Valentines for Vets, St. Jude and AAQI

I managed a few things today.  Unfortunately none of them had anything to do with quilts or quilting.  :-(  very sad face, indeed.  But there were a few high points: we bought a new computer!  Definitely a high point! 

We had to run to WallyWorld for a few things, including a charger for the small computer we've had for a while.  The puppies chewed the charger wire and the grandchildren played games on it whilst pulling on said wire.  In the end we were worried about someone getting a charge from it. I tried to fix it but managed instead to pull the tip completely off the wire.  Oh well. 

We put the darn thing away and now, months later, we decide the older computer is too close to cardiac arrest.  We can't chance being completely without social media: we are civilized people, after all.  Where might one purchase a computer charger, groceries, birthday gift and cat food?  In this town, no place.  A few burgs over, though is good ole Walmart.  Not a fancy supercalafragalistic Walmart, but we needed stuff, not fancyschmancy.  Off we go.

Wait, there's a part of the story I forgot to mention.  We've lost the small computer.  We put it away, remember?  Yes, well, it's WELL put away.  It's so well put away that we don't know where else we might look. 

I've looked in all the places Richard has looked, and he proved me correct by checking those places again.  I distinctly remember his taking the computer away from a pair of three year old hands attached to a redhead.  He remembers handing the computer to me after rescuing it. 


Neither of us remembers where any one put the stupid little thing.  So we didn't buy a charger; we bought a whole computer.  The whole, entire package!  Well, almost. 

We got the processor and the memory, just not any programs worth mentioning.  Now I need to cough up another paycheck for a program so I can write those lovely lesson plans that I so enjoy creating.  If I knew how, I'd "borrow" the programs from the computer with the broken heart.  Alas, I don't, and her blood supply is much too weak anyway. 

 Another accomplishment: I took pictures of the little AAQI quilts.  Not pretty outside pics as I had hoped, but do I ever get pretty pictures?  Not really. 

While I had the camera out, I also snapped a few pictures of the cards and activity booklets that the Beta students made while at convention last week. In the end we have about 50 activity booklets for preteens and teens at St. Jude's Children's Hospital and about 375 Valentines for Vets that I'll send to VA health centers in our state. 

Betas in my English classes created the activities and games which I copied onto colored paper.  The Betas at convention put the booklets together and decorated them. 

My Betas also provided colored paper, markers and stickers for Beta members to make the valentines.  I'm always impressed by how many valentines they make in the one day that the service project room is open.  Of course, we do have 5,000 or so teenagers at convention, but only about 60 can fit into the service project room at any given time, and the room is open only between general sessions. 

I'll leave you with a collage of the three AAQI quilts although it's awfully small, but at 12.05 in the morning, it's beginning to look much better than it did three hours ago when I started this post.  I have no idea where the time went, except to say that most of it was spent uploading literally 1000 pictures to find the three I needed and creating the collage.  It's insane how long it takes to figure out a program like Picasa.  And I still can't make the collage larger in Blogger.  Oh well, enough already, goodnight!

Until tomorrow.
Happy Quilting,
Mary