And the quilt top saga continues.....different cat, same problem. Too much 'help'.  I was trying to lay out my rows so I could sew them together (in the right order - that helps!) and Picot decided to 'help'.

Here's the finished top:

First day back to school for Alli today - AJ starts next week.  Yes, the summer flew by, but I did get out and about more than usual.  I want another camping trip before it gets cold.....but when and where.....

I'm working now to get the yard into shape for a BBQ next week.  I pulled out a bunch of overgrown plants and put in new ones, cleaned out old leaves, etc., and tried to tidy up everything I can. Next weekend, I'll hit the house!

One of the new plants I put in is a Lantana - and one of my resident frog seems to enjoy it....

A boy and his dog.......

AJ came in from Chico Saturday - just to go kayaking with me! (Okay, he has a doctor's appointment on Monday, but he came in early, just for me!)  We had talked about going kayaking with Ralph's kayaks (sit-ins, rather than the sit-ons that we usually use). Then AJ decided that Jasper needed to go kayaking.  Okay - if you say so!  We will definitely take the sit-ons then!

This was Jasper's first kayaking trip - and she'll be 13 this fall.....what's that line about old dogs and new tricks???  She and AJ went swimming a few times before they got the hang of it (and if you've never tried to guide two kayaks from the top of the water while someone is in the water trying to pick up a 50 pound swimming dog and put her in one of the said kayaks you are trying to guide, you just haven't lived!!!)  AJ finally got her to settle down by making her sit right next to him and he gripped he with his knees to calm her. One problem - it's hard to paddle with a wet Labrador in your lap.  I think she got the hang of it pretty well.   

We kayaked over to the shore and let her out on relatively dry land. She wasn't that impressed - the wakes from the ski boats (they were everywhere on the lake yesterday!) sent waves up on her even when she thought she was on dry land.  We rewarded her for her bravery with some crackers and peanut butter.

I think she's a convert.  When the wake/waves were really bad, she tried to get back on the kayak.......

We did see a family of ducks swimming around too - this was the best photo I got.  Those waves/wakes made it hard to focus on anything! I'll be glad when it gets colder (for many reasons) and we can have the lake back to ourselves.  So many of the boats were ignoring the no-wake zone that kayaking just wasn't that much fun (except for the Jasper part).

Ralph got me a new present last Friday - a battery powered leaf blower.  (The old old is a backpack gas powered blower, and I have issues getting it started.)  I put it to good use this weekend!  Here's the pile of leaves from the front yard:

And the front yard after the leaves were removed - most of the leaves came out of the rock areas, so the yard itself didn't look too bad.  I also discovered that the yard was bone-dry - the timer on our sprinklers had an issue.  Not a good thing for August in Redding!

I started a new quilt this weekend, too - I found out Friday that a friend that was in our original book club group is pregnant. Unfortunately for me, she's due in a month!  Oh well, baby gifts can be late, right??  And I may be a bit slower than usual - I had some help....

 Here's what Indy was sitting on - it's about a quarter of the quilt:

I would have put it up on my design board, but it's already full!

This is about half of a quilt I'm working on - I need to get busy and finish....and get some actually quilted, too.

Another first for me - using Ralph's grill!  Ralph has started attending some AA meetings at night, and he needs to leave before I get dinner ready, so....I get to BBQ on those nights!  After careful instructions from Ralph, I ignored them all, because nothing he told me said anything about this:

The grill was a bit warm for steaks.....so dinner was even further delayed, but delicious when done!  Margene was down, and she finished up the veggies while I cooked the steaks.  Yum!!!

I had a conference last week in Los Angeles, and a co-worker and I took advantage of a shuttle to the beach from the hotel.  For $5, we had round trip tickets to Manhattan Beach!  

The hotel was under construction, which made the actual conference 'interesting' - jack hammers hammering during the presentations.....but it meant that the rooms were bright and fresh and brand new!  The staff was also great.  The construction was not in the area of the rooms, so I only heard it during the actual conference.

Manhattan Beach was amazing - the weather was great - low 70's, everything was clean and bright and amazing.....

We walked out on the pier

The area has a competition volleyball area that was just a bit south of where we were - we saw it while driving up, but they had a ton of courts set up where we were too.

Okay - it's officially hot - and I'm officially DONE!  When I got in the car after work Wednesday - this was the temp showing......121 degrees!!!!

I told myself that it wasn't that hot, really, it was just because the car was in the sun, and it would cool down as soon as I started driving (though it felt that hot inside the car!).  It did cool down - but not much.  Here's the official temp from weather.com.

And it got hotter on Thursday and Friday....the high today is supposed to be 109.  I'm done!!!!!

Book club was this week, and we read the book "Lost" by Gregory Maguire.  My recommendation - don't both reading it.  None of us at book club enjoyed the book.  They did like the bookmarks though!  When I showed the picture of bookmarks to a couple of members, they both liked the ones in the middle, so I whipped up a coupe more of those.  I found the patterns here.  

Next month - no book for book club - just a family BBQ at our place.

AJ and I went on the annual family camp out this weekend at Plaskett Meadows.  We've been gong there for years - a couple of small lakes (AJ calls them ponds) is all that's there, but it's a fun time!  We ended up cutting out trip short this year - a large group of semi-obnoxious people came in Friday night.  They were'nt bad, just not good neighbors (music playing all day/night, dogs running loose, loud all the time - late into the night, etc.)  They were nice individually, but when they were together in the group camp, they made camping there not much fun for us.....

AJ at camp...

The view from our campsite.

Upper lake

Lower lake

Lots of bumble bees around - but no meat bees or yellow jackets!

Lots of dragonflies too!

Kolby went for a swim - he was playing catch with himself and missed, so went in after the ball.  Evidently, he bet he could through the ball across the lake, but never actually made it.  He didn't even get the ball out of the lake - it ended up in the reeds and was too difficult to get out.

The trial to the lower lake

Sunset

Morning at the lake - it was so still the reflections were perfect!

A bit of a mist rising off the lake

The crew - Kolby (just getting out of the water), Dave, AJ, Kody. Jake and Jeff.

Ralph sent me this picture yesterday of his mighty huntress.....

He said she was hanging out around the shed area of the yard for a couple of hours yesterday - pacing, etc.  Finally, he heard a yip and a squeak......got him!

Our neighbors behind us feed the wild animals (raccoons, possums, squirrels, etc.), which encourages them to hang around - yuck!  I don't mind the squirrels, but I really don't like the others.