Girl Scouts and Beer

The girl scout meeting went pretty well last Tuesday, and I discovered that the reason that one girl dropped out very recently is because she thought it was "boring".  OK, that's your opinion.  However, it's hard not to take it personally.  We have plans to do a bunch more badges in the next few months and may try to do more from the Retro book.  Then there are two more girls, maybe three, that will have to drop out next year due to sports schedules and other interests, and is very typical for this age group.  I totally understand that--after my schedule this year, I'm considering throwing in the towel myself.  But with three more gone, we'd be down to 7.  That's a pretty good size group for outings and for doing more detailed projects.  I'd like to be able to work with them one-on-one doing sewing and weaving projects, but also be able to go out on hikes and do fun things in the area without requiring more than two cars.

Yesterday was the 11th annual Troll Stroll.  Kelly and I arrived about noon to register in the VIP line, which included a couple of extras like a pair of sunglasses and a bonus drink at one of the pubs.  I'm not sure it's worth the extra $20, but the proceeds go to a good cause.  We met up with Daniel, Lauren, Brandon, Casey, and Shannon.  Later, we ran into Achal, and near the end, Justin and Katie joined us as well.  We started hopping to get the 7 oz. sample beers at each venue.  We ran into Robert, the father of a CF daughter who is now in college.  He said that he had already had a number of beers and could no longer feel his feet.  Awesome...and yes, the maps they handed out had the phone numbers of local cab companies on it for a safe ride home.

A few lessons learned:

• Eat before the stroll begins--it started at 12:30 but a lot of these places had limited bar food available.  At our first stop, we knew we were going to be there a while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive, but they had only pork products on the menu.  I ended up getting hot dogs from 7-11 .  Ew.  I would have been happy with beef nachos, but they didn't have them on the weekend happy hour menu...just the week day menu.  Huh??
• Meet earlier to get food and get an earlier start so we can get to all the participating venues--we spent too much time at the first one and got caught in the crowd later.  Getting to all the venues earlier means we could spend more time at the favorite bar at the end.  
• We should also determine where we're going to have dinner afterwards.  We had dinner at a sushi place that ended up upsetting my stomach, which is still sensitive today.  I'm thinking some of the fish was not up to snuff.  Or sniff...whatever.  Having pepperjack cheese on my sandwich for lunch was probably not a bright idea, either.
• It was recommended that we wear costumes next year as a few teams did.  There was a nerd team and a bunch of wizards (I think we were far nerdier than the nerds there--a bunch of engineers, soccer hooligans and history geeks).  Two of the girls wanted to wear hot pink, and Achel suggested if he's going to wear hot pink, he might as well go all out and wear a tutu.  I think maybe we could do something a little less tutu-ish and maybe go with a Hawaiian theme; straw hats, island wear, grass skirts.  Coconut bras optional.

I sent a note to the Troll Stroll organizers (at least I hope it was them) suggesting that they make a couple changes.  One is to offer more easy food items at the venues so we're not drinking on an empty stomach.  A few places had some food, but it was mostly french fries.  I thought maybe simple turkey wraps or nachos would be nice.  Also, one of the venues was very small and there was a couple different soccer games being played that day--Real Madrid vs. Barcelona and another big international game.  The George & Dragon was PACKED so the Troll Strollers were having a heck of a time getting anywhere near it.  We stood in line for about 10 minutes without moving and we, along with several others, abandoned the place for shorter lines.  I suggested that they turn the parking lot into a beer garden to allow more people in. I also suggested that they offer a non-beer drink like cider on the menu if the venue had it on tap.  Only one pub offered cider and sadly, we didn't get to that one; at least two other pubs had it on tap but it wasn't part of the stroll.  A few of the venues ran out of one kind of beer or another...that's poor planning on the pubs' parts...so one was down to offering ONLY Pabst.  Woo.

This morning, to celebrate Earth Day, Emma and I went out for our shopping adventures driving all over the place.  Nothing in the world like going against the grain of society by using every appliance in the house, driving more than 50 miles in the gas-guzzling beast, and running water for a few hours to wash our cars.  I stopped by JoAnn's where, as one of the first 100 shoppers, I got a free re-usable shopping bag.  Now I really feel like I'm doing my part.  Never mind that I already have a dozen or more re-usable bags that I never remember to put in my car.  I got some scrapbooking supplies for the girl scouts for Tuesday's meeting and some flannel to make Ben some more pajama pants, which he decided that he really likes.  I'm washing the flannel now so that it won't shrink out of sight after making the pants...wash first, then cut.  Now, of course, he wants pajama shirts.  I may go to a second hand store and pick up a bunch of t-shirts for him.  If I can find plain colors, maybe I can use fabric paint to decorate them with night-time images...moons, owls, glowing eyes...

It's official...I'm turning into a soccer hooligan...Seattle Style. :) That means, of course, that we cheer them on at the game, make crass remarks about the opponents, then go drinking with them afterwards.  I picked up this t-shirt super-cheap (compared to the costs at the sport shops, this was about half price) and I will wear it to the next game, which I hope will be the May 5th game.  I used to really like baseball, but I rarely had the opportunity to go to professional games.  Between cost and distance, we didn't have the ability to go more than twice in 20 years.  With us living so much closer to Seattle and having better income, Kelly got his season ticket to the game and we're looking into the possibility of getting a second ticket for me.  If I can't go, we can always sell that ticket so it won't go to waste.  

I've been working on the weaving off and on.  I'm not particularly inspired by this pattern--there's something odd about it--I think it just needs a couple more cards on each side to finish the pattern off or eliminate the black threads.  They hardly show up at all.

I ended the day by loading up about 12 bags of stuff to go to the second hand store.  Baby toys & books, outgrown clothes, and other cast-offs were unloaded in exchange for a single slip of paper.  That certainly takes up a lot less space.  The second bonus is that I had to clean out my car before loading it up, so now my car is clean inside and out.  Not vacuumed...not sterile enough to eat off the floor...but all the jackets and socks and underwear (oh my!  No idea how that got in there) have been hauled out to the laundry room.  I found two school sweaters in there...now we have an even half-dozen available for the kids to wear.  Hopefully I won't have to buy any more.  Ever.

I have been sorting through boxes and bags of scraps and trimming them into mostly 5" and 2 1/2" squares for scrap quilts.  I have plans to make some scrap quilts with them and have been doodling down some designs that take 5" and 2 1/2" squares to make the patterns.  I also found a bunch of blocks in a box as I was sorting and remembered that I had started putting the quilt top together and realized that I had assembled the blocks wrong.  I was so mad at myself that I pitched it into the box and forgot about it for a couple of years.  This is how I wanted it to look, but somehow I mixed up the blocks and sewed them into pinwheel 4-patches then realized my mistake when I had a couple left over...  I frogged the seams and used this photo that I serendipitously had taken to arrange them in the layout I had wanted and began sewing them into rows.  I have three of the five rows done now and hope I can get a few minutes tomorrow to finish sewing the top together.  I have no idea what I'll do with it after that since I don't have any more of this fabric--this was a jelly roll that I had gotten somewhere...probably a Moda Christmas collection.  I should be able to find more of it, but I don't know what color to choose to finish it.  Red?  Green?  Or maybe the blue floral?  Dunno.

Long day tomorrow and a longer day on Tuesday...clinic day.  Ta.

K