Sunday updates ...

  First this photo and update.  This is Brooke and her father, William VanDevelder, hiking in Colorado.  They are distant relatives for the postcards I blogged about [here] and [here].  It's so amazing to reconnect people to their past, letting those who were once lost live again.

  I've not been feeling well for the past two days.  Friday I had a fresh spinach salad, bacon bits, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds with Paul Newman's White Balsamic Vinegarette, and then later finished off the rest of the pumpkin seeds while watching a movie with Charlie  A little research has pointed the finger to the pumpkin seeds because after them I spent most of the night awake and chanting "I am not going to throw up.  I am not going to throw up."  Which worked, however, left them only one other point of exit.  Today I'm running a low fever, sipping ginger and turmeric tea, and moving slowly.  The symptoms have been decreasing since Saturday morning, but it will be a very, very long time before I eat them again, if ever.

  Here is the futon sofa I was able to get last fall.  All brown and boring.  If you look closely you can see where certain cats who need to be grateful I don't believe in declawing have been using it as a scratching post along the back of it.  Of course, they never do it when I can squirt them.

  And here it is with the remaining quilt as a cover.  I was originally planning on securing it with staples, however, decided that it would be good to occasionally toss it into the wash.  Standard sofa covers were not practical because the futon doesn't have arms, and they are thin and equally boring.  This ties the rugs and recovered dining room chairs together, and adds some color to the room.  The storage tub end and coffee tables are temporary until I can find (or make) suitable replacements in the near future.  Charlie's fuzzy blanket will be washed and stored soon, and pillow covers replaced with yellow ones.  I haven't yet figured out what to put on the wall behind it yet.