Monsoon!

We're getting the remnants of a tropical storm, and it's teeming out! So in we'll stay.

My new project! It's going to be huge, almost 30 by 36 inches!

It took me a couple of days to gather the floss, there are 90 colors! 

Being old school, I start in the center. This is just one of the bazillion pages of the chart! I'm trying something new that I learned on the last kit I did. Instead of 2 thread crosses, I'm doing 3 thread half crosses, except for a small area that is real detailed. That should cut the time a lot, so LOL, maybe 6 months instead of a year. 

Yikes, we had a leak at the gutter over the back door, Ralph did a temp fix and called the roofer. Then he just went downstairs, and there is water coming in the breaker box! He's down fixing that.

Independence Day

It's July! It was weird having the 4th celebrated by some on the 3rd! By now, I'm totally not sure what day it is. 

Our new roof! A lot of money for something that wasn't even fun. And we lost our skylight. The company recommended closing it off, and I left it up to Ralph. It sure makes the family room dark.

I finished this, now I have to get it framed so it can go to it's new home. I always used AC Moore for framing, and they closed.

Snakes are up to date, halfway done! Ralph borrowed them and took the dinosaur pic. 

The one closest to the loveseat is Garrett's, the low temps in Mill Creek. The nights there are boringly consistent, between 50 and 55 degrees. 

We all survived our first year without Joseph. 

Next up craft wise, I want to try some crocheted water balloons for the kids. It's been in the 90s every day, so I mostly stay in. 

Tomorrow is my baby brother John's birthday! He'll be 63, hard to believe. He and Mike will always be my little brothers.

A week of good, bad and ugly.

June 26. A date with many memories.

First, the Ugly. It was the date that Joseph died, one year ago.

Such a loss, the family will never be the same. 

The Bad. I was talking to my brother John, and he reminded me at June 26, 1982 was the day he had the motorcycle accident that changed his life. He was on a big Harley, and another driver didn't see him and hit him. He had a T12-L1 fracture that put him in a turtle shell cast for a year, and left him with weakness in one leg. He didn't walk for that year. But he had an amazing recovery, and we're lucky to still have him with us.

Also Bad. Our Aunt Bet died on June 26, 2010. She'd been ill for years in a nursing home.

The Good. Amanda and Ben got married on June 26, 2010. It was a beautiful wedding, in a park. We all had a lovely time, and welcomed Ben into the family.

In other news, we have a new roof!

It was a good experience. About 8 guys the first day to do the teardown. 32 sheets of plywood needed to be replaced! 5 guys the second day, and they finished by noon. It's guaranteed for 50 years!

Progress continues on Wings. It will go to Mike and Donna, in memory of Joseph. 

In Covid 19 news, Jersey, New York and CT are in good shape, due to our governor's taking science based actions to limit the spread. Other states who's governors put the economy above the lives to their citizens, are doing terrible. And the Feds are pretending it doesn't exist anymore, which is a disgrace. 

How ridiculous is it that wearing a mask has become a political statement. I'm not embarrassed to say that Covid scare me, a lot. 

Mid June already

Jersey is in phase 2 of reopening! Libraries have been given the go ahead to start reopening for curbside services! The Gov's office didn't give them any notice, they announced Saturday that reopening may commence today.

Blogger went to a new format, and now I can't figure out how to access my phone photos. I had to go back to the old set up.

My anniversary gift to Ralph, an Apple Watch! He's having a great time with it. He asked what I want for a gift, and I'm holding off til I think of something.

New counted cross stitch project!

Our front yard! He's a big gobbler, and noisy! He starts singing to the ladies at dawn every day. 

June

And we are entering phase two of reopening the state. The new cases are way down, as are hospitalizations and deaths. I'm waiting impatiently for the libraries to be allowed to reopen.

On the national front, the shitshow continues. The president continues to show his true colors as a racist, who only cares about the rich. 

I worked on the snakes over the weekend, to do the May stripes.

Ralph wrangled Covid and Quarantina for me, before I worked on the WA snakes. I'm quite happy with how they are coming along. They're not even halfway done, as they are 5 months into the year. Now they are resting on the armchair til the end of June.

May is ending

We just had our 49th anniversary! It doesn't seem possible, I don't know where all that time went. For an anniversary dinner, we ordered curbside from Olive Garden. Bonus, it was buy one, take one! 

For a gift, Ralph picked out and I ordered an Apple Watch, the version that you can check your cardiac status, as well as all kinds of other fun things. It should come in the end of next week. He offered to buy me a gift, but there's nothing I want at the moment. 

We had a raccoon visit the attic, but luckily Ralph banged on the ceiling and scared it out. We had exterminators out, and they set a trap, and Ralph fixed the hole in the roof. No results with the trap, which is good.

Look ma, no cast! She only had it on for 3 weeks, which is an eternity when you're six!

A finish! Winter Impressions was started when the kitchen was being redone. I got it all done but the back stitching, and it's been staring at me for over a year. I hate back stitch, it's so boring! I finally decided it's got to be done so I can move onto something else, so I forced myself to finish it. It does look nice. 

Now I'm doing May on the temperature snakes. I've got Eddie's done, and will work on Jule's today. It's so hot and humid that the AC may have to go on today. 

I'm reading a combo of my paperbacks, kindle books, and the occasional book from Overdrive. I'm reading two series by Ellen Hart, one by Victoria Houston, and the occasional single book. The library will be able to reopen with phase 2, when we finally get there. 

Jersey's numbers are going in the right direction, and the Gov is gradually reopening things, but we still get 1000+ new cases a day. We're one of the hardest hit states, getting our cases from Europe via Newark Airport. 

I'm finally watching some of the TV I DVR'd. I'm almost to the season finale of This is Us. 

Mid May!

Day 60 something of quarantine. We went out a few times this week- to pick up a curbside grocery order, to get curbside dinner from Bertucci's, and to ShopRite to get the salad and paper towels (and another $100 plus of things) that we haven't been able to get curbside.

I told Ralph he's the only one I could survive being quarantined with, anyone else would get on my last nerve.

I finished this, and Ralph mailed it to my friend Pat, who is a pink person and fell in love with it.

I got Mother's Day gifts! We zoomed with the girls and their families Mother's Day night. 

Yesterday I made lasagna in the crockpot, so good! But so much! This morning I divided it up and froze 3 portions, each enough for both of us to have dinner. 

It's been in the 80's the last few days, but will drop back to the 60's and 70's this week. We changed out the flannel sheets for the cotton ones. 

I'm back to working on the backstitching on a cross stitch project I did last year. So long ago that I can't easily find a pic of it. 

And reading, of course. Lot's of reading, both on the kindle and older paperbacks of mine. 

Jersey's numbers are improving, the state is starting to reopen. I'm waiting for the library to reopen, probably with curbside. Curbside is good, since I request books and rarely browse the stacks.