No Book Review Thursday - 1/24

Another week with very little reading! I am slowly getting into the Fatal Winter by G. M. Malliet and I think that I am almost halfway through The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon. But with no finished books, I can't write a review.

I can show you what has kept me from reading this week.



I got a new laptop. Sunday, I was on my old laptop and all was fine and dandy. Monday, the screen wouldn't do anything. I could tell that the laptop was running and it was making all the usual beeps, but the screen stayed dark.

I realized that it was time to put it out of my misery. sigh

So I did a little research, got some input from my computer geek neighbor and Regina's hubby and I picked up a Dell Monday afternoon.



I spent most of Monday late afternoon and evening setting things up. I think things are working well so far. I just need to get EQ up and running. :)

Tomorrow night, I need to get a quilt loaded on the frame and get it set up for quilting on Sunday. I also have to prep because I am going to a Sew In on Saturday at Kara's! I still have to cut the greens for the Easy Street mystery and that is what I want to take with me to work on. :)

Since I am giving an update, I will give a little work update. Since just before Christmas, things have taken a complete turn. I am going to start reporting to a new manager on February 11 (I finally have the date to start a countdown!) and I am going to meet with her on Tuesday so that we can get an idea of each other. I have had a discussion with the Director of our department (both old and new bosses' boss) and it has become *almost* a joy to go into work everyday! It is such a relief to think that things are going to change and there is no more waiting for it to happen!

I wrote up the blog post for my 6th and final Scrap Squad today and it should be live on the magazine's blog within the next few days. I'm excited to be able to show off this last quilt!

I also rearranged some things in my studio and I am thinking that the new arrangement is going to be awesome! There is just a teeny bit more room and I think it feels a bit more open. We shall see how it works when I try to cut my fabric tomorrow!

And now, I am off to bed to try and get a few pages read. :)

I'll leave you with this picture of the girls from last night. It is still a little surprising to me when I turn around and see Lula curled up with Max, but she almost never sits this close to Maisy!

Another computer problem

Last summer, I had issues with the hard drive on my laptop, but my neighbor came to my rescue and it was fixed rather quickly. Last Saturday, I began having a funky spyware screen pop up and start scanning my laptop. I updated my current virus software and crossed my fingers that it would take care of the problem.

It didn't.

On Sunday, I searched for the program that kept popping up and learned that it is a virus that most security software misses. Crud!!

I contacted my trusty neighbor only to find out that he is too busy with work to be able to help me. Hooray for him, but boo for me! He recommended a local computer place that he has sent others to and my laptop has been entrusted to them for repair and cleaning.

What this means for me is that I can't post to my blog from my house unless it is done on my Backberry or iPod. Total bummer!

But I will make do! The library will be my friend for the next couple of days until it is returned to working order. :)

Monthly Accomplishments - July 2010

I have been looking at my calendar with my hours in it and it is looking a little light for the month. I think that there was too much celebrating and shopping going on! lol

1. Totally blew my stash report numbers here and here and here and here
   
2. Updated my blog layout and worked with Regina for the Giveaway button
3. Completed Brown Sugar, the second secret quilt, and gave it to my co-worker
4. Organized my current scraps and set up my sewing and staging area with new projects to work on
5. Went shopping with Barb over the 4th of July weekend. I really need to stop shopping with her! lol Although she did help pick out some things for the Giveaways. :)
6. Had my 1,000th post giveaway and 3 year blogiversary in the same month with an awesome celebration! :)
7. Had the new hard drive on the laptop give out on me. :( We survived again, but I am still waiting on my old files to be saved to the external drive that my neighbor has.
8. Finished knitting the sweater front and started on the back
9. Cut fabric for the baseball quilt for 1 neighbor
10. Finished assembling the poinsettia table runner
11. Got windows and a patio door installed and have been enjoying them ever since!
12. Made 12 blocks for the Bento Box quilt
13. Finished assembling the blocks for the Jitterbug quilt and cut the fabric for the borders
14. Sewed 1 strip set of 17 for my neighbor's quilt
15. Cut out another quilt for my second neighbor
16. Cut fabric for 4 tool caddies and 2 Stitch N Chix bag for giveaway prizes. Just a few more things to cut and I will be ready to sew, sew, sew!
17. Oh, I also spent an evening training my mom over the phone on how to use the iPod that I bought her and how to get around in iTunes. My 'lovely' brother just didn't have the patience to do it in person.
    

This month was also light in the reading. I just couldn't seem to get into the books that I was listening to or reading manually.

1. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson - Pretty good, but I didn't care for the narrator. He didn't exactly have a monotone voice, but with the inflections and tones that he did have, he may as well have. It was like he was reading the book in 3 sentence spurts with the same inflections in each set of sentences. Quite annoying after a few discs!
2. The Appeal by John Grisham - This was my first Grisham novel to read. I have seen several movies and liked those, but I never had the intention of reading his books because of how much information is in the movies and I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to take it all in with a book format. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to follow along with everything and keep all of the characters straight. I was not happy with how the book ended, but it won't prevent me from reading another of Grisham's books.
3. The Missing by Beverly Lewis - This is the second in the Seasons of Grace series and it was OK. Reading a story of the Amish was a nice break after these first 2. But considering some things that have happened in our family this month, it really bothered me to have to hear about a cancer patient refusing chemo treatment.
4. A Thread So Thin by Marie Bostwick - This is the third in the Cobbled Court Quilt series. The second book was edited horribly with a plethora of misspellings and grammatical errors throughout the book. This book only had 2 that I remember and they were in the last 20 pages. It made quite a difference in my enjoyment! I really liked this book and while it was a little predictable from the beginning, there were still some surprises.
   

Hours spent - Quilting - 32.25; Knitting - 21.25

The pups spent a bit of time working on their projects, too!

Busy bee here

On Friday, I posted about my plans for the weekend. I think I was extremely successful! Even prolific, some might say! ;)

I finished the sweater front.



And started the sweater back. I actually got all of the ribbing done and a few rows of the body Sunday night, but I didn't take another picture. Imagine the sweater front again with about an inch to an inch and a quarter knit! lol



I got the baseball quilt mostly cut out for the computer guru neighbor. (Update on the laptop - the Guru thinks that he will just have to reformat the hard drive again and drop all the files in that he saved from last time. I think that I am going to give him my external hard drive to copy the files to. Let's hope that this won't take another week... I can't stand another weekend at the library with smelly old men next to me!) Anywho, here's the pieces for his quilt.



Now, remember those 5 projects that I have on my staging area? That would be from this post. Well, I wasn't counting my table runner that I showed. So it was really 6 plus the one that I don't want to work on but just can't store anywhere else.

Anyway, on Sunday when I got back from the library, I decided that I was going to try to work on my Jitterbug YBR and assemble the rows. As I was going along, I realized that I had a spot on each row when I would need to cut the thread to piece the last 2 pieces together. Instead, I pulled out the Bento Box pairs that I had set aside and I started using them as leaders and enders. I've never done this before because I never thought ahead to having another quilt 'ready' to piece.

I have to admit that I loved having two things going at once. And once I realized that, I jumped to the table runner and got that pieced. I am glad that I ripped out the last seam that I had put in because I found a way to line up the pieces on each side of the sashing so it doesn't look like things are floating away. I still don't like how this turned out, but I guess if someone is to use it with garland and candles or something to take away from the center blocks, it might not be so bad. (Mom? Can you do that? lol)



A closer picture of 2 of the blocks in the runner.



So I was able to get the runner finished, sew on 3 sets of the leader/ender Bento Box blocks and sew 3 rows of the Jitterbug together.

Can you guess what Maisy was the happiest with? And as soon as I threw the third row on the floor, Max was all over that! lol

Progress to an extent

I found a little doohickey that will allow me take pictures on my camera and load them to WebShots without having the Kodak Easy Share Software installed AND without losing my picture files! This means that I can still take pictures and upload them and post them without my laptop so I can continue with my Giveaway month, the most important thing going on right now in the whole wide world! ;)



This was an $8 find at WalMart this morning. It's an external memory card reader with an extra USB to USB cable. Heck, I will even be able to take my memory card into the office and load my pictures to WebShots from there. Woo hoo!

Last night, I was able to use my antiquated desktop (seriously, this thing is like 9 or 10 years old! And SLOW!!!) to catch up on some emails and blog reading. After that, I watched Couples Retreat while trimming up scraps. That movie was hysterical!!

Today, my plan is continue on my To Do list for the weekend and hopefully get a few more things crossed off. I'd like to start cutting into the fabric that I pulled out for the giveaways so that I can show something busted tomorrow. OH, and pictures! Must take pictures! :)

EQ7 and Teeth

This is the last of the catch up emails from the week sans laptop. :)

Last year, when I worked for the quilt shop, I got EQ6 as a bonus so that I could be familiar with it when customers had questions. I used it to draw up blocks for comfort quilts and to come up with layouts and yardage for quilts that I put together without patterns. It was a great tool to have! Most recently, I used it to design the Super Secret Quilt and an I Spy. And of course, I didn't print the quilts out so that I could, you know, actually MAKE them.

When the hard drive crashed, I had almost no choice but to get EQ7. I'm kicking myself for not getting it when it was discounted right before the release, but not much I can do about that now.



The great news is that the files for the quilts and the blocks and everything were saved from the crash and I have now opened them in EQ7 and redrawn a couple of blocks that were a little funky in EQ6. Woo hoo!!!

Last week, Maisy had an appointment for a teeth cleaning. She had 5 teeth extracted and got shots and a physical... The whole 9 yards! I don't think that she was very happy with me about going, but she was happy to see me when I picked her up. I asked if they had given her any food after the cleaning and the assistant said that she had shredded the bowl that the food was in! My poor girl was hungry!!

Taken a few hours after being picked up at the vet.

She was pretty groggy and her eyes showed it most of the night - half lidded and bloodshot - but once the pain went away, she is like a new puppy! She is running around and playing with toys more and coming to me for lovin'! My neighbor even said that it looks like she has lost a couple of pounds. AND the reverse sneezing business has dropped off dramatically! Woo hoo!!!



This shot was taken last night and I had to set the camera to an action shot because she just couldn't sit still! What a happy little dog she is again!!

Forced hiatus?

This might just end up being the case. I'm highly ticked right now.

This morning, as I was reading blogs my computer went berserk! My computer has never liked commenting on blogs that do not have a separate window or pop up for the comments. This set up has plagued my laptop with constant new window pop ups that caused it to go out of control. I had stopped commenting on blog like that or requesting that the blog owners convert to the pop ups or new window. I am kicking myself for commenting on the blog that I did because after my computer was possessed by aliens, all I can get it to do is show the blue screen of death.

I have taken the laptop to the Geek Squad and they said that the error on the blue screen pointed to a hard drive issue. This thrills me no end. The question of cost to fix the error ended with a barrage of charges for everything under the sun. And no guarantees.

I left the laptop for them to run a 'free' diagnostic scan on it. As they were filling out paperwork for me to leave the laptop, the geek said that the scan was already showing several hard drive errors.

As I wait patiently for the scan to be finished and to hear all about the plethora of errors that is sure to come, I came to the library to get a small taste of wireless and to contemplate the possibly next steps that I will have to take.

I'm not pleased. Not at all.

A HAPPY JILL!!!

I am a happy camper again!! No more whiny posts about stupid Dell and crummy customer service! Well, maybe I won't go that far!

The technician, Michael, that they sent to my house was a Godsend! A life saver!! He saved my sanity!!

He asked me what the problem was and, once I spewed out the whole unseemly tale, agreed with me that service I got sucked. He said that he could understand my frustration. It was nice to be heard in person by someone who could take action to remedy the situation!

We chatted about his dogs and TV shows while he took the laptop apart, handing me the pieces that were caked with dried, sticky Mt. Dew so that I could gently remove said nastiness. You could say that it was cleansing for my soul!

And man, there was a lot of that goo!

He did say that he was afraid that it was the processor because of what it was doing before he opened it up. But he was more optimistic than I and we muddled through the layers of dried soda. He spent extra time removing dust and helping bits move that needed to move than was really expected of him as far as his job goes. And he painstakingly began the process of reassembly....

I couldn't believe it when I saw this!



And I'm very much in love with this... (Move over Maxie!)



OK, not really on the Max part.... He does keep me warm at night! No keyboard can accomplish that! He is like a fur ball space heater!

Stash Report Week 9, 2010

This week, I have been working on my "black & white" secret quilt and all of that fabric has already been counted. I did make 2 blocks on Friday and used about 2 strips of 3.5" wide fabric. The blocks turned out wonderfully! I hope to be able to post pictures tomorrow. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that DELL will step up and FIX the problem!! TOMORROW! :)

I also had a little fabric come in earlier this month. I received my February Mystery block kit and forgot to record it.

Fabric added this week: 0.42
Fabric added year-to-date: 2.87

Fabric used this week: 0.19
Fabric used year-to-date: 33.14

Net Fabric Used: 30.27

Still over 30 yards used this year. I'm happy!!

What a long week!

It's so nice to be home for a while! Work was excruciatingly long this week! I did manage to sew a lot and get ahead in the competition, but I have a very bad feeling that this will all change tonight. Although, I am now getting a strong second wind and it could be a long night at Bubba. And the iron - I do have a bit to iron. Quite a bit.

Anyway, somehow, I downloaded a virus on my laptop and I am having issues getting into some blog pages. Since I haven't been using AOL, I have been using Internet Explorer and I can't get into my blog sites without going into them in AOL first and then I can open them in IE. It's more of a frustration and inconvenience than anything else. I have successfully virus scanned and cleaned everything up, so I think that this is the last part of the issue. At least, I hope it is!

Tonight, after work, I ran to Joann's and picked up some fabric paper and a few other things and then to Office Depot. I got a magnetic white board and pens and markers for the white board. Now, I can practice some of the Pajama Quilter's moves before trying them on a quilt. Very cool!

OK, it is already 8:15 and I need to get upstairs and start boogieing at the machine! Wish me luck!

Yahoo!!!!

I am online!!! It is the greatest feeling in the world - knowing that I am connected to all of my online blogging buddies and all of my sites that I look at! I seriously was having anxiety at work today about what I was going to have to do to get everything to work. I ended up unplugging the cable cord and then power cords to my wireless boxes again and turning the computer on and everything worked! Thank goodness!

So, I no longer have to run around to determine if the problem is laptop or cable related and I can now get down to business. And by business, I mean into PJ's and comfortable! I also can't decide if I want to try and FMQ something tonight or just clean everything up and relax and watch TV. I sort of feel like I need a nap since it was such a hectic day at work. But I am also afraid that if I relax tonight, I may end up feeling like crap tomorrow or Sunday and since I am already behind.....

But I also have to post some pictures and I can't sew and post pictures.

Decisions, decisions!

Ugh and Double Ugh!

Just a quick note this morning to say that I am feeling better and then migraine is gone, but now my computer is on the fritz. I can see that my laptop is getting my wireless signal, but it won't connect to the internet in any way. Not AOL, not internet explorer and not even iTunes. I am very distressed about this. I have no idea what I will do without the internet for the next 4 days! I am going to have to go home and call Dell and see what they can tell me to do. I tried rebooting then laptop several times, unplugged the wireless and the cable boxes from power to see if they could link back up to the laptop. Nothing has worked.

If it comes down to it, I can always go to the library and do posts from there, but it is just such a hassle.

On the up side, I was able to get most of the fabric for another quilt from the shop last night. And I got more fabric for other I Spy quilts. And my granma loved her quilt! I have pictures, but alas, the laptop problems....

I brought the Santa quilt into work to show it off and everyone just raved about it! I had people stop into my office that I barely talk to and they went on and on about how cute it was and that I did such a great job. Now, I have 2 requests for I Spy quilts and an email from another guy who wants to chat about a quilt that he needs. Very exciting!

OK, I better get to work now.