I zoomed over to Aldi yesterday afternoon because I was looking for a snack and all we had in the house were salty and high fat/empty calories things and Aldi had green grapes on special. Plus Durwood wanted some cans of no-salt-added diced tomatoes and a package of creamy potato soup mix (which is 36% sodium, so potato-flavored salt). I will confess that I didn't change into "street" clothes but I figured that my yoga pants, fake Crocs, and long-sleeved tee qualified as real clothes. At least I wasn't wearing fuzzy slippers and fleece or flannel pants with duckies on them. I even had on a bra. I was DRESSED. Aaaanyway, I found the items that Durwood wanted, glommed 3-8 oz. packages of baby bella mushrooms (for 99 cents each) that he'll slice, saute, and freeze today for future use, and a 2# bag of green grapes. As usual I nibbled one of the grapes to make sure they weren't lip-puckering sour and was amazed to find a 2-bite grape in my fingers. It was plenty sweet so the bag came home with me. Yum, grapes--and a bowl of 8 of them is a perfectly adequate snack. Eight of these grapes is a LOT of grape. I may have to go get more before the ad changes on Wednesday.
Early in the day I finished up Owl Puff #1. His beak's a little cockeyed but I think it gives him an appealing, quizzical look. I added rows to the Sock Yarn scarf most of the afternoon while watching shows I'd DVR'd last week (good, mindless viewing for knitting) and then later I started Owl Puff #2. This one's a girl. See? Pink-ish yarn.
This morning's sunrise was fairly low-key, just a faint orange tinge to the underside of the dark gray clouds, but the last remaining mums are blooming. It's impossible to get the color of the flowers right. They're actually a light purple color with just a hint of darker color in the center but this is how they show up on digital. Pretty but not right. *shrugs*
October 31--Carl Schneider, FMY-001. Marian watched the blond man on the bench across the park. He had his arms around two children, a boy and a girl, holding them close. Even though the day was warm, the man and children looked cold. She could see the man's lips move as if he were reassuring them or telling them a story. All three of them had the pinched look of having gone too long between meals. She thought of how easily she filled her grocery cart, not being extravagant but not pinching pennies either. Yesterday she had made a big pot of soup, chicken with lots of vegetables, and wondered how she could get the little family and the soup together. Without a plan, she stood up and walked toward their bench, hoping she'd think of what to say on the way.
Do you realize that today marks the end of the 10th month of 2016? I won't be sorry to see this year go by, although I wouldn't wish it away either because this is the year that OJ and GC came into our lives. I've decided that today I'm going down to the Clerk of Courts office and vote early. There may be a line but it for sure won't be as long as the lines at the polls on November 8. You won't forget to vote, will you? It's the only way to get all of these candidates and special-interest groups off your back and shoved back into their holes for another four years. Sheesh, where do they come from? I'm grateful that Durwood discovered that our landline phone provider has a "NoMoRobo" feature that cuts out most, if not all, robocalls. The phone rings once and then, poof!, it's gone. Worth it. I'm off to do a little yoga in the kitchen before the erranding begins. Happy Halloween!
--Barbara
I'm too old for that but I got caught up in knitting this little Owl Puff. See, I went downstairs to dig through my bin of yarn leftovers looking for more sock yarn for the scarf and came across this variegated yarn and the celery green solid yarn and I knew they'd make a good "softie" so I got out some really small needles (so there aren't too many holes when I stuff the owl) and brought them upstairs.
After supper I picked up the sock yarn scarf and knitted a few rows, all the time thinking that it was very wide and I am a very short-necked person, so this might not be the right size scarf for me. But since I am very focused on knitting up all these sock yarn leftovers, I ripped out what I'd done, cast on 24 stitches (instead of 44) and got to work. I knitted this much, took a look at it and liked it, so that's when I put it down to knit the Owl Puff. As soon as I'm done here I'll be on the couch putting the eyes on and embroidering the beak, stuffing it and closing it up. (It'll look more like an owl with eyes and a beak.) I know I will make another one today and maybe more just because they're quick and easy and darned cute.
Yesterday afternoon I went to the birdseed store and loaded up on food for the birds and squirrels. See? I used my noodle and drove around the side of the house into the backyard to unload because, let me tell you, a 50# bag of anything is heavy and the shorter distance I have to carry it, the better. I could only fit about half of the peanuts in the shell in the aluminum can so the rest of them are double bagged and stored in the lock-lidded Rubbermaid trash can on the patio. I don't have a lot of confidence in it being impervious to the gnawing of squirrels so I might be in the market for another aluminum trash can that I can rest a rock on the top of. Now LC, OJ, and I have lots of "fill the feeders" stock for when they come to visit. It's a favorite activity for all of us.
I finally got a case for my new phone. The volume button is right where my fingers go when I'm putting the phone in my purse or pocket so I kept turning it down so far that I couldn't hear it ring or chime. This will help. Plus it's red.
Since I stayed up so late I didn't write a prompt, I did do my bedtime stretches which I consider much more important, so here are the orange nasturtiums still a-bloom in back. Aren't they pretty? I just love the shape of their leaves.
Happy Sunday.
--Barbara
This morning, once I'd read the paper and done the crossword puzzle, I got busy and made a cauldron of Chicken Vegetable Soup. I start with a recipe called Fast Chicken Soup Base I cut out of the Sunday magazine lo these many years ago because you start with a rotisserie chicken from the store, then you can add all sorts of veggies, herbs and spices according to your taste and what you're in the mood for. I see that the version I linked to just has the base recipe but the newspaper one had Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, with Rice, with Noodles, and another one I can't remember now which is why I cut it out in the first place. You can start with the basic soup and depending on the pasta, veggies, and spices or herbs you add it's different every time. It turns out that using the bones and the darkest of the skin (not the flabby, fatty undercooked skin, ick) makes a richer-tasting broth much faster and better than my old "toss a raw chicken into the pot, cover with water, and boil the daylights out of it" method. I also have an excellent chicken soup recipe from Emeril Lagasse but, kids, I'm usually not willing to devote an hour to deboning a raw chicken and then another hour, at least, to assembling the soup so at times I merge the two recipes' ingredients and get an Emeril-ish soup with half the work.
Here's my fabric haul from Jo-Ann yesterday. All of the new fabrics will be going into the washer later today so that I can cut them out (at work) over the next few weeks and make even MORE shirts. I'm going to see about tightening up the neck and lengthening the sleeves on one version to make it a bit more winter-friendly, and I'm going to use the next size up pattern to make a shirt out of the black mesh so it's good for layering over other shirts.
I was happy to see that the birdseed store's annual bulk sale starts today so I'll be tootling over there later for 50# bags of safflower seed, peanuts in the shell, dried cob corn, and a 12-pack of suet cakes. It'll be almost $100 but it will last almost until next year's sale so it's a good investment. Plus LC and I need to fill the feeders and soon OJ will be helping too. We need supplies.
October 29--Carl Schneider, TN-001. There was a grid pattern mashed into the dead man's left cheek. Detective Inspector Blair shoved his hands into the pockets of his overcoat wishing he could light a cigarette. Quitting smoking was a pain and all the no smoking rules were annoying since there wasn't even any secondhand smoke to take the edge off. The peculiar smell of death should have dissipated but the still damp air held onto it. He'd forgotten to smear menthol salve on his upper lip before he got out of the car and he wouldn't do it now. "What do you think made those marks?" Delgado said, shifting his weight and peering down at the still figure sprawled at their feet. "Well," said Blair, "if my mother were still alive I'd say probably a waffle. Those things were so tough and heavy they'd have been good emergency manhole covers." He heard a few chuckles from the crime scene techs. "But since Mom's been gone for nearly twelve years, I'd guess it was a tennis racquet. Doctor Doom will know for sure." "It's not Doom, it's Dohm," said a gravely voice with a slight German accent from right behind him. "Now get out of my way and let the professionals do their job." Blair saluted at the gray-haired coroner and turned to Delgado. "Start going door to door and I'll keep pestering the techs."
I went to the Dollar Tree yesterday looking for some zipper sandwich bags to try to keep my tangle of sock yarns in control. While I was there a few Halloween things jumped into my cart. I love the Dollar Tree, especially for cheap holiday decor. Who can resist a whole store of things that cost a dollar? Not me. Time for soup. The aroma's irresistible.
--Barbara
I finished the Dusky Blues sock toe yesterday morning lickety-split, then I crocheted OJ's stocking hexagon #7, and it still wasn't noon.
So I set up two of the long tables in the back room, shoved them together, and pinned and cut out another knit t-shirt. (I feel a jag coming on--because I bought fabric for three more of them today--although I do think the shirt out of the mesh fabric will have a few "improvements"... maybe, if I feel brave--I'll show you that fabric tomorrow) You're absolutely correct if you're thinking, hey, that's a lot of striped shirts. I'm "into" stripes these days, also the knit fabric that's in my price range comes mostly in stripes. Besides the floral and geometric print stuff has too much polyester in it for me, it almost feels like swimsuit or skating dress fabric. I get too sweaty to drape myself in that much polyester, so cotton and stripes it is.
When I was cutting out I heard loud honking outside and went out the back door to see a whole lot of Canada geese coming in for a landing on the river a block from the shop. I didn't have the heart to tell them that they were flying North.
Once I had the tables put away I went on my Ravelry queue page and cleaned out some things that I'm not as enthusiastic about, put quite a few items into "Favorites," and printed out two patterns. One is the Confetti Scarf from Purl Soho. On size US15 needles (very big) you cast on 44 stitches holding 7 strands of sock yarn together and then knit in stockinette (flat stitches, like a sweater) until you run out of yarn. Purl Soho recommends that you buy some of their lovely wool and silk yarn but I had a 2 gallon ziplock bag of sock yarn ends, some from Z-Dawg and some of my own, that needs to get knitted up. I've been nibbling away at it for years, knitting a few tiny keychain purses and meaning to knit a sweater for a grandbaby that never got off the ground (the sweater, not the grandbaby), and it's time for it to become something. So I dug out the sock yarn nubbins and some lovely light brown llama yarn that I've never known what to do with and plunged in. Durwood held the skeins of llama so I could wind them into cakes and then tried to help me untangle the unholy mess that happened almost immediately. See all the yarns like each other a lot so they cling to each other and because these are small bits of yarn it's easy for one less tightly wound to get dragged along by bad companions. It took me about an hour to get this mess undone but then I had a brainstorm. I dug out an empty oatmeal box, then ran the 7 strands through my hand to straighten them, and wound the resulting yarn around the box where it comes off very nicely. Thank you, Mr. Quaker Man. I stopped at the Dollar Tree today for a box of zipper sandwich bags and intend to sequester each little yarn ball in a bag with a corner cut off (thanks, DD) so that they don't roll around and entangle themselves again. So there's that new project.
The other pattern I printed out is for a small stuffed toy called an Owl Puff. It's something else that will be made with project leftovers and LC is a big fan of owls, me too. I got some safety eyes and a square of white felt for the sclera today so I can take some yarn scraps with me to knitting tonight and get one started. I got safety eyes too. (Last week LC asked, "Do you know what the white part of your eye is called, Meemaw? I said no and she said, "The sclera." I nearly wrenched my neck turning to look at her. Where does a 2 year old learn that stuff?)
October 28--Carl Schneider, GLF-003 Golf. Dina thought she had never seen greener grass. Not even fake grass was this perfect green. She looked down at the ridiculous fawn and white golf shoes on her feet and felt the cleats sink into the ground. The club felt awkward in her gloved hands and she was confident she looked like an overripe watermelon in her green, pink, and white golf togs. "Togs," that's what the chirpy young woman in the resort boutique called them. What a stupid word for overpriced sportswear. God, she dreaded these annual company meetings when every conversation held land mines ready to explode your career into shrapnel of shame and failure, and people dressed in silly clothes and whacked a dimpled white ball around a manicured course while trying to suck up to the nearest vice-president or board member. She looked back down at herself. slotted the club back into the bag in back of the cart, kicked off her shoes, and took off for the resort. She was done trying to crack this particular glass ceiling.
And now I'm going to heat up some leftover pizza for supper and then go knitting. Sayonara.
--Barbara
I tried on the Dusky Blues sock last night and decreed that it was time to toe. So I got out my little markers that remind me which decrease to do where and got started. I think I'm about halfway and will easily finish sometime today. Which means I get to grub around in my vast bin in sock yarn so I can cast on another sock. I'm kind of a sock dud. I'm not intrigued by fancy sock patterns, I like 'em plain or ribbed or whatever this fancier ribbed pattern is I'm knitting right now (it's the Campfire Sock) (the socks stay up better using this pattern), it's the variegated yarn I like. At least I'm true to my habit of only knitting one sock of any particular yarn. Three times I've knitted a pair but never wear them at the same time. Never. How boring would that be?
I crocheted another hexagon for OJ's stocking yesterday but spent most of the day (when not on the phone or with a customer) in the back room cutting out another shirt. I dug out some shiny, slick fabric and got the pattern pieces pinned on and then came to my senses realizing that I'm not a shiny slick kind of woman. I'm more utilitarian and comfy so I unpinned the pattern pieces and told the fabric that its future is as purse linings. It seemed mollified.
I'm having such a good time making these knit shirts that I went to Jo-Ann after work to see what I could find. Actually I had 60% off and 50% off coupons that were expiring yesterday so I went to see if I could spend them. Naturally the fabric that I wanted was already on sale (40% off) so I couldn't use my coupons. I only bought this black knit because I found this little piece of sunflower fabric which is enough to make sleeves (and maybe the neckband if I cut carefully) so even though I was peeved about my coupons not working I bought it anyway. I did tell the young clerk that they need better signage because the signs on the racks had a 10/19 expiration date so I thought I was home free. Bah.
The juncos have arrived in force, pecking at any seed that's fallen. They're very focused little birds. Durwood said one of the hawks spent a lot of the afternoon looming from atop one of the crooks, then moving to the privacy fence, then to the planters by the shed hoping to catch a chipmunk unawares. I'd have liked to see that.
October 27--Carl Schneider, MB-009 Biking. Caleb ducked his head to let an overhanging branch scrape over his helmet instead of whipping across his face. His eyes teared from the wind and his hands felt numb from the cold and his tight grip on the handlebars. He and Ethan were riding the trails in Bear Creek Park for maybe the last time before the snow came. Yesterday's wind and rain stripped the last of the leaves from the trees, hiding the trail in places, obscuring puddles, and making some of the turns slick. He watched Ethan disappear over the hill above the creek and heard his yell of triumph turn to a scream. Caleb tried to stop before he went over but the leaves were too slippery. He couldn't stop.
It's chilly today. I'm wearing a wool sweater, short-sleeved and short-waisted, but still it's a wool sweater and it's October. I wonder what the Farmer's Almanac says about the coming winter. I should pick up a copy. Durwood would like that. I'm outta here.
--Barbara
...and it is. It was a surprise when I took my jug out to fill up the birdbath in the dark when I got up. It wasn't raining hard enough to make noise, just enough to surprise me as I stepped off that infamous, rug-covered step onto the patio. It wasn't raining hard enough to make me squeak and dash back in, just enough to be a slight annoyance while I stood pouring. Happily it hadn't rained Sunday night because when I went out to thaw the birdbath with a jug of hot water on Monday morning I didn't even pause to think that the rug might have been wet and frozen. We do not want a repeat of last April Fools' Day. We do NOT.
I got a couple more hexagons crocheted for OJ's stocking and last night I finished the pink Advent Garland mitten. That was the pattern I suggested for last Saturday's BLKG Knit-away Day which I was sorry to miss but I enjoyed being in Ft. Wayne with Durwood, etc. Plus I got to go to that yarn shop. Bonus!
Yesterday's sunrise was beautiful. See? Not so today. Today we have a uniformly gray sky, it's barely light even now, and it's raining. I liked yesterday better. Just saying. I don't hate rainy days but it sure is dreary. Makes it hard to get up and at 'em on days like this. I think I need to whip up some chicken veg soup this weekend. Today's a soup day and I do have soup, squash and mushroom soup, but I've got a hankering for chicken soup. Probably because SIL1 and I were talking about making chicken soup over the weekend. I'll do it. I have to go to Walmart this weekend anyway so it'll be easy to nab a deli chicken and some broth (oh, wait, I should check the freezer, I might have some homemade I can use) and some veggies to toss in. I'll need a nice big onion too. I like lots of onion in my soup.
Ooh, thunder... or was that a garbage truck? It's so hard to tell them apart.
October 26--Bob Krist. Jutting above the sea of green was a chunk of rock that looked like a petrified tree trunk. From across the valley it looked small and climbable. Jane saw two red specks moving on top of it that she figured were people. The rock must be farther away and a lot bigger than it looked. It's like an optical illusion, she thought. As she watched, one of the people pointed at the other and that second person stumbled backwards right off the rock. The scream echoed faintly but got swallowed by the trees. Jane screamed too and saw the person left on the rock point at her. She heard a big bee buzz past her and realized that he was pointing a gun her way and she slid behind a tree just as a second "bee" flew by too close, then she heard the cracks. It was too cold for bees, it was a bullet. He was shooting at her. She made herself as small as possible behind the tree and hoped whoever it was would think she had gone away. She lay there trembling, wishing she hadn't screamed, wishing she had stayed home.
It looks like I'm going to JoAnn Fabrics on my way home from work today. (don't forget your pattern) I opened an email from them (her?) to find 50% off coupons that expire today. I can buy some more knit fabric to make more shirts. Woohoo. Good think I didn't leave all my mad money in Ft. Wayne. Off to drag on some clothes and drag myself to work.
--Barbara
... but we drove down to Ft. Wayne, Indiana to spend the weekend with Durwood's brother and sister-in-law. We hadn't seen them in about 20 years (life, kids, jobs, etc.) and a good time was had by all. We mostly camped out in the Comfort Suites (highly recommended) lobby chatting and laughing and drinking coffee.
I did a little knitting, adding rounds to the foot of the Dusky Blues sock and starting an Advent Garland Mitten for some variety. SIL1 teased me about knitting with pink yarn but I gave her a pair of fingerless mitts in hopes of toning down the teasing. It didn't really work very well but she loves the mitts. That reminds me, I need to dig out another pair to live in my knitting basket. Be right back. Here I am. (I chose the mitts I made with the alpaca yarn LB brought me from the yarn crawl I had to miss because of my stupid broken ankle.)
On Saturday morning I ditch the others and found a yarn store, Knitting off Broadway, which is in a lovely old building in downtown Ft. Wayne. (if you ever go there, the entrance is in the back...ask me how I know...) My "sale yarn" fu is very strong. I walked in the door, took this picture, and walked right into the side room where the baskets of reduced price yarn was waiting for me. I found 2 skeins of the red variegated worsted superwash wool for 30% off, the rust & goldish colored skeins also worsted superwash wool for 25% off which I'm thinking will become a striped hat and mitts or mittens, and two patterns that I paid full price for. (*gasp* I know, I rarely pay full price) I'm especially excited about the shawl pattern because I can see using up quite a few of the single skeins of sock yarn I have in the stash. I'm not sure what I'll use to make the vest but it really attracted me and that's what mad money's for, right? Right.
This guy showed up this morning right after I came in from filling the birdbath and all the feeders. He first landed on the trash can right by the patio door and then flapped over to sit on top of a crook. Funnily enough, not one bird came to eat while he/she was there.
I didn't write prompts this weekend. I just fell into bed, talked out, and went to sleep and I was too tired from that long day's drive to write last night. See ya.
--Barbara
...and the moon sees me..." Every time I see the moon, especially a full-ish moon, that song plays in my head and the voice singing it belongs to the then-three year old DD walking on a path in a campground when we walked around a curve to see the full moon framed by the tall pines on either side of the path. She stood stock still, folded her hands in front of her, and sang the whole song, beginning to end, before taking another step. I wish I could somehow make a "hard" copy of that tiny silhouetted girl, the alley of trees, and the big, bright moon.
On Tuesday the date kind of slapped me in the face, reminding me that I need to crochet 17 hexagons to make a Christmas stocking for OJ and Christmas isn't that far away. Yikes. Fortunately I already had yarns picked out and bagged with the pattern so all I had to do was go downstairs, figure out where I'd put said bag, get a crochet hook out of the keeper, and start. I've got 3 done so far and I really really like the colors. Yeah, yeah, I know, green, red and white are traditional Christmas colors, but I like this green, which has black flecks so it's not so GREEN, with the wine red and bright white. I'm using the same pattern that I made his daddy's stocking with almost 38 years ago but I'm mixing up the colors.
There wasn't a scrap of sunrise color on the clouds this morning. Maybe I got up too late but it was just too easy to bonk the snooze button a few, okay six, times. It's so hard to make myself get up when it's dark. It's hard to get up when it's light too, but getting up when it's dark seems extra hard.
After having my new phone up and running for a week, I'm finally getting around to unwrapping the User Guide and taking it to work with me to see if it won't tell me how to make the phone do things I want it to. DIL1 showed me how to make the text notification sound audible and how to answer calls (swipe, don't poke) the other day. It's good to have younger people in your life when technology gets the best of you. Which it does...Most. Of. The. Time. I hate that my phone is smarter than me.
October 20--Lucille Khornak, 000-97-DS56-SH. His smooth, plump hand looked so small on top of her wrinkled, deflated looking one. Grayson had come to Villa Pacifica with his Cub Scout pack to sing Christmas carols and play games with the residents. After the singing there were cookies and cider and Grayson happened to sit at Millie's table. He wasn't as nervous around the old people as some of the other boys were. He said he liked the stores his grandpa had told him before he died so he figured other "grands" would have good stories too. Millie was alone and didn't talk much but Grayson asked her questions about growing up and her school days. Soon he was riding his bike over after school a few days a week to fill Millie in on how school was going and listen to her talk about her life.
After I get off work today Durwood and I are zooming off to spend the night in Kenosha because on Friday we're meeting his brother BE and his wife in Ft. Wayne, IN for the weekend to sit in a Comfort Suites and catch up. I did a little Internet search and found out there are two yarn shops in Ft. Wayne. I'm planning a little jaunt to check them out on Saturday afternoon. It's my duty to report back to the Knitting Guild. It would be irresponsible of me not to go, don't you think? Time to shower, breakfast and go keep the world safe from SCUBA diving.
--Barbara
One of the reasons people say they knit socks from the toes up is so that they can try it on as they go. I'm here to say that you can try on a cuff down sock as you go too. I need a couple more inches of foot before starting the toe decreases.
A few months ago LC and I went to a different library for storytime and we played with a box of puppets while waiting for it to start. LC really liked the puppets so I've been looking around for some nice ones. I've found some but they're rather pricey, more Santa or birthday present level, so I decided to draw a pattern and make my own. I had some muslin scraps downstairs and part of a purse lining that I made way too long so I sewed one to the other, cut out my pattern, and got ready to sew. Then I thought that I should probably put hair on before sewing the front to the back so I found some dark brown yarn in a bin, cut some lengths, and sewed them near the top of the head and again across where I figured the nape of the neck would be, if it had a neck. I used a Sharpie to draw a face on the front. I used painter's tape to corral the yarn while sewing the front to the back. It became clear when I turned it right side out that it's too small for my hands but I figured it'd be just right for LC. It's nowhere near the best puppet in the land but it'll be a good plaything for a little kid. (I will be enlarging my pattern to make another one more my size so our puppets can talk to each other.) Mom used to make a sock puppet with Dad's orphan socks. She'd cut the toe along the sides and sew a red felt mouth in the opening and two buttons on top for eyes.
October 18--Chip Henderson Photography, Bike Repair. Hank picked up a wrench from his workbench and looked out at Caleb kneeling in the grass, his upended bicycle in front of him. It had been years since Hank had worked on a balky gear-shifter and chain. He knew Caleb thought his grandpa could do anything. He didn't want to disappoint the boy. Caleb was still a little shy around his grandfather. Lana had come home unannounced from the West Coast four months ago. She had been surplussed out of a job by a merger and things were too expensive out there. Here in Wisconsin times weren't that much better but at least prices were lower. Hank hitched up his jeans and strode out onto the lawn. "Found a wrench," he said, "now let's get this contraption fixed." "Do you know how?" Caleb asked. Hank shrugged a shoulder and smiled at the boy. "Well, not exactly, but I expect two smart guys like us should be able to figure it out." Two heads, one graying and the other black, leaned over the bike and got to work.
There's almost nothing you can't fix with a wrench and a hammer, oh, and Duct tape. You probably should have a screwdriver too. It's a nice sunny day. I think it's time to walk to the bank.
--Barbara
I have a handful of random photos that I don't know how to seamlessly put together so I thought I'd just start slapping them on here with a little explanation, kind of a list sort of thing with some narration. Hey, I can make bullet points on this thing...
- There was a flyover before yesterday's Packer game. These guys were loud, a low grumble heard from far off, and I have absolutely no clue what kind of airplane helicopter hybrid they are.
- Clouds rolled in overnight so while I got up too late to witness the actual sunrise, it still looked pretty when I got out there and looked to the East. We're supposed to maybe have storms later.
- The nasturtiums, all two of them, are still blooming. I need to plant more next year, many more so I can thwart the depredations of the chipmunks.
- Also I love the red rockets of pineapple sage flowers.
- The shed is playing host to some critters. When I went out yesterday afternoon to put the patio table, etc. away this spider, body about dime sized, had colonized the upper corner of a door. I don't mind spiders.
- However this nest of hornets and all the hornets lounging on the edges of the doors stopped me in my tracks. I watched to see that they weren't very active so I did get the table in there but didn't spend any time rearranging things or trying to get the chairs stowed. I'll be stopping for a can of bug killer when I'm out and about today, you'd better betcha.
- I finally dragged myself down to the sewing machine yesterday afternoon (once the flyover was past) and made another knit shirt, this time in the correct size (the last one's a little big). Once again there wasn't enough of the striped fabric to make the whole thing so the back and one of the neckbands are white. I cut out a neckband in the stripe and the white and layered them. Not much of an alteration but I feel good about it. The striped fabric is very thin, what I think they call tissue knit, that's tricky to sew and snags like crazy. This was an easy, inexpensive way to try the fabric out. (Doesn't it look like I'm standing funny? I need to ask the chiro if my right hip's out of whack even more than it feels like it is when I see her on Wednesday.)
I didn't write last night. I stayed up until midnight, like a goofball, so I just fell into bed, did my stretches and turned out the light. Happy Monday!
--Barbara
I had a bad day yesterday. I didn't get dressed, didn't do much more than glare at things and people. I must have been a joy to be around. (Maybe that's why Durwood took so many naps yesterday... ) Anyway, I was able to claw my way toward the light in the evening, sat on the couch and finished the Carnival Doublethick Cloth. I didn't reuse all the yarn I frogged from the unsatisfactory crocheted cloth but this seems like a good size, plus I have more of this bright yarn to knit into something else. Bonus!
On Friday we stopped at Fleet Farm after our stints in various radiological pursuits so I could buy some birdseed and I saw something that, well, that I just had to share with you all. In the "Cammo Has Gone Too Far" Department, I give you this--a lace and rhinestone cammo bra with matching panties. There were thongs too, and teddies and other unmentionables in various versions of cammo. I mean... Who...? I need a gallon jug of brain wash fluid, stat.
The sky was beautiful this morning but, more than that, the air felt like silk. Today is one of those perfect fall days, sunny and clear, warm and cool at the same time. There's a football game in town later which means that there'll be a fly-over to cap off this perfect day.
October 16--Chip Henderson Photography. From the plane the country side looked like a crazy quilt of colors divided by dark gray roads. Rivers meandered reflecting the blue sky, adding a sparkle to the tableau. Liz took some digital photos and made a few notes, planning to make an "aerial view" quilt to enter into the fair.
I kept falling asleep so there're squiggles after "meandered" and "planning" so I gave up the next time I regained consciousness and turned off the light. Today the patio furniture gets put away but I'm not getting the snowblower out yet. No-sirree-bob.
--Barbara
I zoomed over to Aldi yesterday afternoon because I was looking for a snack and all we had in the house were salty and high fat/empty calories things and Aldi had green grapes on special. Plus Durwood wanted some cans of no-salt-added diced tomatoes and a package of creamy potato soup mix (which is 36% sodium, so potato-flavored salt). I will confess that I didn't change into "street" clothes but I figured that my yoga pants, fake Crocs, and long-sleeved tee qualified as real clothes. At least I wasn't wearing fuzzy slippers and fleece or flannel pants with duckies on them. I even had on a bra. I was DRESSED. Aaaanyway, I found the items that Durwood wanted, glommed 3-8 oz. packages of baby bella mushrooms (for 99 cents each) that he'll slice, saute, and freeze today for future use, and a 2# bag of green grapes. As usual I nibbled one of the grapes to make sure they weren't lip-puckering sour and was amazed to find a 2-bite grape in my fingers. It was plenty sweet so the bag came home with me. Yum, grapes--and a bowl of 8 of them is a perfectly adequate snack. Eight of these grapes is a LOT of grape. I may have to go get more before the ad changes on Wednesday.
Early in the day I finished up Owl Puff #1. His beak's a little cockeyed but I think it gives him an appealing, quizzical look. I added rows to the Sock Yarn scarf most of the afternoon while watching shows I'd DVR'd last week (good, mindless viewing for knitting) and then later I started Owl Puff #2. This one's a girl. See? Pink-ish yarn.
