St. Patrick's Parade 3-13-10 - Drip Dry Dragon

Another march down Spring Road behind the Elmhurst Armpit Orchestra. I'm not sure if there is a reason why we are placed behind them, but they are fun, and entertaining and make the wait seem shorter. We typically walk at the end of the parade, because we collect recyclables. I'm not sure what they did to deserve being at the end...

It rained on our parade this year. Rain was predicted, so we came prepared with umbrellas, ponchos, etc. That kind of cancelled out all the green we were wearin'.

This is an acitvity or our church's (First Congregational UCC) Green Team. The ClutterBug is a Chinese Dragon type critter, that I made last year, to give the Green Team something interesting for the parade. It is a work in progress, growing and changing every parade. Lots of church members joined in, and we had fun. The heavy rain waited until the parade was over, but not until we got into our cars which were parked a long way from the end of the parade route. Oh well . . .

The ClutterBug marched too, with Bob, Karen and I, inside. It was snug and dry in there, but it gives an odd perspective on the parade. Basically, you can see some feet along the sides and the person in front of you - Bob in this case. His view was through the ClutterBug's nose. When I listed what I wanted to be when I grew up, a ClutterBug wasn't even a glimmer of an idea. Who'd a thought..


The ClutterBug is reclining over the tops of several folding chairs, to dry out. Some ironing will be needed, too, I think.

Dog house

This is the 3rd dog house I've built and I don't have a dog! The dog house on the house BOM quilt was bothering me. I am 'triangle challenged' as a quilter, and the little ones in the dog house did me in. I showed a close-up of the 2nd one, a while back so you could see that someone was at home, in it. So - this is the latest re-make. I've also started doing some detail stitching on the quilt top. Hope I don't ruin it.

Random Thoughts

I just noticed, on the hand dryer in our building, the following notice;

Caution
Hot surface
Avoid contact

and I thought . . . what a perfect choice of words! Concise and to the point. Think about how much time might have gone into planning those few perfect words. Think about how you would have said it . . .

Parking - my need to get a parking spot behind our building keeps me on schedule every day. There is, maybe, a 10 minute window after 8: a.m. before the lot is full. I always plan appointments for the afternoon, so that I don't have to worry about re-parking in employee lot. There is a 3 hour limit everywhere else. Recently, in one of these situations, where I re-parked, I was returning to my car, pressed the button, and - no beep! Then, just as I was about to press it again - the car beeped. I looked at the 'key', looked at the car and reached for the handle. "That's my car!" said a voice directly behind me. Ooops, she was right, of course. That's where my car was, earlier. Mine was a few slots over.

Yesterday I met an old friend

After church yesterday, we were invited to a dear friend's home for lunch, and to talk over the annual meeting, and to listen to "Irish Thunder" - a series of PBS TV shows with Irish male singers. In the series of 3 programs, we watched one young lad, Damien I think, grow up. It was delightful and I'm quite sure he is a super star. It reminded me of watching Donny Osmond grow up, but this kid did it in one afternoon.

When we arrived, and went to put our coats in Judy's guest room, I saw this adorable doll sitting on a chair. Of course, I commented on it - "Oh, what a cute doll" or something like that. Judy looked at me as said "Well it should be, YOU MADE IT!" The weird thing is that I don't have any memory of making it, but I do recognize it when I see it, and know that I did.
Sometimes I worry about my memory, or lack of it - but I think it just a case of needing more RAM - my brains are full.