A Quilt, Mexico, and What the Heck is THAT?

As you almost assuredly know, I play with fabric every chance I get.  And I have decided it's time to part with this baby.  So why am I even mentioning it?  Well, 'cuz these (and several others!) pictures were in my phone roll, in preparation for listing the quilt in my Etsy shop for sale, and I had to wade through them to get to what I really wanted you to see!  So I figured, well, maybe YOU wanted to see it too.  If not, just keep on scrolling, things will get more interesting in a bit.  Oh, and if you want to details, just hit me up for more pictures - the price is reasonable, and you'll get a handmade, custom quilted queen sized quilt.

So, yeah, there's this.

Driver broke another tooth the other day.  Taking after his wife, I suppose.  Chewing broccoli, we think.  Hard to remember now...  So, we made an appointment for a dentist here in Rockport to look at it, and give us an idea of how much it would cost to a) pull the tooth or b) remove and refill the tooth, or c) crown it.  Are you sitting down????  He charged $80 to LOOK at it and take ONE X-ray!  Five minutes to refuse to pull it (because it's a healthy tooth, aside from being almost all filling and half broke!) and provide an estimate of $1400 and UP, to crown it.  And I know from personal experience, that the cost of the crown NEVER includes the buildup necessary before the crown is place.  Cookie, remember when I caught that $40 flight to come back up to Winston and get my dental work done?  

We just KNEW we could get it done cheaper in Mexico, so, arrangements were made.  The hotel was only $55 for the night, and we had free heat, free WiFi, free cable TV and free breakfast the next morning.  And the crown,INCLUDING buildup, was only $400.  We just had to pay the fuel to get down there and back, and the hotel expenditure, and we were all set.  I even made seafood/pasta salad and brought our own plastic silverware and paper plates, so dinner was easy and inexpensive.  The only thing, we brought Bailey, so I couldn't enter Mexico with Dick.  Well, I suppose I could ENTER Mexico, it was the coming back part that we weren't so sure about.   Everything I read online indicated it would be OK, as long as I had her rabies certificate and a veterinarian's certificate of health, but, it really wasn't something I wanted to chance, so I just stayed in the USA while he crossed the border without me.  That was weird.  I had arranged for a later checkout, and the crown had not been delivered by his 2 o'clock appointment, so I had a bit of time to kill.  What to do, what to do?  I know, I'll go shopping!  They have STORES here!!  So, I hit up JCPenney, TJMaxx, Academy and Olive Garden (for Peach Bellini iced tea syrup).  Bought something in every store and STILL hadn't received my "come and get me" text.  Sooooo, I thought, maybe I'll see if I can find a geocache!  What do ya know?!  If found TWO.  That was weird, too, as I've never, ever been caching by myself.  Got all excited when the first one came with a $20 bill wrapped around the log.  Too bad it was black and white, not green.  

On the way home from the Valley, we saw this big guy.  I thought, being Valentine's Day was coming up soon, maybe Lolly would like to buy it for Allen.  I think she had something else in mind though...she didn't ask me to chase 'em down.

So, Tuesday, we went south and got the crown buildup done.  Wednesday, we spent getting the crown emplaced, and traveling back to Rockport.  Thursday, we went to Victoria, where Driver had an appointment for a skin cancer checkup, with his original (think, years ago) dermatologist.  He was still in the computer as a patient, so he was able to get an appointment without any trouble.  On our way out of Rockport, we followed this bad boy.  This photo was taken as we went up on the Copano Bay Bridge, heading north.  Notice, yes, that thing takes up TWO FULL LANES.

You can see that oncoming traffic was forced to drive on the shoulder of the road so that he could make his way up the two-lane highway, using both lanes.

Now what's he doing?  I dunno, but he crossed over both travel lanes and went onto the southbound shoulder and stopped there for a bit, allowing me to take a good picture from the side as we passed by.  

And another, not so good picture, as we passed by.  

We were both hoping he'd still be there, on our return trip home, but, nope, that was not the case.  Don't know where he came from, where he went, or what job he was going to haul.  But he was a huuuuge mama jamba.

Hope your Valentine's Day was spent with someone special and full of love.