After a soak (along with a cheery chat with Ann) and a little backyard weeding, it was time to get to work on the top and bottom book rows.  Unfortunately after measuring across the center of the quilt (which I obviously didn't do yesterday...) there needs to be another quarter or half inch on the center sashing - which means that first there will be more frog stitching.

I decided to put that off and weed out front instead.  Since I worked until 11:00, removing what seemed like tonnage, why doesn't the weed area seem to shrink?

Other "surprises" today -  all the channels seem to be airing scary programs.

Now that I've had lunch, and checked my e-mail and FB, I can no longer find any valid reasons to put off ripping and redoing my center sashes.

Hope to have good news in my next post!

 I got quite a scare at bedtime last night...  

but not the Halloween kind!

I was just about to crawl into bed when I noticed an intruder in the bedroom: a largish scorpion near the bed, lurking bed-height in the 'crack' where the two walls meet.  I got Tom for a consultation, and he agreed that my idea to suck it up with the vacuum was likely the best way to go.  

Happily that worked fine - but of course it did set me to wondering... 

how many friends it might have brought along!

The good news is that I made it through the night unscathed.

Which, by the way, is more than Alex could say yesterday.  He took a spill on his bike in which he shredded a favorite pair of shorts - and is now dealing with a case of road rash on his buns.

Luckily nothing too serious, unlike like the "neck wound" he was sporting when he stopped by last evening for some Elmer's glue to work on his costume for a party.  I thought it already looked quite realistic (and better than this one) but he still wanted to improve on it.

It's still dark out, so obviously I still have the whole day yet ahead of me.

  

I'm excited to get the next two rows of books finished and attached.  And who knows?  After that I could even move on to the borders, and actually finish the top!

 But first (as always, post-irrigation) I felt pressured to do some weeding.  As a result the trash can is now almost half full, so I felt justified in taking a break to do something else for a bit.  With cooler temps these days the ground should stay saturated enough to enable me do more through tomorrow (at least.)

Happy to have made progress on the book quilt!

My next step was to do some sashing math:

Now I almost have both the top and bottom rows assembled; just need to lay out and (probably) trim the 'extra' 1/4 inch from center sashing. But by the time I'd gotten that far it was 5:00, and I decided to wait to do that in the morning when I’m fresh.

 Yesterday I needed to pick up a book from Perri, who said she'd be "receiving" any time after noon, so I headed to the Runners Den late morning (since it is sort-of near her neighborhood.)  New shoes has been on my To Do List ever since I noticed my big toe trying to poke through an increasingly threadbare spot on the top, trying diligently to morph into an actual hole like this one.  

Replacement shoes took on considerably less urgency after my accident in December, but now that 'winter' will soon be upon us (and I'm walking!) they floated toward the top of the list.  

I wore my new shoes out of the store, and on the plus side I don't think they'll take much breaking-in. On the down side there wasn't much of a color choice - in actuality there was no choice since currently that model only comes in the dark blue.  I went with the same model from (years) before but, as with most things, they had made changes in the intervening years.  

Assume I'll get used to the solid, darker color.

Perri and I spent a couple of hours chatting. I gave Phoebe, who quickly made herself at home on my lap, the attention she requested, knowing full well I could be in trouble with Brownie when I got home.    In fact I told Phoebe that, though she didn't seem to care in the least. 

Brownie did perform the standard "where have you been, Mom?" sniff when I got home, and I was surprised he didn't seem overly interested.

While Perri and I continued chatting I helped her bake a cake (okay, so I kept her company in the kitchen while she did all the work, just doing the dishes over her protests) for a dinner party that night with a long-time group of friends. 

 Despite her insisting "it's an easy recipe" it had lots of ingredients (and steps), and took a fair amount of time.  I have little doubt that it turned out wonderful (of course I tasted the batter before washing the bowl and mixer parts) but before it finished baking and I could take a peek at the finished product  I began to flag and decided I probably should head home.

I fed Brownie early (he certainly had no complaints about that), turned off his 3:00 alarm, and stretched out on my bed to listen to my book and drift off for a nap.  Think I managed a good solid hour.

Linda called last night with a heads up about the VOS retreat.  It took my foggy brain  longer than it should have <g> to process what I needed to do to register.  She wondered why I was having such difficulty processing her info until I mentioned I'd been up since 2 am, and then all (I hope!) was forgiven.  After we hung up I sent Carolyn the requisite e-mail, and this morning the form showed up in my e-mail.

It was a disappointment to miss last year's retreat (at a lovely substitute venue, SO close to me) but in February I was still in a lot of pain pre-surgery (and walking was still almost 6 months away, though I was blissfully unaware of that at the time.) 

I  assume the venue WILL be better than the aging one we always used, and of course it will be wonderful to see the ladies. 

The fabric arrived yesterday, and IS the right shade - so with nothing else currently on my agenda I plan/expect/hope to make serious progress on the books this weekend!

Of course you never really know...

 I had another good PT session yesterday.  It IS wonderful to (finally!) see progress, slow as it is.  We're continuing the needling, since the noticeable progress occurred at the same time we started that.

Brownie didn't greet me when I got home, so I figured (correctly) that he was with Alex at the back house.  Soaking that morning I had noticed his truck was back, though had no idea how late they'd rolled in last night.

When Alex came over (with laundry) I learned that Brownie had misbehaved; he'd eaten eggs off of the table in front of the couch!

 

"Watched" the Cardinals game with Tom last night, which came down to the final 15 seconds.  Exciting to be sure, but in the end a major disappointment as they were handed their first loss of the season after their incredible seven straight wins.

I woke at 2:34 this morning, and for a brief time wondered why my alarm hadn't gone off.  Then I remembered it was set for 4:20.  Of course I didn't dare take anything to go back to sleep, so <sigh> never did.  Finally got out of bed at 3:30, had coffee, and read and played on the computer as I waited until 4:20.

To my delight the water was on time, plus there wasn't too much debris coming through the gates.  After monitoring them for 15 minutes it was back to the house to play on the computer until 5:20; when I hiked back there to check on it again things were still flowing well.  

It also wasn't as cool as I'd thought it might be - though wasn't unhappy wearing a sweatshirt I'd remembered to dig out last night in preparation.

As long as I was awake <LOL> I got to work on some holiday gifts (realized I'd better get started on them!!!) while I waited for it to be time for the gym.

But around 8:00 I got a text from Jim, 

on his way to the doctor and needing to cancel.

While he apologized for the last minute notice, he did note that he was reasonably sure <G> I wouldn't be too unhappy to skip the gym.  And he was correct - especially today!

Yesterday I planned to do (at least) 5 minutes on the elliptical.  Though last Friday was first time "in forever" on it, I did manage 5 minutes of cardio - but you know what they say about the best laid plans.  

Because we missed this month's billing deadline when we adjusted my number of sessions, we needed to add a couple.  Should have been easy <g> but (anyone surprised?) Jim ran into computer issues. He tried two different machines before the manager came over to help.  And guess what he said? "It should have worked; never had a problem before."  

Of course I was sitting right next to the computer... <G>   Eventually we got things squared away, but since it ended up taking a good 20 minutes there wasn't time for the elliptical.

When I got home I took advantage of the splendid weather to do more trimming, and also helped Creepy finish up a few miscellaneous spots he'd missed.  So nice to have a sparkling pool again.

In the late afternoon I headed out for a chiro appt.  True to form I left extra early, expecting some traffic that time of day - and which I definitely encountered.  

In fact traffic on the 101 came to a standstill several miles before I-10, so I made an executive decision and bailed off onto McDowell even though that would mean dealing with lights.  Unfortunately I then spent 30 minutes just to travel 2 miles due to an accident, so I was seriously late to my appointment.  

At least had been able to call to let them know - and it doesn't hurt that I have an unblemished track record, virtually always arriving early.  The best news is that I walked out of there nicely adjusted.

I set pintos to soaking overnight for tonight's dinner since Tom thought he'd be on the other side of the Valley all day, and got the crock pot going this morning.  Naturally I was surprised that he was home when I got back from quilting early this afternoon. Turns out he hadn't driven very far this morning when he got word that a migraine had postponed the awaited get-together.  

They're hoping it can happen tomorrow.

The embellishment workshop at Foothills was oodles of fun, and everyone shared their goodies.  Mary came by for a while, and had some very helpful suggestions for me.  Which obviously worked; the ladies really liked my colorful project.

Set my alarm for 4:20 am tomorrow, but it's a good thing I double-checked the schedule.  Irrigation isn't until FRIDAY morning!