Well, the rainy weather I mentioned last week is still hanging around. On the plus side, it’s meant that temperatures have been cooler and it’s starting to actually feel like fall might be around the corner — and while it’s been rain rain rain, at least it’s not a hurricane. (Stay safe, Carolinas!)
On the negative side, the mosquitos have been INSANE for the last week, and we had to cancel plans to go to Corpus this weekend because of predicted heavy rains (and potentially a tropical depression or storm) on top of all the rain that’s already fallen. It didn’t seem like the smartest idea to drive 250 miles in the dark in the middle of torrential rains. Fortunately, my mother-in-law was able to reschedule the birthday party she had planned for the girls (i.e. the reason for the trip)!
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We had a great birthday party for Charlotte on Saturday afternoon at The Little Gym. It was a tough wait — every day between her actual birthday on the 2nd and her party on the 8th, she woke up saying “my birthday party is today?” She was so excited when we finally said “yes, it’s today!” And of course, she had a blast.
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Sunday was the monthly Gulf Coast MQG meeting and it was a fun one! I am leading our efforts for the QuiltCon 2019 Charity Quilt Challenge, and I’m really excited about our design and all the people who have already volunteered to make blocks. (The three pictured above are blocks I made as examples to show the group on Sunday!) We got started a little late — ideally, we would have started the effort last month, or even back in July — but we’ve got a timeline that should work, and a core group of people willing to step in and cover holes if/when they come up.
I also shared this small quilt that I’ve been working on over the past few weeks. It’s a reduced size version of my Broken Zig Zag pattern — and I do plan to update that pattern with this size option as soon as I have a few days of time to sit down and write it!
The fabrics are all from Libs Elliott’s recent Mixtape collection for Andover. I helped Libs last year when she came to Houston for Quilt Market, and was excited to play with her bright colors and fun prints. This quilt is basted, as you can see above, and since we’ll now be home this weekend instead of in Corpus, I’m hoping to get it quilted and finished!
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My running training plan continues to go well. I’m in the middle of week 4 and haven’t missed a workout — woo! This week I’ve been relegated to the treadmill a couple times which isn’t my favorite, but at least I’ve got that option. And since the treadmill hasn’t gotten much use in the last few years (since I’d much rather run outside), it’s nice to feel like I’m using that $2,000 clothes rack. Ha!
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We also hooked up with another family in our neighborhood last weekend on a playdate for Emma and their daughter, who was in her kindergarten class last year. It was great! The girls had a ton of fun playing, and I enjoyed talking to the parents. Jose and I are always saying that we need more friends who don’t work at NASA, and this family fits the bill.
I hope they liked me too because I’m basically going to stalk them until we are friends. Kidding…but also kind of not kidding. Making friends as an adult is hard, y’all.
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I haven’t been great about reading lately, but I’m slowing working my way through Astroball by Ben Reiter. He also wrote the now-famous 2014 Sports Illustrated cover that predicted the Astros would win the World Series in 2017. I’m not sure how appealing this book would be to anyone who isn’t a baseball fan, and particularly an Astros fan — or someone who really likes stories about using modeling and statistics to your advantage. But I’m enjoying it quite a bit.
I’m admittedly a long-time baseball fan…who basically didn’t watch baseball for several years. It’s just not much fun to watch an abysmal team, and thus I wasn’t paying attention through the 2010-2015 time frame when the Astros were focused on rebuilding through their farm system and bringing in all the young players who are now becoming stars. It’s been fun to learn how all the players on the current team like Altuve, Correa, Springer, and Bregman came into the organization.
