EXCHANGE INTERFACE

I went back to my "2024 goals" post here and discovered that I indeed got some of my goals achieved!

2024 goals
1. Complete rough draft of The Nullifae: Agent of Change. (And it can be very rough. But she has to have closed the portal and Dion has to have offered her a job. I know how these scenes go, I just have to write the other scenes before them.) - DONE: and it is indeed very rough
2. Finish The Gathering Clouds (MCU: Psy-Changeling AU)
3. Get the roof repaired - DONE - and the ceilings repainted.
4. Produce apricots. (I have no idea how to prompt this. Really no idea.)
5. Finish and/or make 12 quilts/major fabric works. (clothing and curtains both count) - DONE

That's 50%, right?

Finishing the Gathering Clouds is still a pipe-dream. Apricots were unsuccessful (so were mangoes), and I think getting the ceilings repainted is going to be an expensive proposition. Trying to find anyone to do anything right now is an expensive proposition.

And here's the dozen quilts finished (most of them made in previous years but only FINISHED finished just now:

( images, one two many lots )

And there are two more that have come back from te quiter and now need to be bound. *sigh*

I wish I had real people interacting with me on TwiX and not just bots all the time.

I have bulbs to plant and I am trying to work out where, exactly, to plant them.

Sissi the chook is not getting worse, but neither is she exactly getting better. The run of antibiotics are just about done, but we are giving her old pain meds because she is still flinching when we palpate her.

Every time I intend to go to the gym at lunch, I forget and eat lunch and then remember I intended to go to the gym at lunch.

After the sun sets lately, I just want to go to bed.

I have a friend's quilt which I intended to give him earlier this year, but the backing didn't stretch enough to make it quiltable, so I put it off. Now his birthday is at the end of the month and I'm trying to determine if I can get it quilted before his birthday.

We finally got some pest controllers in to rebait the rat traps. The rats have been getting very bold; casually wandering across the lawn in broad daylight.

This afternoon I harvested some tomatoes and some kumquats. I think we might just end up eating this lot.

Also, I have some ginger in the same planter as the tomatoes; either they got crowded out by the tomatoes, or the soil isn't right for them - while the ginger in the northside, full sunlight planter went off, this one has produced a couple of stalks but no actual root. Conclusion: tomatoes and ginger don't really hit it off.

Ugh. Just got notice that the thing I fixed yesterday is working for one set of parameters, but not for others. Which, not entirely surprising, but not welcome news either.

That was a busy weekend.

Saturday morning was quiet, Saturday lunch with some girlfriends from hockey. Saturday afternoon was the cousin's wedding. Saturday night was the church Trivia Night.

Sunday morning - again, quiet. Early Sunday afternoon was the church meeting about a proposed new building. Sunday late afternoon was hockey.

Less than 15 minutes into the game, I scored a goal. And then one of the opposite team players tripped me up with a stick between the legs, then tripped over me and fell on me.

I fell forward, but rolled over as I did, landing on my left shoulder some. Then the woman fell on top of me and I had my arms up as she hit me and that was when my head bounced against the ground - back of the head, shaken not stirred. I had blurry edges to my vision for a few seconds and decided to go off.

I ended up off the field for the rest of the game. *sigh*

Yesterday, most noticeably my neck and shoulder was sore, but I was also a bit vague at work and not terribly functional. I should have called a sick day, or even a sick half-day but 'powered through' and what usually would take me a couple of hours took a full eight to slowly plod my way through. Stupid.

Got a physio looking at the shoulder and neck, he agrees with me that it's just muscular and requires rest (and some loosening through massage), so that's a relief. Just a slightly achey one.

*grumbles*

That woman on the other team was responsible for several collisions: she has no spatial awareness (backed into me a few times) and a fairly solid body - add velocity which creates momentum and OUCH. Also, the stick-between-the-legs is a very illegal move, and I don't think she really got pulled up for it. I shall be EXCEEDINGLY wary of her in future. And if she does it next game, I'm going to get the captain to have a word with the umpires. Because that's fucking dangerous.

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Four other women from hockey met for brunch

One is playing in the team above, another isn't playing at all this year (has some medical stuff going on) - and had some lunch and some drinks.

The brunch was nice, but I couldn't stay because I had to head out for the wedding. I also couldn't drink because I go pink when drinking alcohol and it's very inelegant. Anyway, had some food, some chats, but then had to run off to the wedding.

I hope they invite me back - I think I mostly got invited this time because I'm a reasonably close friend with the organiser of this time (although I'm still friends with the others, I don't know that I'd say we're close). I'm not objecting!

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Cousin's wedding, family stuff.

The bible reading went off fine (I could do bible readings with a concussion, I reckon, I've done it so often) and while G and I have never been close per se, I've always tried to talk to her at family events, because she doesn't always attend them and she can sometimes be a bit awkward. I guess that counts! Also, her fiance (now husband) is a little bit quirky and a bit awkward, too, and kind of delightful.

I think the thing about G's wedding was that it felt very tense to me, mostly because she wanted everything to go right - kind of a 'big day should go perfectly' mentality, but with the 'if anything goes wrong I'll blame myself'. But it all went of without a hitch, she and M sang their vows to each other (in boring pentatones, like a Gregorian chant; I can't say it was my preferred choice of song for wedding vows) which I knew about because I saw it at the rehearsal on Thursday night.

Anyway, G's mother came along (Aunty C, I've written about her before), but her father wasn't invited and neither mum nor the uncles told him when it was! But we did send him photos. I hope he's okay. He kind of missed chunks of both his daughters' weddings - he and Aunty C were together when Cousin E married (G's older sister) and they were angry that E had married someone Aunty C didn't approve of, so they attended the wedding but they weren't involved and they didn't go to th reception after.

Anyway, he missed G's wedding entirely. Not that Aunty C was involved. At this point of life (G is about four years older than me) there is no 'family giving the bride away', so none of that stuff.

*sigh*

Family.

G&M had a reception with M's side of the family that night (they're from out of town) and rather than try to drag us all together at once, our side of the family has a reception in two weeks' time. Which is good - we can all be our wild and woolly selves!

As I told M before the ceremony: "welcome to the madhouse!"

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trivia

Saturday night was the church mission Trivia Night. Our table had four people, and then we co-opted the senior minister, and he was going to be our 'Bible round' guru.

We weren't even placing at the end of Round 2 out of 3, but we managed 3rd place in the end! Not bad for only 5 people!

And we'd have done even better if they'd taken the two questions that I was pretty sure of the answers and gone with my answer instead of the senior minister! *smugs*

1. Which is the longest book in the bible?
A: Jeremiah. (everyone went for Psalms or Isaiah)

2. Who wrote most of the New Testament?
A: Luke. Paul wrote more letters, sure, but fewer words. Luke was a doctor/philosopher. The man wrote like words were going out of style.

Anyway, I think we would have come second if we'd gotten those ones correct.

Also the Noah question: how many of each animal did Noah take into the ark? Everyone knows that it was 'two' of some, but there were 'sevens' of others. Apparently the answer is 'two of every unclean animal, and seven of every clean animal'.

I wasn't with my usual Thursday Trivia team (because the friend who asked me to join her team asked five minutes before my usual Thursday team), and they won. *sadface* And I won't be able to go to the next Trivia thing they're going to - it's at a different club, the night after I've had my Mirena put in to try to control my fibroids. I don't think I'll be up to it.

Hm, I have a suggestion for one of next year's "wildcard fill-in sheets" when the Trivia Night comes up next year... *evil grin*

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And then Sunday afternoon was the church meeting about an expansion program.

the meeting was not fruitful; he resigned on the spot

(No, he didn't. That's a quote from one story in a children's book series about a pack of mice and the cat who hangs around with them: The Church Mice. This one was a favourite of my sisters and I: "The Church Mice At Bay" - about the vicar going away on a holiday for some months, and the replacement being...rather less to Sampson and the mice's style than they would like.)

We only just finished paying off the debt on the building that we have, which was renovated, I think, ten to fifteen years ago? And now they want to go bigger.

There was a meeting. Things were said. I'm going to write up my thoughts on it somewhere else because y'all don't want me to be lecturing you on my understanding of church history. :)

The scary part? They don't have a cost estimate. Not yet. But there's already a sunk cost - they started putting this together in 2022, and hired some architects to come and look and work out a project ending, involving a bigger and dedicated worship space, more rooms for conferences and meetings, an education centre that would hopefully remain an education centre (instead of being co-opted for church services as happened to the education centre from the previous church building project), and an actual kitchen. (Hey, don't knock the kitchen; churches should be excellent places for group cooking things - lunches and dinners and potlucks and youth group pizzas, etc.)

Anyway. It was...interesting. But they haven't sold me on it yet. And I'm among the class of people they have to sell it on: have money, another 20 years earning potential, don't have kids relying on me, have a vision for the faith and the church. It'll be interesting to talk about that tonight at my weekly bible study group. If we do.

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And then hockey. Where I got tripped, and then fell on, and then concussed. Lightly.

I did manage to score a goal before the other player concussed me. So yay.

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Finally work.

long and extra hours

I have worked at least one extra days' worth - probably two at this stage - doing work out-of-hours for this project. I was on at 10pm last night (after dinner) to finish a few things off.

I ended up having to take all of yesterday's work out and write a couple of new things. And Monday was worked through the fuzz of my post-concussion brain which felt functional but a bit slow. *sigh*

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Anyway, that was the weekend. It was a lot.

Finally, I could use your advice:

quilt border?

This is my entry for the quilt show this year. Does it need a border of some kind?

Took my friend's cans/bottles to recycling yesterday. Four black garbage bags' worth took me about 30 minutes to do, with a couple of "IDEK how this thing works" (since I haven't really done it before - I let my sister do the return-and-earn stuff).

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Still great when someone reads an entire series and kudoses all the stories in the series instead of just the last one...

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Looking at warm underthings for Europe in December - silk at this point, because merino . Apparently the weather is cold, but inside the buildings it should be pretty warm (unlike the situation in, say, Beijing and Xian, China), so just have to survive the outside because the inside will be toasty warm.

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Was going to take a nap during lunch. Ended up going outside, fixing the espalier frame, and sorting through the box of 'watering system' pieces which I've intended to sort through for over three years...

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Finished another quilt! Bound and ready to go!


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Seeing a podiatrist this afternoon about issues with the big toe joint.

I'm in a finishing mood right now, trying to get a bunch of quilts quilted and out the door.

So, funny story.

At church last night, they announce that if anyone has something they'd like to donate for an auction on Saturday night, then please let [young guy] know. After going around and chatting with a few people, I recall this and go off to find him.

He's talking with his mum, who's of my generation (IDK, my friends are all in the 50-60 range, I'm like the baby of the group at 46; it's partly because I'm childless and the 50s are when a lot of their kids are much less dependent on them than the women in the 40s whose kids are primary age or young secondary) and I mention to him that I'd like to donate a quilt to the auction. And his mum FREEZES with her eyes huge, and then is like "SAY YES! SAY YES NOW!" And the poor guy (early 20s) is all deer-in-headlights because his mum is so excited and he has no idea why.

I do have to put her on the list of ppl for giving quilts to. Not the super-fancy ones like in the icon, just the 'ordinary' ones that are still sweet and neat, just not elaborate.

*looks at her wall of fabric*

Hoo boy. Still plenty to make.

The problem with finishing one quilt top is that I am instantly "FINISH ALL THE TOPS" and start planning other ones.

My enthusiasm usually runs out after a week or two, of course, but during this time I spend a lot of time looking at pretty quilt patterns and thinking "I could do that. Yes, yes, I could do that!"

Sometimes I could. Sometimes I just don't have the time...

A nice white lady wanted to make an 'African quilt'. Her son said it was racist and culturally appropriative. She posts to an FB Quilting Group asking for opinions on the matter.

The opinions are pretty much what you'd expect.

( and then there I was being all fly-y in her ointment )

Now I have to find a way to post about this in my quilting blog, such that a few people might actually think about these things.

I've been sewing facemasks.

Not the super dooper ones that keep everything out, just the ordinary, 'don't touch your face, protects you from basic heavy spatter' ones, with space for an insert. They're not great, they won't last very long, and so long as proper clean practise is undertaken for using them, then we can do this.

Other than that, the 'old lady sewing group' (they'd have my head if they knew I'd described them like that, but honestly, they're all older than me by ten to forty years) has taken to sending pics of their weekly work to the main organiser who puts them up on the quilting blog. Tech only goes so far with these ladies.

My 'mod squad' has started Zoom sewing sessions where we're all on Zoom but sewing at our own tables. This is pretty much what we do when we meet to sew, but we're usually all in the same room, so it totally works. And yeah, it's harder to wander over and take a look at people's stuff, but it's still the social chatting and interaction that we crave from each other.

Apart from that, my local group had a Frocktails event that was supposed to take place last Saturday, but was turned virtual - you were encouraged to take a photo of yourself and your dress with a drink. So many of us did! #virtualfrocktails is the instagram tag if you're interested - and it was worldwide!

I actually posted a few photos, because I had a few dresses that I hadn't had much of a chance to show off. A hot pink 'tea dress', a silver-grey cocktail dress (that I barely fit into), and a knit that could be 'business casual' if made out of a less fancy material.


And a glam profile photo!


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Oh, and I dipped a bunch of truffles that were leftover from Christmas. And then some marzipan.

And while dipping them, I realised the spatula head looked a bit like Elvis hair. So I and my sister made Spatula Elvis. She did the outfit, I did the guitar and the photography...



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Anyway, more sewing today: I'm going to sew together a bunch of squares that have been sitting around forever. Just sew them together into a quilt top and then decide what to do with them, if anything.

Oh, and finish off those facemasks. *sigh*

Four days at sea and I'm feeling a bit light-headed - like everything is swaying a little.

The holiday was excellent; plenty of sea and time, food and chances to read and write and quilt. Did I do as much as I hoped? I did not. But I enjoyed myself and the time spent with the women I travelled with, and I think the Pacific Explorer was a much nicer ship than the last one we went on. (Pacific Eden, maybe? Pacific Aria? I don't remember anymore.)

I came back to a sink full of dishes, my sister at my sewing space, and a four cubic metre pile of woodchips. *sigh*

( DO ALL THE THINGS )

So...a few things to do...

I'd love to do Frocktober, but I don't know if I have enough frocks.

I mean, I have some seriously fancy ones, but...they're for wearing out to parties and stuff. Ordinary, 'everyday' dresses are not such a thing.

And there's no way I'd be able to make a dress for every day of October.

Plus, I want a few more dresses with sleeves. And sleeves are hard to fit correctly. :/