about 1am) and woke me up.  Thursday I could be a little more active so I walked the dog a couple of times and was definitely tired enough to sleep properly on Thursday night– Lexi let me sleep until 9am!!  WONDERFUL!!

The bad news is that I need a second shot this week so I’ll be repeating that whole process all over again come Tuesday through Thursday of this week.  <Sigh>

I’ve got a couple of quilts to quilt from my folks in Michigan and then I’ll be working on some of my own quilting.  Always lots to do here!

This morning I moved my clothes from my fall/winter closet to my main closet; conversely, I moved the spring/summer clothes to the fall/winter closet now known as the “spring/summer closet”.  Confused yet?  HAH!!

I went to try on some pants because I have a variety of sizes.  I’m now in a size that I haven’t seen for over 10 years– actually, I think its been since before we moved from California!!

Now the only thing is that I’ve also shrunk a bit so I have to take up the length on 3 pants and 4 jeans.  I love getting skinny!!

My life has very little variety.  Sorry, if you were looking for excitement here, you would be hard-pressed to find it.

Let’s see . . . I’m piecing blocks together from a swap that I participated in and have been having a hard time getting them to work because the other swappers couldn’t figure out what a 1/4″ seam is and still others had the problem of not understanding what a 4-1/2″ finished block meant.  <sigh>  It has been a trying time.

I’ve also been alternating between long-arming a quilt by free motion.  I’ve not done that a lot since I’ve had my Fusion but I decided that I would work on it more because I’ve got some quilts that I want to “paint” with thread over the next few months.  As practice, I’m working on my “charity quilt” in free motion and having a bit of a struggle because I don’t know how the machine is supposed to be set up.  I’m getting there but it is a slow process.  (I also find that I get bored easily with it– definitely have to work on that part!)

I wanna SEW but I NEED to quilt!  <SIGH>  Yesterday, I waited for a shipment from FedEx and got involved in a quilt that I’ve had the bits for several months, ready to sew into squares but I hadn’t done that yet.  I started sewing them yesterday.  They are squares from a swap that I participated in through my quilt guild.

I will never do this again.

While I’m always cautious about piecing my quilts, the people with whom I swapped with were not so diligent.  Yikes!!  Some of them have pieces in the pieced bits that aren’t the right size and, it shows, people!!  I think I’m going to take some of them apart and put them back together differently so that I can get the pieces to work and remove the ones that are too small.

Yeesh!  The POOR quality of some people’s work should tell them NOT to participate in these things but, apparently, they think they’re up to it.  NOT!!!

. . . and another do-over!  All together, not counting my alternative means of exercise (bicycle and physical therapy), I got over 10,000 steps in today– I’ve never done that many before!

The do-over is the t-shirt quilt that I’m working on– ONE row is upside down.  Yep, _*ONE*_ row!!  Yeesh!!