Fear

At church last Saturday, the priest asked what we feared. I fear snakes. It's probably an irrational fear but I know I am not alone and many others are as afraid of them as I am. I'm not sure why they give me the shivers because I know that they are good for keeping vermin down but they still seem to me to be slimey, slithery creatures. I must have inherited the fear from my dad.

At one time, I was deathly afraid of guns. I eventually overcame that fear by taking a gun safety class and learning how to handle and shoot a gun. I even bought a handgun that has only been used one time at a shooting range. This was how I beat out that fear and maybe that is how all fears should be dealt with.

Book Club

The Book for May is "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck. According to Wikipedia, it is "often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel". His inspiration for the book came from the fourth chapter of Genesis and Wikipedia does a comparison between Cain and Abel and some of the characters of the book.

I have loved this book for a long time and I'm thrilled that we are reading it for book club. My SO (who also is a big fan of the book) and I were walking the dogs the other day and I asked him who he thought fathered the boys that Adam raised. He said both Adam and Charles fathered the twins. I told him I thought that was nonsense and impossible but he proved me wrong and I have now discovered that while extremely rare, fraternal twins can have two different fathers. Guess you learn something new every day.

Tuesday Tunes - Etta James

Sewing workshop

Yesterday, ASG had a spring sewing workshop where several classes were offered. I took the Deli Lunch Tote class with the pattern designed by Penny Sturges and also taught by Penny Sturges. It was a great class and everyone's bag looked very nice and they were all unique. I was very excited with my fabric choice. Since I actually will use this little tote as a lunch bag, I wanted a food themed fabric. Joanne's had some great monkey fabric that I thought was really cute. I was able to find other fabrics that coordinated after a little more shopping. Here are some photos (it even comes with a cloth napkin).

Grateful Dawg

Dogs in Disguise

I can't imagine my dogs, or any dog for that matter, wearing clothing. I'm sure this Labrador Retriever is not too happy in this coat. The Jack Russell is probably less than pleased as well. The King Charles...well, maybe he's enjoying it just a wee bit.

Lawsuit

This weekend, I helped a friend who was being stonewalled by a company that had delivered landscape rock to her property. The delivery driver backed his truck into a small retaining wall cracking it and shifting it several inches backwards (fortunately, she had witnesses to this action). She called and wrote to the company asking it to pay her for the damages but to no avail. It probably thought she was some harmless old lady who would just get tired and give up after awhile. Not so, because this particular old lady got her Irish up and wanted her money which was not an insubstantial amount to one who is on social security.

We prepared a demand letter (for our friend's signature) to the company telling it what they did and how much money would satisfy our friend. To that letter, we attached a copy of a small claims complaint that would be filed in justice court if she didn't receive the results she was looking for and also a complaint with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors because this company was a licensed contractor and it had violated one or more of ROC's rules/statutes. She gave the company a week to respond and if it doesn't then she will move forward with the lawsuit and ROC action.

I hope the company will realize it's not nice to mess with an old lady especially one who has friends in the legal field.

One of the saddest songs ever

2008 Sew In

I received my "final payment" letter in the mail yesterday for the Sew In. That made me start thinking of what to take to sew. I don't want to just sew community service projects; I'd like to sew something for myself. Since Joanns had McCall's patterns on sale for $.99, I bought a few and maybe these should go in the running for the Sew In:

Or maybe this:
Or what about this:

Another favorite

John Lee Hooker with The Rolling Stones & Eric Clapton in 1989. John Lee was probably in his late 60s, early 70s then. We saw him at the Celebrity Theater a little before he died. He has the biggest hands I have ever seen!

A few of my favorite things

A happy springer spaniel and Bruce Springsteen.

Comment moderation

It has come to this; I have received four spam comments on my blog in the past two weeks and I have chosen now to moderate all comments for the time being. What is with these people?