March

March as been the longest month!  I'm glad it's over...I'm so ready for April and maybe a real spring.

Better...but... at least I'm still sewing.

I'm still not at 100%, so I'm taking it easy for this week as well. At least my brain feels like it's working, again. I have a nasty lingering cough.

Progress...I have made good progress on this top:

Here, it's just laid out for color placement.

It's a neat pattern. It's very forgiving of not-quite 1/4" seams and not quite matching points. The white outlines look good even if they're not all perfectly sized. 

Last night I got the whole top pieced. There's a border to do next. 

A Small Lesson in Compassion

I'm still sick. I managed to drag myself into work yesterday, and I felt pretty bad all day. Time slowed down as I worked at my desk, trying to keep to myself and get something done. I only hope I didn't give it to my coworkers.

Now I'm not even sure I'll be back to normal by Monday!!!

So, being sick all week has reminded me how others may feel, those who get sick more frequently than I do, those with chronic health issues that make them feel spaced out, exhausted, in pain, or dizzy all of the time. Not being able to get adequate rest is another lousy problem. The first two nights my throat was so sore, I could hardly sleep - every swallow or cough woke me up.

One week, whoopee - like that's even close to what many people go through.

Just another reminder to have compassion for others and not to take good health for granted.

PS. I did get to work on some quilting after all.

The flu

I acquired the flu. Most likely, the "infection" my husband had last week was really the flu and he shared it with me.

I have no energy. This is my 3rd day out of work, and they say I shouldn't go back until it's 24 hours after the fever breaks. I still have a fever as of this morning, so it sounds like I shouldn't go back tomorrow. I'm coughing, my through feels like it's on fire, I'm hot then I'm cold, and today I can't talk properly. This totally sucks.

I don't even have the energy to work on any of my quilt projects.

Enough whining for now. Back to my nap.

Charity Day 2011

Usually the guild's charity day is in February. This year it was in March because we got a real, honest to God blizzard on guild day in February. Everything was canceled.

I nearly didn't get to go. I was given the day off conditionally: if The Joint Commission did not come on Monday, I could have Tuesday off. We had a "scare" that they would come on Sunday afternoon. We were summoned to audit charts and give up our Sunday. Only to find out they did not come.

(For those who don't know, The Joint Commission is the main regulatory body in the US that oversees hospitals. They audit all hospitals periodically. The audits are supposedly unannounced, however, hospitals usually have some idea they are going to come.  In this case, our information was not accurate.)

Nevertheless, I got my day off.

I had a lovely day and I think it was a success. We had four project areas: a group that built tops from a common pattern called "Split Decision."Another area worked on strip foundation pieced blocks and making tops out of them. A third group took quilt "sandwiches" and did quilt tying. Others worked on anything they felt like. I did coordination.

I received at least 12 completed quilts for our charity. We have another 6 or 8 that need binding. Several new tops were completed. All of the batting got used up. Several other projects were completed. It was a productive day.

I was glad to be a part of it, and I felt so appreciated by the group. It made me feel even more sad that I will probably have to quit the guild because it is too difficult to get the Tuesdays off every month.

Working out

I started going to the community fitness center one month ago and I am trying to get in the habit of exercising regularly. It's very difficult to acquire this new habit, and I continue to try. Indeed, it has only been a month, but I'm discouraged because I haven't lost any weight at all.

I am expecting too much too soon. I'm not 25 anymore and the pounds are stubborn.  I also haven't changed my eating habits yet. I didn't want to take on too many changes all at once.

I feel a little stronger, and I feel more comfortable being at the gym. I sleep better on the nights after I've worked out. My workout consists of a whole body set of strength training set along with 15 minutes of aerobic activity. It takes me about 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete everything.

The wonders of the iPod. I collected some music in a workout playlist....but found out today it's too short. Well, back to iTunes....

To help track my workouts, I found an app called Gym Buddy. So far it seems to work pretty well for building and recording workouts. I still need to play with to get all the details about the exercises set up just right - I'm not sure how to record a timed exercise, like holding a plank position for so-many seconds. Or, how to record "weight" on a push up - it's my own body weight, reduced a bit because I can only do push ups on my knees.

Back to the music...
Naturally, I Google'd to find suggestions for work out music. Most of the lists I found are all compose of angry screaming rap music. I need lists for geezers - like an upbeat 70s workout mix (Abba!), or an 80s pop mix (Peter Gabriel, Michael Jackson). Even a contemporary mix that isn't rap music would be nice. I can appreciate rap at some level, but it just doesn't do it for me any more than 1950's rock-n-roll, or Elvis, or heavy metal.

The young people seem to enjoy investing their time in curating their song libraries, but I just don't want to spend my time that way. I just want it to *be* there, not work for it. Heck, I even still listen to the radio.

And not XM radio.

Once I come up with a few enjoyable lists, I'll share.

Charity Quilt

Charity Quilt
Originally uploaded by ava99riley00

Look, I have been working on a quilting project!