Tag: owls

What Are the Odds…

Uh huh. Twelve days. Unfortunately, two full 5-day weeks, which sounds hard, because it is at this stage. Trying to grade everything, do awards, get ready to teach sex ed, we don’t have the right number of packets of anything and it’s all talking, all the time. Still recovering from food poisoning, thought I was fine, then Saturday kicked my butt. It’s fine. I’m just getting through it all a bit at a time, but I spent probably 4 straight hours Sunday afternoon doing just that. No clay, no nothing. I’m tired of that shit.

I did make art, not a lot, just a bit. I ironed the smaller piece together, with the help of Annie on my feet…

Dogsitting weekend. Almost wrote dogshitting. Still valid.

Small pieces go together quite quickly.

Saturday night, after being mostly off for hours in the afternoon, I stitched it down.

Sunday, I sandwiched, pinbasted, and started quilting…

I also stitched this down…

My SIL claimed it back in November and I promptly lost it for a few months. Found it! Not sure how I’m finishing it yet.

Way too many animals here this weekend. Both dogs helping me read my book Friday afternoon after a very long day of 45 egg drops and a principal meeting.

Sigh. I don’t really want the new principal who’s coming. He doesn’t have great reviews. Ah well. Should be a shitshow of a year.

We had Annie because her daddy was coaching soccer up north.

She has mellowed out. She’s also scared of cats and we have four of them.

And sometimes they like each other.

Boychild was at a fire and gone an extra day for that…

So Simba barked nonstop and the Man and I sent memes about dogs barking back and forth.

Totally Simba.

And when Simba gets going, Annie sometimes joins in, mostly out of nervousness of being left out, I think.

Survived the egg drops, although many eggs did not.

It seems anathema to sacrifice so many scrambled egg breakfasts in the name of science, but we did. It was good.

Happy Pride Month!!!

Maybe I’ll get my flag up this month. Might need an assist on that.

This is my answer to my local school board about everything.

Also that last bit, louder for those chatting in the back.

Want some owl video?

There’s definitely a baby. I hope there’s more. Even if they’re loud.

Yeah. The next quilt isn’t fully in my head yet. Not surprising, considering all the juggling and balancing going on right now. Two Zooms (emergencies!) just popped up in my email last night. Sigh.

Yup. That’s what I do. In rainbow colors (not just Pride…all the time).

OK. Teaching the first day of sex ed, where we talk about nothing. Fun stuff. Then a two-hour staff meeting where we might meet the new principal who we’ve already vetted with all our friends who work at the school where he’s not allowed back. No joke. It’s been a good run, y’all. I’ve had decent principals for about 13 years or so. I guess its’ time. OR. Maybe he learned his lesson after the last one, will turn over a new leaf? What are the odds. THEN, I get to be on an emergency Zoom while driving to drop art off downtown, because, yes, I got into the library show. It opens June 21, Saturday, from 12-2. I think I have a dentist appointment right before that, so I will be running late. Ah well. At least I got in. Then maybe I can come home after all that. Not sure when clay is happening. Tomorrow? Ugh. Midnight? Maybe.

Free Time…Gone!

Yo ho, Yo ho, it’s a Monday with no school. Gotta love those. Because after this month, there aren’t any for a Loooonnnggg time. Well it feels that way anyway. The Vast Expanse of March is coming. Fifty three days until Spring Break. Doesn’t sound long, but it will be. That said, I got this 3-day weekend and I had plans for each of the days and both Saturday and Sunday got co-opted by perfectly reasonable things that were either unexpected or I hadn’t really thought through the time expenditure and then the mile-long to-do list all landed today. Now I’ve been quite efficient, talked to the IRA company that locked me down because the damn cat kept sitting on the keyboard and trying to log in, moved all the money to consolidate shit like my bro (my ACTUAL bro) suggested, talked to the parentals, did some emailing. But the plan was to be at the ceramics studio around noon (not happening), finish grades yesterday (didn’t happen), go for a hike (hopefully still happening). I have shit every night this week and then I’m flying to the girlchild for a quick visit. Boom! And your free time is gone. I did finish quilting last night after staying up too late two nights running…

Started the background quilting the night before, barely, then got most of the empty space in the middle quilted, plus down most of one side and across the bottom. Then last night, again, staying up too late, just needed it done…finished the rest.

Well. I just typed like three paragraphs and WordPress deleted all of them. OK, I probably deleted them by clicking something I didn’t mean to click because I am typing fast. Why? Because I am behind. So. Quilting last night, stayed up too late, finished, about 13 hours of quilting. Today need to clean the entryway floor so I can trim this and then put a binding on it. All good. Then draw the next one, which will be different and smaller and hopefully less time-consuming, but if my art brain is involved, there are no guarantees. Then make a smaller quilt or two, think about the duo solo show coming up in 2026, plus a big one for the summer, yeah yeah yeah. Can’t think that far ahead. I’m like still in this week survival mode.

Saturday, we went to see my co-teacher dance in her ensemble thing…

All people from school (and family). That was the more time-consuming thing than I had originally thought it would be because I sometimes can’t add all the travel time on either side and parse that out. Whatever. The night before was a show with one of the Man’s band members. It was fun but tiring and I didn’t quilt. Which is fine. Social stuff needs to happen too. Yesterday, a friend spontaneously came down with her hubby for lunch…also good, but time. So I’m behind in grading and I’m feeling pressure to do things. Always pressure.

But hey, in awesome sauce news, we got the new owl box up and within two weeks, there’s an owl in it.

I’d seen her around in my trees, heard her screeching at night, and I hope this one makes babies that survive. Not sure what happened last time, but I’m happy they’re back.

OK. I need a shower. I need to do ceramics. I need to grade. I’m cooking tonight. I need to hike ffs. I need another damn day. I know! I got an extra one! Sheesh. Seriously need to rethink my career choices. Maybe too late for that.

Hidden Away…

How is it not Thursday yet? I don’t get it. It feels like Friday and a half. I even looked up the date of the next full moon, trying to find an explanation for the crazy we saw yesterday, and nope, it’s not for another two weeks. Ugh. Today feels long and difficult already. Meeting this morning; I was at the school board meeting yesterday (with 6 people, not counting the actual school board) until after 6 PM. I had to speak briefly about the sex ed committee, and then I listened to the rest, grading the whole time. Then came home and managed to cook dinner and eat it.

The quilt progress is slow. This thing is big and complicated. I finished the stitchdown on Monday night; it took just under 6 hours to do. I love seeing the back of the quilt top at this stage…

And then it gets hidden away inside the quilt sandwich forever. I do actually check for things I’ve missed at this stage too. Although I don’t catch them all sometimes until I’m quilting.

Then last night, exhausted, I found and pieced fabric for the background, cut the batting, washed it, and tossed it into the dryer before I went to bed. Tonight, I’ll sandwich it all.

I’ll have to clean the entryway floor first. So clean floor, iron top, sandwich it, pin it all together. It’s moving, but slowly. Somewhat like me. At least mentally. I managed to cobble together something I worked on in 2023 for the filler day we need at school tomorrow, but we lose our prep periods today for the walk-to-the-high-school thing. Take the kids over there (it’s not super far), have them do the rah rah thing, see all the sports and clubs, talk to people, then try to corral them all back to walk back before 3rd period. My biggest concerns? Well, a couple of kids, but whatever. Also I usually eat and pee during 2nd period. This is important! We’ll figure it out. I had a packet of nuts at school for such emergencies, but I needed it last night at the board meeting. I maybe need to stop at a grocery store on the way to school…if I have time before the meeting.

In other school news, this was deposited on my notebook yesterday. So I recycled it. Ah no, it was the behavior contract of a student who was having a day…and continued having a day. As you can imagine.

It was rough for the rest of us as well.

So bee/owl box update. I noticed the bees were ‘gone’ the other day/night, so I pulled the box off, and then had the boychild help me move it about 15 feet away, with the plan to install the new one the next evening. I figured they’d left to find a better place to hang out. Went to install the new one and saw this.

Um. Guys. It’s over there. So yeah. Not sure what this was about. Where were they the night before? Anyway. So. When bees swarm on an unprotected spot, they usually leave within 48 hours, so we waited. We also cleaned out the old owl box and found what looked like possibly 1 or 2 baby skeletons (matches up to the two separate babies I heard last year), and what looked like part of an adult. Bigger feet, adult feathers still attached to part of a wing.

Baby on the left? Maybe? Barn owls aren’t actually that big. I know it just looks like a pile of feathers and stuff, and now that carcass on the left has been dragged off by something last night. I knew that would probably happen. There were still some bees in the owl box, but not much honeycomb…not enough for them to have killed the barn owl (they can do that apparently) back in spring, when I last heard the second baby, and then built a hive. It’s all very strange. ANYWAY. Last night, the bees were gone off the pole, so we’re gonna try again. I have a bee repellant spray that is supposed to be arriving today that I’m going to spray on the pole and around the owl box. It’s natural, not poisonous. I was trying to get a natural bee repellant I could put inside the box, but it’s not an easy thing to find in California. It’s late for mama to be building a nest, but I can hope.

This is the 2nd tree in the Sue Spargo Rooted quilt. I started the embroidery during book club on Monday.

Actually, no, I started the embroidery in my Allied Craftsmen meeting on Saturday. Embroidery is not fast, y’all. But it’s relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing…

Bowie at 8 months (9?) is almost as big as his aunties. He is still being a teenager, harassing everyone in the house. My old lady cat does not like him and lets him know that…and she has a new scratch on her nose that is probably from him. He’s very curious and wants to know about her, but she’s not having it. I’m carrying her out of her cubby in my room to the food and the litter tray, but she does come out without me sometimes.

OK, besides the walking tour of the local high school, the rest of the day, we’re reading about light rays and writing about them. Fun times. Then pilates and hopefully installing the owl box. Then sandwich and pinbaste the damn quilt. After washing the floor. It’s a lot.

Always Good…

Apparently no one has explained to Simba that people like to sleep in on days they don’t have to go to work. He’s UP! Wants to know why no one else is UP! The world is a noisy place. He wants to bark at it.

OK, three days post surgery, it still hurts to swallow, there’s a little pain on and off (ice packs! Motrin!), but all is good. It’s not going to be a pretty scar…ah well. I don’t really care about that. I do care that the doc just messaged me that everything is benign and clear and I don’t need to do anything else for now, although the tissues they removed are more likely to develop into cancer (we knew that going in). So one worry checked off. Always good. I feel fine, although I’m still not lifting things or working out. First of those is Sunday, fully approved by the doc. I’ll hopefully hike before then.

I made it to the ceramics studio yesterday…finished all four of the pots for the Man. Couldn’t leave the one blank, so I made little Venus flytraps all over it, rainbow-colored.

Simple. I now have 5 pots on the drying rack. I did work on the world figure I started back in April, but I forgot to photograph it. I’m glad I’m finally got some space on my shelf to put the top part…so that’s the next plan.

I have to go in to school today and tomorrow for interviews: new science teacher today, assistant principals tomorrow. Fun times. Yes, I get paid. I also get to make sure they don’t pick someone lame.

I’ve been doing lots of ironing, because it’s easy enough. Well, is it? Lots of complicated stuff being ironed. Tuesday…I did two sessions and got one entire figure ironed.

Lots of browns and flesh tones. Last night, I got the flesh ironed on the third figure, but not all the other stuff…I did the hair and the eyeball, but then I got tired.

That’s her fleshy colors on the right. Plus a dark eye. I’m in the 1000s, but also I’ve ironed some of the 1100s. And some of the 900s aren’t ironed. So that’s clear. There’s still one entire figure to go and a shit ton of stuff in the sky. But the box is full of pieces to cut out. That’s fun.

I drew last night.

I haven’t been drawing. It’s been harder and harder with school the last four years to get time to draw. I work so many hours at the day job. I reserve an hour a night for art, but it’s mostly working on whatever project I’m currently obsessed with. There’s no time for just random drawing, except at the occasional dinner out. I used to do these big random drawings for no reason at all, just because I wanted to draw. So there’s that. Boob and brain in that one. Still waiting on brain results.

Reading a book about the period…called Period.

Fascinating stuff…science and politics and history. I can read nonfiction as long as I’m reading a fiction book concurrently. Which I am.

I replanted a few things. Not this. Just saw this.

It makes the prettiest flowers.

Found this little sweetheart bouncing around the leaves last night…

Hoping it’s OK. I always figure parents are nearby and I should leave it alone. We do occasionally find dead hummingbirds. Sad.

And the owls are still here, seemingly acting like there’s eggs or babies in the box?

I have not given up on them. Hoping to hear future squawking of tiny owlets.

OK, off to school for a little while. Then back here, ironing, plus setting stuff up for an Insta takeover. Tomorrow is interviews all day. I just wanna know if I should bring my lunch? I’ll ask today. Otherwise, I’m gonna sit in the good news for a while.

Last Minute

The number of reminders on my phone right now to remember to do all the things. A kid emailed me yesterday and asked which day I was grading things, and I answered ALL the days. I am getting close to done, though. Seven days. Seven days with one at Belmont Park on a field trip and one is graduation and one is graduation practice and a carnival. So actual teaching days? I have literacy stuff this morning, so half a day today, a whole day tomorrow, and two next week. But honestly, it’s not the teaching that’s the issue. It’s sex ed and that’s easy, although I’m not a fan of all of this curriculum and I wish I’d been able to give myself more time to teach it. I wrote a note in the calendar for next year. Because I don’t even remember what I did last year…the kids were telling me (the ones I had in 7th grade) and I’m like, big fat blank space where my brain was y’all. Sorry. I guess that’s a plus. Nah it’s all the adult crap…last-minute contracts for kids who don’t want to come to school any more, last-minute drop-a-new-kid-in-my-class…oh wait! No! He’s an opt out, but last minute, you have to add him to all the things and GRADE him, this kid who you will never see. And oh yeah, we’re gonna completely change the schedule at the last minute so you have to scramble to finish what’s already a tight finish. People are pissy. I’M pissy. I know I am. I sat in my room during prep yesterday after creating another last-minute thing and just tried not to cry. Because I’m overwhelmed. Texted my co-teacher who was at the zoo with my other work wife (they’ll be back in August…it’s OK) and they wanted to FaceTime me, but then I knew I’d cry. Sigh. Just need it to be done.

I watered my newly planted plants last night. It’s nice to see them grab hold of the dirt and start to grow on their own. I have more to plant…maybe Saturday. After my brain scan. Sounds delightful.

I am making art. I’m making lots of art. Just very slowly. I finally finished the sgraffito planter. Well…for some definition of ‘finished’.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. It’s fun. This is over 8 1/2 hours of creating so far though. So not fast. Maybe faster than a quilt? But now it has to dry, slowly, over a couple of weeks. Then bisque fire. Then decide if I’m going to put any glaze over it? Not sure. I have the two tiles still and I asked a bunch of questions on Monday of the more experienced potters, and got a name of a clear satin matte glaze that MIGHT work, but I’m going to try it out on the tiles first before I do anything to this one.

I almost forgot to do the eyebrow.

I love the hair.

Rainbows for Pride Month.

I’d do this type of thing again.

When I finished, I still had some time left before I needed to head for home. The winged woman piece has been drying for a while. I pulled her down at one point to fix some cracks. But I wasn’t sure how to glaze her. While I was in Maine, I would just let her percolate in my brain until I decided to do some underglazing first…

There will be more, but not a lot…

And then I’ll fire her, and then do an iron oxide after that. Hopefully she’ll survive the firing. That’s always the issue. If she didn’t, I’d probably try to build her again. It really is more about the process than the product for me. Don’t get me wrong…I love the product when it turns out, but the time spent building is what I like most. Same with quilts.

I’ve had this thing lying around since COVID.

Parts just need to be sewn down. Some more parts need to be added. I worked on it a little last night instead of grading.

Then I headed in for about 30 minutes of ironing. Hung up the HUGE drawing…

Made a video about it…practice for an Insta takeover I’m doing later this month.

Very rough and very squinty. Gotta work on that. Laid out the first 100 pieces…

Ironed the first few big ones…already pulling from the 100 and 200 bins. So logical numbering.

It’s a start. It’ll be browns tonight.

Here’s Simba on Monday night, very sleepy.

The owls are still here, they’re still going in and out of the owl box, which is a good sign that they haven’t given up on procreation. No baby sounds though.

Glad to see them still here. Late babies are fine by me. We’ve lost at least two that I know of. Sigh.

OK, to school for a meeting, then another meeting, then a free lunch (this is how they bribe us), then teaching in the afternoon, trying to get some of the packets recorded in the gradebook while they finish their stuff, then another meeting (at a restaurant with one drink and appetizers), and home to another meeting. WTF. So many meetings. Art in between. Book in between? Maybe. Maybe not. Yeah. I need the pillow fort.

Panic Friday

Hello panicked Friday. Have you seen my work to-do list? Yeah? Me too. I’m deep breathing right now. Literally couldn’t get through everything on it today if I could clone myself (and I wish I could). I wish my district could figure out how to say no to parents, but they can’t. I suspect none of them can at the moment. But when you do that, it all falls on staff to deal with…and I’m done. Yesterday was a clusterfuck of tiny fires threatening to be big ones. I put most of them out, and then after school, there were more…this morning, more…I either need to up my meds, stop sleeping, or call in sick for three days. Just to deal with stuff for a tiny few kids. Can’t deal with the large majority at all. If I stop taking time for myself, to make art, to read, fuck that, to eat and sleep and poop, well then I might get through it all. Deep breaths. Let’s hope that I’m efficient as hell today and get through a healthy enough chunk that I can do one fun thing this weekend. ONE.

Trace trace trace.

I’m 15 hours into the tracing…and just hit the 1300s. So I have about 350 to go.

Pretty sure my original guess was 20 hours.

Last night, I traced a barn owl, two bombers, and a bunch of bombs. Fun times. Oh, and the moon. I’m getting there.

I also stitched with friends, although I tore out the roof stitching 4 maybe 5 times.

It’s not like the picture, but it will be fine. This is the last house I need to embroider for this block of the month. Then the center piece (which is large) and put it all together. Then borders. Finished by 2035.

I was watering the other day, and saw these…

And this…

And this…

No time to water, plant, clean. Ugh. OK. Gotta go in and start dealing with all the things. Which includes some literacy meeting time. Ugh plus at least I might have some time to work. Maybe. We’ll see if I have the brain power for it. Clay after school (after doctor’s appointment). Then grade things and trace things. I’m really trying to carve out time tomorrow for a museum visit with my guild. We’ll see. Also a hike would be nice. Hanging out with the Man might be nice too.

We have both parents! But still no baby squawks. Me sad. At least they’re both still there. Presumably there’s eggs? More of them? They can lay up to 13 apparently. Get on it, you owls!

Owls Are Back…

So in totally awesome news, even though we trimmed the shit out of the trees, the owls are back! I finally got the camera up and working and there they were! I was so happy. I thought I’d heard them, but not the young one I’d heard before for the last 9 months…that one left after the tree trimming. We would hear it every night, going out to hunt. This must be one of the original parents. Much quieter. The male parent last year was loud as hell too. But so far, these are quiet.

It’s the weird little things that make my days.

This weekend was rough…I don’t feel like I got enough of any one thing done, unfortunately. Crunch time for school plus a lot of art things going on. I got a little bit done on the piece I’m doing with a partner…just some tracing done on Friday and Sunday night…

I think I had a whopping 26 minutes last night…

I was speed grading before that. I’m in the 200s…just about 150 pieces to go. I could finish it tonight, but I have a baby quilt that needs to be done by Saturday. Ha! Well. Hopefully.

I put borders on it Friday, then pinbasted it Saturday morning.

I did a little quilting on Saturday after buying an insane amount of thread, because I didn’t have the right kind.

I didn’t get any more quilting done all weekend unfortunately. It won’t take long…I just need to do it. Hopefully more tonight. But grades are also due and that’s stressful. So yeah. I’m trying to do all the things.

Saturday was the pop-up opening of Collective Retrospective, a show with a current piece and a piece that’s at least 10 years old. It started on Instagram. I only had the old piece, and it will be 30 years old in October.

This is The Cold Cement Basement of Our Love from October 1994. It’s a screenprint that I then drew all over with Sharpie…some things never change. Lots of words and DNA and a cup of tea. And sciencey things going on in the body. Before I ever taught science. I did work in science though.

I absolutely sucked at pictures of this show…I do know this is Judith Parenio’s piece…

And this is Berenice Badillo’s piece…

I got a picture of her speaking (there’s video of her rousing words on the Insta link above)…

Except this is before she actually talked. Cool things happened. But I was there for like 3 1/2 hours. Time. Sigh. There was a beautiful sky though…and friends came by to see me and my art.

The Man stopped by at the end to help me load my piece into the car and then we went to dinner…

He had a show the night before that I was supposed to go to, but he texted me while I was driving that they had stopped letting people in; the venue was full. So I turned around and went home and graded instead. He didn’t get home until almost 2 AM, so we’ve barely seen each other this weekend. Yesterday was two art Zoom meetings plus trying to grade.

Anyway. So I’m quilting this week, hopefully tracing, obviously grading and lesson planning. Listening to owls. Reading when I can. I’ve got my second ceramics class tomorrow…already have ideas. It’s coiling. I love coiling. Busy weekend coming up. Again. Lots of art going out, which is good. Wish I were making more of it, but it’s here. I’m getting there. After a staff meeting today, teaching pedigrees…actually, letting an assignment teach them. I did my part. It’s time for them to do theirs. Ha! Hopeful anyway. First full week of teaching since January…with holidays and COVID and doctors’ appointments. It will be weird.

Until I Don’t…

Oh hey. Hi. School dreams every night. Can’t fall asleep for a good two hours, even though it’s midnight. It’s not even that hot. The dog is in the bed, my body hurts, my brain won’t shut the fuck up. All good. It is August. So school is on my mind. Heavily.

Yesterday was the first day I didn’t have copyediting. I had to deliver some art, but it was trouble-free and relatively quick (come to our opening at the downtown San Diego library on August 11!). Today I had my eyes checked (all good). I try to keep the last few days before school starts relatively open, so I can introvert myself into a pillow fort coma before all hell breaks loose. The to-do list might kick my ass. So yesterday, I had about 3 1/2 hours of online training for school (sexual harassment, mandated reporter, pest management, blood-borne pathogens…was that it? Nah, forgot cybersecurity…ironically.). I still have 45 more minutes on active shooters (as opposed to inactive shooters?). I also panicked about the planning calendars for this coming year. My co-teacher sent an email out and I thought, oh shit, newbies are gonna look at these, and I hadn’t touched them since June, so I touched them. Fussed a little with 7th grade just for the first few months…I’m not teaching it this year, but there were a few things that needed fixing. Then took a look at 8th grade. Oh yeah. Fuck. So I fussed with January through June. I’d done some stuff with December already and then stalled on August through November. I had COVID last year for the first 8 days of school, which was a clusterfuck, and the calendar reflects that. I’m hoping the new 8th-grade teacher is ready and willing to plan. Most of the issues are in February and on, but the 2nd unit needs something. I think. I have more to do on Unit 1 today and tomorrow, but I now have a better handle on what I need to do. Maybe. Until I don’t.

So. School. Need to order some supplies. Need to do some stuff with documents. Need to be ready for next week…going back. Not ready. Nope. Nuh uh. Never am.

So I also traced yesterday and Monday…progress! Still fucking slow, y’all. But I’m getting there.

This is what it really looks like when I trace. I usually have about 2 yards of Wonder Under out, one for big pieces and one for filling in with all the little pieces that need to go somewhere. I hate to waste Wonder Under. I blame my grandmother, my raised-in-the-Depression grandma who saved everything. And my mom who was raised by her. Hence the pile of hard, cracked rubberbands I tossed out at work back in June. It’s a thing. I always have rubberbands somewhere that should be tossed. And I never toss a paperclip unless it breaks. Or it’s inexplicably sticky.

I’ve been going through my clothes, trying to be way more organized than I have been. Thrifting some, sending some to a recycler, organizing the rest. We’ve banned the cats from the closet because they cause so much damage. I have clothes with holes from Luna catching them on her kamikaze way down from the top shelf and everything is covered in fur. So I washed a lot and will hang them back up and leave the doors closed. She doesn’t like it. Oh well.

This tracing stuff is hard on the eyes…

This was me tracing through all the trainings…

See tiny computer? Yeah. Well. I’ve heard some of these videos so many times I can ace the test the first time through. I feel like if you pass the test, you shouldn’t have to sit through the videos. Whatever. How about just a brief update on what changed? Nah.

I’ve got 4 yards mostly done and I’ve started the 5th yard of Wonder Under…

I’m 15 hours into the tracing and on piece 1199. So more than halfway. About 830 to go. I’d like it done. But IDK if it will be before the weekend. I have most of the rest of today, but need to do school and yard and house stuff too, tomorrow is wide open (I think? Oh wait, no, have a concert to go to and we’re leaving incredibly early), and Friday is a clusterfuck. Same with Saturday. Ah well. We’ll see. So it will probably be 8 or 9 yards of Wonder Under and 22 hours of tracing. That’s my semi-educated guess.

As part of cleaning out clothes, I tossed a few of my old school shirts, put three in a pile to take to school (I never wear them…one is just the wrong shape for me, so uncomfortable, and the other is polyester, and we are not friends). But I found this white shirt that WOULD fit just fine, unlike the new one I got at the end of last year, but I don’t wear white. I just don’t. I don’t even own bras that won’t show through (they’re all black, what can I say), and I just don’t like white. Ugh. Stains. Makes me even pinker than I already am. SO. I put it in a pile to tie dye and yesterday I decided not to wait any longer and did it on the dryer.

This is the before picture with the one glove I found (yes, the other hand has two blue fingernails right now). I’m letting it percolate and will pull it later today. I’m hoping for awesomeness.

As part of the yard work, I was trimming in the backyard, and was tugging on some ivy taking over one of my trees. I heard a ‘whoosh’ and saw one of the barn owls move to the eucalyptus.

It was STARING at me, like lady, that tree you’re tugging on is my daytime nest. Knock it off. And it makes sense, because we hear one of them vocalizing from the backyard and then around the deck almost every night. So yeah. I still have a barn owl in my yard. All good. There’s also a cat on the roof. We haven’t seen it anywhere else. I haven’t seen it at all. The Man is standing on the deck at night, hears a noise, looks up, and there’s a cat head silhouetted against the night sky. Twice now. Weird, huh? I moved my yardwork to the bougainvillea next to the bedroom window, where there is probably a skunk living, and at least two bunnies that I’ve seen, so that’s safe, right? The reality is that this yard is overwhelming on a good day. I’ve made some progress this summer, but not enough. It’s never enough. Pile of gravel is still there, although I’ve made it a little further around the corner. Ah well. Can’t do it all.

With that in mind, I have a list for today, and once this is posted, I will have done two of the things on it. Plus the eye doctor and Kitten’s meds because she’s not eating. Which I didn’t put on the list because they were on the other list. Hmmm. Don’t have multiple lists. Bad plan. So I’m going to go pee the ex’s puppy…all my wounds from her have finally healed. Then come back and eat lunch maybe and do all the other things on the list. Well maybe not ALL of them. There’s always too many things. Might be a mistake. Plus trace for a good long while. That’s pretty important.

Work I Love…

Yo! Last Monday of the school year. Am I done with grades? I am not. I’m hoping they are due tomorrow and not today. I should find that out. Tomorrow. Whew. I just thought of that. Nothing like going until the last minute. Trust me, I WOULD have been done by now, but we haven’t tested all the bridges yet and some kids forgot to turn shit in and I don’t even know what to do with the kid who at 2 PM on Friday, with an 11-day assignment due at 3:30, was begging for more time, and then STILL didn’t do anything. Sigh. So yeah. This is the crazy week. All the grades and awards and parties and promotion practices and actual promotion plus clean your room and lock it up because summer school will be in there and they will use all your shit.

Yup. Almost there. I can taste it. Almost. This week is actually really long. Friday night and all day Saturday I was convinced I was getting sick: massive headache, sore throat, achy all over, felt like crap. So I started with the immune protection stuff, emergen-c, and drank a lot of it. All day Saturday. I felt OK yesterday and this morning, so maybe I kicked it? Or? It will come back with a vengeance on like Wednesday, when I have to be outside all day. Yeah. Still taking vitamins just in case. Even if it’s all in my head. There are lots of things in my head. If it keeps me from getting sick right now, I’m good.

So Friday night, I sorted the Wonder Under…

It didn’t take long.

Then Saturday, I ran errands, bought a background fabric (two actually, but one was better than the other for this), and cleaned the office/studio…which started out like this.

I put all the fabric away, and then mopped the floor. It had been a while. It was driving me a little bonkers. But that’s all I got done in here.

The Man had a show on Saturday night and I was feeling well enough to go. In fact, there are times in my life when I feel like going out and dancing has kicked a virus out of my system. This may have been one of those occasions.

Also they played really local, which made it an easy decision to go.

It was a good time. They are taking a 6-month break because one member is having shoulder surgery and another one just needs to rest his shoulder, so this was the last show for a while.

They opened for Sonic Moonshine, which is also a good show.

Especially with the bubbles.

Sunday, I set up my ironing space…

Laid out the first 100 pieces of Wonder Under, picked the first fabrics…

And started ironing to fabric.

That’s where I’ll be every night this week, I think. With a few exceptions.

My post-eating stitching for the evening is still this Sue Spargo thing.

Brainless and easy. That’s what I need right now. Plus purple. Always good.

Simba agrees.

It rained AND his boy is gone. Very traumatic.

So traumatic that he was lying on my bedspace last night. Really, I think I was supposed to curl up at the foot of the bed, based on this arrangement.

I made him move. He was OK. Ever hopeful for that space.

The owls are wandering all over our little neighborhood, driving all the neighbors bonkers probably. Last year, they just hung out in our yard. This is a wide-ranging group. Which means we rarely see video of any of them on the owl box.

But we hear them constantly.

OK. Today I need to get through a whole lot of bridge breaking…Period 2 may be nigh on impossible. I think I need to do 7 of them in a short period. We’ll see how I do. Finish science and classroom orders, plus a staff meeting, finish grades. My quilt isn’t ready for pickup yet, unfortunately. I really need it by Thursday and I have limited time for pickup before that. Sigh. Ah well. Worst case, I’ll pay the extra for the ‘late’ entry (it’s not late, but there’s a cost break for ‘early’). I’m pretty sure I’m cooking (something) tonight, but there’s ironing at the end of it, which seems like more ‘work’, but it’s work I love. So that’s a good thing.

Citrusy Sauce

One of the ways I keep track of the days of the week during school is by the day I blog. And I’m off this week. Missed it on Monday, so did it Tuesday. Yesterday morning had two morning meetings, missed it again, so here I am on a Thursday. It’s not the end of the world, but it does make it harder for me to figure out what day it is. I usually announce to my Advisory students what day it is, and it’s more for me than them, and sometimes I’m wrong, and they think that’s weird, but then a bunch of them have no idea that today is JUNE. It’s June. Finally.

You know there’s two kinds of people in education: the kind that count the days left of the year and count the day they haven’t survived yet (me) and the kind who erases that day from their count because it IS that day. I don’t understand the latter. At all. I have 11 days of school left. One of my principals yesterday told me it was 10 days, and I’m like, the FUCK it is. I feel like those in the classroom know WAY BETTER than admin how many days are left. Grades are due in 9 days, I need to do award certificates, someone else is dealing with breakfast food (I do certificates so I don’t have to do food), I need to figure out what I’m wearing to graduation. Although the way the weather is going, it may be less of a worry than originally. Normally it’s hot and sunny, but it’s been May Gray all last month, maybe 5 days of sun all month, and this morning is just as gray. I’m still wearing socks to school. I know that sounds weird, but usually I’m in sandals by now. My heater is still coming on in the morning. It’s set for 65. Weird.

In awesome news, My Body. My Choice. got into another show, No Boundaries at the Virginia Quilt Museum. It will be on exhibit July 11-October 7.

I love it when work gets to be all over the place. West Coast, then East Coast. Good stuff.

I recently decided not to enter a show because (a) I didn’t really have a lot to enter and (b) the museum show that went with it is a museum that has previously pulled my work due to nudity. I decided it wasn’t worth the stretch to find pieces that might be OK to enter. I would have, I think, if I’d had more work. That’s what I need: more work. The newest quilt (still unnamed) goes to the photographer today. I spent an hour last night ironing it, cleaning it up, and packing it up for delivery. It took 146 hours to make. I started January 1 and finished May 28, but also did another smaller quilt in the middle…which better get into that show. Well. Honestly. It may well not. Oh well. I tried.

But the next newest quilt has been percolating in my head since last October, and although it has existed in many different versions, I know I have limited time to get it done, so I tried to keep it simple. Unlike the last one, where I went all out into Complicated Detail City.

I finished the drawing on Tuesday night…

I don’t actually even know if this is the right way up. It could go many ways. I turned the paper as I was drawing.

And then last night, I numbered it…

I’m usually pretty clueless about how many pieces there will be until I do this. I knew I held back on detail (except for the satellite and the Mars rover…just couldn’t be simple) so I’d have a chance at meeting the deadline. That whole thing where I’m gone for 10 days in the middle is going to complicate stuff. But it only has 545 pieces; I think the one I did in the middle of the last one was about that many pieces, and I was able to finish it in a month. Granted, part of that month was Spring Break, but part of this month will be Summer Break, so I should be able to pull it off. Also, I’m pretty much (almost) done with lesson planning, although I spent an hour last night editing some sex-ed video shorter, and I still need a graphic organizer for that, and an academic question for 8th grade. Unless I blow that off. So I think this quilt is doable. Tonight I’ll start tracing on Wonder Under, finish that by Sunday? Get it all cut out by the following Friday, start ironing to fabric next weekend, be done with that by the following weekend, then trim it all and start ironing it together before I go to Seattle. I can do this.

Already thinking about what will be on the next quilt: womens’ rights, banned books, and owls. What? Owls? Hey the owls fledged! This is 5 weeks earlier than last year. I thought that third owl was an interloper…turns out, there are three babies and they are partying it up in the evenings…I caught all three (blurry, you should try to take photos with a phone in the dark) in the tree across the yard the other night (the third one is further up, around the corner).

And then the following morning, they were up early and messing around…

This is around 5 AM.

I think I was also up at the time, but just to pee and go back to bed.

They are adorable. And loud. Honestly. They are. This group has been practice screeching. Freaks the dog out no end. Probably my neighbors too. Sorry. Not sorry. Taking care of the rat population y’all. I say that, and I had made some juice out of my tangerines and there was a lot of pulp. The rats have been eating out of my tangerines hanging on the tree, and I’m like, I’m not wasting this, so I put it out in a bowl and they ate it all, so now the owls can have rats with a citrusy sauce. Dark, I know. Cycle of life and all.

Someone took pictures of my quilts for me…one of Desert Mother at Quilt National (I don’t have the book yet, but I know the one is the background is Sky Trippers by Dinah Sargeant, and the other one is called Fig, by Maren Johnston).

It’s the first picture I’ve seen of my piece at QN.

They also took a picture at Art Quilt Elements, where Coronawood is hanging.

I don’t have info on the other pieces. I also need to update my Gallery page on this website. So I will. When I have time. Dunno when that will be.

OK. Meeting this morning. Not sure why. Some mom request. Then teaching reproduction vocab (not really teaching…just making them do the things) and finally building bridges. Hopefully. Then deliver quilt for photography, cook dinner, read my book, grade some things? Maybe not. And trace Wonder Under. Hopefully get more sleep than I did last night. I don’t know what was going on, but I don’t think I got more than 3 or 4 hours. Too much awake, uncomfortable, noise, couldn’t switch off. Which sucks. But it’s Thursday, so close to the weekend. Always good.