Friday Brain Dump

1.  Four consecutive sunny days.  I can hear the Hallelujah chorus, ringing in my head.  Four days.  That means seven loads of laundry dried on the line,  six neighbor kids over to play, five a.m. and it's light out, four pairs of muddy shoes after nature walks,  three boys that need showers, two lawns mowed, and one happy mama.  But no partridges or pears.

2.  PTO Day.  I let Wyatt drive up the driveway and he did great except for that near miss at the gate.  I may have shrieked.  I think he missed the code box at the gate by the width of a hair.  My dad - Grampa Grasshopper - said maybe the width of a finger, but I was in the front seat and I know better.  But in happier news, Grampa took them to the rifle range and everyone came home intact.

3.  Tidy cords.  Keep your (little) extension cords tidy by folding them loosely and sliding them into a cardboard toilet paper core.  (I hate twist ties.)  You're welcome.

4. The walking foot is a wonderful invention.  When you remember to use it.  I got the baby quilt pieced, and the batting and backing cut, and chickened out decided to have my friend quilt it for me, on her long-arm.  So today, as I sewed the binding on, I kept getting frustrated, wondering why it was going so slowly, and not as smoothly as it usually does.  Well, duh.  Had I done the quilting myself I would've had the walking foot on, and I would've left it on to do the binding.  But instead I was trying to feed four layers of cloth and the batting through my machine with my 1/4" foot still attached.  Genius.  (If you're not a quilter, just skip this.  The various feet and the long-arm have nothing to do with the human body.  Nothing to see here.  Move along.)

5.  Sharp objects.  Since the little incident on Sunday morning I've been a a tad leery of sharp objects.  Like my fabric cutter (thanks Q). And since finishing the quilt involved cutting fabric for the binding, I've procrastinated a bit.  Okay, a lot.  But with the boys gone this morning (and flushed with the success of actually finding various objects in my office... hello, four year old dental x-rays!) I decided the time was now.  Cut the binding with no further casualties, machine-sewed it on the top, and took it along on errands today (with my mom, to a couple of appointments) and got that thing finished.  Without poking my tender finger with the needle.  (Which is a Very Good Thing as I was out in public and might possibly have uttered something unholy had that happened.)  No pics yet.  It's in the dryer getting its wrinkly-crinkly vibe on.

And, PS, I can type without wincing.

6.  Every Friday I read the latest Hither and Thither.  Swiped this from today's post.  Yes, I know it's been altered, but still funny.  Semper Fi.

7.  Squirrels.  This post has been interrupted by squirrels performing *ahem* tactical maneuvers in the impossibly tiny branches of the tree, right outside my window.  Well.  That gives new meaning to the word "fast".

8.  Good news for my friend Deborah and her family.  Better than good.  AWESOME news.  They just got The Call.  They'll be traveling to the P.I. to add three daughters to their family of six.  Woo-hoo!

9. Tomorrow.  Clouds are moving in and spoiling our streak of good weather.  And the boys have dentist appointments.  Another thrilling day with the Grasshoppers.

Have a great weekend :D