moving...eww!

i spent the evening helping a friend pack. after having three good friends (and myself) move five times between all of us in this last year i have to say i am a little a burned out on moving. but it's also one of those things that you just do...rest assured that the favor will be repaid in the future, or that you owe a favor anyway; it's the the nature of friendships that you lose track of those things. but i gotta say, after this i hope no one i know moves for a long, long time!

i got fabric today for a new sewing project. after finishing my quilt i found myself pacing around my apartment, bored with nothing to do for the past week or so. and i couldn't understand why i was so restless. i concluded that i really enjoyed sewing my quilt and that i needed a new sewing project. so now i've got one! huzzah...

peace in the valley!

finally, it has happened! sammy and edgar are both sitting with me on the sofa! less that a foot from one another, no growling, no barking, no hissing, no yowling. there is in fact purring going on right at this moment! i thought that it would never happen, i thought that the cats were doomed to a lifetime in the bedroom whenever edgar is up and about. not true! hooray!

j and i went to a wedding in genoa nebraska this weekend. it was a lovely time, it started off a little questionable...the reception was at the senior center, which was...unique to say the least. on the way back we decided that the highway was uninteresting, so we drove home only on gravel roads. i guess i didn't realize that could be done, but j has an uncanny sense of direction. there were several abandoned farm buildings along the way, but most had no trespassing signs. we did stop at one small building that was really cool. it was full of stuff, old furniture, a wringer washer, tables, some kind of old halters. there was an old lard bucket from cudyhay's which is where my grandma used to work. it is so interesting that people just up and leave all that stuff.

at long last!

it's done! it's done! my quilt is finally done! it is far from perfect and did some stuff wrong of course, but i have never been focused on perfection. it's more the overall process and the finished work that i have always been interested in. so now i am in need of a new project...i have several in mind, it's just a matter of narrowing it down.

sing along!

there is some schmuck outside my apartment playing some sort of music really loud and wailing along with it. it isn't really recognizable to me or perhaps i would sing along...

it was a really productive day today. my parents came to town, which means that i did some cleaning. my mom and i went to see the international quilt study center. it was the grand opening today. we waited outside for about an hour and then another half hour inside until we could get into the gallery. it was worth it though, the quilts on display were unbelievable! i've had some conversations with people who have trouble with understanding the concept of the quilt gallery, why someone would spend money building it and why people would go to visit it...i don't really see it any differently than an art gallery. and each one tells a piece of history. oh well, i guess to each his/her own, right?

i also repotted a bunch of plants, getting several cactus spines stuck in my fingers. i couldn't get them out so i guess my body will just absorb them, or do whatever it is bodies do to things like cactus spines. my neighbor downstairs moved out and left a bunch of plants in the entryway with a note that they needed a good home, so they have one now...

my dad and i scoped out the area for the garden. the original spot i was looking at is almost entirely rock so it clearly won't work. i found out that the city of lincoln creates compost out of the yard waste that they collect and if you haul it yourself you can get it for free...it's also sold at various nurseries around town...although why you would pay for it when you can get it for free is beyond me. i just need to find a nice person with a truck that would let me throw compost in the back.

on the canine/feline front, sammy has been super adventurous today...venturing out and hanging around while edgar was near. it wasn't entirely peaceful, but a big step in the right direction. edgar needs to go out, but with the weirdos wailing i am not so inclined to take him out; ah the charms of my neighborhood!

fishies

i go through fits and starts of being really antisocial...i am experiencing one lately. i'm not sure the problem, high levels of crabbiness abound and it's my opinion that when i am like this i am not really fit for human companionship. despite my foul mood today it was a pretty good day. a friend came over and i helped pin her quilt. it's really adorable, goldfish!! my last day at the shop was last night. i will be sad to not be a barista anymore, but i am happy to not be working all the time.

there was just a trailer on tv for a movie called the strangers, just the trailer looks terrifying! i would like to see it but i know that either way i will regret that decision. if it's good i will continue to be terrified by it for the next month or so and if it's not good, well then, it's not good, and that is different type of regret.

i am looking forward to saturday...it's pierogi saturday. a family tradition of ours. every holy saturday we make pierogis for easter dinner at my mom's house. it's an all day event.

catch up

i hate starting my day realizing that i have overslept. as you may have guessed i overslept today. it was a kind of disappointing day in that i had a few plans with people that fell through for various reasons and i felt like i spent the whole day trying to catch up. with what, i couldn't say, but i felt behind the whole day. on the upside i took my sewing machine to the bernina store and had the woman there show me what i was doing wrong. she was very kind, as it turns out this whole time that people (i.e. my mom and everyone else i asked) suggested that i take the bobbin out and re-load it, it didn't occur to me to flip the bobbin around...just to re-thread it the same way i was before...low and behold i had been putting it in backwards this whole time! now i feel kind of foolish, but hey, i learned how to do it right in the long run. so i was able to get my doggie bandanas finished and worked a bit on my quilt as well. i only have 12 more squares to quilt and hopefully will finish that *soon*!

the cranes were amazing, as they always are. it seemed to me that there were more this year than the years past. i would have to go back and figure out when i was there last year...it may simply be the time of year. the weather could not have been nicer, i was only cold after the sun started to go down and even then it was bearable. i stopped at harold warp's pioneer village on the way down, which was interesting, although i couldn't help but feel that i didn't quite get my money's worth. but at least i know what all the signs along the interstate are about! i'm not sure where i will go next year...i thought of staying in a bed and breakfast, but it seemed like too short notice this year to get that together.

i keep calling my mom with sewing questions and my dad, who i think is super funny, has taken to calling her "mrs. sew-it-all". ha! get it? like mrs. know-it-all. damn...that is definitely where i get my sense of humor, that and the tendency to think that i am funny when no one else seems to. thanks dad!

spring

oh how i hate the time change. i feel like i have already wasted half of my day simply because it is an hour later than i think it should be. this morning sammy cat snuggled up with me and it was really nice. he hasn't done that since edgar came to live with us. edgar has only been with us for six months, so i suppose that is progress...i have heard that it can take up to two years for things to settle down, so i guess we are on track.

but i suppose the time change means that spring is on the way. i'm ready for it!

the thistle and shamrock is on the radio, one of my favorite npr shows...full of irish folk music. it should put me in the mood for today's project. hopefully i will not put it off like i normally do; i am planning on making some st. patty's bandanas for edgar and a few of his canine friends. i am going to see the cranes migrate tomorrow and he is going to go visit his canine buddies, viggo, grace, and isabella, so i thought it would be nice way to say thank you. the crane visit could not come at a more perfect time, i have a lot on my mind and need the re-centering. it is such a wonderful way to spend the day; by myself, along the river, listening to the cranes and seeing them come into roost.

i have a date to meet my birth mother. it was just confirmed yesterday. so i've got a bit of planning to do. i am nervous but really pleased that it is happening. this is one of the instances that my mentality of not expecting too much comes in handy. it's hard to be disappointed if you have no expectations. i have learned that lesson the hard way a few too many times, expecting things of people, close to you or otherwise, and then when they don't step up in the way you expect...well, it sucks. sometimes it feels very pessimistic to go through life that way, but honestly i have found that it actually makes for better results in the long run.

i went to the stars/lancers game in omaha last night. it was a terrible game! we didn't play well, were surrounded by lancers fans with those god-awful horns that would not stop blowing them, and there was someone in front of us with some major intestinal issues and it smelled so bad! i left with a throbbing headache. very disappointing...