Friday, May 22, 2020 (Day 67)

A purple bud for the lilacs that are just finished and the irises that are just coming out. Pink corners for the peonies whose buds are almost ready to pop.

This was a quick block to make but it took me until just now to finish it. Everything was done this morning except stitching down the stem on the blossom. I enjoy the hand stitching but with all of the appliqué pieces and trying to do a block a day I just don’t have time to hand stitch all of them. The stems really need to be fastened down properly but the rest of the pieces are attached with a bit of fusible to keep them in place.

I’ve had a very good day sorting out my laptop, my accounting and the connections between the two machine. I’ve found a method to get my photos transferred between the laptop and my desktop computer so they will be backed up with my current backup system. Since I’ll be mainly using the laptop for photos I’m not too worried about backing up the rest of the system. If I do save something on the hard drive when I use it on Texada it can be transferred to the desktop machine once we are home.

I was able to get all the accounting reports off the laptop and transferred to the desktop machine. I started the new accounting package (web-based and free) and I have my personal accounts entered and up to date. The set-up takes some time and for almost everything I wanted to do I had to go to their help section. I didn’t find anything I couldn’t do in the new program – it is all just different. I’ll tackle Pat’s accounting next and then move on to the Hall.

Thursday, May 21, 2020 (Day 66)

My new-to-me computer arrived just before 7:30 this morning; we knew it was coming so we set the alarm just in case we didn’t wake up early enough. I’m writing this post from my new Macbook Pro laptop.

Before I started playing with the new machine I finished my daily block as well as my May UFO Challenge – a week early for the UFO I should point out!

I haven’t spent much time with the laptop but I have had a couple of “issues”. I had trouble getting my mouse to be recognized. Pat tried it too and had no success. I’m not sure why it wasn’t working but I eventually got it connected so it will be easier to move around the desktop – I’ve never liked using a trackpad mouse.

One of the first things I did was to make sure my accounting program opened, and it does. I’ll still move forward with a web-based accounting package but I’ll feel much better being able to print off all the reports from the various accounts I keep.

I’ve already determined that one of the big decisions I need to make is which computer I use for specific applications. The laptop has a slot for my camera card so it makes sense to do my website from here. But I have a lot of photos on the new (now old?) computer so I’ll have to do something with them. The stumbling block about storing all my photos on the laptop is that I don’t have a backup system set up for it. I’ll have to investigate the cost of getting something working but I’m thinking I may be able to do a backup over to my main machine and from there my current backup will pick up the changes. So much new stuff to sort out – there will be no sewing (except for the daily block) for the next few days.

Wednesday, May 20, 2020 (Day 65)

I was so involved in doing my daily block this morning that I had a phone call reminder that I was supposed to be taking part in a video chat. It wasn’t that I forgot about the date; usually I set a timer so I have about ten minutes before the scheduled time so I can get a cup of coffee and get set up and settled. But I was having trouble with my block and I never checked the time.

I was working on cards today. Two of my June cards are complete, except for quilting. I’ll use at least one of them as a warm-up to the free-motion quilting on my quilt.

Based on the information out today I’ll get my masks stitched together tomorrow and be ready to wear them. Pat has two masks and I cut two more out for myself but just haven’t done the next step to stitch them together. I cut ties for one of them but since then I’ve found some long hair elastics so I think I see if they will work.

We had a call from our accountant today – not good news for me but better news for Pat. I guess it’s a good thing I haven’t been spending money online since the pandemic. That being said though my new computer wasn’t cheap. And speaking of my computer I expect to have my new-to-me laptop first thing tomorrow so I’ll have to take some time to catch up on my accounting and then get everything transferred to my new machine.

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

I’ve been quilting again today and still no issues. I’m not making a lot of progress each day – today I finished stabilizing the quilt and was able to start on quilting some of the appliqué pieces. It was time-consuming but it is fun to see it coming together.

Pat and I did a little furniture re-arranging today. The chair I’ve been using in the evenings for watching TV and knitting has never been a favourite of mine. Lately my neck and hip have been really bothering me and I decided it was from the chair. So we moved the big recliner that I was using off to the side and brought down a chair from upstairs. It’s a navy blue wingback chair and I’ll test it out tonight and see if it works better. This “new” chair is one of Diane’s Mum’s; when she died Diane asked me to store it for her, along with some other furniture. When Diane died I check to see if her kids wanted any of it but they both said I should keep it all.

We heard from the restoration people today – they should be able to get to us in another month. They don’t want us in the house when they are working (I’m not sure why) so when they are ready to start we’ll head over to Texada.

My car needed to go out for a spin today but before I went too far I had to get gas; first fill since March 8th! At just $111.8/litre it was a much cheaper fill than usual. I got a couple of items in the drive-through box at the post office. I’m glad I didn’t have to go in as there was a long line-up – some keeping their distance, some wearing masks and some not seeming to bother with any of it.

I think I’m going to go out to the deck and read for awhile before supper. Pat has another online meeting tonight so I may be there for awhile.