There are excessive heat warnings out for the next few days. So what do you do when you're a lifeguard? You wet down a towel and wear it as a turban. LOL He also jumps in the pool at each break to cool off. And drinks lots and lots of water. Doesn't Big C look cute?
This is the current state of the Dottie Angel Baby Blanket, as I'm calling it. I'm going to be working on it some today, so you can look forward to seeing another update on it soon.
Well girls...this is what I look like on Day 29 of working at the pool. It's a horrible photo since no one would take a photo for me (Small T is at camp and the boys couldn't be bothered) and I had to do it myself. But, I think you can see my tan line on my shoulder. For those that will question me, yes...I use sunscreen each and every day. SPF 50, to be exact. Yes, I sit in the shade as much as possible. I usually get about an hour of full sun when we first open each afternoon and I do have to walk around periodically, but I try very hard to not be in the sun all of the time. 8 hours of it each day is just too much sun. By the way, I took this photo when I got home from the pool last night. I look like I had been put through the wringer, and that's exactly how I felt. (For the first time in two years, someone threw up in the pool...can you imagine...it wasn't pretty and it was very hard to clean up.) Yesterday was the first day of the four day excessive heat warning for our area. It's supposed to be 100 degrees today for the actual temperature. Whew!
This is the current state of the Dottie Angel Baby Blanket. I finished up the second strip this evening after work and also started on the third strip. (Pepper is keeping guard over it while he's sleeping. Trust me...he knows if you move it. LOL)
Here's my lifeguard. He worked at the pool today (out in the heat). He's been freezing ever since he got home. He's not only wrapped up in the quilt, but he has my winter fleece bathrobe on underneath it. I've taken a lot of razzing this month when I come home from the pool because I freeze to death in the air conditioning. Looks like there's one less person that will be razzing me from now on. :) In case you can't tell...this is Big C in the photo.
Medium J went for his oncologist visit today. It's been 6 weeks since his surgery. He got a good bill of health and doesn't go back for 3 months. Now, he starts learning to use his right leg again. He can start putting weight on it while still using his crutches, then gradually wean himself off of them. He should be walking almost normally by the time he goes back for his next visit. In this photo, you can see Medium J relaxing in one of the couch recliners, with Pepper on one side and Miss M sleeping on the other side.
And then....last but not least....is a photo of me. I'm at the computer desk in my favorite holey sweatshirt (covering my favorite nightgown). I'm sporting more of a tan that I did a month ago (and a few more wrinkles). The pile of junk behind me are things that we are clearing out of the house. Obviously, they need to be hauled out. You can also see the pile of crocheted squares waiting to be stitched together. That will be a project for over the weekend, possibly. Well, I'm off to bed for a decent night's sleep (hopefully) as I work at the pool again tomorrow and it's supposed to be even hotter than today. In fact, the next four days have excessive heat warnings. I'll be making sure that everyone stays hydrated, that's for sure. Have a good night!
I'm slowly making progress on the Dottie Angel Baby Blanket. But then, I haven't worked on it too much yesterday or today. When I started on it tonight, I noticed that I had somehow missed a few stitches when I was joining, so I ripped it back down to the 1st row of the white on strip 2 and started all over again. Now it's working out beautifully. Don't you just love how it looks when it's joined? It's so lovely. If you've never tried making this pattern before, you should give it a try.
On Sunday, I posted about a "Road Closed" sign that I found on my travels a few days ago. At that time, the road was still clear but they were pumping water from one side of the levy to the other to try and keep the levy from busting. Here's what the road looks like today. It's definitely under water now. We had 2.09 inches of rain from all those storms last night. This is the actual amount but if you listen to all the people in town, depending on where you live, you got from 2 to 3 1/2 inches of rain. The river is now at 20.3 feet at 2:06 pm today. The expected forecast is 26.4 feet at 1 a.m. Thursday. This is about 4 feet lower than the expected levels that were posted this morning. Flood Stage is 19 feet for our town. The expected stage levels change from hour to hour so I'll be watching to see what tomorrow's totals will be.
Here are a couple of photos that show some of the damage the storms caused last night. My home and property survived just fine, but others weren't so lucky. The tree in the bottom photo took out power lines, snapped the pole, took down the street light, street sign and is resting on a fire hydrant. This happened just around the corner from my sister Dea's house. There are many more trees down around the town and several roads were blocked but are now clear. While we were driving around town, this is the only road I could find that was still blocked. Our one-man city crew was out and about early and doing a great job for us once again!
I finished up the final two squares for Throw #2. I have all 12 sitting next to my desk waiting to be stitched together. But that's going to have to wait for a bit. I'm going to spend about an hour tonight working on the Dottie Angel Baby Blanket before I go to bed. My guys have to get up at 3 a.m. to take Medium J to Kansas for his oncology appointment. It's been 6 weeks since his surgery. I am unable to go with them because I have to work at the pool tomorrow.
Let me tell you...yesterday was one of those days. Truly. It was really HOT at the pool. We had quite a few kids there to swim as well. This past week was a weird week since it was pretty cool and of course, rainy, most days. Thus, attendance at the pool was low. In any event, I was able to crochet half of a square during my work shift. Not bad, considering.
So far, I've only seen one of these signs. They are trying to relieve the pressure on one side of the levy out along the gravel road next to the river. They are pumping water from one side out through a big tube and draining it on the other side. Hopefully, this will keep the levy from breaking.
We have this "fluff" as I call it, all over the area. Can you guess what it is? Nope? It's off the Cottonwood trees. It's really not called fluff, but it's actually the seeds taking flight, hoping to find a new home to settle and grow roots and become other big Cottonwood trees. We have lots and lots of Cottonwood trees in the area and this fluff is everywhere. It's in the yard, it's floating around in the air, it's in the pool, etc., etc., etc.. In the second photo, it looks a little like the old style stuffing or batting. At least that's my impression.
That there is an old military ship docked along the river in our town? Yep. There is. It's in the photo. It's been here for about 5 years or so now. It was coming up the river headed to somewhere I can't remember and the sand banks shifted enough that it couldn't go any farther. So, one of our local patrons bought it and here it sits. When it first came here, we went on board and looked around.
That Brunswick is preparing for another flood? Yep. We are. I guess that's one of the drawbacks of living along a river. However, we don't just live along one river, we live along two. The Grand and the Missouri Rivers meet just outside of town. Currently, the Missouri is flooding all the way down it's length. Iowa and the northern most part of Missouri is being effected and we're just a few towns down to the south of this area. These photos show the water treatment plant outside of town. They are one of the few places that has already started sand-bagging.
That I live along the Grand River in Missouri. Some of the locals or old-timers say that the river is trying to change its course again. This can be seen in the above photo. The river is eroding its banks and causing some of the camp cabins to become unstable. It's only a matter of time before the cabin in this photo drops off the edge into the water.
That Brunswick, the town I live in, has some "history" behind it? This particular bit of history, shown in these photos, takes place down by the boat dock or river access. One part is that Lewis & Clark camped here. The other part is that the Potawatomi Indians came through here as it was part of the Trail of Death. These two facts have been proven and the markers have been erected in the last 10 years, which are the years I have lived in this town. It's interesting, isn't it?
This is what I've got done so far on the Dottie Angel Baby Blanket. For those familiar with the pattern, it's worked in "strips". I'm getting ready to start on the 2nd strip now. But, it's an "add as you go" strip. I thoroughly enjoy making blankets this way as it's so rewarding not to have to stitch them together when you're finished.
These two wonderful skeins of yarn are set to become a Dottie Angel Baby Blanket. If you're wondering what a Dottie Angel blanket is, you can find the tutorial here http://dottieangel.blogspot.com/2010/06/ordinarily-extraordinary-blanket-how-to.html . I'm changing mine up just a bit. I'm making it into a baby blanket and I'm only using two colors. I won't be adding the doilies either. I did one of these blankets last year and I love they way they look. This blanket will be for Baby E that's due in August. I'm getting ready to start on it in a little bit. I usually don't have two blankets going at once, but throw #2 is working up so fast and easy that I can't see a problem with having a second blanket going at the same time.
I just finished up Square 6. I made sure to mark it off as finished on my "list". :)
and checkin' it twice, she's gonna find out....what square to make next...***OOPS...that's not how it goes. Oh well, with my current state of mind, I figured a list was necessary to keep my squares on track. So here's a photo of my list that I'm following. Is this another Type A thing???
Square 5 is finished and it's also the square where I got off sequence in the color scheme. I had already started Square 6 (which I'm still working on), when I figured it out. When I get this square finished, I will only have one more to make in the sequence.
This was my first square using more than one color. I had meant to keep following this color pattern, but I got to talking while making the second multi-colored square and got off sequence. So, I have two more squares to make with this sequence. 
I finished up this square this morning. I used Red Heart yarn in Pale Green. 
I made these two squares yesterday. I used Red Heart yarn in Pale Yellow and Light Coral. They look like sherbert flavors don't they? On a side note here...I googled the correct spelling of sherbert and it can be spelled both sherbert and sherbet. I wonder if it's a regional thing???
My CAL throw is finished! Woo Hoo! I'm so excited! I decided not to do an edging around the entire blanket once I had all the squares joined. I really like the "edging" that it has on it now from just edging and joining the squares together.
Here's what I have done so far on the joining process. I included a close up photo of the four squares that are meeting in the middle to give you an idea of what it looks like.
I'm going to try and explain how to join the sides of two squares together using the method that I'm doing for this throw. I don't have a name for the method though. Here's what I'm doing. (check out my explanation for Edging the Squares first). I already have the black square edged. Now I'm working the edging on the white square and joining as I go. To join, after the corner has been worked, it's a sc, ch 2, sl st in the ch 4 loop of the black square, ch 2, sk 3 sc on the white square, sc in next stitch. My photos aren't the best (even using two different camera's) but hopefully you can see the explanation in at least one of them.
After I edged my first square, I started edging my second square. Since I'm joining squares as I go, I edged one side then when I got to the corner, I worked one sc, ch 1, inserted my hook through the corner ch 3 space of the other square, worked a sl st, then ch 1, then 1 sc back in the corner of the white square that I am edging. Does this make sense?