Well, That Was Unexpected

Thanksgiving dinner was at dinnertime this year (after the end of the Packers/Lions game) so I had to drive 39 minutes to Shawano to DS's in-laws. That meant leaving 45 minutes before I was supposed to be there so I wouldn't feel rushed. That was working out really well until I got about 20 minutes into the drive when I saw red and blue lights flashing on an SUV behind me. I got pulled over for speeding! Other cars passed me but I'm the one who got stopped. The speed limit was 65 and I thought I was doing 69 but evidently I was going a little faster than that, or the State Trooper was bored and liked my red car. She gave me a written warning but that took about 10 minutes so then I was pressed for time BUT I did not speed. It was tempting but I didn't. And I stayed below the speed limit on the way home. I have to be extra good for the next year because I won't avoid a speeding ticket if I get pulled over again. The last time I got pulled over was about 49 years ago. I should be all right. Oh, the dinner was fine, I wasn't late, the company was outstanding. All good.

 

It was cold last night and it didn't get up to freezing today so it was no wonder that the birdbath was icy this morning. I went out to top it up because the heater works better when it's mostly covered with water. Plus then the birdies can get a drink.

 

The chubby squirrel was embracing the suet nuggets feeder this morning. This is the one that leaped on top of the feeder and then tried to figure out how to get some birdseed. No luck. It jumped down and went for the nuggets instead.

 

While the chubby squirrel was on the nuggets another skinnier squirrel was hunkered down in the square green feeder just chowing down. I kept watching for it to come up for air but it didn't for a very long time. Long enough that Sparrows landed on the perches and had some seeds from the feeding ports. Finally just when I'd about given up, the squirrel popped out for a breather.

 

We are now in the Holidays & Seasons section of Drawing Cute. Today's figures were Wreath & Holly. I had a hard time making the wreath circles round with the "fluffy" parts added but I did a bunch of erasing and was satisfied. I was surprised that I didn't have trouble drawing the holly leaves. I usually have trouble with leaves. And did you know that holly is poisonous? I don't think I knew that.

 

Speaking of holidays, the Christmas cactus has opened up one flower. It's on a low branch that kind of hangs off the edge of the counter. I'm afraid I'll knock it off. There's another bud getting bigger to.

 

I checked today and the watercolor postcards fit in the invitation envelopes I have a box of so I can paint more and safely send them through the mail. Hooray! 

Today's word total was 1,554. I'm way over 50k now and climbing. Only three more days of Novel November remain. I need to think about wrapping this story up, even if all I write are the bones of the story. I can add the meat later.

--Barbara 

Horizontal Snow

We got the first snow of the season today and in true Wisconsin fashion it couldn't be pretty movie snow. No, it had to be accompanied by gale-force winds that made the snow fly horizontally instead of vertically. The square green feeder was swinging wildly and a few gusts even blew so hard that the top of the feeder lifted up and clanged down when the wind slacked off. I'm very grateful that I didn't have to go out in it.

 

A couple Sparrows visited the feeder before the snow started. And one brave soul landed on it when it was being blown all over. I didn't get a decent picture of that but here's the morning bird having its daily seeds. You can just see that a few snowflakes had started to collect on top of the feeding ports on the feeder.

 

I hauled up the electric slicer and sliced up both loaves of onion bread. The slices are so even I can stack them up vertically and then just slide a gallon zipper bag over them and seal them up. Slick. 

 

I had so much fun painting those watercolor Christmas postcards yesterday that I jumped back in this morning and painted a bunch more. I'm not sure I want to mail them because the one time I mailed a watercolor postcard the post office's machinery scraped off part of the picture. Maybe I've got envelopes they'll fit in? I'll check.

 

While the postcards dried I wrote today's words. 1,553 of them which took me over 50,000 for the month. I'll keep going until the 30th to see how far I get and so that I'll have written every day of the challenge. Once I had the words written I caught up on reading emails that I've let slide for a few days. I seem to get a lot of emails. Do you too?

 

I couldn't resist painting a couple more postcards. I posted the morning's efforts on Instagram along with the ones from yesterday. I'm having fun doing this. But I wish that Meta's algorithm would let me see other things besides people painting Christmas cards. That's all it's showing me. Gah! Maybe if I called Jeff Bezos. Do you have his number?

 

Alexa told me I had two packages delivered at lunchtime. I was expecting one and couldn't figure out what the other one was. It was the five copies of Open for Business I ordered on Nov. 13.  According to the email order acknowledgement they were supposed to arrive December 3 with the additional copies of Christmas at Seaview, which it turns out I probably don't need but it's probably too late to cancel. I just went on the order and told them to cancel them and they said they'd email me if it was possible. *shrug* Anyway, I got Open for Business signed, stickered, and bookmarked and put them into the pile with the few remaining copies. 

 

Today's drawing figures were Snowman & Mittens. I can draw those. I made the snowman big for some reason but that's okay. and I made the mittens small. Oh well.

 

I also drew a gratitude journal page for today. I am most grateful for not having to go out driving in that terrible wind.

 

According to my phone's weather prediction it's supposed to snow on Saturday for our second to last vendor show. I am not looking forward to having to haul my table, chair, and all the other things in the snow but I guess I will if I have to. Maybe I'll wear boots.

-- Barbara

Swapped

I've put it off as long as possible but the weather guessers are saying we're going to get 1-2" of snow in the next day or so. Snow accompanied by wind. So this afternoon I swapped the lawnmower and snowblower. It wasn't hard because the snowblower started right away. Whew. And we get to drive 40 miles to Shawano for Thanksgiving dinner. Should be interesting. I'll leave early if the roads are dicey. And drive slowly. I'll be the irritating little old lady in the right hand lane, gripping the steering wheel in a death grip, and clenching her teeth in concentration.

 

The squirrel was back inside the feeder this morning. All that was sticking out was the tip of its tail. I waited around but it didn't oblige and stick its nose out for a photo.

 

After driving over to Edw. Jones for my annual complimentary pumpkin pie, I baked onion bread to take along for Thanksgiving dinner. It went very smoothly, the dough was silky, and raised well. And it made the house smell so good when it baked. The aroma hung around all day. It smells great in here. I'll carry up the slicer tomorrow and get it all nicely and evenly sliced. I thought Durwood was nuts when he chose an electric slicer as one of his sales contest prizes but I really like it.

 

I took the time to draw this afternoon. Today's figures were a Watering Can & a Whistle. Both were pretty easy to draw and fun to color.

 

Then I got out the watercolors and a few watercolor postcards to try my hand at painting Christmas cards. I found the Instagram account of a painter who has been posting a raft of cards to paint so I saved a few of them and tried them out. I like them. I like them a lot. The starry sky one is my design but the rest are hers. And the Insta algorithm has decided to ONLY show me watercolor demos today. None of the other accounts that I follow, just watercolor demos. And it took 7 hours for my latest post to show up on there. It showed up on Facebook right away and I was confused because I posted it on Instagram. I don't understand.

 

I wrote 1,442 words today. I had the mean lady attack Iggy in church and then he went back to Seaview to tell Rose all about it. I'm almost to 50k words but the story isn't anywhere near finished. In fact, I have no earthly idea where it's going. What can I make happen tomorrow?

I sure hope the weather people are wrong about where the snow and wind will be on Thursday. I don't want to drive scared all that way and back. It's foggy right now.

--Barbara 

Overcast & Dreary

It occurred to me that I feel and do much better when it's sunny out. Today it was not sunny. I didn't have a lot of oomph today. The only birds I saw were these Sparrows on the square green feeder. I hoped to see a woodpecker but no luck. I didn't even see a squirrel or maybe all the interesting wildlife showed up when I was on this morning's Zoom with cda or when I was doing the afternoon school run or writing today's words.

 

While waiting for the school bell to ring, I knitted on Car Knitting Washcloth #19. I even managed to knit wearing fingerless gloves. Usually I'm not talented enough to do that but I did it today. This yarn is skinnier than usual washcloth yarn so the cloth is smaller than usual. That's okay, I'll just knit more rows to make it bigger.

 

cda had a lot of good suggestions and ideas about the next Seaview Series book. I sent her the first 7 pages last week to critique for today and she caught the fact that I needed to clue the reader in as to time and place and relationships. Stuff I didn't think of when I dived into writing this story. Writing went a little easier today than it has the last few days. That felt good.

 

LC baked pumpkin snickerdoodles for her Girl Scout event tomorrow and gave me a few to take home. I had to sneak one at a red light on the way home and they're delicious. I'm trying to save them to make them last. That may not work out. They're so good.

 

That was my day. I didn't draw or do a gratitude journal page. I watched Antiques Roadshow after supper and knitted a few rounds on Llama Mitten #2 but not enough to warrant a picture. Tomorrow I need to bake a batch of onion bread so it'll be ready for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. If I bake tomorrow, it'll be cool and stable enough that I can use the electric slicer on it and not have it fall apart.

According to my phone it's supposed to rain tonight, snow on Wednesday and again on Saturday. I guess that means I really have to move the snowblower from the shed to the garage and put the lawnmower in the shed. I wish I had someone young and strong to do it but there's only me so I guess I'm it.

--Barbara 

45,798

That's my word total for Novel November as of 4 o'clock this afternoon. I have seven more days of writing to reach 50,000. I'm not worried. Although at this stage story ideas are getting a little thin on the ground. Maybe I'm just a little bit worried. I wish I could think of a different way to take a picture of my writing but you're stuck seeing my laptop screen. Today's word total was 1,712.

 

This morning the squirrel inside the square green feeder was digging around in the birdseed. It didn't bother the Sparrows on the right side perches but when a Sparrow would land on the left side perches and the squirrel moved, the bird would fly away.

 

Today's figures in Drawing Cute were Film Camera & Video Game Controller. The movie camera was easier to draw than I thought it'd be and the controller was pretty simple too. I'll still be glad when I've finished this section of the book. One more day.

 

I got smart and waited until the game had started before going over to Meijer for bananas and pretzel rods. Those are my blog-writing snack every night. Just a few of them for salt and crunch. I put my trip to the grocery on today's gratitude journal page. There wasn't a lot of sunshine around but I squeezed a little on the page. 

 

Along with my pretzel rods tonight I have a little Pyrex bowl of green jello. I'm sure a lot of you aren't fans of green jello but it's my favorite, especially if I make a big bowl of half lemon and half lime. Mm, good.

 

When I was drawing after supper tonight I heard the owl hooting again. It sounded closer than before. I wonder where it was that I could hear it so well. I wish I could see it.

--Barbara 

Only Two Left To Go

Since the first weekend in October, GBB and I have done book fairs and vendor shows and we have two more to go. In June when we signed up for all these, it seemed like a good idea. Today I'm tired. We've got one at the Presbyterian Church in DePere (5 miles south of Green Bay) next Saturday. We have high hopes for that one, just like we've had for all of them. Today's show at the Swan Club, a long-established banquet hall, started slow but we all made sales. I ended up selling 7 books which more than covered my booth fee. And made up some of last week's shortfall. (That's EMB photobombing. She's joined us for the last couple shows. She writes historical fiction and had a banner day today.) The final show is on December 14 at Townline Pub & Grill, where we started this journey.

 

Only one of the books I sold was Christmas at Seaview. That surprised me. I thought people would buy a small Christmas story with a beach and palm tree on the cover with a Santa hat and Christmas lights. Evidently not.

 

This morning I was lucky enough to catch sight of the Red-bellied Woodpecker on the suet nuggets. I snapped a couple shots and off it flew. Then I had breakfast, did the Wordle (lucked out and got it in 3), and left for the vendor show so I didn't see any other wildlife the rest of the day.

 

When I got home, after I unloaded the car, I came back here to write some words for the day. I hit 950 words in about an hour. Not the 1,667 that's recommended but I've been piling up words all month over the goal so I'm not in danger of falling short. Today's pages are about the end of a scuba dive/snorkel that Rose, Iggy, and their friend George took on the reef in Iggy's front yard. Writing about diving is easy for me so I didn't have to struggle too much to hit the number I did.

 

My Christmas cactus bud is appreciably bigger and there's another tiny bud that's near it. I got both of them in the frame but the one closest to the camera lens is blurry. But it's there!

 

I didn't follow my GPS on the way home from today's show. Instead I avoided the highway and took a different way home that took me past Lambeau Field, home of the Packers. The parking lot was crammed with cars. It was only when I got home that it occurred to me that there's probably a home game tomorrow and I was lucky to not be stuck in traffic. I'll have to go get bananas tomorrow so will be sure to wait until after kickoff to go to the store.

I wore some of my new lipstick today. I must have bought 12 hour lipstick because even though I ate lunch and drank water, I still had red lips when I got home. You can see in the picture of me with my writing reflected in my glasses how red my lips were. I'd better be sure to wash my lips before bed so I don't smear red lipstick on my pillowcase.

It's time to finish my Jello and hit the sack. Like I said, I'm tired. It was a long day and that folding table isn't exactly light. I was lucky enough that GBB managed to wedge it into her wagon so I only had to carry it about 20 ft. instead of all the way from the building to the car. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

--Barbara 

Squirrely

I didn't see any birds at the feeders today. All I saw were squirrels. And mostly one chubby one trying its best to sample all the goodies the feeders had to offer. First I saw it wrapping itself around the suet nuggets feeder enjoying the fruity goodness.

 

In the afternoon, the chubby squirrel did its best to figure out how to avail itself of the birdseed but it climbed up the crook and landed on the lid of the square green feeder. It shuffled around trying to find a way to the seed but eventually it gave up and went back to the nuggets.

 

But in between the visits of the chubby squirrel, this one did the patio chair leap and pulled itself into the square green feeder for a nice quiet dig through the seed for peanut halves.

 

This morning I worked on the day's words. The story isn't playing out the way I thought it would but the words are still coming, albeit more slowly than at the beginning of the month. But I'm not complaining. I wrote 1,534 words today which took me to 42,897 for the first 3 weeks of the Novel November challenge. I will admit that I started a few days early to make up for having vendor fairs on every November Saturday. I'll write on them but not at the level of the other days.

 

Today's figures were a Tent & Magnifying Glass. I liked drawing the magnifying glass and the caterpillar. There are only two more days' worth of figures left in this section of the book and then we move on to Holidays which should provide more interesting things to draw. I hope.

 

After supper I drew a gratitude journal page for today. Because it was a sunny day, I forced myself out for a walk. I need to do that more often because even that little distance makes me feel good.

 

At Friday Night Knitting, I put the thumb stitches on a holder and then started knitting the hand of Llama Mitten #2. I got a little over 2" done. I need to get to 4" before doing the top decreases and then circling back to knit the thumb. I'll be glad to have this one done. This dark brown yarn is challenging to knit on at night.

 

I loaded the car this morning when I was procrastinating writing. My table is in there too. We'd hoped to rent two 6" tables this week but she had only 8" ones available and if we used two of those there wouldn't be a way to get out of the booth. So I'm bringing my table because it's a little lighter weight to carry than GBB's table. Her hubby's at deer camp so he isn't available for hauling this week.

 

While sitting here typing this I kept hearing a hooting sound outside. It finally dawned on me that it's an owl. Very cool. I wish I could see it.

--Barbara