Okay, So It Has Been a While

Beginning with a week ago, on Saturday, I took a landscape quilting class with Betzi Sylvan. Mine is only half quilted ...

Above is a close up of the quilting

I call it "PS Night"

Yes, those dots are the pins on the bottom half. If I can finish it this weekend, I will.

The method is to lay strips of fabric and ribbon on a backing covered with batting. The puffy clouds are dryer sheets pulled apart. Then you lay royal blue tulle over the top and pin it like crazy so nothing moves. The final step is machine quilting.

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But today (I'm pretending it's still Saturday even though it is past Midnight), I co-hosted Murder by the Minute at the Library. There were 4 or 5 Sisters in Crime New England Murder by the Minute programs going on in various New England states. We had 21 people which was amazing because today was a beautiful sunny day in the high 60's. And there was a sustainability fair on the Town Common with many tents of vendors.

The cake is from Atkins Farms. It was a marble cake.

Dusty brought the cookies even though she was only supposed to bring drinks and cups. I particularly liked the habenero cheese that I had picked.

This is the panel of readers -- one is missing because she's setting up her books for sale.

I had a really good time: first 5 of us read for five minutes each. I read an excerpt from Jessica Speart's "Winged Obsession." Then we ate (of course!) and went to Special Collections. Cyndi Harbeson, Curator, had covered a table with "things that you can use to kill." It included harpoons, a mortar and pestle, busts that you could throw at people, Ray Stannard Baker's letter opener, and Helen Hunt Jackson's pen that she used to write "Ramona." Of course, the pen is mightier than the sword!

I had packed up the room (thank you so much, Cyndi, for helping to put away the chairs!) and my stuff (that was my knife in the cake) by 3 p.m. That gave me enough time to get some lunch at the Black Sheep before I walked over to the First Church.

At 4 p.m. "Earth Jam" consisted of a capella singers from Mt. Holyoke, Smith, UMass, a post graduate group, and a group of older men. The singing was fantastic! I admire a capella singers a lot!

Having vacuumed before I picked up the cake and goodies this morning, I only had to do my laundry -- 3 loads -- when I got home. Then supper and sleep. That's why I'm up late: my body thinks it's done sleeping. Nope, a couple of hours is not enough for me!

Supper, by the way, was yummy. I put homemade spaghetti sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. Then I added a bunch of zoodles. You know: zoodles are "noodles" made from zucchini. I love using my spiralizer!! On top of the zoodles, I put a bunch of mushrooms, some left over meatballs, and a nice layer of shredded cheese. Then more sauce and I baked it for about 20 minutes until it was nice and bubbly. :)

Meanwhile, I have to do shopping and cooking for next week, but I have Monday off for Patriots' Day. The Boston Marathon will be run on Monday. Yesterday they remembered the people hurt and killed by the bombs at the Marathon. It's an awful memory and a horrible experience for many. We are hopeful that will never happen again. Today, the runners picked up their bibs with their numbers. Many partied the night away.

They are predicting that the temperature will be in the 30's tomorrow morning at sunrise. I sure hope it warms up for the runners, but it probably will go up to the 60's and possibly 70's. 

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It's Tuesday now. I had forgotten that if you lift five 25 pound bags of mulch -- and a lighter one of potting soil -- all of those muscles you never use, complain. So I never did get to weeding and putting down more mulch. I stuck with the cooking yesterday and some Netflix. The second five bags of mulch are still in the trunk of my car!

I surf FaceBook a lot and I play online games. My newest craze is "Puzzly" and you're playing against random people. I lose a lot, but it's a game to see how many points you can get for three words made out of the letters they give to you. 

So I'm off to Midas to have my brakes checked and then off to work. It was easy to pack my lunch, once I figured out what is in the containers, lol! I have a LOT of single serving parts to lunches. I'm now finishing quiche for breakfast.