Sunny Sunday in April 4-12-13

Sunny Sunday in April              (4-12-13)

So I have absolutely no excuse for cutting church.  However, it is the first time we have had sun in a while (including sleet! on Friday).  So I’ll just say I need the sun.

It has been a while, so I’ll have to start with LAST weekend.  On Saturday, the Hands Across the Valley Quilt show was wonderful.  It was the smallest that I have ever seen it – because they keep running out of venues.  In the past, it was held every two years in the Amherst College gym.  Then, four years ago, The College (as it is known here) decided they needed to use the gym.  Two years ago, it was a whole floor at the UMass Campus Center and this year it was held at the UMass. Campus Center ballroom.  The vendors were not happy to be in little conference rooms strung alongside the ball room.  Normally, they have a huge open area.

Anyway, Jeanne and Ann and I had a great time.  They are much better quilters, crafters, than I but they are kind to admire my work.  Jeanne loves to tease me about my asymmetrical quilts reminding me that she took a course called “How to Quilt a Not Square Quilt” for use with her long arm machine.  I told her she should thank me for her continuing education. 

I especially liked the vendor who was selling stitch rippers.  (You do know that I am the Queen of Stitch Ripping, right?)  He said, “Quilters don’t make mistakes. They just make design changes.”  Nice going, Fella, but it’s pretty hard to explain that piece that is so obviously put in backwards.  At one point, I had a stitch ripper in every room.

After wandering around a while, Ann remarked that she felt jaded because, ‘I keep thinking that I could do all of these.’  Well, maybe she could, but I couldn’t.  No way could I stitch together 2012 squares.  Are you kidding me?  Does that person have a life?  There is no freakin’ way I could hand quilt a king sized quilt.  (Again – what did she do besides eat and quilt?) And I’m one of the few who does hand quilting – but no bigger than a table runner!!  

And I always had a guilty secret: I hated Sunbonnet Sue.  While every quilter around me was oohing and ahing over a quilt with numerous Sunbonnet Sues, I was politely nodding and smiling and saying nothing.  Don’t ask me why – I have no clue – why I disliked the cute little girl with the big old fashioned (as in Little House on the Prairie) sunbonnet.  So I just remained quiet, which as you know, is difficult for me.  Until, at the quilt show in Chicago (cue the heavenly choir Ahhhh!) there it was. The “Many Ways to Kill Sunbonnet Sue” quilt.  I was amazed and delighted.  There she was hung, electrocuted, poisoned,  shot with an arrow, etc.  Another person felt the same way I did! 

The day after the quilt show, Sunday, Tomi and Lisa joined me to go watch Roller Derby at the Mullins Center at UMass.  We decided that the men are boring and slow and next time we’ll just show up for the women’s match.  They skate really fast and weave and out of the pack and they have great names.  Our favorite was Celia Casket.

Everybody at work thought I was kidding, but I feel that roller derby is a metaphor for life.  I would be a blocker in roller derby, because I don’t really care about being in the front of the pack (a jammer) and I would block people from getting by me.  It was great fun although my bones hurt from just watching that many spills and well placed elbows.  Only one woman had to be helped off the field with an ankle injury.

Then came a week of work.  Sharon, my boss, had declared it was her birthday week on Monday.  I said, “How old are you going to be – 12?”  She said no, it was 42.  So some of us took her to lunch on Monday. And we continued every day but one (she paid for herself the other days).  Until we got to Friday.  I had brought in a quiche which turned out to be way delicious and easy to make.

Quick Easy Quiche

3 eggs

1 cup no fat half and half

1 cup finely shredded cheese (cheddar or a mix)

One handful chiffonade baby spinach

Two tablespoons real bacon bits

One frozen 9 inch pie crust

Pepper, nutmeg optional (I only use pepper)

Turn on oven to 350 degrees. Open the pie crust. Sprinkle bacon bits on the bottom; add cheese. Put pie crust on a cookie sheet. Whisk eggs and half and half.  Put cookie sheet on oven rack, pour egg mix on top.  Bake 40 to 50 minutes at 350 degrees. (Check it – it depends on how much you preheated the oven.)

Of course I had also brought a hand quilted table runner and real forks, so our breakfast was quite elegant.  The term “chiffonade” was new to Sharon so we had a debate as to whether it was a noun, verb, or adjective, or both.  It’s definitely a noun (according to Merriam Webster).  I think using it as a verb is a common bastardization.  ß which may be another.

When it came to lunch time, however, the weather was nasty.  (Oh, I forgot to mention that the heat wasn’t working at the Library, so by Friday, we were all freezing and using space heaters at our desks.)  I’m not exaggerating about the weather – it went from cold, drizzly rain to sleet to hail and back to more nasty.  So Sharon whined that she did not want to go out to lunch.  I came up with the brilliant idea of using Delivery Express.  That’s a local business that will make pickups and deliveries from a half dozen local restaurants.  Sharon was so thrilled with the notion of being able to order online and get it delivered that she paid for Lisa and me too!  She was so pleased with the delivery of hot food that I feel at some point we may have to do an intervention to talk her down from Delivery Express!  For dessert we shared some of the 12 pound chocolate chocolate cake that Lisa had brought.  Staff from other parts of the Library sang happy birthday as we cut up the cake.

Last night Tomi and I went to see “Admission” which is a nice fluffy movie with Tina Fey. I enjoyed it. I was wondering where David (Tomi’s husband) was.  “Oh, he’s in Arcadia.  The snow was so bad it took them 8 hours to drive a 5 hour trip.”  Since my only experience with Arcadia was with “Evangeline “in the forest primevil,” I was very glad when Tomi said “Maine.”  I had no clue.  I know we spent months on that poem, but I didn’t know Arcadia was Maine.  How could they have not told me that?  Anyway, I knew that David would be camping.  I think he has a couple of screws loose because he likes to camp outdoors in the winter.  In the snow.   In the woods …

But wait, there’s more.  Tomi said, “He’s going to be sleeping in a hammock.”  So I’m thinking, ‘In a tent? How the heck do you do that?’  She says no.  In a cabin? No.  Between two trees. So I come to the conclusion that his winter camping is like those quilters who hand quilt a king sized quilt: because they can.   Brrrrrrrrrrr.

Today, after church, Tomi and I are going to brunch.  Tomorrow – who knows? But I do have Patriots Day off and I plan to a lot more of nothing.  

I hope you have enjoyed our conversation today.  You may now unfasten your seat belts.