Jan. 1, 2009 - Happy New Year!
Still blogging away at Forward Motion, but it's good to come back and see where I begin. May everyone's 2009 be full of peace and happiness. And cookies.
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Feb. 22, 2008 - Friday
I had a moment today where I totally thought tomorrow was March 1st.
I'm so confused.
Also, I like to post here every few months to keep the archives alive. Come visit me at the current Forward Motion. Feel free to remind me what day it is.
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Sep. 13, 2007 - Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping Tip of the Year
Always keep several get well cards on the mantel..... so if unexpected guests arrive, they will think you've been sick and unable to clean.
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Mar. 13, 2007 - Detour
If you've arrived here from the Knitting Meet-up group, please come on over to the current Forward Motion. I can't seem to get the Meet-up site to update my blog address.
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Jan. 28, 2007 - Tuna on rye
God greeted Mother Teresa at the Pearly Gates.
"Be thou hungry, Mother Teresa?", asked God.
"I could eat," she replied.
So, God opened a can of tuna, unwrapped a loaf of rye bread and they began to share it. While eating the humble tuna sandwich, Mother Teresa looked down into Hell and saw the inhabitants devouring huge steaks, lobsters, pheasant and pastries. Curious, but deeply trusting, she remained quiet.
The next day, God invited her to join him for a meal. Again, it was tuna and rye bread.
Once again, Mother Teresa could see the denizens of Hell enjoying lamb, turkey and apple pie. Still, she said nothing.
The following day, mealtime arrived and another can of tuna was opened. She couldn't contain herself any longer. Meekly, she asked, "God, I am grateful to be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here in heaven, all I get is tuna and a piece of rye bread, and in the other place they eat like emperors and kings! I just don't understand it."
God sighed: "Let's be honest, Teresa. For two people, it just doesn't pay to cook."
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Dec. 8, 2006 - Cranberry relish recipe
The relish I made for Thankgiving was so good and someone had asked me for the recipe. It's posted over on the new blog. Enjoy!
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Nov. 29, 2006 - Forward Motion in motion
Okay....
Come check out Forward Motion's new home.
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Nov. 29, 2006 - Attention!
There will be no more complaining on this blog!
It's all going to happen at the new blog....
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Nov. 24, 2006 - Stove top strikes again
As everyone picked up their forks and began to eat yesterday, I kept looking at the table.
"It seems like I am forgetting something." I said.
I got up and looked in the oven. Looked in the refrigerator and freezer.
"Something is missing." I insisted.
I sat down again.
DH said, "Hey, no stuffing?"
Crap!
I must say, as much as I gripe about the Stove Top, at least it can be ready in 6 minutes. So nothing was charred, but it just wouldn't be a Thanksgiving at my table if everything was perfect.
I think the guys had a good time. We ended up with 2 guests, co-workers of DH that had no plans for the day. They complimented the turkey and ate enough that we only have a few leftovers. I'm really glad I went ahead and made the fresh cranberry relish, it was wonderful.
In other news, my new blog is almost ready for me to move in. I'll let everyone know when it's fit for company and you can come by and say hello.
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Nov. 21, 2006 - So much for the menu
Sigh....now I have to make green beans. DH found a guest for us, one of his co-workers who is single with no family near by. He's a nice guy and I'm glad he'll be joining us, but this means I have clean the kid's bathroom now.
I bought the cranberries to make the fresh sauce, too. I couldn't resist those packages of ruby red crandberries. Still going with the jar of gravy and the Cool Whip, though. I hope DH explained about the Stove Top. I bought the very last pecan pie in the entire Publix.
Also, I recently replaced our dying 3 in 1 printer. It could only consistently print, occasionally make copies, and never scan. I got a new one that is very cool, an HP C5180 and now I can scan pictures again. I flipped through all the old photo albums looking for a Thankgiving picture and there are none. Apparently in my 36 years, it has been all about the food - no photos. Lots of Christmas pictures, so you can look forward to a parade of cheesy grins and bad hair next month.
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Nov. 21, 2006 - Consider this a public service announcement
I share this link, not in a spirit of condemnation, but in a spirit of conviction. Also, it's really freaking funny.
If this speaks to you and your wardrobe, please think of at least untucking. I am short-waisted and tucking things in is a disaster on my body. It's just *****, belly, butt and nothing in between. I know I'm not hip and fashionable, but at least I can try not to look like I don't own a mirror. The BBC version of What Not to Wear gives the best advice. And they are having an all day Thanksgiving marathon! BBC America is on most expanded cable listings. If you've not heard Trinny and Susannah rail against the tapered leg, oh please check it out.
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Nov. 20, 2006 - Innards and charring....or my Thankgiving menu
In planning our Thanksgiving menu, I realized that we still have cans of pumpkin, yams, and gravy in the cupboard from last year. They're still good, right? The 13.83 lb. turkey is thawing in the fridge. DH loves my turkey, absolutely swoons over it. I'm not sure why, I follow the Butterball directions that come with the turkey. My very first year of making a turkey, I was very careful to remove the hideous, nasty package of innards from the turkey. I was not going to make a rookie mistake. How was I to know there were two packages in there?
This year, since we aren't have any guests, our menu will be:
turkey
gravy from a jar/can
Stove top stuffing
mashed potatoes
sweet potatoes with marshmallows AND pecans
biscuits/rolls
cranberry sauce from a can
pumpkin pies with Cool Whip
some other kind of pie, maybe cherry or pecan
You can tell I'm not cooking to impress anyone. It's a pretty carb heavy menu! Why bother to make green veggies? They are mostly for show, everyone really just wants the mashed potatoes. We have a rule on Thanksgiving and Christmas that everyone can eat what they want. No "you must try at least one bite" or "have some of this nice casserole".
Last year, I finally gave up on home made gravy. I can stir that pan of drippings, adding the shaker flour just like my mom does, all afternoon and I will not get anything resembling gravy. I noticed they sell something called "turkey gravy" and it's already made, you just pour and heat. Perfect. Sometimes I add a little of the drippings just for some authentic flavor, but no one cares.
It is with great disgust that Stove Top is on this list. It is wrong to have Stove Top for Thanksgiving, but that is DH's tradition. I have tried to make wonderful, homemade stuffings and the disappointment in his eyes is too much to bear. If we do have guests, I either make a separate dish of good stuffing, or at least apologize in advance for the Stove Top when they accept the invitation.
No matter how much I make, there are never enough mashed potatoes. I don't think I make them any other time of year. I used my two largest pots and filled them with potatoes last year and it was still the first thing we ran out of. I made the sweet potatoes for me, I don't think anyone else touches them. There's nothing like left over sweet potato casserole for breakfast on Friday morning. There's a major rift in my extended family over marshmallows vs. pecans. In a spirit of unity, I use both.
I really love cranberry sauce made from scratch. This is another thing that's not worth making just for us, so I buy a can. I'm really the only one who likes it. It's fun to make, waiting for the cranberries to start popping out of their skins. I may decide to make it after all. So what if it's just for me and I can't possibly eat a whole batch. It's easy to make the day before and if DH can have his Stove Top....
I usually burn the rolls. As my step-dad says, it just wouldn't be a holiday if we didn't have to scrape the charring off of something.
I'll get started on the pies on Wednesday. The hardest part is keeping DH away from them. We've had several "pie incidents" over the years, including the year I had gestational diabetes and made a special diabetic pumpkin pie just for me and he ate it all. He was totally unprepared for the hormonal meltdown. "You can eat anything! And you ate my pie! Waaahhhhhh!"
Whenver we have Thankgiving and my great-aunt/step-grandmother Shirley is there, we can't have Cool Whip. Shirley won't hear of it. We have to have actual whipped cream. In a chilled bowl. Not me, bring on the Cool Whip.
Alex doesn't care for pumpkin pie, so I'll buy/make another kind. I tried making pecan pies for two years and it's been unreliable. One time we had sweet pecan soup in a crust. Pecans are so expensive, I'm thinking I'd be better off to buy the pecan pie.
This year is nice because not only will DH be home, he doesn't have to serve dinner at work this year. It's a tradition for the leaders to serve the troops on Thanksgiving and he wears his dress uniform and ladles potatoes to his candidates. He usually has a 2-4 hour shift and we try and organize dinner around it, eating either quite early or rather late. This year, they've wised up and planned the big meal for Wednesday evening. Most of the candidates will be going away for the holiday, so it makes more sense. Grace is planning to dress up in her finest dress and accompany him this year.
For those of you celebrating Thanksgiving, what's on your menu? For everyone else, have a nice Thursday!
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Nov. 19, 2006 - Tales of woe from the knitting front
The knitting news is very bad.
First, the sock.
It's the Anastasia sock. Isn't it pretty? Everyone who saw me knitting it exclaimed about how beautiful it was. It's one of those patterns looks fancy, but it's ridiculously easy to knit. Note the pink waste yarn at the top, we'll get to that.
However:
Apparently when you have big feet, you also have big heels. It fits nicely all up my foot, then starts straining as we near the ankle. See how that row of eyelets that is on the same diagonal as the heel is pulled to the max? It's like little diagonal tourniquets. Not attractive and really not comfortable. I noticed this not long after I got the heel done, but blindly forged up to the cuff. Knitting denial.
I'm not giving up on this one. I didn't bind it off, but just used some waste yarn to hold the stitches. I'm researching heel methods in the hopes of finding one that will fit me better. I may just need to increase my heel stitches for a few inches before I get to the heel. I started working on another toe-up sock, Widdershins, that uses a heel flap, so we'll see how that one fits. Once I find a roomier heel, I'll rip back and reknit the sock and make its mate.
Next, the cardigan. The tie cropped cardigan that I have been working on since June. I sewed on a sleeve. It took me a very long time. Is sewing up a sweater, let alone just a sleeve, supposed to take that long? I followed the directions in Sally Melville's Knitting Experince book and I gotta tell you, it was really fussy. So there you have it:
Remember how I knit the sleeves wrong? Both of them? Wrong in two different ways wrong? Well, I fixed them and estimated that after eleventy hours of seaming, I had the makings of a lovely garment. Alas, it is not meant to be:
See how the front piece is a good 4 inches longer than the back piece? That would be wrong. Both pieces should be the same length, unless I am starting a trend of cardigans that are cropped only in the back. On the bright side, at least both front pieces are wrong in the same way wrong.
The pattern for the front pieces was confusing to me, obviously. Angela and I sat and puzzled over it, trying to figure out the increase/decrease/short row formula and we both agreed that it must be knit like so. I think even Faith took a look at it at one point. Crystal clear, this pattern was not, but I did what I thought it said. (I am certain the pattern had at least one error. The sleeves have feather & fan edging and that section of the pattern was definitely written wrong. That's a common stitch pattern and it was easy to spot the error.) I did check for errata on this pattern, but I guess I was the only one knitting it.
Nearly 6 months on this project and it sits in a heap on a shelf. Someone suggested that I just add to the back, but really, I don't have the heart for it anymore. If nothing else, I thought it would be a good learning experience. I've mostly learned that I'm not cut out for knitting sweaters. (Yeah, I say that, but I've got my eye on about 4 other sweaters that I want to try. I've got to be able to knit a sweater. Just not this one.) Eventually, I will rip out the whole thing so that I can reuse the yarn for something. Like waste yarn for bad socks.
Yesterday, I decided that even though my knitting was full of failure, my yarn would succeed! I bought some new storage containers and organized every last skein. Extremely gratifying. Perhaps I should just organize it and display it and not try and knit with it. It was also enlightening. I've got more yarn than I thought, although not as much as I want. The best part was my cotton yarn.
Woohooo! That is a 35 gallon container stuffed to the brim with cotton. I am a sucker for cotton when they sell it for 97 cents. It makes me quite happy to see it all. DH was somewhat taken aback. That's a lot of dishcloths waiting to be made in there. It's really hard to screw up a dishcloth so bad you can't use it.
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Nov. 15, 2006 - We didn't elope, fer crying out loud.
Every few years my mother will up and buy me something costly. When I protest or venture to ask why, she says, "Oh, just consider it the money I would have spent on your wedding.". Then she throws me a pitiful, long-suffering gaze.
Although I still, 13 years later, occasionally have to defend our decision and battle the guilt about our nuptials, I don't regret a thing. My mom tries to say we eloped, but that's not accurate. Elopement is defined by secrecy. We told everyone we were getting married, we just didn't invite them. It sounds harsher than we intended.
First of all, we hadn't planned to get married in 1993. We were both soldiers stationed in Italy, due to return to the states in April of 1994. We'd thought we'd have a wedding that summer once we got settled. Meanwhile in the summer of 1993, I won a competition for Soldier of the Year for U.S. Army Europe. One of the many prizes was two round-trip tickets to the US, complete with about 350 black-out dates. We decided to go to Florida, just a fun trip for us and managed to schedule it for mid-November. In the weeks prior, we got notification that we were being assigned to different posts. So we started saying, "What if we got married when we were back in the States?".
At first we thought we'd keep it a secret and only tell the official Army channels so we could get a married couple assignment. But I can't keep secrets and I don't lie, so that probably would have failed immediately. My mom was not happy. She wanted a big wedding. This was not how things were supposed to go. When would she ever meet the in-laws? Both my mom and dad were self employed and could have come to a hasty wedding, but my in-laws both worked in a factory and couldn't get time off at the last minute. We decided that since not all the family could attend, we'd invite no one.
We went to the courthouse in Clearwater, FL and were wed by a nice little old lady.
She took this photo. I'm actually barefoot since DH is only about 1/2 an inch taller than me. Afterwards, we went to Taco Bell, since we hadn't tasted it in over a year. Romantic! We had a day at Disney for our honeymoon. Having visited Mickey more times than I could count, I found DH's love of the "It's a Small World" ride really funny.
Of course, when we finally moved back to the US, we were both so busy that a wedding was impossible. Then a year later, I was pregnant and it seemed kind of silly to have a wedding by then. It was only by producing rather adorable grandchildren that my mother finally quit agonizing over our non-wedding wedding. She deeply grieved over not being able to wedding dress shop with me.
It was a great wedding. Yes, I think it would have been nice to pick out a massive lace concoction of a dress. It would have been nice to have been married in a church by clergy. It would have been nice to have friends and family there. But seriously, we saved so much money! Once, I asked my mom, "So how much more is left on the wedding tab? Can I get like...a new sofa out of it, or are we talking pair of shoes?"
The 13 years we've been married haven't all been good. At some points I was sure we'd never last another year. I thank God that He's healed so many of the wounds we inflicted on our marriage. Nobody really tells you how hard marriage can be.
But here's 13 reasons why I'm so glad to be married to my DH and why I pray we have many, many more years together.
1. He can fix nearly anything.
2. He works very hard so that I can be home with our kids.
3. He supports me in whatever I take on.
4. He has so much energy.
5. He has an eye for the big picture.
6. He makes me proud.
7. He's handsome.
8. He is humble and willing to take advice.
9. He is a great dad and always wants to be greater.
10. He can cook, iron, and clean when motivated.
11. He dreams big.
12. He trusts me.
13. He makes me laugh like no one and nothing else.
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Nov. 14, 2006 - Moon Cheese
*Moon Cheese*
For centuries, people thought the moon was made of green cheese.
Then the astronauts found that the moon is really a big hard rock.
That's what happens to cheese when you leave it out.
I'm sharing this joke because it made me laugh like a loon, and it has just been One of Those Days. I think I kept it in perspective pretty well, crazy days happen and I didn't freak out too much, until the phone call from Canada. About home owner association stuff and it was all bad. Bad, bad, bad. Then my poor husband called about 5 minutes after I got off the phone with Canada and the ranting ensued. He handled it very well considering. I self-medicated with Pop Tarts.
Earlier today I had called DH and said "Hey, honey. Guess what? Tomorrow is our anniversary." We both were silent. He finally replied, "Wow. We are just way too busy. I can't believe we are too busy to even notice our anniversary." To be fair, we've noticed it, we've mentioned it, but we haven't thought about doing anything about it. We usually don't do more than cards and the occasional gift anyway. I told him I wanted to go to Carrabba's.
Tomorrow - the story of our wedding. Taco Bell and bare feet are involved.
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Nov. 11, 2006 - Veterans rock!
Happy Veteran's Day! I'm really thankful for my veteran and he's pretty thankful for me. We're both thankful for Veteran's Day sales, last year we got new patio furniture already on sale then further discounted for the military from Lowes.
I have deliberately avoided posting anything remotely political on this blog, in no small part because I have a hard time figuring out where I stand on some issues. It's tough. As I get older, I can see both sides of an argument more and more. I'm sure this has something to do with 8 years of mitigating sibling squabbles.
Anyway, thank a veteran today. No matter what your political beliefs, veterans are serving you, whether you asked them to or not. I am so proud of the fine men and women of our armed forces. Proud to have been one myself.
Time to go hug my veteran. (You know, the more you type the word veteran, the less it looks like a word.)
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Nov. 10, 2006 - Ordinary and nice
Nothing exciting or new to say...it was a really fine, ordinary day. I got to sleep in and it was just the height of luxury. I haven't seen DH much at all in the last 3-4 weeks and he has a 4 day weekend. Since he gets up around 4 most mornings, he can't sleep in for too long. He got up and made bacon and eggs for the kids while I laid there like a slug. I wasn't even asleep after awhile, I was totally into the experience of not having to get up. I do love me some sleep. My mother says that I was never so happy as when I was snuggled in my crib.
We went to Walmart and it wasn't even that vile. Grace and I walked over to Hobby Lobby while the boys debated over lures and reels and I looked at but did not buy any yarn. That's a good thing these days as my stash is getting kinda rowdy in it's corner. I need to do some reorganizing of it and stop being sucked in by the sales. Except I really want to knit this cabled shawl with pockets, and it needs bulky yarn. I have scads of yarn, none of it bulky.
Work has been weighing heavy on me this week. My dad wants me to totally reorganized all the accounts and finances so they can get an accurate picture of their profits. His business grew really fast this year and he admits that he did not keep up with the bookkeeping end of things. I was getting very frustrated, not even knowing where to being, not knowing how to enter things into Quickbooks without either bankrupting them or send the IRS hounds after them. Their accountant finally returned my call yesterday and after an hour of mind-melting financial discussion, we came up with a viable game plan. It felt really good because 1. I can see how it's all going to work and while it wll be time consuming, it will work and 2. It wasn't me being an idiot and not knowing how to do it, the whole system needed reorganzing at a level far above me. And yay! Big paycheck coming up for all these hours I'm working.
The kids and I went to the park in the afternoon and the weather was just perfect. Everyone played nicely and I got to sit and knit and chit chat. Angela brought her finished Memories sock and she let me put it on. I'm telling you, she's lucky she got it back. It felt so soft and wonderful, I didn't want to take it off. I can't wait to make a pair of my own. Of course, I need to finish my Anastasia socks and the first one is nearly ready for the cuff.
They'd probably be closer to done if I hadn't impulsively cast on for Fetching, the Knitty wristwarmers. I finished my first one tonight and when the pair is complete, I'll post pictures and details. Cables in your knitting are like nice undies. Even if they are hidden under your clothes, you know they are there and they make you feel good.
I didn't even have to fix dinner tonight, I told you it was a nice day. DH made his famous ribs and when the internet figures out a way to transmit smell, you'll understand how awesome they are.
DH and Alex are going fishing tomorrow and Grace is going to a play in the afternoon. I'm going to have a few hours to tidy the house and shop around and get some Christmas ideas and maybe buy a little something for me. All you people who have your Christmas shopping done? Don't tell me. Not only do I not have anything bought, I don't even know what I'm going to get most of the people on my list.
All in all, a very nice, very ordinary day. I hope I have appreciated it fully.
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Nov. 7, 2006 - Mystery
Okay...something is going on here.
I wrote out a very carefully worded email this morning for work. I needed to let one of the partners know that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing without sounding like a total idiot. Midway through typing and typos- poof! Gone. I was unhappy. A few hours later I tried again and after a few lines - gone again. I can't figure out if there's some magic key on this laptop that kills hard work. The email screen was still there, but nothing I'd written. I thought it was a Hotmail thing, but then an entire blog post that I wrote this morning isn't here! Just gone. The heck?
Anyway, it was a link to a contest on Jennifer's blog. I'll skip trying to recreate how we won $500 bucks on our honeymoon from a lotto ticket and my theory on winning and luck and my honorable mention sock haiku. Go to her blog. Enter to win some really cute personalized notepads.
Stinking computer demons. I hate to lose all those blogged words. It's probably because I should have checking math answers instead of blogging.
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Nov. 5, 2006 - Weekend wrap-up
This will likely not be a great surprise to anyone, but let me just say that a little bit of Weird Al Yankovic goes a lonnnng way. My kids are enthralled and I've heard just about e-freaking-nough of "Spam" and "My Bologna".
There's major knitting going on here. I finished a doggy sweater for Josie and it's a little big, but very cozy. She likes it because it has buttons rather than squirming it over her noggin. My second pair of socks is coming along. They'd be moving faster if I didn't stop to admire them every few rows. They are just so cool and they look so much more complicated than they really are.
I also cast on for handwarmers (the ones from Knitty with the cables...I'm too lazy tonight to link them) while watching The Amazing Race. Grace wandered by and said "When are you going to knit something for me?" Child, what to you call a purple hat and a pair of socks?!? She wants a sweater or something. I'm not up for anything with sleeves for a while. I need to get started on some Christmas gift knitting, mostly easy dishcloths, but I still better get going.
I used my Best Buy bucks to get a memory card for my camera, so there should be nifty pictures forthcoming. After buying the washer and dryer there, I earned a LOT of Best Buy bucks. They suck you in. You buy one thing, then you earn bucks, then you go back and buy more stuff with the bucks and get more bucks, and you never escape. I only ended up paying $5 for the 2G card and I still have bucks left over. New printer, ya think? Okay. I'm Best Buy's prisoner.
A few times I've sat down to post about how we got new-to-us sofas this week, but no matter how witty I try to be, it's pretty boring. DH went up for the court martial, court martial got delayed, DH went to my mom's for the weekend because it was closer than driving home, Mom ended up giving us a sectional they didn't want. See? Boring. Don't tell DH, but I really don't like the sofas. I'd never pick them out for myself. The thing is, they are so so so so much better than my old ones that I don't really care. Seriously, if I invited you to have a seat on my former sofas, you'd be like, "No thanks, I'll stand." They were vile. So at least we have clean, matching places to sit. I've never ever bought a sofa that I wanted. In 13 years, we've always gotten cast-offs and that's really okay. I don't have to freak out if the kids spill something and the army is likely going to destroy them on the next move. I took a little nap on it yesterday and it snoozes just fine.
Our school work last week was pretty shabby. Between DH being gone, my birthday, DH coming home and general malaise, we didn't do much. Mostly because it was just so hard to drag my sorry self out of bed in the mornings. I don't know, maybe it's the weather (I think I say that every season), but I literally feel glued to the mattress in the mornings. I sat down today and graded everything, made assignments for the week, and generally gave myself a pep talk, so this week should be better.
Do yourself a favor, don't let your kids find out about Weird Al.
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Nov. 3, 2006 - Help say thanks
Here's something cool that Xerox is doing...
Let's say Thanks in support of our troops.
This website gives you an opportunity to send a free printed postcard to U.S. military stationed overseas showing your support and appreciated for their service to our country. It only takes a minute to click on the postcard you choose, pick a message, and send.
Anyone who reads this blog knows what a dear subject this is to my heart. A lot of the military that are overseas right now are serving on their second or third deployment. Hey, consider it a belated birthday present for me! Thanks very much.
