Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Some People Never Learn

Despite having more than 200 lawsuits under his belt, or these days under the belly that falls over the belt, Trump is still insisting that he isn't getting due process, his 6th amendment guarantees, or protections from his legal team in the newly opened impeachment hearings. Simply another example of Trump's ignorance regarding the law and/or the Constitution. The 6th amendment applies to criminal proceedings. If Trump had shot someone on 5th Avenue, the 6th amendment would apply, but an impeachment proceeding is not a criminal investigation so all of those due process or confront your accuser ideas aren't relevant in this case.

I think it would be great if Trump would come and testify because that would be the spectacle of all spectacles but that would be the only way he could expect any sort of due process--in that he would have to adhere to the same process as all other witnesses. But since the White House has barred a dozen people from testifying and blocked access to many dozens of pages of information, it is unlikely that Trump will provide any personal insight into the facts of the investigation.

Do I want Trump to be impeached? I would much rather he were voted out of office by a thinking majority of American voters. Since these days that seems questionable, I choose impeachment.

And, what the hell is Hillary Clinton doing saying she still wants to be elected? I certainly won't say that I would vote for Trump over Hillary but they are both barf bags as far as I am concerned.

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Chutzpah

The old definition of chutzpah was the guy who killed his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court because he was an orphan. Under Trump, chutzpah emerges in multiple guises. There is Trump insisting that the transcript of his phone call was perfect and complete even though the transcript released specifies that it is not complete. There is Eric Trump who said that neither he nor any of his siblings would dare to do what Hunter Biden did--I mean trade on his father's fame and position? There is Don Jr. not only speaking out incoherently but getting an incoherent book published about the unfair treatment and bad behavior his family has endured while at the same time repeating the unfair behavior and bad treatment that they do on a daily basis to others. There is the entire draft dodging military service shirking crew calling a decorated veteran, a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army, names that offend the senses let alone offend the truth and calling another decorated officer, first in his class at West Point, a traitor. So chutzpah, meet Trumps.

Please understand the facts. There was a quid pro quo but there does not need to have been for what Trump did to instigate investigation and impeachment inquiries. The WH lawyers and the defenders of Trump on the Republican side of the aisle are entirely wrong in their understanding of what the Constitution describes and in what they demand. The Republicans are hoist on their own petard over the closed door testimony as they wrote those specific rules when they controlled business. There is no honor within that group whatsoever. Let's face it: anyone who depends on Gaetz to be the face of their resistance has a very thin bench.

As it stands right now, there is a reasonable chance that Mike Pence will be impeached as well. His sycophantic brown nosing of Trump led him to engage in the whole nonsense involving Ukraine. So if what Trump did was an offense, Pence is also guilty 


Wednesday, October 23, 2019

At Least Some Things Are Looking Up

Our remodel is still moving along steadily and ahead of schedule. This week and next week are major working days for plumbers, electricians, painters, and finish carpentry. Yesterday and today the tile guy was working in the kitchen. As I have written before, one side of the kitchen is the true cooking area. When complete it will have three full ovens, two gas and one electric; a microwave oven; a refrigerator; large sink with accessories, the sink comes with a cutting board, a sieve basket, a container, and a rack and all of those accoutrements sit on the inside of the sink as needed. That's the side of the kitchen that is getting the tile backsplash with the quilting motifs.


 The diamond in a square tile is centered over where the 48 inch Wolf range will stand. The four square blocks go around the room although the colors are hard to discern in the corner photo. The other side of the room has the blue cabinets so the blue mimics that and Wolf ranges come with red handles on the front so the wine color tiles sort of mimic that although they are darker red. Our small eating area will have a square top pedestal table in worn wood finish with four leather chairs around it, two blue and two the same green as the field tiles. One wall has the blue cabinets and the opposite wall where there is no window will have an enormous English fiddle front dresser in worn wood and worn black paint.

My husband and I won't be tripping over each other here and in addition to all of these cabinets, there is a full walk in pantry that's about 10 by 10 with shelves on three of the four walls so lots of space for canned goods, dry goods, potatoes and onions, etc. I have not decided yet if we will have a wine chiller in there since I don't drink a great deal of wine but there is a plug outlet so I can set up some of my electronic kitchen devices in there if I need to.   

Thursday, October 17, 2019

When Truth Falls

Today Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget and currently the White House chief of staff threw down a gauntlet to all Americans, not just the journalists to whom he addressed his words. He flat out stated that Trump had stopped congressionally approved aid to Ukraine because Trump wanted investigations into not only the Bidens but the totally spurious and nonsensical conspiracy theory that some DNC computer server that, according to the theory, is in Ukraine(https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/10/crowdstrike-ukraine-investigation-trump). Trump apparently believes every single conspiracy theory that flows down the sewage pipes of online and electronic data and he also apparently believes that this "server" will prove that Obama, the Fed, the FBI, the CIA, and others conspired to prevent him from winning the election. This despite the fact that he did win the election through the archaic Electoral College. When is enough not enough?

What makes Mulavaney's statements more appalling is that in essence he said, "So what?" So Trump stopped congressionally approved funds for Ukraine? The founders made ours a tripartite government because of their fear of investing power in only one branch. When any one branch exceeds what we ordinarily assume to be the boundaries we begin to mistrust our institutions. Trump is counting on this because his "So what?" is a direct slap in the face of the intelligence community (FBI and CIA), a direct slap in the face of the dedicated public servants in the Foreign Service, and even a direct slap in the face of the US armed services who are sworn to uphold and protect.

If there isn't trust in the institutions what is left to uphold and protect? Congress is equal to the White House by the Constitution. Trump says, no, I am the giver of all good things and I am great and powerful. Please notice that I did not put that in quotes although it mimics Trump's speech.

In the meantime, Trump is proclaiming that his actions in Syria have led to a tremendous breakthrough in a dramatic ceasefire by the Turkish mob. But Erdogan, who lost the confidence of his own people to the point that even after two votes in his home province around Istanbul where he served as mayor years ago, he still lost political control, flatly stated that it wasn't a ceasefire. He said that anyone who wanted to live had 120 hours to get out of his way and after that there would be no survivors. Our own senate has been dithering over language to condemn Turkey's actions while Erdogan shells everything in sight and we destroy our own arms depot to prevent the weaponry from entering the Turkish government's onslaught.

Go on, you Trumpettes, tell me that all this is good or rational or in anyway praiseworthy.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Subpoena

I have been subpoenaed once in my life. There was a man who was suing a landlord in Salt Lake City for unlawful discrimination. The building in question was an old Victorian house on my street that had been converted to apartments. Since we were close to both the university and downtown there were many people who wanted to live in the neighborhood and the man who was suing the landlord wanted to move himself, his wife, and his little girl into the apartment. The landlord wouldn't rent to him because he had a little girl. She even had a sign in the yard outlining that policy but it was entirely illegal since it wasn't a seniors only apartment.

My involvement came about because an attorney for the client knocked on my door and asked if I remembered seeing that sign. I used to walk down the street daily so I definitely remembered the sign and said so. I also told the attorney that I would be happy to testify when and if it went to trial. I didn't need to worry about bad blood in the neighborhood because I had never met the landlord who didn't live on the premises anyway. Despite making my promise, the attorney had a process server come to my house and hand me a subpoena because subpoenas have the force of law behind them (the word means "under penalty")--so at least theoretically they have the force of law behind them. Now my lawyer friends always tell me that in theory everything is legal until it is tested in a court of law. So like the landlord who engaged in illegal discrimination based on age until she was challenged, all the sychophants who agreed to jobs with Trump are defying the law and refusing to appear before the congressional committees. This behavior is supposed to be punished with fines and jail. If nothing else, this process will set some boundaries for behavior that until now was assumed to be illegal but had not been challenged at the high federal level where it now sits. 

Saturday, October 12, 2019

Quick Fix

Yesterday my husband and I went up to the new/old house to get some work done. I couldn't do what I originally intended to do because I found some spots in the plaster that needed fixing before they could be washed or painted but I did wash the walls that were clear of defects. One benefit of doing my own painting is becoming more intimately familiar with my new house. Most people wouldn't think of that as a good thing but when you buy old houses (and compared to my current space this house is just a teenager--1677 vs 1901), you learn that all knowledge is good even if the news is bad.

Anyway, we had left our three cats and one dog at home alone as we are wont to do. They all get along well and as anyone who has pets knows, sleep is the primary function of a cat or a dog. But when we got back to the house I found that some pet (certainly a cat but with three it's hard to say which) had knocked over a large vase of dahlias on our dining room table spilling water over one side of the table. I have no way of knowing when in the 2.5 hours we were gone the spill occurred, but hoping that it was closer to my return than my departure I jumped right in to what I had fortuitously looked up several months ago--how to repair water marks on furniture.

I used to give team parties for my two swim teams and had had to do some fixes on furniture finishes because of people who were apparently raised in a barn. I mean who doesn't know how to use a coaster when they are scattered everywhere? But this was still standing water all on one side of the table. I had read an article that recommended using a hot iron to extract the water. Well, son of a gun, it works. There were multiple places on the table (solid cherry wood not veneer) that had water on them and there were already indications that the water had begun to settle in to the wood when I wiped it dry. So I ran up two flights of stairs to my quilting studio and grabbed my iron and then grabbed a terry cloth towel.

I had never used this particular fix before but what is recommended is that you lay the towel over the area with the water spot(s), place a hot iron on the towel over the spot, hold for 30 seconds, lift the towel, wipe, and repeat. I was astonished. I had wiped the table dry but when I lifted the towel after holding the iron on the spot(s) there was water again on the table. So the hot iron was bringing the water out of the wood to the surface where it could be wiped off. I spent about twenty minutes moving the iron from place to place and checking each time. At the end of the twenty minutes, there were no watermarks, no visible darkening of the wood, nothing.

Since I made my dining room table myself, I was particularly interested in keeping it in reasonable shape. I don't mean in perfect museum quality shape, but we do take care not to place wet glasses on the wood. Now we know for sure to not leave the cats with a vase of water either, even if we don't think they have the strength to knock over that heavy vase. 

Wednesday, October 9, 2019

Son's Honeymoon Over, Move Coming Up

My son and his bride flew back to the States today from their extended honeymoon in Italy. They went from Paris via train to Torino, then by car to a few points in northern Italy, then drove to Naples where they ditched the car, then to Capri and Ischia and then by train to Paris for a couple of days before flying back home. It isn't the kind of trip I enjoy since I like to stay in one place a little longer and his longest stay was four days in Capri (which they disliked because of the tourist nature of the place). But they drove down the eastern coast of Italy and then across to Naples and saw all sorts of towns that they wanted to investigate.

My husband and I will shortly be moving again to the new/old house. We met with the contractors today and the move in day is somewhere between the 14th and the 21st of November. The kitchen cabinets are mostly installed, the countertops are being fabricated, the finish carpentry is supposed to be done on the 31st of October; everything is moving swiftly now. That means that my husband and I have to paint the master bedroom and the study attached to the master bedroom and paint the living room. The professional crew will be finishing painting the dining room and the gallery space and the electricians will be installing all of the lights.

I like painting. I have a lot of experience painting. So when the professionals even shocked our contracting company with their bid, I told my husband there was no problem with me painting. In fact this job is easier than most that I have done because I don't have to do any taping or mudding or filling in gaps in the plaster, just paint. Some of the rooms had to be primed but the ones that remain were just painted last summer by the real estate agent and had been painted previously so there isn't much priming and no mudding necessary. My husband always marvels at how steady my hand is when painting. I have found over many years that I am better off not using masking tape, not even the new tape that is head and shoulders over the previous stuff, because my edges are cleaner and my discipline is better. It is important to spend money on good paint and a good brush though and taking care of those is important as well. So the fact that I am in my 70th year now doesn't mean that I can't still climb a ladder and get the job done.  

Monday, October 7, 2019

Basting Finished

There aren't any new photos but I did finish the basting on the new project. I did not have a house full of cats the last time I made an Amish style quilt. Even though they didn't really hang around, the quilt still ended up with cat hair all over.

Speaking of cats, my two older gentlemen cats had their 6 month senior wellness exams. The slightly older cat, Tom, my mock Siamese, was perfect, but poor Barney showed signs of thyroid issues. I had asked for a blood test because he was drinking more, peeing more, and complaining more. I have no doubt this is the beginning of the end but other than some small problems he is fine for now. George Carlin said something along the lines of "All new pets are simply a tragedy in the wings."

My older dog also had some indications of an increase in his heart murmur problems but he is so old that he might die before those problems become in any way actionable.

In addition to the pet news, a good friend from Utah emailed me that he has been getting treatment for multiple myeloma. These days cancer treatments are far more advanced but it is always a crap shoot.  When my husband's roommate died of a sudden heart attack while hiking in Alaska this year, the other roommates objected to me characterizing that as the perfect way to die. Having seen so many of my friends and relatives die in ways that are neither as clean nor as easy as a sudden heart attack, especially my sister who was more or less a lab rat in a hospital where they broke her arm and her hip and surgically repaired both even though they knew she was going to die sooner rather than later, I know that if I have any control over the process I would choose sudden heart attack.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

Basting Layers

The young man for whom this quilt is intended lives in New Mexico. He said his favorite color was red. I asked if he wanted a melon slice, or a whole cloth, or an Amish style. Of course he had no idea because his mother doesn't sew and he even called all my thread yarn. But we honed in on Diamond in a Square with red being a dominant color.
I do remember from my early quilting days how hard it is to mark dark fabrics and it hasn't gotten a whole lot easier even with the latest mechanical pencil device and white leads. Oh well. I like it. I hope he will.

Saturday, October 5, 2019

More On The Small Quilt

When I purchased these blocks at the estate sale, they had names pinned to them. There was one familiar name in the bunch, or at least familiar to me, but the rest were strangers. I have been trying to find these people or their heirs, since I already know several of them are dead, as I found obituaries. If anyone in Utah knows Marilyn Rankin, the late Laura Tomita Lyons, Carma Russell, Emily Lowe, Leslie Pappas, Sylvia Taylor, Brent Price, JoAnn Tyler, or Gail Knowlton I would be happy to send this small top to any one of them or their heirs. I know that if someone found a quilt with my mother's (or father's) name on it I would be thrilled to have it so perhaps there is someone out there who wants this.

On a different topic: I did finish piecing and marking the king sized Amish style quilt. I don't know when I am going to get to layering it as I still have painting to do at the new/old house and meetings with the granite counter fabricators as well. It's a huge step forward to have the cabinets in and soon the counters and appliances. There are still something like six weeks to go but that's better than six months.

Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Work Moving Along

I have the Amish style king sized top put together and have marked all of it but the outside border which will be a fancy feathered wreath sort of thing with undulations. I have never made a king sized quilt before. I began piecing it on the machine but by the time I got to the last border it became very unwieldy, slipping around like an eel and making me feel like I was arm wrestling an octopus. So I made and applied the last border by hand, much more relaxing.

Work at our new/old house is moving quickly as well. Today the kitchen cabinetry started being installed. The kitchen is a large rectangle with a natural split in the middle where the back door is. On one side will be cherry cabinets stained in hazelnut and the range, electric oven, sink, dishwasher, refrigerator. On the other side will be pine cabinets painted in a lovely blue color with an eating area, another full sized sink, one upper cabinet, and then a large antique English fiddle front dresser. I have had islands or peninsulas in the last two houses and ended up not liking them so much as they impede flow. As I have room and additionally a very large pantry with many shelves, we chose a real table instead of any island.

My husband and I are doing some of the painting ourselves. We spent the morning priming the master bath for painting tomorrow. We had already painted the dressing room side but in doing so I found so many flaws in the mudding that I told the guy in charge of all the crews that work needed to be done. Two houses ago when we lived in the large white elephant that had once been a pretty grand mansion, I learned how to tape and mud, how to fix old plaster from the sanded layer outward, and just what a good job looked like. My husband says that I am magic but all you need is some patience, good light, and determination. It definitely didn't look as though the mudders had any of those because there were dings and gouges and places where the paper tape applied to the corners wasn't even adhered to the wall. So the crew did all kinds of repairs. Oddly enough it was all on one wall but that one wall looked as though a three year old had played with the spackle. Anyway, the wall needed to be repainted completely but the new plaster had to be primed so it's been an all day sort of project even though each individual component didn't take that long. The one bit of luck is that we picked matte finish so that one wall can be repainted without looking different from the adjacent walls.

My husband is proudest of the new window in the dressing room. The old building was quite lovely with very interesting architectural features but when it was originally converted from a stable to a house, some of those features were bastardized. The window on the front of the house that has its own gable and light was a beautiful arched window. I am not entirely sure what the glass looked like but if it was similar to the other windows it was multi-paned. So that's what we put back. We ripped out the aluminum window that was surrounded by stucco and brought the space back to its original shape though a little shorter to accommodate a heating element. We had to have the window custom built because the arch at the top was not a true half circle so a template had to be made so the window could be fit into the space with no gaps. It's a deceptive window because from the inside it looks enormous, easily towering over me, but from the outside, because of the scale of the building, it doesn't look that big. This is the space prior to the window installation.



This is the window as it is now without trim which has to be custom fit because the original arch was off so the window to fit is off as well. The scale is hard to judge until you understand that the room has an 11 foot ceiling. I have no doubt the neighbors will be glad when we are done, but I hope they appreciate the "restoration" of unusual features.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Unraveling

"To show you how dishonest the LameStream Media is, I used the word Liddle’, not Liddle, in discribing Corrupt Congressman Liddle’ Adam Schiff. Low ratings purposely took the hyphen out and said I spelled the word little wrong. A small but never ending situation with CNN!"

If you haven't read that tweet already, you should read it now--or read it again now. That is Donald Trump, our very own stable genius, chastising the news. This makes just about as much sense as "covfefe", another Trumpism. The Constitution says impeachment is necessary if the office holder commits "high crimes and misdemeanors" but I believe it should also include incredible stupidity compounded by hubris. Maybe if someone just started pulling on that comb-over he could completely unravel like a cheap sweater.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Husband's Favorite

It's fall and apple season. My husband doesn't really have a sweet tooth, neither of us are much into candy. But he does like two kinds of pie--pecan pie and apple pie. They are both fall pies anyway since that is the season for harvesting apples and pecans but these days both are available year round though clearly, for apples at least, the quality suffers the older they are and the further from their home ground.

The rule at our house for apple pie is that he can have one whenever he wants but he has to peel and slice the apples. Back in SLC he even picked the apples since there was a lone apple tree on public land near our house. Here it is:

My husband eats his with cheddar cheese. I stick to plain or with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. My poor husband found out today that he has to have a crown on one of his teeth so this will be a treat to heal that particular wound.

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Do You Know Me?

As I wrote previously, I have put together a small top with some of the blocks that I purchased a couple of years ago at an estate sale. It is charming and sweet but I do not know the name of the block. I am not even sure they were supposed to be put together in this manner rather than with the large triangles meeting at the intersections alternating light and dark.

Does anyone out there know this block? Does anyone out there want this top? It's quite small but suitable for a wallhanging or a baby gift.

Not only are the fabrics old-fashioned, most of them are old too--at least around 30. The outer light blue is relatively new but a reproduction from the Mill Girls line. This is all hand sewn and ready to be layered and quilted.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Even McConnell Knows

Today Mitch McConnell said, “The president has described it as a very appropriate conversation, but I think we’ll see what the facts say.”


So flat out, McConnell said that he did not believe Trump since he clearly believes the facts will contradict Trump's statement. Of course the chances of getting a transcript that hasn't been heavily redacted and then embellished are slim to none. Trump even contradicted his own previous statement today (what a surprise) when he initially said he didn't want to support corruption by sending Ukraine the money that Congress had authorized but then said he was just holding up the money to find out if any other countries were contributing because he believes they benefit more from a free Ukraine rather than a subservient Russian vassal state.

Trump certainly does know what corruption looks like, though.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Cleaning Up Some Loose Ends

I am between projects now so I have been straightening up my sewing room and putting objects away. I have also put together a small quilt top with some of the old blocks from the estate sale. At some point I will post photos of this because I don't even know what the name of the block is. It reminds me of a few different blocks without being any of them so it's sort of like Birds in the Air and sort of like Lady of the Lake without being either of those. I would have continued making this to completion but I don't currently have any leftover batting of the appropriate size or even of a combination of sizes that I could join with the iron-on batting tape. So that top went away because I refuse to purchase batting for a project like this that is so small and so insignificant that spending money on it would be plain silly.

But I have ordered the fabrics and the batting to make the Diamond In A Square quilt for the same family that received the Lovebirds quilt this weekend. In some ways I know this young man better than I know the sister who will get Lovebirds because he came to my house and then we had lunch side by side at a local restaurant when his family came through the area after attending their youngest son's graduation ceremony at Princeton. He is still mystified as to why someone that he doesn't know, isn't a member of his church or faith, only met him once, is willing, even eager, to make him a quilt. I don't much care if he understands as long as his parents remind him of the obligation of care he owes the quilt.

All the necessary goods except the quilt backing will be in place by the end of this week. I do have some appropriately sized pieces of backing so I only have to decide if I use those or order something else. I already have a picture of this quilt in my mind, the colors and the quilting designs, so once the fabric arrives I will be good to go. I haven't made an Amish style quilt in a couple of decades but I do still like the style. Plus now that I have shown myself that a good old-fashioned hard thimble is more efficient than a soft collar thimble, I know the quilting will be the restful activity I originally adored.

Loose ends also seem to be plaguing the White House. Earlier this year, Trump avowed that he would take opposition information about any opponent and claimed that any candidate would even though it was pointed out to him that soliciting and receiving aid from a foreign government or foreign entity would be entirely illegal. He scoffed at that idea. Turns out he may have scoffed because he had already used his powers to try to pressure the newly elected president of Ukraine to launch an investigation of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden.

That is an egregious abuse of power and a violation of multiple statutes and even the US constitution. If you don't understand why, then you probably don't understand much. 

Friday, September 20, 2019

Harvest Time

Even though it is just the two of us eating, our meals are still planned and enjoyed. I learned a long time ago that going to the market with a plan, especially when our boys were younger, was key to having variety and choice in our dinners. So we always sat down with our sons, even when they were bitty boys, to choose a week's worth of menus. This allowed everyone at the table to have some input in what was eaten so if one son wanted hot dogs and the other requested filet mignon we could talk about the choices and pick sides and make a plan.

My husband and I still sit down and set a week's menus. Sometimes circumstances intervene and we rely on meals that made too much and ended up frozen for just such an occasion. We do like to go out to dinner, but not to fast food so planning ahead makes a difference to us.

Another part of planning ahead involves making seasonal meals. I know that nowadays fancy restaurants are all in to locally sourced and seasonal food, but as a child of a grandfather and a father who grew all sorts of food, I learned young that the corn needed to be eaten when the corn was ready and the strawberries needed to be eaten when they were at their peak. As a side note to those strawberries, our basset hound would come out to Long Island with us for the summers and she loved strawberries. She would wander over the road to the farm side of the property and pig out, driving my grandfather crazy because he not only loved strawberries but he loved making strawberry preserves.

Anyway, we don't have much of a farm here but we do grow tomatoes, peaches, and squash. We also live close enough to NJ which still has a variety of truck farms providing produce to farmer's markets and to some local stores. It's the end of harvest season now and eggplant, zucchini,  tomatoes, and peppers are fresh and full of flavor. So ratatouille was on our menu tonight. It was delicious with everything fresh and from within 10 miles of where I live except for the mushrooms and those come from about 20 miles from here--Kennett Square.

Because it's just the two  of us, one eggplant is too much for even ratatouille so I have been making baba ganoush with the other half. As I wrote previously, there really isn't much as satisfying as making good food whether one is growing the ingredients or simply assembling them and cooking them. My youngest son is on his honeymoon in Italy now (that was our wedding present to them) and he is extolling the wonders of Italy and I do love Italy, but sometimes southeastern Pennsylvania is just as remarkable.

The owl or some other predator came back and took the remnants of the rabbit and this afternoon a fox was ten feet from my front door eating something. Birds are disappearing in remarkable numbers around the world but my little bit of Eden still has a ton of everything. I am glad that I am old so I don't have to witness a dead world.   

Thursday, September 19, 2019

What Comes Next?

The same family whose daughter will be the recipient of the Lovebirds quilt has been promised a quilt for a son too. It's not that I know these people that well or that we are good friends, but because I am tired of my quilts ending up stuffed in footlockers or elsewhere simply because I like to make quilts. Anyone who makes quilts and enjoys the process ends up practically addicted and it doesn't seem to matter if anyone wants the quilts or not. Even a well known quiltmaker (which I am definitely not) ended up selling her quilts in an online auction and she had way more quilts and tops than I will ever amass.

But my ego still comes in to play so I can't just give my handmade quilts to homeless shelters although I am willing to do so in my will. So they keep stacking up unless I can find people who express more than a passing interest in having a home made quilt. But the next quilt for my friends' son is supposed to be a king sized Amish style diamond in a square and no one, not even me, has that much fabric just sitting around.

So I ordered all the fabrics for the project and to fill my usual quilting time I took out some of the blocks that I offered to give away in a previous entry, and started sewing them together. I don't even know what the block is called and I certainly don't know what I will do with any finished product. The fabrics are what are usually described as Civil War colors and I had to make one more block to end up with a 4 x 6 arrangement. But the result, while pleasing because the workmanship is good, is not to my taste being far too somber. So now I have to devise some border arrangement that suits the old-fashioned fabric but also suits my taste for livelier quilts.

Close Encounter

My husband and I walk a 2 mile circuit every morning, often starting before the sun is up especially as the days grow shorter. This morning, leaving the house around 6 am it was quite dark and by the time we came around the back end of the circuit coming to our house it was still pretty dark. I don't know what the word for that dawn light is but there must be one analogous to gloaming since that only pertains to dusk. In any case, the woods are on our left side as we turn on to our lane with a very small rise between us and our house so anything at the rise gets silhouetted. Both of us said, "What's that?" I told my husband I thought it was an owl although he thought it might be one of the foxes. We took a few more steps and we were both sure that it was an owl but it wasn't moving, just standing on the ground looking at us. We got closer and it still didn't move and we knew it was a great horned owl staring at us as though it might attack. A couple more steps and we found out why it didn't want to leave.

It had killed one of the many rabbits that roam the woods and our yard and didn't want to lose a good meal. We got within about three feet before it turned and flew into the woods. This owl was so big I have no doubt it could carry the rabbit away and probably our terrier too.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Finished and Soon Off to England

I finished the quilting on the latest project that I am calling Lovebirds Looking For Direction. After I get it packed up it will take a long and odd trip. First it goes to Utah. From there it goes to England. I believe the young woman lives in London but I am not positive of that having only met her once and quite briefly at that. She doesn't know it's coming so that makes it even more strange.

Just as my husband snapped the picture the sun came out full strength hence the shadow on the upper corner but you aren't missing much.

Sunday, September 15, 2019

Yet Another Critter

I glanced out of an upstairs window yesterday afternoon and saw another inhabitant of our 100 acre wood. Strolling across the edge of our yard, heading for our tomato patch was a very large woodchuck/ground hog. I had never seen one in real life before, only on TV or in Groundhog Day but there was no mistaking what it was.

Monday, September 9, 2019

Hogwash and Nonsense

Several times recently people have tried to hijack posts to publicize ridiculous and dangerous health ideas. I try to delete these comments as soon as possible but I can't stay up 24/7. I do not endorse any health information from any source other than a licensed and board certified physician.

Friday, September 6, 2019

So Who Is Really Paying For The Wall?

Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall and some of his voters believed him because they believed that he was not only the great negotiator but a hard-headed business man rather than some government flunky type guy. But the first orders have finally, after nearly three years come through, and guess what--you, the American taxpayer are paying for the wall. Luckily that doesn't mean that Donald, or Donald Jr., or Ivanka, or Eric, or Tiffany, or either of the ex-wives will be paying since they are like Leona Helmsley(only little people pay taxes). They have tax shelters and tax lawyers who make sure that they will never pay a cent in federal tax.  They haven't paid tax in years and may never have to since they were the kind of people who wrote those tax write offs in the first place. Trump and his children and his wives pay very little tax and that comes from other taxable goods like clothing.

So who does pay for the wall now? Well the money comes out of Department of Defense funds so it clearly comes out of your pocket. Trump doesn't pay tax so it will never come out of his pocket. But what does it mean when the Department of Defense has to take money from projects that were already bid out? It means that places that were expecting Defense Department money to upgrade their facilities will now have to either find new money somewhere else--keep in mind that it is the Department of Defense so most of these projects can't just ask local government to cover it- or they have to go without the upgrades that had already been approved and budgeted. My former state of residence, Utah, will lose out to the tune of $54M of expected contracted projects. That's small change compared to Puerto Rico, an American territory whose inhabitants are American citizens and have been since the turn of the last century, which will lose $450M dollars in funds designated to help them recover from Hurricane Maria.

I have no doubt that that last little item pleases Trump since he clearly doesn't know and doesn't care that Puerto Rico is America. You know what else is America? All the military bases around the country and around the world that will lose money and need construction now. That includes West Point and the Air Force Academy as well as multiple schools on bases around the world.

But whose money is it? It was designated for the military so they will be starved, but it comes from your pocket. This time it's $3.6 billion. Next time it will be more. But it will all be your money while Trump's tax bill continues to pay off rich people and he himself doesn't pay taxes. Not a dime from his pocket but hundreds from yours.      

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

If It Weren't So Sad, It Would Be Funny

Everyone knows what I mean when I say, "If it weren't so sad, it would be funny." In this case it's Trump using McAleenan, his new DHS chief as his lickspittle to hand him the clearly altered weather chart that "proves" that Trump was correct when he said multiple times that the storm was forecast to hit Alabama. I am not even talking about how Trump not only lied multiple times on camera and on Twitter despite all the scientists and meteorologists refuting his statements in just as many multiples. I am talking about using a high ranking government official as a flunkie to make your lie look more official.  Simply using his Sharpie to alter the map doesn't make it official--and everyone knows Trump uses Sharpies rather than regular pens (really?) and so has a ready supply.

I didn't have much respect for McAleenan anyway, but Trump's dog and pony show removed what vestiges remained. Trump's ego is NOT more important than accurate information about dangerous storms. One of the bigger problems with hurricanes is people not paying attention when attention should be paid. That used to be a larger issue when the forecasting was not as accurate because the forecasts were so overblown that people ended up being complacent.

But since Katrina, people have been paying more attention. Just because right now Dorian doesn't look as dangerous doesn't excuse Trump's shenanigans.

Trump isn't a leader--he's a clown looking for approval from the cheap seats.

Monday, September 2, 2019

Previous Quilt Design

The new/old house remodel is not the first time I have incorporated quilt designs in a house remodel. Nearly thirty years ago, I remodeled our house in Salt Lake City incorporating a quilt design in the kitchen island. This house was built in 1904 and was designed and engineered by its owner who was a mining engineer.

The house had been a private residence until 1954 and then gone through multiple changes, not all positive. It was a private nursing home for a long time until the safety laws regarding private nursing were changed for the better. By the time my husband and I purchased the house, it had been abandoned for three years with the sort of depredation that happens when that occurs. So there wasn't a kitchen at all--no cabinetry, no appliances. The original kitchen space had been a bathroom when it was a nursing home so there were holes in the floor for the toilet discharge and vents in the ceiling as required even back then.

I  designed my own kitchen based on the placement of the kitchen and the doors and windows. I don't have any architectural training but I know how a kitchen should flow. I did use a licensed contractor to get our remodel done and we followed all codes.

Anyway I put an island in the space that incorporated the stove top--a Creda--and had it topped with tile with a dogtooth border. We did cover up the holes in the floor with slate flooring but kept the remnants of the original fir floor. I had never had a fir floor before but found out quickly how soft fir is. You could drop a nickel on the floor and end up with a profile of Thomas Jefferson. This was not a huge problem until our house was discovered by a TV show that was filmed in Utah.

Trust me, when the location scouts say they want to use your house, you should think twice. The money is very good but the damage left behind may not be what you want to deal with. Everything always got fixed, but sometimes the damage was enough to make you weep.

As a side note, we sold that house when I knew the market was going south in 2006. The poor house did not fare as well as we did. Two moronic investors purchased it thinking they could get money from the government for "saving" an historic property for commercial purposes. I told them there was no way they could use the space for a bed and breakfast but they didn't listen and ended up fighting off foreclosure by leasing it to a meth dealer who used the basement as a meth lab. The police raided the house and ultimately the place had to go through the whole meth mitigation process.

If that isn't bad enough, the people who bought it out of that debacle (oddly enough at more than $1M) started a remodel, ended up getting divorced because the husband ran off with the architect and left the wife and kids in the house. She stayed in the house but as part of the remodel she put in a jetted tub that required cutting through some of the original floor and original joists. One day she took a bath in the tub, stepped out with one foot, and ended up crashing into the first floor.

So be careful what you wish for. Sometimes the dream house isn't.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Remodel Includes Quilt Design

Our new/old house is being remodeled--not a full house remodel because two bedrooms and one bathroom are staying the same, at least for the time being. But nearly 100% of the downstairs and the master bedroom and en suite bathroom and dressing room are being done. When we purchased the house it still had a kitchen and bathroom from around 1975 and those were very dated and worn. Additionally, since we wanted to utilize the space that was originally where the horses and carriages entered the stable, we had to knock a entryway through a brick wall. The original room has 16 foot ceilings and great wooden beams. We are putting up a wall to make a "garage" at one end and then the part with the new doorway will be mostly left as is (brick walls and Belgian block and cement floors) but will have all new lighting and include the new heating and cooling systems mechanical parts.

The new kitchen is going to be one large space but with two distinct areas--one for the cooking and cleaning up and one for breakfast, lunch, baking, etc. I got a large Wolf range to cook on and those come with red knobs as standard. So I decided to do a tile backsplash behind the range and around that end of the kitchen using the classic Diamond in a Square from Amish quilting. Here are the colors of the tiles as well as the colors of the two sets of cabinetry.

The green tile is the field. The blue tile will make the diamond part with corner accents of the wine color. Then there will be four patch accents above the counter around that end of the kitchen. The upper wood color is cherry but stained in hazelnut and the bottom blue wood is the other end of the kitchen where there will be a small table and four leather chairs--two green and two blue. I will post pictures when the project is done. 

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Keep Him, Please

Trump took off for the G7 at Biarritz yesterday after one of the wilder weeks in US history. He took off even though he questioned why he had to go at all, since he doesn't think any of the other members listen to him.

I hereby order Biarritz to keep him, please.

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Lesson Learned

I have been quilting approximately 40 years. I came to it relatively late and certainly not from a hand sewing background or family tradition. I did make clothing both for myself and my husband and children and I did some embroidery back in the 70s when everyone did embroidery but I was not taught how to do any of this stuff by some master. Sometimes that means I am the equivalent of a goofy foot snowboard rider, doing the stuff backward. Case in point happened this week. I am quilting along on the Washingtonian. Like many people I had gotten one of those soft silicone collar thimbles trying to keep my finger bunion (I don't know any other way to describe it) from getting painful. I quilted the entire center of the quilt with my new pink thimble but my progress seemed slower and slower. Finally I threw up my hands and dug out a metal thimble--it was brand new so I didn't have to worry about any holes in the top from quilting through the metal or snags to pull the thread.

Well let me tell you, no matter the minor pain from the metal thimble, it is so much faster it is just like night and day. With the silicone thimble I had a hard time making small stitches and a harder time stacking stitches before pulling through. Now I am back to my better quilting and I am stacking up to 8 stitches on the needle before I pull it through. What I thought was an age related problem turned out to be an equipment problem. Duh!

Saturday, August 17, 2019

New Beginnings

One of my proteges starts medical school on Monday. She had her "transition" ceremony on Friday where she was given her white coat. She always had her heart set on being a doctor but had such a hard time as an undergraduate at Harvard that she wasn't sure she would make it. But she took a gap year and both added classes in biochemistry and worked in a lab at the university hospital in Salt Lake City. She wants to be a family practice or internal medicine doctor because she wants to be the first and more constant physician. She also wants either of those fields because she wants to begin paying her mother back for all of her hard work and all of her sacrifices as quickly as she can. I have known her since she was 14 and have helped her along the way with tutoring and advice and sometimes just a hand to hold or a friend to visit. What a journey it has been.

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Some Conclusions Are Possible

Like most people, I have dealt with friends and family members who have psychological and psychiatric issues. That's one big reason I try to avoid comment on mass shootings in the US because the reasons behind the shootings are never easy and they are rarely clear.

The two shootings over this horrific weekend are a case in point. The first shooter, who is variously described as 19 or 22, left behind an electronic manifesto that pointed to Trump as an exigent factor in his actions. He is still alive so there is reason to believe that we will learn more about why he says that but that alone does not outline his reasons for driving diagonally 600 miles across Texas to shoot indiscriminately at people at a WalMart.  It is way too easy to blame Trump for the divisiveness in the country and claim that and only that is why anyone can kill a 6 year old and a 70 year old.

The Dayton case is different in that the shooter killed his own sister and only fired for 1 minute before being killed himself. It is hard for me to believe that was an unfortunate coincidence but the information is not available as yet.

Does Trump incite violence, hatred, and fear? I don't think anyone who listens to him from any part of the political spectrum could say no. He performs as a reality TV personality where every action and every statement is larger than life and intended to get a reaction. Does his rhetoric target minorities leaving them as the butt of his jibes? Not exclusively as he certainly uses the Bush family, the McCain family, and other white opponents as targets.

But what is clear to any reasonable observer is that Trump speaks to divide, he speaks to inflame, he speaks to demonize as if the only point of any action is to demean or insult the opponent. Having the bigger bully pulpit, his voice carries more weight. When mentally disturbed people listen, they might just feel a message or call to action. Even when ordinary citizens listen to Trump they react in reprehensible ways so tying Trump to violent incidents is easy but not the only truth.

Beyond that, guns are too accessible. They are too powerful. They are clearly too dangerous.  I grew up in a military family. My father was a paratrooper in the Pacific Theater during WWII and he never let us even have cap guns--and he was from east Texas where shooting, and guns were and still are part of the culture. When we visited his sister in 1956, I carefully counted the bullets on her gun belt and declared that she didn't have a 45--it was a 92. I was five at the time. The Dayton shooter only shot for 1 minute according to reports, and yet he used two guns.

Do you feel safe yet? A good man did grab the long gun of the Dayton shooter but he still killed more people. When is too much enough for action?

Breakfast Pizza

Most of the home made pizza crust recipes we use make two pizzas so we nearly always have a lump of dough in the freezer. I saw a recipe for a breakfast croque madame pizza and thought it would make a great breakfast and I was definitely right. We added some home grown sliced tomatoes and a little bit of chopped kielbasa to the recipe and when we make it again (which we will because it was delicious), we will shorten the second cooking time as the eggs came out a little too done for our taste.

There are many recipes online for this so you don't need me to lay it all out but basically you make a dijon mustard flavored bechamel (1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tbsp dijon mustard), spread that on a home made or purchased pizza dough, cover that with grated swiss cheese and some pieces of prosciutto, bake briefly (2 to 5 minutes) in a hot oven(450F), break some eggs on top and bake again (8 to 12 minutes depending how done you want your eggs), sprinkle with fresh spinach and red pepper flakes and serve. We added some chopped kielbasa and some sliced fresh tomato from our garden.

Very, very delicious and if you already have a pizza dough waiting it only takes a little while.

Friday, August 2, 2019

Delicious

My husband and I planted this hardy hibiscus last fall. It's called Starry, Starry Night for obvious reasons. The deer love to eat hibiscus so we had to surround it with chicken wire but at least the flowers get to strut their stuff. There is no scale apparent but this is about 8 or 9 inches across.

Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Some Progress


Hand quilting can be fun or it can be boring. Sometimes it's almost meditative but the current quilt hasn't reached that point yet. My mind has been wandering as I sew along thinking about our two remodels (best not to think about those), the animus toward the US shown by Trump (best not to think about that), what project I will work on next--that's worth thinking about.

I have several ideas flitting around in my brain and in my mind's eye. One is to use a previously completed single feathered star block as the center of a quilt that uses a diagonal block set put into a background of improved 9-patch that then has a floral applique or broderie perse border. Another idea is to make a bunch of bright red and yellow feathered star blocks and make a real eye catching border for that.

An idea that has been bumping along is to utilize some blocks that I got at an estate sale to do something. The problems with those are two-fold--the blocks are a real mishmash of old-fashioned blocks--some lady of the lake, some coffee cups, some crazy patch--just a real mishmash. The other problem is that these are all in small calico prints of a type that was used at least 30 years ago in colors that were also popular then. They are beautifully made, all hand sewn, but apart from the 21 lady of the lake blocks, most are not the same size even if they use the same fabrics. And even when they use the same fabrics, the blocks don't fit together so I don't know what the original intent was.  I bought them because I didn't want them to get thrown out but now I have someone else's UFOs at my house.

Perhaps you are more gifted than I. I like some but not all of the blocks--I am particularly fond of the one with the real jeans pocket and can see that as part of a child's quilt--and I like the coffee cups though coming from Utah they are more likely to be hot chocolate cups. Anyway if someone out there has a brilliant use for these, I am sure we can figure out a way to send them to you. They only cost me $5 in toto so far so any postage or shipping charges would hardly break the bank.

And welcome to the person who subscribed to my very limited number of YouTube videos. 


Friday, July 26, 2019

What?

Robert Mueller spoke before two sessions of Congress a couple of days ago. In his answers he clearly iterated that Russia interfered in the election to get Donald Trump in office and that Russia was continuing to do so even as he spoke.

So what did the various Republican representatives and news pundits claim? First reaction was that the Republicans in Congress (House and Senate) voted down any new support for election security including security against Russian intervention. Following both of those votes, the Republican media outlet flat out lied about what Mueller said with Sean Hannity (who is a high school graduate from LI) claiming that the Russian efforts were designed to get Hillary Clinton elected  and thus proved that... My ellipses are because I can't follow Hannity's reasoning.

Mueller flat out said that Russia wanted Trump elected. Hannity (such a smart guy) said the Russian interference was for Hillary and the result proved the American voters were too smart for Russian interference--or something along those lines.

What is important in all of this is that as Mueller said in his testimony, the Russians are interfering in our election "as we speak".

Pay attention, please. There is no way that Vladimir Putin has the United States' good fortune as one of his goals--no way. If they wanted Trump elected it could only be to our detriment. I repeat, Vladimir Putin does not wish the United States well.

Saturday, July 13, 2019

The Washingtonian Applique Completed

Today I finished the applique on the newest quilt, The Washngtonian. If you look the original up online you will see the differences I made, mostly to make it larger. The young couple in England for whom it is intended wanted a queen sized quilt. Of course neither one of them know that I am making this unless someone in the woman's family spilled the beans.

So I made the individual blocks slightly bigger, broadened the inner border, added an outer border, added a star to the center, changed the general flow of the vine border, added a mariner's compass and some lovebirds. My vine wanders more to avoid symmetry and I put in the loops just because I sort of enjoy making the loops with the bias strips. I am a big fan of red, yellow, and green together so I hope these young folks like them as well. Some of the quilt is in shadow and some in shade with the shaded colors looking more like themselves and the sunny ones looking more yellow. All the large leaves are the same fabric so that demonstrates the difference bright light makes.

Next I mark it for quilting.  

Friday, July 12, 2019

Not My Mother's Mac 'N Cheese

I was never a big fan of macaroni and cheese. It's not that my mother wasn't a decent cook but several factors prevented her from really excelling. The first was that my father was an Army officer which in the 50's meant pretty low pay even at his rank. The second reason was that we were all voracious eaters so meals had to be plentiful no matter what else they were. The third reason probably had to do with the general lack of the decent ingredients that we can get more easily these days. Even my local grocery store carries a variety of cheeses, even a variety of cheddars, but back in my childhood the selection was much smaller and of course my mother's purse was much lighter as well.

But now I make a mac and cheese based on Thomas Keller's from several of his restaurants and it is so good you might even want it for dessert--seriously. It starts with his mornay sauce. As I wrote previously, it's just my husband and me so I don't make a huge amount but this amount makes enough mac and cheese for two with some extra as long as you don't get greedy.

1 1/2 tablespoons of butter
1/4 cup fine dice Spanish onion
salt
1 1/2 tablespoons  all purpose flour
1 cup milk (I use 2%)
1/2 cup cream
1 small bay leaf, fresh is best but dried works as well
2 black peppercorns
2 whole cloves
Some grated nutmeg
Some freshly ground pepper

In a small saucepan melt the butter then stir in the chopped onion. Cook on low heat for two to three minutes then stir in the flour. Cook another couple of minutes but don't brown the flour or the onions.Stirring constantly, pour in the milk and the cream and whisk or stir until the flour and milk are not lumpy at all (except for the onion of course). Bring to a simmer, stirring constantly, and add the remaining ingredients. On your very lowest temperature, stir for about 30 minutes. While it doesn't have to be constant, it does need to be watched and stirred every couple of minutes. Do not let it scorch on the bottom. After 30 minutes the sauce will be very thick. Pour it through a sieve into a large measuring cup or small bowl. I always help the process by using my pestle from my mortar and pestle but you can use a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula to push the sauce through while leaving behind the bay leaf and the onions and the whole spices. At this point you can taste for salt keeping in mind that there will be cheese and probably ham in the final dish. Put to one side or refrigerate with plastic wrap touching the surface while you make the rest of the dish.

Keller only uses a little bit of Comte or Emmentaler cheese (3 tablespoons) but I like mine a little cheesier and I have used Gruyere or a nice sharp cheddar as well. I use about 1/2 to 3/4 cup grated cheese in my dish.
Then you can get really fancy with how you do this. The original from Keller's restaurant uses a variety of wild mushrooms sliced thinly and sauteed in butter briefly and some small amount of prosciutto or other drier ham. I use mostly sliced crimini mushrooms (sliced, and sauteed) but I stick to the 2 ounces or so of prosciutto. But obviously you can use lobster or crab or even leftover cooked chicken. This is not when you want hot dogs though.

For two people I cook about a cup of raw macaroni (elbows or small shells) until slightly undone. If the recommended time is 8 minutes then aim for more like 7 minutes. Drain and place into a greased baking dish of at least the size to hold the macaroni and the sauce. My go to dish is my 50 year old Corning ware but even an oven proof mixing bowl works, but deeper is better--don't use your gratin dish. Stir in your mornay sauce. It will probably need to be thinned just a little with some milk or cream, especially if it has waited in the refrigerator. Stir in the mushrooms and ham and the shredded cheese (leaving some for the top), trying to make sure everything is evenly distributed. Top with the last of the cheese and bake at 350F for about 30 minutes. Serve piping hot.

Now you can leave out the mushrooms and the ham and still have a delicious side dish. You can add more ham and only need a green salad or vegetable for a complete meal. You can go fully decadent with the lobster or crab. No matter what you pick, this is practically irresistible and that's from someone who never really liked macaroni and cheese growing up.

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

Poor, Poor UK

I hope Boris Johnson turns out better than expectations. Now he has caused the UK ambassador to the US to resign. Please don't tell me that the UK wants to be a vassal to the US which is what seems to be the plan from Johnson, apparently called the Yeti during his time at Eton. Please keep in mind that Donald Trump has not kept any of his promises to date when your crazy haired man courts our crazy haired man.

https://www.google.com/search?q=trump+bad+hair+day&rlz=1C1HLDY_enUS733US733&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUqKTZvpnjAhXFnOAKHTvXBgcQ_AUIECgB&biw=1920&bih=937#imgrc=3MS4XxBqXYcodM:

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Great Cooking

I like to cook. I have always liked to cook from my earliest memories until now. I made my first family dinner when I was about 11 but I had been experimenting with food before that. Most of my very early memories involve food including the cheese and bread meals my family ate in Heidelberg when I was under the age of 5. I liked stinky cheese and pickles and good dark bread even then.

So tonight my husband and I had our second round of Mark Vetri's duck bolognese. Since here in Pennsylvania it is just the two of us, some stuff gets frozen to reappear and this was one of those. But that wasn't the only reappearance in this recipe. Vetri's recipe calls for 4 pounds of duck meat but in my local market I have a choice of duck breast or whole duck. Since one duck breast costs about the same as a whole duck I bought the whole duck. This is about the time that Shakespeare ran through my mind. The whole "for want of a nail a shoe was lost" but in reverse was my new predicament. I didn't need to make the massive amount of sauce that the recipe made, but I did need enough duck meat from the duck to make approximately half. But that left a lot of duck.

So I began to research a variety of ideas. I already knew I liked duck confit and I only needed one of the duck leg and thigh combinations for the bolognese, but in order to make confit appropriately I needed more duck fat than I had on hand. So I looked up how to render the fat on this duck. In some ways that turned out to be the most fun. When my husband and I went to Toulouse, we went to this popular restaurant a couple of times because we really liked their salad with the delices du canard. So I had all these innards from the duck--gizzard, heart, liver-- and I could turn them in to confited morsels. On top of that, the recipe I found for rendering the duck fat turned out the best duck treats of all--crispy and delicious morsels of duck fat thoroughly cooked to absolute crispness. And I ended up with the "delices" the crisp bits, and a variety of confited duck meat that we are going to use for cassoulet.

On top of that we had Vetri's duck bolognese which is seriously delicious. Cooking is so much fun.   

Monday, July 8, 2019

We Are Americans

While I complain about Trump all the time, his adulation of the queen of England has pushed me beyond my normal complaints. We are Americans, theoretically tied to a representative government with no benefits for anyone that aren't guaranteed to all. Now most modern US citizens would recognize that the dependent clause in the preceding sentence has not been true since at least the 1960s, we still don't have a monarchy nor do we have any recognized class structure. By recognized, I mean even an ill educated guy like Trump, who is an arriviste from the get go, can rise in the US. Part of Trump's paranoia derives from being from Queens which when he was growing up was definitely an outer borough that didn't deserve special treatment. Ivanka and Jared hope that their familiarity with the Trump establishment will establish them in Manhattan but that seems less and less likely given Manhattan's stance on multiple Trump pronouncements. FWIW, my mother's family is from NY and even from Queens with my mother being the spelling champion of Queens in her 8th grade year.

But flat out adulation of Elizabeth II is beyond funny to the point of ridiculous. Trump, whose mother was a poor girl from the outer Hebrides who came to the US as a domestic servant, thinks that just because he and his spawn had dinner with Elizabeth and dozens of others he is suddenly even more special. Elizabeth eats dinner with all sorts of folk, she is polite to all sorts of folk. That's because in her own realm she is the queen of all she surveys, literally. Trump doesn't seem to understand that she doesn't survey the US any more. Of course he also thinks that there were airports during the Revolutionary War and that "ramping the ramparts" makes any kind of sense at all.

When Trump blamed the bloopers on the teleprompter shutting down he apparently didn't understand that it would have been better to blame the writers for the errors. Blaming the absent teleprompter for his extemporaneous errors simply shows how shallow his understanding of anything is.

As a side note, I have a friend who works at Parliament. He is an economist who examines all the plans promulgated by either side. He gave me a tour of parliament just a few hours after Elizabeth had been there to open the session. I saw places most people don't see, I drank coffee in the members room beside the Thames, and I went behind the scenes in multiple ways including going in to the Robing Room which on that day had both chairs-the queen's and her husband's, the duke of Edinburgh. The queen's apparently stays at Parliament house all the time and the other chair is brought back and forth. Well, the queen's looked as though Parliament kept cats around--tattered and torn with stuffing showing through--and Prince Phillip's was immaculate.

In this month that celebrates the United States existing at all I abjure any reverence for monarchy. They are all silly inbred twits even on their good days. Having said that, right now I would rather have an Elizabeth who knows she represents her entire realm than a Trump who only cares about himself.

On another side note--if Bill Clinton is found to have been complicit in Epstein's crimes, I hope they put his ass in jail.  

Saturday, July 6, 2019

Yet Another Critter

Today as we started one our walk, I looked across the lane to see something  I never expected to see--a snapping turtle. Unfortunately neither my husband nor I had cameras with us but it was an unexpected and very cool sight. By the time we finished our walk the turtle was gone but next time we leave home we will carry our phones.

Thursday, July 4, 2019

Happy Fourth of July!

Sometimes a ragtag band of visionaries and idealists can change the world. Hats off to my husband's many times great grandfather who was George's aide de camp for at least part of the war. There were some in my family who helped with the fight as well but none as close to the top as the Clark forebear.

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Antithetical To The Day

Trump is sort of getting his military parade in DC. But what is most important about this is that Trump is turning it in to a celebration of the military and Trump. Kellyanne Conway thinks this is just swell because why wouldn't we celebrate that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DacaEhZ4tA

Because the 4th of July is about aspiration, it is about hope, it is about community. Yes, we won a war against a greater foe but we did it with ideas and with a ragtag armed group of men and the women who supported them, not with  the biggest most expensive military in the world. When Trump arranges the celebration it is for all the wrong reasons, not the right ones.

Creeped Me Out

Our house is across a small private lane from what we call the Hundred Acre Wood (cf AA Milne). Most of the time it is pretty benign as Christopher Robin's woods were benign but occasionally there are events that are more creepy. The small herd of deer is more annoying than creepy, and the various birds are quite fascinating, but right now we are being harassed by a fox. I don't know if it is the same fox or whether it is male or female but this animal lurks outside our front door in the early morning hours. While we have no proof of it, we think that the fox is just waiting for our terrier to leave the house for his morning pee. We don't have a dog door so if the dog goes out we go too, but like most dogs and certainly most terriers, if Tucker sees an interloper, be it squirrel, rabbit, bird, or fox, he wants to give chase. Until this week when we opened the door the fox barked and ran away but now it sticks around in the bushes. So I have taken to going out before the dog goes out and banging on the pillars of the porch. They have been in several of my current quilt photos if you are curious.

Anyway, yesterday I went out and banged on the pillars and the fox barked and I thought that meant it had skedaddled. So I let Tucker out and as soon as he started to pee, I heard growling in the rhododendron bush next to the porch. I barely let Tucker finish his business before I picked him up to put him indoors. The fox kept growling all the while and Tucker was doing the, "Let me at him" routine but I closed the door thoroughly creeped out. Then about 30 minutes later when we went on our morning walk (two miles every day come rain or come shine) we saw the fox paralleling our path about 20 feet behind us. While that probably doesn't sound that scary it was still unnerving. Of course Pennsylvania has a very big problem with rabies so even house cats need to be vaccinated, but so far the fox seems more hungry than crazed.

Friday, June 28, 2019

Rapinoe 2: Trump 0

The American women's soccer squad scored two goals to one against the host country France in today's quarter finals for the women's world cup. Megan Rapinoe scored both goals.
I don't play soccer. I have never played soccer though I played a little school ground soccer when I was in elementary school right after we moved back to the US from Germany. Having gone to a German kindergarten, I knew the rudiments of the game.

But Trump picked on Megan Rapinoe because she took up Colin Kaepernick's protest of treatment of minorities in the US. And she said flat out that she wouldn't go to the "fucking White House" for any congratulatory celebration. In the land of the free and the home of the brave, where practically on every passing truck there is a sign signalling support for the police, Kaepernick and other people in the public eye are protesting the status quo, protesting the diminution of minorities by a variety of state approved methods.Trump continues to support the other side of that equation. Just this week he said that the Central Park Five, who were not only exonerated by scientific evidence, but by testimony of the perpetrator, were still guilty in his mind.  But understand that minority in the US doesn't just mean those who are in smaller numbers. Minority means those who don't have power to protect or protest. Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe are the heroes here.

You go girl!

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Moving Along

I am making decent progress on the border of the quilt. Of course the pieces are large and the layering is not only uncomplicated but almost unlayered. I have had a great deal of practice making bias vines so even that isn't a problem any more.

The quilt is a square so there isn't really a top or bottom. This was done for a variety of reasons but one of the more important was so there wasn't constant wear on only one side from tugging it up or down. I certainly do expect this to be a bed quilt for this young couple so they will be told the protocol. I still haven't embroidered the pineapples but that will happen before I quilt it.

Aargh!

I will warn everyone right now that this post is not about quilting. It's about teeth, specifically my teeth. I have reasonably healthy roots and gums and virtually no cavities, but because of my age and my problem with teeth grinding and clenching I have worn my poor teeth down to a point where they need some serious attention. Even with my nightguard I had damaged my teeth. This is exacerbated by the problem most older people have of teeth shifting in the gums leading to stuff getting stuck and misalignment. I went to the dentist on Monday just for a cleaning. I go four times a year instead of the usual two because a periodontist I went to recommended that and I do like to keep my teeth clean.

Anyway, I asked the hygienist what I could do about my two front teeth beginning to squeeze together to the point where I couldn't even floss. She suggested I get some invisaligners but said that the dentist should come look and evaluate to make a suggestion. The dentist said the invisaligners would not solve the problem because my teeth were too worn down for the impact to be beneficial. To her that meant that I needed to have a massive intervention of a dozen crowns--six on the top and six on the bottom. This was projected to cost $20K.  Now that's a lot of money and the idea came from a dentist that I have seen three times in toto, no single encounter lasting more than five minutes.

So when I got back home, I called my former Utah dentist's office. I went to him for more than two decades from the time he graduated from dental school until 18 months ago. I was friendly with all of his staff, even making three of them quilts for their babies. I also knew him to be a superior dentist with a very high degree of honesty and ethics. Plus he clearly knew my teeth. I asked him to evaluate the plan given to me by my current provider and to make a proposal himself. My sons still live in SLC and I can stay with one of them while undergoing this extensive treatment. His plan will cost approximately $8K. That's still a lot of money but I feel far more comfortable with his evaluation than with the new dentist. So toward the end of the summer I will go to Utah, sit in a dentist's chair for hours and hours and come back to Pennsylvania with a whole new smile.

The best news is that I can take the opportunity to go to Quilts, Etc. which is one of the best and biggest quilt stores in the country. I went to a fairly big quilt store in NJ last weekend but as good as it was (Olde City Quilts in Burlington), it just isn't Quilts, Etc.

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Sometimes It's Fun, Sometimes It Isn't

I have been enjoying working on the outside border of the first gift quilt. While I liked Sue Garman's original quilt, I needed it to be larger. Plus, after I received the pattern, I decided that this must have been one of her first commercial ventures because the patterns and instructions are very different from her later designs. The Washingtonian clearly relied on the pattern purchaser having some clue about making applique, marking fabric, insuring if not symmetry at least appropriate balance. But I have been making quilts for a long time. So I have added a Mariner's Compass to a corner, switched from her vine to one I had previously drawn out for a continuous and sinuous movement from center to corner and have begun adding leaves more randomly than her deliberately symmetrical style. I have also allowed some leaves to intrude on the interior and exterior borders.

My further plan, besides the Mariner's Compass to symbolize her journeys, is to add two lovebirds to the bottom corners. I didn't really know what lovebirds looked like but I looked them up online and found that most of them are the same colors as the primary colors of this quilt--two different greens, a red, and a yellow.

Speaking of birds--one of the more fascinating aspects of living in Pennsylvania is the vast variety of birds. All kinds of birds from shore birds to woodland birds to meadow birds. Just yesterday my husband and I saw an Eastern Goldfinch in our neighborhood and most days we see a variety of raptors--hawks, owls, etc. We also see foxes, rabbits, deer, and other wildlife right outside the door. And much to my husband's and my delight (he grew up entirely on the East Coast and I spent time here as a kid), there are still lightning bugs galore in season.

But, back to the complaints from random folk--I don't usually visit other people's blogs but I have done so occasionally. They talk about their grandchildren or children, about their travels, about recipes, etc., and as far as I know no one complains about that. No one ever complained when I posted recipes or photos of our travels, but the whiners come out when it is politics. What? Women aren't allowed to be concerned about the direction their country is taking? Women aren't allowed to know anything about economics or foreign affairs? Women don't care about any of that? I call BS on the naysayers. I am an old woman and from my point of view women are the ones who care--men only think of adventure, whether it is war or sex.

And while I am on that topic, Duncan Hunter's trial is coming closer and closer. The delightful part of his pre-trial motions, or rather his attorneys' pre-trial motions, is that they appear to be as dumb as he is. His attorneys are asking for a change of venue because they believe that his trial is being held in a district predisposed to dislike him because of his politics. In the written request to the court, the attorneys pointed out that Hunter was..." President Trump’s first and most arduous supporter...". As one of my favorite movies and writers puts it, "I don't think that means what you think it means."   Okay ladies, I don't care if you are R or D but this scumbag used campaign funds to cheat on his wife and then blamed it all on his wife. There are already people who are claiming he suffers from PTSD and therefore deserves our sympathy.

This is "Trump's first and most arduous supporter."

If you like what Trump and his minions are doing, you deserve what you get.     

Saturday, June 22, 2019

What...I Mean What?

Trump did a 180 on at least two decisions this week. The first and most obvious reversal is the decision not to take military action against Iran. The second is the decision not to begin herding families into trucks to deport them. The explanations for both decisions don't make sense even when one agrees with the final result. With Trump being the ultimate showman who could have given PT Barnum lessons, one wonders how all of this plays out in Trumpland.

It isn't that I expect anything from Trump to make sense, but I do wonder how his acolytes, all you Trumpettes tooting that horn, see anything of value to your skewed view of the world here.

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Didn't Think I Would Miss W

The fecklessness of Trump and his minions is beyond belief. Our former allies don't trust us, our former and current enemies laugh at us. Withdrawing from the multi-nation Iran nuclear deal was simply an act of pique exacerbated by Pompeo who prays for Armageddon and Bolton who prays for war. Now Iran is enriching uranium at a fast pace and Trump and company are at wit's end (which for them isn't very far but still) as to what to do about it. Trump has been badmouthing all intelligence and all intelligence agencies so, like the boy who cried wolf, no one trusts his intelligence bluster that Iran is deliberately targeting oil tankers in the straits of Hormuz.

This article from Slate is a must read. The last line made me laugh out loud.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/trump-iran-deal-pulled-out-troops-middle-east-uranium-tehran.html

Friday, June 14, 2019

Major Progress Though Miles To Go On The Washingtonian

I have been sewing by hand and by machine to move the new quilt forward. It started out as a double bed sized quilt and was requested to be a queen sized quilt so I had to add to the dimensions. I have the outside dimensions more or less correct now but I still need to decide what I am going to applique on the outer border. Sue Garman drew out an undulating vine of leaves and berries but I don't think I am going to stick to that entirely. We'll see after I draw out some ideas. In any case, here is the base ready to be decorated on the outer white border.

The sun went behind a cloud so the picture is fairly dark but you get the idea. I made the four inner blocks a little larger to allow for some nice quilting in the corners, I added some extra to both of the red and green borders so now they are three stripes with checker boards at the corners. I am making a mariner's compass in the main colors to stick somewhere. They tended to show up all over the place in old maps and this is to symbolize the various journeys this young woman has taken from her home in Utah to her current home in England. The bottom right block is described by the late Garman as a pineapple, hence the colors, and it will get some embroidery to enhance that. I think it's a thistle which would have fit the United Kingdom idea better but then it would have had purple with all that red and green and that might have been a little odd.

Donald Trump admitted to a crime this week and boldly stated that he would commit that crime again. There are all sorts of people who think that he made his outrageous comments to lift suspicion from Junior who testified this week. That could be true but it only means they are both criminals not that one is guilty and one not guilty with mistakes in understanding all the way around. Of course, DumDum John also called Prince Charles the Prince Of Whales this week.  

Monday, June 10, 2019

To Whom?

Trump said, " However, if for some unknown reason there is not, we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs -..."

Very profitable to whom? Certainly not to the consumer who pays either directly or indirectly. In my assorted remodel bills, line items for tariffs occur frequently. Does that mean I am un-American or does that mean I cannot get the goods from here? Hey quilters, where did your sewing machine come from, your fabric, your thread? 

Wednesday, June 5, 2019

New Project

Most of the time when I write about politics it means I am working on a quilt. Since I am a hand sewer and hand quilter, the work just doesn't make good photographs or anything early on. The quilt I am making now is another Sue Garman design but from a long time ago--The Washingtonian. The reason for the quilt may be familiar to some of you. I quilt because I like to quilt not because I need any bed covers or wall hangings or anything. The problem is what to do with the quilts when they are done. There is no good way to sell them, at least not at my level or style of quilting, as it just isn't economically worthwhile. The quilt that takes me 7500 hours to make couldn't even sell for $7500 which would only be $1 an hour and wouldn't count the materials either. So I either stock pile the quilts (that princess and the pea bed), or I give them away. The second option is less common simply because you can't just give away a quilt if you don't know where it is going or how it will be accepted. Or at least I have learned that lesson from unfortunate experiences.

A friend from Utah was coming east for his son's graduation from Princeton. I had given this man's wife a couple of quilts in the past and when one of her children visited her from England where she currently lives, the daughter was very impressed and envious. So I told the wife I would make her daughter a  queen sized quilt as long as I got to pick the colors and the style. There wasn't any time frame given or requested so when I finished my last small project, I started this new one. I have to make some changes to the design as the original is only double bed sized but this is from the period when large four block quilts were popular so making the rest of the quilt fit the scale of those blocks seems pretty easy to me. I am going to add some more sashing around the center area and I am going to add some applique motifs to the outer borders to expand their length. I am sticking more or less to the original colors as red, green, and white are pretty safe choices and I am using a variety of William Morris cottons for those plus some more off the wall type patterns. Since it is a big block quilt I have nearly finished the center four blocks and when I get them done I will post pictures.

Sunday, June 2, 2019

What Should A Good Leader Do?

'Trump tweeted Wednesday that he “was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan,” and told reporters at the White House on Thursday that whoever was responsible for the request was “well-meaning.”'

Oh sure, it's always "well-meaning" when the CiC can't pay attention to the basic norms of civility and the more straightforward restrictions on the military.Only Trump could see an attempt at insulting the memory of three generations of one Navy family as well-meaning. The John S. McCain was named after the late senator's grand-father and father and only posthumously was the Arizona senator's name included in the honor. The military is supposed to ignore all purely political actions or behavior. The draft dodger in chief wouldn't understand the core principles of the military any more than he would understand the core principles of manners in a civil society. He always operates on a third grade level of, "Well he did it first."

And make no mistake, while currently the message to hide the John S. McCain is only attributed to the White House,  electronic messaging is pretty easy to pin down to its source. No doubt some functionary at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will lose a job over this (probably to resurface in the Trump campaign), the real miscreant is the man with the wild comb over.