A lot going on lately, and coming up.

First the latest, then in a little bit I'll post pictures from last weekend.

The MCQ Sew-in was a success! The goal was to finish 36 quilts, and they actually completed 50. I did a little here and there to help, and Terri worked her butt off with some of the other ladies. In particular Kim and Tracy were there pretty much all of the time. Some of the others had signed up for parts of the conference and would come and sew in between sessions that they were participating in. All worked hard, and their dedication is just amazing.

We met a couple there from Connecticut, Barbara and Tom, that I shared some interests with. They have a daughter in the Marines who is headed to Iraq, and both are woodworkers. Barbara is a scroll saw junkie, and Tom is a woodturner. They also have an interest in Civil War history and have visited Manassas in the past.

Anyway, Terri and I were up until about 1 Sunday morning, she tied three quilts to finish them off and I tied one. Tying isn't my gig, my hands don't do well with small objects. After a few hours of sleep, we took the finished quilts down to join the others and grabbed some breakfast before heading out.

The trip up was uneventful, although I got a good laugh out of the big RV trailer with the spinner hubcaps, and I-95 got ugly around Richmond so we detoured up Rt. 1 to Fredericksburg, then picked up 17 to Warrenton. 29 to 15 and up to Point of Rocks, MD. to meet Mike & Annie to fetch the kids.

The trip back home from there was filled with stories about camp, where they both had a great time, thanks to the generosity of their grandparents. We took them to our local favorite Chinese place, Wok 'n Roll. Then home, where I crashed while we attempted to watch the camp DVD.

Terri was back to work yesterday, so the kids and I fetched Casey from my Mom and Richard's. She got to spend the entire weekend with Richard, and I'm sure she was quite spoiled. I think she's gained a little weight.

Speaking of which, the weekend being pretty inactive (physically) and eating lots of good food put a hurting on my diet. Jason's going to be eating DQ once a week for a month...I can't make the average for this week without seriously hurting myself, and it was already a stretch.

Anyway, we fetched the dog and got some things done and I got Terri's bike ready to take to the dealer for trade-in. Bikes@Vienna deserves a big shout out for great service. Ter had test ridden the Bacchetta Café about a week ago, and found Al to be very helpful and knowledgeable. The bike is a good bit lighter than her EZ-Sport, which she's had for a little over a year, but the riding position is similar. We were looking for something that she could handle loading onto the rack by herself, and something that was a little stronger in performance, without giving up the comfort, and the Café filled the bill. So we went in yesterday evening and found that John, the owner, was resting after a week of riding RAGBRAI. I unloaded the EZ and Al fetched John so we could take trade-in. I feel that he treated us very well on the trade-in, and would not hesitate to send anyone looking for a recumbent or tandem to go see him. In fact, I often have, even when working at Performance, based on my previous experience with John. So off we went with an even more bizarre bike strapped to the back of the Kia.

I spent last night getting the Café ready with computer and water bottle cages and mirror and stuff, and got everyone up at 5:30 for a short ride. We did 8 miles, and my first impressions are that Terri is faster and quicker to accelerate, and that she climbs hills better. She says it gets twitchy going faster, but I'll let her give more thoughts on the new bike. My thoughts are that we got a good deal and her performance is going to improve greatly.

As I said, I'll work on getting pictures from last weekend posted.