A few pictures from last weekend.

Alright! Alright already!

Thanks to Ms. DTE I have gotten a certain amount of harassment from several people about not posting the best picture from the weekend; like any of you would have know the difference if she hadn't said anything! Anyways, you get to have it today, but you might have to put up with some rambling from me as well. Well, I guess you can always skip over the words and just look at the pictures if you want. I probably wouldn't know the difference, unless you were silly enough to ask me a question that wouldn't really be needed if you read the material. You probably don't want to know what smart aleck response you would get if you did ask something like that.
So, on either Monday or Tuesday before Memorial Day, DTE called to see if we would be willing to have her home for the weekend. "Silly question!" is what you are probably thinking, "Of course! Her parents love having her home!" That would be true, we do, but the real question involved the part of needing to drive her back to school on Monday. I was more than willing to do that if it meant having her home for the weekend. Her professor had something on Friday and needed to cancel class, so she actually got to come home Thursday. She did have homework to do part of the weekend, but not so much that it kept us from having fun. (Actually, watching her do her homework was a lot of fun in and of itself.)

Anyway, our weekend involved working on filling the garden box the rest of the way with some extra dirt we had hanging around the edges of the yard

 

(which obviously involved help and supervision),

 

along with some other "good stuff" in bags from the nursery,

 

and making sure it was well mixed and mostly even.

 

(There was some supervision happening at this end of the yard/garden as well.)

 

Of course having DTE home meant that there was cooking involved; this time it just happened to be "Extreme cooking" so there was a quick review of safety procedures,

 

as well as all the proper gear and setting.

 

Sliced onions were involved

 

as well as the whole "Extreme" part.

 

The end result was worth it all!




(So, how many of you figured out which one "the best one"?)

In the spring

a young woman's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of rhubarb (with apologies to Tennyson)and graduation. Last weekend was the big weekend for U of MN graduations around the state (which would mean at least three, maybe four, different cities holding them). Since I had a bunch of rhubarb I needed to harvest and DTE's best friend/roommate was graduating, I was able to send DTE cake via the BFRM's mom. (BFRM will be starting vet school in August; first application and she got in!!! Do you realize how rare that is??!! Not to mention how hard she worked and how proud her family and best friend is of her.) DTE finished her last finial last Friday, moved down the hall, around a corner, and up some stairs (into an adjoining building) over the weekend, and then started May term class bright an early Monday morning. (Yes, she has also been in college for four years; yes she started college with AP and other college credits. No she did not graduate. She is taking five years to get a BA in Anthropology and a BS in Mathematics. It was either five years of 20 hours for several semesters. We said, "Take five years.") She was very happy to have cake to sustain her during the move.
These had started out as two large rhubarb plants, but since they were in the garden spot, we moved and divided them. They are now three smaller plants in the rhubarb line next to the big one that didn't need moving.

This is the raised bed box that Hubband and I built last weekend. (I know, it doesn't look level, but that is because the yard slopes.) I still need to finish filling it with dirt and get some plants into it, but that will happen this weekend.
Spring not only rings thoughts of tasty food and gardening, it brings spring flowers,

 

birds,

 

Red-wing Blackbirds

 

Baltimore Oriole (They love oranges and grape jelly.)

 

Indigo Bunting

 

and maybe a few thoughts of love.
Mr. and Mrs. Ring-Necked Pheasant (aka common pheasant).

Is it marshmallows yet?

Or is it cake?
For some strange reason, my oldest daughter finds cooking to be a very excellent way to relax when she is stressed. That and reading seem to be her top two ways to relax. (Don't ask me. I have no idea where those come from. No idea whatsoever. Really, I don't.) Any way, the last several weeks before her spring break she had been under stress. It might have something to do with taking 18 hours of upper level mathematics and anthropology courses this semester and running tech stuff for two plays back to back, or maybe not. I vote on the side of maybe yes. (Why no, she has not suffered from being bored much in her life. Good thing too, as that is a personal problem and if someone decides to involve me in their personal boredom problem, they get put to work, doing things like cleaning the garage without it being an extra paying job. The alternative would be to ask if I a had any extra chores that needed doing to earn extra money. Either way I got the garage clean, but one way involved a lot less whining. Not that she suffers from problems with whining much either. She, and her younger sister are both pretty good at learning from other people's examples. But I digress.)
So while she was home she spent time reading and some time cooking ('cause really, how much time do you get to cook if you get out of class at 5 PM and call is at 5 PM? Oh, well, for her it was changed to "after you have grabbed some dinner," aka 5:30). She also got to enjoy having someone else cook for her (but you know, it was terrible hardship for me to have to cook for someone I love).
For St. Patrick's day we made a Chocolate Stout Cake, just because, well you know, we could.
So now I suppose you want to know about those marshmallows, don't you? OK, here's the deal. I drove up on a Saturday to pick her up, but we weren't going to leave until Sunday, as she had light board to run Saturday night. The show was sold out several days in advance and she wasn't able to get a ticket for me, so I had some free time on my hands after she reported to call. She told me the best way to get to the Lake/beach, so I could wander about, see stuff, and take pictures. She also told me that if I should happen to wander into the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, she would not be opposed to me bringing an Apple Pie (Caramel) Apple back with me, "Or a caramel covered Marshmallow. You decide which one you want. I am fine with either one. But only if you want to." What can I say? She got both. Thus came the inspiration for us to make our own caramel covered marshmallows. (Oddly they aren't on the menu on the website. Maybe they are a specialty to certain stores, or certain times of the year?)
So, really these are pretty easy to make, they pretty much are just like they sound, except for the lack of the word "chocolate" in what I have been calling them. So the basic run-through is stick some skewers (or sucker sticks, but we didn't have any of those around that day) into marshmallows, dip them into melted caramel, let that set up and then dip/drizzle chocolate over them.
You could melt caramels just like you would do for dipping apples, either the unwrapped candies or the Kraft Caramel Bits that they sell in the baking section with the chocolate chips. (What? you didn't know about these? You are missing out on a good thing.) Or you could do what we did and make a batch of caramels from scratch (plus side of that is then you get to have homemade caramels from the leftovers). DTE put three marshmallows per skewer (though you could do just one per stick if you wanted to make them for small people appetites) and I lined the baking sheet with parchment paper and greased the pan for the extra caramels. (Parchment paper is one of my favorite kitchen tools. I buy it by the case. I probably have a lifetime supply unless a bunch of it goes to live at the DT's kitchens in the future.) We used bagged marshmallows; we have never made our own, though they are on the list of "things to make someday." Anyway, then the caramels were made (Joy of Cooking), and allowed it to cool some so as not to melt the marshmallows when the two came into contact. (How cool? That is pretty much a play it by eye thing. I am sure you know what I mean if you really are going to go to all the trouble to make these. Not to be made by people who are not allowed near hot stoves and sugar syrup. I think she put at least some of the marshmallows into the freezer to cut down on the melting of marshmallows, but I am not certain.) Dip marshmallows into caramel, or spoon over, whichever you decide works best for you. Anyway, let the caramel covering set up and then cover with melted chocolate if you want. DTE used dark chocolate (it was left over from the dark chocolate for the cake frosting), though the ones from TRMCF were covered in milk chocolate (they also did three per skewer). As I recall some of he ones they had in the display case also had the ends dipped in sprinkles or chopped nuts.
Given that I hadn't really been thinking about needing to explain this whole process while we were doing it, and that I was enjoying hanging out in the kitchen with DTE, we only have pictures of the finished product, not of the stages. If/when we make them again we might go foe the stage pictures, but no promises.
So now that I have given you all a very long answer to such a short question, I have a question for you. Should I give you some pictures of the still partly frozen lake and the stuff I saw while walking around?

I am going North tomorrow,

to explore North images, see some big rocks, get new pictures and inspirations. Well, to do and get all that, and DTE too.

(Black) Friday

Our day-after-Thanksgiving started out without much fanfare. There was a little bit of yarn purchased, with some encouragement from Hubband. (Something about the money I had earned being an poll worker.) There was general hanging out, relaxing, and stuff (well, I think Hubband may have been catching up on some work). Of course there was some of the *let the dog(s) out, let the dog(s) in* stuff, as well as rescuing small stuffed animals that Oribel had stolen from DTE's room and left about the stairs, hall, etc. Fortunately none of them landed in the dogs' water dish.

I also did a bit of research on Friday to be able to answer a question DTE had for me. For some reason she was wondering what I might like for my birthday and/or Christmas. I told her that I had read about a new spiral kneeding hook KitchenAid had come out with. I thought it would be helpful to her if I did a bit of research to figure out where she could find one, and in the process figured out that it wouldn't work on my model. Oh well, it was an idea. (I did wind up ordering a new bowl for my food processor though. It is about time; it has been cracked for over a year. It isn't very useful when any and all liquids leak out as soon as they are put in, and flour, etc. flies out the crack whenever it was turned on.)
For the most part it was looking like it was going to continue to be a laid-back, easy day, not needing to go anywhere if we didn't want to (well, except to get milk, but most of the time I get that at the gas station). All of those illusions came to a screeching halt when DTE came down to the kitchen to tell me what my “evil cat” had done. It would seem that Oribel had been hanging out mostly behaving herself, when she was struck with an urge to do one of her favorite things. (Of which she has several, as you may have noticed by now.) She decided that she hadn't done anything exciting with her teeth for awhile and needed to bite something. It just so happened that the “something” was DTE's computer power cord! Fortunately she bit the side that goes from the converter to the computer (vs. the side that goes from the wall-outlet to the converter) as she had bitten through enough to break at least one wire, causing a short! DTE and Hubband did a bit of work on it and have come to the conclusion that it cannot be fixed and is definitely toast. Well, better it than Oribel, but DTE still isn't too happy about it! Neither am I, as I can't really send the girl back to school tomorrow without a power cord to her computer. Fortunately one of the “extra” ones Hubband has here will work and we will be able to acquire another one for him. Have I ever mentioned that Oribel is a bit of a trouble maker?
The rest of the day was rather uneventful, after DTE and I got home from the milk run, we made three pans of Lasagna, one for dinner and two for the freezer, for her to take back to school. Food for crunch/finials week so that she doesn't have to spend time cooking.
So there you have it, somewhat of a rundown of our “Black Friday.” (With no thanks to the cat!)

A time suck; Make that a Major Time Suck

DTE went north to visit some friends this past weekend. She came back with a "new to us" web application. StumbleUpon has been added to my FireFox browser (though it does work in IE, for anyone still using that). This is just an innocent little button, sitting there, minding its own business (kind of like a cardboard box). You click on that button and it gives you random web sites from information you have entered (when you load it) based on your interests. There is also a button to give any site a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" as well as several other options.

Interested in Anthropology? You might get Stonehenge Rebuilt. Well, I suppose it could have been a checked interest in Archeology; or maybe something else. (Warning, it is a sub-page to a home page all about aliens.)

Here are some really cool bookshelves. I have some new ideas for our house.

knitPro is a web application that translates digital images into knit, crochet, needlepoint and cross-stitch patterns.

TasteSpotting, a site that shows great food and then when you click on a picture, it links you to where it was spotted.

This one is a "map" of a cat brain, with a link to "other cat stuff."

Here is a way to how to make roses out of maple leaves, but if you take off the sub-heading and go to the main page, there are some other cool things to see. (Or take of the sub heading down to /creative/ first and then take /creative/ off. When I did that I got some slightly different stuff.)
I will end with a video for a photography lighting setup. (Seriously, I could give you several more, but won't.)


I have stumbled upon several other cool sites since DTE injected this into my computer. I may be am falling down a deep rabbit hole. If you decide to fall down with me, we can all blame it on her. You can rest easy though, she is in the deep, dark hole with me.

Things I have been distracted with lately

Well, I am sure you can guess DTE is at the top of that list! I have also been distracted with knitting on the baby blanket, knitting on a sock, DTE, sourdough pancakes, making bread, talking to Hubband at weird times of the day via Skype (he is 15 hours ahead of me), DTE, an almost cat/still kitten creature, two dogs, weeding a bit of a couple of garden patches, starting a hat, DTE, and such things. (It isn't her fault at all, it is all mine.)
The last time it has been really warm enough to knit outside was Thursday, so I am glad I took the chance while I could. It was OK for the weeding on Saturday, but not really very warm or sunny. It was also supposed to rain that afternoon but it never did. It is finally raining today, which is just as well. It is supposed to get up into the 70's to 80's this weekend; I am looking forward to that since so far the weather hasn't really been very motivating towards the whole garden thing and it seems to be getting late to me for getting stuff into the dirt.
Tomorrow I am off to get my next main distraction. Fortunately it doesn't involve as much travel as the last one.

Driving in the snow

I am off to Duluth for the weekend. I am going to celebrate DTE's birthday with her, and go to her band concert. I am pretty excited about seeing her, but not so excited about the weather across the state.

Duluth:

Today
Breezy. Light snow likely in the morning...then a chance of rain or snow showers in the afternoon. Snow accumulation of 1 to 2 inches. Highs 33 to 38. West winds 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the late morning and afternoon. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.
Tonight
Breezy. Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of snow showers. Lows 23 to 28. West winds 15 to 25 mph decreasing to 10 to 15 mph after midnight.
Sunday
Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain and snow showers. Highs 40 to 45. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph.

Rochester:

Now
A few flurries can be expected for the rest of the morning hours... along with a continuation of blustery conditions. West winds at 20 to 30 mph...with gusts up to 40...will add a distinct bite to the morning air.
Today
Cloudy in the morning then becoming partly sunny. Windy. Highs in the upper 40s. West winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts to around 40 mph.
Tonight
Mostly cloudy. Lows in the lower 30s. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph.
Sunday
Partly sunny. Chance of rain or snow showers in the morning. Chance of rain showers in the afternoon. Highs in the mid 40s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation 40 percent.

(DTE said her Relay For Life went great.)

DTE Relay update

I thought would post the date of DTE's RFL event in an easily accessible place, aka, here. She will be doing this on April 18-19. As I recall it is an overnight event.

Request from my DTE

I am posting this for DTE; she thought that this might be one of the fastest ways to get this info out to family. She, and some other members from her Pep Band are participating in her local American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event (If anyone else decides to pitch in, she won't turn it down.) Here is a copy of her information:

Dear Family and Friends,

I've decided to take action against cancer by participating in
the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event right here in my
community. Relay For Life® is about celebration, remembrance, and
hope. By participating, I am honoring cancer survivors, paying tribute
to the lives we've lost to the disease, and raising money to help
fight it.

Please help support me in this important cause by making a donation.
It is faster and easier than ever to support me by making a secure,
tax-deductible donation online using the link below. If you would
prefer, you can send your contribution to the mailing address listed
below.

Whatever you can give will help - it all adds up! I greatly appreciate
your support and will keep you posted on my progress.

Sincerely,

To make a donation online, visit my personal page.

To send a donation, make all checks payable to:
American Cancer Society
Local ACS Office Street
Local ACS Office City, State, Zip

I once had a hat,

but it was allowed migrate north last week. Due to this migration, I don't have a hat anymore. Fortunately, it isn't as cold as it had been, but I am thinking I will need a new one for next winter. Said hat will probably migrate back south in May, but will move north again at the end of August. For a bird this would seem like a reverse migration pattern, but then, this hat is made out of warm, yummy wool.
I think I might have a little bit of time to decide on what yarn will become my new hat (until I fall down hard, once again, for a cute face). (No, that hat isn't the one that has migrated.)

YES!!!!!

BULLDOGS RULE!!!!
OK, as most of my family knows, I don't usually get very excited about sports, but there are exceptions. The last time I got very excited was when the girls high school football team had an undefeated season. For the record, I never even saw a football game in my life until DTE was a sophmore in high school and in the marching band. Isn't really about the band?
Soccer? I have seen lots of soccer over the years of three kids playing from the time they were each four years old. Soccer I understand. I think Hubband got tired of trying to explain football to me even after several years of going to see the band.

Frozen Four is down to "Frozen Two"

Bulldogs and Badgers will batle for NCAA Title Saturday at The DECC afer 3-2 UMD win over New Hampshire.

X of Minnesota Duluth (center) reacts after defeating New Hampshire 3-2 in the NCAA Frozen Four semifinal game at the DECC in Duluth Thursday. The Bulldogs will face the Badgers in the championship game Saturday. [Derek Montgomery/News Tribune]




DTE says

The team won in an AMAZING game. [There is a] Picture of us being excited about scoring.... not the greatest pic but oh well. Our girls are amazing. There was almost a whole minuet of us being down by two players. Our goalie is really good.

The girls and goalie being really good and amazing probably has somehing to do with them being ranked in the top four or so in the nation on a regular basis.

I thought the picture was just fine.

UMD pep band members DTE(from left) X, and Y cheer after Minnesota Duluth scored its first goal against New Hampshire during the NCAA Frozen Four Womens Ice Hockey National Championship semifinal game at the DECC in Duluth. [CLINT AUSTIN/NEWS TRIBUNE]

Life distractions

It has been a bit busy around the home front, but in a laid back kind of way. DTE came home late Saturday night for a shortened spring break. She had to leave this morning to get back to school, even though classes don't start back up until Monday. She needed to be back for Pep Band at Women's Frozen Four. If any of you out there follow Collegiate Women's Hockey, I am sure you have heard of this team more than once. If you have a favorite team that isn't UMD, you probably tremble a bit at the mention of Bulldogs. I will add that DTE is a bit disappointed to be going to nationals in the same town she spends most of her life in these days. She is hoping the team does a repeat next year and they'll be "Band in Boston."
Mostly we were busy hanging out together, cooking, watching a movie, etc. You know, weird family bonding things that distract me from writing a blog. I knew it would still be here after she left.
There was knitting involved while she was home (by me, she doesn't knit). I made her a DW facecloth, but it was not allowed to be photographed. Maybe its owner thought it was shy or something. I also made one for the kitchen, since the first one was claimed by Hubband. (I am not entirely sure what he is going to do with it besides look at it on top of his radio.) Once again, I am drawn to yellow and sage green. I am guessing the West Desert of my childhood isn't blooming yet, but the colors remind of what is to come.

I finished up the last of my Knit For Lent hats. I used red and blue held together until I ran out of the blue and had to finish up with just red. It wouldn't have been my first (or even second or third) choice of how a hat looked/turned out, but since part of what I wanted to do was use up some yarn that I didn't have other plans for, it worked out. Plus, if the yarn is used up, it won't be something I would choose again! All twelve of my hats have been squished into a box and mailed off. I do still have some yarn left, and since they collect hats through out the year, I probably will be knitting some more.
I also knit up the dishcloth pattern/yarn that I got as a prize for my Three Bags Full entry over at WhoDuKnit. Not that my entry was necessarily the best; the prizes are given as a "random draw" from all the entries in any given month. Though some months there aren't very many entries. (I didn't knit anything for the February book, but you can stop in over there if you want to see some one's knitted DNA.) For those of you wondering about it, WhoDuKnit is fun. Great book suggestions, a lot of them that I never would have heard of otherwise, fun swaps and contests, and it is run by a really great lady! It is always open to new members, so feel free to join us!


Oh, I guess you might want to see the dishcloth from another angle.....


Just reminder that since today is the first day of spring (according to the calender anyway), registrations for the Spring Fling Coffee (and yarn) Swap are open from now until the 25Th of March. Short window of opportunity but I am guessing there will be quite a few folks involved.

AND THEY ARE....

Not off. Because of

DENSE FOG HAS SPREAD ACROSS MUCH OF THE AREA...
WIDESPREAD FOG...MUCH OF IT DENSE...WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE
MORNING OVER MUCH OF THE AREA...

both here and Chicago, where their plane needs to come from, so it can go back. Planes delayed and/or cancelled, thus connections will be missed. We are supposed to have freezing drizzle after 3 AM tonight, so I have suggested that they should still work on getting to Chicago today.

Playing With Fire, Part 2

These are the products of DTE's session with fire yesterday. She went out to finish up from yesterday. The beads had to anneal for a couple of hours after they were all made and then cool down. So she went out today to dremel them (cleans out the bead release and smooths any rough spots)and stuff. She had a lot of fun and really wants to do more. She would like to be able to get to the point of making other things as well, since she doesn't make stuff out of beads. Many, many thanks to Judy for opening her glass studio and home to DTE and me. (No pictures yet of what I did while there. No worries Jessi, I promise you get to see my messy work and the mystery soon.)
Hubband update: He seems to be very much on the mend, though is still a bit tired. There has been no dizziness for over twenty-four hours (for the first time in a week or more), and he is able to hear much better. We have been doing trip laundry like crazy and there is a girl's suitcase in the process of being packed. Baring something going terribly south tonight, they are planning on leaving for China Sunday morning!

Some of us are having more fun than others

Hubband is still sickly. He is better part of the time but then gets terrible bouts of clogged up ears and room-spinning dizziness. He started a different antibiotic today in hopes of killing off some bugs that may be lingering around after the one he started on Monday. I guess the big decision on going overseas with DTE will have to be made by about 5 AM Sunday, since their plane leaves between 8 and 9 AM. Though I am guessing the decision will be made sometime by Saturday evening. I am really hoping he is better in the morning because the two of them have been looking forward to this trip and his friend is really wanting some folks to speak English with! Of course DTE is also hoping this trip will help her decide about spending five weeks studying in China come next spring.

 

Today I drove DTE out to my friend's house so she could play with fire. (Well, she could have driven herself, but I was happy to go too.)

 

She was a very happy camper for several hours.

 

Tomorrow she gets to go back out and clean up all her hard work. Never fear, you'll get to see the products of all her fun. I might even decide to show you what I did today.