HOT, JUNE SUNDAY

Where's my ice? Dinner's in the fridge, cold soup for DH. He bit into a nut Friday and broke off part of a tooth, so he gets liquids and soft foods. First thing Monday morning: emergency call at the dentist.

BBQ AT UNC Wellness Center, Saturday June 7.

Everyone in the Triangle knows that one of the top pulled-pork purveyors around is Allen & Sons. The recent feature on Oprah of her best friend, Gayle’s hunt for the ‘Best Sandwiches in America,” found Allen & Sons to be the 'best of the BBQ category.' Not that I have missed it, we have been many times but since the nutrition-fitness program began, BBQ has become more infrequent. When UNCwellness announced that the annual member-picnic would be catered by the best, I immediately got tickets.

Yes, it was hot outside, hotter than usual and the shade was minimal but we survived with lots of iced tea and making the most if pulled pork, green beans and cole slaw. Forget the rest - all fat. Beside, I had less than an hour left to walk and get ready for the 2 o’clock Aqua-fitness pool class.

Except that did not happen. At the last minute a substitute had to be found for Noriko. If I have not mentioned her before Noriko is the MOST fit person in the North Carolina, after twenty years of teaching aquacise, aerobics and a roster of private clients. What happened?

THE NEWS OF NORIKO'S BROKEN WRIST WAS SLIGHTLY EXAGGERATED.
Noriko was in the gym today, left arm in a sling. She was accidently injured yesterday by a weight-machine just before her regular 2 o'clock class at UNC Wellness. The class was led by a quick-substitute as Noriko spent the afternoon in the ER-UNC.

No bones were broken, but the left arm is well iced to keep the swelling down. She appeared this morning at the Wellness center, with her daughter, to do a one-armed workout (?). Noriko said nothing about her class schedule for this coming week but do not be surprised to see her doing a one-handed routine for the next few days.











PROJECT UNDER WAY
That one-patch, thrift shop find from last year is now looking rather nice. “Ragtime Dreams” is working our sooner than expected, though not without some problem-solving. For one, making a mitre corner fold between two borders of unequal width is not simple. The top-bottom borders were purposely made deeper than the two side borders - except getting the corners to match at the mitre-fold is a problem I had not faced before. The trick is to fold into a slight curve rather than a straight line. And then top-stitch the mitre in place.

The photos show the work in progress on the lettering applique - the most tedious and so far the worst part of the work. Next phase is fusing and stitching the stars and crescent moon. My dilemna about the moon is scale. Working out the dimensions in CorelDraw9, I though I had it perfectly but sizing the paper cutout over the patchwork, it looks much too big. So-o I’m in the process of printing out various moons in decreasing sizes until one of them seems right.



The hard press for this job is that I need to have it ready by Monday, June 16, the date of the next quilt guild meeting when I can hand it off to the long-arm quilter. After that I can resume working on jackets, plaids and other “UFO’s ” in the studio.


Why "Ragtime?" The scrappy look of this quilt could go anywhere but I rather like the fact this is not my personal color choice. So, I searched for something that would connect the patchwork, DH and me. Since he is into jazz and ragtime music playing the saxophone; and "rags" are street talk for fabric; and quilting being my passion - the only overlap I could think of was "Ragtime." Too obscure,no?

Sister Jan is driving to New Jersey this day. Her mother-in-law died yesterday, her brother-in-law lives alones in the NJ parental house, a sister-in-law living in Virginia, all will be back home for the week. The family must now tell Dad who has been in a VA hospital for nearly four years. The news will not come easily and may prompt his demise as well.

Jan and husband, Rich, have been dealing with the family stresses for years and this will not be the end. My hope is that Jan will cope with the heat and not re-injure her foot (just recently out of a boot from heel surgery). This will not be a happy time for them but as in all families, this is part of generational aging.

Dancing Wednesday at 3 pm as usual this week. Pray that the temp will not exceed 90. Please.
bb

Steak for Dinner

Notes from May 9 . . .

Dressed early, we await our 6:30 table at Metro 8 for dinner, the Argentinean steak place in Durham. Yesterday was DH’s birthday (#73), and tonight we are celebrating carnivores. We have been eating beans and salads all week to save up for this beef-indulgence. Likely to be our last beef for some time - until the price of everything begins to fall.

For tonight I am wearing my size-skinny jeans with a newly found lime-turquoise-all-linen, plaid blouse over a white tank top. The search for plaids last week netted a blouse that was deemed "cuttable," until I noticed the label said linen instead of cotton and in my size. But with one small flaw. A brownish stain at the front, third-button-hole down from the top, big blob.The first laundry did nothing. Three launderings, a spray of Shout and a few drops of dilute bleach later and spot-be-gone! The blouse is perfect, ironed like a dream, looks like a million. My new summer-cool ensemble is ready, recycled and for the ridiculous price: $6.00. And I was not even expecting to wear it.

Yesterday in ‘Rockettes’ dance class at the Wellness Center, I was the Cha Cha teacher again, for the Check-It-Out Cha Cha, a line version of the Latin dance. Yes I give full credit to Sue & Eric Davis, even saw them as I was arriving at the Center. Their workout done and ready to leave - I have tried to get Sue to join me in the class but tennis reigns supreme for that couple. My fall-back plan was to join them at the TimeOut Lounge for a Shag lesson last night but I was dead on my feet by 6 p.m., and nothing could have dragged me away.

Oprah is doing it again. Every time I swear off Carolina BBQ, Oprah does something tricky. Today’s show: best sandwiches in America. And what does she find? Allen & Sons BBQ off MLKingJr. Blvd in Chapel Hill. Been there many times (before my nutrition-phase), and truly their hickory-smoked BBQ is fantastic.

A few years back when cousin Ronnie was in town, my sister, her husband, me and my husband took Ron to Allen’s for dinner. Something of an overcast evening with threatening storms at dusk gave us a good deal of drama in the midst of dining. We were positioned at the large picture-window in the front of the dining room, sipping iced tea just in time for a bolt of lightening to hit a transformer on a light-pole not thirty feet from our table. Wham-O! In an instant all the lights went out and cascades of sheeting-rain began immediately. What was a noticeable void was the absence of any panic or screaming. Everyone kept on eating as the staff lit candles for all the tables, the place was as quiet as church. Now that’s B-B-Q!

What Oprah did not mention is their lemon meringue pie! Of course I do not eat it, I just look.

The response I have been waiting for came in overnight in a E-mail from the Seymour Senior Center - YES we can have the dance floor for the last two Wednesdays in May. Yes! Now to get a quickie announcement created, E-mail a .pdf Poster to all on my dance-list-serv and get a gang there for next week. However. . . .

Today we are without Internet. How can this be? We have had delays in downloading the cable for TiVo information lately. A couple of days ago my phone went dead; just my phone, all others in the house worked (?). Recently DH installed some Blue-Tooth head-phones for the two digital TV’s. What, or who, is interfering with our online-connection has better fess-up soon, I need to get the word out about dancing next week.

Don’t you just hate it when all this wonderful technology fails? And my usual IT Department (aka hubby), is at a loss to find the problem. Bummer.
b