We Have Winners!

First, here are the answers to week # 4 of the Movie Trivia Contest.

1. How did Anne fall out of favor with the King Henry VIII when they first met?

They went on a hunt, with Anne riding her own horse. When the stag went into the ravine, all were agreed to give up the hunt, except Anne, who rode into the ravine. Not to be out done, Henry rides in after her, falls off his horse, and is hurt.

2. What "talent" did Mary Boleyn demonstrate for Queen Katharine, that supposedly justified her addition as a Lady-in-Waiting?

The Queen, knowing that Mary has been brought to the castle to be the King's mistress, states that Mary must be a "gift" and grills her about her "talents". Mary denies that she can sing, but the Queen humiliates her by making her sing anyway.

Bonus Question: Name 2 of the 3 crimes for which Anne Boleyn stood trial.

High treason, incest, and adultery, and possibly, crimes against God, though it might be that the first three were considered to be crimes against God.

There were no last minute entries last night, so the winners are:

Pat of Bell Creek Quilts, with 75 points!

In second place is Libby of A Simple Girl with 25 points!

Nice job, ladies! I hope you all had fun. Pat, if you'll give me your choice and email me your address, I'll let Libby know what her options are.

Since it's the last of summer, and back to school for some, Saturday at the Movies will be on hiatus until September.

The Time Draws Near....

It's now 10pm here in the Eastern Time Zone--but only 7pm on the Western shores of the USA. Deadline to email me the answers to this week's movie trivia questions will be at midnight Pacific Time, so there's still time to watch the movie!

It's instant play on Netflix, so if you have a Netflix membership, or even if you want one, you can probably still squeeze it in tonght.

Here are the prize packages:

First, the Coffee-lover's package:

It's not complete yet, but that is a $15.00 Starbucks card, a planning journal, and there will be chocolate-covered coffee beans to go with it. (I'll get those at the last minute so they're as fresh as possible). Plus, I usually tuck in a surprise or two!

Second is the Quilter's package:

The book is "Quilts are Forever", a collection of stories about quilts, as well as some John James quilting needles (awesome) and a quilt pattern. (Shown here is one by Terry Atkinson, but I have a couple of others if the winner would like another option.) And yes, usually another surprise or two.

Last is the Gardener's package:

A book of tips entitled "Trowel and Error", a pair of bamboo gardening gloves, and a "garden angel" who encourages us to "bloom with joy." And the surprise or two.

So that you don't believe all is lost just because Pat is ahead, I'm going to give the person in second place her (or his) choice of the remaining two packages. Ha! Surprised you, didn't I?

I foresee a run on Netflix tonight....

Movie Trivia Contest Week #4

Okay, it's the final week of the contest, and the movie is The Other Boleyn Girl.
Here are the three questions:

1. How did Anne fall out of favor with the King Henry VIII when they first met?



2. What "talent" did Mary Boleyn demonstrate for Queen Katharine, that supposedly justified her addition as a Lady-in-Waiting?


3. Name 2 of the 3 crimes for which Anne Boleyn stood trial.

Edited to add:
As always, it's the honor system! You may watch the movie, or you may ask someone else who's seen the movie, but you can't research the answer on the internet.

So that everyone has a fair chance, please email your answers to me instead of using the comments section to answer the questions. I will post my email address at the end of the post each week.

Prizes
The person with the most points will receive one of three prizes:

1. Coffee-lover's Package

2. Quilter's Package

3. Gardener's Package

Your choice!

Answers on Tuesday!

Blackberry Season

At the tailgate market last Saturday several sellers had pints and quarts of blackberries and they looked soooo yummy! I bought a quart--and then didn't know what I was going to do with them besides just eat them.

Then Kim, from work, gave me her recipe for blackberry cobbler and I tried it on Tuesday. It was super easy and super delicious and I'd show you a picture, but J-Man and I devoured it before the camera could fire up.

Well, okay, not quite that fast, but believe you me, I was not thinking of pictures after I put that first spoonful in my mouth!

So, here's Kim's recipe:

1 qt blackberries

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup flour

1/2 C butter, melted

1 C quick oatmeal

Spread the blackberries out in the bottom of a casserole dish. If the berries are still a little tart, sprinkle them with regular sugar.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, brown sugar, and oatmeal with the melted butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over the blackberries and place in a 350 degree oven.

Bake 20-30 minutes until blackberries are bubbly and topping is browned. Top with ice cream if desired, but it's just as good without the ice cream. Mmmmmmmm.

I'm experiencing that Pavlovian drool as I type.

Come Saturday morning, I'll be at the tailgate market for more--and this time I'm going to buy enough to freeze so we can have this again post-season.

Enjoy!

Movie Trivia Answer -Contest Week 3

Okay, folks, here are this week's answers from the movie, Vertical Limit:

1. Injectable Dexamethasone was the drug carried to combat what potentially lethal condition affecting stranded mountain climbers?
A lot of you said "altitude sickness", which is a side effect of being at high elevations without acclimatization first. And Dexamethasone pills are sometimes taken routinely on high altitude climbs to prevent side effects. But the specific condition they climbers in the movie were dealing with and which required injectable Dexamethasone was "pulmonary edema"--also known as High Altitude Puomonary Edema, and that term was mentioned several times, so that is the answer I was looking for. Pat rented the movie again this week after learning the title, and had the correct answer, so she gets the 10 points. Since the rest of you had the right idea, I'm going to give you 5 points for "altitude sickness."

2. What was Montgomery Wick so obsessed with finding on his multiple trips up the mountain?
His wife's body. She was also a climber, and had gone on a climb with Vaughn (Bill Paxton) several years before, but never returned. Wick kept going back again and again, hoping to find her body.

Of course, he did on this trip.

Bonus question: Dropping the cannister of nitroglycerin was the cause for one explosion on the mountainside, and another was set deliberately. What else caused some nitro to explode?
The heat of the sun.


The first incident was when the extra tanks of nitro, left out of their protective covering at the Pakistani army camp, exploded when the sun moved overhead and shone down through the window. The second explosion occurred when a nitro tank, placed in the shade and snow, leaked the liquid that ran across the snow into the sunlight.
Two of my favorite quotes: Cyril Bench: "One hundred thousand sperm and you were the fastest?"
And, once Peter learned Montgomery Wick was only along to kill Vaughn:
Montgomery Wick: Peter, do you know where you are? Above 24,000, you're at the vertical limit, you're already dying. Look at you. You can hardly stand. If you think you can stop me, go ahead.




We had 3 new players this week--Jacquie, Michele, and Donnie!
Jacquie -- 20 points

Michele -- 15 points

Donnie (who reads blogs but doesn't write them (yet)--20 points

Lori -- 5 points

Jean -- 10 points

Libby --10 points

Sarah -- 10 points

Julie -- 15 points

Pat -- 50 points

For this last week, I'm going to watch 2008's The Other Boleyn Girl. This means you have a week to watch the movie, including the 3 days after I publish the questions. You're going to have to hustle to beat Pat, though!

Are you ready?

Deck Garden

Just so you know I CAN grow some things, here are some photos of my potted garden on the back deck. I planted dill, stevia, rosemary, flat-leafed parsley, curly-leafed parsley, mint, lemon balm, chives, and oregano.

I never got around to finding a place for three of my bell pepper plants, so they've been eking out a living in the original flats, with the help of some Miracle Grow in the water. As my harvest has been a little puny to date, I stuck them in some pots to see if I have any better luck there. I had one large pot left, so the others had to go in smaller pots.

Somehow, I ended up with tons of chives--more than I generally use--and some haven't made it into bigger pots yet.


One of the gals at work loves chives, so I'm taking her one of my plants as well as some cuttings from the mint and lemon balm plants. I hope they take root.

Working in the yard and with the veggie garden has taken up so much time, I have been negligent in pinching back the plants so they'd bush out instead of getting so tall.

I already have some stevia drying, and lots of dill. They're hanging upside down from the closet in the sewing room right now, and when you walk in, the room smells like pickles. It's a little disconcerting at first.
This year I planted two pots of basil, and they really took off.

If you haven't been over to tipnut.com, or subscribed to their daily emails, I hope you check them out. One of the recent emails centered on salad recipes:http://tipnut.com/pasta-salad/
There are a couple of yummy-sounding pasta salads that might make it to our table this week--especially if they contain basil!

So, what are your favorite summer salads?

Movie Trivia Contest Week #3

This is week 2 of the Movie Trivia Contest, so to recap, here are the rules:

I will ask 2 questions about a movie each Saturday. Correct answers will be worth 10 points each. Then there will be a bonus question worth 5 points. You have the potential for 25 points each week, with a possible 100 points total by the end of July.

One week this month, I will announce in advance the movie I'm going to watch, so those of you who find you're older than or younger than or have different tastes from the movies I watch, will have a chance just like everyone else.

As always, it's the honor system! You may watch the movie, or you may ask someone else who's seen the movie, but you can't research the answer on the internet.

So that everyone has a fair chance, please email your answers to me instead of using the comments section to answer the questions. I will post my email address at the end of the post each week.

Prizes
The person with the most points will receive one of three prizes:

1. Coffee-lover's Package

2. Quilter's Package

3. Gardener's Package

Your choice!

This week's movie is an action thriller from 2000, Vertical Limit, starring Chris O'Donnell (yumm!), Robin Tunney, Scott Glenn and Bill Paxton.


1. Injectable Dexamethasone was the drug carried to combat what potentially lethal condition affecting stranded mountain climbers?

2. What was Montgomery Wick so obsessed with finding on his multiple trips up the mountain?

Bonus question: Dropping the cannister of nitroglycerin was the cause for one explosion on the mountainside, and another was set deliberately. What else caused some nitro to explode?

So that no one has an unfair advantage, please email your answers to me at cloudtoucher1@gmail.com

Just needs relabeling, that's all

Remember this picture of the bell pepper from my "elf garden" as J-Man calls it?

Well, I found this package of peppers at the grocery store, so took a picture with my cell phone. That's my forefinger next to the package. Organic and $3.98.


I feel vindicated now.

Movie Trivia Answer Contest Week 2

Well, Pat came out the clear winner this week! She figured out the movie was:

so she rented it, played it and searched for the right answers, giving her a total of 25 points.

Question 1: Name the 1985 movie about extraterrestial beings that starred, among others, Wilford Brimley, Brian Dennehy, and Steve Guttenberg. And of course, it was Cocoon.


Question 2: What planetary beings did the aliens claim to be? In other words, what planet did they come from? (yes, I know that's poor grammar, but whatever..) They were Antereans, from the planet Anterea.


Bonus Question: What book did Steve Guttenberg begin reading after he discovered his passengers were aliens?
The Complete Book of Extraterrestrial Encounters.
(Although I loved Mighty Mom's guess: War of the Worlds)

So, here's the tally so far:

Lori: 5 points

Jean: 5 points

Libby: 10 points

Sarah: 10 points

Julie: 15 points

Pat: 25 points

It's still anybody's game!

Questions for week #3 will be this Saturday!

Stashbuster Report week 28 (I think!)

Posting Sunday Stash Reports for Judy L's group has become a useless endeavor for me these days. What with gifts from friends, and non-quilting fabric picked up at yard sales, I can't remember what I've counted and what I haven't, and then when I use these fabrics I don't know whether to count them as stashbusters or not. Also, do I count fabric as used when it's a swap? And do I count it when the fabric becomes a flimsy or when it's quilted and bound? So I believe I'm going to drop out of the weekly count. Maybe next year I'll start again and have firmer guidelines for myself. And then again, maybe not.

So, what have I been working on? Well, I did my 20 blocks for the 4 Season Summer Quilt Swap, but forgot to take pictures. They are color blocks, using the half-seam at the beginning and finishing that seam at the end of the block. You can see it in the logo on my right sidebar. Margaret will be sending 20 back to me, and then we'll do this again. By early September, I should have 40 color blocks. I'm not sure how I'll use them, but it'll be fun to see all the different fabrics in use!

Remember when Mighty Mom sent me the box of fabrics and some were a polyester blend? I said I had another use for them. Well, this is what I've been working on:


Last fall, one of the ICU nurses and I were discussing some of our little Alzheimers patients who fidget with their IVs, catheters, electrodes, oxygen, etc, sometimes with messy results. Jennifer said she sometimes makes washcloth dolls for them to hold onto. Not long afterwards, I scored a box of 50 muslin dolls offered on eBay. Some are plain muslin, some are solid or colors with stars on them, some are 8" long and some are 12" long. Because of the holidays, with the subsequent emptying and then painting of the sewing room, the dolls languished for several months in their box.


I pulled the box out a few weeks ago and have begun making little handy dolls for our patients. We've already given 2 away, even before getting them finished. I found some curly yarn at a local shop, though she only had 2 colors; but it makes cute hair. Scraps of leftover fabric are great for their clothes, and I'm working on a couple of small quilts to go with them. I figure the polyester blends and sheet scraps MM sent will be perfect for the backings. The 2 completed dolls shown here are in my locker right now, waiting for just the right "mama". They're washable, and once a patient handles them, they can't be used for anyone else, so they go back to the nursing home with the little old ladies. We're trying to make them and their clothing as sturdy as possible, with minimal parts that can come off.

Rarely does our little hospital get pediatric admissions, though enough of them come through the emergency room that we may leave some dolls down there. It's been fun working on them. Some have faces drawn with Pigma pens, and some need button eyes and embroidered features because they are so dark. I have been searching the internet for face ideas, because drawing has never been my strong suit. The dolls themselves look as if they'd be really simple to make, should we use up those 50 dolls any time soon. They're so cute, I may just have to make one for myself and make the clothes just a bit fancier. After all, mine wouldn't have to endure industrial laundry machines!

Saturday at the Movies Contest--Week 2

This is week 2 of the Movie Trivia Contest, so to recap, here are the rules:

I will ask 2 questions about a movie each Saturday. Correct answers will be worth 10 points each. Then there will be a bonus question worth 5 points. You have the potential for 25 points each week, with a possible 100 points total by the end of July.

One week this month, I will announce in advance the movie I'm going to watch, so those of you who find you're older than or younger than or have different tastes from the movies I watch, will have a chance just like everyone else.

As always, it's the honor system! You may watch the movie, or you may ask someone else who's seen the movie, but you can't research the answer on the internet.

So that everyone has a fair chance, please email your answers to me instead of using the comments section to answer the questions. I will post my email address at the end of the post each week.


Okay, here are the questions for the second week of the Contest:

Question 1: Name the 1985 movie about extraterrestial beings that starred, among others, Wilford Brimley, Brian Dennehy, and Steve Guttenberg.

Question 2: What planetary beings did the aliens claim to be? In other words, what planet did they come from? (yes, I know that's poor grammar, but whatever..)

Bonus Question: What book did Steve Guttenberg begin reading after he discovered his passengers were aliens?


You may email your guesses to me at cloudtoucher1@gmail.com anytime between now and when I post the answers on Tuesday.

Good luck!

The War on Slugs

This is my latest weapon in the war on slugs: Pet fur at the base of the plants.

Eggshells haven't worked, diatomaceous earth didn't work, the beer works but can't be done every night, and spraying the plants with slightly soapy water didn't deter them, either. I read that human hair and pet fur would also work, so when I took Tandi to the groomer's on Tuesday, they were happy to fill 2 gallon-sized baggies with pet fur for me. The white and red fur is Tandi's.

I'm running out of options here. Harvest is puny enough as it is:

I think the garden isn't getting enough sun, or enough food or something. I didn't pick this pepper--it either fell off by itself, or the slugs made it fall.

There's definitely room for improvement here.

Movie Trivia Contest Week #1

Here are the answers to this week's Movie Trivia Contest, and the movie is Sister Act.

Question 1: What 2 songs did Dolores' girl group, The Ronells, sing at the casino?
My Guy
I Will Follow Him
They also sang Heat Wave, but these are the two songs she revised for the nuns to sing.

Question 2: To what fictitious order did Sister Mary Clarence claim to belong?

The Convent of the Sisters of the Moonlight

Bonus question:
When a young Dolores was asked to write the names of the apostles on the blackboard, what names did she write?

John
Paul
Peter
Elvis

Julie of Pragmatic Compendium is in the lead with 15 points.
Jean of Jean's Page has 5 points.

Nice going, ladies!

Okay, new question on Saturday!

Better than drugs

I thought you might like to see photos of what inflated my stash amounts this week.

First off, two weeks ago, I got Mighty Mom's box of goodies and tore through them all without taking photos and without blogging about it. I had to go back and find everything to take some belated photos so I could share them with you.

MM's grandmother saved boo-koodles of things and MM was generous enough to spread the wealth. She sent out boxes to several of us with all kinds of fun and funky things in them. Look at what grabbed my interest right away:

She knows how much I love to watch the neighborhood birds at the feeders! And right beside the bird book is a foil transfer for a Christmas t-shirt or something. I haven't read the directions yet, but it looks like it could be a cool thing to do.

There was some flannel:

and a vest pattern that is way too small for me, and not my daughter's taste, but is fabric I love, so will probably cut into pieces for something specific.

I immediately tossed all the cotton items into the wash, and they're waiting to be ironed and stacked together. A couple of them are very large pieces, with sturdy texture, and will make a couple of nice grocery bags--if I can get my act together to just do them.


Some of the fabrics she sent were polyester, or polyester blend, as I found out when I did the burn test. Since I make all my quilts out of cotton, and try to use quilt-shop fabric because I might participate in a swap and senior moments sometimes prevent me from remembering where I got my fabric, I wasn't sure how I was going to use them. Some are perfect for Halloween this year, though the exact use hasn't come to me yet:

These polyester blends will be perfect in another project I'm working on.

That involves more photos and explanations, so I'll save it for a later post.

Then, Lori of Dakota City Quilter sent me a package from her summer residence:

Those strips are what she calls "noodles" and I didn't measure them, but I think they are the length of the fabric.

She included brochures and bags from the Visitors' Center where she volunteers:


Someday, maybe we'll make it up there.

Lastly, here's my haul from the moving sale of My Quilt Shoppe. (Yes, that's actually the name of it.) OH, the deals they had! Fats were only 75 cents! Yardage was 60% off and if you took the bolt, it was 70% off!

I yielded to temptation. I bought 3 yards of this luscious pink rose fabric and 2 yards of the rosy pink check to go with it--and have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with them. Something will come to me, I'm sure.

If those weren't enough, 22 fat quarters jumped into my basket. Really, they did!


AND, they were also getting rid of some of their props and displays and I fell hard for this mirror:

I love the detailing:


Where will I put it? Beats me. I might even offer it to my daughter, who's moving to a larger rental next week. I don't know. I just couldn't bear the thought of missing out on it, and it was only $10.00. You see how I just couldn't walk past it, don't you?

So that explains why my stash is so bloated this week and there's absolute chaos in my sewing room.

But hey, the retail therapy was very beneficial. I am so much easier to live with this week. 8^D

Stash Report--Week???

I am so behind. I have no idea what week it is.

In June I added 16 fat quarters, so that's 4 yards.

Last week I got a box from Mighty Mom (post pending about this) with a bunch of fabric in it, and on Monday I went back to the relocating local quilt shop and bought 5 yards of fabric and 22 more fat quarters. This makes 10 1/2 yards plus.

Then I got a package from Lori at Dakota City quilter (ditto on the pending post) with a fat quarter and some noodles. So now we're up to 10 3/4 yards and lots of pieces.

Totals:
Added Year to Date: 27.25 yards+

Used/Gifted Year to Date: 7.5 yards.

19.75+ yards in the hole.

But no, I am not hanging my head in shame, Judy.
I do have works in progress, but I also have a swap this week. And some of MMs fabric will be used for quilting and some won't. Eh. It'll all work out, and if it doesn't, at least I am more aware of what goes in and out of my stash and I am okay with my purchases.

Saturday at the Movies Contest

Today (July 4) starts the Movie Trivia contest!

Here's how it works:

I will ask 2 questions about a movie each Saturday. Correct answers will be worth 10 points each. Then there will be a bonus question worth 5 points. You have the potential for 25 points each week, with a possible 100 points total by the end of July.

One week this month, I will announce in advance the movie I'm going to watch, so those of you who find you're older than or younger than or have different tastes from the movies I watch, will have a chance just like everyone else.

As always, it's the honor system! You may watch the movie, or you may ask someone else who's seen the movie, but you can't research the answer on the internet.

Edited to add: So that everyone has a fair chance, please email your answers to me instead of using the comments section to answer the questions. I will post my email address at the end of the post each week.

Prizes
The person with the most points will receive one of three prizes:

1. Coffee-lover's Package

2. Quilter's Package

3. Garderner's Package

Your choice!

As I assemble these prize packages, I will post them on the blog.

Ready?

Scroll down for the current week's question.

Saturday at the Movies 7/4

This week's questions are about the movie "Sister Act".



Question 1: What 2 songs did Dolores' girl group, The Ronells, sing at the casino?

Question 2: To what fictitious order did Sister Mary Clarence claim to belong?

Bonus question:
When a young Dolores was asked to write the names of the apostles on the blackboard, what names did she write?

Change in procedure:
Email your answers to me at cloudtoucher1@gmail.com.

The Predator

After getting off work this morning (um, Wed. morning), I rolled the trash barrel out to the street. It's been a couple of days since I looked at that particular corner of the yard/driveway, but I was surprised to see a rather complex spiderweb, stretched from the drainpipe over to the ditch.

It wasn't your typical spiderweb with hexagons or octagons and angles, but very tightly woven, almost like a sheer silk, with upper threads for supports, and looking even more substantial with the sun shining at that particular angle. It was almost swirly in nature, and made me want to touch it, despite my distaste.

I looked around for a rock or stick something to destroy it, because I am not fond of arachnids, or any other insect, for that matter. (I only tolerate ladybugs because they eat aphids, which eat my roses.) Apparently I startled a little brown grasshoppper, who leaped quickly out of my way--and right into the spiderweb.

Almost immediately, the owner scurried over and pounced onto the grasshopper and leaped back again. Startled again, the grasshopper tried to jump off the web, but couldn't. The grasshopper struggled mightily, but again and again the spider jumped onto its back, and then leaped an inch or so back. I assume he (she?) was biting the grasshopper, because the prey got weaker and weaker and slower and slower in its movements. The spider just sat and watched. And waited.

Soon the grasshopper was making only spasmodic movements. I thought briefly of going in to get my camera and wondered if the spiderweb would show clearly in a picture, and if I could get close enough to get a good photo of the spider. Another movement caught my eye. The spider scurried over, grabbed the grasshopper, and with seemingly no effort at all, extricated the insect from his web and transported it under the edge of the drainpipe. The whole thing took less than 2 minutes, start to finish.

The spider and his web are still there. I figure he's paid his rent.

Wonder what he could do with slugs.....