25 September 2005

Rita, the epilogue

Yesterday and today were spent deconstructing our hurricane preparations, letting friends and relatives know that we came through just fine, and just recovering physically and emotionally. Having a hurricane approach you is a bit like watching a train wreck come your way in extreme slow motion. It takes days, the new coverage is constant, and you're on an emotional roller-coaster. First, there's the search for supplies, then the worry about what might happen, the constant nerves about what is coming as the storm approaches. Also, there's the work to get everything prepared, so your mind is constantly working. When you feel you can't get any more prepared, then there is the waiting, and the news . In our case, when the storm ws over, there was also the relief that the storm was not worse in our area.

Cleanup continues, the kids are still off from school, and people are still returning to the city. We ventured out to a Whataburger last night and the drive through line went all the way aroung the building! They were only doing a limited menu as well - but we were tired of eating canned goods, so we waited in the line and were happy to get some french fries. As problematic as the evacuation was, nearly 3 million people did leave the area in a very short amount of time (Houston is the fourth largest city in the US). Lessons were learned, so hopefully, the next time will be smoother. We certainly learned a few things ourselves (like buy water early - and get extra gas containers when we can).

23 September 2005

Calm before the storm

Rita Watch Day 5:

And now we wait. The wind has definitely picked up, but we haven't had any rain yet. The bands will actually have to travel a ways to get to us, so it might be fairly late tonight before we get some rain. We have remarked a few times about how lucky we are to live in a time when we do have weather forcasting and radar. Even with the evacuation problems, millions have been able to move out of the way of the storm and prepare. 8000 people died in the 1900 Labor Day hurricane in Galveston, and I don't think they even knew it was coming. There are still tradgies though, like the bus explosion near Dallas.

Here we are neighbor helping neighbor and friend helping friend. After the storm passes, we'll be reaching out to the the Red Cross again to see what can be done for the worst hit areas.

Meanwhile, we let the dogs run in the yard while the weather is still good, stock up on ice while the power is still on, pray for everyone in the path of the storm, and stitch when we can.

22 September 2005

Lovely Rita, Meter Maid

Rita Watch, Day 4:http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200518_model.html

We have gone from convergence on the models to divergence. Landfall is looking to be east of here, which is better for us (of course, that's bad for someone else). Our little group is now up to six, plus two dogs and one cat. Our friends from Clear Lake made it in late last night after taking five and half hours to get here (it usually only takes a little over 1 hour). Our other friends were just going to drop a car off early this morning. The last mile on the highway took 2 hours. They started heading to College Station, then decided to come back to our house when they heard it might take upwards of 18 hours (when it usually takes an hour and half).

We've spent the day trying to get prepared, if anyone can get prepared. This included picking up the rocks that line the flower beds, taking everything off the patio, getting all the supplies organized, looking for more canned goods. Now all we can do is watch an wait. Well, we can collect the important papers and irreplacables together (including the stitching).

Personally, it is time to take a break from watching the weather and the news, although it is hard not to check the trajectory every 5 minutes. I think we're going to settle in and watch Lost from last night. I guess I'm going to have to check the web to see what happened on Survivor. That can wait a while, though. Let's see who survives Rita first.

21 September 2005

Water, water everywhere

Rita watch day 3: http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/tracking/at200518_model.html

Looks like Rita is heading our way. We've stocked up on non-perishible items, made sure we have batteries. Gassed up the car (luckily I did that early, the lines last night were crazy). The stores were crazy last night; I'm glad DH dragged me out shopping, since I had planned to do it tonight. We were also lucky that I had picked up a few things Monday because they were completely out of bread, the chips were decimated, the canned goods were minimal. What I'm missing, though is water. Last night we went to the Walmart, a Kroger, a Target, and a CVS - all of them were out of water in cases. This morning, I stopped in at another CVS, back in at the Walmart (where I waited around for 15 minutes on the rumor that they were going to restock the water supply), tried Home Depot, and no luck. Lunch time was a water quest with a co-worker. We tried Costco - which had Propel and Perier, but not much else, then back to Target, where I stocked up on a few more snacks. My friend had decided that she didn't want to go through the storm, so she kindly sold me her stock of water that she had already gotten (some months earlier). The ironic thing is that I was low on canned goods because not two weeks ago, I gave all my canned goods in a drive to replinish Houston food pantries which were low because of Katrina!

We're also taking in Rita evacuees - two friends of ours are coming up from the Clear Lake area, with their dogs, so we'll see how the dogs and the cat get along. They're on the edge of the Category 4 mandatory evacuation area, but it is close. Also, apparently once you're out, you're not allowed back for a while.

In other news, my good friend may have had her baby or may be about to have her baby. Why am I unsure? Because I learned this by getting an out-of-office bounce back from her when I sent her an email about the impending hurricane!

19 September 2005

Don't say I didn't warn you

Rita watch day 1: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/153924.shtml?5day?large

Have we learned lessons from Katrina? I for one, will be stocking up on supplies, and on gas (which of course, will be going up again this week), and gathering up important documents. Now Houston isn't a bowl like New Orleans, but having lived in the city during the Allison floods, it can get pretty wet.

In weekend news, I finally got the dragon design finalized, although it tried to throw a few bugs at me as I was pulling threads for it Friday night. Saturday, I picked up the last threads I needed for the model, dropped off all the other models at the LNS along with the hanging curtain I'd made (since all the models just have velcro to keep them up and they'd been bracing them up with nails for each model). Then I went to the Post Office to mail the model off, and got stuck behind someone who's never used the Automate Postal Machine before. Now admittedly, I probably aggravate people because I have to get postage for the return envelope as well as the parcel that I'm sending, but at least I'm quick about it. This person read every screen, debated every question preseneted, actually checked the bin when the system asked if his package would fit (and he was just mailing an express mail envelope), then bailed at the end when it came time to pay! Argh! 10 minutes of my day wasted! I finished my mailing, then hurried off as I still had to stop by Walmart, grab a sandwich and do some last minute cleaning before a photography client came over! Anyway, photography finally over, the evening was spent quietly watching football, stitching, and playing Halo. I finally got to watch half of Survivor.

Sunday was much the same, with some things getting done, including a little bit of laundry, a little bit of cleanging, a little trip to the gym, and a bit of stitching. The Katrina Kitty is about 60-70% done.

I did pick up my copy of the Just Cross Stitch ornament magazine while I was at the LNS. I look at it with a completely different eye than I did just a few years ago. I look at which designers are in it, and what the designs are like.

16 September 2005

Blah blah blah Yay Friday!

Everything and nothing seems to be going on in my life at the same time, so I am glad that Friday is finally here and maybe I can catch some rest over the weekend. Work is a rush of little jobs and long waits; my mind is a frenzy of stitching ideas; I feel like I am constanly working on a million little tasks while still figuring out what is left to do. Meanwhile, I still need to call home, put away the dishes, and do the laundry. On the other hand, the important things in life are still getting done: the cat is getting fed and petted, the husband gets fed and hugged, I get up and go to work every day.

I can hardly believe it is almost the first day of fall, not that we're going to see any fall weather soon around here, but somehow it slipped from mid summer to early fall without me noticing. The sunlight does seem to be taking on a different quality when I come home in the evenings that perhaps has to do with the shortening days. I am hoping that some cooler weather will follow. I promised my flower beds that I would weed them when the temperatures fell. I also want to get some new chrysathemum plants. The ones I have are growing like crazy, and it was warm enough here that they bloomed in the spring as well as the fall (although one was pulled by an over-zelous gardener before it started to sprout).

This weekend I will spend my stitching time working on the Katrina design so that it can go out with a model picture.

14 September 2005

Is it just me?

Or do places where my family lives have hurricane targets painted on them? First Katrina ravages South Louisiana. Now Ophelia is dumping on North Carolina. Emily made a near-miss on the in-laws earlier this year. If you're reading this and you live in Tennesse, Germany, or the Houston area, I'd get ready for a hurricane.

Katrina has been a lot on my mind the past two weeks. It has, at times, been very hard to watch the news. Growing up in Baton Rouge, New Orleans was kind of like the crazy neighbor that was fun to visit at times. The food was good, the music was good, and if you knew when to go, the weather might be good too. I've been trying to read about the other designers and shop owners in the area to see how they fared. I've heard some word - some ok, some probably not as ok. Here in Houston, we've had lots of Katrina drives to support the people who've had to relocate to Texas. The phone lines into Louisiana are still up and down, so that is hard; it reminds us that it wasn't so long ago that the communication lines we take for granted now weren't available.

For now we move on. Our own personal "evacuee" returned from Germany over the weekend and then went back to Baton Rouge. I'm almost done with my Katrina design, which will be sized to fit into the requirements of the Hurricane Katrina Quilt project, details of which can be seen here: http://p105.ezboard.com/bhurricanekatrinaquiltproject

Stitching updates: I'm working diligently on the welcome design - it should go out this weekend. That leaves two more in design phase. I've also finally come up with a good idea (I hope) for a baby sampler for my nephew - so expect to see that design coming out this spring (as long as the concept pans out). The Fantasy Faire model came back and looks fantastic! (Thanks Charlie) It is also begging for a companion piece - I have a rough sketch done for this.

Busy, busy, busy, that's what is going on here- but somehow the laundry just doesn't get done!

12 September 2005

The old conundrum

I am faced with the old conundrum: what to do for dinner? It quite the grueling decision because it is grocery-shopping day, so the answer must be made for the whole week. At this rate, I may just cruise the frozen-food section and see if anything interesting jumps into the basket. The problem is I'm looking for something fast, yet healthy, that we haven't had in the last month. Ok, that's not entirely true; I'd eat it again, even if I'd had it in the last week. But I don't want take out from Lupe Tortilla's like DH keeps suggesting. (Even if the thought of no dishes is a bit tempting). The problem will eventually solve itself. Food will find its way onto a plate and I will eat it - not eating is not an option as that is an invitation for migraines and just general crankiness.

On the stitching front - the designer day at Needle and Thread went very well, even if it did rain. I hope to book some trunk shows at other shops eventually. It is so hard to capture the true colors and look of stitched pieces in a photograph and then translate that onto a printed page. I also finally got some test stitching done on the dragon welcome piece while watching football. Hopefully it will be ready to go to the model stitcher very soon. Meanwhile, my brain is churning with all kinds of different designs - now just to find some time to get them out and onto paper!

07 September 2005

Labor Day means....

According to my husband, Labor Day means we must labor. The furniture rearranging bug set in: wouldn't the secretary desk look good in the entry hallway instead of the dining room? Then wouldn't the bookcase from the family room look good where the secretary desk was? That looks so good, let's put the other book cases in the dining room as well! Let's move the map case into the family room. How should the couch go? (We tried it about five different ways) If we're moving the television from the gameroom, shouldn't it really go into the bedroom? Now the gameroom needs rearranging. I think there were only two rooms in the house that weren't rearranged or cleaned in the whole weekend. All in all, the house looks different and fuller without buying any more furniture. We also put more pictures up on the walls, and had a side trip to Ikea for a few decorating shelves. It is not something I'd like to do every weekend - in fact, I almost needed an extra day to recover from my long weekend!

Needless to say, I didn't get much stitching done. I did get the newest desings packed up for the Yarn Tree order so that they could be shipped on Tuesday. I also attended my LNS's market gossip night Tuesday. I'd never been to this before and it was pretty fun. The store owner had made bags up with the free stuff she'd gotten from the Columbus market - fabric squares and different gizmos from the different companies. There were also some bigger prizes: bags, a t-shirt, and nice patterns. We each got to pick randomly from the bags, then open them one at a time and she talked about what the items represented to the industry. I won a t-shirt and a nice bag. I also picked up some new thread that she showed made out of bamboo - I'm hoping to use it in a new design that has a Chinese theme, so I think it will be perfect. It was also interesting to be a designer at the event - the owner gave away a copy of one of my designs (because she was one bag short of being able to around an even number of times). When people realized I was the designer, they bought three more patterns so that I could autograph them! I'll have to learn to carry around a good autographing marker with me just in case!

I'm trying to multitask on several designs. I have the dragon welcome design in the final design stages - just color selection and then color testing to go before it can be stitched. Another design is in mid-design stage on the computer, and the Chinese design is in a half-sketched, half graphed stage. I've also been trying to work on something as a Katrina design. I have something started and I think I will make it so that it will fit into the quilt size parameters. Sometimes there are too many pots and not enough fires!