Surprise!

Look what I got in the mail!

What a wonderful surprise!  

Here's a view of the entire thing held up by Mr. Wonderful because my appendages are too short.  Please note that in my excitement I allowed it to be held up incorrectly.  Drunkard's Path (currently top right) goes in the bottom right corner, so spin this baby 90 degrees, and you'll be looking at it the right way.

This is the back.  The darker green pieces are apliqued onto the lighter green background.  The quilting is super-fun and follows the pattern on the opposite side.

It's based on Eleanor Burn's Underground Railroad quilt book.  Have any of you other people in my life who quilt read it?  From what we know, the stories she tells are more legend than fact, but that doesn't take away from its beautiful craftsmanship and fun back story.

Thank you Mary (and La for collecting my address) for making me feel very loved.  I cannot stop looking at it!

School

School is cool.

I like to learn.

I'm probably going to die this semester.

I will not have free time because I have three jobs and three classes.  Whatever.

All of this is a bummer because I seem to be finding more and more friends in the area with whom I'd like to spend time.  Another one may be added to the list soon.  :)

I have yet to attend two of my classes.  That will happen tomorrow.

That's all, I think.

Keep It to Yourself! ... Please.

Let me start this rant by saying that I am an imperfect jerk, too.  But please see paragraph #4; I am whining to friends (I hope).  Okay, here goes.

I have several pet peeves.  One of them is bumper stickers or car accessories with obnoxious sayings.  For instance, the one that says "In case of rapture, this vehicle will be unmanned" is one of my least favorites.  First, are you really, really sure you're going?  I'm just saying that it seems a bit smug.  Also, don't you think it's gonna be bad enough?  Do you really have to advertise that the chaos will be worse because your stupid, giant SUV/truck, now unmanned, will immediately start plowing into other vehicles or road signs?  Um, I'm pretty sure that anyone left will figure out pretty quickly to get out of the way.  But thanks for the warning.  I will keep my eyes firmly fixed on your giant tail end--I can't see around it anyway because it's so big.  In closing, do you think you could get your tires properly aligned so that your car has a better chance of heading straight down the road once you vacate it?  That's less likely to hurt people, and that means that if you're planning on a Tim LaHaye-style rapture, more people might have the chance to repent.

The stupid ones about how your dog or cat or fish or horse or iguana can take out my honor student are ridiculous.  Now I think that honor student bumper stickers are pretty dumb, too, but really, your pet is going to take out my kid?  I think that means we're going to end up in an altercation.  Honor student or not, I'm going to protect my kid (when that part of my life happens).  Don't provoke me, and I'll keep the honor student bumper stickers off of my car.  Deal?

If you drive a Ram 2500, F-Super Duty, etc., I am already aware that your truck has 'balls.'  It's really quite obvious from the size of your truck, the volume if its engine (that you doctored into a mind-numbing roar), the black cloud of toxic emissions coming from your exhaust pipe, and the apparent disregard for all other vehicles on the road with which you drive it.  If you were trying to impress me, it has had the opposite effect.  The addition of plastic anatomical parts that swing around as you drive gives me the distinct impression that you may be overcompensating.

Also, I know you're bitter about the last election...or the one before that...or the one before that...or the one back before the creation of the earth, but really, it just didn't work out.  I'm sorry.  I voted for them, too.  But it's been more than a year, and, well, you seem like a whiner.  Really, I don't need you to whine to me out on the open road.  I do enjoy complaining, and it's part of the reason I vote, but I don't know you.  I will whine to my friends, and they may whine to me.  You can whine to your own friends.  Also, to those bearing my new 'favorite,' my "Hope and Change" is fine, thanks.  It's not tied to a particular political candidate.

Finally, I have been guilty of this last one, but I repented of it when I figured out how obnoxious I was being.  Dear fellow followers of Jesus Christ, don't put a Jesus fish on your car unless you're prepared to be the best citizen of the road ever.  Don't.  Ever heard of the Sermon on the Mount?  How about common courtesy?  Well, here's the deal.  We are all jerks on the road at some point.  We cut someone off--accidentally or on purpose.  We drive too slow.  We drive too fast.  We fail to use our turn signal.  We act in our own interests to the detriment of others, which can, of course, lead to accidents.  I assume that many drivers are inconsiderate jerks, but I do expect someone who singles himself or herself out as a follower of Christ to be different.  Is this unreasonable?  Perhaps.  We're just as sinful, right?  But I can't help it.  Dear fish car driver, you did put this on your car because you're trying to say, "Hey, I'm a Christian!" right?  If you put something up on your car that says you believe in real, radical love and doing things like putting other people before yourself, and your goal is to witness to people, I have some advice.  DON'T, DON'T, DON'T drive like a sinner!  Don't cut me off.  My mind immediately jumps to the conclusion that you're a self-righteous hypocrite.  (Remember, I'm a jerk who needs to work on her own love and forgiveness skills.)  But here's the deal: so do lots and lots of non-Christians.  And they do talk about it.  And they do think you're obnoxious.  And if you meant your fish to be a witness, it failed.  My suggestion: find another way to witness.  Try making friends with people.  Also, if you don't put up the fish and do cut someone off, well, they won't judge your faith.  They'll just judge you.  That's where the blame belongs in the first place.

P.S.  Leave Darwin out of it.  No Jesus fish eating Darwin amphibian.  No Darwin amphibian eating Jesus fish.  It is not clever.

My Babies

So most of my friends are having and posting about babies.  I don't have any cute children, but I thought I'd post pictures of the things I care for every day.  

 This little guy isn't diseased.  He's been sprinkled with pest control, aka cornstarch because tomato worms are the worst!

 The first pepper.  Finally!

Spike!  Yep, he's a happy plant again.  Note the geraniums I saved from Walmart in the background.  I have a hard time leaving plants at large retailers to die.  It's so sad to see all of the little root bound flowers.  I want to take them all home!  Instead I rescued four.

A U-Haul, Three Flights of Stairs, and Excessive Road Construction

The above summarize the highlights of last night.  Mr. Wonderful and I moved our furniture into our new apartment.  We started at 4:30 PM in FoCo.  We loaded everything into the U-Haul by ourselves.  Pretty painless since we moved out of the basement.  Then we got in the truck and drove down the familiar highway between our old and new apartments, only last night CDOT decided to add extra road construction.  A 30 minute detour (more like driving in circles) in the town between our two towns made us irritated--but at CDOT and the other people on the road, not each other.  We arrived at the new place.  There were no parking spaces close to our apartment.  Not cool.  Also, it got dark.  Blech.  Then we carried our furniture up three flights of stairs, only the assent wasn't straight up.  It turned 90 degrees every 12 steps or so, yet the landings were exceedingly small and not convenient for turning couches and mattresses.  After an hour, I decided I would only purchase love seats and air mattresses in the future.  So we got it all moved in, mostly because Mr. Wonderful is strong, patient, and forgiving.  (At one point I unintentionally--I promise!--sent a left hook towards his face that sent his glasses flying into the back of the U-Haul.  I was trying to wrestle the blankets covering a piece of furniture into a manageable wad.)  We did not fight--not that we were always happy.  Still, I am proud of us.   (Maybe we could be like TanyaLee and What's-his-name from eHarmony and own a business together.  Wait.  No.  No.  And seriously, what is up with them?!)  So then we started driving back to FoCo to drop off the truck.  The brilliant idea to take the interstate backfired when we hit the parking lot also known as 1-25 under construction.  Add 20 minutes.  We took the first exit we could and drove back roads.  We got to a town.  The main road was under construction.  We spent another 10 minutes trying to find a way out of this little town before succeeding.  Finally, FoCo.  Then we had to drive back to the new place.  Previous ETA for moving completion: 10:30 PM.  Actual TA: 1 AM.  Ugh.  So glad that's done!
P.S. Workout for 8/4/10 = 4 hours of  heavy lifting.  Moving is excellent forearm exercise.