And then it rained

I intended to sit down last night to write a little recap of our North Carolina trip, but a huge downpour changed my plans.
We got 3 or 4 inches in about 1 hour, and the basement flooded.

D was on his way home from his mom's house in the suburbs. He'd gone out to take care of a downed tree, and on the way back he got stuck in the deluge and then a huge traffic jam. The gridlock on Irving Park Road was so solid that he and Libby eventually abandoned the car about 4 miles from the house, and just walked the rest of the way. (She was all kisses and smiles when she got home.)

We spent the night cleaning up the flood in the basement, and then going back to retrieve the car.

I feel really lucky that Streets & San came by about a week ago and sucked out the clogged sewer at the corner. If the sewer hadn't been open last night, our basement flood would have been a lot worse. As it is, there's just some cardboard boxes, wall-to-wall carpeting, and throw rugs that got soaked with rainwater and need to dry out. Our neighbors across the alley got flooded with foul, raw sewage and have piled all sorts of stuff out in the alley.

So, if I don't take my tired shoulders to Forrest yoga class tonight, I'll write up North Carolina.

This and that

I managed to do a little bead work. I made these earrings from a pair of sterling silver earwires, headpins, and tear drop crystals. They're very simple and go with just about everything. I can really use a little bling after getting a new really short haircut. I think the materials cost about 8 bucks and took about 10 minutes to put together. I usually have a hard time getting my wire wraps symmetric, and this time was no exception.
I made this small mala a while back and have been using it for meditation. It's made of faceted agate beads, small spacing beads, silk beading cord, and part of a skein of cotton embroidery floss. It's sort of like a rosary, if you're familiar with that concept, but for saying mantras. Instead of counting or setting a timer, you can work your way from one end of the strand to the other, and back again, and then back the other way. The faceted agate have a nice cool feel.
I've also been trying to get new pictures for my masthead. What do you think? I'm not loving any of them, and the fig season is almost over, so I'll have another photo shoot really soon. I think the afternoon light was too low.

Tomorrow, though, I'm head to North Carolina to see my family. My mom has already flown over from Germany, and my big sister and little brother are en route from Florida. My little sister will be flying to Chicago in the morning, and I'll be joining her on the leg to Raleigh. I'm so excited about spending time with everyone!

I might not blog until I get back next week. I'm taking my Thai massage mat so that I can help the travelers unwind, and I kind of don't want to lug the laptop along too. Maybe I'll just take the cord for downloading photos from my digital, and see what happens at the B&B.

Please stand by

We've got only sporadic access to the internet because our provider is being flakey. Or maybe it's our wireless router that's being flakey. Can't stay on long enough to upload photos and I'm not even sure this post is going to make it through.

But have no fear! My tech support team (my handsome man), is on the job and will get to the bottom of it. See you soon with a WIP pic and a mega money shot for my trendsetting friend Karen.

A postcard from the weekend

Grandma couldn't be prouder.