I Rescued A Cow...

... costume from the donation bag in my car.  I talked to DS last night and told him that I'd cleaned out the old Halloween bins and tossed his Aladdin costume from high school and a cow costume from I don't know when.  He said he'd have taken the cow since he'd worn it one year he was bartending.  I told him that it was just in the car, that I hadn't donated it yet so I'd be happy to rescue it from the cold and dark.  So I did today when I was leaving to go to the Y for my session with the trainer.


Speaking of the trainer sessions, I need to leave the house sooner to get there to warm up more than 5 minutes before and remember to stay and cool down when it's over.  I like the sessions but seem to work much harder for Megan, the young OT trainer, than I do when I'm in charge of me.  She sure knows how to make my muscles wake up and take notice.  I like it even if I have to take a couple Tylenol for a bedtime snack after I meet with her.



On my way home I stopped at ALDI for a fresh pineapple and a pint of blueberries, then stopped at Pick 'n Save for fresh strawberries (and a few other items) so that I could cut it all up and mix all the fruit together and have lovely fruit with my breakfasts for a couple weeks.  I'll probably end up freezing servings so that it doesn't go bad before I can eat it all because I want to eat every last morsel.



I also stopped into Home Depot for a pair of new, same keyed doorknobs.  I read the directions when I got home but felt like I needed more instruction that what's contained in the paper that's small enough to be folded into a packet the size of a large postage stamp.  So I watched a YouTube video and will tackle the knobs tomorrow or maybe Saturday.  I got one for the front door too so that they both use the same key.  It's more convenient that way and doorknobs aren't that expensive.

The Green Bay Bird Report today is a short one.  This Cardinal came to dine at the platform feeder and was very tolerant of any and all finches and sparrows that joined it.  Usually the cardinals fly off at the first arrival of another species but I guess when it's this cold they're hungry enough to eat with the riffraff.  I like the look of the wind scrawls on the snow by the retaining wall too.  I'll be glad when the temperature gets above freezing tomorrow and over the weekend but that might mean clouds and less sunshine.  I like the sunshine.


Didn't knit tonight.  Not one stitch.  I just didn't feel like it.




 
One of the pictures that I nabbed out of an old album on Saturday is this one of my Great-grandpa Charlie Gerst in about 1927 holding a glass of his home-brewed beer.  I want to get a copy of it to DS to show him that brewing beer is in his blood.  I knew and loved Grandpa Gerst and think that I learned how to tell stories from him.  He told some great ones.  It's also from him that learned if you bite a malted milk ball with a sip of Coca Cola in your mouth it'll fizz.  He had a red bread box on the counter filled with candy instead of bread and 7 oz. bottles of Coke in his fridge.  Now that's my kind of grandpa.

31 January--Tropical Obsession. 

When Nola got back from the police station it was nearly dark but she didn't turn on any lights as she walked through the villa. She, or someone, had turned off the lamps when the Detective Inspector courteously escorted her out to his police car. He had held her arm as if she were an invalid or as if he thought she might collapse with emotion. He had lost some of his sympathetic tone once they were settled in his brightly lit office downtown, and it had taken what seemed like hours to convince him (if she had) that Jack hadn't told her where he was going or who he planned to meet. It had been necessary for her to baldly admit that she had been kept by Jack for years. That she was his arm candy, his sexual plaything, his brainless admiring mirror who reflected back his egotistical preening, cleaned up and polished as flattery. The naked truth of the situation she found herself in sickened her. She sat long into the night outside on the patio with the clattering of the palm fronds overhead sounding like gossip and the dives of the Ganshi, the Brown Pelicans, feeding on a school of grunts coming regularly like the rhythmic shelling of enemy artillery.

Tomorrow afternoon I have a knitting class to learn a new technique.  I dug out 2 colors of yarn and cast on the required number of stitches so I'm all ready to learn something new.  I also decided that I want to knit a new pair of flip top mittens using the same grays that I used to knit the slipstitch hat I've been wearing the last couple days.  It'll take some figuring to replicate the stitch pattern on mittens but I think I've found a basic pattern I can play around with.  Time will tell. 

Look at the picture of cute little me that we found last Saturday in Mom's photo bins.  Wasn't I just the cutest thing?  I wonder what happened... life, I guess, just life.
--Barbara

The Doorknob Froze

No, really.  I tried to turn the knob in the door into the garage this morning to plunk the plastic bag from the newspaper out there and it wouldn't turn.  I sprayed it with WD 40--nothing.  I frowned at it for a while, then got out a hair dryer and extension cord, and stood there heating it up and it opened, once.  When I wanted to throw something else away later it was frozen again.  Then I figured out that the latch stayed stuck in the door and the door stayed shut so I was careful not to turn the knob again.  Tomorrow on my way home from the Y I'll be buying a new doorknob.






While I was doing yoga this morning the Red-bellied Woodpecker came to the suet feeder.  I confess that I stopped my pose, grabbed the camera, and took its picture.  Isn't it pretty?







Going outside to fill the bird feeders and birdbath was not a good idea.  I knew I had to wear snowshoes to go up to the suet cage on the retaining wall so I grabbed a pair of those stretchy gloves to wear while I buckled my boots in and kept them on under my Thinsulate lined leather gloves to fill the feeders.  Bad idea.  By the time I got inside, less than 10 minutes later, the gloves were frozen to my fingertips.  Ouch.  I held my fingers under lukewarm water for a while until feeling returned but my fingertips were pink and tingly for much of the afternoon.  Next time I'll take the stretchy gloves off before putting the other gloves on.

In the afternoon I went downstairs and sat down to sew up the last flannel Dress no. 2 that I had cut out last fall.  While working on it I kept seeing the mess of plastic bags of yarn and piles of folded fabric and thought about the bins I've emptied over the last week.  So I stopped sewing for a few minutes, grabbed 2 bins, and put yarn in one and fabric in the other.  I didn't take a before picture but here's the after.  Soon I'll spend a couple days sorting through the yarn and fabric, and get it better organized.  Maybe I'll even sort some out to donate.  Wouldn't that be something?



Then I finished the dress.  I only have a plaid flannel Dress no. 1 (jumper) left to sew up and then I can spend time cutting again.  I have some knits to make more leggings and a new shirt pattern to draw off and sew.  I also want to use some lingerie fabric to make a slip/lining for a linen dress that clings to my leggings.  So many wants, so little motivation.


 

After supper I finished the Keltic Beanie.  At the top you can see where I added the second skein but I don't think it's hideous.  And it needed more than 9 yards worth.  It's a nice warm hat.  Someone will like it.






30 January--Tropical Obsession. 

The pair of laughing gulls stood side by side on the sand facing the tradewinds and watched the couple walking toward them. The gulls, dressed in black with white bellies, looked to her like a pair of prim butlers standing with their hands behind their backs watching the antics of their employers with a superior air. "Look at those birds," Nola said to Jack as they neared the birds. "Don't they look like they're judging us?" He glanced up and nodded, the smoke from his cigarette riding the breeze to twine around his face before streaming away. "They're just gulls," he said, aiming a listless kick at them. The little puff of sand he scuffed in their direction sent the birds running up the beach a bit, making her laugh. Frustrated that they hadn't flown away, he stooped, picked up a fist-sized chunk of coral, and tossed it at the birds. They squawked and flew up to circle out over the waves, filling the air with their laughing call. The couple moved on, Jack oddly cheered by his act of harassment, Nola wrapping her arms across her midriff as if she were cold.

It's supposed to be almost as cold tomorrow as it was today.  Schools are closed again and I'm guessing that the post office won't deliver tomorrow either.  Hey, I wouldn't want to send my employees out to walk around.  Look at the snow drifts that the wind made in the driveway today.  Tonight's trash night and I was surprised at the drifts when I took out the bin.  I would have kept the bin inside because it's so cold but with my "toss a box a day" plan I end up with a lot of trash and recycling.  I can't skip a week anymore.  I think the electric blanket probably has the bed warmed up to bearable.  Oh, and it's supposed to be in the 40s by Sunday.  Can you say 90 degree difference?
--Barbara

Okay, I Lied

Blizzard Beth dropped just under 10" of snow on us.  It was enough to break the

previous record snowfall for January 28.  The wind picked up today and it moved that light snow from here to there and back again.  I looked out and saw that the snowplow went by one more time around 11 this morning so there was a low plow drift at the end of the driveway.  Grr.  I didn't want it to freeze into a speed bump so I got ready to bundle up to go out and move the snow.  Then I thought that since I'd be out already I might as well go to the Y and play with the weight machines.  So I did.  I'm glad I did because -15 is supposed to be the temperature at 9 o'clock in the morning rising to a "high" of -8 with plenty of wind to make wind chills in the -25 to -50 range.  I am not going anywhere outside tomorrow, except maybe to the bird feeders and birdbath just to make sure that there's food and water for the birdies.  But no place else.



Here's a bird that should ride "the short bus" of the bird world.  It's a Junco and it migrates from the Arctic Circle where it summers to the northern half of Wisconsin because it's so much warmer here in the winter.  Except that tomorrow it's supposed to be warmer in the Arctic than it is here.  Joke's on you, bird.



 
Every time I go work on the weight machines at the Y I think about taking a picture of one of the machines to prove that I was there but there's always a bunch of people around and no one wants their picture taken when they're all sweaty and gross.  Well, I think there're a couple young guys who strut around checking to see who's watching them but I'm not counting them so here's a selfie in front of the Y as I left.  See?  I was glad that I went and I was still warm enough from working out that I wasn't freezing.


 
As I predicted I ran out of the first (and supposed to be only) skein of yarn for the Keltic Beanie tonight.  I got 2 1/2 rounds into the crown decreases before I had to add in the other onesie skein.  There'll be a definite color change but with the way the colors shift and move I don't think it'll be offensive.






29 January--Tropical Obsession. 

Climatologists swarmed to the island for their annual convention. Not that there was anything special about the data to be gathered from the exposed coral terraces on the north end of the island. It was the reputation of the island's reefs as prime dive sites and the agreeable resort accommodations that brought them in droves to stalk like bespectacled storks atop the exposed ancient reefs in Bise Morto collecting samples for their labs or bob greenly in small boats at the base of the short cliffs while identifying and classifying sea life preserved in the limestone. Major George Clemment and his wife Susan hosted a cocktail party for the most notable of the visiting scientists and the members of the local diving group. Jack Swallow was also invited as a major financial supporter of the island's reef preservation movement but he never appeared and didn't even call to make an excuse. "I don't care how much money he has poured into the coffers of the organization," Susan said to George as she refilled the punch bowl, "the man is plain rude." George just grunted, as have wise husbands from the beginning of time.

Today's toss was the other bin of Halloween costumes and accessories.  Those things got bagged for a trip to Goodwill on Friday and the make up and hair goo got put into the trash.  It's so satisfying to go downstairs and be able to see in a moment where I left off.  Most of the shelves aren't totally empty but there are definite spaces and gaps.  Ahhh.
--Barbara

Blizzard Beth

I wonder who picks the storm names.  Beth seems like a nice girl name for a storm that dumped about 14 inches of snow on us and blew it around with abandon.  All of the schools were closed today and there was no way I was going anywhere.  I got a text from my doctor's office that it was closing in mid-morning due to the storm even though I didn't have an appointment.  I guess they just texted everyone.  *shrug*  It got up to about 14 degrees today but now it's 1 degree and it's supposed to stay there all through tomorrow until the bottom drops out on Wednesday when the high is predicted to be a robust -6 degrees with wind chills of between -25 and -50.  I'm thinking I'll stay home on Wednesday.


I put plastic on the window above the bed--finally.  It's the only window in the house that leaks and I consistently forget or neglect to plastic it until it's frigid and blowing a gale.  Since it's supposed to be that cold for the next few days I thought I should get the job done.



I waited until the snow stopped falling and the wind dropped to go out to run the snowblower and just as I was getting dressed to go out I heard a snowblower in the driveway.  Seems my renter went out to dig her car out and a neighbor I'd never met came across the street with his snowblower and cleared my driveway and the end of hers.  Thanks, Austin!  So I fired up my snowblower and finished the job with the renter's help.  Really, I had it down to bare concrete for a minute but the wind blew snow right back over my nice clear driveway.




Look at the birdbath!  I'll go out tomorrow to clear off the snow cap and make sure that there's a bit of open water and also that there's water over the heating element.  

I didn't sew today.  I mostly sat on the couch and knitted on the Keltic Beanie.  There is no way that I'll have enough yarn to get this hat out of the single skein.  I will admit that the yarn in the pattern comes in 109 yard balls and my yarn is a 100 yard ball but, seriously, I am certain that I'll be much more than 9 yards short.  And anyway, no one ever calculates yarn requirements to the inch.  It's no big deal since I've got another skein of the same yarn in a different color that I can use to finish the hat, plus it's not for anyone in particular.  It just seems unfair that I won't have enough yarn when the pattern said I would.  Wah!  I'll probably end up donating it.


One thing yarn-y that I did accomplish today was knitting a loop and sewing it and a toggle button on the Montparnasse Eco Cardi.  I love the sweater and love wearing it (it's very warm) but dislike having to use a shawl pin or kilt pin to hold it together.  I don't have a kilt pin and a shawl pin is easy to lose if you want to wear the sweater open so I decided to just make an I-cord loop and dig out a toggle button and sew them on.  So I did.

I finally ran out of store-bought granola so I got to eat some of my homemade WW granola with my yogurt and thawed sweet cherries this morning.  I hereby swear that I will no longer buy granola.  It isn't that the WW granola is lower in points, it's the same, but it's much higher in flavor.  That little bit of ground ginger and the extra time in the oven to toast it makes a world of difference.  Yum!  It's well worth the effort of making it.





28 January--Tropical Obsession. 

Nola glared at the buildings on either side of the street as she followed the honey-voiced policeman into the island's government center. Like nothing she had ever seen at home, even on TV and not that she had all that much experience in police stations, but even in her extreme distraction trying not to believe Detective Inspector Rooibos that Jack was drowned, some part of her recognized the comic opera aspect to her surroundings. There were wide yellow lines painted or taped three feet back from every reception window, there were signs admonishing people to have their forms notarized in triplicate, and there were posters with lists of safety suggestions and silly scenarios about how to avoid being a victim of crime. She thought that the elaborate colonial architecture and bright tropical colors of paint used both inside and out where the perfect setting for the surreal situation she found herself in.

I got a text that the cleaning lady is sick and needs to cancel tomorrow's visit so I didn't have to run around making a tidy this afternoon.  Today's toss was a fun one.  It was a whole tote of old Halloween decorations and costumes.  I went through it all, saved a cape and a couple clown wigs, and will donate the rest.  I don't know why I kept the clown wigs.  I'll have to think on it.  There's another couple totes with costumes and makeup that I'll look through tomorrow so maybe my "I'll keep this" will change.  Time to hit the hay.
--Barbara