Stuff for today

Well, as you can see, our nectarine tree is in bloom. Provided we can keep the birds from eating them all we should have a pretty good crop. Nectarine cobbler is definitely in our future :-)

Things are looking up in the job market, I hope. I don't want to go into any details just yet--don't want to jinx things!--but please do send good mojo my way if you are so inclined.

I'm trying a new recipe from the Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: chicken & ham pie. I bought a whole chicken & cut it into pieces since it was a lot less expensive than buying it pre-cut. I will never do this again. Cutting up a whole chicken is DISGUSTING, especially when you have to cut through bone. Yuck. It's well worth the extra money to not have to do that.

I'm also making another steamed chocolate pudding, which I fear may be a Fail since for some reason, even though it says to cook it for 3 hours, I set the timer for 2-1/2 which is the cook time for the treacle pudding. I didn't realize the error until I tried to turn it out onto a plate after cooling. Mostly cooked pudding remained in the bowl, and a pile of chocolatey goo ended up on the plate. Sigh. I scraped it back into the bowl & am boiling it for another 45 minutes (I'm adding some extra cook time to get it back up to temperature), which I hope will salvage it. I've been craving this all week & it would be a shame if it's not edible.

Last weekend Ralph & I went to a Dickens Festival in Riverside. It was OK, but not as much fun as I'd hoped. We did enjoy watching Jeffrey the Juggler (who was a friend of Ralph's years ago at Ren Faire), and the costumes were lovely. I also liked the musicians. But the dealer area was kind of small, and the play we started to watch was both dull & difficult to hear (the microphones didn't seem to be working, and the cast was relying on them rather than projecting). I think my favorite part was playing some of the children't games. Ralph skunked me at jacks, which I should have anticipated since he is also a juggler. There was also a game there called "Graces" which consists of using two sticks to toss & catch a hoop. I did better at that than I expected. Still, it was a free event and I enjoyed it enough to be interested in going again next year.

While we were there, we also wandered through an antique store & found a bunch of Happy Hollisters books. If I'd had the money I'd have bought several of them, since I know I'm missing quite a few of the titles they had there, such as "Ghost Horse Mystery," "Monster Mystery," and "Swiss Echo Mystery." Ah, well, perhaps when I do have the money they'll still be available. They were pretty well hidden so perhaps I'll be lucky.

I finished the pair of socks I was working on. Since each ball of yarn was enough to knit a full pair, I've got enough left to make another pair. I've already cast them on & am halfway through (just finished turning the heels this afternoon). I'm using a slip-stitch pattern, almost mind-numbingly easy and yet extremely attractive if I do say so myself. I'll have to post pics--which reminds me, I *still* need to post photos of the Bloody Stupid Johnson hat, especially now that I've made two of them.

Wake up, cousin! We're going to the zoo!

Today Ralph & I spent about 3 hours at the LA County Zoo. For the most part, we had a good time. There were only two downers: the elephant was rocking & looking most unhappy (a little online research tells me that this behavior is only seen in captive elephants and is probably stress-related), and the orangutans looked very sad and bored. The rest of the trip was fun. The meerkats were adorable, of course. Lots of interesting birds--my favorite, I think, was the Andean Condor although we were not positioned well enough to get a picture. Ralph got some pretty good photos of a wallaby, however I shall refrain from posting them since it's really quite obvious that this was a male. Really obvious. I was especially pleased that we got a good view of the tiger. I think this is the first time I've ever seen one, since every other time I've been to a zoological park they've been hiding in the shady grass.



Haven't been doing much knitting. Instead, way too much time has been spent on the computer (oh, look, I'm on it again!), mostly on Ravelry but also playing games. I really need to cut down on that, especially if I ever expect to get those socks finished.

Last night we watched "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time." Sadly, that's two hours of my life that I won't get back. Bad acting, stilted dialogue, way too much reliance on the characters telling you the story rather than the story being played out, and for the love of Bob, WHY does every person in Ancient Persia speak with a contemporary British accent? Thank goodness I had some crossword puzzles on which to work or I'd have been totally bored.

Sleeeeeepy

While 49 of the 50 United States have snow on the ground, I'm ready to take a nap. Why? Because I lay outside in the sun for about 30 minutes in my shorts, and now I'm all warm & sleepy. Some of my Ravelry friends are talking about 13" of snow, and freezing temperatures, and here I am with this lovely, lovely weather.



I've been doing a lot of cooking, as I'm sure you have all figured out by now. Today's picture is of last night's roast chicken, which I served with onion-garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, and peas. No, it's not burned; those dark patches are the herbs showing through the skin. Dessert was a bit of the Steamed Chocolate Pudding; not the one in the January 8 post, as that was completely devoured by January 10, but the second one that I made on January 11. I polished off the last bit of it this morning. I think I need to cut down on the desserts so I won't be making another one for a while. The chicken leftovers are going to be turned into stew tomorrow.

Kind of a silly thing happened a few minutes ago. I was sitting here in the living room when a car drove past the house. A man in the car was laughing the entire time, so loudly that I could hear his laughter better than I could hear the sound of the car. Got a great Doppler effect. I certainly would like to know what was so funny, though :-)

My new socks are coming along nicely. I've done the leg & heel portion on both of them, and the gusset on one. I was worried that they were going to be too tight, but I tried one on today & now I think they might turn out a little bit too loose. Ah, well, I'm not too worried about it. I wanted to make them because they are unusual, and if they don't fit it isn't the end of the world. I'm thinking of maybe entering them in the County Fair, although every year I think about entering the Fair and have never gotten around to really doing it. But hey, it could happen!

Condensation!

Our house is wet. The archway separating the dining room from the living room was dripping water onto the floor before we wiped it down. The windows are quite steamed over. The bathroom mirror is fogged. What could possibly have caused this?

Dense and Fudgy Steamed Chocolate Pudding. Yup. The whole house is soggy because I decided to cook. But ya see, I had some issues when I made the Treacle Pudding, because the pot was really too small which made it very difficult to remove the steaming hot bowl, and the only thing I have that's any bigger is my roasting pan. You know, the kind you use to make a turkey. This thing was boiling away on the stove (taking up two burners) for three hours, during which time I had to add a total of six quarts (!!) of additional water as it boiled. That is a lot of moisture to add to a 1,000 sf house.



Ahhh, but it was worth it. It came out a little soggy; I put the lid on the pot & I don't think I was supposed to do that. It tastes very much like a gooey, slightly underbaked brownie. Ralph ate two pieces of it in rapid succession. I'm thinking of having another piece now, but will show a *little* restraint and wait until after dinner. I tell you, this Harry Potter cookbook is the best!!!



I've spent most of the past 2 days knitting and watching Mythbusters on Netflix. I finally took a picture today of the socks in progress. I know they don't look much like socks yet, but they will once I start working on the gussets. I really like how the colors look together.

Harry Potter Cookbook

As some of you know, Ralph bought me The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook for Christmas. (Actually, I found out yesterday that there are two books with this title; I got the one with the purple cover). I was completely jazzed about it and couldn't wait to try some of the recipes. Now that I've made some--I am even MORE jazzed about it. Entree-wise, my favorite so far is the Breaded Pork Chops, with the Herby Roast Chicken a close second. Ralph likes Molly's Meatballs with Onion Sauce best, and I have to admit those are very good too. A couple days ago I made the Treacle Pudding (see picture) which Ralph & I both love. It was just OK the first day, but after it had "aged" overnight, WOW!! There's just barely enough left for our dessert tonight. I'm hoping to find bittersweet chocolate somewhere so I can make the Steamed Chocolate Pudding this weekend. It's also used in the Dark Chocolate Truffles so you can see it's very important that I find some.

Knitting-wise, I'm ready to pick up the stitches for the gusset in the first sock. I've put that one aside for now & am casting on for the second one. I do prefer to work on both socks at the same time to avoid "second sock syndrome," but that hasn't been feasible with this one because of the bobbins. I didn't want to load up 20 bobbins & then have leftover bits on them when the socks are done. I really need to get a picture of the one in progress, though.

Had one nibble at my resume during the week, but nothing definite at this point. I've got those same mixed-feelings about it all. I like being home. It means real dinners instead of fast-food or whatever can be thrown together; the dogs can stay indoors when it's cold or rainy; I can get the chores & errands done so the weekend is free to do fun things. Ralph likes me to be home for the same reasons. BUT. We just can't *quite* afford for me to not be working. A part-time job would be great, or even a series of temp positions would work out. Oh, well, as the old TV theme says, "we'll just take life as it comes, one day at a time." Hmm, wonder if I could find that on Netflix?




I got rather grossed out at the grocery store the other day. The bagger at the next checkstand over thoroughly wiped his nose on the palm of his hand & then went back to bagging groceries. YUCK! From where I stood it looked like his nose was really runny, too; his mustache looked wet. ICK ICK ICK. I kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn't come over to bag at the checkstand where I was. There was no way I was going to let him touch the lettuce I was buying, even if I had to say, "I'm sorry, but I saw you wipe your nose with your hand, and I don't want snot on my salad." Luckily he stayed put. I probably should have told him to go wash.

The second picture today is from the Christmas parade last month. It shows up a lot better if you click on it to enlarge. Isn't that just the coolest cop car ever?

First post of 2011

Man, I really need to start taking more pictures. Today's photo is from the Mt. Baldy trip we took last March. I just don't have much recent stuff that isn't already posted.

Sadly, my temp to hire position has fallen through after one month. The company didn't have as much business set up for January as they had anticipated so several of us (including some full-time staff) were let go. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I am glad for the experience, and who knows? Maybe they will get busy again & remember me.

I have made several of the recipes from my Harry Potter cookbook. I really like the Herby Chicken a lot; the skin comes out nice & crisp, and since it's got butter under the skin you don't really need to baste it. The Onion-Garlic Mashed Potatoes that go with it I wasn't so impressed with. The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, and the next time I make it I'll use butter & milk instead. I think that will make a big difference. I didn't care much for the Glazed Carrots although Ralph did like them. However, I don't believe that the recipe itself is poor; I think the issue was 1) I used "lite" corn syrup instead of regular since that's all they had in the store; and 2) I didn't cut the carrots thin enough so they were too crunchy for my liking. I will definitely give these another chance. Today I made Molly's Meatballs with Onion Sauce, and these I give two thumbs up! When I was making them I was dubious about the large quantity of onion (a whole one in the meatballs and another in the sauce), however it really is the right amount. Soooo good.

Yesterday was our 12th wedding anniversary. We didn't buy gifts for each other, but we did have a very pleasant weekend together. We saw "Tron: Legacy" on Saturday. When we got out of the theater, Ralph mentioned it was 3:00 o'clock. I said, "3:00 o'clock . . . isn't that when we were supposed to be at J & K's for the potluck?" Ralph said a Bad Word & we headed home to quickly make a corn casserole. We were quite late but no one seemed to mind; we arrived with the casserole just as people were thinking about having seconds of the meal so that was OK. We talked & ate & watched the re-run of the Rose Parade and basically a good time was had by all.

Yesterday Ralph needed to get some rear view mirror adhesive, so we went & picked that up, then sat in the truck listening to the rain, drinking hot chocolate and reading (him)/knitting (me) while we decided where to go for an early dinner/late lunch. We picked a Moroccan place in San Pedro, but alas we got there long before they opened. After driving around a bit we decided to eat at a British pub. Good choice, very good choice. The meal began with marinated mushrooms, and individual Yorkshire puddings with beef & horseradish sauce. Then we both chose steak pies (his with mushrooms, mine with kidney) and we finished it up with a lovely bread pudding which was complementary since it was our anniversary. Naturally I picked out the raisins since those are An Abomination Unto Nuggin.

Right now I am snuggled up under this wonderful electric blanket Ralph bought for me. It's just the right size for one person. He got one for himself, too. They were a bit pricey but I suspect they'll save us a lot of money when compared to running the space heaters all the time.

Winding down the year

Dear Rain--yes, I know you are good for the grass. And normally I like a little rainy weather. But this is getting ridiculous. You were here in force for the whole week leading up to Christmas, and here you are again. Now, I do appreciate the fact that you went away for the holiday, really I do. It's just that I'd like to have some dry weather for more than just three days. Thank you.

I got a real kick out of the last two entries on hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com. I suspect I'll be getting the giggles at every Kenny Loggins song for a long time to come, and the post about moving with the dogs had me laughing 'til I cried. I wish I could write a blog that great, but alas this is what y'all are stuck with. You'll just have to go read hers for the big laughs.

Speaking of laughs, I got a chuckle at work the other day. I was walking down the hall, and a guy came out of a doorway. He politely held the door open for me, then got a rather sheepish look on his face as he realized that my destination, in all likelihood, was not the men's room. Ah, well, I appreciate the manners nonetheless.

Had a very good Christmas. Ralph & I only got each other a few things--mostly books--and spent a nice afternoon & evening with family. I've already tried a couple of the recipes in my new Harry Potter cookbook, and have started a rather complex pair of socks from the pattern book my SIL & BIL gave me. Well, it's not so much complex as time-consuming. It's a pretty easy intarsia--just strips of color--but with 10 bobbins over 81 stitches on size 1 needles, there's a lot of tangling. It took me 35 minutes to do 3 rows this morning. This is going to keep me busy for a long time!

One sad note. I learned on Sunday that my old boss, CD, passed away. He was a fun person & I was sorry to hear the news. I knew he had been ill, but the last time I'd seen him he seemed in good spirits. Such a shame.

We have been invited to two parties for New Year's Eve. I suspect that I'll be going to one & Ralph to the other, even though we accepted the invitation to the party I will be attending first. Funny, we've not been to a NYE party in years, and this year we get two invites.

Not much to say

Very little to talk about, however it's been weeks since I've posted so I figured I'd better say something.

The temp job is going really well. I'm not 100% up to speed yet, however I've learned a lot and don't have to ask nearly so many questions as I did at first. The computer software is very different from what I'm used to using. There are also a lot of little things to remember, like you can't change certain figures if the loan is being processed by one particular location, but it's OK on the other locations, and certain fees have to be lumped together after printing a copy of the HUD statement. I'm catching on, though!

Nearly broke my toe on Saturday. We've got a 15 pound steel weight we use as a doorstop, and SOMEone left it in the middle of the hallway. Slammed my bare foot into it on the way to the bathroom. Cussing ensued. Hurt like the dickens for a long time, although now it's nearly back to normal. Feels more stiff than it does painful.

Yesterday we had to take all the animals in for their second de-worming shot. We were 3/4 of the way to the vet when I realized we'd forgotten to bring the cat! So, we've got to go back this weekend & get him taken care of. Luckily the vet is open on Boxing Day.

Oh, my, Boxing Day--has it really been almost a year since Hoover died? I guess it has. Poor little kitty. I miss him still.

It's a New Job After All

I didn't say anything before, because I didn't want to jinx it, but I started a new temp-to-hire position yesterday. Yay! It's as an escrow assistant, and basically it's all the things I liked best about my old job, albeit with a different computer system. The people there are friendly, too. This is a place I could like. Keeping my fingers crossed that this is a long-term (dare I hope for permanent?) position.



One of the things I did today was fix the sweater of the woman who sits in the desk in front of mine. (OK, it's not *my* desk; but it's where I sit while I'm being trained). Yesterday I noticed she had a ripped thread that was causing a stitch to drop, so today I brought some yarn & tools to repair it. While I did want to do something nice for her, the main reason I did it was because the knitter in me was screaming in torment at the sight of that dropped stitch. The yarn didn't match as well as I'd like, but she was very happy with the repair.

Having some headlight troubles on the Prius, darn it. The headlights go out at random; sometimes just one and sometimes both. It was particularly scary on the O-shaped, unlit off-ramp coming home tonight--yikes!! I'll be driving the Saturn until we can bring the Prius in to be fixed.



I was almost late for work today. I left at 6:45, which one would think would be plenty of time to drive 28 miles & arrive by 8:00 am even with traffic. Unfortunately there was an accident on the freeway, and it took me just over an hour to drive the first 16 miles. Unbelievable! Luckily traffic was pretty clear for the next 10, then backed up again. UGH! However, I did make it to work safely & barely on time.



Today's photos are a few of the ornaments on our tree. I'll try to get a good shot of the whole thing; the one I took tonight didn't come out very well.

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.

Happy Halloween! (Yeah, original title, I know)

Had a great time at the Halloween Party last night. Ralph won two prizes for his costume: Most Humorous, and Best Costume. For all you Teeming Millions dying to know what we dressed as, it was Frau Blucher (whiiiinnny!) and Igor. The practice brain we made last week was sort of kinda accidentally left out & was sooooo moldy yesterday. Ralph was going to use it anyway, but when he saw the new brain I made for today's haunted house he changed his mind (thank goodness) and took the new one.

Got home about midnight, and there was NOWHERE to park anywhere on our street. Not wanting to walk a block home that late we ended up parking on the lawn. Luckily we did not get a ticket. The neighbors up the block were having a biiiiig party that was still going strong at 4:00 am.

Anyway, here are some photos from the party. First up, Ralph and me in our costumes. The candelabra was a pain to find; we looked for two days & only one person knew what the heck we were talking about when we asked for a candelabra, and that shop only had the large standing floor-style ones. I did a product search on Crate & Barrel which had 419 hits, not one of which was actually a candelabra.




The brain we took to the party. The coloring on this one came out really well, IMHO. We used 2 boxes of peach Jello, 9 oz evaporated milk, and some food coloring (about 5 drops red, 5 drops green, and 7 drops blue) to get this shade.


Our lovely hostess SS as Katherine Hepburn in "The African Queen," and our friend JO in her "ST: TNG" costume. I liked the juxtaposition of past & future in the one shot.


A close-up shot of Ralph's google eyes. They were the hit of the party! One of the kids loved them so much that Ralph gave them to him, which earned Ralph a hug from the child. Better him than me, LOL!


One of the Halloween decorations at the party, a very nice statuette of Jack Skellington.

What the. . . ??

OK. Would someone PLEASE explain to the nectarine tree that it is not springtime? I mean, seriously, blossoms in October is just a bit much. It hasn't even dropped its leaves for the fall yet, and here it is putting forth blooms. Yup, all three of today's pictures were taken yesterday. What a crazy tree.

As you've probably guessed from the lack of posts, not a whole lot has been happening. Ralph & I have finally decided on our Halloween costumes & spent much of the weekend gathering/purchasing the items we need. Oddly enough, the parts I thought would be the easiest to find ended up being the hardest, and the things we thought would be hard to find were no trouble at all. I'm not saying what we're going to be--you'll have to tune in after Halloween & find out then. I will say that I believe we have a very good chance of winning Best Costume for the second year in a row.



I've had a fairly boring if productive morning. One load of laundry is hung up & another is ready for the dryer. I've got some handwashables soaking in the kitchen. Dishes are done, got my hair cut, put gas in the car, and picked up a few items at the grocery store for tonight's dinner (veggies to put in the chicken & dumplings). Not too bad a start to the day, really. My hair is a little shorter than I like it to be. I'm not too chuffed about that, though. I mean, it's just hair & will grow back pretty quickly.

Ralph & I made a practice brain yesterday for the haunted house. We definitely learned a couple things: for example, when the instructions recommend using watermelon Jello, do not substitute raspberry. The colors are NOT the same. Also, when you wrap the towel around the mold to keep it level, make sure the mold is actually level when you do so or your brain will be lopsided. Still, it looks quite gruesome as-is and if the one for Halloween comes out looking like this one it would be acceptable.



Back in the home improvement sector, it looks like we might have yet another leak. This time it appears to be either the water heater or the pipes leading from it. When I pulled my big roasting pan out of the cabinet that's below the water heater this morning, it had about 2" of water in it. There is also a moldy patch on the "ceiling" of the cabinet. Not good. After all the work Ralph did fixing the bathroom we really don't need another water-related home repair. Or even a non-water-related home repair.

Well, I've got some more housework to attend to. Guess I'd best get to it.

Surrounded by dogs

So we've had a little bit of thunder to go with our rain this morning. I now have one dog lying partly under the computer table, one dog standing next to me with her head in my lap, the third dog lying on the other side of me, and a cat stalking around, growling & yowling & upsetting the dogs more than the thunder did. I am almost completely surrounded by unhappy canines & I don't think I could squeeze past them to get out of this chair if I tried.

Signed up with another temp agency yesterday. They've got a position or two in mind to set up interviews for me, so we'll see how that goes. I'm liking the part-time work right now, but a full-time paycheck can't be sneezed at.

Speaking of sneezing, I forgot to mention something that I at least found funny. When Ralph & I were at the swap meet a couple weeks ago, a woman there sneezed. She very courteously turned her head away from the crowd and sneezed down towards the ground--directly onto her child's head. Yeah, I know, I've got a warped sense of humor.

The winners have been announced for the scavenger hunt! After seeing everyone else's postings I didn't think I was going to get anything, so imagine my surprise when my cop photo took runner-up for most humorous! Of course, I promised the officer I wouldn't post the photo anywhere except on the scavenger hunt thread so you get a picture of my critter at the vet's office instead. The prize was a free pattern from a designer named Luchita, and I chose a cute little lion handpuppet. I'm thinking of making three in different colors to give to QL, OL, and SL. I think QL is still young enough to enjoy a handpuppet. With my current queue I doubt they'll be done in time for Christmas but there's no reason why I can't send them out sometime in February as a "just because" gift.

Did I mention that Dad had some minor surgery last week? The battery was dead on his pacemaker/defibrillator & the unit had to be replaced. We had a heck of a time finding the place; he was first instructed to go to the cardiac specialty office, and they told him no you need to go to the main hospital on the next block. I dropped him off there & parked. When I came back he said they'd told him to go out & to the right to the outpatient surgery. Nothing there. We went back & asked some cops that were by the ambulance area and apparently Dad was supposed to go *left* out the door. The cops pointed the way & said to go in the second door. Got in there--Dad was quite out of breath at this point--started to sign in, and the nurse said, "I can't find your appointment; is this for cardio?" When we said yes she said, "Oh, you need the next lobby over. Go through those doors & take the elevator to the third floor." (This meant the cops should have told us to go in the first door, not the second.) We do that & the nurse up there asked if we'd gone in the main hospital doors (opposite side of the building) and checked in there first. After giving her looks of shocked dismay, we told her how much of a runaround we'd already been through (and by this time we were 30 minutes late for his appointment). Luckily she took pity on us, had Dad sit in the waiting room, and sent someone to go get all his paperwork from the front. Anyway, long story short (too late!) from that point all went smoothly & he is back home, tired but doing OK.

We've started putting up the haunted house for Halloween. We're not doing anything really big this year; just a single room that the kids will walk past rather than through. We're going with a Halloween kitchen/dining room theme this year & will have things like Jell-o brains, rats, a plateful of octopi (see, I *knew* there was a reason for me to have made so many of those!), and MH2 said she might bring a kitty litter cake (decorative AND edible). No gory dismembered body parts, although we do have some eyeballs that we'll be using. They're more comic than gory, having been part of some spooky straws that Taco Bell gave out in a promotion about 15 years ago.

Well, that's about it for now. Hopefully something interesting will happen soon & I'll have a better post :-)

Tea Party Day

I can't believe I almost forgot! Today is Mad Hatter Tea Party Day, which actually occurs twice a year. The dates are October 6 & June 10, based on the "In this style 10/6" tag on the Mad Hatter's Hat. I even brought a tea bag & muffin to work so I could have a little "party" for my afternoon snack, then forgot about it until Lizard mentioned the date on her Facebook status. Anywho, here are photos of my "party," a warm fig muffin paired with a cup of decaf tea. I even used my Cheshire Cat thermochromatic mug; the cat "vanishes" when the mug is filled with hot liquid. And yes, I know there are crumbs on the tablecloth. Just deal with it :-)

A little of this, a little of that

Today's photos are all part of the Photo Scavenger Hunt in which I am participating. The mission: to knit a critter, then on any one day from Oct 3 through Oct 9 you take photos with the critter in a variety of places/situations. One photo can fit more than one category. Each participant posts ten photos to try & get the highest point count. So far I'm the only one to post, which is odd since the timeframe is half over, and have 51 points. Hey, maybe no one else will enter & I'll get all the prizes.

The photos I've posted here are: in a school (I didn't use this one as I have a better shot for that; however I'm amazed at how young the assistant principal is at my old elementary school & had to post this one because of it); next to a statue of the same type of animal in a public place; dining out (with an extra point for a vegetarian meal); and in a yarn store. That one got me extra points because it includes a toy knit by someone else. I couldn't post the best shot here, as I promised the police officer (who was quite embarrassed to be photographed with a stuffed pony) that I would *only* post it on the scavenger hunt thread.




Ralph spent the weekend working on repairing the bathroom floor, and I am very impressed with what a great job he did! I had no idea he was so handy. He says he didn't know it, either. He pulled out all the old flooring, removed the damaged wood, treated the remaining wood for mold, laid down the replacement wood, prepped it, and installed enough of the vinyl tile that he was able to install the new toilet. This last one was just in time--we spent 4 days using the potty in the trailer, which was OK as a temporary measure but it would have sucked having to go out there once last night's rain set in.



Have you ever been watching a TV show, and someone on it does or says something so wrong/stupid that you want to reach into the screen and smack 'em upside the head? I had that happen yesterday when Ralph had "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" playing on Netflix. A character is badly injured, and needs a blood transfusion. John says, "Mom is type O; that's a universal donor." The paramedic--let me repeat that, the PARAMEDIC--says, "No, he's AB. It's very rare, he needs his own blood type." John then says, "Test MY blood." And of course, he also turns out to be the very rare AB. Sigh. One, Type O *is* a universal donor; anyone can receive it. Second, a type O parent can NOT have a type AB offspring. Third, AB is a universal *recipient* and can receive a transfusion of any blood type. Mind you, I'm ignoring Rh factors and positive/negative but still for the writers to not know this basic bit of info on blood types just annoyed the bejeezus out of me.

First post of October

Got really irked at the radio news yesterday. One of the stories was about some "amazing evidence" that Columbus may not have been the first non-native to set foot on North American soil. Apparently a man on the east coast found an ancient Phoenician coin, which has historians "astounded." What a bunch of BS. Historians, paleontologists, and anthropologists have known for decades that Columbus was nowhere near the first non-native to the Americas, having been beaten to the punch by yes the Phoenicians, the Vikings, the Polynesians and others. And for that matter, the "native" Americans themselves migrated here originally. Gah.

Speaking of the radio, one of the local stations did a fun thing the other day. They called it "Alphabet Soup," and each song title began with the last letter of the previous song title. This led to some rather interesting segues, such as going from "Squeeze Box" to "Xanadu," and to the playing of songs not normally heard on a rock station such as "New York, New York," "Candy Man," "Another One Rides the Bus," and "Time Warp." People would text, e-mail, or phone in with their suggestions (the next day the DJ said they had over 3,000 people sending in song titles). I really enjoyed it and hope they do it again someday.

Ralph is tearing out the bathroom floor today. We've got some major water damage going on (the floor actually flexes if you step on certain areas) and are trying to get it taken care of before the wood gives way completely. Unfortunately we've got more leaks than we expected, from around the shower, the sink, AND the toilet. Sigh. Just what we need right now, more expenses.

Dad has to have his pacemaker replaced. Not sure on when the surgery will be; he doesn't have an appointment yet but should be hearing from the doctor soon. Dad says *he's* fine, it's the pacemaker that is having troubles.

Did something kinda silly the other day. I was wandering through a Halloween store, and they had some life-size "psycho killer" type props. I was so convinced that they were going to move when I walked past them, that when they *didn't* move I was startled & jumped a bit. Felt rather foolish, I must say.

Making good progress on the first Dark Mark scarf; I've got about 110 rows left to do which really isn't that much considering I've already done over 560 rows. Hmm, wonder how many stitches that is? 560 + 110 = 670, times 41 stitches per row = 27,470 stitches. Egads. I really should know better than to do the math, it's always a bit overwhelming to look at it that way.

Today's photo is a hibiscus that bloomed in our backyard last week. Still need to find the camera (haven't checked the Saturn yet), especially as I'll need it for the Photo Scavenger Hunt next week.

Dear weather. . .

Dear Weather. It's fall now. There is no reason for it to be 109 degrees today. Please bring cooler temps and nice breezes. Thank you.

As predicted, within a couple days of buying a new collar for Sadie, I found the old one. It was under the keyboard next to my rocking chair. A couple days after that, her new collar also came off. I found it in the same spot. The problem is, her neck is bigger around than her head, so there's no way to get the collar tight enough to stay on without asphyxiating the poor thing.

Yesterday Ralph & I went to an orchid show. Unfortunately I have no pics of it for you today, as I left the camera in the Saturn & Ralph took the Saturn to work. But I did take some, and I'll post when I can. Some of the flowers were really lovely, too. I especially liked some deep purple ones.

I *was* making good progress on the Dark Mark scarf. I measured it today and it was 46" long, only 4" away from starting the second illusion repeat. As I was measuring it, though, I discovered an entire row of garter stitch that should have been stockinette, which meant frogging a full FIVE INCHES OF SCARF. Sigh. Oh, well, I've got until November to finish the pair; five inches really isn't that big a deal. I suppose. . .

Making meatloaf for dinner tonight, and I've got a pork roast thawing in the fridge for tomorrow. The roast is quite large; I'm thinking of cutting it in half, roasting one piece and doing the other up as pulled pork in the slow cooker. That'll give us a bit of variety.

Today I discovered the joy that is Pandora internet radio. I've already created two stations of Christmas music; one is very jazzy/upbeat and the other is more mellow. I love it! While I enjoy my CDs a lot, one does get tired of hearing the same songs over & over again.

Today's photo is one I took of Mudgie to make sure my new camera card was functioning. He's all squinty because of the flash. Kind of gives him a "You are intruding in my domain; please leave the planet" look.

EDIT: Hee hee--I just posted a couple comments on a friend's blog. In the first comment I used the word "unholy," and the security word I had to type to submit the comment was "prays." The second post the security word was "clord" (which I am assuming should be pronounced "see lord").