The Beer Garden

I think we’re as ready for the storm as we can get, which is a good thing, since according to NOAA, tomorrow’s going to be the worst day.  We have plenty of food, sodas, beer, matches and candles/oil lamps, gas for the picnic stove, and I just filled the tub in case we need the water to flush the toilet.

No, I’m not really expecting any major problems — at worst, a brief loss of electricity — but weather like what’s predicted for tomorrow is one of the things that makes me glad we live in a 160+-year-old house with peg construction in oak beams.  It may be a little lopsided in places, but it’s strong! 

One other precaution, though I’m not sure how much good it’ll do: with 6-8" of rain and strong winds predicted, I’m letting the dogs out any time they want, in hopes they’ll empty themselves out quite thoroughly.  Sable doesn’t usually object too much to going out, even in bad weather, but Samson’s not quite that forgiving, weatherwise. 

Like wishing I didn’t have to come up with titles for posts — I am really awful at coming up with names for characters or titles for anything!

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I’m really happy to see gas prices coming down.  Now why couldn’t they have done it while I was having to drive all the way to Dover every day for the radiation treatments?  I hear predictions that prices are going to keep dropping to about the $2 mark, which would be really nice.

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Finished cutting the squares for my quilted-potholder project.  The next step is to start sewing them together, in between finishing up the T-shirt trim and attaching it, and tatting bookmarks for this year’s Senior Center sale.  (Yes, I know I have too many projects going at once.  I always do.  I’ve finally learned to get over thinking of it as a problem, since it’s a lifelong thing I’m not going to be able to change.  I’ve tried.)

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According to the most recent Ernesto track I’ve seen, it looks like we’re going to get hit with 6-8" of rain, and pretty heavy winds.  I’m not too sure exactly when, but if it’s Saturday/Sunday, I think I’ll call our friend and tell him we won’t be to Dover for breakfast.  A normal storm isn’t too bad, but this doesn’t sound like anything I’d care to be out in. 

As I mentioned earlier, I’m a sucker for kittens (especially rescued ones), and this place I just found looks like a great place to get a new picture every day: 

The Daily Kitten

I should’ve done any posting earlier — right now, we’ve got a bunch of thunderstorms going through, with a tornado watch on top of that.  More tomorrow, unless we get more boomers.

According to current forecasts, Ernesto is going to be hitting this area pretty hard on Sunday and Monday.  I will freely admit we need some rain rather desperately — we haven’t had any worth mentioning all month — but something less drastic than hurricane or tropical storm remnants would be a lot more welcome!  I wish I could think of some way to tempt Ed the Weatherman over here; his forecasts, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that he’s not a pro are the most accurate I’ve ever seen.

Well, it is hurricane season, and I do have a storm stash.  There’s just one problem: my low-fat diet quit working, so Mr. Empire and I have both gone on Atkins, and I don’t have an Atkins-compatible section.    Which means I’m going to have to do a rush job of putting at least a small one in before then.  Like I really love what I would guess is available …  Not that I expect to need it, at least this time; unlike when we were in Dover, we rarely lose power here for more than an hour or two, which is no problem.

If you’re as much of a sucker for pictures of rescued kittens as I am, you won’t be able to resist the one here:

IDF Website

Wish I knew that soldier’s name! 

I spent a pretty fair amount of time yesterday, and most of today, working on a project for the Senior Center’s fundraising craft sale (for next year, which is fortunate, all things considered!).  I did very careful (I thought) calculations, wanting to do a batch of potholders 6 1/2" square, using the square-in-a-square quilting pattern, with a 9-patch scrap block as the center, 45* square — a good way to use up a bunch of my scraps.

Well, ol’ genius here miscalculated the size of the nine-patch blocks by 1/4", which means all the inner blocks I cut and sewed together are unusable for that project and I get to start over.  ::sigh:: Oh, well, at least I have over a year to make sure I get it right and make enough to be worthwhile.  Sometimes being a fallible human stinks, ĉu ne?

Other than that, it’s been a rather slow and boring day, so I won’t inflict it on the rest of y’all. 

I took a day off today from major cleaning, and enjoyed it quite a lot.  Still am, as a matter of fact! 

I was on hiatus from my staff job at The Cauldron (a mostly-Pagan religion discussion and debate forum) until yesterday, and it’s great to be back — I spent a good part of last night, and some time today, getting re-acquainted with the rest of the staff.  It’s like this place in that you can read as a guest, but to join in the discussions,  you have to be registered and logged in.  (As a side note, I think the Cauldron is the only Pagan forum on the net to have a degreed Christian theologian as one of our senior staff.  Brilliant lady she is, too!)  It’s really great to have a computer that’ll handle the Cauldron’s software (my 14-year-old one wouldn’t) and feel good enough that I felt able to resume my duties.

After today’s totally unproductive yard-saling, I took some of my "stuff" (leftover quilt parts, a couple of cross-stitch patterns I’ll never use, a tiny travel steam iron that might be suitable for her collection, that sort of thing) over to Audrey, and picked up some ideas on things to do with fabric scraps that are too big to throw away, but too small to go in a full-sized quilt.  The first one I tried was too time-consuming for a scrap project, but I have a couple of other things to try.

We’d planned on going out first thing tomorrow morning to do some more adjustment on the Gee Bee, but the most recent wind forecast makes that pretty unlikely to happen.  Also, even though the weather forecast only calls for a 30% chance, it looks an awfully lot like it could rain any time.  Part of me doesn’t want it, so we can go fly, but the rest of me knows we really need it.

Oh, well, the weather-guessers can be wrong, even though when it comes to wind predictions, the ones here err on the understating side rather than overestimating, the vast majority of the time.  Still, we shall see. 

Hat tip to Mike C., via Nuke Gingrich: 

Russian scientist predicts global cooling

I’m having hysterics (well, not quite) over this one, as I can remember very clearly back in the 70s, all sorts of scientists were predicting we were in the beginnings of a global cooling cycle that would lead to another Ice Age.

::snicker:: 

Well, except for the carpet, and I’m not at all sure when I’ll get to that, so at least for now, it’s done.  As are all the downstairs books; the upstairs ones (and any other upstairs cleaning) gets to wait until the weather cools off a bit — maybe mid-September, maybe not till October.

I must say, the place looks strange.  All the work surfaces except the puzzle board are bare of anything that doesn’t have to stay on them, instead of being cluttered with 2-4 projects apiece.  The puzzle board is usually the exception, since I can’t put anything else there without messing up the pieces.  (Though the board itself can be removed from the base so I can put a quilting hoop there, when I’m in that sort of mood.)

The workbench is the oddest-looking, I think — not only is it empty, it’s now got a flat, one-color surface — not that it’s likely to stay that way terribly long, but for now, at least …

I think I shall take the weekend off from major cleaning, too!  After four days on one room (well, three and a half, with Wednesday’s flying session), I don’t even want to think about cleaning!  Yard sales, spinning, maybe a test piece for a quilt idea I had …