At a Loss for Words

 Yeah, I know -- I' m never at a loss for words. But ... real life is heavy, man, heavy. So I'll just go with my little narcissistic bubble.

On Saturday, February 8th, I went to help out at a quilting notions sale in Palm Desert. My typical back pain escalated so much that I left after only an hour instead of the two hours I had planned on. By 7:30 p.m. our good friend and angel, Eric, was depositing me at the ER. From there I spent 12 hours on a gurney in the hallway. Finally in a room, I had an elderly roommate (I can hear my mother's voice saying, 'You are elderly you know,') with dementia. I felt badly for her, but her loud arguments with the staff and her son were very upsetting, especially coupled with the other dementia patient screaming down the hall. The noise in the hallway was incredible. I was jangled.

I don't know on what day, maybe day 3, they moved me to a single room which was heaven. By then, however, I was with it enough to realize that I had someone waking me about every 15 minutes at night. I hadn't eaten since some toast at Noon on Saturday and they weren't letting me have even ice chips. I was thirsty! An I V of fluid isn't the same as a drink of water. It turns out they were trying to knock down an infection in the gall bladder so they didn't know when they could do the surgery. Thus nothing by mouth. Every time an I V bag emptied, they put on another one. On Feb. 12th, they took out my gall bladder. I was discharged on February 14. 

View at sunset from the good room.

I have made a new friend with Kevin, who was my home health aide for three days. He's an all around good helper if anyone local in the desert needs his services. He even carried my purse for me, noting that it was not in keeping with his color scheme. 

I want to thank everyone for your get well wishes and prayers. Thank you!!

Yesterday Cricket helped me ALL DAY bundling and labeling fabric pieces for a sale on March 7th. I couldn't have done it without her. Each piece of fabric had to be measured and each size was tied with a certain color of toule. The color indicated the price. This is how many we did.

We had a bit of a windy time on February 18 and 19. On the photo below you can see one of the many piles of palm tree "trash" that fell down.

Lots of fruit came down in the high winds.

On February 25th, Cricket and I went to El Paseo Drive in Palm Desert. This is equivalent to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. In other words, the baskets in one gallery were $1500. and one restaurant featured caviar and chips for $120. But we were on a mission to go to the Winston Pie shop for their opening day and then onto Mole, an upscale Mexican restaurant. We brought 3 mini pies home to taste and share. We had apple, cowboy (it was like a brownie with a fudgy center), and dark cherry. I really liked the cherry because it wasn't very sweet. But we were surprised when Cricket found a cherry pit. Luckily, she did not break a tooth. Later, after supper, Mom found another cherry pit! Again, thank God, she did not break a tooth. That was two pits in a mini pie about 4.5" across.

I wrote an email and they offered me and my friend a free latte. And the spokesperson said in her email, 'That's why we label the boxes, you may find a pit.' I took a picture of the box and it wasn't until I enlarged it that I saw their warning. 

On Friday, Feb. 27th, we celebrated three birthdays at lunch at Billy Reed's which is a restaurant with a huge menu. Everyone gave us cards with lottery scratch tickets. I may have won $10 but these things are complicated! Below is a picture of the cards that Cricket made for us using her incredible quilling skills. Mom's is on the left and mine is on the right. I didn't get to see Dottie's card, but one year Cricket put a parrot on it. It looked like Dottie's pet parrot. Thank you for all of the birthday good wishes!

Today, March 1, it was 95 F. and that is a record breaker. It's never this hot at this time in the winter. Consequently, many desert flowers are blooming their hearts out.

This bush was outside Manhattan Deli of the Desert yesterday.

I don't know if I showed you this bouquet before, it's from a church service. Today's arrangement was all in white daisies but I forgot to get a picture of it.

Enjoy every day!

Happy February!

 I'm sorry for those of you who are back East or in Canada because it's frippin' cold! Today it's 83+ degrees which is about 10 degrees above normal. I know, in these times there is a lot to consider that does not seem to be normal. I'm just talking about temperature at the moment. 

January 23, Bus Trip to Ontario (California) Convention Center for the Road2CA quilt show. It's several days, but we went on Friday. The place is huge with many vendors and quilts on exhibit. I did not buy a $6,000.00 sewing machine. I did not buy three spools of cotton thread for $60. 

As you enter the building, there are many quilts hung above on the ceiling. One was mostly browns and some oranges and it was obviously a Thanksgiving quilt with a prominent turkey in the middle. It was hung sideways. I don't know if it was a goof, but the turkey didn't seem to mind.

I don't know if this red and white quilt was a challenge (where they give you a theme and/or color scheme using one company's fabric) or not. If so, there would have been a long row in all red. I went up and down the aisles so many times that I can't remember.

This was definitely a challenge celebrating Route 66 which begins in Chicago and goes West to California. Every once in a while I go o Route 66 during my cross country trip. I don't take it too much because it's a lot slower than the newer routes. But it does have my favorite Route 66 Casino (in New Mexico, I think.)

Celebrating the USA's 250th birthday

I did not see the title of this challenge but there was a LOT of yellow. I love yellow!

And how gorgeous is this? I love it and am amazed by the creator's skill and talent.

I especially liked seeing the desert flora. What a good job of capturing the different plants!

Another spectacular 'I thought it was a photo' quilt!

This was 3D and so impressive. Someone actually took out a roll of fabric from the basket. It was a white glove lady, the only ones authorized to touch the quilts.

I love me a still life. Does it qualify as a still life with the man there? He's sitting still.

These were illustrating "Wind." The one on the right has a big blob of white that really looks like it's blowing in the wind.

I loved this one because it reminded me of Cape Cod. Although they do NOT have barbed wire on the beaches there!

I don't know why, but I have a big soft spot for elephants, especially baby elephants. I've been following elephant rescue ranches on Face Book and it's so funny to see baby elephants playing with their trunks or rolling in the grass. They really have fun playing like other babies.

These are from the theme "Abyss." I had no idea that meant underwater, but I learn something new everyday.  The jellies below (also a favorite) have sparkles imbedded.

January 25. These are the flowers at church. We don't really have an altar. There's a podium and the flowers are under the movie screen that has the words to some of the hymns.

February 3. This is the quilt that I donated today to "Philanthropy." It named itself "Stripes" in my head. Treese machine quilted it for me at a cut rate.

I am working on the Elvis quilt. It will be my first (larger that a table topper) machine quilted. The backing has many pictures of Elvis Presley on it. That fabric and the batting were donated.

After the meeting today, The Lunch Bunch (5 of us) had a yummy lunch at the Olive Garden in Palm Desert. We also had nice conversations. One woman is trying to arrange her birthday party next Christmas. She lives in Canada and they want to go somewhere warm. She's deciding if she will bring them to her house in Palm Desert. There will be a total of 14 people! She has put her foot down and said wherever they go (Cancoun, Palm Desert, Belize?), it has to be a direct flight from Calgary. And it sounded like she's footing the whole bill! She mentioned that at least one of the grandkids has a significant other. I would make him pay!

So I will leave you with this little video I saw on FB today. There was a golden retriever looking directly at the camera listening to Mom who is saying, "I opened the door for a delivery driver and you raced outside, jumped into the car through the open door into the backseat where there was a baby in a car seat. And you stole one of his McNuggets!" I'm glad I didn't have to apologize to the driver, lol!

Scary Times

 1/19/2026

I'm watching the evening news and there was a 100 car pile up in a blizzard in Michigan. 12 people injured, all expected to recover.

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BUT tonight, just before 6 p.m., we experienced an earthquake. Originally they said it was 5.1 on the Richter Scale, but it has been down graded to 4.6. There were 3 aftershocks which I didn't feel at all. The epicenter was 12 miles northeast of Indio. It was scary to feel my chair rocking. It was preceded by "thunder."    

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I haven't been able to find out if the rumor is true that Denmark is trying to buy California. 

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Yesterday Mom and I went to the Frances Stevens Park in Palm Springs to see an art show. This is the same park with the kinetic water sculpture where they set up the Christmas tree. Here are a couple of pictures from there.

Sorry, I forgot to get the artist's name.

The Rancho Super Car Wash pink elephant sign in Rancho Mirage, California is a beloved mid-century icon, originally from Seattle's Elephant Super Car Washes, brought to the desert in 1966 by the Fromme family, becoming a nostalgic landmark cherished by locals, and recently received historic designation and restoration thanks to Preservation Mirage and community efforts. 

It's still a working carwash, by the way. The caption above is from a google search. 

This alabaster stone was mined at the Anza Borrego desert and then smoothed and sculpted with tools.

The large colorful piece is public art. There was a sign to please not climb on it.

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Did I show you this sunset before? I really

 like it.

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I only have a short way to go in reading Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman. I mentioned to one of the women at the Quilt Club that I liked the original books by Tony Hillerman (her father) and this woman brought me the book. I thought that was super nice!

A book I should get, but I don't know if I will: Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. It's what Bloom in the Desert is using for their book club. Unfortunately, I have become lazy and watching too much TV to read much.

I really am enjoying Will Trent, High Intelligence, and Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. Holly Hunter (the Starfleet Academy Chancellor) is one of my favorite actresses. The show also has Paul Giacometti and Tig Notaro in it. Of course, you have to like SciFi, which Mom does not. I like Tig's sense of humor when she does her standup routines.

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That's about it. Although I found out I can make a passable shepherd's pie. Actually, it was yummy. I may try to remember how to make a meatloaf -- the idea of a meatloaf sandwich sounds good to me. I get tired of cooking the same things all of the time. Tomorrow I'm going to pick some lemons and make lemon chicken.

I hope you all are having a great time. Please try to stay well -- so many people I know have gotten that awful cold. Cheers, Tina