We're leaving in about 15 minutes for the airport (I'm killing time while he's in the shower). He's attending St. John's College in New Mexico. Not quite on the other side of the country. But far enough that it makes no difference and he doesn't expect to be back until December.

I finished Victory on August 8! My first full size HAED finish!
I celebrated by starting Peace by A Stitcher's Hands. The model was stitched over one on 28 count linen, but since I despise stitching over one on linen I decided to do it on 40 count. This design is so big that I needed a whole yard of fabric of for it! I'm using 40 count Legacy from Picture This Plus (an absolutely gorgeous fabric) and silks from Hand Dyed Fibers. I only worked on it for a day because I'm not totally happy with the conversion and need to tweak it a bit. So to continue rewarding myself I started A Confabulation of Dragons from Heaven and Earth Designs. I'm afraid there's going to be a slew of new starts in my future since I was restrained for so long. I do tend to over-do.

My daughter's car was declared a total loss. She was so happy. We spent the last couple of days car shopping and I must admit I'm totally flummoxed. The first dealership told her she could get a new car and then was unable to find financing. They then told us the banks were saying the payment had to be under $200 with $2800 down so they were trying to find a used car for her that would work. The next dealership had a better selection of used cars so I thought we would have less trouble finding something she liked that would be affordable enough. She ended up driving off with a brand new Suzuki SX4 and a $350 payment. And was told because of the repossession (6 years ago!) the banks didn't want to give us money for a second used car. I actually don't understand at all. My daughter is ecstatic, though.

I had hoped to finish Victory today but, alas, that was not to be.

On Friday night I got a call from my daughter. She lost the key to her car and needed me to pick her up when she got off work at eleven. She had been told by a lock smith that her key had a chip in it and she would have to go to a dealer to get it replaced. So Saturday she takes my car and ends up having to drive down to Salisbury. Turns out there was not chip and the key was less than $20.

So we're all set right? But no. On the way home she was involved in a minor fender bender. A very old man in a pickup with a cap hit her in the front fender when he decided he needed to get over to the right and apparently didn't bother to look or couldn't see. She calls me hysterical because the old guy was yelling at her, telling her it was her fault, and refused to take her insurance information until the police officer arrived. She didn't get a ticket or anything and the damage was cosmetic. My car got the worst of it with a fairly large dent right behind the driver side headlight along with a lot of red and black paint. Okay, so I'm not too happy, but nobody was hurt and my car is pretty much fine.

On to today when she again calls me hysterical. Crying so hard I can't understand her, but I finally manage to make out her saying she's never going to drive again. We had some pretty bad storms today and she was on her way home and either hydroplaned or hit a patch of water. She says she wasn't going that fast (which the witness who stopped to help her also said). But after what happened yesterday, I think she panicked and was so concerned about not hitting an on-coming car that she way overcompensated and ended up doing a 180 and slammed her car into a ditch. Hard enough that she couldn't get the driver's door open and the back end is somewhat buried. They took her to the hospital because she's a teeny thing and she must have hit the door fairly hard when the side of the car hit the side of the ditch. Thank God she's okay, though. They sent her home with a knee and ankle brace and told her to stay off her feet for a couple of days. It could have been much worse and has been for a couple of teens that we know (who recently lost their lives in similar accidents).

So, almost no stitching done. What with all the driving to and fro and worrying. And hopefully we're done with all the high drama for awhile.

I've had eight finishes during my hiatus. I think that's more than I have finished in the six years previous! There certainly is something to be said about one-at-a-time stitching. My most recent is Illuminated House Blessing designed by Patricia Andrle.

I did make one minor change to the design and substituted "possums" for "ferrytes". After all, I've never had a ferryte invade my home.

I'm looking forward to hanging this. Provided I ever have any extra money to get it framed and I'm able to allow myself to put holes in my walls!

I've got pretty much everything put away now, except for my stitching stuff. That's all sitting in a big pile in my room and I'm hoping to get it all organized this weekend. I've saved the end of my closet (which has two shelf/rod thingees, one at about chest height. Perfect for those 60 drawer storage things. I can fit two on the shelf and am going to see how putting four DMC colors in each drawer works out. If I decide I need more room, I can hang two more of the cabinets on each side of the shelf. But I'm reluctant to do that at this point. The whole putting holes in the walls thing, you know.