Karin really enjoyed herself at the Busy Bee hive yesterday.  I was at the back table (with about 10 of us who are on the board organizing the upcoming October bed turning and tea) but knew that the others would chat with her and keep her company.  In addition to being talented we're a friendly bunch.

As an added bonus, Pennie showed up - and had the finished wedding quilt with her.  OF COURSE everyone oohed and aahed over it - it's stunning!  All I have to do now <g> is whip up some binding and sew it on, make and attach a label, and then I can (fnally) pop it in the mail to Zach & Bekkah in Texas. Once they receive it and it's no longer a surprise to be kept under wraps, I'll be able to share photos of it on my blog.

After we left quilting and were on our way to 35th Ave. I took a chance and stopped at Marty's (it's right on the way) and even though the pickup was not parked there we took a chance and knocked on the door.  Glad we did - Carl was home. Karin and I went through Marty's studio out back (yes it was a tad warm from being locked up w/o any A/C) and loaded as many tubs as we could squeeze into my car.  

On a roll now, we hit 35th Ave. ready to do some serious shopping for Karin.  She found some beautiful flannel with coordinating fabrics (I should have taken pix of it), and it will no doubt work up into a warm, snuggly quilt for their serious winter.

All that schleeping of tubs and shopping made us hungry.  Since the famous Rocket Burger was right on our way home that became our destination.  (We did text the guys to invite them to join us, but they were already having lunch at Panda Express.)  Our burgers (and requisite fries) were as good as Karin had been led to believe, and she really got a chuckle out of the wide assortment of sodas.  I usually opt for water, but splurged yesterday (on Monster Mucus), she drank something equally repulsively named (Bug Barf) and is taking both bottles home to show her son Devon.  (I've also tried their Zombie Brain Juice.)  

Once home, we unloaded all the tubs from the car, and (no surprise!) our first order of business was to start going through them.  What fun!  There was definitely a lot of wonderful stuff there, although on a certain level it was disappointing that most of Marty's stuff had already been snagged and we had to settle for leftovers.  (Carl had already had a yard sale, and some of the ladies from Night Owls had been over one evening - he figures at least 75% of the stuff had already been taken.)  The biggest blow was that there was definitely no yardage to speak of, which would have been wonderful to use for the charity backings.  

I did find a small (about 13" square) appliqued Noah's Ark piece that was almost finished that I'm going to keep for my Marty memory, and hoped I could sweet-talk my friend Linda (who also does beautiful applique) into finishing it... <g>  One bird still needs a wing, and there are some berries/leaves missing from the vine.

Around 4:00 we definitely needed a break, so I grabbed my bag of dog-bed-filler-scraps and we headed over to nearby The Other Quilt Store; it's a lot closer than 35th Ave., but also a lot smaller with a fraction of the inventory.  (I called 911 from the parking lot to report some serious smoke billowing SW of there, but the fire department already knew about a house fire in that vicinity.)  Karin bought the cutest mouse pattern and fabric to make it.  

And just so she doesn't get too bored once she's home, I put together some fabrics of mine for her to take with her to make one for me.  She'd been disappointed earlier in the day when she couldn't find a specific Debbie Mumm fabric line (featuring mice) at 35th Ave., but that mouse helped make up for it.

On the way home I gassed up car and we also made a Walmart stop for Karin to pick up some nibbles so they won't starve on their 2700-mile road trip back to Ottowa.  Once home again we continued digging through the rest of tubs.  It was definitely a busy day, and my back started talking to me by late afternoon - but it didn't say anything I wanted to hear!  

At least no one had to cook; dinner was at Pita Jungle. Alex met us there for his dinner break - and, of course, ran into people he knew as soon as he came in.  We love the food there, but it's SO noisy that it's virtually impossible to have a conversation there.  Karin, however, absolutely loved the food so it was worthwhile.  I ordered the seared yellowfin tuna atop the sesame honey salad (chock full of mangoes and strawberries.)  It was as delicious as I remembered, but after that huge lunch I just couldn't finish it all.  Knowing it would make a perfect lunch for today, I got a to-go box and lovingly transfered the salad, then the fruit, then the tuna on top to it.  But as I was closing the lid I somehow !@#$%^& tipped the container over, and everything landed on the floor.  Bummer!!!!!!!!!!  It would have made such a perfect lunch today...

This morning (before they hit the road) Karin and I went through the books (one carton and two bags) that Rich had brought over the other day.  Someone had passed them along to his wife, who had read them and was passing them along to me.  Karin grabbed a half dozen, I pulled out at least a dozen, and the 'leftovers' (which fill the carton) will go to quilting for the ladies to pick through.  (And which is where the ones I've pulled out to read will likely end up at some point in the future; the ones the ladies don't want will be donated to the library for their Friends' sales.  Books never go to waste!)

Before they left, we were sitting in the living room and I noticed a hummingbird perched on my beaded hummingbird.  It hangs close to the feeder, so I've seen hummers on it before. 

But this one stayed put.  And stayed.  And stayed!  

I finally got my camera and started taking pix through the window.  

It still stayed, and stayed!  We were beginning to worry that it was injured - until it finally took off.

Sorry to see Karin & Garry go.  

But even though they took their truck and trailer (which had been parked here since December 2011) we're pretty sure they'll be back!  

Everyone should have guests like these: Karin washed the sheets and towels, left the house cleaner than when they got there, and they left a new Keurig coffee maker as a thank you gift!

I'd invited Linda over this afternoon to look through Marty's started applique projects to see which one she wanted for her Marty memory.  The timing of my call this morning was perfect; today was her first day back in her quilting room since her husband was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer a couple of months ago.  (As if that wasn't enough, she's also been dealing with some medical issues of her own, plus some other stressful family issues.)  She was all excited to come paw through the stuff - and even more so once she started going through it.  And she graciously agreed to finish up the Noah's Ark for me.

Alex stopped by this afternoon and finished mowing the last bit of the ditch that Tom left when he mowed/weedate today.  Apparently one of the geese had laid some eggs in the tall grass, which Alex couldn't see until he hit some of them with the mower.  

The grass and weeds were so high Alex doesn't think Mama Goose could even get to the 'nest' any more; the grass did not seem to show any indication of being sat on.  Surprisingly, most of the eggs are still intact; only a few got broken, with possibly as many as a dozen (hard to tell from the pic) left whole.  

We all swam in the pool to 'help' Alex cool off.  Tom was jonesing for a pizza, so we invited Alex to stay for dinner.