Powerless

What a dismal day yesterday! It rained the whole live-long day, for one thing. I did some slow-stitching in the morning, and then did some housework. After lunch, I turned my attention to the binding for the farm quilt. I'm limiting myself to two lengths of thread, but still managed to turn the first corner.

As I was folding it up, the power went off. It was around 2:30 p.m. Okay, so that pretty much put the kibosh on anything else I might have had planned for the afternoon. Thank goodness I finished my housework!!! So, anyway...a little power outage can't come between me and my slow-stitching. I had a full charge on my rechargeable headlamp, and so there was just one thing to do. I sat and stitched, and stitched, and stitched on Calendula Patterdrip until I finished the section I was working on.

Meanwhile, Smitty sat outside the window on the wood box, willing the weather to improve.

The fattest squirrel you've ever seen sat nearby, mocking him. Oh, the humanity!

I just moved my hoop and continued on, filling in the next section too.

Now I've moved my hoop down, and to the left, and I'll pick it up there this morning. I think I'm about halfway across the third block for this quilt. We're heading to Eastern Washington tomorrow morning, and this will be a good take-along project. Even if I finish the third block, the fourth one is right there for me to start on.

Okay, so the day was kind of a bust. We ended up going out for dinner since we didn't want to open the refrigerators. The power outage was caused by some limbs falling on power lines. There was a severe ice storm in our area this past winter, and there are dead limbs hanging from trees everywhere. With so much rain, they've been heavy with moisture, and now they're falling down and causing a different kind of trouble. The power came back on around 9:15 last night...right after Mike started up the generator. (Of course it did.) I worried with so much slow-stitching that my thumb would be punishingly painful today. As insurance, I splinted it last night, and it feels fine this morning. Apparently, no harm done.

So today I'll be packing the truck camper and doing some cooking. Recently, I found a leftover half package of Jimmy Dean sausage in the freezer. The only thing I ever use that for is Frozen Breakfast Burritos, and so I'll make some of those today. Heck, I even have half a jalapeno pepper to use for the same dish! It's almost as if it were meant to be! That will be breakfast for the next few days. Also, I'm making a favorite sandwich spread from Giada DeLaurentiis. I love her Curried Chicken and Apple Wraps. Those will keep us in lunches for the next few days. I have some frozen entrees to take along for dinner as well. We'll have steaks one night, and so I'm making my favorite marinade ahead of time. I just pack it in a jar, and then pour it over the meat when we're ready for it.

The food will be pretty easy for this trip, and it's just a few days, so there won't be much else to pack either. The kitties are staying home this time around. I've left strict instructions that there be no mouse parties. They are to lay off the catnip, and absolutely no meowargaritas. Cats these days.... You have to stay tough as a cat mom. 

We're heading to a place in eastern Washington we've never been, Palouse Falls State Park. We read about it...somewhere...I can't remember where. I've seen some spectacular photographs of it. Here's one from Creative Commons.

(Image credit: "Palouse Falls Eastern Washington" by Knowles Gallery is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

You can see another one at that link I've given you. Visiting in May or June is the best time of the year when the snowmelt is still strong, and there's plenty of water flowing. And so, I'll be taking a few days off from blogging. I'll be back later in the week to tell you all about it. Until then, stay strong and sew on.