Black and blue!

 Two more Zooms are done! Sometimes, the weekends can get crazy, and I don't feel like doing much when the classes are over. So, instead of working as I should have, I lazed around yesterday afternoon and went to the mall to run some errands!

Something bizarre happened in our house last night. Murphy and Lexi got into a fight, and blood was drawn. I knew something was up when Lexi was skulking in the kitchen, and Murphy was hanging around for some reason. Before I knew it, an attack! I know Murphy is very jealous and is highly food-motivated. Lexi is also highly food-motivated if it involves food from the kitchen, never dog food. And DH insists on feeding them scraps, which I could kill him for. 

Something happened between them, and this was NOT play fighting. Luckily, DH and I were both there. In the midst of two fighting dogs, we managed to pull them apart, but not before Lexi whacked Murphy on the nose, and there was blood all over! Lexi went outside, as her quiet space is under the shed. Murphy stayed in the house. It took a long time for Lexi to come back in, and even then, she hid beside DH on the floor as he sat on the sofa. 

What was the fight about? I have no idea, but we'll have to watch them in case this is a sign of something. DH had started to cook something, and I think that motivated the whole thing. Perhaps this will be a lesson to DH to keep them out of the kitchen. 

In the past, when our cleaning lady arrived, the first thing she did was give them a cookie. I'm not sure how that started, but the dogs would go insane when she arrived—barking and acting like wild dogs. I told her to stop giving them cookies. Guess what? No barking dogs! They are happy to see her, but they don't go crazy. 

I don't understand why DH doesn't get that their bad behavior at the kitchen table (Lexi in particular) is learned from HIM!!! He has to STOP giving them any piece of human food. Until he does that, they will always hang around the kitchen. They get NOTHING from me except their food twice a day, and once in a while, they get a cookie. 

This was the girls as I prepped to go to the mall earlier in the day. I take them for a walk once in the afternoon, and they expect it every day! Silly girls! I'd be more likely to take them if I knew someone wouldn't walk off with them if I tied them up outside. I'm OK with doing that occasionally at the grocery store, but I wouldn't do that at the mall. 

MOM -- can we go with you? 

They've only fought once before, and that was the very first night that Murphy came to live with us. Lexi was already here, and I think they were setting some boundaries. So we've been fortunate, but as mentioned, I'll be watching to see how they behave this morning. So far, they are keeping a great distance from each other, but that is their normal early-morning behavior. 

Let's just say it was a pretty traumatic situation for all of us. Murphy, the one who ended up bleeding, is OK. Her nose bleed for a few minutes, then stopped, and she doesn't seem to have any open wounds, so the blood must have come from a whack rather than a scratch. 

I managed to get rid of a few more papers in the office, but nothing too significant. That nice open space on the desk is partially covered with something I pulled off another shelf (knickknacks), and I want to pack it in paper before it goes into the donation box. I won't have time today as I've got to prep for my trunk show tonight at the Durham Trillium Quilters Guild, but I'll get back to it this week. 

This was the quote in my tea yesterday, and I laughed. Yep—this sounds like the office and the decluttering process! Change is good—well, not too much. But we must learn to adapt, or we're going to struggle. 

Another great quote

Yesterday, we had our Many Blocks session. A few of us are working on quilts with many blocks in them. My quilt is the 365-day challenge. I must admit that it keeps getting put on the back burner, and I need to focus more on it. I have twenty-some blocks cut out, and yet do I think to sew them?

ONE block for the 365-day quilt

I must keep that bag of prepped blocks close to the sewing machine and spend a few minutes each sewing them. It wouldn't take that long, especially since they are cut. I'd also like to get the rest of the April blocks cut—I think there are eight. I have a retreat in a couple of weeks, and it would be a great thing to take. It's small, and I will have no choice but to focus. Perhaps I can get more blocks cut as well. 

The biggest issue is getting time to sew! My sewing time isn't nonexistent, but with all the prepping (taking photos, cutting, writing, etc) for the homework, there seems to be little time left to sew something! 

While traveling by train to my adventure tomorrow, I should spend a few minutes listing all my jobs and working out my retirement plan. Going cold turkey would not be good for me, so I'll have to try and figure out a plan to ease out of everything. I still have a few years, but it's best to get the plan in place now. 

Oh, I had to laugh. The EXIT Game was sitting on the table, and as I ate my lunch, I was mulling over the puzzle that we couldn't figure out the night before. I love how the ANSWER just jumps out at me, and that's what happened at lunch. Well, I did a happy dance around the table while DH thought I'd gone mad! But he congratulated me on figuring it out. Once you see the answer, it is pretty obvious! 

So, at dinner, we opened the next clue. Oh dear. We're right back to square one - what is the answer to this one? As I said the other day, we are NOT fast, but we get most of them eventually. But we spend much time figuring out how to get the answer! Our brains are working at top capacity to solve these things! I don't care how fast we solve the puzzles; I only care that we solve them! Or at least understand the logic and learn from that! 

I looked at the background fabrics I have set aside for Dear Jen. I eliminated one of them that is hard to tell if it's light or dark in the scheme of my quilt. And I brought two more out that I thought I was done with, but they are good lights. I'll try to be more careful in the future, but it's tough to know until you've made the blocks. Of the 20 blocks I've completed, I'll reject a few as they do not have enough contrast. 

And this fabric on the right - I swear that's NAVY BLUE, not black. The collection is called Ebony and Ivory, but ebony, to me, should be black. No one will notice in the scheme of things, but every time I look at the darks in this collection, I see NAVY blue, not black. 

Black or blue?

But that's OK. When I assemble the quilt, I'll pick the best blocks and put the rest on the back. 

It's Remembrance Day today, so please take a few minutes to reflect on all those who have served and continue to serve to keep our countries safe. We owe them a lot, and I'm sure we will never truly appreciate the horrors they went through and continue to experience after. 

It's Monday sewing today, and I have a lot of non-sewing things surrounding the computer that I want to take care of during the call. I hope to be super productive because I need some of that mess cleaned up! 

On that note, I'm off to spin class. 

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!