Got my new (used) camera yesterday. The exact same SonyCybershot model I've been using for years, so no learning curve. So far it is working fine. Hope to take a walk later today and really use it, especially the zoom part. What I like about that model it has a viewfinder and a 30x zoom. And I already have extra batteries and a charger. The price was a whole lot less then the new ones with the same features. When we bought the original one it was $349, this one used was twice that. It will be a great day for walking, in the low 70's no wind, perfect. Just have to get Bill moving. We did walk around the neighborhood a little yesterday. Want to use the camera and make sure everything works on it. 

Some of our Christmas decorations. Stained glass in the sewing room window. I have trunks full of decorations in the shed, but no desire to drag them out and put them up. 

Three of the pillows covers I made last year.

And another one for a smaller pillow.

More stained glass in the kitchen window. Makes me want to go out in the garage and make a couple of nice pieces I have the patterns for. 

More Sphere.  Different one, I imagine it is amazing when in motion. 

Christmas.

This is different. 

The five great grands have their new quilts. They loooove them according to their mom. Glad. After I sent them I made a window hanging with Christmas embroidery panels to hang on our sliding patio doors. Now I can't think of anything else to sew. That room looks strange with sewing machine in its cabinet, no threads on the floor and no material on the cutting table. 

Spent part of yesterday cleaning off my laptop that I use when we travel. Had hundreds of pictures on it and a bunch of old files - some from 2008 that I didn't even remember why they were there. Does anyone out there use "The Cloud?" If so how does that work? I started looking it up but just got more confused. I back up my PC to an external hard drive, but if anything goes horribly wrong I'd lose everything. 

Oh boy, I have one minute to finish my coffee. Can't have any more caffeine until after my Stress Test tomorrow at 9:00. Tomorrow morning no caffeine or food. UGH hate that. at least the test starts at 9 - not in the afternoon. 

Walked yesterday - mile and a half. More pictures another day. I'm home from stress test, it was a different kind, no tread mill. 

Nice walking weather

My walking friend and I got out for another three mile walk in the Wetlands. We were surprised to see this heron in this pond.  We now have 100 miles in for the year, so should get our reward, a coffee cup I think, in January. 

This pond has been cleaned out of the reeds, nice blue sky that day. 

Just a few mallards in the river. By this time last year there were all kinds of waterfowl there. Only a few ducks and coots this year. 

Looking towards The Strip and the snow on the mountains. Been warm lately and snow is melting, the ski places are open. Guess they'll have to make snow. 

The river has a lot of water in it now. No birds. 

Also lots of trash from the heavy rains we had a couple of weeks ago. The one over the rock is a mattress. All kinds of crap for town and tunnels ends up here. 

I mentioned the beaver keep trying to build a dam in this spot. This day we saw the guy taking down one beavers were trying to build. First they put mud there then the reeds and tree branches. We told him he should leave it alone. No answer. 

More of the Sphere 

Different.

And now they are starting on Christmas and Winter scenes. The bottom one stays here with us. 

All five quilts are done, In a box ready to be shipped. Now I'm starting on some embroidered Christmas for me. 

Son just called and said he is sending his ladies to clean our house. Goody, goody!!! There are bits and pieces of sewing thread all over the place. 

Just Stuff

When I said just stuff that is what I meant. Will try to catch up a little, but seems like the days are just running together and are on a race track. Bill went in for his follow up on the laser surgery and all was fine. But I think he is cursed. The very next day he came down with a "man"  cold, meaning he felt horrid for about a week.  I was supposed to have a stress test at heart doctors. So I followed rules, no caffeine for 24 hours and no food for 8. About two hours before the test (scheduled for 2:30) they called and said the machine was broken so had to reschedule. GRRRR. So rescheduled for the 11th at nine in the morning. Better timing anyway. Then follow up with the cardiologist on New Years Eve. I'm so sick of going to doctors offices.  After Bill's eye shot middle of January we are done for a few months. 

I'm still working on the five quilts for granddaughters family. The oldest boy is a great fan of the Eagles. So printed some clip art of Eagles stuff on the printer and then needed to figure out how to put the quilt together. So I asked AI this is what he/it came up with. It gave me a couple of ideas. 

This is what I kind of started with, I have never designed a whole quilt before usually I find something I like and copy it or have a pattern for it. 

This is the way it turned out. I still have to put the binding on it. It is Eagle green, gray, black and white. I did the quilting after I took this picture. 

Daily dose of the Sphere. 

Remember making turkeys with hand prints. This is really cute. 

The weather has finally cooled off and it is sunny for the most part. So my walking friend and I have been getting out. Got in a couple of three mile walks. Sure improves my mood. The Wetlands are still tore up from the sewer project. So we've ended up having to back track a few times cause the trail was closed for the construction. It is strange this year. There are no migrating birds here yet. 

Found this old OLD picture when looking through my external drive when backing up my computer. 

Like I said just stuff. 

Things are looking up!

A weird cloud formation one of the days it rained. The weather has really changed. Been raining a lot. and highs are in the 60's and lows in the mid 40's. With the rain we haven't been walking. Still need to get in 10 more miles to reach 100 so we can get our coffee mug. Have to do it before the end of the year. As they go back to zero on January 1. 

The clouds were below the top of the mountain one day. 

But the rains and clouds made for some nice sunsets and sunrises. One of the sunrises.

And a couple of the sunsets. 

Weird clouds. 

In amongst the rain showers we had a bunch of doctors appointments. Bill went WAY across town, we took Uber to see the Laser doctor. Turned out he not only got a consultation he got his eye lasered. By evening he was grinning from ear to ear. He could see again. He also has to go in Monday for a recheck. But at a closer office thank goodness. 

I had an appointment the next day to go to the heart doctor - had to wear a monitor for three days. Will find out how that went in December. This coming week I have to have a stress test. Not looking forward to that as the last part is on a treadmill. My knee is driving me nuts. My lower leg wants to go a different direction than the rest of me. So wearing a brace for a while. 

Good news is the smell coming from under the house has stopped. Glad for that sure didn't want any one to have to crawl under there. 

Also I finished the fourth quilt. Only one more to go and I have to figure out how to lay it out, no pattern. 

Just the Sphere. This is F1 race week. So all along the Strip are bleachers and road closures. Glad we don't have to go down there.

Not much else going on. Our son sent his cleaning ladies to the house today. I always appreciate that. Always looks and smells so nice when they leave. 

Rain, inside and out

And the days continue to fly by. Can't believe it is the last part of November. For some reason this seems to be the fastest month of the year. 

Looks like summer is finally over. Now we are having rain. Mostly on the west side of town, so we just see clouds. Expecting 1/2 inch over the next few days. 

Came across this photo the other day. January 1978, 10 minutes after the picture was taken we were in motorhome on our way from Las Angeles to Argentina. Quite a trip. The only person in this picture that didn't go was our oldest son Dennis, he is standing to my right (I have on the white shirt.) 47 years ago. 

On a couple of the cooler mornings my friend and I managed to walk in the Wetlands. Last Wednesday these pictures were taken - I got in 11,000 steps that day. At this one pond the beavers keep trying to dam it up. And the rangers keep cleaning their work up. The beavers got quite a bit done this time. The pond was backing up. They use the reeds and mud to make the dam. 

Another one of the ponds, the machine that cuts back the reeds has been busy. This is the most we've ever been able to see of this pond. It has beavers too. There were at last count 84 beavers in the parks many ponds. We were walking between rains. 

I just liked this picture. Things are more golden than green now.

Someone's plastic pumpkin in the river. When ever it rains every thing in the streets, ditches and tunnels under Vegas used to control flooding, ends up here. 

They are so elegant looking.  He was standing right below the bridge we were on. 

Looking up North the river. Not many migrating birds yet. 

I think this is a she - On one side of the bridge.

Right across from her he was singing his heart out. 

This quilt is done and waiting to be sent to great granddaughter. I like it, the sunflower is one of my favorite flowers. 

Our son came over and took us out to breakfast on Saturday. My meal was French Toast Tacos. Had to try it. Very, very good. The French toast was put in a form to make it taco like. Had bacon, scrambled eggs and cheese in it. Yum. And the potatoes were delicious but the French toast filled me up. 

Another quilt I am working for same family, this time great grandson. It is all pinned and partly quilted. Using masking tape to make lines to follow in quilting it. 

Had to go out this morning to cardiologist office to get a heart monitor.  Luckily got there and back between the rain storms. Have to wear it until Friday. 

Discovered we had a leak from the rain. It is leaking right over the door that separates the garage from the laundry room. Some of the water ends up on laundry room floor even when door is closed. Going to have to call someone to fix it. If I dared I'd go up there and use some Flex Seal. 

Tomorrow Bill sees the laser surgery eye doctor. Hope he can get him in to laser it soon.  He can hardly see anything. Could not even see the food on his plate last night. Can't read any menus, labels on cans or boxes. Very frustrating for him. 

What a Week

Glad to see this week coming to an end.  However the weather is still beautiful. Cooling down at night and in low 80's  during the day. Perfect walking weather, but only walked a little bit on last Monday. A few ladies here in the community are try to get a walking group together. How ever they don't walk very far yet and they walk a little later in the day. I walked with them this week. But I think I and my regular walking friend will continue to try to walk in the Wetlands ourselves. Right now I have a corn on the ball of one foot that is quite uncomfortable. Need to try to get rid of it. Getting old is such fun. 

I was walking through this room early the other morning and was startled by the reflection on the wall...took me a bit to figure it out. It was the rising sun through the kitchen window with a shadow of one of the pumpkin sun catchers in the window. A perfect set of circumstances, have not seen it since. 

After my short walk on Monday Bill and I went to one of the big Mexican grocery stores here. El Super, it is amazing. Bill especially likes the bakery. We always buy more than we should. 

The cakes are tempting, but don't need one. 

He likes their freshly made, usually still warm, tortillas. 

Tuesday morning we had a spectacular sunrise.

The phone camera doesn't do it justice. But at least I was in a good mood for a while that day.

It went to heck from there. Bill had an appointment with the doctor who is supposed to do the laser surgery on his eye. Yah, that worked out well. Got to the office, stood in line then managed to get through all the check in on the kiosk. Sat and waited about 20 minutes, they called us up to the desk. The receptionist smiled and said, " You don't have an appointment."  Yes we do. "With which doctor?" I told her. Oh, he isn't in this office, he is next door in the other office. OKAY So over to next door we go. Stood in line and waited to do all the check in on the Kiosk again. Sat down waited, waited. Desk calls his name, here fill out this form. The form was strange, that should have been my first clue. It was asking about drooping eyelids ??? Gave it back filled out. Waited another 45 minutes to be called in the room. Nurse mentions drooping eyelid. We say no we're here about laser surgery. Oh, no this doctor only does drooping eyelid. You need to go next door for laser surgery !!!!!!!!?????????? Back we go. Explain mix up. Receptionist is very nice. When I called for appointment, the clerk saw Bill had seen eyelid doctor and made appointment with wrong doctor. Even though I'd told her laser surgery and they had the referral for that.  Any way, showed her copy of referral. First appointment he can get is Dec 30th. No, no, no. So she found one end of this month WAY across town. We took it. She will call us if there is a cancellation. 

A couple of pictures of the full moon, I usually don't remember to go out and look. 

But back to Tuesday. After we were home for a while, I used the facilities in my bathroom. Heard some gurgles and up came the water in the bathtub. Well not really water... So checked our home warranty, they would not cover drainage problems that involve cleanouts or pulling toilet. So called plumber we've used before. He was here in a couple of hours. Could not clear the problem Said he might have to pull toilet, but first would check to see if there was a cleanout in the back of the house. We had no idea. So out he goes, comes back in smiling yep there is a cleanout under the house in the back. He said it looks like it has never been cleaned out, so he would come back the next day with the big equipment and do it. Okay.

Mean while I finished this quilt. Two down three to go. 

Plumbers came back the next day and everything is working fine now. Thank goodness. 

This is a different one. 

So now another week. And I'm  working on another quilt.