No Soup For You!

You're through Soup Nazi. Pack it up. No more soup for you. Next! –Elaine, Seinfeld, season 7, episode 6

After 10 weeks of eating every kind of soup known to man, there will be no more soup for us {at least for a little while}. The new oven is being delivered this afternoon.

This week's menu?
Zucchini, Chicken & Rice Casserole
Papa Murphy's Chicken & Garlic Pizza
Tuna Casserole
Cheesy Chicken, Broccoli & Rice Casserole
Meat & Potato Pie
Zucchini & Chicken Bake

And if Mr. Bug hadn't eaten one of the two bananas that were starting to turn spotty, I would have made banana bread today.

In the Pink: A Study in Pinwheels — Finished {and it's about time, too!}

It is easier to go down a hill than up, but the view is best from the top. –Arnold Bennett

At long last, quilted, bound, washed, blocked and folded neatly waiting for the right occasion to be used.

I finished the quilting last Tuesday. I washed and blocked it on Wednesday. It wasn't dry until Friday. And there was finally good light to photograph it today.

I'm sort of at a loss for words. The only ones that come to mind are . . . terminus . . . finished . . . completed . . . finito . . . done. Those are happy words.

There's really not much more to say anyway. I've pretty much said it all in the 2¾ years it has taken me to make this quilt. If you've been following along, you're probably as sick of it as I am  glad to see the backside of it  cheering with me. But just in case, here are links to all the posts about this quilt.
Inspired
Block One
Block Two
Block Two, Take Two and Take Three
Block Three
Block Four
Block Four, Redux
Block Five
Block Six
Block Seven
Block Eight
Goal to Finish - 2011 Ph.D Challenge
Name, Label and Quilting Sketches
Getting Started with the Quilting
Quilting Update: still working on Stitching in the Ditch
Working on the Free-Motion Sections
Free-Motion Update
More quilting {and unpicking} a year later, with updated quilt label
Finished Quilting in Each of the Blocks
Quilting in the Sashings
Finished and Ready to be Blocked
Blocked but Not Dry

Yeah. It's been one epic quilt in the making.

Today's post brought to you by:

A Special Sunday: Brigham City Temple Dedication

We need to become what the Lord desires us to be and that is where we should fix our gaze. –Miguel Ribeiro

One of our activities during Grandma Week this year was attending the open house for the Brigham City LDS Temple. Today, the temple was dedicated to the Lord for services to begin. Regular church services in Utah were cancelled and members of The Church, eight years and older were invited to attend the dedication, which was broadcast from the temple in Brigham City to church buildings state-wide.

Temples are beautiful, sacred places. There are currently 139 operating temples dotting the globe, with more than two dozen announced and under construction. Unlike our regular church services on Sundays, temples services are not open to the public, nor are they open to all members of the church. To fully enjoy the blessings of the temple, much preparation, understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and a commitment to obeying His commandments is required.

At every temple dedication, The Spirit of God is sung, followed by the Hosanna Shout, where a white handkerchief is waved. I embroidered our handkerchiefs with our names, the temple and the dedication date. This is the first temple dedication that Grasshopper and LadyBug have attended so theirs just have the the Brigham City Temple. I went to the Oquirrh {/ˈoʊkər/} Mountain temple dedication in 2009, so mine has that one on there first. I used a really pretty font, as you can see penciled in on mine before embroidery, but the white-on-white kind of befuddles the script unless you look really closely {and kind of know beforehand what it says}. As we have the opportunity to attend other temple dedications, I'll continue to add the names and dates on our handkerchiefs around the outside border.

It was difficult to find the balance between "enough information to keep it from being confusing" and "not so much information that it is an overload" in writing this post. We kind of have our own vocabulary, so I've included a few links with more information about temples and temple dedications here.
What Happens in Temples
Temple Open House, Dedication and Regular Operation
The Blessings of The Temple
Inside the Temple
Find A Temple Near You
About the hymn, The Spirit of God
About the Hosanna Shout

Elder Boyd K. Packer, who presided over and dedicated the Brigham City Temple, said the following about our beautiful buildings of worship at the dedication of the Conference Center in Salt Lake City in 2002.

Do you think it possible for those of us who are called upon to speak to draw attention away from this wonderful building long enough to focus on the purpose for which it was built?

Perhaps it can be done with a parable and a poem.

The parable: A merchant man seeking precious jewels found at last the perfect pearl. He had the finest craftsman carve a superb jewel box and line it with blue velvet. He put his pearl of great price on display so others could share his treasure. He watched as people came to see it. Soon he turned away in sorrow. It was the box they admired, not the pearl.

The poem:

We are all blind, until we see
That in the [universal] plan
Nothing is worth the making if
It does not make the man.

Why build these [buildings] glorious,
If man unbuilded goes?
In vain we build the [world], unless
The builder also grows.
Poem by Edwin Markham

One of the speakers at the dedication today quoted Elder Packer. His point was that though the temples are large and magnificent, we go there to feel closer to our Heavenly Father. The things that we learn and the things that we feel are of far greater importance than the building, and no matter the grandeur, unless we let what is taught there change us for the better, the building has no worth.

Just Ignore the Warnings. There isn't Malware Here. Really. I Promise. Also, 40 Before 40 Update

How am I going to live today in order to create the tomorrow I'm committed to? –Anthony Robbins

First things first. The malware warning is because the site that hosts my silly emoticons possibly has malware. It is highly doubtful that there is malware embedded in the little dudes. At any rate, I haven't been attacked and just to be safe I removed the main offender, so we should be good now.

Also, I know I promised photos of the completed Pinwheel Sampler, but it's not dry yet. I'm not sure why it's taking so long. We'll just have to make due with a photo of it pinned to the living room floor. Also, blocking a quilt is the most odious task on the planet. I almost gave up on it and threw the quilt in the dryer. I'm glad now that I didn't, but at midnight last night with just under half of the quilt left to go, I was seriously considering it.

Since my planned post has been rescheduled, filling in today is my 40 Before 40 list. It is fun to look back on all I had planned for this year. Looking at it ojectively, this list is for someone who does not work full-time sometimes and part-time most of the time. With only four more months to go, I made a few adjustments.

I crossed 8 things off the list that I've either missed out on or realistically don't have time to do.

I've checked 12 things off the list as finished.

4 things on the list are in progress. Mornings and I are, if not friends, allies.

7 things are still definitely going to happen.

I've adjusted some things to make them fit better and I'm still considering whether I want to do others. I reserve the right to cross them off the list. And I reserve the right to not do 40 things. The whole reason for the list was to expand my horizons, to improve myself and to make time to have fun. There are lots of things that I didn't include on my list because they were difficult to frame into a single thing to put on a list. But I've done a few of those kinds of things. And there's one thing that I did kind of on a whim, that should have been on the list had I thought of it beforehand. I think it deserves mentioning here.

I joined a bowling league and every Wednesday morning I bowl three games with a really cute group of ladies. Most of them are older than me. Most of them have grandchildren. My team captain has great-grandchildren. And she bowls a mean game. There are sponsors and competitions and prizes, but it's a handicap league, so it's mostly no pressure and I go just to have fun. I bowled a 125 scratch {actual score, handicap not figured in} {also, look at me already using the lingo} yesterday. It was pretty awesome.

Every time I think about bowling, I think about this Camper Van Beethoven song from 1985. I've had this earworm for three weeks now, so I thought I'd share.

Random Bits: Vol. 3

Dream in a pragmatic way. –Aldous Huxley

The Quilt is in the Wash
It is finished. The pinwheel sampler is done. I put the last stitches in it yesterday. Finally.

I finished the binding ages ago. I was really on a roll with the quilting before Grandma Week and only had a little bit left {relatively speaking} to do in the sashing {16 sections out of 40} when Grandma Week started. I knew that lugging Grace along to my mom's to finish the quilting wasn't really an option, so I put the binding on before we left and during our sit-around-and-visit adult time after the kids had gone to bed, I did the hand stitching on it. But when we got back, I kind of procrastinated finishing the quilting because I wasn't really sure where to go once it was done.

This quilt was originally intended for snuggling under to read, or watch TV, or whatever. I'd still like it to be a snuggle quilt, but it seems like it isn't quite suited for that anymore. When the plan for the quilting became more elaborate than straight-lines ¼" on either side of every seam, I wanted to put the quilt into a quilt show or two. But I didn't get it finished in time last year. Or this year. And now I'm hoping I'll have something else even better to put in next year, and this quilt won't even be a contender.

Whether the quilt is going to be displayed or used, I knew it definitely needed a good washing. The sticking spot was whether to block it {for quilt shows} after it was washed or throw it in the dryer and make it all soft and crinkly {for cuddling}.

I finished it last night with enough time to wash it before bedtime and then throw it in the dryer and let it do its thing while I slept, but I wasn't certain what I wanted to do. After much thought, I decided this afternoon that I really want this quilt to be soft and snuggly, so I threw it in the washer in clear water {the instructions for the Blue Line Eraser that I used to remove my markings recommends that you run it through clear water before using any kind of detergent on it to avoid any discoloration} and when I pulled it out to spot treat it {it got some schmutz on it from my machine} before the actual wash, I noticed that the quilt was really not square anymore. It finished up so nice and square {gold star for me}, and wet, it was sort of curly and wrinkly. I decided that square {and a little bit stiff} was more important than soft and cuddly.

The quilt is in the wash now. When it finishes, I'm going to block it. Tomorrow, after it has had time to dry, I will photograph it and post it for your viewing pleasure {"oohhhhs" and "aahhhs" requested but not required }.

In other related news, I got my Connecting Threads catalog in the mail yesterday. It was very timely as they've just released some cute little tags that say, This took FOREVER. I thought seriously about ordering some for this quilt.

The iOSes vs. The Kitchen Appliances: Revisited
I'm still at loose ends about whether to get an iPhone, an iPad or a new oven. I thought I had it all sorted out, but the iPhone 5 was announced {effectively making even the iPhone 4S users obsolete }, our shopping trip for a new oven was a bust, and instead we found a wide-by-side-fridge-with-a-pull-out-freezer-drawer that not only has all the whistles and bells, but is so palatial you could climb right up inside it and live in there. I'm honestly not sure why we didn't bring it home with us. Oh, wait. The fridge seems to be working for now and it's an oven that we need. That's right.

In the interest of being well-informed, I did a little research on the iPhone. My current carrier now offers service for the iPhone 4S. They do not require contracts but the trade-off for that is no discounts on a new phone or phone upgrade. You have to pay for the phone up front. Their least expensive service plan is $35.00, which includes 300 talk minutes, unlimited texting and unlimited data. It is as simple and straightforward as that. The cost of the iPhone {$650}, plus monthly service for a two-year period {no contract required} comes in at a hair under $1500, before tax. They are currently offering a $5 per month discount if you sign up for auto-pay, which shaves another $120 off the total cost.

I was only able to find plan pricing for iPhones on one of the two major carriers, which leads me to assume that at least one of them has prices so astronomical that they lock you into a two-year contract before they show you the bill. The other carrier had iPhones starting at $199 {with a two-year contract} and talk, text and data plans starting at $80 a month. This includes 450 talk minutes, unlimited texting and 300MB of data {which is small potatoes, people}. Over the course of two years, the cost is just over $2100. For their largest data plan {5GB}, we're talking $2800 for two years.

OK, so my happiness does not depend on having the newest toy. If it did, the day they announced the iPhone 5 would have been a dark day, indeed. But I'm saying, buying the iPhone outright is money ahead. As a matter of fact, you could buy two phones, if say, they release a new iPhone after a year, and still come out ahead.

While it would be seriously awesome to download all of the heavy, heavy books I lug to church every Sunday into a nifty new iOS {and as Pink suggested, store the heavy books in the empty, broken oven}, looking at the bigger picture, Mr. Bug and I are going shopping for ovens again. Perhaps we'll be able to find P.'s idea of the most practical multi-tasking hybrid oven, with wireless capabilities and a flat screen. Our favorite outlet center is offering an additional 10% off clearance prices this weekend, which means that we could get a $700 oven for $375. I like the sound of that, even if it doesn't surf the net. And maybe the fridge will come home with us too.

Firebolt
These people obviously have too much time on their hands.

*Note: click on the "CC" button to turn the captions on/off. It is funnier if you play it with the captions on.

Also, the taxidermied animal in the glass case at 2:24 is a liger. Her name is Shasta, and she was born in 1948 at Utah's own Hogle Zoo. At her death in 1972, the beloved animal was displayed in the cat house until they deemed that she would be more appropriately kept at the Bean Museum on BYU Campus.