Well, this vacation has not started as planned.  Margene and Jordan were coming out for a week, but had to cancel due to Jordan's sister's health (in ICU after chemo for cancer - she's only 30...)  We had plans to explore the coast (up to Crescent City - the lighthouse, the beaches, Trees of Mystery, the redwoods, etc.) and the local waterfalls in our area (Hedge Creek Falls, McCloud Falls, and Burney Falls) as well as some other local exploring.  I will probably still do some exploring this week, just not the big trips we had planned.

Luna hurt her foot earlier this week - she tore a toenail off, poor thing!  We didn't let her go out on a walk until I could get her in to have the vet look at it, and poor Ripley was lost without her.  AJ took Rip out, and said she kept sitting and looking back, waiting for Luna......

The vet gave her an antibiotic and called it good, just keep an eye on it, luckily!

I am trying to finish up a couple of baby/toddler hats to go with the baby/toddler quilts I have done, and it's been slow going.  I swear the quilts took less time!  Probably not, but is sure seems like the hats are taking forever.  Of course, no crochet project goes un-helped....

 

This one is ready to quilt - I got it finished this weekend, sandwiched up, and ready to go!  

I had a supervisor while I was putting the quilt, backing, and batting together.

I need to work on my color choices, though in my defense of this one, I didn't know what the blocks were going to be - this was the surprise "Summer Block Party" quilt.  I enjoyed making the blocks, but the finished quilt is not my favorite.  Oh well, it will be a good "picnic quilt", one you don't mind tossing on the ground to sit on.

And it's done!  Ready to go to Meredith.  I really like this pattern, so will probably make it again - different fabrics.  

 

I went to Sunset Koi the other day to get some more algaecide, and wandered around looking at the plants, fish etc., and noticed the frogs.  There were frogs everywhere!  My favorite were these four hanging out together....

 

James is still hiding in the bathroom sink....I dropped Alli's towel on her while I got Alli dressed, thinking she would get out of the sink, but she just burrowed in and peaked out from underneath the towel.  I even turned the water on in the sink, and she refused to move.  I had to physically pick her up to get her out of the sink so I could brush Allis' teeth.

 

AJ and I got in a kayaking trip last night after work.  The water was a bit choppy, and it was a bit windy, but rule number one in lake kayaking - start out heading into the wind, so on the trip back you have the wind at your back....  

 

Meet Jack - Jeff and Kirby's new dog, aka Jack-Jack.  He's a rescue from the streets of Tijuana, Mexico, and is probably a little over a year old.  They had had him just a week when I went to visit and he was still very skittish of people.  I could see that the tide was turning though - by the time I left, he had jumped up on the couch with Kirby while she was napping (he got down when she woke up, but still.....)  He had also slept on a pair of her sweats at night, so I think he's bonding just a bit.  He won't let anyone pet him, but he follows everyone around - at a safe distance of course.  

 

We are still dealing with Ripley's "expensive car ride" - she is still very slow to eat.  Last night, while she did finally eat her dinner, she took her time to get started.  I looked over at her, and she had her face in her bowl....not eating, just  laying there.  I think she was waiting for Luna to finish her dinner so Luna could watch (and be jealous) while she ate hers.

 

There was just enough smoke in the air at Jeff's to make the dawn light extra special.  I wandered around his yard and grabbed some early morning photos of his flowers (including the weeds in the top photo).

 

The reunion was fun - and thank goodness for name tags! It was nice to see everyone, and as usual, I spent most of my time with the people I've kept in contact with - Susan Tangeman, Dave Anderson, Michelle Henningson-Whitehead, and Cindy Cabodi-Smith.  It doesn't feel like it's been 45 years!  

Reunion weekend! We are having our 45th high school reunion in Susanville, I can’t believe it’s been 45 years and how old that makes me. I did often think of that. I came up last night for a meet and greet at Lassen. Ale works and spent the night at Jeff new place. He has a gorgeous view in the morning. Actually, he has a gorgeous view all the time, but it was  extra pretty this morning

I had added a couple of items to my Amazon cart the other day - not really intending to get them yet (I spent way too much on vacation, and Ripley had an expensive car ride last week) but still, was pricing things out and weighing whether I "really" wanted them or not, and AJ added them to his order and gifted them to me!  What a nice kid!  They may not look like much, but the grey pad is 100% wool and is used for pressing seams and the wooden blocks are tailor clappers - used to further press blocks down after they've been pressed.  They work together very well to decrease the bulk of a quilt block.  I love them!

More about Ripley's expensive car ride....for the last 4-6 weeks, she's been declining to eat dinner occasionally. She's been more than ready to eat the next morning, but it was concerning that she wasn't eating. She seemed fine otherwise, but then....one morning she didn't eat her breakfast either.  Time for a trip to the vet...was it her teeth? A GI issue? What???  Her vet clinic charges a $250.00 urgency fee (in place of the standard $90 office visit) but otherwise the next available appointment was in a week or so.  Luckily, after being checked out by the vet and numerous blood tests, etc., no major issues found.  The vet is new to the clinic, but not to Ripley - it's the same vet we got her from in the first place?  She was very happy to see Ripley again, and that there didn't seem to be a major issue.

All in all, it turned out to just be an expensive car ride for Ripley!

And the quilt top is done!

 

As I was sewing the blocks together for my quilt, Jessie demanded to be held.  Since I was just a bit busy, I told her to wait just a minute, and then ignored her.  She took it into her own paws and climbed up on my shoulder while I was (trying) to sew...using her claws to do so,  She won, I stopped and held her for a bit.

 

I finished up the blocks I have instructions for (so far) for this block-a-month quilt. I should get the next set of instructions next weekend, so I'm caught up for the moment....

 

We got rain yesterday!  Okay - we got a very slight sprinkle....it wasn't even enough to show on the ground, but you could see the drops in the pool water.  We are still battling smoke from the Park Fire, which was less than 30% contained yesterday, and I hope the weather is helping. We have not had the 110+ temps this last week that was really fueling the fire growth.  The fire is still growing though, just not like it was originally.

Some progress on the purple block-a-month quilt - the two remaining blocks are ready to sew together.  Slow going this week - I'm watching the Olympics rather than sewing after dinner.