Mondaaaaaay.

As you can see, I took a picture of the armadillo that will be my nephew's gift. I think it came out really well. I did make a couple minor changes to the original; mainly, instead of casting off & making the head, body, and tail as separate pieces, I just did an extra round to change the number of stitches to match the next bit & did it all as one piece. I'm quite pleased with how it came out.


I'm also making decent progress on the sloth, or at least I would be if I could find the stupid cream yarn that I *know* I have somewhere. I've got a couple skeins that are sort of cream, however they just don't look right with the body color (the body is done in eyelash, the head in plain yarn). I'm sure it will turn up somewhere. If not, well I think I've got some cream fiber somewhere & I just might end up spinning my own yarn just so I can finish.

Thanksgiving seems to have been an omen of things to come. I went to the market today to pick up a few ingredients. I've got some acorn squash & sweet potatoes, and wanted some meat to go with it. I also wanted to make a Quiche Lorraine for tomorrow's breakfast & needed some Swiss cheese. I couldn't find any meat that was less than $3.99/pound, which I wasn't about to pay, except for some pork shoulder that had more fat than meat visible. No dice. OK, change of plans; I bought some cabbage & I'm cooking that up with some mango chicken sausage we had in the freezer (the sausage is too sweet to pair up with sweet potatoes & acorn squash).

Off to the cheese section to get the Swiss. The *only* Swiss cheese they have is the store brand at $6.49/pound. Seriously. $6.49/pound for freakin' Swiss cheese. I already had cheddar at home, so I did a recipe search when I got home & made a cheddar/bacon quiche instead. I'm getting good at these last minute menus.

Black Friday

Well, our Thanksgiving did not go according to plan. Ralph came down with a horrendous cold, which meant staying home so he didn't infect everyone at the open house/potluck. This also meant having to come up with an at-home Thanksgiving meal at the last minute. I think I did pretty well, all in all. I had already baked a cranberry pie (thank you, Lizard, for the recipe--we're already down to the last tiny slice!) in anticipation of the potluck, and had all the ingredients for a corn casserole as per my last post. A quick run to the market snagged us a turkey breast, the last jar of chicken gravy (and I only got that because I saw someone set it down amongst the cans of mushroom soup), and the fixings for a green bean casserole. A box of Stove Top isn't quite the same as mom's oyster stuffing recipe, but was definitely better than no stuffing at all. I used the last little bit of cranberries from the pie to make a small dish of cranberry sauce, plus already had some instant mashed potatoes at the house. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself, and we even had leftovers.


In more food news, today I made soup from a leftover roast chicken that Ralph had cooked on Wednesday. This is the first time I've ever made soup from a carcass and actually had it taste good. It helped that there was a lot of meat left on the bones. I seasoned it with black pepper, sage, thyme, and Better Than Bouillon, thickened the juice with cornstarch, then topped it off with Bisquick dumplings. It was so good I had two bowls of it (and four dumplings!). Plus there's something soothing about chicken & dumplings on a cold day like this. (OK, so 66 degrees isn't exactly freezing, however as a California native I get chilled at 70.)

Making slow but steady work on the sloth. I am remembering why I dislike knitting with eyelash yarn. I spend more time making sure the maximum number of eyelashes are on the right side of the fabric than I do actually knitting. Still, it's promising to be absolutely adorable when it's done so I'll just keep at it.

An old photo today, one which I think I may have posted in the past. Halitosis has some arthritis in her hocks, so I knit her these legwarmers ages ago. As you can see from the look on her face, she adores them & is sooo happy to wear them. I think the 10 seconds it took to take the pictures is the longest she's ever worn them.

End of the line

And so it ends. Today was the last day of my temp job. I plan to enjoy the holiday weekend, then back to the job search on Monday.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving. Ralph & I will be going to an open house/potluck at the home of our friends JM & KM. They've been restoring their home--a historic Victorian--and I'm excited about seeing the progress. Lizard sent me a recipe for cranberry pie, so I'll be making one of those, and of course also bringing a corn casserole. It wouldn't be a potluck without a corn caserole.



I made a second armadillo. The first one is so cute that I had to make another. The second one is dark grey with a black back (I still need to stitch on the back, but other than that it's finished) which I think is a little more "manly" so that's the one that's going to be gifted. I also started a sloth, which will be another gift. Hope it turns out as cute as the picture in the pattern.

Had to have a plumber in today. Tree roots in the main pipe leading from the house to the street. I checked out the company on the BBB website yesterday, and was impressed with their A+ rating/zero customer complaints. After today, I can see why they are rated so high. The guy got the pipe draining in less than an hour, but stayed for a full three routing it out more thoroughly. The cost for this 3-hour job? $149. Yes, you read that right. I couldn't believe it myself. If we ever need a plumber again, I know who we're going to call.

Lastly, we saw "Deathly Hallows" over the weekend. I loved it! I won't give anything away, though, in case there are some among the Teeming Millions who haven't seen it yet. I did feel that this movie more closely followed the book than any other except possibly "Sorcerer's Stone" and the kids have grown up to be quite amazing actors. And I really, really want to knit a pair of fingerless mitts like the ones Hermione wears!

Pain, family, and armadillo

Two week since I've posted. It's a wonder I have any followers left!

Poor Ralph threw his back out today. He's been unable to do much of anything other than lie flat on his back; virtually anything else (including taking a deep breath) makes him groan & shout out with pain. Luckily his jury duty got postponed so he doesn't have to worry about that this week. Looks like I might have to take tomorrow off work to bring him to the doctor, though, which kinda sucks since it's my first 40-hour week in over a month.

Last Saturday was Dad's birthday. We went to Lizard's place for a potluck lunch/dinner, and she had a surprise for him: both my brothers flew down from Washington state! Dad was really happy to see them; he hadn't a clue that they were going to be there. Lizard's friend Duh (whom we've known for over 40 years & is certainly considered to be family) was there with her husband Happy, and of course The Boy & The Girl attended too. The food was yummy (two kinds of enchilada, corn casserole, refried beans, chipsnsalsa, banana cupcakes & chocolate cake) and I think everyone had a good time.



Started a new knitting project on Friday, and finished it up today. It's a little armadillo (see photos), which will be a Christmas gift for one of my nephews. I don't think he reads this blog so I'm not spoiling the surprise :-) I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was to knit up. Even the sewing up wasn't too onerous, as everything except the back is worked in the round which eliminates seaming. The pattern included a link to a tutorial on making the eyes, and it's sooooo much easier than the way I usually do them. The yarn I used for the back was too thin, so I held it double which made it too thick & the shell came out a little too large. Still, I think it looks pretty good. He's designed in such a way that you can roll him up, just like a real armadillo. Definitely have to make one of these for myself.



So, with the armadillo and the pony, I've got two gifts taken care of (or should that be "two gifts, care of which has been taken"?) Need to go through the Ravelry patterns & find a suitable toy for the third child. I'm thinking maybe the sloth that I saw the other day. That would be different, and I do try to be different.