Woke this morning sporting Alex's cold from last week: runny/stuffy nose, sore throat, and laryngitis.  Thus (for the first time) I cancelled today's PT.  

I also predict (more-than-usual) lazing around today, as I drink a cup (or two) of Emergen-C to help speed up healing.

Before 9:00 yesterday I had pulled two buckets of weeds, trimmed the mini lemon tree, netted the dead bugs, and guided Creepy.  It was already hot, of course.  Tom spent much longer outside, mowing the Back 40 and around Alex's, having to do it in 'layers' since everything was so tall and thick.  He also mowed out front, along the street (and as long as he was 'in the neighborhood' he mowed Joy & Dick's street strip) and finished up with some weed-eating.

Joy called last night to thank Tom heartily for mowing that strip, which is on a considerable slant.  She was mowing their front yard yesterday (there's been a steady sound of neighbors mowing after all that rain we got) but hadn't gotten around to the strip.  She was also grateful that Tom weed-ate around their mailbox, saving her from doing it with hand clippers, which made me laugh - and then she laughed as I said to her, what was he going to do, weed-eat everything except their mailbox?  We agreed we are both lucky to have such helpful neighbors!

Yesterday afternoon I worked a little on the puzzle (it's a real slog now, and we get pretty excited with each piece we get in) and also did some sewing while I watched some mindless movies. With only the final two borders (already pieced, measured, and cut) to sew on today, I'll soon be ready to hand in another charity quilt.

Alex spent yesterday at the lake with friends, and last night showed up with a friend's BIG boat; they're going back to the lake today, so it didn't make sense to schlep the boat all the way to Scottsdale, right?  Tom went out to help guide him into the backyard, but that didn't work so it spent the night out front.  This morning, when I went out to sweep up after Tom's mowing and weed-eating, I snapped a couple of pix.

Hot and sweaty from the sweeping the driveway, it was a good time to check on Creepy (who again had cooperated by starting up just fine this morning.)  I was in the shallow end of the pool, netting drowned bees and flies and gnats, when I noticed something swimming along the edge by the diving board.  For a split second I thought Brownie had fallen in, but immediately realized it wasn't large enough to be him.  With just the nose poking up it looked like a rat, and (even though we don't want them around) I couldn't let it drown. But when I went over to scoop it out, imagine my surprise when I discovered what it actually was!

I toweled it off, and once it was reasonably dry came inside where it just lay still on my chest, seemingly sleeping; I only knew it was still alive because it occasionally opened its eyes - though when I moved a bit and it started to roll off my chest it did nothing to break its 'fall'.  Not sure what I was going to do with it since it seemed awfully small to be out on its own.

After an hour of not moving I decided to make it a 'nest' in a shoebox along with some milk in a jar lid, hoping that would help.  At that point it finally 'woke up' and tried to scurry away.  So I took it out back to the hedge (of course Brownie wanted to come along to "help", but not this time!) thinking that was where mama possibly had her nest.  When I set the little guy down in the grass/weeds it didn't move, so I gave it some space and left to go reset the irrigation gate.  Finally, when I came back near the little bunny it hopped into denser brush.  Guess I've done all I can do.

 As is usually the case I was up early Friday morning, and was pleasantly surprised to find Creepy working just fine.  The pool guys, who arrived at 6:30, were also happy to see how clean the pool was. 

I got some of the house decluttered before heading to the gym.  Jim had remembered to put the weight for me in the trunk of his car - but it turned out his wife's car was out of commission that morning so she dropped him off at work before heading to her job.  He realized the weight had been left behind in the trunk as she was driving away.

Shortly after I got home from the gym it was time to head up the street for my appointment with Shelly for a haircut.  This time I got to meet Zilla, her resident lizard.  Cute little guy, though not quite <g> this colorful.

When I got home Alex was playing out in the Back 40 with Brownie, so I went out to watch.  I hung out on the hammock in the shade, and enjoyed the view of those wonderful trees along the ditch.  Brownie sure had the zoomies (great exercise for him) and almost got lost in the tall grass.  Tom really needs to mow, but it's too dewy in the "cool" mornings, and awfully hot the rest of the day.

The three of us worked on the puzzle for a bit, until the cleaners arrived.  Progress is slow...

Nothing 'official' on the schedule for today - will see what develops!

Yesterday was Sew Day at Foothills, and we had a good-sized turn-out.  

Here are just some of the ladies at work at a couple of the tables. 

I spent the morning hand-sewed the binding onto one of Ellen's cute panel charity quilts.  Unfortunately with my head down it gave me a headache, just like when I would work on counted cross-stitch after not doing that for a while.   It made me fairly miserable (and lasted all day) despite a couple of doses of Tylenol, but happily is considerably better this morning.

 

Yolanda had quilted my cat quilt, and I've brought it home to finish it up with binding. 

I don't seem to have any more of the turquoise I used for the pinwheels (at least I can't find it) but think this turquoise batik with pink blobbies should tie in well.

Lora Zmak had posted on FB: Yay! I received a ribbon at the quilt show this weekend. Thank you, Delta Quilters! (Brentwood California) Pattern is from a book called When Quilters Play.

Ellen brought her copy this morning so I could take a look at it, and I loved it.  She offered to loan it to me, but who knows when I'll get around to starting it.  Each PP block is quite detailed and thus somewhat intimidating.   My (lifetime?) PLAN would be to do one block at a time in between other projects - so I would need to buy my own copy.  EXCEPT that a search on the 'net did not bring up it up anywhere (though it did show me another one of Ruth McDonald's books.)

On the way home I dropped off a bag of art 'supplies' for Nancy at Park Meadows.  With people moving or retiring I didn't expect to see any familiar faces in the office, so was pleasantly surprised to find Carol working there.  It turned out she was subbing for someone that day, so we had a chance to chat and catch up a little.

I've got PT in a bit, so guess I'd better have breakfast, shower, and get dressed!

Once I'd had my morning coffee (and it got light out) I went out back to deal with Creepy (and top off the pool before this morning's irrigation.) That's when I rescued this little guy from the pool.  Since he wasn't swimming I'd assumed he was dead - but happily not!

After catching his breath he did run around for a bit, tickling my hand and arm, 

until eventually deciding to jump ship here under a bush.

Today marks four whole weeks <g> since I started walking, and I celebrated the milestone by not taking my cane into the gym.  Also have noticed I can walk a little faster.  It's wonderful to see continuing progress!

Irrigation went well (always a relief) and the front yard got a thorough watering.

 They DID have cilantro (though labeled as coriander) at the nursery yesterday.  All three herbs were quite rootbound, and my pots were actually too small; obviously I need to look for some new ones.

We experienced a power outage Saturday afternoon around 4:00.  The first thing I did was to try calling some neighbors, because if it was just us without power WE would have to do something about it.  But if it had shut down at other places it wasn't our problem (sort of) to solve.  The first three neighbors I called didn't answer their phones, but the fourth time was the charm.  And yes, Cassandra (behind us) confirmed that they, too, had just lost power.  

I then called APS to report it, though the automated answering loop did not seem to have an option to enter our address.  At least the outage was very short-lived, maybe 10 minutes, so we weren't  inconvenienced (other than having to reset the clocks.)

This morning I walked all the way back to set the main irrigation gate (slow going, but do-able), and also pulled some weeds out of the tree trough in preparation for tomorrow's irrigation.  Also turned Creepy right-side-up so he could do this thing this morning.  

Mary came over this morning, and we got to visit for about an hour before I had to head off to PT.  My foot is a little sore from that, but that's to be expected as I work hard at rehabbing it.; today I had them up the weight on the leg press.

The guys were busy today.  Here's Alex smoking chicken -

while Tom was waiting his turn to use the smoker. 

Dinner turned out delicious - even w/o bacon on mine.

 Mary is coming over tomorrow morning with all of her African fabrics (one had been left behind, mistakenly, the last time) so I can choose one.  At that point she wasn't sure what to do with them, but look what came across my FB this morning. Looks like a perfect idea for a wall-hanging, and I think she should whip up something like this!

I have had to help Creepy twice already this morning (same issues), but the pool sure is nice and clean! With no monsoon activity in the current forecast it should remain that way for a while....

In a bit I'm off to Summer Winds for some herbs for my window 'garden'. 

(Sadly the begonias died within a few days despite constant attention from me.) 

While SW does have dill and basil in stock, at the moment there is no cilantro - which was at the top of MY list. She told me they do expect to get some in within the month.

Though Creepy stills needs assistance (he continues to get hung up on the drain, or randomly flip himself over), after my help today the pool sure does look a whole lot cleaner!!!

Yesterday I turned my sunflower block into an oversized placemat.  

This morning I quilted it, and then even got started on the binding...

which I finished this afternoon.

I did need to clean the machine when it started acting up.  

Guess what I found inside?

Another interruption occurred when I I needed to start a new spool of thread - but it didn't go well at all.  

After cutting here, and cutting there (though neither cut worked, just wasted thread) I searched for an Aurafil video on the 'net. After a (too-long) intro, which listed the various wrong things people - including me - had already tried, she showed me the simple trick.  Turns out the end twists off and VOILA - there's the start!

After all these years (20?!) of using only Aurafil, 

today this old dog learned a new trick!

At PT I'm now working with Lori officially, though I did see her a couple of times when Ryan was out of town.  Yesterday, when discussing how I'm doing, I did mention that my next goal (now that I reached my first one, of walking!) is to negotiate the step at the front door, so she had me doing mini step ups using a weight plate.  

My efforts were laughable, but at some point they should get better.  

As expected it set my foot back a bit for the rest of the day, but on the plus side I am walking today without too much of a limp.  I'd like to continue working on that exercise at home, so at the gym this morning I asked if I could sign out one of their weight plates.  The young woman at the front desk was kind enough call and ask, but the powers-that-be denied my request.

So I asked Jim if he had any at home he's not using, and he's pretty sure he does.  Hopefully he will find one and bring it to the gym on Tuesday.

When I got home from PT yesterday, a little after 2:00, Bennie and the three oldest kids had just recently arrived for their swim date.  Though they had "signed up" for 1:00, happily they were running an hour late.  I was very happy not to have missed the fun.

Julianna really wanted to play with Brownie, 

though he was not terribly cooperative.

Alex took a break from work and popped over to say hi.

Most of the time was spent in the shallow end, though the diving board did see some action.

The pool, at least the shallow end, was reasonably clean since first thing that morning I had swept the silt into the deep end.  When Corey arrived in the late afternoon (they have been slammed) it turned out that the impeller inside the pump was jammed because the basket in there had cracked and let some grass-type stuff through. (We now have a new basket.)

At least it was an easy fix, and Creepy was once again up and running!  Corey suggested we let it run all night, which was a good plan.  But after he left I kept having to disengage Creepy from the drain at the bottom, and then after dinner I got into the pool and helped him until dark.  I wasn't really surprised that when I got up this morning Creepy was stuck on the drain again, and once again I helped him out. When Van arrived this morning for our weekly servicing he was pleasantly surprised to see the pool was in pretty good shape.

It has remained extremely muggy, though with no rain in the forecast 

that should become less and less of an issue.  

According to the local news, we'd gotten measurable rain at Sky Harbor six days in a row of (and most of those days it was several inches.)  The last time we had six consecutive days of measurable monsoon was back in the 1960s!

Because of the Olympics we got behind on watching taped episodes of Jeopardy, and now have been busily catching up.  On one we watched this evening, the Final Jeopardy about penguins.  Of course <g> I knew it - though none of them did.  And the other evening there was another Final Jeopardy I answered correctly when none of them did.  

I do feel smart on those occasions!

Looking for something to watch tonight I came across Season 1, Episode 1 of Outlander.  I really enjoyed the book series by Diana Gabaldon (who was born in Arizona and grew up in Flagstaff.  She earned a bachelor of science in zoology from NAU, a master of science in marine biology from UCSD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and a PhD in behavioral ecology from NAU.)  Though I had never watched any of the series (too often adaptations of books are huge disappointments) I decided to give it a try.  May have found my next binge...