Tuesday, May 19

Today our 7th graders took an exam in history. I helped one boy study for it yesterday and couldn't wait to hear how his essay had gone. When I asked him about it he replied it had been horrible. I reminded him we had studied and asked which question he had written on. He told me he had written about Japanese Imperialism. I was excited. This was a fairly easy topic to write about with clear sub-topics. I asked what he had written. He said, "Westerners weren't not allowed in Japan." I said that was true. He then said, "Christianity was not allowed in Japan." I said that was also true. Then he said that the black people were labeled as Bantu's. I looked at him and said they were labeled as Bantu's, but that was called the apartheid and that was a completely different question. I tried to assure him that he had correctly written two paragraphs and the teacher would give him credit for that, but he did feel bad about throwing the apartheid question in with Japanese Imperialism.
After school, I decided to go look for fabric at a local store. I have decided to make a monochromatic quilt and I'm trying to find the fabric before I dive into a new quilt. As I wandered the store I heard two older ladies talking about their quilts. They were discussing which quilts they would enter into the quilt show. One lady showed the quilts in a book she had been making. She makes them exactly like they show in the book with the exact colors. That seemed a little much, but whatever suits her. Then the second lady commented that she had a quilt with 300 pinwheels. I about died at this point. I joined the conversation and commented that I would not be making a quilt that they were showing in a book. One lady asked how long I had been quilting and I told her 2 years. I also told her that I just finished my 6th and 7th quilt of the year. They about died. I was invited to visit the Bogus Basin Quilt Gild this Thursday, and was also invited to bring some quilts to share as one of the ladies was in charge of sharing time. Well, I guess I have a place to be on Thursday night. [It's also yard sale night and people can bring their extra fabric to get rid of. Maybe I'll see some good fabric to buy. I'm not sure that my 50 yards I have from the Joann sale is enough. :-) ]
After the quilt shop I decided to have my tires on my car rotated and the oil changed. I had called Les Schwab earlier in the day and they said it would take and hour to rotate the tires and another hour to change the oil. Two hours... come on. I could change the tires and the oil in two hours. That is, if I had: a car lift, powered lug nut tool, oil pan, oil, and oh yeah a spot. I mean really, I could put a quilt top together in that amount of time. So, I went to a different Les Schwab and had the tires rotated in 30 minutes. Then, I went to Jiffy Lube and had the oil changed in 10, plus they vacuumed my car. Now, I just need to hope for a good rain storm and I can pretend I went to the car wash.