Quick - What do the American Needlepoint Guild and the National Guard have in common?

The first two Thursdays in September, I had cataract surgery.  I wasn't sure what to expect for the first surgery and ended up desperately clutching the surgery chair like a white knuckle flyer.  And the nurse kept having to remind me to breathe!  But the surgeries went fine, although both were all-day affairs, with the surgery in the morning, then hanging around for four hours until a quick check-up before being released to go home.  At the four-hour check-up on my first eye, I exclaimed to the doctor, "Oh, the wonders of modern medicine.  I can see, I can see!"

The week between the surgeries was odd - while I could now see fine out of left eye, I still needed my old glasses to see out of my right eye, so I pretty much had to close one eye and use the other, and ended up just watching a lot of TV.  I am now using basic reading glasses for doing anything close up, including stitching, but am not using glasses otherwise.

Once I have my one-month check up in a few weeks, I'll get a new prescription for glasses.

It was a good two to three weeks until I got back to stitching.  My first project was stitching six "Kissing Pillows."  The Kissing Pillow project was developed by the Embroiderers Guild of America, and the American Needlepoint Guild is now participating.  Kissing Pillows are small (4" square) lightly stuffed pillows that are given to service men and women being deployed.  Initially, each solider was given two Kissing Pillows, one he/she kissed and left with the family and the other pillow the family kissed and gave to the soldier.  The pillow is small enough to fit under the soldier's helmet. I think the distribution may have morphed a bit since the beginning.  There was a table at the American Needlepoint Seminar asking people to pick up kits to stitch pillows, but I somehow missed that entirely.  But, fortunately, an email came to our group list shortly after seminar saying there were some kits left over and did anybody want to stitch some.  So I asked for 5, and ended up getting 6 kits in the mail, which I stitched up and sent off to the person overseeing the finishing and assembly.

One of six Kissing Pillows I stitched