Bizarre weather

Well, the weather has been bizarre around here. On Friday afternoon, we had to go to the basement at work because of a tornado warning. And I was at the mall on Saturday afternoon and there was another warning - they were encouraging everyone to go to the center of the mall and away from the windows (which I didn't understand because there are huge windows up above all along the center of the mall). All I could think about at that point was the fact that Betty III was sitting in the parking lot and there were reports of golf ball sized hail in Waukesha. And I couldn't have my new vehicle getting hit by huge hail, now could I? So I ran out through the downpour and drove the couple of miles home. Had I been driving Betty II, I doubt I would have made it because it was really coming down and there were already some big puddles on the street. I did go to the basement once I got home and got the windows closed and water sopped up; I do take the warnings somewhat seriously!

We had between 7 and 8 inches of rain from Saturday to Sunday. There's been a lot of flooding and people with water in their basements (see reader submitted photos on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website), but fortunately, my basement stayed perfectly dry (I'm extra thankful because Ben has been out of town and I would have had to deal with any emergency all on my own). You can tell who had issues in their basements based on all of the stuff on the street that was clearly damaged. Sad.

I went for a run tonight along the Menomonee River Parkway and the water was still extremely high (thankfully we didn't get any more rain today). I think some animals have been displaced; a fox actually ran from the river area out in front of me and crossed the road into someone's yard.

Rainy days can be good for sewing. Seeing as I couldn't get outside for as many runs or all of the yardwork I'd anticipated, I had a bit more time for sewing. Here's a photo of my progress on the Suffragette quilt. I laid out the first row because I do actually have all of the component parts for those rows. The only blocks I have yet to sew are the pinwheel blocks (9). I've made the pinwheels, but still need to make the flying geese units that surround them and then piece the blocks. Not bad!

I also took a few minutes tonight to cover a Bag-E-Bottom that I owed Johanna for the purse I made her for Christmas. At that time, I couldn't find the acrylic base, but I don't think I probably took too much time then (I do realize that I could probably get this cut at some Ace hardware or some such shop), and I rather forgot about it. The most recent Connecting Threads catalog featured them, so I ordered a couple; one for Johanna and one for a purse I'll make myself. (Total aside: I used to like this catalog so much more before they started marketing their own fabrics.)

Anyways, that's what I've been up to. Hope things have been better weather-wise in your necks of the woods!