Welcome to Summer!

 Welcome to the official start of Summer where I annually state " I did NOT move south for the summers.  I could sweat just as easily in central Illinois"

The critters are doing odd things.  It is not always easy to get Oscar to go to bed.  I've tried various things like letting him stay up longer,  "wearing him slap out" as my neighbors suggested.  I've read that I should not physically put him in the bed as that might be construed as punishment.  Still, I get the whining.  It used to be just a little bit when he was first in the bed and he sees Skyler and I are cozying up on the couch.  Lately it is 12:30, 1:30 in the morning.  He sounds frantic sometimes.  What I read says I am to ignore this, don't let him out (a couple of times I did thinking he needed to potty).  Supposedly he will give up and quit wasting his energy if the behavior is not paying off.   I stuffed in some ear plugs last night because I could still hear him with the door closed and the overhead fan going.  SIGH  None of us is getting any sleep with this antic.

So this is what I got up to this morning.  He had managed to skid him crate completely away from the wall approximately 3 ft. away. or the width of the two floor mats.   I guess this is accomplished by repeatedly banging on the gate.  Any suggestions?  Laying any old place in the house at night is NOT an option though that is the daytime routine.  Only my bedroom is off limits to both of them.

What is Skyler's problem?  He will barely leave the pass through opening above the couch, next to his food bowl.  It is up high enough to stay above the dog.  He yowls at me when I go into the kitchen when he thinks he might get some food, even if I don't pony up the grub.  SIGH again---gets tiresome telling him "no, you  already had your treat bite twice and eat yout crunchies."  Yeah, like he knows what I am saying, LOL.

Around here since I last posted:

I used to have one of these till the wheel broke off.  I decided I wanted another one for quilting days.  This one has a liner for it--that is it folded up in the bottom.  Plenty wide enough for the machine and the bag with accessories I cart around.  I had to put the wheels on it as it came partially assembled.  I had bits flying all over the kitchen because of the springs you place between the washers but got the job done.

The next day being a glutton for punishment apparently----I recovered my pressing board in the sewing room with the silver teflon cloth and replaced the double layer of batting underneath it.  Of course, that meant prying up and off all the staples with a screw driver and then re-stapling both layers on (separately!)  I am almost out of the 1/4 inch staples and don't know that I will be able to order more since my staple gun is a Craftsman.  I didn't have much luck on the google search matching all the criteria on the box.    I wore a blister on my thumb for my efforts but it sure looks better.  No holes, scorches or patches with binding tape!

I sewed a bit on Monday on the Layer Cake Lattice getting it up to the point of just needing to sew on the
 second "arm" on the stack of blocks.  I had intended to do that at the evening group but got derailed here at home.   The car was all packed up and ready to go.   I had pulled some of my Christmas fabrics to see if I had enough for Donna's "Christmas in July" idea for the Nina pattern--I believe I do and I know I do if I mix in some other Connecting Thread lines.  It might work or I could use some charms in some manner as I have a couple of those two, thanks to Gene.  HMMMM

Yesterday (Tuesday) I was more or less piddling around here at home, spot mopping in the kitchen, vacuumed, unloaded the dishwasher.  Not really focusing on anything and getting side tracked too easily.  The next thing I knew I was quick defrosting the turkey breast I had pulled out a few days before and throwing it in the crockpot.  This is supposed to be clean out the freezer a bit week, menu wise, and digging out the turkey from the chest freezer to cook was part of it.  I had been procrastinating this as turkey and trimmings was part of "spoil your husband night".  I had some homemade whole cranberry relish so that got pulled out too.  While I had baked a couple of turkey tenderloins for salads recently,  I could not make myself do anything resembling his favorite meal.   Almost 2 1/2 years later, and I could do it because of what it meant to me, to us.  That might sound silly, I know.

The other part of the equation---the day before Miss Kathryn had given me a huge bag of carrots.  I think a local church was distributing them and Paul ended up with a bag but since he doesn't even like carrots, he took them over to his mom's to share with her and his sister.  She took out what she wanted and some for Glynda and passed on the rest to me.  I'm guessing maybe about 4 or 5 lbs of carrots.  I know that the Carrot Souffle recipe I have takes 2 lbs or about 7 cups sliced or chopped carrots.  I made a batch ( I cut the sugar back to about 1/2 cup or 2/3 cup though!!!) and then took about 1/4 of the dish over to Miss Kathryn.   ( I was going to take the rest to the group last night but  now I am thinking I am going to make a batch of carrot raisin salad instead._

Turns out Paul was over visiting and Miss Kathryn had a batch of butter beans on the stove for part of their evening meal.  His friend Charley called to see if Paul wanted to go out to eat with him and his grandson---Paul invited them over instead.  Glynda and Paul's daughter came over to install a new appliance.   I asked her if she wanted some of the carrot souffle for their supper as I had plenty to share.  She sampled it and then started to eat her mom's serving since she had not had lunch.  I went home to get some more to replace it.  Paul tried some while I was out and declared that it tasted more like custard than carrots so it was okay.  The next thing I know I am invited to dinner too.  My turkey was due to be finished up till 8 pm so why not have some company for dinner as I am not fond of eating alone?   Oh, I had Oscar in tow on the first trip over and Paul's dog was there too but Oscar and Baby get along just fine.  I took him home on the return trip.  LOL,  it was getting a little crowded in the mobile home but she went from two for dinner to 5 for dinner easily.  See why I missed sewing last night?

I took care of the turkey when it finished, de-boning it and cleaning out the crock pot.  I cut and/or cubed it up this morning---and had a nice turkey sandwich for lunch and later, some carrot souffle, sparing myself some of the "missing husband" emotions.  DJ would always want to do a repeat plate from the night before but I always wanted just a sandwich---with homemade cranberry sauce mixed with some mayo on it.  Then I would re-purpose the rest of the meal items in some manner, down the line.    That's what I did this time too but I forgot the drippings for gravy are still in the fridge.  Opened faced sandwiches would be good if I get some potatoes to mash.

Today, it has been more piddling--walking, a couple errands, a load of laundry, run the dishwasher,  and so on.  So now what?  Go sew?   Finish reading the library book I started on Sunday?  I had binged watch the previous seasons of "Endeavour" on Amazon Prime on Friday and Saturday in preparation for the return of the program to PBS on Sunday.  Turned out I had seen one episode on PBS but apparently did not know what I was watching at the time.   There are a couple of the Inspector Lewis programs I could watch before they remove them from Prime.  Maybe tonight--nothing else is on but repeats or stuff I don't care a whit about.  Oh, who knows?  I might be on last walks with Oscar once the sun gets below the tree line and it is not so blessed hot and visit with the neighbors.  The heat just makes me want to mugwump in where it is cooler!

And that's what is--or is not--happening here in my neck of the woods.  THX for stopping by-----