Hello

I realize I haven't been posting much lately. 

I am preoccupied by politics, and many of you would rather not hear about our current affairs coming out of Washington DC on another blog. There is plenty to take in, or avoid, as your choice may be, from news sources and social media. 

I will say that it has been a crazy four weeks since DJT took office. I can't see it getting much better, but I am still maintaining my activism.

Other than spending several hours a day reading political postings and on line news papers, I have been occupied with routine stuff. We walked almost every day this week, except when it was pouring down rain. We spent two evenings at the stadium downtown working on Sounders soccer stuff. We are making huge overhead banners, and I ran a serger, sewing seams 25 to 100 feet long. It was good to feel appreciated and to work with good people, all of whom are much younger than we are. 

Wednesday we went out to lunch with retired teachers from my former school, the McMicken Lunch Bunch. There were six of us this time, and it was fun to get together and catch up and visit and share laughs.  Friday mornings are always reserved for the Des Moines Breakfast club, with retired teachers from Tom's former school. 

At home I have worked on my ongoing sewing project, a quilt top made of hexagons. Today I finished the borders and the quilt top is finished. Here is a peak. 

Now I'll have to add the filling and the backing, quilt and bind it. I'll post more about the whole process at another time. It has been a fun project to work on during these winter days. 

Saturday, with Tom away at a family work weekend at the Rockaway Beach cabin, and Jill in the mountains teaching a Mountaineers class, I had charge of the kids. 

They wanted to go to Costco, and we all needed a few things, so we spent some time there. Irene found all the food samples. Then Isaac had to track down the latest set of Pokemon cards, and that search took us to several more stores. Back at home we had lunch and played a board game until it was time to go to Irene's basketball game. 

Irene's team has struggled, and has lost all of their games, but those girls really hustled and tried hard out on the court. I asked Irene later what she was thinking as she was out there, and she said she really didn't like it, and "I'm never going to do this again!"

I gave her credit for sticking it out through the season - this was the last game - and not giving up. And I told her I was quitting too. I was going to give tai chi three months and then decide, but I am quitting after just two months. At $66.00 a month, I'm not going to pay for something I am not enjoying or getting much out of. I'm sure if I practiced it for a year I might get to the point where I would see some gains, but it is just not for me. I'll keep on walking.

The kids and I went to Red Robin for dinner and topped our meal, and our day, off with mud pie. Yum!