Gorgeous day out today.  Unfortunately, DH isn't feeling all that hot.  He's been rubbing his belly for three days, and I suspect he's developing another flare up of diverticulitis.  His doctor has clinic hours this morning, so he's gone there now, and I imagine they will send him back home with prescriptions for two antibiotics and an order for a couple days of clear fluids and bedrest (which he'll ignore).  I'll confess I nagged a bit, and the winning argument was: "Do you want to wait until you have to spend three weeks in the hospital, or would three hours in the waiting room NOW be better?"  Anyway, he tried valiantly to pretend that he was absolutely fine, but I'd catch him in the corner of my eye, supporting his RLQ when he walked, and everytime we drove over a bump he'd quietly "oof!" So, we came home early for our treasure hunting.

I picked up a small box of men's neckties.  I had to show you a close up of these two.  The flowers on the blue tie are dimensional and lacy, and I like the "embroidered" look of it..  The second tie has tiny yellow teddy bears woven into it.  I have no intention of doing a quilt with ties, but my grandmother has expressed interest, so when I see a good deal, I get them for her. 

I got a basket of goodies for a dollar.  I find these baskets irresistable, because one never knows what's going to be lurking in the bottom of those baskets.  One of my favourite finds in the basket is the tiny metal screwdriver (not the yellow one).  It's marked "Simanco" which I believe is related to the Singer sewing machine company somehow - (one of you more clever ladies will fill me in on that) - and I've already stuck it on my magnetic pin cushion to keep handy for popping off  the throat plate of my machine for a quick clean.

The flower shaped buttons will make a cute embellishment on something, someday - a few spools of handquilting thread, and two stencils for making foundation patterns and some other things. 

I also picked up a pair of vintage pillowcase embellished with hand embroidered ladies wearing crocheted hoop skirts. Please consider this an object lesson (Joanne, I'm talking to YOU!).  If you have beautiful linens stored in your closet that you've never used because they are "too good" for ordinary use......use them.  Your children will not treasure them.  They will sell them at a yard sale - - or in this particular case - - will give them away for free.  (When I asked the price of them, the seller snatched them from my hand, shoved them in the basket I had bought and said "oh just take them!")

I've been "cutting" not "sewing".  I've cut my next three quilts.  One is all scraps, and I've pieced two blocks.  The other is a kit that I got a few months ago.

I did, however, finish a quilt top on Thursday evening.  It was a mystery quilt from Persimmon Quilts.

I got my final mark for my last philosophy essay.  I couldn't believe my eyes.

89!!!

After all of the nonsense I had to go through, it's a bittersweet conclusion.  I'm relieved that I did THAT well, but in my heart, I believe I deserved more.  I can finally relax now, because I'm sure I did pretty well on the exam.

I awoke terribly early this morning, and quietly stitched up three more Dear Jane blocks.

• D1 Alison's Guiding Light
• D5 Cathedral Window (I love the chestnut leaf print)
• G4 Shutterbug

Unfortunately the pics are dreadful - the colours are all off.  I tried manipulating them to bring them closer to what they look like in real life, but no luck.

Today has been the best day of my break from school! I did everything I wanted to do.

I was up and outside by 6 a.m. and dug around in the dirt for several hours.  I've missed my garden.  And it's missed me! At least it certainly looks like it's missed my daily attention, but there's not much I can do about it this year.  A few hours into it, and I could hear the tinkling tones of a two-year old singing his A-B-C's in the yard behind us.

I adore all of our neighbours, but truly treasure their children.  This particular little boy has had a sudden growth spurt.  Earlier this spring, he was toddling in the driveway, with a head full of long, floppy soft brown curls.  Then one day, his misguided parents cut his hair, and he aged 20 years, even though he won't turn three until this autumn.  He always has a very serious look on his face, and speaks in very serious sentences.  He always looks like he's late for some very serious business, but if I catch his eye his face will split into a smile.  And he sings like a Las Vegas lounge act.

I leaned over the fence and had a very serious chat with G.  His sister was sitting on the porch eating her morning cereal, while he was in the garden with a spade and shovel, digging soil out from between his mum's petunias, and then moving it to another hole. Mum heard us through the kitchen window, and came out to say hello.

ME: We're going to be having a load of crushed stone brought in to top the driveway.  It looks like I could call on G. to give us a hand with the shovelling.

SHE: Oh yes!  That's for sure!  Youcan call on G. if you need any holes dug.

G: (interjecting, seriously) Her name is not Doug!

 

The neighbours next to that family have two children as well.  Whenever DH pulls into the driveway, the little boy (he'll be five this autumn) yells "Hi!" to him.  DH unlocked their gate, and invited the kids to come over for a popsicle when he came home from work this afternoon.  We love seeing the kids. 

Mum of these two kids recently invited DH  up to see her son's bedroom. It seems that he got up way too early one morning, and him mum sent him back to his room.  Instead of going back to bed, the little dickens got out his crayons and drew a portrait of his family on the wall!!!  Except instead of four stick figures, he had drawn FIVE!

DH: What have you done?

HE: I drew a picture.  This is daddy, this is mommy.  This is my sister.  This is me. and this is YOU!

 

I laughed and laughed when DH told me about it.  He's evidently a big part of this little boy's world.  But I laughed even harder when DH followed up the story with: "I was the only one in the picture with HAIR!!!"  He obviously does mean a lot to this little boy, because in REAL life, DH doesn't have hair, or at least, much hair.

Anyway....back to my day.

Have I mentioned how much I love my iPod?  Bless all of you who advised me to get one!  And a million thanks for linking me to LibriVox. 

Today, I downloaded the first seven chapters of "Anne of Green Gables".  I had noticed a poster in the post office the other day promoting the 100th Anniversary of Anne and commemorative stamps. 

I decided then and there that I could hardly consider myself a dyed-in-the-wool Canadian if I hadn't read Anne of Green Gables, and set about finding a copy of the book.  I picked up a paperback copy for a dime at the Salvation Army thrift store, and started reading page 1, but a horrid mildew-y smell overwhelmed me, so out the book went!  I thought I would find a better, less stinky copy someday. 

I was thrilled to find the audiobook on podcast, and it made me smile to imagine how Lucy Maud Montgomery would react.  I imagine her reaction would be one of shock, but with lots of adverbs, and fifty-cent words.  Certainly she never pictured a day would come when her work would be compressed into invisible digits, and transmitted through the air to be collected in a tiny machine half the size of a playing card, then spoken directly into my ears.  Even to me it's simply amazing!

So, I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade doing hand applique on some Dear Jane blocks and listening to my story.  It was simply wonderful.

I did a particularly challenging block today, at least I thought it was going to be a monster of a challenge.  I begged the Dear Jane group for advice on how to  proceed, and thankfully Elly, way over in Scotland sent me a photo tutorial.  And once I saw it broken down into easy steps, it was a snap!

C5 Eye of the Cyclone

• M1 Dogwood Days
• D8 Dee Dee's Delight
• D4 Crystal Star
• RS 2 Cherokee Lee

First, for Marianna - ask, and ye shall receive!  BR2 Leigh's Woods

It's been a sewing sort of morning.  I made this week's TOW (as seen above) and sewed the front of the binding on a big quilt.  I'll work away at stitiching the back of the binding down by hand over the next couple of days. 

No big Canada Day plans here.  DH had yesterday off as his holiday, so he's working today.  Baby Soldier is off for the week with his unit, tasking in support of something or other.  Just me and Itty Bitty at home today....and I haven't seen him for about four hours - though I CAN hear him - pounding away on his drums.

Inspired by today's post on the Dear Baby Jane blog, I completed my G8 block tonight. I tried my best to fussy cut those diamonds, and it's close, and finished is good enough, right?  Now, I must admit that I didn't exactly follow the piecing as suggested in the blog tutorial.  I sewed the diamonds into pairs first.  Then, I sewed the outside triangles between the pairs of diamonds.  I then sewed the quarters into halves, and sewed the corner squares in place, then sewed the halves together, setting the final two squares in the corners.  I found this easier to handle.

One more block.  Sixteen more pieces.  I'm getting there!

I spent the better part of the morning moving furniture around in my sewing studio, and decluttering.  Everything has been dusted and swept, and I even cleaned Lucy!  

I must brag here.  I did a little mindless sewing last night, just to prove a point to my rotten children who dragged me out of the quilting store yesterday, with false claims that there was NOTHING I needed.  Well, with one of the fifty cent baggies of scraps, I pieced together a 14" x 36" top for a Christmas table runner.

Oh, we had a great time!  Baby Soldier chose TWO rings.  One is sort of a signet style, I suppose you would call it, with a Lion Rampant.  The other is a very nice celtic knot sort of a thing.  (Do I sound like I know what I'm talking about?

I was BODILY DRAGGED from Treadle & Co. by the boyz, but not before I got a couple of patterns by The Pattern Basket, and one by All Through the Night. I slipped their grip just before the exit door, and managed to snatch up some fabric scraps as well. Both of these patterns are designed by Canadian Margot Languedoc: "Country Charm Table Runner"  uses charm squares. "Sweet Little Blossoms" is a brand new pattern, and uses either a "Layer Cake" or a "Jelly Roll".  Go ahead and visit both of the websites for The Pattern Basket and All Through the Night to check out the patterns, and download free patterns.  The third image is "One's Done, Another's Begun" designed by Bonnie Sullivan- I guess the idea is, that you'll piece the second quilt from the leftovers of the first quilt.  It sounded like an interesting concept, so I picked it up for further consideration. 

Then we went to the Stone Crock for Lunch. Groaning as we left the restaurant, we somehow got our bloated bodies to the Riverworks Building. In addition to the Scottish Store was a shop called The Riverworks Book Market.  I love books.  I never get to read them, but I couldn't resist choosing a bag full to add to my collection of "Someday I'd Like to Read This" shelf.  I picked a biography, and a book about literature.  One "quilty" book that caught my eye was "Welcome to Happy Valley: Quilts, Recipes, and Small-Town Tales" by Nan Slaughter.  The drawings are so sweet, and inside we get to "meet" the Happy Valley Quilt Guild, discover their individual personalities, learn how to make their favourite quilts, and taste their favourite recipes!  I'll quote from Page 1:

" Welcome to Happy Valley -- where the skies are always blue, with maybe just a cloud or two -- and apple-cheeked children play outside every day with chickens, puppies, and re wagons with wooden sides.  Driving down main Street, you're apt to see a quilt or two hung out over a fence to dry or a clothesline dangling "Flying Geese" next to a pair of Granddaddy's long johns!"

Okay....so if she's talking about underwear on page one?  I'm so totally SOLD!!!

I did a little internet search for Ms. Slaughter, and found her blog Pots & Pins.  It looks like a fun blog to me.

After leaving St. Jacobs, Baby Soldier saw a sign pointing the direction to Castle Kilbride in Baden, and asked if we could go see it.  Of course....that's what Adventure Days are all about!  We requested a guided tour and a nice girl named Naomi soon joined us.  There are several very fine examples of "trompe l'oeil" inside, and the march up steep, narrow stairs to the belvedere was a little dizzying, but not to be missed.  OH!!! and we each were charged "student" rate admission   In the basement was a collection of artifacts that had been dug up during excavation.  I must say, however,  Tillsonburg's Annandale House is a much better example of Victorian architecture, and is also a National Historic Site. (Click on the link for the neatest tour!)

Next, we went to Stratford and had a poke around.  Wouldn't you know we'd walk right past a store called "Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory"?  We drooled over the glass cases of fudges and truffles, and settled on an ice cream cone each.

It was a lonely drive home though....the boys both soon nodded off.  When asked what part they enjoyed best, they agreed it was dragging me out of the quilt shop kicking a screaming!

Anytime I can talk about Dear Jane...I'll take the opportunity! "Dear Jane" is a quilt made by Jane Stickle in 1863.  It is housed in the Bennington Museum in Vermont.  I began my DJ Journey January 2008

There are 169 pieced blocks in the centre of this quilt.  Each block is 4 1/2 inches.  The level of difficultly ranges from a simple 9-patch to mind-numbing frustration.  But I enjoy making them, because each teeny block feels like a big accomplishment.

I have 115 centre blocks completed.  Roughly 2/3 complete.

There are 52 pieced triangles in the border, and 4 pieced corners. Each triangle measures 5" across, and 8" long. Techniques used in making these blocks vary - but I've learned to love paper piecing, and freezer paper/glue stick applique.

I haven't done any of the corners yet. I have 17 tri's done.  My background fabric is bleached muslin, and I'm using pink and grey reproduction Civil War fabrics.  The original quilt has over 5000 pieces in it.  I'm at about half that now.

There is a huge community of fellow DJ'ers out in cyberspace.  I belong to a couple of online groups, an have been swapping blocks across the world with other Jane's.  If you want to learn more about Dear Jane, go to the website. 

The boys and I are going on a road trip today to St. Jacobs and Stratford.  Baby Soldier decided he would like a ring in a Celtic style as a graduation gift.  There is a Scottish shop in both St. Jacobs and Stratford, so we thought we would look in those places.  It is merely a coincidence that there is a quilt shop in each place as well.   And of course, we'll HAVE to stop for lunch!

I puttered around for the rest of the afternoon, and stitched up four more Dear Jane blocks.

• H 11 Piercing Rays
• M 11 Rickshaw
• K 11 Columbine
• I 8 Pete's Paintbox

I suppose I should share my yard sale finds of the day.  It was POURING when we stepped out this morning, but being hard-core yard sale-ers, a little precipitation wasn't going to keep US home.

I got quite a LOT of fabric this morning. The bottom three have quite a bit of 80's flavour to them, but the other 4 will be nice to have in the stash.  White-on-white prints are always a welcome addition.  The sewing machine is a music box that plays "A Few of my Favourite Things" - so cute!  I picked up a couple of cook books and an APA Style Guide which will come in handy over the next few years.  I also got a couple of things for the garden. 

Yesterday, after my hair appointment I went thrift shopping.  I didn't find any treasures, really, except a PINK bucket.  I don't know what the heck I'm gonna do with a pink bucket, but it was pink...it had to be brought home.  But I did pop into a fabric store that I said I'd never go into again.  (never say never, I guess!) They bag up samples from their sample books, and sell them by the freezer bag full for a dollar.  I treated myself to a few baggies for a treat. Look at the little Scottie dogs on the pink background!  Love them!  And I couldn't resist the vintage-y looking Hallowe'en prints.

I FINISHED something yesterday.  I've been working on this Messenger Bag for several weeks now.  It's front and back have charm squares, and there's lots of quilted pockets.  I sewed some flower shaped buttons at the centres of the 3-D pinwheels

One final thing to share: another Dear Jane block: H1 Peek-a-boo

I stayed in my nightgown until 5pm yesterday.  I really didn't get much done, but oh boy....was it ever nice to not have anything else to do....

The first thing I did was another Dear Jane Block.  One blog that I check regularly is Dear Baby Jane, and F-2 Kaleidoscope was demo'd on this past Monday and once I saw it broken down into smaller sections, I thought - 'oh, this is a breeze!' - and it was!

My next job was a block for the guild tinner project.  I thought about sharing a photo of the block I made, but it's all supposed to be a secret. So maybe I'll just slip a photo in, and you should all pretend that you didn't see it. 

Then I spent the rest of the day working on a quilted Messenger Bag to carry my laptop in.  I've got the outer part done, but I can't seem to wrap my mind around the inside parts.  I've employed my seam ripper more times than I want to admit.  But it came to me in the middle of the night how it is supposed to go together, so I feel a finish coming on!

News on the Baby: I'm fortunate to have quilty-friend Jacqui who knows her stuff when it comes to vintage sewing machines.

She let me know that my machine was made in 1947 in Anderson, South Carolina.

AND she told me I had the wrong instruction booklet for my machine, and traded the proper booklet - YAY! I hope to give the baby a workout next week.

No sewing this morning.  I have paperwork to catch up on, and then I'm getting my hair done at 10.  But this afternoon is still looking good!

I put on the coffeepot this morning, and forgot to put the water in!  This is my first clue that I have forgotten how to have a PJ day.

Last night was a night that I had serious fear I'd never see.

Gaaaaaaaawwwwwwd....did I ever work hard for this diploma.  I made Baby Soldier call the school yesterday afternoon just to make sure he actually WAS graduating!  When I was looking at the photos this morning, I had to feel sorry for the poor little vice-principal.  Look at her tiny little hand being crushed in that baseball mitt.

Okay - - coffee smells ready - - and I've got sewing to do!! 

• F1 Big Top
• H9 Snowflake Melt
• E6 Michelle's Medley

Adding another block, and twenty-five pieces to my Dear Jane count!

Unfortunately, my old all-in-one scanner/printer/copier gave up the ghost, so now I can only take nasty photographs of my blocks.

Now, before you start thinking that my cheese has totally slid off my cracker, consider that what I'm about to relate to you isn't necessarily "truth" per se, but just one of those little things that make you a tiny bit happily puzzled, and fill a nook of emptiness somewhere within you with a spoonful of wonderment.

I have spent so much time working very hard on this philosophy class.  I studied all weekend.  I reviewed my notes again and again.  I was pessimistic, and the worse I felt about the prospect of my final exam, the more bitter I got about it.  I intended to do another review this morning, but as I opened the folder holding my study notes, I was overcome by disgust and slammed it shut again, throwing it on the passenger seat, and heading off to the university.  I was pretty gloomy, and by the time I parked, and started the march to the building where the exam was scheduled I had a nasty monologue running through my head, all about how much I loathed the professor and his stupid class, plotting my revenge, trying to come up with a really snappy comeback if he did anything to piss me off today......

And then I got to the intersection just in front of the building, and crossed westward. But just as I was about to cross southward, I was confronted with:

She was an armlength away from me, nibbling long blades of grass.  It is a horribly busy intersection, especially this time of the morning, and on the other corner, there are roof repairs going on complete with wheelbarrows full of gravel being dumped three stories.  But there she sat - the very picture of calm. And in an instant I knew: this is a sign.  I wasn't sure what it meant, but I definitely had a feeling that this was a message for me to calm down, ignore the chaos around me, and do what it was I had to do.  I was completely altered:  peaceful and confident.

The exam was a breeze.  I stumbled over two of the forty-six questions, but I didn't worry about them.  I didn't know the answer, I wasn't likely to remember the answer.  Move on.  The remainder of the questions were straightforward.  My pen never paused; it just confidently moved over the pages of the answer booklet, and I finished in plenty of time.  I stood tall, collected my things, and handed over my completed exam to the professor.  I looked him in the eye and whispered: "thank you". 

And then I remembered that several years ago, I had a similar experience when I was out for a walk during a difficult period of my life. While I was walking along, a doe stepped out of a cornfield about 50 feet ahead of me, and began walking calmly up the lane.  I nervously followed her for several minutes, and then she stopped, twisted her neck around to look at me, and then walked back into the cornfield.  It was such an incredible, strange, frightening, but beautiful experience. 

Later, I shared the story of my meeting with the doe with an aquaintance - - I've since lost contact with her - -  who had some semi-peculiar belief system that I neither understood, nor did I ask too much. A little new age....definitely NOT my "thing".  But she told me that the deer entering at that moment was in response to what I needed, to deliver a message, and showed me in a book of native totem lore what the doe's arrival meant.

This memory got me thinking.  I wondered what the baby bunny means?  So I did what every good and curious person does: I GOOGLED IT!!! Imagine my surprise (kind of a Twilight-Zone-ish moment!) when this is what I discovered:

Rabbit's medicine includes moving through fear, living by one's own wits, receiving hidden teachings and intuitive messages, quick thinking, and strengthening intuition. Rabbit reminds us not to be afraid. Fearful thoughts reproduce and bring the very thing we fear. If you see Rabbit or in any way feel attracted to her, she may be telling you to stop worrying and to get rid of your fears. She always indicates a need to re-evaluate the process you are undergoing, to rid yourself of any negative feelings or barriers, and to be more humble.

The sky opened up a few times, and dropped big fat splashes of rain on us, but we had a terrific morning our yard sale-ing. Everyone we stopped at had great treasures.

DH and Itty Bitty are thrilled with their finds.  Itty Bitty got three bass pedals for $1 each....new they would probably cost between $70-$120 each, so he's one pretty happy kid.  DH got a terrific deal on some sort of ....I dunno....something about sound and panels and slides and watts and recording, and there's great big speakers involved. 

Me? Oh....I picked up a couple of kitchen towels and a huge rubbermaid lidded tote box for Baby Soldier to take to college, and a lamp for my bedroom,  a book.  Just a few odds and ends.  I picked up this book for 50 cents:

It's got 501 4" block patterns in it.  That's smaller than Dear Jane!!!!  It's a fantastic big fat book with traditional blocks, album blocks, applique blocks, paper piecing....I think it will be a great resource.

I forgot to show this little find that was among the contents of an old sewing basket that I got a couple of weeks ago.

This has got to be one of the smallest thimbles I've ever seen.  I put some of my other thimbles in the photo, just for contrast so you can make out just how teeny weeny it is!  There's no mark on it, and it feels sort of "zinc-y" to me, it it appears it's been molded in two separate pieces.  It's not even half an inch across, and just barely half and inch tall.  If anyone knows anything about thimbles, I'd appreciate any information about it. 

Oh....and I found this old thing too:

Ya baby!!!!!  hehehe....and if I told you how much I paid for it, I'd never be able to go yard sale-ing again because my car would be full of drooling quilters hoping that we would come across another deal like this.  I test drove it, and bargained a little, and it was SOLD!  The box is in marvelous shape, and the instruction book was in the box too.

We nearly missed it, but DH saw it on a table and pulled over, because he thought it was a little guitar amplifier.  hehehehe

SLEEP CLINIC: the doctor was very nice.  He spent about an hour and a quarter with me taking a history.  I have to have some kind of test that involved electrodes glued all over my head, and I have to keep a sleep diary for three weeks or something. 

On the advice of my classmates, Prof. Horrid (first name Dick) has had a name change.  He's now Prof. Dick Horrific.(say it outloud - you'll laugh)

I'm absolutely exhausted.

I was back and forth from the philosophy building to the library, rewriting, reprinting, resubmitting.

His main problem the first time?

"blah, blah, blah,...in a definitive and lasting way.  Therefore, it is not a big idea."

 

He INSISTED that I take out the period and put in a semicolon to make it one sentence.  REALLY

By the way....big idea is HIS term, not mine.  I feel so dirty......

I'm not going to go into all of his problems.....but you see the nature of the beast.  After another printing at the library (to the tune of $1.08 each time) I asked to use the stapler at the reference desk, because my essay had better bloody well be stapled!!!!!!!!! and another student remarked that I looked a little ...um.....annoyed....so I showed her my essay, and she couldn't believe the hoops he was making me jump through.  She said she was in her fourth year of her second degree, so I expect she's handed in an essay or two, and had a Prof. Dick Horrific of her own at some point.

But it's handed in.

I fully intend to take all the copies of my essay, with his gobbledy gook penciled all over them, and submit them to the dean of the department to see what kind of sadistic monster they have put in charge of a person's academic success. 

Baby Soldier was with me for all of this, and offered to smack him around a little for me.

My last lecture of the spring session is this morning.  AHH!!!  I can't wait to have some down time. hmmm.... I got a quiz back the other day: 33.5/35!!!

The hardest thing for me has been the essays.  It's incredible to me, because I really enjoy writing, and I think I'm pretty darn good at it.  I spent some time with my Writing prof the other day, and she encouraged me to embrace the lessons that I'm learning from Prof. Horrid the philosophy professor, that I've got superb writing skills, and that's why it's so difficult for me to cut, narrow, and dehydrate my arguments in the way he wants.  She also encouraged me to choose courses taught by profs who were older, and a little more sure of themselves. 

I'm considering making a voodoo doll, so I can torture Prof. Horrid (first name Dick!) the same way he's tortured me.  But I'd add premature balding.....and pathological impotence that NOOOOO little blue pill will fix. Maybe a gambling addiction too.  Pain is not enough; true suffering is indicated here.  We did class evaluations on Monday, and I took sadistic pleasure in being completely honest in my evaluation of him as an instructor. 

I have a meeting with Prof Horrid this morning too (yes, I did give him good marks for making himself available to students, because it didn't ask me if he was actually HELPFUL during that time).  He'll be taking a THIRD look at my last essay which is due tomorrow.  I'm going to keep going back to his office with a rewrite all day today if that's what it takes, because I'm going to win.  This punk cannot beat me.  This essay is going to be perfectly wrought, though I have a feeling he really wants me to hand in an essay inked in my own blood on vellum made from own flesh.  

I reckon I've put about 60-70 hours into this paper already. And it's less than 1200 words. Four pages.  THAT is insane. I had to do MORE research last night so I could provide a citation that a particular work has been studied.  Ummmmmmm.....WE ARE STUDYING IT DICK! I didn't slap him.  I just nodded, said 'fine - not a problem' and miraculously found a citation from 'scholarly reference material'

This has to be said.  Over the 2nd and 3rd page, I write a series of five paragraphs, one to present four separate pieces of evidence to support one argument. The first paragraph indicated that the argument was supported in "several ways".  Each of the next three paragraphs begin "First," "Secondly," "Thirdly," and the 5th paragraph began "And finally," 

He pitched a tantrum, insisted that I change several ways to "four ways", and the "finally" be changed to "fourthly" because he can count you know!!!!!!!!!  seriously.....I couldn't make this up.

A voodoo doll is sounding better and better.  I have some great big corsage pins, and one great big honkin' hat pin that could do some damage.

These blocks have been in various stages of completion for weeeeeeeeks.  I decided to take a break from reading about the Nazi's to press and square up a few blocks.

The first is a 12" block called Swamp Angel

And I've added two more 4.5" blocks to the Dear Jane count: D11 Snow Crystal and D12 Crossed Swords.  I made a boo-boo.  Crossed swords should have been grey.  If I get the urge to correct this problem, I will, but for now, D12 remains pink.

That's it for now.  It's back to the Nazi's for me.

This has been a particularly BUSY week.  But, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  Four more lectures and then two exams, and I'm done these two courses.  I'll be off from June 25 until classes start up again on the 7th of July. 

UNIVERSITY: Unfortunately, my philosophy essay and writing essay weren't as wonderful as my writing mid-term.  I knew I wasn't going to get such a hot mark on the philosophy, but I was a little taken aback when I only achieved a 62.  I did little better on the writing essay with a 70. Two more essays to hand in this week.  I made an appointment with the philosophy prof to grieve my mark, and I put up some pretty good arguments.  He did admit that I deserved a better mark, but he wasn't going to grant it. We went over my outline for the next essay, and over and over and over it again.  At the end I made it clear to him that I NEEDED an excellent mark on this second essay, in order to get my minimum 70% pass, and asked him (I unwrapped my fingers from his throat in order to let him answer) if there was anything that he wasn't completely convinced that I understood.  He assured me I would do much better.  I wrote the essay yesterday, and I'll show it to him on Monday for any final suggestions before I submit it.  I learned about passive vs. active voice and levels of argument. 

PORNOGRAPHY:  (did I get your attention?)  A guest lecturer from a university in Texas gave a talk on the subject of pornography.  I haven't quite recovered from it yet.  Now, I probably don't have a prudish bone in my body, and entered the lecture hall firmly on the fence on the subject.  My humanist/feminist side says it's simply wrong, subordinates and objectifies women, and isn't all that great for the consumers of the product either.  My far-left-of-liberal side says that censorship in any form is simply wrong, and there is already too much interference from powers-that-be into our personal privacy.  It was very eye-opening, I learned more than I ever thought possible on the subject.  I couldn't believe that coffee and muffins were being served, because I wasn't quite sure that I wasn't going to vomit or faint.  The periphery of my field of vision started to go black, and I started to look for an exit. Given stern warning that the slide show was going to be extremely disturbing, so we would break for a question and answer period first, I took the opportunity and got the hell out. I'm still not committed to either side, but my opinions have certainly been expanded to encompass many more arguments on the subject. 

YARD SALE DAY!: Another drippy Saturday morning, but we headed out anyway.  I didn't find many treasures, but got a couple of things for Baby Soldier: a set of dishes (the girl I got them from said they were HER college dishes, and there was luck attached to them since she passed) a small book shelf and an electric tea kettle.  I've noticed over the last two months or so that my Baby Soldier has become a bit of a tea granny, and the kettle along with the big mugs from the set of dishes will be welcome I'm sure.

I finally found a room divider!  I no longer have to suffer the view of the water heater and boiler when I'm down here in the studio.  It's kind of broing to look at, but still, an improvement.

 I got this book at a church sale. One of the authors is Nancy Zieman from the "Sewing with Nancy" show on PBS.  It gives the link www.creativekindness.com where they keep up to date information about donation destinations and printable patterns for sewers, crafters and quilters interested in putting their talents to use to help others. 

IN THE MAIL: Something sort of neat arrived this week.