Last Minute Sewing and The Sewing Assistant Turns One

It's been a wild ride - Son #2 performs and competes with his high school's percussion ensemble.  This weekend they competed in the finals of the SCPA and placed second in their division.  A couple of weeks ago they competed in the Western Regionals for WGI and also placed second in their division.  It's an exciting show to watch, and ALL of the performers from every group gave it their all - and now it's time to go to the World Championships in Dayton Ohio!

I know, I know.  Everyone's saying the same thing.  You'd figure the WORLD championships would be located in some place more......well, to quote the Mad Hatter from the recent Alice In Wonderland movie...."much more....MUCH-IER."

"You've lost your much-ness!"

No offense to the good people from Dayton.  It's just that you'd expect it to be held in a more cosmopolitan area (like New York or Los Angeles or San Fransisco), or an exotic locale (let's say, Hawaii).  But no, Dayton Ohio it is.  (No complaints.  I have family there I'm looking very much forward to seeing.)  And we are leaving tomorrow morning at 7 am.  So the past week has been a whirlwind of uniform repair work, loading, driving, pushing equipment around, competition, packing the semi (the drivers left right after the show on Saturday - they've already had to face highway closures and snow), shopping for last minute items and a carry-on bag for me (I can't lift much anymore and needed a decent overhead compartment size rolling bag).  One that matches the new backpack.

Now that the finals comp and all the shopping is done, I'm just doing some last minute things like laundry, mending, and - finally - finishing those pajama pants so Son #2 isn't wearing floodwater pj's in front of his roommates.  So Son #1 got wind of this and is asking for his at the same time.  My fault, actually; they've been waiting patiently for these since Christmas so I need to get off my duff and finish them off.

The pj's, not the boys.

I'd post an "after" shot, except I doubt seriously if either of the boys would submit to being photographed in their pajamas.  I believe that ship sailed long ago.

So in lieu of posting a photo of today's sewing work, I invite you instead to help celebrate the first birthday of the Sewing Assistant.  He is the first pet I've had that I actually have a birth date for (April 10th), so we wanted to celebrate in style.  Only, the weekend was taken up with all the competition hubbub.  Sorry, Neko!  We gave him lots of kitty treats and there was a rumor about putting a candle into a can of tuna (with cheese sprinkles on top), but we figured he's fat enough without adding that much more food to his diet.

You can see why we're concerned about the impact of the can of tuna.  With cheese on top.

Still, he's usually a pretty capable assistant, and I'm very grateful for his company and his incredible sense of comic timing, so to celebrate I thought I'd post a shot of the Birthday Boy:

Happy First Birthday, Neko-Basu!

Yikes - I think he needs a new collar for his birthday, don't you?

I'm leaving him in charge while we're away in Dayton.  If you have any sewing work that needs to be done or need to schedule some embroidery projects, please contact the Assistant and he'll be happy to sleep on it.