This furniture store has a great façade in downtown Parma. And it’s right next to the library.
There wasn’t much else happening in downtown Parma other than these two buildings. But with 1,949 residents, that’s understandable.
I was nearly raised in Parma. My parents built a house there, but they moved to Boise shortly before my birth. (Phew!)
There is so much discussion of cats in this election. I’d rather hear about candidates plans to improve healthcare, but since I don’t get that, this poster made me laugh.
Scares and Squares is the Rosetown Ramblers annual fly-in. While I enjoy the dancing, it usually falls on my birthday weekend, and I don’t love that. However! this year they moved the weekend of dance to the second Saturday weekend, which was great!
Aside from really fun dancing, I volunteered for check-in on Saturday morning. Ted was running the 50/50 raffle and setting up ticket packs. I don’t remember the exact breakdown, but for the raffle, your dollar gets you 10 tickets, and five dollars gets you an even bigger number. So, to save time, Ted pulls out 10 tickets, separates the keep-this-coupon ticket from the drawing tickets, tears each drawing ticket, and then stacks the whole thing in a neat pile that is held together with a rubber band. That way, when someone hands over a dollar it’s very easy to hand them their half of the tickets, and drop the entry tickets in the bucket.
As we were both sitting at the same table, I also helped set up ticket packs. While we worked, we discussed the differences between the different colored rolls of tickets (they very much varied in quality!) and techniques for quicker packaging. As I observed to Matt, it was not unlike temping, where there is a boring task, but that task can be broken down into steps and those steps improved. Plus, Ted is fun to talk to.
At the Saturday evening dance, Ted came over to show me yet another satisfying part of the process: getting to the end of a ticket roll.
When I am in the office, I sit next to the lost and found. Today I noticed that someone had lost a sticker.
It is, of course, Alfredo Linguini and Remy the rat, stars of Ratatouille and Carmy Berzatto and the bear, stars of the Bear, the series that has most of the country saying, “Yes, chef!”
Wandering around downtown St. Johns while waiting for my movie to start, I came across this flyer:
What a fun activity! If only I had known about it earlier.
I wandered by, and it looked like a pretty good turnout for the cakeluck.
Matt channeled his worried energy re: the 2024 presidential election into writing letters for Vote Forward encouraging people in Georgia to vote.
He wrote 300 letters, for which he had to get extra permission. 200 is the letter-writing max.
This is not the first year Matt has done this. He wrote letters last fall, and for previous elections. Here is 2022, for comparison.
This took me the entire summer, and I’m not sure why, as the finished sampler fits in a 6-inch hoop. Maybe I need the motivation of more colors? Maybe all this blackwork was just straight stitches in different ways, and I got bored? Not sure.
I’m pleased with the results, though. And that floral lace looks really pretty. I’ve learned to make the sample stiches surrounding the main picture the last thing I do, so I’ve had adequate practice. Even then I pulled out many stitches where I didn’t get the needle in just the right place.
The bonus item was quite fun and stitched up quickly. They make a fun combo.
Back views!
I think the back side of this looks a little creepier than the front. The house looks disheveled from this side.
And the back of this one had a thread stuck to it. I was too lazy to collect the scissors and cut it off before I took the picture.
Here’s the final result of this piece, last referenced in this post.
I’m quite pleased with the result. And I will be taking it into work to catch the drips from my tea and water vessels, as I will be sharing a desk on the one day a week I’m in the office.
This view shows that it ended up rather thick, but I think that works well. I used part of an old shirt of Matt’s for backing, and I like how bright the blue was.
The upside of using Bankie as the filling is that this item has very good energy.
As you can see, an official worker badge has joined my Multnomah County Library card.
I will be working in the Finance and Facilities division.
Headed to my first day of work, I noted that our poor trees at the station are getting an upgrade.
You can see the problem. They look a little wan.
Mostly, I think because people carve into them, as this blurry photo is attempting to show. But also because they have very little space around them that isn’t brick or a paver.
I’m not sure if the trees themselves will survive the work, but we shall see what comes of it.
