And in other news

Very little news today. I spoke to N & found out that the job I applied for last week has been filled. However, the company is thinking of hiring another person or two, and they are keeping me on the back burner (so to speak) for if and/or when that day arrives. In the meantime N is still "marketing" me (her word) and of course I'm still hitting the job websites & sending out resumes.

As you can see, I have not only finished the Weasley Twins, but actually got around to taking a picture of it. I'm really flummoxed, though. With the exception of Hermione, every single square has been knit on size 5 needles (I did her on 7s). With the exception of the Weasley Twins which has one Vanna's Choice yarn, every single square has been done exclusively with Plymouth Encore Worsted. So *why* are no two squares close enough in size that I can sew them together to make a pillow cover? Yes, I know I said I was going to knit backings for them. I even started a backing for Hermione. However, it is such dull work to knit row after row of stockinette without even a color change that I don't know when I'll get around to doing it; especially since I have so many more interesting projects calling my name.

Yesterday I baked an absolutely scrumptious citrus cake. The recipe can be found here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Glazed-Lemon-Bundt-Cake/Detail.aspx I didn't have any lemon extract so I used orange instead as that is what I had on hand. A lot of the glaze drips off the cake when you pour it on, so I moved it over a fresh sheet of waxed paper & poured the excess back over the cake; moved it onto the original waxed paper & poured the excess from the second sheet back over the cake; lather, rinse, repeat until virtually all of the glaze was used up. It made a nice, crunchy sugar coating over it. I just might have to have another slice for lunch. Um, I mean after lunch. Yeah, that's it, after lunch. . .

As the 4th of July gets closer, we've been hearing the pop of firecrackers more & more often. Poor Hali is a bundle of nerves; she hates popping sounds. One went off today and she came over to me for comfort, shaking so badly that I could literally hear her teeth chattering. We plan on visiting friends on the 4th, getting home before dark of course, but if they're being set off now I can only imagine what the actual holiday will be like. We intend to keep all the dogs in the house with the doors firmly shut & locked, running the fans & HEPA filter to act as white noise. That should help keep them from hearing the pops, and I'd rather clean up an accident in the house than put them outside and risk them managing to escape the yard in their attempts to get away from the bangs.

Did I mention that I finally got a library card? I've been getting a lot of reading done; six books in ten days, plus I started another one today. Mind you, they are very light reading--"cozy" mysteries rather than anything in depth. Very relaxing. Plus I can use the card at any & all of the libraries in the City, of which there are about ten or so. That should keep me in books for a while, even at the rate at which I am going through them.

Feeling good today

Goodness, it's been over a week since I've posted. Funny how now that I have lots of time to post, I hardly ever do it. If I'm not careful, I'll turn into Lizard.

Last Wednesday's job interview was rescheduled for today; I got back from it about 30 minutes ago. I feel really good about it. The job sounds very diverse, exciting, and challenging--in other words, right up my alley. I feel the interview went well. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Last Saturday i attended a World Wide Knit in Public Day event. I don't really like referring to it as a "Day" since this year it lasted from June 12 through June 20; it should really be "World Wide Knit in Public Week and a Day." I was originally going to attend one in El Dorado Park (sponsored by the same group that did the one I attended last year) but decided to give another group a chance. I didn't get a lot of knitting done--too busy yakking with everyone! It would have helped if I'd brought a different project, too. I'm working on a pair of lace socks which took more focus than I would have liked for a group event like this. However, the only other projects I have going right now are a small bird that's in the needs-to-be-stitched-together stage, the pony which is at the same point, and a new Harry Potter intarsia square (Snape this time; I finished the Weasley Twins but need to get a photo still). Stitching up is no fun, and intarsia takes even more focus than the lace socks.

Yesterday I took up an invitation from MC from Archery, meeting up with her & one of her friends whom I shall call Knitter C. Of course I brought the same sock project that requires focus on the pattern, so not much got done on them. It was a lot of fun chatting though, and MC bought me lunch which I felt was very kind of her. If I don't get a job soon, we'll probably meet up again some weekday. Knitter C would fit right in with our group of friends, being a gamer of both the role-playing and board varieties, a sci-fi fan, and book lover. She & I have read a lot of the same books, and she's got an old Rose is Rose collection that I would love to get my mitts on :-)

Today's photo is of a California sea hare, a type of gastropod found in shallow waters. We took this a couple weeks ago when we went to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands Preserve. Normally we don't see many sea hares, however on this particular visit there were dozens of them. I don't know if it was due to the time of day or time of year. We also saw lots of lizards, a few rabbits, and a nest with a trio of juvenile herons in it.

Working on the Weasleys

Wow! I'm making some good progress on the Fred & George square. On Friday, I was just at the top of Fred's chin (just where the light grey changes to dark; I'm assuming Fred is the one on the left), and look how far I am now. I just finished row 74 out of 111 (not including the border rows). Please ignore the cat barf on Fred's shoulder; it had already dried by the time I discovered it, and I can't wash the piece until it's off the needles. Luckily the yarn is machine washable.

We did our first big grocery shopping trip since I got laid off. We spent more than I had planned, however I can only think of one thing that we probably should not have bought. Plus, since we went to Costco, many of the items will last us a very long time, such as the ground beef (six 1-pound tubes for $15.99) and the huge bag of frozen blueberries. Combined with the other mini-shopping trips, we're averaging about $106/week on groceries. This is still less than what we were spending before, plus we're not eating out and that's a big savings right there.

Ironically, I think we are eating better now than we were before. Since I don't have to prep my lunch 7 hours in advance, I'll often just whip up a bananananananana smoothie in the early afternoon. Dessert is more likely to be a fruit cobbler (I made a fresh one today using some of the frozen blueberries) instead of cookies or chocolates. Normally a kielbasa will last us maybe two meals; this time, I cut it up in little pieces and mixed it with rice. We got two dinners out of it, plus I mixed some with scrambled eggs to make four breakfast burritos, and we've still got enough left for another pair of burritos. Tonight's dinner is chicken baked in the oven with potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic, seasoned with fresh rosemary (we have a rosemary plant in the backyard), garlic salt, and pepper. I added some bullion to the pot so the meat doesn't dry out. That's got to be healthier than eating in a restaurant as we normally would do on a weekend, plus there's enough chicken for at least two meals (more if I mix the leftovers with rice).

Lastly for today, I've got a real job interview lined up on Wednesday. It's a three month temp-to-hire position. I really hope I get it; even three months work will be helpful, plus if it becomes permanent that means the end of job hunting. I'm not counting on it, of course, but it's exciting to think about it. Especially since it's just a bit over five miles from home (for those new among the Teeming Millions, my old job was not quite fifty-seven miles away. Yes, that's one-way, not round-trip). However, I think it would be overly optimistic to expect to get a job this quickly. That won't stop me from trying, though!

Middle of the week already???

Wednesday already. It's been hard keeping track of the day since I lost my job (has it really been only two weeks? Has it really been two weeks already??) so yesterday I pulled out the day-to-day calendar I used to have on my desk. It's just a little thing, however I think it's important to keep on a work-type schedule so it's not such a shock when I do go back to work. It's a lot easier to do that if I know what day it is, LOL! I still get up between 5:00 & 5:30, still pack a lunch for Ralph, and still make a point to be showered & dressed by 6:30.

Today I baked some dog snacks. (Yeah, it's pretty sad when baking dog treats is the highlight of the morning.) I mashed up some leftover cooked potatoes and carrots, added some chicken that I knew we weren't going to eat, mixed it all together with flour, an egg, a bit of oil, and the last couple swallows of milk that I didn't finish at breakfast; then I rolled the dough up in little balls, smashed 'em flat, and baked them at 400 for about 20 minutes. The dogs love them and it's a money-saver, too; cheaper than buying dog treats, plus the leftovers didn't go to waste.

In other news, the person for whom I voted for City Council yesterday actually won. I think this makes the third time in my life as a Responsible Citizen that the person for whom I voted made it into office. I'm either doing something right or something wrong, I can't decide which. According to a news article I read, about 25% of voters registered in my town showed up at the polls. I realize it wasn't a Major Election, but that still seems like a poor turnout to me.

Oh, almost forgot! The flower in my last post is. . . a carrot! I'd never seen one in bloom before. I wonder if it will have seeds that I can plant next year?

Speaking of plants, I think we've gotten the last nectarines off the tree. There are still a few on there, however they are pretty much evenly divided between so ripe that they are rotting on the branch; hard as rocks; and perfectly ripe but full of fruit flies, ants, and/or bird bites. Still, we've used up 12 cups of sliced nectarines to make cobblers, plus have 6 cups in the freezer. That's much better than last year, where we got maybe four nectarines before the birds cleaned the tree.

We don't really have a garden this year. We planted one tomato plant which has small green tomatoes & some blossoms on it; one zucchini which is just starting to flower; and a basil plant. If nothing else, we'll have some nice pasta sauce come summertime.

I actually knit a few rows on my Fred & George intarsia square. I really need to get that finished. The fact that the cat barfed on it does NOT increase my motivation to work on it. Dumb cat. I also finished all the pieces for the pony & just need to sew it up & stuff it. I couldn't get the leg to not gap (see previous post) so I am using duplicate stitch to close up the holes.

Well, nothing else really going on today. Hopefully the weekend will be interesting enough to write about :-)

Boring Sunday

What a dull day this has been. The book I'm reading is not very interesting; good enough to read while eating lunch, not good enough to read for hours at a stretch. Spent waaaaay too much time playing computer games. Did a little job searching; not much new stuff posted on a weekend but I did find one that seemed worth sending out the ol' resume.

Also getting frustrated with my knitting. I'm making a pony, and just need to knit the hind legs before starting the seaming, sewing & stuffing. Halfway through the leg, there's a section where you do a "knit front and back" increase across the four center stitches for about 10 rows. No matter what I do, I end up with gaps (see photo; you need to click on it to enlarge in order to really see the gaps). I haven't had this problem with this type of increase before, and I've even tried using alternative increases. Still gapping. I think the problem might be the fact that there are no plain rows in between, so the multiple tensions on the stitches are pulling things askew. I've set it aside while I consider alterations to the pattern.

Right now I'm sitting at the computer with my back to the front door. The wood door is open & the security screen is shut, so there's light from the doorway shining on the wall in front of me. A few minutes ago, a couple shadows crossed the light as some people walked up to the door. I have no idea who they were, as the dogs started barking and the shadows vanished before I could even turn around. Really fierce, almost vicious barking, too--not at all like their usual "Mailman is coming to kill us all!" or "How dare you walk that dog in MY neighborhood!!??!!" barks. Anyway, I'm not expecting visitors & they wouldn't bark like that at anyone they know, so good girl Hali! Good girl Zoe!

Baked some cookies today. I *knew* that 10 minutes per batch was too long, but foolishly followed the recipe. Only burned the first batch, baking all the others for only 7 minutes. Even the burned ones are pretty good.



Here's a little quiz for you. Take a look at the photo on the left. That's a flower blooming on one of our backyard plants. Can you identify it? Answer will be in the next blog post :-)

Went to a family potluck at Lizard's yesterday. The Girl was there, but The Boy had to work. Dad & his girlfriend were there of course, and Duh with her new husband Happy. We brought nectarine cobbler & vanilla ice cream. There was also chicken, shrimp cocktail, chips, stuffed mushrooms, cole slaw, potato salad, and mashed potatoes with gravy. Oh, and green beans but I didn't have any of those. Lots of talk & lots of laughing. I think everyone had a good time.

I could get used to this

You know, if it weren't for that pesky mortgage payment, I could soooo get used to being at home. I've been able to cook real dinners, the laundry is under control, I was able to slice & freeze an additional 8 cups of nectarines (normally the birds eat them before we have a chance to pick the fruit off the tree), the house is relatively tidy, there's a fresh loaf of banana bread cooling on the dining room table, and I was even able to reorganize the linen cupboard which was badly needed. Even lunch tastes better, because I eat the sandwich as soon as it's made instead of after it sat in my lunch bag for seven hours.

I've gotten some knitting done, too. I finished the octopus juggling balls for Ralph (today's pic), and have cast on for a rather cartoon-ish looking pony. I even did a few rows on Fred & George, which has been on the UFO pile for some time now.

In job search news, I've signed up with a couple temp agencies & sent out a few resumes. I also signed on with a couple online job search websites. Tomorrow I interview with one of the temp agencies and hopefully with a prospective temp-to-hire employer after that. This last bit isn't confirmed yet, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Yesterday I took my assessments at the first temp agency. Did better than I expected at PowerPoint (76% correct, and I've never used that program before) and typing (80 WPM!!) and not as well as I expected at Word & Excel. I was great with the functions I used at work all the time, however I had no idea there were so many functions I'd never used before. Still, I scored pretty highly on everything and I'm sure that can only be for the good.

Going to a family potluck on Saturday afternoon. I plan on bringing nectarine cobbler. Wonder if we should pick up some vanilla so-called iced cream to go with it? It's good on its own, but even better with so-called iced cream. Hmmmm.

Bits & pieces for 5/30/10

The last couple days have been pretty nice. Yesterday we went to the archery range. There were no classes because of the holiday weekend; we did get there early though so no trouble finding an available butt. Afterward we were going to attend the craft fair at the nature center. Well, we should watch the news more often I guess; apparently a murderer stashed some body parts there and the whole area was closed for the police investigation. No lie. On the drive home we had a call from our friends PH2 & MH2, and we ended up meeting with them to go see Shrek 3 (a bit of a splurge for us since we don't really need to be spending money right now) and afterward we had a nice BBQ at the house. PH2 cooked up a gorgeous London broil, I had a fresh nectarine cobbler prepped for dessert, and for the side dish I heated up some of Trader Joe's amazing fire roasted vegetables with balsamic vinegar. A good time was had by all.

Shrek 3 was better than I expected it to be; sequels, IMHO, rarely live up to the first movie & this one just didn't catch my eye. Plus, the basic storyline has been done many times before. I am pleased to report that this movie is worth going to see. I was also pleased by the behavior of the children in the theater. While I object highly to little kids at PG-13 or higher rated movies, I expect them to be present at a family film such as this, and I expect some of them to be boisterous. They *are* kids after all. However, only one child made any noise (other than appropriate laughter, etc. as the film warranted) and even that wasn't bad. He was obviously frightened by one scene & cried, and the mother was able to soothe him pretty quickly. If I had been able to pinpoint where they were sitting, I'd have both thanked & congratulated her after the show.

We're supposed to be going to a potluck today. I made a double-size nectarine cobbler to take (that's today's photo); hope people like it. Well, I'm not too worried about that actually. The one I made for just Ralph & me is nearly gone, and the fresh one I made yesterday for dinner with our friends was pretty much devoured as well. And if they don't like it, I'll freeze the leftovers for us to enjoy when summer is over and the tree is no longer producing fruit. Right now the ground is covered with dropped nectarines, I've picked enough to have 10 cups of sliced fruit [all but 2 cups have been made into cobbler; the balance is in the freezer], and there is so much fruit still on the tree that I don't see how we can use it all. I'll have to just freeze them as they ripen so they don't go to waste.

I also made a batch of fresh lemonade today. I love having a lemon tree in the yard :-)

Some good, some not so much

What a day. Yesterday I called to make an appointment with the plumber; the scheduler said the repairman would be at the house between 8:30 and 10:30. I said that wouldn't work as I had an appointment at 9:30, so she changed it to noon. Sure enough, the plumber showed up at 8:20. Luckily it didn't take long to make the repair and I made it to my 9:30 appointment at the temp agency with no trouble.

Well, I wouldn't say no trouble. The business center where they are located has about a dozen identical buildings. I found the right one, went inside, and according to the directory the temp agency entrance was located on the outside of the building facing the airport. I went all the way through the building and out the back, only to discover the building is at an angle; this means that there are two sides to the building that could be said to face the airport. Hmmm. Decided to go left. This was, of course, the wrong way. Went back around the building and finally found the entrance. Afterward when I left, I discovered that the entrance was just around the corner from where I had gone in originally. Sigh.

The interview at the agency went well. I got some very good tips on spiffing up my resume & presenting myself to potential employers, and my account manager already has a job in mind for me to interview for. I worked on my resume quite a bit when I got home. The account manager, whom I shall call D, sent me some online assessment tests. Ugh. The program appears to be entirely incompatible with our computer, so I have to go back on Tuesday & take the assessments there.

I also submitted a resume via Monster. Later I felt I hadn't really done enough job-search-wise today, so tried to log back on. Couldn't do it. It wouldn't accept my password, wouldn't reset my password when I submitted the request, just not working right at all. Grrr.

On the plus side, the gas guy came this afternoon and we have hot water & a functioning stove again! I made a nectarine cobbler in celebration & have a potato/sausage casserole baking for dinner.

sigh

Well, as if all the stuff with the furnace & the flooding weren't craptastic enough, as of 3:30 this afternoon I have joined the ranks of the unemployed. Yup, they have eliminated my position at the company and I, along with quite a few others, have been laid off. Good thing we haven't signed any contracts to get the furnace work done. Tomorrow I sign up for unemployment, update my resume, and start the job search. In the meantime, we're just going to have the gas pipe leading to the furnace capped off so we can have the gas turned back on. Hopefully that won't cost a whole lot.

Sadly, this all kinda overshadows the fact that I got flirted with at Carl's Jr. yesterday. Ah, well.

Waste of a perfectly good day

As the Teeming Millions know, we had a gas leak. We called the gas company to come out on Saturday, and they confirmed we not only had a leak, but it was a big one & coming from the floor furnace. Saturday afternoon (evening really, it was nearly 5:00) I called a plumber. The guy answering the phone took all the info & said someone would be out Monday morning between 9:00 & 11:00.

I e-mailed my boss to let him know I'd be late & why. At 11:30 this morning, no one had shown up so I called the plumber. No record of my call, no record of the appointment. Grrrr! The guy said he'd call me back, which he did in a few minutes saying there was a plumber in the area who was just finishing up a job & would be here "shortly." Two hours later I call again to find out when this guy is going to show up. I'm told "Not more than 15 minutes." 25 minutes later he finally arrived.

So, he takes a look at the furnace, has his assistant go under the house to take pictures, and long story short the furnace is toast AND the waterline to the icemaker is spraying like a fountain. I shut the water off to that of course, and now we need to decide if we're going to get a new floor furnace, or spring for central heating. I didn't get pricing on the latter so we'll have to look into that. Ralph is willing to wait another week if necessary so we can research. It's awkward not being able to cook, or wash dishes, or run the clothes dryer (luckily we can still do cold-water washes & hang the laundry on the clothesline), not to mention showering in the trailer, but it'll be worth it knowing that we did our research & made an informed decision.

I did get some knitting done at least. I decided to go ahead & make the octopus juggling balls; started them last week & as of this evening now have one completely done & one partially done. I need to knit 10 more tentacles & knit them together into body pieces, one more head/mantle piece, then graft everything together. So, not quite halfway there I would say.

Pizza for dinner tonight. Man, I'll be glad when I can cook again. OK, technically I *could* cook on the trailer stove, but it's really not set up for anything fancy. The oven doesn't heat evenly (the top is burned before the bottom is cooked) & the stove area is small; hard to prep the food beforehand.

Had some excitement this morning, though. I was sitting in my green chair when suddenly the cat came tearing full-speed across the room. It took me a second to realize he was chasing a bird! I hustled to get all the pets locked up (not an easy task as they all were far more interested in pouncing on the bird than in going into the hallway) & then tried to catch the poor sparrow. I probably could have caught it a lot faster if I had remembered to close the bedroom door; then it couldn't have kept hiding under the bed. Eventually it flew back into the dining room & landed on the window shade. I was able to catch it in the large fish net we use on the aquarium and took it outside. When I opened the net the bird lay so limp and still I thought it had died from all the adrenaline, but then whoosh! It flew away so fast it made me jump. Whew!

And it's Friday again

Wednesday night Ralph, Mom'L & I went to George's for dinner. We even remembered to tell the hostess the special "What Would George Say?" phrase, which gives you a free dip appetizer (Wednesdays only). We'd already decided on the kalamata olive spread & pita bread when the waitress asked us how we'd like our lamb cooked. Turns out we were one of the first four parties to give the special phrase, which for that night only upgraded our free appetizer to the lamb chops. Yum!

After dinner, Mom'L said she thought we might have a gas leak as she could smell gas near the front door. Ralph & I thought we could maybe smell it, too, so to be on the safe side Ralph shut off the gas. This morning I got the shocking reminder that our hot water heater runs on gas. Fastest shower I've ever taken. I'm glad my hair is so short since that means I can wash it lickety-split & not have to spend a lot of time rinsing out the shampoo.

I finally finished Ralph's birthday socks. I probably should have done one more pattern repeat but frankly I am sick of looking at the things. Now I need to find a project to bring to work. I'm still only halfway through Fred & George (today's pic), however I want something that requires less focus since I'm still working with MH on her knitting. (She's picked out the pattern for her scarf & is ready to swatch for it.) Perhaps I'll use leftover sock yarns to make a trio of octopi for Ralph to use as juggling balls.

First project :-)

Look! MH finished her first project. Isn't it adorable? I think it turned out really well. Hard to believe she's only been knitting for a fortnight. Just darling.

Had a cool moment on the way home from work today. I was driving down the freeway through some foothills near Diamond Bar, and just happened to glance out the side window. There on the hillside were a doe & two fawns leaping through the dry grasses. I've seen deer in California before, but never down this far. Totally a SQUEEE! moment.

I think Ralph had a good birthday yesterday. He liked his presents (two books from his Amazon wishlist, & a DVD of "Avatar"), and couldn't wait until dinner for his birthday cake (banana cake [from scratch] with chocolate icing & pecans) so we cut into it after breakfast. He decided he didn't want to go to the arboretum after all. We ended up getting some new fish & plants as he really wanted to update the aquarium, and I worked on his birthday socks. With any luck I'll have those done by the end of the week. I've reached the point where no matter how much I knit, they don't seem to get any longer.


I also asked him several times what he wanted for dinner, and he kept saying, "I thought I already had my birthday dinner" (referring to Sunday's meal of pork chop & potato casserole--another new recipe for me and it came out fabulous IMHO). Finally he decided on steak, mushrooms & asparagus, and as he is the better chef when it comes to steak he ended up cooking his own birthday dinner. I did at least prep the asparagus & chopped up some garlic to go with the mushrooms.

Been trying to find a day when assorted family members can get together for dinner. Not working out so well. Weeknights are out since I get home from work so late (and go to bed so early). The Boy and The Girl are busy Memorial Weekend, and the weekend after that. I'm busy on the 12th & Lizard is busy on the 13th. No feedback at all from Dad. Dad's Girl will only be out from the middle of next week until approximately Father's Day (that's June 20 for those among the Teeming Millions who may live somewhere other than the US) so I'm hoping we can all get together before she leaves.

Thoughts on May 15

OK, so I still don't have a picture of my new Faire outfit. I'll get one eventually, and one of Ralph's new outfit too. Yes, he bought himself a set of peasants, too. It's nice to have a choice of outfits & extremely nice to have something that doesn't weigh a ton.

MH's knitting is coming along really well. I've got her working on her first "real" project, one of those bunnies made by folding & sewing a knitted square. She promised it would be done when I get back to work on Tuesday. Although, I did remember last night that I didn't show her how to whipstitch. Oh, well, she's a smart lady & I'm sure she can figure out simple sewing like that. Which reminds me, normally we knit at one of the round tables in the break room, and MR made a comment about our "knitting circle." Later I told him he had it wrong--we were the "Knits of the Round Table."

Monday is Ralph's birthday. I've got to find time to wrap his prezzinks, and figure out a nice birthday dinner for him. I'm taking the day off from work (as is he) so it doesn't have to be something that cooks in 45 minutes or less as I normally aim for on a work night. I also need to find time to finish knitting his birthday socks. I've turned the heel on one & am working on the other. I *might* get them done on time, if I can tear myself away from computer & books.

Speaking of books, I'm reading a pretty good one right now. It's called "Street Gang." It's the history of Sesame Street, and includes a lot of background on the people behind it. It's amazing how long it took for the show to go from first thoughts to actually being on the air, and how many people & shows influenced it (both on what to do and what not to do). I mean, it's Sesame Street, what could be more obvious? But there was resistance and struggles--for example, when they finally went on the air, Mississippi banned the show on the grounds that people weren't ready to see black children & white children playing together. Really interesting. It's also an appropriate read, since tomorrow will be the 20th anniversary of Jim Henson's death.

And speaking of tomorrow, it's also the 12th anniversary of Ralph's & my first date. Amazing that we've been together this long, and we still aren't sick of each other, LOL.

Well, Ralph wants to take Hali for a walk, so I guess I'd better get off the computer & get ready to go with them.

Ironman

Last night we went to see the 7:40 showing of Clash of the Titans. The ticket seller said the next available show was at 9:00 for 3-D. We said we didn't want 3-D, and she said, "Oh. Then the next show is at 10:30." Ralph started to walk away, but I asked "What happened to the 7:40 show?" The clerk hemmed & hawed, then eventually called the manager over. Turned out they had canceled the 7:40 showing. To make up for it, she comped us into the movie of our choice, so we picked Ironman 2, which we also wanted to see.

Ironman was pretty good. I liked the original better, which I find is often the case with sequels (notable exception: Empire Strikes Back is the best of the "Star Wars" trilogy IMHO). It was a little frustrating that at a key, exciting point right before the climax of the movie the emergency lights came on & the building was evacuated. I was surprised by how calm & orderly everyone was, although there was a bit of grumbling. Turned out to be a false alarm and they let everyone back into the theater after about 5 minutes. Unfortunately, they apparently kept the projectors running so we missed a pretty important bit. We were able to figure out what happened; still, it would have been nice to have seen it. On the other hand, we saw it for free so I ought not to complain.

Tomorrow we perform for "Oedipus Rex" at the Renaissance Faire. I do hope one or two other musicians show up.

Lastly, today's photo is one the DB sent me of Zoey (the dog formerly known as Frumple). She's all sleepy because she's just come home from being spayed. Such a sweet little girl.

Oh! Not lastly, because I forgot to mention how well MH is coming along with her knitting. She was off work on Tuesday, and not available at lunch on Wednesday, and our "classes" keep getting interrupted by other people, so after maybe a grand total of 2 hours actual lessons she can cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. Her "homework" for the weekend is to knit a stockinette square, then when it's done I'll show her how to fold, sew, and stuff it to turn it into a little bunny.

A good weekend

OK, this is an old picture & I think I've probably used it before, however I don't have anything new so y'all will have to deal with it :-)

Had a really nice weekend. Saturday I went & bought some needles & yarn for MH at work, who wants to learn how to knit. More on that later. I also got two books at Borders and spent a lovely afternoon reading "Corpse on the Cob," the latest in the Ophelia Grey series. Ralph went out for a guys night watching boxing & drinking beer in the evening which left me to brainsuck, read, knit, and eat spaghetti to my heart's content.

Sunday was the rehearsal for Oedipus Rex, a musical/comedy version of the classic Greek tragedy, being performed by some friends of ours at the Renaissance Faire. This meant of course spending a good part of the day at Faire, and for the first time in I can't remember when I actually enjoyed myself. Bought a new Faire outfit consisting of what's called an "Irish", which is a sort of short bodice with an open-fronted skirt attached, and a yellow underskirt. The Irish is grey. I'll get pictures of it next weekend. The reasoning for the new outfit is twofold: one, my middle-class outfit, while beautiful, is hot and very heavy (about five pounds, if our scale is accurate), and two, the group with which we are gatelisted is St. Helena's, which is the guild of peasants & my middle-class outfit wasn't really appropriate.

Getting there early meant in addition to shopping time we were able to take in a show, a rather good magician that we've seen before but always enjoy. He even had a new trick to his act which was a pleasant surprise. While watching, we had yummy meat pies & split a large scone covered with fresh strawberries & whipped cream from one of our favorite food vendors. Later we also had some incredible bruschetta from the Italian vendor, with garlic, red onion, tomatoes, feta cheese, fresh basil, vinegar, and parsley all piled high on what was basically Texas toast. Sooooo good.

The rehearsal itself was great fun, too. Ralph & I play music for the show, Ralph doing the bass line on his sackbut & I play a harmony line on my recorder. Much to our surprise, we are the ONLY musicians for the show; guess no one else was available. It worked out pretty well since the actors sing the melody line.

As mentioned earlier, MH at work wants to learn to knit. Yesterday I gave her her first few lessons during breaks & lunch. She's a quick learner; I only had to show her the moves to cast on twice before she could do them on her own, and by the end of her second row (20 stitches across) no longer needed coaching. She said she was going to work on it today while waiting for her doctor's appointment. Only her second day and already knitting in public!

Nothing of note today, other than the pizza I made for dinner, or rather home-assembled for dinner. Boboli bread topped with the sauce that comes with it, grated mozzarella & Parmesan, and lots of pepperoni. Took about the same amount of time as waiting for delivery pizza, and unlike delivery was piping hot when we sat down to eat it.

Food, glorious foooood

I have spent most of the weekend cooking. Yesterday I baked a lemon meringue pie, which turned out fabulous; made a baked cauliflower casserole; then took those to my dad's house where I finished off the meal by cooking the last of the salmon fillets. I left most of the leftovers with Dad so he could have them for dinner tonight. I brought home a little bit of the cauliflower and he got the rest. There wasn't a lot of fish although he did get the entire half of a lemon pie so that makes up for it.

Today I baked a half-recipe of baklava (didn't have enough phyllo for a whole batch, and the market was out) & put half of it in the freezer; a batch of putanessca sauce which I divided into two containers & froze that, too; a zucchini casserole; and I've got chicken breasts with potatoes, garlic, carrots, onions, celery, and green onions with a little broth added in the oven now. I plan on serving half the chicken for dinner tonight, and using the other half tomorrow to make a BBQ chicken pizza. Oh, fie, I just realized I didn't put any salt or pepper in with the chicken. Oh, well, we can put it on after it's cooked.

Haven't done a lot of knitting lately. I have several WIPs on the needles & just don't feel much like working on any of them. And, of course, that always makes me want to cast on a new project. Sigh. Just need to buckle down & finish what I've started. Maybe one more game of Bubble Town first. . .

A few things

Not a lot to talk about today. Last Thursday I stopped at a fast food place near my work. They were having a free fries promotion the following day, and I joked w/the clerk about them celebrating my birthday. Well, I went to the same place yesterday, and the clerk remembered about it being my birthday & gave me the employee discount on my meal. I told her she didn't have to do that but she insisted. Awfully nice, I thought.

On the way out, I saw a school bus, with students on it, that had been pulled over by a cop. I have no idea why it was pulled over, and all I could think was that a) the kids would be talking about it all day and b) that bus driver could be in a lot of trouble. I can't think of any reason for it to have been pulled over that does not bode poorly for the driver.

Lost dogs seem to be going around. KR at work sent out an e-mail; a friend of hers found a dog & is trying to find a home for it. I was a little surprised that she included me on it since I just spent nearly a month trying to find a home for Frumple/Zoey. Hope they find a place for the little guy.

Had one of the salespeople yesterday ask if I was going to be in this morning, then added "You can notarize some things for me." I told her no, I couldn't, my notary commission has expired, and at the same time was thinking, "Oh, CAN I?" I mean, she didn't ask, just informed me that I could do this. I don't think she meant to be rude, even though it really came off that way. Which reminds me, I need to either renew my commission or turn in my journal. I already destroyed the stamp.

Better picture of little Zoey

OK, that downloaded properly this time :-)

Just a quick pic

DB sent me a picture of Frumple sleeping on their bed. Or I should say Zoey, since that is what they have named her. I think it's pretty weird, them picking that name when we have a dog named Zoe too (although the spelling is different). And no, they didn't know we had a dog named Zoe. As you can see, she is already comfortable in her new home ;-)

Edited to add: Darn, the picture came out so small you can't really see her. I'll have to try for a better download. . .

Hooray!

Frumple has a new home! One of our sales agents, DB, has been looking for a new dog. We drove to her work in Palm Springs (a mere 110 miles away) so she could meet Frumple, then we all went to her house so the dog could meet her dog. All went quite well, so DB is going to keep her for a trial basis, and if it does not work out she will be responsible for finding a good home. I think it will work, though, even though DB's dog is much smaller than Frumpy. They got along nicely, and Frumple was very gentle with the little dog. Well worth the drive, and a weight off my mind knowing she's in a good place.