[marthamfi]

Work stuff sucks though sounds like your boss has your back kathy. Dish yarn only seems to go on sale once or twice a year it seems and don't think I have seen it for couple of years. it is mostly just cotton. Bernat used to have big balls of it in the past. not sure about it now.

Sounds like a nice camp site, glad you had a good time Spirit. Wow you bring a lot. Shadow looks very happy though.
lovely shirt and shorts! looks very cute. Hope you are feeling better Hikr.. I am cranky too cus heat and just not sleeping well lol and well family bugging you at the wrong moments..like dh you can text..instead of calling landline/cell etc when it is busy... No we haven't decided what to do. . high 70s today so not bad weather but going to be high 80s for the weekend so though you feel like you should do something.

Yes like Spirit says would be better deals later in off season and they will have time. Ch you have been a busy beaver! Nice the scrabble is working for you DC.

worked today.. got stamps and since body shop was there used $10 bday coupon for lemon soap..no one is home and as I was writing this from last line ..a huge crash...the wicker little shelving unit in the bathroom fell down all over floor and into bathtub..sea shell theme stuff mostly so all the star glass ornaments broken ..clearance xmas stuff from michaels in pink, orange etc plus other things broke..just swept up a bit and picked up what I could. stuff needs a good wash and dust anyways. always dusty in that bathroom every day.

had picked up at food court indian food for ds and me so ate it and think I will not do much now cheesy tv and good night sleep.

 

[Spirit Deer]

I was mistaken. The bill that will provide rebates for new energy efficent appliances is the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to pass but hasn't yet. Maybe next week, but before summer recess. I'm still catching up on news after being gone.

We like being comfortable, Martha, so we do bring a lot. I'm always working on bringing less, though. Shadow is generally a happy girl, very waggy and vocal. When she moved in, she didn't know what toys were and didn't have any interest in them. Storm loves toys and she learned from him how to play with them and not to rip them up.

 

[dlrcpa]

Hikr can you buy a couple of box fans? I see at Home Depot $25-$50, so you can get several for $100. I have a tabletop one for the room with no ceiling fan. It's easy to move around.
SD, the AAR looks really useful - shade and a breeze.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I was mistaken. The bill that will provide rebates for new energy efficent appliances is the Inflation Reduction Act, which is expected to pass but hasn't yet. Maybe next week, but before summer recess. I'm still catching up on news after being gone.

Hikr, it's worth asking about the rebates even without a federal level bill. Your local electric co might be offering something, and there might be manufacturer's rebates. They are typically on the higher priced energy efficient models.

Personally, we like the compact tower fans because they take up less floor space and they oscillate. Got mine at Aldi, but places like walmart and sam's sell them too.

Already 86 and rising with humidity and I feel the headache coming on. Dh went back to bed. I may try to sew a QoV block before lunch. We are due at a friend's house afterward. My beads did not come, some books for DH were in the box instead. Maybe in a few days. Gives me time to work on purses. Quilt bee is only 8 days away.

Keep cool everyone.

 

[dcompton]

I have ceiling fans, but just yesterday I was thinking of maybe getting a box fan in the fall that I could set in the window to blow cool air in. I can often get some cross draft but not always. It certainly wouldn’t be much help now. 😅

I’m thinking of just packing the cross stitch up for a while. I have new toys and need to do some actual sewing - the curtains and other projects on hold forever. If I’m working on it this little I don’t need it by my chair staring at me accusingly. Lol.

 

[hikr00]

Hey all, feeling much better today. We went to Sam’s Club and picked up the new computer and after that lunch at Texas Roadhouse. A decent night of sleep, lunch with dh and two glasses of Diet Coke put my world back on its axis. Lol. We both love soda but when we have soda here we have a tendency to drink more of that than was. So we don’t buy it anymore but when we go out we get soda. And we appreciate it so much more! This afternoon I’m going to finish charging the new laptop and see about getting that connected to the modem / router. Leftover Texas Roadhouse for supper and a swim later.

CH your comment about the pattern being a bit of a mess reminded me of the time I got a pattern for a baby doll carrier. Well, I got rolling on it and that was a disaster. Pieces were mismarked and after puzzling over it I finally just decided to wing it and skip the pattern. It worked which was a surprise. Lol. Our cat enjoyed it until we got together with our grands and then they took it over. This is our girl, Duchess. She’s passed now and is missed.

 

[hikr00]

SD yes, I am planning on checking with the power company and I also wondered about checking with our insurance company in case there are my discounts through there. I kind of doubt the insurance will but I do know there are some through our electric company. We never used to have many beastly hot days like this but now it seems to be the norm if the past two to three years are any indicator. I’m not sure there’s anything I’d stand in line for three hours for anything! Haha. But I bet it was a nice event. The Maine Lobster Festival is in full swing in Rockland. Lots of people, totally not our scene.

CH we do have the tower fans in each room but the big problem here is our family room, kitchen and living room all run together so the cooling effect if the fans gets lost. Our house is one floor so I’m not comfortable leaving the windows open at night. If we could do that I think it would cool the house down so it would be more manageable as the day goes on. When you do the purses do you sew them “assembly style” or one at a time? I’m envious of your upcoming quilt bee.

DC don’t you hate it when the projects glare at you from the chair? I’m familiar with that. Haha. I’ve got the scrabble game in my Amazon cart

Marthamfi definitely a better day today. I was due for a meltdown and I had a spectacular one. Lol. I was getting dinner ready last night and dh wandered in and just hung out in the corner where I’m working. I told him that for his own safety he really ought to back away. He looked sad and said that He just wanted to hang out. Gotta love him but did he not notice my hissy fit earlier? He said he thought maybe I wanted to have him right there to listen. I said no, I need you to step back because I am still cranky so if I snarl at you I need you to promise you won’t be hurt. Haha. He wisely decided he’d be safer in the living room. And he’s never been more excited and grateful for English muffin pizzas than he was last night. He might have been sucking up a bit, HA!

DLRCPA we’ve got the tower fans around in every room but the layout of the house just not conducive to good air flow I guess.

 

[renmerc446]

Still hot and humid in my area. The heatwave has been lingering, now going on weeks. Did get some thunderstorms last night. AT night, rather than the evening like the forecast stated. We did get some rain, only ~0.17 inches but that's better than nothing. It's been really dry this summer, especially compared with last summer when we had 3 hurricanes over 3 months (July, August, and September). The meteorologists are saying it's supposed to be a very active hurricane season but I haven't heard that there's been much activity so far.

Been pretty lazy, craft-wise, due to the heat and humidity. Only real work done on the lapgan WIP I leave in the car and that's only because I was getting the oil changed (and radiator fluid flushed) this morning.

Only thing that I'm really working on is some worldbuilding for a story WIP. Of course, it's on the story I'm NOT working on at the moment. Then again, I haven't really done much on that one, worldbuilding or otherwise, for a couple of years so I am happy about it. I am still coming up with ideas for the story I am working on so I'm not too worried about that one. Even if I do only get a couple paragraphs on it each writing session.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

DC, sounds like it is time to switch gears and come back to the stitching when it is more interesting.

Hikr, what an adorable kitty. She looks like she knew who that baby doll bed was for

I would like to do two purses assembly style if I can manage it, because once I figure it out I might as well do it while I can remember it. It will still be slow going because seams have to be trimmed after sewing, some have to be turned and top stitched, etc. and at one point I'm sewing 6 layers together.

We're only having our normal hot weather here, mid 90's. Had a nice visit with friends, but too much food and no one was really hungry. Lots of leftover chicken for dinner, and another dinner later this week. Too humid to do much of anything.

Fall quilt shows and festivals popping up on the calendar. I'm looking forward to going to events again. Gas is 3.39 - 3.54 here.

 

[marthamfi]

Yes isn't it the way when you get older..is it worth it to stay up for , go stand in line too hot or cold. We joked we had kids when we reached the is it worth staying up past 10pm for. in the low 80s today but was lovely being outside earlier... when I watered etc. except it was early in the day. Duchess looks like a lovely cat.. I had one like that too for 16 yrs Bob. only got over him recently after all this years.. now want another brown tabby but since it looks like another black and white cat has adopted us..not going to be at the moment.

Smart man Hikr! I give warnings too and if you want to ignore them well lol can't say you weren't. What about a window a/c or one reversible fan that you can get hot air blown out.? we went from ceiling fans, standing fans then window units to central a/c. will still use the ceiling fans but love the central a/c. all the fan noice drives me nuts.

I turned the potatoes from a few days ago ..boiled again w the frozen kale made stumppot in the morning. housework and then just sitting and crocheting while watching tv. finished the cowl and started another to finish the skein. ds is out and dh and dd will go to a game too soon. popped sinus pill so just vegging. laundry on the list. There is a thing happening downtown..food trucks music etc but nope think ds went to it ..free except food. I have been looking at things to do but heat... but there is the annual antique collectible show for the first time since covid. normally in April.

 

[Spirit Deer]

August is festival month all over our area, too, plus county fairs (ours has 2) and state fair in St. Paul. Husby was reading about Festival of Sail. Ticket prices are $50 each but you get to go on board and get a guided tour with history of the ships, etc. They are all replicas of historical ships that played a part in US history. For $109, people can go on a 90 minute sail on Lake Superior. I told Husby I'd happily pay either or both of those prices for those experiences. How often can a person walk the decks of ships like those, and actually sail on one? It's easy to see why Festival of Sail is so popular and why people are willing to wait in long lines. Just not us. 😁

Given my background in manufacturing, it's second nature now to assemble batches of things step by step rather than one whole item at a time. The exception is things that use some unusual techniques or where instructions seem confusing or sketchy. Then I do one item completely first, to make sure I understand the procedure or test the pattern. The bags sound like an ordeal and unneccessarily complicated. Good luck, CH. It sounds like an unpleasant project it will be a relief to finish.

We never planned on AC here. We have ceiling fans in every room except kitchen. For 10 yrs, that was all we needed. Not the past 15. Every yr has more hot days and hotter temps now. I'm getting very, very sick of science deniers who block green policies while Earth burns.

Today I'm not planning to do much. I got a new audiobook yesterday that I requested in April, David Baldacci's Mercy. Naturally it's a priority to listen to it right away. We never made the stacked DO meal planned for our trip, so I made that for lunch yesterday in the stove oven. There's still plenty of DISCO chicken left for supper tonight so I don't have to cook, and leftover seafood wraps for lunch. Then the camping food will be gone.

We got the new cooler shelf made for the trayless 70 qt which has become our go-to for these short trips. It worked perfectly for the tray we use. No more tray that sits on the ice and sinks like the Titanic as the ice melts, and still plenty of room for the tall ice containers. I love eliminating these little annoyances.

I finished up the 3 scrubbies yesterday, so won't have to do any more of those for at least 10 yrs, I hope.

Hope everyone has a pleasant Sunday filled with whatever makes you happy. 🙂

 

[dlrcpa]

I just accidentally discovered that I have access to an additional free huge library (called Library of Virginia) of digital material (e-books, audio books) via my county library card. They also have magazines electronically, including sewing, quilting, cross stitch, crochet and knit.
County library posting notices they are converting from OVERDRIVE to LIBBY so trying to figure out how to get that installed on devices. I decided to keep a book loaded on the MP3 player (uses AAA battery) so I won't depend on phone battery all the time, especially if power outage.

 

[Spirit Deer]

Libby has an app. Not sure how that works other than with phones. I used Overdrive for yrs and switched to Libby a couple yrs ago and like it better. Our library system is phasing out Overdrive, too.

We bought a small solar charger for camping and power outages. It lives in a south window, so it's always charged. It will charge a cell phone but slowly. We can also plug a phone into it and use the power directly. We can also use car chargers to charge directly from our car batteries. That eventually would run the car battery down if the engine wasn't running, of course. Running the car to charge things is inefficient but in an emergency, it's still a valuable resource. 🙂

Project Lazy Sunday has commenced. Guess I'll pick out some more perfectly good cross stitches while I listen to my book. At least half of that is fun.

 

[dcompton]

I’ve had an eventful start to the day. It was long past time for a haircut. My neighbor usually does it late afternoon. Today I got the text just as I was getting up. I’ve never had a haircut before breakfast. Lol. It feels much better, I’m sitting with morning tea, then breakfast, then finish cleaning up the mess. After that, whatever.

Hikr - that was nice of your DH, but sometimes company just isn’t desirable. I hope you like the game. I probably won’t get a box fan. It’s a good idea, but it’s just one more thing to irritate me with its existence in the house all the months I’m not using it.

Some days ago I finished picking out all of false start stitching and all the fabric is on the table. One thing I would like to do today is get all the counts figured out and put it away. There will be no other serious projects until the table is cleared.

We had a good rain late yesterday from one of the pop up thunderstorms. It only lasted about 30-40 minutes, but during most of that time the rain was heavy. I don’t know how much we got, but it was enough to leave big puddles. At least half an inch or maybe more. It was welcome. I’ve been hearing that hurricane formation has been suppressed because of large persistent dust plumes blowing off the Sahara over the usual hurricane track. It seems they are expecting a change of atmospheric patterns in the next few weeks that will open the way. We shall see. I would hope they are wrong, but everyone seems to be holding to the prediction of a busy season. Anyway it only takes a few to make it a very unhappy blockbuster hurricane year. Heck, one would do if it was big enough and hit a bad place.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

DC, what a great day, haircut and rain on the same day. I am looking forward to mine in 9 days. Haven't had a good cut in 3 years and I feel like a shaggy dog. And I'm going for the cherry red color again, because I can.

Nice solution for the cooler, SD.

Hikr, our main floor is all one open space, too. L shaped with the kitchen in the short end. If not for the fan no air would be moving. Badly designed floor plan and circulating system. Our basement is downright frosty in the summer, right next to the utility room, while upstairs the air barely moves. One vent in the LR while there are 5 in the basement. Why? I understand that the 1 outlet per room design came before everyone had a billion devices and appliances to plug in, but didn't people breathe in the 60's? Previous home owners never opened the windows, they were stuck shut when we moved in.

JA ad came. Nothing of interest to me. I noticed the single 50% off coupon is only good for 3 days. Seems I remember they lasted longer than that in the past. More BOGO and B3G2 deals, except I usually don't want 2 or 5 of a thing. Patterns on sale this month, get them if you need them because they usually stay full price through Sept and Oct and you can't use coupons on them.

Got bit by mosquitoes while picking cucumbers and tomatoes this morning. Ugh. Now that it's not 100 out every day the plants are starting to put out flowers again.

Was thinking last night that I will work on assembling the cats & dogs quilt this week so I can show it off and turn it in. Will do the beginning steps on two of the purses, the front flap and two pockets are pretty easy. The rest will be what I work on at the bee. That will get 2 projects out of here.

 

[dlrcpa]

Just looked at my credit card rewards selections and I can get this WeatherX WR182R radio/flashlight multi-functional gadget with points (as soon as dog2 gets his dental cleaning in September which will be $$$). Looks handy.
https://gpx.com/weatherx/wr182r.html
I did get a portable charger as a promotional gift so have been practicing keeping it charged and charging my phone from it.

 

[Contrary Housewife]

The weather radio looks handy, but I'm dubious that the hand crank will be useful. We got a hand crank flashlight, and after cranking for several minutes it gave us about 30 seconds of use. But if you keep your batteries fresh and charged up the radio will work for hours when the power is out. I don't see that this model has an alarm that will go off if severe weather moves in. You may be satisfied with a phone alert if that will wake you up at night, or you may want to look for a model with more features.

 

[marthamfi]

Think we have a radio like that and a few hand crank flashlights.. had for years ..dh bought or got as gift who knows when. plus portable battery chargers. had a solar one when I traveled and ds found it for camping so haven't seen since.
Ch dh closed off the vents in the basement and stuffed a towel in each one too to stop the ac and have more air upstairs. Ours isn't open but not big..built in the 40s so has some cross breezes but still now too hot with out ac and being older too it seems. Nothing like a good haircut! got mine done but though short she didn't have a chance to razor it out so still feels heavy.

lazy sunday sounds good..feels like we should do something.. but hot..and so many people out and about so traffic. so will see kids still asleep ..night market maybe. dh iritis is flaring up so has ph appt for his meds he needs. hopefully they don't fuss about seeing a specialist because then that is days away..and of course gps just say well go to ER well who wants to sit in ER for meds you know you need. He threw out his old stuff ..hasn't had a flare up for years.

was up early cus watering day and the cats decided I was up ..though the big cat has been running over me in the night like a elephant walking down my inner thigh etc. like why can't you just jump at the end of the bed. not bright. popped allergy pill but need more meds. We watched Prey on disney. changed what we are getting in our csa delivery. lots i can do bookkeeping housework etc will later. still working on second cowl.

 

[dlrcpa]

Actually we HAVE an old NOAA weather radio (also GPX brand, gift from sis-in-law) that I tried some time ago but gave up quickly. I'm determined to figure it out this time, guess I have a lot to learn. It won't recharge other devices like the new one and uses a lot of AA batteries. I found a suitable AC adapter and spent some time cranking to get it started so I can try to play around with it. I do have the county alerts app on my phone, it has gone off with tornado watch before and I get thunderstorm alerts all the time. OMG I actually found the instruction booklet......
I have started another hat. Charity drop-off is Wednesday, a tub full of stuff will leave the house.

 

[KathyB]

We are not ones for late night events either. It is a little disappointing that so many interesting things happen later in the evening. One of the cities I am thinking of moving to when I retire - Indianapolis - has a place called the Jazz Kitchen. It is a restaurant with live jazz music during lunch time and early dinner time 5 or 6.

***
We have a portable AC we use for those times we don't have AC in the condo. We have a system where they switch from AC to heat and back twice a year. So there is often a week or two where it is pretty hot with no AC. There is a part in the bottom where you put ice water and then air blows over that. Pricer than a fan and not as efficient as regular AC but it helps.