Nosey Parker 0, Copperhead 1.....

It's that horrible time of year again- when it's so hot out that the snakes come out of wherever they normally lurk and bite my cats on their legs. Of course, the cat probably asked for it by dabbling at it like a toy, but I would still like to kill that bugger for hurting my baby. No, we didn't kill the snake but only because we never saw it. Our first clue was NP crying in the laundry room, near the door she uses to come and go. Blood was dripping off her right front leg and she was in so much pain. We first thought broken leg, then we found fang holes. Chit! This was about 1 PM.

From previous experience and vet recommendation, we gave her about half of a benadryl (mixed with water, in a syringe, by mouth) and hoped she would sleep the worst of it off. She didn't sleep for a long time, but finally she conked out, getting up about every hour to seek a new spot- under our bed, under the guest bed, by the balcony door, up on my work table, on a dog bed- she was very restless.

The swelling got worse after this photo, but I didn't want to stress her by taking more photos. Her paw got so big, I was worried, it got really fat and thick then it started going up her leg, but it peaked and finally started to come down. She was a little better by bed time, drinking water and ate a bit.

This morning, she is taking it real easy, up on my desk on top of a bunch of fabric that is waiting to be washed. Her daddy went to the vet's office to pick up antibiotics (liquid, won't this be FUN?) and to get Paisley's ashes. I feel another cry coming on. Nosey Parker is going to be OK, thank goodness. We were so worried because we weren't sure what kind of snake it was, we're lucky it was only a copperhead. I doubt that she's learned anything though, because the other cats never did. If it moves, it's fair game, as far as they're concerned. Beez has been bitten at least twice and Freddie Wheat, twice also.

I hate $%*&ing poisonous snakes, I'll tell ya that. I sure wish we didn't have any here. Baskets!

On a lighter note, I got the first hexie top assembled. I like it! My points cooperated really well, I only chopped the tip off of a couple of them and because I pinned the snot of it when I sewed the rows together, they all lined nicely. A couple of the edges are a little bit full, I'll have to beat it into submission when I quilt it, but I think it's going to be a great little lap quilt. I need some backing material, though. It measures about 46" x 54" or something like that.

I have another one the same size and shape to do, next. I'm a little sick of doing it, but I'm forcing myself. I have too many unfinished quilts right now, I don't need another!

Power gli....gli....glitch..... Grrrrr.

We lost power on Thursday morning, about 5 minutes after I gave my husband an anniversary card that said "Come rain or come shine, we'll be doing fine...as long as we have each other! (And electricity!!)" Geez! We were laughing ourselves silly until it came back on and we discovered that we had lost a TV, a satellite receiver, a DVD/VCR combo and a clock and a $10 lightbulb, from 3 different rooms. And it's all the same stuff we lost 20 months ago when Ike came whipping through and wreaking havoc. We stopped laughing for a while, it wasn't funny any more. Well, he fixed the DVD/VCR combo. We bought a new clock. (It didn't work, we had to return it, another trip to WalMart, 20+ miles away.) We ran all over trying to find a part for the TV- the capacitor blew out- we had to order one online. The satellite receiver is being replaced no charge. We have had no TV since Wed night. We are missing the last 2 episodes of Survivor, which is just MEAN. A friend is recording it for me, though, thank you LIZ!!!!!

So, since we're leaving on vacation on Wed, we have to get as much of this stuff fixed before then AND clean the house and make sure everything is in order for our housesitter to stay here in comfort while we're gone. Sheesh, nothing is ever easy. The lawnmower broke, the parts place was closed, we're having monsoon rain storms, and the list goes on and on and time is of the essence!

To distract myself a little, I've played this week with the layouts for both sides of my hexagon quilt.

This side is mostly black. I arranged the mixed hexies to be somewhat orderly, by color, either greens or blues or reds, etc. I spent so much time on the floor getting up, squatting, bending, etc that I could barely move without moaning for 2 days afterward, man I'm out of shape!

This side is bright hexagons with mixed blacks and whites interspersed. I arranged this side so the warms are on one side and cools on the other, but not divided straight up and down, a little looser than that. I locked the cats out of the sewing area so I didn't have to worry about them scrambling up my layouts, this took HOURS and hours to perfect, believe it or not. Anyway, they're all stacked, numbered and put up safely until I can sew all 430 triangles together!

And here are 9 mini 3.5" quilt blocks for a swap I'm in. The challenge was black and white and one other color, I picked yellow. So I made wonky liberated stars and I think they look like nice little suns. I'll send 8 of them away and get back 8, each one black and white and one other color. Then we'll all assemble our mini blocks and make mini quilts!

I also made a mini quilt for a new friend in CA, I'll show you that in another entry, it came out pretty cute, I think.