June 14-19, 2009

First off, I would like to apologize for taking so long to post an update. Apparently Blogger and Internet Explorer weren't getting along this week, as I was repeatedly told that IE couldn't open Crossed Purposes; hence, no updates. But it's working now, so here goes...

Sunday
I still didn't feel well so no stitching was done. I finally made myself eat real food but unfortunately it didn't help the situation any. This usually only lasts 3-4 days, so Monday night I should be okay. I spent the day watching movies on Turner Classics and reading emails.

Monday
Shortly after midnight I picked up LCKQ and continued with the fill-in of the Celtic band. I usually get bored with so much repetitive stitching but am not having any trouble with this project.

Tuesday
I went to Provinces library for the Heirloom Stitchers' meeting but Kathy Y and I were the only ones there. While Kathy did a little stitching, I did none at all. We had a nice chat for an hour and a half and then decided to head on home.

Sarah called me while I was driving and we decided to meet up at the Super WalMart. I bought Anna a pair of D-D-Dora (that's how she says it) tennis shoes for her to play in. She always wears Crocs whenever I see her and they just make me nervous on one so young as she.

Do you mind if I ask why the uncouth morons seem to congregate in WalMart stores? I had Kasey on one side of me, Anna holding my hand on the other as we walked into the pet supply aisle. Four adult women were in the aisle, squirting each other with dog shampoo bottles. Two of them came running right at us. I had to pull Kasey out of their way. Meanwhile, I shot a dagger-filled look at all of them. They had shampoo all over the floor, and of course Kasey couldn't help stepping in some of it. I was very worried that she'd slip.

I found a store employee and told him "four blonde women" squirted shampoo all over the floor so that someone could come clean it up. I was completely disgusted and I think that will be my last foray into Super WalMart. I guess manners aren't taught or adhered to in public anymore?

Wednesday
I woke up with a sore throat so I called my clinic and told them I'd be staying home. I felt better a couple hours later, but I still didn't feel like going to dialysis. Instead, I went to the post office to mail some trades and RAKs. I came home and the sight of the livingroom just depressed me. I couldn't handle the mess anymore. This is what it looked like as I got started cleaning the hearth in front of the fireplace. Here is the view from the hallway. I apologize for the spots on the one picture; I'm not sure what happened.



I'm embarrassed to show you but I'm also very proud of how much I accomplished in just one day. Of course I had to take breaks to rest and that weak muscle in my lower back gave out before I even finished moving things off the hearth, but I persevered!

By midnight I'd cleaned the majority of the room. All I had left was the area between the couch and my stitching chair in front of the door. I'm still working on that, and vacuuming the rest of the carpet. I'm hoping to cover the stains that my Saluki left with an area rug. I'll have to look around for a sale when I get paid next month, if I can fit that into my budget.

Thursday
I was awakened by a bad thunderstorm and a deluge of rain before 8:00am. I tried getting back to sleep for an hour and just couldn't so I came out and stitched for an hour and a half. By 10:30 I was exhausted again and went back to bed to sleep until my alarm woke me at 12:30.

As usual, it was the AnnapolisKnits stitch-in at Barnes & Noble in the afternoon. Kasey and I arrived shortly after 1:00pm and stayed with Judy and Linda until after 5:00. I completed the fill-in of the Celtic band on LCKQ this morning, as well as one side of the last purple border, so I went to work on completing the last two borders. Before I left I'd done the entire purple border and one side of the Abelone border.

I was determined to finish LCKQ that night and went home to keep stitching away. At 9:00pm, the wall of exhaustion slammed into me once again and I could not keep my eyes open. I told Debi, who I was IM'ing with, that I was going to take a nap and would be back "in a couple hours."

Friday
HA! That "couple hour" nap turned into five hours! I woke at 2am. Luckily Debi was still online. We resumed our chat and I started reading emails instead of stitching, but did finally pick it up around 3:30am. And then the frogs attacked LCKQ! There was an error in the Abelone border all the way at the first corner. I had to frog two of the three sides and then started re-stitching them.

I finally went back to sleep at 9:00am and woke up in time for dialysis. I still can't stitch during my treatments, so I read a book for an hour and then slept for the last two hours. Gloria woke me up shortly before 6pm to tell me that I was done and needed to hold my needle sites.

Carol B-C, Carol B (Knitter Carol), and I had arranged to meet at Border's tonight, so I went home to pick up Kasey and headed straight for the mall. Knitter Carol was already there, as she'd been doing some shopping earlier, but Carol B-C came in just after I sat down.

We stitched until around 8:30 and then went to the food court to get dinner. Since it was so loud that Kasey was nervous, we returned to the Borders cafe with our meals and ate in a much quieter environment. We picked up our stitching after all the food was gone and I put the last stitch into LCKQ five minutes before the store closed! Lavenderblue Celtic Knot Quilt is my 14th finish of 2009, the Year of the Sampler! I'm sure you could hear Carol B-C's "Wooo Hoo" where ever you were!

I took LCKQ off the stretcher bars and put a new canvas on them at home. I want to start Desert Star by From Nancy's Needle next.