Thursday, 3 February 2022 I had a lot to say yesterday, but when I sat down to say it just before nap time, JOY98 was deader than a doornail. Dave traced the problem to a power supply that probably got fried when the fan gave out. I've been complaining of the loud fan for months or years. New power supplies that fit that model of computer are not to be had, so we are going to buy two new boxes and run Windows 11 on one -- Dave assures me that Windows now runs on a linux kernel and doesn't do all the stuff tht drove me insane. We'll see. I won't let him dispose of JOYXP until I've been using JOY11 for at least a month. The other will run DOSBOX under Linux. I ruled out DOSBOX many years ago because you have to have *all* the working files in *every* folder -- DOSBOX was meant for running games -- but the setting to make 98 read the the folder PCW came undone and we couldn't remember how we'd set it in the first place, so I've been doing that anyhow. Except for ed.exe, which the shortcuts to the files call up. Dave *thinks* that he will be able to get the data off the hard disk to put it on the new computer. In the meanwhile, I had no idea how much I used JOY98 to organize my life. I can get shopping lists, to-do lists, and so forth off the Web back-ups, but I can't update them. *** Al is walking better, but I think that it's mainly that he has learned how to work around the injury. He still falls occasionally. It's wierd to see a four-footed creature lose his balance. ******************************** Two broken links in 049: basted arrows ******************************** ******************************** When sewing flat-fell seam with gap, sew entirely on the wrong side, using the stitches to tell where the fold is. ******************************** ******************************** completed side seam with gap in it. Other dart is next step. ******************************** &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& wound watch &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Friday, 4 February 2022 9:55 AM 2/4/2022 The swelling is still there, but I think it's smaller. I went to check and found him asleep on his left side, with the end of his tail over the spot I wanted to look at. 11:47 AM 2/4/2022 Chore cascade: It's past time to carry out the garbage, but before I can do that, I have to shovel the walk. Before that, I must put on my snow boots. Before putting on socks, I must wash my feet. Before washing my feet, I must scrub the comb that I left soaking in the sink. (I put it back to soak some more.) But now I've got my snow boots on and I'm working my way back up the list. I might burn the greasy papers while I'm out there. 1:21 PM 2/4/2022 Shoveled to the fireplace, but didn't rake the snow out of it. I waffle-stomped the rest of the way to the compost heap. Then I came inside, ate lunch, and piled a lot of turkey bones on the garbage plate. That will be the last of them; I poured the bone broth through a tea strainer before putting it back into the fridge. Unlike the giblet broth, this broth gelled -- presumably because there was a lot of cartilage and gristle on the bones. There is still at least half a cup of the meat I pulled off the bones before boiling them, a cup or so of the jelly I poured out of the roaster, and one light lunch of the creamed turkey I made after boning the carcase. Then all that will be left is the breast meat that I froze. I bought a box of stuffing to warm some of it up under. Al got the last of the giblet broth for breakfast, and some of the scraps of turkey meat. I'll be surprised if he likes the bone broth; he didn't touch a tongue to the jelly I poured out of the roaster. And Dave thinks the bone broth smells terrible and "stinks up the whole house". Dave shoveled a path to the picnic table this morning, thinking to make a snow gage out of a yardstick, then went to Amazon and bought a ready-made gage. Al escaped onto the ice in the shoveled patch, his bad foot slipped out from under him, and he executed a spectacular roll behind Dave' back and was back on his feet before Dave turned around. I've finally figured out that he falls dramatically on purpose, to spread out the impact the way a sky diver does. It was *really* dramatic when he slipped on the tile floor at the vet's as he was being set down. I think that the swelling is smaller -- hard to tell under the fur -- and he let me touch it. (I refrained from poking.) He seems to be walking much better, except for a few minutes after his excursion onto the ice. I don't know whether it was the fall, the chill, or both. Or generalized discombobulation and "I'd better be more careful". 6:49 PM 2/4/2022 The snowplow guy said that this is the worst single storm he's seen in twenty-five years. Weather Underground's calendar view says that we got less than an inch of snow. I wonder where they took the measurements? There's ten inches on the picnic table. Saturday, 5 February 2022 7:41 PM 2/5/2022 Al and I shared the last turkey scraps for supper. He also had a quarter of a can of Fancy Feast. Sunday, 6 February 2022 9:52 PM 2/6/2022 Dave says he was watching a movie on the television when whomf! There was a cat in his lap. I missed making an entry when Al started asking to be picked up and put into his lap. Monday, 7 February 2022 4:26 PM 2/7/2022 ******************************** 5:07 PM 2/7/2022 I found fifteen contiguous minutes and top-stitched the other bust dart. I have decided to make the other seam match, but continue to treat this side as the wrong side. 6:32 PM 2/7/2022 I hope I find more contiguous minutes soon; bra white linen #6 isn't going to last much longer. ******************************** 5:23 PM 2/7/2022 %#@&*! 5:51 PM 2/7/2022 It was a little past time to pop the lasangna rolls into the oven -- and I'd looked up the temperature, but forgotten to twist the knob. 6:31 PM 2/7/2022 supper wasn't terribly late. Tuesday, 8 February 2022 8:30 PM 2/8/2022 Rode to Meijer and back. Coming back was much easier: the sun had been on the streets -- and I knew better than to use Clarke Street. The bike lanes on Fort Wayne were under snow, so I didn't much mind having to use it -- car drivers could see that I couldn't ride in "Please right-hook me" position. And Clark Street was clean where I had to use it to get around Fort Wayne school. About the only thing I found in Meijer that I'd come for was cat treats. Well, I also bought a package of safety pins and some extra-fine sugar. And at long-last I found gravy for cats: just gravy, no lumps. I'd come for sheets, but didn't get any. I'd resigned myself to having to buy an unwanted fitted sheet, and even thought I might like it, but I found that package designers think that nobody cares in the least whether the sheet you are buying can be used on the bed that you have; there were very few that I could find out the size of without picking up the package, king size is rare, and eventually I decided that the easiest way to get a sheet is to go to Lowery's and buy quilt lining even though I can't get it done before washday. I had a nasty time getting from Meijer to Anchorage Road. I usually cut through Belle Tire's parking lot to get around the one-way section of the exit. All would have gone well, but a car entered before I got to Belle Tire's entrance, and I had to get onto the outgoing side of the road to let him by. I was able to draisine up onto the platform of snow, but I couldn't draisine off. That meant walking the remaining rod or so, and I was well into the parking lot before I was able to get back on. (There have always been places where I could ride, but couldn't start, and with sciatica and what-not, these places have become much more common.) Then when I got to the exit, and crossed the road onto the sidewalk to the trailer park, I found that pedestrians trample a very poor path for pushing a bicycle, and when I got to the park, I found that the parking lot had been plowed *after* the path was trampled. One set of footprints led around the south end of the wall, but that would have been little or no help, and it was slightly closer to go around the north end. Plowing through untrodden snow was *very* strenuous until I thought of lifting the bike. And the parking lot hadn't been plowed all that well. But it was clear sailing after I got to Sunset. Even McKinley, where I'd had to walk all the way up the hill going out, was fairly clean. I was finished at Kroger in time to buy a "cubano" at Jimmy-John's. ******************************** 9:46 PM 2/8/2022 I took the untied elastic out of HCJ#2 after supper today. Will leave putting it back in and mending the broken places in the casing for tomorrow. ******************************** Wednesday, 9 February 2022 10:34 AM 2/9/2022 Tried the gravy when I gave Al Metacam this morning. Al sniffed it, and said "would *you* eat water with cornstarch, "flavoring", and a pinch of taurine?" So I put a little slice of Purrfect Bistro tuna in it; still not edible. After he'd ignored it for a while, I put a small pile of cat treat beside it and everything went down. He only disarranged a second helping of Purrfect Bistro, and I know he was hungry because he got only one feeding during the night. ******************************** 4:33 PM 2/9/2022 Oops. After carefully basting the turn-under to the incorrect side, I started to pin and found that I'd trimmed the seam allowance of the dart on the correct side. Easy to pull out, but I'd pinched in a crease. So far it seems easy to overpower the crease and fold it the other way, and with recent practice, it should be more uniform. I repaired HCJ and put it away before starting on the bra. 10:13 PM 2/9/2022 It's lucky that I couldn't figure out how to open the battery compartment on the Nechi's light and decided that it was bright enough. I left it on again. It was quite feeble when I switched it off. ******************************** 9:56 PM 2/9/2022 We got two legitimate phone calls in a row! Both during my nap. The first was an appointed wellness check with my nurse practioner. I had started my nap early, but wasn't quite through when she called. Sitting on my bed half dressed sure beats driving there and back! It would have taken my entire afternoon. The second was Dr. Moore's office checking on the Mohs surgery Dave had yesterday. None of the previous removals had hurt that much, but on his way to bed he said that when he was running errands this afternoon, he forgot that he had an incision. Thursday, 10 February 2022 ******************************** 11:38 AM 2/10/2022 I sewed the first stitching of the side seam yesterday, and today I pressed it as it lay, and unplugged the iron. Then I bethought me that I could get ready to stitch the shoulder seams while the iron was still hot, and very carefully pressed a quarter inch to the wrong side of the back straps. Picked it up thinking about how I would pin it, then pressed the crease out and pressed a quarter inch to the right side of the front straps. I was having to hold the iron a long time toward the end there. I basted the crease in so it would stand up to being flopped around while I sew the side seam. 11:24 AM 2/11/2022 I was right the first time: the front of the shoulder seam should lap over the back, so the fold-down should be on the back. On the other hand, the shoulder seam of a shirt is supposed to be slighty forward of the top of the shoulder . . . 12:12 PM 2/14/2022 snaps pillow The snaps were undone every time I changed the outer case, so instead of re-sewing the snap, I sewed the inner case shut. My overcasting stitches were seldom as long as they ought to have been. I thought I'd reeled off way too much thread, but there was only a comfortable amount left. After securing the thread by buttonhole stitches over a thread, I tried out making a big messy french knot to end basting. I made a barely-visible knot. I was sure that a french knot is only one turn around the needle, but I guess it's four or five. I *could* look it up. _The Stitches of Creative Embroidery_ was mis-filed among needlework encyclopedias. It is, indeed just one turn. Enthoven says that one can wrap it two or three times, but it's much better to use a heavier thread. I've just learned that meat tenderizer -- bromelain -- will fade old blood stains quite a lot if you put a paste of tenderizer on the stain, wait one hour, and rinse it out. 12:38 PM 2/14/2022 Copy toy sewing-machine description from the Banner. 7:33 PM 2/15/2022 I bought six yards of quilt lining today. This evening I tried to check the ends to see how to draw threads to straighten them. (Six yards is *almost* enough -- I took the entire bolt -- so I didn't want to tear.) The ends of six yards of 118" fabric are not easy to find. When I did find them, lo and behold both ends were torn! I'd thought that the inside end had been hacked into dramatic zig-zags, but it was rumples that had been pressed into firm creases when the bolt was wound. Six yards of 118" fabrice are *heavy*! My tights kept sliding down during the ride; I blame bad elastic in my Capilene tights. 1:58 PM 2/16/2022 On the other hand, the selvages are raw edges, not even an extra thread to secure the fringe, so I'm going to have to hem all four sides. The parlor is busy with a computer-mending job, so I'll have to press the turn-unders on the ironing board. I think I'll shirt-tail hem the selvages before even beginning on the ends. 11:33 AM 2/19/2022 Quadruple pressed creases in the raw selvage of one sheet, now pinning a quarter-inch hem. 7:35 PM 2/19/2022 Finally pinned a shirt-tail hem in one of the raw selvages of the new sheets (and quadruple-pressed a crease into the other selvage; hope it doesn't come undone before I get another chance to sew), but it was nap time before I could change the thread in the sewing machine and sew it. Didn't help that I caused a bookalanche looking for the ecru thread, and had to do a lot of sorting. Found some interesting books, though, including the Navy's _Tools and Their Uses_. 11:53 AM 2/21/2022 Finally time to sew, after much time preparing the parlor for Roomba. (This required putting away all the things that had been moved out of the laundry room to make room to install the new washing machine and hadn't been used yet.) There was no ecru bobbin in the box, so I had to clear up the bookalanche to gain access to the balls of ecru thread. I picked the ball that had a loop tucked under the windings, suggesting that it had been opened. After the bobbin was wound, I used a tapestry needle eye first to tuck another loop under the finishing belt, which wasn't much reduced by removing a bobbinful. Twenty grams is a *lot* of thread; I think it's well over three hundred yards. After taking three tries to hold the correct side of the loop while pulling out the tapestry needle, I realized that the original loop had probably been pulled in with a crochet hook. 12:05 PM 2/21/2022 time for lunch 1:01 PM 2/21/2022 I meant to sew the pinned hem before eating, but I found that I couldn't thread the sewing-machine needle without replacing the batteries in the light -- they ran down some time ago, but I didn't *really* need them until now, and when I'd tried before I couldn't open the battery compartment. This time I resorted to putting a table knife in the crack. The spare batteries are in the kitchen, so I warmed up some turkey, dressing, and gravy, which proved unexpectedly complicated, and our scrawny cat said he'd like to have lunch too, which I serve in installments to get more food into him, and . . . That hem will be sewn even if . . . oh, drat, it's time to dress and go to the open house. Strong tea coming up. 1:31 PM 2/21/2022 Hem sewn, and a cursory inspection suggests that I didn't wander off the fold once. The battery light is off. I checked twice. I'm on the stay-after-the-party-and-clean-up committee. That is enough excuse to come in late. 7:44 PM 2/22/2022 Oops, it was time to lie down for a nap, not time to leave. I got there two or three hours early. I was all set to veg out at the computer all evening, but I had to reboot it, so I pinned the other side hem on the sheet. (The first fold was triple-pressed some time ago, and was still holding nicely.) As I did the first time, I nailed the hem to the ironing board with a corsage pin, stretched it, and pinned it where it wanted to fold. My stainless-steel pocket ruler says that both are pretty close to three-sixteenths of an inch; I was shooting for a quarter (four sixteenths) but this looks and feels right. I put the pins much closer together than necessary, in case I don't get to the next step soon. I can pull pins two or three at a time when I sew. Triple press: I iron a crease in dry, then smooth a strip of old muslin over it and iron dry to bring the muslin into close contact with the crease to be pressed, then I spray water on the muslin and iron it until it is dry, then remove the muslin, move the crease to a dry part of the ironing board, and iron a fourth time to make sure the crease is dry. That's four ironings and no pressing, but somehow "triple press) feels like the correct term. 8:02 PM 2/22/2022 12:02 PM 2/23/2022 But I used "quadruple press" in the Banner. I may make the bed with new sheets today. 12:04 PM 2/23/2022 12:28 PM 2/23/2022 I did remove the pins two and three at a time. Taut sewing kept the hem folded and uniform. This time, I wandered away from the edge at least twice, but not, I hope, far enough to release the raw edge. 12:30 PM 2/23/2022 1:40 PM 2/23/2022 End hems in the first sheet are quadruple pressed. I was interrupted a few times. I used a couple of corsage pins to stretch some sections of the first end, but by the time I started the second end, I'd figured out that the best way is to hold the fabric down with the iron and stretch and fold with the other hand. I'd done the first end in three sections, but I did the second end typewriter style. When the fabric was torn off the roll, about a thirty-second of an inch was stretched into tiny ruffles that at first glance didn't matter, but they complicated folding the edge in, so first I dampened the edge and ironed the ruffles out. Does this make the crease quintuple pressed? I noticed that if I pulled a little of the edge off the left end of the board, I could dampen the edge all in one go without shifting the fabric around. This naturally led to pressing out the ruffles all in one go, and that left me with the right end on top of the board and the surplus fabric hanging off the left end. Duh! I press from right to left, so if I start at the right end I can iron in the crease all in one go. This left me in position to do the next three pressings in three pressing-cloth long strips, working back to the right end. I had something else to say, but I'm sleepy, it's time for lunch, and I don't remember what it was. 1:59 PM 2/23/2022 ******************************** Friday, 11 February 2022 11:28 AM 2/11/2022 Rain is thick on the roads. If this freezes under the snowfall, tomorrow's ride to Aldi is off. If I can figure out how to load the treadle into the car, I may drive to Lowery's instead. I do need quilt lining rather urgently. Saturday, 12 February 2022 This morning I took one look at Boys City Drive and said "Dave, I'm going to need the car.". And the roads were, indeed, terrible. Didn't need my cane much in parking lots, though. I was puzzling over my route -- I know how to get from Sprawlmart to Aldi by bike, but didn't think I'd know the correct turns by car. Dave said "Just get on Route 30 and follow it to the Menards exit." Duh! I'm accustomed to thinking of US 30 as a barrier. I stopped first at Rural King. A sign on each door said "We are not open yet! See you in March." The exclamation point made me laugh right out loud. I bought a bag of pellet bedding and a bottle of meat tenderizer at RP Home and Harvest. The meat tenderizer is in the laundry room; Dave read a rumor that meat tenderizer will take out old bloodstains if you give it long enough to work. I bought a fifteen-dollar sewing machine at Aldi. I thought at first it was confirmation of the rule that toy sewing machines don't work at all, but eventually I noticed that the top thread was looped around the button that holds the top bobbin. (It also has a spool pin; I don't know why you can't put a bobbin on that, except that they sell it already threaded and the spool pin has to be retracted to pack it for shipping. It looks cheap and it souds very cheap, but it does sew. The push-button "on" switch is a complete non-starter. You push it once to start the machine, and then have to push it again to stop it; no way you are going to stop where you wanted to stop. But it also has a foot pedal on-switch, which you push to start and stop pushing to stop. I think I'll use it to put easing threads into the bras I'm making. That's the next step, and I don't want to unthread and rethread the Necchi twice for four inches of stitching. Then I had to find a safe place to put a flimsy gadget when not playing with it. My footlocker isn't quite deep enough. Ah, Dave's grandmother's sewing stand is just the right size. I found two drop spindles I meant to get rid of many years ago, bagged them, and put them on the to-go shelf in the garage. I want them to go to someone who has a use for them, so I'm reluctant to take them to Goodwill. I also found the writing mitts that have been missing for some time, and a small whisk broom. Monday, 14 February 2022 12:44 PM 2/14/2022 Dave dropped by Smith's and told them to deliver the washing machine. Then he came home and told the bank to send them a check. He may have sent the check after they called him to say it would be here on Wednesday. When he was there, they weren't sure it was in the warehouse. It was listed as in there, but one of the employees had looked for it and couldn't find it. A special order would take a while. He also went to Reinholt's. A separately-adjustable bed is about four thousand dollars, but one can adjust it while lying in it. I've just realized that I'm not really keen on a bed that stops working when a derecho comes through. But we have two single beds, the futon in the living room and the love seat in the parlor. We actually both sat in the love seat at the same time yesterday. I don't remember doing that before. But we rarely sit in the parlor. 7:05 PM 2/14/2022 Just after nap time yesterday, Dave came home with sixteen wings, a couple of celery sticks, two kinds of wing sauce, and two containers of blue-cheese dressing. We had supper very early. By good luck, I had just cut up carrots, celery, and mini-sweet peppers for the relish tray I served them again tonight, and we still have three wings left. I picked a tablespoon or two of meat off mine, and Al ate it right up. Dave said that if we want to fatten the cat, we should eat wings every night. I suspect that he'd get tired of it at least as quickly as we would. Today I got fed up with my ragged old Fibernet shirt, picked the pockets off, threw it into the trash, and got one of my old New Salem Fire Department shirts out for house wear. I promptly dripped Hot Barbie sauce on it. After supper I rubbed and rubbed soap on the stain on both sides, then rubbed it with a vegetable brush, then rubbed on more soap and used the brush some more, and I think I got most of it out. Then I dampened the meat tenderizer left in the saucer Dave had used on his pants and a pillowcase, and dabbed it on the brown specks on the back of the shirt. These stains are at least twenty years old because I didn't wear New Salem shirts much after we left New Salem, so it would be a pretty good test on the tenderizer if I were sure that the stains were blood. The pattern of specks doesn't seem probable for blood, or anything else. Pity I didn't think to look to see whether they were bigger on the inside before dabbing them. Wednesday, 16 February 2022 The boys have come and gone, and I've washed the sheets I've been keeping in a trash bag until I felt like going to the laundromat -- both in one load.! Then how to dry them? I was going to hang them on the line, then bring them in when the wind started thrashing them, but it started picking up while I was fetching my garden shoes and the clothespin bag, and I didn't want to go out into the wind to hang, only to have to go out again and bring them in before they were dry, so I draped one over each clothes rack. This was not easy. I was surprised that one sheet was nearly white, and the other wasn't much lighter than it was when I tore it off the bolt. Then I remembered that when the old washer began to refuse to wash sheets, a sheet was submerged in soapy water. So I pinned it to the line to drip and dry, and put it into the trash bag. So I've found a good way to whiten unbleached muslin. 1:49 PM 2/16/2022 Yesterday or the day before, I used the last of the onions that I bought at the farmers' market, and today I opened a supermarket bag. I bought about the right amount; the onions were starting to get green centers. Friday, 18 February 2022 1:20 AM 2/19/2022 Taking out the garbage was a chore cascade again today, but two inches of snow are A LOT easier to move than ten! *** After my latest tooth cleaning, the dentist told me to start using fuzzy toothpicks to clean between my teeth. I couldn't reach in quite far enough to clean between my wisdom tooth and the molar next to it. This is no longer a problem. When I started brushing my teeth Wednesday night, the moment the brush touched my back teeth, I found a tooth lying on my tongue. I'd been concerned for some time because I felt a catch at the base of that tooth when I flossed. So in the morning I called and got an emergency appointment for 11:45. It turned out that the crown had broken off at the gum line and he couldn't glue it back in. To put in a new crown, he'd have to do a root canal and put in a pin, and it was far from certain that the root could take the strain. The best plan was to put a plastic filling over the broken root to protect my gum. This also preserves the root to keep the wisdom tooth in line. At least *that* could be done on the spot and I wouldn't be fussing with it for weeks. And no restrictions on eating. I didn't inquire into how much surgery taking the root out would require. So, when "living in the future rocks!" comes up in a conversation on Usenet, I can no longer say that I still have a full set of teeth. But I do have twenty-eight -- the wisdom tooth is functional. So that's why I didn't start hemming the new sheets Thursday. I'm not at all sure what I did with today, just that it was nap time before I got organized. Saturday, 19 February 2022 10:19 AM 2/19/2022 We had what sounded like a ferocious wind in the night, and there is a deep drift over two or three yards of the walk that I cleared yesterday. But the rest of it is blown clean. We eat off paper plates and both of us have bad backs, so we tend to wait until we run out of silverware to wash the dishes. When Dave was washing dishes yesterday, he opined that we should put away some of the silverware so we'd wash before stuff piled up. So I took a lot of spoons and forks out of the drawer, put them into a Baggie, and put the Baggie into Grandmother's stovetop oven. I discovered in the process that the silverware tray was filthy and added it to the pile to be washed. I left the knives because we never have more than two or three dirty. (I use a knife to serve Al's food, then wash it immediately and leave it on the counter for the next meal.) When putting the silverware tray back, I realized that if I put away some of the dinner knives, I could put the steak knives into the silverware tray instead of having to hunt all around the drawer for them, so this morning I put a handful of knives into a quart sandwich bag because they are longer than a Baggie. They are also longer than a quart zipper bag, but can be put in on the bias. Then I discovered that they are also longer than the diameter of the cake pan in Grandmother's oven, so I put everything into the roaster with the cookie cutters. The cookie cutters, by the way, are up for grabs. 7:06 PM 2/19/2022 The snowdrift held together in blocks, but wasn't hard to shovel -- except that sometimes the blocks were too heavy to lift and I had to cut them up. Then I carried out Al's secondary litter box and dumped the corncobs on the frozen puddle in front of the fireplace. 7:13 PM 2/19/2022 I finally got around to determining that there is no ceremony to plugging a thumb drive in; the ceremony for pulling one out merely checks that nothing is using the drive you mean to yank. So I pulled Agent (being out of USB ports), plugged in the thumb drive that Dave copied the drive from the dead computer onto, changed the name of folder Pcw on JOYXP to Pcwbak, copied Pcw from the copy of JOY98, copied 2022BAN2.HTM to Pcw, and put the drives back where they were. Opened DOSBOX -- Yay! I can start editing the February banner, and high time, too; it's almost time to mail it, and I'm very tired of trying to write with Notepad. Notepad is for *notes*! But what, what? The file contains only running gears, no entries. I looked at the Web copy, which was made after the last entry and before the crash -- also empty. Viewed source: no I didn't put in a comment and not close it. Finally thought to check the date on the first entry in STOPGAP.TXT, this file. The entry I didn't get to make would have been the first. 7:35 PM 2/19/2022 Finally pinned a shirt-tail hem in one of the raw selvages of the new sheets (and quadruple-pressed a crease into the other selvage; hope it doesn't come undone before I get another chance to sew), but it was nap time before I could change the thread in the sewing machine and sew it. Didn't help that I caused a bookalanche looking for the ecru thread, and had to do a lot of sorting. Found some interesting books, though, including the Navy's _Tools and Their Uses_. 11:31 PM 2/23/2022 I just washed five plates, and two of them weren't Al's. I like china plates when we are eating baked pork roast. 8:55 AM 2/24/2022