Retirement! It's almost here!

It's just a hair's breadth away! This evening I'll head out for a little retirement send-off from Mike's company. Nothing fancy, but we've gotta honor the old man with something, don't we? I offered to bring this picture of Mike at the beginning of his career:

Yes, it started before the fall of the Roman Empire! He's aged pretty well considering. Fortunately, he's made a few improvements to his wardrobe as well. So anyway...a half day tomorrow and school's out forever, as the song says.

Today I'm heading off to see my PCP for an annual physical. As far as I know, I should be in ship shape, and only a little bit resembling an actual ship. It means no coffee for me this morning...whaaaaaaaaaaaaa! After that, I need to drop off a parcel at the post office and then make a quick trip to the grocery store. This will be my last grocery shopping trip without someone else to push the cart and help me put stuff away. Yay! That makes up for the lack of coffee.

When I get home, I want to get a loaf of sandwich bread started, and I'm going to make the crust for a lemon meringue pie. Here's a picture of the one I made last year for Pi Day:

It was only my second lemon meringue pie ever, and so today's will be the third. I'll probably stop counting after this. (In case you're wondering, I stopped counting calories long ago.) We're not having a party for Mike's retirement beyond the one his employer is giving him. (Our trip south next month counts as a party.) Instead, we're celebrating with pie. And as long as he'll be wanting lunch, he gets freshly baked sandwich bread too. Do I know how to spoil the guy, or what?

As for yesterday's comings and goings, I picked up some beautiful veggies from the farmers. Given the pie, it's probably just as well. I've missed them so much.

There was some stuff that was new to me...pea shoots, for example. I've eaten them before, but never prepared them. Also, purple sprouting broccoli...never had it, don't know yet what to do with it, but I'll figure it out. The rest were mostly old friends.

Also, I started the latest Solstice Block. Each time one of these is released, I start whining, do I hafta? I'll admit I like those friendship stars, but five in one block. Oy. That's a lot of half square triangles. This one is called "Board Games."

It's a large block at 24-1/2 inches square. Mine is going to be made in colors to celebrate Earth Day. It was a choice between making the block and dusting and vacuuming the downstairs. Which do you suppose I chose? Yes, sewing, but I told myself I had to stop in time to vacuum and dust before I went to pick up the veggies. With that in mind, I got as far as having the pieces all cut, half square triangles sewn and trimmed, and strip sets made. When I needed to quit, I had it laid out for sewing.

Ever the optimist, I laid my largest rulers over the top to avoid, um, reorganization by some very efficient furriends.

That lasted long enough for me to set a stool up on the table in preparation for running the vacuum.

And, whoa. Look at that floor. I'd say it needs vacuuming. Messy quilter at work, obviously.

The only other thing I accomplished yesterday was to make my way nearly halfway across the second border on Mumm's the Word. I'm kind of surprised how quickly this is going.

And I reached a milestone by using an entire spool of DMC thread. Sadie wanted me to tell you that the remaining spool makes an excellent cat toy.

Finally, I noticed that one of the cherry trees is in full bloom.

Sadly, with all the rain, I doubt we'll see many pollinators out flying around. The raccoons are going to be furious at not getting any cherries this year. As for us...well, thanks to raccoons, it'll be a cherry-less season just like any other. And I'm not just kidding about the rain. Yesterday, we learned that we've had the 2nd wettest winter/spring in 75 years. You can read all about it right here. And that makes me kind of mad, because if we're going to have that much rain, I want to at least set a new record. Sheesh. 

Okay, so time to get a move on. The blood suckers are waiting for my veins to reveal themselves.