The drive north

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

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?

One of DTY's housemates

is a cat. (This is not her cat, but a housemate none the less. It lives in the house too, so it must be one of the housemates, right?) There are two other housemates as well, both have been schoolmates and co-workers. You only get pictures of Jasmine, but you can call it a day-late Whiskers on Wednesday if you want, instead of pictures of housemates.

 

A few random pictures

from a walk around DTY's yard and garden.

 

Tuesday's rides were uneventful,

which is always a good thing when it involves driving to the airport, catching a plane to one place and then a second plane to your finial destination. Well, the final city anyway; DTY met me at the airport and then we took MAX and a bus to her place. I love public transportation in cities that believe in it!
Today we walked to her school and I was able to meet the director of the place where her work study job is, and and see the spot where her SRO license certificate will hang (as well as the current RO one in place). I also got to help her with one of the weekly duties there that involves safe trash disposal. (No pictures there, but she said we might be able to get some later, if cameras are allowed.)
So far vacation is wonderful!

Socks and Pixel Crumbs

Last Friday I finished the striped socks I was working on, bring me to 3 pairs out of 12. (Brief recap for those that are interested; started on Jan. 27, finished on Feb.6. Noro Sock Yarn.) As I had rather expected, DTY said they were pretty and she would love them well, so they are already on their way to her. I do have plenty of yarn left to make myself a pair as well, which I may do soon.

 

Since I was using two strands of yarn, I had a couple of people ask to see the inside so they could see how I carried the unused yarn up the inside. Here you go, if you want further info, feel free to send me an email and I will give more details.

 

Sunday morning our Adult Ed time had something to do with the Internet, web sites, and I am not exactly sure what all since I was a little bit late and missed the "Introduction" part. My guess is that it mostly started with information about the church's web site and how it is progressing, how it and its pages will be set up, and why we are making the choices we are with it. I am also guessing that there were some folks that were asking why we need a web site, why we send out informational e-mails, etc. When I got there Fr. Doug was discussing some of that sort of information and explaining that a lot of people use the Internet as a way of getting information about churches to visit etc. In his explanations of how people search the web for information about stuff, they also search people's names, and used me as an example. He said that he was sure if one Goggled Barbara S... they would find several hits about me. (He knew I would be OK with being picked and that I would show up, at least on some of the stuff from church things.) I said that one could probably find a fair number of hits related to me, though I suppose most of those would come under the search of "CoffeeYarn" rather than my name. Any way, Hubband and I were talking about this later and how one leaves trails as one goes about the Internet. I said that it seems kind of like Hansel and Gretel, but that we leave pixel crumbs behind us instead of bread crumbs. Of course, I'm not sure I could follow all of my pixels, even though I doubt they have been eaten by any birds. (I wonder if pixels can be coffee colored? Or covered in pet hair and/or yarn?)

I will give you an Oribel story a little later. Right now I need to go get ready and leave for the dentist. I am sure that information will make someone happy.

"Life is just what happens

to you while you're busy making other plans." (John Lennon)
I am sure you all know by now that it has been snowing for weeks in parts of the USA where it doesn't normally snow. The Northwest snow storms affected DTY's train trip home from school in Portland. As in, she was delayed fifteen getting home. (Way better than some of her schoolmates who were delayed via the airport for a week.) A friend of hers was coming to visit and was supposed to be in last Tuesday on the train and she was delayed due to snow by twenty four hours. On Friday morning we drove up to the Twin Cities to put the friend on the train for Chicago for the next leg of her visits. The plan had been to do stuff around the TC and then put DTY on her train west in the afternoon/evening. Upon checking up on the train times at the station in the morning, we discovered that DTY's train was cancelled due to "snowstorms and avalanches." She really had wanted to be back at school by Monday morning for some training and job assignments at her work study/reactor job;Friday's train "should" have gotten her there on Sunday. They had no idea if it would be running on Saturday or not, which "should" put her in on Monday. (It wasn't according to what she was told on the phone by the Amtrak Lady.) Fortunately, we were able to find her a one-way plane ticket for Monday at a price we were very happy with. (Actually about the same price as the unused half of the train ticket!) So, we are driving to the TC again tomorrow to put her on the plane. Of course, the snowstorm that stopped her train has traveled our direction....

Monday: Snow and areas of blowing snow, mainly after 9am. High near 20. Wind chill values as low as -8. South wind 7 to 10 mph becoming north between 21 and 24 mph. Winds could gust as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 100%. New snow accumulation of 3 to 5 inches possible.

Monday Night: Areas of blowing snow and a chance of snow before midnight. Cloudy during the early evening, then gradual clearing, with a low around -11. Wind chill values as low as -32. Blustery, with a north wind 25 to 28 mph decreasing to between 16 and 19 mph. Winds could gust as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. Little or no snow accumulation expected.

and:

Winter Weather Advisory

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LA CROSSE WI
909 PM CST SUN JAN 11 2009

...BLIZZARD CONDITIONS POSSIBLE MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING...

All of this is according to NOAA.

Of course, that whole getting the congested head/dizzy thing was part of life and not part of the plan either. I do seem to be much better, thanks for all the well wishes and I hope to have more life info soon.

Last count for Thursdays medal totals.

Banana Slugs are all over the Pacific Northwest, where DTY goes to school. In a couple of weeks there will be several more of them about her campus; there is a chance one might be lost on library shelves or some such place. She is hoping that more will make their way West to keep these company in the future. That will happen, but she gets a pair of yellow and black socks first. (This makes medal numbers six, seven, eight, and nine for those of you trying to keep track.)
I hope they don't really eat that quarter, she needs as many of those a she can get for her laundry at school. Maybe a slug will get left in the laundry room if it isn't careful.

Will wonders never cease?

Today Mr. A and I ran some errands that included stopping by Best Buy to get our converter box. He and Hubband set it up after dinner and it made an amazing difference! We now seem to have reception/picture quality similar to what we had when we had cable in Texas (folks that was 21 years ago) and we seem to have about thirty channels! We just wish we had had this thing last Friday for the opening ceremonies! Once I figure it all out, I have to admit that I may go back to watching TV a bit more often. There is a big difference between a just a few only slightly better than fuzzy channels (well, only one for a fair portion of the winter when the antenna is frozen in place) and what we got tonight! We are getting two Twin Cities Public TV stations, and we used to get none. It is amazing what one little box can do!

Mr. A and I also stopped by to see DTY at work. She has been selling stuff (aka produce) on street corners since mid-July, and was in town yesterday and today. (Most of the time she has been selling in Decorah, Iowa. This is her last week of work as she needs to do a few things before leaving for school besides being gone from 7 am to 9pm for work. It was fun to see her corn truck and pick up melons, zucchini, and corn from her. We grilled the corn and zucchini tonight as well as the Runsas Mr. A and I made. (If that link didn't work for some reason, try this one instead.) Don't worry, he is bringing the recipe home with him. We have never grilled the zucchini outside before, but fortunately for us he was able to tell us how his dad does it and it turned out great!

On the knitting front I almost have the Pop Tart all done. I just need to add the sprinkles and do a little bit of sewing and I'll have another FO for Ravelympics. I started my hat tonight wile we watched some swimming and gymnastics. There is a fair chance I will have it done tomorrow too. That's mostly because I have an hour and a half of class time in the morning to knit and then knit night tomorrow. It is that big of a hat. With any luck I will have pictures of that stuff for you tomorrow sometime.
Speaking of tomorrow, it will be time for another Whiskers on Wednesday post. Never fear, it will be up, but I might not get it there until later than usual. Check back sometime after two my time and I hope it will be done by then.
For now I am off to sleep.

Youngest Daughter update

DTY is winging her way back to school this afternoon. General classes aren't starting for another two weeks, but she is going early for licensure for RAM as she keeps calling it. Upon Googleing it, I am thinking it is known as RML. Seriously, it probably isn't what first came to mind for most of you. Both of her grandfathers probably had such a license, and maybe her great-uncle. By the time she is done with Spring Semester, she hopes to also have an Operator's license. It could well lead to a second work-study job; she plans to continue with her theater set construction job next year.

She loves it!

DTY really loves her scarf (she keeps telling me so with a cute grin!).




She seems to really like Oribel too.

What my DTY is up to

Well, my baby is sleeping on the streets of a Portland suburb tonight. Fortunately she didn't get kicked out of her dorm, she is just camping out to be close to the beginning of the line for this. And they get free breakfast! Luckily her school has a camping co-op so she has a tarp and sleeping bag. College classes? Yeah, she'll miss a class or two in the morning.

Happy Birthday DTY!

OK, this post and I are both going into a "Time Out". The pictures and their captions are connected properly in the draft and in the "post-publish view window" but not in the actual post that the rest of you are looking at. For now you will have to figure out which ones go where before I hurt something. I am going to go drink a cup of tea and knit a little. I don't know what Blogspot is going to do during its time out.
Oh yeah!!! Thanks to my favorite Uncle, "Time Out" is all done! (And no, he isn't my favorite just because he helped with this problem.)



This is DTY's "Official Hospital Portrait."











As you can see, DTY has always had an awesome smile.

 

A couple of her Senior Pictures, Fall of 2006.

 

Senior Prom, Spring of 2007.

 

Graduation, June 2007.

 

On her annual backpacking trip, 2007.

 

Standing next to one of the awesome trees on the Reed campus.

 

Looking out her dorm room window, late August 2007.

 

I hope DY has an awesome birthday at school!

All moved in and heading home

DTY and I rode the bus to Reed on Wednesday with her suitcase. After checking in, ID, keys, finding her room, etc. we went to the mail room to retrieve her boxes of belongings that had been shipped. One out of three was a bit smashed and ripped, but nothing seemed to have gone missing. We got her all unpacked and most of her stuff put away in just a couple of hours, as well as eating lunch, then went off to Convocation and an awesome Odyssey lecture from Pancho Savery. Our day together was over so I headed off and she had more meetings, dinner, fire dancing, etc to attend to.
Thursday I took the bus in again for more Parent activities in the morning. DTY and I had figured we wouldn't see each other until around noon, due to stuff for both of us to do, but we ran into each other on the sidewalk around 9:30 (she had gotten done early), so we got to hang out together and catch up before my Parent Event. The rest of the day was more "Starting out/getting to know a new campus/college" kind of stuff. We even had time to go to the library and look at senior thesises from past graduates (we were looking for a very particular one). After a fun day together, it was time to do the hugging good-bye thing and go our separate ways. No, I didn't cry, or even tear up much then. No guarantees about tomorrow when I bet on the train, or next week when there are no children in the house (or even ten minutes from now!).
Today has been pretty quite for me. I have been doing laundry and making sure I have myself together to catch the train home tomorrow morning. Hubband reports that the house is nice and dry, but my vegetable garden is history. I may have to get off the train in St. Paul, since the tracks were washed out to passenger traffic yesterday (they can still move freight on the same track though, so they are still there). Apparently everyone is getting off there and then they are being bussed all the rest of the way to Chicago. Luckily for me, It is about the same to my ride if they drive north to St. Paul for an hour or east to Winona for an hour. I don't relish ending my whole trip with a two plus hour bus ride.
I am off to finish packing and don't imagine I will post again until Tuesday or so (but I should have pictures by then!).

A little catching up and whirlwind traveling

I feel so behind the last few days. I have been helping put together a big social event at church, which went off well Saturday night. Food, games, intergenerational, two parish event. Stuff like that. Folks had a really good time and it was a lot of fun seeing several different retired folks and other adults being tutored in the fine art of Dance, Dance, Revolution by DTY and folks learning about Guitar Hero (DTE helped with that one). Mr. A had a lot of fun too. I will get a few pictures of that up at some point, but it might not be for a bit.
Mr. A went home Sunday. We thought really seriously about just keeping him here and all, but decided that maybe my brother wouldn't like that so much. That plus the fact that he is supposed to go to the Utah Shakespeare Festival with my mom in a week. Why do I have to keep sending him back? He has decided that walking Simon with his Uncle H is a great thing to do every night and sleeping out in the tent is a very cool thing (I wonder if he wants to come during winter break for the annual winter/snow camping in January?).
DTY and I get on the train by the banks of the Mississippi River Tuesday evening to pop out on the other side in Portland, Oregon, on Thursday morning. So I have a bit over twelve hours to finish this post, get some sleep, and finish up getting ready to leave for two weeks. I am taking Kaylee with me, but won't have connection until Thursday afternoon or Friday. So, you'll just have to wonder about stuff for a few days. ("Right lady, like anybody is really holding their breath until your next post the rest of the time!"). No promises on pictures while I am gallivanting about the West Coast, but I promise you'll get some after I get home.
So, a little more catching up to be done. Last week I took the three children to Greece and Pompeii for the day. It was really fun to see DTE all excited and pointing. I wasn't next to her, but I knew she was bopping her sister's knee and meaning, "I was there!" "I saw that in June!" when she was pointing. Pompeii was fun too, I got to do the "I was there" stuff as well. We had a really great time and all in all, it was a lot of fun.
I am off to sleep, and to see if Miss Sadie will venture outside now that the rain has slacked off. Heaven forbid her feet should have to step in a puddle!

A little of this, a little of that, and just a little knitting

Friday afternoon Hubband decided that since it was going to be a wonderfully cool night, it would be a great time to set up the tent in out own private campground so Mr. A could camp out (not something he gets to do often in the wilds of Redondo Beach). As it happened, Mr. A was not too sure about this idea as, "I am not much of an outdoors kind of guy." Hubband told him that he would be sleeping out for certain, and that DTY might be as well. When we told him she would be, he said he would think about it. He thought about it for about a minute to a minute and a half, and said, "OK, I'm in!" Later as he was settling into is sleeping bag, I heard him say to DTY, "Isn't this the best? Sleeping out in the wild outdoors!" We might live in the country and have turkeys every day, but the coyotes have been kind of quite for a month or so, but does this count as "the wilds?" Saturday it rained most of the day and we had to bring the sleeping bags in because the tent was leaking a bit. (An aside about the tent-- we haven't used it in several years and DTY put it up a while back prior to going camping with some friends. She said, "It's Gianormous!" I pointed out to her that we bought it when I was seven months pregnant with her and it could fit four people in sleeping bags AND a port-a-crib for a several years. It might have a right to leak, especially since we didn't use a ground cloth the other night.) We were going to sleep outside again Saturday night, as per Mr. A's request, but it kept raining whenever we were going to haul the stuff back out (two and a half inches, I'm not complaining and I don't think the cows or the corn down the street are either). One of the first things he asked about today was weather or not sleeping in the tent was happening tonight.
Earlier in the week DTY had gone for a walk one night and Mr. A had told Hubband and me that he wasn't sure about that walking after dark thing. It seemed pretty scary in the dark since you can't see what is out there or where you are walking. I took him out on the deck and showed him all the stars and he thought that was pretty cool. "At home we only have artificial stars. You know, satellites." Tonight he told me, on his way out into the garage, "I am going with Uncle H to walk the dog," (this is pretty much only done after dark). When he got home he told me, "The walk was interesting. I talked to Uncle H and it wasn't too scary." I asked him if having the scary dog to protect him helped and he said it did. Right, this would be the dog that is afraid of his little sister dog. We do not own scary dogs, but Mr. A did have his Uncle H to protect him (from what none of us are really sure).
So far we have done a little cooking, harvesting in the garden, some reading (he started HP#7 after he got here and finished it the other day), computer and PS2 games. All that AND walking after dark as well as sleeping out in the wilds in a tent!

I have finished the knitting part of the Tornado Scarf and just need to add the flowers to finish it off. There will be a full explanation forthcoming once the flowers are on. I hope it all makes sense then (if not, I will obviously have gone too far out on a limb as it breaks off under me). I am leaving you with a picture of my willing model wearing the partly finished scarf.

Food, Plants, and Kids

Last night I made Peach Puzzle for dessert. Mr. A was convinced it was magic, Hubband and I were pretty amazed ourselves. I love it when basic science can be seen in action in the kitchen. Cooking isn't rocket science, just chemistry with a little physics thrown in at times for good measure. Oh, wait, that's what rocket science is, isn't it? Chemistry and physics?





The garden you got to see when it was newly planted has grown. A lot. Most of the tomatoes are going out of their cages again this year, even though I got almost all bigger new ones this year.



In case you have ever wondered what you can do with tomato cages that are too small, and you just can't quite bring yourself to throw out a perfectly good garden item, here is one idea. (I have another idea I'm going to try later. I'll keep you posted.)

You can wire the open tops of two of them together with florist wire and then run lines of wire up and down the open sections. Wire the top closed and plant the legs of the open end into a pot with a vine type plant.

It looks kind of funny at first (pretty much like an upside down tomato cage), but then the trellis you have made is covered with vines and flowers, and looks pretty cool. I am thinking about doing Scarlet Runner Beans this way on the deck next year.




This is what the backpacking DTY looked like last week. I will have a picture up soon of what she looks like this week.

Another object over the finish line

I finished up a sweater today that I started some four plus years ago. It is a pattern called "Pyramid Sweater" by Juliane Nollan Anderson for Gooseberry Designs. I can't really remember all the reasons why in went into the apparently deep UFO bin. I know it was partly that I was kind of tired of looking at it for a while and just didn't want to deal with fixing what I thought it had a s a big mistake. Turns out it never had the mistake I thought it did and only needed t have the cuffs and edging picked up and done. DTE says it looks like half a rainbow threw up and wants to borrow it this winter if they have another "Ugly Sweater Party" at college. I'll tell her I'll consider it if she lets me use her camera to get a picture of it posted now instead of having to wait until her dad gets back with ours in two weeks.
It was a great pattern-- NO SEAMS!!!!
I am glad I joined the TdF KAL, I seem to be finishing a lot of stuff I had in the UFO bin.


Tomorrow I need to get serious about DTY's Dr. Who Scarf as she wants it before I leave her at college. Since it is 12 feet of garter stitch in seven different colors, it isn't something I want to knit on the train. The real deal is that I am making two of them at the same time on one long circular needle.




Try as I might, there was just no way I was getting all that yarn in this bag.



So now it is in this bag. I promise, it really is bigger.

Cooking and "Tour/French" Food

I don't write much about cooking, but I will tell you that I really enjoy cooking. Probably more than knitting, weaving, or reading, or even listening to NPR. Hard to say about that one, I do a lot of my cooking with the radio tuned to Public Radio or it is streaming on the computer. Hubband has accused me of not needing more than one button on my radio in the car (I had to remind him that in SLC we had two different NPR stations). In addition to normal stuff like chicken soup, sourdough pancakes, etc., yesterday's cooking involved making six loaves of bread and I had made three the day before that. For the record, my family doesn't go through that much bread that fast. I am making it for folks from church going on a mission trip. They need to eat, I like to make bread, it makes for a good fit. Today I am going to get some granola made for them as well. That happens after the oven is clean from DTY's beef jerky making last night. She made that for the Sawtooth Mountain backpacking trip she and Hubband are leaving for tomorrow (yeah, there is bread for them too).
While I was baking yesterday I kept thinking about the Tour, yummy French food, and summer salads, and now I am craving my favorite potato salad. I think I know what I am making today as well as the granola. Yeah, the kitchen is my favorite room in the house. Not happy about the broken dishwasher right now, but it isn't stopping me from doing what I love.

French Potato Salad (from the Joy of Cooking)

This is best made with small red waxy potatoes boiled in their jackets, peeled if desired, and marinated while still warm. (I am usually too lazy to peel them myself.) Don't use cold left-over boiled potatoes, they just won't absorb the flavor the same. The real key is the dressing, which is good on all sorts of things.

2 cups sliced or cubed boiled potatoes
1/2 cup (or more to taste) warmed French Dressing
let marinate and cool at room temp.
Gently stir in:
1 TBS chopped parsley
1 TBS chopped chives or finely grated onion

French Dressing (Sauce Vinaigrette)
Place in jar or processor and blend:
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/2 to 1 tsp prepared mustard
1 to 3 cloves crushed garlic (optional)
1 cup lemon juice
Add slowly to make emulsion (shaking between additions if using a jar):
1 1/2 to 2 cups extra virgin olive oil
Adjust seasonings to taste.


My variation:
more potatoes
more dressing
more parsley
additional items depending on what I have around, feel like eating, or who I am feeding:
chopped sweet onion to taste
chopped celery
capers to taste
Crisp cooked fresh green beans (add to potatoes when hot to marinate)
quartered tomatoes
chopped boiled egg if serving right away (I rarely put these in and NEVER for a pot luck)
what ever else strikes my fancy at the time

First day of finials for high school seniors

So, this is what the first day of DTY's, and six of her friends, last finals for high school looks like. Seven folks having a LAN party at ten in the morning at our house. You get the image, the sound winds up being mostly silence punctuated by groans of defeat or laughs of victory. The smell is that of a lot of really hot electrical things all in one room; yeah, you really have to be there to get the full effect. A few hours latter the image was lunch, a round of Frisbee, and then another game round at the computers. (Their HS has a deal that if the senior has a grade of "A" going into the finial, the don't have to take the last test. Works out well for a lot of them, obviously all the ones here today!) 

Senior breakfast is tomorrow and then graduation is two days after that. Friday night after graduation is the "Senior Party" at the school, and Saturday we are having the traditional Mid-West ritual of the "Graduate's Open House" where family and friends all come to visit for a bit. There winds up being a certain amount of coordinating between friends as to day and time of these parties; can't have too much overlap. DTY had four or five last weekend to go to, several next weekend, and maybe one or two the following weekend I think.
DTE is helping me plan the menu and will help with the food that we need to fix (most importantly the awesome Basil Tomato Cabbage Head!!!). Tonight we get to finish putting the house back together from having the annual carpet cleaning done.
I did get the flowers planted and then DTY and I got herbs at the Farmer's Market on Saturday, but it rained all weekend, so I need to get them into the dirt tomorrow. I got a bit more of the prayer shawl done, but I have about ten inches left. DTY's scarf yarn came in, so of course I had to cast that on right away and get a bit of it in. I did start both of the ones I am doing on the same needles. Fifteen feet of garter stitch is going to be kind of boring after a while and I don't really want to finish one and have to do it all over again. Kind of like knitting two really, really big socks! I have been known to have trouble doing that second sock after all. Which leads me to the fact that I am getting really antsy about my "Sock Club" yarn and pattern that aren't here yet. I know other folks have gotten theirs by now (even ones in Australia and New Zealand!) and I haven't! Maybe if I knit really fast and get the shawl off the needles, the socks will show up. I can always hope, or just call the store and see if they have shipped it yet. I will get up some pictures of knitting pretty soon, as well as more pictures of the yard and stuff.