It Fits!

I know that this building doesn't look very impressive but this is my dentist's office.  Over the weekend I thought I figured out how to tell him to fix my partial.  I called this morning, went in at noon, and in two shakes he'd done what I asked and IT FITS.  It isn't perfect.  It's not as secure-feeling as it used to be but, hey, I'm going to live with it.  I have to go back in about 6 weeks to get the crown permanently cemented on so by then I should know if I can tolerate it the way it is or if it needs tweaking.  I was over the moon to come home to eat baby carrots with my lunch and not abuse my gums or make any teeth ache.  Ahhh.  Communication is the key.



Just before I left this morning look at what I saw--a Downy Woodpecker on the seed wreath.  It was enjoying pecking at the seeds and nuts.  I'm certain that some of them fell to the patio and am confident that the squirrel will be positioned under there tomorrow to scarf up any fallout.



At lunchtime I got a text from KW that she was thinking of going to the Y this afternoon to bake her bones in the sauna and I invited myself along (even though I planned to sew this afternoon).  I hate the sauna but got there early to walk the circuit for 15 or 20 minutes until she arrived, then while she went to sauna I went to spend 30 minutes on the stepper.  She was done before me so she walked a few laps around the circuit.  I felt like maybe I had forced myself on her but she said that she'd have skipped it if I hadn't been coming.  We agreed to a rematch on Wednesday afternoon.  After supper I got a call from the Y staffer who gave me a tour last week asking how I was liking the place.  Since she saw me just getting ready to step off to start walking today I told her that I liked it fine.  Tonight she signed me up as a member; that will let me keep going until the first of the year since my 2-week trial would be over this weekend.  She also told me that I can sign up for a free series of visits with a trainer to develop a program for rehabbing my ankle, that I am really excited about.  No sewing got done today.  Tomorrow.  Maybe.


Lala called this evening and I mentioned that I figured she'd want to do more hiking than I will in Yellowstone, that I figured we'd have two side-by-side vacations, not be in lockstep, and I could tell by her voice that she was relieved that I'd brought it up.  That's one reason why I was so willing to go with her.  When we were at TC together or spent a weekend writing neither of us felt like we had to do what the other one wanted to do.  We get together for meals and maybe a part of the day but are free to follow our own interests.  I'm looking forward to Yellowstone even more.



Do you what today is?  It's Party Mix day!  I realized if I want to have party mix to send along to a certain child of mine not living in Green Bay and if I plan to ship the (most of the) presents package tomorrow, I'd have to make the mix tonight.  So I did.  Man, that stuff makes the house smell great.  I might be nibbling on a bowl of it right now--just to make sure that the batch is up to snuff, you understand.



While the party mix baked I wrapped gifts and then crocheted another curly fry.  I was careful to work a little more loosely so it was a little easier on my hands.  Cotton yarn has no give so it can make your hands ache if you use it too much.



Today's toss is another donate.  I snagged the other box off the top the shelves thinking it was another box of living room knick-knacks.  Instead it was a box full of Durwood's old hats.  A zillion baseball-type caps, few of them he had ever actually worn.  They are now snuggled up in the back of my car with the knick-knack box and the light bar.  A trip to Goodwill seems imminent.

One other cool thing--I got an email from a high school friend asking if I'm going to the 50th reunion in July, saying that she and another friend were thinking of extending the weekend to include a few days in Door Co. and was I interested?  Yes, I'm going and YES, I could manage a couple days on the peninsula with them.  Oh goodie, goodie, goodie.


17 December--George Sheridan Knowles, Going to a Christmas Party.  The red velvet cape was her favorite.  Marianne would wear it every day if Mama would let her.  It was heavy so it felt important and it rippled around her calves when she walked.  If she twirled, and Marianne was a girl prone to twirling, it spread out around her in a wide red corona.  The cape was lined in white satin that was so shiny and soft to the touch.

And right then is when inspiration fled, my eyelids slammed shut, and that was all she wrote.  Literally.  I noticed this evening that part of the lights on the Christmas tree had gone out so I grabbed my trusty LightKeeper Pro, tugged out a bulb, plugged the socket into the LKP, clicked the trigger a few times and, VOILA!, lights came back on.  I'm thinking before I put this tree away I'll mark which bulbs are burned out because I have another tree just like this one in reserve and I can use the working bulbs on this one as a storehouse of replacements for the newer tree.  My mama didn't raise no dummies.  Oh, man, I just ate a Chex that got a triple dose of paprika.  Can you say wake-up call?
--Barbara

D'you Want Fries With That?

And the answer is yes, regular and curly.  I found a pattern for knitted straight fries so I cranked out four of them today.  I made one more curly fry and will make a couple more.  They're a lot more labor-intensive also harder on my fingers and wrist so I'll take a break and make one tomorrow.

I got a text from my friend KW saying that she was having a bit of a freak out and could we go to the YMCA pool sooner rather than later?  Since I was sliding into the slough of despond myself I texted that I'd meet her there in 20 minutes, got into my suit, grabbed a towel,  put it and some Crocs into a backpack, and drove off.  We walked in the pool for about 20 minutes and then when she went to swim a couple laps and bake herself in the sauna, I went to the fitness center and used that stepper machine while I listened to a 25 minute podcast.  Then we went to her apartment a couple blocks away and knitted while watching an old black and white movie from 1947, It Happened on 5th Avenue.  It was so innocent and Hollywood-cute but fun, and a very young Alan Hale who played the Skipper on Gilligan's Island was in it.



Today's toss is a donate.  I hauled up a box marked "Knick-knacks Living Room" in DD's handwriting which meant that the box hadn't been opened since the summer of 2003 which is when we moved here.  I unwrapped all of the contents, decided that I'd keep the carved cowboy that DS made in the early 1990s and the glass power pole thing (oh, why can't I remember the name?  insulator?) and the rest will go to Goodwill.  Or at least it'll ride around in the back of my car until I have enough to make a trip worthwhile.


16 December--Dirck van Baburen, The Concert.  They were having a fine time.  The concert was finished, the pressure was off, and the musicians felt lighter than air.  The mandolin was the first to riff on a chord, twisting it, bending it, wringing every bit of juice out of the notes.  Just as the strings eased off the sound, the violinist (or maybe it was the violist) rent the reverberations with a high sweet sigh of sound that made the hairs on the back of the neck stand up.  The cellist joined in as did the flute and soon music poured out of the night like the sweetest honey.

Well, that was nice.  I'm trying to decide if I'm going to try another chair yoga session or stick with walking and go in the afternoon when there's someone there to show me the other machines.  Although I really do like that recumbent stepper.  What I really should do is see a physical therapist about my left ankle.  After all of the flexing and walking and yoga over the last 2 1/2 years and that ankle still complains if I do more than sit around on my duff.  Can't do that, gotta move, and one of these days it'll snow and I'll want to go snowshoeing.  Stupid frozen rug.
--Barbara

Oh, I'm Late To The Party Tonight

This is what happens when you decide at 7 o'clock to watch a 3-hour movie that Netflix sent you (The Hobbit) and then sit here reading emails and blogs.  *sigh*  Good thing I sat around all afternoon and evening on the couch.  I almost forgot to find something to toss today but I scurried downstairs (yes, I can still scurry--if I hold the handrail on the stairs) and brought up a small box of severely outdated hair goo.  Yuk.

There was a pair of Bluejays playing tag team on the peanut wreath this morning.  At one time, for a split-second, one was on the peanuts and the other was on the crook waiting its turn.  Did I manage to snap a photo of both of them?  No, of course not.



Yesterday I hung up the birdseed wreath I got at the garden shop.  I haven't seen any birds on it yet but I hung it in a place that squirrels can't get to.  It took quite a while for this squirrel to stop trying to figure out a way to get up there.  I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work out how to get on the roof and reach down from the gutter.







In knitting news, I finished the third and last critter hat for the grandbabies this afternoon 





and I had every intention of picking up the dishcloth or sock that are OTN and in my bag but instead a pattern for curly fries and a holder thrust itself in my hand so I went downstairs, dug out some dishcloth cotton in the requisite colors, and got to work.  I got the holder and one fry done.  I'll make more curly ones and maybe some straight ones too.  I'm looking at this as a kind of palate cleanser.

Oh, this morning I went to the neighborhood twice-a-month winter farmer's market.  They hold it in an empty store in the shopping center a few blocks from here.  Look what I got!  I mostly went because I got an email from the business assn. and it said that someone would be selling tote bags made from the bags that hops or malted barley comes in for making beer.  I thought that'd be a fun gift for DS & DIL1.  But then there was Farmer's Market Dave with mushrooms, baby reds, and fresh cabbage, a lady selling sprouts (I bought some radish sprouts, they were delish on my quesadilla instead of lettuce), and a new-ish orchard just out of town selling 3# of apples for $3.  Then there was the lady with the cupcakes.  I might have had a cupcake accident.  Oh well, one of these days the "comfort eating" will dwindle and I'll get back to eating right.


I did cut up the end of my straw bale garden carrots and toss them in EVOO with the baby reds, a cut up onion, a head's worth of garlic cloves, and the mushrooms then I roasted them so I'll have lots of yummy veggies to eat this week.  See?  I can eat healthy.  Sometimes.

Lord, lord, look at the time.  I've gotta wrap this thing up and go to bed.  I'll save last night's prompt writing for tomorrow night.  
--Barbara

Choo-Choo!

I got stopped by a train on my way home from the Y today.  It's been forever since I had to stop for a train.  Most of the time the road flies over the tracks and I guess that trains aren't the primary mode of moving things from here to there anymore.  Too bad, they make a lovely clicking sound plus having to stop for them to pass makes a person slow down and quit running around like a crazed weasel quite so much.





At the Y I did the chair yoga class, it was okay.  I'll go back next week Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for it to see if it's something I want to do that many times a week.  After class I went into the machine room (I have to find out what that's really called) and spent half an hour on this recumbent stepper machine.  I'm hoping to get one of the trainers to show me how to use all of the machines so I can try them out.  I'm thinking I'll only do chair yoga once a week so I can keep walking which I really enjoy.  I'm much more of a solitary person, not so much a group workout person.

 


Early this morning I noticed a Cardinal hunched on the edge of the platform feeder

and this Bluejay kept flying down for a corn kernel and then zooming back into the tree way too quickly for me to take its picture so I did some zooming of my own and nabbed a shot of it way up high.







 
Today's toss wasn't a toss at all.  I found this fishing reel in a box and a fishing pole with another reel on it.  It went on the "thinking about it" shelf.  I don't fish so I guess I'll put it online for sale come spring.  I think I know a fisherman who can help me figure out how much it's worth.



 
I was looking at the Christmas cactus I bought at Stein's the other day and thought the one flower that's open is so pretty I'd try for a close up.  Not bad.



Still didn't write a prompt.  Another snippet of novel?  Okay.




14 December--The Seaview, Chapter 40.     

      Elizabeth fixed me with her gaze.  "Were you serious when you said that you made salad in a kitty litter pan?"  She covered her face with her hands.  "I can't believe I even said those words," she said. 

       I pulled the mint green pan off the bottom shelf.  "Here it is.  I bought it new and I guarantee that it has never been used for its intended purpose."  I lifted my hand to my chest.  "Cross my heart." 
       She sighed.  "Okay, this goes against everything I ever learned in culinary school but, Rose, will you please make the salad in the green pan?"  She sorted the bags and handed me the ones with the lettuces, scallions, carrots, and tomatoes.  "I'll make the dressing but first I found some frozen phyllo and some little smokies links so I thought the guys would like pigs in a blanket."  


I promise I'll write the prompt tonight.  I won't sit here goofing off, playing computer games until it's too late to write and do my bedtime ankle exercises and then listen to my bedtime meditation.  Promise.  Maybe I won't go to the Y tomorrow.  Maybe I'll stay home and sew or nap on the couch.  Probably won't nap but it sounds good, doesn't it?
-- Barbara

Some Better

Sorry I dropped out yesterday.  I spent the morning tossing a case of some ancient, unidentifiable photo accessory and a light bar, then I met ACJ at noon to write for a couple hours.  I managed to eke out another 750 words of Chapter 40 which is turning out to be an important, wrapping up kind of chapter.  I think.


Then I spent some time in the dentist's office getting my partial adjusted--and adjusted--and adjusted--tweaked a little-- tweaked again--and adjusted.  It fits some better but isn't right.  I told him that I'll wear it this weekend and come in on Monday for further tweaks.  At least I feel like I'm communicating what isn't right and how I suspect it needs to be changed.  He seemed less defensive yesterday and more willing to monkey around with it than he was on Monday.  Thank god.

After supper I had a sleepover date with my favorite people.  The grownups had a very early banking appointment today so someone had to be on hand to snuggle the early risers.  Meemaw will do it.  So I was away from my laptop at blogging time last night.  I guess I could have taken it along but to be honest I just didn't want to.

Once the family was off to daycare, school, and jobs I came home, changed into leggings and a t-shirt and went to the Y to walk for about 25 minutes and then I tried out one of the recumbent steppers.  Oh, I liked that.  I got lots of muscles working but didn't pound my ankle in the process.   Tomorrow I'm planning to go to try the chair yoga class and I've already called my friend who lives down the street from the Y to come with me into the pool one day this weekend.  She needs to swim in the cooler water for her muscle health and I figure I'll get a lot more resistance from the water which will also give my ankle a break.  I'm determined to get fitter for Yellowstone in August.

One of my knitter friends took me out to lunch today to thank me for driving her to and from carpal tunnel surgery a couple months ago.  I ate the most delicious 6-cheese mac & cheese topped with bacon and served with a slice of toasted garlic bread.  Be still my heart!  Really good and really really bad for my waistline.  See why I'm going to the Y?  Plus she had coupons for a free appetizer with an entree so I have chicken quesadilla with guac and salsa for tomorrow and probably Saturday too.  Thanks, HH!

I've been knitting on the last critter hat.  Got about 10 rounds of hat to go before the crown decreases.  That's the last of the Christmas knitting.

No prompt writing to share but I'll toss on a bit of Chapter 40 just to whet your whistle.




13 December--The Seaview, Chapter 40. 

                Will and Silas came up the road carrying one of Johnno's big grills made from a barrel cut in half.  I was glad to hear them banter and tease like they'd known each other for years.

                "Mom," Will called, "when are you planning to serve so we know when to start the grill?"

                I looked at the clock, it was nearly five o'clock.  "I'm thinking everyone will get here around seven so you can either light it now and grill everything ahead and let it stay warm in the oven or light it at seven and grill while everyone's here."

                "She does this all the time," Will said, "and it drives me nuts."

                I imagined Silas nodding when he said, "My mother does the same.  You can not win no matter what you choose."

                "I heard that, you two," I said.  "Light the grill now so no one has to stand there once the party starts.  Okay?"

                Two voices answered, "Okay," then they both laughed. 

It's tiring wrangling an almost-5-year-old and her 2 1/2-year-old brother in Barnes & Noble then taking them home for supper and bedtime.  I'm out of practice.  It's a good tired, though.  Oh, today's toss was what I hope is the last box of ancient, unidentified darkroom paraphernalia.  All that's left is the enlarger and the contact printer and I'm not sure I can haul either one upstairs and out into the car.  They may have to wait until January when I can call in some muscle that isn't busy driving around in a brown delivery truck.

--Barbara

I Am Heartily Sorry...

... for letting that dentist talk me into letting him monkey around with my teeth.  Replace the filling, okay, but drill out and crown that back tooth?  Nope, big mistake.  Now my partial doesn't fit, feels like it's barely in place and it scrapes the inside of my lip.  I have another appointment tomorrow afternoon.  I will get this fixed--and then find a new dentist.  Not a happy customer.  They had the gall to send a text asking me to give them a 5 star review.  I don't think so.  I'll be polite until he makes it right, though, I'm not a fool.

Today's birds are juncos.  These little darlings are the ones that migrate here from the Arctic because it's so warm in Wisconsin in the winter.  Not.  I noticed the other day that when they fly away the edge feathers on their tails are white with black ones in the center.  Kind of a reverse skunk look.  I like 'em and the hawk loves 'em.

The FedEx truck stopped, knocked on the door, and left this big turquoise box on the porch.  It's the Proctor & Gamble Retiree Christmas box and it's full of goodies.  On top is a box of chocolate covered almonds.  The next level is a Pyrex 9x13 baking dish with lid and padded carrier.  And the bottom level is divided into four sections with Tide Pods, Crest toothpaste, Pantene shampoo, Dawn dish soap, Puffs, some Gillette razors, and a car clip Glade Plug-ins.  All very nice, most of it very smelly.  I admit that now that no one in the house has a breathing problem I can use scented stuff, even burn scented candles, but I'm kind of used to not having it.  I'll adjust.



Today's toss was a fancy cassette duplicator, a box of cables, and another small box of microphones and headphones.  I'm counting all of that as one thing since it's all related and was piled on top of each other.

This afternoon I went to the nearest YMCA, signed up for 2 weeks of complimentary membership (I got a flyer), got a tour from a nice young woman, and took a spin on the walking track.  I started re-listening to The Walk podcast since I got too busy and too crazy to finish it the first time I listened to it and the episodes are around 22 minutes each which I figure is a good way to ease into walking.  My hips and thighs were not fans of today's exertion.  They'll adjust.  I am determined to get into better walking shape for my trip to Yellowstone in late August with Lala who is an enthusiastic hiker.  I have no intention of going on any big hikes but I'd like to do some walking in the park and maybe do some ranger-led walks if I think they're my speed.  It felt good.



And tonight after supper I knitted 11 (of 22) rounds of the next critter hat body.  Moving right along.





11 December--Paul Gauguin, The Seed of the Areoi.  Liat sat where he told her to and held the huge seed in her left hand.  She wasn't sure why he insisted that she take off her sarong but everyone said that the painter was a bit of a madman.  He didn't smell good, this white man.  He smelled sour like he was decaying while he was still alive.  She was glad that Mama sat in the corner to make sure that Liat stayed untouched.  White people didn't understand that being bare-breasted didn't mean a girl was inviting advances.

Those of you who have read this blog for a while know that I have absolutely no patience with Gauguin's propensity for painting nude Tahitian girls.  I find it distasteful in the extreme.  Look at their faces, they didn't like it either.  What a perv.  Well, the dentist pretty much ruined my day.  I don't like being this irritated, frustrated, and achy.  Tylenol, take me away!  It used to be Calgon but I'm beyond that.
--Barbara

Bluejay Line-Up

I was eating my Rice Krispies this morning when I glanced up into the bare apple tree and saw two Bluejays and one Mourning Dove lined up waiting for a squirrel to clear out before they took turns flying down for peanuts and seeds.  The doves don't eat peanuts, they eat whatever seeds fall to the ground.  They remind me of little old ladies, they're so skittish and fly off at the slightest disturbance.  They also can't figure out which way to land on the birdbath.  Half of the time they stand there with their tail feathers in the water looking around confused about where the water went.  Or maybe that's just my interpretation of their expression.

I spent the better part of the afternoon sitting in St. Brendan's Inn where I met a knitting friend for lunch.  She is clearing out her late mother and late sister's things and came with a handful of wonderful old embroidery transfers and some crewel patterns that she passed along.  Her husband died about 30 years ago and a few months after his death a friend took her out to lunch which meant a lot to her so she's been paying that forward to women who lose their spouse every since.  We had a lovely long chat.  She was in the WAVES in WWII and now goes on Elder Hostel trips all over the globe with friends.  I want to grow up to be like her.  Maybe if I'm lucky I will.




I got there a little early so I walked along the river a bit.  There's a trail along the river and over time they're adding sculptures.  Here're two near the restaurant--a big wading bird and what I thought was a rooster from one angle but the other one I see a collection of stars and feathers.  I was glad when I saw her drive up, it was chilly out there.

Today's toss was another old darkroom box o'crap.  There were those flashbulbs with what looks like steel wool filaments.  Remember how bright those were?  Every time I think of them I see spots.  It's a good thing tomorrow night's trash night, I can't fit another thing in the garbage bin.




 
After supper I knitted the brim ribbing on the second raccoon hat.  Twenty-two rounds of hat body knitting and it'll be time to decrease for the crown.

10 December--Benozzo Gozzoli, Procession of the Magi.  There were too many of them to count.  Men on horseback, men on foot, men with servants, men alone, all of them with one destination like lemmings running into the sea.  It seemed like a form of mass hysteria, all of them following the light of that one star suddenly bright.  A rumor spread from lips to ears like wildfire, a king was to be born in the light of that new star.  All of the wizards, the mages packed up and left home and family, left to follow a star and the whisper of a promise of a Great One, a savior being born.  How to know if he will be the one?

I didn't sew another dress today.  I'd hoped to but spent the day chatting with my friend about traveling and life.  An excellent way to spend the day.  Tomorrow morning I get my crown and my partial back.  Maybe when my back teeth meet correctly my jaw will quit aching.  I've been living on Tylenol every 6 hours for 2 weeks.  I'm ready to be back to what passes for normal.
--Barbara