Quilting Class and Hurricane Irene

Saturday at Olde City Quilts in Burlington, NJ.  I made this!  Start to finish in one afternoon.  It's going to be on its way to my mother so she can have an indoor pumpkin without worrying about when it will turn to mush.  Thank you, Eva, who taught the class and who has the patience of a saint and many, many little tips and tricks that I hope I will remember.

The classroom at OCQ was crowded today.  While the Glorious Fall class was sewing away on one side, there was a group making quilt tops for Quilts of Valor.

My light-bulb moment for today was that quilters are nice people, I have met any surly, evil or mean-spirited people (with the exception of me and my classmates in the Learn-to-Quilt class the night we did machine appliqueing, but we came to class in  good moods) at the quilt shop.  Everyone tries to help each other, share and offer encouragement. 

The tide going out in the backyard.  The water was all the way up to the patio wall Sunday morning.

The far backyard swamp.

Checking out the backyard as the tide goes out.

What bored people without electricity do, manscaping.

Thea's watercolor rendering of her guinea pig, Gallileo

Sunday afternoon walk, something else to do when the electricity is out.

Thea's shot of the backyard Sunday morning, the sliver at the center back of the photo is the seat of a concrete bench.

Saturday night Hurricane Irene took our electricity sometime after 11 pm.  Kids were in bed, I was in the family room with my flashlight (still in its packaging) was on the stairs.  Nothing to do but put the batteries in the flashlight and go to bed.  In the year we've lived here, the power has never been out for very long.  Until now.  We were without power until the early hours of Tuesday morning.  Monday I went off to work with all my devices and their respective chargers.  Electricity, it turns out, is my Achilles heel.  I have a Kindle (with great battery life), laptops (so-so battery life), a Blackberry, an iPad and a camera and I love them all.  No more East Coast hurricanes, for this year at least, please.

No matter, we survived, give or take a few shreds of sanity or a few brain cells hear or there.  Overall we're lucky, I would not want to be living in Vermont right now.  Camp is over, we had a week at work with only two or three providers working, time to welcome the Labor Day holiday weekend.  

Hurricane Irene, Part 2

Rain, rain, rain, rain.

And where is my family?

Out driving in the rain.

Meanwhile we have enough food to feed an army.

No air-conditioning.

Humidity or barometric pressure that is crucifying my sinuses.

Hurricane Agnes.  Much more fun when I was 12 and clueless as to the potential consequences.

Hurricane Floyd:  Umbrella stolen while I was working.  In a prision.  No honor among thieves or them work to incarcerate them.

Time to fill the bathtub.  And thanks to this house, we only have one.

And find my flashlight.  Power had flickered, but has managed to stay on.  For now.

Hurricane Irene

It will either be the worst meteorological event on the East Coast in decades or a whole lot of nothing, but either way, I went to Target this morning and bought a whole lot of somethings to ride out the storm without risk of starvation and thirst.  Retail America benefits on the panic of the masses.

I even bought a pair of galoshes (on sale!) for me.  I remember walking through thigh deep water during Hurricane Agnes in 1972 wearing sandals.  Ick, ick and double ick.  That will not happen again.

I also got the two of the last three flashlights at the Target in Princeton.  Batteries included, thank goodness, because there is not a D-cell to be had anywhere in the greater Princeton-Plainsboro region.

Earthquake

CNN and the local news stations probably covered it better than I will, but just in case Thea and Micah ever read this for the chronology of their lives, yesterday was the East Coast Earthquake.  It was 5.8 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia.  By the time the temblar traveled to New Jersey, it was a bit after 2:00 pm.  My office was back to work for the afternoon session, and the patient I was seeing was a new patient, the adult child and sibling two of my other patients.

I was on my feet about to do the abdominal exam portion of the check-up when a rumbling came through the floor, the walls were moving, and we were all left looking at each other with "Did that really just happen?" expressions on our faces.  Which was the same expression of the other faces I saw when I stuck my head out into the hall to see if anyone else felt anything.  Everyone went outside, I managed to grab my purse, keys and tote bag, if that building, made of spit, tissue paper and Elmer's glue, was going to come down, I was not going to be digging through the rubble before making my escape.

My biggest fear was explaining to Thea that New Jersey CAN experience earthquakes; after she saw news footage of the quakes in Japan and Haiti, she was worried that something similar would happen hear.  No, never we swore, very, very, very unlikely.   Thea said she felt it, but was not scared, and Micah probably though that he was the cause of it all.  The owners of the daycare where YingHua is holding its summer camp decided to close early (wimps) so Steve had to pick up the kids.  Meanwhile back at my office, no patients cancelled and the remainder of the afternoon session went on as if nothing happened (and compared to Haiti and Japan, nothing really did happen.)

End of Summer

Just what one wants to do on a Saturday morning is drive to northern NJ for a doctor's appointment (basically any activity other than 'sleeping in' would be the wrong answer), but Micah's appointment to have his ears checked had been moved from the 26th to the 24th and then from the 24th to the 20th.  His ENT was willing to let him go for six months after his April appointment, but I wanted the debris cleaned out of his canals before school started. And I also wanted to talk with the doctor about getting a new BAHA 3.  The unit sits a little closer to his head and supposedly has improved sound quality.

Micah also announced last weekend that he wants a new name, and he decided that this new name will be 'Alex'.  Fortunately he's still answering to Micah most of the time.

Last weekend we went to Maryland to see Oma.  We went to the Amish/Mennonite market, the cemetery to put flowers on my father's grave (his birthday was August 15) and to Watkins Regional Park.  Unfortunately the rain kept the little train from running (a favorite of Micah's), but the carousel was still operating and they played miniature golf.

Sunday we went to the German Gourmet in Falls Church for salami, dilled cucumber salad, brotchen, etc. and then went to visit Christine, Jeff, Elise and Emma.  Micah already has asked to go back to visit Oma so we can go back to visit the cousins again.

This week was the last week of Friends Camp, but the songs are living on, and on, and on - so now we have a repertoire of  two years worth of PFC songs to draw from, and Taio Cruz's Rokstar has found its way into the car's CD player and the Dynamite song has replaced Taylor Swift as the current favorite.

Check, Check

School supplies purchased, bagged, waiting on the floor of the dining room for September 6. Check.

Appointment with Dr. Wexler, the kids' ophthalmologist.  Check.  (Both kids are 20/20, for now no glasses.  Major thankfulness for a colleague who gave me directions to an address the GPS did not acknowledge as existing.)

Appointment with Dr. Vare.  Check.  (Thea is in the 95th percentile for height and weight, Micah is the perfect middle of the road, at 50% in both.  No shots, at least until the influenza vaccine is received and is released for use.)

Appointment with Dr. Choe for the quarterly flossing out of Micah's ear canals rescheduled yet again.  The appointment has been moved from the 26th to the 24th to the 20th.  Just what I want to do, drive to northern New Jersey on a Saturday morning, but having a summer's worth of debris cleared out prior to the start of school is a necessity.

Thea's disappointed that there is only a few more weeks of summer vacation. . . .I'm looking forward to the old routine.  Soccer starts on September 10th, YingHua Language School starts the following day (and Thea is nowhere closer to finishing the green workbook than she was when YHLS ended in early June.)

I'm an Oma. . . .

. . . to two guinea pigs named Darwin and Galileo.  The brothers formerly resided at Lawrence Day School, which houses Ying Hua.  Micah saw them every day for the two weeks that they were attending Chinese camp.  He said he loved the guinea pigs; Chinese, not so much.  So he began a lobbying campaign that eventually resulted in me sitting down and writing an application to the animal rescue group caring for them (which got a somewhat lukewarm reception which was annoying considering I've owned guinea pigs on and off since 1980.)  Friday the universe came into alignment and I had the day off, so it was guinea pig adoption day.  One trip to Petsmart for a cage, a bowl, water bottle, food, treats, Timothy grass and bedding.  Then a quick trip to pick Galileo and Darwin up at the day care center, and then off to Princeton Friends School to pick up the kids.  When I told them I had the piggies in the car, they were beside themselves with excitement, Micah especially.  Thea fancies herself the pig whisperer, which is good because Galileo is the more skittish of the two.

Micah in his new role, Pig Daddy to Darwin

Micah at PFC's Family Night - BAHA on, for a change

Thea in the Ravens' village at Friends Camp.

Micah at the Cash Bash, August 6, 2001

Thea at the Cash Bash

 We went to see our friends, the Cash family, at Cash Bash 2011.  Rain did not stop this block party, a few tents, a few tarps and it just rolled on.  The kids were soaked by the time we headed home, but they had a good time - and we got to return the bowl, the shirt and the swim vest they left behind when they came to our house in July.

Quilting class is coming to an end.  Two more squares to be done in class (I've already finished one of them), one more to make at home.  I bought the sashing and border fabrics last week.  We had a short lesson in sizing the squares, which I think I'll need to review. Once, twice, probably three or more times.  Measure twice, cut once.  Works for carpentry, works for quilting.