Day 128

I'm tired and this refused to post on twitter or show up in drafts so I could easily resend it. Stupid twitter app, you don't work nearly as well as the apps made by non-twitter companies.

Here are the oak leaves all grown up, except maybe they'll get a little darker or waxier. I swear they grew up in like 4 days last year, not two months. I gave up picturing them daily since there was very little change since April took a turn for the cooler than March. I should post the two or so weeks I did early on, but not tonight, I'm sleepy and have lots to read still for book club tomorrow.

Day 127

We planted this iris two years ago from a bulb with leaves my Aunt Mona sent or brought from her garden in Iowa. The first year we didn't expect anything since we just planted it but the leaves stuck around okay. Last spring we thought they'd flower but no, we just got new leaves. Barbara said it was normal for irises and lilies to need a year to establish themselves before they bloomed. This year it seems like overall the bulbs didn't grow back that well (I assume squirrels or whatever got all the tulips, daffodils, and crocuses that Mom planted years ago) but this iris and one at the opposite end of the garden both seem to have split into three plants with just the original growing a flower stalk. Maybe some of the other plants will flower later in the summer.

Day 126

Here is a picture of the first whale I did on Candace's baby blanket. It's upside down on purpose, like a signature in a lower corner, while the rest were right side up. I found other thread colors after I'd done a couple whales and saw how hard it was to see them. So now I wish I'd done this in dark blue. Instead there was a blue one right in the middle, and a close to equal number of light green and white whales scattered around the blanket. I washed it this morning and meant to take a picture with a few of the whales showing, maybe a front and back together in one pic, but I didn't have my phone on me when I wrapped up the blanket right out of the dryer so it wouldn't get dirty from all the dog hair and coal dust that plague our house. :p

Day 125

I found a vegan restaurant on my way home from my unnecessary trip. This is what I got, orange soy protein something with rice. It was very delicious and I look forward to returning there in the future if I'm out by Campbell's Run Road.

Day 124

Blargh, forgot to post this yesterday after the bother of seeing the last one didn't post the night before. I really should go organize things w the right (if fake) dates. :)

Today I made a baby blanket for Candace Dyal's baby shower on Saturday morning. I keep wanting to ask her if they've picked a name or stuff like that because I was considering sewing a big letter D or, if they have a name, his first initial, but I don't know if this is a surprise shower or something since I don't know the person organizing it. I suppose that tells me it's not a surprise because how else but through Candace would they get my email. :)

I got this fabric on my unnecessary trip to Ohio so something good was accomplished Wednesday. I got some more fabric to make other baby blankets because the baby fleece was on sale for $2.99 a yard. Maybe I'll make Jacob a blankie to drag around since a yard is hardly enough to wrap a newborn let alone a toddler. It'd cover him in bed okay though. We'll see.

After taking this picture I decided to embroider outlines on some whales on it rather than risk disaster making a D on the sewing machine. I'll do a close up of some when I finish. I hope she likes it, it's a bit crooked and embroidery isn't one of my particular skills, plus the whales are hardly visible when you look at the blanket, though I suppose that's not unusual in quilting. I would sew it differently if I did it again, simpler and just a normal quilting straight stitch rather than a chain stitch. It looks nice enough on the underside but the actual chain is kind of messy, especially when turning corners. Likely I'm doing it wrong. :)

Day 123

Not the best picture but today on a total waste of time misadventure to Wintersville, OH I did a bit of geocaching in Steubenville, OH. Here I am outside Fort Steuben, the gateway to the west where the land office was for the Northwest Territories were given to veterans of the Revolutionary War.

This is the biggest cache I've found and it was full of stuff to choose from. I picked a pen and gave up my pen. It turned out the one I grabbed while nice to look at was totally dead. I may try to find another pen that'll fit in it just because it's a nice green pen with a picture and scripture on it.

If it had been ten degrees, or maybe even five, cooler or not sunny I could think of the day as not a waste of time. I got a bit miserable toward the end from being so hot and sweaty and unsuccessful in my search for geocaches. It turns out the reason I went to Wintersville was rescheduled for two weeks from now so I just have to come back and it left me kind of angry. It didn't help that the leader there seemed to have no idea who I was or why I'd be at New Beginnings. :p I saw lots of good things and accomplished some shopping I'd meant to do so it was hardly a total loss. Just stupid that I didn't email to make sure it was happening or go with my original lazy feeling last night that said ugh, I don't want to drive an hour over there...

Day 122

I wanted to go swimming before the movie marathon I had planned. Unfortunately they have senior water aerobics 10:15-11:15 which is when I came. I didn't feel like I could wait until it was over to swim because the first movie I wanted to see was at 1. I hadn't showered before I left though so I just went up to the locker room and showered then walked back to my car.

I hadn't brought good walking shoes so I couldn't easily walk along the river but it wasn't even 11 yet so it was too early to go to the movies. Next to where I parked was a flowering tree and I decided to take some pictures. Then I noticed a butterfly on some of the flowers and got a picture of it.

After that I bought some sandals at Payless that I think will be good church shoes. I need some replacement flip flops still, the crock style shoes my dad happened to get for me are too sweaty feeling, plus not terribly attractive. I got some blackberries on sale for $1 at Giant Eagle because baby carrots weren't on sale.

Then I went to Walmart but didn't think to look at shoes. I got some baby carrots for the movies and some wheat rolls that were on sale and another 5 40 lb bags of dirt (this time labeled manure but I know it's not straight poop) and 2 cubic feet of peat moss.

I saw The Secret World of Arriety, Chronicle, and Ghost Rider 2. None of them were that spectacular. The anime was kind of blah, not terribly exciting. Chronicle was pretty cool but I didn't exactly like the character doing most of the filming and teenage boys are kind of jerks so... The take home message for me was that it's a good thing there aren't super powered mutants around in real life even if I used to wish I could fly. The flying looked very cool in the movie. I just saw Ghost Rider 1 this weekend so I was happy to see 2, but it was very different in style and didn't even seem to be based on exactly the same origin story. So I spent a lot disliking the differences but it wasn't really a bad movie and seemed like maybe it was truer to the comics, like the first movie was a more kid friendly comic and this was a darker grittier one.

I didn't have a 4th or 5th movie in me, plus I'd eaten all my berries and carrots, so I went to Home Depot to see if they had vermiculite and no one there had even heard the word. A nice customer directed me to a green house a couple streets over and they had a 2 cubic feet bag there but it cost me $24 which seems excessive for dirt.

I went to Aldi after and my determination after Friday's Lunch and Learn to not buy processed food really hindered my ability to buy cheap junk food there. I got some fruit and canned things at least then went to Giant Eagle for more blackberries. Even though I passed two Dollar Trees it didn't occur to me to buy a baby shower bag. Not to mention passing the baby section at Walmart didn't remind me to pick up some kind of gift. Such is life. :p

I know, I know, this belongs in the other blog, I just keep not writing there so better to record my day somewhere, right?