the squig, originally uploaded by kellypuffs.

Sorry, sorry, sorry!

Soon, this blog will be:

Kellypuffs – All Kittehs, All the Time

And I will lose both my readers.

as purists everywhere cringe, originally uploaded by kellypuffs.

One of my quilt rescues.

It wasn’t a particularly wonderful example of a vintage quilt, but I fell in love with the stars.

Lovely red, pink, blue and white stars, depending on the degree of fading (and that degree varies wildly across this quilt), chunkily blanket-stitched on white, liberally stained squares of poor quality fabric that is deteriorating rapidly. The backing is a particularly heinous light blue polyester sheet. It was not quilted, but tied.

So I brought it home and have been working on it in fits and starts.

I started quilting it. I took the bold step of patching the holey parts with contrasting fabric of similar color to their original neighbors, blanket-stiched, again, to match the original.

I patched the worst spots, and then spot-treated the worst stains and threw the quilt into a light bleach load in the washer.

Line dried in today’s beautiful weather, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

It has been successfully rehabilitated into a household quilt that can continue to be used, loved, and worked on…. for a loooong time.

I grew up understanding that there are two kinds of illness: the kind that makes you vomit and the kind that makes you bleed.

If you have a vomity illness, you require ginger ale.

If you have a bleedy injury, you need to walk it off.

Anything else is malingering.

You’ll notice that in this view, there is really only ONE kind of illness – physical.

There IS no mental illness, only mental weakness. And if folks would just pull themselves up by their bootstraps and pull themselves together, everyone would be just fine.

FINE.

2WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWF3G (sorry, that was Squiggle. He likes to “help”.)

So imagine my consternation when I took a magazine quiz the other day and discovered that I am THE gold standard of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Come, take it with me. You’re supposed to rate each statement on a scale of 0 to 3, 0 being “not at all like me”, to 3 being “JUST like me”.

I tend to overlook details.
I prefer to think of it as “big-picture” thinking, okay? I’m a visionary, not an actuary. 2.

It’s hard for me to listen for long periods of time in meetings.
You mean there are people who find it EASY to listen for long periods of time in meetings?!? 3.

I wander from one task to the next without completing them.
We call this “multi-tasking”. The tasks get finished, but not in one fell swoop. 2.

I jump from topic to topic in conversation.
This is a bad thing? Then why did they invent the word “non-sequitor”? I can’t help it if you can’t follow my inner monologue which is running at light-speed, while I wait for the rest of you slow people to catch up. 3.

I tend to fidget or doodle.
Um. Yeah. 3.

I interrupt others during conversations, even when I try not to.
Um, I don’t THINK I do this. Do I? 0.

It seems much harder for me compared with others to take care of daily tasks.
Do you mean the mind-numbing minutiae that can eat up every day if you let it, like paying bills, cleaning the house, scooping the kitty litter, feeding the family, etc? 3.

I pick up and drop hobbies and interests.
You have only to follow this blog for the SMALLEST period of time to know THAT. 3.

I have difficulty planning ahead.
I DON’T plan ahead. 3.

I’m forgetful.
What were we saying? 3.

I frequently misplace personal objects.
3.

My home and office are cluttered and messy.
No comment. 3.

I tend to run late.
I HATE arriving late to anything, and am usually the first one to arrive. 0.

I have difficulty developing routines for me or my family.
hahahahahahahaha. 3.

Meal planning is challenging for me.
See this post. 3.

I often start reading books but rarely finish them.
Sadly, this is true these days, more often than not. 3.

If this were elementary school, I’d ace this quiz. Gold stars for me. Yay!

Alas, I’m not sure if I need ginger ale or to “walk it off”.

Please advise.

This commercial speaks to me. Do they know their target audience, or what?

I love the soundtrack of this ad so much I bought the song on iTunes.

It’s “See You on the Moon” by the Great Lake Swimmers.

It’s the 3945th day of rain.

A church in Medway got struck by lightning.

Boston.com today featured an article “How to Build an Ark”.

The north forty is doing a passable imitation of Walden Pond.

It’s cold and it’s damp. Everything FEELS damp. Magazines and book pages are curling up.

We huddle in our home, wearing sweatshirts and heavy socks. We’re NOT turning on the heat, are you INSANE?!?! IT’S JULY!!! However, if we had a wood stove or a fireplace, it would be roaring, baby.

Our local grocery store remodeled a few years ago, and put in a fancy lounge area with a gas fireplace. It was going when we shopped yesterday, and I will admit to standing with my back to the fire for a few glorious minutes while HImself picked up the 500th issue of Mad magazine.

Outside? Is there an “outside”?

The dog goes “outside” regularly, and comes back all soaked and smelly.

I’m not warming to the idea, myself.

It’s the start of the 4th of July weekend, one of my favorite holidays in the year (legacy of being an Army brat, I guess), and it’s not looking good for parades, backyard barbecues and fireworks.

They aren’t forecasting sunshine til SUNday.

If I weren’t so waterlogged, I’d appreciate that more.

how green is my valley, originally uploaded by kellypuffs.

Our summer of rain has turned my backyard into a rainforest.

We (yes, that is the royal “we”) mowed the lawn 3 days ago.

It needs it again.

I’ll just ask him nicely:

“Are you EVER going to get around to mowing the lawn?!?!”

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, by Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.”

Genius!

Americans We, originally uploaded by kellypuffs.

We’re playing music again … with the Atlantic Wind Symphony Summer Pops.

It’s been a while, but the muscle memory is starting to return for old favorites like Americans We.

There are some new pieces too … Chuck Mangione’s Bellavia is my latest earworm. Being totally unfamiliar to me, I bought it on iTunes because although I can sight-read, I learn much faster if I know what it’s supposed to sound like. I listened to it so much this week, I think I now know it by heart. I just wish I wasn’t sitting in front of the 1st trumpets, who for 32 measures play in a octave usually reserved for the piccolo, directly into my ear.

We’ve got an arrangement of the Overture from Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers that is a challenge as well. .. and I can only find this arrangement on poor-quality amateur videos on YouTube.

But it’s great fun and a good challenge… keeps me on my toes.

The concert is only a few weeks away … time to practice some more!