Embroidery is neither simple nor easy

I read outside for half an hour, not thrilled with the story, or caring about the characters. I made coffee and did the special lymph-moving exercises. I turned on the coffee morning music and did meditation and tapping. I watered the plants, then started cleaning. Chris did not come home for lunch.

I got out my trombone and practiced for next week. But it made me think of my dad and I cried. I turned my attention to the names that the CSM asked me to embroider for her. I dug out my embroidery machine and the hoops and stabilizer. Chris came home briefly to deliver the mail. I told him there were so many choices to make about the embroidery and he suggested I defer them to the CSM. But she said anything was fine. I chose dark blue fabric and audioned some colors to go with it. When I started stitching, the fabric distorted, so I had to rip that out and start over. I re-did the stabilizer and starched the fabric. I did a stabilizng block stitch, not realizing that the bobbin thread did not deploy appropriately. I stitched out both names and they looked good. But when I freed them from the hoop, the fabric distorted again. I ironed them as best I could, but could not get them entirely flat. Then I removed the block stitches and the jump stitches. It took longer than I thought.

I checked e-mail, and heard rain. It didn't rain like this last summer. I listened to podcasts. I dug up possible gopher mound in back yard and set a trap. I fertilized the plants. I cut four cardboard circles. Chris came home and made himself supper. I skipped water aerobics because it was too cold (at 80 degrees). I didn't go to the garden either.

I made tea and we watched two episodes of Quantum Leap. I wrote my blog post, then took pics of the replay of the change-of-command ceremony on Facebook to have something to go with the blog post. I listened to one more podcast, then went to bed.