OH, MY GOD!

It is cold up here in Wisconsin. This morning it was 5 above.

My dear sister, Suzanne, is vacationing in St. Augustine, Florida and complained that it was only 48 degrees. Well, yes - that is cold for Florida BUT IT IS STILL 43 DEGREES WARMER THAN WISCONSIN!!!

My blog pal, Christine, www.frontporchindiana.blogspot.com joked that Indiana must have forgot to pay the heating bill is was so cold. Well, the budget crunch reached Wisconsin, too!

My poor doggie girls are not getting their walks. Too cold and too much salt on the sidewalks. People in my 'hood really go crazy with that salt and I can't bear to walk my girls on it and have them limping the whole time because it gets in their pads.

I know I'm whining. On the bright side, this will be my last Wisconsin winter. Ahhh - now that is a pleasant thought!

Home Again

Here is what I have to say about my vacation:

Wonderful. Fabulous. Relaxing. Fun.

I traveled to Mesa, AZ to visit my dear friend, Nancy. Nancy followed her dreams and moved to Mesa, AZ in April after a long and happy career as a teacher with the Milwaukee Public School system. She told me she misses teaching every single day. I think she does. She is a master teacher. She lives in a charming 2-bedroom apartment that includes a beautiful club house and pool.

Nancy was a great host. She loves to entertain and her passion is cooking. Thanksgiving dinner was awesome! She also likes to explore new places and restaurants. Ahhh - a woman after my own heart! I ate well on this vacation! (Marcie - we never made it to Tia Rosa, but will on my next trip).


Highlights include the a great lunch at the Olive Mill in Queen's Creek, meeting up with Pam (another teacher we knew when we all worked together at Eighth Street Middle School where I was the secretary) and her husband, daughter and grandson to watch the Packers on Sunday. A trip to Urgent Care to get meds so I could survive Nancy's cat, Lucy. Only my eyes are happy to be back in Wisconsin! Drives to ruins and up to the mountains. Singing to Peter, Paul and Mary at the top of our lungs. Watching TV in our jammies. Going to the date and nut store where Nancy negotiated a great deal on a bench for her porch (where I had a yummy date milk shake) and visiting on quilt store (had to do that).

Nancy & her great deal of a bench!

We also saw two musicals. The 25th Annual Putham County Spelling Bee was just a hoot. It was funny and included four people from the audience participating in the "bee." One had to spell Kinnickinnic. Well, being good Milwaukee girls we laughed so hard as we were probably the only people other than the actors who knew how to spell Kinnickinnic within 1,000 miles(Kinnickinnic Parkway, Kinnickinnic River, Kinnickinnic Avenue - you get the picture!). The other musical was Meet Me in St. Louis at a dinner theater. It was fun, too, and we all enjoyed it. I love the songs, but somehow the Judy Garland movie will always be the best.


I spent time with my sister, Linda. She moved to Mesa in October and lives in a very nice trailer park 10 minutes away from Nancy. She still is unpacking a little, but I can see where she will love living there. Her trailer is very nice and the park has a great community room with a nice large pool and hot tub. She is already involved in many activities.

More on this wonderful trip later. Today in Milwaukee it is overcast, in the low 50s and very, very damp. Where's the sun?

BURRRR: Thoughts on my dogs and quilting on a cold winter day

It is cold outside.

My dogs go out, go potty and run back in. No sniffing, no poking around. The doggie door on the outer porch door gets very stiff in the cold and little Gracie has a hard time pushing it with her head to get in the porch and, therefore, back into the warmth of the house. Lucy Lou, on the other hand, gives it a good shove and strolls on in. I notice that Gracie waits for Lucy Lou when she can and catches the door once Lucy Lou is through it. However, this morning she wanted back in and pawed at the stiff plastic door until she got through it. Poor pup.

Yesterday Phil and I picked up my "doggie" themed lap quilt made for my doggie sitter, Mary Sue. It is a very simple, large block quilt I sewed together in less than 5 hours and took in to have professionally quilted. I'll post pictures when Mary Sue comes to pick it up. Late yesterday afternoon after Phil when back to Illinois, I machine sewed the binding on to the front of the quilt.

As I settled in last evening to start hand stitching the binding to the quilt back I decided to bring in the latest book on CD I am listening to in my car. There is nothing worth watching on TV and I wanted some noise in the background. I'm not much of a listener to music when I am alone and the TV is off, preferring the quiet. But, last night I wanted sound.

What a delightful evening I had! The lap quilt was spread out on me, keeping me very warm. Gracie jumped up and snuggled in under the quilt as I stitched, adding another layer of warmth. Lucy Lou was in her basket snoring gently and I listened to my book. It is Time is a River by Mary Alice Monroe, another good Southern female writer. (I really like Southern women writers). I'm enjoying it.

I like my own company. I like keeping busy when alone, which is one reason quilting has become so important to me. I'm being creative while making things that are useful. During the daylight hours I do the cutting and sewing of the quilt pieces, watching the blocks accumulate and the quilt pattern appear. I enjoy the quiet of my home, watching the birds at the feeders from a couple of different windows, stopping to rub the bellies of the dogs or play with them, cooking simple meals. Piecing together scraps of fabric that turn into something beautiful.

Now I have discovered another pleasure for the evenings. When I want a little company, while hand stitching at night, there is always a book on CD awaiting to be discovered.

Ahh, another simple pleasure.

Floods

Here in the mid-west we are flooding.

While I have had some water in my basement, which my shop vac sucked up rather well, my co-worker, Judy, had 3 1/2 feet in her basement. They lost quite a bit of stuff. Luckily, it was clear water, not sewage back up, which is also happening all over the area.

In southern Wisconsin houses have been washed off their foundations, cars have been seen floating away, roads closed, bridges out, dams threatening to break.

It is still raining tonight and rain is in the forecast all weekend.

Last Saturday night while I was in Michigan visiting Sally (who as of Wednesday is finally at home!) my doggie sitter spent hours in my basement due to tornado warning and bad storms.

We Midwesterners are made of hardy stock. We survived this past winter with its 90+ inches of snow and we will survive this.

But, whatever happened to calm weather? What is normal weather? How will the farmers deal with soggy fields?

What is Mother Nature up to?