WWC--Envy and Triangle

Actually, my WWC is only envy and it's a bit of a stretch. I couldn't think of anything for triangle, but as r.e.h. said last week, I covered triangle with my picture of the cutting mat. Plus, the quilt blocks had triangles in them, so I think I'm ahead of the game!



The WWC is brought to us by the wonderful Tink of Pickled Beef.

I envy the way Cosette can sleep so soundly.





Did you play?

In other news, Al had the winter crud the last few week and is finally feeling better. A lot of people seem to have this, and come to think of it, he had this crud around this time last year.

I had a proud moment on Thursday. We got around 3 or 4 inches of snow that day, after Al went to work of course. I decided that I really should clear the driveway and sidewalks because the sun was coming out and maybe there would be lots of melting. I also bow to peer pressure and most of our neighbors had cleared their driveways already.
But I remembered how last year I shoveled snow when it was extremely cold and I got really sick with MS symptoms. I needed to use the snow blower, but Al hadn't given me my yearly "this is how you use the snow blower" lesson. But Warrior Lass doesn't need some man to show her how to use a monster piece of machinery with huge, sharp blades! No! And I think Warrior Lass needs to make a reappearance around here! So, I got the instructions and followed step-by-step how to use the snow blower.

Less than an hour later, everything was cleared, and with the sun shining on my achievement, I cleaned off the machine and put it back in its place of honor in the garage.

Next, the table saw.

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like

Winter!

Ice and snow hit us this weekend. I think we had about a quarter inch of ice Saturday morning. But that didn't stop Al from going to the BMW Motorcycle Open House. Luckily, it started to melt as the morning went on. However, it did not start melting on the driveway. How does Kell know this, you might ask.

Well, I had grand plans of going to the Open House with him. I was going to be supportive, but I put my knitting and book in a bag, just in case my support started to wear thin and I needed something else to do. My hubby had already put the truck in 4-wheel drive, so while he pulled out of the garage, I decided to run back in and grab a hat because the sleet had now turned to rain. I was in a hurry and Al was waiting. I took one hurried step onto the drive way and Whoosh, Spalt! Al said, "One minute I saw you in front of the truck, and the next minute you were gone."

I have a small bruise on my knee and a huge bruise on my ego. Luckily, I fell mostly on my hip and rear, where I have ample padding.

In other news, thank all of you for your encouragement during NaNoWriMo. I didn't tell anyone except you guys that I was doing that. There's an anonymity with the blogshere that makes it easy to tell you guys something that I'm not telling the people who are around me every day. Honestly, I'm surprised I even told you guys. I'm pretty introverted when it comes to writing. It's one of those things that I know I could use moral support and objective opinions about, but I'm just shy about sharing it. What if the overall opinion is that it's really awful and all the joy I get out of writing becomes crushed under self-doubt and the loss of self-confidence due to feelings of failure?

Did I mention I'm a little melodramatic?

Anyway, I'm gonna go back to work on what I started once I pay bills, balance the checkbook, decorate for Christmas, bake some Christmas cookies, do some shopping, and mail gifts. If I can find a passage that I'm not too embarrassed for you to read, I'll post it.

WWC tomorrow! I'll be joining in the fun, and there just might be another picture or two of Cosette.

Fall Weekends Rock (Lots of Photos)

I love love love Fall. And I love love love Fall weekends. There's always something going on, and I'm living in a place that has cool Fall temperatures.

This weekend we visited a farm we buy food from through the Nebraska Co-op, and we had good friends over to carve pumpkins with us.

Kvam Family Farm is about an hour and half drive away, down a dirt road, amid other farms. It's a comfy setting of a few barns, a few cows, a few chickens, and a lot of cats. They think it's important that you know the farmer you buy from, so they held an "Open Farm Day" on Saturday.



This farm isn't that old, and the Kvams haven't come from a farming family--they've learned it all on the job, so to speak. They decided to live a healthier life, so they wanted to produce their own foods without preservatives and so forth. This didn't go over well with their pre-teen daughters, but they seem to enjoy the farm. Now older teens, they are polite, knowledgeable and well spoken as they gave us a tour of the farm.

We toured the different barns,

pet the calf, who decided I was tasty, so she kept licking me,




while the other cows were being milked,


scratched the dog's ears,


escaped being pecked by the chickens and gathered eggs,




and gave up trying to count all the cats.




The turkeys started out being penned up, but they grew tired of that, preferring their free roaming ways.




We also learned how to make vinegar cheese and keifer (a sour, yogurt-like milk drink made from raw milk) and just enjoyed hanging out with the family. I'm fascinated with artisan cheese makers, so I probably wore out my welcome asking questions about the milk and cheese. They aren't cheese makers, she's learning though.

We also carved pumpkins this weekend. I love carving pumpkins, and when you can do it with a group of friends, it's even more fun. Our friends and their two daughters came over for a lunch of red beans and rice and cornbread and an afternoon of cleaning out pumpkin guts.

This was dessert. It's a very rich and thick fudge-like cake. If you would like the recipe, I can email it to you. It takes a little work, but it's worth it.



Outlining the face


This is a precariously hanging bat


Finished products


So, how was your weekend?

Weekend-Wrap Up

I had been looking forward to this weekend for weeks. With my good friend and quilting buddy, M, I attended a needlework retreat at a local state park 4-H camp. I don't do embroidery like so many of these talented ladies, but I do cross-stitch and had a project I've wanted to work on for years.

I love retreats. They are exactly what they sound like--to get away for every day things and relax and concentrate on something else. And I like camping and not worrying about make-up and hair and knowing that the only decision I have to make is what I want to do next (read, knit, write, sleep, hike).

This retreat was really wonderful. The ladies were so inviting and made me feel welcome even though I was no where near on their level. They do some of the most beautiful needlework, using a pattern just as a suggestion, deciding what kind of embroidery stitches would look best. I only know how to make the X of a cross-stitch, so that's what I do. But even though some people may look down on cross-stitching as a baser needlework, these ladies were encouraging and made me feel like part of the group. In so many group situations, I usually feel like an outsider, but I didn't this time and it was great.

The 4-H camp was in a beautiful setting, tucked away and tree-covered.



The rooms were a little stark, but I wouldn't be doing much in there except sleeping.



We brought our own linens and a flashlight, since it is a dark walk from the lodge center to the cabins.



Usually at retreats, there are workshops on new techniques and sometimes even a massage therapist and yoga sessions--anything to encourage relaxation and fun. But this was purely a work retreat. No frills, except meals were provided. My husband couldn't quite wrap his head around what I'd be doing, so I told him we'd get up, work on our projects and chat, eat breakfast, go back to stitching, eat lunch, take a walk maybe, continue stitching and chatting, eat dinner, and stitch into the wee hours. Then get up the next day and start all over again! It's heaven! But he got his own little heaven--he rode his motorcycle, hung out at the motorcycle shops, and went to Beertopia to buy some Belgium beers that we haven't tried before. So we both had a good weekend. Here are some more pictures

In the lodge


Ladies busy stitching


Charlie came for a visit


My project. Yes, that's a sheep. One down, 11 to go.


Time for lunch


Don't forget WWC tomorrow! The words are Disguise and Reflection.

Whew!

I'll tell ya, September and October fill up so fast with things to do. That's one of the reasons I love this time of year. There is always a craft fair or a festival or a fall bazaar or something going on, and I like to go to all of them.

Now if the temperatures would just drop back down to normal for this time of year, everything would be hunky-dorry.

We've opened a Teen Center at our church. There was no place for teenagers to go after school on this side of town, and there is a high school across the street from us, so last year the congregation raised enough funds to redo the youth lounge, the gym, plus some repairs to the church itself. The first week we had 10 kids show up. The second week we had 43, then last week we had 60! That's a lot of teenagers. I volunteer on Wednesday afternoons, originally to tutor English, but I'm really more of a "stand there and look like an adult" chaperone. It's early in the school year, so the kids don't have a lot of homework, but as the year goes on, they'll have to spend an hour studying before they can play ball in the gym or games or whatever. I don't mind telling you I'm a bit intimidated. I don't hang around kids all that often, let along 50 of them with raging hormones. But I think it's important to have it, so I'll hang in there.

I've also started a Prayer Shawl Ministry at our church. We have lots of knitters and crocheters, so we're making shawls for people who need a little warmth and comforting. I said I would never chair a committee again, but here I am. I didn't even realize I was doing it. My hand went up without my even knowing it. But it's been easy so far.

So, I’m in a knitting frenzy, which make me very happy. In addition to the shawls, I'm making a poncho for me, an afghan for Al’s mom, hats for Al’s family, squares for the coolest scarf ever, fingerless arm warmer thingies, and if I can, I’d like to make a couple of other gifts for Christmas. But my fingers can move only so fast.

I was at Target for some grocery shopping because it is one of 2 stores that carry the granola, the only granola, Al likes. I started putting my stuff on the conveyer belt to check out and noticed that the young woman in front of me was only getting Southern Comfort and Cheez-Its. Aaaahhh, the days when all I needed at the store was a bottle of whisky and a snack. Now it’s yogurt, granola, and bags of salad that I really hope aren’t tainted with E. Coli.

We spent Saturday afternoon and evening hanging out with some friends at their campsite in Iowa. It was such a wonderful way to spend the day, just hanging out with friends, drinking a beer, grilling some steaks, watching the sun set over the lake, laughing at the kids playing games, and melting marshmallows over the fire for s'mores. Mmmmmmmmm s'mores. I could get used to that.

Before the camping, I went to a craft fair, a huge craft fair. One of the first booths I saw was a nice older couple selling breads and cookies for $5 and I thought, "You now, I really should support them." So I bought some challah or egg bread and used it to make French Toast. It was soooooo good. I grated a little nutmeg and dropped a little vanilla into the egg mixture then cooked the slices in butter. So decadent and so yummy. That's a good start to the day.
And somewhere in the midst of all of this I'm finding time to read. Yes, several of them have been about knitting, but that counts! I also read Death of a Village by MC Beaton, my favorite Hamish MacBeth mysteries and right now I'm listening to Don't Know Much About the Bible because, we'll, I don't, and I'm on a non-fiction kick. I also just started Dog Days by John Katz. It's a follow up to Dogs of Bedlam Farm. How could I resist this cover?



Next up, the write ups of our South Dakota trip with pictures.

Quick Weekend Wrap Up

We'll return to Italy in a couple of days. I've almost finished with the whole write up so I can post a little every day for a while to complete the trip.

It was a good weekend. The weather was G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S! It's amazing how much better I feel when it's sunny and 63 with a cool breeze blowing. It's perfect Miata weather, and I drove every where, always taking the long way around. The reality for most women with a convertible is that we all kind of look like Bridget Jones when the the car comes to a stop--dry, tangled hair is every where and the face is dry and chaffed--but it's not quite that bad for me, luckily, so I love it. The only downfall is that neither the CD nor the tape player work in the Miata so I have to listen to (gasp!) the radio. Not good.

The "Born to Be Wild" hubby went for a ride on his motorcycle, ending up at the motorcycle shop to hang out with the other Wild Ones. Before he left, he said that when he got back we could do something together. So our conversation went

Me: Great! Where do you wanna go?
Hubby: I don't know. No where you wanna go, so where do you wanna go?
Me: No where you wanna go, so what do we do?
Hubby: We need to find a motorcycle shop with a yarn store next door.

So we went to the bookstore--something for everyone!

Sunday, Al went to a dirt bike school and found a whole new favorite activity. I see another motorcycle in our future. I knew he was going to love riding off road. Hopefully, he'll wait until we find out how much it's going to cost to keep our basement water-free before he seriously thinks about buying something else to put in the garage.

I, on the other hand, did my good deeds by helping out at a membership class at the church, attended the second service, and helped prepare craft kits for an Advent event (we set up tables for kids to do craft projects) in December. The sermon today was one of those that makes me think and evaluate my life. God, I hate that.

But the best, the very best thing about the weekend is that we had pancakes for dinner Sunday night. We're adults, we can do that. And here's a little tip for ya. Hershey's has put out Cinnamon Chips--like chocolate chips but smaller and made of cinnnnnnnnnnomon.



And they are really good in pancakes. But sprinkle them on top of the batter in the pan instead of in the bowl of batter. They just hold up better, and you can control spacing them apart so you get a little cinnamon all over instead of a blob in one spot.

You can also get cinnamon chips from the King Arthur flour website, one my favorite websites ever to just browse and daydream. I think I'm going to make some oatmeal cookies with these chips. And maybe sugar cookies. And maybe in some apple muffins. The possibilities!

Oh, and I watched the latest Dr. Who, which I had recorded because Al isn't the Dr. Who fan I am, or the David Tennant fan, for that matter. And with him riding in the dirt, I could watch it in peace. This episode scared me to death! Lordy! Wheeping Angel statues that come to life when you blink. And they have pointy fangs and reach out for you and every time you look away and look back they are closer to you. It was great! It was the kind of scary like that little boy in the gas mask episode when Christopher Eccelston was the doctor--Are you my mommy? *shudder*

OK, so if you're not a Dr. Who fan either, you'll have no idea what I was just talking about, but if you get a chance to see the "Blink" episode, watch it because it was really cool.

Back to Italy next time. Rambling with pictures.

Weekends Are Too Short

The weekends go by too quickly when you stay busy. Luckily, we had some fun stuff mixed in with the usual home improvement/maintenance duties.

We spent Saturday night watching Georgia lose to South Carolina with our friends who are from Georgia. He handled it pretty well, I thought, but that might have been because all of us were around. I like football, but I took a knitting project, too. What can I say? I'm a multi-tasker.

But the main attraction for the evening was

Anya


Addie



and Will, the new addition to the family.

They think he is a Mastiff, but I'm not so sure. If he is, he's a mix with something else.

They also have Cocoa, who unfortunately we didn't get a picture of. She's a beautiful chocolate lab with light brown eyes that plead for us to please make all the other dogs go away. She's a good sport, but she definitely preferred the house when the other dogs were outside.

Four big dogs in a pretty small house. I don't know how my friend does it! She said she goes through tons of paper towels as she wipes up the excess from slurped water and the drool from jowly faces. Ew. I love big dogs, but I just can't do the drool.

We also went to another scotch tasting. I was designated driver, so I drank so much water I floated out of there. We did have dinner there, too. That's my reward for watching everyone else have all the fun.

And I got some reading time in. I usually find time here and there, but Sunday I read while Al spread something over the lawn to help through the fall. I'm reading Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell. I really like her writing style and I always learn so much when I read her books. You would recognize Vowell if you heard her, she was the voice of Violet in The Incredibles. She is a self-confessed Civics nerd, and her books are rich with historical information with funny observations weaved in. In this book, she focuses on the assinations and lives of presidents Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley. I've also read The Partly Cloudy Patriot, which I also loved. She makes me want to be smarter.

I'll leave you with one last cute picture.


And yes, that is a pillow under Anya's head. Those dogs are so spoiled.

Really Labor Day Weekend

I'm exhausted. My hubby decided to take the term "Labor Day Weekend" seriously and we cleaned and painted the garage. Yeah, painted the garage. It's a lovely lemon pearl color now.

It took us 3 days. Up until Friday, I felt really lucky that we had a 3-car garage. I still feel lucky, but it seems a little more excessive now. But that's what you get when you marry a car/motorcycle/anything-on wheels-that-goes-fast guy. His dream is a pole barn with room for a fleet of cars and motorcycles, with a lift and a drain in the floor. (Jay Leno is one of his heroes.) The house is just peripheral, except for the pub in the basement, of course.

So, back to the labor. While I was getting my hair done, Al cleaned out half of the garage, deciding it would be easier to attack it one half at a time. And he was right. I, however, had the best hair of any garage cleaner/painter person in the neighborhood.

Painting, itself, is not so hard, it's the prep work that takes so long and is so much work. It's not enough to just clear things and sweep out the garage before painting, the walls are filthy, so they have to be sprayed down with a cleaner then scrubbed down. This was my job. I chose this job over using the Craftsman Wet/Dry Vac because, well, that's a vacuum cleaner, and we all know how I feel about vacuum cleaners. Not that cleaning the walls was any great treat, but for some reason, that's what I decided to do with the choices I had. By the time I was finished, I no longer had the best hair in the neighborhood.

But we're still not ready to paint. Al came behind me, filling in the holes in the drywall. After that dried, then those spots had to be sanded smooth, which, of course, left dust that had to be swept off the walls then vacuumed up.

Finally, it was time to do some actual painting. Sort of. We took opposite sides of the garage and started cutting in, giving a border of paint around the walls. I sat on the floor and scooted around, painting the bottom edge of the walls, then the door frame and corners, while Al climbed the scary ladder to cut in around the ceiling. The ladder was perfectly stable; I, however, am not, so I stayed on the floor where I couldn't fall very far.

I left for a crafty girls' night out while Al finished up painting. Well, not actually finished, but he did as much as he could stand. My hubby and I are very different when it comes to things like this. I'm pretty fearless; I just dive in and start getting paint on the wall. I'm careful, but I know that you can't be too timid or you'll see brush strokes and you won't get enough paint on to make a smooth transition from the cut-in to the filled-in spots. Al is meticulous, which translates into slow and frustrating, for him as well as me. But, a frustrating job will be even more frustrating if you're fighting with your partner, so live with it.

The rest of the days were pretty much like the first day. But the walls do look beautiful. Then came putting new tracks on the walls to store hanging things and new shelves to store the multitude of cans and motor oils. Then, of course, we had to put everything back. This was not as quick and easy as you might think. I had to walk that thin line of helping while getting out of the way. This is the hubby's garage, and he knew what he wanted where. He just didn't know exactly what that "what and where" was. He had to get over being overwhelmed by how much stuff there was before he could put it up. This is not a lesson he has learned over and over like I have because most of the time he has reported into work while I unpack the house. I'm fast and ruthless--throw this away, put these things together, sell this, and so on. (Well, I'm a little ruthless, anyway.) He wasn't ready for that, so I cleaned up the painting supplies, took all that stuff back downstairs, and let him do the rest.

The garage looks fabulous! Everything is in it's place and there is nothing on the floor or sitting in a box on top of something else. Even the cars look happier. They enjoy having breathing room again. The hubby says that we still have too much stuff in there, but when you own a home and cars, you just have stuff. Stuff to clean with, stuff to landscape with, stuff to fix stuff with, stuff to mow with, stuff to blow the snow away with, just stuff.

So, it was worth it. Three days of toil and hard work for many days of a clean, organized garage. And we're still married, to boot. We're not talking to each other . . . Just kidding :-) We actually talked a lot--you're doing that wrong. I need your help with this this. Do you want to climb the ladder this time? What time is it? Wow, does this look better, and I need a beer.

Hope everyone else had a productive Labor Day Weekend.

All's Fair--Part II

On to the sheep! Well, you didn't think I'd miss out on yet another fiber source did you? I didn't get to see too many because the only sheep there were for the 4-H'ers. For those of you who don't know, the 4-H is a youth organization sponsored by the Department of Agriculture that promotes leadership and life skills, usually associate with the farm but not necessarily. The fair is the opportunity for the 4-H'ers to show their stuff. These were the sheep that the kids were showing--yes, showing. Like a dog show, but with sheep.

Baby Doll Sheep


Cashmere Sheep (I think)


I guess we weren't there on sheep day in the Sheep, Goats and Swine Barn because all we saw were goats. And as is usual for goats, they were busily eating whatever was in reach.



Getting ready for the show ring.


Goats in the show ring.


The grass is always greener or the hay is always sweeter.


Cute, aren't they?


We skipped the rides. Al said he didn't feel like taking his life in his hands by getting on something that might throw him some distance in the air.

There was also the fresh squeezed lemonade, corn dogs, cotton candy, candy apples, funnel cakes, petting zoo, 4-H posters and exhibits, quilts, cross-stitch and knitted items, and canning and baked goods. We even saw a pie judging contest, which was kind of odd because people were just sitting around while two older ladies sat high up on a stage, tasting and judging the pies. How do you get that gig?

Surprisingly, I didn't see a butter sculpture. What's up with that? I know the Iowa Fair has one, but apparently, Nebraska likes to do things differently. Cheese sculpture!



Yeah, I don't know what it is, either. I guess we'll have to go back at the end of the fair to see.

The only really bizarre thing that I've never seen at another fair was the Ride a Camel tent. Al tried to get me to take one for a spin, but I politely declined. I said Hell no I'm not getting up on that thing! Look how far down I have to fall off. Unfortunately, Al didn't get any pictures of the camels.

Here are some other pictures that Al took. It was such a great day.

Gorgeous horse



There's a time and place for things like this--the fair is neither the time nor the place. I bet the Methodist Church selling homemade pies did a much better outreach than this guy.


Mini Donkeys--Aren't they cute?!?


Big ol' Veggies


Don't ask


Pigs.


Tractor Museum

All's Fair--Part I

It's hard to believe the weekend was only 2 days because I did enough for at least 3 days. And that's a good thing. I'm bored with being bored.

In between putting more dirt around house, running errands, and going to the fair, I finished the latest installment in Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series with Sookie Stackhouse. I love these books. Harris has created a world that is real while being spooky and supernatural. In Sookie's world, vampires have come out of the shadows since there is now a synthetic blood for them and they don't have to feed. Well, they may not have to but that doesn't mean they don't want to. And if there are vampires, why wouldn't there be werewolves, fairies, and shifters? Well, there are; Sookie herself is a telepath. In these stories, they are in northwest Louisiana, where I lived for about 4 years, which is also part of the appeal for me. They are funny and smart books. They do have supernatural characters, but they aren't gore-and-guts fantasy/horror, and they have romance, but they aren't graphic romance novels. Harris has created her on little niche here. The latest installment is All Together Dead. I can't wait for the next one.

The Nebraska State Fair was the big event this weekend. This is usually one of those things that Al would say we'll go then conveniently forget or not mention it again in hopes that we won't actually go. So, I was one happy camper that we actually went because I love things like the fair. The further out in the country the better, and the more hokey the better.

The fair is in Lincoln, which is only about 45 minutes away, but it was still like a mini-vacation, getting out of the big city. (Bwaaa hahahahah--I can't say that with a straight face.) We parked in the grassy lot, with hundreds of our closest friends. Crowds don't usually bother me very much; what's exhausting is watching for the signs when Al has had enough before he's so fed up with kids running in front of him that he just wants to leave. But we got there early enough that it wasn't too bad. And the weather was gorgeous for most of the day--mostly sunny with a cool breeze blowing.

The first stop was the Small Animals Tent. They should have just named this the Plenty o' Poultry tent. So many chickens and roosters and geese. And this is the best way to see a goose--restrained from pecking by the large cage. Just the same, I gave those cages a wide berth. I loved looking at the different chickens; some of them are so beautiful. One of them was a gorgeous dark reddish brown that is what I've been looking for in hair color, but I resisted the urge to pluck a feather. I did, however, look around the ground, just in case. No luck.

Leghorn--But Peggy says it's a Welsummer. Damn. That was the only one I thought I remembered the name of because I kept calling it a Foghorn. Thanks Peggy!




Look at all the feathers! Even on the feet.


Pretty chicken


Running duck--Don't know why, but we love these


This was also the loudest exhibit at the fair. I love hearing all the cock-a-doodle-doos, but I can see where it would be a little annoying. The geese were relentless in their need to be noticed and feared. You may think I'm kidding about geese, but they have an attitude. They will chase and peck you, especially if there are goslings involved.

Heaviest goose


We finally moved on to a very different kind of animal--llamas and alpacas. I really love these animals and I've mentioned that I have a nice little pastoral dream of having my own little ranch with fiber to spin and sell at exorbitant prices on the web. So, I enjoyed talking to the alpaca owners and the alpacas themselves. Seems they were a little more interested in sitting in front of the fans than conversing.

Alpaca


Llama


We also watched the border collies herding cows, but we didn't get any good pictures of that, unfortunately. Those are amazing dogs. The cows, like sheep, remember where they came out and try to head back that way instead of going through the obstacles to a different pen. But the cows kick a helluva lot harder than the sheep and those dogs have to be fast. I thought for sure one dog was going to be trampled, but he just tucked and rolled out of danger.

But of course, it wouldn't be the fair without the food! We actually did pretty good--only chicken fingers and some honey ice cream. I really thought about trying the fried Twinkies or Oreos, but I decided to pass. If I had been there by myself, I probably would have tried something, but Al has such great will power, so I bowed to peer pressure and turned them down, too. Actually, Al wouldn't even think of eating a fried Twinkie, but I'm intrigued and would in a heartbeat. That's why he's so skinny and I have to take the croutons off my salad because I've had my limit of carbs for the day.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the food shacks.









Sensing a theme? Well, it's just easier to walk around and eat if your food is on a stick.

More fair stuff coming!