Doctor Who - Who Knew

Just saw this and couldn't resist posting ...

WIPs and other things

So, I thought I'd make a list of my WIPs.

1) Grinch quilt
2) Sew along (?)
3) Improv Quilt (?)
4) Baby Quilt (from baby clothes)
5) Blue elephant

and things I need to make

6) Nate's Quilt
7) New grandbaby quilt
8) New grandbaby knitted blanket

(and did I mention that my OS and his wife are having a baby? due in March - grandbaby #5!)

I've been working on #4.  all last week, I was cutting out t-shirts and then today I put the backing on all of them.  It's so hard to cut the clothes .. what if I screw this up .. anyway, here's my helper ...

Pre-backing ...

Here is the layout on my bed.

There's a lot of sewing that needs to happen, but it's finally coming along.  I'll start on sewing this week.

Oh and I'm so bummed I missed posting yesterday. but I won't let that keep me from trying for the rest of the month.

Point Isabel

Last month .. or rather in September .. I went with my YD, my SIL, one of my co-workers and his wife and both of their dogs to Point Isabel. It's a dog park about an hour north of our house on the San Francisco Bay.

I didn't get many pictures .. particularly of the dogs.  Here's a picture of Max in case you've forgotten what he looks like.

For whatever reason this picture makes him look small - he isn't.  He weighs about 60 pounds.

Max is getting much better at being social with other dogs -- as long as they are about his size.  Small dogs are a real problem.

While at the park, he went up to this group of people with three small dogs.  One of the dogs, a Chihuahua, decided to run from him.  Max in dog-like fashion took off after him.  They ran for at least a minute with this little teensy dog totally outrunning him.  Wish I'd gotten it on video.  The only reason they stopped was my SIL tackled his dog ...

This is a picture of the Bay Bridge from Point Isabel.

The Tree

More pics of "the tree" from this year...

 but I think, this is my favorite one for the year.

Trip to Seattle, Part II

On Sunday, the final day of my Seattle visit with Nevada, after having breakfast, we walked down to the Pike Place Market again.  This time we walked all over the Market.  Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures.

The have a wonderful comic book store -- and look who was out front : two of my favorite Doctors!!

There were so many things to see, I just forgot to take pictures.  There were used book stores, and flower places, and food places, and artsy places.  Just about anything you want, they have.

The tiles for the restrooms were pretty fun .. I should have taken pictures of all the different entrances I saw.

 

We then decided to walk to the Space Needle by way of the Puget Sound.  I took this picture of the cruise liner waiting for passengers.  I think this is where you board to go to Alaska.

We walked through Olympic Sculpture Park before heading away from the water.  This is one of the many cool sculptures.  Don't know if you can tell how huge this is but it is over 45 feet tall, see more here.

and then we got to the Space Needle ...

We didn't go up in it; we'll save that for the next trip, maybe.  We wandered back to her apartment (only about a 15 minute walk from the Needle) and then we were off to the airport.  On the way we could see Mount Ranier .. with snow.

And that was my weekend in Seattle.  Until next time ...

StoryCorps -- Interviews Year 2

I interviewed my grandsons again this year using the StoryCorps app* -- the three oldest who are now 9, 7, and 5.  This was about the same time as last year, before Halloween.  This is #29 on the list.

Here are the pics I took that are saved with the interviews.

Cooper, age 5 (i'm really bad at this selfie thing).

Andrew, Age 7.

Mikey, Age 9.

I should see if I can upload the interviews here as well.  I'll look into that.

*StoryCorps mission as stated on their website is: Our mission is to preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world.

I'm using it for a different purpose but I still like it.  Last year's interviews weren't much different from this year's, but over time I'm sure things will change.

Isn't it grand!

These are pictures of my grandniece and grandnephew .. Wow, I'm really old.  I'm a great aunt.  Anyway, when I got home from work today there was a card from my niece with pictures of her kids.  Jones is my birthday buddy and baby Thea ....

I had asked her to send them to me .. I was just surprised that she did it so quickly.  Such cuties!

Trip to Seattle, Part I

When this year began, I had no idea that Nevada would move away.  But in June, it happened.  After only three months, I made the trek up to Seattle to visit her.  Our plan for the weekend was to hang out -- we had a beer tour & tasting on Saturday afternoon, but that was the only thing planned.

Friday night we watched Doctor Who -- which we do just about every Friday night (we watch the same episodes at the same time and text our thoughts/comments).  It was fun to do in person.

On Saturday, we walked to the Pike Place Market from her apartment.  She works at Amazon so we walked by her building ..  and walked by the Amazon Spheres on our way.

We wandered around at the waterfront, waiting for the beer tour .. stopped in and had a couple flights of beer...

 

We decided to check out Copperworks (we thought it was a brewery but it was a distillery).  We shared a flight - vodka, gin, whiskey.  It was really interesting.  The vodka especially.

The brewery tour was at the Pike Brewing Company.  I don't have any pictures from the brewery tour -- typical.  There were four of us and the tour guide.  I felt like I learned a lot about beer and brewing, but I think I've forgotten it all, except that if you let water sit overnight any chlorine in it evaporates.

After the tour, we had a beer, ate some appetizers and walked back to Nevada's apartment.  We went up to the roof with a glass of wine and relaxed.  You can see the Space Needle ..

 

Family Time

My YS and his family are moving to Phoenix, in less than two weeks.  This has happened really fast .. we had a get together at our house.  They'll be back at Thanksgiving, but they're leaving.  This was the last time for us to get together before they leave. 

I'm gonna miss these guys ....

#51 One Hundred Thousand Steps Week

#51 on my list this year was to have a 100K step week.  The week that I had my 40,000 step day was the week that I hit that mark.

 

As you can see, I actually had 157,795 for that week.  I guess next year, my goal should be a 175,000 step week.

Orchid (again)

I've had this orchid for over two years.  I thought after the last blooms that it was done, but a new branch appeared and there are more .. this is the first orchid I've had where new branches have grown.  I've had new leaves, but never new branches. 

I tried to attach the new branch to a stick, but it bent .. so I let it do its own thing.  Here's a link to and earlier post about this same orchid.