Primary Election

I was a poll worker in yesterday's primary election. The day started early. We had to be there at 5:30 am in order to be ready for the first voters at 6:30. My polling place is located in a Senior Nutrition Site, that means they feed senior citizens lunch for free every day during the week. They were closed yesterday, but the cook came in and fixed us a nice breakfast of egg casserole, sausages, and pancakes. I really enjoyed the casserole. We only had 78 voters so we really were not busy. My job is to take the ballots and verify that the poll ticket numbers and the ballot numbers were all correct and then run the ballots into the ballot machine. The machine counts the votes as it goes and stores everything on a flash card which is picked up by someone from Voter's Registration a few minutes after we close the polls. There are five of us workers; three Democrats and two Republicans. We spent the day talking and enjoying ourselves, and we also each had something we wanted to work on. I had my spring quilt and my Yellow Brick Road to do the hand sewing on. I got the spring quilt done and one side of the Yellow Brick Road sewn. I will get the rest done while watching tv at night. I also had a couple of quilt magazines and a Family Circle. We each also brought food for the day. I had a lot of junk food with me but I didn't eat much of it. I got sleepy and bored a couple of times but not too bad. I was sure glad to close the polls at 7:30 pm and go home. I went to bed early and slept for 9 1/2 hours! Today I still feel lethargic and slow. It is this way every time. It is only worth it because they pay $225 for this day!

We made quilts for Downy!

Saturday was Downy Quilts day at Viking. A bunch of us got together to make quilts for the Children's Miracle Network thru Downy Fabric Softener. We had made some quilttops earlier so the quilters could start on them first thing that day. Others of us made more quilttops to be quilted. I don't know the final number yet but I heard that ten quilts were finished and another ten were waiting to be quilted. Several of us took kits home to make (I made three more on Sunday) so there will be plenty more. You see, Downy will send a kit to any quilter that wants to make one, and then they hope you will make up that one and another one out of your stash. I donated some of my stash to this effort and I have made (so far) a total of eleven quilttops for them. I think this is a wonderful way to give back. All the quilts are made from the same pattern (which is a really simple pattern) and in fabrics that kids will love. Some of the quilts I saw featured cats, dogs, horses, seashells, bugs, frogs, all in bright, beautiful colors. The first photo missed a few people because we didn't think to get everyone together until some had already left. The second shows some of our quilters hard at work. The third is one of the quilts I had made up ahead of time. Linda ordered pizza for everyone and some of the girls had brought cookies for dessert. Besides getting a lot done, a good time was had by all!

Damien's Baby Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures of Damien when he was a baby. The picture on the porch in his baby walker is my favorite of all the pictures. He was an adorable baby and is an adorable kid. At 4 and 1/2 he seems really intelligent and so quick to catch on. He plays video games better than I do and learns things instantly. I look forward to watching him grow up. He really gives us a run for our money when he visits us!

The Starkey house fire

These are pictures of the house behind mine burning this morning. Chris and his wife got out all right but they lost a dog and some cats.

CAMC Awards Dinner

Richard and I attended the CAMC Awards Dinner this evening. Richard was honored for being employed by CAMC for thirty years. There were quite a few people who had thirty years in, a pretty good sized list of people with thirty-five years and forty years, and even two people who had worked there for forty-five years! I figure they started working there as very young teenagers! Richard received a very nice certificate, and he was able to choose a $400 gift card from a bunch of items he was offered. We had dinner with 900 people. They served prime rib (not too bloody - but very chewy) and Chicken Marsala (which was delicious). They had steamed squash, green beans and roasted potatoes. I would have enjoyed the veggies had they been hot, but they weren't. They also served a green salad and a pasta salad. I saw several desserts but I only tried Oreo pie. After dinner Richard had to go up on stage to receive his certificate from the CEO of the hospital. We left soon after. Richard needed to visit the restroom so we just slipped out.

This is my Yellow Brick Road quilt. It is lap-sized, perfect to throw over the back of the sofa and use to cover your legs when you are chilly. I got the quilting done yesterday and the binding applied. It still needs the binding sewn down by hand but I will do that on Election day when I am working at the polls. The pattern uses seemingly random squares and rectangles all jumbled together. I decided to machine-quilt 1/4" around the inside of each block. I didn't enjoy making the quilt, it just wasn't much fun. But I really enjoyed quilting it. Of course, I can't take a picture of a quilt without a cat holding it down. They have to sample all the quilts. That's Sam stealing the scene.

Angie called as soon as Cassie's baby was born but she wasn't sure of the name yet. I haven't talked to her since. I hope they liked the baby quilt I made for her and the two little sleepers I got at Elder-Beerman. I wish we had a little girl to spoil. I would love to make frilly little clothes for her. I heard the cutest name for a girl the other day. I told Audrey she needed to have a girl and name her Calliana Rose. Isn't that georgous??? She could be called Callie for short.

Richard saw the doctor on Tuesday and I made sure he told him that he wasn't feeling good. The doctor changed his blood pressure med from Avapro to Norvasc. I hope it helps. You can tell when he doesn't feel well - he sits around all the time doing nothing. He is ordinarily a busy person.

After seeing the doctor we went looking for a sport jacket for Richard to wear to the Awards dinner that will be held on the 20th. We went to all the best places and nothing seemed right or fit well. I got the idea to look for a zip-up jacket to wear with a dress shirt and tie and that would be fancy enough. We ended up a Kelley's Men's Shop where he tried on a burgundy blazer that we both fell in love with. I would never have even tried burgundy but I love it on him. It cost $195 but alterations are free and it did need some work. That is why we didn't like any of the other jackets we looked at, nothing seemed to fit him right. Kelley's has to take in the shoulders and let out the waist, and maybe shorten the sleeves. I told Richard he needs a pink shirt to wear with it. That would match my outfit for the dinner, a flowered pink jacket, a white knit shell and white slacks. I think I will have Audrey take some pictures of us before we go.

Baby Quilt

Made a new quilt for Cassie's new baby. (Has she been born yet? Gotta find out.) Decided to do it last Wednesday when Audrey and I were at WalMart and saw some really cute fabric. We chose the butterfly print for the border and then chose fabrics for the blocks based on the colors in the border. I made the top Wednesday evening and got it sandwiched with batting and backing on Thursday. I let it set on Friday and took it to work with me on Saturday. I did all the quilting and then put the binding on with the Designer Diamond sewing machine (costs $8,000!). Boy it does a great job on quilting! I'd love to have one but that is a lot of money! I embroidered a label on the Diamond also. Then I started in on the hand stitching on the binding. I hate that part, love the rest! Got it done while sitting on the porch on Sunday. Today it went out on UPS. I hope she likes it. I used the same pattern I have been doing for a while now. I have made a total of five quilts from this pattern. I usually just make one of something and move on, but this one is easy and quick and uses up some of my stash (when I'm not buying more fabric). The color looks blue-er (is that a word?) in the first picture. The other two look right. That's Sam in the second picture and Sam and Rosie in the third.

Audrey and I were going to church Easter Sunday but she had IBS problems. I fixed a spiral-sliced ham and some veggies and made some macaroni salad which is still in the fridge (I always forget something). Richard had brought in a half-flat of strawberries so we had strawberry shortcake for dessert. I tried to call Adam to dinner but he wasn't answering his phone.

Richard is off today for the holiday so we went to Lowe's and he bought a new pressure washer. He couldn't get his old one to work yesterday.