A Beached Whale

That's kind of how I felt on the drive home in the pouring rain yesterday.  A small whale, however, because I did exercise a modicum of restraint--until dessert, that is.  In my defense I did ask for a smidgen of pumpkin bread pudding and a sliver of the Four Roses-drenched pecan pie separated by a small scoop of ice cream but evidently the kitchen staff has a different definition of those terms than I do.  I didn't leave any on my plate, don't get me wrong, but I did feel a bit overstuffed on the way home.  I had chips and hummus for "supper" quite a bit later and managed not to dive back into the bread pudding and toffee sauce after that.  I do have some sense, not a lot, but some.

The drive out was overcast and a bit drizzly but it's such a beautiful drive.  When we got to the Wolf River mist was rising from the water and I managed to snap a quick photo.  I could have stood there taking shot after shot but the turkey and family fun was calling so we kept going.





In December the knitting guild members exchange dishcloths at a potluck supper party/meeting and since I just taught a lesson in mosaic knitting I thought I'd find a mosaic pattern to make into a dishcloth.  I was surfing the patterns in Ravelry yesterday and found a maze generating program so I set the number of stitches I wanted and, poof! a maze chart appeared.  Pretty cool, huh?  I'm not sure it's going to be as square as a pattern that has a symmetrical design but I think it'll be fun and interesting and different.

Look at my car.  That's what I saw when I went out to get the paper this morning.  Yesterday afternoon's rain turned into... well, it turned into the s-word.  Not a lot but some.  They did say that we'd probably have "a wintry mix" around 10 o'clock; I don't know what time this stuff arrived but we evidently got it.  When I dashed out to Office Depot around 7 o'clock last night to see if they had any of their limited-quantity Doorbuster laptops left (they didn't) it was still raining.  I heard something ticking against the window over my head when I went to bed around 11 o'clock but I didn't look.  It could have been s-s-s-s-s-snow, I suppose.

The reason we came home and immediately started looking for a new laptop is that Durwood, JZ and I were talking about internet security and JZ said he heard a speaker who said that none of the for sale or free for download virus protection programs or installed firewalls are any damned good at keeping people out of your computer.  JZ said he's got a Chromebook that he uses exclusively for banking and brokering on, doesn't do emails, doesn't play games, doesn't web surf on it, only money stuff.  That sounded really smart to us and this is a good time of the shopping year to find a low-price, off-brand laptop and I found one at Walmart online that I can pick up on Thursday.  It's twenty bucks more expensive than the Office Depot one but it got great reviews so we bought it.  I already have a web-exclusive credit card so when that one gets hacked, I can just contact the credit card company, tell them the last purchase I made, and file a fraud report on the disputed charges.  Easy peasy.  The last time that happened there were charges coming from Beijing.  (I knew they were fraudulent because I always use cash when I'm in Beijing.  yeah, right, I go there soooo often)  We're trying to stay one jump ahead of the hackers and phishers.  This concludes our Public Service Announcements for today.

November 27--Steve Brinkman, DS95-006.  "My grandma says if you stick our your tongue a bird will come and poop on it."  Caleb kept his tongue out for a second while he thought about what Tally said, then he pulled it back in.  He couldn't keep himself from looking up to make sure there wasn't a bird right there ready to poop.  "How would she know?"  They walked across the lawn and ducked under the chain out into the field where there used to be cows.  "I don't know, do I?" Tally said, pulling apart a foxtail she had picked.  "Maybe her grandma told her.  Maybe Uncle Len got pooped on."  She flushed because she didn't have an answer and wasn't used to it.  "Do you ask your grandma how she knows stuff?"  She stopped to face him, fists on her hips.  Caleb looked down and all around.  He shook his head.  "No.  I don't have a grandma anymore."

And now it's time for me to get dressed because I'm meeting a friend for lunch.
--Barbara