The Other QI

Many months ago, I introduced you to Marko, my cousins' Maine Coon.  He proved his quilt inspection abilities early on.

There is another cat in the household though.  She goes by the name of Molly Baggins.  My cousins rescued her.  They were told that she is only three years old, but she acts like an old lady.  She's overweight, and behaves like she is in pain when we pick her up.  The vet gave her a clean bill of health, but we're considering getting another opinion. 

With her rather sloth-like demeanor, Molly Baggins has always excelled at laying on anything soft.  I was not convinced that proved her ability as a Quilt Inspector.  However, yesterday with a considerable effort to haul her not insignificant mass up onto the sewing table, she has now clearly earned the title.

Doesn't she look like she's smiling?

I removed her from the quilt with much protest on her part, so I could continue my free motion quilting.  When a couple of phone calls took me away from the quilt, I returned to find her planted on it yet again.  I took that as a sign to call it a day and permitted her to fulfill her quilt inspection duties uninterrupted.

Home Office

The flip side of getting the quilting - crafting studio set up is the home office.  It is the place where I access my quilting software, look at quilting pictures, and read quilting blogs.

I share this space with my clone (Eric, my cousin-in-law ) ~ or probably to be more correct, he shares his office with me.    When we returned to the house in Newton, Eric immediately decided this storage space would be perfect for his office.  It's somewhat isolated, which is important since he works from home; cool being in the basement (the computers give off a lot of heat); and with no finished ceiling, his very tall server rack would fit.  Eric refers to us as "basement trolls."

Crappy picture of me at my desk next to the server rack

Here is the view from my corner

This is Eric's desk.  Yep, five monitors.  Believe me, he uses all of them ~ one personal computer, two for work, and two for the servers in the rack, that are also utilized in his work.

So now you know the vantage point from which I'm appreciating all of your fine work.  I soon hope to be able to post an updated picture of the quilting-crafting studio.  The floor is now clear.  We're making progress.

Quilting-Crafting Studio

My cousin and I have been looking forward to setting up our Quilting-Crafting Studio since we knew we returning to the house in Newton.  The basement has plenty of space and will be perfect for our needs.  The only problem has been digging out from underneath the pile of boxes.

A few days ago, Lori got inspired and removed the boxes from our space.

Eric moved the desk into place for us, and I found the fabric and unpacked the Juki.  Eventually, there will be shelves to hold the fabric, but in the meantime, the window well works just fine.

Along with the setting up the sewing room, came setting up the office (off camera ~ and the subject of a separate blog post), and organizing all of Eric's computer stuff.  Boxes and boxes of computer stuff.

In the corner opposite the Juki, Lori began setting up a space for scrapbooking.  We're still looking through boxes for all of her supplies.

Despite the area needing more work, I sat down and did some free-motion quilting for the first time in six or seven months.  The good news is that in the interim, the skills I had did not abandon me; the bad news is that I didn't get any better.

I finished this block this afternoon ~ one I began quilting in January or February.  It is far from perfect, but it sure feels good to have completed it.

Monday Miscellaneous

U-Haul and a Cursed Day

In order to prevent further disruption to the children's lives and make it easier for the adults to move this last load with less distraction, it was decided I would stay with the children while my Eric and Lori made the trip back to Texas.  My job was easy and delightful.  Their's not so much.

We reserved the U-Haul for Saturday morning, to be picked up in Texas.  My cousins left Friday afternoon, in order to get an early start the next day.  However, when they arrived at the Van Alstyne location to which they'd been directed, they found the U-Haul store closed. When the proprietor finally showed up, and they see the 14' truck we'd reserved, my cousins decided a bigger truck was in order, but the U-Haul store didn't have one available.

Next, a quick trip to Anna.  The U-Haul store in Anna had a 20' truck.  Perfect.  My clone was initally so excited.  The truck had only 10,000 miles on it and it was easy to drive.  Joy!  Until he spilled $20 worth of gas on the ground because of a hole in the gas tank.  The only saving grace there was that he'd decided to fill it up BEFORE he loaded it.  It makes me ill to think if he'd waited until after it was loaded like we did the previous weekend.

A trip to McKinney Texas to yet another U-Haul Store.  My cousins ended up with a 26' truck at the cost of $210.  U-Haul rented it to them for the price of the small truck we'd originally reserved minus $100 and reimbursement for the gas.

Early morning start all shot to hell, they managed to get the truck loaded in the heat of the day due to help from awesome friends.

Eric and Lori paid them in beer

Eric and Lori were finally able to head back to Kansas about 5:30PM.  They'd planned to make it into Newton about midnight.  But no, the moving gods were simply against them.  A wildfire in Oklahoma had Interstate 35 shut down.  They took a clue, rented the last, outrageously expensive hotel room available, and got some sleep.

I Can't Get Up.

We've loaded and unloaded two 26' U-Hauls of furniture and boxes in the last two weekends with little rest in between.  My body is now officially pissed off and on strike.  Everything hurts.

Because I'm too tired to get up and take a picture of our garage contents, I've borrowed this one so you can get the idea.

Yeah okay, our garage is not that big, but at this point the thought of unpacking it is just as daunting.


My Other Blog

Although I have many other things I should be doing ~ and will once I post this ~ it was nice to treat myself to some blog writing, both here and on LiveJournal.  The title of my post on LiveJournal:  Sociology, INTJs and Online Dating.  I warn you that unlike this blog, there is some graphic language in this post.

Back in Newton, Kansas

What's old is new again.  Okay, maybe not so much.  My cousins and I have moved back into the house that I left in February, just five short months ago.  Five months.  Long enough to have become somewhat familiar with Anna/McKinney Texas; long enough to know that had we stayed I would have built some real affection for the area; but not long enough by far to feel that it was home.

That said, Kansas does not feel like home either, although it is far more familiar to me.  I'm not sure at 47 years of age, I have ever found home yet.  Pahrump, Nevada came close.  But it is part of my past now, and will in all likelihood remain so.  I'm not sure what qualifies as "home".  What do you think?

I'm beginning to think that home is a state of mind; not a location.  That home is where the people you love and share your life with are.  If that's the case, then I'm always home.

As with any move, it is proving to be a real bitch.  We left Anna last Thursday night and caravanned up I-35 through Oklahoma until we simply had to sleep.

Made it into Newton Friday afternoon.  The house is still in chaos.  And the real pain in the ass, is that my cousin and my clone (my cousin's husband, Eric) have to return to Anna this coming weekend because we could not get everything into the one very large 26' U-Haul truck.  I am staying with the kidlets.  (Yeah, the children have me wrapped around their little fingers.)  There are some advantages to being the smallest ~ getting to stay with the kids while others do the heavy lifting.

Our next move will be from this house to another here locally, when we decide to buy.  By then, we will have been able to have that garage sale that we did not get done before we moved this time.  And we've decided that someone else is going to move our things.  Yes, we could do it.  We've proved that.  But sheesh!  Every muscle in our bodies hurt~and with a garage load full of boxes there is no end in sight.

Yet as my cousin is wont to say, "This is but a moment in time."  I know that one day, we will find our routine once again.

Right now, I hear a Vanilla Porter calling my name.