All better now . . . . .

Trudy had some meetings on Friday when we quilted, so she was able to drop by and visit with us.  All is right with the world now!  At least my small world . . . . . .

AND . . . . . I guess my mom has decided to put great trust in me, because she bestowed one of her quilt embroidery squares upon me.  Pressure, Pressure, Pressure.  Wish me luck with it!  I should watch what I blog . . . . . you know the book "Hung by the tongue?"  I wonder what it's blog equivalent would be . . . . ?

Mama/Daughter/Papa time

Many years ago, my mom took on a gargantuan project.  She set out to make quilts for all of her grandchildren.  All 14 of them (7 boys and 7 girls, if I'm counting right!).  The boys quilts got done pretty quickly as she made them patchwork quilts from discarded jeans.  They are beautiful and a lot of work even though they worked up quickly!

She has made most of the girls (she's on the 5th one now) Sunbonnet Sue quilts.  12 squares each quilt . . . of hand embroidered splendidness.  She is getting approximately 1 a year done. (I wish I were a granddaughter!) My daughter got the first one as she is the oldest granddaughter, and mom has been busy ever since trying to embroidery squares and get these quilts done before the girls graduate high school!!!

I've offered several times to help her with this, but I think she wants to "own it."  She will, however,  let me help with the quilting once she has everything put together.

Here are some of the squares:

Ah!!! my needle is poked in this one!!

And the whole quilt is done in red and white.  Very striking I think.

My sister hates the fact that while she is working mom and I get together and quilt . . . .

Trude, this pic is for you to let you know what an awful time we've been having . . . . . 

As the kids might say . . . . . Physch!!!  (pronounced "sike"!)

We do wish you were with us though . . . . . you are there in our hearts!!!  (boy was it hard to take that 1st picture!)

Use or Lose (take 2)

We had some use or lose timeshare points and decided to try to take a mini vacation.  We searched for a resort close to home and came up with this one . . . .

This is a huge four-seasons resort and seems to have something for everyone.  I like a vacation where I have a excuse to veg around and not do a thing . . . . like the beach.  Lincoln likes one where he can fill up every minute with activity.  This was definitely a "keep us busy" type of place.

We swam on two separate occasions in the Olympic size pool.  In this same building they had a full-size basketball course, ping pong area, weight room, racket ball, sauna, hot tubs, tanning and other activities . . . .some of which we participated in.  

For a while now we've wanted to start golfing . . . . even have picked up a couple of sets of clubs at yard sales . . . . . so we decided to golf!  

Lincoln and McKay . . . . .

We had the funniest things happen while we were golfing.  We were NOT serious golfers.  We were laughing and in stitches most of the time.  One time I hit my ball and it went straight for the water . . . I was sure I had lost a ball, but right before it landed in the creek it bounced off a rock straight into the air and back onto the fairway.

Another time we were riding along in the cart and I noticed McKay's ball didn't quite look the same as it did when we had started . . . . . unbeknownst to him, he had played someone else's (hopefully lost) ball and thought it was his all along!

I could go on and on . . . . . .

Here is McKay and Lincoln fishing balls out of the river . . . . . . their balls hit much further in however ;)

It was a beautiful place and we had beautiful weather.  I didn't take anything other than long pants and wore Lincoln's shorts for 2 days.  Not very becoming . . . . but cool!

There was also an indoor water park . . . . . only people staying on the resort can use it.

A lazy river . . . . 

Water slides . . . . .

And a flowrider . . . . you've probably seen these on commercials for cruises.  I have quite a few videos which I think I might have uploaded wrong onto this new computer because I CAN'T find them . . . . . . ARGHHH! All of us tried the flowrider, but McKay went on it again and again and again.  If I can find the videos I'll post them later.

We were in the Shenandoah Mountains, so we needed to go on a hike. . . . . . .

About a mile and a half in, McKay and I decided we'd had enough, much to Lincoln's chagrin. . . . . he'd have hiked all day!!!!

We had packed up and loaded the car but decided to stop and hit another bucket of balls on the driving range.  McKay whacked the head off of his club.  It went about as far as I can hit a ball . . . . he was quite embarrassed to hand the club back in to the golf shop!  I couldn't stop laughing because of the look on McKay's face when he broke the club.

I was so exhausted from all the fun that I had a hard time functioning yesterday and McKay was dragging when he got home from school . . . . . We need a vacation from the vacation . . . . . . . keep in mind did all of these things in just a weekend!

I told my daughter we just HAD to use those time-share points . . . . just HAD to go and have fun . . . . . what a life!!!

Mother/Son Geeks

My brother is in such a position that he occasionally gets good deals on computer components.  He extended the offer to us.  We were in a position where our computer just wasn't doing its job for us.  What pushed me over the edge of building a computer rather than buying one, was that my brother said his daughter built their computer.  It got my brain a whirlin'.

I had built a computer before and it intrigued me to think that McKay and I could do this as a project together.  I told a couple of people that "building a computer is like putting a child's puzzle together."  HA Ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!  When we were finished I realized it was more like a JIGSAW puzzle!!

Here is our beginning stash of components.

We were going to be frugal and use old parts that we had at home . . . . . we planned on using our old (used :) computer case (my brother calls it a chassis, more correct I'm sure!), used dvd burner, and used power supply. 

We dug into this old case and realized that it wasn't going to be possible to use this stuff, it was all riveted in.  I guess we could have drilled it out . . . . . but decided against it. 

A few days later, our new chassis arrived along with new power supply and new DVD burner/recorder/player (with a feature to somehow burn your own label onto the dvd, I'm sure many of you have that, but it is new to us).

My shy computer companion builder with our new chassis, power supply and dvd player (and cantaloupe).

Here is the motherboard that we have installed the new Intel i7 processor and fan, and the 8 Gigs of memory.  SWEET!

McKay, installing the motherboard.

I think that sticking his tongue out helped the process along ;)

Screwing in the screws, which, by the way, was the first of many times to screw these screws in (and out)!

Closing up the chassis . . . . . my housework went to pot during the three days we worked on the computer.  We even forgot to eat!!!

Our maiden voyage . . . . . . . I let McKay push the power button . . . . .  and dud . . . . . . nothing . . . . . . . It didn't work!!!!!   ARGHHHHH!!!!  We naively thought that assembling the computer, plugging it in and crossing all the t's and i's would magically give us a working computer.

Our first challenge was our power supply . . . . . . even though it was new . . . . . it did not contain a connection that we needed to get power to the processor.  After my dad, myself and brother searched high and low, my dad came up with a used power supply he had on hand that would work.

This was the connector we needed.  I was soooooo happy to see it! 

And the offending plug, that needed plugging!

Those little two prongs under the INTRD gave us fits also . . . . . when the chassis is open it gives a "chassis intrusion" error . .. . . . . so needed to close that circuit . . . . after many e-mails, texts and phone calls to both my dad and brother we got that taken care of.

I also (because McKay had defected by this point) had a problem mounting the motherboard. It would work OUTSIDE the chassis, but as soon as I put it back in it would stop working. I had that motherboard in and out at least a half dozen times maybe more.

I was ready to pull my hair out at this point. Again, talking to my dad and my brother, we decided it was a grounding problem and that I needed to insulate the motherboard from the chassis . . . . a little creative cutting of electrical tape took care of that . . . . .

These little babies on the old power supply became a challenge (there are two of them), because they were placed so close together. A little changing of the configuration of how we had mounted the DVD player and the hard drive made these work! Oh! Did I say we have a 1 Terabyte hard drive . . . . 1000 GIGs. . . . . Woo hoo!

And here you have it . . . . our lightening speed new computer.  We also upgraded to a wireless keyboard and mouse . . . . . why not? everything else was new.  Besides this new motherboard didn't have the older connections for the old (used) keyboard and mouse.  (I guess I could-a bought adapters, oh well!)  See what I mean jigsaw puzzle.

It was truly a group project!  This pic of the finished computer is with camera flash on . . . . .

This one without flash on . . . . . Cool huh?

There is only one problem that needs fixing . . . . and the fix is probably in a UPS truck at this moment. 

The CPU fan is so loud, that yesterday when I was installing all the drivers and programs that we need, I went in search of these . . . . .

Ahhhhhh. . . . blessed silence!

Maybe I can get McKay to install our new heat sink with super quiet fan. 

Heat Sink . . . . Isn't it a beauty?  (It'd better work!)

May it be the LAST time we open up that chassis . . . . . . . . . crossing my fingers!!!

Seriously though . . . looking back it was fun, and gave (gives) us a sense of accomplishment.

I dreamed a dream

Lincoln and I just couldn't resist.  When we found out that Les Miserables was going to be at the Kennedy Center we got on-line, booked the tickets, and ordered the sound track, since neither of us knew the music or the story.  We both loved listening to the music and getting familiar with the story line. 

We went to Les Mis on Thursday and were not disappointed.  I need a Thesaurus to describe the play.  It was fabulous, wonderful, amazing, incredible, heart rending, thought provoking   . . . . Do you think we liked it??? :)  The music hasn't left my head since we left the theatre.  I go to sleep thinking about it, wake up singing it and can't wait to find time to listen to the cd's again, now that I know what was going on during the songs!

I'm so glad that I have a husband who enjoys these type of things and is happy to go with me. . . . . THANKS Lincoln!  I had a great time!