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Remember when I broke the sewing machine needle and it ended up in my eye? I thought that was as dangerous as quilting gets – but found out today that I was very, very wrong. I’ll tell you all about it, but don’t look at the picture if blood and cut fingers bother you.

Rotary cut finger

Some quilt patterns require special shapes that a regular cutting ruler just won’t do. So I make by own out of a thick flexible plastic (think flexible cutting board). I was cutting quilt pieces with a homemade template – plastic, not cardboard – and a rotary cutter. The cutter blade (only an hour old too!) caught the edge of the plastic, jumped up onto the template, and tried to cut my finger off before I knew what happened. I managed to bleed on my clothes, the floor and the cutter before I got to the sink and stopped the bleeding – but I didn’t spill a drop on the fabric! The picture was taken about 9 hours after the incident – I’d taken a shower and had to change the bandages. Chad and I decided tonight that we probably should have gone to the hospital and had it stitched up because the cut is pretty deep (it went through my fingernail!) but at the time it happened neither one of us mentioned it. And it did quit bleeding fairly quickly, so it’s probably okay. But my finger will never look the same again.

Well, it’s throbbing like crazy (we just changed the bandage though too), so I’m going to go give it a break.

Tile (and other bathroom updates)

The shower is tiled (picures on Flickr).  The tile is grouted (no pictures yet) and is in Day 3 of the required 7 day cure before sealing.  The new door is hung in the doorway (no pictures of that either) but Chad is having a little trouble getting it to glide on it’s little track thingy (don’t you love my technical terms?) so it’s not functional just yet.  I think that might be tonight’s project.

Work

Is crazy at the moment.  Spring break was last week, so this week begins the downhill slide into the end of the semester.  Of course, there are about a zillion things to do between now and then so things are hopping.  I’m in the middle of a HUGE project at work as well as trying to keep up with everything else.  I’m envisioning some long days to get this one done.

Has spring sprung?

Let’s hope so.  It’s been a long. cold. winter.  I realize that I live in Nebraska (where if you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes – it’s guaranteed to change) but this winter has been colder and longer than it has been in a while.  Our yard is almost completely free of snow – for the first time since Thanksgiving!  The past few days have been wonderful.

Well, work calls.

Hi All!

Just a quick note to let you know that there are new photos of the bathroom renovation on my Flickr account. We’re getting close!

Let me start with some background before I get into the story too deep.  I met my husband July 4, 2002.  Both of his parents died in 2001 so I never met either of them, but Chad has always believed that his mom had something to do with us meeting.  The set of circumstances related to both of us being in the same place at the same time is really too bizarre to just have been coincidence.  Anyway, Chad inheirited their house, and was living there when we met.  Actually, we’re still living there.

Shortly after we announced our engagement, a note/poem congratulating us appeared on the refrigerator.  We have no idea where it came from – if someone in Chad’s family is responsible for it, no one is talking.  We’ve always kind of assumed that it was Chad’s mom’s way of letting us know that she approved of me.  During the first year or so that we were married some odd things occurred.  Chairs would be moving (like someone just got out of them) when I was the only one home and had been nowhere near the chair.  Or I would leave something in one place and when I went back to get it, it had been moved somewhere else (again, I was the only one home).  After about a year or so, these strange events pretty much stopped.  Sure, there was an occasional occurrance, but they became rarer and further apart.

Last week, it happened again.  I had the television in the kitchen on and was sitting at the table, sewing.  I wasn’t really watching it – more using it for noise – when all of a sudden the channel changed.  I did have the remote on the table, but it was nowhere near where I was working.  So I didn’t think too much of it; I just changed the channel back to what I was watching/listening to and went back to work.  Chad came home from work and headed for the shower (still downstairs since the bathroom isn’t functional yet – that’s another story) so we could get to his pool league game on time.  While he was in the shower, I went to the computer (at the far end of the kitchen from the tv) to check on a couple of things.  I glanced back at the television and noticed that the satellite menu was showing.  No one had touched the remote – it was still on the table – halfway across the room from me.  So I got up, cleared the menu off of the screen, and went back to the computer – leaving the remote on the table.  A couple of minutes later the channel changed again, seemingly all by itself.  I (again) got up to change it back and had a little ‘chat’ with Chad’s mom.  It hasn’t happened again.

Weird?  Yes.  Scary?  Not really.  I guess I think she was just messing with me.  I figure if she didn’t like me (and/or wanted to hurt me) she’s had plenty of opportunities (5 years) to do something mean.  Especially since I’m home by myself all day on Saturdays while Chad is at work.