My kitties were being cute last night

Nicky decided she was going to live under this chair. I think she was frowning at me when I took the picture.



And Nuey thought he'd take a nap in the clothes basket on the clean laundry.

My laptop started giving me some aggravation on Wednesday. The sound started going out. I thought maybe the drivers needed to be reinstalled but it didn't help. The thing won't even be 3 yrs. old until Feb.

I wanted to catch up on the TV shows I like but miss because they're on Thursday night when I work or conflict with another show. I was actually looking at new laptops on the Dell site and trying to decide between a green one or a purple one. Or maybe the shiny black one with the wild, colorful design.

Then I remembered a Creative Extigy external sound card contraption I bought about 5-6 yrs. ago when I wanted to record some tapes & LPs to my old laptop. Had never even taken it out of its box. So I dug it out of a tub in the basement and hooked it up. So-so sound. Went online & downloaded the latest drivers and installed them. Now this laptop has the best sound it ever had. Turned down as low as it will go it's still a little bit loud. That's with headphones. I bet with speakers it would rattle the windows. LOL It isn't the most convenient setup but it works and I can get some more mileage out of this laptop, even though a new one would be fun. Expensive fun.

A full day..........

Today was one of those days where I got a lot done, as opposed to most days when I piddle around all day and don't accomplish anything.

Yesterday I got a batch of squash baked & scraped out of the shells to be ready to can today. I also got a quilt loaded on the machine yesterday, all ready for quilting today.



I was ready!!!

To start the day off, the UPS man brought this:



He was so funny. Before he got it out of the truck he asked if my husband was home. When I said yes he wanted to know if it was a Christmas present for the DH. I laughed and said no it was my very own air compressor, because the tires on my car keep going down. (the wheels are bad...pinholes, apparently it happens when they get old) I don't think he delivers air compressors to very many women!!! LOL

After that I got my jars in the dishwasher & went downstairs to quilt while they washed. Once that was done I'd get a batch in the canner, then go sew quilt blocks into rows. I hadn't canned anything on this new stove so didn't want to be too far away from it for this first run through. Of course, my blocks were laid out on my mighty fine "design bed."



I think I'm going to LUV this quilt!!!!

When a batch in the canner was done & taken off the stove to cool I'd run downstairs and quilt some more. Repeat the sequence a few more times. Multi-tasking at it's best!!!! LOL

And here are the results of my day:



22 jars of squash. There must be another 50 jars "on the hoof" so to speak. Don't think I'll can that many more.



I used the "Bayside" pantograph and it quilted up very nice. DH called it "strange." He doesn't care for the colors, but since it belongs to a friend it really doesn't matter at all.

Maybe I should start every day with a dose of Excederine. The caffeine really gets me going!!!

Happy Birthday to you................

Sunday we celebrated our granddaughter's 11th birthday.



She's so funny. Every time I asked her what she wanted for her birthday she'd say "pumpkin pie, my very own pumpkin pie with my name on it." So being the good grandma that I am, I made her a pumpkin pie with her name on it.



Also, since I'm such a good grandma, I got her an MP3 player with more room for her music. Hopefully that will end the hissy fits over not being able to get all the songs on it that she wants!! LOLOL

Grandma duty...................

I spent from Saturday after work until late this afternoon staying with my grandchildren while their parents went to Denver for the Broncos/Steelers game. The kids are growing up and pretty much do their own thing. I just need to make sure everybody gets fed and gets up and goes to bed on time. Here's a picture of Hailey & Tyler's "thing."



Isn't that a magnificent tent? Two rooms so they can both be in it but still be separated. Looks like something a Bedouin might live in out in the Arabian desert.

I was on my own all day today & yesterday while they were all at school...they were all out the door by 8am...so Monday I scanned about 200 pictures that I wanted copies of (I needed scrapbook fodder for all the digital goodies I've downloaded) and Tuesday (today) I spent from 10:30am to 3pm at the library going through microfilm for obituaries & wedding write-ups. So, that takes care of scrapbooking and genealogy.

And I did get a little quilting in too. Here's my setup on the kitchen table:



And here's my make-do design wall:



Notice the corrected Bricks & Stepping Stones blocks!!! LOL

All in all I probably got a lot more done than if I had been at home. Gotta love it.

3 for 3

That's right, we're 3 for 3 for zip, zero, nada Trick-or-Treaters 3 years in a row. Next year I won't even buy any candy & leave the porch light off. Bah humbug!! Bummer!!!

Now I can start agonizing over Christmas. What shall I get everybody. I think they'd be happiest with gift cards so they can pick out their own & get what they want. But that just doesn't seem like much fun and my 6 year old grandson would be disappointed without anything to play with on Christmas Day. There will at least have to be something small in their gift bags to go with the gift cards if I go that route.

It's just all too stressful.....I think I'll go take a nap. :-)