Keeping watch

Uncle Sam is finished--except for his flag--and I've assigned him the task of keeping watch over my quilt sandwich.I've begun the process of basting the pieces together--the two slices of bread and the big piece of baloney. I'm only providing this bit of visualization for those of you who don't quilt. I'm not much of a quilter either, as you know, so it's helpful for me too. I'd hate to end up with the baloney on top of the bread--especially if there's mayonnaise involved, which is only a very remote possibility...While sandwiching, I've noticed my mind wandering off to interesting places. One is to where I'm actually contemplating making another quilt in this same arrangement of simple blocks...possibly for Big City Girl. There are so many whimsical fabrics available; a quilt could be tailored to reflect a person's interests. I checked out an online fabric source and found all kinds of prints that would fit BCG: apples (for the Big Apple), wine, books, taxicabs, coffee....just to name a few. If only I were a quilter, I could consider making one of these. But I guess I'd always wonder if she'd just add it to her dustmop collection.

And now moving on to manly pursuits. Today Mr. Gadget bought himself a new BBQ. I'm not sure why he made this purchase, since BBQing has always been my job and he has very little experience. I informed him right after we gave away our old BBQ, just before the move, that if we ever got a new one it would be solely for his use because I had reached BBQ-retirement age and would be happy to just live with my BBQing memories---the many times when I had to juggle the salad-making, condiment-assembling, heating of beans, table-setting and meat-turning--all while doing referee duty for our two fighting children. So now he has agreed to take over the job, but says he only intends to grill hamburgers and hot dogs.

I'm not sure what it is about a man and his BBQ, other than maybe it's the playing-with-fire thing. I think I've come to the conclusion that men feel more secure in their manhood when they have a fast car in the garage and a behemoth of a BBQ in the back yard. I'm chalking it up to testosterone.