Post morning routine

Since we are in the midst of the final day of April, I feel compelled to author a round-up of the final bits and points of interest on the month.

The girls have been fed, we've conjured up the snacky treat chase-fest, and have moved on to the languid portion of the late morning cat hours.  Cleo is imploring (both in eye contact and chirpy noises) - she desires her grass and nap time help.

Incidentally, Hobbes has finally clued in to the whole Cleo-gets-her-daily-grass-ration-at-nap-time, and so has taken to positioning herself where she needs to be in order to try and bully some for herself.  Sheesh.

Brian left for work a while ago, but was complaining of not feeling well just prior to leaving. We spoke for a bit about what would be best to do, and I told him that if he becomes ill at work then perhaps they won't mind sending him home early as opposed to him not showing up at all - which seems to be a frequent thing that happens there (not on Bud's part, but with the employee population in general).  The management at 'Blowe's' is not a top notch set of thinkers (proactively speaking or in problem solving) - and that's all I am going to say for the moment.

Karl is finally moving around this A.M.  I have to say I liked our morning routine earlier in the last semester - when Karl would rise earlier every day of the week, because then he could manage to get up on time for class AND get his own day going (including every other day of the week) - and he wasn't up until all hours and snoozing like a teenager 'til 10:30 every morning.

- - I didn't say every point of the "round-up" would be important or relevant to the entire month of April - -

It's been a month of gains and losses, too.  Karl and I both gained credits towards the first step in our degrees.  He is much further ahead in the tally, but I am closing the gap, taking three classes to his one in each semester.  We will have courses over the spring/summer semester, and stay on track to push toward our respective associate's degrees.

We lost a member of our family - my last remaining grandparent passed away just three months shy of her 103rd birthday.  The boys still have two living gp's - my mom and my errant, ne'er-do-well, self-exiled father thing.  But all other generational links beyond my mom are now gone; even their paternal grandparents passed between 5-10 years ago.  Gram passed on Thursday, April 17, and she was happy to go.  Rest in peace, Gram.

My birthday was a couple of days ago, as was my last class for the semester.  Done and done.

Still pushing on with the latest long-term quilt project, and working sporadically on other quilty things, too.  Entered Peace Quilt I into it's second competition, and it won first place (and a $100 prize) for "Superior Machine Quilting on a Domestic" !!!!  So there!  It also garnered a first place ribbon from the NQA Chapter, too!  [happy sigh]  The notes from the NQA judge were icing on the cake, and I am thrilled she found it worthy of a mention for color and for piecing, but the guild decided otherwise.  I suppose they wanted to spread the prizes out a bit.  Ah, well.  There's always the next show, right?

I've spent a bit of time with a friend or two, here and there.  Jean took me out for a birthday meal over the weekend, and we enjoyed some Mediterranean yummies.  I have since spoken with another darling friend, Maria, who went to Amsterdam with a student contingency from Wayne State!!!  Talk about a neat school field trip!  We will get together later this week to kibbitz and laugh, and she will share some photos of her amazing trip.  In between, I will be talking to another lifelong friend, Lori, and seeing how she is faring lately.

And between all of that I intend to sneak in some more assembling on VGS.  I just can't help myself - this one is going to go places!

More later.  Bye-bye, April!

One week ago tomorrow

Wow. [typed in a wholly unenthusiastic manner]

It will be one week ago tomorrow that my grandmother passed away, and with the advent of Easter hanging in the wings (please pardon the unintended Ecclesiastic pun), her funeral arrangements were made with an eye on early the following week.  One short day of viewing/visitation and then the service and burial on day two.

I spent much of my time over the past few days either on the phone (on behalf of our mother), attempting to convince my eldest brother to come, or finishing (or trying to finish) final work for classes.  And, if he wasn't coming, the focus shifted to trying to ascertain if he wasn't coming because of money issues or work scheduling conflicts....or whatever other myriad 'reasons' existed.  Due to his (infrequent) monosyllabic word use, the messages were met with the usual cryptic Aaron-esque answers.  Fortunately, while infinitely frustrating to deal with, it was brief.  There was also time spent researching best prices for airline fares from NY to Detroit so mom could make provisions available for another relative to make it either 1) home to visit with Gram before she passed, or 2) home for the funeral when the time came (since it looked fairly imminent).

Yesterday the day was spent in equal measure - on the road (damn road crews patching SB I-75....they couldn't have patched NORTHbound instead?) to/from the funeral; at the church service and then luncheon; at Gram's apartment with people coming and going, hugging and grabbing, eating and chatting, etc.  Karl was a trooper, but after he'd had enough, he escaped by napping throughout the noise and family clatter, instead of turning surly - and this was surely a gift from God.  Brian was an infinite help, and despite his wanting to get on the road to head to one of two jobs he needed to be at, he managed to help doing minor - but necessary - tasks when asked.  I simply ran the kitchen and answered questions....and located people in the sea of faces and din of Schaffer hubbub.

Today, we are back to near-normal.  Brian is readying to go to work; Karl is blissfully drowsing, but I can hear him stirring; and I am preparing for some necessary stuff I need to get to.

Rest in peace, Gram.  And please give Grandpa a HUGE hug from me, as I miss him so.  See you in about fifty years.

It's melted!

It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted! It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!
It's melted!

It's melted!

It's melted!

It's melted!


It's melted!


It's melted!



It's melted!




It's melted!




It's melted!

Do ya get the idea?