The End of Days

For 2013, anyway.  Good lord, can you believe it's New Year's Eve already?  The year flew by again.  I think I pay attention, don't let days and times just flit by unnoticed, but here it is, a new year ready in the starting blocks and me without my running shoes, startled by the starter's pistol.  (huh, that last bit could be a very short New Year's poem)  And it's still bitter cold.

Much of 2013 has been consumed with grandbaby anticipation, finding out on Mother's Day made the rest of the year a blur of knitting tiny things and concern that DIL1 was feeling okay and doing well and "how many more months/weeks/days?"  A few dog-walking days stand out as particularly beautiful and I really enjoyed my week at The Clearing in May.  Our October trip to visit DD & DIL2 in Lexington, RJ & K in Greenville, SC, and Aunt B & PR in Wilmington, NC made two weeks of 2013 fly by.  It was so much fun to see them all, go to the harness races, see hot air balloons at night, and go for a boat ride on the intracoastal, plus drive through Virginia and West Virginia mountains in the autumn, then have supper with Aunt G & Uncle W on the way home.  Relatives, woohoo!  Let's hope that 2014 brings a new baby (soon, please), continued good-ish health for both of us, and happiness for all.  You too, you're part of my "all."  Just saying.

I had a few customers yesterday and in between I managed to knit another finger and a half on my glove.  See?  I am so impressed with myself that I can make fingers, I can't begin to tell you.  The knitting guild's having a design contest and the deadline's the April meeting so I've got to get on the stick putting ideas to paper.  I have ideas and I've been gathering stitch dictionaries and patterns that I can play off of, I even printed off some knitting graph paper so I can start mapping out my ideas,  I dug out all my random skeins of tweed yarn (I"m a big fan of tweed) so I'll get some needles that might work (probably smaller than the ballband says; I'm a loose knitter) and get to work swatching.  No, I'm not making a glove, well, not exactly, you'll just have to wait and see.

I have to say that the lentil, ham, and kale soup I made on Sunday is possibly the BEST SOUP on the PLANET.  I used a recipe I got from Cook's Country.  See, they send me an email every week with a few recipes (it's really a ploy to get me to sign up and pay for access to their member's website but I'm not paying 32 bucks a year for recipes and gadget reviews; we already get the magazine) that I pin on Pinterest if they intrigue me.  Anyway, they had this lentil soup recipe a few weeks back and I'm a big fan of lentil soup (pea soup and bean soup, not so much) and they worked out that if you saute the lentils with the onions, etc. they don't burst and mush up.  They recommend whirring 2 cups in the blender before adding the ham and kale (which I doubled) so it's a bit thick and not so broth-y but I just stuck in the stick blender (I love that tool) and whirred for less than a minute to similar effect.  It was the perfect vehicle for a ham bone and a piece of ham butt that had overstayed its welcome in the freezer (not freezer burned or spoiled, just getting a bit old); it made good soup, no, it made GREAT soup.  And Durwood's not a fan of lentil (or bean or pea) soup so I get it all.  Teehee.  *rubs hands with glee*  I should probably freeze some for later work lunches.  Yeah, I'll do that.  I need to call Amazon because my Kindle's very slow to charge, not slow to lose charge, I hope it's not busted and I have to send it in.  I love my Kindle, I use it all the time, I don't want to send it in.  Maybe I can get a loaner?

I couldn't write to the prompt last night.  It was another Gauguin and I have such a prejudice against him perving around in Tahiti painting bare breasted girls, because they are girls, not women, I just can't get past it.

Durwood's up and has a chiro appointment today so I'd better get my own breakfast and I want to see if I can't thaw out the driver's side back door on Beverly because it's stuck shut again.  Grrr.  Maybe I'll park it in the garage while we run errands and see if that helps it thaw out so I can spray the hinge with silicone and maybe fix it.  Cars.  Grr.  Have a... day and keep warm.
--Barbara