When I came home from my morning coke run, I knew Elena was on her way. I was looking for Will's truck, and I saw a jeep in the driveway instead!
Turns out Nathan is home for the weekend and I hadn't gotten to see him since he started college.
He loves Texas Tech and wishes he had joined their band. He's making A's in all his classes and seems so happy!
This is my last night with my girl! It's been delightful! On school days we get up early and I take Elena to school, then pick her up after volleyball practice.
We watch an episode of Gilmore Girls after dinner. Then she walks Luci for me and talks to her friends.
One night, we'd left dog food outside the back door and a skunk with a huge bushy stand-up tail and a possum came right up to the door and had themselves a party while we watched. She named one of them Petunia.
I'm going to miss her so much! Tonight E and her parents, back from Colorado, are coming for dinner....chili and cornbread, my bow to the predicted "cold front" coming in.
My country girl has never lived in a neighborhood, so she's having a great teenaged time--especially since she has three friends from her school nearby.
Yesterday we bought groceries so she can make fancy desserts, then she met her friend at the Quarry to walk around for a couple of hours. Then last night another friend from Ogden Lane came over and they watched movies in the casita. I think this might be a good time to ask her to come live with me!
Poor Conway--it takes him several minutes to get up with his arthritic legs, but he does anything I ask him to and his stub of a tail wags every time anyone walks into the room. He loves Luci's salmon treats, so he gets them just for being here.
This is Elena and her new best friend Stratton, showing off their matching eyes.
Here she is with her other best friend Byrd, who lives one block from here--showing off her strawberry dessert last night.
Elena and two of her three dogs are staying with me for six whole days--and it's already wonderful!
Conway (Twitty) is a blind and arthritic Australian Shepherd who barely moves about anymore. He's reached the stage in his life when he prefers to lie in the sun or on the floor for hours.
Charlie and Luci are about the same size, Charlie an adorable poodle mix. They are all three so sweet and agreeable. When I asked Conway to come inside where it's cool, he slowly got himself on all fours and followed my voice inside, where he seems perfectly content.
After school, I drove to Bulverde for a volleyball game. Aftewards, we went to Specht's Store, Kate's restaurant for many years, sold ten years ago. I had to have "Kate's catfish" again and it was delicious! Elena had the salmon, equally good.
I hadn't been to Specht's in years, not since Kate sold it, but I'll be going again. The new owners have managed to keep the Kate vibe intact and it brought back many happy memories--including a night when a group of us friends went there and Kate's son and Will played guitar and sang.
If you want a fun old Texas tradition (the bar dates back to 1910) it's worth the drive, especially on weekends when they have live music!
Meanwhile, Will and Bonnie are having dinner with Nathan in Lubbock on their way to Colorado.
Today I made the most challenging book yet--a deceptively simple-looking binding called the buttonhole stitch.
When Jan came over before we walked tonight, I told her, "If I can make this, I can do anything."
She--generously--agreed.
This book has 12 signatures--that's 48 pages--of smooth Stonehenge paper, torn instead of cut to get the deckle-edges. The cover was ridiculously difficult, but I love it so much I'll do it again. It's made of thin Japanese paper laminated to a thicker paper, with a window in the spine.
Tomorrow in the light, I'll take a picture of it.
Making books is, as I've said many times, good medicine, good therapy, and a wonderful way to get back in touch with myself after being away for a while. It requires concentration and focus more than anything I've ever done before. One simple mistake can throw off the whole thing.
It's not a utilitarian project. I have plenty of blank books. It is, rather, an opportunity to learn a complex chain of individual skills in stitching and measuring and folding; choosing and ordering the right papers; bonding fabric to paper to make book cloth; and executing stitches I'd never heard of before before I signed up for the Handmade Book Club.
Furthermore (and maybe it's just me), whether or not you ever intend to make a book, watching bookmakers' videos is fascinating. Some are detailed tutorials, but there are also videos without words, usually just the hands of the maker whipping up magic with beautiful papers and threads.
If you're like me, one of your least favorite and most infuriating things to do is to make a tech support call: thirty minutes to get a human, then when you do he can't understand you and vice versa, then it goes on and on like that for an hour or two until, if you're like me, you hang up with no solution and in tears!
So this morning, locked out of Google and You Tube and a whole bunch of other Google-related sites, I called Daniel. For $40 and fifteen minutes of his time, all issues seem to be solved--so I'm back on the blog and can post a few favorite photos from Carlene's 100th birthday.
Carlene, me, Jocelyn and Bob on her actual birthday, August 24th, at Presbyterian Village. There were 12 of us family members, and after lunch we went to another room where she opened cards and gifts and read aloud the book I made her of her writing.
The day before, her friend Cathy--who lives in a house in independent living--hosted a luncheon in her home and the birthday girl even took a few sips of champagne for the occasion.
Now that I'm back in, I'll continue later. If anyone local needs Daniel's phone number, just contact me and I'll send it along.
