September Birthday Presents, from me to me!
Beautiful and big, Janome Horizon works like a dream!
This is the previous model, I kept it because I have a specific purpose in mind for it!
Since the Janome Horizon does everything but cook, I had to get this to supplement that part of the daily activities!
I like red, and many of my birthday presents are red, to match my covertible!
If there are any blog readers left reading this, I am still alive. Don't know why the blog writing stopped during September, but it did.
September is always my favorite month. It's the month of my birthday, and I have many friends who share this birthday month with me. It is also an anniversary month for 2 of my children, and my BFF. This one was a month of birthday surprises, some from my family, and some were treats from me to me. It was also a month in which I really wasn't feeling that well. But things are OK now.
At the end of August, I was invited to attend a working sesson at my store where I had bought many of my wonderful sewing machines. This session was a glorified sales pitch, where we were invited to make a beautiful appliqued pillow, using the newest machine on the block, a beautiful, gleaming red and white Janome Horizon. This newest model is an upgraded model from my favorite sewing machine, the Janome 6600. Both of these machines cater to the quilter, as they have a very wide opening from needle to mechanics, letting the quilter stuff huge pieces of fabric in that opening to do the machine quilting. Most machines have about a 6" opening, but the 6600 has a 9" opening, and the Horizon has an 11" opening. Of course, this makes the machine very big. So I fell for it, and bought the Horizon, which came with its own table and accessories! Birthday gift #1.
My son, wife and 3 grandkids came to visit over Labor Day. I was the designated hostess for them and a family get together for my birthday. I dusted off the old Weber gas grill as I was readying myself for the weekend's festivities, and found that it would not light. So I went to the store to get a different gas bottle, and tried again, still no go!
I do love to grill, and must admit to passing by the new grill aisle at my local store, caressing the stainless steel, opening and closing the lids, and wishing that I could replace my old grill, which is 12 years old this year. I've replaced parts, and have gotten the old one going many times in the past, but realized that I'd have to replace the whole thing sooner or later. It looked like that time had come!
I thought maybe the new grill would fit in my RAV4 so I could bring it home myself. The guys at the store scoffed at that idea, telling me I needed a pick-up truck to transport it. The only pick-up truck in my family was out on a Labor Day outing, so that wasn't going to work. So the guys at the store said they would deliver it, ON TUESDAY! That would not help my dinner to cook that evening, so they arranged, rearraged with the guys at the store who were available, and managed to find someone who could deliver it for me that day for $20! It was a deal I couldn't pass up! So, we grilled that night, and it was fabulous. Birthday present #2.
The party was fun, but exhausting. On my birthday, I came down with a terrible upper respiratory infection that laid me low for weeks. The only thing I wanted to do was sleep or sit. I did drag myself to work, but came home right after my classes to sleep. I managed to fall into the chair while out of bed, and use my computer to keep in touch with my buds. Well, the virus transferred to the computer, because it got a nasty virus too! Guess I wasn't up to date on my virus protection--which the computer was trying to tell me, but I was sure it was wrong! So it went belly up, I couldn't get anything to run. So I bit the bullet and bought a new laptop computer. Nothing fancy, just another Dell Inspiron, which I've had 3 of so far. So I guess this was Birthday present #3.
Got a visit from my sis and her husband at the end of the month, which was enjoyable, but they only stayed with me 1-1/2 days out of their 5 days that they were here. They came for the husband's neice's wedding reception (the neice got married in Jamaica over Labor Day). That was fun!
So the month was full of family visits, new purchases, and some nasty viruses. Somehow, I'm glad it's over! Sounds like an expensive month so far, right? Yes, it was. October is a fun month full of tax bills, insurance bills, so that is what I face now.
All I can say is, Happy Birthday Jean, you had a great 67th birthday, didn't you!
Bobcat had just begun to work digging up the old weedy, dead grass that comprised my front lawn. Every year it looks worse and worse, feeding and watering just did nothing this summer. Of course, it was extremely hot and dry this summer, so many lawns began to look very sick by August. I hired someone to rake it, aerate it and over seed it. He just looked at it and shook his head. 
After digging all day, and hand shoveling many parts, they had the entire yard cleared out. Then they started to lay the new sod.
They had worked til 8 p.m. the night before and got this much done. What an improvement!
One more day, and it looked like this! Hooray, finally my lawn isn't the shabbiest on the block. In fact, it might just be one of the best looking lawns right now. Lots of watering is needed to get it going, but I'm committed to having a big water bill to protect my investment. Here's hoping for a much better lawn year next year and for years to come!
