What's in your basket? And how did you load it?

If you can't beat the system, try a different way. Seriously? This darn bone density pill and I have a love/hate relationship. To remember to take the darn thing, I left my pillbox on the counter yesterday to remind me all day that I needed to take it this morning. Then I put the pillbox on my phone so I would remember first thing this morning. 

Then I had a bad night, couldn't get to sleep, and woke up several times. As a result, I slept in. Now you think that I would take the pill in the middle of the night, but you are not allowed to lie down for 30 minutes after taking it. 

I got up at the time that I would typically make breakfast, so I just threw in the towel. I took the pill, and I'm waiting 30 minutes before I eat. But seriously? This pill is the bane of my existence, and if it ruined my sleep, then I certainly need to do something about it. 

I need to make an appointment for a physical, and I am demanding that they wipe that prescription from my file. I hate the restrictions associated with it, and my brain is rebelling, and I don't need or want that! Another medication does the same thing without the time restrictions. 

I don't care that I am going to throw some of it away to get the one I can take without any restrictions. At this point, the medication isn't doing me any good. 

Phew -- I got that off my chest!

OK -- if you are in my Show and Tell, Forty Shades of Grey, or My Kinda Town class, you should have received an email yesterday from me. If you did not, and I just realized I forgot to do an email search, so I may have missed an email or two, then let me know, and I'll add you to the list. I'm preparing the information email that goes out to the groups, and I hope to get those out soon. 

It took me two hours or perhaps a wee bit more, and I accomplished all the errands that needed to be done by car. Well, almost. I went to return a light from the lighting store and to check on ordering a lighted house sign that they were supposed to get back to me about. I walked up to the counter with my bill and the light, only to see the Return Policy staring at me, which I had not noticed before. Or maybe I did, but it didn't register. TEN days, and it was now 24 days since I purchased the lights. 

I need authorization to return a light, so I sent an email and got a response that YES, I could return the light, so I have to go back on Monday to make that happen. The gentleman thanked me for my order—yes, you should! It wasn't cheap. 

The other light from a different store was returned, no questions asked. But it's a big box store, so that was OK. 

I stopped at Chapters to see if anything new was in. Oh my, the magazine section for knitting and crafts used to be crowded, but it's not so crowded any longer. 

The magazines left in the craft section

I am surprised that the Golden Media titles are still hanging in there. And I notice that the bookstore staff pepper the shelves with books - like the Sashiko book! And I found this on that shelf. Totally unrelated. 

A puzzle book on the craft magazine shelf

I swear, my brain loves puzzles. I decided I needed this book. OK -- so their strategy worked! It's filled with 50 logic puzzles that I LOVE doing. I've been doing those kinds of puzzles since I was a teenager, and well, if I wasn't a quilter, I'd probably have been doing puzzles for years. 

Logic puzzles

One other thing I spotted on the craft shelves was this GIANT book. I've seen and posted about them before, so it's not new, but this one was HUGE. This is a PAPER book - it's literally filled with stickers, mini books, papers, cardstock, etc so you can make journals or whatever else you want to make. 

A paper book

But look at the price!!!!

Ouch!!

I suppose if you want a variety of stuff, it would cost you the same amount if you purchased all those things individually at the craft store. So maybe it's like our quilting kits—pay one price and get it all!

Then I went to the pet store to get dog food for the girls. They do not eat the same food. I winged my way to the back of the store and spotted an employee from the dog food company as she scouted the shelves. I found the two bags of food and whipped them onto the cart. I always turn them upside down on the edge of the cart so the cashier can easily scan the code on the back. 

Then I decided to mention that to the lady from the company. So the heavy bags are placed face up on the shelf. No big deal -- that's where the pretty pictures are. But as I take them off the shelf, I have to turn them over and place them wrong side up in the cart so the pricing label shows. Then, when I go to the cash register, it's an easy job for them to scan it. 

Why can't that scan code be placed on the FRONT of the bag? Then I only have to take the bag off the shelf and put it on the cart. I don't have to rotate the bag. I can manage it, but what if I'm not as strong as I am? More on that in a minute! 

She thanked me, and I headed out. And never drop a heavy bag of dog food INTO the cart—how the heck will you get it out? I balance the two of them on the top! 

When I do my car errands, I have a route. It's about three blocks long, and it's where I buy the big stuff, like dog food, etc. There is a thrift store along that route, and Fabricland and Chapters, etc. So I start at one end and work my way to the other. I hate driving a short distance and then reparking the car, but it's practical that way. 

When I popped into Fabricland to find the bias tape, I spotted a completely empty spool rack. Hmmm --- is that thread on its way out? 

An empty spool rack

From the corner of my eye, I spotted this fabric. It's a stretch velvet with sequins on it that shone as if it belonged to Dolly Parton on a stage with thousands of lights. It was brilliant. The picture doesn't do it justice. 

A bright sparkly fabric

It came in different colors. I have no use for it, but boy was it brilliant. 

I managed to find some bias tape, so I'll use that for my bag. 

The double-fold bias tape

And I found this Clover tool for making jelly roll rugs. I have seen a video of it, and it looks pretty cool. I still have batting strips, so I thought I would try it. 

Clover Fabric Tube Maker

I bought a pack of buttons and placed the three items on the counter. All of them were face up, with the scanning code on the back! The cashier even mentioned that she had to turn them over to scan them!!! I almost died! Well, she was right, but hey, these items were a lot lighter than a bag of dog food! 

Then I was onto Staples, where I dropped off our shredding. I have a drawer in the office where all the personal papers go, and when the drawer is full (it's not a big drawer), then I bundle it up and off it goes. It's usually once a year? Maybe twice this year because I tackled the drawers in the filing cabinet. Yes - I could have a shredder at home, but I found that any shredder we had in the past didn't last long, and it was boring to sit there and shred stuff and then you had to find a home for it. I paid $6 to drop off four pounds of paper. The only negative thing is that you have to shove it through this narrow slot. 

The narrow slot on the paper shredding container

But seriously? I'm getting very good at it and have no issues. So the paper is gone, and that was my last errand. With access to this kind of service, I would NEVER consider having a shredder in the house. 

Wait -- there was one more thing to get. When I returned the second light at the hardware store, I checked for the drill extensions, but I needed to go to the washroom, and I didn't want to make any "major" decisions as there were many options. So I walked to the hardware store near the house in the afternoon. And look what I found! A set of extended screwdriver heads with two extenders. This was exactly what I needed. 

My drill extenders

My drill is old - I didn't spot anything Black and Decker in either store, but the Dewalt ones work just fine. 

And then I got to work on my table. 

Soon, I had most of the leg assembly screwed to the table top. YES—there are cords involved because this table is electric! It is an adjustable height table, and because of the size I wanted and whatever, I couldn't get a crank version for that size. I tested the legs when it was like this, and they work!!! This way, I can sit and sew, or I can raise the table to do machine embroidery! I can't wait to try it out. I still have to tidy up the cords, but I'll do that later. 

The leg assembly is almost done.

Then the leg bases went on, and I waited for DH to get home. I was certain we wouldn't be able to right the table because it was so heavy; I could barely lift one end off the floor. 

The entire leg assembly!

But he used his engineering skills, and we flipped the table on its side and then righted it!!! With two people, it took very little effort. 

My new table

Oh my --- that is a sturdy table. It's supposed to support 450 lbs. I just need it to be stable when doing machine embroidery! I now have to move two machines so this table can slide into the back area of the worktable area. Then I can put one machine on it, and I've started to bring the components of the second table downstairs, and I hope to get it mostly done today. I need to do that while the assembly is still fresh in my mind!!!

But I think I'm going to love them. How will they ever get out of the basement if we move? That's another story!

I got a chucklet earlier in the day as I spotted a gold thread - a long one this time on my quilt top that I was going to work on during the virtual retreat. There's always a gold thread somewhere.

A long gold thread

That new table surface came in very handy last night as I spread my Tequila Lime quilt out so I could remove the paper from the back. It turns out that I was working on the four corners and the four middle sections. At one point, I thought I was done, so I took the quilt into the backyard to shake all the wee bits off. 

Removing paper from Tequila Lime

No - I had done 6 of the 8 sections. But that was good progress, and I was working on the final one last night when we shut the retreat down. I will continue to work on it today, and hopefully I can get the center star points (8) done today. 

There's my little garbage bin of paper. This was near the beginning of the process. 

My bin of paper

And this is what it looked like when I shut down last night! I'll have a mess to clean up when I'm done. So better to get all the paper out in one go and clean up once. 

What a mess to remove paper from a foundation pieced project

And my new turtle is done. I just need to remove the old one from the rest of the block and replace it with the new one. That should be an easy job today. You can actually see the turtle's head now. 

The old turtle and the new

I grabbed this picture from one of the Facebook puzzling groups. This is a small portion of this person's puzzle collection. Mine pales in comparison. 

A small part of someone's puzzle collection

I guess I feel about puzzles the same way I feel about novels. Once you read them, there are so many to read/do; why would you want to reread the book? Or redo the puzzle? Unless it had a very special meaning. Nope -- get the puzzle done, read the book, and GONE!!!!

OK - I waited an hour and just made breakfast. That will work! I'll just change my schedule on Sunday morning and use up those ridiculous pills! 

I noticed people were asking questions about my upcoming Facebook Live on the PFAFF creative icon 3. That was on the Embroidery M.O.M Facebook group, and she reposted my event. Oh my --- no pressure to do a good job! But it's going to be fun, and let's just go with it! 

And yes—we have a Virtual Retreat today, from 3 PM to 9 PM. Here's the link. 

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89869001291?pwd=h57kT9axwTnd2xtJvuO0z2UOmUo45w.1

Meeting ID: 898 6900 1291
Passcode: 136711

And it's going to be another great day!!! 

Ciao!!!!