Slow News Day

My post is late today. Despite writing it early this morning, it seems I got distracted by a quotation about cherry vinegar, and completely forgot to hit "publish." Duh. Better late than never, right?

We had grocery shopping to do yesterday morning, and didn't get home until after lunch time. The only good thing about grocery shopping yesterday was finding both cherries and apricots at the same time. That means only one thing, here at the Three Cats Ranch: Apricot-Cherry Upside-down Mini Cakes. If you've been reading a long time, then this should come as no surprise to you. It's my annual must-make dessert when I can find the necessary fruit. We had some lunch, and then I went straight to work baking them.

The recipe was first published in Cooking Light in June, 2004, and I've been making them every year since. It's a dessert for two times two. We had them last night with a dollop (or maybe two dollops) of Redi-Whip. So tasty.

Here's an experiment I've run several times. I think the result has finally sunk in. Every time I do any sort of free motion work, whether it's quilting or thread-painting, it gives me a case of tendonitis in my left wrist. That was the case yesterday, having done both thread-painting and free motion quilting the day before. My left wrist was killing me. It only hurt with movement, but it hurt enough that I put a splint on my wrist to immobilize it. It feels much better this morning. Generally, I can cure the problem by immobilizing it for a day. So that meant no quilting for me yesterday. Instead, I put in quite a bit of time on the Tucson Tabby stitchery. I have it this far now, and so I should easily finish up the stitching this morning.

I won't sew it into a quilt top right away, but I have some fun fabrics to use when I get to it. And with that so close to finishing, I'll have to trace out the next block for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage today. Otherwise, I'm going to end up in Stitching 911 by tomorrow morning...in other words, the dreaded stitching emergency. Of course, we can't let that happen. 

The rain returned with a vengeance yesterday, and it rained hard most of the night. This peeved Mr. Smithers. He really wanted to get outside and kill something. Instead, he tried out different backgrounds and surfaces for his Sexiest Cat Alive pose. 

We're still working on perfecting the exact purrsitioning of the hind legs. Left leg on top? Right leg on top? Together or apart? So many things to consider. Also...what to do with the tail? Out straight? Curved in a "S" for "Smitty" shape? Curled around his feet? There are many variations on this theme. No decisions have been made. We might have to consult with the photographers from Cosmeowpolitan magazine before we can make our final choice.

Today I'm getting a badly-needed pedicure. My nail technician was sick when my appointment came around a couple of weeks ago. She had something else going on, and then tested positive for COVID to boot. Also, our window washer guy notified us he had tested positive after he'd been here to do our windows. Fortunately, neither of us had very much contact with him, and none closer than about ten feet. Most of the time we spent talking with him was outdoors. It's been nine days since our exposure, and neither of us has shown any symptoms. I'll hold my comments until two weeks have passed, but I'm hoping we dodged the bullet. We're both fully vaccinated and twice boosted.

As I mentioned, I'll be tracing out the next block for Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage. When that's finished, I'm hoping to get started on quilting the Garden Sunshine quilt. It'll depend on how my wrist is feeling as I go about my day. There might even be a couple of housekeeping chores in the mix, but no hurry on that. We're expecting a wet weekend. It'll be good sewing weather.