Cool Sculpture

Today is Tuesday and Tim is working at home. I love Tuesdays because I get to hang out in the office with Tim while he is on conference calls. I am not sure how much he appreciates me because I am usually sewing which can be a little noisy...especially if I fire up my speedy Juki machine. Another good thing about Tuesdays....I have a built in lunch date!

Today we went to a new Brazilian restaurant. The weather was great so we sat outside. The most interesting thing about lunch....well besides the fascinating company....was this cool sculpture.

These guys are hanging on the wall in the stairway that leads to the restaurant. The little men are about 7 inches tall.

Cool eh?

Birthday Party at Maya

Saturday evening after a long day of class (okay...I cut out at lunch time but Tim had a long day at class) we met our friends at a Mexican restaurant in Puxi. I love going to new restaurants because we sort of get in a rut and go to the same places all the time. Anyway....the dinner was a birthday celebration for Brain Miller. He is one of Tim's golfing buddies and one of "the Shanghai Gang".

Rebecca, Kathy, Deb

Aaahhhh...another night of good food, food friends, and okay...good margaritas

Confess...I totally stole this picture off Shelly Brammer's facebook.

Shanghai ATP Masters

Sunday afternoon we went to the tennis finals. This year the tournament was an "outdoor" event so the roof of the tennis center was open. It was a beautiful day for tennis.

In the finals doubles match ...

Benneteau & Tsonga (from France) VS Fyrstenberg & Matkowski (from Poland) .

This match only went two sets and the Frenchmen won 6-2, 6-4

Tsonga & Benneteau

The other guys had better shirts...but they did not play as well

Awards ceremony

Next up for singles....Davydenko (from Russia) VS Nadal (from Spain)

Start the match!!!

Fashion commentary.....Nadel wins the fashion award....although he needs some shorts that do not give him wedgies....I am just saying it was a problem during the whole match.

Davydenko wins in two sets 7-6, 6-3

Davydenko gets the big trophy and the money

I told you that I was teaching Xiao Zhang to sew. Well....she is now in my Friday class and these are the blocks she made. Don't be worried about the shape of the blocks, they are not supposed to be square or rectangle....we will cut them to specific sizes in a couple of weeks.

She finished the blocks on Saturday while Tim and I were in school. She also sewed some fabric strips together that I will use in an art quilt that I am working on. So....she got lots of sewing done...but...not much ironing. : ) Hmmmm....this sounds familiar. I told Tim this morning that she probably needs to hire someone else to do the laundry so she has more time for sewing. Tim said that I just wanted to be promoted to "mid" management. We have had a lot of laughs about this....needless to say...Tim...is THRILLED that we have another person in the house that would rather sew than do laundry!

Oktoberfest

Sights from Oktoberfest....

Deb, Rebecca, Shelly, and Angie

Four of the original "Shanghai Gang".

Good Fun, Good friends

These are stolen pictures from Angie's facebook...I forgot my camera that night

Mandarin Class

I went to Mandarin class on Saturday. I really like the other students. They are from all over the world and most of them have been in Shanghai for at least 2 years. They tried other methods of learning Mandarin and decided to try a structured class at the University. Everyone was pretty excited to get a fresh start. But....The teacher was a very nice person but I don't think she has ever taught a class. I could tell in the first hour of class that it was not going to work for me. I went to lunch with the other students and did not go back to the class. : ) I was pretty sure there was going to be a mutiny when the class resumed. I was lucky that I had not paid the fees yet....others were not so lucky.

Today....I got an email from the director of the program. It said....Please come back!......We hired a different, more exuberant teacher. Hmmmm.....Should I try it again???

Oktoberfest

Tonight we are joining some friends for Oktoberfest. One of the hotels here hosts this event every year. I believe it is way past the "real" Oktoberfest ...but...we are in China....Who cares! This is about the only time each year that I drink more than a few swallows of Tim's beer. I am not really a big beer fan....unless....it is really really cold. AND...cold beer....even slightly cool beer is a luxury in China. They like to serve it warm. Yuk! Well...I was planning to have more than a few swallows of beer tonight (it is nice and cold at Oktoberfest) except......I HAVE 7 1/2 HOURS OF MANDARIN CLASS TOMORROW! Ah....bad timing!

Friday Quilt class

My Friday quilting class is called Improv Block Construction. I am teaching several different techniques to create blocks. The goal is to make a quilt/wall hanging similar to my "Out of Africa" quilt

Out of Africa

We started with the center blocks. These will take two weeks to complete

These are blocks that the class constructed last week.

My class hard at work

More blocks that were constructed today

These pieces are cut into 4 sections and added to blocks to make borders

More blocks

We almost finished the center blocks during class today....but....not quite....so I gave homework!

I got a text message today that said the Saturday Mandarin class at Jiao Tong University was ready to start......THIS SATURDAY. I was secretly hoping that it would be postponed....well....forever! No such luck. The class is from 9:30am to 5:00pm. My head will explode if I am in Mandarin class that long.

So....I took the chicken way out.....I am going to try the first class and then decide if I want to continue. Think of all the quilting I could do during that same time.

Hmmmm....Mandarin.....OR.....quilting, sleeping in, studying for my Illustrator class, having a root canal. Yep...all these options sound better than 7 1/2 hours of Mandarin every Saturday.

Charity quilt

I hosted the SEA quilting group today. We worked on a charity quilt that we started several months ago. The top is finished....now we just need to baste and quilt it.


Working hard

Jane was our "offical" ironing expert

And of course there must be nourishment!

Xiao Zhang made coconut lime muffins and they were to die for! She found the recipe in a Paula Dean magazine that I brought home a few weeks ago.

Tah-Dah! The quilt top is complete