Please Pardon My Whining...

Well, here is my limited progress on my needlepoint piece.  I am having a lot of fun doing the background.  Somehow I had forgotten that I do not enjoy a lot of color changes and this is all subtle color changes.  Oy vey!  I do a little at a time.  I think it will look fabulous in my red and white home office/craft room.  

It appears that my nights of insomnia were just the beginning of a set back of my health issues.  I have not posted for several days because I have been absolutely sick.  The last couple of nights have been so bad that Liesl has refused to sleep in her own bed and has been sleeping right up against me.  Luckily, she does not move around much and her little warm self is quite comforting.  

Speaking of Liesl, I have decided that I have Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom in my backyard. Last week as I was letting her out at about 4:30 am to take care of her business.  After I gave her the okay, she went blasting out the back door, deer hopping because she was so excited, barking, growling and huffing.   At the same time, a possum jumped from my bushes to the tree and onto the back fence.  I did not know that possums could move that fast. Liesl was beside herself and I was afraid she was going to wake the neighbors.  I finally got her back in the house and made her go back to bed.  She wanted to go back out there so badly.

The next night I let her out around 10 pm for her last potty outing and the same thing happened again.  Both she and the possum were running as fast as they could. The possum has the tree climbing advantage.  Miniature schnauzers are ratters and go fast low to the ground and can make rather fantastic turns while they are running.  I had no advantage.  I was in my slippers as I was running after Liesl telling her to go inside.  She kept ringing her bell after that trying to get me to let her out.  For several days after that every time I opened the back door she went blasting out the back door to the spot where the possum was known to be.  Even during the day.  I am over the possum, the skunk and the raccoon...

I am getting a bit excited because the Christmas ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch will be coming out soon.  123stitch is accepting reservations now.  This is the only stitching or craft magazine that I buy and I look forward to its arrival.  It is so pretty and inspiring and I love the recipes, too.  When it comes, I will take my time going through it while I drink a cup of tea, savoring each page.  It is an event not just a magazine.