Four years ago today

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.

"It tastes like chicken"

is a fairly common phrase. I have heard it said about all sorts of things, including rattlesnake. (Personally I didn't eat any of it myself, but the two people in my family I was with at the Poteet Strawberry Festival many years ago gave me that report.) However, I wasn't aware that chicken itself came in different flavors.
Now, I can understand that an indoor chicken would actually taste different than an outdoor chicken.

 

After all, free range chickens get to eat way more bugs and greens than ones that live inside. I do notice a difference in the flavor of free-range chicken eggs and caged chicken eggs after all. So maybe there is a difference in the flavor of the chicken as well if one were to pay close enough attention.

 

But really? I have never heard of chicken that is flavored like kittens.

 

Do you think it counts as cannibalism when I feed them to Oribel? (It does say "flavor" so i think it will be safe.)

Our Internet is back up

and running. Which is a really good thing as I have had important e-mail and Skype stuff I needed to do today. Maybe in a couple of days my life will settle into a new normal. It better continue to have a properly running Internet connection, 'cause my need for it isn't going to change.

Since I have a craving

for Thai Food, I think I am going to see if DTE is up to having me pick her up for dinner tomorrow night.

Dear Jethro,

I need to tell you how much I have enjoyed all the hours we have spent together in the last month. You have kept me company in the the evening so I wouldn't be alone, usually way past my bedtime, and it has all been worth it. I wanted to let you know that as of tomorrow we won't be able to spend so many hours together every night. I have loved seeing your awesome smile over and over every night, loved spending all those hours together, but my one true love returns home tomorrow afternoon. I am sure you understand, after all you have had your own true love as well. (I am truly sorry you can't have her back and had to live through the pain of loosing her all over again.)
Our time together won't be ending completely, we can still have tonight after all. Plus, my true love, Hubband, told me that he thinks he has met you at least once before and he is willing to get to know you better. I think that could be a really great way to spend an hour or so some evenings, hanging out with Hubband, you, and my knitting. Never fear Jethro, we have several more seasons together. I am looking forward to them.
Me

Ahh! Gee! Thanks everyone!

Well, I really hadn't been meaning to come across as being down on myself. I was really feeling sorry for you folks! But I will say I am very glad to hear that none of you are terribly upset to not have heard or gotten emails from me recently. Seriously, next week might be better, 'cause it will be just me and the wildlife (and the two non-wild ones).
I promise to give you info and pictures of the marshmallow experiment on Saturday or Sunday, but I need to be off to bed early tonight (aka before 11 PM). DTE's spring break is coming to an end and we are heading back north early in the morning and then I am driving back home in the afternoon. All that means eight hours plus of drive-time, on winter-weary roads. (No, I don't usually chose to do the round trip in one day, but she is rested up to help drive, and I prefer to spend the weekend with Hubband before he leaves.)
See you all soon!

I am beginning to think

that I pretty much suck at the whole "Internet friend" thing. I mean, people leave me comments on the blog (which I love getting) and I don't respond back or leave them comments very often(both of which I think sucks); people send me emails and cool "I am thinking/caring about you" stuff (which I also love) and I don't respond, or send them on to people I think/care about (which I also think kind of sucks).
Then there is the whole falling off the face of the earth out of the Internet tubes thing for days on end. I am not talking just the "not posting on the blog" here, I am talking the not writing emails to folks at all, even though I am thinking about them and the things I want to tell them about what I am reading. Yeah, I pretty much suck at this Internet-friendship thing sometimes. Maybe next week will be better. Right now I think I will go see if DTE needs help making caramel covered marshmallows.

They go together

I know I showed you this picture already for March 10,

 

but these go with it.

Maybe

I should give up cooking for Lent?

Recycling is a good thing, right?

Well, most of the time it is, but right now I am not so sure. Is it possible to save bits, or bites, or 1's and 0's if I recycle blog posts? Would it help keep the tubes of the Internet from getting clogged up? How will we ever know the real answer?
Any way, it is time to say "Happy New Year" again. Main difference from last year's post? We are now in Year "B1." I still love the whole Advent thing and there isn't much to add, other than I can't think of a better way for a church to celebrate the New Year than the party St. John's got to throw yesterday.
Also for the recycling project, you can go here, and insert Thursday for Tuesday. Well, I guess we do know why, though, don't we?

People often want to know, "Does he travel a lot?"

It depends on what one means by "a lot." It has been known to come and go like waves. (Or something, maybe not waves. I guess I haven't spent enough time at a beach to say for sure.) Basically he has always had to travel some since, well, since I've known him it would seem, but at least always since we have been married. It used to be more than it is right now, and it may pick up again in the future. We never really know.
However, all that said, a while back it looked like Hubband was going to be going to Geneva, and then not, but maybe to Palo Alto instead. Now it looks like he won't be going anywhere for a while. This means he will be home for the annual Singed Cat celebration after all! (Yes, there have been years that he has had to be gone for it, or other family members' celebrations. It really is OK when it happens, and we are all OK with it.)

A movie that I might consider going to at midnight.

The movie Coraline comes out in February of 2009. I am really looking forward to this one and have no real worries about how it may or may not have been changed from the book. Neil Gaiman is the author and he was heavily involved in the making of the movie, just as he has been with all of his book/movie conversions. On his journal Neil gave all these passwords for the official movie site. Seriously worth checking out (especially if you like looking at really tiny knitting projects used as part of the costumes).

stopmotion : the Biggest Smallest movie ever made.

buttoneyes : Meet the cast...

moustachio : Bo Henry, art director of Coraline, shows off his remarkable moustache tricks.

armpithair : Every hair in the film was placed there by hand...

puppetlove : Director Henry Selick explains what it must be like for the puppets in the film.

sweaterxxs : Micro-knitting. That's right: micro-knitting.

I have a confession to make

I found my missing sleeve. Oribel was in no way responsible for its missing status. As soon as I found it in my purse, I remembered that I took it to the fabric store to find matching thread. So, I just wanted to let everyone know that it isn't always the cat's fault.

Do you all know what today is?

Not only is it Election day (go vote if you haven't already), it is "Be Kind To Your Poll Worker Day."
See You all tomorrow!

Last night Hubband and I had soup and bread for dinner.

I was fortunate to be back home in time for us to support one of our most important community organizations, which also happens to be near and dear to our hearts. Empty Bowls is an international project implemented on the local community level. Check to see if it happens in your community and try to support it in any way you can if it is. (If it isn't, it is well worth considering finding people to help bring to your area.) We were able to enjoy a drumming group from one of the local schools during dinner; see some pretty cool bowls, some that were part of our dinner donation and some that were part of a silent auction fundraiser; and we then we wandered around and saw interesting art.


These are the bowls we decided to take home with us.

It is a good thing today is October first.

It is almost 6 PM, the temperature is currently 57°, and it is supposed to get down to 40° tonight and 38° tomorrow night. It is a well known fact that if you turn your furnace on before October first, your house will explode. Well known to Hubband, though I am not sure he was ever able to convince any of our children as to the veracity of this fact. (This fact, and several others, I might add.) Thus, I went to the store today just to get these. (Well, obviously not Oribel, she just had to approve it being in her house.)

Not yet

Me: There is nothing happening around here.
You: There is nothing happening around there.
Me: You can go about your business.
You: We can go about our business.
Me: Stuff will be happening here later, come back then.
You: Stuff will be happening here later, we will come back then.
Me: Move along.
You: Moving along... moving along.
(You can see my hands flapping about, right?)

Should we worry?

Hubband went out to the truck this morning with an armload of stuff to drop at FedEx. (This would be the same truck that took the daughters to the Twin Cites yesterday to drop DTY off for a trip to go visit a friend and to chauffeur DTE to visit a friend as well. You know, a 180+ mile round trip.) He came back inside to pick up the second armful and said, "This is a bit ominous, the owner's manual is out and sitting on the seat. I wonder what this means?" (This would be the truck that delivered DTE home at around 1 AM this morning.) Guess I'll have to ask the daughter about this when she gets up.....
I decided to double check that he had his cell phone with him before he left; you know, just for safety sake.

Why does she keep giving the fish a coaster?

Maybe Oribel thinks it is a rug and it will really tie the room fishbowl together.

How does this happen?

Have you ever noticed that the time seems to go by a lot faster now than it did thirty-five or forty years ago? Now maybe that isn't true for some of you, and I am more than willing to believe that it has something to do with being almost forty-six instead of somewhere between six and eleven years old. Oddly enough, Hubband and I were just talking about this very thing the other day,and discussing different examples. Like how Christmas seems to come around a lot sooner than it used to; how you plan to call the insurance agent to change your coverage because you just dropped the last kid off at college, and all of a sudden it is weeks (almost months) later; you know, stuff like that?
OK, so you are probably wondering where I am going with this. Well, I had kind of lost track of when the last time I posted here was. I can't say that I have been horribly busy and not had time. I mean, I was doing stuff like reading, knitting, cooking, beading, washing dishes, stuff like that. Nothing that I couldn't have set aside to actually tell you all what I was doing. The time just went by faster than I realized. Sorry, did you miss me?
I did get to the point of decreases on DTE's Fake Isle Hat while I wasn't here, and decided that it just wasn't going to fit her. It barely fit me, and my head is a bit smaller than hers, so I frogged the whole thing. I originally had figured that if it didn't fit her, I would give it to someone else and just make a second one for her, but I didn't like the way the fabric felt. It was just too tight and not stretchy. I started over tonight with the next size needles and am much happier with the results. I am up to the third row of the first chart. It seems to be knitting up faster this time around; I think that is a combination of looser fabric on the right size needles and some of the "been here, done this." I have also been working away on DTY's Dr. Who scarf and will give you progress pictures of that and the hat tomorrow.
I will also admit that I am still being somewhat distracted by the antics of Oribel. I get really distracted with the combination of her plus Sadie. They are getting along quite well and seem to have invented some games to play together. Their favorite seems to be something Hubband and I refer to as "Bag." Kind of hard to describe, but it involves the cat being in the bag and poking the sides to get Sadie's attention. Then Sadie noses the sides of the bag and Oribel bats about at her. Sooner or later Sadie gets to stick her nose right inside the bag and she never gets hurt. Apparently Oribel doesn't use her claws at all when she is playing with the dogs, just when she is playing with Hubband, me, or yarn. They are a lot of fun to watch and we are really glad that they get a long so well. Now if only Oribel would stop crying at the garage door whenever the dogs go on their walk, or just let me put a harness on her so she can go too!