Challenged by Underwear

Okay, I'm just kidding--it just seemed like a really good title following yesterday's post. Maybe we'll save this one for another day though.

And this reminds me of something funny that happened today--depending on one's point of view. Maybe you had to have been there; I was. In fact, I was working on a somewhat involved legal document about 10 minutes before going-home time when my computer decided it didn't have enough memory and shut down the word processing program. I reopened the program and found the document in a back-up file, substantially saved up to the point where it shut down. I needed to save the back-up file as a new document and name it something different from the original document already on the computer. Are you with me so far? Boy Boss was standing at my desk, and I wanted to explain in case he needed to open the document over the weekend. To that end, I started out, "OK, so . . ." and he started laughing. "What?," I asked. "What you said was funny," he replied. "What did I say that was so funny?," I inquired. Needless to say, I was totally confused at this point. "Cheese dip," he explained. "What?," I asked. "You said 'queso.'" And then he giggled and I killed him--because just as he was chuckling about cheese dip, my word processing program shut down for lack of memory a second time. I knew then the weekend had arrived and it was time to go home.

By the way, today I stole Christmas ornaments from two children. Just thought I'd mention it before you hear it from someone else.

We had our annual Christmas gift exchange and holiday staff luncheon today at the office. We each brought a gift based on the theme "peppermints and candy canes." Sound familiar? Yeah, I liked the theme! It meant that whatever I ended up with, I was pretty sure I'd enjoy it!

It was one of those anonymous exchanges where everyone picks a number and takes a turn either picking a gift to open or stealing a gift from someone else. Once a particular gift had been stolen three times, it was "dead" and couldn't be stolen again. My number came up at the end, and a couple of the gifts I would have liked to take home were "dead," so I stole a tin full of candy cane ornaments from Chris, our Pitney Bowes copy guy. I figured they'd look terrific on my kitchen tree because I wanted to add a few more ornaments anyway--so, the perfect thing, right? Well, apparently NOT! Chris is a single dad and had mentioned that his two kids would enjoy putting the ornaments on their tree; when I stole the ornaments from him, a couple gals acted like I'd just kicked a puppy! Chris teased me quite a lot too, but actually he ended up stealing back an earlier gift he was quite happy with anyway. Want to see the ornaments?

And here they are, added to the kitchen tree--

I sure got my fair share of teasing today, didn't I? I was feeling kind of guilty for awhile, but a couple friends told me I shouldn't, so I got over it.

Now, I know sometimes some of you ask me things in the comments, and if I can, I'll write back to you directly. Other times, if more than one person asks about something, I'll decide to write a follow up. And sometimes, if I don't write a follow up quickly, I just totally forget altogether. But this time I DID remember that a couple people asked about the quilt in the Wild Child's former room (aka the Guest Room) the other day, so I thought I'd fill you in.

The pattern is a Thimbleberries pattern called Starlight Pines--here's what the pattern looks like:

Now, here's what I did to change it: First, I made all the elements of the center half sized. In other words, if the stars were 8" blocks, I made them 4" blocks (just an example--I'm not certain that was the right size). After that, I changed the borders a bit. Here's a photo from my daughter's room--you can see enough of the borders, I think, to tell the difference--I used flying geese and more stars and leaves with a couple narrow borders and then I finished it with a wider border:

This was a fun quilt to make, and I like that it makes for a good Christmas quilt but yet can be left up all winter long. I made it the year I went to the Thimbleberries retreat in Minnesota--probably about four or five years ago--and I took the class.

Finally, I wanted to thank you all for your input on the outerwear issue. I think I'm going to look for a wool blend pea coat or a leather jacket. I checked Lands End online, and because they're affiliated with Sears, I stopped at Sears on the way home but didn't find anything I thought was exactly right. On Sunday, I'll be coming home from a friend's house and driving right by the Burlington Coat Factory, so I'll probably try there--I know a couple women who have found coats there recently and have been very happy with the designer brands and quality, so it's worth a stop. I've seen a couple coats online that I like, but I'd rather try them on, feel the fabric, and buy "in person" if I can; but if not, I'll order on line. Wish me luck! I'll let you know what I end up with.