small hands

Back in February 2005 Gwen had the brilliant idea for me to document the creation of a quilt.

Now that I have finished my parents' anniversary quilt, I can assemble the steps to document its creation.

Design

The first step is the design of the quilt. I get inspired either by the design of a quilt block or by a whole quilt. In this case, I found the quilt design in this Rowan book.



I had previously made two other Birdboxes quilts, one baby quilt and one toddler quilt. Those were smaller than the picture above, which has 56 squares. I got the bright idea to make the quilt 90 squares, because I like a big quilt.

Fabric

Since my stepfather is Japanese American, I thought it would be interesting to make a Birdboxes quilt using Japanese fabric. I had seen a Bento Box quilt which included a piece of Japanese seersucker that I loved.

I got some of the fabric from New Pieces, Stonemountain and Daughter, from Azabu-ya, and from this e-bay store. The seller is superlative, making fast shipments of beautifully packaged fabric.

Piecing



Then, as I posted earlier, I've got to have a clean space to get started. It is never neat and orderly while I'm working or by the time I'm finished, but I like to have it clear when I get started.




To get all those tiny pieces of fabric together (I calculate that there are more than 1600 little pieces) , you sew 1-1/2 inch strips together and then cut them horizontally into 1 inch squares. The easiest way would have been to sew 8 strips together, but the book recommends against it, saying it will make it too repetitive, so I sewed 2, 3 and 4 strips together and then cut and sewed the pieces together.



The white fabric for the blocks was cut two pieces of 2-1/2 by 3-1/2 and two pieces of 8-1/2 by 3-1/2. Since that was 360 pieces of fabric, I would cut it in strips and stacks with my trusty rotary cutter.

I organized the fabric and the pieces using a basket. I refer to the pattern from time to time, especially if I've taken a break in the piecing. It can be very wasteful to cut wrong. And frustrating.

Then I would assemble a block and add the color strips.



I sewed them together in strips of nine blocks. Here is a stack of strips:



I sewed nine strips together, thinking 81 blocks is enough already, but when I looked at it, I decided it needed to be rectangular, not square, so I got back to work and made another strip of nine.



Quilting

I put the layers (top, quilt batting, back) together on the dining room table, as I had read about doing in a quilting book at some point. It's a very good idea, because when you tape the bottom layer to the table, you can keep it flat, and then pull on the other two layers and smooth them down to get everything flat and unwrinkled.



I used big safety pins to pin the three layers together. Then I rolled the quilt up to keep it flat and smooth while I sewed the layers together. It stayed rolled up for a while, but then it became unrolled and the safety pins had to keep the layers together.

This is the hardest work of quilting; wrestling a king sized quilt into a sewing machine. It's hard on my lower back, my hands, my shoulders.

For the quilting, I accomplished the majority of it during two days of intense work. On the second day, I quilted for 8 hours straight, watching seasons two, three and four of the Sopranos while I worked. Chris-tah-FUH

I used a walking foot.

I could not believe how long it took and at some points I pulled the fabric too fast through the machine and my stitches were too big. I took the big stitches out with a seam ripper and re-did them smaller.



Binding



These are the strips for the binding. They are 4 inches wide, then I iron them length-wise to 2 inches wide and sew them onto the quilt. Four inches is actually a bit wide, as you can see from the back. Three inches is probably better. But the fabric is awfully pretty.



I love this fabric. I was hand sewing on the binding and loving this fabric. I got it from this e-bay store.



There is an interesting difference between the translucent pieced top and the three layer completed quilt. However, one morning in my bedroom, the morning sun made the completed quilt seem transparent. It made me realize that my study, on the west side of the house, has a different, more muted, kind of light than my bedroom.

Light is very important to me and I have a very bright light above my work area.

Washing



This part is a bit nerve wracking. It's not like the quilt is made out of tissue paper, but it's a tiny bit like putting something alive in the washing machine.

The purpose of washing it, as I understand it, is to get the bit of grime which has accumulated from all the handling and to quote Diane Gaudynski:

Washing lets you block the quilt, shape it to size, square up the corners, smooth out bumps, and mash down bulges.

Pacing

For a project this size (and thousands of little tiny pieces), I found that I needed to take breaks from it.

So I pieced three quilts in the midst of the AQ project. There were the two coin quilts that I've previously posted, and one Ohio Star quilt.



Also, I find that if I'm not inspired, it's better not to force myself to work on it.

Final

After I take it from the dryer, I go back and snip the leftover threads, re-do any quilting I think needs doing and then I'm done for real.

The emotional arc I generally go through on a project is: sick to death of it, disappointed that it doesn't match my vision, delighted with it, impressed that it was created from a stack of fabric and 50,000 spools of thread, nervous about giving it away, and thinking if the recipient doesn't like it I'll take it back.

I really need a clothesline to take proper quilt pictures.










I need to make a label to indicate that it commemorates my parents' 25th wedding anniversary and then to find a great box to put it in.

Yesterday evening I was cooking dinner and my little dude was underfoot. Big time.

Then he disappeared for a minute and came back with a marker and a strip of paper. He was pretending he was a waiter and he wanted to take my dinner order.

I ordered what I was cooking for dinner, which was barbecued chicken, penne pasta with bacon, cheese and green onions, and broccoli sauteed in butter and garlic. He asked me what I wanted for dessert and he suggested the ice cream that I like, "the one with the nuts." I said sure.

He couldn't really help me cook per se, but I had him put the silverware and napkins on the table, put his carrots and ranch dressing at his spot, and fill up a glass with ice for me.

It was fun to be out in the back barbecuing the chicken. I noticed the nectarines are getting ripe on my tree. The chicken came out extremely well--surprisingly tender--thanks in part to Penzeys Galena Street Chicken rub. I didn't do any marinating; just cut up the chicken and sprinkled the rub on it.

The children made appreciative noises as they took the first bite of their meals and ate a lot. It made me glad I had put so much effort into dinner, with a lot of different layers of flavor.

Later my son reminded me of my ice cream dessert, but I was way too full.

I've discovered some terrific food blogs lately: Who Wants Seconds?, Orangette, and Seattle Bon Vivant. They're inspiring.

I am [ ] this close to finishing the anniversary quilt.

I'm pretty tired. I have been neglecting taking care of my house and yards with this final push. I think I'll put the quilt aside for a few days to sweep the patio and organize my girl's room--before school starts in less than a month.

The theme of this month's Tie One On apron is pink lemonade. I wasn't going to make a pink apron. But I thought about the colors that pink lemonade invokes--pink and yellow--and found this ribbon at Stonemountain and Daughter (where I take myself after my dentist appointments to reward myself for my bravery).



Here is my Pink Lemonade apron.

I subscribed to Martha Stewart Living for years; from 1992 to probably 1999. Then I stopped because of the price of the subscription, the fact that there was an obscene number of ads, the lack of content, the repetitiveness of the skimpy content, the lack of diversity, and the blandness of the recipes.

After Martha was indicted, the number of companies buying ads in the magazine decreased. Thus, there were fewer ads. And e-bay sells very cheap magazine subscriptions. So I re-upped this year.

While I was in the grocery store yesterday, I saw the latest issue and the cover indicated that there was an article inside about vintage quilts. When I got home, the issue was in my mailbox.



Unfortunately, the article inside is pathetically skimpy, dealing more with the repair of a vintage quilt (with completely rubbish binding instructions) than showing an assemblage of vintage quilts.



Why not both, eh? I get the sense, especially when the magazine is repetitive--another article on flower arranging, on risotto (??!!!??)--that the editorial staff is being lazy.

So here is what they should have included:







Also, if they want to get serious about their food (and stop with the blackberry red wine gelatin), they need to contact Keiko and Martha needs to get down on her two knees and beg her to come work for the magazine.

Stephanie asks: Which machine do you use and what's the thickest quilt you have done with it?

Thank you for your questions.

I use a very rudimentary Sears Kenmore machine. No bells and whistles at all. I've had it for about 10 years. The understitching was recently messing up, but, following my mom's advice, I tightened the screw on the bobbin holder and it was fixed.

My mother has an avocado green Sears Kenmore machine that she has sewn on for 40 years. The motor gave out once, she sent it back, they fixed it and returned it to her.

I fantasize about upgrading from time to time, which is driven by the sleek, complicated, terribly expensive machines out there. Most of the quilting pros endorse these machines, like Bernina or Janome. But there is no way I'm going to spend $3,000 for a sewing machine. Or this one, for $1,599.

I'm not a super-deluxe art quilter.

I need a straight stitch. I don't need to embroider a duck on a sweat shirt.

The thickest I've ever quilted was three layers--top, batting, back. I don't use synthetic batting with a high loft. Instead I use this kind.

The question of sewing machines is addressed here, if you haven't already seen it. I read it with interest, but I got really confused from the responses.

If I were to upgrade, either my machine or my daughter's, I would be reluctant to spend more than $500.

Stephanie, please let me know what you decide.

As you can see, I've finished the piecing. Whew. This was the hardest I've worked on piecing of any quilt I've done since I've entered the post-children-machine-quilting phase. (In college, I pieced by hand and quilted by hand, so it was all hard work.)

The picture has a yellowish hue, which comes from the light fixture in the dining room.* I put the layers (top, quilt batting, back) together on the dining room table, as I had read about doing in a quilting book at some point. It's a very good idea, because when you tape the bottom layer to the table, you can keep it flat, and then pull on the other two layers and smooth them down to get everything flat and unwrinkled.





This is the way I quilted two other quilts from the same pattern. I'm not going to quilt this one that way. I think I will quilt around the middle square, the outer part of the outer square and then straight lines through the colored fabric. The straight lines will work better, I think, with the relatively busy graphics of the fabric.

*The picture was taken around midnight. I had been contentedly piecing and watching the Oakland City Council meeting all evening. The meetings are hypnotic; the lack of professionalism, the political manipulation, the bickering. I practice municipal law, so some of it is inside the beltway stuff, but I also pay big bucks in property taxes and there's something morbid about watching the morons who are stewards of those monies.

Amazon Japan is truly delightful. I got my July 7th order yesterday.



ISBN: 4140310901

This book contains the work of Keiko Goke, who is an amazing quilter from Japan. She has an incredibly light touch with fabric and an extraordinary sense of color. Here's what's inside:





Here is the second book:



ISBN: 4579107888




I am really excited about receiving both books while I work on the anniversary quilt, because I am using all Japanese fabric and the pieces are very small. When it gets daunting, these pictures inspire me. I finished sewing the squares 9 across and 9 down, for a total of 81 squares, but when I laid it out to look at it, I realized I needed another row of 9 to make it 9 by 10. So I am putting together the last strip of nine.

My beloved son destroyed my favorite pair of small scissors, which where excellent for cutting thread and fabric, but not at all intended for his use, cutting wire. Good thing he's my little dude, otherwise to the moon.

There is an exciting new website for people interested in Japanese crafts, called Crafting Japanese. Go check it out.

This cup is so great. I got two from Target this weekend. You would not believe the caffeine induced euphoria you get if you drink 3/4 of the coffee this cup can contain. I know one day I will have to give up coffee, but until that day...

And it feels great when you cradle it, warming up your hands and your lap.

Friday evening was a great start to a very interesting weekend. I would say that all of my senses were stimulated this weekend. FIRE and I had a lovely evening/sleepover.

I’d be a fool to ever change
If he says he loves the way I am

I love Lalah Hathaway’s version of this song, Forever, For Always, For Love. With no disrespect to Luther Vandross, whose death makes me extremely sad.


Saturday morning, I finished putting the strips together for the anniversary quilt. This pictures shows all the wrinkles and the loose threads, but it will serve as a contrast to the ironed, trimmed finished quilt.

When the children came home we went to Costco to buy meat and the new HP book.

We dropped the meat off at home and then went to Target and got coffee cups and a bean bag lounger. My girl has been asking for a bean bag chair for a long time, but they’re heavy and space consuming. Not this one. It’s very light.

Then we went to my nephew’s 13th birthday. My sister catered it with Hawaiian barbecue, so we ate a lot of terrific food. The thirteen year olds were going to play laser tag after food and cake and I didn’t let my five year old go, so he cried and cried his disappointment. I understood his feelings, but there was no way.

We dropped my girl off for a sleepover and then the boy and I went home. I put a load of laundry into the wash and then hung out upstairs while my boy sat in the lounger and watched a movie and I read the HP book. I noticed the water pressure was a little off upstairs, but it’s an old house.

A while later I went downstairs and discovered that hot water was flooding my kitchen. A hose had burst behind my washing machine. I panicked and raced toward the machine, thereby getting soaked and accomplishing nothing else. Even in my panic, I knew I needed to call my mom because she knows everything.

Thank God she was home. She came over with my stepfather.

While I was waiting for her I called FIRE and he tried to instruct me me on how to turn off all the water to the house from the street. I couldn’t turn the shut off valve. It was ridiculous.

Once my parents got there, while I was still on the phone with FIRE, he instructed me that since it's hot water, turn off the water from the water heater. The door to the water heater closet, right next to the washing machine, has jammed, swollen from the water, and it wouldn’t open. FIRE was going to come over and help, though he lives 40 minutes away, but my stepfather got the door open, we got the water turned off and the flooding stopped.

It turns out that one of the hoses has burst, rather than a pipe. I’ve had the washing machine since 1989, purchased with my summer law clerk money.

We mopped out all the water through the kitchen door, took off the old hoses, went to Home Depot and got new, non-bursting, flood resistent hoses and one of those big heavy key turny things that you use to turn off the water from the water main.



My son thought it was all very exciting and entertaining.

Sunday we went to mass, which was near the scene of this terrible crime. The Sunday School teacher was a young man wearing an AC/DC Back in Black tee shirt. His lesson was on karma, doing good things so that good things will come back to you. My girl enjoyed it. My boy decided to pass on Sunday school and fidgeted during mass, but did well mostly. After mass, we hooked up with my mother and stepfather and went upstairs for donuts and coffee and milk.

Back at home, I worked in the yard and made an early Sunday dinner of pot roast, rice and gravy, and green beans. I had gotten up at 1:00 that morning (yay insomnia) and read more HP, so I got the pot roast started in the crock pot around 2:00AM.

While we were eating our early dinner, with candles on the table, the power went out. At first I thought we had a blown a fuse and it was related to my kitchen flood, but it turned out to be neighborhood wide. That lasted for about 90 minutes, so I sat in the back yard and read more.

When the power came back on, I hemmed some curtains, then read, then did more laundry, and read, then combed my girl’s hair and finished reading. I thought the book was much better written and edited than Order of the Phoenix and I disagree with the direction the plot appears to be headed.

This morning I got up early and worked on the anniversary quilt. See? [Ignore the wrinkles; they won't be in the finished piece.] Gaining on it.

See these? Save yourself; do not try them. They are unspeakably disgusting. Let's be clear. I love sweets. These things? The purple food coloring makes these things taste like...not food. Like a mouthful of chemicals.

Why did I try them? Well, 'cause they looked interesting on Mariko's blog.

Gaining On It

That’s a phrase Norm Abram uses on the New Yankee Workshop, as he creates an quarter sawn oak armoire in his workshop in a thirty minute episode.

I took two woodworking classes at Piedmont Adult School and used to watch and marvel at Norm. He’s a superb communicator as well as a master carpenter.

Speaking of superb communicators, Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs and Steele, did a terrific job of exposition during this interview.

Anyway, I made a lot of progress on the anniversary quilt last night and I feel that I’m gaining on it. Wahoo.

Yesterday afternoon was a bit bizarre. I took my kids for their doctor’s appointments. Usually, when we go, the doctor’s office manager puts us through quickly, because she is a patient of my sister and a kind person.

She was not there. So we waited an hour to be seen. That was hard.

While we were waiting I had to have a phone conversation with my HMO. My employer switched HMOs two years ago and assigned my children to a doctor other than the one they’ve seen their entire lives. We never went to see this other doctor. Yesterday, the woman on the phone told me that I needed to “follow the rules of my HMO” and that I couldn’t just switch doctors now, mid-month.

Switch? What switch? They’ve only ever had one doctor.

She asked me “Well haven’t your kids seen this other doctor in two years? Haven’t you been paying his bills?”

[This would be the moment when I take the phone from my ear and look around to ascertain who the hell she is talking to.]

I explained to her that my children haven’t been to the doctor in two years and I haven't had any doctor's bills to pay.

Let’s review: My children are very healthy. They don’t really even get colds. So we haven’t been to the doctor.

This is bad, I guess.

After lecturing me some more, she agreed to switch doctors and make it retroactive to July 1.

Okay.

I would have paid for their exams out of pocket if necessary. I mean, shazaam, we’d been waiting for an hour.

Finally, after more waiting, we got to see the doctor. We had a nice visit; he knows my mom and sister and I’ve been taking my kids to him for the last 10 years.

After their physical exams, the only nurse who has ever given them injections came in and gave my girl three injections and my boy five injections (which includes a finger pin prick and a tuberculosis test). Five. He cried at the fifth, but he did an outstanding job.

We left the office into the burning heat and then went to Walgreens to get my boy a super treat. He chose two Spider Man action figures. We also got two boxes of Mousse Pocky. I promised my girl a trip to the fabric store this Saturday as her reward.

I made a one pot chicken and rice dish (comfort food) for dinner and we and the action figures sat at the table and had a very nice meal.

Later I cleaned up the kitchen, finished putting the border on the second coin quilt, and then took a bath. I painted my toe nails while my boy watched a cartoon and then we had story time (including one long and terribly boring book and one based on Kafka).

Then I slept. Which I do. :0)

Thank y'all for the compliments to my quilts. I kiss you all.

Progress Report II

Yes, I did vacuum, mow the front and back lawns, and fold and put away a whole, whole lotta laundry.

Sunday, I got up early and made coffee. I brought the newspapers inside, but I didn't read them. I folded and put away laundry. Then got showered and dressed and went to Mass. My kids' dad brought them to Mass and my boy asked if he could come home with me. I said yes and he did, while my girl went to hang out with her father.

She's pre-adolescent and occasionally grouchy and I think she benefits from time away from her brother.

At home, my boy was clingy, but I still managed to do some gardening. Speed mowing and fertilizing.

After lunch and reading the paper, I pieced together this second coin quilt:



This one has a lot of the new line of Westminster Martha Negley dahlia and fruit fabric. I really like this line. The thing about fabric is that if you like it you have to get it, because it is not available from one year to the next. After it leaves the stores, you have to go on a treasure hunt to find it again.



My sister came over and took the kids to this movie. Wonderful woman. A. I didn't have to sit through it. B. More time to finish piecing.

Now, once I put the border on, no more piecing anything other than my parents' anniversary quilt. It's time to finish it.

ETA: Siow Chin here are some good books to get you started:

Quick and Easy Scrap Quilts by Patricia Wilens

Start Quilting by Alex Anderson

Paper Piecing by Alex Anderson

Guide to Machine Quilting by Diane Gaudynski

Color Harmony for Quilts and Modern Quilt Workshop by Bill Kerr and Weeks Ringle

Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!! by Diana McClun

Heirloom Machine Quilting by Harriet Hargrave

Machine Applique by Sue Nickels

A Fine Line, Techniques and Inspirations for Creating the Quilting Design by Melody Crust

Progress Report

I cut the rectangles on Thursday evening and Friday morning.

Friday evening and Saturday morning, I put together the strips.



Today I laid the strips out to see how they went together best.



The rest of the day, after running errands, I sewed the top together.



I didn't mow the lawn or vacuum or fold and put away all the laundry. I'm bad. I can do those things tomorrow.

Shannon asked: Are you using fabrics from your stash or scraps from diff. projects?

Excellent question. Both. I actually had a moment when I was cutting the colored fabric when I realized that I have enough fabric. (Not!!!) I cut some fabric I've been hoarding; which took my breath away when I saw it in the store. I am also using sheets and pillowcases, which I got from ebay to supplement my stash. When I actually finish the quilt, I will try to do what Hillary did on flickr and identify which is which.

The events in London are deeply sad. Sending best wishes to all.

It is very hard to listen to W. condemn the killing of innocent people, without any apparent sense of irony or hypocrisy.


* * *

I was very close to staying home today. It’s all Hillary’s fault. She posted this terrific coin quilt and it’s so obviously and seductively do-able that I went home last night and started cutting.

That reminds me–I need a new blade for my rotary cutter.

Plus, it’s got this really cool minimalist vibe which means you can make it as a gift, sewing with confidence that it will probably not be the wrong color scheme/aesthetic for the recipient.

I cut the colored fabric for two different quilts while watching the first two disks of Season 3 of Gilmore Girls. Ahhh the repartee.

I got up this morning at 5:45 because I wasn’t tired anymore and the grey [foggy] dawn was peeking through my curtains. [One really cool thing about going on vacation inland is the sun, unfiltered.] I put a load of laundry in the washer, started a pot of coffee, cut more colored fabric, and watched more GG.

Coffee and chocolate biscotti for breakfast.

Then, because I had momentum, I wanted to stay home and cut the white rectangles. But then I remembered:

A. It’s Friday.
B. I’ve only actually worked two days this week. I can probably handle one more day of work.
C. I need to buy more white fabric.
D. I need to watch the whole momentum thing, because I still haven’t finished my parents’* anniversary quilt.

* I call my mother and stepfather my parents because it’s shorter to type and my stepfather did most of the good fathering I got while growing up.

So now I’m at work.

I made my first order on Amazon Japan yesterday. It has a button you can press to get the critical transaction information in English. I also used a currency converter.



ISBN: 4140310901

This book sells for $15 on Amazon Japan and $37.95 on equilter.



ISBN: 4579107888

This book looks very inspiring in terms of use of color as well as craftspersonship.

Our vacation was spending five days at my mother and stepfather's cabin in the Sierra foothills. Cabin has an isolated, rough-hewn connotation which is wholly inappropriate in this instance. It is extremely comfortable and there are other "cabins" close-by.

My mom detailed this chest of drawers. I think it's very cute, and goes well with the tablecloth she got in Provence a few years ago.




There is also a recreation center, which has a swimming pool, tennis courts, a lake for swimming and fishing, etc.

It smells heavenly up there.

We (the kids and I) drove up Thursday morning. It took about 2-1/2 hours and we actually didn't have to stop for my boy to pee. A first.

We settled in and went to the pool and lake, where the children swam for four hours and I sat on the side and watched them like a hawk and read Martha Stewart Living, New Yorker magazines and The Crazed by Ha Jin. It's good so far. My boy loved the water insects and tadpoles in the reeds. There were beautiful dragonflies and enormous butterflies.

There were a few moments when I would move purposefully toward something, then remind myself to slow down because I was on vacation. I never worried about work. It was all about sunscreen and drinking lots and lots of water and Diet Coke and juice. Occasionally my girl had a soda with sugar in it, which makes me nervous. I don't want her to get in the habit of drinking soda.

We had a relaxed evening, penne with ground beef and marinara sauce for dinner, and watched Hero. The kids loved Hero. I had to put it on dubbed English for them, but it was still very enjoyable.

The next day we went back to the pool/lake and swam for four or five hours.
My mom and stepfather got to the cabin in the evening and had some leftover penne. They liked it. The children wanted them to watch Hero, so they did and enjoyed it very much.

Saturday my two sisters and my niece came up and we went to a crafts festival. I bought two coffee mugs from a potter, a tie dyed tee shirt for my boy, bath salts, and some amazing chili flavored corn nuts. The kids had their faces painted, which made them very happy.










Sunday I and my older sister took the kids to the pool/lake while the others hiked around the Big Trees.


My girl and my niece entered a free style relay race for kids under 12 and won second place!! They were so excited and I was thrilled to see my girl out there, swimming away, only a year after being a beginning swimmer. All the swimming she's doing in summer camp has made her more confident.

In the afternoon we went to Murphys and walked around. It was 96 degrees and there was someone selling Hawaiian ices. My kids have no interest in Hawaiian ice when we're in Hawaii, but they were all over ices with flavors like Tiger's Blood.

My mom barbecued chicken for dinner and we sat around and ate a ton of her good cooking. I shared an amazing apple dumpling with my stepfather.

My younger sister left on Monday morning, the pollen kicking her butt--facial hives, itching red eyes. My mother and stepfather left shortly afterward with my older sister and my niece. It was nice to be alone with the kids again. We spent another four hours at the pool, ate chicken pizza for an early 4th of July dinner. The kids discovered a video copy of this movie and they wanted to watch it. Terrible. Luckily, they didn't get all the erec.tile dysf.unction jokes and there were so many.

Tuesday morning we cleaned up the cabin and took the garbage with us, as there have been bear visitors. We had to stop twice on the side of the road so that my boy could pee. My bladder luck didn't hold out on the return trip.

We got back home and it was safe and secure. *Big sigh* I had monkey mind pretty bad, which surprised me, so I watered my plants and raked up leaves. That helped a lot.

Hey y'all. We're back from the mountains--the Sierra foothills. I would have given advanced warning that I was going to be gone for a few days, but, as some of you might not know, I was burglarized while on vacation a while ago and now I'm a bit nervous about such matters.

It was warm--in the mid-90s. Lots of pollen. The kids had a blast.