Time to catch up on my blog!

It was a fun weekend at the Valley of the Sun annual quilt retreat.  By the time Marcie and I got there mid-afternoon on Thursday, most of the other ladies were already there and already working hard!  Although our drive over was uneventful, my car started making weird noises right before we got there.  Luckily it didn't do that when we went for dinner a few hours later.  Did the same thing on Sunday, right before we got home.  May need power steering fluid?  

   We enjoyed Jessica's Friday presentation and then her collage class... and many of us even finished our projects!  My bag of colorful scraps were perfect, and I shared freely.  Here's a shot of the fabric Marcie was creating from my scraps:

And here's how much I got done on my gecko (the colors are brighter than they appear in this washed out photo):

  

Massages were on Saturday, and (as usual) they were wonderful.  Cheri found a lot of tension in my neck/back, and said I could have benefited from more than the allotted 20 minutes (I agreed!)  But it was still quite a help.  

I didn't win any of the lotto blocks (though my ticket number was SO CLOSE several times) but Linda's challenge quilt captured a blue ribbon.  I'll get it back to her this week so she can enter it in the Palo Verde Patchers' show, coming up later this month.

Despite the quite comfy bed I didn't sleep well at all over the three nights, waking up virtually hourly.  So I dragged quite a bit over the weekend, skipping all the evening's activities.  On the plus side, my back did just fine (which is why I drag myself to the gym religiously each Tuesday and Friday!)

Show & Tell each day was fun, and while I didn't snap pix of all the quilts, I did capture quite a few.

Ami:

Daisy:

Carolyn:

Carrie:

Cathy:

Denise:

Ellen:

Karen:

Lee Ann:

Marcie:

Mel:

Misha:

Mishi:

Patty:

Shelly:

Yetta:

On the way home Sunday we stopped in at IKEA (I'd never been) and it's quite the store.   Marcie found a couple of small items in the kitchen section, but I made it out of there unscathed.

Alex had called me on Saturday because he was buying a 2018 Chevy Silverado pick-up - and if I'd co-sign for him he'd get a better interest rate.  (I was fine with that because he's always repaid me for money I've loaned him, and I don't expect any problems with this.)  First he thought he was going to have to drive over with all the papers to sign, but it turned out that I was able to go over and do that yesterday morning.  (He had left very early that morning for California.)  After that it was over to Farmer's to add it to our car insurance policy.  

Luckily I made it home yesterday before Mitch arrived to start on the hot tub privacy project.  He and Alex had seen each other up at Snowbowl on Sunday, so I already knew that Mitch had had a little run-in with a tree (turns out he was avoiding a kid who cut him off.)  The first side is up, and I used the inner shelf this morning when I soaked.  Love it!

The second side is going up now, and Mitch is going to match the paint to the tub siding so it will all blend in.  He had a great suggestion about the step addition; he's going to hinge it so I have some place to store the chemicals out of the weather.  

His shirt today make me chuckle.

Tom and Wayne had left early yesterday morning for the Grand Canyon via Sedona, but it was so cold (and some of the roads were closed) that they cut their trip drastically short, and actually arrived back home that same night.  

Today is much more seasonally "correct" - going to be 70!  

I am not sorry that my trip to Maryland, where they are getting real weather, is not happening this week!

My cold (or is it allergies?) returned yesterday (watery eyes, sneezing and nasal congestion) so once I got home from signing a zillion papers at the car place, and then taking care of the insurance, it was pretty much a lazy day on the couch in front of the TV.  Did sleep well last night, but still wasn't feeling up to snuff so it was a bit of a struggle at the gym this morning, and I even left a few minutes early.  Still...

  Now I'm just going to relax for the rest of the day.