bad luck go away!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks STILL!

I didn't mention it last time because I was still so angry, but we had outgoing bills stolen from our mailbox and I have been dealing with the aftermath of that for about three weeks now.  I thought, when the new checks for the new account arrived on Friday, having heard nothing else since closing the old account and opening the new one, that we were finally done with this.

Wrong.

Saturday I got four letters regarding four of the stolen checks that had been attempted to be used and now I have an "account" with a collection agency.

Of course they came on Saturday, right?  So this morning I've been on the phone with them and a few of the people from the first go-round of getting this reported and dealt with, updating and disputing and all that.

In the middle of all this, my dryer melted it's electrical plug.  Thankfully the washer is on a different breaker, so I was able to cut power to the dryer and still wash laundry, saving some time at the laundromat, as well as a pile of quarters.  (Yes, it takes longer to singly wash four loads of laundry at home, but I can do other things while it washes rather than sit in a hard chair in public!)

The electrician is coming Thursday morning, bright an early, and I'm hoping the gal at the bank I left a message for calls back soon.

Thankful that we caught the theft before the money came out (but not before Telecheck said it was there - the electronic check readers at businesses check to see that the funds are available, but it takes a few days for the transfer of money to actually happen - we were given the torn open envelopes by a neighbor probably 24 hours after the checks were stolen) and thankful the dryer just melted the outlet without a fire.  Stuff may be going wrong, but someone is looking out for us that it doesn't go TOO wrong.  I am very pleased with that.

And I have dealt with some of the nicest people through all of this.  I mean, I'm being calm and patient and kind to start with, which I don't doubt is helping, but my experience dealing with all that needs to be dealt with has been amazingly positive and helpful and kind.  (I wish all customer service experiences were so good!)

Enough of the bad luck stories.  Let's move on to what you're really here for - quilty stuff!

I managed, in the last two weeks, to make a whopping TWO of the brown blocks.

I know it's not a lot, but I've had an extra shift at work and a hubby on vacation one of the last two weeks and all this other bad luck nonsense.

I think this leaves me just four more blocks to sew, but I'm not feeling any rush to sew them right now.

I did sew a few hammocks, too, but decided that since I was at my parents for the holiday (yeah, that was in there too!), I would raid my mom's "I Spy" fabric boxes.  Yes, boxes.  She has two paper boxes full.  As things went, I ended up just bringing the boxes home with me and cutting pieces to make another batch of cat toys.

Because, you know, I don't have 40 billion other things happening, right?

The two boxes contain a lot of larger-scale prints (that would work great for a 6" I Spy block, but not so much for a non-fussy cut 3x4" cat toy), so I didn't cut as much as I thought I might.

It doesn't look like much, but I counted.  152.  More than I thought, less than I anticipated.

Some were sewn and ready for turning on Friday morning, when the laundry was all washed, so...

...they went to the laundromat with me!  I thought that would be easier than a book, since sometimes it can be noisy and not as easy to focus to read.  (As it turned out, there were two people there when I got there and just two more joined us by the time I was done.  Apparently Friday mornings are not peak laundry times?!)

A few days later (which would technically be yesterday), I sat down with my podcast app and a Toby and listened to some science while I turned the remaining toys (that had been sewn Friday after the laundry was dry).

At first, he wanted to see what I was doing, so each one I showed him before I turned it and then he perked up as I added them into the box after it was turned.  Eventually he crashed out and got twitchy when I tried to get stray threads that had fallen into his furs off.  He is such a fierce, rowdy cat, but you put a quilt on your lap and he purrs himself into oblivion.

Here they are all turned and tidy.  (The few going the wrong direction are 3x3 because there was just a small piece or...um...someone might have mathed wrong.)

I'll work on stuffing them and sewing them shut eventually, but my volunteer didn't say there was a rush.  I just took advantage of being at my parents house to raid her stash.  (I'm sure she has a lot more that would work nicely in her colored boxes, but I think this should be good for now!)

Today, since I've made all the phone calls I can (and am just waiting for return calls), I'm going to go have lunch with some quilty friends.  My guild is doing a sew-in today, but I decided to skip that (sadly), to be more available for the phone calls, but I can still do a lunch, right?

I've also made a cherry chocolate cake for a coworker, as it is his favorite and his birthday is tomorrow.  He forgot to ask for it off, so this is something little I can do to make his day better.  He's a feisty old guy, so I need to figure out how to get 100 candles on it...

One more funny...I have an app on my phone that keeps track of books I've read.  Because when you go to used book sales and just read the blurb on the back and go "yeah, that sounds good" and then start reading it weeks (or months...) later, you think "huh...this seems familiar" but because you donate the books back after reading, you have no way to know if you've actually already read this book.  This app has a bunch of info that I really don't need, but it's there nonetheless.  Probably someone wants it.  I was browsing through the other day and noticed the "Genre" category on this one and laughed.

While technically correct (the book is about Billy the Kid) I would probably have chosen a broader option, such as historical fiction.  Or maybe American historical fiction.

It made me wonder what else was in there.

Funny that the book I read just after this one (both have been read quite recently) had this to say for genre:

So yeah, there were men in the book.  But any of you who are familiar with this author know that "men" does not quite cover her dystopian fiction style.

So I giggled a while and looked for more, but there were no others that stood out quite so ridiculously.  Too bad because this was pretty amusing for me.

One more giggle for you.  My sister-in-law works for a company that does purchasing/ordering for retail stores.  She is the one that looks at inventory and sales data and, with help of a computer program of course, decides what to order and where to send it.  I teased her on July 4th to send me peanut butter because the store shelves are empty.  On the 6th, when I went for groceries, this was my peanut butter aisle:

But there is no Jif!  Mr. PickyPants will only eat Jif brand peanut butter.  So I guess I should have been more specific in my request?  (I know they had a recall - I had a tainted jar myself that went into the trash...not without a little sigh of sadness - and I know it is just a matter of time before things catch up - just like toilet paper - but this was pretty funny.)

Today it was more picked over, but I snagged a small jar of the store brand.  Sometimes you can get good stuff with store brands, so I thought I'd try it.  Worst case I end up making cookies to take to work with it.  Those guys are NOT picky!  (They try to pretend they are, but other than the one guy who can't do gluten, they are not.)

So, not much quilty stuff, but lots of random stuff to giggle or shake your fist at.

Happy quilting...and, you know, whatever else,

Katie

PS I forgot to mention the book sale on July 4th!  I got a bag for $10 and could fill it with as much as I could.  Book Tetris ensued and I think I got 26 books in there.  I went back for the "clearance" sale and my mom and I got another bag for $5 to fill with whatever we wanted.  I added a few more and I think came home with something like 32 books.  I'm such a nerd.  (Maybe I'll take a photo of my "to-be-read" disaster one of these days, but for now, just imagine a lot books, stacked in an attempt to not be too messy.)