Emmett's quilt is quilted!

Today was a busy day.  This morning I had a session at the Apple store on my Mac. computer  There is so much to learn and I am trying to learn it all.  I almost never get to my list of things to do.  I have a new email account, linked with MobileMe.  Now I have 3.  I remember struggling with 1!
This afternoon I booked time on the long-armed quilting machine at The Quilter's Garden in Duvall, WA to finish the Teddy Bear quilt made for Emmett Huhman, son of my niece Katiey and husband Dan.  He was born on April 9, 2010.

It is good to finish projects.  I enjoyed making this quilt and loved the colors and fabrics.

Uncle Bud's Funeral

My Uncle died last week and it has been very sad.  He lived a great and full life and has a wonderful family who love him.
I was so happy that I was able to make the trip to Tampa to be with my cousins and my wonderful Aunt Marianna.
I saw cousins that I hadn't seen in a very long time and I got to meet some of their children.  Meghan's son, Jackson, said that he thought I should be one of his aunts.  I guess cousin is a young persons title.
Jill and Jim were there from our side of the family and Karen is representing us at a Memorial that they are having today in Detroit.  The family plot is where our grandparents are buried and Mom and Dad.

This is Nathan and Aunt Marianna.  He is Trisha's son.













Tommy and Terry, my cousins.














Meghan, Calvin and Josh, Cousin Terry's daughter, her husband and new baby.












Macey, Aunt Marianna, Calvin, Terry and Jackson.
They are really cute kids.











My Uncle Bud, me and Aunt Marianna, when we went to Florida to visit them.  So sweet.

Musings on seeing the devastation in The Gulf of Mexico

I flew home from my uncle's funeral on Wednesday.  Tampa to Dallas, then Dallas to Seattle.  What I didn't expect was an eagle eye/airplane at altitude view of the oil damage to the Gulf.  We started to fly over water around Pensacola, FL and my view if the oil was pretty immediate.  We flew for approximately 35 minutes, the my eyes could not believe the vastness of the damage.  You could see what I think are oil platforms, surrounded by boats, I never saw the big rig area, but I certainly could see the oil.  It looked like the chocolate river in the new Willie Wonka movie.
Harder to comprehend was the areas of wetlands, marsh, boat lanes, all chocolate color.  Remember I was flying at 31,000 feet, so the ships in the shipping lane looked like little toys.  Once in a while you would see a lake, with a nice clear clean surface.  I have been sick about this ever since I saw it.  I really didn't understand the size, and scope.  Nothing we have seen on TV or on the news or in the papers conveys how huge this thing is.
The flight attendants said that the airlines weren't allow to fly over the area in the early stages of the oil disaster.  I don't think a few Coast Guard skimmers is going to make a dent in this devastation for a very long (years!) time.