Some things I've been doing

Lately, I've been flitting around from one project to another, not really accomplishing all that much of anything, but working on little bits and pieces. I'm trying to get some of the mess in this house cleared out, spend some time doing some homeschooling, stay cool in this heat and work on the logistics of planning the busy stuff for the summer (dance camp, dance classes, Girl Scout Camp, vacations, quilt shows, graduation parties, weddings we need to attend, etc).

The weather has been unbelievably hot here in New England for the last 4 or 5 days. I have been suffering because of the lack of a/c here in my house (Dead central air, very high estimate to replace it, lack of funds in the bank acount to do the replacement). However I have been feeling more sorry for the children in school in this area. Our local school district classes don't end until the 24th, and of course, virtually none of the schools have air conditioning. Yesterday on the radio, I heard them say that only 19% of schools in CT have a/c. As a result, on Monday and Tuesday, over half of the school districts in the state had an early dismissal to get the kids out of the hot buildings...yesterday it was 98 degrees here.

Yesterday, I took Thing One and Thing Two to Mystic Aquarium. We have a membership there, and go about 7 or 8 times each year. You would think that going so often would get boring, but the Things love it just as much every time we go there. It seems like they notice something new each time. Since it is only a few miles from DH's office, we will usually drive down there together, I drop him at work and then the kids and I hit the aquarium or some of the other attractions in that area until it is time to pick DH up.

The big attraction yesterday was the recently opened Birds of the Outback exhibit. They have a screened in area filled with lots of parakeets, cockatiels and Eastern Rosettas, LOTS of birds. You get a popsicle stick with some birdseed glued on the end and you can feed the birds. Of course, they land on you to eat, so it is kind of surprising. Thing Two tends to be very timid, so I thought he would not like this very much, but he loved it.


This past Saturday, we attended the Strolling of the Heifers in Brattleboro, VT. The whole idea of the weekend is to promote local agriculture. This year, the theme was "Living Green" and there were a ton of activities to promote local farms, encourage recycling, promote the idea of eating locally grown, organic products, etc. But the biggest attraction is the parade on Saturday. They close the main road and have a big parade featuring COWS wearing floral necklaces!


We sat across from the reviewing stand and there was an Emcee dressed as Joan Rivers and there was even a red carpet on the road. During the parade, "Joan Rivers" had the cows walking on the red carpet where she interviewed them, asking questions such as "Who are you wearing, Donna Cow-Ran?" etc. LOL. I think I heard every bad cow joke and farm pun out there during the parade. The parade also featured local childrens organizations, high school bands, antique tractors, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and this creation, made of grocery bags to promote using cloth bags instead of plastic




And even at an event like this, a quilter never fails to notice quilts wherever they happen to be... I saw this little boy on the shuttle bus with his quilt, and then I saw him again in the parade with it in his wagon. I won't tell you that I almost fell out my seat on the shuttle bus trying to get a good look at his quilt!! LOL. I was trying to check out the fabrics because they looked like a mix of brand new (the space print on the border) and some 30s looking fabrics and some that looked like 60s or 70s prints.