Progress report: month 12 (June 2011)

End of the first year of my 1001 days.   Wonder how I'm doing?   Monthly progress first:

Completed:
69.  Mailed quilt to C.B. (bargello on previous post)

Progress:
  8. Got 2 of 3 bookcases into living room.
17. Planted one shrub and various perennials in side and front yards.
48. Watched 7 movies (97/125):
      Shall we dance (Japanese)
      The Women (original)
      Rachel getting married
      Georgia rule
      Cairo time
      Shutter Island
      Big Bang theory; season #3
49. Read 4 books (34/60, 25/30, 6/10)
      Freedom (Jonathan Franzen)
      Lucky man (Michael J. Fox)
     "U" is for undertow (Sue Grafton)
      Mary Ann in autumn (Armistead Maupin)
52. Made reservation for 3 nights "down the shore" in August
59. Taking both daughters "down the shore" in August
     (not a new place, but we all love the beach)
78. Almost finished Rubik's Rings scrap top
81. Had Godson's quilt quilted -- ready to be bound
84. Extra contribution to F.E.A.S.T.
99. Updated blog with progress report (12 out of 12)
101.  Blog posts:
       Keep your *&*& junk to yourself! (June 7)
       W.I.B.W.O. (June 20)

July priorities (nearly identical to June's):
6. Get back to working in basement.
12. Work on more small things around house.
17. Finish planting shrubs (4).
18. Get deck power washed and stained.
77. Set 1 set of swap blocks into top.  (gift for June wedding)
81. Finish Godson's quilt: binding, label, photograph, mail.

One year in: 
Finished: 28 of my 101 goals
Progress up-to-date: 14 of 101 goals
In process (active): 12 of 101 goals
Total: I've actively worked on 58 goals (over half)
I've done the best with "Financial/Legal" and "Family/Friends" and worst with "Health".  Many of the rest are more-or-less dependent on time and money available, but I'm trying to seize any do-able opportunity as it comes along.

Next up: Year Two

W.I.B.W.O.

WIBWO....  Funny word...  Just coined it as shorthand for "What I've Been Working On."   Even went back and labeled an earlier post that was titled with the full phrase.

I've been doing quilts and I've also been doing yard/gardening work!   When I moved into my "now" home, it was mid-April and I spent all the nice days just trying to grapple with "stuff" and get settled INside.  No time for doing outside projects.  I pay someone to cut my lawn bi-weekly and that was the critical task.   But the front of my  house is quite bare -- almost correctional facility bare -- given the concrete porch, concrete steps, and nothing growing in front to soften the harshness.   I believe there used to be shrubs there, but they probably got overgrown and were removed.   The flowers down the side of the house had gaps and were weedy too.

So far I've turned this:

               
                                                                    into this:
(hostas, ferns, bleeding hearts and a low growing, blue-flowered veronica)

and this:











into this.











(daylilies, columbine, lavender, blue penstemons, and a deep red peony)

Planted a blue hydrangea out front:

.
Still have a couple of shrubs to plant -- weigela (variegated leaves, pink flowers), a pink spirea and a re-blooming lilac.    That will wind up my gardening (can't work outside in the heat!) until cooler weather in the fall when I will probably want to put in some bulbs.

On the quilting front:  I don't think I posted the picture of the finished William Morris tesselated stars.  It was a big hit with the recipient.   And I confess that I loved it too!   Bill and me, sitting in a tree, S-E-W-I-N-G.

Bordello Bargello quilt for German daughter has been received "across the pond".  She loved it!  

Now working on completion of the Rubik's Rings top (nearly king-size), though I may not have it quilted right away.  I'll be keeping that one.  There are so many fabric memories in it that no one else would have; it has to be mine.   And then on to the Almost Amish blocks which will be a wedding gift for the daughter of a colleague.   Wedding was last weekend, but I have a year, right? 

Finally, when I sewed the [unphotographed] "camp pillowcase" for D#1 (a tradition for many years), I also put together two others that I'd set aside parts for but hadn't put together.  They will go to the ConKerr Cancer group that gives them to children in the hospital.  Such bright, cheery colors -- and I love the owls on the left. 

All the above is visual evidence of why I don't get the house cleaned.  

Keep your *&(*^%^ junk to yourself!

What is it with men -- especially politicians -- that they have to flash their junk all over the internet?  And they think (believe? expect? hope?)  that no one will find out?!   How stupid do you have to be?   And how oblivious are they that they can't see that once they are found out (and they will be...) they will be marginalized, no matter how important it is that their voice and message be heard?   

You got your "family values" types that talk hatefully about gays but solicit sex with unknown men in the airport bathrooms.  Then there are the serial or long-term philanderers -- including the subset of those who sired children by the Other Woman.   Not bad enough you blew up your existing family -- you also brought an innocent child into the mess!   Then there's the latest member of the club, who couldn't resist sending a photo of his junk (wrapped but still) to some young "groupie"...  Way to go to have your fight to expose (no pun intended) Clarence Thomas's failure to disclose his wife's hundreds of thousands of dollars' income for opposing health care reform TOTALLY forgotten.  Is what the representative did as 'bad' as the actions of the serial cheaters and closeted homophobes?   Probably not (but his wife might disagree).  

But I'm tired of seeing one person after another who had the **lls to speak out against the ever-rightward movement of this country -- someone who might really belong to the "Democratic wing of the Democratic party" -- be shut down and lose credibility with many people.  And, in this case, he did it to himself, thanks to his own hubris. 

Maybe it's just that most of my life is spent in a testosterone-free zone, but I just.don't.get.it. 

Edited to add:  this illustration says it all, but better.