My weekend ended up starting on Friday, inadvertently. Thursday afternoon, evening and night, we had a fairly substantial heavy, wet snowfall, about 10-12", along with driving 30 mpr winds. Then the temp started to fall and it was a mess. We live in an area where we have old overhead power lines and tons of mature trees, so we always have power outages - so many, in fact, that we just installed a new natural gas powered generator that automatically starts up when the electricity goes off. Thursday evening the power went off about 8:00 or so, and our new generator kicked in. I noticed that it sounded like it was running a little unevenly, but at least I had light, heat and flushing toilets. I was quilting away when I heard beeping and a woman's voice. "Warning. Carbon Monoxide." I went down the basement and I could smell exhaust, probably from the generator (which is outside). I immediately called the gas company and my husband who is in Colorado. I opened doors and windows and the snow was being driven into the house. Mike called a friend of ours who began digging out of his driveway so he could come and help me. I bundled up and went to sit and wait out in our solarium which is unheated and separated by a door from the rest of our house. The generator meantime had stopped working (good thing, because I didn't know how to shut it off.) The gas company and our friend Ron got there in about an hour and confirmed that it was the generator and made sure it wouldn't go back on, and I spent a dark, chilly, flushless, and mostly sleepless night. I was mostly bummed that my quilting weekend was turning into a bust. I couldn't get to work because of the 18" snowdrifts in the driveway. But miracle of miracles, the power was restored by 8:30 Friday morning, and the cause of the malfunctioning generator was found to be snow and ice driven into the filter, which caused excessive CO to be present in the exhaust. We do have to do find the leaks into the house and spray insulating foam into them though. I'm certainly glad I was awake when the power went off. I don't know if I would have heard the downstairs CO alarm if I was asleep. The one outside my bedroom needed new batteries, and we hadn't installed them. Lesson learned. Oh, and you're supposed to replace CO detectors every five years so the gas company tech told me. I'm feeling pretty damn lucky, and I've been quilting up a storm. I've gotten the top to Peekaboo Monkeys almost done, I made the PP lotto block and the weekend's just beginning. Yahoo!

It's only been 24 hours since Grumpy arrived, and things are beginning to settle down. Bump is acting like the all-knowing big brother and gives Grumpy a light thump on the head when he's trying to usurp Bump in the hierarchy of the family. Stella is still hissing, but no longer threatening to seriously maim and destroy. She's been asking me how long we intend to have a cat, and when is this babysitting job going to end, and she doesn't care for my answers...lol! Grumpy will keep his name because its origin is rather cool, and gives him a bit of kinship with Bump. I've come to the conclusion that he is seriously stupid, or ferociously brave (leaning towards brave) because he's been ignoring the age and size of Stella and Bump. If he wants something, he simply bounces his way into it and ignores the warnings coming from his siblings, each of whom outweight him by a good 12 pounds. Grumpy is extremely active, sleeps seldom, and has an affinity for toes. He loves pizza and asiago cheese, having stolen a bit of each at different times this morning. And, I'm happy to report, he has convinced Bump that it's okay to eat wet food. Bump has an expensive habit of only eating the gravy off of wet food, leaving the meat to go bad. However, I've seen him eat more wet food in the last 24 hours than I have in the last six months. Now I won't feel so bad about spending 1.39 a can. I'm scrapping my plans to get any sewing done today due to a lack of sleep (only got about 3 hours last night because someone had already gotten some sleep and wanted to play) but I'm heading into my bedroom now to read some quilting magazines, and probably have my toes washed and nibbled...lol!

I have been busy with odd and ends projects for two weeks and getting so much done, that I've put sewing on hold. I'm toying with giving my g'son a wool quilt I made, because he likes the warm, heavy quilts and uses them. If I decide to, then I need to do some knotting on it to reinforce the layers together before Christmas. I made the one quilt to send to the Children's home and just decided not to put Christmas gifts on the agenda to sew. I would like a Christmas with no extra pressure or rush, and this year is it. LOL. I did get the sewing room walls finished. Good-bye loud paisley wallpaper.

I'm pouting this weekend. Our chorus has been practising for 12 weeks for our holiday concert, which is tomorrow. I have such a cold and sore throat that every time I open my mouth to sing I start coughing and choking. This is the second time in three years that this has happened and I have had to be a spectator instead of a participant. Has anyone else noticed that the older you get, the more severe these stupid colds are? I did get the tree decorated today, but I don't have enough energy left for baking any cookies. But I can sit and quilt, and that's just what I'm going to do. I'm quilting a table runner in a very simple pattern - good for a sick day project. Oh, my wonderful husband just made me what he calls a "geriatric manhattan." One part whiskey, two parts sweet vermouth, sparkling water and a cherry with a touch of juice. Now that's quite a soother for a sore throat. It may impair my quilting, however. I hope everyone has a great weekend. And Kate, be careful of that knee.