Easter finery

my new tee shirt...

just sayin'

do the math

these two cases of eggs were right next to each other...

early last week, during the labor union strike at King Soopers, shoppers were searching everydamnwhere for eggs - and, yes, they were desperate enough to drive  anydamnwhere and pay anydamnprice...

there were cheers when the strike ended and - because no one had shopped there for two weeks - there was an abundance of eggs at King Soopers...

yay

i didn't need eggs (yet) - but i've been tracking the price of eggs

and it's easier to take a picture with my phone than it is to write it down and accidentally drop the paper or the pencil or both...

notice the yellow tag with the blue sticker

my eyes were drawn to the yellow tag - ooooo!!! sale price!!! 

i'd have to buy 5 or more of qualifying items to save a dollar - i can do that!!! 

oh my gosh, regular price is 74.9 cents per egg!!! sheesh!!! and i can save a dollar?!? awesome!!!

and the blue sticker - oh, so lucky to find these before they're gone!!! 

better buy them now - before they disappear - better get more than i need, just in case, cuz you never know!!! 

here's the price for a dozen - no yellow sale tag

$7.89 for a dozen eggs?!? that's up 20 cents from last week!!! that's crazy!!!

i feel bad for the chickens that are being "destroyed" because of bird flu

and even worse that funding for finding a chicken vaccine was cutoff and the scientists were fired by Muskolini and Brain Worm because - well, you know, science

but these egg prices are freaking ridiculous!!!

and my mind kept returning to the yellow sale tag and the blue sticker and how i should maybe buy the 18 eggs that i don't need because who knows how much eggs will be come Easter?!?

i took a deep, cleansing breath ... phone is already out ... when is Easter? check the calendar ... Easter is April 20 ... that's two months away ... i don't HAVE to buy eggs today - i HAVE 35 eggs at home ... and i HAVE 79 eggs worth of powdered eggs at home ... i don't NEED to buy eggs today

crisis averted...

but that isn't what this is about...

this is about that yellow tag and the blue sticker...

yellow tags at the grocery store means SALE!!!

blue stickers mean buy it while you can cuz the clock is ticking...

when i don't look past the YELLOW means SALE!!! 

and when I don't DO THE MATH  

 i will grab the carton with six more eggs and sale pricing ,

and i will pay $.6938 for each egg instead of $.6575 

that's $.6534 more for the very same amount of eggs 

an entire egg's worth because of that yellow tag and blue sticker 

that's one of the ways that Corporate America steals from us 

and we are volunteering to be conned

just sayin' 

The Economic Blackout

  February 28, 2025

00:00- 24:00 

one 24 hour period of not spending any money

 or using any credit or debit cards

 except for essentials (food, medicine, emergency supplies)

details at this link

organized by The People's Union USA

 think about it...

 what a powerful message can be sent to Corporate America and Big Banks - whose only interest is their bottom line - if WE intentionally disrupt the economy for one day

 how many opportunities do consumers have to show that big companies and big banks are successful because of us ...  our political division is their strength - we can unite for 24 hours  ... we have more in common with each other than we have with Musk or Bezos or Zuckerberg

just sayin'

it's not about the nail...

🔨🔨 when the only tool you have is a hammer 🔨🔨

every problem looks like a nail

and sometimes the problem really IS a nail...

🔨 🔨 so ... maybe use the other side 🔨 🔨

 just sayin'

artificial intelligence

Never trust anything that can think for itself

 if you can't see where it keeps its brain.

 Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Chapter 18

and maybe not even then...

me

just sayin'

necessary evils

tru dat

broke ... broken ... brokener

Sometimes a thing gets broke, can't be fixed.

Kaylee - Firefly

and that's what happened to the computer...

i should know, i did the breaking... 
and the trying to fix*
which led to it being even more broken

but it's gonna be okay... 

maybe somewhere in the mess that i made of the hard drive, i will find the pictures that go with the posts i was gonna write...

and maybe then i will write those posts and post them...
*note to self - sometimes a thing gets broke, can't be fixed so don't make it worse cuz making it worse is costly

plop plop fizz fizz

i dunno if it was the corned beef and veggies or the beer bread or the bread pudding ... maybe it was because i didn't wash it all down with irish coffee or red wine ... or i may have angered the saints by insisting that they share the day ... whatever ... my insides are really, really angry with me today and it feels like there is a little man sitting on my head and pounding away at my skull with a sledge hammer ... anywho ... this is what i worked on last night for the Friday Night Sew-In...half full or half empty?

this is the first of twenty-four or so embroideries that i will need to stitch for what i want to do with the paper-pieced BOM sampler blocks...i'm a little teapot - short and stout
the quilt shop is not selling the fabric that is used in the blocks because then they wouldn't have enough for the BOM kits ... i gotta say if i was a quilt shop owner and i went to the trouble of making kits and demonstrating techniques and opening the doors early for an extremely low fee that didn't even cover the cost of the fabric in order to get people into my shop so they would spend money i would make sure that i had supplies on hand for my customers to buy in order to finish their blocks into a quilt of some kind ... the same thing happened with the Saturday Sampler 2 blocks - they stopped carrying the coordinating Lakehouse fabrics two months into the club ... i dunno ... maybe the other quilters are there just for the camaraderie and tips on technique and not for a finished quilt ... anywho ... i ordered the white on white looping daisy Maywood fabric on-line from The Tattered Rabbit and received very good service, by the way ... the design is traced from Aunt Martha's Hot Iron Transfers ... which i now have beau coup of cuz i couldn't decide what i wanted to stitch and there didn't seem to be 24 of any one thing ... most are related designs in groups of 7 or 9 or 12 ... so i'm gonna combine teapots and teacups and maybe reverse some of the designs in order to have enough alternate blocks ... whaddya think?

Auntia is doing a really cool sumpin sumpin with her paper-pieced blocks ... she'll be posting for the Friday Night Sew-In later today
and now i'm gonna go be miserable somewhere else

open mouth ... insert foot

last saturday was the Saturday Sampler 3 meeting at TQS ... i had to go alone on accounta Auntia's allergies kept her down and out for the count ... believe it or not i actually got myself out the door on time and into the shop with five minutes to spare ... there were plenty of seats to choose from and i plopped myself down in the front row on the end toward the door just in case i needed to make a quick getaway ... Peggy Money Penny always saves seats in the back row for her friends and she shouts to them as they walk in the door
i saved you a seat!
which is a nice thing to do i guess but it doesn't leave much of the back row for anybody else ... that's where the chairs with cushions are - which means that the rest of us have to warm up metal chairs with our bottoms ... anywho ... i had settled into my chair and the seat was finally warmed up when More Than A Gardener came in five minutes late with her little grandson ... she stood in front of me and said that she wanted to sit close to the door in case the little guy became rowdy during our meeting ... i was busy trying to make myself non-threatening cuz i don't think there's a much scarier sight than a bunch of women wielding rotary cutters early on a saturday morning - especially if you're just a little guy with More Than A Gardener for a grandmother and admiring the purple binder that the quilter sitting next to me had for her notes ... i think that More Than A Gardner must have gone on for a bit about needing to sit by the door ... but it didn't occur to me that she actually wanted me to move from what she must have perceived as prime real estate till she got exasperated and huffed over to the other side of the room ... in the meantime ... Peggy Money Penny shouted
where's your other half?
and it took me a minute to understand that she was talking to me about Auntia ... so i explained that Auntia was under the weather
you're always together!
well ... she is my daughter and we do live in the same house and we do both quilt
do you know how lucky you are?!?
ummmm ... yes ... i do
then we started talking about mothers and daughters and quilters and non-quilters and we discovered that both of our mothers think that quilting is odd ... and we talked about what would happen to our stashes and our UFOs and WIPs and PhDs when we're gone ... i said that Auntia always asks me
do i get this when you die?
and Peggy Money Penny said that her children already know what to do with her quilts - they go with her to the grave ... it was the longest conversation that i've had with Peggy Money Penny in the past two years ... her friends started to show up ... she turned her back to me and shouted
i saved you a seat!
and then the meeting started ... Sheri did her demonstration for this month's block ... More Than A Gardener let the little guy wander around and he came this close to smacking his head against the light box and other sharp objects five gazillion times and she said that his parents are in Florida for a week and he is running her ragged ... one of the other quilters had five of her grandchildren visiting for the month and entertained us with stories about red and green crayons on the counter and one of the kids telling his mother that Granny made a dog bed for him to sleep in - which was actually a human bed with 101 Dalmation sheets - and how much she loves having her little visitors and how glad she will be when the month is over ... and More
Than A Gardener said that she raised three boys and blah blah blah ...... and then it was time for show and tell ... Peggy Money Penny showed her quilt top from the first Saturday Sampler ... it was lovely ... autumn-colored batiks and an interesting setting that complemented the twelve blocks ... i said that it would be perfect in my living room
this is for my mother and you can't have it!
ha ha ha! do i get it when she dies?
keeping our earlier conversation in mind - it was kinda funny ... but Peggy Money Penny's friends hadn't been around for our earlier discussion and they gasped ... audibly
ummm ... gulp ... er ... ummmm ... sorry ... my bad
sometimes i wish i had the ability to highlight/delete the stupid things that come out of my mouth ... if Auntia had been there she would have been nudging me to shut up ... and then she would have sighed and said something like
mom!!! i can't take you anywhere!
or
hey!!! that's MY line!!!
sigh...

anywho ... i finished the paper-pieced BOMs and the SS3 BOM yesterday...i had to turn the picture over cuz the SS3 block was upside down
the blue and white blocks are Gentleman's Fancy and North Wind ... and now i'm gonna go get some corned beef and veggies and a piece of beer bread ... maybe if i keep my mouth filled with food i won't say anything stupid

ID ten t error

for the past couple of weeks i've been working on quilting Mr. Husker's Homestead ... i quilted a herd of birds in the sky ... snowflakes on the mountains ... pine cones on the log cabin trees ... a flock of deer...doe ... a deer ... a female deer ... or threehey girls ... i'm over here!look out for that deer!
the light isn't good enough to really see the deer - but they are there ... then i moved on down to the willow trees and the lake, quilting leaves and fish and a couple water birds and a frog ... next up was a turkey and some corn stalks in the stack of hay bales ... some veggies in the garden ... and a couple of tools in the woodpile ... and then i quilted some fireworks in the tall pine trees and a bird nest in the big tree ... and i rolled the top and backing and batting forward ... what the?!?i know better

when i removed the bamboo batting from its bag, i didn't measure it to make sure that i was placing the 90" side at the top of the frame and the 108" sides on the sides ...... and now the batting is too short for the length of the quilt ...... the technical term is an ID ten t error

id10t

i think that i shall never see

a poem as lovely as seventeen trees...
what kind of trees are those? lodge pole pine? scotch pine? sequoia? white pine? maybe spruce?
the inner borders are on the lone wolves quilt for the Other One's birthday ... i was gonna add a plain border of dark blue sky but it just didn't look good next to the lighter sky ... and i didn't have enough of the lighter sky because it is of course directional ... what to do? what to do? what to do? sheesh ...... when i made the trees for the center i had 96 (if you do the math, it should have been just 90 - but i made an extra tree, just in case) little bonus half square triangles of lighter sky and green trees ... lots of little blocks with nowhere to go ... so i put them together into a giant tree ... i dunno why - it just seemed like the right thing to do with them ... and then i had a giant tree with nowhere to go what to do? what to do? what to do? so i thought nothing ventured, nothing gained and started whacking away ... i split the giant tree in half ... and came up with the side borders ... the top and bottom are mountains from the striped fabric ... i'm still undecided on the outer border - i was gonna make sawtooth stars with the snow and paw prints' fabrics, but the top doesn't really need to be any longer and sometimes i just don't know when to quit ... i haven't used any of the dark blue sky yet, so that's a possibility ... or maybe just a plain old border of the paw prints' fabric ... meh ... the excitement has worn off and i think i'll just put it away for awhile

in the meantime...

Elaine is having a giveaway ... i love Elaine's blog ... she has been sharing her cruise adventures and has wonderful pictures of food and fun and beautiful places to go and lovely people to meet ... if you haven't already, go there to visit - you WILL be inspired!


i have an email buddy who likes to send me uplifting-feel-good-everybody-loves-you messages and i usually open them and think what the...?!? this is the latest, with a few modifications...

there comes a point in your life when you realize:
who matters
who never did
who won't anymore
and who always will...
there are reasons why some of the people in your past didn't make it to your now
and why some of the people in your now won't make it to your future
from an unknown author - edited by me

bubble & brew, wishy-washy hands, half & half, and frog eyes

i finished embroidering the Hocuspocusville coffee shop two days ago......it was a lot less stitching than the quilt shop ... i tore the rest of the fabric (now's a fine time to make sure that i have enough, eh? the shop where i bought it went out of business in march) and maybe i will be able to trace out the restaurant - the black cauldron with authentic witch cuisine - this weekend ... but HPV (not the virus) is gonna have to take a backseat to the stocking that i started for LuLu (formerly known as Littlelle) ... it is counted cross stitch, so i actually have to count when i work on it and it doesn't make that great pahwhoosh sound that embroidery does ... sigh ... i have made Shepherds Bush stockings for all (four) of my kids, my mother, my sister, and three of my grandbabies - it only took 386 days to find myself two stockings behind ... sigh ... Santa is an understanding guy and will probably leave goodies for little girls with no stockings...

Gumdrop, NoJo, Mrs. Moth, Little Nonnie and LuLu
...we did manage to get all of the m&m's up to see Little Nonnie ... she was in quite the mood when we arrived - i asked her to wash her hands so she could hold the baby and she went into the bathroom ... water turns on - swish - water turns off - okay, i'm ready ... did you use soap? no, i didn't use soap - why would i use soap? you're kidding me, right? no, i'm not kidding you - i haven't touched anything except my clothes and the toilet paper ... mom, go wash your hands with soap ... why? i've lived 84 years and i think i know a little bit more about babies that you do ... mom, if you don't wash your hands with soap, then you are NOT gonna hold my granddaughter ... fine! whatever!
what is it with people who refuse to wash their hands? she's not allergic to soap. she taught me that washing my hands was the best way to not get sick. she also taught me that i should never, never, never touch a baby unless i had washed my hands with soap and water...

...and she is not alone - everybody wants to hold LuLu, but the vast majority don't even think to wash their hands first ... one actually insisted that she washed her hands before she came over so she didn't need to wash them again - never mind the fact that she pet the dog and handled the steering wheel and the door handles for the car and the house and her purse strap and her car keys ... she has some kind of eye thing that makes her eyes watery - so she is always wiping at her eyes and then sticks her finger in LuLu's mouth ... well, not on my watch ... LuLu has a binky - use it - not your nasty knuckle ... what has happened to common sense?!?
NoJo is blowing out the used candle on his half-birthday piece of cake ... doesn't he look excited?
NoJo's half birthday was last saturday ...... three of my four kids were born within a month of christmas ... it is a loooong dry spell between christmas/birthday and the next christmas/birthday so i used to bake each of them half a cake and give them silly presents six months after their birthdays ... it's a family tradition ... my family tradition ... and i'm not gonna stop giving my grandson a little piece of cake with an already-been-used candle on it unless somebody can give me a good reason not to...
frog eye salad is another tasty treat that looks like it's already been eaten once
...and Auntia finally convinced me to make some frog eye salad ... we are gonna take some to Nicci when we go to see her tomorrow ...... and then we have some auction tickets to use at The Quilters Studio - they're gonna have some shop samples on the auction block - maybe we will have a winning bid or two ... and they are having their christmas in july sale (i am so gonna stay away from the winter graphix fabrics - just say no, dianne) this weekend, too ...... i am so far behind on BOM blocks that i may never catch up - Auntia even cut the pieces for me for the required block (actually, it wasn't out of the goodness of her heart - she lost a bet and that was the payment - ha ha ha! when will she learn that i don't bet unless it's a sure thing?!?) and i still haven't looked at it ... not to mention the six pink and orange blocks ... and the new saturday sampler that meets on the second saturday of each month ... and i haven't worked on Mr. Husker's Homestead since, well, forever ... and the applique blocks from class ... and the bat blocks ... sigh

boys go to jupiter

to get more stupider ...... one of my buddies (who just happens to be a man) sent me the following message in an email ... it is a real eye-opener...

Because I'm a man, when I lock my keys in the car,
I will fiddle with a coat hanger long after hypothermia has set in.
Calling AAA is not an option ... I WILL win.

Because I'm a man, when the car isn't running very well,
I will pop the hood and stare at the engine as if I know what I'm looking at.
If another man shows up, one of us will say
to the other, 'I used to be able to fix these things, but now
with all these computers and everything, I wouldn't know
where to start.' We will then drink a couple of beers and
break wind, as a form of holy communion.

Because I'm a man, when I catch a cold, I need someone
to bring me soup and take care of me tenderly while I lie in bed
and moan. You're a woman. You never get as sick as I do. So,
for you, this is no problem.

Because I'm a man, I can be relied upon to purchase basic
groceries at the store, like beer, milk or bread.I cannot be expected to find things like exotic cheese or tofu. For all I know, they are the same thing.

Because I'm a man, when one of our appliances stops
working, I will insist on taking it apart, despite evidence that
this will just cost me twice as much once the repair person
gets here and has to put it back together.

Because I'm a man, I must hold the television remote
control in my hand while I watch TV. If the thing has been
misplaced, I may miss a whole show looking for it.... though
one time I was able to survive by holding a calculator.

Because I'm a man, there is no need to ask me what I'm
thinking about. The true answer is always either sex, cars,
sex, sports, or sex. I have to make up something else when
you ask, so don't ask.

Because I'm a man, I do not want to visit your mother, or
have your mother come visit us, or talk to her when she
calls, or think about her any more than I have to. Whatever
you got her for Mother's Day is okay; I don't need to see it.
And don't forget to pick up something for my mother, too.

Because I'm a man, you don't have to ask me if I liked the

movie. Chances are, if you're crying at the end of it, I didn't.
And, if you're feeling amorous afterwards, then I will certainly
remember the name and recommend it to others.

Because I'm a man, I think what you're wearing is fine.
I thought what you were wearing five minutes ago was fine,
too... either pair of shoes is fine. With the belt or without it.
Everything looks fine. Your hair is fine. You look fine.
Can we just go now?

Because I'm a man, and this is, after all, the year 2009, I
will share equally in the housework. You just do the laundry,
the cooking, the cleaning, the vacuuming, and the dishes,
and I'll do the rest.... like wandering around in the garden
with a beer in my hand, wondering what to do.

(This has been a public service message for women
to better understand men.)

teach your children well

my mother used to send us out to play in our back yard and lock us out of the house with a hook and eye on the screen door ... the back yard had a chain link fence all the way around it and a big gate in front of the carport ... we never, never, never played in the street ... the one time that i sneaked out to play on the drive with the skateboard my brothers made out of one of my roller skates, a two by four, and a couple of nails - never did get my skate back the skateboard flew out from under me ... it shot out into the street and was narrowly missed by a poor woman driving down the road just trying to get home - it prolly took four or five years off the end of her life and i did a belly flop onto the cement driveway ... my jaw snapped up, i bit my tongue, the wind was knocked out of me and i thought i was dying ...... you can prolly guess what my mother had to say about sneaking out of the yard and playing in the street and it served me right and so what if every other kid in the neighborhood plays in their front yards and if every other kid in the neighborhood jumped off a cliff would i jump off a cliff, too? anywho ... we didn't play in the street because our parents taught us that it was not a good idea to trust our lives to distracted drivers trying to make their way home at the end of a long day...the kids do wear helmets most of the time - their parents are not complete idiots
...right around 4 in the afternoon the little people who live around here come out with their bikes and trikes and big wheels and scooters and skateboards and wagons ... and their mothers put out signs to let the rest of the world know that the street is now a playground ... never mind the fact that there is a park with fields of grass for soccer games and trees to climb and a baseball field and swings and slides and monkey bars and lots of pavement for basketball games and tether ball and learning to ride bikes less than four blocks away ... and drivers need to get off the road...

...most of my neighbors in this (mostly) quiet little suburb are educated, professional people ... they have degrees ... there are teachers and regional managers and nurses and administrators and engineers and even a couple of professors...
...they know better and they oughta do better ... within five minutes of taking these pictures, the street was filled with makeshift ramps and a dozen little strawberry beggars who are not learning one of life's big lessons ... it is hard to pump up a smashed kid