Another Catchup--NQR*

*Not Quilt Related
So, I've been away from the blog again.  Seems to be an unfortunate pattern!   No sewing has been happening either, for a number of reasons.

Last week I left work midday on Wednesday to meet my husband at the ER where my 95 year old mother in law, Frances, had been taken.  She apparently had another episode of vertigo/dizziness/weakness walking in the hallway of her apartment at the retirement home, but did manage to make it to her bed, where she called out fruitlessly for help, then apparently passed out or fell asleep for a couple of hours. She telephoned for help when she awoke and an ambulance was called by the nursing staff.  No stroke, no abnormalities they could find at the ER, and after a couple of hours she was released home.  We were advised she probably needed more nutrition and more hydration.  While Grant went back to work, I spent the rest of the day taking her to get something to eat since she had missed both breakfast and lunch, and taking her home, where I found her missing hearing aid hidden.  Then I went to the store for snacks and water, Ensure, a prescription for Antivert, and back to her apartment.  Anyway, she seems recovered but is getting very forgetful these days.  She did not remember that we took her to the ER for this same problem several months ago, when they ruled out a stroke.  She sleeps a lot and eats less.  She often says, "I'm ready to go, the good Lord can take me any time". We're checking on her more often now. 

Frances on her 90th birthday, five years ago

And now I've gotten a summer cold, causing me to spend the weekend mostly on the couch or in bed.  Yesterday was the worst, but I didn't think a coughing, nose-blowing medical staff member is quite appreciated, so I stayed home today.  Maybe by tonight my ears will pop so I can hear again!

Meanwhile, I've been making lists of quilting projects and their needs, and also home organizing projects.  Have you heard of the 40 Bags in 40 Days Challenge?  Well, I hadn't either until I stumbled across it while on Bloglovin.  The idea is related to Spring cleaning, but spread out over essentially the period of Lent.  That challenge period having passed months ago, it is still a good way to systematically go through your house/garage/attic/basement, etc., in a less overwhelming way.  I decided to start in our bedroom, since it has turned into a dumping ground.  Picture frames, magazines, books, linens, blankets, clothes, and things that didn't have a home.  My husband also liked the idea and together we purged a number of bags, for a good start on the 40 bags.  Today I called for the donation truck and hope to have a number of additional bags to add to the constant accumulation of donation items hiding behind a quilt thrown over the upstairs railing :)    Next room is our office (shudder) and then the music room closet (a true catchall). 

My hardest thing to get rid of is family heirloom-type items.  But we have TOO MUCH STUFF, unused and just taking up storage space.  Some tough decisions will have to be made regarding certain items...many of which came to us from my MIL when she sold her home 10 years ago and moved to the retirement home, like these:

Hand painted gold-rimmed bowl, made in Germany, treasured and displayed for many years by my MIL in her home. This may have belonged to her mother before her, as it is quite old.

Gold rimmed and decorated plate, another vintage piece from my MIL.  Lucy the cat is much newer, only two years old :)

Or, especially, several of these:

This mink stole was handed down to my MIL by HER MIL, who was my husband's paternal grandmother.
 

 

 Purchased no doubt at the fancy Downtown Los Angeles Bullocks Wilshire many decades ago.

Her name is embroidered in several of the furs we now have.  Grandma Rose was of French blood.  She passed away sometime in the early 1970's so I never met her, though Grant's grandfather lived to be in his mid 90's and met two of our three children.  What do we do with this and several other real furs?  Hard to decide, so there they hang, unused.  I'd appreciate some ideas, should anyone have some!  And now, back to blowing my nose :)

Whirlwind

What a whirlwind week this has been.  

On Monday, my manager sent me a semi-cryptic email in the mid morning, asking me to please meet with her after lunch.  I sent back an OK, then spent the next couple of hours with uh-oh thoughts whirling through my head.  Once back from my hasty noon meal, we headed downstairs to one of the doctors' offices, my heart pounding.  Once seated, she apologized for the cryptic email and proceeded to say very nice things about my work, professional demeanor, and experience, and offer me a different job, this one much closer to home.  A bit stunned, I took roughly five seconds to agree to the new position, as a Scribe.  She then asked if I could start immediately, as in Wednesday, after a training session on Tuesday with all the other Scribes.  I agreed to that as well.

This is how my daughter Elaine pictured a Scribe :).  Fortunately, robes are not required, but for the first time in my medical career, wearing scrubs is.  And they are black, a color I seldom wear.  So, on Tuesday, my last bus ride and walk through Santa Barbara streets to work was a bit melancholy.

 A couple of pics of houses and vistas I'll miss seeing.

And my bus friends I'll miss too: Jessica, Silvia, Donald, Jan, Pamela, Guillermo. It was a bit hard, of course, saying goodbye to my workmates for past 15 months--Margaret, Trish, Amber, and Lori, the two Rachels, and Mari, the one on maternity leave.  But I haven't left the company, only the workplace, so will see them again.

Tuesday's training session was a bit of a repeat for me, since I already did many of the "new" tasks in my workday in transcription/compliance.  I looked forward to my first day with a 20 minute commute and the transition from transcribing, which seemed a good lateral move.  Since I spent many years in a former office performing intake histories primarily for Workers' Comp patients, that part of the job is familiar.  What is different is working with multiple patients, doctors, and multiple rooms.  My ankles were on fire after standing all day shadowing another Scribe, but yesterday went much better, when I was sitting more while taking the histories and moving from room to room.  Still learning the job--but liking it a lot.

This is my new view on the ride home, strawberry fields, clouds and mountains.  I love being able to wake up later and get home sooner, as well as having the energy gained from moving around rather than sitting all day.  I had previously planned to take today off, so am enjoying a lovely four day weekend, while my new office mates deal with the busiest day of the week with the main ortho surgeon.  I'm not sorry I'm missing that on my first week--and I also get to skip it next week too when he is in another location.  I'll feel better having a couple of weeks under my belt before facing the senior doc!

The other big news of the week occurred on Tuesday, as I was walking from the office in Santa Barbara with my bag of new scrubs under one arm, and my bag with all my desk drawer items under the other, while I listened to a voicemail from my other manager, Dana, from the hospital.  It seems the hospital HR department informed Dana that since I haven't actually had any per diem hours transcribing for the physiology department for a year, I am being let go.  It was amusing to me that these two job changes happened in the same week!  So today I will be returning the computer and transcription pedal to Dana, who is also having a job change.  She is stepping down from management and returning to nursing for the last part of her career.  What a whirlwind week, eh?

Blog Doldrums

Spending all day every day this week packing patient files has left me completely exhausted and therefore no sewing is happening in my world.  My mom has been volunteering at the office, thankfully listing all the chart contents and hefting boxes (even when I tell her not to!).  An out of state worker was even imported one morning--my niece Hannah is here from AZ visiting a friend and was at loose ends while the friend was volunteering at the hospital, so she came and assembled boxes.  Then we went out to lunch at a popular local seafood joint and had a celebrity siting:  Sam Elliott and a familiar looking lady were there eating with family, he of Mask, Tombstone, and Big Lebowski fame.  My mom was making fun of Sam's skinny legs, but gave him proper respect once Hannah googled him.  The familiar looking lady turned out to be his wife, actress Katharine Ross, who was Elaine in The Graduate, and also starred in Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid.  They apparently have a place in Montecito, just up the coast near Santa Barbara, a popular celebrity enclave (Oprah Winfrey has a house there as well).   Sorry, no photos of the famous couple--I thought they'd rather just enjoy their lunch.

It has been rather overcast, alternately blustery, and very muggy, but not hot here by the ocean.  Many days, the ocean view looks like this for half the day:

Not much definition between sea and sky, though those tiny specks who are surfers don't care, and you'd never know there were four islands 10 miles or so off this coast either.  However, I don't think our guests who are due to arrive tomorrow will mind--they have been baking in Arizona temps over 100 degrees.  Our guests are an old friend who is bringing his second wife and daughter, whom we have never met; the wife and daughter are Russian, and the family spent 30 hours traveling from their home near Moscow to visit our friend's family in the states.  So we have rushed to finish painting the upstairs and get our makeshift guest room ready for them.  I hope to have some quilty content to post at some point in the near future.  But in the meantime, Dr. P has asked me to continue working until everything is ready to go...so my summer vacation will be put off at least another week.  Back soon!

NQR

NQR--nothing quilt related.  There has been no sewing or quilting related activities so far this long and home-very-late-every-night workweek, other than a stop at Michael's for some rotary blades, needles and a little Kate Spain.  I get her newsletter so I knew her paper goods were being sold at Michael's.  I could have come home with armloads of these inexpensive goodies, but held myself to just a couple--for now.

Magnetic notepad and the adorable mini clipboard were each $1.50.

This reminded me that I had won a mini charm pack from Kate last year of Central Park that I've been hoarding.  I think it needs to come out and play very soon.  Meanwhile, I have quite a list of to do's this weekend, which for us here in the US is a three day weekend--Martin Luther King, Jr day is on Monday.  Sure would like to knock some things off that list so I must remember my word for 2012:  Focus.  I notice I'm muttering it under my breath to myself at times of easy distraction!

NQR

That's what I've got to show in the sewing/quilting vein--Nothing Quilt Related.  Every day I planned to sew and every day I didn't!   Here's a recap of my busy week:
Monday:  My birthday.   I had a lot of transcription work in the morning, then had to run to the bank for DD Erica, then to the store to get ingredients to make a cheesecake, then back home to meet DD Elaine to sort through all the unsold garage sale items and the leftover wedding decor.  After that I ran to meet my mom at her recently departed dear friend's house to look at some clothing and sewing items I might want.  Following that Grant and I went out to dinner for my birthday, then stopped at the mall to get my present--a pair of UGGS for my perpetually cold feet.  When I came home I was so tired I laid down on the bed for a minute to pet the cat before making a cheesecake I planned to take to work, but fell asleep for like two and a half hours before getting up to get ready for bed.  No sewing.
Tuesday:  Back to work after my "day off".  Busy busy day, stopped to buy backing fabric for Nana Girl quilt.  Washed and ironed fabric.  No sewing.
Wednesday:  Another busy busy work day.  Got home at an okay time, ate dinner, washed a crapload of dishes and cleaned the kitchen, sorted through all the garage sale items and listed them for the donation truck arriving the next day, while the cream cheese softened for my recipe.  Got a phone call from my last brother with LATE birthday wishes, and started making the cheesecake at 10:30 pm.  Finally went to bed around midnight once the cheesecake cooled enough to put in the fridge.  No sewing.
Thursday: Plenty of work at both jobs, even ran during my lunch half-hour to pick up a tape from my former Job #3 boss who I occasionally still type for.  Grant went to dinner with a friend so I, after leaving work after 7 pm, went clothes shopping.  Got home after 8:30, ate leftovers at 9:00, admired my newly empty family room, pottered about, looked at a few blogs, and climbed into bed at 10:30 to read.  No sewing.
Today, Friday:  Woke up at 3:30 a.m. and could not get back to sleep.  Got up around 4, sat at my sewing machine for awhile working on quilt backing MATH and a mending project for Elaine.  Tried to sleep on the couch from about 5 to 7, mostly fitfully.  Got up, wrestled with the new format for echocardiograms at Job #1, busy busy day at Job #2, left there at 5:30 pm, watched a movie with Grant, ate dinner, and here I am blogging with you folks.  Still no sewing, too tired tonight.  But I do have pictures to share.

I snuck away for a quick lunch today at a nearby seafood restaurant and ate my favorite giant fish taco outside, enjoying the brief sunshine and a peekaboo view of the ocean before a storm blew in.  Sorry, I didn't pull out my camera until my taco was half eaten so no pic of that.

The restaurant is boat shaped and quite popular with locals and tourists alike.  It was a Japanese restaurant for years but I never went to it then. This is in the older part of town once filled with homes built in the late 1800's to mid teens; the area is now a mixture of historic homes, hotels and motels, apartments, rentals and businesses of all types, hugging the bluff above the sea. The taller building behind it is craftsman style condos that went up just a couple of years ago.

Right next door is this beautiful Victorian cottage that has been restored to picture perfect.  A crew is working on the house next to it--you can see the Tyvek house wrap toward the back of the house.  Can't wait to see how that one turns out.

Tomorrow I'm determined to put stitches in something, anything!

NQR

That's what a lot of my Saturday and Sunday was composed of, activities Not Quilt Related.  I woke up early Saturday and puttered about, did some paying work on the computer, then got some long past-due yardwork and porch cleanup done out front.  Later on Saturday the cul de sac neighbors came together for our annual block party.  We all met in the middle of the street with tables, shade covers, chairs, lots of food and drink to share, and a couple of jolly jumps for the kids.  Everyone pulled their gas barbecues to the curbs and shared grills. Music was provided by one neighbor's son who DJ'd, there was badminton, volleyball, water balloon fun and other games for the kids, and lots and lots of talking and laughing!  We determined that only four of the original owners who moved into this then brand-new tract still remain (there are 16 houses on our street).  We'll have been here 21 years come October.  Pretty amazing!  It was a really good time for all and lasted into the wee hours of the morning (I topped out about 9 pm and went inside, though). 

This morning I did some more paying work and then got to the sewing part of the weekend, putting together the rows for this month's UFO pick, Judy's Mystery Quilt.  There was a necessary break to make a cheesecake for DD Erica's last night before heading back to AZ.  Then another break to clean up the kitchen and make dinner--tacos tonight.  I buy ground beef in maxpacks of 3 lbs, divide into 1 lb chunks and cook it all at once, then freeze the batches of browned unseasoned meat in separate plastic containers with lids.  This makes it easy to grab one out for tacos or spaghetti, etc.  For the taco toppings, this time I pulled out a vintage turntable that belonged to my mother-in-law.

This corner of the kitchen between the stove and the sink is kind of dark so the candlestick lamp adds some brightness.  That basket was supposed to be a wine caddy, but with two iron rings inside it is perfect to hold my most used tools.  Iron trivets and a handmade tile add some color. The turntable and pottery dishes have no markings of any kind, and since my MIL and FIL liked to go garage sale shopping after they were retired, I doublechecked with Grant to see if he remembered seeing it when he was little. 

He says he definitely remembers it from way back--it was probably a wedding gift from their 1952 wedding. I love that funky two-tone green glaze.  Very very vintage!

Also vintage is this spice jar I unearthed while trying to find something else in my tiny spice cupboard.  It says McCormick 1977.  Obviously I don't use Cream of Tartar very often.  Maybe the number is just the manufacturer's startup date and not the product date.

The remains of the dessert--actually a cream cheese pie with sour cream topping--it was delicious as always.  This counter on the opposite end of the kitchen holds another favorite find, the two-tiered iron holder with removable wooden trays.  As you can see, it works perfectly to hold both fruit and napkins in my small, galley style kitchen.  The narrow tray next to it is also iron with a design of pinecones and pine needles, very Craftsman in appearance but bought new.  The two purple glass sugar bowls and vintage-looking ribbed glass butter dish were also bought new.  I love rustic and vintage mixed together!   Tomorrow, a return to quilt related posting.