Finis

The quilt is done. Borders and everything. And that's all I'm going to say on that topic, so I can relish in the completeness that is this project.

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Still no word about the fricken transfer. Talk about last minute...
I still have to talk with navy housing, but everything else that can be decided has been decided.

We looked up prices for rental trucks (If we have to move ourselves) and the truck companies (Penske, Uhaul, etc.) are totally price gauging. Yeah, we're in calif. and everything is more expensive here, but the estimated cost of renting a 15' truck in January is $3000. That doesn't include gas or labor or anything. While that might not sound like a lot to some people, It cost us $260 to rent a penske when we moved from Texas to Mississippi. Yeah, I'd say the rental companies are taking advantage of the fact that close to 5000 families are moving from CA to WA.

It's cheaper to hire movers.

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I was going to write an entry, but the mister was on the computer all day working on homework. I'm going to be so excited when his class is finished, because he won't come home wednesdays and play around till evening until after dinner when he will announce that oops, I forgot I had homework due today!

Plus we were running errands.

Is it me or does customer service really suck during the holidays?
Yesterday we went to pizza hut for lunch where it took nearly 45 minutes to get our order of cheese-sticks.

Then, we went to best-buy, where both parking lots were completely full, but there was hardly anyone inside. Then, when Jason asked for a price check, the clerk came back with the employee price, despite the fact that we are most certainly NOT bestbuy employees. Hmmpph.

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Today, finishing christmas cards, calling navy housing, calling the cat sitter, and clean the living room and dining room.

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Oh, if you live in section 1, don't forget to get your free credit reports!

Nearly finished!

I have always been a project starter, but only recently have I been working hard at being a project finisher. To train myself to finish things, I've been working on slightly bigger projects, and not allowing myself to get too carried away with tons of small projects at the same time. So, lets rewind a bit to get to the point of this entry.

Back in july, I was bored. Seriously bored out of my mind. So, I decided I was going to make a quilt. I figured it would keep me busy for a good long time, and I'd be done around the time Jason came home. I picked out one of those "quilt of the month" kits, selected my fabrics, and started hand-sewing my squares. (Yes, hand-sewing, because I figured it would take longer, and be more rewarding at the end.) I did all but the last set of squares by hand. By then, I was blistered and callused, and ready to pack up the whole thing and call it quits, but I didn't.

I worked on the quilt pretty much every single day. I machine stitched the outline quilting, the stippling, and most of the border, but the week before Jason came back, I realized the machine wouldn't be able to do the smaller patterns I picked out for the center of the quilt. So, back to hand sewing. Still, I didn't give up. (This was in the middle of october, and I had approximately 9 square feet left to quilt.)

This morning, I have 4 six inch squares left to quilt. That's it. Well, those squares and the edging, but I think I'll cheat on the edging and machine sew it.

I'm so so so so proud that I'm actually finishing this project. It has taken nearly 4.5 months so far, and will probably take another week at least, but I did it. Every single stitch. Every knot. Every time I stabbed myself with a pin or needle, or cut my finger instead of the thread. It was worth it.

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And, because I haven't been good with the pics as of late, I'm finishing up this entry with photos from the zoo, sunday.

playing with the polar bear

you think he sees us?

say ahh

300 lbs of prehistoric turtle

Dealing with the Rogue Smoke Detector

I just cannot take it anymore. I seriously wanted to pack my bags and move out of our apt this morning. I had to wake up ungodly early to drive Jason to work this am, and was looking forward to a nice snooze when i got back. (Thanks to the sudafed gods/devils, i barely slept a wink during the night) I walked in the door, and was happily greeted by lola, but most unhappily greeted by the smoke detector.

For about the past month, it has been going beeping as if it needed a new battery, BUT IT DOESN'T NEED A NEW BATTERY. See, it only goes off when Jason is not home. It only goes off early in the morning. It really likes to go off when i have a conference call. After a week of beep-less mornings last week, i thought the problem was solved. Silly, naive me. Yesterday I awoke to one shreiking beep around 7:15. Yes, just one. I went back to sleep. This morning, i walked in the door at 6:30, and it kept beeping. I tried to sleep through it, but still the beeping wore on.

(on a side note, when smoke detectors beep, isn't it usually on a time schedule? like every 20 seconds or something? I swear ours is possessed because the intervals between beeps change. I'll hear 2 quick beeps, then a whole lot of nothing, and as soon as i start persuading myself that it is finally over, BEEEEEEEEEP)

So, after 30 minutes of sleep-deprived, sudafed induced torture I crawled out of bed, found the can of air, and tried to blow out whatever was causing the problem. This really was my only option, since we have 9 ft ceilings, and I am closer to 5 ft, than 9 ft tall. We have no chairs in the house that allow me to be anywhere near the ceiling at all, in fact.

The gusts of air did nothing. I climbed up on the dresser and rattled the stupid thing in a last ditch effort (bad idea) and the alarm started alarming, which is way worse and way louder and way more ear-piercing than the beeps. I nearly cried.

I sat down on the stool and tried to shed light on the situation.
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP BEEEEEeee.....

That's right folks, it stopped all by itself mid beep.

I'm so calling the apartment office this morning.

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In other news, I finished my secret project for my sewing machine benefactor. See, she gave me her old machine and all its accoutrements, which included all her hand-sewing stuff, so I made this cutesy little kit for her. She has a thing for shoes...

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And on to the really big news, Only 4 weeks left till we find out if Jason gets his transfer. So, we pretty much decided that I'm moving to WA regardless. I'm planning to house-hunt while the ship is moving there in January, then fly home and pack up, throw the important boxes in storage, toss the rest, and then drive through 2 snowy mountain passes with a cat and a gecko. Yep, you know you want to come with!

Seals at the Children's Pool - San Diego, CA