Fireplace Cozy

I'm slowly picking away at some long unfinished projects.

For years, my husband's been using an old blanket to cover up the fireplace when we're not using it in the winter, to keep cold air out. And for years I've been intending to make something nicer instead. A fireplace cozy.

This fabric predates our cats by several years, but what do you know?

Here's Homer!

And here's Francine!

Thanksgiving Greetings

Happy Thanksgiving from me and my family.

May you never be on the wrong side of the door.

Skirting the Issue

I'll just come right out with it and say: I made my son a skirt.

Technically this is for changing in and out of those tight spandex shorts at bike races. You can do it under a towel but you run the risk of the towel dropping at an inopportune moment. I could have said, go borrow your brother's kilt but I wouldn't want it to get wrecked. His coach has something like it.

So Ernest asked me to make him one. I offered to make it of something plain and neutral, like denim. No, Ernest wanted some funky fabric. Out of several choices from my stash, he picked Cat in the Hat fabric. He'll make a bold statement at his next race.

Hiding

It rained on Saturday and Homer disappeared after breakfast. I couldn't imagine that he went outside on a day like that. He was not in his usual post of alertness when I cooked the bacon. Usually he is at BaCON Level 1 (maximum readiness to mooch bacon). I was worried and called and called for him. You worry what your neighbors will think when you go outside in jammies and call out, "Homer! Bacon!"

Finally he appeared from under the table.

He slept under the table most of the day. Oh, let me be honest, all day. I mean, he sleeps all day anyways, but usually it's out where we can see him. Maybe the darkness and wetness of the day made him want to cocoon and hibernate.

On Sunday the sun came out and Homer was back to normal. Bacon, bacon, why isn't there bacon today? Why isn't there bacon flavored cat food? Oh well, I'll accept a little cream cheese.

Strange spider

I caught another strange spider around the house...

Actually, Ernest is drying his cycling shoes after a ride in the rain yesterday. I learned last year that in a pinch you can stuff the shoes with newspaper -- it wicks up the water and you keep changing the paper. But these shoe dryers are a little easier.

Today the sun is shining and 3 out of 4 of us have the whole week off.

Whoo-hoo!

What's the whoo-hoo for you today?

Tuesday Tidbits

It's another foggy day and I'm going to curl up with a blanket and my first cup of coffee.

Love how I got both the portapotty and the jumping deer sign. I hope the deer don't run into the potty. One night on the way back from picking up Ernest at Hogwarts a deer ran into the side of my husband's truck, in just about this spot.

Apparently today is Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. I usually clean mine (i.e. throw out what's rotten and spoiled) on Thursdays, since our garbage is picked up on Fridays. I've had great success in eating our leftovers, thanks to a week of homemade soups for lunch. All made with leftovers. Cream of broccoli soup plus 3 kinds (chicken, beef and pork) of spicy tortilla soups, sans the tortillas because I didn't have any. This week's leftovers include quiche and enchiladas, which are still attractive enough for others to take for lunch.

Frank and I are going through marathons of tv shows on Netflix. We've watched Warehouse 13, Heros, and are on Firefly now. I vote for Buffy the Vampire Slayer next, what do you think?

What's happening in your world this week?

Moonlight

The moon was so bright last night. I took this photo at Hogwarts around 6 p.m.

Later I woke up to light streaming in through the curtains and assumed it was almost time to get up. Wrong! 4 a.m. Sigh.

Eyes

No, I'm not watching A Clockwork Orange.

The Handy Husband had lasik yesterday.

I'm still squeamish but he's pretty happy with the results. He hated glasses, and hated contacts too, so it was a good choice for him.

Pink Saturday: iPad

Homer says he fits in very well with Pink Saturday -- ears, nose and pads or should I say iPads.

He enjoys sitting on my reading material, no matter whether it is paper or electronic.

How appropriate that he is sitting on the FOOD section.

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Socks and Shoes

There's a nip in the morning air now. I find I have to put on socks in the morning, although I end up taking them off and going back to sandals in the afternoon.

For the longest time I wore white socks. I confess, they were hand-me-downs that my sons had outgrown. Sad but thrifty. But then a sock store opened in town. And they have the most irresistibly cute socks...

But it was so cold and windy yesterday, I had to resort to wearing real shoes.

Which was good timing, because my beloved leopard slides have come undone. (Thanks to Jen, I now realize it is more like cheetah but it says leopard on the box and I've called them leopard for so long now I just can't stop.) I tried mending them once but my knot came untied. I guess I'll try to fix them again.

Although they are not the best shoes for today's weather -- a whole 1/8" of rain. Whoopee!

What are your tootsies wearing today?

Emoticons

It was difficult enough to shop for Frank's birthday, so I'm already starting to worry about Christmas. He just doesn't want things, so we end up giving him things he needs. Like underwear and coffee mugs.

But since his birthday coincided with Talk Like a Pirate day, he was bound to get some kind of pirate merchandise.


Frank's new coffee mug was a little...

shocked?

If you were an emoticon, how would you look today?

/:-/ This is me, frowning, because Ernest is running extremely late. No wonder the water bill is so high.

UPDATE at 7:25: Ernest just informed me that he is not running late...he has free period first and there are no jobs this morning so he doesn't have to be there till 8:30.

;0

The Daily Drive: Fog

The fog was thick this morning. I should use my time wisely and take more pictures while Ernest is driving.

Now he's discovered the "sport mode" on my car. Actually we can blame my husband for that. He told Ernest about it last night. "Mom, it's like turning the car up to eleven. But your car's already an eleven."

Scarecrow Invasion

No zombie invasion yet on this sunny Halloween day.

Instead, the town has been beset by scarecrows.

This one is at a clock shop, of course.

Naturally, there are some folk dancers.

A bridal couple: to love and to cherish even after death.

And my old friends Sally and Jack.

You Don't Sound Like a Senior

I'm getting overwhelmed by the number of senior citizen focused advertisements out there. I get senior dating spam, senior junk mail, and even senior sales phone calls. The latest phone call this morning made me see red.

"Hello?"

"Hello, is this Mr. or Mrs. STM?"

"This is Mrs. STM."

"Oh, you don't sound like a senior."

Maybe because I'm not! Besides the fact that I'm not old enough to be a senior citizen yet, I find it really irritating that this woman thinks seniors have a certain sound. I'm always going to have a soft high-pitched voice and I'm going to sound pretty much the same in 20 or 30 years.

I may not look like this anymore...


But I'm not quite this, either...

Thank you phone company, for giving me something to rant about today.

Now what's your pet peeve for the day?

Pink Saturday: Sunset

Sunset at Hogwarts' Fall Family Weekend dinner last week.

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Milestone

Ernest turned 15 and a half on Monday. He was set on getting his learner's permit as soon as possible so weeks ago I made a DVM appointment and had notes all over the house so I wouldn't forget.

We got to the DMV (slightly early, I might add, because I just hate to be late), only to find that their computers were down, state-wide, in all 144 offices. You could come back later, they told us. The computers might be back up. Well, the nearest DMV is a half hour's drive from our small town, so we didn't want to go home and come back again, to risk finding that the computers were still down. Disappointed, we went home.

I went online and was able to make an appointment for 8:40 the next morning. Ernest fortunately had these 2 days off school.

I was expecting huge crowds, but there were only a couple customers when we got there. They spend a long time in the back inspecting his papers, and I was worried something was wrong. It turned out they had a new version of the form, but they finally accepted our older version as long as he filled something out on the new form.

Bureaucracy never runs smoothly, does it. So he got the permit. But it wasn't valid until he has a session of driver training.

Luckily, the driver training instructor was able to fit him in the next day.

So this morning, here he is, driving himself to school for the first time. Ernest is pretty laid-back, but I could tell he was pleased and excited.

And More Apples

We're still eating our way through the apples. Handy feels they aren't big enough for his lunch but they look fine to me.

Since my last apple post, of course we've had apple sauce with our pork chops.



And apple pancakes (peel and chop one apple and add it to your regular pancake batter).

Thanks to Lala, I found Harvest Chili. It was different but very tasty:

Did I forget anything? I didn't have red onions or fresh sage.

Whoa, this is a HECKUVA lot of squash. I didn't use all of it.

Be sure you get a tasty chicken apple sausage. The Saag's sausages were delicious. But I've had some really bad ones too.

Pink Saturday: Cars

Aunt Snow's Pink Saturday quiz last week made me think about pink cars.

I have a facebook friend who counts pink cars, in an ongoing competition with her father and daughter who count purple cars. Her father feels there was some cheating involved when she counted all the pink caddys at a Mary Kay convention. Purple cars are rarer than pink ones.

Every once in a while, I snap a pink car picture and post it on her facebook page.

A pink Mustang, anyone? Even the wheels are pink!

This one says "Pink" on the bumper. I wish I had a picture of the whole car (Ernest took it while I was driving.) The lower half of the car was pink and "Pink" was written on the side.

A classic pink pick-up in Paso.

Pink Saturday - Beverly at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

I Finished Something!

I finished the Klimt Coral needlepoint pillow, complete with vintage tassels I found in my stash. Good thing, because I started on the Taupe version.

UPDATE: I should have linked to the Ehrmann Tapestries site.

Apple Days

T

This morning's haul.

It's that time of year. The apples are ripe. This year the tree is obliging and drops a few apples every day, so I've been able to keep up with the supply. I know some of you intrepid kitcheneers would say "Can them," but I've never canned anything in my life. And the memory of the chaos in my mother's kitchen as she canned the neverending apricots will stay with me forever. Although I should not blame the canning...she just didn't like to cook period.

As always, I fall back on CH's Apple Crisp** and of course, PIE. But we can't live on desserts, so I've had to branch out (*rimshot*) in my search for apple recipes.

With a tub of yogurt in the fridge, Kitchen M's Apple Yogurt Coffeecake hit the spot. It was moist and delicious.

Apple Chutney was good with our pork roast last night.

I'm going to go apple free today, except for gobbling up the coffeecake for breakfast, but it's back to the apple fest tomorrow with Apple and Sausage Pie.

Do you have any favorite apple recipes you would share with me?

**Apple Crisp (originally from Low Cholesterol Desserts by Terry J. Siegel)

6-7 tart cooking apples, peeled and slice (I don't peel them)

1 T. lemon juice

1/2 cup white sugar (you can use less)

1 1/4 t. cinnamon

1/4 t. nutmeg

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup light brown sugar (you can use less)

3 T. oil

Preheat oven to 350°F. Place the apples in a 9" deep-dish pie plate. Sprinkle the apples with the lemon juice, white sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. (You need to stir a little.) In a small mixing bowl, stir together the oats, flour, brown sugar, and oil. Sprinkle over the apples. Bake uncovered for 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold.