Ontario, California Quiting Convention - I was there!

After years of wanting to attend, I finally crossed the threshold of the Ontario Convention Center and was part of the crowds at the opening day of the annual quilting convention yesterday. My kindly husband insisted we go and he used his day off to make it happen.

Naturally, the normally dry California weather was wet and rainy and, naturally, we had to park across the  highway from the convention center but we dodged raindrops, got our tickets, and waited in line for the doors to open. A huge tent had been set up for a luncheon, later, so they had everyone line up in there to keep warm and dry. It was a friendly bunch and we were about 100th or so in line. By the time the doors opened, there were about 300 people behind us in line.

Almost immediately upon getting in line, a woman started chatting with us and shared stories, talked about quilting, etc. Turns out she has a sewing room, three renovated bedrooms, and a shed out back dedicated to her quilting. Oh, and she also has 35 sewing machines! I thought I was extravagant as I have two sewing machines. Since embroidery machines seem to be the talk of the day, she shared that her favorite machine, and she has 53 machines to compare them with, is one that is computerized, embroiders, quilts, and, oh, yeah, it sews, too! She said I should take a look at it if I get a chance. I thought it best to avoid such temptation!

The doors opened and the crowds streamed in to begin the day of looking, shopping, and admiring. We barely got into the door and found ourselves directly in front of the booth dedicated to the sewing machine our new-found friend had been telling us about. It was impressive. We were about to walk on when a sales lady offered to show us around this miraculous machine. I couldn't resist seeing if it was, indeed, the machine among machines. And it was! People are shopping to buy that early in the day so the sales lady happily spent an hour with us showing us the amazing attributes of the machine. And, the machine was amazing.

Meanwhile, my husband is standing behind me during the demonstration and keeps thumping me on the back and whispering, "Let's buy it!" I ignore him. We get to the end of the demonstration and my husband is back to stage whispers of "Let's buy it!" To show him that this was not going to be possible, I ask the deal breaking question of, "How much?" I gasped when I heard the price. We prepared to continue our browsing when the sales lady showed us the discounts being offered during the convention. There was a substantial reduction with a trade-in no matter what kind of machine you had on hand. No questions asked! An additional reductions in price as some of the machines had been used in classroom demonstrations. I was blessed to get one that was not! Interest-free financing. A software upgrade for free which cost more than I could have ever considered. and a $400 Visa Gift card. I let my husband win this one!

My current machine was over 25 years old and I certainly got my money's worth out of it over the years. If I put my new one to good use, I think I will have paid off the value we paid in a couple of years by the things I can made with it. Hey, and I've figured out how to turn the machine on . . . Now to the hard part of totally figuring it out but, from what I heard, you can always discover something new every time you use it.

Jeff Foxworthy at his best - The Fence Test!

THE FENCE TEST, THINK ABOUT THIS, IT IS TRUE. You can't get any more accurate than this! This is straight forward country thinking...by Jeff Foxworthy Which side of the fence? If you ever wondered which side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test! If a Republican doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one. If a Democrat doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed. If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat. If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone. If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life. If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect. If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation. A Democrat wonders who is going to take care of him. If a Republican doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels. Democrats demand that those they don't like be shut down. If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church. A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it. A Democrat demands that the rest of us pay for his. If a Republican reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh. A Democrat will delete it because he's "offended". Well, notice that I shared it!

Quilting Convention . . . Likely this year?

For years I've been aware of the annual quilting convention taking place at a convention center relatively nearby - about  a 20-minute drive depending on the traffic. I always mean to attend yet have never made it . . . yet! This year may be the closet I've come but time will tell after today!

My husband had an unexpected day off from work which happened to fall on the first day of the convention. We have the day finely tuned in order to finally bring my attendance into reality. First, I have to take my son over to the college for his classes and then get home as quickly as traffic and weather conditions allow. Naturally, it decided to rain today! Within 15 minutes of getting home, my husband and I head out to get in line for tickets to get into the event.  Depending on the line for this, parking, etc., we will have approximately three hours to browse. At noon, we have to head back to the college to pick up my son, buy him a quick lunch in transit home, let him race into the house to get dressed for work, and take him to his job.

No, three hours will probably not be enough to see everything. I imagine it will whet my appetite for allowing for more time next year. I'm just excited to even be there today and see what it is all about. At least I have a very good chance! Several times, over the years, people have contacted me about going with them. They call me in December to tell me that the convention will be in January. I get busy and before I know it, February has come around and more than once I've gotten a call from said 'friends' telling me how great the quilting convention had been.  I know my husband won't pull this on me, however. He knows which side his bread is buttered and he knows who bakes said bread. He'll keep his promise besides, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be caught at a quilting convention without me!

Roe v. Wade - 40 years later . . .

Today marks the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade when whole sale killing of the unborn was made legal. A week ago, a letter from the bishop was read from every parish pulpit. It dealt with the tragedy at the grade school with 20 children were brutally murdered. Where was the same indignation over the ongoing abortion issues? The letter had 'gun control' approval written between the lines. Where was the same desire to control the abortionist's tools of the trade?

What have we gotten from 40 years of legal abortion? We have  over 55 million dead preborn babies thrown away along with what they could have brought into this world. We have an average of an abortion every 94 seconds so by the time I write and proof this posting, two more babies will die a horrible death in the name of convenience.

I was talking to a 'catholic' obama supporter after Mass and his claim for the survival of the world was to do something about the water supply. He felt that if we slowed down the population, took care of the water problems, and then repopulated, the world would be a better place. I asked HOW he figured to take care of the population question. Abortion? Mandatory contraception? He smiled in the usual liberal complacent manner and said, "Education." With thinking like this among the Catholics . . . With the Catholic vote putting an adamantly pro-abort president in office . . . We can probably look forward to another 40 years of mutilated babies and unrealized potential being thrown away.

A friend said that we should include in our prayers a petition that the president and all anti-life people be given the gift of hearing the cries of the unborn they are allowing to die. You don't have to see the blood on your hands to know it is there.

Brave New World . . . or how bad can it really be?

Someone shared an interesting link with me this week. Some of the items covered in it have to make you wonder especially in the face of the overt actions we are 'allowed' to see happening in our government and nation. We are certainly in need of a time of prayer and reflection.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyfkQkchlu4

The Challenges of Dining Out . . . and who pays?

In our family, eating out is a treat and since we all have likes/dislikes/allergies, I always felt it was up to us to decide on the eating establishment taking our own needs into consideration. If I were diabetic, I wouldn't snack at a bakery. If someone in the family was celiac, we'd avoid restaurants that specialized in pasta dishes. In other words, we would take personal care and attention to our needs and not expect a restaurant to do this for us. In this day and age, you can look up a menu on the Internet and go from there.

Today a college was successfully sued by several students because the cafeteria didn't offer enough in the way of gluten-free meals. They won and I don't find this too exceptional. If college students are living away from home and have reasonable ways of avoiding foods they can't healthily eat, then colleges should have some provisions for them. I don't know if the settlement was reasonable but the matter is settled and other colleges will probably look into this situation before they, too, are cited.

http://www.blisstree.com/2013/01/18/food/food-allergy-disability/

I think the fear now is that ALL eating establishments and fast food restaurants will now be under scrutiny and I don't think that is right. When one is enrolled and living at college, they have few choices about where to eat and some accommodations should be made for them. When one goes out to eat, they are making the choices and should not demand every restaurant to change their menu on the off chance they will get an order for specialized foods.

I have friends with foods they can't eat. What do they do? If they opt to go out to eat, they don't order that kind of food and eat around the menu offerings. Another family is on a super strict diet because of health issues. They pack a lunch or plan ahead on possible places that could meet their needs.

We recently went gluten-free for health reasons other than celiac. We don't look for restaurants to serve us specially. We just don't order items that aren't in line with what we want to eat. Some places are more accommodating about menu changes, others are not. We deal with it. We don't sit back and make unreasonable demands.

I do have to wonder about the possibility of people demanding a celiac's diet as a person with a severe case can't even be around the dust of wheat flour. How would they expect a fast food place to keep foods separate to that degree? Even with a full-service restaurant, you couldn't provide the safety that or a peanut allergy would require.

I think the world is getting to be rather spoiled. It is, however, easier to blame someone on an allergic reaction than take personal precautions to prevent one from happening.

Marriage - Husbands and their place in the home . . .

A friend shared some posts on a Catholic forum she was following. Among the many topics, one struck home for me because it seemed to adhere too strictly to the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.

 

The woman in the post was saying that we have to let men be men in all things. Husbands are the head of the home and should be in charge of everything that makes a household function. I've heard this many times from other women who think I take on too much of what belongs to my husband in these matters. They are especially shocked that although I don't 'work', I'm in charge of my husband's paycheck in as far as paying the bills, doing the bookwork, planning for expenditures, and doing our annual tax returns. I've often been told I was not being 'womanly' and was lowering my own respect for my husband by taking away tasks that should belong to the head of the household. I find some loopholes in that thinking!

 

First of all, my husband hates bookwork and when we were first married and he was in charge, it wasn't good. I, on the other hand, have a talent for bookkeeping and taxes. I enjoy the process and don't find it a particular burden. We figure that he works hard to bring home the paycheck and leaving the organization of the budget to me as, in reality, I am closer to the trenches than he is on that score. We work at maintaining a savings account, he is always aware of what is available to spend, the bills are done in a timely manner, and it all goes smoothly. My husband doesn't feel he is being usurped of his head of the household status and I sure don't want to BE the head of the household.

 

I think that although God says the man is the head of the home, women often forget that we can't hide our talents under the proverbial bushel basket. We all live according to our talents and a family thrives when all talents are utilized for the mutual benefit of the family.