Seo a-nis; càite bheil a' poit-ti?

"There you are- where is the teapot?"

(Sho a nish- kaah a veyll a pohtsh-tee?)

Whew! It has been quite a whirlwind the past week; I’m going to enjoy sitting here, with my feet propped & a cool drink in my hand for the next few days… yeah, right- you all know better. Truth be told, other then work, it will be pretty low-keyed around here.   

Let’s see… I left off on Thursday afternoon, right? After finishing work & going out for a walk, my co-worker (the one who came up with the idea) came over for a couple of hours to work on the baby quilt. C wanted me to teach her how to make quilts, so I showed her how to cut strips with the rotary cutter & build the block by sewing the strips along the edges of the center square. She put together the last two blocks we needed (I only had to re-do one of the squares), while I cut out the sashing & setting corners. After C  went home, I began putting the top together; looks like, barring any complications, I should have the top finished by Wednesday & can start machine quilting this weekend.

Friday was a bit of chaos; I’ve been training to cover for my co-worker, C, while both she & our boss are gone this week (whoever did that scheduling needs to be shot- I’ll be running the dept by myself for 3 days, which has never happened before) so I went into work at 6:30, instead of the usual 8:00 am, missing my weekly Jamba Juice date with Sam. We had a spot of excitement at work; as people were arriving at 8:30, they found the back parking lot swarming with police, firefighters, & a SWAT team. No one could seem to tell us what was going on, but as they were allowing people to come & go from the area, I figured it wasn’t anything serious; turns out they were doing some training at a vacant house a block from here. The young man who was picking up the mail that day, said as he was walking across the parking lot, he heard a loud “WOOMPH” & “BANG!!” behind him & decided to hit the ground; turns out they were firing smoke bombs into the house & storming it- poor guy thought he was in the firing line.

Chris spent the day at the fairgrounds in Livermore, setting up for the Games & didn’t get home until after 6:30- turns out, he’s come down with a cold (which I’ll probably have by next week) so he just crawled into bed & slept, while Sam & I went to rehearsal.

The Games were a big success; the weather was sunny & temperate (though rather windy) which was a huge improvement over the clouds & rain last year, the crowds were manageable & well behaved, & the performance schedule organized so that we were able to enjoy the event as well. Our group was the only Scottish Country Dance class doing demonstrations & we performed once each day, which allowed plenty of time to shop, eat, & listen to the music. There were some unique events this time- they include jousting & fencing demos, along with the traditional sheepherding, Shinty (a cross between soccer & field hockey), rugby, heavy games & living history display. I’ll include some pictures tonight of some of the things we saw, including an inflatable pub! I got to listen to my favorite groups, The Browne Sisters & Golden Bough, heard a couple new bands, bought a couple of things for each of us, & found a wedding gift for my brother & his fiancée, so I feel my time was well spent. Saturday evening we went to a couple of ceilidhs on the grounds following closing ceremonies, ate entirely too much food, & drank a few “wee drams”; Sunday, after we helped with break down & cleanup, we had a couple more “wee drams”, went had dinner at our friends’ house- steak, beans, salad, & French bread- before heading for home & bed. 

As I said before, I’m going to be on my own this week at work, which means getting up at the butt-crack of dawn (Mama doesn’t do 5:00am, except until extreme protest) so I honestly don’t know if I will be conscious enough to string more than 3 together at a time; so if I don’t update, trust I will return by the weekend.

Blessings!

Tha mo bhàta-foluaimein loma-làn easgannan! (My hovercraft is full of eels!)