I put on my sorting hat

You must bear with me as I document an update on my walking challenge. I've put in some intense days of walking this past week - well not really intense, but I did add in an extra walk with the girls and I've been logging some miles on the treadmill at the gym. It's not a big deal, but at the end of the day when you've done over 10 miles of walking, you're tired. As a result, I slept in this morning. Really slept in and that was mostly because the darn plow woke me up when it was clearing the street at 3 AM and I couldn't get back to sleep.

No worries - life will go on!!

I did not get to the gym today and I won't be going. It's a day off. But that doesn't mean I can slack off. I'm so close to catching up!!

The daily walking distances for my two challenges are not the same. One is 6.2 Miles and the other is 7 Miles. So I'll be getting ahead on one while just keeping pace with the other. I'm OK with that.

On my challenge of walking Route 66, I'm now 2.6 miles behind the pace. Oh boy - does that feel good. We're still in Illinois, but I've now completed 5% of the distance. Super excited!!!

My position versus the pace position on the Route 66 Virtual Challenge

The Walking across Canada challenge is a bit more aggressive. I have to walk seven miles every day. That's my stretch goal. Right now, I'm 4.9 miles behind. I can make that up no problem. But not today. Today will be just about achieving 7 miles so I don't fall behind further. I think I can make up those 4.9 miles by the end of the month. Easily!! I'm almost in Chilliwack! My grandparents used to live there.

My position versus the pace position on Walking Across Canada Challenge

OK -- so onto quilting. I had a few errands to get done in the morning before the snow hit. But it hit just as I was leaving. These errands had to be done by car. I'm good, but I'm not carrying a bag of dog food home from about 5 miles away! I did stop at Fabricland and picked up my skirt pattern and I had a look at some of the available fabrics. I didn't stop for long as I wanted to get home. A few groceries and I was home in just over one hour. That's pretty good - four stops - about 15 minutes each. People were driving slow which was good, but I still passed a pretty significant accident on my way home.

I just don't get it. People take chances which to me is NOT an accident. It's a calculated error that someone deliberately caused because they miscalculated. It seems that most accidents involve turning. "I can make it before that car hits the intersection", "I can go through this turn on a red because not everyone will start right away". It totally drives me insane!!!!

Oh - I forgot to mention that I did check out the backpack at Longos' when I was there. I didn't buy it yet......

I did get a quilt quilted, but it's still on the long arm so that picture is for tomorrow.

Let's just say that we had a lot of snow yesterday. We've had snow before Christmas, but of course, it was all gone. Then we had a dump yesterday. I got about ½ of the driveway cleaned yesterday and I'll do the rest this morning. I had to do some tidying in Studio B as we were supposed to have our UFO group today. I've decided to do that via e-mail as we still have travel advisories out and there's no sense in getting out for one hour when we can do it via e-mail. Of course, it's more fun in person, but we have to be practical about things.

So here's what happened in Studio B yesterday. OH -- when I was at Petsmart, I snapped this photo of the winter coats for dogs. I guess if you have a short-haired dog, these would be good. My two would chew it off in a hurry. They do NOT need extra coats. Cute dog coats, but not necessary at our house.

Cut dog coats

I fired up my audiobook (The Huntress by Kate Quinn) and started to sort that huge pile of strips that remained from the day before. At one point, I took a break and this is what the situation looked like. I have a bag for each of the green, red and blue strips of fabric.

Strips of fabric sorted by color

Then there's the tub with the oddball colored strips. Some are bright, some are light, some are dark. It's the "other" pile.

The "other" pile of fabrics

 Then there's the browns. Again - all manner of browns, but these will make a nice cohesive quilt.

The brown strips of fabric

I still had this much to sort. After my break, I was back at it - determined to finish the sorting.

Still to be sorted

Almost done!!  It's always a great feeling when you get close to the finish line.

Almost done sorting

And there it is - the bag of greens, reds, and blues.

Bags of strips sorted by color

The browns and the other are in tubs.

The browns and other are sorted in tubs

This is going to make the next string quilt block sewing day so easy. One person can work on one color, while someone works on another. I still have the two laundry baskets to sort through and add them to the appropriate bag. I've got to schedule a day in my calendar to make that happen.

OK -- just scheduled that day in the calendar as well as a day to tackle the office.

I also had a class this afternoon which I postponed because of the driving conditions so that gives me a wee bit of time to work on my computer project.

And now it's off to walk the girls and finish shoveling the driveway. All in the name of getting those 7 miles in for the day! Remember - these are MILES, not KMs.

Have a super day. Stay in if you don't have to drive anywhere and think twice if you really, really need to be where you had planned to go.

Ciao!!!!