How Bikers Do Christmas

Bubba and I are members of the Gold Wing Road Riders Association, a biker club. I like to call them the "Gold Wing Restaurant Reviewers Association" cause most of our meetings involve food in some format. The Albany Oregon chapter is designated Oregon Chapter J. Anyway, here's a letter I sent to them today. I'm sharing it here 'cause I thought you might like to see what "other" activities bikers are involved with:

Hello, Holly Jolly J-sters!

At our last chapter meeting, we talked about Christmas. Two ideas have been proposed. Underwear for Christmas and Sewing for Christmas

First, underwear. You know how we always have a gift exchange at the holiday party? We greatly anticipate seeing how The Green Dress will make its appearance, and who will be its caretaker for the coming year. I think this might be the best part of the gift exchange, maybe the best part of the whole party. But there are all of the other gifts that get exchanged - silly gifts, tasty gifts, smelly gifts (I mean scented candles, of course). Well, most of those gifts, while appreciated and well thought out, usually end up in the bottom of the closet or stuffed under our beds or "re-gifted" to neighbors or at other holiday parties.

By now you're saying to yourself "when the heck will she get to the UNDERWEAR?" At our meeting I proposed to have an UNDERWEAR exchange for the gift exchange. "What," you say, "we take off our underwear and..." Stop it! I'm thinking that we buy underwear (ladies buy lady underwear, men buy NEW men underwear, and/or we all buy children's underwear), figure out creative ways to wrap it for the gift exchange, maybe include a small token gift for the party recipient, and then once we've all unwrapped our underwear, we donate it to the local homeless shelter. When I mentioned this to people at the chapter meeting, they said it sounded like a pretty good idea. Please LET ME KNOW what you think so we can decide whether we want to give this a try.

Second, I mentioned at the chapter meeting that it'd be fun to get together to sew things for Christmas to give to CARDV (Center Against Rape and Domestic Violence) along with the items purchased by the chapter during our annual shopping spree. We could make simple, quick things like scarves, hats, baby blankets, etc. So we decided to get together and stitch up a few things. Marilyn volunteered her house, and we decided to get together on Sunday, November 9th. We didn't decide on a time yet, but we did decide that we'd have a potluck lunch. There are several ways that you can participate.

A. you can come and sew. (bring your sewing machine, scissors, pins, thread, rotary cutting setup, all that sewing stuff that you usually use).

B. you can donate fabric, thread, etc - so even if you don't have time to join us, you can help. People who sew often have a stash of fabric that they'd like to get sewn up and shared with others (mostly so we can make room to store new fabric, but we won't mention that here, OK?).

C. invite members from other chapters that you know LOVE to sew. The more the merrier!

D. you can cook for us. Just kidding. But you can drop by and visit us, and cheer us on. And see what we're sewing. Or drop off things that you've already sewn. Or, you fellas can join our hubbies out in the barn. But keep away from those power tools out there - they're bloodthirsty - just ask Dave. And Jim. And Bob. And Del. And (your name here).

Please let me know if you're planning to join us for this holiday "sew-in" so we can make sure we have enough room to set up all of our sewing machines, and enough goodies to feed all of us busy bees.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to let me know two things: Underwear, yes or no? Sewing, how can you help?

Looking forward to hearing from you,
~~Novena

Food and a Funny

Two posts in one day? Incredible! But just wanted to share that I've found a new foodie blog that is great! Recipes are clear, easily done, and yummy!
Check it out: http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/ I've made the Broccoli Beef and the Chicken Cream Cheese Soup in the last two days. They were delish, even Bubba agrees.

Bubba and I like documentaries, and motorcycles, so tonight, in our happy-tummy delirium following the Chicken Soup dinner, we were watching a show about Harley Davidsons. Bubba said he was told that they had made an early Harley using cylinders from an airplane. Well, they started making Harleys in, like, 1901 so I was trying to remember when airplanes were invented. I mused out loud "when DID the Wright Brothers make their first flight?" and Bubba said "Oh, probably sometime in the morning, I imagine" which reduced me to helpless giggles. Funny guy!

Stuck. Or, Rather, Coming Unglued

Okay, so you know those record album purses that I've been making? Well, part of the process takes glue. Quite a bit of glue. Wood glue. Somewhat expensive when bought in small quantities. Well, we just can't have that. I've shopped around and found the best price for other components used in record-album-purse-making: rivets, handles, fabric. So, let's go glue shopping online.

Oh, there's a great deal, a one-gallon 2-pack. Ordered. A package arrives - in about 12 days. "Well, you took your sweet time, didn't you. Let's see what we have". Huge box, only ONE gallon of glue. Uh, did I order right? Yep, invoice says gallon 2-pack. So I call. They say, sorry, you can either wait up to 7 days for UPS to and pick it up OR you can bring it back to a local store. Grumble,grumble, grr. "Oh, honey, would you please...." So Bubba took the package back to ALBANY, they credited it back to us, and placed the order again.

So yesterday, package arrives, I tear into it, and guess what. Same thing! Awk! What the heck? Call the store, get same song and dance. Okay, turkeys, we'll bring back the dadgummed package to the consarned local store AGAIN! Bubba just called, found a lumber store locally that carrys the very thing at the same (or maybe just a bit better?) price, and it's right there. On.The.Shelf! Huzzah!

While I realize this isn't a very exciting post, believe me, it rather caused some excitement here. And at least it keep my mind sidetracked a bit while we wait for Jon and Brandy's new baby to arrive. Baby's due October 31 (Yay, Halloween!) but she's had lots of signs that baby may be early. I gotta go sew something. 'cause that's what Grandmas do. Grandpas, on the other hand, get stuck with honeydo lists. Gotta go update that, too. Had him cutting out some wood last night for...nope, can't say, it's for Christmas presents! Four little granddaughters to sew for (maybe five - don't know what J&B are having). Fun.

Now, where did Bubba hide that list......