Graduation

Aaron has gone to the same preschool since he was six weeks old, and a few of his classmates have been with him the entire time.  This fall, though, he will be heading to a different pre-kindergarten program.

So, on a warm May evening, he graduated from preschool with his friends.  His sister graduated two years ago, and the ceremony was much the same, except that Aaron opted to sing a solo, which Nora would have certainly declined.  

Nora and her dad missed the graduation because she was playing softball.  She had a good evening too, getting hits both times she came to bat.  Back at home, Aaron hoped that Nora could read the same book as the night before, but this time her homework book was about floods.  Even so, Aaron sat close to her and listened, enjoying having his sister read to him.

He was never been especially willing to sit still long enough to be read to, but apparently he is willing to make an exception when Nora reads.

Take Two

Take two for the pink baby quilt, this one for a shower gift for a co-worker.  Embroidery only, twenty separate hoopings, only not really hooping, because I just hooped a water-soluble stabilizer, sprayed it, then pressed down the quilt.  After twenty careful measurements.  A pink and green border.  Wash and dry like before to shrink the batting a little and make the quilt puffier, plus get rid of that stabilizer.

I do like this one better, although I miss the more free-spiritedness of the other.  I did like the swoops and circles of the free motion. 

I Voted

Yes, I voted, and I was the only voter there.  There were only two things on my ballet, although there were more for the other party.  More for the people in the neighboring town, who were voting for mayor.  My polling place is usually the DMV, which wasn't open today.  I wonder whether voting day is a paid holiday for them. 

I like the current system, where voters take a pencil and ballot and fill the ballot out by hand, then put it in the machine.  It seems like the best of both worlds.  Voters can take as long as they need to puzzle things out, but it's still a fast count.

Red Robin

Nora had an away softball game tonight, so I picked up Aaron at school and Steph, Aaron, and I went to Red Robin for dinner.  Aaron was the sweet and well-behaved only child that he loves to be from time to time.  He admired the tv in the floor, got a blue balloon, and put together a couple of times the Thomas puzzle I brought for him.  Absolutely delightful.


As for Nora, her game was rained out in the second inning, just as she was coming to bat.  She wasn't dismayed, just came home and put on her pajamas.  Another day in the life of the first-grade softball player on the third-grade team.

Stolen Photo

Yes, ok, I stole this picture from my daughter's facebook page, but how could I not?  Notice the happy smile, the sparkling eyes.  The championship tee shirt.  Had to do it.

Almost Ready

Just one more, and this group of quilted potholders will be ready to send to my friend Helen for her Todd Mercantile in Todd, North Carolina.  For no particular reason, I thought that twelve would be a good number. 

The house/quilt/fence series was from a long-age and not-to-be-repeated class project on paper piecing.  I never thought it was worth quilting, although I liked it, and didn't know how to go about it anyway.  Like some other things, I found that the cut-aparts were better than the whole.

Not Going to the Show

Even though some beading made a very big difference, this morning I decided that my Maps quilt is not going to my guild's show in July.  I like it much better now, but I don't like it so much that I'll want to think about it hanging there.  It's staying home, in a trunk under the bed.  And maybe one day, I'll pull it out and make a few more changes, or not, and decide that I like it.  Maybe not too.

So now, I don't have to dash around today and get it registered online and get the right kind of hanging strip and sew on a different sleeve.  I can do other things.  My mental inventory tells me that for the next few weeks there will be less sewing and more other things.  That's ok.  I'm feeling pretty darn burned out at the sewing machine anyway.  Too much energy out, not enough energy in.  Can you hear that braking?  That's me, about to go in a different direction for now.  More exercise, more home repairs, more cleaning.