I'm in Hawaii! It's lovely, but very wet. In fact, Kauai has been having flash floods. You know, Hawaii is part of the US but we don't hear about Hawaii weather on the mainland unless it is spectacular. If north Kauai was in Indiana, this might make news.

There is one road around the island – except for the napali coast where there is no road. Imagine an 'O' with a bit out of it (map). Lihue, where the main airport is is sort of in the middle on the east side of the island. I'm in Princeville, around the north side, but not all the way around the island. The napali coast where the road doesn't go is past Princeville.

There have been mudslides and road washouts. Princeville is on one side of a road closure and the bulk of civilization on Kauai is on the other side. Many of the students in my class tomorrow are on the other side. We all hope that the mud is cleared soon but there is more rain in the forecast.

I wanted to share photos of the condo… It's really nice and on the grounds of a church. They built it to earn a little more revenue – what a great idea! The power was out in the condo this morning but it's back on now so I'm happy to be able to post these photos.

If you are standing where I was, above, and turn left, you see the corner of the room with the kitchen, below.

The bedroom is nice and it has a lovely Hawaiian quilt! The girls will camp out in the living room and Steve and I have the bed. We are, after all, older and less limber.

If you walk out the door in the living room, you are on our lanai. Nice! It's too wet to sit out there right now but I have hope that tomorrow will be drier.

This is the view off the lanai. Yesterday there was blue sky, but not today.

We look out over a golf course. The ocean is off in the distance which is fine. (Note to the parents of Lola and Elanor: we are in no danger of flooding. We are way uphill and there isn't a river nearby.)

I said that I'm on church grounds. This is the pastor and a friend moving the Red Cross van across the property to the shelter. I hope to go up there later to see if they can use a little help. But the weather is getting better and the forecast is improving so I'm not sure the shelter will even need to be open. Yay!

When the van moved I saw this:

Just goes to show, you'd better not be too still or you will be over-grown!

Steve and the girls come in tomorrow. If the road is still closed they have a place to stay on the other side of the road closure. In fact, they may have more to do over there. It's an adventure and we are in Hawaii. No complaints from me!

I am leaving at the crack of way before dawn on Thursday to go to Princeville, HI, which is on the north side of the island of Kauai. I'm teaching this weekend for the No Nene Quilters. On Saturday Steve, our granddaughter, Elanor, and her BFF, Lola, will join me. Steve and I will be entertaining two 9-year-old girls for the week of spring break. I know – I have a really tough life! 

I have been scrambling to get everything that needs doing, done, before I go. You may have gotten an eNewsletter today – that was on my list. I've been working on our taxes (ours, Mom's, Christy's). And, in between everything else, I've been working on the manuscript for the next book. Somewhere in there I've gotten some sewing done. I'm sharing this in the hopes that you'll forgive me for not getting more posts up lately.

For today, I just have to share this:

All I could think of was 'Glitter Pants Martha' — the way I think of 'Evening Gown Barbie.' What was she thinking? Or more to the point, what was the person who dressed her for this ad thinking? 

When I was in Australia a year or so ago, I heard of a website (that I never found) called 'leggings are not pants.' I believe that these are words for anyone over the age of 50 to keep in mind. And who amoung you would pair those gold glitter leggings with that blue shirt? Or is it just me that would never do that?

The next time I ask Steve if an outfit 1) goes together or 2) if it makes me look fat, I am going to remember this photo. A paid professional probably told Martha that she looked great in this outfit. I hate to put that much pressure on my darling husband.

So now I'm going to get back to work… 

FYI – Take a moment and look at that ad. Where do your eyes go? Where do they stay? Mine go to the blue shirt, and even when I look at other parts of the ad, they go back to the blue shirt. I would think that Macy's wants your eyes to focus more on those pots balanced in mid-air.

Why do your eyes go to the blue shirt? It is the highest contrasting object on the page, it's big, and it is dead center. When you are making quilts, keep in mind that this kind of contrast works the same way in your quilts. Used wisely, you can use this technique to make people see what you want them to see in your quilts.

I've been sewing this afternoon, which is in itself amazing. We have a book deadline looming and sewing is a small part of my pile of work. I can't share more than a peek but the quilts we are making are pretty!

Anyway, when I'm sewing my mind tends to wander and for the last few days it's been wandering to Quinn Fabray. Quinn is a character on Glee and if you haven't watched the most recent episode you might want to stop reading right now.

I love Glee! The high school drama, the music, the imperfect adults—these characters feel real to me. That said, if I knew them in real life, I'd probably lose patience with many of them.

Quinn is a character who has been through a lot but recently she pulled herself together, was going to Yale, looking forward to a great life. And then—not. At the end of the episode I felt much as I would if one of my friend's had lost a daughter. It was physical.

Several of the characters on Glee will be aging out at the end of this season. Quinn was one of them. I hate to think that she's dead, but if she died in that wreck BECAUSE SHE WAS TEXTING WHILE DRIVING maybe it will have an impact on more viewers than me. I don't text and drive but I've been known to glance at my phone. No more of that.

FYI, Steve thinks I'm crazy but then he never cried at Hallmark commercials either. I told him I'd probably dream about Quinn that night, and I did, and he thinks that's sort of wrong too. But you know, the idea that mourning the (probable) death of a TV character is wrong is exactly the reason that my wandering mind keeps going back to Quinn.

Honestly, I know the characters on Glee better than I know many of my genetic relatives. I can't help but care about these fictional characters. I've spent so much time getting to know them! Aren't there characters in books or movies or on TV that you feel the same way about?

It's the idea that we are all characters in our own dramas that is so interesting to me. Imagine yourself as a character—playing yourself in your very own life. The people we know and love (or know and don't love) inhabit our dramas as we inhabit theirs. Our lives are like a TV drama without any cameras.

In a strange way, this idea feels empowering to me. We can re-write our dramas and make changes as we need to. We have some control… until we get written out of the show…

So now I'm going back to the sewing machine.

I spent 2 days teaching a class from My Whimsical Quilt Garden with some lovely ladies from the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild. They spent the first day of class coloring their blocks and the second day working on applique techniques.

I managed to find time to take photos of some of their handiwork to share with you. Each block is different!

Some got farther than others, but everyone learned a lot and had a good time!

And Evelyn, whose hands don't let her do handwork, worked diligently, quietly fusing and machine appliqueing her block. She, of course, was practically finished at the end of the class! I admit that the instant gratification is nice.

My brother had a Lionel train when he was a kid. Lots of track – smoking engine, whistle… the works. I think it looked something like the one above.

At some point the train disappeared. Steven has never been happy about that. Mom is pretty sure it got left in the attic when they moved from the house on 17th street in Oklahoma City that I grew up in. She remembers that my dad did not want to make another trip into the attic even though she wanted him to. 

I'm in Oklahoma City teaching for the Central Oklahoma Quilters Guild now and today I went by the old house. It looks good! I knocked, hoping to ask the current owner if they ever found the train. No one was home, but I had typed a letter in advance and I dropped it in the slot. I admit that I was expecting any conversation I might have with the current owner to be weird. Maybe it's better that I left the letter.

We all lose stuff. Big or little, expensive or sentimental. It's a really nice feeling to find something long lost and I would love to finally solve our family's missing train mystery. If the current or previous owner of the house found the train, used it, loves it, sold it—that's fine. We'd just like to know. 

I don't suppose any of you have turned up a 1960s vintage Lionel train?

I am not good about sending cards. Well, that’s not entirely true… I’m only good at it sporadically. My sister was very good at choosing and sending cards and my mom is too. So, even though she just lives 4 houses down, Mom sent us a valentines card….

So here’s the inside of the card…

My mother cracks me up!