The Reason For The Season

I was thinking about Thanksgiving last night and I came to a few realizations.  First, we have Thanksgiving so retailers have a "kick off" day for forcing people to go shopping for stuff they don't need and can't really afford, then B, it's a reason for your kids to come home to visit you and not have to buy some of the aforementioned gifts to do it, and 3, so that you can have things like an open-faced turkey and mayo sandwich (we called that a "Grandpa Gerst sandwich" when I was a kid) on homemade onion bread with a cranberry sauce chaser for supper.  (Really, that one's the most important.  You can have that more than once, with other sides too, and then you can make soup or stock with the carcass.  I'm making soup for lunches.)  Also IV,  turkey has tryptophan which makes you sleepy so you have an excuse for falling asleep in the afternoon and then again after supper, sitting at your computer waaaaay before bedtime.  I did manage to stay awake after supper long enough to finish the first Fast Hat.  I like it.  I like the pattern, I like the colors, and it stretches like crazy so it'll fit just about any size head.  It's a good hat.

Our company drove away today so our house is back to being quiet and dull which isn't all bad.  It was so great to have the KY branch of the clan home, and half of it will be back in less than a month.  Woohoo!

My friend, HH, called me this afternoon to tell me about a knitting book she found at Goodwill so, since she was still there, I hopped in my car and went right over.  What?  It's only about 4 blocks, okay, 5 blocks.  Anyway, it was this book called "Topsy-Turvy Inside-Out knit toys" and oh, does it have cute things to make in it.  Better yet it was four bucks.  The original price was eighteen dollars, for only $4 I couldn't leave it behind.  Then while we stood there talking I found an old book telling how to make soft toys, that one was only three bucks.  They're mostly fabric or felt projects and the one that really caught my eye was dominoes made with felt and lightly stuffed--counting and matching colors and numbers--educational and fun.  What could be better?  I gotta admit I need to clone myself, retire, and grow sixteen new hands, plus probably rob a bank or two to be able to do all the things I want to do RIGHT NOW,  but I don't see any of that happening anytime soon.  But I will be watching for a sale on felt squares in fun colors.

There's a home Packers game today.  Kickoff was about half an hour ago and there wasn't a flyover.  I wait to go out to fill the birdfeeders until about 10 minutes before kickoff so I'm out there for the only part of professional football that I like and today there wasn't one. The sky was a bright blue and the clouds were kind of shredded and thin, it would have been perfect to have a cluster of big, loud, fast airplanes come screaming by... but they didn't.  Rats.

November 30--China, Cosmological Mandala with Mount Meru.  The views of the mountain were drawn around the center in small boxes, each view in a different season, a different light, or from a different angle.  According to the description the original mandala was a silk tapestry from the 14th century.  Looking at it made Blake want to set up her loom and weave or learn to make a hanging that was representational rather than the abstracts she usually produced.

Meh.  I thought I had a good idea to go with last night's picture but as the words hit the page they kind of wimped out.  I blame the turkey.
--Barbara