Technology

Tonight I was able to watch the Luck Cardinals 🏐 volleyball team play and win in Webster Wisconsin via a live stream on the Facebook. Hops was sitting on my lap and she watch the whole game.

I guess she is a Cardinal fan.

I had The Packers on the TV at the same time and after the volleyball game ended, I live steamed the University of North Dakota 🏈 game.

I love being able to follow these sports from the comfort of my living room ❤️. 

Presidents Bush, Clinton and Obama

One thing these 3 had in common was their ability to act with decorum in situations of great consequence. They acted in a manner that showed their respect for the highest office in the land and for the citizens who make up that country. While they each made their mistakes, IMO, they acted in the best interest of the people and they worked to uphold the constitution of the United States and for that reason, I respect their service to our country in the office of POTUS. 

Voting is a right and a responsibility but it also means that you don't get to win every time, so we must be able to accept when we lose. However, I don't have to accept when a man is elected who disgraces the office of President of the United States with vulgar language, disrespect to citizens, and a Twitter account that is laughable. While I respect the Republican Party platform, even though I am in disagreement with most of it, I still respect those who chose to find their ideals there. 

In return, I humbly ask for the same respect for my Liberal values.

After reading some of Senator McCain's final words,

I just felt the need to say a few things.

Little favor

Recently, friend Bruce was here for a quick visit.  While we were looking around in my newly organized and cleaned garage, he noticed a sewing box that I had forgotten all about.  It was some old thing I bought at my neighbor Carol's garage sale back in Arvada about 15 years ago.  I was attracted to it because it had the glass knobs (of course).  I had used it for several years to hold my latest stitching project as it sat next to my recliner.  After the move, it was rickety.  The base was cracked and the paint had taken a beating.  

Bruce suggested that I should strip the paint off and see it is was good wood to stain.  Since I don't do that kind of thing, I asked him if he would do it.  After much cajoling, he agreed to take it home, and do me the favor saying "he didn't know when he would get to it", ya, right.  This was on a Friday, the following Sunday I stopped at his house in Luck and he had already tried to strip it and suggested it would be best to repaint it. The wood was soft and the original paint was into the wood, and there were several kinds of wood used to make the legs and box.

 Again, after some encouragement, he agreed to do me the favor and fix the crack in the legs and give it a paint job.  

This past Sunday, I was back in Luck and picked up the finished little favor.

Sadly, there was no 'before' photo taken, but it wasn't a lot different than it looks now other than the paint is new and the base is solid.  

It was a pale yellow originally and had a couple more coats of paint on it.  

This Citron color is close to the original.

Now, I had to fit it into the living room.

My first try was next to the wall by the second recliner,

but that was a no go.

Then I moved the recliners towards the window and found that the sewing box fits fine next to the first recliner, which is where I sit often.

I slipped some quilting magazines inside that I am looking forward to reading and it even holds my tablet as well.

It might make the access to the living room a little bit close, but I have a plan to change the arrangement between dining room and living room that will open that space up.

For now, it's great.

Barley is photo bombing.

 We have had a rainy weekend, about 3 inches in the last 3 days.

Some things are waterlogged, but this 3 tiered planter is a little bit protected by the garage,

it is thriving, especially that Coleus on the bottom.

I'll have to remember to plant this with Coleus again next year.

I see the hummingbirds are still around, but I've been seeing lots of Nighthawks on the move, so I know the migration has begun.

Let's hope it is a long, long fall.

Cousins in Wisconsin

In about 1995, my brother Glenn suggested that the Johansen first cousins start having a reunion periodically.  We started with 3 to 5 year gaps and gradually started gathering up every year.

This year, I hosted in Rice Lake.

I used this reunion as good motivation to clean out the garage, power wash and stain front deck and porch, power wash back porch, paint trim around garage doors, move out the couch and move in 2 new recliners for the living room.  I also added quite a few annuals to the yard and many new perennials.  I was very busy all summer but accomplished many projects.

The cousins arrived at about 9:30am on Saturday morning on August 18th and the last ones left at 9:30pm that night.  

It was a day filled with memories and visiting and catching up on each other's lives.

I had decorated with a few Danish accents.

I had compiled a collage of photos of Ansgar and Frederikke Johansen, our grandparents.

Aunt Johanne 'held court' at the dining room table most of the day with her nieces and nephews jockeying for the their spot at the table for a bit of her time.

Each sharing a story or asking her a question.

Becky (out of the frame) Johansen, Aleta Johansen, Aunt Johanne Johansen Hansen, Kathy Johansen, Nancy O'Keefe

I had written up some random memories that Dad had shared with me,

the back deck became the reading room.

Denis Johansen, Pat O'Keefe, Lee Johansen

I was trying hard to make my remote shutter controller work so that we could all be in the photo,
it's not fun to wait on the photographer,

In the end, Pat graciously offered to take the group photo for us.

It was an excellent day and now I can enjoy my house and garage in top notch condition.

Next year, Des Moines.

Sitting Courtside

On Sunday, after church at West Denmark, I stopped at Kyle and Heather's to see their new addition.

When Kyle sold the pontoon boat, his kids were sad, but he promised that the money from the boat would be used for a basketball court in the backyard of their new home.  And he kept that promise.

The cement was poured a while ago and the hoops were added this week.  

It's huge.

  I think a regulation court for high school play is 84 feet, and this court is 60 feet in length.  

Wow.

This is the view from a deck chair at Kyle's house.

I'll call it my courtside seat.

While I was there, Jack and Jude and Jens were messing around on the court.

 I guess hanging from the rim is what little basketball players aspire to.

It was Jens Henry Valdemar's birthday on Sunday too, he's 7.

He got to have one of his birthday gifts while I was there.

They say is a a wizard with a Lego kit.

  

Although his face doesn't show it, he was excited about these goggles too.

Jens is a little shy around me, but gave me a chance to take a photo.

Before I left I leaned down to tell him a secret, and whispered the happy birthday song in his ear,

I got a laugh out of that.

A synopsis

I recently came across a stack of Coors Couriers, the weekly newsletter published at the brewery. In the 90s I recieved a Women at Work award and this article is part of that. 

It will help me remember my career path so I'll include it here. As the years go by, I have a harder time remembering exactly how it went. 

Wanda

R Rated

I found this photo of Mom today.

Glenn and I think this was the first bath in the new bathroom.  Somewhere there is a photo of me sitting on a brand new toilet at about age 3.

But I didn't remember seeing this one of Mom before.

she was 29 at the time.

Now to find a new home for sofa

https://northernwi.craigslist.org/fuo/d/stressless-buckingham-sofa/6671110188.html

Wheels rock

This is a note about never underestimating the power of wheels.

I've been dissatisfied with my living room sofa and foot stool almost from the moment the furniture store delivered it.  About 6 years ago I bought an expensive Stressless Sofa and double wide footstool.  It was more money than I had ever spent on furniture in my entire life.  

I'm still wondering why I fell so in love with something so expensive.  

The style was nice, wood and leather in a minimal Danish type architecture.  

The seats semi reclined, which felt really comfy in the showroom.  

But, in reality, I didn't like sitting it much, so over the course of 6 years, 

I think less than 20 butts have hit the seats on the couch.

I've been thinking about what to do and have recently decided to bite the bullet, get rid of the couch set and get something different.  Over the weekend, friend Mary was here for a couple of nights.  We ended up at the mall for pedicures

Mary and Wanda's fancy toes.

and walked down to the furniture store there to browse.  

I got a couple of ideas there.

The next day Mary and I took a drive to a quilt store in St. Croix Falls, and stopped in a Lazy-Boy store along the way.  I found 2 recliners I liked a lot and it was a 2-for sale. 

I took the measurements and told them I would be back. 

So, then it was all about getting the old furniture out.

Mary and I tried to lift the couch to see if we could carry it out, no way.  

I called Glenn to see if he could help me, but I didn't really think he and Kathy and I could lift it either.  Plus, Glenn and Kathy have a big project going this week at their cabin, so coming to RL to help me would have been a big inconvenience, not that they would not have done it.

So, I resolved to love the couch set and be done with it.  Of course, that didn't last long.  Mary left Saturday morning and by 1pm I was on my way to buy & bring home the 2 recliners.  The old couch was in the garage until it can be sold.  

Never underestimate the power of wheels and 'rolling' furniture to move it.

Here are few photos of the adventure, and I didn't hurt my back, in fact I really didn't feel it at all the next day.

Using casters, I was easily able to roll the couch out on to the deck.

It didn't take too much effort to ease it down the steps.

Once on the lawn, by casters were weaker than needed.
I tried using a piece of carpet to smooth out the trek, it helped.

Eventually I remembered I had this 2 wheeler with a platform, that took the place of the 2 casters that got damaged.

The couch is safely in the garage until it can be sold.

Tomorrow I'll start advertising this beauty.  I'm hoping to recoup what I spent on the recliners.

I really hate asking people for help.

Wheels are the bomb!

PS:  Let me know if you want to buy a nice, very gently used, sofa and footstool set.

OH yeah, here's the new set up.

Come sit a spell.

More Danish Hearts

I know I previously posted a little table topper and a runner that I made with Danish Heart baskets as the motif.  

I've been working off a pattern that was intended to be a shamrock, so it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was going in the right direction.  

I've been thinking about how to make it better.

As a relative newbie to quilting, reworking a pattern was a little daunting.

This week, I did some redesigning and came up with a pattern that really looks like the woven Danish heart baskets that I so love.

My high school geometry teacher would have been proud to see me calculating the measurements of my project using the Pythagorean theory.   Seriously, it worked!

The basic pattern needed a redesign.

Adding the basket handle changes the look.

This is starting to look like my vision.

A Danish Heart basket pattern has been created.

Batting and backing and topstitching.

Binding the edge

 The final product.

I'm quite pleased with how much this motif looks like the Danish Heart baskets that are used as Christmas Tree ornaments.  I make many of the little paper baskets each year as I include them in birthday cards and other greetings to friends.

It fits on the table as planned, my measurement calculations were on target.

A² + B² = C²

A couple of my paper Danish Heart baskets.

Now I just have to document how I made the heart basket block so I can recreate it later.
Maybe it seems like I'm obsessing over this motif, but I have been trying to find a pattern or figure out this pattern for a number of years, so this is a nice accomplishment.

Now, on to something new.

Have I said how much I hate mice?

Well, we had the great mouse murder here about 2 weeks ago 

and since then I've been on alert when the cats act even a little bit out of character.

Saturday morning I noticed Barley was laying between the dresser and the bookshelf facing the wall.  I thought this meant one of two things.  

She could be sick, cats do weird things when they don't feel well.  

She could be on the hunt.  

Well, as the day went on, it became clear that she was on the hunt.  Another mouse, are you kidding me?  So, I got a mousetrap baited up and put it as far back to the wall as I could reach in the general area of her prowling.  

I fully expected to have the 3am wake up with Barley catching her mouse.

Sunday morning, I went to check the trap and YAY, I caught the mouse.

So, we avoided all that other gross business during the last mouse event.

6 more mouse traps arrived from Amazon today, 

and I'm getting some spray foam to re-seal up under the sink.

It's always something, but at least in this case, it wasn't a murder.

Crafting

Over a year ago, I bought a lap blanket at The Little Gift Shop in Solon Springs so that I could copy the idea.  

This week, I finally got organized with the fabric and the crochet hooks and started the project.  Piercing the fabric and crocheting a row is harder than it looks, although, I'm getting better as I go, so I can see practice helps. 

I think I'm going a little faster too. 

It will be interesting to see how row 2 goes and then I have to decide on a pattern for the trim. 

 

Sunday Update:

I made the first round, and starting on round 2, just single crochet stitches.

Round 3 will be the fancy row.

Today, I was planning on cutting some fabric to make A Danish Heart runner for myself as I had given away the ones I made this Spring. 

I knew I needed some contrasting fabric and started thinking about the fact that I have no idea what yardage I have on hand. 

I started thinking about how to store the fabric I've been hauling home. 

I did a quick search on Google and it looked like the best thing to do is to sort the fabric by color. 

So, I decided to do it. 

I hauled all the fabric into the guest room and spread out on the bed. 

Not me, the fabric. 

I started sorting by color or by kit. 

I used dish pans to stack the yardage, and used my other containers for kits/projects. 

Once I had everything sorted I stacked the dishpans in the closet, and now I can easily look for fabric. And, I can see I have wayyyyyy too much fabric, so I'm done buying yardage. 

A few specialty fabrics (mostly holiday themes) ended up in bags on the shelf. 

It worked and I found the contrasting fabric I needed. 

So, I got busy cutting and putting together a few pieces. 

I had a lot of help, Hops has to lay right on my feet. 

I managed to pull together a floating Danish Hearts runner, it still needs batting, quilting and a binding, but I am pleased with the piecing part. 

I had a productive day, and even made a run to Goodwill to drop off a couple of bags of items and picked up fresh sweet corn for supper. 

Life is good. 

Sunday update... 

Got this project done. 

I love Danish Hearts. 

To Keep or Not To Keep

Emptying tubs that haven't been opened since shortly after I moved here.

It's crazy to find stuff that I haven't laid eyes on for 10 years.

Then deciding what to do with the stuff is challenging.

• Some stuff is easy...bread maker? Nope, off to Goodwill.
• Lovely little pink jacket with US Women's Open logo?  Off to Goodwill, but what a pretty jacket, that no longer fits me.

• Clown pajama bag and doll made by Mom.  I saved the parts all these years thinking I was going to recreate her idea in for the younger kids.  But Stephen King has ruined clowns for most of the younger generations, so it never happened.  Now, what to do with these parts and pieces?  That one is still TBD.  I couldn't quite bring myself to dump it in the trash, yet.

• A plate that was gifted to me by my Coors pals on my retirement.  It was fun to see their handwriting again, we all worked together for at least 10 years and some of these folks I worked with my whole 30 years.  I didn't know what to do with this.  The label said it was dishwasher and microwave safe, so I thought I could add it to my hodgepodge of everyday dishes.  But, the names did not survive the dishwasher, so that decided that, recycle.

• I found a little metal jewelry box and inside were these pins from 9 Health Fairs.  I volunteered at this event for several years, mostly because Roche was involved at her hospital and she recruited all of us to pitch in.  It was always a fun day.  These little beauties went in the trash after stirring up a nice memory.

I did find a few things to keep, but mostly just photos.

Several of the photos I ran across were of Dad's Seabee pals, so I sent those off in the mail to the kids of those veterans.  Also, a big stack of photos of Vinny as a baby with family, those went in the mail to Linsey.  Slowly, I'm moving stuff out of my house, into new locations.

There are still a few totes to open and see what is stashed inside, but I'm over half done with this job and that makes me happy.  I'm actually looking forward to seeing what is inside the rest of the moving containers.