7 Quick Takes Friday 5/29

Jennifer at Conversion Diary hosts a weekly blog subject: 7 Quick Takes Friday, in which we list 7 random topics that weren't enough for a full blog post. Here is my edition for this week--plus one.

1. DD and I spent quite a bit of time last weekend watching nature at work in my front yard. At one point there were 2 white squirrels,

3 gray squirrels, a pair of mourning doves, a pair of chipmunks, a cardinal

and a rabbit

all feeding at or around the bird feeder, prompting my daughter to declare the yard looked like a Disney cartoon. We tried to identify a distinctive bird call by searching the internet, but could only narrow it down to probably one of the song sparrows. But it was relaxing for a gal who's had a tough couple of months.

Today, all four of the known white squirrels in the neighborhood were feeding in my yard at once. If you click the pictures below, you can see them just a little better.



2. Since it rained most of the weekend, we spent the time indoors or in the rocking chairs on the screened in back porch. There's something soothing about rocking back and forth, back and forth, talking and talking late into the night. We lit a candle in the wrought iron cage-type holder that has the outlines of flowers and a hummingbird. It casts wonderful flickering shadows onto the wall.

3. Actually, we are 4 inches surplus on rainfall for the month of May. As of Wed., we've had 8 inches for the month, 3 of them falling on the 14th. My poor garden is hanging in there, waiting for the sun. The Swiss chard is looking pretty pathetic. I don't think it's going to survive.

4. While DD was here, I made that strawberry sauce as planned. Instead of sugar, I used Splenda, which was fine, but next time, I'm going to cut the vanilla flavoring back by half--it was too strong for us. However, we managed to pour it over some angel food cake and top with a scoop of cool whip to get it down.

5. Since I never got around to making cookies or anything for the vet and his staff at Christmas, I made a batch of Pioneer Woman's Apple Dumplings and carried them over this week. One of the gals said he'd just finished complaining that all he had for lunch was a little salad. I believe we shot his saved calories all to you-know-where. Ah, but he and his staff have always been so good to us and the dogs, they deserved it.

6. Speaking of sugar, I had my teeth-cleaning appointment this week. My dentist specializes in cosmetic dentistry and dental-phobes like me. Hallelujah, it was just your run-of-the-mill cleaning--no new problems! Not too long ago I got a letter in the mail advertising their "Dental Stimulus Package", offering 10% off on any cosmetic or repair work done through the end of May. Yep, his business is suffering in this economy. I let them know how much I appreciated the joke, since even in good economic times I do not voluntarily ask them to assault my mouth. My kind of dental stimulus package would be they one where they pay ME to come in.

7. Lastly, one of our new employees is pregnant with her first child. I'm not sure just when she's due, but she looks to be about 7 months along. Today we're having a baby shower for her here at work. She doesn't want to know the baby's gender, so anything goes. I started a baby quilt for her this week, but only got the top pieced, so I'll have to deliver it to her next week. It's bright!

I'm hoping she likes it.

8. Plus one--Today is the 40th anniversary of my high school graduation. This is so wrong.
You can join in with your list if you'd like. Just swing over to Conversion Diary after 6am central daylight time today to check out the guidelines and add your URL to the list, then peruse some of the other entries.

Remember, tomorrow is Saturday at the Movies!

7 Quick Takes Friday

Every week, Jennifer at Conversion Diary hosts 7 Quick Takes Friday--bits and pieces of your week that don't inspire a whole blog to themselves. Check it out here.

1. No major events, disasters, mistakes, weather news, etc. makes for a nice peaceful week, but boring blogging.

2. I'm working on my lawn this year, trying to get it whipped into shape, and along comes the AT&T dude and makes orange stripes on my yard and driveway. And I don't even USE AT&T. Even cutting the grass didn't get the stripes out. At least he could have done it in the flower beds for more color!

3. I'm checking around for some good hummus recipes, as I am currently craving fresh veggies and hummus. My favorites are a chipotle blend I found at the grocery store, and one with pine nuts, but at over $4.00/container, it's time to make my own.

4. The truck market and tailgate market are both open again. One is on Thurs. from 3-6 (where I got the prawn last year), and the other on Saturday mornings from about 7am til noon. Not much is available yet, besides herbs and flowering plants, baked goods and home canned items, but it won't be long before the parking lots are filled with fresh fruits and veggies. One of my favorite vendors makes awesome pickled okra, and yummy fig preserves, but she didn't have any last weekend. She promised to locate the other jars and bring them in, and I told her I'm holding her to that because DD loves pickled okra and.....

5. DD is coming home for the weekend!! We haven't seen her since Christmas, and she's had a tough month, so she's coming home for some parental pampering. Lisa at work was sweet enough to swap nights with me so I'll have Sat. and Sun. nights off before DD leaves Monday morning---taking whatever jars of pickled okra happen to be in the pantry.

6. In preparation for her homecoming, I finally got around to replacing the burnt-out light by the garage--or tried to. As soon as I put my hand up there to unscrew the bulb, a couple of wasps buzzed a warning at me. I apologized profusely--then zapped them with the can of wasp and hornet spray and took off into the house. Today I was able to replace the bulb without argument.
Moral of this story? Don't wait 2 weeks in the spring to replace an outside bulb, or the little buzzers will think you've invited them to move in.

7. Have you seen this new blog? It's entitled "Crafting for Health" and involves stories of how crafting has made a difference in the mental and sometimes physical health of the crafter. All the entries so far are terrific, but the latest really hit home with me. The statements "When we create we are defying destruction", and " It doesn’t matter what you create. It doesn’t have to win awards. It doesn’t even have to be pretty. It’s not about the finished product. It’s about taking the creative journey" were so right on with how I feel when I walk into my sewing room and lose myself in fabric--even for a few minutes.

7 Quick Takes Friday

I've been reading Jennifer over at Conversion Diary for almost a year now, and find her conversion from atheist to devout Catholic fascinating--and I'm a Baptist! She almost convinces me to change that, though.

Anyway, she hosts "7 Quick Takes Friday", little blurbs in your life that come and go through the week, and after over 6 months, I have decided to join in.

So here goes:

1. We have a wonderful neighbor, Ron, who cuts the grass with his riding mower and used to do some edging for us, too, but, as he had polio many years ago, his legs have been particularly unsteady this year, so all he's done is mow. The last two days I've managed to lop off some of the bottom branches of our Bradford pear trees, collect and dump them all, cut down some underbrush on our side of the vacant lot next door, and edge about half the yard. We have a corner lot, so there is lots more to go, but that'll have to wait for another offday. I must say, I'm appreciating Ron even more right now.

2. Got the physician's bill for the stress echo this week:GULP. My part of the actual test (our insurance is a joke), was a little over $400.00. However, the physician, who was in the room for all of maybe 10 minutes, charges $1700+ for his part. And my share, after the discount, is over $1500.00. Sheesh. There goes what was left of my tax refund after paying The People. I'm really glad nothing was wrong with my heart, but dang!

3. Last Saturday after getting off work, a co-worker and I headed over to an annual church yard sale. It was HUGE! And everything was priced really cheaply. But for all that, I only came home with a handful of books, some plant hangers that hang on the deck, and this little 8ft stretch of wire edging. (Sorry it's so hard to see).

As Tandi doesn't see why she can't just mosey through the flowerbed, I'm hoping this will discourage that behavior. I'm going to keep my eyes open for some more, or maybe I'll just stop at the dollar store to see if there's another 8ft length for the remainder of the sidewalk there.

4. The weekend before, however, I hit several smaller yard sales and came home with a bookoodle of things:

This heavy pitcher and 5 glasses with fruits on them,


Some Halloween items,


A bedside lamp (I'm going to change the shade) to replace the top-heavy one in the guest room and a cute oil lamp,


4 yards of fabric I'm going to combine with some denim to make grocery totes,


And a table and two chairs for my kitchen. I had an unsteady little round table I picked up for $15.00 at a motel sale about 5 years ago, but I like this one better, as the sides both fold down. The chairs are so obviously 70s, but they are comfortable, so who cares? We never eat at that table; it's there to put the computer on for recipes or for someone to sit and talk while I'm cooking.
The other table is out on the back porch right now, between 2 rocking chairs, so there is a place to lay a book or a glass when someone needs to rock their troubles away.

Now if I could just find a composter!

5. I'm having trouble uploading photos from my camera to the computer. The Windows program tells me there are 509 new photos, even though they are already in my folders, and attempts to upload them all each time I plug in the camera. The HP program has to upload every single postage-stamp photo on the memory card for me to select the newest ones to post, since the others were uploaded using the Windows program. I think I'm just going to break down and buy another memory card and start over.

6. I have ten 9-patches done in Amandajean's challenge, and though I'm a little behind, I'm grateful that it has made me go into the sewing room, even for only 15 minutes a day, and sew. Before, I would put off sewing anything unless I had a huge block of time, which is self-defeating, because who has huge blocks of time to sew? Not me. Now I can whip up one of these in just a few minutes and know that in a couple more months, I'll have enough for a quilt top.

7. I don't remember how I found this site, but this strawberry sauce is something I'm going to try this week. It's strawberry season here, and though I have lots sliced and in the freezer from last year, I think I'm going to buy some more, just so I can make this easy sauce, and leave the other for cakes, etc.

Okay, that's my Quick Takes entry for this week. To read others, head on over to Jennifer's place.