Done!  I finished Emma's quilt late Saturday night!  While I can still see all the errors on it, I think over all it turned out nice.  Once again, it was a learning experience to quilt this....

Last Wednesday was Boss's Day - and did I do anything for my boss?  No.  Did my department do something for me?  Yes!  I got flowers and a card!  (And they planned ahead because the card was signed by everyone, and one was on vacation this week....)  Wow!  I felt so honored - I do what I can to keep the work place fun and inviting, but....we are still a back office, data input, boringly meticulous with details, one wrong code will cause a problem, department.  It's nice to know that they appreciate me.   (And my boss saw the card and flowers and know that they appreciate me.....)

The bank was closed Monday (Columbus/Indigenous People Day) so Alex and I took off to Lassen for a hike.  We went back to King's Creek Falls - just because it's such a beautiful hike.

The ground squirrels were out and very busy....

There was ice along the edge of the creek, and ice cycles on everything near the creek.

We took a side trip toward Bench Lake, but turned around before we got to the lake (we weren't really sure how far it was...)

We made it through PG&E's blackout of California - thanks to our generator (and REU!)  The city of Redding had power, so it was work as normal for me, and we could easily get gas and groceries in town - unless you wanted D batteries.  I think they are still out of those.  Redding Walmart has an entire aisle of bottled water that they put out that was still up on Saturday.  Our generator runs our well, so we were fine for everything - water, lights in the kitchen, garage, and living room, refrigerator and main freezer in the garage, gas stove/oven and water heater - just inconvenienced.  I lost everything in the frig in the guest house - mainly leftovers. That and the cost of fuel for the generator for 3 days.  Still, it's a small price to pay for electricity.

It did curtail my evening activities.  Even though we had power, I still found myself going to bed earlier than normal.  Funny....

I finally finished the quilting on Emma's quilt, and now "just" need to sew down the binding.  Hopefully I can get that done in the next week....though I do have "help", as you can see...

Margene's birthday was last week, and I had grandiose plans of making her birthday present.  That kind of didn't happen as planned, though I did get it done yesterday.  Once again, my 'vision' of how it would look didn't work out in reality, but....it's okay, I think.  It's a reversible apron - one side poppies and one side apples.  I like the pattern - just not my color option for the pocket.  I have some other items gathered up for her present, so I'll try to get them sent off tomorrow....

 

Busy weekend!   "We" had Emma's bridal shower here on Saturday.  "We" being Meredith and Veronica did all the planning, shopping, cooking, etc.  I supplied the place.  Emma wanted a mimosa bar and cucumber sandwiches, and Meredith's decorating looked great!  I think the only thing that actually drank the juice were the bugs - the guests all had straight champagne!  (The bugs were NOT there during the party - they came along when we were cleaning up, thank goodness!)

The first guest to the party - I found him early Saturday morning when I was doing my final patio cleaning.

I made a ton of scrubbies for Emma in her colors (teal, yellow and burgundy) and she put them together for thank yous, but then forgot to give them out.  Oh well - I did my part!  

Meredith decided she wanted to serve the food from the guest house, rather than from inside the main house, or outside on the patio.  That's fine in theory, but the guest house has collected a lot of stuff in it!.  I spent this week every night after work cleaning out the guest house or the patio.  I put all the stuff out of the guest house kitchen into the bedroom - thinking I could just close that door, right?  Wrong!  Meredith wanted to use that bathroom so people didn't have to go through the house and bother Ralph and Alli.   

Heavy sigh!  I compromised by throwing a sheet over my 'clutter'.  (Okay - it took two sheets to cover it....)

Then, on Sunday, I put it back....see the bedroom!

I purged and de-cluttered the guest house kitchen as well.  Here's the counter now.  I still have some boxes underneath, but nothing like it was!