CoffeeYarn

I have been knitting

2012-02-06T17:09:00.007-06:00

a scarf, which is almost done. It happens to involve a cable needle (since I am a bit of a chicken when it comes to eight stitches in back without one). Because of that, I decided not to take it to the Super Bowl Party we were going to and started a new cowl to work on instead. I finished it today, and am very happy with how it turned out; especially considering I was cobbling together several different patterns. (The scarf will probably be done sometime this week, I would guess Wednesday at the latest.)
On a sort of unrelated note, the Lemon-curd Cheesecake was a big hit at the party.

Wednesday night's fog

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left for awhile sometime on Thursday; I even got to see some sunshine and blue sky for a little bit. It also warmed up to somewhere in the mid-40s, and the combination seemed to cause a lot of activity on the deck. (Warning, random picture heaviness ahead!)
This Red-Bellied Woodpecker decided that the house side of the suet feeder would be an OK place to eat for a change.

Normally it eats from the other side of the feeder and peeks around to see if I am standing at the kitchen window watching. (Kind of reminds me of how Sadie used to go around to the back side of the island to see if she could convince a cooling loaf of bread to come down to visit her. Right. Like we couldn't hear her tags/nails/self giving her away. "Just because I can't see you, doesn't mean I don't know what you are doing.")

This dove was very cooperative about having a portrait session.

There were Downy Woodpeckers about,

as well as Blue Jays, but they were being very skittish. I felt lucky to get any pictures of them at all, even if it was shaking its head.

White-Breasted Nuthatch

There was also some activity in the yard,

that moved onto the deck.

There were also Goldfinches and a few other random birds.

Needless to say, all this deck activity caused a fair amount of indoor activity of chatter and moving back and forth from window to door for the best view.

The fog moved back in sometime during the afternoon.

Same spot, just zooming in on the neighbor's pasture,

and more zooming in on their barn (when Hubband first saw these, he thought I had walked down the road, but I hadn't moved).

The fog moved in on the back too, for some funny reason. It got a lot thicker and hasn't lifted much today.

On a totally unrelated note, I am making cheesecake tomorrow for a party Hubband and I are going to Sunday evening.

Last night

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was a rather foggy evening/night. So I decided to try an experiment.
This was with the flash, so the light was reflecting off of the water molecules in the atmosphere.

I think this one was without the flash and is just the light of the headlights, but I can't guarantee that to be fact. (Both of these look better if you biggify, but to be honest, I am still not sure what I think of them overall.)

On Tuesday

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I had my usual little helper when I was getting some stuff out of the pantry (you know, that place where treats are kept?), but I decided to give her some catnip instead of what she was expecting/asking for.
There was a whole lot of rolling around on the floor once she had a good snuffle,

and not enough holding still to get a good picture of her covered in dried leaves.

Tiger Yarn

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has finally come to my stash. Seriously, I have been wanting this particular yarn for several years, but it is really hard to come by. Thanks to something Gaylen mentioned the other day, I found a store online that had it in stock.

They had "Monarch" as well, so at some point I (and perhaps someone else in my family) will be sporting wild animals and/or migrating insects on their feet.

See?

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I do know how to do crafty things besides knitting.

Punch needle embroidery (I promise, this was the best reference link I could find).

(Just in case you wanted something for scale.)

Snow night

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Help

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She is full of it.

No, it wasn't weeds

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tonight either. It started with roots and fungus,

then some other stuff was added to it. When all was said and done, it was soup. (I used a whole pound of mushrooms, seeing as they come in multiples of eight.)
While I was fixing dinner, Hubband was playing with Google Goggles on his phone. (He has had it for sometime, and uses it when he is out and about, he just doesn't usually need it at home.)

I guess he was testing its translation capabilities (I am guessing he wished it did Chinese too) and then he decided to see if it really did solve Sudoku puzzles.

The answer is "Yes."
(BTW, if you have a "smart phone" and don't have the GG app, you might want to get it. It is pretty useful, as well as entertaining.)

She still loves

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her coasters best of all. Shortly after I took this picture, she sweetly shared it with me by dropping it next to me on the computer. Then she picked it up again, dropped it in my lap, and then decided it needed another tour of the house. Who knows why, since it has seen it several times a day or night forever. (This one seems to be her most favorite, though there are two others on our bedroom floor, as well as one in the family room, and probably a few others scattered about.)

Maybe I should

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consider washing the kitchen window again if I'm going to keep taking pictures through it.

He hasn't been traveling

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much at all today, other than to the office and back. I'm not feeding him weeds for dinner either. (Not that I have any clue why anyone would think that looked like weeds, or even what is wrong with weeds, if by "weeds" someone means salad.) I am feeding him something very fitting for a snow day.

Apparently Oribel missed him while he was at work today. She parked herself on top of my computer when he sat down at it to check some stuff, and then when he moved to the table,
she followed him right over to the top of his newspaper.

Because really, it is all about paying attention to her.

My owls

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have toes. Or maybe my toes have owls. Whichever it is, I am really happy with them.

On Thursday,

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I had a visitor show up in the mail. Wandering Woolomena gets to be here for a short visit/adventure until she heads out to her next stop.

Since I was in the midst of making cookies when the box arrived, she and Astrid helped supervise and inspect the finished product.

On Friday the three of us went to the grocery store, and the two of them were rather bossy about what was put into the basket and where.

On Saturday morning Woolie went with me help with stuff at church,

and then she inspected the "Birthday Party in a bag" project we do every year during Epiphany for the local Women's Shelter.

After that we stopped off to get my hair trimmed,

and then went home to fill water and food dishes inside and out. Woolie was glad she was inside when the turkeys came along for a snack. From there it was a pretty non-adventuresome Saturday afternoon.

This morning Hubband

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looked out our window down to the bird bath and said, "It looks like it got too cold for the birdbath to cope last night." (It was some number of degrees below zero, but I don't know how many exactly.) I came over to look, and sure enough, it looked like it was frozen over and then snowed upon. I can't say I was terribly happy about this since it meant either the birdbath was defective/broken, or that the outlet had broken or gone defective overnight. Later on I went out with a pitcher of water, my gloves and camera to document and remedy the situation. It turns out that nothing had gone belly up, nor was the water frozen over.
I have seen steam rising out of the water on some cold mornings and I think we just had a great visible example of science. I think the steam froze around the rim like it has before, but since it was so cold the ice crystals just made for a catalyst for more frost/ice to form a bridge. The ice is actually sitting about a fourth of an inch above the water.

Yep, there are a lot of pictures and they look almost all the same, but couldn't decide which one(s) I liked the best. Totally worth doing the embiggen thing too.(I promise, there are more I didn't share.)

The last two owls

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(I am thinking maybe I shouldn't try taking their picture when I am so tired. Or maybe when it isn't so dark. Or something.)

The previously noted

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hat should reach its new,picked the yarn and pattern herself, owner on Thursday. It should be done drying/blocking in the morning, at which point is will go into an envelope, be dropped off at the post office and work its way through the proper channels to her mailbox. I can be fairly assured of the one day mailing time-frame since it only has about eighty miles to go (of course, they always say two to three days, but I don't recall it ever taking more than overnight, even when mail had to go 250 miles to Duluth).
DTE picked this project several years ago and after I got it home and read the pattern, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the idea that I wasn't a good enough knitter to pull it off. Either I was wrong, have become a much better knitter in the intervening years, have more confidence in my knitting skills now than I did then, or some combination there of. I'm guessing it doesn't really matter which, DTE will just be happy to have another completed hat to add to her collection.

Outside

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Inside

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Somebody is on their way home,

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and is hungry. They have spent all afternoon and evening moving to and through four airports, with not a whole lot of time in any one of them, except of course for the first one. Fortunately, I know how to fix the hungry problem.

Spinich Lemon Orzo Soup, except I added two poached, chopped chicken breasts and adjusted the seasonings a bit.

Early this morning,

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but not so early that the sun wasn't up yet (aka about 7:45) it was cold. Well, cold is relative and a perspective thing, but it was 5°F which I decided was cold, especially when I decided to step out on the deck without a coat.

I think it was worth it though. (If the whole "click to embiggen" thing is still working, it is totally worth it.)

The sun

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was out for part of the day. Fortunately, I was in the right place at the right time.

What a difference

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a bit over twenty-four hours and a snowstorm can make. The wind caused the water to blow out of the heated birdbath, causing the icicles. (Taken from inside through the kitchen window.)

Heels

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on my owls.

Random posting

2012-01-11T15:01:00.007-06:00

This was part of our dinner last night, but of course not until after it had hung out in the hot oven for awhile.

It looked like this around 5:30 or so yesterday afternoon/evening outside our front door. Currently it is snowing after having had several days of breaking records for January high temperatures. Want to guess who left on a plane just before the snow started? (Actually better than after, just in case it caused any issues with the plane leaving on time.)

Somebody

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was less than impressed with having her nap disturbed with bright flashing lights.

Today

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was the last Sunday that we were going to have happy Poinsettias to enjoy in church.

Needless to say, Astrid was quite taken with their beauty.

Today's sunrise

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Last finished item

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of 2011.

Beginnings of a hat

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Our Christmas tree

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has a cat.

I have owls

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on my socks.

Sunshine

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is a good thing.

Tree hunting

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on Thursday was successful.

I am happy to say

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that today's vet trip was much more successful than Monday's. Last night Hubband and I finalized the "How to keep Oribel from disappearing" plan; we decided that we wouldn't give her a full dose of bedtime food, so that she would be certain to show us that it was empty when we got up. Sure enough, she was very insistent that Hubband fill it first thing, so while she was eating he closed the door to her room, and she was held hostage until I was ready to stuff her into her crate. (Of course, we had to listen to pitiful, sad kitty noises for the duration, but that was better than the alternative.)
After we got situated in the exam room, Astrid decided she should investigate the snack area. She was a bit disappointed that that they had treats for all sorts of pets including birds, but none for slugs.

After that she decided that Oribel might need some comforting words while we were waiting, but I don't think it made any difference to her. (I promise there really is a cat squished up against the back of that carrier.)

She also wanted to investigate the scale, but didn't weigh enough for it to registrar.
Oribel had another amazing vet visit. Amazing in that as usual Dr. E gushed about how amazing her whiskers are, how beautiful her fur is, how amazingly muscular and limber she is, how white her teeth are, and such like. Fortunately Oribel does register on the scale, and has gained a whopping four ounces since last year.

She also seems to think that she has been tormented enough for one day and should get compensated by being allowed outside. Sadly for her, she doesn't get to go out until we get back from tree hunting, providing it isn't too late.

The drive north

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and back home went without any problems. Astrid looked for luggage, but I had to tell her it wouldn't be here yet, since DTY's plane hadn't even landed at that point.

Turns out we didn't need to look for luggage anyway, as DTY only had one carry-on backpack with her for her ten days home. (I think she'll have stuff to either ship or check when she heads back to grad school.)

Today's calendar stuff

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includes Oribel's annual checkup/tests/etc, as well as a trip to the big city airport to retrieve DTY. This morning started out with all expectations of those two things being accomplished with the dropping of a coaster on my head at seven, followed by some dashing in front of Hubband down the stairs for the ritual showing of the food dish, and curling up on me just before I was about to get out of bed. All in all, a fairly normal morning. She hung out with me for most of the morning, looking in the closet with me, following me downstairs and back up again for my coffee refill, getting a drink of water from the faucet while I was washing my face and putting in my contacts, etc. Then I went down to get one last cup of coffee while she debated which sun-spot to take a nap in, again all of this was is fairly normal morning. After filling up my coffee cup I stuck my head up the stairs to see if she was following me (which she often does when she realizes I am going to be in the vicinity/on the same floor of her treats). She was just standing at on the landing, looking down at me, so I decided to get the jar of treats and shake it, which normally results in having an orange blur show up at your feet in less time than it takes to get a full shake in. No cat showed up. No cat on the landing. No cat to be seen in our room. No cat to be seen anywhere. Seriously, how did she know it was time to be put into her crate for the ride to the vet? Yeah, well, now she is scheduled to go on Thursday morning instead.
Astrid was rather disappointed as she had been looking forward to meeting all the nice folks at the vet's office. Fortunately, she is willing to settle for just the road trip to the airport to see DTY again and waiting a couple of days for the rest of the plan.
Want to guess who came out of hiding about an hour or so after her appointment?

Today was our parish's

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annual Habitat For Humanity Gift Wrap Day. The local mall donates the use of kiosk space and tables, and several businesses in town donate the paper, tissue, boxes, ribbons/bows, and tape (or the money to cover the cost) for the month of December. Different groups in town sign up to wrap packages for folks and all of the proceeds go toward the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the house they are currently building. We were in charge of the 10 AM to 4 PM time frame this year (the last couple of years we have done the whole day to 7 PM), and I had signed up for the second part, from 1 to 4 PM.
Astrid went with me to help supervise inspect presents (she is under the impression that a radio controlled helicopter or car would be an awesome present for someone to get her).

She decided she should also be in charge of making sure the ribbons and bows were all securely attached to the packages,

and after that she thought that directing what colors of ribbon was put on each kind of wrapping paper was a good idea.

I'm not sure why she was quite so bossy today, normally she is much more polite. I think it might have had something to do with both of us forgetting to eat before we left the house.

Last August I went

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rode the train to Milwaukee to meet/visit several Ravelry friends for a few days. In addition to the knitters and some family members that I was expecting to meet, I got to meet Darwin, a family member I wasn't expecting to meet. Darwin and Srknittykitty have a deal worked out where he makes sure her meals are safe to eat in exchange for her being his main source of transportation.

After lunch and some sight seeing, we went to listen to a band and immediately Darwin became an enthralled groupie.

Darwin started fussing about not having t-shirt sleeves to roll things up in and how he really needed one if he was going to be hanging out with the band. Srknittykitty reminded him that he already had a job with her, and really wasn't cut out to be a band roadie; especially since the amps would most likely squash him flat. He settled for hanging out on stage for the first set and then was enticed away with the prospect of new foods for dinner.

Since I was there over a weekend, and the friend I was staying with is a priest and a knitter, a couple of us went to the parish she is serving on Sunday morning. While we were waiting for church to start, Darwin and Srknittykitty introduced me to their friend Astrid, explained to me that she was getting kicked out of the park she had been living in, and the three of them were wondering if there was any chance she could come live in my garden, the plants on my deck, or maybe even inside the house where she would be safe from the birds. I told them I would have to pray about it during church, though I did voice a few concerns about her manners, given I had already spent the previous day with Darwin, watching and learning all about his exploits.
All three of them assured me that she was very well mannered and the two of them promised to sit quietly between us during the service.

The service included a baptism, and since they couldn't see very well from the pew, Astrid and Darwin asked afterwards if they could get a closer look at the font.

Darwin said something about how much he missed swimming in the ocean, and how that looked like in would do in a pinch, but Srknittykitty grabbed him just in time, while Astrid dove to the floor to dissociate herself from such inappropriate activities!

Since I didn't want Astrid to end up living the dangerous life on a hot patch of asphalt street corner, or being encouraged to get into who knows what kind of trouble by hanging out with a skinny-dipping penguin, I decided she had better come home with me. I did let them have another picture taken together, and have promised both of them, and all the knitters that Astrid and I will come back to visit again. (Though the two of us are also hoping they will come see us too!)

Guess what? You blog readers will get to see more of Astrid too!

Complements of Netflix,

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I just got done watching a really great movie, Lars and the Real Girl. Given that it came out in 2007, I am guessing some of you may have seen it already. It is a wonderful study of relationships within families, work, church, and the wider community. It is about how we live, hurt, grow, heal, love. It is a really good movie and I highly recommend seeing if you haven't, and if you have, I would recommend seeing it again; it is the kind of movie you will get new stuff from each time you see it. It will be the movie I share for Movie Discussion Night this Lent.

I had fun last night.

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A friend had some tickets to a prerelease screening of a movie that the whole family has been looking forward to seeing. Yep, I went and saw it with out them! Sadly, there wasn't any pictures to be had in the theater, and since I was with my friend, his daughter, and her friend, I didn't wander around to see if there was a poster somewhere. (Thus, I did the standard "use one from the Web.")
I enjoyed the movie very much and thought it was really well done (no creepy uncanny valley that I noticed!). I have no clue if the script kept to the story-lines it was drawn from, I will have to report back on that after the movie comes out around Christmas and we see it as a family. Despite having a whole lot of the books make their way in, around, and through the house when the kids were young, I don't recall having ever read any of them myself. (I would guess that some of them may have been checked out on my library card though.)
I am looking forward to seeing it again, especially since I will be with folks that can give informed critiques. I am thinking I might want to see if I can do some research first. I am hoping this is a start.

On Saturday

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flowers were delivered to my neighbor's house since I wasn't home. Since I had just spent several hours driving and sliding in this,

I decided to go a head and drive over to their house to pick them up. It was worth it, I would have hated slip and drop this from my mom.

Sunday afternoon the deck looked like this, which I shared with Hubband and he said something about winter having arrived in his absence. It certainly did.

Since he couldn't be here yesterday, and the florist doesn't deliver on Sunday, these came today.

So far both of them seem to have been safe from Oribel; we'll see how long that lasts. Fortunately, I will still enjoy them even if they get a few teeth marks.

For those who are wondering

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about yesterday's post, yes, a certain Someone is currently traveling. Yes, he seems to have (or will today) passed one million miles with one airline. Before you ask, no, he will not be home for the 50th Singed Cat anniversary on Sunday; he will be in a place that requires flying on a different airline than the one he will get the bonus from.

Apparently at least one airline

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gives frequent fliers a 30,000 mile "bonus" when they have flown one million miles. This is not necessarily news that one wants to learn, especially when that doesn't reflect all airlines flown.

So last year

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we read Shanghai Girls for book group and Hubband and I both really enjoyed it. Well,as I recall, I am pretty sure most everybody in the group liked it. I was really happy when the story was continued with the publishing of Dreams of Joy, and quite excited to be on a fairly short waiting list for in in eBook form. It was an excellent read, full of history and wonderful research. (Again, much easier to let you read the links rather than me repeating what has already been said.) I would strongly recommend both of these if you enjoy well researched historical fiction.

I recently read

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a very popular book (Powell's link). I checked it out in eBook form from the library, since it is/was so popular I would have had a very long wait to get it in paper (currently it has 30 holds for four copies). I am guessing that some of you will have heard of it by now, as it has had a fair amount of press, including the selling of movie rights before it was actually published (pretty good for a first novel). Rather than me going on and on about it, you can read at least the first few chapters yourself, via the publishers website.
You can also see a trailer for the book at the author's website, as well as some other cool/interesting stuff.
(With any luck, in the very near future I will tell you about another excellent book that I finished recently.)

Apparently not all

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the cool kids are turning fifty this year. At least one of them got to do it last year.

DTE suggested

2011-10-25T12:38:00.002-05:00

getting Oribel a pet Guinea Pig to keep her from being lonely. I will be willing to do that with the same rules we had for the kids and pets when they were still at home. AKA, when Oribel is mature/dedicated enough to feed, clean the cage without having to be reminded every time, and play nicely/safely with her pet, I will be happy to get her one. (I don't recall being accused of inconsistency much in my life.)

Some folks have asked me

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if Oribel misses Sadie, to which I generally have answered "Who really knows with a cat?" I still stand by that statement (not my business to try to understand a cat!), but I am beginning to think she might, at least a little. It used to be that Oribel would sleep on Sadie's bed in our room every afternoon and some evenings. Well, she hasn't slept or even gotten on it at all in the last week (plus a few days). She has slept on Sadie's bed in the family-room a couple of times, but again this used to be a daily activity, if not several times a day, so that is another significant change.

The biggest change I have noticed is that the water bowl has looked like this all week,

instead of this.

Coasters are still being given (loud) tours of the house, dropped on me at all hours, as well as being kept very close and greatly loved.

It would seem she knows Sadie isn't here to get presents anymore.

This was not the post I planned on

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returning from the blogging hiatus with, but it is the one we all get anyway. I had planned on telling you all about our trip to Portland in May for DTY's college graduation, catching you up on my Project Spectrum doings, telling you about all the knitting I have been doing, sharing news about my trip to Milwaukee when friends that "lived in my computer" became "real", as well as a trip report of a family vacation to Washington, DC, this past week. Other than that brief "what I would have said" bit, I am not really here today to talk about any of that stuff.

Well, I guess in a way I will mention DC a wee bit more since in a way it leads into the real subject of this return posting. Last Wednesday Hubband, DTE, and I all got on a plane together, then changed planes together, and then landed in Washington, DC, where DTY met us via different plane routes. We all had a several days of fun and activities together, and then headed in three separate directions (all of that would be the previously planned report) on Saturday afternoon.

DTE and I flew back to our starting point together, where we were greeted by a cat who seemed fine with our return, and a dog who was, as always, very happy to have most of her pack back where they belong. About three hours after we got home from the airport, Sadie started fussing at the two of us, pacing, and wanting in and out. We figured fairly quickly that she was not OK and needed to to go to the Emergency Veterinary Clinic. Shortly after getting her there she was diagnosed with GDV (which I had rather suspected would be the case). Given that she was fourteen-and-a-half, an rare/strange heart murmur, and several other known age related issues, she was not a candidate for any kind of surgery, so I am pretty sure you know the rest of the story.

DTE headed back to her place in Minneapolis today and our house has never, ever felt this empty.

Thanks Sweetie!

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Happy Anniversary to you too!
(I hope meetings are going well. You know I miss you.)

When I shared this

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with my uncle the other day, he said, "Well, you must have some really fine knitting needles."
Happy Birthday today to my Favorite Uncle!

Where was I last?

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Oh, right, I was at the point of one big block, wasn't I? Well, ends all got woven in, the i-cord got done, and the finial bits and pieces were woven and snipped, and a washing/blocking have been accomplished. Thus it has been declared finished! Not that you can see said edging, but I promise it is there. The finished size is about 40" by 54" and weighs in at about two pounds. I loved working with this yarn, the pattern was very well written and a lot of fun to knit up. Actually nice enough that I told Hubband part way through this one that I was pretty sure I would make it again. I have concluded that I will, just not this month. (Want to know something else cool about the pattern? As of June 3, $15000 had been donated from the sales of this pattern, at $5 a pattern purchase!)
For those that are wondering (or haven't figured it out) about why I picked the colors I did and why they are arranged the way they are, I am happy to share said information. A couple of years ago, I had decided to knit a "Block A Month Blanket" as can be evidenced here. Well, I did get a couple of the blocks made, but the idea kind of stalled. The stalling had nothing to do with the sewing together issue, it had more to do with the finding the pattern for what I kept seeing in my head. (For the record, what I kept seeing would be much easier to produce with pieces of fabric. That might still happen someday, but don't hold your breath for it to be very soon.) Anyways, I had been acquiring the proper colors/yarn and was waiting for the proper inspiration/pattern/thing to happen, as I knew it would and sure enough, as soon as I saw the Mitered Crosses Blanket pattern I knew it was exactly what I wanted. So, the first one is blue for Advent (depending on a few things, that could have been purple instead), the second is white for Christmas, the third is green for Epiphany. Next comes purple for Lent, red for Holy Week, and white for Easter. The seventh one is red for Pentecost Sunday, then there are three different green ones for the long season of (Sundays after) Pentecost/Ordinary Time. That brings us to the eleventh block, which is red for The Feast of St. Luke (not necessarily significantly more important than other saints, but he happens to be the patron saint of our congregation), and the twelfth/last block is white for The Feast of Christ the King (the last Sunday in the liturgical year before starting over with Advent).

Now I just have to hope that the person I made this gift for isn't allergic to wool.

Cat(s) and garden a garden hose

2011-05-31T17:48:00.004-05:00

Don't mix well, which is what I was counting on earlier today. I was hanging out inside and heard the distinctive sound of two cats that don't like each other, or where the other one is hanging out. I went out to see where they were and they sere off the east end of the deck, so I went inside to grab a pitcher of water. When I got back out, they had moved to under the deck, so could then be reached with the hose. As I had suspected, I was able to convince the non-orange cat to leave the area with the mere idea that it might get wet any second.
Nope, no pictures, averting bloodshed was my one and only priority.

The other day,

2011-05-19T07:43:00.013-05:00

I mentioned "it" was happening again, starting with red and orange. There is some red growing in our yard, red birds around the yard, red blocks, and other red stuff has been noticed with more attention as I have gone about life this month.

Orange has not been forgotten.

Actually, orange is really hard to forget, given all the help it gives us around here.

With the use of markers,

2011-05-18T13:45:00.003-05:00

and more three-needle bind off, I have turned four rows into one big block. I need to weave in the ends from that, do the I-Cord edging, weave in any remaining ends and block it to be able to declare it finished.

The very best thing for me

2011-05-17T06:30:00.003-05:00

that has come from blogging the the past four years? All the friendships I have made and grown! Thanks all for being here, hanging in in my ebbs and flows of life and posts, and for becoming my friends. You really do make my life better, even when I forget to tell you.

Four years ago today

2011-05-16T14:28:00.008-05:00

I started this blog, and a lot has happened in the years since. A few highlights include, but certainly are not limited to, and in no particular special order:
DTY graduated from high school; various family members have traveled here, there, and yon (some have traveled more than others); a lot of different things have been planted and grown; patios have been built; pets have been lost and are greatly missed; a pet has been gained; Hubband changed jobs and went back to a "real office" instead of working from home while in town; Mr. A has come for regular visits; Hubband started graduate school; a lot of bread-making and picture-taking improvement has happened; a whole lot of knitting (despite the lack of evidence sometimes); DTE graduated from college; a lot of making decisions for someone I love even when they, and others, didn't always like or agree with said decisions; time with loved ones was gained; loved ones lost; and a whole lot of life has been lived and learned with more to come.
There are still a lot of highlights in life to come, I am pretty sure most of them are still to be found out about and learned. I do know of at least one highlight coming soon; DTY graduates from college! Then she shall move about 150 miles and start school all over again.
I plan on sticking around for the sharing, if you all will have me and want me to share.

Using the ever wonderful

2011-05-13T17:23:00.004-05:00

3-needle bind-off (despite the not-so-wonderful job of picking up stitches the "proper" way, at least I was consistently "improper"), twelve squares have been turned into four rows. The four rows will get a very similar treatment to become one big square this weekend.

Finally!

2011-05-13T12:06:00.003-05:00

(and I am sure at least some of you know what I mean) I have been wanting to share this this with you since yesterday morning. But you might want to take a look at some of his other work as well.

It is happening again,

2011-05-11T16:49:00.006-05:00

Project Spectrum, that is. Information here and more here, cool pictures at this link, and a few more spots at those places. May is red and orange.

Finished Blocks

2011-05-10T14:02:00.006-05:00

Three white ones,

four green ones,

three red ones,

a blue one, and a purple one

are all finished. Now for the putting blocks together into one big block.

What to fix for dinner?

2011-05-09T20:02:00.003-05:00

Hmmm. Look in fridge and find a wheel of Camembert. Look in cupboard and notice that an onion is starting to sprout. OK, Risotto it will be.

Ends

2011-05-03T14:45:00.007-05:00

Each block has two ends per color per miter, there are four miters, plus one end for the edging (because you don't cut after the last miter), so 17 ends per block and 12 blocks. Then there are ends for putting two blocks together (2 or 4 depending on which method you use, I am not that far yet so haven't decided) and three blocks per row, ends for putting rows together, and then ends for putting the edging on.

Squares (2x2)x4+1=17x12=404
Squares into rows 2(2x2)=8
Rows into afghan 2(2x2)=8
Edging 2 (Hopefully that is, as in I am hoping there are no knots in the skein and that it only takes one skein.)
404+8+8+2=422 ends (or more) by the time it is all done.

There is a reason I weave in and take care of each block's ends before I declare it done and go on to a new block.
Almost done with another block, and then there are only two more to make before I start turning them into rows.

Last night

2011-05-01T21:13:00.006-05:00

Hubband and I went to a small social gathering/celebration/thing related to his work. There was champagne, opened just like this (well, except it was done outside in the yard). It was pretty amazing to watch in person I must say. Geeky details here for those of you that want them.

I am more than

2011-04-27T15:37:00.008-05:00

halfway through block number nine (there is a really good chance it will be done tonight before I go to sleep). So far I have made (in finial arrangement, not knitted order) blue, white, green; purple, red, white; red, green, and in progress green. I still have another green, red, and white one to make and then will just need to put them together. There really is a method to my odd color choices/order. I know some of you have figured it out on your own, some of you had access to the method, and at least one of you are still confused. Think about it for a bit longer and what you know about me, I bet you'll figure it out.

Oddly (or not really) the black looks more gray when the picture is washed out with a flash inside (these are number three and eight).
As of last Friday (April 22), Kay, the pattern designer, had donated $12,500 to Mercy Corps for Japanese relief. According to her:

Mercy Corps was curious about all the payments so they emailed me. I explained that it was proceeds of a knitting pattern. Dead silence, then: “I didn’t know a knitting pattern could be so…. lucrative!”

Pretty awesome for a $5 pattern! (You can see her finished project here.)

(Oh, in addition to Mitered Cross Blocks, I have made two baptismal blankets in the last seven weeks and finished up a couple of other things. So my obsession hasn't been totally single minded.)

The obsession continues

2011-04-12T14:37:00.004-05:00

Number six (really number three, and no, my nick-name isn't George) has been started. They will probably look a lot better when I am more obsessed with blocking and photographing than with knitting them.

Number three

2011-03-30T16:34:00.005-05:00

is languishing on the needles. I knew I would need more than one skein of black to make all twelve squares and finish the project. I had decided to knit as far as I could with the one skein I had, so that I would have a better idea of how much more I would need to order. Last night I got to the point where I knew, placed an order for the yarn at 12:30 this morning and at 10:30 this morning I had an email saying my order was filled and shipped. Hopefully it will be the only one that will have to wait long.

Current Knitting Obsession

2011-03-28T14:37:00.005-05:00

From here,

using Classy,

the third one is on the needles.

Hubband and I have decided

2011-03-17T15:11:00.000-05:00

that this might explain some of Oribel's behavior. Not a lot of it, just a little bit. Her biggest problem seems to be figuring out which one is in disguise, which leads to the explanation as to every cardboard box that enters the house.

Not the best pictures I've ever taken,

2011-03-17T10:16:00.005-05:00

but hey, they are pictures and they are here. Just sharing the view I have when I drive into town via West River Parkway. There are two of them that live in that house and they have been busy working on the spring housebuilding addition.
(The very first time I came around the curve and saw the nest last fall, I knew immediately who was living in it, even though they were off to dinner at the time.)

Today I was cleaning the family room,

2011-01-28T14:28:00.007-06:00

which involved moving the ignored toys around. Of course, as soon as I touched her stuff, it became the center of attention.

Oribel had already pulled her bootlace out of the toy bowl to get a better look at what else was in there by the time I grabbed the camera. (About an hour later, her bootlace had found its way into the kitchen, near her box.)

She decided at that point the best thing to be found in the toy bowl were her catnip pillows.

Personally, I think it would have been a lot easier for her if she had taken them out first.

Yes, she is perfectly capable of getting them out of there if she wanted, and no, I am not going to do it for her. They are her toys and she is responsible for putting them where she needs them when she want to play with them. Unfortunately, she is much better at getting them out for play-time than she is at putting them away when she is done.

(Yes, I am mean like that. Just ask my kids, I made them carry their own school bags full of snowsuits and boots into preschool every day too. Well, maybe my kids didn't think it was mean, but I do remember another preschool mom saying as much one day.)

Last year

2011-01-15T19:31:00.008-06:00

I only got four pairs of socks completely knit, but I have three other pairs that were started in 2010 and are still in progress. I also have had four other pairs that I started but for some reason or another they were all frogged, to be remade at a later date. (Mostly they didn't fit the intended person, as in go over their heel, but all were stranded/color-work so I can work on that problem this year.)
These were some Thuja's I made May 3-11, for my mother-in-law's birthday.

This is a pair I made for Hubband, started in February and finished in April.

These are some Colobus No Purl Monkey socks. I know, they aren't symmetrical, but I figure the monkeys aren't all the same either.

These are mine, and I made them September 7-11.
In addition to these three pairs, there was the pair I made my mom for her birthday in January. Yep, that's it, the sum total of the socks I got finished in 2010. Fortunately, they aren't the only things I knit last year, nor the only things I made out of stashed sock yarn. That said, you're going to have to wait another day (or couple) to see some of the other stuff that can be made out of sock yarn.

Tuesday Miss Oribel

2011-01-13T19:30:00.005-06:00

decided she actually wanted to go outside. Lately it has been more of a "I want to go out! Open the door! Now! Wait, what is this wind in my face crap?! I don't do wind!" Then about ten or fifteen minutes later we have to do it all over again because, you know, the wind might have stopped. Not that I really blame her, I am not that crazy about -15F (or lower) windchill myself.

For some reason, she didn't go very far.

The other day

2011-01-09T16:45:00.004-06:00

I was driving home and saw the neighbor's cat.

Once again, I was really glad I carry my camera with me whenever I go out.

The miracle of the Christmas season

2010-12-31T11:06:00.003-06:00

was made more wonderful in our lives by my father being welcomed into the arms of our Lord and Savior two days before the celebration of anniversary of his birth.

For the record,

2010-12-19T21:25:00.004-06:00

I haven't forgotten about this thing. I just don't think my life is really all that interesting right now. Of course, I suppose it could be a lot more interesting to someone who has no idea what is going on (perhaps interesting being closely related to curious). Anyway, my time most of the summer/fall has included (not any any particular or proper order) several surgeries for my dad, on-going care of surgery sites between a couple of them, various doctor/surgeon/follow-up/etc appointments for/with my dad, a whirlwind trip to empty his house and finish getting it in proper selling condition, signing my name to all sorts of stuff that isn't my stuff, in general hanging out with him and taking him fun places as well, lots of back and forth stuff to sell his house (thank goodness!), spending three plus days watching my dad hang out in a hospital bed with pneumonia (and signing more stuff), and who remembers what all else at this point. Well, watching him decline into the abyss of Alzheimer's, part of the time slowly and part of the time more quickly would be one of the what-elses, but that seemed kind obvious. Right now he is not recovering very well from the pneumonia, which isn't too surprising, considering what how long it took both (healthy and much younger) Hubband and DTY to recover when they each had it. Dad is neither terribly young, and has other complicating issues in addition to not really being able to tell us if he is in pain, hungry, tired, etc.
Of course, that is just one part of my life. There is still the rest of it, which some days might be more interesting than other day, but somehow the days just seem to run short a lot of the time. Well, except for the time that I take to knit or read to keep myself sane. I have gotten a fair amount of knitting done this year. Is anyone interested in hearing about/seeing knitting stuff? Well, this time of year there might be stuff about snow too, I suppose.
I can say that I will try to get here more often to let you know what is happening her at Casa Coffee Yarn, but I will also say I am not going to make any promises. I never know what each day is going to bring in terms of what dad is up for/to or not, though lately it really isn't very much at all, I can tell you that I/we will be pretty busy in the next couple of weeks, with several snow storms coming our direction, DTY arriving at her big sister's today (no clue yet when we get her, but I think it will be Friday at the latest), and one of my brothers coming next Sunday for a few days to see dad. Of course there is some other stuff smushed into the next week as well.

Last night

2010-10-16T10:33:00.006-05:00

I opened the preheating oven the oven to put the first part of dinner in, and saw something I have seen in an oven once before, about twenty years ago. Guess what? This is not really something you want to see happening to your oven element. I decided to go ahead and chance cooking dinner in there and see what happened.

Dinner cooked, and apparently the problem moved along too, which I have to admit to not really expecting. The last time I had an oven element look like that, it flamed up and made a puddle of melted metal in the bottom of the oven. This time it kept sparking its way along the element, around the curves and turns. Yes, I know I should have turned it off and I probably spiked our electrical usage for the month (or more), but I really wanted to eat dinner. I did check on it a couple of times to make sure it wasn't doing anything drastic (and Chan, I promise the fire extinguisher was right there).
Sometimes when I checked it, the element just had a red hot spot, and sometimes it was white hot and sparking like a sparkler.

Which is pretty much what it looks like all cooled off and ready to have a new element installed. We are hoping that Home Depot sells them so that life can be back to baking as normal around here before Tuesday.

On Monday,

2010-09-30T17:58:00.013-05:00

I was talking to DTE on the phone while sitting on the deck dead-heading geraniums. Suddenly there was a little mouse headed my direction and as soon as it saw me, it turned and ran a different way. For some reason it seemed to decide that was the way it should go so it came back toward me, freaked out and dashed off again in a different direction. That direction was going to lead to the open screen door and I didn't want to have to live with the results of it getting inside.
I quickly took the opportunity to grab my camera while getting the door shut. Of course my moving around just upset the mouse even further, so it ran over to the edge of the deck and took advantage of the lattice work down the side. About that time Sadie discovered the fresh mouse trail, so she and her nose went into high gear snuffling out its path. She did an excellent job of tracking where it had been and taking the newer scent path whenever an old and new one crossed.
It didn't take her too long to figure out just where the mouse had gone; I think she would have really liked to figure out a way to get off the deck and join it on side of the deck.
Around that time, Someone wandered by, or out from under the deck, I didn't really catch which.
It didn't take her very long to do her best to get up close and personal with the mouse. Suddenly hanging out eight feet up in the air on some lattice work wasn't so appealing and it got out of there. I think it went back up onto the deck and scurried off the other edge, but I don't know for certain. I do know that it was no longer anywhere around by the time Oribel climbed down and dashed around to a spot where she could jump up to the deck to see where it had gone after it ran away from her.
(Do you know how tricky it is to lean over a deck railing eleven feet up from the ground while kneeling on a bench, talking on the phone, and taking pictures?)

Yesterday afternoon

2010-09-23T10:17:00.007-05:00

I made sure this was empty when I was sweeping off the deck, not that one would know that from this picture. Right after I got soggy, I emptied it again, for science and all (or something).

Of course, one wouldn't know this was clean too.

I can't believe

2010-09-21T13:56:00.004-05:00

the Brooklyn City Council actually thought this was a good idea, or that it was an effective strategy. (Transcript version of the news brief heard on NPR's Morning Edition yesterday.)

Good morning. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

Forget bedbugs. Brooklyn has a larger pest: opossums. The New York Post reports that three years ago, the city tried to curb its rat problem by setting opossums free in local parks. The idea: opossums would eat rats, and when that food supply was gone, die off. Today, the nocturnal critters with twitchy pink noses are still around. They rejected rats. They eat garbage and climb fruit trees. And the rats are OK, too.

(FYI: It is very rare for opossums to carry rabies due to a low body temperature.)

Ping!

2010-09-14T12:17:00.003-05:00

Some days that is a most wonderful sound.

14 pints of Peach Jam
9 pints of Lots 'O Pepper Jam
9 half pints of Lots 'O Pepper Jam

Some people are really lucky.

2010-07-10T08:56:00.006-05:00

DTY got to meet the author of one of our favorite geek comics over the Fourth of July Weekend. Well, actually, not just meet him, but have dinner with him and take care of his pet snake for a day or two. (She is spending her summer doing a math research REU out East.)
In other Fourth of July news, Hubband and DTE went fishing/camping, and I stayed home and bought a dishwasher.

Well now,

2010-06-10T19:42:00.002-05:00

that was interesting. Not as nice as it used to be, or as cool as it could be, but better than it was.

We have a shed in our yard.

2010-06-10T13:59:00.016-05:00

A nice, basic shed for stuff. You know, stuff like lawnmowers, lawn and garden tools, pots and potting soil, stuff like that. Well, after a couple years of "First shed opening in the spring," we decided we needed to do something about the fact that we were not the only ones using it for storage purposes. Of course we don't get into it much during the winter, mostly due to the door getting frozen shut and snow to tromp through, but the other users seem to pretty much concentrate on winter storage/use. There is just something about the knee-deep pine cones that we were cleaning out every spring that made us decide to cut off the external squirrel access. So, DTY attached a good covering of chicken wire to the underside of all the eves (it seemed like the most likely spot of entry, considering the amount of visible space between the walls and roof), and that seemed to solve the problem for several years. We have found a few small piles of pine cones the last year or two, but we think there is an access point from the second story, but haven't pursued it very closely. (Something about a small pile that is only ankle-deep vs the knee-deep, three foot wide, all around the edges tends to put perspective on the situation.)
Now (as you can see above) we also happen to own a cat (as much as a cat, especially this one, can be "owned"); this cat happens to really like the out-of-doors, be very curious, and think that climbing is one of her very best skills/life goals (I think it has something to do with being able to see more stuff the higher up one is).
Well, while Hubband and I were away on our trip (yes, I know I am very behind on trip reports, but having fun vacating was a higher priority for me than reports on the vacation; I will get back to the reports) and the D's were taking care of the home/animal front, we received an email from home with a link to this picture. (Sorry it is so big, but that is how I can get it). It came with the message of "We don't know how she got there so don't ask."

Well, Hubband and I have figured out how she got there since we got home; of course the fact that she has gotten there again helps a lot. She hides out in the shed when you have the door open so of course you don't realize she is in there when it comes time to close up for the day. Apparently once the door is closed and she is done investigating/hiding/napping she climbs up the shed wall to the roof line and out into the chicken wire designed to keep squirrels from getting into the shed; apparently it keeps cats from getting all the way out as well.

It also turns out, being the weird creature she is, she likes being in the chicken wire hammock and is rather content to stay there.

We finally had to just pull her out, which couldn't have been all bad, since she was purring the whole time, just like she had been during the videos of her trying to pet me (or maybe get me to join her?)
Obviously we will need to reattach the chicken wire before winter-storage season starts.

Conversation at

2010-05-26T17:33:00.006-05:00

Alice's Shop today, between the proprietor and an Italian customer, "Well, at one time the shop was run by a sheep, but now it is an old goat."

It was a fun spot to pop in for a bit and look around. Well, and maybe find a thing or two to take home with me.

Day 3 (aka Sunday)

2010-05-23T12:33:00.007-05:00

Day 2 (aka Saturday)

2010-05-23T12:25:00.009-05:00

Day 1

2010-05-21T23:17:00.004-05:00

A few pictures from last weekend.

2010-05-18T23:09:00.016-05:00

So far, in the last forty-five minutes to an hour,

2010-05-07T17:12:00.003-05:00

Sadie has had her bone in some sewing stuff, in Hubband's closet, in a knitting bag, between her bed and the wall, some different sewing stuff, and now she has carried it off upstairs again. Those are just the places that I know of for certain. Seriously, no one here wants her bone! (Not that Simon ever did either, for that matter.) I am sure it will be in the couch and/or big green chair before the evening is over.

She is so weird.

2010-05-07T10:03:00.009-05:00

It is a well established fact that everything belongs to Oribel, even stuff that she has clearly shown she doesn't want anymore. Suddenly its Oribel's again, and no one else can have it, just because they showed some interest in it.
Last night I was just about to pick up a large fluff of cat hair that she had pulled out and left on the floor (she tends to shed mostly in fluff blobs and pulls them out when they are loose) at least a good hour before I went to pick it up. (This timing part is pretty accurate as it hadn't been on the floor when I started watching the DVD of Castle from Netflix but it was after two episodes, and I had seen her pull it out and toss it on the floor.) So just as I am about to pick it up, she dashes over, grabs it with her teeth and starts to eat it. I try to get it from her, but she backs up out of my reach, still looking at me, and manages to get more of it into her mouth. I try again, she backs up again, and the last bit of fluff disappears. Somehow, I have a feeling she'll give it back to me at some point in the future. For the record, she has been known to do the exact same thing with tufts of Sadie's hair.
See, told ya she is weird.
(No, I did not get a picture of her eating fluffy bits of fur, I was busy trying to get it away from her, but I did get a picture of her a few weeks back, kicking the dishtowels out of her cabinet to make room to watch stuff happening in the kitchen. She doesn't need opposable thumbs to open the cabinet door by herself.)

I know it has been rather quite around here.

2010-05-06T11:10:00.009-05:00

Last week (the last week of April) I was away on a trip, which turned out to be much, much harder than I had ever imagined. (Well, not the trip itself I suppose, but stuff I had to deal with there.) Fortunately the trip was to a place where I have a dear friend who held my hand and let me vent, rant and rage, and cry. Mind you, ranting and raging isn't really something I do often, but i certainly did a lot of it last week. Unfortunately I now foresee that there might be more in the future at some point; at least this time I guess it won't come up on me as such a surprise. (Funny thing is that it didn't surprise Hubband so much, or a few other people.) As it happened I also had some, but very limited access to the Internets while on my trip, mostly just email and all of it was on a computer that didn't belong to me, thus making it very difficult, if not impossible, to do any posting here while I was away.
Any hows, now I have a very busy rest of the month ahead of me/us, between getting ready for a very important college graduation (well, important to DTE and the rest of our family at least), having both D's home (one for a bit over a week before she goes to her summer internship and the other for the summer before she starts her "year-long, post-graduate thing while I decide on graduate school/what do I do next"), getting ready for a real-live vacation with Hubband at the end of the month, and of course, all the regular stuff that I do. Oh, and due to some fall-out from my trip last week I have extra stuff I need to make arrangements for. Le sigh. Never fear, I/we will manage to get through; all in all we have made it through much worse in life.
In other exciting news around the Coffee Yarn Household, we have an other new appliance. Sunday afternoon I went to the basement to get something from the freezer and noticed a medium sized puddle under and around the water heater, so by 2 PM Monday afternoon we had a new one installed and heating water for me. (Me, since by 2:15 PM I was delivering Hubband to the airport.)
I have finished knitting from April to report (well, that is if you all aren't horrible bored with knitting content) and of course there are lots of green things growing about here as well as some bulbs have bloomed and a few other flowers are all decked out in their spring finery. Sadie had her annual spring "find something really, really gross/wonderful and disgustingly smelly/lovely to roll in" last week while I was gone (hopefully that means she has gotten it out of her system for the year) so that was a plus for me, and Oribel is doing her "I really, really need to go outside into the sun! Wait! What is this wind crap? I need in! Oh look! It is sunny I need out! Wind? I need in!" thing that results in her having to stay inside after about two or three in and outs. Of course that results in the "I am not happy in so I shall try to dig through every door in the house to find a way outside."
OK, so for right now I need to go do "stuff" but I will do my best to get back to you soon with some pictures of the yard, flowers, animals, and knitting if you all want to see it. I might even mention my vacation again.

Last weekend

2010-04-21T12:24:00.007-05:00

I was able to stand on the deck and get some pictures of Oribel surveying her domain to the west.

I was even able to get her to look at me by calling her name,

but that didn't last long as soon as she realized I didn't have anything interesting for her.

It rained the other day.

2010-04-16T18:33:00.003-05:00

Someone was not impressed.

A while back,

2010-04-14T15:10:00.010-05:00

I made a knitted bowl, which was pretty big when it was done. Which was OK, since the whole plan was to make it smaller with a trip through the washing machine.

It didn't wind up shrinking as much as I would have liked, and it wasn't as dense either, so then the plan turned into, "Add some fabric and turn it into a bag." That part of the plan hasn't happened yet because even though Oribel doesn't have much use for store-bought cat beds,

she seems to be willing to turn all sorts of other stuff into them.

Guess what?

2010-04-11T14:21:00.004-05:00

Digging a hole to transplant chives into is a lot easier if Someone isn't sticking their head in the hole to see what you are doing in their yard. Also, if you don't want the fut of your back leg getting stuck to your stomach, you shouldn't go about in the cockleburs.

Kiwi Ice Cream

2010-04-10T11:23:00.011-05:00

4 (or 5) ripe kiwi, peeled
2/3 cup orange juice
2 eggs (unless you are all out of eggs like I was and just skip those completely)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups whipping cream or half-and-half (I prefer the 1/2 & 1/2)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
6 to 8 drops green food coloring

Blend kiwis and orange juice until almost smooth and set aside. In a large bowl beat eggs and sugar until smooth and thick. Stir in the kiwi/OJ mixture and remaining ingredients until evenly distributed. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Makes about 2 quarts.

I remembered to eat breakfast today.

2010-04-09T18:47:00.006-05:00

It rained recently,

2010-04-07T06:00:00.004-05:00

so of course Someone had to go out to investigate all the changes in her yard,
and then come tell me all about them.