Yep it's 100 here every day or more and sitting on a concrete patio in a pot (you can just see the patio on the edge of the picture). Hows that for endurance LOL. We just got a little rain shower. No rain for quite awhile now. My picture taking is pretty much done here now. I have 2 flowers today. I still have lots of pods tho :) Dot

I sewed some puckers in the back of a quilt I did last year. I'm generally a perfectionist, but I'm also very impatient & HATE "the ripper". As long as the pleat wasn't on the front or huge, I let it go. It was my first largish size quilt I quilted all by machine with a free motion foot (hexagons, triangles). I consider it my learning quilt since I learned a few things NOT to do, but it's still beautiful on both sides...the back is batik & disguises the puckers. I'm impatient & sewed too quick at times & therefore pushed (maybe shoved?) the quilt thru the machine. I also wasn't patient enough to flatten & adjust the quilt layers each & everytime I had to turn it, so with each & every turn, there's pucker potential. This will also happen if you don't pin or baste good enough. Again...I didn't baste as good as I should have. Ran out of pins. I also like the applique idea. But for me, unless it's a really large pleat or hole, that just adds more time to the project when I could be just done with this one & starting another one. ;) My scrapbooking motto is: "If it doesn't look right...glitter it". Glitter will fix just about any flaw or add some spice to a scrapbook page. I haven't quite figured out how to tactfully add glitter to my quilts. :)

You asked what behaviors. I think the dog is female from what dh has said. She barks a lot and for no reason. I think that could be dealt unless the dog is like moms and has supersonic hearing and tears out of the room barking at a sound no one else hears. They have a baby and the dog wakes the baby. One time they were on vacation and took the dog. They have 5 little girls - under the age of 6. Mom got out to go into the store and buy stuff for their rented cabin. The minute she opened the door, the dog was out and running. Straight into the store. Mom freaked and dad had to chase the dog all over the store. It was really funny to hear him tell it, but he was so embarrassed and mad too. It digs, but that happens with dogs. They have a pool and it jumps in and can't get out. We don't have a pool so no problem there. It chews up the kids stuffed animals and pillows, and seems to prefer those over its own toys. The main reason they can't keep it is because it nipped the baby and then knocked her over (she was crawling so not hurt, but still).

Thank you for the kind words, Yes, I know in the grand scheme of things this is not that big a deal. But, I have been without a kitchen for nearly seven months now- the novelty of cooking in the basement, and doing dishes by hand has worn off. Going to the party, I couldn't find the box where I packed the platters, so I used a basket I vacuumed wood shavings off of and ruined a facecloth wiping clean, then magically found a Christmas placemat to line the basket (I wasn't going to put food directly in there!), even though I pulled out tons of boxes looking for where I've packed away the cloth napkins. I can't even move much into the kitchen cupboards I do have, another long story- besides the delay in the granite countertop, several cupboards were not delivered with the original order, so part of what 'Allen' is doing is custom making the new cupboards, which means we can't install the second pantry and the other upper until those are here. (you know how the cupboards have to be installed in order...) Not that I could use the pantry anyways, as none of the pullout shelves, innards for one of the lazy susans, two banks of drawers, are not here, and I don't know how many doors don't close properly... And, as we are doing a total house reno DIY, we can't begin to demo the Master Bedroom until all the kitchen/dining room stuff comes out of the sewing room_ then the MB stuff will go in there while we work on that room. And, DD and DS are coming home for Christmas, so we can't move into their rooms temporarily... so looks like we'll be camping on an air mattress in our MB over Christmas (assuming we even have the kitchen stuff moved in...) It's not JUST the innumerable delays with the kitchen, but those delays are holding us back from so many other jobs. And you know, the holidays, are a recipe for stress anyways... Oh well, good thing I had to go out, cuz I might have really worked up a rage. And Lily, yes, part of me wanted to know what the explanation was this time, but I guess it doesn't really matter- they're not going to be here regardless... The reason for all the other delays, I really don't have the time to list them all- bottom line _ it's a new company, they are dealing with new suppliers (to them), they've had personnel problems_ our original lady was fired_ I'm now dealing with the manager and he is basically doing all the work himself on our kitchen. He is fabricating the granite himself (and part of me just cringes at the thought), and custom making all the cabinets, shelves and drawers that we still need. And, he still needs to run his business, and do all his other tasks. Anyhow, I'm so disappointed, if I could rest assured that all the delays just mean everything is going to be perfect, I think I could handle that, but that pit in my stomach is telling me that there could be serious problems with things- maybe I'm worrying needlessly, but I don't know...my spidey sense is tingling...