Category Archives: Work

Some days contain good and bad

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Terri | 2 comments

I hate growing older. There are so many things that can go wrong to cut into precious “to-do” time. I’m not a hypochondriac by any stretch of the imagination but I do worry sometimes about illnesses suffered by long gone family members and how it can affect my own health. I also dislike strongly not being able to talk to family members about my own health concerns. My family has never been one to share things, plus I live very far away from them (my choice). Sigh. I also tend to let my imagination get away with me sometimes when the doctor orders certain tests. Anyway, I got my blood work results back today from a couple of weeks ago and I’m a-okay in everything. There are a couple of areas that I’m trying to make better but it was a rough couple of months and I may have splurged on some sugar a bit here and there 😉 so instead of blood sugar levels being better they were the same as they were the last time she tested. However, she also ordered some more blood work and ordered me a referral based on a conversation we had this morning following her “How have you been feeling” question. I hate getting older.

So that was the bad part of my day.

I’ve spent the majority of the rest of the day in my studio. I had hoped to finish up on the gift but I don’t have enough of the binding material to finish. I’ll pick up some more Tuesday when I go to work.

Speaking of work, I’m having fun with it! This past Tuesday I cut so much fabric for customers that I truly thought my arm was going to fall off at the end of the day. The next day it was sore! I’m still doing a little following around, but am feeling more comfortable helping customers on my own. Got my first paycheck too 😉

But I digress. After I ran out of material for my binding, I turned to cutting fabric and piecing a signature block for an exchange I’m signed up for. I’ve never done anything like this before and it’s rather intimidating to think that I need to make 59 of these 6 1/2″ blocks.

I have a couple of baskets of scraps I’m using so none of them will look the same. I have until September to get them all finished and I’m trying to make 5 a day.

2 Comments

Posted in Health, Life, Quilting, Signature Swap, Studio, Work

I’ve been busy!

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Terri | 4 comments

Haha. I disappeared again, didn’t I. I have a good excuse, or rather several of them. They all fall under “I’ve been busy.”

I’ve been busy taking Petite Mexican Sampler to the framer.

I’ve been busy taking care of the yard and veggie garden while Mister went to California to surf and visit with Son for 12 days.

I’ve been busy stitching on And They Sinned.

I’ve been busy going to my Jo Morton Little Women Club meeting and buying more fabric for the next quilt.

Jo Morton yellow, blacks, and oranges

I’ve been busy buying more fabric. Period 😀

Jo Morton various 1/2 yard cuts

New quilt project

I’ve been busy snuggling puppies.

Harley and Jasper being Harley and Jasper

I’ve been busy ripping things off the wall of my downstairs powder room and installing a new mirror and small cabinet, and ordering new glass rod towel bar and tissue holder. (I’ll be busy putting the new holders up, then pulling everything down, patching old holes, then painting and putting everything back up as soon as those holders come in 😉 )

I’ve been busy reading the latest Black Dagger Brotherhood book.

I’ve been busy out by the pool since our temps are consistently 105+ everyday.

I was busy learning what a geek I am while volunteering for Phoenix Comicon over the Memorial Day weekend.

Hung out here a lot when not on “duty.” There was tons of interesting things going on here.

I’ve been busy winning a contest on the Quiltmaker blog.

I’ve been busy taking an applique class.

I’ve been busy tearing my craft room apart.

I’ve been busy rearranging furniture.

I’m supposed to be busy putting it back to rights right now, but decided to do this instead.

I’ve been busy pulling more things to add to my sale page, both stitching and quilting books.

and

I’ve been busy getting a part-time job at my local quilt shop!

4 Comments

Posted in And They Sinned, JMLW2013, Petite Mexican Sampler, Puppies, Studio, Work

I’m on vacation – sort of.

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Terri | 2 comments

I had an unbelievable week.

Last Thursday something happened at work that made me question my staying on after I get back from my upcoming trip. I had thought long and hard about leaving the attorneys on their own while my co-worker was on maternity leave, and a large trial on the horizon. I thought I had gotten over Thursday’s incident by the time I left that evening ,but when I came in to work Friday morning I downloaded an email that was a response to one sent out of the office after I left. Now, I’d be the last person to say people shouldn’t vent when something is bothering them, but when I vent about an issue at the office it doesn’t get done outside the office. This went outside the office, and naturally got back to me. So at 10:00 Friday morning I typed up my resignation and at 10 till 12 I handed it in, talked to the attorney involved, and walked out the door thinking my last day would be yesterday.

I went home started getting my stuff together for my weekend at the beach with Melissa and Darla and tried to put it behind me so it wouldn’t ruin my weekend. There was a whole lot of eating, stitching, drinking and laughing! Sleeping…not so much 🙂 I had a blast and got a lot of stitching accomplished! Except every now and again it popped into my head and I would blurt out “I quit my job!!!!”

Sunday, after I had been home an hour or so, I got an email from the other attorney begging me to come back. I won’t go into what she said but she did talk me into it.

Monday thru Friday I put in some major overtime — enough that I didn’t have to use up my vacation for next week! I left earlier than I should have last night, but there was nothing on my desk that needed to be thought about by a single person until I return on September 6. When I get back I’ll have 3 days to finalize my workload for the trial. Then the next Monday I start working half days only until my coworker returns from maternity leave. I’m still trying to decide whether to stay an extra week for some catchup time with her.

It’s almost 4:00 p.m. and M and I have spent the day doing errands that will allow us to leave the house tomorrow morning as soon as he gets back from surfing. We are FINALLY headed to Arizona to buy our forever home. We have hotel reservations through next Saturday, reservations for the puppies to stay at the doggy hotel (boy is it ever going to be hard to not be with them for a week), our pre-approval in hand and our realtor has 22 houses lined up for us to see. I’m already exhausted thinking about it. All that’s left to do is a bit of laundry and finish packing my bag, finishe gathering my stitching stuff, program the GPS, top off the car, drop the puppies off, and head east!

2 Comments

Posted in House hunting, Puppies, Work

One thing leads to another

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Terri | 6 comments

My lazy weekend from the last post turned into two weeks of a lot to do. My house is a disaster. I’ve been pulling things out of cabinets, closets, and drawers, and tossing, recycling, and giving away. Of course that should lead to putting things back, but it hasn’t.

I’ve been spending 1 week in each room of my house making myself love it or get rid of it. My bedroom and craftroom/office are the worst!

In my office, I have a path from the door to my desk and there are things piled all over the desk, boxes all over the place that contain things to pack, things to kit (and take with me short term), things to sell, and thing to give away.

It’s a wonder my dresser isn’t groaning from all the things stacked on top. I’m trying to go through all the drawers and get rid of clothes I haven’t worn in awhile and won’t need in the hotter climates of Arizona. It gets easier each day since I’m tired of looking at the clutter and have started tossing more in the give away bag (which sits on the floor between the dresser and the closet that I have to trip over every time I do laundry! 😆

I’m constantly having to clean off my dining table as it’s turned into a staging area for stuff M and I need to talk about, and the list we’ve started keeping of things that need to happen before, or shortly after, we move.

Plants are coming down, pots are being emptied, and some are being thrown away or given away.

We still have a storage facility that M has been weeding out over the past many months – my piano is in there, too – but we really need to get all of it cleaned out over the next 3 weeks.

Cooking the smothered steak mentioned in the last post, led to ~~craving needing~~ wanting fried chicken. Would you like my recipe? Buttermilk is involved 🙂 and I’ll share how I make mashed potatoes, too 🙂 I’m having leftovers for lunch today.

Hiring the realtor in our last post has led to us now having 17 houses to look at, and an appointment with our bank this afternoon to sign our pre-approval.

Looking at those 17 homes (online), and talking about maybe having to live in a furnished apartment short-time if we can’t find a home on our trip, led to my dreaming all night long about living in a 1 bedroom apartment with the puppies and crating them while I left for laundry or grocery duty. It was like watching a TV show! The puppies probably wouldn’t like it much.

My work getting really busy has led to my possibly working every Saturday (except this coming Saturday) until my last week. I worked this past Saturday and, other than being an idiot and forgetting to mail everything I did, it was wonderful to walk in this morning and know exactly everything I needed to get done today. Of course, that was before I saw the note, from #1 attorney, stating I needed to create a bazillion subpoenaes and go to Kinkos to get posters done for exhibits, and oh, yeah, make sure all of our depo transcripts are summarized. See….Saturdays.

Working this past Saturday, led to my not getting to go to my monthly stitchin, but M “nagged” me into stitching that evening and that led to a happy dance, which led to a new start.

Finished Red, White & Blue by Cricket Collection. Stitched with recommended silks, but substituted silver instead of gold, on Lambswool. I will be taking it, and another small design, in for framing this week.

Started A Wife’s Prayer by Erica Michaels. Using recommended fibers and 40ct Maritime White by Lakeside Linens.

The photos above were from my phone. Still camera shopping, passively, but shopping.

So, there should be more stitching tonight, and leftover chicken, and probably some laundry since I don’t want anything on my mind this coming Friday – Sunday except thinking about what a good time I’m having with Melissa and Darla while we are stitching at the beach!

As of today, I am 46 days away from MY retirement. That counter over there >>>>>>> is for M’s retirement.

’til next time!

P.S. Am I the only one who’s ready for football stitching???

6 Comments

Posted in Finishes, Food, House hunting, Stitch-together, Work

Happy August 1

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Terri | 2 comments

Wow! August. Already!

Woohoo! August. Already! 😀

Thank you for commiserating with me over everything. It was sort of good to get it out of my system and down on paper, so to speak.

I had an exceptionally lazy weekend. I didn’t do a single thing on my to-do list and I don’t feel any guilt about it, either. I did do some cooking from my childhood on Saturday. While I was home my mom and I talked about old recipes she used to make and I recreated one of them. Smothered steak and mashed potatoes. Yummy! I used her quantities (she was feeding 6-8 people) forgetting I was just cooking for M and I and I had enough for supper Sunday night and still have leftovers! Need to learn to pare down those recipes.

One thing not on my to-do list that did get accomplish is we hired a realtor! Woo.to.the.hooooo! We are very confident that he is the right person for us and that he’ll find us what we’re looking for. I spent a ton of time emailing back and forth with him on Saturday (which is part of the reason above mentioned to-do list didn’t get touched). He’s already sharing properties with us and we are getting very excited. Or at least I am. M is pretty much “I’ve been happy with what you’ve been showing me so I know I’ll like what you pick out.” 😉

Work is really getting busy for me as well. Co-worker had her baby this past weekend (I saw a picture and she’s beautiful!) so I’m back to covering both attorneys. A little déjà vu, if you will, but only 61 days until I don’t have to worry (too much) about it anymore.

Tonight I have got to get some laundry and stitching done.

2 Comments

Posted in Food, House hunting, Work

The weekend is here!!!

Posted on January 8, 2011 by Terri | Comments Off

My holiday from work ended up lasting another half day. It was very hard for me to go to work but I did. Of course my desk was a disaster when I got there….notes, scattered papers, new discovery requests, a new case file, all the little things that make me crazy because they all need to be done, all take up time I feel I could be doing BIG things, and all create more work in the end once they make themselves back to me. It used to not aggravate me like it does now.

My roof has been repaired. The hole inside has been covered with a lovely clear plastic bag surrounded by metallic silver tape, and the tree in my backyard is now minus a huge limb that used to hang over the back roof. No telling when the hole will be properly repaired. We’re still waiting on a bit of drying out, I think.

We also had the cable people out yesterday afternoon. M was home for that though since I don’t understand that type of stuff. We have a new DVR box, and all of our ‘outlets’ and the ‘home port’ has been upgraded. This is supposed to mean faster internet, among other things. I’ve also been added to the account so hopefully I can get our master email account reset and I can get back into A Needle Pulling Thread so I can suck it into this blog.

Today is the first all day stitchy Saturday at Needlepoints, Ltd. It will be so nice to see the girls. There’s always so much going on there and we usually spend the day laughing most of it away. I am going to be working on my needlepoint all day. Hopefully I’ll be able to add some new stitches that have been drawn out.

I’m also going to be spending the night with Melissa. She has graciously agreed to help me with some computer issues. I’m going to take Summer Queen with me — in case there is stitching tinme — since it will be hard for me to work on the needlepoint piece at her place. I am so close to finishing!

I truly have my stitching mojo back. It’s all I think about. It has been about 2 years, if not more, since I’ve felt that way.

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Posted in Life, Mirabilia, Work

Hump day!

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

I’m wishing my life away Monday through Friday at a time! 😆 I find myself living more and more for the weekends and I am in absolute agony waiting for my Christmas vacation to start.

We are talking a lot around here about retirement, maternity leave, and moving. Right now, only the attorney I work for has no plans for any of the above! 😉 Boss has told other girl (who has a baby due the end of July) that he’s probably going to retire in June. If M’s retirement ‘leave’ goes as we think it might I will probably want to quit mid-October at the lastest, depending on our house-hunting endeavors. M mentioned my seeing about taking off a lot of time this coming summer to house hunt. If we find a house, I’m moving into it and will wait on M to join me.

I have been playing around with my 2011 personal challenge. I think I have a pretty good plan that currently includes mostly WIPs and some new ornaments. I have several already stitched that I want to get ‘ornamentified’ so I want to be sure I leave myself time for that in the challenge.

We ended up seeing Burlesque last night. I loved, loved, loved the music and costumes. Cher was a little bit scary with her surgically altered lips but she can still sing!

It’s payday for me today. I get the great joy of standing in line at the bank for my lunchbreak, and then I have some personal paperwork to take care of. I might even have time to eat!

I’m attempting a new recipe from WW tonight and will share if I think it’s fit for consumption — in other words M enjoys it, too.

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Posted in Movies, Stitching, Work

Would you like a little 'catchup?'

Posted on July 29, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

Kahuna’s tooth is bothering him less. In fact, I can’t remember when he last had to take a Vicodan to sleep. He had a triathlon last weekend and other than his knee killing him the next day he did okay with it. I think he’s coming to the realization that 30+ years of running is bound to give you arthritis and if he wants to continue to pound the pavement he’s going to have to just SIUBc. He’s on vacation this week (we cannot get our weeks off coordinated!) so he’s out surfing with his buds this morning.

HarleyQuinn had her annual dental work done on Tuesday. For those that know our history you’ll know this was a very stressful and worrisome day for Kahuna and I. She came through okay, but you can tell she’s in some pain and now she’s on puppy Vicodan. She followed Kahuna around the house all day long yesterday wanting to be picked up. Poor princess 🙁

It’s been hit or miss with stitching this week. I have gotten more on Home of a Needleworker, Too, done. I’ve finished all the way across the top half of the design (including the house but not the “of a” or scissor and thread) and am now stitching my way back toward the left. I think I finished off “ker” a couple of nights ago. We’ve been preoccupied and I haven’t been able to sit long enough to stitch as much as I want. Tonight is a stay at home night for us so I’ll be stitching.

This weekend is 5th Saturday stitchin at Needlepoints, Ltd. I normally don’t go on 5th Saturday since the regular get together is the next week, but I’m going to do my best to start attending the extra days so I can work more on my new needlepoint project.

I have made a small unplanned “stitching” purchase since I last posted, but it was one of those things that the minute I saw it I knew it was perfect for someone. It arrived in the mail yesterday but I was so busy last night I didn’t even get a chance to open it.

I also won a giveaway for a biscornu kit. As soon as it arrives I’ll post a reveal and a public shout-out to the person hostessing the giveaway.

I’m in the process of gathering up some things for my own giveaway. 😀

Our manslaughter trial took a surprising turn and we settled it last week. Now we’re in full swing getting ready for a traumatic brain injury case. I think the outcome of this issue will pretty much determine Boss’s decision regarding his retiring or not.

I made a final decision on my stitching roadtrip I wanted to take this year. I’m headed back to Mesa, AZ to take a class at The Attic on October 10th. Melissa is going with me! Fun, fun, FUN! I’m sure margarita’s will be involved….or something similar 🙂 Who knows! There might even be stitching.

Wow, this post is all over the place, but that’s how random minds work sometimes! 😆

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Posted in Puppies, Stitching, Work

Don't make eye contact!

Posted on July 19, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

It’s so nice to have a do-nothing sort of weekend. By that I mean one that doesn’t have any set plans and we can just go with the flow.

Kahuna had a root canal a week or so ago and he’s been dealing with the pain of it. He’s still taking Vicodan in the evenings so he can sleep. This is so not like him that it tells me how much it’s bothering him. He missed surfing weekend before last because of his tooth. This past weekend though he did get out there and got his mojo going. He’s such a happy camper when he surfs. I cannot imagine how hard it’s going to be for him to not live so close to the ocean when he retires. He has already made plans to come back and surf every now and then though since we’ll only be a 6 or so hour drive away.

Since we didn’t have anywhere special we had to be this weekend I never left the house on Saturday. I didn’t even put on makeup or dry my hair! I did catch up on some laundry and reading.

Sunday, after surfing, we headed out to do some errands and make a furniture store stop. We’ve been loosely monitoring room sizes in the houses we’ve been looking at online trying to decide what size furniture will work. Right now all we really need to purchase after we move is new bedroom furniture for us. We’re going king size (the puppies take up so much room!) and want to make sure the house we choose has an appropriately sized bedroom. So, we headed out to look at furniture. What a shock! It’s all so large. It was fun daydreaming about what the two of us want though. I think I could wander in furniture stores, and house shop, for a living! I don’t know why but I enjoy it so much.

Since we hit the Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch we decided to have fruit for supper since lunch was so filling and it was too warm to cook at the house. This left me with lots of stitching time and I happily caught up on my DVR while stitching on Home of a Needleworker, Too, – until I discovered I was one stitch off and had to rip out almost half of what I got stitched. Drats!

The peeps at work gave me a gift certificate to Needlepoints, Ltd., for my birthday so I’m looking forward to my next trip to spend it on the new canvas I purchased. Between that and the filled in ‘frequent shopper’ card I have I am hoping to make a huge dent in the fibers I want for it. Other than that, my new stitching acquisition mantra is “Don’t make eye contact.” I’m still trying to come up with a plan since I need to get a stand too.

The post previous to this one I mentioned needing to thin out my stash and now it’s pretty much a real have-to since there’s a chance our office may be closed before we move to Arizona. I really don’t want to take with me stuff I don’t love anymore, including stitchy type stuff.

We’re in trial this week on a manslaughter case so it’s nice and quiet around the office. Thank goodness since gearing up for it is crazy! I’m already almost caught up for the day. If the office stays open I think the rest of the year is going to be pretty much spent in this hurry up and go mindset since we have so many trials that have been continued from late last year and earlier this year. If the office does close I could go with Atty F to her new job, but I’m thinking I might not want to do that since it would entail my commuting again. I’m really going to need my stitching to ratchet down the stress between now and Christmas or now and when the office closes or now and when I move

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Posted in Life, Stitching, Work

I had to hand it to her!

Posted on March 22, 2010 by Terri | Comments Off

Okay, that’s an awful title, but I”m having brain wave issues this morning.

I spent all day long Saturday in a litigation class. Very long, very interesting, very informative, very long, very tiring, very brain draining, did I mention very long? 😆

Sunday, we made it to the frame shop! I turned in Longdog’s The Token, Blackbird Designs’ Strawberry Garden, and a Rouge de Rhin design (it’s OOP). For those of you who I do stitchy Saturday with, they should be ready for me to share at our next get together.

I’ve been dragging my feet on stitching Summer Queen again, but hanging out at the frame shop and looking at moulding and velvet matting possiblities for her put me in a stitchy frame of mind yesterday and so I stitched enough on her to give her some skin! Her left hand is now complete except for her bling. I also received another e-mail from the Fair people and the deadline has been moved toward the end of May for entries…which has caused me to procrastinate in getting her finished 😉 I’ve given Kahuna permission to nag me to stitch 😀

Kahuna’s half-ironman is next Saturday! I won’t be going 🙁 The litigation class is two sessions long and the second (and most important to me) session is next Saturday. I have a chance to move it to May, however, our roadtrip and possible surgery may interfere. Kahuna has told me to take the class now so I can get it over with and use it. I feel really badly that I won’t be up at 4:30 a.m. for an early morning check in, 7:15 swim wave start, and standing on the side of the road to cheer him on for the next 5 hours and to be there to cowbell him across the finish line. 🙁 At least he won’t have to feel badly that he needs to sleep for several hours afterwards while I sit and wait for him to start recouperation.