Catch Up

Yesterday

A few days of cold and rain--thankfully!--followed by a day, today, that Alexa is describing as having "sun and thunderstorms." That, along with wind, is springtime here. There may be more rain later in the evening. I've enjoyed the cold and rain even though the cold triggers my arthritis and the changing atmospheric pressure wreaks havoc on my ears, making me feel slightly dizzy all the time. 

I'm not sleeping at night. Instead, I've been watching The Four Seasons remake by Tina Fey. It's okay. I like her generally. I'm a huge fan of her show 30 Rock, which Dave and I are watching piecemeal in the evenings.  There's a zaniness to her work that I find appealing, but sadly it is largely absent from The Four Seasons. 

I could be sewing. I'm halfway done with the Chairman Meow quilt. I have two more panels to quilt and a large part of the quilt is already assembled. After I finish the quilting and assembling, I'll have to bind it. Then it will be done. I have a stack of other things to be quilted--but I'll have to buy more batting if I'm going to do that at home. 

Today

Some random and not-so-random things:

The hummingbirds come often to the feeders outside the windows. There seem to be at least two who come regularly, one larger than the other. I imagine they are nesting nearby. We change out the feeders every 4 days or so, to keep them from growing bacteria that might make the birds sick. 

I'm not sleeping well. When I do sleep, I have crazy dreams. Sometimes I remember them long enough to tell Dave about them, sometimes they're gone by the time I get up. Recently I've dreamt often of being in my grandmother's house.

Last night since I was up anyway, I worked on the quilt for a few hours. I sandwiched and quilted the last two panels. The quilt is in three large pieces currently, so I only have two more very long seams to sew and sash. Then all it will need is a binding. (It's at the stage where handling it is taxing on my hands and shoulders since it's large and heavy and has to be wrestled with to get it under the needle of the sewing machine.) I'm wondering if I should add a Chairman Meow label to it--though that sounds like work, so maybe I won't.

I finally got to bed around 5:00 a.m. and then was up again at 6:20 or so. I fell back asleep then was woken up at 8:00 by Dave. There was someone coming to fix the sprinkler system. I was going to sleep on the couch for a bit, but the guy clomping around outside and knocking on the door was too much for my brain, so I watched videos online. I finished The Four Seasons (it's only okay) and moved on to The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge. After awhile, I got up to blog. 

I'm so tired right now.

Some things have recently come or that soon will come in the mail: A mug from etsy with the word DILF on the side (then in smaller writing "Damn I Love Frogs" and an illustration of a frog in a suit in a rowboat, like the frog from the Frog and Toad books). A Lynda Barry painting, two cats done in gouache on the cardboard that comes in cases of cat food. A portable bidet. And this: 

A book from Kelly, Suleika Jaouad's The Book of Alchemy. I got it in the mail yesterday and started in on the introduction in the car while we were out picking up dinner (pizza, veggie sub, salad). I think it's the kind of book that you go through over years and years, since it's full of essays and journaling prompts. Kelly read it straight through though, so maybe I'll try that too. It went to the top of my reading pile. (I'm finishing up Onions in the Stew by Betty MacDonald right now.)

Speaking of reading and writing, the surgeon's office sent two consent forms that I'm supposed to read and sign. They sent them two days ago, but I didn't open them until last night and it's page after page of the potential horrors of surgery, so I'm very slowly making my way through them. I'll finish that up today and send them back this evening.  

I'm so tired.