Today's my last vacation day. I had big plans for big accomplishments this last week. I was moderately successful. I never did get a full day of uninterrupted sewing but I did manage to get LC's tepee all sewed together and yesterday I went on a quest for the poles. You'd think that every garden center would have 5ft. tall 1" diameter bamboo poles for plant stakes. They don't. Stein's didn't. Green Bay Nursery didn't. They all have 1/4" thick ones for tying up your dahlias but nothing beefy to hold up your tepee. Next I tried Home Depot. All they had in the garden department were some solid plastic things that were just wrong, wrong, wrong so I went in search of 1" thick dowels. A home improvement center should have those, right? Well, they do, only they're all sawed off at 48" which is a foot shorter than I need. I even checked replacement mop or broom handles--too expensive and with a metal screw end. My next stop was Fleet Farm. They had bamboo, tall, kiln-dried bamboo but all of them in the size I need had split. Grr. All of their dowels were 4 ft. long too. I asked about replacement rake or shovel handles--waaaay too expensive and too thick. Everyone had closet rods but those are way too thick for what I need. On my dispirited trudge out of Fleet Farm I passed the PVC aisle. Hmm, PVC... that's like sticks or poles, right? I found 10' long 3/4" lengths for less than four bucks each. I could cut them in half to make four 5 foot-ers, and the end caps were only 24 cents each. Not exactly what I was looking for but I was losing hope, so I bought them. I almost came home but decided to go a couple more miles down the road to Menard's. Menard's has 6' long dowels! I got 4 of them, paid for them, returned the PVC and caps on my way home and got back to find Durwood convinced that I'd been killed in an auto accident because I'd been gone so long. He was relieved to see me and had gotten the supper parts all cooked and ready to assemble. After supper I went back downstairs to finish sewing the rod pockets onto the tepee and VOILA! Now I just have to shorten the poles, drill a hole in each and get some Boy Scout... no, some Eagle Scout to help me lash them together. Isn't it cool looking?
I got a recipe for Italian Stuffed Shells off the Taste of Home website and thought it looked like something we'd like so I bought the ingredients, figuring that we'd just use a jar of sauce instead of making it from scratch as the recipe calls for. The cook didn't count the jumbo shells when he put them in to boil so we had half of them left when I'd filled all the shells. Oops. Good thing we had another pound of ground meat in the freezer, more of all the cheeses, and another jar of sauce. He suggested that we add spinach to the filling, and we even had a package of that in the freezer. (we are so ready for the zombie apocalypse!) I'd divied up the first batch into 3 meals' worth--one to eat and two for the freezer--so while the first one baked I got the second batch (plus spinach) all ready to put together. After we devoured what he made (it was so good we hardly spoke, just gobbled), I assembled the second batch, saving one for tonight. (hey, we need to make sure it's edible)
Durwood has almost finished the first batch of breakfast burritos I made and froze for him so I whipped up another batch this morning. This time I remembered to take a picture of the assembly line and what they look like before I roll them up in that nasty yellow Saran Wrap that Mom had. (she had the other colors too--blue, pink, and green--I haven't been brave enough to use them yet) I only got seven from this batch. I used bigger tortillas so had to add more fillings and had not quite enough scrambled eggs with onions and peppers for another full one but too much sausage--so I made the supreme sacrifice and ate that one myself. I put on most of the extra cheese too. I'm just that nice.
June 14--Harry Bartlett, Communications Collage. Peter could see the back wall of the storage room, see it but not touch it. When Ms. Carson, his boss, assigned him to clear out the storage room at the end of the hall he imagined that it would be an afternoon's work, a whole day at most. That was nearly two weeks ago. She handed him the key and told him to recycle what he could and trash the rest. His first impression was that an earthquake had jumbled the room so it had been locked and forgotten but when he got past the outdated manuals and boxes of broken binders he realized he had a gold mine of retro office furniture. There were boxes of rotary phone and piles gray metal desks, things that sold for premium prices online. He sold some of the vintage manual typewriters to a decorator for a hundred bucks each. He'd been up front with Ms. Carson about the money but she just shrugged, thanked him for his honesty, and wished him well. Already he had made enough to rent a storefront a couple blocks away and he was thinking of starting his own business clearing out other companies' storerooms for free if he could keep the contents.
Okey-dokey. Time to go fire up the saw, shorten my tepee poles, and get some holes drilled. I should probably fold wash today too since I'm wearing my last clean pair of undies. TMI?
--Barbara
I don't have much to say or show you today. The cleaning lady and I (and Durwood) came to an agreement and (fingers crossed) she'll be here Tuesday morning to start de-cobwebbing the place, and then come back once a month for not a terrible amount of money. While she was here the lawnmower was here too, whizzing across the lot on his stand-up rider. He goes fast! Maybe 10-15 mph, Durwood says. I'm always glad to see him but feel guilty that it's not me out there mowing. Hopefully I'll get over that and the expected cleaning-lady guilt.
The yellow lilies are still a-bloom and I noticed a couple of Dad's rosebuds are peeking open a tiny bit. (I had to hurry taking these; I was out front in my [full coverage, old lady] underpants and hoodie when the renter pulled up (eek! hi, James), luckily my hoodie's a bit long so it covers my arse)
I finished the next preemie hat last night at Friday Night Knitting and then worked more on the Rapid City Scarf but that progress isn't very visible so you only get to see the hat. As soon as I post this I'll be back downstairs putting the finishing touches on LC's tepee so I can buy the poles later today and Durwood can help lash them together.
June 13--Jean Miele, Satellite Dish. Kay lay on the hard desert floor looking at the stars. On either side of her huge gray satellite dishes aimed their ever-listening ears at the heavens. The day's heat pressed at her back feeling like a physical thing trying to lift her. She liked being out there once the sun went down and the sky filled with stars and planets. She marveled that ancient people could have picked out shapes from the confusion overhead. A footfall nearby made her jump and a man's voice called her name. "Kay, for god's sake, you're going to end up with scorpions in your pockets and a rattler in your shoe." She smiled. "No, I won't. Scorpions are out hunting and the rattlesnakes are all tucked into their rocky dens." Mike sat beside her and leaned back on his elbows to look up too. "I never get tired of the universe. Do you think we'll actually hear from someone out there?"
I don't think so. I don't believe we're visited by UFOs either. I'm more inclined to believe that we're someone's Science Fair project and one of these days we'll get washed down the lab drain with the rest of the bacteria. Okay, off to make sewing.
--Barbara
I finally caved and called a cleaning lady to come over to talk about having her come once a month or so to really clean. I figure I can beat back Old Cesspool in the bathroom every week and Durwood's pretty good at keeping up with the dishes but I'd like someone to come in and be serious about chasing the dirt every so often. Which means that I cleaned the bathroom within an inch of its life yesterday, pulled out the stove (but not the fridge) to clean behind it, and mopped the kitchen floor. Today I vacuumed everything I could reach. Shouldn't I have left the place dirty so that the cleaning lady takes pity on me and wants to come save me from myself? Or would more dirt mean a higher rate? I don't know, I just want someone to come and clean.
Despite persistent drizzle all day, the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild had its picnic at Echota Gardens south of DePere. They have a clubhouse/party room that they let us use which was just right. Since the use of the room was gratis it was only fair that we browse the greenhouse and buy things. Their things are very distinctive, plants are in all sorts of unusual vessels. I saw this old coffee pot and was drawn to it by the String of Pearls hanging out of it. See, when we were dating I had a pot of this plant hanging from a hook in my apartment. The vines were long and every time Durwood walked by it tangled in his hair. He complained that the plant was a man-eater. I hoped to just buy a pot of the plant but I looked and looked and finally asked but he said he'd sold out within a week and that was the last one. I grabbed it, besides look at that planter. It makes me smile every time I look at it.
More honeysuckle blooms are popping out so we're keeping an eye out for more hummingbirds. I think they must be sitting on nests right now because they've been a bit scarce lately but as soon as those babies fledge they'll be back.
June 12--Alan Kaplan, KAP507. Greta let her newspaper fall to her lap. Eli and William were talking about selling off the back half of the farm to an investor. "An investor in what?" she asked. "Didn't say," William said, "he just approached me with an offer for that whole strip off Creamery Road." Eli nudged his brother. Greta noticed. "What aren't you saying?" "He wants the creek too." Eli jammed his elbow hard into William's ribs. "You have to blurt everything." William winced and sidled away. "Eli, would you have said anything to me about the creek?" Greta asked. He shook his head. "When were you going to tell me? When it was time to sign away our land?" Both men had the grace to look ashamed. "We could use the money, Gret," Eli said. "Yes, but not at the risk of having the creek filled in and a phalanx of cracker box houses across the orchard." She stood up and brushed non-existent crumbs off her lap. "Call your investor and invite him to meet with us tomorrow. I'll find out what he means to do with the land." She walked away shaking her head.
Hey, the sun's out. After yesterday's drear and rain it's nice to see. There's a lot of pasta salad left so guess what I'm having for lunch today and at work next week. Right. Peace out.
--Barbara
I opened the curtains this morning and, look!, more poppies. Aren't they beautiful?
A few more rows and a few more beads have gotten added to the Rapid City Scarf over the last few days. I'm less than thrilled that it's rolling like an ancient manuscript but I'm hopeful that once I've reached the end and drop the stitches it'll flatten out. It also amuses me that the beads are all nestled on the back side of the knitting. Since they're on the stitches that'll be dropped and the beads will be on the "floats" between the columns of stitches they'll be plenty visible in the end so I'm not fussed but that stitch dropping better cure the rolling.
Yesterday was an appointment day so the latest preemie hat got dragged along. I realized that finishing the hat before running out of yarn would be a close thing so I skipped the purl row just before the crown decreases and, look, I ended up with about 4 feet of yarn left. Whew. Doing the purl row would have been a hat killer. I look at these hats and think they're impossibly tiny but then remember that there are babes these hats would be way too big for.
Tonight's the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild's annual picnic. For the first 4 years of the Guild the picnic was in May and we always had rainy days and ended up in VJ's house with her gem of a husband standing out in the pouring rain grilling burgers. This year they pushed the picnic back to June hoping for better weather and we're having a potluck at a shelter building. It started raining about half an hour ago, it's supposed to rain all day and all night, and there are flood watches posted for overnight. So evidently the BLKG brings rain. Maybe we could start a service in drought-stricken places? Just plan a picnic there and, boom!, rain comes pouring from the sky. It's a thought. Anyway we're supposed to bring a salad, bread or dessert to the potluck so I found a recipe for Pizza Salad that had lots of positive reviews and sounded good. That's what I made except I forgot to buy green onions and was all ready to zoom to the store for some but then Durwood suggested that I use chives from the garden, so I did. I told him that's why I married him. (It isn't really, it was his blue eyes and warm honey voice that did me in.)
June 11--Wood Sabold, Forest Stream, OR. The mist crawled out of the stream and through the forest like an alien creature. Dinah stood at the cabin window, arms crossed protectively, watching it approach. She glanced to make sure that the latch was thrown and she was glad she had a fire blazing in the hearth. It was silly to be afraid of a little mist but it looked so unnatural, almost like white liquid oozing from the earth to devout everything in its path. The sun was nearly set so she reached to close the curtains when she saw something move at the edge of the yard. Probably a deer. Whatever it was knocked down a few lengths of firewood. Sam, her old dog, asleep on the rug lifted his head and began a low growl.
Today's the day DD and SIL1 move into their new house in Lexington, KY. I'm hoping we can go visit them, and it, around Labor Day. In honor of their move I'm going to clean our bathroom--floor, tub and all.
--Barbara
I had big plans for yesterday. I was going to sew all day, do nothing else. Well, that plan crashed when yesterday was the only day Durwood could get an appointment he needed so that kind of shot the morning. I had gotten a couple packages of thighs out of the freezer to grill for supper so I made some teriyaki marinade using a recipe I got from a high school friend's mom about 45 years ago. It's still the best.
I sewed in the afternoon and evening and got LC's tepee about 3/4 done. The sewists among you might notice that the seam allowances are on the outside and it was hard for me to do it that way but rod pockets go over them to hold the poles that make the tepee stand up so this way the inside looks "finished" too. This is the first time I made my own bias binding. It wasn't too hard, just took a lot of stooping over the ironing board and pinning, so hard on my back but it went on like a dream. The round window flap Velcros up inside for a look-out and the doors will get Velcro to hold them open. I think it's going to be darling and I hope she likes it.
I looked out this morning to see the first poppy blooming. Yay! Poppies! Are you hearing the Wicked Witch of the West from the Wizard of Oz in your head too?
June 10--Jeff Foott, Yellowstone Lake, Yellowstone NP, WY. The edge of the lake boiled. Claire sat and watched it. Watched the streams of little silver bubbles bend around rocks and then turn into large belches that roiled the silty yellow-brown lake bottom for a few minutes before subsiding. All was quiet for a time but soon the silver streams would twine around each other and the cycle began again. She sat in the same spot for a few hours every day. Instead of trying to see everything in the park she chose this one small part to immerse herself, take in all the sounds, sights, and smells of this small piece of lake and shore.
Time to go grab some lunch, do a little more sewing, then I've got an oil change. Later.
--Barbara
Where's the button I push to slow life down? Does anyone know where the "Pause" button is? Remember playing freeze tag? Yeah, I want that. So many things are going on that I postponed the cleaning lady's first visit for 2 weeks, just so I'd feel like I have a handle on things.
Let's see... my Asiatic Lilies are in full bloom and very pleased with themselves. The colors are so vivid and cheerful. Maybe the cooler weather we've had will convince them to bloom longer. Dad's rose has 3 buds opening; this one's the most advanced. It smells like a rose is supposed to smell. I thank the fates that this is either an extra-hardy rose bush or that Dad planted it in the micro-climate of the south facing side of the house because I don't do a darned thing to help it overwinter, and it just merrily makes more roses every year.
I spent a few hours in a waiting room last night and discovered that with unvarying focus I can knit one of these preemie hats in 2 hours and 37 minutes. I don't remember the name of this yarn color but it reminds me of Andes mint candies for some reason. I need to dig out some more "boy" color yarn for the next hat, or maybe some gender neutral stuff.
