Mars Rover "Curiosity"

Video of landing of Curiosity

Wow. I have been looking at the Yahoo main page at the news and I can't believe that the historic Mars Rover landing last night is way down the list of news! Yes, the Olympics are interesting and important to the athletes and I have been watching them, what little we are shown, but Curiosity is something that is important to all mankind! I'm sorry that people were killed in that Sikh temple yesterday but that's becoming a more common occurrence, unfortunately. And I'm sorry some guy was angry enough at the police that he drove his tractor over 6 police cars and crushed them, but Curiosity is about the future of mankind! It's a beginning to finding a solution to the overcrowding, poverty, hunger, in our world - not to mention the fact that nuclear weapons will probably be the end of us on this planet.

These people spent 2 years planning this and they actually succeeded, landing it 2 meters off their planned landing spot. I can't even imagine what that success feels like. I watched in awe, on the edge of my seat, while it slowed down to land. And when it landed and sent back the first picture? Holy Cow! Some of the technicians were crying I'm sure partly from the stress of not knowing if it would work but also the knowledge that they made history and the magnitude of what this means.

Time may seem short but it's been less than 500 years since Copernicus had his Eureka moment when he realized that the Sun was the centre of our universe. Considering the age of the earth that's a blip in time. And now man has landed a vehicle on Mars? Amazing.

It really does need painting

I'm more interested in people than I am in objects around me. We are starting restoration on our church. A church friend posted some photos on Facebook and I grabbed this one. I had no idea it was so bad! (Click to enlarge).

Yikes! It's also lead paint which is doubly bad. But by the end of September this will all be scrapped off and repainted. 

I woke up to a nice offshore breeze today. It feels SO good. We also have a high layer of cirus which makes the sun not so hot. This is BC Day weekend and the Sun Festival is on this weekend. I've never missed an antique fair yet. I usually go with my daughter but she's away so DH said he'd go with me. It's always more fun with another person, although I'd go by myself if I had to. This fair has been going on for 40 years now. I just realized I've been to 39 of them! Only reason it isn't 40 is because it started the year before I moved out here. 

I'm on to another book. It's so-so. I'm reading it cause it's there. It's called Fatal Fixer Upper by Jennie Bentley. It's pretty good for a first novel but I'll have to read a second one to find out if her writing style appeals to me. It's interesting enough but a lot of it is filler and it does bog down. I know it will all mesh at some point but I find there are too many different story lines. Oh well.  I borrowed it from the library and I always read what I borrow. There are very few books that I give up on and don't finish. Some just take me longer to read too. It took me months to finish "London" but I want to read it again. I'm also reading The Princes of Ireland right now.  I love Edward Rutherford's books. 

I love mysteries but I find a lot of the glut on the market of cozy mysteries have the heroine in her 30's. And there's always a love interest. Some I don't mind because it doesn't go into 6-packs and luscious lips. But the ones that do have more intense love interests kind of bore me. I'm 61 years old, well beyond the point that I notice these things. If the heroine was older and was interested in whether the guy had all his hair or mostly all his own teeth and wasn't so weak that he'd keel over on a walk through the park that's about all I need to know about that - and respect, of course. If I wanted to read romance I'd start reading Harlequin (I think - I've never read one). Maybe I need to start reading Agatha Christy Miss Marple books, I knit *LOL*

Okay, going to do a second post for today cause there's something I want to say that I think is really important. 

Afghan

I haven't been doing a lot besides reading but I am slowly working on this afghan for our prayer shawl group. I got the pattern free a couple of years ago, but I can't find the website now. If you're into crochet or knitting you gotta visit the Bernat website. You have to join but it's free and they have a gazillion free patterns (at least LOL). I like Bernat cause the yarn is such a reasonable price. I'm making this shawl/afghan from one ball of yarn that cost me $8.

and most importantly it's really, really easy! I've tried a few other projects and I'm just not that good at knitting/crocheting anymore. I had put it aside for awhile but have committed myself to crocheting 2 rows a night so it should be done by the time our group resumes in September. It will finish about twice this size.

Yesterday I did housework. Boy I'm not used to so much work. Because I wasn't able to do anything for a few months the whole house needs thorough cleaning. I need to pace myself. It's going up to 29C today (@90F), so far the house is cool but it's going to get really warm this afternoon. The outside needs a lot of trimming too but I can't stand the sun or the heat so I won't be going out there.

I may go down to the boat later and read. I've discovered it's a great place to sit on a warm day. I can't go inside much cause it's constantly breaking down and the floor is constantly just one big hole cause DH is working on the engines. But I can go up top.

I do have a blog where I was listing all the books I've read but I was reading so fast that I haven't been updating it. My current book is called Flash and Bones. Kathy Reich's books are the inspiration for the TV show Bones (which I love) and she really is a licensed forensic anthropologist in both North Carolina and in Quebec Canada. So the stuff that you read is correct to the processes. She's a great writer. 

I've been cheating on you :0(

I haven't been around much. And I have a confession to make. I've been blogging on another blog, like a personal diary. But I like it here with friends. So I'm going to try to blog more here quilting or not quilting.

First of all I've been reading a lot and when I went to the library the other day I finally got up the nerve to take a photo of one of their flower barrels. The first time I saw it I thought there was a tabby cat in there. Now there are a bunch of them. I have no idea what the plant is called. But since I love cats but don't have one I need one of these plants.

So what else have I been doing? I'm in therapy and my therapist can't believe how my face lights up when I talk about doing church things so I guess that's where I need to be. We're having the building restored and added to.  We're going to keep the chapel part the same but have the roof fixed and the lead based paint on the sides scraped off and repainted as a first step. On Saturday to begin to prepare for construction a bunch of us went and cleaned out the youth group room - furniture, fooseball table, everything. As we put stuff out on the sidewalk people kept walking by with their dogs or kids in baby carriages and asking how much we wanted for this or that. So it turned into an impromtu garage sale. We took some of the stuff to the thrift shop around the corner and a woman who bought a chair there asked if they knew where she could get another one. They told her to go around the block to the church and check the sidewalk *LOL*.

DH and I both feel well but we are both ill. I have to go to my kidney specialist twice a year now and go back to the kidney clinic cause I'm down to 30% function. Darn. I hate the fact that it makes me tired cause there's so much I want to do. I'm following all the advice, except getting back to walking - gotta remember to do that. DH is a different story. He destroyed his liver drinking for the last 40+ years. He still has a bit left and will live awhile as long as he quits drinking completely. He's still sneaking a glass of wine now and then. It makes me angry because I didn't cause my disease and I'm doing my best to combat it. He caused his disease and he won't do the one simple thing he needs to do to stop further damage.

The other thing I have to do is go to the local archives and see if they need volunteers. I love history and our area is full of it. It's only 150 years old, but still, it's interesting. A lot has happened in the last 150 years.

Sharing and Keeping a Record

Here's the latest thing I've made. I'm not too active cause I hate being squished into a small place to sew, but now that DH and I are getting along better he said I can have my sewing room back, thank goodness! Problem being I threw away a lot of stuff so I'm going to have to start collecting pattens again.

This is a luggage handle cover. I'm making a bunch of them for the craft group. A lot of people are tying ribbons on their luggage handles these days. Problem is if every ties on ribbons then they still all look the same. With different fabrics there's a way better chance of spotting your own bag as it goes by.

The pattern comes from Little Birdie Secrets.

I know I'm hardly on here any more but my memory is so bad that if I make things or take pictures of things I make I need to have a secure (Blogger is secure?) place to store an extra copy.

I'm 100% recovered from my head injury but my kidneys continue to get worse, can't win huh? But they are still working and for that I'm grateful.

I tried to knit a couple of things for our craft group cause no one knits. I discovered that I don't knit either *snort* so told the leader that from now on I will do only what I know I can do. Part of the problem is that we have to use donated wool or cheap wool and I'm not happy with the results. I am continuing on chrocheting afghans (the blankets, not the people) for our prayer shawl group.

Back to sewing!

Finally my head is clear enough to actually finish something. Earlier this week I finished the baby quilt I was making for my new great niece. The photo isn't great but it's a cute quilt. It's flannel so a bit warm for this time of year but I had bought the kit in November.

It's called season teddy bears or something like that.

When I was sewing the binding on my daughter came over and noticed I had some fabric left over. A co-worker just had a new grand daughter born on Monday so she asked if I could make a pillow. I think it turned out really cute.

I'm feeling completely better now so have gone back to my craft group and knitting group and relaxation group. Still not back at the chimes but that's mostly cause they practise at 6:00 at night and I find it really inconvenient. 

Oh! And one other exciting thing happened. I haven't been writing lately - not since 2007 or something actually. But I got an email from a girl in Northern Ontario who runs a small newspaper. She found my writing blog somehow and wanted to publish one of my stories! She sent me a copy of it and it seemed really funny to me cause she called me a professional writer.  

It's been awhile!

Hi everyone.

I thought since I haven't been quilting/sewing a lot that I wouldn't blog but then I realized there's nothing wrong with using the blog to keep in touch anyway.

Where to start?... Okay, I got it. I AM working on a quilt. I had a new great niece born on October 5. I bought a kit the beginning of November but have barely started it. I'm feeling like maybe getting back to it now.

I've been lacking the feeling of sewing for 2 reasons. First of all my dh wanted the downstairs to himself and insisted I move my stuff up into the office. It's very cramped in here... although there is a file cabinet that I think could go if I can find somewhere to put the two drawers full of actual files. The other two drawers are full of junk.

The second reason is because I was not well. I didn't know why but I just didn't feel right. Mid February I sent an email to my sister. It was 4 lines long and took me over 1/2 hour to compose. She called me as soon as she got it because it was gibberish. When she hung up from talking to me she called my daughter and told her there was something very wrong and to get me to the ER right away. It's funny to have someone 5000 miles away be the one to tell my family here what to do. But I am 11 years younger than her so I'm almost like one of her own kids. She basically raised me when I was little.

I don't remember much past going to the ER. I couldn't understand why they put me in a wheelchair when I was in triage. I remember them saying I had to go to a bigger hospital but I didn't know why. Turns out I had a subdural hematoma (my brain had been bleeding for 3 months). I don't remember a whole lot and maybe that's good. I do remember most of the stuff after my operation but very little while I was in the ER for 6 days waiting. The neurosurgeon finally blew a gasket apparently and insisted I needed to be operated on NOW.

Our hospital system here sucks. Sure we have universal medicare but not enough doctors and nurses so things get backed up. At this hospital they have patients in the hallways and janitor closets cause there aren't enough rooms and emergency patients get lined up too and more than once the hospital has closed down the Tim Hortons (like the US Starbucks) so that they can use that space for ER as well. My minister says if he ever needs to be in the ER he wants to be in Tim Hortons so they can just hook him up to a coffee IV *LOL* He loves his coffee... even brings his cup to the pulpit.

Anyway, I seem to be mostly back to myself. I still get tired and I get frustrated that I can't do more but they say it takes 6 months to recover. I also have to have another CT Scan this month to make sure that my body is absorbing any residual.

I've been reading a lot. I had been going through 3-4 books a week but now I'm down to about 2 most weeks. Plus on the side I'm reading the novel "London".  I'm finding it fascinating. I love history.

While this is going on my husband was told just before Christmas that he has Cirrhosis. I knew he did, he'd been getting worse for months, but he wouldn't listen to me. I was so glad to finally have a doctor tell him to his face. He's not really well I don't think but he is listening to what he has to do and he's doing it.

I better close for now. I'm looking forward to travelling around the blogs and seeing what everyone is up to.