Technology is not always our friend

Earlier this week, I proclaimed that I was going to stop blogging.  That was after spending three weeks trying get the last post to publish.  I wrote the text quickly but then struggled and struggled to add photos.  I think the last straw was when Brady watched me spend an hour posting four photos (and, in the process, messing up other parts of the post).  Even he said it was outrageously tedious and buggy, and that kid could spend hours doing anything electronic.
Ever since I switched from the iPhone to the Nexus, I have had nothing but problems.  The Blogger app won't successfully post any photos so I am forced to use the fat-client via a browser.  The size of the image button is literally the size of a pinhead so I have to zoom in but then the dialog box doesn't like that so, before I click Add Selected, I have to zoom out again or else it doesn't work, etc. I was tolerating all of this for months while grumbling but, for some reason, when Brady basically said that the pinhead sized button was insanity, it put me over the edge. It must be subject to Kathy's Rule ... the idea that people can tolerate things until someone points it out--aloud.
Unfortunately, instead of feeling better, I was just more frustrated because the blog is a lifeline of communication so I know I won't be happy giving it up.  It needs to be easier, much easier. 
Mike has volunteered to look at a few options since one of my frustrations is that I don't have the time for experimentation and false starts.  I need something fairly efficient and reliable, even if that means republishing to a new hosting platform.  Once all of that is figured out, maybe I can get back in the habit of publishing more frequently.


Happy Fall!

Wild Kingdom

Mike finished creating his home theater, complete with a blackout curtain and window blind.  Part of the setup included a speaker he bought on Ebay.  Brady wanted to watch one of the Harry Potter movies as our inaugural viewing.  We got all set up to watch and Mike started the movie. The volume was too low so he turned it up.  There was a very loud bang and a sizeable flash of light as the speaker and amp blew out.  It made quite an impression on the three of us.  He ordered replacement equipment and we are back in business. Most of the components (including theater chairs) came from Craig's List, Ebay, or other resale sites so he is happy with what he was able to cobble together at a reasonable cost.


Baseball season has started so that is a nice distraction.  Brady is enjoying it and we like the coaches.  You may have seen on Facebook that one of the parents told me that the practice field retaining walls are "infested" with scorpions.  I've only been to one practice since that news and I haven't seen any yet.  I am curious to spot one so I know what to look out for.

I took a class at the gym.  It is called PiYo (a combo of pilates and yoga).  Aside from not being able to walk for two days after the first class, I am enjoying it.  The bonus, though, is that I have met quite a nice group of ladies there ... including, "my Judy".  I really clicked with "Judy", a woman who moved to the neighborhood in January from California.  She is also a member of the neighborhood social committee, though, and she was trying pretty hard to recruit me.  I'll need to keep dodging that bullet!

The latest guild meeting was interesting. The charity quilt show and tell from just that night's meeting included 22 quilts, with at least 2/3 of those being finished pieces.  Pretty amazing.  I took two home to bind.  Some of the snowbirds were back so that may have accounted for the huge pile of completed items.  I was disappointed to learn that the Bonnie Hunter workshop is full so I am on the waiting list.  The limit is 30 and I am number 38.  Those odds aren't in my favor.  Sigh.
There have been lots of animal sightings since my last post.  We have a bird who perches on our porch late at night.  He just sits as I watch him while I'm keeping an eye on Sherman in the dark.  The bird did not like it, though, when I waved my arms wildly because an enormous bug had landed on my arm.  I am curious what he is doing out there, though.  He looks pretty content and I am happy to see a bird that is not a mourning dove (they are everywhere)

The PiYo instructor encountered a spider in one of the workout rooms.  Here are her photos.  She later learned that it is a ... spider which apparently like to eat scorpions (a good trait, of course).

Neighbors keep finding frogs, including a type of tree frog.

They have named this guy Billy, son of Bob, but I don't believe it is related to Bob.  I think it is a tree frog.  He's about the size of a quarter.
Unfortunately, Sherman had his first toad encounter a couple of days ago.  I was out supervising him and he was "pecking" at something then trying to pick it up.  I went over and saw this.

I took Sherman in the house and tried to flush his mouth with the kitchen sprayer.  He wasn't happy about that, to say the least. After a lot of thrashing, I went back outside and checked on the frog. It was as hard as a rock--dehydrated to the extreme.  Sherman never showed any symptoms of poisoning so, hopefully, any toxic secretions were long dried up.  Odd, since I am sure the toad wasn't there the previous day.
This week's forecast shows all of the highs are only ## rather than ### and we have one low temp that begins with a 6 (69!).We had the coolest night since we've been here over the weekend. Apparently, the cooler nights bring out the snakes so now the neighbor photos look more like this.  This neighbor contained the snake using their pooper scooper.  Pretty impressive I'd say!  He was on his way to being relocated soon after this photo was taken.
The neighbor found her snake the same week as this story was published.

The cows have been busy too, with three calves getting stranded on the wrong side of the fence one night.  One neighbor used to be a vet tech and she plus two other guys managed to get them to the right side of the fence.  Based on her description, that was entertaining to watch. This photo was taken earlier in the day, when they were still on the ranch side.  They seem to enjoy this spot. It is a high traffic area for walkers and kids on the their way to/from school.

Sherman will be disappointed to learn that monsoon season is over.  He loves to go outside during the dust storms.  I don't know if he likes all of the new smells or why else he just wants to be outside.  Here's a ridiculous picture of him enjoying the beginning of a recent one.

I'm getting closer to finishing my sewing room. I finally had a block of time to work on it this weekend.  Each guild meeting has a give away table so I'm sure a few things will be going there in the near future ... Now that I am sorting notions, I have found a few duplicates.I made a design wall according to Melody's instructions but I still need to attach it to the wall.
I am very close to finishing the batik quilt that I layered at the retreat. I have about half of the binding left to do.  First finish in a long time!  If memory serves me correctly, I finished the top around 1999-2000.

Lay of the Land

I just returned from the annual August Diva retreat. After the dust storm settled, this was the mountain view.

A few of the Divas were asking questions about the neighborhood we live in so I thought I'd try to give some context.

Our house is the odd-sized larger lot on the corner by the arrow.  As you can see, we are one street away from the western and southern edges of the development.  Today, I took a walk to the gray path that runs from east to west along the bottom of this map.  The map shows a cut through from Hazeltine to a dirt path behind the last row of houses.  If you look to the west, there is a fence between the neighborhood and the cattle ranch.

I don't know how many animals they have at the ranch.  I've only ever seen about 6-8 steer at any given time.

The reservation lies to the south and, along the pathway, you can see the signs that this area floods pretty intensely when we get a heavy rain.  Neighbors in this stretch have posted dramatic videos of temporary, fast-moving rivers in this area.

If you walk towards the east, you get a view of the San Tan Mountains.  These pictures were taken in the cooler morning hours but the mountains look most dramatic in the late afternoon when the shadows show their character.

The map also shows the neighborhood school where Brady catches the bus in the morning.  He and Mike ride their bikes along the western perimeter path (gray line) in the mornings and afternoons.  Across the street from the school is the community pool, park, and gym.  All of the areas not colored in yet are either open dirt lots or under construction.  The empty areas have some entertaining animal watching with little herds of quail and their youngsters or desert hares chasing each other while kicking up clouds of dust.  The blog banner photo was taken at the school, facing west.  There's a canal and more cattle roaming area in that section so the sunset photo opps are usually the best from that spot.








Sherman is happy that I'm home and that he can continue to stare at me all day in hopes that I'll play with him or take him for a walk.

More of the mundane

Last week was a week of joining and following. I am still getting used to being a follower at work after relinquishing my leadership role to work from home.  There are always pros and cons so I’m keeping an open mind.

I decided to join in on a fitness challenge in our neighborhood so that I could (1) meet a few neighbors and (2) kickstart figuring out how to be active in the desert heat.  The challenge is mainly based on nutrition and macronutrients so we are using MyFitnessPal.  I have not yet made friends with this app so it continues to be a pain in the neck to track my food and macros throughout the day.  Wish me luck!  This meme sums up how it’s going so far.

I ventured out in the storms and floods on Tuesday to attend another quilt guild meeting.  I reconsidered my choice at one point when a giant tumbleweed came straight at my windshield.  Must not overcorrect.  No one at the guild meeting seemed phased by all of the emergency alerts going off but it was pretty crazy on the way home, especially in the common areas of our subdivision.  We are still adjusting to the new normal.  The meeting was good, though, so it was worth it.  I joined the group so I’ve already started getting little assignments for group projects.  They do an annual small quilt auction in November for their fundraiser (uh oh).  I helped one woman figure out how to fix the bleeding on her amazing applique quilt so I have a forever friend in her.  The Divas all know about my extensive experience with boiling water and Synthrapol.  It is good to meet new people but it is still pretty hollow.  I’m just laying the foundation at this point.

Wednesday, I tried a new salon.  Why can’t I ever find a place that is close to home?  It was interesting but my hair is definitely darker than expected (since I did provide the recipe).  I have a month to decide if I’ll go back.

This weekend, we went to a casino buffet that everyone raves about.  I thought Brady would be more interested in the lights and action in the casino but all of our preaching about the claw game seems to have paid off.  He was lecturing us that the odds are against you.  Whew!  He would have been happy to win this car, though.

Since they were predicting another round of storms for today and tomorrow, we stocked up yesterday and planned to stay closer to home … unlike last week.  While I was working, I was listening to the wind howl and debris hitting the windows.  It really is just like hunkering down inside when it is sleeting and snowing.  This was the view from my office window.  No blue skies today!

One week from tomorrow, I will be on my way to Amishland!  I am really looking forward to it, everything about it!  I’ve been on hiatus with unpacking my room since we have had a lot of competing activities now that school started.  I am trying to finish that project so I can decide/find what to pack.

Latest adventures

Brady asked to get a fish.  I told him to start with plants first.  Wish us luck.

 

 

We had our biggest dust storm yet this week.  Here are a few photos from our neighbors.  Quite a different experience.  The weather stations/warnings treat them as seriously as we treat tornadoes which makes sense because it gets to zero visibility very quickly.

 

Another neighbor posted this due to all of the whining from the non-natives regarding no cool or cold tap water.  I am happy to say that after 12 hours of temps that are just a few degrees cooler .... we have cool water coming from the tap!  The cold/rain wave should last all week if we are lucky.

Back to School Routine

Since my last post, another neighbor had a visit from one of the toads I mentioned. They are huge--up to 8" inches and 2 pounds.  They remind me of the most recent How to Train Your Dragon movie character.

Mike was suffering from home theater withdrawal so he bought a new TV for the main living area.  He got the 70" instead of the 80", thankfully.  That makes it 62" inches across--bigger than me.  Mike and Brady had a long talk about the technology and pixels and such.  It reminded me of the time when many of you saw our basement renovation for the first time and wondered about the two watching areas so close together.  It is a guy thing, that is for sure.


The unpacking in my sewing room is progressing  as I have unpacked another 14 boxes and the rest of the boxes now fit in the sewing room.  I think there are 6-8 more to go plus a couple of Rubbermaid bins.  I am far enough along to see that there are a few problems to solve.  I need to figure out the best way to sort and store my prints since the furniture that used to hold them isn't a good fit for the new room.  I have the same issue with my finished quilts.  I'm not sure the best way to store them.  I need a way to sort and store my notions and tools and also more effective ways to contain the UFO projects. Many of the UFO's were in a stack and gravity kept them together.  I think I need to do something better to keep all of the pieces and parts contained but not overly bulky.  If you have any tips or suggestions for any of these issues, let me know!  Right now, it looks like the storm before the calm ... I am focused on sorting things into piles/shelves then I can assess the best way to sort or it store it on the shelves or in the closet. 

Sherman continues to be glued to me in the home office during the day.  We still haven't decided on the best way to make that room a combo of office and guest room but, in the meantime, we moved in the comfortable chair and ottoman.  He pretty much lives on the ottoman, waking up occasionally to make sure I'm still there or bark at someone he sees on the street.  He has been taking his bone in that room at night to chew in peace.  Weird dog!  I think he was ready for Brady to go back to school because now he can sleep all day without interruption (then play too rough after school).

We are pleased so far with Brady's school and teacher and that is a relief.  We put so much time and research into the choice of school, going back to December of last year, but you can only research so much.  Last week, we realized that we didn't have the first Harry Potter book so Mike ordered it and it arrived yesterday.  When we gave it to Brady, he was so excited because his teacher has been reading it to them in class.  It is the little things like that that make us encouraged that the atmosphere and curriculum will be much better this year.  This week is Curriculum Night, when parents can go to the classroom for 30 minutes without kids to hear the teacher describe this year's plans for the class.

The PTO seems very active and organized too.  As far as I can tell, they only do one fundraiser (selling refill cups for the local movie theater chain).  Otherwise, they ask that you write a check for a suggested donation of $25 rather than doing all of the traditional catalog or cookie dough sales.  Done!  They do the same for parent volunteering.  They ask parents to donate two hours of their time or make a $25 donation instead.  We have time to donate but how nice for working parents to have that option!  We all walked to and from school for the first two days but today, Mike and Brady rode their bikes.  It is only a 5 minute ride and there is a huge set of racks to lock up bikes at the neighborhood school where he catches the bus.  The neighborhood school starts 30 minutes after he gets the bus so, by the time we are home from taking him, the neighborhood is full of walking or biking kids, parents and dogs. 

I may never get accustomed to this ...

A neighbor in one of the houses across the street found this guy in her back yard.  Actually, her dog found it but the snake was relocated without incident.  There have been several recent desert toad sightings too (highly toxic to pets).  Time to secure the perimeter ...

Ten down ...

I got 10 sewing room boxes unpacked in a couple of hours yesterday ... but who is counting when you have multiple areas like these lurking about.

I'm  making progress, I tell myself.  I will get there.  I am a little dismayed to be faced with another heavy barrage of decisions, yet again, less than a month from the move. Every time I think about that last week in Willoughby, it seems more like an evacuation than a planful move.  I still don't see how that happened since I truly was preparing for some sort of move for two years. Who knows.


After being in a creative funk/hiatus for a while (OMG--6 months?), I saw this free pattern and felt inspired.  I am hoping I have enough of the right prints to make a version of it from stash.  That will have to wait until my room is put back together and the quilting boxes are unpacked but, it will serve as inspiration to meet that milestone.


I went to my first local guild meeting last night.  I have to admit it was a bit nerve-wracking.  Many years ago, I decided I was never going to let it stop me from going somewhere just because I wouldn't know anyone there (or anything about what would be happening at the event).  When I was on the way there, driving a route and part of town that was completely unfamiliar, I started to overthink it.  When I got there and couldn't figure out which of the 10-12 conference rooms might hold the meeting, I continued to overthink it.  I lucked out and saw someone carrying a sewing machine.  She showed me where to go on the condition that I hold the door for her when we got there.  :-)  There were probably 35 members there and there were quite a few guests in attendance too.  Apparently, they have about 80 members but many are staying away from the heat at this time of year.  The group was very organized and energetic.  For their program, several members had stations set up with live demos of the Westalee rulers for free motion quilting on your domestic machine.  Check out Westalee on YouTube for more information.  I can attend two more meetings before I have to make a decision.  I think I'll give it a go.

More Baby Steps

This is probably boring for anyone else but us but we are making progress on the storage units.  I've decided to wait until they are loaded to add the doors since the doors would probably just get in the way with them all open at once.
It may not seem like a big step but this means we can move all of the boxes that are clogging up the shared spaces in the house ... into my new sewing room!  Whew!  It will be nice to get some breathing room instead of living like we are in a slide puzzle.

In other news, I got my car back from the dealer and, thankfully, the air conditioning is working again and it was covered under warranty (bonus since it was a $1500 repair).
This was yesterday's view from the next block over.  Apparently, there was some drama with calves stuck in no man's land and mama cows getting pretty agitated.

Progress

We had a few bumps in the road in the last couple of days but we are back on track with a game plan to anchor the cabinets to the walls and add the doors.  Some of the other furniture will need to be adjusted a bit so that the doors can open wide, but that's ok.


Mike even managed to talk Brady into helping (and no fingers were hammered in the process).

A brief distraction from the build out ..

We didn't make much progress on building the storage units for the new sewing room.  We managed to get the one larger unit built but it still needs to be secured to the wall, doors added, and shelves inserted.  We had to switch our focus to some unboxing in the master bedroom since the new furniture will be delivered on Tuesday.  We are so happy to be moving off the floor after 6 months of sleeping on just a mattress.  Mike doesn't love the new furniture as much as I do but he mentioned something about ... "happy wife" ...


Mike is assembling the 4 narrower units today while I work.  They will hold 24 wire baskets which should cover quite a bit of my stash.


We also distracted ourselves with yet another IKEA trip to get a new dresser and another bookcase for Brady's room.  I am happy that his clothes will be in drawers rather than a big pile on a closet shelf.  His room continues to be the most complete in the house.  We need to hang a few things on the wall and then it will be finished.

Trying to stage a comeback

When we started packing the first pod back in December, I held back many, many quilting projects. There were easy ones, challenging ones, cutting projects, easy piecing ... you name it.  I was convinced that, once the house was on the market, I would be bored by the holding pattern and I would get so much sewing done while I offloaded nervous energy.  I could not have been more wrong.  I underestimated how little energy I'd have and, also, how much effort it would be to set up my table, machine, etc. to do even the most lightweight sewing.  Even Friendship blocks became a chore.




When I returned from Amishland in early February, I pretty much closed up shop on the sewing room.  To complicate things further, I decided that I didn't want carpet in my sewing room.  It was a multi-visit effort to determine what materials to replace it with, find an installer, meet with the installer to get a measure, and shop for tile.  We had a really good shopping trip ... onnnnn the way to the airport from our May trip.  Reset for another month.  Sigh.  Luckily, I was able to line up the installer to arrive on Wednesday of this week--just two days after our arrival.



To give you some context, here is the floorplan of the house. 

My sewing room is Bedroom 2.  We gave B a choice of bedrooms and he quickly picked Bedroom 3.  That worked out for me since my biggest concern with a dedicated sewing room is feeling isolated.  The doorway to my sewing room is very close to the kitchen and living room area so that alleviates some of that.  I will still do most of my sewing on the Sew-Ezi table in the living room so I will mostly use the sewing room for design wall space, fabric selection, cutting and, hopefully, layering up and machine quilting large projects.

Here is a before shot, with the carpet.  It was a neutral color and only two years old but I really didn't want to chase threads and pins in carpeting.

Here is an after shot.  I picked a gray since the wall color is white with a gray tone.  Most of the rest of the house is tile which includes beige, taupe and gray.  You can still see some of the grout streaks that will need to be wiped away.

My plan is to put three IKEA PAX units on the wall to the left of the window.  Two will have sliding doors and they will contain my stash in wire bins sorted by color family.  The other will be open shelves for things that are in containers already.  Since the units are 93" high, the top shelves will hold batting and wool since they are light and not frequently used.  The units are 40" wide so that will mostly fill that wall.  The wall opposite the window will have a design wall of some sort.  I'll put a bookcase under the window and, eventually, add an island or table in the middle for cutting and basting.
Since the PAX cabinets are so tall, we need to rent a vehicle to go pick them up.  Hopefully, we can figure out logistics in the next few days so I can get the units built and start unpacking my sewing stuff before the other pod arrives.  That's the optimistic version of the plan.  Since we brought most of my sewing room with the first pod, there is a log jam in the living room with 24 boxes of sewing stuff plus everything we moved out in preparation for the tile.  Adding the new pod contents into the mix before sorting the boxes into the sewing room sounds like chaos!

The best laid plans ...

Our plans for a new routine were dashed when we woke up Monday night at 2 a.m. and the house was feeling warm.  Very warm.  The air conditioner had stopped working during the night.  We had it set on 85 while we were gone in June and had cranked it to 78 when we arrived.  We called our home warranty company to log a claim.




In the morning, it wasn't too bad because we could keep the sliding door open but by lunchtime, we had to close it.  We decided to call a neighbor who has an HVAC company to come and at least diagnose the problem. In the meantime, we called the home warranty company.  They offered to come and look at it on Thursday.  It was Tuesday.  That was clearly not going to work.  Luckily, our neighbor came in the afternoon and fixed the problem in less than a half an hour.  We killed time fetching tile for Wednesday so the installer could replace the carpet in my sewing room.  Meanwhile, my brother arrived in town from LA for a work engagement in Scottsdale.  This was definitely not turning out to be the typical day we had imagined.  But, the house was cooling down ...

The great migration

When we decided to move from Cleveland to Phoenix, we didn't have a game plan how it would happen.  In the end, we decided to ship one car, get another pod, and drive the four of us in Mike's Prius.  I was really dreading the roadtrip but it ended up being better than I expected.

The most challenging part of the trip was the final day 24 hours in Cleveland.  We didn't get on the road until 7 p.m. which is about 7 hours later than we had hoped.  We drove to Indianapolis the first night.  When we were nearly there, we realized Mike's phone had disappeared and it was the only key to Mike's sister's new address. We knew the phone was in the car because we had heard it chirp earlier in the evening.  After we had resolved that drama, we were able to press on to find her house and enjoy a visit before finally crashing at about 3 a.m.

We decided we needed a reset if the trip was going to be tolerable so we slept in and relaxed all day in Indianapolis, leaving around 3 p.m.  We started out with a goal of ending up west of St. Louis.  I started looking for pet friendly hotels. It took me a while but I ended up finding a well rated hotel in St. Robert, Missouri.  We were happy to arrive at our hotel before 11 p.m. so we could relax and regroup.
Brady and Sherman were well-behaved for the whole trip and didn't seem too bored.  Sherman slept 99% of it and Brady amused himself with many car activities including a group game called Rubberneckers.  Here's our license plate progress from somewhere around the halfway point.  Brady was red and I was blue.

Interesting sky somewhere in Indiana

Happy boys ...

We left Missouri with a goal to get to Albuquerque.  We knew it was aggressive and, after doing some calculations, decided to settle on Santa Rosa, NM, two hours east of the original goal.  Booking a hotel for a Sunday night was much easier.  After miles of two lane roads, total darkness, and some construction, we were glad to reach our hotel at 10 p.m.  After doing 800 miles that day, one more day seemed do-able, especially since we were gaining daylight and the time zones were working in our favor.

We woke up early the next day and headed out, stopping at a candy store on Route 66.

Sherman is ready to be there!

Not far into Arizona, the directions took us off the interstate and onto state routes through the Tonto National Forest on winding mountain roads at about 7,000-8,000 feet.  That was exciting ... not!  It was beautiful but reminded me of a James Bond movie filled with nail-biting car chases through the mountains. 

Here's Brady laughing hysterically at Mike's jokes.  We were all getting a little punchy by this point.

We reached home by 5 p.m. on Monday. Not bad considering the rough start!

We went to bed looking forward to starting a new routine in AZ the next day.