On Thursday afternoon my friend Shelly drove in from Edmonton with her daughter, Becky (see above). They have just moved from a country acreage to a house in a village, and Shelly did not want to confine her old dog to town living. No one offered to take the old girl in, so I did; but it meant Shelly would have to bring her, by driving about eight hours. Having not seen each other for several years, we were both pretty excited about the whole idea.

Of course, while she was here, I made her work. It was either that, or I knew she'd make ME work. Shelly cannot help looking around and seeing possible improvements, and since she is like family, she is not afraid to make suggestions. She was returning an old sewing machine Mom had picked up for me at a garage sale; Shelly had been using it ever since, because I never have taken to sewing machines.

This project had been in the works for a while, actually. I have been wanting matching couch cushions, rather than several sets that don't, which drives me crazy, what can I say. You girls out there will understand.

So anyway, we worked on these together in the kitchen for several hours on Friday -- Shelly at the machine, me at the ironing board. Here are the results of our labours:

Shelly planned to leave the next morning and I said, "Ha! You will find your tires all flat when you go to exit the yard; just wait, you are meant to stay more than two nights." And sure enough, she discovered one flat tire yesterday morning, so there was a slight delay. However, they did get away. It was a too-short, but a very-sweet visit.

When they first unloaded the dog, Casper, I was shocked at how much bigger she is now than when I last saw her. I said, "Holy Hanna, has she ever gotten fat!"

Shelly's reply: "She's not fat! She's just big-boned."

I took her with me for three walks yesterday. Short, slow walks, because she pants loudly whenever she moves and she doesn't seem able to walk very fast.

This is she, cooling off in the ditch: