Brrrrr

It's cold.  How cold is it?  Well, the birdbath was frozen this morning so I went out and poured some warm water into it--which then proceeded to freeze too--so around noon I went out into the 32 degree day, tipped out the barely thawed birdbath, put in the heater and taped it to the pedestal, put a rock on the heater to hold it in place, and refilled it. Then I filled the bird feeders and put out a couple extra ones (with seeds squirrels don't like) for the winter. THIRTY-TWO degrees at noon.  Ack.  I took down the patio umbrella to store in the garage and put the knocked down patio table into the shed.  I'll put the chairs in once I take out the snowblower but I won't do that until the neighbor gets his snowblower tune-up shop in his garage up and running.  He's a whole lot less expensive than the commercial guy plus he's willing to troubleshoot it if I need help in the winter.  (my toes are still cold)

I got four nice butternut squash from the garden, five really but the fifth one wasn't mature and looked frozen when I found it on Sunday so out it went.  In fact, I have my doubts about the smallest one in the picture.  I see a cauldron of squash soup in my future, which may be tomorrow if I don't warm up soon.  Maybe I need to put on a sweater...


We had my homegrown carrots for supper the last two nights.  They were delicious and so fresh they didn't need peeling.  Yum.  I might reconsider my decision not to plant them next year.


 
The other day I took a bag of peels over for DIL1's chickens and got to keep the eggs.  I almost hate to crack them open they're so pretty.






October 31--Henri Cabot, The Peacocks.  Tally sat squeezed between Aunt Minnie and Grandma Irene in the third pew from the front of church.  She was sure that the Mass would never end.  There had been standing and kneeling and singing and praying for at least an hour and Tally couldn't see it ending anytime soon.  She had prayed and sung along and bobbed up and down with the congregation but now Father Loeffler was giving his sermon and he was really into it.  He had started talking about forgiveness and tolerance and gave no sign of slowing down, much less stopping.  The sun had shifted and was shining through the stained glass beside their pew.  A shaft of the bluest light covered Tally's knee with an unearthly glow.  She slid her hand into the light and out.

And that's all she wrote.  Well, that's all I wrote.  I went down to the bookstore/cafe where I like to write yesterday and had absolutely no luck putting words on paper, not on the screen either.  *sigh*  I hate when that happens.  This dramatic change of season, light, and temperature is really getting me down.  I think I'll go run some errands.
--Barbara
P.S. I worked on the afghan edge again last night and I'm still not all the way around one time.  Maybe once around will be enough... twice at the most.

Bales All Gone

Remember how excited I was last spring when I set up the straw bale garden?  It was an unqualified success.  Three of the tomato plants went crazy, the bell peppers were their usual unsatisfying selves, the parsley plant went bananas, the lettuce bolted before we had a second salad, and the butternut squash sent stealth vines into the daisies.  I planted the herbs in the sides of two of the bales but they weren't getting any water so I transplanted and then replanted them, except for the parsley which did get watered and absolutely loved where it was planted.  (more on that in a minute)  Today was the day to demolish the garden, pull out the plants, etc. before it got too cold.  We had frost last night (bye-bye, coleus & basil) so I knew it was time.  What I hadn't noticed until a couple weeks ago was just how much the bales had essentially disappeared.  They're gone, I mean, gone gone.  A couple of the tomato plants had enormous root balls and their roots had spread for at least three feet.  In the past when I planted them in the ground the roots pretty much stuck right around the plant, didn't spread out much at all.

I hadn't really paid much attention to the carrots.  They'd started to kind of slip down the side of the bale and I thought that the bunnies and chipmunks had been having a feast.  Well, not so.  Here are the carrots I harvested today.  This is about 1000% more carrots than I got the last time I tried to grow them.  We're having them for supper.



 

Now for that parsley.  I planted one plant in the end of the bale closest to the house.  As I said, it was in the optimum spot for water and sunshine and it really took advantage of its position.  Look at that thing, its huge.  That is one plant, I swear.  I've got four huge sheaves of parsley all rubber banded to hang from the rafters downstairs to dry.  (I use rubber bands to hold the stems together because they shrink as they dry and rubber bands shrink right along with the stems, unlike string which lets the parsley fall to the dirty, sawdust-y floor)  While I was cutting the parsley and banding it I started singing "Bringing in the Sheaves" in my head but soon it morphed into "Eating Goober Peas."  It seems to me that it's the same song with different lyrics.  Can that be right?  I'll have to google it.

Today dawned clear and cold.  No more patio yoga, that's for sure.  The birdbath was icy and the grass was frosty.  The sky was a gorgeous blue all day, though, and a couple hundred Canada Geese flew by in Vs, hoking away, as I pulled the plants out.

Last night I sat on the couch weaving in the few remaining tails on the Sudoku afghan and this morning while watching CBS Sunday morning I started crocheting the edging.  I decided that it didn't need a wide edge so I chose a hook a bit bigger than the one I joined everything with and got started.  I figure I'll put on three rounds.  I'm not quite halfway through the first one and hope to get one done before bedtime tonight.  This thing WILL be finished, and soon.


October 29--The Arcade Shopping Mall in Cleveland, Ohio c. 1900  Laurie was falling asleep sifting through the photo collection of the Ohio State University Library.  She was supposed to be sorting them into categories and decades. Instead she was imagining what the lives of the people in the photos were like.  She put herself into the the photos of places wondering how they would feel and sound on the day the photo was taken.  The admired the ornate ironwork of the railings and the lampposts that looked like upended chandeliers.

Well, the microwave just beeped telling me that the corn is done so I've got to go put the carrots in, then flip the pork steak I'm grilling along with some drumsticks for this week's suppers.  Toodle-oo.
--Barbara

The True End of Summer

 


The true end of summer is when you take the garden apart and that's what I have to do tomorrow or maybe Monday.  I looked over there when I opened the drapes this morning and saw this lone daisy bravely shining out.  As I got closer there was a pair of red nasturtium flowers huddled together in the straw (not hay; hay is feed, it has seeds, straw is bedding, it doesn't).  I spied a small Butternut squash that had been hiding under some leaves.  Those I won't pick until after the first frost, they're tastier then.









I reached a milestone last night at knitting.  I got Sudoku Panel #3 crocheted to Sudoku Long Strip #2.  Now all that's left to do is weave in a few tails and put some kind of edge around it.  I'm torn between grabbing a little bit bigger crochet hook and just going around a few times or picking up stitches and knitting an I-cord edge.  I think the hook will win, it'll go faster.  But I'm getting there.





When KS and I were at Spin on Thursday all of the Noro yarn was on sale.  I love the colors of Noro and I purely dislike the roughness and excess of what they call "vegetable matter" in it.  There are small twigs and pieces of leaves and plants and I just don't like knitting it.  But.  There was a shop sample hanging on the column of bins right behind me and I liked the look of the scarf pattern even if I'm not a fan of the yarn and, lo and behold, the pattern was written on the back of the little tag.  Snap, snap with my cellphone and it's all mine.

Speaking of cellphones, I totally lost patience with my new cellphone turning the volume down all on its own and restarting in "safe mode" which meant none of the apps worked.  So I had to take off the back, take out the battery, slide out the SD card, push it back, reinstall the battery, and put the back on.  Then it would start with all the apps available even though by taking out the battery it turned off and had to turn back on.  It drove me In.Sane.  The last straw was this morning when it kept turning my guided meditation down, I'd turn it up, and it would turn itself down again as soon as I set it back down.  Arrrgh.  Naturally I couldn't find my receipt but fortunately I'd ordered it online to pick it up in the store the same day so I had that paperwork.  Whew.  Anyway, most of my stuff--contacts, photos, and app stuff gets saved to the Samsung cloud so I didn't lose much by switching phones.  I love technology.  Someday I'll get a "latest model" phone or maybe I just need a different protective case for this one...

October 28--Robert John Thornton, The Superb Lily, Gloriosa Superba.  The lilies seemed to snap open in a whorl around the stem looking like upside-down Turk's hats.  The speckled petals curled back on themselves exposing their pollen-heavy anthers for any passing bee.  The red and creamy yellow flowers made Celia think of apple peels in the fall and the fragrance was so heady she was surprised the bees didn't get drunk from it.

I was kind of a slacker in the self-care arena this week so I'm proud to say that I did yoga and meditated early this morning and did 10 minutes of step aerobics before I got dressed.  Then I went to the birdseed store where they're having their annual sale so I got a 50# bag of peanuts in the shell, another 50# bag of safflower seeds, and a 12-pack of suet cakes.  They carry them to the van but I have to carry them through the house to the patio where they live in the cans.  Then I went to Sam's where I was in the line with the broken check printer, had to go back to the back of the store for an item I missed, after that I did battle with Walmart (it wasn't really a battle, more like a skirmish) to get my defective cellphone exchanged for a different one a day after the exchange limit.  Oh, and I stopped at Meijer for broccoli and grapes and navel oranges and to look for the kind of kitchen hand soap they evidently no longer make.  Naturally the health & beauty dept. is across the store from produce.  I think I probably "made my steps" for the day.  I think I'll go scoop myself out some ice cream.
--Barbara

Did You Miss Me?

 

I ran away today.  Not far and not for too long but run away I did.  My friend KS's dad is in broken hip rehab in Sturgeon Bay and he had a doc's appointment in the late afternoon so we met for lunch (Blue Front Cafe--curried chicken salad sandwiches) and spent the afternoon sitting and knitting in Spin which is indeed closing around the end of the year.  The owner is retiring and so far no one's stepped up to buy the biz.

It wasn't sunny.  It wasn't warm.  But that's no reason to stay home and pout.  I put on my new black & white Dress No. 1 with black leggings, a black long-sleeved t-shirt, and my color-striped shrug/sweater and drove away.  I looked good, stayed warm, and enjoyed the quiet afternoon in a room filled to the brim with yarn fumes--and I didn't buy a skein.  I was tempted by some brown tweedy wool but remembered in the nick of time that a carton of yarn came in the mail a couple weeks ago so I really don't need any more yarn. (I know that yarn is more of a want item than a need item but I resisted all temptations *pats self on back*)  I knitted the latest sock up to the heel flap and put it aside so I didn't screw it up by trying to talk and count at the same time.


Last night I cast on a replacement pink Pussycat Hat for LC.  I was figuring out the placement of the words that I want to duplicate stitch embroider on our hats (Smart, Kind, Strong, Brave) and by cutting back stitches to make a smaller one for LC a few months back now there aren't enough stitches to make the letters.  So I decided to go down a couple needle sizes and cast on the same number of stitches so I get a smaller hat with the right number of places to make the words.  It's getting colder so it's time to get a move on and finish these hats.


I did buy something today (besides lunch) but it was a new wallet.  I stopped at the Target on my way out of Sturgeon Bay and found just the thing I've been looking for since the teeth of the zipper on my old one stopped staying together reliably.  It's probably meant to be a clutch since it has a wrist strip clipped to a D-ring on one side but I took that off and, VOILA!, it's a wallet.  It's sort of red orange (not as yellow as it looks--darned flash that didn't flash) so it won't be getting lost in the bottom of my purse like the black one always did.

October 26--John Singer Sargent, A Boating Party.  Shannon sat on the riverbank just down from the boat dock.  It was a gorgeous late summer day and the river was as busy with boats as the interstate was with cars.  A party of six, three young men and three young women, walked down from the boathouse.  The men carried oars, the women carried PFDs and picnic coolers.  Shannon thought that they looked like they weren't too familiar with boats and, as Granddad said, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing especially on the water.  Watching the men try to get the oars into the oarlocks without tipping themselves into the water was entertaining.  Hearing the girly shrieks of the women as the boats rocked made her think it would be a good idea to alert Search & Rescue before they even untied from the dock.

Okey-dokey.  I'm going to go break out my needle and thread to sew more pretties on that bag I'm making for LC.  Hasta manana, babies.
--Barbara

Bagged

I like snacks.  A lot.  Sweet and salty ones about equally.  I also have very little self-control when it comes to snacks.  Sweet or salty, makes no difference.  So every once in a while I stop at the Dollar Tree for a couple boxes of snack size zipper bags, then at ALDI for pretzels, caramel rice cakes, and animal crackers.  Then I sit at the table and put 2 WW points worth of whatever bag I have open into snack bags.  I have a plastic canister in the pantry cupboard where I put some of them and the rest goes into a 2.5 gallon zipper bag below.  I can grab a bag of pretzel twists, a cheese stick, some baby carrots, and a clementine for a quick lunch.

But today I had better food for lunch.  DS called me early Monday morning to say that he'd been left without a car key, asking if I had a spare.  I did so I quick got dressed and ran it over to him.  He swapped me the key for a little bag of the pulled smoked pork he made last weekend.  We have a bowl of the BBQ sauce left from the ribs we did in the crockpot last week so I spooned a tiny bit of sauce on a little of the pork, heated it, and enjoyed it immensely on a slice of Italian bread.  Mmm.


After lunch I went downstairs and finished the latest version of Dress No. 1.  When I went to bed last night I figured out how to use red bias binding to edge the pockets instead of just turning the top over.  Now I have to hope that the red doesn't run in the wash.  (I used black on the neck but red on the armholes because I ran out of black.)

A few weeks back a knitting friend trolled the craft bookshelves at Goodwill and brought in this book called "Pop Knitting."  It had the most amazing, crazy projects and ideas in it, I almost bought it just to look at the pictures but it was $5.99 which was too much for a whim.  Last Friday she found it on the clearance shelf for 79 cents.  I bought it.  I cannot imagine wearing any of these sweaters but I sure like looking at them.  The red cardi has holes bound in white and the navy cardi is strips of knitting tied together with knitted cords.  Very strange, but amusing.



October 25--American Stereoscopic Company, Rats! Rats!! Rats!!!  It was just one rat and not a very big or fierce one and the Jamison sisters were standing on chairs.  The rat had crept out of the basket Mathers had brought in from the garden.  He'd left it in the hall while he went to fetch a light bulb for the parlor lamp.  Claire had seen it first.  She dropped her mending and popped up on her chair, her skirts up nearly to her knees.  Her stocking were plaid.  Mabel looked up to see Claire fly up onto her chair and the rat scampered away from her.  Mabel seemed to levitate onto her chair, skirts in hand, striped stockings on display.  "What are you doing?" Amy asked, then the rat ran over her shoes and she too leaped up to stand on her sewing stool.  Her stockings had a diamond pattern on them.  That's how Mathers found them when he returned with the bulb, three young women standing on their chairs with their skirts hiked up, ankles exposed.  He thought that he had never seen such well-turned ankles.  He paused to admire them before easily capturing the rat.  "I'm sorry Reggie scared you young ladies.  He don't mean no harm."

Hey look, I'm almost done with this blog post and it's still light outside.  Way to go, Barbara.  I don't want to scare anyone but two months from today is, well, Christmas.  Ack!  DS, DD, DIL1, and SIL1, gift ideas, please.
--Barbara

I Could Have Sworn I Did This Earlier

But when I sat down to look something up there was yesterday's post but nothing for today.  Dang it.  So here goes.

It was another chilly, windy, rainy day in beautiful Green Bay.  The leaf-picker-uppers came by, but of course over the last couple days the wind spread the leaves that I raked last week and all the newly fallen ones back over the front lawn of the rental side and, since it was raining, I couldn't (or didn't) race out to rake them so they'd get them on the next pass.  It'll dry out and they'll be back.  I think they pick up leaves into the second week of November so there's still time.  I had to zoom out for bananas at Kwik Trip, stop at ALDI for prunes, and pick up a pizza at Papa Murphy's (it's $10 Tuesday, you know, any large pizza is ten bucks, that's two meals for us) and this sky greeted me as I left ALDI.  I'm a sucker for a purple/peach/pink sky.  There had to be a narrow slit in the clouds to let the glorious light through.


Instead of raking leaves I sewed.  And did a mountain of laundry.  Laundry, dirty or clean, I don't have a photo of but I do have a couple photos of the latest version of Dress No. 1 that I worked on.  I'm going to Sturgeon Bay to meet a friend for lunch on Thursday and now I'll have something new to wear.  Yay, me!  I used black bias binding on the neckline but didn't have enough to do the armholes, so I used red for them.  Sonya Philip, the pattern designer, makes her own bias binding from remnants of the fabrics she makes the clothes with but I have three or four shoeboxes of Mom's bias and hem tapes so I'm using that before I take a stab at making my own.  Waste not, want not.  All that's left is to get the pockets ready to apply and sewn on, then the hem pinned up and sewn.  No problem getting those things done tomorrow.



In the course of doing laundry I pulled out all my fall/winter tops, put them on the clean clothes hanging pipe, and put the clean and dry summer tops into storage.  Over the next day or two I'll get all the summer stuff downstairs and bring the winter stuff up.  And I didn't forget to turn the fall/winter hangers backwards in the closet to see what really gets worn.  I am sad to say that this is not all that needs carrying up.  I have too many clothes--and I'm sewing more.  Where's the logic in that?


October 24--Jacopo Bassano, Two Hunting Dogs Tied to a Stump.  "And keep them damned dogs outside."  Lurene stood on the porch with her hands on her generous hips, feet spread apart as if daring Ralph to argue.  He didn't even look her way.  He tied a piece of frayed cord around a skinny tree off in the side yard and looped one end through Sorrel's collar and the other end through Fleet's collar.  "Damned dogs, she calls you," he said as he ruffled their ears.  "Who does she think brings back those birds she likes to fry up and eat?  Fairies?"  The dogs looked up at him and whined.  "I know what you mean.  She's got a lot of nerve keeping you out there."  He patted each dog on the shoulder.  "I'll see what I can do."  He straightened up and ambled toward the house almost expecting Lurene to come out on the porch to tell him to stay outside too  Part of him wished she would.

Now it's time to take the trash to the curb and then go downstairs to rescue the last load from the dryer.  A woman's work is never done.
--Barbara

One Fixed, Actually Two

Well.  I wore that navy linen dress with the floral yoke yesterday in hopes that I'd grow used to the length and decide that it didn't need to be chopped off and re-hemmed after all.  No such luck.  By supper time I was so annoyed with it clinging and flapping around my shins that I was tempted to fling it downstairs to fix itself.  That won't happen.  So I went down, measured it against the pattern piece to see where to cut, cut it off, pinned up the new hem and got it sewed.  Nothing photo worthy about that.  While working on that (which didn't require much thought) I instead thought about how to fill in the too wide and too low neckline of the 2 Tunics I made.  I ended up tracing the edge I wanted on a remnant using a marking pencil, then matching the part that needed filling in and marking that edge.  I cut it out adding seam allowance where it would overlap, then I finished the new neckline before pinning it into place and carefully sewing it in.  It's not perfect, not by a long shot but it makes the Tunic more wearable, at least it will be when I unearth a long-sleeved t-shirt to wear under it.  It'schilly and damp today, not a day to be wearing a cotton and linen top without something warmer underneath.  There's another tunic to be adjusted but I'm still thinking about how I'm going to tackle that.  It's the one I defaulted to a 5/8" seam on so it's a bit snug in the boob and underarms so I've got to figure out how to insert a gusset in there AND fill in the neckline like I did yesterday.  One of these days I'll learn to cut out a new pattern and sew it up before cutting out any more.

I was surprised this morning when I looked out the window to see how foggy it was.  I didn't order fog, did you?  I don't think the temperature changed all that drastically so that the land was that much warmer than the air (which cooled off quite a bit in the last 48 hours) and then there was all that rain and drizzle adding moisture but... fog?  Really?  Makes me feel like I need a nap, all day.



October 23--Louis Beroud, The Central Hall at the Universal Exhibition, Paris, 1889.  Cele stood on the observation bridge and watched the people in the hall below.  She thought there must be someone there from every country of the world.  The voices rose in a buzzing echo.  She picked out a word here and there but it sounded like it does when you hold a seashell to your ear.

I woke up, face down on my notebook, an hour later.  I took it as a sign that I should take off my glasses, put my pencil and notebook on the nightstand, and turn out the light.  I had planned to sew on another dress today but a friend called and invited me to meet her and her mom for lunch so I did and then I did a little shopping so when I got home it seemed like it was too late to sew.  Not that I haven't ever sewn in the afternoon or even the evening, for that matter...  Maybe it's the dreary day.  Tomorrow seems like it should be laundry day so that'll give me a reason to be downstairs most of the day.  Good plan.
--Barbara

Drizzle, Drizzle, Rain, Repeat

That's been our day today.  It was glorious when I got up at 6 o'clock (too early) and still 65 degrees so I yoga-ed on the patio for what is probably the last time in 2017.  Look at that sky.  You can see the gray clouds sliding in from the southwest.  Just after I finished my practice I felt tiny drops on my skin and by the time I rolled up my mat and got myself and my electronics inside it was starting to drizzle.  And some form of precipitation has been falling since.  Sometimes it's just misty but mostly it's an annoying drizzle with intermittent drops.  

The rain made the carpet of leaves that the city tree trimmers left on Friday look really pretty though.  And when I spoke to one of the trimmers he said he's an arborist so I asked him to look at my maple tree.  He said it's fine, that sugar maples live a long time.  Whew.  I hope he's right.  I'm not sure he is but I have my fingers crossed.  (no, I'm not typing with fingers crossed although I'm making enough typos that I could be)


Continuing in the "rainy day" vein, I looked out the kitchen window and saw these droplets on the crook holding the birdhouse.  The first shot I took was distorted by the screen so I went outside, in the rain, and picked my way through the dead bleeding heart and around the fading fern fronds to take a halfway decent shot.  (hey, when you don't have anything worthwhile to write about you take what you find)


I bought a $3 hardbound notebook at Office Depot the other day and didn't know why.  Now I do.  I printed a story in it today and had an illustrator do the pictures on the facing page.  We plan to continue since the first story is such a hit and we enjoyed the collaboration immensely.



October 22--Anonymous, Camels in Front of the Sphinx and Great Pyramid, Giza, Egypt.  The sand went on forever, rippling like the sea but hot and dry.  Both the desert and the ocean are unforgiving but Beth thought that the ocean seemed friendlier.  The desert sands were indifferent, abrading the skin and stinging the eyes, not soft and smooth like water which also wears things away but not with the stinging grit of blown sand.  She thought of how a child loves away the satin binding of a favorite blanket by running their soft baby fingers across it day after day.

And then I fell asleep.  I looked up just now and, even though the sky is solid clouds, for just a moment the sunset turned whole world pink, even the air looked pink.  That's quite a trick.  Time to reheat some pizza leftovers.  We're eating low on the hog tonight.  Curried shrimp is on the menu for tomorrow though.  Yum.
--Barbara

No, I Didn't Fall In A Hole

I don't know what my problem was this week but as you probably noticed getting here to write a blog post didn't seem to be a priority.  I feel like I was busy every day but darned if I can tell you what with.  I get a pass on Tuesday because we had out-of-town company but Thursday?  *shrugs*  I don't have a clue.  Durwood had a doc's appointment in the morning and on the way home (all the way across town, probably all of 6 miles) I stopped at the library to get a book I'd reserved, at the dry cleaners to take back the hangers from Durwood's dry cleaned coats (I'm not keeping wire hangers with flimsy plastic toupees on them), and to the grocery store pharmacy to pick up a prescription and get our flu shots.  That's it!  Flu shots always make me feel achy and sore, I'm sure that the excuse, uh, I mean, reason I haven't posted since Wednesday.  Yeah, that's it.

 

I finally managed to finish the navy linen Dress No. 1 with the floral yoke.  I cut this one dress length and, to be honest, I think I'll take it downstairs after supper and cut off the extra and make it the same as the previous ones.  It hangs below my knees at that dowdy, hits at just the wrong spot length.  

Do you notice anything different about this picture?  No?  Well the sun rose much closer to the tree all summer and now it's moved over by the roof of the house.  In a month or so I'll have to go out the front door to take its picture.  *sigh*  It's so warm and nice in the mornings that I'm still doing patio yoga which, as much as I like it, makes me think that the bill for this extended nice weather will come due soon.




Speaking of sunrises, I was up early crossing the Mason St. bridge the other day and couldn't resist whipping out my phone to take this picture.  If I wasn't having to pay attention to the other cars and try not to run into the barrier I could frame it better but, trust me, this was worth getting up early for.  Once again, I wish I lived some place where I had a longer view of the sky.  Some day.


October 21--Luigi Loir, Urban Scene with People.  Gerald walked away from his office, his briefcase dangling from his hand like a ball on a chain.  He kept his gaze far ahead so he wouldn't make eye contact with anyone.  That time of year the day faded early and the streetlights and neon signs flickered on as he walked.  The people faded too, turned gray and nondescript in the waning daylight, some taking on a greenish cast as they passed under The Playhouse's marquee.  Who ever imagined that it was a good idea to put green bulbs where they shone on people's faces?  Gerald watched a man coming toward him leaning on building facades as if blown by strong winds.  He struggled forward pressing his shoulder against the slick marble.  No one else paid attention to the man as he slid to his knees, then fell forward never to move again.

Well, that's cheerful.  It is so warm in the house that even Durwood has the patio door wide open.  I just don't understand the weather these days.  (man, that sounds old, doesn't it?)  Time to make sure the leftovers I promised Durwood we'd have for supper tonight are still edible.  They should be, I remember cooking them and my memory's so bad these days it means they're not that old.  Ta-ta.
--Barbara

A Fun Day Not Blogging

I am pleased to report that either Durwood and I are less messy than in times past or we have severely lowered our standards because it only took a couple hours to tidy the living room, swish out the bathroom, and decrappify the kitchen table area.  That last part takes the longest because as it gets harder and harder for Durwood to get around to retrieve things, he's made a sort of easy-reach nest there.  It's not my favorite use of the space but I will confess that I am guilty of piling magazines, etc. on my end of the table and the chair seat beside me so I have very little room to criticize.

Our friends arrived in the early afternoon so we had lots of visiting time.  The ribs in the crockpot made the house smell great and that was enhanced by the slightest whiff of the cherry crisp I made in the morning.  I used an oldie but a goodie recipe that is so simple a child could make it.  

Preheat oven to 325.  Take a can of your favorite pie filling (I used Festival's store brand cherry because it was $1 cheaper than the Comstock name brand stuff) and spread it into a 9 x 9 baking pan.  Sprinkle a package of Jiffy White or Yellow DRY cake mix over the filling, using a fork or spatula to even it out. (I've always used Yellow, don't know why)  Melt 1 stick of butter or margarine and drizzle it over the dry cake mix.  Sprinkle on chopped walnuts or pecans if desired.  Bake for 1 - 1 1/4 hrs.  Serve warm or cold with ice cream, whipped cream, or untopped.  (pro tip:  try not to eat the whole pan before the guests arrive)

This morning I decided that the time was right to fill in the hole in the garage floor and the cracks in the porch.  I'm sad to say that the 2-part stuff I bought didn't get "pourable" as shown on the package nor was it self-leveling.  I thought maybe I wasn't mixing it correctly so I took the second package back to Home Depot to see if a stronger hand would have better luck mixing it.  It didn't, in fact I think that I got it mixed more thoroughly than the guy did.  Anyway, I hurried home (so it didn't set before it came out of the package) and got it heaped and smooshed in the hole.  I ended up adding a little water to it to see if that didn't help and it did but I suspect it won't be very durable on the porch.  I have visions of snow shoveling it up the first time winter comes in precipitation form.  But the garage floor hole is filled in so that tripping hazard is removed, even if only temporarily. 


 
Speaking of shoveling snow, I caught sight of a harbinger of winter this morning.  Looking toward the garden I saw a few juncos hopping and pecking around over there.  *sigh*  Juncos spend their summers in the Arctic and their winters in Wisconsin where it's warm.  Ha.  Not.  What do birds know?  At least they're cute birds and hawks like them so I don't mind seeing them.  I guess. 

 
The mums I planted a couple weeks ago have settled in nicely.  My assistant and I will continue to give them weekly drinks to keep them happy and to, hopefully, help them survive the winter.







October 18--Odoardo Borani, The Seamstresses of the Red Shirts.  "Do they all have to be the same?" Louise asked.  "Yes," said Claire, "they're uniforms.  They have to be uniform."  Louisa sighed and tucked the yellow embroidery floss back into her sewing basket.  Her fingers itched to put a curlicue on a cuff or a rising sun's rays on a pocket flap, just something to relieve the monotony of making endless red shirts all the same.  Esther crumpled up the fabric she held on her lap.  She disliked sitting indoors on such a fine day.  She tried to convince the others to at least sit outside on the porch or in the garden if they had to sew.  "Oh, no," Louisa said, "think of the sun, how it will ruin our skin."  She sniffed.  "We would look... common, and the season is coming up."

We're meeting some of our diving friends for burgers tonight--in a gas station.  I can't get over the fact that we can get really decent hamburgers and Tater Tots (if I can convince Durwood we need Tots instead of fries--fingers crossed) for not too much money in a sit-down cafe in a gas station.  But we can and have.  I've even turned some of my Clearing writing pals onto the joys of lunch at the Hilltop Cafe in the BP station on Bay Settlement Road.  They used to have "buck burger" night but I suspect their proximity to UWGB made it a money losing proposition.  Now we have to pay full price for a burger--less than $3.  A bargain.  Time to go pick up the dry cleaning.  (winter coats *sigh*--there was a coupon)
--Barbara

I Should Have More to Show You

I have had a busy day.  I did a lot of things.  How come I don't have more stuff to show you?  I don't know.

First thing, Todd, the handyman, showed up to replace the old, falling apart fence with a shiny new one.  Being a strong and helpful woman I offered to help him get the 6 foot by 8 foot piece of fence from his trailer around the house to the patio area.  Good thing I spent nearly 25 years hauling 40 lb. SCUBA tanks, one in each hand, from the back of the store to the front of the store and back.  I'm pleased that he was able to save the shelf that Dad put on there to hold four flower pots.

Being Monday, I took myself to the bank to cash a check for the week's grocery money.  Then I went to ransom a whole bag full of prescriptions (why do they always run out at the same time?) and to the library to pick up a knitting mystery novel (a real book with paper pages) that I don't remember reserving.  I also went to Home Depot for some pre-mixed concrete that DIL1 told me about because I am determined to fill in the hole in the garage floor that I keep almost tripping over.  The stuff the guy sold me is really cool.  It's a two-part package, kind of like epoxy, one side has the dry cement and the other has the liquid.  I was thinking I'd have to get some primer-type stuff to make the new concrete stick to the old stuff but evidently it's already in there, and I don't even need a trowel because it's self-leveling.  It's supposed to be warmer later in the week so that's when I'll get dressed in clothes I can ruin and play with it.  Looking forward to it.

Late in the afternoon I finally made it downstairs to sew.  Got the neck binding and one armhole binding sewn on.  (so much simpler than facings)  I suspect that I don't have enough of the white single-fold bias tape to do the other arm but I have no problem using another color.  You know me and matching things.  I don't really care, especially something that's on the wrong side of things.

Oh, I know what I did today.  I called the lawn mowing guy asking him to come one more time and he asked about the "leaf situation" so I spent an hour or so raking both front yards which was a good thing because it was really wet under the leaves.  And then he didn't make it today but that means the grass will be nice and dry for when he does come.  I noticed that the leaf collecting truck came today so the raking was a good idea all around.  Oh, I feel better now that I didn't lose part of my day.

October 16--Anonymous, Kublai Khan.  The round-faced Chinese man sat happily in the center seat of Row 17.  He smiled a welcome to everyone sidestepping down the aisle toward him.  Few of the passengers returned his smile and many of them were relieved not to be assigned Seat A or C so as not to be stuck with a friendly seatmate for the six-hour flight.  The plane slowly filled but the seats on either side of him remained empty.  Just as the head flight attendant and the gate agent met to close the door and move the jetway, a young mother towing a sniffling toddler ran down the slanted ramp and squeezed through the door.  "Row 17?" she said, "Seats A & C?"

We got a call last Friday that some friends from Indiana that we haven't seen in ages would be coming through Green Bay tomorrow.  They called today and will be here just after lunch and are spending the night.  Woohoo!  That meant a trip to the grocery for some spareribs, BBQ sauce, coleslaw, Italian bread, and the makings of cherry crisp.  I will confess that not one item in those bags shows its face in any self-respecting WW menu but it's something I can make in the crockpot and not have to spend the hours cooking when I could be swishing out the bathroom, moving piles of magazines, and then spending lots of time visiting with friends.  I'm warning you right now, I might not make it to the keyboard tomorrow.
--Barbara

When Will I Be In Charge?

I feel like I have big plans for my days and then the day takes over and my plans get shunted aside.  I was going to sew today and here it is nearly 9 PM and I haven't sewn a stitch.  I stayed up too late last night and got the yoke pieces sewn to the dress pieces and the front sewed to the back.  I was gonna put on the neck and armhole binding, attach the pockets, and hem this dress but, no-o-o-o-o, I had to go to a grocery or two, do a few outdoor chores once it stopped raining, and then make supper.  I woke up at 7 o'clock this morning, you'd think there would be time for me to wander downstairs and fire up a sewing machine and iron.  Didn't happen.  Maybe tomorrow.

A comment was made that I'm cramming my closet full with these new clothes I'm making but I read somewhere online that when you change clothes for the season you should turn the hangers backwards so that you can see what you've worn and what's taking up space.  I've been doing that for the last few months.  When I started sewing after I retired I decided that I wanted to wear only clothes that make me feel good so I'm working my way toward that goal.  So far more clothes are coming out than going in.  I intend to keep it that way.

Last Friday night I got Sudoku Long Strip #2 crocheted onto Panel #2 and got Panel #3 clipped to the other side of the strip.  This afghan is enormous, way bigger than I imagined it would be.  I was thinking lap robe but this has all the makings of a bedspread.









Once I finished the Long Strip I got the Crazy Z Reds sock out again.  After not having worked on it for a while I confess that I had to tink (k-n-i-t backwards) a round when I didn't pay close enough attention to where I left off but I do like this pattern and I like the yarn--except when it gets caught in the zipper of the project bag.






One of the things I did today was bring in the bay leaf plant and avocado #2, both of which spent the summer outside.  Something was munching away on the edges of the avocado leaves but it doesn't seem to mind.  I also dug up the rosemary and planted it in an old coffee pot.  I want to keep the rosemary because it's one of my favorite herbs but I love the look of the old coffee pot too and want to have it back in the house (since I overwatered and killed the plant that was in it when I bought it).



Supper tonight was another WW triumph--marinated flank steak and green pepper rice.  Both recipes we haven't tried before, both deeeelicious.  I did not take a picture, I just ate my supper.  Trust me, it was good.  Now we have three evenings worth of supper in the fridge.  I love when we do that.  It makes things so easy on weeknights even though we're both retired and you'd think one or the other of us could manage to make supper.  Maybe we're getting lazy in our old age.

October 15--Annibale Carracci, The Stoning of Saint Stephen.  The first rock came out of nowhere slamming into Steve's head just above his right ear.  He hadn't heard anyone following him.  Had they been lying in wait crouched in the shadows until he came along?  That first rock was a signal.  Immediately rocks came at him from every direction, launched by hands but propelled by angry words.  Steve didn't know why they were stoning him.  To be honest, he wasn't exactly sure who was doing it.

Good lord, it's 9:30 already.  Time sure flies when you're having a life.  Nighty-night.
--Barbara