finished projects

amongst all the other goings on, i have managed to finish a couple of lingering knitting projects. i put a lot of angora yarns into the mitts and made the thumbs extra long for added warmth and comfort!

the good and the bad

and the snow experience was ugly!!! good news is the Apple store replaced the whole complete keyboard on my macbook and as a "one time courtesy" they did it for free! ($186.56 worth!) going to that mall was like going into hell for me, as i hate everything about malls... the full parking lots, mobs of people, strange lighting that hurts my eyes, and while i was there snowing started and went on and on and on... totally un-predicted by those weather people on the tv. and as much as i love my Prius and it's excellent gas mileage, i miss my pick-up truck with it's 4WD and standard transmission on a day like this. no choice but to head home (20+ miles) thru heavy snow comin' down and fast accumulating on the freeway. by the time i got to Banks, i'd seen a few cars in ditches and could feel the road getting slick, so i pulled into the parking lot at the market in Banks and called Jim.... several times, getting only answering machine and making a pitiful request for him to come and get me. he did!! he was actually out looking for me! (twice a hero in one week!) his little Nissan pickup has snow tires and extra weight in the back and we made it up the hills to home with little problem. snow tires for the Prius cost $400... money which is just not available right now. seems to be warming up a bit now. i can hear the snow sliding off the roof, which is metal. the sound is weird and eerie sliding down the dome, but means the snow on the ground won't last long. til it's gone i'll be staying home! i'm such a weather weenie!

all's well.. etc

The family dinner on Sat. was quite successful... actually, fabulous! family plus some friends came, drank wine, talked, opened gifts, ate lots, had fun! and the oven came to life early that morning. Jim went before dawn to an Amana parts store, got the replacement part and was home and had it installed in plenty of time to put the huge turkey in the oven at 11a.m. He earned huge hero points! note to self: when trying to decide how big a turkey to get for 20 people, check off the people who don't eat meat and also the small people who eat very little, especially at a big gathering where they'd rather chase their cousins around than sit still for eating! there were 5 small people and 3 vegetarians. and this means that there is a lot of a 23 pound turkey left, even after sending as much as i could to other people's homes.

the keyboard keys are getting harder and harder to depress, and i have an appointment tomorrow at the Apple store to meet with the "genius" (their label) to see what they can do. i'd much rather go to the Mac store (they are nicer to me, are closer and are not located in the biggest mall on the west side), but they said that Apple does not allow them to disassemble keyboards. as much as ihate big malls, i will take advantage of being there and see if i can find a glass tea pot on sale. i need one so that i can enjoy the flowering teas i got. small pleasures and all that!

it was a fun party, but i gotta say i was beyond exhausted by the end!

ohhhh no

and how special is that? ... my oven laid down and died today. yes, the very oven in which i'd been planning to roast a 22 pound turkey on saturday. the very oven in which i would bake a greek potato, olives and feta dish on friday, and an eggplant and zucchini dish on friday, so they'd be ready to heat up in the microwave on saturday while the turkey roasted in that oven. Jim figured out that it's the temp. sensor that went whacko and he called around to several amana parts places. they are all closed tomorrow (thursday) and there is one place way way over on the east side which might have the part available at 8a.m. on saturday. so, he could conceivably get the part and be back about 10a.m. and if he could figure out how to install the new part and do it by 11a.m., i could conceivably get a turkey roasted before family and guests (18 or 20 of 'em) are ready to eat. as a back up, the nearest neighbor is leaving town tomorrow at 11a.m., so will show me how her oven works before she goes and if i have to i can truck on over with my turkey on saturday. damn i hate complications. and besides that my keyboard is only just barely working because my grandboy knocked over my FULL drink onto my computer last week and the keys are very difficult to depress, which depresses me. and this was NOT the week to take it in to the mac store because that involves a long drive to the mall where the store is located, and that is a mall from hell any day of the week, but the week of xmas is likely to be more than i can bear without tipping right on over the edge. and i'm fully aware that my small travails compare to a grain of sand in the whole scheme of things in the world. guess i just need to rant because i am so pissed off at what is happening in congress right now with the health care reform or lack thereof. seems to me they are ignoring the priorities and needs of the people who sent them there. and tho i could turn this into a really big rant, i won't because it's late and i need to get happier thoughts in my brain before i go to bed.

Winter Solstice

Rejoicing in the return of the light! and wishing everyone a bright and joyous winter solstice.

back tonight from a short visit with the Duvall branch of the clan.

this photo is of Sunshine the fierce guard rooster and a watchful and handsome force to be reckoned with he is! sadly, his watch was down last week and a huge hawk got away with one of the hens, but previous to that he had stood his ground against a bobcat and was the winnah! he's gone a bit too far, tho, in trying to protect his flock from the humans and has met with the broom more than once. and this dude does look fierce when he is on the attack! Alex says that one of the hens, Sassy, is Sunshine's minion because she gives him a ride on her back pretty often.

Zylie came up with another beauty of a "Zylie-ism", over which i am still laughing. she was quietly playing a game, and everyone else in the room was occupied with their own thing. then, in a quiet, serious voice she came up with "Daddy, i think there's something wrong with my sense of smell.... i farted 3 times and didn't smell a thing". she got no comment on this... Chris and i were just too busted up over it to utter a word!

and now i'll spend some time getting ready to welcome back the light on monday and to have a gathering of the clan for a big dinner on saturday!

music

yesterday was a GOOD music day for me! listened to Prairie Home Companion while i was quilting, and the featured guest was YoYo Ma. the whole show was good, with some great xmas satire. Then in the evening i was able to banish my bah humbug scroogitude for a couple of hours. normally, the traditional xmas music is ok the 1st, 2nd... maybe 3rd time i hear it during this season, then i feel unpleasantly overfed with it! too damn much. but, however... last night Andrea Bocelli, the Italian tenor, had a program on PBS which was beautiful. very diversified guests with him... Reba McIntyre, Natalie Cole, the Muppets (!) and i always love Miss Piggy esp. when she is swooning all over a handsome tenor. anyway, the program was lovely and i could have listened to Andrea Bocelli all night! it put me in a very peaceful and mellow mood. no surprise that several of his CDs are now on my wish list!

it's cozy

hey!! it's a tea cozy!

b-r-r-r-r-r

yep... i know wintery weather has hit hard in many sections of the country, but to have 12F and 16F at night here all this week, in the rainy and mild pacific northwest just isn't normal and may be totally illegal! (like run-on sentences? i'm sure i'll have more). it is, in fact cold enough to freeze a witch's brass monkey. no kidding.... i'm worried about all the little birds as i've put out their fave black oil sunflower seeds in several feeders and they aren't empty yet. in fact, other than for about an hour yesterday when they made a mass attack on the feeders, they haven't been around. i wonder where they go when the below freezing temps are sustained for days in a row. maybe they huddle up together somewhere and try to wait it out.

it's very very very cold here! but wait... a bit of warming is on the way, starting with freezing rain and snow beginning tonight. oh, joy.....

long nights.....

long dark cold winter nights! feeling like it's time to start preparing to celebrate the Winter Solstice (in 16 days). bring on the candles and green boughs.... bonfire and dancing!

devil sheep

living dangerously on the island of Crete, Greece

(thanks, Tracy!)

your list

for spinners/knitters... here's something for your wishlist: "all new Homespun Handknit" from Interweave Press, by Amy Clarke Moore. it has some really sweet projects in it, several of which i have already bookmarked!... quick and easy, down and dirty.. my kind of projects. seriously, i really like this book and i have absolutely no connection with this book or any hope of financial gain. just sayin' i like the book. i have the original of this book published umpty years ago and used it a lot... this one's better.

a definition

rogue |rōg|

noun

1 a dishonest or unprincipled man : you are a rogue and an embezzler.

• a person whose behavior one disapproves of but who is nonetheless likable or attractive (often used as a playful term of reproof) : Cenzo, you old rogue!

2 [usu. as adj. ] an elephant or other large wild animal driven away or living apart from the herd and having savage or destructive tendencies : a rogue elephant.

• a person or thing that behaves in an aberrant, faulty, or unpredictable way : he hacked into data and ran rogue programs.

• an inferior or defective specimen among many satisfactory ones, esp. a seedling or plant deviating from the standard variety.

verb [ trans. ]

remove inferior or defective plants or seedlings from (a crop).

ORIGIN mid 16th cent. (denoting an idle vagrant): probably from Latin rogare ‘beg, ask,’ and related to obsolete slang roger[vagrant beggar] (many such cant terms were introduced toward the middle of the 16th cent.).

**** ETA

if you were going to use this word in the title of your book, do you think you might check the definition just to be sure it says what you want it to say???... or, maybe she did?