3.9 red bobbin

Here is a better picture of the dark red I'm spinning. Cushings black cherry on a heathery brown from DHF.

Once upon a time, when I was working on the Beginner Triangle, I spun up about a third of the pound. That time I used it as a singles in the two-ply with a variegated BFL. This time, I'm doing a three-ply of the cherry by itself, and it is intended as the accent yarn to accompany the red leaf yarn.

We'll see how it comes out - I do like the two sets of colors next to each other.

PS It is amazing what we can forget when we want to. I was looking for the triangle post to link to it, and I had completely forgotten the story about the neighbor suggesting that the triangle shawl was worthy of being put in the Gift Exchange. It's also amazing the things we can find amusing at the distance of a couple of years, when they were only appalling at the time.

3.8 turkeys again

The whole flock came wandering through the yard again. I couldn't get a shot with all of them in it without alarming them to some extent, so all twelve of them are facing the other way. They still wouldn't hustle and lose their dignity, but they were on their way somewhere else.
This flock seems to be all toms, and pretty much of a size. In good condition too! I don't think it's turkey hunting season though... I haven't noticed any hens around although that doesn't stop the boys from fanning every now and then. Either just keeping in practice, or else putting off possible rivals, even if they are hanging out together for the winter.

All of the snow is gone and the woods are pretty much bare. The stream in the gully is pretty loud at the moment. We've not yet seen any coyotes go through recently, although there has been a bit of detritus from meals visible. So, what do wild turkeys eat in the winter when the snow covers pretty much everything and the marshy areas are frozen over?

3.6 turkeys

The weather has turned sharply warmer in the past few days. All of the snow is gone except for a few pitiful piles of dirty ice crystals, shrinking by half each day.
This morning we had some visitors again; the first time we've seen a flock since late last fall. They meandered through the back yard, nibbling at the exposed, and fairly dry, grass. They were too much on their dignity to flee when they saw us watching, but they did find occasion to change direction and mosey on out of the yard at a somewhat quicker pace.

3.4 Books

And She Knits, Too posted a book meme. Apparently The Big Read says that, on average, adults have only read six out of the following list. My total is 48, but I'm not sure that it will ever be more than that due to lack of interest in the ones I haven't. On the other hand, I have read, and certainly will continue to read, a few other things.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - Over and over...
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien – Over and over...
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - Over and over...
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling – Yes
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Yes
6 The Bible –Yes
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - I've tried...
8 1984 - George Orwell - Yes
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman - I've tried...
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yes
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - Yes
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy – No
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller – No
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare – Yes - the plays, not the poetry, and not all of the histories.
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - Yes
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien - Yes
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks - No
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - Yes
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - Yes
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot- Not yet
t21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - Unfortunately
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Unfortunately
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens-Not yet
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - Not yet
25 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - Yes
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh - No
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - No
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - No
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - No
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - Not yet
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - No
33 The Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis - Yes
34 Emma - Jane Austen - Yes
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - Yes
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - Yes - we mentioned the entire Chronicles earlier, why the repeat?
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini - No
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres- No
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - No
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne – Yes
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell -Yes
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Unfortunately
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving - No
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - Yes
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - Yes, and pretty much everything else as well
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - No
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood - Yes
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding - No
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - No
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel - Yes
52 Dune - Frank Herbert- Yes
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - No
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - Yes
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - No
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - No
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - Yes
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - No
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - No
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Yes
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck – Yes
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - No
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - No
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold – No
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - Over and over...
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - No
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - No
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding - No
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie - No
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - No
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - Yes
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - Yes
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - Yes
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - Yes
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - No, and don't intend to
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath - No
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - No
78 Germinal - Emile Zola - No
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - No
80 Possession - AS Byatt- No
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - Over and over...
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - No
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker -No
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - No
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - No
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - No
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White - Yes
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - Yes
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Yes
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton – No
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad -No
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery – Yes
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - No
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - Yes
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - Yes
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - No
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - I've tried, repeatedly. I get to the same spot and put it down...
98 Hamlet – Shakespeare – Yes - wouldn't this fall into the complete works listed above?
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - Yes
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - No

On the whole I think they could have improved the list by condensing a few things (why so many individual books by Dickens or Austen?; why Middlemarch and not Silas Marner? why the DaVinci Code and not half a dozen other bestselling nothings?) why not say "anything by..." and add a few more authors to the list?

2.27 african violet

This will break the chain of red photos I've had lately, but I have another bloomer. I adore African violets almost as much I as do lilies and my dining room is perfect for them. I have a baker's rack on the far wall away from the window and my violets live there. They get a bright but diffuse light and a fairly steady temperature. I have discovered over the years that violets do well under my regime of benign neglect and I can generally coax them into blooming several times a year.

This one is a charmer I acquired the first year we moved to NY, from the local violet society's annual show and sale. I need to look around and see if I can find a notice of this year's show - it should be coming up in March I think.

I am exceedingly pleased. My professor asked for the papers to be turned in by midnight Wednesday and as of Friday morning at 9 am he has graded mine and turned my grade in I think he technically has until a week from now to turn the grades in, so i wasn't actually expecting any notice until next week sometime. And I did get an A in the class, which didn't hurt my feelings at all.

2.27 amaryllis

The amaryllis is also blooming. This is one of the three bulbs that I had from last year. After ignoring them and letting them die back, I repotted them, fed them, moved them into sunlight, and started watering again. This one immediately started up with the blooms, right next door to the poinsettia going to town. The others have not yet done anything except green up - no flower stalk, no leaves. I suspect they will eventually put up leaves and I will encourage them to go through the cycle of building up their bulb. Maybe they'll bloom next year.
I love having indoor flowers at this time of year - I need it when it's so ugh outside.

2.25 poinsettia

Ok, I admit it's way past the time that most people worry about posting pictures of poinsettias, but this one is mine. The very first one I have had that actually bloomed again, with really big blooms. The length of time that it took to put out all the colorful bracts to full size rather amazed me. I have never made any sort of serious effort to cause any of my 5 poinsettias to bloom again - I keep them for the greenery, but this one decided to go for it. Some sort of perfect combination of light, water and feeding this year.

Serendipity always gets me enthusiastic.

2.24 dark red DHF

The flash washed this out a bit and gave it sparkles - I need to retake the picture. However, it does give you an idea of the red I plan to put with the red leaf fiber.

I've been looking through Folk Vests and will probably do one from that. Aside: I really don't like her trick of "resizing" the patterns by changing gauge - same yarn, resize by changing needles. If I need to make the smallest size, I don't want to have to do it by knitting at an impossibly tight gauge and making cardboard.

At any rate, it calls for sport weight and I have something heavier than that, so I'll be monkeying with the gauge my ownself. Depending on exactly how my gauge comes out, I may be monkeying with the pattern as well. I don't plan on making cardboard though!

2.23 bobbins red leaf fiber

These are the last three bobbins of the red leaf fiber from Freyalyn. It's been a pleasure to spin.
I've discovered over the past couple of years that a dichotomy exists - I like spinning changing colors best. I like knitting plain colors best. Hmm - what to do what to do.
This project will wind up being both. I've spun the changing colors yarn and am moving on to the static color yarn. I'll knit with both.

thanks for the good wishes on the cold - it turned into a combination of nasties - sinus infection, ear infection, bronchitis, but these are easing up finally, and if I could get the second ear to pop so that sounds didn't keep echoing around in my skull, I would be a much happier camper. As soon as my final paper for class is done also.

I know, I always want something more.

2.12 me, my cold, and fiber

2.9 autumn leaf skein

I've been spinning the autumn leaf fiber I got from Freyalyn. Three ply, about worsted grist (although I haven't measured it yet). This is the first skein; the second is ready to be taken off the bobbin onto the niddy. One more skein to go.
I don't know whether it's the fiber or the fact that the soap I used was the cedar-eucalyptus, but the orange-striped one will not leave this skein alone. I caught him leaping up from the edge of the laundry room sink to pull it down from the rack where it was dripdrying. He pulled it down from the bathroom towel rack twice, once right in front me*, the second time messing with the skein structure so much that I'm going to have to re-skein it. Needless to say that was after I had taken this picture.
I don't know what I'm going to do when I actually start knitting with this.

*He had come into the bathroom with me when I was in there. It's a tiny bathroom. He wandered around the floor, then looked up, and cooly hooked a claw through the bottom of the skein and heaved. I yelled at him, picked him up, opened the door and tossed him out, shutting the door firmly behind him. K said afterwards that she heard me yell, came to see what was wrong, and saw the cat come flying out of the bathroom**. She decided she didn't need to know what was wrong and went away quietly.

** No cats were harmed in the making of this story. Only his dignity was ruffled.

2.6 snowtrees

1.31 sleeve

sleeve
Originally uploaded by zinlizzie

It's always such a relief to have a paper out of the way. It's turned in - with 8 hours to spare!

This is my latest project - intended to be a short sleeved scoop neck pullover, approximately the same style as a favorite commercially made sweater. It may take a while - I'm doing it on size ones in half linen stitch, but there you go. It will make a nice change from K's new sweater in bulky yarn on size whatever-they-turn-out-to-be's.

Speaking of K, I have promised to take her out and do a first run through on starting, stopping, and generally keeping the car going in the right direction. Given that we have just had another six inches of snow in the past twelve hours, and are still getting occasional snowsqualls move through, I don't think any real roadwork is going to happen today.

1.30B New Driver in the House

K passed her test and now has a shiny new learner's permit.

Aaaaagh.

This is all I have to say about that.

1.30 analysis

A friend of mine said a friend of hers was having trouble with a pattern - it just wasn't working and she was sure there was an error. I said I'd take a look and see if I could see anything.
Full of enthusiasm (or as much as I have nowadays - see Winter Doldrums), I started by checking stitch counts. Aha! Line 15 starts with 34 stitches in the repeat and ends with 37. Line 16 starts with 34 stitches...
Except that when I went to graph it out to see if I could fix it, it turns out that line 15 starts AND ends with 34 stitches in the repeat. So the most you could say about that is that line 15 is easy to misread.
Knitting this puppy I discovered several things: 1. The lace part of the pattern has that difficult transition from knit to purl with a yo in between where it is really really easy to lose the yo. One possible source of error. 2. Another row has a different transition where I lost stitches multiple times, but not always in the same place on the row. Annoying to have to check for. 3. The title of the piece is Lace and Cable Afghan but there really aren't any cables, just cable simulations at the junctions of the 34 stitch repeats. 4. There are two completely different pattern sequences in this afghan - one set for rows 1-12 and the other for rows 13-24. There are no transitions or delineations between the patterns - you just jump back and forth.
In talking with my friend, I think this last is why she thought there was an error in the pattern. She got to row 13 and it had no earthly connection to row 12 except that it was the next row. I don't know what her friend's problem may have been - I gave her the list of possibilities.
This is where a chart might have helped - at least it would have been obvious that there were two different patterns going on.
And frankly, I think the end result might be rather ugly.

1.29 Winter doldrums

It's that time of year when I find it very difficult to get past the winter doldrums. Spending the day yesterday shoveling (and shoveling and shoveling) did not improve my mood. Today, we have lots of white snow in the backyard and the trenches have been (re-)dug for the dog to get out without having to bound along.
I'm not sure what brought him out yesterday but there was a big dog fox trotting along through the backyards as the snow was falling. He was tracking along the edge of the woods when I first saw him, and vanished behind the back of the neighbor's shed. Then he followed a (his own?) track back through the yard, about halfway between the shed and our garden fence, then bending back to the woods just to the left of the small willow tree. He reversed pattern again, came back along that same track again and vanished behind the neighbor's swimming pool, off the right in the picture. I didn't seem him again but he was a handsome fellow. I didn't get a picture of him - the camera was upstairs and I was reluctant to miss sight of him.

1.21 Just a little boggled...

You remember my sad tale of trying to buy some Jo Sharp Ultra Verdi for a new sweater for K? Right.

The bottom line was that I wound up with 16 balls sent me from a shop in Idaho. I have 7 more balls sent from a shop in Albany, Australia.

The part I find just a mite mindboggling is that all 23 balls are the same dye lot.

1.19 Bloghopping

I decided to go bloghopping the other day. Open a blog at random from your blogroll; pick a blog at random from their blogroll; read that blog; pick a blog at random from their blogroll... until you run into someone who doesn't have a blogroll.

The only time I cheat is where I recognize one or more names on someone else's blogroll - I don't randomly pick ones I already have on my own blogroll.

I usually get two or three new blogs on my blogroll when I play this game and this time was no exception. Cake Wreaks was the outstanding new find this time.

However, in the spirit of letting people bloghop, I decided I better add my blogroll to mine. I found myself unreasonably annoyed at blogs that were stoppers in my game.

1.16 Oberstdorf...

is finished! J's going skiing in it tomorrow - after that I'll wash and block it. Backwards, I know, but with the temp supposedly in the minus range, I'd rather it was on him and warm than sitting on the floor wet and blocking.

1.13 The weather...

is not news to anybody, but it is still going to be too damn cold. The cold air is starting to sweep in and the air is full of tiny snowflakes that feel like miniature slaps in the face with a wet dishrag. It is warm enough still that they almost melt in the air, but not quite.

I did manage to sew and cut the steek. Now I'm tucking in the zillions of ends. I got a snappy comment from one of the women at guild mentioning that I could tuck them in as I go, but not tucking them I see as insurance against having to rip out. You just know the minute I tuck one in, I'll notice an unacceptable mistake one row below that point.

1.11 oberstdorf

Progress. I've even made a bit of progress past this point - I've stopped for the evening because the next step is sewing either side of the steek and then cutting down the center of the zipper line. That I need to be fresh in the morning for.

1.10 red leaf spinning

I saw a picture of this leaf on Freyalyn's journal back in September, and it was just perfect. Freyalyn was incredibly patient with my quest for the exact balance of red to gold, and I just love spinning it. It is easily some of the most yummy fiber I've ever spun: drafts well, soft, gorgeous, not-white and not-grey - what more can you ask for?

1.8 First grump of the new year

I was looking through the Twist Collective and thought that K might look good in Vivian (ravelry). On consulting K, I determined that she thinks she might look good in Vivian (not always a given), and we started discussing yarn possibilities. She likes the green of the original, so I started looking about for possible yarns. The original yarn was a bulky, 120 yds/100 gram put up from a British company. Looking for something a little closer to home, I found Jo Sharp Silkroad Ultra in the Verdi shade is 60 yds/50 gram put up and currently discontinued.

K likes the Verdi green, and I figured that the discount for discontinued would bring it into (relatively) affordable range. I started googling for who had it and for how much, flipping back and forth between google pages, catalog pages, the pattern... how much do I need, how much does it cost, what're the exact specs on the yarn. Fine! Company A has it on discount, they have 19 balls available (I want 12 - 11 that are called for and 1 for extra just because), reasonably priced, not too far to ship. Order that puppy! A-a-a-and just as I hit the confirm button, I start kicking myself because I have just confirmed an order for 12 balls that are half the size of the 11 called for by the pattern. Moreover, I can't order another 12, because they only had 19 to start with which isn't enough. And it's a sale item, which they won't take a return on.

That part was my mistake.

Groaning softly, I started looking for another 12 balls of Verdi. I'll mix dyelots alternating rows if I have to - I'll figure out something.

Company B: not quite so close, but, hey! no discontinued discount, but a half price sale on everything! I can live with that. They have 17 balls available - I ordered what I needed. Very nice note from the automatic teller, and then a followup nice note on Monday morning - the stuff is In the Mail. And on Wednesday, Company B's package arrives. I hadn't heard anything from Company A, so I dropped a note to the Customer Service dept - Well?

And this morning I got a note from Company A - in response to my note, not in response to my order. Oh. Well - we don't have any of that left, sorry, have a nice day.

So - sometime between Sunday, when I ordered this and their online system assured me that they had 19 balls and 12 of them were earmarked for me, and this morning, when someone opened my email and bothered to check stock, either:
1. Someone updated inventory to reflect reality.
2. Someone called or walked in and spoke to a live person who snabbled all the inventory without checking to see if an order had been placed already.
And - no one has yet responded to the actual order I placed 4 days ago, which is, by the way, still sitting in their system marked "open".

So - I have 12 balls in hand and I need at least 22.

Grump.

1.7 Snow, sleet, rain, sleet, snow...

to be followed by sleet and rain tomorrow.

Doesn't that sound like fun?

I'm trying to get J's Oberstdorf finished by weekend after next. I can't decide whether I want to calculate how many stitches are left in order to decide whether I think I can finish, or whether I want to just be surprised.

1.5 on the 12th day of Christmas

They all went back to work and school and I went back to bed.

Katy Shawl, rear elevation.

1.4 on the 11th day of Christmas

We had S's birthday! He was difficult to buy for at Christmas, but the birthday we had covered. Judging from the smile, the electric razor for his 14th was a hit.

I got a request for "how does it look on a body" for the Katy shawl, so herewith is a front elevation.

1.3 on the 10th day of Christmas

That would be Saturday. Grocery shopping, laundry, sightseeing, dinner out (my brother's visiting).

1.2 on the 9th day of Christmas

We took down the Christmas tree. And packed away the ornaments. Caught up on paperwork and tidied up the kitchen.

Are you sure today isn't Saturday?

1.1 on the 8th day of Christmas

We woke up to more snow on the ground. Let's see - that makes 9 inches this go round. J and I shoveled the drive so that he could go stand out in a field of snow, shooting off model rockets. He took his skis, another guy brought snowshoes, and a third brought a snowmobile for chasing rockets. They had about 40 people show up, and had a great day - sunny, just a little wind, and not too cold (just 25 F).

I let K & S sleep in until they woke up (11 am), for the first time this holiday (mean mom that I am). I made them help me fix tamales this afternoon and planned to make cheesecake this evening, until I couldn't find my springform pan. J finally located it, packed inside a cookie tin in the basement (why? who knows) but by that time I had lost my cheesecake mojo. Maybe tomorrow.

I've gotten a bit of knitting done - mostly knitting assembly, actually. I've gone back to working on J's Oberstdorf (that finishing-things-up impulse I mentioned before) and managed to swing past a potential roadblack. I finished the last two rounds on the second sleeve and then got the sleeves and body assembled together on the long needle so that I could do the first two rounds of the yoke. That assembly bit was liable to be a stopper if I didn't hurry through it. The next sticky point is identifying where the zipper placket needs to be placed, but I don't actually have to do that for an inch or so after the top of the colorwork and that actually has another seven rounds to go, so I'm safe for a day or so. At 400+ stitches per round, each round takes a little while.

12.31 on the 7th day of Christmas...

last snow storm of 2008

One last snow storm. It's hard to believe that this was only two days ago.

The weatherman said "2-4 inches (last night) and 2-4 inches during the day". We woke up to 2 and 4 inches - Brandon's tummy was dragging in the snow again. It looks like the day's total will be closer to six more inches than two or four inches.

I need to get K&S up to help me start shoveling what's left and added since J shoveled so he could leave.

12.30 On the 6th day of Christmas...

We went shopping. K had 3 gift cards and 2 partials to use up - 2 pairs of jeans, 2 tops, a belt and 3 sets of earrings later, she's feeling smug at her haul.

I woke up way to early this morning and have had the headache today that goes with too little sleep. I did get a bunch of stuff done, aside from spindling in the department store while waiting for K to try things on. It was pretty funny when the salesperson asked me if I needed any help as an icebreaker to chat with me about my spindle and went on to tell me about her spindles and trade info about our wheels. She and her husband both spin, but don't belong to guild because they both mostly work on Saturdays.

I amused 2 five year olds for approximately 3 minutes each and gave away one tuft of silk to a small charmer who patted the silk in before and after states and then very soberly said, "Thank you. You're very nice." When I said "Thank you," she said "you're welcome," and skipped off into the dressing room after her mom. A very polite child, who then began piping at her mom, "Mom! did you see that. How did she learn that? Can I learn that? Do you know how to do that?" Mom apparently does not know how to do that, but did know what I was doing, so there is some hope that small fry (if she keeps it in mind) may actually get a chance to "learn that" at some point.

12.29 5th day of Christmas

rakers

J went back to work. 9 days off work, 3 days on, 4 days off. Not a bad lifestyle, except that he was trying to fit 6 days of work into one today.

After the high winds yesterday, K and S raked all the leaves off the back lawn today (it was amazing. They went out without grumping, raked cooperatively and steadily until it was all done, and came back in without being silly. Do you suppose they're [shhh!] maturing?)

It was sunny. It was beautiful.

It's now blowing again - but this time from the south rather than the west. Hopefully it won't look like they never did a thing when we wake up in the morning!

12.28 4th day of Christmas

Shhhh! Be vewy, vewy quiet!

I'm not hunting wabbits, but I am trying to avoid waking the sleepers for as long as possible. One of K's friends has a birthday on the 27th of December, and so she's gone on a sleepover. That seemed to be the perfect time to let S have the all-night LOTR movie marathon with his friend that he's been nagging asking politely about for two months.

I don't know what time they gave up and fell asleep, but they are two sleeping bag-clad bundles on the living room floor and I'd just as soon let them sleep.

Since sleeping in would have been a good thing, I myself have been awake since 5:45.

12.27b 3rd day of Christmas

Vest back

Where was I before I got distracted by google search terms?

Oh, yes.

The vest. This is the back - I didn't notice when I put it down in the dark, but I blocked it kind of funny. The measurements came out right, and I think the wave will work out in the wearing, so I don't think I'll worry about it too much.

12.27 Google search

Every now and again I take a look at what brings people to my blog. Most of them I understand - they tend to fall into two categories. Category 1 - people I know, or who know me [not always the same thing] and Category 2 - people who show up from a known set of links to my blog. Even when I don't recognize the addresses as belonging to people I'm sure I know, there's a certain familiarity that comes with seeing them repeatedly showing up - someone keeps popping in from there, wherever "there" is this time.

And then there are the odd ones. Such as the google search for

Magoo Christmas Carol Salad Dressing

I can stretch my brain far enough to figure out why my blog was supplied as an answer to such a query, but why was someone using that as a set of search terms to begin with?

12.26 2nd day of Christmas

Vest fronts

The first day of Christmas has come and gone, quite nicely for the most part.

The second day of Christmas has me in a finishing sort of mood. I want to finish all the projects that have been hanging over me, and while I certainly won't finish them any time soon, the effort will do me good.

So... here we have a blocked set of vest fronts (Ruby from A Fine Fleece). This is a dangerous state - the next stage is "sewing up" and then "picking up stitches" which is always a stage that takes me a long time to gather the mental strength to tackle. I'm not sure why, as when I'm done, I say "that wasn't so bad" but nevertheless, it always does. I think the problem is that it isn't knitting, which is of course the fun part.

12.21 groan

I ache. All over. Since Friday morning about 8:30, we have gotten just about 17 inches of snow. The world is a white wonderland, full of cars that have slid off the road, although none recently - most of the sliding happened Friday when people were still trying to pretend that nothing in particular was happening.

On the theory that shoveling multiple times, an inch or two at a time, is better than shoveling once, 17 inches at a time, we have (between the four of us) shoveled the drive seven times in the past 48 hours.

I ache, all over. The pile of snow where S's fort goes is almost as tall as I am.

12.19 Gladys Amedro's Shetland Lace

Susan gave me some of the best knitting news I've had in a while - Gladys Amedro's book Shetland Lace is available once again.

I had a copy of the book when it was published last time. I was working on one of the patterns (repeat 80 of 82 for the border), when the whole kit and kaboodle (knitting, yarn, book and knitting bag [a bag my mom had needlepointed an original design for a panel and then assembled into the bag]) disappeared when our van was broken into one night.* Best guess was that the bag was used to haul off the cds and/or the radio that was stolen from the van, or perhaps items from some of the other 4 cars on our cul-de-sac that were broken into the same night. I cared nothing about the commercially available items - it was the knitting, bag and book I wanted back, dammit!

We were moving two weeks later and I had no time to worry about the knitting. By the time I did have time to worry about the knitting (a couple of years later), I couldn't find the book again. Amazon would search for a copy for me (none were available) if I was going to be willing to pony up $85 for it they found it. Ummm - at that point I was unemployed; no I don't think so. Currently, Amazon will provide a copy if I'm willing to pony up $215. Ummm - someone in the house is employed but a. it isn't me and b. my extra cash is going into paying for school.

I will have to see what Santa brings me - it's going on my wishlist this minute!


*This does seem to be my week for whining about things going missing - I still do have an awful lot of things, handmade by me and otherwise, in my possession!

12.18 Grief

What are those standard stages of grief again? Denial's one of them, I know. I went through that one in a hurry as I dashed from store to store to find out if someone had turned my shawl in to lost and found. Anger we've already noted - I appreciate the permission to throw things, Freyalyn. I didn't actually do so, but it would have been very satisfying. Despair? Depression? Whatever that stage is, went through that yesterday. It's gone, gone forever.

Today we have acceptance. I woke up this morning plotting the recreation of my dark blue shawl. I have some dark brown Corriedale (from the same source even), that has been combed out and is awaiting washing. I have some Tussah silk top, just waiting for spinning. I have several things already in the queue, but this may bump them.

How soon can I get started?

12.16 Gone!

I wore my navy blue shawl today. The one I knit from my first real handspun, the first time that I actually spun enough for more than just a hat. One ply dark brown Corriedale, one ply tussah silk. Knit in a halfcircle shawl from Martha Waterman's Traditional Lace Shawls. Garment dyed a medium blue, the Corriedale went navy, and the tussah silk went bright blue, little twinkling dots in the dark navy. It wasn't the best spinning ever; I could pick out the underspun and bulgy places if I looked, but it's warm and lacy, and always garners compliments.

I went shopping today (out to the parking lot, drive to the book store, walk through the parking lot, all through the bookstore Christmas shopping, walk through the parking lot, drive to the grocery store, walk through the parking lot, all through the grocery store, walk through the parking lot, drive back to the office, walk back through the parking lot). When I left, I had my shawl. When I returned, I didn't. As near as I can tell, it slithered down my back at some point, squeezed between my slick blouse and the slick lining of my coat. It isn't visible in any parking lot, and wasn't turned in at either store.

Someone (not me) apparently has a very nice shawl.

Can I throw something?

12.16 Teenagers!

I've been trying to decide what my children need or want for Christmas. I've hinted about needing information. I've asked outright. I've directed them to update their wishlists (the relatives are asking too!)

They'll be mighty upset if they don't get anything.

I still haven't got a clue.

12.13 Christmas list, part 4

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Of course. Can’t everyone?
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning. I’d prefer Christmas Eve now that K & S are older, but I’ve been outvoted.
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Christmas Muzak.
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? Red gold and green.
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? A turntable with a USB cable. I want to be able to listen to my LPs again.

24. Angel on the tree top or a star? Nothing at the moment. We had an angel at one point, but she vanished in a move. We had an anti-angel-abuse movement in the house (no more trees stuck up their butts!) and went to a spire when her replacement was decided upon. The spire was broken last year and a replacement for that has not been discussed. It will probably be this year’s addition to the Christmas tree.
25. Favorite Christmas dinner? What does this question mean – the particular dinner of some year in the past whose memory I like to bring up and roll around my mental taste buds? Or what do I want on the menu for Christmas?
I think I’ll assume the second and provide you with my perfect Christmas dinner menu:
Crown of roast pork.
Cranberry/orange relish
Butterhorns
Mashed potatoes
Gravy (I will concede gravy for those in the family who want it. It doesn’t bother me to fix it or to have to look at it.)
Green beans almondine
Waldorf salad (not that nasty stuff made with mayonaise, but properly made with mustard dressing, just the way I learned at my mother’s knee)
A pickle tray (why we call it a pickle tray I don’t know, but we do; it mostly isn’t pickles) Black Olives, Green Olives, cornichons, tiny dill gherkins, celery and carrot fingers.
Pecan pie
Pumpkin pie

Occasional items that come and go from the menu every few years: Mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar; mincemeat pie; apple pie; cheesecake; fresh cranberry sauce; fruitcake; pickled cauliflower.

12.12 Christmas list, part 3

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? As soon as the last fall birthday shopping is done (i.e. after December 3rd).
We have birthdays that start in July – July – 1, August - 1, September - 1, October – 2, November - 3, December – 2, January – 1, February - 1. The January birthday is the hardest to deal with as it is on the 4th – just at the time when everyone is ready to be done. Planning for a party has to be done before Christmas if it’s going to happen anywhere near the right date, and how often does that happen? Right! S went to having half-birthday parties instead a few years ago.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? You bet. Why give houseroom to something I won’t every use, but which is absolutely useable by someone? Pass it on.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Garlic cheese roll.
16. Lights on the tree? Colored, small, preferrably blinking. I loved the bubblers we had when I was very young, but they make them out of plastic now, not the heavy glass.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Anything on my Bayerisches Adventsingen album.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home if we possibly can. We haven't for several years, but this year, we are going to.

12.11 Christmas.... Aaaaaggh!

This has been your pre-Christmas warning scream.

I looked around the room last night, reminded the family that we have only 14 days to Christmas, and they all dutifully gave a scream.

12.10 Christmas list, part 2

7. Hardest person to buy for? J. Or perhaps his father. My brother? My father? Either of my brothers-in-law? I’m sure you’re seeing a trend here.
8. Easiest person to buy for? It changes every year. It is a commonly remarked upon phenomenon in my family – each year, there is someone who is incredibly easy to buy for. Everything you see would be perfect for that person, and you can’t find anything for anyone else. The next year, someone else will be the lucky person and the previous year’s person will be impossible.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. I bought one when I was in Oberammergau one year, with my Christmas bonus of having worked 120 hours of overtime in a 10 day period. I also bought all my Christmas presents at the same time, which was good as I came back and was sick for two weeks with pneumonia from having overdone things so much and had no time to go shopping.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, of course. If I get them sent out at all, which I often don’t.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Dunno. Whatever it was, it’s forgotten.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Carol. Or perhaps A Christmas Carol. Or perhaps, A Muppet Christmas Carol. Or maybe it’s Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. I have several different versions, you see, and tend to watch them all over the course of the month…

12.9 Christmas list

Carole picked this up and passed it on - I'm going to answer it in pieces.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. I tried to get into making gift bags one year, but lost steam and wound up donating the fabric to the quilting group for Christmas quilts.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. I had a really bad reaction to the last real tree, and while we’re pretty sure it was a reaction to the fungicide on the tree and not the tree itself, a. we have an artificial tree now and b. J isn’t willing to risk me having another bad reaction. Considering that he was the one who had to deal with sealing the room off and with getting through Christmas with me prostrate on the sofa, I suppose he's allowed to have the deciding vote.
3. When do you put up the tree? A week or two before Christmas.
4. When do you take the tree down? The weekend after New Year’s Day.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes. I did not as a child, but it seems to be a taste one grows into (as so many tastes are), particularly when it’s made with fresh ingredients. Is there anything that isn't better when made with fresh ingredients?
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My plastic-horse-on-springs. I adored my bouncy horse and rode it for years. It would thump backwards across the floor as I rode and then thump-thump-thump again the baseboards, so it was not my mother's favorite.

12.7 Time for music

Christmas music, that is. I dug out my box-o-CDs (I wish I could listen to my old LPs - I've got a bunch that have never been re-released on CD) and started putting them in order for listening. I can't stand Christmas Muzak, but my favorite CDs? you bet.

I have a new favorite - it's all Sandy's fault. Straight No Chaser's 12 Days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

11.12 Classwork done

One class down, two to go.

Someone asked me at the beginning of summer, two summers ago, whether I thought it was worthwhile going back to school. I said that it was a hard question to answer, exactly half way through my degree. I had certainly thought so when I started. I was pretty sure I would think so this year, when I was almost done. I wasn't quite sure at that exact moment, half way through with neither the enthusiasm of just having started nor the wind in my sails of being almost done.

Well, the wind is back in the sails. I want to be done so bad I can taste it, and yes, at the moment, it is worth it.

Just two classes to go.

K's slippers

Once upon a time I promised the story of K's good fortune at the Fiber Fest.

She agreed to help with the front gate for my stint of service. She hadn't mean to go, but decided that she would. We were working at the front gate later than usual, so we went to roam around the FFF first. She found a pair of slippers she fell in love with but they were $50 (reasonable but expensive on a teen's budget) and she decided to think about it. While we were having lunch, I heard from the loudspeaker "blah blah blah K blah blah". What was that?
And a little bit later again we heard "blah blah blah K blah blah". What?
I eventually found someone to ask and they said " oh, they were announcing the Fest Bucks winners. Go ask at the guild table". So - in exchange for K agreeing to work the gate, her name got put in the pot for the Fest Bucks enticement to persuade people to volunteer. $25.
That makes the price of the slippers look much more reasonable, no? So we trundled back over to buy slippers and discovered that the only pair that fit her feet were somehow marked as $24 instead of the $50 that all the rest were. Not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, she purchased them and wound up with fifteen cents change, after taxes.
So... after all that, she came home with a pair of slippers and fifteen cents more than she went to the fest with. Not bad at all.

11.11 Not out of the woods yet

Closing night of the play was also great. This was just a great bunch of kids doing something they obviously enjoy doing.

I'm almost through with the very last short essay for my class. Tomorrow we'll be done-done.
(Not just done, but done-done. We had a long silly discussion about the difference between done and done-done.)

Dragged K off to the dr. today, for the Cough that Won't Quit.
Walking pneumonia.
Lovely.

11.7 Opening night

The play is great. The kids were all high energy and all of them felt like it was the best opening night they'd been through. I think I'd have to agree with them.

Three more performances to go.

11.6 Dash to the end(s)

Well, the election's over. I will enjoy the freedom from political ads for a few days.

Not that I would be paying much attention in the next few days anyway:
1. My final paper, discussion comments, summary of the course essay and peer evaluation are due this weekend.
2. K's play is this weekend. She's doing better, but not getting enough sleep to really get over her cough. Opening night is tonight; closing night is Saturday.
3. J's parents are arriving tomorrow, to a more than usually awful house. All I can do at this point is cringe and get over it. Oh well.
4. S is leaving for the weekend tomorrow night. I suppose I really need to find out if he wants to see the play. Hmmm - these thoughts that never occur until (almost) too late.

S's school soccer team had their end of season party on Halloween afternoon - a perfect season 11-0, and an excellent season for the keepers. Each person playing keeper had 1 goal scored on him all season. Since S is their primary keeper (he plays 2 or 3 quarters, depending on format) and the others play only 1 quarter per game, this is an excellent stat for him. His team this year was very good both offensively and defensively - next year won't be likely to be as good, but he was thrilled that the ones who really didn't want to play weren't there. The school team and the travel team both are getting whittled down to the ones who still really want to play.

11.4 Civic duty done

Stopped by the polls on my way to work. Tiny thing as usual - 3 workers, one booth, 5 minutes in and out. Steady stream of people, but not much of a line.

One young man with his dad ahead of me; one small boy with his mom. The dad voted first, then asked the young man if he needed help. That teen-aged "Da-ad" look crossed his face, but he just said, "no". He stepped in, flipped the levers, stepped out again. As they left, Dad was saying "See? Easy! Hardly seems waiting all these years for, does it..."

I don't know how the small boy and mom made out - I was signing in as they were in the booth and by the time I finished, they were gone.

One of my neighbors was ahead of me in line, one of my neighbors walked in as I left.

Have you voted yet?

10.27 Hmmm....

More than a month later, there isn't much to say except that it's been a hell of a month. I must be recovering from it - I find myself mentally planning blog posts even though I have no time to post them.

Suffice it to say that I haven't fallen off the end of the world, just piled under. I hope to begin posting again soon, but I promise nothing for another week (end of S's soccer season). Maybe 2. (end of my class and K's play). Probably 3. (end of my internship).

That being just the tip of the iceberg, I'll simply say that I should learn to expect that if I'm stretched too thin, something else will be added to the middle of the rubber band.

9.21 A week later...

We got power back Monday night (only 17 hours without, which wasn't too bad, considering). The fridge and the freezer survived pretty well, although I feel the need to use up the blueberries in the kitchen freezer pretty soon. Some of them made a very nice pie.

It was a busy week (aren't they all?) and having now finished my quiz, my reading, my essay for the week, and my necessary messages to the instructor and my team mates, I'm turning my attention (briefly) to the question of my blog.

Hi.

What happened to the camera?

We had a mad cleaning frenzy yesterday (the house looks nice!) and the camera has fallen in. Someone probably put it away some place that made perfect sense at the time.

Maybe tomorrow. Also I'll tell you about K's extraordinary luck at the Fiber Festival today!

9.15 Generator?

So... Will this finally push us into getting a generator? We had the wiring done for using a generator when we had the house built, but have never gotten 'round to the generator part of the equation.

We lost power (Ike) last night and the RGE website says "yes we know you're out of power, 25 people on your block are, estimated time of service restoration: unknown". In other words, yes we know you don't have power, we have bigger fish to fry, don't bug us. J asked me how long the freezer and fridge will be ok - who knows? I see blueberry pie in our future and a dearth of blueberries across the winter.

9.10 September...

always brings with it a ton of new stuff, until we (and others) get settled into a new routine. K is starting 10th grade, starting the school play practices, starting in Women's Choir, starting in Show Choir (it only goes to 9th grade but after that the teacher takes a volunteer who wants to learn how to direct and run things - K is that person this year). S is starting 8th grade, starting goalkeeper for the 8th grade soccer team, starting goalkeeper for his travel soccer team. I'm back on the job at my internship, starting a new class, attending Parents' Nights at the schools, parent meetings for the play, for the Choirs, for the sports teams.

I have a cold which manifests itself in enormous sneezes, five and six at a time, and in a constant headache. I just want to go to bed and pull the covers up.

9.6 coneflowers

Exhibit B: Coneflowers make such a lovely display without requiring much special attention. I wish they came in other shades, partly because I'm not entirely fond of this shade, but mostly because everybody has this one. (n.b. they may very well do so, but not popularly available in the local nurseries and I am only now working up enough energy on the subject to start complaining and looking around. Any suggestions gratefully received.) I have these two plants in my big round bed, and intended to move them to the lower new bed. Since everyone in the neighborhood seems to have put them in, I'm reluctant to make mine more visible. I want the bed to look like something besides a stamped out version of the same bed everyone else has.

9.4 morning glory

One might not be able to tell fom my history of picture posting, but there actually are some (a few) flowers in my garden that are not lilies. Exhibit A: Morning glory flower. The morning glories grow on the trellises I have erected to disguise the gas and water meters, since these sightly (?) objects are mounted (relatively) high on the wall on the front corner of the house facing the direction that everyone comes up the street. This is just above the point where the sewer grinder/pump cover sits in the middle of the yard, previously projecting about 10 inches into the air above the level of the yard.
Having put an elevated circular bed (about 20 feet across) around the corner of the house where the sewer grinder/pump cover sits, it gave me a place to put the trellises, etc...
We have a sewer grinder/pump because we live at the upper end of a street with a swale in the middle. The grinder reduces all waste products to fit into a 1 inch pipe and then the pump pushes it past the uphill section. The pump is warrantied for 20 years (don't ask me what happens then), although one of our neighbors had to have theirs replaced in the first year and grumbled that it cost many thousands to have it dug out and replaced. The question of the warranty thus lingers in my mind, as no mention of any coverage accompanied this story, although as no mention of any coverage accompanied the story, my immediate cynicism questions as to whether something unauthorized entered their system at some point.
Behind our house, on the other side of the stretch of woods and stream, there are about 80 acres of farmland. Last year spring there was a public hearing in re. putting in senior citizen housing and assisted living facilities on this 80 acres, which would including a new pumping substation on the corner of the property. We were advised at that time that in a few years, this would imply that our subdivision's sewer system would be revamped and those of us with grinder/pumps would then be connected to a real system and would be responsible (financially) for the cost of doing so. My first thought was, what about my flower bed? Are they going to ruin it by digging everything up? (not to mention the wall?) J thinks it will simply be one of those underground mole machines, burrowing along and going right under everything. All well and good, but how do they get the grinder/pump dug up and carted away?
Oh, J says, they'll probably just change the connections at the house and leave the grinder/pump where it is.
Um, right. An entire, unsightly device, which we now won't need, and we're just going to leave it there. I don't know which I think is worse - leaving it there or taking it out.
The whole building project is now 8 months overdue to start and given the current housing market, I don't think I'm going to have to worry about the choice or my garden any time soon.

Ok, I finally tumbled into a meme...

We'll blame Freyalyn. (Bold indicates I've eaten it, other comments are probably self-explanatory.
Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee - I've had it but am not enough of a connoisseur to understand why I want it over others I've tried.
Rose harissa - ?
Bellini - ?
Calamari - particularly with parmesan-pepper sauce.
Clotted cream tea - clotted cream - yes, tea - yes; never tried mixing them.
Louche absinthe - ?
Fried plantain - Yum.
Flowers - I've had them but they didn't strike me as one way or another. I'll eat them if they're in my food, but wouldn't go out of my way to get them.
Fresh wild berries - Absolutely!
Mole poblano - most excellent.
Baba ghanoush - once was enough.
Bagna cauda - ?
Carp - Rumors of massive numbers of bones put me off.
Kaolin - ?
Roadkill - Never seen any that looked edible.
Venison - I've been fortunate enough to only have good venison.
Nettle tea - Nothing I'd go out of my way for.
Huevos rancheros - most excellent, especially as prepared in the little restaurant down the street.
Steak tartare - No interest, sorry.
Crocodile - I'd try it if it was put in front of me, but I've no idea where I'd find it around here. Black pudding - Not being much into pudding of any kind...
Cheese fondue - It's ok.
Borscht - Tried some once at a French/Russian restaurant. Not the highlight of the meal, but not bad either.
Pho - Nope.
PB&J sandwich - If the PB is fresh and crunchy and the jam is apricot and home made, yum.
Aloo gobi - ?
Hot dog from a street cart - In four different countries.
Black truffle - I wish.
Pistachio ice cream - I liked the one best that wasn't dyed green. Plain white with little green nuts.
Heirloom tomatoes - all fresh tomatoes are wonderful. No need to add any other comment there.
Foie gras - Never tried. I'm not a big liver fan, whatever the species.
Rice and beans - of course. Which ethnicity's version would you like?
Brawn, or head cheese - No.
Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - No! I'm fond of my taste buds.
Dulce de leche - Chocolate's better but dulce de leche is right up there.
Oysters - there was a period of my life where steamed oysters formed a large portion of my diet, and I always go back to a seafood restaurant in San Jose to get the Oysters Rockefeller they fix.
Baklava - I love this stuff. I found a place recently that keeps it on the menu, but they don't use any nuts. Need to make my own again.
Wasabi peas - Not that fond of horseradish taste.
Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl - not in sourdough bowl. I don't like my bread soggy.
Salted lassi - ?
Sauerkraut - yum. Particularly in rouladin.
Root beer float - A childhood favorite that never lives up to memories.
Cognac with a fat cigar - a cigar is NOT food. Agree. No arguments there.
Vodka jelly/Jell-O - Ick. No desire ever to try.
Gumbo - no interest.
Oxtail - no interest.
Curried goat - yum.
Whole insects - no interest.
Phaal - ?
Goat’s milk - it's ok.
Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more - I don't like whisky enough to spend the money to find out if I'd like expensive whisky.
Fugu - No.
Chicken tikka masala - ?
Eel - in sushi, it's most excellent.
Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut - Way too sweet.
Sea urchin - No.
Prickly pear - Several times, but most of the ones I can get here look several weeks old.
Umeboshi - ?
Abalone - No.
Paneer - ?
McDonald’s Big Mac Meal -No.
Spaetzle - Sorry, fits in the soggy bread category.
Dirty gin martini - No.
Beer above 8% ABV - Yum.
Poutine - ?
Carob chips - Just give me the real chocolate.
S’mores - Of course.
Sweetbreads - No.
Currywurst - ?
Durian - why? Just to say I had?
Frogs’ legs - Yum!
Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake - if they are really fresh and made in newish oil.
Haggis - must I?
Chitterlings, or andouillette - No.
Gazpacho - One of the few soups I care for.
Caviar and blini - Not worth the cost.
Gjetost, or brunost - ?
Baijiu - ?
Hostess Fruit Pie - No!
Snail - Yes! Snails are mostly an excuse to eat garlic-buttery toast, but there was a restaurant in Germany with a recipe for a garlic-cheesy white sauce served on a plate with a side of really good bread and you got a dozen or more schnecken and not just a measily 6...
Lapsang souchong - good.
Eggs Benedict - No - I've avoided it, see note above about soggy bread.
Pocky - ?
Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant - I WISH. Agree. What else to say?
Kobe beef - ?.
Hare - Tasty, organic, wild caught. What’s not to like? Again, what else to say?
Goulash - Yum.
Horse - No.
Criollo chocolate - ?
Spam. - No.
Soft shell crab - No interest.
Catfish - Yum!
Bagel and lox - yum.
Lobster Thermidor - not since visiting Maine, but I'd go again in a heartbeat.
Polenta - Not a fan.
Snake - No.

8.28 garden report

Despite getting put in late, those things that I did put in have done well. We've had acorn squash, and zucchini (and zucchini and zucchini). We have a zillion green tomatoes (and have had for weeks now), and I've had about a dozen ripe ones. I need to see about better support for the tomatoes next year (this year's consisted of "inadequate" and "none"), but it doesn't seem to have harmed them in terms of inducing mildew or rot.

J has made up his mind that next year I need additional garden boxes to isolate the squash and tomatoes from the other parts of the garden. I have agreed that this is probably a sound idea. They do tend to take over.

I'm about ready to take the squashes out. The weather has not been conducive to further production (cool nights, cloudy skies) and they are being overtaken by powdery mildew. I think some nice fall veg should go in next.

After July in June (hotter dryer weather than usual), and August in July (hot, muggy and thunderstorms on a frequent basis), we now seem to be having September in August (continued thunderstorms every third day, but cool clear nights). Are we going to have snow before Halloween this year?

8.25 spring skein

This is the second and final skein of the spring-colored yarn. Predominately white, with a large swathe of blue, and smaller bits of yellow, green and purple, this has always figured in my mind as "the spring fiber". The purple was a real shocker when I first noticed it as that strip was turned to the inside of the top and not visible in the package. Eventually I'll get to figuring out what the yardage and grist is on these and be able to think about what sort of end use the skeins will get put to.

8.23 speckled asiatic lily

Last year was the first for the grab bag of asiatic lilies to bloom, and this one struck me as being lightly speckled. This year, as you can see, it is heavily speckled, and I really like it.

I'm not sure what causes the changes from year to year. This year, it rather looks like one of those paintings done by flinging paint at the canvas from across the room. I confess to liking the effect better when produced by nature.

8.21 wild raspberry

This was the first try at spinning the Wild Raspberry from Sweet Grass Wool*. Spun short draw and way too overspun for my purposes, this shows the colors nicely, but completely overwhelmed the spring of the Targhee fiber. Anyone need a skein of very firm yarn?

* In linking to SGW, I notice that they have changed their colorways (boo - I like the wild raspberry and it isn't there any more) and expanded their line of available tops (yea, more colors to choose from, not that I need any more fiber any time soon).

8.21 Let me explain...

No, there is too much.
Let me sum up:
K has been to babysit her cousin, B, and is back again.
S and I went to pick her up and spent a day or two around DC.
K, S, my sister and Cousin B went up in the Washington Monument.
I declined the treat, having done this before and feeling that once was sufficient.
I spent the time knitting outside the Monument and trying to identify languages.
Over the course of 45 minutes, I was sure of 11 different languages and only heard two words of English.
I pulled some muscles and am still trying to get them to loosen up.
S is in sailing camp this week.
I got a call yesterday that he'd been hit in the head by the boom.
The pulley on the boom split his left eyebrow.
9 stitches later, he still has a headache but no concussion or any further side effects.
I've gotten quite a bit of spinning and knitting done, but nothing is finished.
Pictures to follow.
My internship this summer has gone well enough that I've been asked to extend for another three months with the promise that I'll be allowed to move into still further fun stuff. I've accepted, but I'm taking a week off first.
I start my fall class on 1 Sept and K and S start school on 3 Sept. Much buying of shoes and school supplies needs to happen first.

Now that I have the synopsis out of the way, I may be able to get back to posting on a regular basis. I'm only 1550 posts behind on my blog reading.

8.7 gold daylily

The daylilies have been going to town. Last year I put in some of the dinner plate daylilies and they have started blooming. I need to find where I put my stack of labels to remember which is which.

8.6 tom turkey

Unlike our visitors earlier this year, Tom was strutting and displaying this time. There are advantages to having guests home during the day - they bring evidence of still further visitors I wouldn't have known about.

7.24 Randomness

I have guests arriving today. Sometime. They left about 11 this morning; at 9:30 tonight they aren't here.
I left my phone at work so it's difficult to give them a call and find out where they are.
I have guests arriving tomorrow. Sometime. They plan to leave at 5 am or thereabouts.
Tomorrow, S finishes up at All-Sports camp (Camp Games, Flag Football, Soccer, Swimming, Flag Football and Camp Games - he's been coming home one tired and hungry pup).
Tomorrow, K starts play performances again - Friday and Saturday nights.
Sunday, everyone leaves, except perhaps some of the guests.
I plan on collapsing next week. Just me and the critters.

7.23 miniatures

One of the benefits of visiting my in-laws during the summer is the chance to check out the babies at the end of the street.

7.22 reading weekly

This week's reading:

1. Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey. For a person who spent a great deal of time as a child reading (and re-reading) the Color Fairy books, the revisions dreamed up by Lackey are amusing and pleasant reading. She tackled fairy tales first in the Elemental Mages series (starting with The Fire Rose), but redid them with the 500 Kingdoms books, and I've enjoyed reading all of them.
2. One Good Knight by Mercedes Lackey. The second book, ditto.
3. The Corinthian by Georgette Heyer.

7.21 L is for lilies

7.20 yellow daylily

Somewhere I have the label for this daylily - where I don't know. Probably in a stack on the kitchen desk. Or maybe in the drawer in the kitchen where I keep extra seeds. Or... There are several possibilities, when I start following the idiot boy's advice about looking for a lost horse. It was an acquisition from last fall, along with the James Marsh. While not as intense a yellow as the James Marsh is a red, it is still pretty eyecatching.

7.19 Bad week for posting

It's been a bad week for getting posts up on the blog. Somehow I'm not having trouble getting posts written, but getting them to post? Not so much. Mostly the problem has been that when things don't work perfectly, I've not had time to stop and sort things out.

The dryer hasn't been working (that is, the dryer works fine. It also squeals shrilly with a metal-on-metal shriek when it's run. I haven't been running it.) On investigation, it turns out that the problem is the "felt pad", which has teflon bearings on which the drum is supposed to slide. This have worn away to nothing, leaving us with metal-on-metal, which I suppose explains the shriek. Thanks to J and the appliance parts store, the shriek is gone and I merely have a mountain of laundry to work my way through.

J and S and the grandparents are off to his second game of the day, third since yesterday afternoon. They lost yesterday (tough team to beat) and lost again this morning (up too early after way too late a night, since yesterday's game was on the other side of town and ended at 10 pm). They enjoy playing in tournaments, but the time combination was really unfortunate. We'll see if they pull themselves together for the afternoon game.

K's opening night for the play was last night and the grands are here so that we can all go see it tonight. S has another game tomorrow morning, and possibly a game in the afternoon. K has a matinee to do tomorrow afternoon, at which I'll be ushering or possibly costume assisting or... Working, at any rate. The grands leave tomorrow sometime and I have to stop by the office I used to work for and if I can figure out what she did to the computer, or what was done to the computer for her, that makes it not work. Busy weekend. I'll have to go to the office on Monday to rest up.

7.18 james marsh daylily

I acquired a new-to-me daylily last year and didn't have it bloom. I acquired a second specimen of the same lily in a collection I bought at the end of the summer. I'm just now getting to see what I have and Wow! I just love it. The James Marsh daylily is just really intensely colorful.

7.17 spindle progress

I'm also making progress on the spindle spinning. This is the first time I've spun with the merino tencel. I'm not yet sure how I'm going like the finished yarn - mostly because of the shiny-shiny. I love the sleekness of silk, but the tencel seems just a bit over-the-top glossy.

As a fiber to spin, I like it pretty well. I find that silk tends to stick to my hands and be difficult to spin in the summer humidity. The tencel doesn't have that problem - it's a good summer heat-and-humidity fiber.

7.16 bobbins

I finished the first wool/angora bobbin, here shown with the two of the ones that are waiting to be plied. I'm planning on having the brown be a 3-ply, but I don't want to chain ply it so... 2 more bobbins to go.

7.15 Let me just say this about that...

I would thoroughly enjoy working with teenagers if they didn't bring with them the baggage of stage mothers.



I would thoroughly be willing to let others work with my teenaged daughter if they weren't pushy obnoxious stage mothers.



I don't see any way of turning my daughter over to the non-pushy non-obnoxious mothers without having the pushy obnoxious stage mother barging in.



It's a puzzlement.

7.14 reading weekly

This week's reading has involved a bunch of old favorites, with a new one that I've finished up.



1. The Golden One by Elizabeth Peters. I've been listening to Barbara Rosenblatt read through the Amelia Peabody books for some time. Audible has had many of them, but has the more recent ones only in abridged format which annoys me greatly. My guess is that the more recent ones in their long format are not a cost-effective purchase for the discount that Audible offers for their monthly membership. The library offers most of them on tape or CD and since I have discovered that I have lost my patience with anything over a 5 minute commute, having books on tape has been a godsend.

2. Wingarden by Elsie Lee. One of the books I stumbled across most recently by this author (although written in '71 - most of her books were written in the late 50s and 60s). Her books are pleasant romances, usually either nominally Regencies or set in post-WWII time frames, often with a mystery. This was a "contemporary" romance (i.e. set in the late sixties?) and had the tense race-relations of small town Virginia as the setting. Her books remind me of many of Mary Stewart's books written about the same time.

3. Chinese Nail Murders by Robert van Gulik. An old favorite.

4. The Gold Falcon by Katherine Kerr. One of the more recent books by Kerr, which I just picked up recently. I read her books when she first started writing. I went through a phase of not reading anything new fictional for a while (i.e about 10 years), and a number of writers kept on writing while I was not reading. Having gone back to reading fiction, I'm finding myself needing to catch on certain authors. Kerr is one of them.

7.13 mystery wool and angora

Each year the local spinning guild has a Holiday Gift Swap as the theme for the December meeting. Each person brings 8 oz of spinnable fiber, wrapped in a pretty package. Packages get judged by their wrappings; each person in turn can take a package from the pile or from another person. If your package gets stolen you replace it by choosing again.

A while back, this was what I came home with. Mystery wool with a certain amount of white angora mixed in. It will be a three-ply when I get finished with it. I am trying to get a minimum of a half hour of spinning in each day.

7.12 merino tencel

I don't really remember where I picked up this merino tencel. If I recall correctly, it was a "throw-in" from a swap I did with someone sometime. The rest of what I got was yarn. I haven't done anything with the yarn either.

This is 2 oz of merino tencel in colors I would never have bought to start with but which turning out to be a rather nice singles. I haven't hit any of the white bits of fiber yet, so I don't know how that part is going to look. I think plied together it will look ok. I split the top into two 1 oz sections and plan to make a two ply skein.

7.11 baby 4 bloom

Hey, Cathy - baby 4 bloomed! I missed the first bloom on this one while I was away, but it has obliged with another one.

7.10 bearing fruit

About six months ago, I warned the offspring that when I got a full time job (intended for this summer internship), they were suddenly going to be responsible for cooking dinner once a week. Now, mind you, this is after a couple of years of anecdotes about my teen years when my mother went back to work and then back to college and my mother, sister and I would sit down at the beginning of the semester and decide who had time to cook dinner when since we were all three going to school.

I wasn't sure how this was going to work out. K has been interested in cooking for some years, but S has not. S is the one I was worried about - he needs to know how to feed himself without resorting to fast food or tv dinners. (We will not even go into his stated opinion of two years ago which was that that was what girlfriends were for - ever since he ran into the Zits cartoon that said "nothing says 'knuckledragger' like sexist expectations of your girlfriend" he has ceased to even try to tease his sister with such statements.) While having additional hands to fix meals is of course bonus, the point is to make them learn to be self sufficient. This summer's addition to the self-sufficiency plans is cooking.

It's working out great. When I said, ok, it's time - they both shrugged and said "OK". No fuss, no muss. I thought they might want to choose the menu, but that seems to be more than they want right now. I'm writing out recipes, leaving ingredients and instructions, and when asked, walking them through the instructions over the phone. I'm also coming home to meals not cooked by me.
I could get used to this.

7.9 flotilla

7.8 Foolishness

I did a very foolish thing this evening - I walked into the costume dept at the high school (K wanted me to admire her costumes for the play) and made the mistake of admitting I know my way around a sewing machine. (I couldn't help it - they were admiring the costume I made K two springs ago [n.b. has it really been that long?]).

I walked out with a skirt to hem up and another skirt to make.

Gotta learn to keep my mouth shut.

7.7 reading weekly

This week I've started a bunch of books, and I've read the last two chapters of a bunch of books - not much has been read from start to finish.

1. Venetia by Georgette Heyer - I started at the last three chapters, then read the middle, then read the beginning and the last four chapters. I suppose that's one way of reading a book.
2. The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey - yes I know, this was on last week's list. I read it again.

Not much else to add - I should have about 7 books on next week's list if I actually finish all the ones I'm in the middle of. I'm not sure why I'm having so much trouble with book monogamy, but there you go.

7.6 tango lilies

The tango lilies are in full bloom. I come out the front door (to my right from the angle at which I was taking this picture) and walk down the walk each morning, between this picture and yesterday's picture. I generally come flying out the door (mostly to keep cats from accompanying me), patter down the steps, and...
By the time I have rounded the corner, my steps have slowed drastically. I may be late for work, but I have to stop and admire and smell, and see what's new...
It always takes five minutes to get to the end of the walk these days.

7.5 front garden lilies

Last year I bought a couple of grab-bags of lilies and salted them in the front bed. I had almost forgotten I did this and was a little surprised when lilies started popping up everywhere this spring. They have filled in the bed nicely, along with the alyssum. I love the scent of alyssum and, having planted it two years in a row, now have no need to plant it again. All I have to do now is to recognize the seedlings when they start popping up and not treat them as weeds.

7.4 black raspberries

Behold the fruits of the garden, wrested even from the very gaping jaws of the wild turkey.
We always have wild raspberres at the edge of the property - the vines seem to enjoy the climate facing east, just at the perpendicular of the horizontal grassy lawn meeting the vertical of the woodland trees. I had been keeping a general eye on them for about for or five days - it seemed that they should be ripening any day now, but there never were any fully ripe ones.
Yesterday in the morning, Brandon raised a ruckus and I noticed a turkey strutting away, cautiously but without haste.
The mystery of the non-ripening berries is solved.

7.3 baby 3 bloom

The first baby bloomed! This is the first of the blooms on the six daylilies that Cathy sent me last year - five are of her own hybridization. I just love the colors on this one and I'm so pleased to have it.

7.2 bobbin 3

The third bobbin of the spring merino is done. I'll be glad to have it done, and yet, my spinning is so far ahead of my knitting in projects-worth of production, I have no idea when I will get around to knitting with it. I ought to stop spinning and concentrate on knitting, but the spinning helps my feet and ankles, so I keep on spinning. Perhaps I'll simply wind up with lots of yarn for Christmas presents.

7.1 square foot gardening book

square foot gardening book
Originally uploaded by zinlizzie

Well, Sylvia wins the mink-lined whatsit - I picked up a copy of this book last winter and I've got my squares all lined up. I'm not sure I'll have all my squares filled in this year, but maybe next.
The answer to Norma's question is that IF I have baby snapping turtles, they are under the zucchini seedlings in the bed not pictured the other day. I find myself strangely reluctant to plant too much in that bed.
I plan to encourage the squashes to lean over OFF the bed. This will preclude J's being able to properly mow around the beds, but he got over it the last time I had watermelon and pumpkin vines everywhere, so I expect he'll get over it this time, too.

6.30 reading weekly

This week's reading was a wild swerve away from last week's. While I am slowly making my way through Sea of Sorrows by Michelle West, I certainly have not been a one book woman this week.

1. Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
2. The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers
3. Madam Will You Talk by Mary Stewart
4. Wingarden by Elsie Lee
5. The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer

Old favorites, one and all. And a new book:

6. The Snow Queen by Mercedes Lackey

This is a new entry in her Five Hundred Kingdoms series; a set of fairy tales retold with a charming twist to the basic concept. In her introduction to this book, Ms. Lackey references Dorothy Sayers comment that mystery books are where the reader can know that the good will prevail and the evil get their comeuppance. This, of course, not always true in the modern mystery, but it is most of the time. The modern fantasy and the modern romance novels also fall into this category.
There are those who point out that this attitude sets up unreasonable expectations in the minds of the impressionable, that life will always be perfect. While this may be true for some people, I think that an grim insistence on complete realism in one's reading is a mistake. A little escapism is good for the soul, once in a while.
This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading books that are a bit grittier at times, and I have moved past the stage (long since) where I was deeply crushed by any book that didn't have a happy ending. I do certainly appreciate stories that allow all genders to be equally competant at solving problems, and Ms. Lackey's books fit that bill as well.