Poor Allison!  She was minding her own business last night, spinning in the living room (after supervising Mom in the kitchen - dinner is late, what's the hold up?) and she fell.  No one was in with her, so we don't know if she tripped on something or just had a foot skid out from under her while she was spinning or what.  She was pretty shaken, and didn't look comfortable when we got her up and sat her in her chair, but....no big bruises or lumps or obvious broken bones or sprains.  She landed leaning up against the hearth.  She seemed to bounce back pretty well last night and ate dinner (when it was FINALLY ready!) with a good appetite.

This morning -  a different story.  She is limping very badly on her left leg, not wanting to put a lot of weight on it.  She can walk unassisted, but would rather be holding on to someone or something.  She still doesn't look real comfortable when she first sits down, but once she's been down for a while, she looks pretty normal.  I'm going to assume she is okay, and just watch her.  I gave her all the ibuprofen I had last night, so I'll pick some up at the store today.  That should help, along with moving around a bit.  We'll see how the day goes!  Poor baby!  This is when I really hate that she can't talk.  Is it her back?  (Remember, she was leaning up against the brick hearth!) Is it her knee?  Her hip?  Just a bruise, or something more?

I took the day off yesterday.  I went to the grocery store, and did the normal cooking and cleaning for the day, but other than that, I took the day off.  Alli and I (and occasionally AJ and Dawn) watched movies all day and I crocheted.  I had a scarf pretty close to done, and then I looked at it again, right before I went to bed and ripped 6 inches out - I should have quit working on it earlier - I was nodding off on the couch - not a good time to crochet!  It is a very pretty pattern, and it is yarn that I bought a couple of years ago, and never found the right pattern to make something with it.  It is a lace weight yarn with sequins - in a peridot green.  I don't know that I'll get it finished today - since I didn't do anything yesterday, I really need to do something today!  The good thing is that Randa was here on Wednesday, so the house is clean, I just need to do all those other things that I don't want to do.  I need to work on my last quilt, but for some reason didn't feel like it yesterday.  Today I would like to go to the Ducky Derby at the park - they are having an "Art in the Park" display today, and if we go in early (it is supposed to be 102 today) it should be fun.

Ralph and I tried out the restaurant at the Tucker Oaks Golf Course last night - the Sand Trap (of course - it is at a golf course!).  I've thought about going there forever, but just never made the effort.  Our subdivision backs up against the golf course, so the restaurant is just at the end of the subdivision.  Last night, for whatever reason, I suggested we go out.  Of course, this was after I already started dinner for AJ and Allison, so I fed them first, and then got Alli all set for an hour of 'babysitting' from her brother (which means he would listen for any loud crashes, other than that, she was on her own!)  Luckily, Dawn was due home soon, so Alli wouldn't be abandoned for long.  The dinner was very good!  I ordered the seafood basket, which was fried fish, shrimp, calamari, and french fries.  Everything was great!  Ralph ordered a very large steak (he even brought some home with him) and had a dinner salad (that was loaded with goodies) and a baked potato.  It is a nice little place - probably a dozen tables, and there is a separate bar area.  I have a feeling that if you go in more than twice, the waitress would be calling you by your first name.  Too bad it took us 11 years of living in the neighborhood to go and try the place!

Work was 'interesting' this week.  Lots of surprises and oddities - which are sometimes good and sometimes not.  I had to do quite a bit of research into how to do things.  (You want us to do what???) I do enjoy that part of the job, but I like a little more time, if possible, to test things out than I had this week.  I also scored high on the staff satisfaction rating this week.  Since I was researching 'stuff', I found a few things to enhance their workday, and changed some settings in some programs and streamlined some procedures.  Usually, whenever I change things, I get the "I liked it better the old way", but this week, for whatever reason, everyone liked the changes - what a shock!

Guess what I finished last night....my second quilt!  It turned out better than the first quilt, but.....there is still lots of room for improvement.  I like the color scheme better for this one, and there was definitely an improvement in my skills.  By the end of the year, I could be getting pretty good!  (or at least not quite so bad???)

The kitties were having fun yesterday morning.  I missed the best shot, though.  Picot was watching Rufus who was just around the corner from her, and Indy was watching both of them.  By the time I got the camera, Rufus had left the scene.

I got some updated pictures of Tank on our walk yesterday.  He's lost a bit of weight in the last two months - he actually has an indent where his waist is now.

Here's a photo of him right after he came here.

My babies were having fun too!

I finished up my project for an upcoming baby at work.  Chris Jr. is due in about two weeks, so I'm actually ahead of myself!  I made the star ripple afghan for him, and a pair of baby booties, and I crocheted around the edge of a couple of receiving blankets.

Fall is officially here!  We still have hot weather, but it is cooling down at night.  The mornings are so wonderful.  Dawn and I went to a wedding yesterday afternoon (Kandis, one of the ladies in the book club) and about melted during the ceremony.  It was comfortable in the shade, but the ceremony was held in full sun.  The location was beautiful - Mercy Oaks.  There is a beautiful fountain in the patio area - it was a beautiful wedding!  The words of the ceremony were just beautiful - very symbolic, and, once again, just beautiful!

I have several finished projects I hope to take pictures of later today.  I have the whole 'baby present' done for a co-worker that is expecting his first baby in a couple of weeks.  I made the star ripple afghan and a pair of baby booties, and then I crocheted around the edges of a couple of receiving blankets for him.  I am washing the last of the blankets this morning, and hope to get the whole thing put together this afternoon and take it to work tomorrow.

Dawn and I are meeting up with a couple of the book club ladies this afternoon to see "Messiah on the Frigidaire" - a play that another of the book club ladies is in - actually - she has the lead part.  I missed her last play - I just procrastinated too long.  I'm determined to see this one!  I do like live theater, I just don't get there much.  Having Malorie in my department at work, and having her involved in the local theaters means that I am seeing much more than I used to, just in support of her.

P.S.  I just found out via FaceBook that Kandis's house was broken into during the wedding.  They came home last night to a broken front door, blood on the porch from where they broke the window on the door, and three very scared kitties.   They are missing some stuff (electronics, jewelry, a couple of checks that were sent for the wedding), but everything else is okay.  What a terrible thing to come home to after your wedding!

Talk about starting the morning with a bang!  First, I hit the snooze button on the alarm - never a good idea, but I stayed up too late last night watching the baseball game.  When I did get up, I went in the kitchen, and started gathering items for Alli's lunch, and then I catch a movement out of the corner of my eye.   Picot was reaching across from the secretary toward my glass full of plant cuttings on a plant hanger on the wall.  Yes, she can reach it.  No, she can't 'just' touch it.  The glass, full of begonia cuttings and water, crashes to the ground.  Two cats go streaking down the hallway.  Ralph comes dashing down the hallway to see what happened.  There is glass, water, and plants all over the kitchen floor.  Can I just go back to bed now, and start over?  The only good thing was that the dogs were outside, or it would have been even more of a disaster in here.  As it is, I still have to vacuum to catch all the glass.  That will wait until Alli is on the bus, which should be here in a few minutes.  Then I can try to get my house back in order!

Finally!  Both time to post, and a finished project!  Last week was a whirlwind.  I went to Susanville after work on Thursday (a nice drive, but I forgot what it was like to drive in the dark in the mountains - it had been a while!)  Friday morning, Mom, Alli and I headed to Reno for some shopping.  Our first stop - Ben Franklin's - was a major disappointment in two ways - they are closing!!!  Everything was 40% off, which was nice - I stocked up on some yarn for decorating gloves for Christmas, but they didn't have any thread.  I was looking for a specific color - I had a doily done except for about 8 inches around on the last row.  I needed Aunt Lydia's Copper Mist, and no one in Redding had the color.  Neither did Ben Franklin's.  Bummer!  I did manage to spend $43.00 on yarn though - not bad!  We drove all over Reno looking for furniture for Mom, and thread for me.  /we didn't find what Mom was looking for, but I did find what I was looking for - at Joanne's.  I finished up my doily last night and pinned it out.  It is about 24 inches across - I didn't measure it exactly, but my blocking board is 25 inches across, and it covered most of the board.

After our Reno trip, I had pizza with Cindy and Susan at Mom's house - it was nice to have a chance to catch up a little bit.  Susan lives in Redding, but I don't see her much.  She spends a lot of her 'weekends' in Susanville, so I usually catch up with her there.  Cindy lives over by Reno, and I don't see much of her either!

Saturday was Mom's last meeting as Worthy Matron in Eastern Star.  She had the '1876 Team' come in and do the opening and closing ceremony the way that is was done at that time, complete with rocking chairs.  I had not seen it before, and it was very interesting.  I did agree to take an office for next year - as long as they understood that I wouldn't always be at the meetings.  Mom has been providing the refreshments for most of the year, and since we had a lot of visitors (the entire 1876 Team) she had done sandwiches before the meeting, and soup and sandwiches after the meeting.  I don't mind the cooking and prep work, but cleaning up after the meeting is a pain!  I'm glad that 'we' won't be in charge of that next year!

I stayed overnight at Mom's and came home Sunday morning.  A beautiful drive, and I saw antelope in the Bogart area!  The first time in years that I had seen them there.  How cool!  Alli was great the whole trip, but I think she was very happy to be home.  She rocked so hard in her chair, I was afraid she was going to send it through the wall!  Everything was back to normal.

Here's how far I made it on the scarf before the manufacturer put a knot in the yarn.  It switched from the dark purple to the hot pink instantly - not a good look.

Here's the pattern I found for the rest of the yarn.  It is a cluster afghan stitch - though the afghan stitch is now called the Tunisian stitch.  Even in the Red Heart yarn, it is pretty.

Here is a sample made up with the yarn.

Here's all the quilting material I have to cut up and piece together.  I did get a little of it done today, but we had a picnic at the park this afternoon for Ralph's work, so....I didn't get it all cut out.

Alli seemed to have a good time at the park today.  The weather was great - a high of 92.  We were sitting in the shade, and it was beautiful!

Ralph and Alli walking to the picnic.

How quickly things change.  It seems like just yesterday the boys were little, but yesterday was Dallas's going away party.  He leaves Tuesday for Pittsburgh, PA.  My babies are growing up!  (and he's not even technically mine - Margene and I were trying to think of a name for how we are related - our boys think they are brothers, what does that make us??)

I went empty handed to my quilt class yesterday.  I have not touched the sewing machine in over a month.  I still have fabric from the last class that I haven't even cut out yet, much less pieced together.  I have the last quilt pinned and ready to quilt, but not much done on it.  I'm falling behind!  The instructor scared me about next year.  She said she will like it much better - it is still four projects, but they are bigger project.   She didn't think that these little ones were a lot of fun to do, and she had no good use for the small projects except as gifts.  Bigger?  I'm in trouble!  I may be talking to Meredith about splitting the class - she do two of the quilts, and I do two.  If I can't finish four 'small' projects, how am I going to finish four 'bigger' projects?  We'll see - it's been a fun experiment.  I've always wanted to quilt something, and now I have!

I think I found a new pattern to use the yarn I bought in Crescent City.  I started a scarf in it, and it was looking pretty good.  About 12 inches into the scarf, there was a knot in the thread, and they knotted it to a completely different color in the shading!  How could they do that?  This was not cheap thread!!  I cut off where I was working, and was trying to figure out where I wanted to go from there - start over?  Find a spot in the thread that matched up to where I was so I continue without such a blatant color change?  Write a nasty letter to the manufacturer?  Then, yesterday, I got a new crochet magazine that had a scarf that is gorgeous, and I think the rest of the yarn will be perfect for it.  Not only that, but it is a new technique for me - something new and beautiful!  I started a swatch last night just to try out the pattern, and even in Red Heart yarn it is pretty!

Speaking of working the swatch - I did that last night while I was house-sitting.  Meredith called yesterday, and her dad has taken a turn for the worse and her husband and daughter were on their way down to Castor Valley, could AJ house-sit for them?  Well, not really - he was going to be at Dallas's party last night (Margene planned an all-nighter for the boys - and there were about 8 of then there yesterday, so it could go on all night!) but I could!  AJ went over with me yesterday afternoon to show me what needed to be fed (three fish tanks and two dogs).  I went over last night about 8:30 and fed everyone, and then sat and talked to the dogs for a while while I worked up my swatch.  Sofie talks back, so it was fun.  They don't take a lot of upkeep.  They would love to go for a walk, I'm sure, but they are fine without one, too.

Another birthday has come and gone, and I don't feel any older!  I got some nice phone calls for my birthday, lots of comments on Facebook, and my co-workers had a potluck lunch for me - yum!  Even my "little" brother called - I haven't talked to him since July when we went camping.  I was partying too hard at work though, and missed a meeting I was supposed to attend (it wasn't my fault - they tempted me with berry cobbler and homemade ice cream!)  Luckily, no one at the meeting seemed too bent out of shape - lucky since three of the people in the 6 people meeting are all either an SVP or and EVP - not someone I want to think of me as a slacker!  The meeting was a 'debriefing' of the conference I attended last month.

Wednesday was the book club meeting at my house.  Luckily, Dawn was able to do a bunch of the prep work for me while I was at work.  She made the ice cream for me, and got the oven fired up and put the  enchiladas in before I got home - a huge time saver for me!  The book wasn't that great (I can say that - I chose the book!) but the bookmarks seemed to go over well.  Dawn even stole one, and she didn't read the book!  The book for next month is "The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford.  I've ordered a copy through Amazon, and it looks good!

I'm looking forward to the weekend.  This week has been so busy between getting ready for the book club, scouts, my birthday, and just keeping the house running - I'm ready for the weekend!  Saturday is my quilting club, and I haven't even cut out the material from last month.  I haven't touched my sewing machine in a couple of months.  I'm in trouble!  I do want to sit down and quilt, it's just finding the time to do it.  I'm taking a vacation day next Friday, but I'm going to Susanville after work on Thursday, then to Reno on Friday, and I have a Eastern Star meeting back in Susanville on Saturday - my last meeting for this year.  No time that weekend to sew.  Maybe I'll dig out some time this weekend?

I kept forgetting to take pictures of Alli's new haircut!  It is cute, and now VERY easy to wash and comb!

I finished the bookmarks for the book club!  The book this month (kind of a let-down of a book - not that great!  Worse yet - I chose the book!) was Don Juan in Hankey PA.  It is the on-going drama of putting on an opera - so.....the book mark is the drama comedy/tragedy masks.  I started with this one - one mask on each side.  Not bad, but....not that good either.

So - on to plan B - two masks side by side.  The first set had the faces embroidered, and putting them back to back hid the stitch work.  Side by side called for a different plan - felt!  It sounded good, but it was tough to get the little tine pieces of felt just how I wanted them, and where I wanted them.  But, I persevered (:)) and got:

We played hooky from one session in San Diego and took a tour on the USS Midway.  I'm glad we skipped "Taking Credit Quest to the Next Level? (we don't even have the program yet - anything is the next level for us!) and spend some time out there.  When I think of the Midway, I think of WWII - I had no idea that it didn't see action there.  I also thought of it as an 'o;d' ship, but it was active into the 90's.  It was the lead ship for Desert Storm.  I also sat in on a presentation by a docent on how they actually launch the aircraft from the ship.  Cool!  We climbed up and down stairs that I sure glad I don't have to climb every day in a hurry!  Here are some of the photos  - in no particular order.

I made it back all in one piece from San Diego!  I took tons of pictures - of course - and some were even decent!  The trip was great - the conference was good, the location and weather perfect!  It was so nice to be out of the smoky skies of Redding.  He stayed at The Hyatt, right on the harbor.  We were just a few blocks from the Gas Lamp District (lots of restaurants, shops and 'drinking establishments')  Here is a view from my hotel room toward the 'city'.

And here are a couple toward the harbor.  The large ship in the center right of the photo is the USS Midway museum.  Way cool!!

 I wondered a lot down in the harbor area between the sessions and dinner, and during the lunch break.  It was too nice to stay inside!

 I had to take a picture of this ship - it is The Allison C" - love it!

 Between the hotel and the harbor was 'Seaside Village', a collection of shops and restaurants.  It was also a cool place to walk around - people watching. 

They had a really cool carousel too - it was originally built in the late 1800's.  Beautiful!

 One of the walks I made took me out to "The Walk of Heroes' - artwork dedicated to those in the military.  One area was dedicated to Bob Hope.  They had statues of Bob Hope speaking into the microphone,and around him, different soldiers.  There was a looped tape of Bob Hope speaking (from Vietnam while I was there) playing as well.

 Some of the Cypress trees along the walk.  The USS Midway is in the background.

 This was taken along the harbor on our way to dinner one night.