Better Late Than Never

              “Better late than never!” That seems to be the theme for me this summer. To start with, summer took forever to arrive. While the rest of the country swelters, we’ve been waiting for the temperatures to rise into the 80s. It’s August, and wake up temperatures here have still been in the 50s. I can’t complain too much though, it’s great sleeping weather, and by the afternoon, it’s warm enough for shorts.

               In June, my friend Carol called to plan the details of this year’s quilt shop hop. We talked for twenty minutes before she gave me a calendar reality check. I kept talking about where we were going to go on Thursday. She finally said, “You do realize that Thursday, the first day of shop hop, is tomorrow.” Yikes! I thought shop hop was the following week!

               Following the surprise announcement to my family, frenzied searches on Mapquest, a late-night trip to the ATM machine, and general panic and mayhem on my part, I managed to pull it together and start shop hopping on about 12 hours notice. And a very good shop hop it was, complete with ferry rides and crepes, and the accidental discovery of one the best Italian restaurants I’ve ever eaten in: Il Lucano, tucked humbly in beside a kayak store in Gig Harbor.

               In keeping with my weird summer time warp, a week after Independence Day, I finished up two Americana quilt tops that Carol and I started two years ago. They weren’t the full size quilts we’d initially planned. I figured they’d get more use in our houses as wall hangings. They didn’t hang in our homes this 4^th of July, but maybe they’ll be quilted and ready to hang next year.

What inspired the get-those-quilts-done burst? Our friends from Louisiana were coming to visit, so of course I dedicated much valuable time cleaning my sewing area because visitors always head right to that area of the house! Not! John and Johnny usually decide to clean the garage, because that’s also an area where we entertain guests. Who knows why our brains work this way?

When we moved into this house, 10-1/2 years ago, I wanted to fix up the swing set in the backyard. It had one lonely, decrepit swing, but space for two. I’d bought another swing to join the solo one.  Our friends have three young kids, so, once again, I asked if John or Johnny could put the “new” swing up. Johnny took me up on it, but we couldn’t find the first swing I’d bought. I think I’d given up, and donated it to Goodwill, so  we ended up buying two new ones. My “babies” are now 18 and 22, but when the new swings went up, they were happy to test them out. Our friends’ kids spent a lot of fun time on them too, and it was nice to hear little ones playing in our backyard again.

               On the last day of their visit, before anyone else in the house was up, John woke me up saying in a hushed voice, “Laura, we have a big problem.” I followed him out into the hallway where a gagging smell hit me. John answered my unspoken question, “T-Bone had diarrhea all over the house.”

               We don’t usually steam clean the carpets until the beginning of September, but due to what we now call Poopfest 2010, there was a whole lot of steam cleaning and mopping going on. After a trip to the vet and a round of antibiotics that he’s just finishing up, T-Bone’s feeling better. So is Suzie. She caught the same bacterial infection. The carpet cleaning is the only case this summer of better earlier than never.  

               On a more pleasant and certainly better smelling topic, I wanted to make strawberry jam again this summer, but with all that was going on, I missed the fresh Puyallup valley strawberries. When the raspberries came out, I was too busy to make jam, so I froze the berries that kept mysteriously appearing on my kitchen counter courtesy of WSU farmland. (They will probably become sorbet). Finally, when I got a free day, I assembled the jars and other jam-making equipment. Apricots were the fruit that was ripe and available, so apricot jam is what I’ve been savoring on toasted Costco croissants.

               I didn’t feel guilty eating those croissants because at Zumba we were learning a new routine for the National Day of Dance 2010 from the TV program, “So You Think You Can Dance.” I watched the video on You Tube Thursday, and practiced it in class on Friday. Saturday was the day that we rolled it out. I managed to keep up with most of it; not bad considering I was relying on last minute cramming to learn the routine.

               Tuesday I spent the day quilting a pink, brown, and green quilt top that I started in 2006. I drove to a quilt shop in Tacoma to quilt it on a longarm machine. The shop owner suggested a quilting pattern that stretched my abilities, but it’s done and ready for a binding.

               That night a close friend from John’s University of Hawaii days flew in from Texas on business. We got to spend a few hours together reminiscing over dinner. He was one of the big encouragers of me writing this blog. Thanks Ed!

               Wednesday, we met some other friends for lunch. It was a lunch spent remembering good times, but with a little sadness mixed in. They’re moving out of state. On Monday I found out that they were leaving on Friday. Another "Yikes!" moment. Liz and Steve are the parents of Johnny’s best friend, Dave. We’ve spent the last 11 years growing these boys into men, shuttling them back and forth to each others’ houses when they were little, standing beside each other watching them play roller hockey, comparing notes on colleges when they were choosing where to go. There’s a special bond between parents who’ve raised their kids together. We wish them all the best.

               All of the above are my excuses for not writing a single blog during the month of July. But, I’m writing now. Better late than never!

Laura Keolanui Stark is probably dealing with some other unplanned, unforeseen surprise event or emergency. She can be reached at stark.laura.k@ gmail.com