Counting Down

Today's post is going to be a mishmash of little things that are going on. I'm counting down until the butt crack of dawn on Wednesday when I'll board a flight for southern California to attend my high school band reunion. I wrote a blog post about my high school band a little while ago and explained why this particular reunion is important to me. Click on that link if you're interested. 

Our band director must be in his late 80's by now, and still living. He will be attending the reunion as well. No one of my teachers before or since was ever as dedicated as Mr. Don Lauder, and I am really looking forward to seeing him. There won't be many more opportunities to thank this man for the tremendously positive influence he had on me when I was a teenager.

This morning I received an email from one of the reunion organizers asking all of the attendees to bring a card for Mr. Lauder so that he could leave the reunion with something in his hands. I decided to make one of the Carol Doak paper-pieced cards for him. This is the result of my efforts:

I wrote a personal message inside, and I'll keep that private, but I'm so looking forward to seeing old classmates and expressing my appreciation to this kind man who was so generous with his time and energy back then.

Speaking of traveling, I couldn't resist showing you this picture of Matthew and Valerie. Valerie grew up in Ketchikan, Alaska, and she and Matthew traveled there last week (which also explains why he wasn't with us on the Fourth of July). Anyway...they posted several pictures while they were gone, but this one has to be my favorite. They are just so cute together.

So today I needed to catch up on my housework before I leave on my trip. I still need to wash a couple of loads of clothes tomorrow and run a couple of errands, but otherwise, there isn't too much left to do. Still, I needed to do some vacuuming, and that meant organizing the maps and tour books I've been collecting in preparation for our trip to the Great Lakes region this September. Now it's all put together in a nice tidy little box.

I wrote about our itinerary in my post from yesterday, and I'd no sooner posted it when I needed to make yet another change. As much as I wanted to get out to Michigan's Isle Royale that is Isle Royale National Park, it seemed to be impossible. Most everything is shut down for the season, including day trips to the island and the island lodge. I finally gave up.

Now this is disappointing on several levels, not the least of which is the least important thing in the world. Nevertheless, RVers will tell you that adding states to the side of one's RV is somehow all important, while not being important at all. In the early days of blogging, I proudly posted a picture of when we added the state of Oklahoma to the RV.

Totally silly, and yet, in the mind of an RVer, not silly at all. So to be denied our chance to see Isle Royale also denied us the opportunity to get into the state of Michigan and post yet another state on the side of the RV. 

Ahhhhhhh, but wait!

A quick perusal of the map led us to make the decision to visit the Apostle Island National Lakeshore which just happens to be in Wisconsin! Hooray! And that, my friends, will allow us to add an additional state to the side of the RV. I know you can understand how important this is...I'm sure of it because I'm going on ad nauseum about it just to make a point. No laughing. Just please smile and nod in agreement.

So take a look at the map as it stands. This trip, we'll be adding North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Yes, eastern states, you are poorly represented, but we're getting there as quick as we can.

So anyway, all of that to say that I recreated the picture of our route...also not important, while being terribly important at the same time. (Accent on the terrible.)

In spite of all that, I did manage to get a little sewing done, and I'm happy to say I caught up on my blocks for:

I needed to make June's yellow block:

and July's red block:

The buttons are just lying there so you can see how the completed blocks will look. Here are all the blocks I have so far:

It's going to be a hectic day tomorrow trying to get everything done for my trip to California and also getting packed, printing a boarding pass, etc., and so I probably won't blog again until I get back. I'll be busy visiting with my friend, Lisa, and other former classmates, and so I doubt I'll have much time. If I can, I might post a picture here and there, but don't look for much else.

Still, be ready for my 4th Blogiversary giveaway, which will go live on Sunday. I think you're going to like it!

Happy sewing between now and then, and I'll tell you all about it when I get back.