Send in the interventioners (and ask them to bring along a stove)

because I've officially crossed the line and added one more project to the pile to be finished this month.

Yesterday I took a free motion quilting class called 'Slow, Speed Bumps Ahead'. It's the first in a series of three classes designed to teach you some of the basics of heirloom machine quilting. It was a great class, and I've got a lot of work as well as needles and thread to burn through to finish this 18" square wallhanging.

I'll show you how it turns out once it's finished.

In a show of jealous rage, the stove offed herself this morning. I'm awakened by the hubs at 8:30 (give me a break, we were at a neighborhood party last night doing karaoke----apparently there was enough alcohol in the house to get me up there) and he just wants to admonish me... "You had to stop and look at stoves in Sears the other day, didn't you. The stove is dead. "

Now, we all know the hubs. He's somewhat tech-challenged. Could be he's got the simmer select button on, or he forgot to hit the start button. So I roll over and go back to sleep for another hour before I come downstairs. The McDonalds bag on the counter (containing the cold bacon, egg and cheese bagel) is the tip off that maybe this is serious.

He had preheated the oven and was making muffin batter when he heard this kind of pop noise. He turned around and saw no lights on the stove's display, so he checked the fusebox, flipped the breaker, came upstairs and was pushing buttons when the door on it locked. Now he's scared that it's heating itself up to 550 degrees and we're all going to die, so he goes back to the basement and flips the breaker off, noting the official time of death as 8:26.

Now I've got to find a replacement, and it's going to take me a few days to figure that out, so it will likely be a week of Foreman grill and microwave meals (yum-o!). I've got to heat water in the microwave for tea and coffee.  

I went out and looked at LGs today, and then came home to find bad reviews on this brand, in general, so now I've got to start over looking at other brands. And I upscaled the old one...I'd like a convection oven, and I'd also like a double oven..neither of which comes cheap.

It was just one more thing to add insult to injury...the electric bill came last week, and it was $525. The sting of that wasn't so painful when I found out my neighbor's was $570, and we both felt a whole lot better when we heard the guy across the street say that his was $740 (he has 1 teen and 4 moved back home after college girls--yikes!)

Gotta love our electric company, Pepco (Pirates Electric Power Co). While they can't keep the power on in a storm, they've got screwing their customers down to a science. As for the elderly, low income and fixed income households they serve...not to worry, they'll set them up with high-interest payment plans so they can spread this bill across a few months. Bad news is it's 10 degrees out, so next months' bill is likely to be the same. Now that's going to cramp my Florida quilt shop hopping next month. Bummer!

Eight weeks ago I made reservations for Sunday night at Volt (Michael Voltaggio...runner up on Top Chef) to surprise the hubs for his birthday. Suffice it to say that neither of us thought it was a good idea to drop a buck and  a half on dinner tonight, in light of the recent household bleeding expenses, so the Foreman went into duty...chicken caesar salad.

I'm falling asleep here, so I'm out.

Have a quilty Monday!