Mystery items

This is what I did last week while DTE was playing with fire. I had a brief lesson on Judy's spinning wheel and here is the product of that, skeined up and loose so you can really see what it looks like.

Finally, the mystery item Jessi has been going crazy for weeks now with curiosity about. When I told her that my friend needed a foster home for it and Hubband said our house was the logical fostering place, she wanted to know what kind of wheel it was. I asked the owner if it had a name, and she kind of gave me a blank look and said, "Is it supposed to?" I then asked her what kind and she didn't know. So after I got it home, I told Jessi it was a Louet something. Seriously, that was the best I could answer at the time. Therefore she has been dying to see a picture of it so she could figure out what it was and give me long-distance help when I need it.
I am not sure how she is going to give me help from Alabama with what could prove to be my biggest challenge when it comes to learning how to spin. Oribel has already shown me how much she likes any yarn, and she particularly loves yarn that is moving. Fortunately I have figured out how to stop it when she decides she needs to jump up on the moving wheel to knock the drive band off, or stick her paw into the spokes. Don't be expecting any awesome spinning out of me very soon. I am thinking I could end up with a kitten with a broken leg, a smashed head, or some such similar horrible thing.
Today she has been really busy with distributing presents. She has given the dogs three coasters and the fish has been blessed with two. Apparently there was something wrong with their clean dishes having just water in them. Fortunately I didn't get any wet ones dropped on me at 6:30 this morning for a game of fetch. It has been known to happen.
Oribel also likes to be up high to be able to see, so she tends to spend a lot of time riding around on my shoulder. The other day we went up the stairs, put stuff away and then back down the stairs, got a cup of coffee, and then back upstairs, the whole time with her hanging out on my shoulders. Today she decided she needed to be just a little taller to look at a curtain rod and thought the top of my head was a good place to look from. It didn't work out so well for her, what with slippery hair and all. It was kind of funny though.
In other news, Hubband and DTE arrived in Shanghai, spent one night, and then took the train to Beijing to meet up with our friends and their hosts/guide for a few days. They called this morning (for me, but it was late tonight for them) to let me know they have passed the latest stage of their journey safely.

Have I ever mentioned

how much I like the birthday present Hubband gave me? Probably not. He was really sweet and gave it to me early (like the end of October). With it I can take cute things like this
and this

 

and these

 

But seriously, I really love it because I can take pictures like this out my kitchen window even when he has taken his camera on vacation!

(I would strongly recommend you click on the picture to get a big view of it.)
That was taken at about 3:20 in the afternoon, and you may be able to tell how close to the house it is since I got some of the bird feeder that is on the deck into the picture.
It is a Barred Owl, and they average 16 to 25 inches in height when full grown, which this one is. This is one of the reasons Someone isn't allowed outside by herself. She is just now getting to be only slightly bigger than a squirrel. This, and the Red-tailed Hawk family that lives in the trees above our shed at the edge of the yard.

Barred Owl can sometimes be seen hunting before dark. This typically occurs during the nesting season or on dark and cloudy days. A Barred Owl will use a perch, from where it dives upon its prey - meadow voles are its main prey, followed by shrews and deer mice. Other mammals include rats, squirrels, young rabbits, bats, moles, opossums, mink, and weasels. Birds are taken occasionally, including woodpeckers, grouse, quail, jays, blackbirds, and pigeons.

Sometimes when I am filling the bird feeder Hubband refers to it as the Hawk feeder. He might need to start calling the owl feeder.

They are...

In the air on their way to China!

And They Are.... Update

In Chicago. After several delayed and canceled flights, along with three trips back and forth to the airport from our house (about a thirty to thirty-five minute drive to the south on a clear day), they have made it to the place they need to be to catch the plane to Shanghai in the morning. Fortunately they were able to get spots on tomorrow's plane. They had planned a day to look around there before they were going on to Beijing to meet up with our friends there. So things are looking up. That is, if you ignore the missing a day in Shanghai and the difference in seats booked far enough in advance instead of the day before. At this point, I am going with "seats are seats."
I think I will keep an eye on the weather and flights next week starting early in the day, in case we decide DTY needs to try to get on an earlier flight to make sure she gets back to school in time. Of course, I also have the option of driving her to the airport she needs for her connection. It is only an hour and a half north of us. Oh, and the drive back home. Yeah, probably about the same as we spent all told on the road to the airport today. Too bad we didn't have that option today.

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.

Latest updates

The laundry has been supervised and washed, store runs are all completed, Oribel has helped with the packing, the dogs have figured out something is up, the Mp3 players are loaded to the gills, all the needed information is printed, and whatever else they needed to do except for the actual drive to the airport and plane boarding. Of course, that part doesn't happen until tomorrow morning, but other than that they are ready to go! They seem to be pretty excited and happy, to say the least!

I have been so busy helping them get ready to go that I haven't gotten the mystery solution posted for Jessi yet, but it will happen either on Sunday or Monday, I promise! I know she is dying of curiosity and has been for a couple of weeks now. This is a mystery that I don't know the answer to and she has volunteered to help me with it. She just can't help until I do my part.

The last thing for now is to mention that Anne and Holly are hosting the newest seasonal dish cloth swap. "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" registration opens January 11 and they have a pre-registration contest going on. If any of you out there have thought about joining a swap but have worried about it not going well, I promise they run an excellent swap. If you decide to join on my recommendation and it goes south for you, I will make it up for you. Kind of like those rare times when the "Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me", Not My Job guest offers to do the answering machine message when they loose and the person they are playing for doesn't get Carl Kasell's voice on their answering machine. (The loosing part isn't rare, just the offering to do message to make up for it.) "Wait, Wait" is my standing 2 PM Sunday afternoon date. I don't take phone calls between two and three or go anywhere unless it is an absolute emergency. No cooking is involved in that hour either. Just radio, a comfy couch, and knitting. And a lot of laughing. Seriously, if you have never heard this radio show, check out a pod cast on your computer (since you have one or wouldn't be reading this, but you don't need an iPod or any poddy thing at all), or check your local NPR station and listen to the broadcast. Just please don't call me during my broadcast time to tell me how much you loved it. Call me before or after 'cause I take some of my addictions seriously. Like knitting dish cloths. So anyway, check out the dish cloth swap. Can you really go wrong if you have a promised back-up?

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!

The best thing to hear

"Good morning. How are you feeling?"
"Better. I am feeling lots better!"
Nothing like good old amoxicillin sometimes.

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.

Happy New Year (again)

So far our new year is not much different that the last. We did have Back-Eyed Peas for dinner, this year's variety was with caramelized onions, carrots, and sun-dried tomatoes. I don't always cook them the same each year, but we always have them with cornbread!
Hubband continues to have a bad cold/sinus thing, despite the antibiotics he got on Monday. In addition to his head being stuffed up, his ear is very clogged and it keeps making him very dizzy. They are supposed to leave on Sunday morning for China and then on to Lhasa, Tibet, via the "Sky Train". Well, he is only doing this if he gets the ear/head fixed. a fourteen hour plane trip and then a 16,700 foot elevation train doesn't seem like a good idea in his current condition. DTE is also hoping he gets better as it is his friend they were going to visit after all. We can't really transfer his visa to someone else after all!
All of this means that he hasn't participated in the "Annual Winter Camp Out" with DTY. She slept outside again last night, it was -1°F when she headed out for the night and it was -4°F when I got up at 8:30. They had been predicting it could be as low as -10°F last night. She says she stayed nice and toasty warm and I think it was up to +1°F when she came in.

 

Oribel is teething. DTY had found a tooth sometime last week and then we found another one yesterday in her fur. Plus she was able to feel a loose one in Oribel's mouth. Today she was fussing with her mouth a lot and then we saw another one on the floor. Baby cat teeth are pretty tiny (standard small paperclip for scale).

 

Not much else going on around here but I think there will be some bubble blowing a little later today. If the pictures turn out, you can be assured that they will be here!