Friday...stuff

Need to empty my brain before the weekend.

Milwaukee was chosen as the site for the 2020 Democratic National Convention. I may do a post on this, but right now, my head just wants to explode. It makes perfect sense to have it here - Wisconsin is a battleground state, the city of Milwaukee has a long Democratic (and Socialist) history, and we have a brand-new arena and a major league ballpark with a roof to accommodate the crowds. What we may be short on is hotel rooms.

I am seriously considering taking a bit of vacation time, and renting out my upper floor. Bedroom, private bath, desk/wifi. I'd sleep on the couch...and provide breakfast, maid service and possibly some shuttle services to and from downtown. As much as I'd hate people in my home, the money that they are talking about for rentals is just...stupid money, which I could use.

Tomorrow is National Quilting Day. I need to put some borders on one quilt, and prepare the backing for two. Sunday I'm handing those two off to a woman to quilt them on her longarm quilting machine. I've finally convinced myself that life is too short for me to do everything from start to finish, and some projects that are meant to be gifts can be quilted by someone else.

Before I can fire up the machine, though, I'm meeting a friend at a local coffee shop to swap nibs on fountain pens we have in common. Have I mentioned in this space that I've gone back to using fountain pens? Hmm, need to do a post, with pictures, on that. The short story is that they write well and pretty much eliminate any hand/finger cramping in long writing sessions, as such a light touch is needed. The longer story is that there are many, many styles, colors, nib variations and choices out there. One of my favorite pens is actually made from hardened basaltic lava from Mt. Etna in Sicily.

Really.

It is supposed to be forty or a bit warmer today through the weekend. I need to do some outside clean up that didn't get done in the fall. The snow is gone from the front flower bed, so I can access the lilac bush for a good spring trim before it starts sprouting leaves. No snow is in the forecast for next week and next weekend they are talking about fifties - I may even get the grill out.

Nothing much exciting is going on, which is fine with me. Housecleaning (as always) needs to happen, some organizing needs doing before I can rearrange the studio. Just business as usual, to be honest.