Go For It
5:58 a.m. - 2006-10-29


I made three shirts in one week, the apple green prototype, the red 1860's print, and a gray/green rayon. I continue to refine the pattern, but it fits pretty well now. No wait, I also made a new pattern, same idea, out of a really bright hot pink/yellow/purple fruit and flower print I found squirreled away in the white cupboard. So four shirts in one week. Three don't have the buttonholes yet, but at least they are done. Next up is an orange shirt for Thanksgiving wear and the Melissa shirts. The reason for all this activity is that when I made the apple green shirt, I accidentally made the shirt in the perfect width and length, so now that I have discovered that these measurements look good on me, I can use them to alter other patterns. Serendipity.

Yesterday we went for a drive up to Sutter Creek, going the back way up the river road. It was a beautiful day, a lucky break for us since we had put off washing the humongous comforter, but Saturday morning had realized that the season was slipping away. Since we need a bright sunny day to dry the thing on the clothesline, we hustled over to the laundromat and used the giant washer. I love that thing. It costs $5.25 for one load, but it is like an aircraft turbo engine, huge and powerful, and I like to watch the big comforter swishing around in the giant washer tub. I am easily amused. Anyhow, after that, we draped it over the clothesline and set off on our drive.

There was lots of fall color, California-style, but not so many people out. We walked around Sutter Creek, finding the old store museum opened this trip. That place is very interesting since it was open from 1868 until 1972 and is now a museum. It still has all the old merchandise including a stack of old knitting pamphlets that the man there let me look at. I want those pamphlets! But I can't have them. We ate lunch in a diner, and then drove to Volcano because the store museum guy had told us the drive was pretty. The spouse decided to cut across country on the way home, and we ended up on 6 miles of one-way road, narrow with a huge drop off on the right (my side). We looked at the start of the road and the sign that said it was one way, and he asked, "What do you think?" I was feeling adventurous so replied, "Go for it!" What an idiot! At one point the entire road was washed out and we had to go offroad. Only met two cars going the other direction, and the timing was good in that there was room for us to pull over instead of having to back up three miles. Quite an adventure.

As we drove through Jackson, we saw the sign for the new Indian casino. To further our research for our future opus, Restrooms of the Western World, we decided to go see it. It is brand new and quite nice. We only went in the the hotel to check out the facilities, but the huge parking complex was quite full. I guess the place is sucking up a lot of the tourist activity and keeping the tourists off the roads. Only one creepy note: There is an attractive skyway (elevated walkway) from the garage to the hotel, and on the far end was a pool of what looked like blood on the ledge, with dried rivlets streaming away in several directions.

We had dinner in Rio Vista at an Italian restaurant down near the water. The place was very nice looking, good service, but the food was just not good Italian food. His lasagna had big chunks of mostly raw eggplant in it, which of course did not thrill him. I think that if you are going to stick chunks of eggplant in something, it should say so on the menu so he can avoid it.

Today is going to involve church, sewing, DVD watching, and exercising. He is going to stain the deck, having powerwashed it yesterday. Better him than me.