More purses

Two more purses finished. These are fun. I still need to put some sort of closure on the second one.

Kids having fun

Took Gage, Maia and Dane to a coworker's house for a barbeque. They had a great time. Dane loved the landlocked boat and Gage got to do some shooting. We also played horseshoes, volleyball, tetherball and foosball.

They were all sad when it was time to leave. It was a great place for the kids to play out in the country. They even got to get eggs out of the hen house to take home.

Everyone commented on what nice, well-behaved kids they were. Which was nice, since when I first drove up and they all started piling out of the car I could see looks of horror on my coworkers faces. I know they were bracing themselves for a pack of wild little brats.

I made a purse!!!

I have been wanting to try making a fabric purse/tote for several months. Ever since I made a duct tape purse (first picture) for a design class last fall. I made the duct tape purse without a pattern or a sewing machine.

I decided I really needed a pattern so went off to JoAnn's last night. I haven't looked at patterns in a few years so was quite shocked that a simple pattern was $15! I was going to forget about a pattern when I saw a sign that said all Butterick patterns were on sale $1 each! Score! I bought 3 patterns, which will make 15 different purses.

This one was sooooo simple. It took 1/2 yard for the outside and 1/2 yard for the lining that you see at the top of the purse over the handle. It said it was a 2 hour pattern. I was done with the cutting and sewing in about 30 minutes. Took me an hour to sew on the 8 buttons! Geez. I am really glad I got the pattern. Simple as this was I would have NEVER figured out how to make this thing by just looking at a picture.

I need more fabric! I will be at the fabric store as soon as it opens tomorrow.

Connections

I read Tammy's blog today about her cousin and it reminded me of a gal I met many years ago.
I was out with friends one evening at a popular hot spot and it was very crowded. A couple asked if they could sit at our table. The gal (Kathy) and I just clicked and had a ball. Over the months we would run into each other and catch each other up on what was happening in our lives. Our first meeting I learned that she had a boyfriend for 7 years who helped her raise her son and they had broken up a few weeks before. She said he was really wonderful, but he wanted to get married and have a child and she didn't. They were still in contact with each on a friends basis.

I met this guy (Mike) and started dating him. Really nice and absolutely adorable. I talked to Kathy after I had dated Mike a few times and told her I had met someone and what a great guy he was.

Mike and I been dating about 2 months and one night while talking I told him about meeting this gal and how we had this immediate connection like we had always known each other. I did not tell him her name. As I kept talking he started getting this funny, uncomfortable look on his face and then asked "what is her name".

Kathy was his ex-girlfriend. She had told him about me too, but no one made the connection until that moment. He told Kathy about it and she thought it was wonderful and was happy we had gotten together.

One month later...................I had been out of town and came back early so decided to stop by Mike's house, sure that he would be delighted to see me. I walked in and Kathy was there and they were both quite cozy, half dressed and sipping wine at 7:00 in the evening with that rosy post coital afterglow. HA!!! They were shocked to see me. I sat down and acted like everything was normal and asked Kathy how she had been since I had not seen her for a while. They kind of stammered and obviously were waiting for me to blow up. I didn't. Mike finally asked if I wanted a glass of wine. I said "sure". I drank my wine and made pleasant small talk and then said "nice seeing you, but I have to go." and left.

To this day I have no idea how I pulled that off. I never saw or heard from either one of them ever again. Ah, the joys of dating.

My way home

I know I am not supposed to talk on my cell phone while driving, but no one said anything about taking pictures while driving.

I took these on my way home today from work. It was such a pretty day and I am so happy my drive home is not on a crowded freeway. Of course, in the winter I am not quite so happy on those icy mornings.

First picture of Presley smiling

This is the first picture I have of Presley smiling. Isn't she cute? She is six weeks old today.

Beautiful weekend

What a great couple of days. The weather is absolutely perfect and I live for the few weeks a year that we have. I bitch and moan the rest of the time.

I headed out the door at 8 a.m. Saturday for some garage saleing. Not something I usually do, but let me tell you $20 and 3 hours later I was pretty happy with my haul. I managed to put back the old laundry sprinkler bottle like my grandma had when I was a kid and the pink daisy hat/net thing that I wore on my head at Easter when I was about 9 years old. I got a couple of oven to table, to fridge pyrex covered casserole dishes, books, 4 Fire King custard cups. My best find was a 4-cup Hall teapot for $6!! It is green with a gold band around the pot, gold handle and spout. Probably would have paid $20 on eBay.

I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera. It was just such an awesome day. One house I stopped at looked out over rolling hills farmland, with snow covered Mt. Baker in the background. I commented to the owners what a fantastic view they had and they just went "huh? Oh , yeah." They were just used to it I guess.

Got a raise.....sort of

I am a union member, not by choice. They say you have a choice, but if you refuse to join the union you don't get the job...then it is payroll deduction. It is a joke. They appear to be representing my employer, not their card-carrying, dues-paying members.

So got a raise. Yippee!!! I got a whopping $25 more a week. Now, everyone was pretty happy because that is double of what we usually get. We kept thinking there must be a catch. Last night our new contract was signed, sealed and delivered and now in effect. Less than 24 hours later we found out what the catch was. My contribution to the retirement fund was raised, so in my paycheck I am really getting $13 more per week. In the past 3 years my contribution has been raised from 1.8% to 5.4%, wiping out very much of an increase in my take-home pay. Everytime I get a raise, my monthly union dues are also raised.

On the bright side....I HAVE A JOB, with medical, dental, vision, etc. and for the moment my job is pretty secure. We had some open positions and they decided to do a hiring freeze, so they don't have to let people go.

I also have a plan in place in case I do get laid off. This gal will be heading SOUTH to the warm sunny climate of San Antonio.

So for the moment, I am happy I have a job and probably should make myself a bright, sunny, nose-to-the-grindstone employee. This means I need to keep my mouth shut and keep my opinions to myself. That is going to be TOUGH! I love telling people what to do.

Have to go...So you think you can dance is on!!!!! Love that show.

Vegetarian

I might have to be a vegetarian for a while. After the Rice-A-Roni fiasco the thought of eating ANY meat is turning my stomach. I had to make a chicken dish to freeze to take to work. My coworker's wife is having surgery on her arm/hand, so we are all bringing in a main dish and a dessert for him to put in the freezer and whip out to feed the family for a few weeks. I made chicken breasts stuffed with ricotta, spinach and mozarella and covered with a tomato sauce. I was gagging cleaning the chicken and stuffing it. Under normal circumstances I would think this recipe was yummy. For dinner tonight I had mashed potatoes, watermelon and a cupcake. Not exactly balanced, but three of my favorite foods!!

I said we all were bringing in dishes, that is of course the women in the office. The men were offered the option of donating $$$ so the family could get pizza occasionally. Now I know the guys in the office and they MIGHT kick in $5 each. Kind of pissed me off that the "girls" were asked to cook and the guys just had to reach in their pocket and be done with it.

About a year ago we did this, but took money donations from everyone and then did 2 weeks worth of Dream Dinners. Of course, the women were the only ones that showed up to put the meals together. It was fun though and Dream Dinners was giving free chair massages that night. The problem was the dinners actually still require a bit of preplanning and preparation when you get ready to have them for dinner. So this time we figured it would be much easier if they just had a fully ready meal in disposable aluminum pans that just needed to be popped into the oven. No fuss, no muss.

Food Poisoning?

My mother was not a very good cook and totally embraced all convenience foods. She even used the boxed spaghetti dinner. I don't think they make that anymore. This was in the days before jarred spaghetti sauce. Mom was probably first in line at the grocery store when Swanson came out with the frozen TV dinner. She didn't want us kids cooking either. I was only allowed in the kitchen to wash dishes, so didn't learn how to cook (or turn on a stove) until I got married at the tender age of 19.

Now I am a fairly decent cook and enjoy tweaking recipes....BUT....there are a few hold-over covenience foods I have occasionally. Kraft Mac n Cheese, Hamburger Helper and my all time fav Riiiiiiiiiice-a-Roni the San Francisco treat, ding ding. Last night I whipped up some beef RR with a few additions of ground beef and veggies. It was pretty good. I forgot about the leftovers and it was over an hour before I put them in the fridge. Didn't think much about it.

Today at lunch I decided to reheat the leftovers. As I was putting it in the pan I took a small bite...sort of an odd smell to it, sharp and pungent. I stopped and sniffed the concoction in the pan and didn't really notice anything unusual. I took another small bite and again that odd smell/taste. Smelled the pot again, nothing. So I went ahead and heated it up, didn't really notice any more of the smell and it tasted fine, I think. A couple of times I hesitated as I was eating, but told myself it was just my imagination. Impossible for something to go bad that quickly. Right?

Two hours later.....it was NOT my imagination!!! Run for the bathroom. How could something spoil that quickly? My ground beef was defrosted in fridge and the veggies were fresh washed. What went wrong? I guess that one hour at room temperature was enough for it to go bad.

The good thing....I probably won't be able to eat Rice-a-Roni for a couple of years. Just thinking about it now turns my stomach. Aversion therapy