Brrr!

 The high today will be 22! Yikes!

 We got some snow, 3-4 inches. Because it sleeted first, it's a frozen mess. The boro plowed last night around 1 a.m., so the sun hopefully can do some melting. The sky is a beautiful blue at the moment.

 Another 3 rows done, and sewed to the first 3 rows. It's like wrestling an alligator to get the heavy rows sewn together.

 Finished! I'm happy with the non-traditional coloring of this baby afghan.

 I ordered this yesterday, after thinking about it for a day. It just speaks to me.

 And I signed up for these cuties. January and February are ordered, and I'm on the list for the rest of the months. 

Sigh. And we get a FOTUS today. What a not funny joke. I'm not watching a second of the proceedings today, and I'm off Facebook til tonight. What a sad state of affairs. 

More winter coming!

 Forecast today, warmish, followed by increasing cold, rain, then maybe sleet and maybe snow, then real, real cold. The Felon Elect moved his swearing in to inside- what a snowflake! I'm applauding Michelle Obama, for skipping the whole dreadful affair. She has precedent, after all, Melania and DonOLD skipped Joe's big day.

 The fireplace is working! The whole thing was dusty and dirty, so Eddie the Fireplace Guy cleaned it all and it works great. I don't use it a lot, because it makes the rest of the house cold. But it looks so nice!

 I started putting the denim and flannel quilt blocks together! It gets a wide seam so the seams can be clipped and fray. I have the spring loaded scissors to clip, but I'm going to farm that out to Eddie and Julie. Their fingers are much younger than mine.

Word from my brother Mike is that Baby Oehrl will be induced on February 10. I've got the yarn all pulled to make her a temperature snake for her first year. I'll embroider the eyes rather than use safety eyes.

I have 8 more rows on the current baby afghan for my stockpile. Goal is to do 4 today and finish tomorrow.

And Ralph is done getting the HQ16 leveled and ready to rock! 

More snow!

 We got another dusting last night. And there is snow and arctic cold in the forecast for Sunday night and Monday. Hopefully it will be so cold Monday for the swearing in of the Felon Elect that his fools will stay home and his crowd size will be few. 

Heather, Eddie and Steph were shopping at the Outlets yesterday, so they came over to help move things around! Nothing like young man muscle!

 In the first picture, the china closet is barely visible in it's new location. Heather put the dishes back in it for me. The HQ 16 still has to be leveled, but she's in the dining room now! It was a major production to get the table taken apart, brought up from the basement, and put back together. Eddie made the most trips up and down, which spared Ralph. The timing was perfect, since Eddie starts college again next Tuesday. 

And best of all, Heather went home with two boxes of things from the china closet! A tureen, a bread dish, and some Christmasy ceramics that Ralph's Nana Rose had made. As a told Steph, I feel successful when I fill Heather's car with "stuff." Luckily, she and Ed both like getting items from previous generations.

Lots of sewing

 Since I was up so early yesterday, I spent about 3 hours in the sewing room!

 Look at those stacks! I only have 3 dozen more flannel squares, and lots of denim ones. The blue plaid, and there is a gray plaid, were from my late dad's flannel shirts. I've incorporated his shirts into the previous quilts I made for Michael, Joseph and David. Sadly, Joseph died in 2019 and David in 2021, so there quilts have gone to their sons, Joey and Benjamin. 

Today's goal- to do the last 3 1/2 dozen flannel squares.

Up early

 I looked at the Alexa clock beside the bed, and it said 8:20, so I got up. Then I looked at my watch, and it said 7:20. I asked Alexa the time, and she said she had no internet. Unplugged, plugged back in, and she showed the correct time. By then I was wide awake, so I got up. I usually get up between 8 and 8:30. 

It's cold! 22 degrees now, high around 32. I did my morning check of Find My Friends, to stalk my kids. Heather is working today. 

 The picture of my squares wouldn't show yesterday because it was a video. Sometime the phone just decides to take videos.

 Baby afghan in progress. The orange is actually a pretty peach, and the stripes are cream/light yellow and honeydew. This is my couch project, that I only work on when the TV is on. 

Today's goal is to continue making denim and flannel squares. I only did two dozen yesterday. I had to stop to wind bobbins- I wind 20 at a time. And I took out the bobbin casing and used the brush to get lint out, and gave her a drop of oil. I'm using a regular needle to make the squares. When I start to sew them together I'll switch to a jeans needle. 

I've got a mental list of projects for this year, I need to get it written down so I can cross them off as I go along!

Out and about

 So the heater got fixed Friday. The circulating fan wasn't doing a good enough job, so it got replace with a stronger one. The Fireplace Guy (that's the name of his business) is coming Wednesday afternoon.

Today we went and did errands. Took the DVR back to Comcast and got a replacement. Our appointment was at 11, we got there at 10:40 and were out by 10:50 with a new one.

We started by going to the MAC machine (ATM for anyone not from the Delaware Valley) for fives. Nope, machine was only stocked with 20's and 50s. I guess they hadn't restocked after the weekend. 

Then to the library, returned a book and picked one up. Down the Pike to Comcast, the to Aldi for a few things. Basically we made a big circle.

Home again, and to the sewing room.

 This is the stack of 8 1/2 dozen squares of denim and flannel, from yesterday.

 I cut the other piece of flannel into 6 inch squares, got another 9 dozen. I've uploaded today's pic to google, but it's in no hurry to share to the computer.

Tomorrow I'll start sewing the new batch of flannel to denim. I have to figure out how big to make this thing. I think the others I did were oversize twins. These quilts wear like iron, being denim and flannel. This one is for grandson Eddie. I'll tell him this is the quilt that you take to the beach, that can go in your truck, or on your bed, whatever you choose. 

And we're in for the day! Warmer today, in the mid 40's! The snow is melting away.

 

What an end to the week!

 And I'm not even referring to the Felon Elect! That added to my rage at the idiocy of half the voters.

Thursday night around 11, I was sitting in my nesting area of the couch. I was basically on top of the heater, which is in the basement. It was so cold out, and the heater started sounding funny, like it was surging. I woke Ralph up so he could listen. He thought it sounded like the circulator, which had just been replace 5 weeks ago. It was noticably getting colder. He left a message for the HVAC company, and put on the electric fireplace that's part of his TV stand. I went to bed with the electric blanket.

HVAC company called before 8 a.m., said they had a few emergency calls ahead of us, and would be out. We decided to start up the gas fireplace in the living room. Nothing. He replaced the batteries in the remote and the unit. Nothing. I texted the fireplace guy who had installed the gas unit. He's my niece's brother in law. He texted right back, gave a few suggestions which did nothing, and said he can come out Wednesday, which is fine. 

I checked the DVR, as I tend to record the series I watch, and binge them. The thing has been randomly not recording episodes of most shows. So the guts of the DVR have to go back to Comcast to be replaced. I had cancelled Hulu. Luckily they had just sent me an email with a special offer, $2.99 per month for 6 months. All the shows with missing episodes are on Hulu. So we have to make an appointment with Comcast when Ralph feels better. He's still under the weather, and we hope his cold doesn't go into bronchitis.

 So I did some sewing on the denim and flannel quilt. I was chain piecing, and did half the X on 8 1/2 dozen squares. I stopped because I ran out of cut flannel. Tomorrow I'll probably finish the X's, then cut more flannel. I have about another 3 yards of the blue flannel. I have to decide how big I want to make it. 

We were tired of grazing on leftovers, so we got a pizza and a cheesesteak yesterday, which will also feed us today.