Right Now - February 2016

Working On - Taxes. Tallying property tax amounts and medical expenses, trying to understand IRS rules concerning HDHP and HSA, and what to do with a 1095-C from an ALE. Oh, the drudgery and resentment of every single moment that I spend trying to get our money back. On a positive note, I was happy to figure out that we could still claim an exemption for Justin, even though it's the last year for that.

Watching - The Walking Dead. I am so not a watcher of anything dark, yucky, or about zombies, but strangely enough I've gotten hooked on this. I blame Justin. Yes, there are plenty of times that I have to cover my eyes and look away from the screen, and I may not be able to watch more than one season, but the characters are complex and multi-dimensional and the story is compelling. I find it especially chilling that some of the worst characters are not the walking dead, but the evil humans.

Knitting - Baby alpaca fingerless mitts. My fingers are freezing!

Learning - Calculus, still. It may be time to move on or get a better teacher. (I'm trying to teach myself :-)

Reading - A Doubter's Almanac, Last Chance to See, and A Mother's Reckoning. Very different from each other but equally interesting.

Wondering - Why the front axle on my 2012 Forester has to be replaced. It's under warranty, but cost isn't the issue (for now, anyway), safety is. I've liked this car so far, but after having the steering rack replaced twice, along with the left and right rear axles, multiple recalls for the brake lines and the thermostat, and now the front axle issue, I'm seriously questioning whether my next vehicle will be a Subaru.

Wishing - That the service advisors and mechanics at Subaru service would listen to me when I describe my car's symptoms and not make me feel like I'm being dismissed simply because I'm female. I came dangerously close to yelling this time, and I'm proud of myself for not saying, "See, I told you so!" when it was the front axle, just like I told them. I'll be giving some serious thought to my survey response to Subaru when/if this latest repair is completed.

Drinking - RumChata. Come to think of it, Justin may be responsible for this also. We were at the liquor store and he mentioned that he thought I might like it. I replied that I had more than enough wine, beer, and Scotch at home, but his answer was, "Come on, Mom. You only live once!" That sounded almost like a dare, so of course I had to take him up on it. It's a creamy rum-based lightly cinnamon-flavored liqueur that is delicious in tea and hot chocolate, and addictive when added to chai. I may be on my second bottle. (I blame Subaru.)

Eating - Mashed potatoes. I've been craving their creamy, buttery goodness and since I'm the cook, that's part of what we're having for dinner tonight.

Hoping -That my indoor hyacinths bloom soon. I'm anxious for that delightful spring-like fragrance since our spring-like weather has been quite changeable.

Planning - We did a lot of planning for a possible summer vacation in Alaska, but for many reasons, it doesn't look like that will work out. So now I'm planning my next visit to Colorado. It will cost less and have more yarn.

Starting - a Hitchhiker with this yarn. It will be an antidote to the drab end of February and I can also use it as a reward for working on taxes.

Trusting - That the universe is unfolding as it should, and sometimes wishing that I could nudge it to unfold in slightly better ways. :-)

What's going on in your world right now?

Ten on Tuesday

The Ten On Tuesday prompt for today is to list 10 of Your Favorite Things Right Now. While I don't have raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens on my list, there are plenty of other things I'm favoring right now.

1.  Current knitting - deliciously, wonderfully soft fingerless mitts in Blue Sky Alpacas Royal. This yarn may spoil me for all others.

2.  Double point needle holders - I got tired of losing stitches off the ends of my double points when I put the project in my bag, so I found these on etsy. I ordered the cute bunnies above from thenomeknitter, and the really cool Tardis argyle one below came from pokdej.

3.  Future knitting - I've been looking at this yarn since I bought it at The Loopy Ewe in October  last year. I think I've finally figured out what to do with it (maybe a modified, shallower Hitchhiker) and am looking forward to knitting these great colors.

4.  Emerging hyacinths - Soon!

5.  My jasmine is blooming! - My mother and I both enjoyed growing things, and this 15-year-old jasmine plant is from our last plant shopping trip together. It's getting woody, leggy, and sparse, but I was quite happy to see even a lone flower blossom in February.

6.  Half-price blooming orchids - Our grocery store usually discounts these little orchids after a holiday, so I was thrilled to find these Valentine's leftovers for only $5 each.

7.  Celestial Seasonings Dirty Chai - I almost did a little dance in the grocery store aisle when I spotted this. No, it's not quite as good as the dirty chai from Alley Cat in Fort Collins or Ragged Edge in Gettysburg, but our lone coffee shop makes really bad chai, so this is much better than having none.

8.  Starburst Jelly Beans - Yet another treat from the grocery store this week!

9.  Warming temperatures - Yup, 50 degrees at 10:42 am.

10.  And because it's 50 degrees, I get to enjoy another one of my favorite things, hanging laundry outside!

I'm looking forward to reading others' lists, and I hope you all 

have a great week ahead, full of lots of favorites!

Election Season

Tired of Trump? Had enough of Hillary? No, I'm not going to start talking about politics, but I will offer you the chance to vote on something else if you so choose.

Several years ago, I went on a narwhal-knitting kick. First, there was Noah.

He seemed a bit lonely, so next I knit Natalie.

Narwhals travel in pods, so Neil joined the gang.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I saw that Alpaca Direct was running a Critter Contest. These were my favorite critters, so I uploaded my photos to enter the contest. I've been voting for myself since then, but discovered after I had entered three times that you can only vote for one entry once every 24 hours. I've never done anything like this before, but since I have no chance of winning without some help, I'm asking for your help if you so choose. 

So, if you would like to vote for my narwhals (or really any entry!), just click on this link.

Scroll down a bit to just under the knit Corgi dog, click the "View Entries" tab, click on my photo of all three narwhals and click the "Vote" box. If it's stupid, too much of a hassle, or you just don't feel like it, that's certainly fine. Voting is open until sometime in March; one place says March 15, another says March 31, but I appreciate any votes, any time. Heck, I appreciate that you even took the time to read this whether you vote or not!

I've always meant to add a purple narwhal to the bunch, so that may be what I do if I win. I'd love to be able to say that I'm the creator of a prize-winning pod! Thank you for reading, considering, and any voting you might do; I greatly appreciate it!

For Martha

Hi, Martha! Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment. I would have emailed the dishcloth pattern that you asked for, but blogger seems to want to keep your email address a secret. So here's the pattern in a post just for you!

I used the Double Bump Dishcloth pattern. If you click on the link, it will take you right to the Ravelry pattern page where you can download the pattern for free. I found the cloths a little small as written, so I cast on 46 stitches, did 16 pattern repeats, and bound off on row 3. Doing this gave me dishcloths about 10" x 11" which were more to my liking. Happy Knitting!

Actual Evidence

of knitting! I haven't banged out a sweater or anything major, but I did manage to finally finish a few things.

Dishcloths are truly mindless knitting, but it was so nice to whip these out in just a weekend for my sister-in-law's birthday. I had forgotten the thrill of actually finishing some FOs, even if they are just dishcloths.

The next thing I finished is a Twisted Rib Neckwarmer that I knit for The Loopy Ewe's January Monthly Mixer. Each month this year, The Loopy Ewe is coming up with a challenge project idea. The idea is to keep it loose to provide lots of flexibility in choosing something you would love to make (Because – do more of what makes you happy!). It’s nice to have some accountability for getting projects done this year and I can really get behind a challenge that has no deadlines! The January guidelines were to pick a pattern, yarn base, or yarn colorway that begins with a P (Loopy Rewards this year are based on the solar system, so P is for Pluto.) I knit Ring Around Pluto with Pashmina in the appropriate Stargazing colorway.

I also started the Loopy February Monthly Mixer project. It’s a short month so the challenge is to pick the yarn or pattern that has spent the shortest amount of time on your “must make/use this someday” list. I had just ordered several skeins of lusciously soft and warm baby alpaca yarn when Sheri at TLE announced this month's challenge, so of course I had the perfect reason to cast on immediately.  

 

I originally intended these deliciously warm fingerless mitts for Ryan in Colorado when they were having some incredibly cold temperatures. Now in mid-February their temperatures are approaching 70, while ours in the east are in the teens. I wonder if I’m a bad mother to consider keeping these for myself?*

*The answer to this rhetorical question is a resounding "No!"

Clutter or ...

just the stuff of life? Last week, I was impressed by how pristine and uncluttered  Kym's bedroom and bathroom photos were. I know that whenever I take photos I always have to move stuff, sometimes lots of stuff. So, I decided to be a little bit brave and take some realistic and honest photos without removing anything to try and view things as they might appear to others.

The kitchen table is a handy repository for lots of things. Plants are on the table because it gets too cold at night for them on the windowsill; there are smoke alarms sitting there because I can't figure out why they won't stop chirping despite multiple new battery changes, and of course I need to keep a book and my to-do list close at hand.

This corner of the kitchen might be a little cluttered, but it seems like a good place for chargers. There are multiple phone chargers, ipod chargers, and the rechargeable flashlight for electricity outages and taking walks in the dark. The dictionary on the microwave is also a necessity because we often get into discussions about words and their nuanced meanings at dinner, and what better way to resolve them than by having a dictionary at hand?

The mud porch is where we take off shoes and jackets, and it also houses my plants in the winter.

Justin has size 14 feet so his shoes and boots take up a lot of room. The refrigerator is usually too full of clementines in the winter, so the unheated mud porch is a good place to store the extras, along with the "winter crate" full of hats and gloves. Where do you keep your turtle shells and interesting sticks that you've found in the woods? We keep ours on the mud porch!

 

John thinks my knitting area has too much junk, but I'm betting you'll agree with me
 that he's just plain wrong.

Here is some of his "junk", the many shed deer antlers that take up the coffee table. A professor gave Justin that microscope and we can neither bring ourselves to get rid of it nor think of a good use or better place for it.

I saved the best for last. Here is the real site of most of the clutter, the dining room table.

I've got presents all ready for three February birthdays, cards ready to play euchre, empty toner cartridges to take to Staples, folders to work on taxes, and a tuner that Justin is selling on ebay. Anybody need a tuner for their diesel truck? He'll give you a good deal!

Down at this end of the table we've got seeds ready for spring planting, AAA guide books for travel planning, and an electronic coyote call. (Don't ask, it's not mine.)

It's impossible for me to look at my house with unbiased eyes, so clutter or not, it's ours. It's all important (well, maybe not the deer antlers and coyote call :-) ; we use most of it, and some of it even brings me joy, so it's not clutter to me. House Beautiful and Country Living will just have to call ahead.

Look What I Found!

I was out refilling the bird feeders when I spotted some bits of white out of the corner of my eye. At first, I thought they were little patches of snow, but I found something quite different when I walked over for a closer look.

Snowdrops!

Possibly the smallest snowdrops I've ever had, and I'm not sure the flowers

 will survive the frigid temperatures and howling winds to ever open, 

but they are snowdrops nonetheless.

These two are barely an inch tall, but they've managed

 to push through the frost-heaved ground to make an appearance.

Our high today is only supposed to be 15°, with lows this weekend of -10° 

along with 20-30 mph winds. I don't know what these intrepid snowdrops 

will look like once temperatures finally warm up, but I am grateful that they've
 braved the winter weather to remind me that spring will indeed be arriving.

Wishing you a happy and warm weekend, along with hopes of spring!

Friday Letters

I haven't written any Friday Letters for quite a while, but I do have a few this week to recap, express what's on my mind, and take the opportunity to offer a thank you. Let's open the mail ...

Dear Mother-in-law,

I love you dearly and feel I should thank you for providing me with so much entertainment. When I took you to the funeral of your friend's mother last week we had a great time together, didn't we? Listening to my seat belt buzzer beep at me continuously for 15 miles because you wouldn't let me fasten your seat belt and you couldn't hear it yourself was fun thing #1. You choosing to clutch on to random male strangers and the casket handles for stability instead of holding my arm (or using your cane) was amusing to all. The funniest was after we had been sitting at the viewing for an hour and you decided that you didn't want to stay for the funeral. Since you never, ever wear your hearing aids, your voice is very loud and your announcement of "LET'S JUST SNEAK OUT" at 98 dB was heard by almost everyone. Just in case there was anyone who had missed this, you were very clever to repeat this to two other people (at approximately 105 dB because you told me they were hard of hearing) on our way out. I value people who can make me laugh, and I seriously thank you for some real fun!

===========================================================

Hey Squirrels, (Sorry, I just can't address you as "Dear")

Consider this your cease and desist letter. While you may feel that chewing your way into our attic four times after we've repaired your damage each time shows persistence and fortitude on your part, we just find it aggravating and infuriating. It seems like you are trying to further provoke us by waking us up at night with the sounds of squirrel mating, producing more horrid little vermin to carry out your evil plans to take over our house. We will be fighting back with all weapons at our disposal, from cleverly hidden traps to Justin with his blowgun. You have been warned. 

===========================================================

Dear Fortune Cookie Fortune Writers,

I'm wondering if there have been some cutbacks at the factory? Based on these recent fortunes we've received, it looks like some of you may be struggling, especially you, Po. Maybe you've simply had to write too many fortunes or you're going through a mid-winter slump, but please work on, in despair. I've got some suggestions if you'd like help.

===========================================================

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and safe weekend, with plenty of noddles!

Thursdays Are For Cookies

Or they are when you have a son who has moved back home and is able to help out around the house by eating cookies. I do love to bake, but don't do it as often as I would like to because neither John nor I need extra calories from home-baked bread, cake, cookies ... all the things I love to eat best.

Last weekend Justin was able to get the prized, semi-secret recipe for "Grandmom's Cereal Cookies" from my mother-in-law. There's nothing like sending a favored grandchild to do your dirty work! I have asked her for the recipe several times, and while she's too kind to refuse me outright, she has usually just changed the subject and the recipe has stayed locked inside her recipe box.

This isn't really a secret cookie; some of you may know them as Ranger Cookies. I've found lots of different recipes for those, but I wanted the official, original, Grandmom-certified recipe. Now that I've got it, it's time to make the cookies!

Whenever I try a recipe for the first time I always make it as written, but this dough was so thick that I only added 2 cups of flour instead of the 2 1/4 that the recipe says. My mother-in-law has also made these with raisins or used corn flakes instead of Rice Krispies, but we are definitely no-raisin, Rice Krispie purists here.

The scent of fresh-baked cookies and full cookie jars has the power
 to make me feel that all is right with the world!

Thursdays Are For Cookies

Or they are when you have a son who has moved back home and is able to help out around the house by eating cookies. I do love to bake, but don't do it as often as I would like to because neither John nor I need extra calories from home-baked bread, cake, cookies ... all the things I love to eat best.

Last weekend Justin was able to get the prized, semi-secret recipe for "Grandmom's Cereal Cookies" from my mother-in-law. There's nothing like sending a favored grandchild to do your dirty work! I have asked her for the recipe several times, and while she's too kind to refuse me outright, she has usually just changed the subject and the recipe has stayed locked inside her recipe box.

This isn't really a secret cookie; some of you may know them as Ranger Cookies. I've found lots of different recipes for those, but I wanted the official, original, Grandmom-certified recipe. Now that I've got it, it's time to make the cookies!

Whenever I try a recipe for the first time I always make it as written, but this dough was so thick that I only added 2 cups of flour instead of the 2 1/4 that the recipe says. My mother-in-law has also made these with raisins or used corn flakes instead of Rice Krispies, but we are definitely no-raisin, Rice Krispie purists here.

The scent of fresh-baked cookies and full cookie jars has the power
 to make me feel that all is right with the world!

Thursdays Are For Cookies

Or they are when you have a son who has moved back home and is able to help out around the house by eating cookies. I do love to bake, but don't do it as often as I would like to because neither John nor I need extra calories from home-baked bread, cake, cookies ... all the things I love to eat best.

Last weekend Justin was able to get the prized, semi-secret recipe for "Grandmom's Cereal Cookies" from my mother-in-law. There's nothing like sending a favored grandchild to do your dirty work! I have asked her for the recipe several times, and while she's too kind to refuse me outright, she has usually just changed the subject and the recipe has stayed locked inside her recipe box.

This isn't really a secret cookie; some of you may know them as Ranger Cookies. I've found lots of different recipes for those, but I wanted the official, original, Grandmom-certified recipe. Now that I've got it, it's time to make the cookies!

Whenever I try a recipe for the first time I always make it as written, but this dough was so thick that I only added 2 cups of flour instead of the 2 1/4 that the recipe says. My mother-in-law has also made these with raisins or used corn flakes instead of Rice Krispies, but we are definitely no-raisin, Rice Krispie purists here.

The scent of fresh-baked cookies and full cookie jars has the power
 to make me feel that all is right with the world!