Home from Vacation

Here is a picture of me sitting on the Lido Deck the first night of our cruise on the NCL ship Epic.  It was in the upper 80's during the day but it got rather cool at night.  We had a wonderful time, doing all the great things you do on a cruise ship.  We laid by the pool during the at sea days and visited beaches on the islands.  I had a margarita at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville on Jamaica.  The ship fed us wonderful meals we couldn't wait to eat every mealtime.  We played the slot machines in the casino.  I won, Richard lost.  He never learned to quit while he was ahead.  We had driven to Miami so we ending up putting about 2200 miles on Richard's Dodge Nitro.  Not a particular comfortable car to do a trip in.  We spent a couple of days at Hollywood Beach before we got on the ship.  I'll show more pictures in the future.

Autumn Leaves Tablerunner

I needed to make something for fall that I could teach in a class at work, so I thought of these autumn leaves block that were in The Autumn at the Courthouse quilt I taught several years ago.  These leaf blocks are so versatile that they were a no-brainer for another class.  You can find the directions for the Autumn at the Courthouse on Fons and Porter's website, under the Free Quilt Patterns tab.  These blocks are the perfect size to make many things:  such as hot pads or potholders, or any fall quilt or tablerunner.  I taught the class on Monday.  I don't know why I hadn't reported my finish before now.  In the picture, the tablerunner is laying on the floor with a table on the left and chair legs on the right.  Should have taken time to crop it but I didn't.  Anyway, I finally had a finish to report for the year.

We're going on a Caribbean Cruise!

Richard and I haven't had a vacation in quite a few years, so when he retired from the hospital this summer we decided to take a cruise!  We will be on the Norwegian Cruise Lines Epic, visiting Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, and Cozumel, Mexico.  This happens next month.  I can't wait for the day to come!  We will be gone for two weeks, although the cruise is for one week.  I hate leaving my kitty cats for that long but my daughter and her husband live across the street, my brother and his family live across the street the other way, and my son lives behind my brother.  There will be people coming and going at all hours, so the cats won't have a chance to get lonely.

I have been buying clothes and everything we will need for about a month now.  Hopefully I won't forget anything important!  I keep making lists and losing them.  Of course, Richard hasn't shown much interest in it and has left all the planning to me.  All the cruise blogs say you need an over-the-door shoe hanger to hold things in the bathroom of our stateroom so I have been looking everywhere for one.  I guess I will have to make one.  I also want to make a caftan to wear over my bathing suit and maybe a shirt or two.  Time's getting short - I really need to get busy on them!

We are going to drive down to Sanford, Florida and visit the huge flea market there.  Then we will head on down to Hollywood and spend a couple of nights there.  I want to hit the beach.  Then on Sunday morning we drive down to the Port of Miami and park the car and board the Epic, one of the largest cruise ships out there.  I have scoped the whole area out on the internet.  Really, anything you want you can find on youtube.com!  I have also been haunting Google Earth and Google Maps.  There will be lots of pictures, so come back in late November to have a look.

We have a balcony room (most all rooms on the Epic are balcony rooms) and I am looking forward to meeting people and eating unfamiliar foods and being entertained.  I have booked an evening with Second City Comedy and a murder mystery lunch where the audience participates.  The ship has 21 eateries and swimming pools with slides.  I hope I have the nerve to try it.

WVU will be playing a football game on Thursday night while we are on the ship.  They have a sports bar so I hope we will be able to see the game.  We are going to take our WVU t-shirts to wear that evening.  I can't wait!  This is going to be fun!

Yesterday's Rain Storm

We had a huge downpour yesterday afternoon.  There was high water all around the West Side of Charleston.  I was sitting on the porch when it started raining, and I jumped and ran into the house immediately.  I got soaked!  This first picture is from my front door soon after the flooding started. 

There is a very low area only a half block west of my house and it usually floods any time it rains heavily.  This time was much worse than usual.

This picture was taken from my side picture window in the living room.  The water was running down Bream Street like a river.

This one was also taken from my side picture window.  You can see two cars that were foolishly driven into the high water and were drowned out.  Those two cars were there for quite a while after the water went down.  If you click on the pictures you can see them larger.  While the two cars were stuck a fire department rescue vehicle drove up next to them but left them there.  I thought they would block the street but they didn't.  I didn't realize that they had their hands full, with high waters all over.  I was thankful I didn't have any place to go!

 

Day After Surgery

I didn't need any pain meds yesterday.  Last night I slept better than I have in years.  I only got up once to go to the bathroom, at 5:30.  It hurt to raise my head from the pillow.  I ignored it and went back to bed and slept some more.  When I got up for the morning I knew I had to have pain meds.  It's not the incision that hurts - it is all the muscles in my neck that hold my head up.  Richard said they probably had my head at a strange angle during the surgery.  It feels like I have been beaten about my head and shoulders.  I haven't taken any more pain meds today.  My neck was swollen at the incision and I had to hold an ice pack on it.  That's when we realized that our ice maker in the freezer has gone kablooey.  Seems like there is always something or other to work on.

Adam broke a tooth off at the gumline this weekend.  I'm sure that is going to cost us.

Richard has been feeling bad ever since he retired.  He hurt his back during his last week at work and that has bothered him a lot.  He also complains of stomach problems.  He is eating a lot of antacids.  He has taken good care of me the last two days.

Surgery

I had a thyroid lobectomy this morning.  They did not find cancer, so far, so they removed the right side and left the left side.  I had a nodule and a goiter.  They will still be checking the right side for cancer the next couple of days and if they find any I will have to go back in and let them remove the rest of the thyroid immediately, before it all heals up.  I was told I would most likely spend the night in the hospital but they let me out about five o'clock.  When I got home I went straight to bed and slept until eight.  It is now 10:40 and I am on my way back to bed.  My throat is somewhat sore but I have been able to swallow soft foods today.  I am also hoarse.  I have not needed any pain meds so far.  Richard stayed right there with me all day, all he ate was an apple.  I'm sure he was starved.  He is taking very good care of me, fixed me some Beefaroni for supper.  I am truly grateful for all the prayers sent up for me.  I'm sure that's what made the results so good. 

Crystallized Throw Pillow

This is the second throw pillow I have made from the book we got at work.  I will be teaching this one also.  Crystallized is larger than Jewel of the Seas.  Jewel is 16" square and Crystallized is 20" square.  I really love both of them.  I hope our customers at work will love them too and want to learn to make them.

Jewel of the Sea Throw Pillow

We got a new pattern book in at work that has just throw pillow patterns in it.  Linda and I liked it so much we soon decided to teach a few classes out of it.  This is the first pillow made from the book.  It is called Jewel of the Seas and why I don't know.  Maybe because they used aqua as the main color, where I used red (red matches my sofa and loveseat).  The center is made of string blocks (always a favorite of mine) and has several borders.  It has bound edges and I put a zipper in the back.  I will be teaching another pillow from the book.  It is called Crystallized and consists of many half-square triangles.  The trick is the use of warm and cool colors and the way you put them together.  Linda has picked another couple of pillows to teach.  One is made with hexagrams (Linda's favorite) and the other is made cathedral-window style. 

Still more quilt show pictures

This is the last bunch of pictures.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

Even more quilt show pictures

More quilt show pictures

Some quilt show pictures