Thankful for the rain

It's been sprinkling since this morning which is a good thing. Those aren't clouds; that's smoke. This photo is from Monday. We've had a number of fires break out around the province and because it's been pretty dry, they quickly spread. Coming home on Sunday we had to roll our windows up and turn the air on because we were having so much trouble breathing because of the smoke. And we weren't anywhere near the fire. The smoke was just that thick for miles and miles. Ugh

Sunday night I woke up coughing and couldn't stop. Smoke was penetrating our closed windows (not the tightest house ever). Smoke is the biggest trigger for my asthma and Ivan was worried that we'd need to get dressed and drive out of town in the opposite direction of the smoke. But a half a glass of water later, the coughing subsided and we were able to get back to sleep.

Not sure how many acres have been scorched but it's a lot. Wild fires are a problem every year, some more than others. Winter (a.k.a. the dry season) is only half over so we'll see how it goes.

You can see why we're happy to see the drizzle. Wouldn't mind a good dousing rain but that doesn't appear likely.

Ivan and our friend who helped with the plumbing have gone back out to Sta. Rosa today to work on running new gas lines. Right now whenever someone uses the house they have to haul a big gas tank from the garage to an outdoor cabinet by the kitchen where they hook it up to provide gas for the stove and hot water heater.

We have to do this because we cannot leave the gas tank in the cabinet by the kitchen all the time or it would be stolen when no one was there. As it has been in the past (multiple times I believe). That's a problem with a house that's only used part-time.

Anyway, in an attempt to make the house a little more "turn key" Ivan had the idea to make it so we can leave the big gas tank in the garage all the time. Hence, they're running a new line from the garage to the house. We took measurements while we were there last week and they left prepared with what they hope will be sufficient piping and fittings. It's really nice to have a friend who knows how to do this and can guide the process.

Meanwhile I'm working on baby quilt #2. That's because I FINALLY, AT LONG LAST FINISHED BABY QUILT #1!!! At 8:45 p.m. yesterday to be exact. At which point I did a happy dance :-) While putting ointment and a bandaid on my poor little left index finger that felt like a pin cushion. Maybe because I'd sort of used it as one during the hand quilting. I think I have a total of about 20 hours of hand quilting on that quilt, with six of them from yesterday.

IS IT ANY WONDER I'M PLANNING TO MACHINE QUILT THIS ONE?

I just finished pinning it really, really well so hopefully it will not shift during the quilting process. I found the most darling fleece to use for the back with little white teddy bears against a blue and orange background. But fleece is a slithery, slippery fabric so I used more than twice as many pins as I normally would.

But before I start sewing I felt the need to take a deep breath... or forty eleven. I've never actually machine quilted anything except a cushion cover so I'm a wee bit nervous. My fall back plan, if the machine quilting goes awry and turns into a disaster, is to not quilt it at all but simply tie it off. Which is fine for a baby quilt but I really want to give machine quilting a try first.

Do we detect a defeatist attitude?

And I'm trying so hard to be positive.

You see I have TRIED machine quilting in the past. It wasn't pretty. But that was with my old, inferior sewing machine and I even have a special quilting foot for my "new" machine (bought used on ebay) so I have high hopes that things will be different this time.

Quite honestly, sewing on this machine is totally unlike sewing on my old Brother. It's like comparing apples and oranges. And my Pfaff is a mango!

Yes, I have very high hopes indeed.

And writing this post has been very helpful. I feel FORTIFIED, MOTIVATED and PREPARED to CONQUER machine quilting!

I hope.

Week 26, Project 365

Woohoo! We're halfway there! How exciting is that :-)

It sure doesn't seem possible that half the year is already gone. It's doubly weird because I'm still adjusting to having the seasons be opposite of what I'm used to and my mind hasn't quite wrapped itself around the idea that it's June and WINTER. I feel sorta stuck in a time warp.

Especially when I look at photos others are posting on Project 365 and y'all are in shorts and swimsuits (well, the kids are anyway) and obviously sweltering in the heat.

Last weekend I missed posting photos for Project 365 because we were in Sta. Rosa and the internet was completely uncooperative. We were there so Ivan could install the bathroom floor. As you may remember, he'd torn it all up in the process of replacing the pipes the week before. Before he could put the tile down though, he had to grind, grind, grind the cement slab until it was smooth and level, apply a thin coat of cement-like stuff (that's the scientific term) and then FINALLY lay the tiles. Using glue that didn't come with directions. It was a long and sometimes frustrating day for him. Here he is during the grinding process. The photo isn't fuzzy, that's the cement dust creating a haze. Let me tell you that was fun to clean off every.single.surface in the house the next day. NOT! My husband is a man of many talents. He's also growing a winter garden which is a source of great enjoyment as we watch green things grow. I feel like I should paste a warning in the corner of this photo: "Objects may be closer than they appear." This is CLOSE-UP people, these lettuce plants are only about 2-3" tall. Monday was our monthly marathon shopping day in Cordoba. While we were downtown checking on our D.N.I.s, I noticed this pharmacy (or farmacia) that just tickled my fancy. We went here to check out baseboard options to finish off the bathroom in Sta. Rosa. I could spend hours in this place! Because it's full of great little stores selling every kind of construction material you can imagine. A mall of home improvement -- whoever thought this up was a genius! Ivan snapped this photo along the costanera. Wild parrots are actually rather pesky birds and leave a mess everywhere they go. But they sure are a pretty green. We skyped with both kids when they got together for dinner one night. I was trying to take a photo of the screen with my camera when my son explained I could just take a screen shot with the computer. Duh! I've only had this computer a year and a half. Can there be anyone more technically challenged than me? Anyway, here's the candid shot I took while he was still explaining the finer points. LOL On the left are photos he'd sent of his new haircut and which I'd opened in another window. Or something. I'm not really sure how they're up there along with the video shot of the kids. I'm sure he could explain it to you though. Did you know that fresh mozzarella is almost impossible to shred? We found it's easier to just slice thinly with a cheese slicer. Ivan has gotten to know a man who has designed and built several planes over the years, and Friday I met him and his wife. She's an artist so we took this photo of her with one of her sculptures that's currently in front of their house. Would you believe she actually created it in her living room?! It was a commissioned piece for a plaza in our city but the new mayor reneged on the deal. Meanwhile she provides a little extra pizazz to the neighborhood. Magdalena was telling us she's seen complete strangers stop and take pictures with it. Reminds me of the time we stopped at Wall Drugs in the middle of South Dakota and proceeded to take our photos with everything from a dinosaur to a cowboy sitting on a bench. Does everyone have this odd human compulsion to take photos with any inanimate object as big as (or bigger than) us?

So what's the weirdest thing you've ever had your photo taken with?