Chapter 243

Since May 18 is the 34th anniversary of Mt. Saint Helen's eruption, I thought I'd post a picture of my  view of Mt. Saint Helen's as I leave for work on clear mornings. The mountain doesn't show up too well in this picture I took last week but it's there. Hard to believe that two years before we built our house, there was an entire mountain to see. 

Friday afternoon we went to Discount Tire and bought 4 new tires for my car. To celebrate our big purchase, we went next door to Red Robin for dinner. I saw a Blue Moon beer shake on the menu at Red Robin and it sounded really, really nasty, so of course I ordered it. The mix of Blue Moon beer, soft ice cream, and Cointreau orange liqueur turned out to be really, really AWESOME and a good way to celebrate buying new tires for my car tonight.

Saturday Bob went to the Payne Field Aviation Day to show his car at the accompanying car show. 

Bob spend the last couple of weeks putting the final polish and shine on the E-type paint job he did last year and it's sooo shiny. Here's the Jag with with a couple of it's ancestor Jaguars.

A formation of airplanes in the air at Payne Field.

Here's some sort of plane with a cute kitty picture on it. I want you to know this picture was taken by Bob, not me!

The Jaguar with it's shiny new polish job. You can clearly see the clouds overhead reflected in the paint. 

Meanwhile, while Bob was at Payne Field just sitting around with his car, I went to Mary Lou's to sew. I always go to her house because, as you can see, she has a real sewing room and this is just half of it. It takes up most of the basement and has all the trimmings, organized in such a way as to be able to find things quickly. I don't have to pack any stuff since she has it all up to and including a sewing cat (shown by green arrow) that prowls around and supervises our work.

Here are 3 of Mary Lou's 5 sewing machines set up and ready to use. It's so nice stuff is out and ready to go. No digging for materials stored in every room or cluttering up the main house each time she sews. 

While Mary Lou and I swapped sarcastic comments, judged people's lives, and discussed how we'd run the world if we were in charge, she sewed on her quilt. She's using up some of her fabric stash to make room for more. There are 1,600 squares or 6,400 triangles in just the front of this giant quilt....

The back is larger squares designed to use up more leftover pieces of fabric. This is about half of the large back pieces. You can see some of the smaller front strips next to it.

When I create something, I have to have a reason for it or someone to pawn it off to. Mary Lou just makes giant quilts for sport. Anyone want to buy a nice quilt???

My project was merely a simple diaper-changing pad with two covers to put on our dryer for changing Baby Walker when she's visiting. Oddly, a mere towel flopped on the dryer was enough for my own children.

I also made a bowl pot holder for heating bowls in the microwave. That way it's ready to grab and put right on the table without fumbling with a potholder.