Early this morning, before it got too hot, I headed over to Alex's and now his truck is wearing all four of its tire covers.  On my way back into the yard I noticed something on the back porch... turned out to be a dead rodent.  

Maybe one of those nasty roof rats?  The good news is that even though it was right outside the dog door, Brownie didn't seem to have messed with it.

I called Mom this morning (waited until 10 her time) though once again my timing was bad and she didn't have time to talk.  Looks like we'll play phone tag today.  Told her I wasn't sure if I'd be home when she tries to return my call when she gets home from brunch since Tom and I originally planned to go see "Yesterday" at the movies.  I started rethinking that after he had a terrible (and noisy) case of the hiccups this morning.  

He's blaming it on the prednisone.  Yes, he woke with another bout of gout on Friday (after not having any issues on his Oregon/Idaho trip, and having just had a follow-up the "gout-ologist the day before to report that!)

We've decided to wait until tomorrow to see Yesterday, 

thinking the theater is likely to be more crowded today.

I made a short trip over to the bank to deposit a check, and tried out one of Tom's tie-downs to "attach" Brownie's dog bed to the front seat.  It wasn't ideal (a wider strap should work better) but it did help keep Brownie from sliding off the seat during turns.  

He certainly loves going for rides in the car, so much so  

that when we get home he doesn't want to get out of the car.  

It's a little frustrating standing in the hot garage (111 predicted for today), trying to coax him out of the car.  I can't leave him in there without me (would hate for him to find some leftover rat poison in some nook or cranny!) and also can't leave the garage door open because don't want Pokey to wander in there.  

 

Yesterday (despite numerous mechanical issues with my sewing machine) I almost finished the mesh watermelon tote.  Just have to close up the bottom, though I can't remember the "best" way to square it off.  

I see a phone call to Wanda in my future... 

Also had to make a quick trip over to The Pig when Cindy called; she said she could only squeeze 8 of the placemats onto the backing I had brought over, and needed some additional fabric.  I went to my stash, and was relieved to find more yardage of the same watermelon fabric.

Then I zoomed right over.  

I had been somewhat surprised by her call, first of all that she was even starting on my project (she had 'warned' me that she had a number of quilts that she needed to get done by this weekend) and second of all I thought I had given her more than enough for the backing.  Turns out I was right!

Cindy has definitely been working too hard (I suggested she take a break for the rest of the day and relax with her feet up enjoying a nice glass of tea) because once there I noticed that the fabric was doubled over... so of course she did have (more than) enough after all.  

Though she was very apologetic for making me drive "all the way over" <G> 

I was just glad to see that I'm not the only one 

who makes that kind of mistake!

In the evening I watched the CNN documentary 

about the Apollo 11 moon landing.

That summer of '69 I was attending the summer quarter at Northwestern University.  Way back then NO one had TVs in the dorm, so I don't remember how/where I watched all the excitement.

Where were YOU?

I do, however, remember that the astronauts were much too excited to wait for the scheduled timing of the moon walk (which was certainly no surprise to me!) and moved up their trip outside.

It's "officially" summer here.  

In the cool of the morning
Tom moved some of his shop equipment into the living room.

Notice the pile of birthday gifts waiting for Thursday.  No fair peeking!

Brownie and I enjoyed a nice long walk this morning (3/4 of a mile?) along a different route.  Naturally that meant constant stops for him to check out previous dogs' "messages so it wasn't much of a cardio workout for me.  My foot is doing okay, though it still feels rather weak.   

It was a rather warm day today, 110, so I guess it's not all that surprising that Brownie got into the pool on his own - at least the top step - and then came inside all wet.  Maybe he'll be a water dog after all?

I went out to do some yardwork before heading to the gym, and a bunny was in the backyard.  Of course it took off, with Brownie in hot pursuit, and I was not happy for Brownie to see it use the irrigation pipe as its escape route.  Brownie actually thought about following into the pipe, and until I finished trimming cottonwood suckers and came back inside he hung out by the opening, wistfully hoping the bunny would magically reappear.

  Before coming back in I blocked the pipe with the hole-y cinder block, 

though I must remember to remove it before irrigation on Tuesday!

After lunch I dropped off the placemats, with a happy watermelon fabric for the backing, at The Pig.  I chose a red thread and a squarish meander, and expect the placemats will look marvelous when I get them back sometime next week.

Then I collected Brownie and we were off to PetSmart for his nail trim.

I was stunned and amazed at how well he behaved during the process!

While obviously not thrilled (the groomer did have a hard time getting him to stand) there was no growling or snapping.  After he was finished we did pick up another bag of food, though for some reason the coupon woman wasn't there today.  Maybe next Friday?

Yesterday morning I finished blanket-stitching all the names on the placemats, and this afternoon I'll be dropping them off for Cindy to quilt.  In theory I could do them myself - except they'll look so much better if she does it!

As expected yesterday afternoon was pretty much a waste, spent vegging on the couch and dozing a little.  The good news is that though I once again (5th day in a row?) woke around 3 this morning, at least today I was able to fall back asleep until 5:30!

So for a change I felt energetic enough 

to take Brownie for a pre-breakfast walk this morning.  

It's wonderful to see him get excited when I pick up the leash, a most welcome improvement over his earlier leash-phobia behavior!

Now that the placemats are done - at least until they're ready for binding - my next (mini) project is to finish the watermelon mesh bag so I can bring it with me to the hot springs.  (Marna bought the beach umbrella one I brought with me last year.)  Also have some more mending to do for Tom.   

I watched the first debate last night, but part-way through the TV flipped out for about 15 minutes.  It began with a distorted picture, which was no real problem - 

but soon the sound became too garbled to understand.  

Happily whatever the problem was eventually corrected itself.  Naturally I worried that the issue with our new cable boxes, until I saw this e-mail on our NextDoor site:

Western Meadows  Anyone having cable glitches on their TV's

Tom will be dropping off his truck in for repairs next Tuesday.  The estimate came to almost $4000, which was not quite as much as he predicted, though more than I expected.  I was also surprised at how long they expect to keep his truck, so it's a good thing he'll have the use of Alex's van.

Yesterday I got the names appliqued, and started in on the blanket-stitching before I faded.  It's slow going so only one name is done so far.  Hope to get a number of the remaining eight done this morning, because after waking up at 3:15 this morning no doubt this afternoon I'll be pretty useless.

I did manage to sneak in a nap yesterday, which helped alleviate my zombie state somewhat.  But last night I decided that two nights of sleep deprivation were enough.

I figured it was time to break out the big guns, aka lorazepam. 

While I did wake up (twice?) during the night, 

at least I was able to fall back asleep until a sensible 6:00.

Now that the baby quilt is ready to be mailed 

I can focus all my efforts on Andy's birthday gift.

Tom spoke with the insurance people yesterday, and this morning headed off to the Toyota dealership to get an estimate on repairs.  Will be interesting to see how close his hefty guesstimate comes to the official one.

 Another way-too-early morning (I've been awake since 3:30) so there may be another nap in my future this afternoon.

I got the baby quilt bound last evening so it's basically finished, though due to computer issues it doesn't look like it's going to get a label any time soon after all.  Lynn and I are working on it, but so far we're not having much success.

This morning I was back at it, moving right along on Andy's birthday project.

I did take a quick break and headed outside to see what the deer did to Tom's truck.  Luckily the damage was only cosmetic, though I'm guessing the word "only" won't apply to repair estimates...

It was an uneventful visit with oncologist (bloodwork, chest x-ray, DEXA results all good) so I'm good to go until the next appointment, in November.

I was tired after my early morning, so after lunch I turned on the TV, hoping for a nap.  I was just about to drift off when the home phone rang, an obvious spam call since no message was left.  

 

A little later I had actually just fallen asleep when Alex called.  He's working harder than ever, so he's really looking forward to getting a break from the Disrupt Tour and attending the Electric Forest Festival in Michigan.  

Once again I was close to achieving nap status 

when Brownie's dinner alarm went off at 3:00.  

The good news is that after that <g> I finally did get in a good nap, 

sleeping until almost 5.  

I wasn't awake long when Tom called.  He'd already made it to Kingman, after an early start, and (no surprise) decided to just continue on home.  Good thing I made a stop at Winco this morning on my way home from the doctor and picked up a few groceries "just in case".