Hmm where the time go?

Wow, over a month since I last vented. Many good and bad things have happened.

Golf cart- still enjoying the lifestyle, I think we've saved two refueling trips. That's over $160! Seriously, in the month of July I only filled the tank once, we did quite a bit of traveling by cart. The only reason why I had to fill the tank, was to take Stinky to the airport, and I went fabric shopping. We went to the cart drive in movie, didn't go the second one, as Goof didn't want to see a kiddie movie without Stinky. Stinky has been working on his driving skills, he's getting really good, he hasn't figured out how to drive in reverse yet. We got a speed chip for the cart, and now it really flies. I thought 13mph was pretty good, now we go 18mph, and downhill is a scary thing, no regen to slow us down, it's definitely free falling, and it can be scary on some of the paths. I've taken it farther around town than Goof has. I've been having a ball with it.

Sewing projects- still having fun with that. I finished two quilts, Shoe fly is one pattern

Then I worked farmers flowers

I really like how farmers flowers came out, I love the bright, cheerful colors. Plus Stinky claimed Shoe fly for himself. I finished my quilts, but almost lost my patience with my friend and her indecision with color and block placement on Shoe fly. Luckily that was finally done, but the bad news, she's not happy with the yellow colors available right now, and we have her farmers flowers in squares, and partial blocks in a gallon ziplock bag on my fabric shelf. We readdress it in the winter/spring when there will be more yellows she likes. I don't blame her, but dang it, there is not much I can do, and sometimes I feel really frustrated because I'm the one doing the sewing, and most of the money spent in materials is mine. I'm feeling this because the newest project is a tough one for me. She had found a quilt book with some wonderful flower appliques. I looked at the book, and said okay let's jump in, of course we have a new technique to learn. Fabric shopping went along with this project, we made a day of fabric shopping. I programmed the Garmin, took it in her car, as Goof had mine, and I wanted to just go home. No wonder she preferred me to drive. She's got driving issues, fear of expressways, windy small country roads, busy intersections, fear of not knowing where she's going. It didn't help that 3 of the locations I found through Yahoo directory, were not what we wanted, and finally the last location directed us to a quilt shop in the historic downtown area of Newnan. Of course she didn't like that either. We found the shop, she oooohhhed and awwed. I was impressed, but not that impressed. I looked at the quilt books trying to see if anything called my attention, picked up a set of block placement tags, and some fabric. Not a big purchase. She was disappointed because I did not go hog wild in there. Well I don't know what you are thinking lady, perhaps we need to discuss the amount of fabric we are planning to buy, and who pays. I was just feeling like I'm footing the bill for the quilts, and getting token amounts back. Obviously if I feel like this I should be open and honest. 'Hey, I feel like I'm paying for 75% or more of the quilts and I'm doing all the work, and you are just here to pick fabric colors and placements, and argue with me about my choices because they aren't yours!' I know that's not the best way to say it. But I get frustrated at times. Don't talk to me about techniques, you don't sew and I'm the one going to classes, ordering sewing feet, and stuff. So anyways much money has been spent in the last two weeks, and this is what I have so far. I was pissed off, because she gave the impression of dissatisfaction with the look of the block. It was my first one, and obviously I had to figure out what the hell I was doing. I am going to try it again, with straight stitching instead of satin stitching around the flowers. Also don't give me fucking bullshit about how circular or even the pieced flowers are not. What do you not understand, it was the first fucking try. No kidding the colors aren't placed right, I grabbed a few pieces and threw them together to get an idea of what I was facing. Well anyways when this is to be done, there will be three quilts. One for me, she gets one and her mother in law. Yes, I'm making three of the same quilt. I know I will most likely need a couple of drinks after each session where she has to chose which colors she wants in each flower and what neutral background colors she wants. I may tell her to shove it, and say too bad, make it yourself, or here's a check for your money spent, but if you want one, you take what I give you or nothing at all. I have a hard time waiting for someone to decide the tiny details. If I am sewing, give me a bone, and hurry up with at least one grouping so I can get started, it's awful boring watching someone mutter to themselves about what colors they like, and whether it is complementary or not. I admit, I never took a class about color in college. There were times when I fell asleep in Art History appreciation. It was a requisite! Alright then, enough of my rant for today. More tomorrow!

Tired of leftovers

Thanksgiving has come and gone. The leftovers are frozen. It was a great dinner. I actually timed it wrong. Well the turkey had ideas of it's own. We ate at 3pm instead of 4pm. Everything got heated up and served just fine. I still believe I need two ovens. When we remodel, I'm getting duel ovens.

Actually I was joking with Goof, when Stinky grows up and has a family if they come to my house for holidays, I'm planning on having a fridge in the garage that is only plugged in for the holidays. All the holiday prep stuff can go there. It's hard fitting all that food in to a fridge besides the usual stuff.

Now it's time to plan for Christmas. I'm slow this year. I haven't gotten the cards yet to mail out. One year I sent them out pretty early. I think my cousin said she got it the day after Thanksgiving. Well better than late. We used to joke about youngest aunt and her cards. She never got them out on time. She would be handing them out to the family on Christmas day. A couple of years ago, she sent email cards to everyone. So if she didn't have your email you were SOL. Most everyone I know has email. Well except for my friend in SC. We joke that she will get internet in another 10 years.

It rained for Thanksgiving. No running around in the cold. It was a lazy nap, and movie fest. The day after we stayed in also. I just couldn't see what the big deal was to go shopping. There was nothing that called out to me, 'buy it now'. Safer to stay at home away from all the crowds. A few years ago, my friend Beth and I went and did the Walmart middle of the night shopping excursions. Those were fun times. We would get together the day before Thanksgiving, and look through all the sale ads. We would circle items and mark how many we wanted and plan out our shopping route. Black Friday would see us up at 3am. I would head over to pick her up and stop off at Starbucks for quad shot venti white mochas. Oh the silliness of it all.


The last time we did it, I climbed shelves to get items, Beth threw items at people who were chucking things back. It was pretty crazy. We had hooked up with another woman, and divvied up our lists. This poor woman was getting a computer for her mother, and some guy gave her a black eye trying to take the computer from her. She kneed the guy in the balls I believe. I think someone slammed fingers. I can't remember. I think I had the easier time. Kinda hard for people to knock you over, when you're tossing items they want at them. Well, we couldn't find a sales associate and it was really hectic, so it was every person for themselves. I'm sure the liability was an issue, but then again, I really doubt the associates cared much as they were there at 5am the day after.

My mom got a laugh at our antics. Well we only did it for 2 years. After that it just got too difficult. Honestly there is only so much you can get at Walmart for pre teens. It's all about Best Buys and EB Games now.

I do want to go shopping, but for clothes. Stinky needs more pants, and I want to get some more fabric. He's grown about a foot in the last year. It seems like every time I turn around he's grown another inch. We've been marking the basement door since we got here. Every 3 months we measure him. Besides the fact that he's constantly hungry, his pants have turned into high waters. He started out at the beginning of summer a size 12 in pants, and now he's wearing 16's. Still skinny, but it's harder to find slim pants at this size. We have no problems finding the husky pants. I think they make more husky sizes than slim ones. He needs more belts. I figure if he keeps growing like this, he'll be wearing young mens pants soon. Problem again, very hard to find pants with a 26 inch waist.

Never go shopping with another kid not your own

Yesterday, I wanted to pull my hair out, Droopy's hair, and Whinis' hair out. Seriously Stinky does not behave well around Whinis. He reverts to a more juvenile self. It was not fun shopping at the market with Droopy and kid. Droopy was all excited about being there. Fine, whatever you know it's gonna be a bad trip when the kid is sitting on refrigerator cases, and his mother is not even paying attention. This was when we first got in for lunch. I was going nuts. She's exploring the store, he's exploring the store, and neither one is thinking about where the other one was. Whinis, is loud, and short tempered. I'm glad Droopy knows that about her kid. But she wasn't controlling him. He was being very argumentative with Stinky. Stinky was letting him win in the egging contest. It was not good. Stinky and I don't have this problem. He may get bored, but he stays close by and I'm on him at all times. Mean, evil mom at work, and all that. I had to pull the two aside and tear them new ones, several times. I was literally ready to pull both kids out and lock them in the car. Or just leave Whinis and Droopy to fend for themselves. Whinis sat on beer cases! He literally climbed a stack of Heineken's and sat on them! Droopy was right there! I had yelled at him in front of his mother, and she ignored it. Not good. I don't want to babysit her kid, while she has fun. If the opportunity ever arises like that again, I will have no problems telling her no. I'm driving my kid is coming. Yours can stay at home or with a babysitter. I'm not watching out for your kid, and all the boys did was argue with each other. So irritating having to play babysitter, and not get any help.