Friday the 13th

Happy Anniversary Honey!

8 years of wedded bliss today...

Here we are at Rena's wedding last September...a handsome couple - don't you think? The past 9 years with The Saint have been the best!

I Really Have Been Knitting!

Just so you all don't think I'm slacking in the knitting department, here's what I've been working on like a mad-woman the past couple days...
It will be a re-usable grocery bag when it's done. I found the pattern on the Lion Brand site. It's the Eco-Friendly Expandable Shopping Bag.

What you're looking at in the pictures (click on photo to enlarge) is the bag with the bottom at the top and the handle being worked on my Knit Picks Size 8/32" circular. The yarn is Lily Sugar & Cream in Over The Rainbow.

I'm also stealing an idea I saw on Grace's blog (Hi Grace!) for posting a picture of my favorite place to knit. It's a toss up between the deck and the living room but since I've previously posted a picture of the outside locale here's my inside knitting photo...

Notice the classy lawn chair cushion...the slats in the back of this mission-style chair that Rena and Derder gave me one year for Mother's Day did not make for long-term comfort. But with a little frugal ingenuity, when we purchased some new cushions for the deck chairs voila! I have a nifty chair for knitting in the living room - right in front of the picture window where I can survey all that goes on in the neighborhood while I knit or watch tv or just neighborhood watch. Not that I pay attention to what goes on in the neighborhood, much, LOL, well at least I don't use the binoculars like The Saint does...hee

And speaking of The Saint, he had to go to bed really early since he was up most of the night cleaning those catfish and he gets up at 3:30a to go to work. The fact that I was up as long as he was and he took a couple of naps today are completely beside the point! *hear me snickering?* He packed it in by 8:00 so now I have more time to blog! Woo hoo! He did have enough energy to make this yummy looking dinner tonight though. Rib eye, medium, with guacamole sauce, tomatoes and onions...mmmmm Do you think maybe he's been watching too much Food Network?

Toodles!

Sunday Morning Crime Update

I am sad to say that at about the time we were backing in the driveway, returning from our lovely fishing excursion, shortly after 1:30 this morning, there was a police officer responding to what was reportedly a domestic dispute who was shot and killed. About a block (as in 100 yds) from our house. Hence the big commotion early this morning.

So sad, senseless and tragic.

Our thoughts are with the officer's family and the rest of the local PD.

Gone Fishin

It's 1:50am, guess where we've been tonight...


Yep, cat-fishin on the Grand River! Ain't they cute? They talked to us from the live-well most of the evening. The biggest one is mine, hee, so is the littlest one! Those were the only ones I caught tonight. It was a nice quiet, for the most part, evening out on the river and we saw a few fireworks too. NPR had a show on with the Neville Brothers and it was pretty awesome to hear Aaron Neville sing Amazing Grace out there on the water, in the dark when it was so quiet.


Hang On! Time out! Gotta go see what's going on outside...wooo weee! Looks like all hell is breaking loose out there! I believe every police officer, fire truck and ambulance in this city is 1 block from our house at a stand off with some criminal! We barely got the boat backed in the driveway when we saw a couple cars speed past the house then heard gun shots and all the sirens started. We can hear the police on their loudspeaker talking to someone they think is in the house...ah, life in the city *sigh*

That peace and quiet was sure nice while it lasted. It's 3:58am now...I need to try to go to sleep...

Dog Days of Summer

Here're my answers for the first Dog Days contest!

Someone who crochets Pheelya D
Someone who's never made a dishcloth before is Diana C
Someone who has been knitting\crocheting for less than 2 years Val D
Someone who has been knitting\crocheting for more than 5 years Isabelle J
Someone who is from a non-US country country Jodie W

I Told You So...

How do you like my pretty new light switch?

It was quite an adventure getting it!

Why is it that when you tell a man something needs to be done they don't do it with the urgency that you feel is appropriate? As my mother would say N-O-W!

Last Friday I told The Saint that the switch for the dining room light needed to be replaced because it wasn't turning off the light properly. A situation that I would think would warrant immediate action ...his plan...yeah, I'll get around to it...

This morning I was ready to head out the door to work, made my usual last walk through to be sure everything was off and the bedroom door was shut (since Sam likes to look out the bedroom window at people passing by during the day which has totally destroyed the mini blinds in there). As I passed through the dining room and into the kitchen I was stopped in my tracks by something that smelled HOT! I followed my nose to the source of the smell...that blasted light switch, argh! Just as I bent to take a sniff of said switch a small puff of white smoke came out, YIKES! What to do?!

I punched the push button switch a couple of times and the light didn't shut off, not the first time I've had this happen in the past week, although it did dim and brighten a couple times. No problem, I'll just turn off the power to the switch and all will be well til the end of the work day when The Saint gets home and can replace it. I sped down the steep and rickety basement stairs with visions of melting, burning wiring in my head and pulled open the door to the circuit breaker box, found the one "labeled" dining room, flipped the switch, ran up the stairs and the light was still on! Ran back down the stairs, flip another switch, ran up the stairs, the damn light was still on, although no more smoke was seeping from the switch, this is a good thing, I guess. I run back down the stairs, flip a third switch, third one's the charm right? NOT, when I jet back up the stairs with a slight wheeze that light is still on! What-the-hell!? Alright, I'll get you yet, blasted light! My fourth trip down the stairs, into the now-dark basement, where the breaker box is on the other end of the house from aforementioned stairs and I decided to just flip the main breaker and shut off all the power, can't go wrong with that. I barely make it back up those stairs (for the fourth time) and aha!, the light is off. Now to find a screw driver, take the plate off the switch and make a little inspection. Thankfully the wall, and the wiring in it, was ok. The switch itself was warm and stinky but not yet melty.

At this point I decided to give The Saint a call so I could get some assistance, and go to work - where I was supposed to already be. I took a couple of deep breaths, and thought relaxing thoughts, and dialed his cell...no answer, called the terminal...dispatcher answers...yes, he's still on the dock, hold on...Of course The Saint knew there must be some emergency or I wouldn't be calling so when I told him about my little adventure in electrical trouble-shooting he was doing the Home-to-First run across the parking lot to his truck to come rescue me. Ahhh, my Knight-In-Shining-Armor, zoomed home, removed the offending switch from the wall, turned the power back on and headed to the local hardware store for a new switch.

He got the rest of the day off and I had to go to work!

I did, though, get to say two things when he came in the door, to rescue me..."I told you to replace that switch last week" and "You need to do a better job of labeling those breakers down there!"...neither of which he could argue with.

Ah, yes, it's the little victories in life that are so sweet! I wonder if the next time I ask him to fix something he'll drag his feet getting it done?! *sigh* Probably.

And on the crochet front...ta da! Here is my Chanson En Crochet nearly finished! Looks great on an office chair don't you think?!


All it needs is a row of trim around the top and front edge and it will be finished! I hooked and ripped the first row of the floral pattern 3 times before I finally got my mind wrapped around the design and could get it right. I had to keep referring to the not-so-helpful picture in the pattern because for some reason I couldn't visualize the written directions. Now that I can actually see it, I think I'll be making several different colors to go with assorted dresses that I have recently acquired.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th.

Toodles!

Herbs, Cloaks & Daggers, oh my!

This is the small herb garden next to my deck. Just enough to satisfy my need to dig in the dirt. 2 basil (for basil/tomato/feta salad), 2 parsley (for tabouli), 1 oregano just because it looks nice, 1 sage, 1 thyme (for chicken and roasted potatoes), 1 oregano and 1 lemon thyme.


Another beautiful day in W Mi although we could certainly use a little rain. The grass is brown and crispy. My little herb garden is growing nicely but I have to carry water to it every morning. I feel bad for all of you in Kansas that just can't get a break from the rain.

The basil loves the hot weather and the parsley had grown enough that I could make some tabouli yesterday. Mmmmmm. My son-in-law, Chef Wes, gave me some great tips for making tabouli with barley. I like it better since you can serve it as a salad rather than just something to put on top of your pita and hummus. It's good with the hummus but it's more versatile than regular tabouli made with bulgar. It is seasoned with a tagarashi seasoning blend to make it interesting. I love summer recipes!

I cooked some beets over the weekend as I was intending to make a pot of borscht but I realized it would take several hours to accomplish the task and today I'm just not up to it. Guess those beets will be cut up into salad for the week instead. I haven't found many people who actually like beets. I love the earthy taste of them. Someone once told me that they reminded them of dirt. I guess you could call that earthy taste dirt if you can imagine freshly turned garden dirt in the spring on a warm day...that would be my interpretation of the taste of beets. Add some vinegar and a little sugar and you have fabulous pickled beets! Where's my fork?!

It was a frustrating weekend on the needlework front. I am working on that Chanson en Crochet...I have hooked and ripped several rows, several times but I think I'm making progress. I just wish they would show a better illustration of each row of stitches so I could figure out as I go if I'm doing it right, rather than getting 3 rows farther and having to rip back because the numbers weren't right. I sure do miss my Grama! She understood all that stuff and if she was still around I could call and ask her and she would tell me in the most wonderful way what I needed to do to make it come out right. And then she would want to see pictures of what I did when I was finished...hey, maybe blogging is sorta like having a Grama! Thanks!

I think it's time for a big clean out in the sewing room/office at our house. I can't think straight there is so much stuff in here! I've been trying to talk The Saint into letting me switch the office with our bedroom so I could have more room but so far he's not buying my plan. He says the king size bed won't fit in the 10 x 10 office. I think, we only need room for the bed and I've even offered to buy him a flat screen tv to hang on the wall in the "new bedroom" but he's not easily swayed. Well, he goes to Canada fishing the first week of August so, guess what...I'm going to switch them around while he's gone and see how it feels. Once it's done he won't make me change it back and I'll be all set! Call me devious...anytime I want to do something around here he's not really on board with I just wait til August and let her rip! One year he came home and found all the carpet from our living/dining room packed in the back of his pick-up waiting to go to the dump, (insert hysterical laughter here) I waited til he left and got out a carpet knife and cut that stuff up into about 4 ft square pieces and stuffed it into the bed of his truck. With that nasty carpet out of here and a fresh coat of paint on the walls, voila! a new room. Rena and I had a good ole time doing that one! She loves demolition. I haven't come up with a good project the past couple years, he's dropped his guard and will never suspect...tee hee Wish me luck! He just doesn't have a good visionary mind...leave it to me and he'll see how great it can be (or not). I'll let you know about the 8th of August if it worked or not. I may have to buy a smaller bed...