It's been a full two weeks (!) since I've blogged. Once I got a few days behind I was less and less motivated to put in the time to catch up.
At least I jotted down a few notes (most days, any way) so will do my best to to fill in the missing 14 days.
I enjoyed my time with Marcela (and Sally & Dan) on the Sunday of the Memorial Day weekend. There was some excitement when Brownie got to 'meet' the feral cat that shows up at dinnertime. Not only did it stand its ground when Brownie thought to chase it, but then it hung out under a tree just the other side of the pool fence. Then later, when we were inside having dinner but Brownie stayed outside, the cat was fearless enough to brazenly take a drink from his water bowl.
On Monday I had my appointment with the chiropractor, and we talked about how it's my good foot that's giving me trouble these days. Will see the podiatrist on June 20, and maybe he will have some ideas. I have no recollection of hurting it, but that part of my ankle has definitely been puffy, and pain in the Achille's tendon and my heel are causing a substantial limp. Plus it's warm to the touch. Sigh...
Maybe chocolate was the answer to my problem?
I got out my all-edges brownie pan and whipped up a batch. Alex was around when they came out of the oven, and was surprised that I wasn't going to let them cool before taste-testing one.
Kathi and Mark stopped by to pick up the Wandering Jew plants I had for her and her mom, and it wasn't hard to twist Mark's arm to have a brownie - and then 'one for the road'.
One of Alex's friends rescued a baby quail when they saw it fall into their pool, and then (because there was no quail family in sight) called "quail man" Alex to come get it. Unfortunately the adorable/tiny chick didn't make it through the night - possibly suffering a heart attack caused by Brownie? Once Alex had moved the quail cage just to the other side of our fence I was surprised (but of course happy) that Brownie hasn't been overly interested in it. However, the next morning we discovered that he had pulled all three bricks away from the fence, obviously trying to get at the baby quail.
I was up late (for me, anyway) and went out to look for the possible show in the nighttime sky - but never saw anything.
On Tuesday Francisco, from Titan Painters, showed up unexpectedly to see about a quote. Glad I was around! Much of the day was spent getting ready for Wednesday's irrigation, a day 'late' because they started the cycle a day later than usual due to Monday's holiday.
That evening Alex and I enjoyed dinner at Tokyo Lobby. On our way out we ran into Lucius, who is how Alex knows Officer Tyler Moldovan.
Wednesday morning Alex and I went to the credit union to arrange for him to have me taken off the deed, and started the paperwork for his refi.
Irrigation went well (yay!)
Got the house painting bid from Mike, which was less than I'd expected. Sign me up!
Thursday I was up at 4 am <sigh> so got an early start to post-irrigation weeding. Worked on that from 5-8, when the heat got to be too much, ending up with huge piles as proof of my work.
By the time I got home from the gym I knew I wasn't going to get much else done. In the early afternoon I was fading, and decided to take a nap. Too bad Alex rang the doorbell and woke me up before I got in very many ZZZZZZ.
Some e-mails back and forth (I needed to sign the bid contract) and then Mike confirmed that we're on the schedule to start the house painting project on Tuesday! Before then there is a lot of work I'll need to get done, trimming plants so they can access the walls.
Friday, after the house cleaners left, I headed over to Sherwin Williams to choose paint colors. SO many choices! I brought home a handful of paint cards and had done well matching the wood color, but was way off on the stucco. So I headed back to SW for more cards (happily it's close, on Bell just this side of I-17) and was able to send Mike the colors: Sierra Redwood for the wood, Quaint Peche for the stucco.
In preparation for the next day's trip to the quilt show in Prescott Valley I gassed up the car ($5.90/gallon) and cleaned off Brownie's nose prints from the back windows.
Saturday I was once again up at 4:00, so I weeded in the jungle until 8:00. Pokey 'helped', shadowing me and 'asking' for food. Good mom that I am I went inside for apples and strawberries - which she then proceeded to ignore. Kids!
I was showered and ready by the time Carol and JoAn arrived, we picked up Wanda, and then were off to the quilt show.
It was a great show, and I took lots of pix - none of which have made it from my iPhone to my computer. Did NOT buy any fabric, but did make a couple of purchases: a shirt and a deck of cards.
She only had large sizes left - but I do like loose clothing.
"Featuring scrappy quilts" implies different pix on the backs of the cards, so I thought that might give me a bit of an advantage playing with Tom and/or Alex (not that I would consider cheating...lol) but when I opened the pack at home all the backs are the same.
Monday morning I cleared off porches, leaving only the few heaviest things for Alex to handle when he came over to do his trimming of the tops of the taller bushes. I also pulled all of the ivy mat off of the wall, which was thicker/heavier than I'd expected.
I'd gotten excited when I saw them dumping what I thought were piles of dirt in the horse pasture next door. I went over to see, and met Mirta. She had Jose call me later, and what I thought was dirt turns out to be dried manure they were cleaning out of the stalls (in preparation for boarding horses.)
I continued working throughout the day, and after dinner tackled the weeds around front 'wall'. I made a dent in it, but there was still a lot more to do... sigh
Rewarded myself by starting the blue jellyroll sizzle.
Tom called, and reported the great success he and Carlo were having harvesting morel mushrooms. Quite a bumper crop this year!
On Tuesday morning the painting crew was here right on time, and hard at it by 6:00. The first step was power washing, and Brownie did fine with the commotion. I was surprised that there was actually some painting on the first day. It was a HOT day, and in between watching their progress I sewed, adding some of my fabrics to the ones in the jellyroll bundle.
JoAn popped over to 'shop' for backing. I had a peach batik that she loved for one of her quilts, and a blue geometric that she liked for the other one.
Wednesday I headed to Foothills, while Brownie stayed home to 'supervise' the painters. Turned in the two charity quilt tops, and showed off baby Mia's quilt. On the way home I stopped at the feed store for quail food (healthy crumble for good eggs, combo of various seeds/corn for 'dessert') but she hasn't seemed to like either one. Another hot day, reaching that 'magic' number of 110 when we consider it 'officially' hot.
I 'snuck' out on Thursday morning to head to the gym (woman working out gave me a thumbs up, turned out to be a PT with same birthday/year as Tom) but otherwise I was around to see house looking better and better.
Friday was the final day of painting, and Jose had a much larger crew.
Here were just some of them.
DONE and LOOKS GREAT!!!
One of the last things Jose did was to paint the door into the garage, and I needed to leave the tape on the handle and lock for an hour or so after he left. I moved the car from the backyard into the garage, but then couldn't get the door open! Tried several things, and gave up until Saturday morning, when brute strength was what it took; some paint had seeped along the edges and 'sealed' the door (which is still sticking some.)
After spending four days parked under a tree the car needed washing (the birds were busy) so Brownie and I took a short drive. He was considerably more relaxed this time, though still paid close attention to all the noisy monsters attacking his car.
Brownie did need to stay home, though, when I went to TOQS for bag day, and to the grocery store (corn was 50 cents an ear, and my coffee was $5 - passed on both of them.) Gas was $6.09, and sadly not likely to go down any time soon.
In other unhappy news, the TV cable box isn't working. I opted for the automatic reset (didn't work) and restarting the modem (didn't work) and then was on the phone with COX for quite a while (but nothing she did at her end worked) so have scheduled a tech to come out on Monday afternoon. Miss having the TV on while I'm sewing.
It reached 114 yesterday, which tied the record for the date (set over 100 years ago, back in 1918) but could have been worse. It hit 122 yesterday in Death Valley.
Today I picked up some cactus plants at Summer Winds to cover up this funky spot out back.
I also picked up some of the 'old' quail food (turkey mash) at the feed store. Wanted to look for an irrigation cover at Stardust (thank you, Marcela!) but despite their website saying they are open on Sundays, guess what? I schlepped to 51st & Northern for nothing.
Tom just called and reports that it's chilly and rainy there. A little hard to relate to!
Not even going to proof-read, just posting this.
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