Weekend Job

Here's my job this weekend.

Yep, dog sitting. He's so sweet resting in his brand new bed.
And, to keep this an animal post, here's my kitty. She hopped up there and posed for me. Too bad I couldn't take a perfectly focused picture.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Too Good Not To Share

Thanks to Al from the Bayfield Bunch.

Obituary for Common Sense:  Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since
his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

• Knowing when to come in out of the rain
• Why the early bird gets the worm
• Life isn't always fair
• and maybe it was my fault

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.
Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.
It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an Aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.
Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than their victims.
Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.
Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.
Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.
He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers:

1. I Know My Rights
2. I Want It Now
3. Someone Else Is To Blame
4. I'm A Victim

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

Maxine---Words of Wisdom

Of course, they're blood-suckers in their own right so how would that work??

Ready for a rant??

There I was....fixing a nice taco salad for my supper. I don't put chips in my taco salad so I opened a can of kidney beans & rinsed them.  Then it happened.... I decided to read the label. Good grief...corn syrup, sugar, cane syrup and high fructose corn syrup plus a couple of chemicals. Our so-called American food industry can ruin perfectly healthy beans.

We hear on the news and read in all the media how fat Americans are....60% over-weight, 30% obese with growing numbers of obese children. Type 2 diabetes is running rampant. It used to be unheard of in children but growing numbers of them have it too.  Some "expert" is constantly telling us to eat less, exercise more,  lose weight, lower our blood sugar, lower our cholesterol. People try, honestly they do, but with all the sweeteners (the worst of which is high fructose corn syrup) in pretty much all processed food it's a losing battle...and it's not weight we're losing, it's our health.

Back in 1906 Dr. Harvey Wiley, the first head of what would become the FDA, banned corn syrup in food because it was the only sweetener that caused diabetes in all of the bureau's test animals..... 1906 people!!!!!!! Dr. Wiley predicted that if we ever allowed corn syrup to be used as a food additive, we would become a nation of diabetics. (I cringe remembering all the Karo corn syrup we ate on pancakes as kids.) Today, due to pressure from food manufacturers, high fructose corn syrup is in 98% of food in America.  And we are a nation of diabetics. 

Dr. Wiley was forced from office after six years because his work was a threat to the profits of food manufacturers.  In 1929 he wrote a book exposing the failure of the FDA to protect the American people. In 1930 he died in his home. Within weeks his book disappeared from libraries and bookstores. Draw your own conclusions, people. I have.   The book has since been republished by some brave soul and I intend to get a copy for the local library.
Update:  Dr. Wiley's book can be seen online at -- http://www.whale.to/a/wiley_b.html
Over 300 pages of pretty heavy reading.  The reprint is way expensive!!

Anyone who thinks the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) exists to look out for our safety is living in a dream world. It's only job is to protect the profits of big business, specifically the processed food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. What better way to do that than allow everything that's bad for us to be put into our food so the pharmaceutical companies can sell us over-priced pills.

READ the labels on your food!! If it contains high fructose corn syrup or ingredients you can't pronounce it isn't good for you. Put it back on the shelf.  The health you protect will be yours and your children's. Unless people quit buying it, it will never go away.  One more thing-----just recently the food processors petitioned to change the name of high fructose corn syrup because too many people are getting wise to it. Thankfully, that petition was denied, so if they use it they still have to list it on the label.  For now.

It's Wednesday...

.....and it rained!!  It's been a while since we last saw rain.

There's also another quilt on the machine.

This is a BIG one...95 in. wide. There's just barely enough room to park the machine off the edge of the quilt.  I once did one that was 99 in. wide and that was a real hassle....plus I worried that the machine might leak oil on the quilt. This is about as big as I want to go with my 10 ft. frame.

Tuesday night was Quilt Club at Luanne's house.  I took my little Brother sewing machine along and sewed a bunch of half square triangles that I had stayed up till 10 the night before cutting. Could have gone to bed earlier because I still have a lot of that batch left to sew. I really wish I'd taken my camera along. Maxine won a wonderful antique quilt at the Verdigre Quilt Show. And of course Luanne had plenty of wonderful food for us to snack on. Her daughter makes delicious desserts...I could have made a meal on the Fruit Pizza alone.

Sunday...

....and another quilt on the machine.

After working on the smaller QOV quilts this one seemed HUGE. After getting it loaded up and making a few passes I was ready for a break...and at this point I'll probably only go back to the basement to unplug the machine. (The next one in line is even BIGGER!)

Here's Grandson with the big catfish he caught on Saturday (with Grandpa's help.)

Proud fisherman.

He said he caught seven in all and Grandpa was so busy helping him that he only had time to catch two of his own.

Have a great week, everyone!

Another Day...Another Post

For lack of a clever title, that's it. :)

Not a lot going on. DH has been on vacation this week. Does that mean I've been on vacation? No. It just means that he gets up early every day & goes fishing and says he has even less time to help me with things like getting the air-conditioners put in. Every year I threaten that I'm calling the furnace guy & have him install the outside unit and hook it up for central air. Then all I have to do is push a couple buttons.

Wednesday's catch of the day by DH & his cousin. Largest around 27".

 

 

This quilt is finished:

Really wanted it done over the Memorial Day weekend, but I was just a slug    and didn't get a whole lot done. I have a couple customer quilts to do next, but for something to just sew on, I think it's time to drag out the strips I cut for Orca Bay and Jamestown Landing. Once I get the triangle pairs cut it's mindless sewing, just pushing one after the other through the machine. It will be pleasant work now that the small AC is installed in the sewing room window. I got tired of waiting around for DH to get around to it, what with his IMPORTANT vacation schedule & all, and put it in myself!! That's why I bought that small one to start with....DH though AC was unnecessary. He works where it's hot and thinks everyone else should suffer too. Bull!!

Had to spend some time getting the sewing room/guest room ready for this guy to come spend the week-end, shown here with his trophy & medal from

last week's soccer tournament in Omaha.
His team is undefeated and he's pretty pumped about that. I probably won't even see much of him this weekend. He has a baseball game tonight and I'll bring him home from that. Then Grandpa is taking him fishing on Saturday. Mom will come get him on Sunday. My job is to make sure the food he likes is available.

Motivation???

Dakota City Quilter says it is "Motivation Friday."   Guess we'll see about that. So far I've only been motivated to have a little breakfast,  read a bunch of blogs and write this. (You would not believe the time I spent getting that bottom picture cut out of a Word document and getting it formatted to something Blogger would accept.) Cloudy, gloomy and cold weather tends to rob me of any motivation I might have had. I'm so glad it's supposed to start warming up today. I need to see the sun!!!

TWO things I WILL get done today are loading a quilt on the machine and sorting out the genealogy stuff I printed out over the past week of super-duper ancestor hunting.

Great news is that Bonnie Hunter's next book will soon be coming out....in July, I think, and she offered a sneak-peek on her blog.  Click on this link to see it. Lots of stringy goodness.

Front

Back

Nebraska readers might be interested in the new book by D.R. Haskin coming out in June.

Third in the Hills of Mars series