Retreat - Day Three

Gosh! I love retreats.  Even though this hasn't been the most productive retreat, we've had loads of fun and still two more days to go.

Loads of fun?  Who am I kidding - it's been an absolute riot!  We even sat after dinner last night and reminisced about how much fun and craziness we've had and this is only our fourth retreat at this house. While the house is nice and it's fun to be away, it's the company that make the retreat what it is.

The day got off to a crazy start. I'm out on my bike and a bird flew out of the ditch, hit my leg (not hard), but hard enough to knock the poop out of the bird and all over my legs. Literally, I was covered in SH%T.  I didn't really feel anything, it happened so fast, and not hard enough to knock me off my bike - thank goodness. But when I realised that I now had bird poop on BOTH legs, what about my water bottle which sits between  my legs on the bike frame? YEP - it was also covered in bird poop.  I stopped to clean it only to discover that there was bird poop inside the valve and I couldn't clean it on the road.

I immediately put the water bottle in the back water bottle cage, so I didn't just reach for water and inadvertently drink bird poop!  I stopped from time to time to unscrew the cap and drink from the bottle. I was able to get all the bird poop out of the cap when I got back to the house. And let's not forget about the turkey vultures who were feasting on roadkill and did NOT want to abandon their prize as I rode by. They did take flight but were keeping low and close to me. I was fearing another close encounter of the aviary type, but thankfully once they realised I was out of the way of their prize, they circled back.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful and another 35 KM chalked up!

I had asked Ronda to bring her square rotating cutting mat. She informed me that I should be working on that project so I can get it done. So I dug that project out of the NON-urgent bags. It took me a long, long time, but that project is done. Well, the blocks are done and I'll sew it together when I get home. For some reason, I'm not into sewing quilt tops together at retreats. Never have been, likely never will.

As for those eight-pointed stars?  I think I am half done. That's EIGHT of sixteen.  I'm pretty excited and while they are NOT hard, they are just fiddly because you can't chain piece them. Claudette still has three to do, but she made great progress on the 16. Ronda sewed all of them at the last retreat.  I still have quite a ways to go to catch up to either of them.  I can do it - focus, yawn, focus, yawn, focus!

I think that's all I worked on yesterday!  Not much to show, but at one point, a bunch of us sat out on the deck in the back. We read for a bit and then got into a lively discussion about many things which have to stay at the retreat. No lip flapping allowed. Oh yes - we talked about all of YOU!!!!  And it was juicy gossip! I'm kidding - we chatted about previous retreats, what we're working on, and stuff like that. It was glorious and well - why can't I win the lottery so I can buy a place and just relax. Cause I would die - that's why!

Maria introduced us to a riddle the other day at lunch.  Ronda and I recognised it as a LOGIC puzzle. It was pretty easy and I breezed through it. But then Ronda and I wanted to get a book of LOGIC puzzles and we decided after dinner last night to go to Wal-Mart to get one. We had to pick up a couple of other things. Sounds easy right? Well - like most things, it turned into an adventure. There was an impending rain storm, but we're tough - no big deal.

We amble around Wal-Mart and collect our items, but NO LOGIC puzzle magazine.  When we walked out the door - OH OH - this looks bad. The clouds were angry and they were moving fast and it was just starting to rain. We ran to the car and didn't really get too wet.  Off to Shopper's to try and find the darn magazine. By the time, we got to Shopper's, it's pouring cats and dogs and windy!  I told Ronda to stay in the car and I'd run in and get the magazine. I ran through the rain into the store and NO LOGIC puzzles.  Seriously???   What's going on???

I stopped in the doorway to gather my energy and then ran like a mad woman to the car. A RED car in the parking lot. I opened the door and was about to put my butt on the seat when I realised it wasn't my car and there was someone in the passenger seat.  OH GOD!!!!   I muttered - "sorry, wrong car!"and slammed the door.  Don't forget that it's POURING rain. Where's my car?  Oh crap - two cars down. Obviously by the time I got to my car, I was drenched!  I was laughing so hard, I thought I was going to die!!!

Then Ronda is on her phone trying to locate a bookstore so we can find the (by this time) STUPID Logic puzzle magazine!   The bookstore is in the mall. Where's the mall?  Oh yes - I remember. So off to the mall and by this time, the rain is slowing down. I'm happy to report that we did indeed find TWO different Logic puzzle magazines at the bookstore - one for her and one for me!  And we quite happily did several of them before bed!

The wind and rain were quite severe for a brief time and there were lots of small branches everywhere on the road and we did see a much larger one that came down. The green light (volunteer firefighters) were out and the fire truck was on its' way somewhere as we were headed to the mall.

Ronda was making an Everyday Tote (don't worry - the pattern is going to be published in a magazine that hopefully will be out soon!). She slipped up somewhere and ended up with a hole at the top.  Not an easy place to fix. I didn't offer up any suggestions on how to fix it. And at one point, she was going to steal one of my bicycle tags that I put on my bags.  Why I brought those with me, I have no idea.  BUT then she had the brilliant idea of putting a tag over the problem.  I didn't want to put the bicycle on there, but we ended up stitching her name (I used my Ruby) and it looks brilliant. It looks like it was made to be there.

Ronda's bag tag

What's really funny about all this is that Ronda has been lamenting to me about the fact that even though she has made several Everyday Totes, she doesn't have one for herself. Perhaps even hinting that I could give her one that I have made.  Impossible as they are all full of projects!!!!   Now that this one she made has her name on it, there is no way that bag can be given away!!!

Well, that's enough babble for this morning.

Have an awesome day!!!

Ciao!!!