I've managed to finish both quilts. All hand work and labels done on them. The one for the baby girl due in July. Sure is nice to have the machine working great.
I've already started on another Christmas sofa quilt for another son and daughter-in-law. This one will have all kinds of colors in it.
Sunday morning we started out for breakfast but the restaurant was packed. Couldn't even find a parking place. So on to some shopping. Went to Lowe's to get some 100 watt daylight bulbs for the sewing room. Really need the light, even with the blinds open. Also a fire extinguisher for the house. We have them in both cars and the RV but didn't have one in the house. Do now. Also went to JoAnn's to get the material needed for the quilt. Then on home to watch the Charlotte 600 mile NASCAR race. I enjoyed every minute of it. #18 had the pole, lead 377 of the 400 laps and won the race. Bill put the pillow under my feet so I would quit banging them on the floor while watching the end of the race. Also gave me the pillow to hug to keep my hands and arms still. I really get into the races.
Kyle has won a major race at every single track the NASCAR Cup cars run at. Only driver to ever do that. He'd never won a points race in a cup car at Charlotte. A kind of nice sunset Sunday night. Big black clouds showed up but no rain.
Stayed home today. Just to many people in town to go anywhere. Now we're watching the Golden Knights hockey game - it is between periods right now. Tied at 2 to 2 end of first period. Go Knights. Two doctor appointments this week. Last post op for Bill's eyes and I have to find out how all the tests turned out. Such fun.
Very quick and short post.
Bill's surgery on second eye yesterday went great. Went back today for post op check up and he is doing fine. He keeps commenting on how different things look now. Wishes he had done it sooner. Stopped at 99 cent store so he could pick up reading glasses for the computer and his Nook. He also got some sun glasses with a 1.75 bifocal in them. So for now he is set. Will have to continue using eye drops for another three weeks in 2nd eye and one more week in first eye.
I have my embroidery machine running as I write this. Making a label for the Christmas quilt. For those of you who have never seen an embroidery machine working here is a very short video of it.
And that is it for today. Tomorrow is soccer and racing. I'll sew the labels on while watching.
My last post I mentioned the thunder and slight rain we got. After I finished posting we actually got more rain. Looking east toward the desert, you can see where it is really raining. By looking at the patio you can see how much rain our area got. Not very much. That was all of it. But there was a nice smell from the desert and a great breeze.
I think I also mentioned the problems I was having with my old laptop running Windows XP and the embroidery software for my sewing machine. I tried loading the program into my newer laptop running Windows 7 - it refused to completely load. I called the Geek squad to see if they could restore my laptops XP. No, it is no longer supported so they couldn't do that. I tried doing a system restore but somehow the date in the laptop had changed to 2049 so it wouldn't restore. So I went on line and asked if the embroidery program could be made to run on Windows 7 - basically the answers were No. But then I found a site named "Justanswer.com" I posed my question to them. A few minutes later got a reply that I needed to join to talk to a technician. It would cost $5. So I paid my five dollars. Was told I would receive and answer as soon as they could check into my problem. Time passed...I figured I'd just thrown away 5 dollars. Well about 8:00 that night I got a reply with several instructions on how to load the embroidery program into Windows 7. Also several links to parts of the program that were not on the disks. Decided to wait until morning to try it. Bright and early - well around 8:00 I started to follow the instructions. Downloaded all the extra links, loaded the disks into the laptop. [One important part of the instructions was to put the dongle/hasp into the computer before doing anything else - usually it is inserted into the computer as the very last step of loading program.] The thing with the red dot is the hasp - without it the program wont work at all.
Everything went fine - until I tried to use the part of the program that puts the design from the computer onto a special disk that goes into the sewing machine. That WOULD NOT WORK. Without it I had nothing. Only suggestion was to uninstall and reload all again. Still didn't work. Then I had a brainstorm - why not try this on the old laptop with XP. The disk/card the pattern goes on and the reader/writer that puts the design from the laptop to the disk and then to the machine.
The card in the reader.
This is where it goes in the sewing machine. The card in it in this picture contains about 30 different stitches.
I finally figured out how to change the date on the laptop, tried a system restore again. Then I got the instructions and followed them again. When I finished I tried the program. It loaded and seemed to be running fine. Then I plugged in the card reader/writer - it didn't work. Hum...Shut the laptop off. Turned it back on with card reader plugged in. Everything came up fine AND the card reader now worked. One of the labels I've transferred to the disk for the Christmas quit
this is still on the laptop waiting to be transferred.
I finally had everything working by a little after noon! Well worth the $5.00 charge. I've bookmarked the web site.
Later that afternoon, while I was recuperating - reading - Bill got to cooking again. He made several dozen bunuelos or as we call them apple fritters. The batter with the apple pieces.
He also made some with banana slices. Just some of the finished product. Again, we freeze a lot of them for snacking another day. They have sugar sprinkled on them.
We went to WalMart and I finally remember to pick up an Arctic Air "as seen on TV" product. Bill is always so cold we don't have the AC on very low, so I'm usually kind of warm. So thought I'd give it a try. So far pleased with it. It plugs in either with a regular plug or USB plug. It is mostly filter with a water reservoir in it. And three speeds for the fan. Very quiet. Only thing is when filter gets dirty it has to be replaced, can't be cleaned. So guess I'll buy a couple to have for traveling.
And the vents can be turned up or down. Used it last night when I was reading, very enjoyable. But I had to move it further away from me, got too cold on my shoulder. Also set it higher on the Kleenex bot to raise it above the arms of the sofa. I think it will work fine in the RV in Mexico too. I'll be cool and he'll be happy.
Not doing much this week. Tomorrow he has the surgery on his other eye. Hopefully it will go as well as the first one. So I'll probably doing my sewing of labels tomorrow while he is resting.
Today we are having a cloudy overcast sky with a chance of rain, maybe a thunder storm or two. We need the rain. It is even snowing up on the tip top of the mountain.
GO GOLDEN KNIGHTS - Western Conference winners. Just four more wins and the Stanley Cup will be theirs. Have to wait to see who they will play. Barcelona soccer team won their league title, but did not finish the season without a loss. They loss the 2nd to last game to a team they should have beat 7 to 0! Oh well.
And of course Harvick with his super fast car won the All Star race and a million dollars. #18 got caught up in a wreck in the last 10 laps, but his car wasn't good enough to win anyway. So you can tell what we've been doing the last few days.
I finished my Christmas quilt.
When I went to make the label for both the quilts I discovered my old laptop - running windows XP - was not working. Last I used it was before we went to Mexico. I use it only for the embroidery program for my sewing machine. Tried everything - no go. Also discovered none of the browsers worked any more - no one still supports XP. So got out another lap top that I saved when I got my new one, it runs Windows 7. Loaded the program disks and discovered they won't work with W7. It is a very old program got the sewing machine somewhere around 2003. After much checking on line I thought my only recourse was to buy a new program, but most of the new ones will not work with my sewing machine. I did find ...
WOW! THUNDER! About jumped out of my chair. No rain here though.
...a web site that send me instructions on how to load my old program in a W7 computer. So will try that and hope it works.
Catching this up and doing laundry now.
Remember the weird plant I bought in Mexico and smuggled home. It is doing great. Loves the weather here.
This is from when I bought it.
Yesterday Bill was in another cooking mood. He made more milanese.
Here it is soaking in a marinade - no idea what is in it. He lets it soak for a couple of hours.
Then breads it all at once.
Then cooks it. This is just one tray. He makes a lot so we can freeze it - and give some to our son. It is good for dinner or sandwiches.
He took this out in front of our house. It is about 5 minutes but it is a 360 view of the whole Las Vegas Valley. It starts out in front of our house looking west, moves to the south, then east then on around to the west again where he took it up to 400 feet and you can see both the strip and downtown Las Vegas. If you can watch it full screen. He was trying out a new filter on the camera.
We have had an almost perfect week of weather. Mostly high 80's some low 90's. Even had a couple of days without wind. And some with 390 mph wind. The landscapers returned to take the stump out. While here they showed Bill how the tree was starting to die and dry up for the inside out. One of the reasons it was shedding so many needles. They also trimmed the two other pine trees and the palm tree. One the palm tree you can now see where the black outer bark ends. Before we bought the house the palm tree had a fire that burned all the way up the trunk but didn't kill the tree. So we have the only black palm tree in town.
We knew they were going to trim the trees but were a little surprised how much they trimmed them. The tree on the right really needed it because several of the branches had been burned in the fire. And we wanted the one on the left to be trimmed some above our new Palo Verde tree. But they really got trimmed. The lower branches were touching the Palo Verde.
Bill had made a batch of crepes earlier in the week so on Wednesday he decided to use some of them and make canelone for dinner. He used the left over empanada mix and some red sauce we had in the freezer. Very, very good. Notice he doesn't have glasses on.
Saw the eye surgeon on Tuesday and the eye is healing great. His vision in that eye is now 20/25. And the getting dizzy from the two different eyes is fairly normal. Next week he is getting the other eye done. The doctor told him to get get some cheap readers for close work. While outside taking pictures of the trees this guy was buzzing me as I was right under the feeder. They can be aggressive.
Didn't waste any time when I moved.
Been working on the quilt during the week. It is all done except for the hand work putting the finishing touches on the binding. Planned on doing that while watching NASCAR, but it is raining in North Carolina so no NASCAR - yet. Maybe I'll end up finishing it during the Golden Knights game tonight. Hope they win.
The tree cutters came and took down this big pine tree in our back yard this morning.
They did a very neat job, nothing was damaged, not even our little flowers along the back patio.
They left for lunch, just the trunk and lots of branches in the yard left to take care of.
Lots of branches and pine cones to pick up.
All that is left from today, they are coming back to take the stump out and pick up all the pine cones and saw dust. Maybe we need to put another bush in here now.
One of the lantanas out back next to the patio, it sure has a lot of flowers. I like the two color ones.
My little cactus out front is almost ready to open it's flower. Need to keep checking on it.
Walked up to the post box. I know we are a community of old folks, but really? I think we can figure out this is water without the sign.
Spent a good part of the day working on the quilt. It is to the point where I need to buy the batting and backing to finish it.
Not a good picture but this is what it is for. Just color for Christmas. The quilt on the bed is the same pattern different layout.
Tomorrow Bill has an eye doctor appointment in the afternoon. His eyes are different enough he doesn't feel he can drive. So we should have an interesting trip over there and back. Hope doc has some suggestion for him.
Happy Mother's Day to everyone. Here it is a brownie kind of day. So I made some. Why brownies you ask? Mainly because it has been a bad sports weekend. First the Golden Knights Hockey team lost, then the #18 NASCAR [my favorite] car finished 10th - when he'd been 3 - 5 the whole race. And today Barcelona soccer team lost the first game of the year. To a team on the bottom of the league. They only had to win today and one more game to have an unbeaten season. Even the announcers were shocked. So therefore - brownies.
Bill is having some dizziness from his eyes - one sees one thing, the other one sees things differently. He goes back to the eye doctor Tuesday. Hopefully he can suggest something to do, his next surgery isn't for a week and a half. When he doesn't want to drive I know something is wrong. Maybe he should get a pirate patch for one eye? This morning it was so nice out - no wind and sunny - I took a walk around the neighborhood. The club houses are kept so nice.
Had quite a discussion with this raven. He was in the middle of the street and spreading his wings and screeching at me when I wanted to go by him. We both just stared at each other for a bit, then he finally moved to around the corner.
Now this is my kind of exercise. In one of the yards that I passed.
Lots of the cacti were blooming. Such ugly plants and such pretty flowers.
Talk about full of flowers...
One of our cactus out front has a couple of blooms almost ready to open. Will have to keep watching it.
Worked some more on my quilt. Getting ready to add the sashing. It is not a full sized quilt, just a end of the bed throw or for over the back of the couch. Just some Christmas color.
That is about all that is going on. Weather is beautiful high 80'[s low 90's. But I notice the wind has picked up again.
We didn't do any thing to write about yesterday. Just went to JoAnn's to get my material and then to Sprouts to look around. The rest of the day was too hot to venture outside. We did have kind of a pretty sunset though.
Today on the other hand has been busy at least so far. I've started working on my Christmas quilt while watching NASCAR practice and qualifying on TV. This is one of 14 blocks. Right now I am planning on using 7 different materials. We'll see how I like it - might add more color with yet more material.
Lots of pieces waiting to be sewn together. Two blocks of each color.
But first thing this morning before starting to sew I made the filling for our empanadas. Ground beef, ground Italian sausage, roasted peppers, corn, olives, hard boiled eggs and various spices. Used some from our garden.
Later in the day we put the filling in the pre-made dough circles and baked them. Made six dozen and still have some filling left so guess we'll make a trip to the other side of town to the Argentine market to get more packages of dough. Several dozen are already in the freezer. Good snacks.
It is funny but I'm having a hard time getting used to seeing Bill without glasses. He has been wearing glasses since 1980! He looks so different. He is really pleased with the eye surgery so far. Can't wait to get the other eye done. Then I guess he will have to get a new prescription for just close work. That is all so far today. Tomorrow is a Golden Knights game AND a NASCAR race, of course, both at the same time.
