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Happy Halloween, everyone.
Trick or Treat is about to start, and there's just a little drizzle, not too cold. I walked on the flood wall beside the river earlier in the afternoon. Hardly any walkers.
Last night I was baking banana bread and decided to heat my leftover pizza in the oven. Two small square pieces, on the rack to stay crisp. Would you believe, BOTH of them slipped when I was taking them out, and landed face down in the oven. The oven had some grit on the bottom, the pizza got gritty, and that was that.
There was also a piece of foil that had been there for the longest time. Some black from spills. So, once the bread was finished, I took out that foil, turned the oven on to clean, and got out of the kitchen. This morning I washed out the white ash and got happy.
Usually I get books at the library or on my Kindle Unlimited, but recently there have been some good books at Dollar Tree. If there is a Dollar Tree in your neighborhood, check it out. Sometimes I just like to have a real book of my own.
My neighbor, who might just love Halloween even more than I do, stopped in on her way to a Halloween party at a local elementary school. She dropped off some pumpkin cookies and showed me her ghost Rice Krispee treats.
I had my dreaded dentist visit this morning and it went very well. I've been using a whitening mouthwash a couple of times a day and it does wonders in reducing the amount of tartar. It must be the peroxide.
The dentist said I had very nice teeth. He probably says that to everyone, but it was nice to hear that something in my older body is nice. It was just my bad (or good?) luck to have the dentist visit and my mammogram in the same week. The mammogram tech said that if I didn't hear anything in two days I was off the hook, and it's been three now. I'll still feel better once I get the letter.
I wish I didn't get so anxious about medical visits. I've tried really hard not to, but I think it just gets worse. I've read somewhere that real Christians don't worry. Hmmmmm.
When I did the Whole-Hearted worship banner, I used gray and white in a jelly roll race style for the background. The problem with that, at least at my house, is that I really don't know how large the finished piece will be.
After I used what I needed for the banner, I had just the right size left for a baby quilt. The backing has little animals playing various sports with a light aqua background.
The stained glass quilt squares in the background are from my Berea days, a gift for a birthday or Christmas. A nod to the artist, whoever that glass artist was. I look at them almost every day.
Pumpkin pattern by Husqvarna Viking.
Yesterday when I was going to visit a friend in rehab, the low tire pressure light came on in my car. I realized that I had no tire gauge in the glove box, probably never put one in this car. I went on and parked, then fretted all through the visit. Really tired hard to be present but it wasn't working.
After the visit the tires all looked good so I carefully drove home. The gauge in the basement didn't work any more, so I asked my neighbor to check. Have to admit that it's hard for me to ask for help.
After awhile he knocked on the door and said that all the tires tested fine, just keep an eye out. This morning I got a new gauge of my own and all the tires have the same air pressure. I've been hearing stories about that dashboard light coming on when the weather turns cool. We'll see.
Daylight Savings Time on Sunday. Trick or Treat on Saturday. I wonder how many trick or treaters will come to the door. I always feel like I have to have lots of candy, just in case this is the year.
We meant to go to Kings Island today, but it was windy and rainy. That pretty much knocked off the zoo too. So Aaron and I went to Behringer Crawford Museum. We happened on their Halloween party and there were spots left. It turned out to be a fun afternoon after all.
Aaron got some cool prizes, including these glasses.
There was a mummy contest, where the parent/grandparent wrapped the child with toilet paper. He was one of the older kids and could stand still while I wrapped him up. He won a prize - a certificate for a Graeter's ice cream cone.
We did the honorable thing and stopped at Graeter's on the way home.
I'm happy to be back with you. I had upgraded to Windows 10, which turned out to be an unwise move. The repair shop guy said that sometimes it works out well, sometimes not. It didn't work out well for me.
These last roses of summer can be found on the Covington side of the Roebling Bridge. Steph, the grands, and I had lunch at The Gruff, fries ordered right away (because that's what we do here), potato soup for the girls, salad, cheese pizza. Why don't I go there more often?
Then the roses, followed by the walk across the bridge, breezy as always. Good times at Smale Park, then the walk back.
There was a conversation about high the bridge is. Turns out that it is 230 feet high and spans 2057 feet. When it was opened in 1866 it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.
Another high point this week: meeting nephew Steve and wife Janie and admiring their motor home. It's always so good to see them - we've connected at Kings Island, Gatlinburg, and this time at an I-75 rest area. No teenagers this time, it was a grown-up trip for them.
My sister and niece are notoriously late with birthday gifts,which I love. Especially this year when I turned 70 and the celebration was a little bigger than usual. How nice in late September to get these wind chimes and be able to enjoy just them. And THREE pairs of earrings, oh, my. All in silver and two of them have blue accents.
On Mother's Day I received a gift certificate from Banasch's, a store that has sold fabric and notions in various locations in Cincinnati for 100 years. I love gift certificates and usually save them for awhile. When I went to the store this week, there was a sign out front that they were closing. My gift certificate bought twice as much as I was expecting. Four lovely lime green Riley Blake fabrics. And five spools of Gutterman thread, which is on sale for $1.00 per spool.
Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to me!
Sarah, we're definitely going down the street to this coffee shop next time you come. Note the "Coffee and Compassion in Tandem" on their sign.
And here's the real tandem sitting over the menu.
The space is currently two rooms plus outside seating, but they will be doubling their size soon. You can see information about the renovation here.
And the scones are really, really good.
The worship banner is to help visualize the "wholehearted" theme of three Sundays. Gray and white jelly-roll style background with heart and vertical strips in bright pink.
What I learned: I did the background first and finished it quilt style, with organic walking foot horizontal quilting. The heart was quilted separately with slanted walking foot straight quilting. I started with half inch quilting, then decided to try 1/4" matchbox quilting. What happened was, the heart pulled out of symmetry with all that slanted quilting. This doesn't really bother me, I tend to make things too controlled, too even, and this got me out of that zone. But, if I wanted to keep the symmetrical shape, I should have quilted vertically or horizontally.
Before I quilted, I cut out my heart and drew a line 1/2" inside the heart. I quilted to the line and that's where I turned around. At the end, I quilted on the line several times. I cut with a pinking shears about 1/4" outside the line, turned in on the line, and pressed it down. The pinking shears eliminated the need for cutting little lines around the curves. It was easy to applique the heart and it stayed flat.
One of my goals this year was to go to more Reds games (check) and another was to go to the last home game (check, yesterday.)
Last year's last home game was so awesome. The sun was shining, the stadium was crowded, and in the bottom of the 8th inning the pitcher Johnny Cueto got a hit and an RBI. In the 9th Aroldis Chapman pitched the save and Cueto got his 20th win for the season. The crowd was happy and greeted the Reds ushers after the game, saying "See you next year."
This year was different. It was rainy, the crowd was sparse and it seemed as if half the crowd was Cubs fans. Chapman hasn't pitched in a long time because there has been nothing to save. Cueto has been traded. A rookie pitcher started again for about the 100th time this season.
I had my favorite spot, a few rows up in the upper deck behind home plate. After a little while I moved way up under the roof to stay dry. There was plenty of room there.
But still, it was a good day. I moved back down in the 7th inning and dried off my seat and didn't feel too bad about the loss. Joey Votto got on base and if he does the same at the next away game he will tie Pete Rose's club record for getting on base in consecutive games. I greeted a few people after the game and got two energy bars on the way out, passed out by Reds personnel who said that next year will be better.
One of the ushers looked as if he was around 80. When I said, "See you next year," he replied "Oh, I'll be here." I like that.
After a chilly night, I gave up and turned on the heat for the next day or so. Today I'll put on the flannel sheets and tonight will be warmer.
