Making Tifo With the Guys

Well, it wasn't giant flags we were making for tifo tonight, after all. It was "overheads". Now how do I explain this? At a soccer match, supporter groups put on displays especially during the introduction time before the game starts. This includes chants, songs, scarves, flags, and for a brief but flashy few minutes, huge banners held over the heads of whole sections. Tonight we were sewing green bed sheets together to make section size banners. By evening's end we had made two panels 2 full size bed sheets wide by 4 sheets long. I gave up trying to remember how big that is - just BIG! At first we had to feel our way through the process.

I did the first few seams, demonstrating the serger.

Soon I had Joe driving the machinery while I stood by to assist.

By the time my back was giving out, the guys were in command.

Like I said - BIG!

This is only half of one panel.

Now the guys are gone and we've got everything put away. We'll do a little packing before we turn in for the night.

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Tomorrow after our Friday morning breakfast with friends, we'll head for Whidbey Island. I'll be out of touch for a while. See you next week, have fun watching the Olympics, and

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Tuesday To Do's

It took a while for the fog to clear again today, but at least it lifted by 10:00, so I got out this morning for my walk. Meanwhile Tom got outside to finish up his winter pruning. I asked him what he would do now that he had that job done. He responded "Oh, there's plenty more to do." The sun melted the fog by noon, and the grass dried off enough so Tom could mow the lawn. I know. It's winter. Who mows in winter? But the grass is confused. It has been so warm that it's growing despite the season, and it needed mowing before it got too long! It looks good. Now we're ready for the daffodils. I am taking a sewing class on Thursday morning, actually a serger class, so I did some prep for that. We're making a Bow Tie Baby Quilt, but I'm not interested in the whole project, just the technique, so I'm making a pillow cover. It's a two session class but I'm just going for the first session. For me the purpose is to learn better techniques for precision sewing using the serger. So I cut my squares today, and then used the book to try out the process. Wah Lah! I made a bow tie square. Tom wondered why I wasn't waiting for the class to learn this, but I like to be prepared - perhaps overly prepared - whenever I try something new. Maybe I don't need the class, but I'm sure I'll learn something, and have some fun besides.

Yesterday I spent quite a while at JoAnn Fabrics building a rainbow. I am designing my next dress for Irene, for Easter and her April birthday. I asked her what color she likes best. "Pink, and rainbows!" Of course, I knew that. So my plan it to make a pink and purple dress with a rainbow skirt. We'll see how it turns out. The clerks at the shop liked the idea. This is why I want more practice with my serger. I plan to do much of the construction with it.

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But I won't start on that until at least next week. This week I have that class, and then I have giant flags to make. Thursday evening is tifo time.

The Carl English Gardens at Hiram M Chittenden Locks

After shopping at the farmer's market, and some lunch, we headed to the Ballard locks. Built by the Amy Corps of Engineers, these locks allow boats, both pleasure and commercial craft, to sail through the ship canal from the lower Puget Sound to the higher Lake Washington.

We checked out the traffic in the locks. Not much action today, a quiet, not sunny Sunday.

Our true purpose was to take a walk around the gardens. We've had a warm winter, the warmest on record, but it was still startling to see so much in bloom!

Mahonia - Oregon Grape

Camellias

Hellebore

More camellias

Iris reticulata with daffodils almost ready to burst into bloom.

Pieris - Lily of the valley shrub

An early viburnum, and very fragrant!

A view of the locks and the spillway.

Lauristina

Cherry blossoms

Park poopers

Rhododendron

Witch hazel

Plum blossoms

Daffodils ready to pop

We are loving the early spring, and can only hope we don't get wiped out by a late arctic blast.

Urban Trekking - Ballard

We didn't get the sunny day we were expecting, but we headed out anyway after the sky stopped dripping. We just recently found out about the Ballard Sunday Market. It's a sister market to neighboring Fremont's, with the arts and crafts and "antiques" and weirdness in Fremont, and the produce and farm products in Ballard.

Lots of "eat locally" folks were shopping, carrying their reusable grocery bags. While where we live out in the suburbs, many folks don't bother, people in urban villages like Ballard really do try to have a positive affect on their environment.

Colorful potatoes.

I am amazed at how many people in the city have big dogs. This one was in paradise - "Oh, boy, MEAT" and "Ah, some one's petting me." Wag, wag!

Winter produce.

Tulips already. They must be hot house bloomers. It has been warm, but not quite that warm.

People were lining up for hot dogs and pizza and crepes and dining on the street.

We bought artisan cheese from three different vendors, which we'll enjoy later with wine.

Then we drifted on over to Market Street and had coffee and a sandwich at a Starbucks while people watching the foot traffic on the sidewalk.

After lunch we drove to the locks and then the marina for some more vigorous walking. I'll have more pics tomorrow.

It looks like the Saints need some support. I'm moving to my recliner, where I'll try to stay awake. Gotta' watch the commercials, right? I've seen a few laugh-out-loud spots already.

Taxes, And Other Things That Have To Be Done.

This morning, after a very slow start, Tom and I did the weekly house cleaning. We put it off yesterday so it was waiting to be done. It wasn't bad once we got going. We were finished by noon. This afternoon Tom went outside to finish up a pruning job he started yesterday. I was hoping to get out into the sunshine for a walk, but I wanted to tackle the taxes first. Tom beat me in completing our tasks. As the afternoon waned and a light cloud cover diluted the sun, I toiled away. Why is it that this job gets more complicated every year? I did love the online sales tax calculator. You put in your income and zip code and Wa lah!, out comes your state, county and local sales tax deduction. We don't have many deductions, just the medical, charity and property and sales taxes. We don't have any debt so we don't have and interest deductions. But in order to know if the standard deduction is a better deal than itemizing, I have to calculate both ways. After all of that, the standard beat itemizing by about $400. But I do know more about where our money goes. I had to print out a form from the IRS to claim our energy credit for installing our new furnace and heat pump. That wasn't too complicated, thank goodness. But for some reason Tom didn't have enough withholding out of his pension, so if it wasn't for that energy credit we would have ended up owing a chunk of change, never a good thing. He'll have to make an adjustment. So now it's time to make some dinner and then settle in for the evening. Tomorrow we're planning an urban trek before the Super Bowl. We don't have a horse in that race, but I'll have the game on. Gotta keep up. I guess it would be nice if New Orleans won.

Busy As A Bee ...

...or an exotic bug, or something.

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This little guy will find a home somewhere in the garden, offering a surprise to visitors.

Isn't he cute? I bought him yesterday at the Northwest Flower and garden show at the convention center in Seattle. This is a giant of a show in the gardening world, with large display gardens and an endless market of plants and bulbs and art and yard art and anything you can think of related to gardening. We have missed only one in the 15 or so years it's been held.

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We went in on the light rail and spent all day, leaving home at 8:30 AM and arriving back home at 8:30 PM. We had dinner downtown before heading to the train. It was a good day and we both held up fairly well, with some rest stops built in to the looking and shopping.

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When we got home we had emails to deal with. About now I should let you know that Tom and I have become season ticket holders for the Sounders FC soccer team. The schedule was released yesterday, and so of course everyone is now working their calendars to get everything scheduled. We're no exception. Jill emailed from Colorado with her plans for her June trip with the kids to Seattle. Of course it all has to be fitted in around soccer now. She wants to attend with her brother, we want to go, and the kids have to be accommodated. Today I swung a deal with a friend to get the kids tickets to go with us to a match while they're here.

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Then there's the Oregon part of the trip, visiting Grandma/Great Grandma and reserving the Rockaway cabin. I have one phone call yet to make and then I think we've got it worked out.

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Jake just called to arrange to meet here next Thursday evening to make "really big" flags as part of the ongoing tifo. I know Tom had this in mind when he bought me the serger, so I'm going to work on not being overwhelmed while working on flags something like 10 feet x 15 feet! The trick will be to teach Jake or friend Joe to run the machine. Then I can just supervise. We'll have to move into the dining room and open up the table with all of the leaves to handle the job.

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Today I worked on finishing up the "small" flags we started Sunday, along with working on designing my next dress for Irene. This morning we sorted through all of the stuff we picked up at the garden show and planned several outings to gardens and nurseries for later in the spring. We added those to the calendar. Then I went grocery shopping.

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Somehow I didn't get a walk in today, so tomorrow it will be a requirement. Maybe things will slow down a bit by then. I'm feeling pretty much pain free today, which allows me to take everything else in stride.

A New Month, A New Me

It's February!

I whipped out this little table mat Saturday just in time. And I used up some more fabric I had laying around from previous projects. It's time for hearts and flowers, pink, white, red. It's always time for chocolate!

I am feeling like a new person, or maybe I should say, like my old self. Since before Christmas, my physical symptoms had been getting steadily worse. Was it caused by my back problem? Was it progressive arthritis? I didn't know and neither did my doctor seem to. So I finally decided to take action. Physical therapy and exercise weren't helping.

Tom had a prescription for Naproxen, which he had taken for arthritic pain. It's an NSAID anti-inflammatory drug and I figured that's what I needed to settle down my ankle and knee. I emailed my doctor to see if she would prescribe it for me. When I got the positive response, I started taking Tom's until I got my own. I began taking 500mg twice a day last Monday. The first few days I got no relief. By the fourth day, I was hurting much less. After that each day got better. By the weekend Tom said he noticed how much easier I seemed to be moving around. My therapy exercises used to be so painful in my right knee and ankle that it was torture. Now I can do them easily.

Without the pain I am sleeping at night. Everything is easier, and life is so much better. I'll stay on this dosage for another week or so, and then taper off and see how it goes.

I know this is just one battle, with many more to come. But from now on I'm asking "Can you give me a pill for that?"

Making Tifo

One of the cool benefits of having kids is that you get to learn new things, either with them or because of them. Last year I added a new word to my vocabulary, thanks to Jake. Tifo is a word of Italian origin that refers to the staging and apparatus involved in putting on a display of fan support for a sports team, most often football (soccer). Tifo usually involves scarves, large banners and flags. Today Jake came over to make flags. He brought the materials and the designs he had engineered. I supplied the serger, sewing machine and the tools and technical skills. Jake had it all figured out in his head, but transferring that to my head and then to the actual project took some careful planning.

Just like a carpenter, measure twice, cut once.

I had practiced the stitch we would use before he arrived, but the actual fabric presented a few challenges. I made it work.

Jake spread the seams and lined up the next pieces to sew.

TA DA! It's a flag! We won't win any prizes - there were a few bumps in the road that are evident upon close inspection, but we learned a lot and had fun. We actually were quite compatible in our problem solving, which is saying something about both of us, given our temperaments.

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I have two more flags to finish off at my leisure. After about four and a half hours we declared we were done and the three of us went out to eat.

Pie!

I just baked my first lemon meringue pie!

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Oh, I've baked lots of pies in the past, but always fruit pies, because that's what you do with fruit. Right?

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But not a lemon meringue pie. So why now? Well, because I had lemons, of course.

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I bought a bag of lemons at Christmas time, at Costco, because it was cheaper than buying just the few I needed from Safeway. And I still had some hanging around. Besides, today is a gray, drippy Saturday here in Seattle.

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I also used pre-prepared pie crust, another thing I've never done before. I've always made my own pie crust, but I just didn't feel like working that hard today, and the Safeway store is only four blocks away.

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There's only one problem. The pie doesn't use enough lemons. I still have some left!

Tom's Projects

Tom was gifted at Christmas with PhotoShop Elements, and since them he has been viewing tutorials and trying out aspects of this photo program. As a practice project, he has been extracting pics of Irene wearing clothes that I made for her. He has combined them into this composite photo.

He has been having fun, learning along the way, and admitting that at times the work is tedious. He plans to use this program especially to clean up old family photos that he has scanned as part of his genealogical work.

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Tom began doing family history in 1983, back when he had to go to archives and study microfiche one frame at a time. He spent many hours at the local stake center of the Mormon Church, ordering film to study in their Family History Center.

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Over the years, technology has made research much easier, and he has documented many generations of Vandervorts, Olssons, Olsons, Andersens, Norquists, Hofstetters, Manns, Slawsons, on and on. But while he started with the Reeders, he soon hit a dead end with his great great grandparents, Charles and Rachel Reeder.

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Then recently he heard a reference to pension records. He looked into it and placed an order. Yesterday a packet arrived from the National Archives containing pension application records for Rachel, and contained within, new information.

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Rachel is the mother of Seneca Reeder from Ohio, who fought in the civil war and eventually came to Washington State. He is Tom's great grandfather. He had a brother, John, who no one could find anything about. Now we know why. He died of typhoid ( or the measles) in 1861, at the age of 17, while a soldier serving in the Ohio Volunteers of the Union Army. Rachel's husband, Charles Reeder, was older than her by about 30 years and died in 1867. Rachel applied for a pension from her husband, and then in 1890, at the age of 69, she applied for a pension from her deceased son. At that time she was living in a Poor House in Ohio. That's the last we know of her so far, but Tom is hoping this new information will supply a loose end to continue to pursue.

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Tom loves the searching and hunting for bits and pieces of information. While it's not my cup of tea, I enjoy knowing the personal details we learn along the way. I can only imagine the hardship many of our ancestors suffered and they struggled to survive.

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While we have yet to discover anyone rich or famous, their stories make us realize how fortunate we are to be living now and in the style to which we have become accustomed.

Another Project, and Other Stuff

My kids might recognize the jungle print from long ago, when it once hung on the wall, on a stretcher, as wall art. But maybe it was too long ago even for that.

Now it is place mats, which I backed with Green Earth fabric for my ecologically minded grandchildren and their parents. This was yesterday's project. I quilted the mats using my sewing machine and a walking foot. Then I finished the edges using my new serger. For the table mat, I even used the serger for the piecing. I'm making progress in mastering my new toy.

This morning I had another new experience. I had an electrocardiogram.

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At my physical last week my new doc said ,"You have a heart murmur", to which I responded, "Yes, I've had it since childhood".

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But it has been only in the last year or so that it apparently has been noticeable again to the docs. Does that mean it's more pronounced? So the doc referred me to cardiology, and today I went downtown for the test.

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When I was finished, I said to the technician, "Well, I guess you heard the murmur, and I guess nothing's a big problem right now." She said, "That's exactly right. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be leaving the hospital."

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So I'll wait for results. I came back home and went out for a hill climb walk.

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This afternoon I boxed up the place mats to ship to Colorado and went off to the post office. Good grief! There were three Spanish speaking young people who appeared to be shipping their worldly goods to some foreign country. Box after box had to be weighed, registered, and the Priority Mail paperwork filled out. The final tab was in the hundreds of dollars, paid in cash, of course. Then it seemed like everyone else in line had some exotic issue that took time, until finally, about 30 minutes later, it was my turn. I took about two minutes.

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Why am I always the fast one? Why is everyone else's business so complicated?

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Lastly, I'm already really tired of the analysis of the President's speech last night. I'll start out by saying I thought it was a good speech, and that he challenged all concerned to get on to the business of governing. But apparently it was way too polite and non-specific for the progressives, and just all the wrong policies for the Republicans, who in rebuttal still have no alternative solutions to offer.

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So the beat goes on. And on. And on. We're all frustrated.

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But I still have hope.

Finally Finished

Here it is, the finished product. I just had Tom help me hang it in the downstairs bathroom. It looks good and I'm happy with it.

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It took me long enough to finish. I don't know where the time goes. Today it's already three o'clock, and what have I done? Let's see:

- I got out of bed - that's an effort these days.

- Checked email and face book and a few blogs

- Showered, got dressed and went downstairs

- Walked out to get the paper

- Made my milkshake breakfast, and then voted while I drank it. (Co. Library levy)

- Skimmed the paper while listening to Dave Ross on the radio.

- Got organized, then got in the car to run errands - mail the ballots, pick up my prescription for Naproxan, buy a dowel to hang my hanging, get milk and a few things at Safeway.

- Back home, I put stuff away, then headed out for my "gotta' keep movin' " walk. -50 min.

- Iced my ankle while I sorted the mail and started the crossword puzzle.

- Warmed leftovers for lunch, then chocolate and coffee while I finished the puzzle.

- Sewed hanging straps for the wall hanging. Got Tom to help me hang it.

- Took photos for this blog, and posted.

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And there you have a typical day, not so productive, but busy non-the -less. It's a little after three so I have some more time to devote to projects. I'm going to attach my new free motion foot to my sewing machine and practice quilting. Then I'll organize the next project based on stuff I've dug out of the forgotten projects stash.