Right now

November 30, 2016February 8, 2019 Vicki11 Comments

Last night we drove Maddy's Jeep out to the farm for storage — 'til she returns!

Anticipating… Only three more weeks until Winter Solstice!

Celebrating… A Christmas party already on Friday!

Drinking… Hot tea — gigantic mugs of Tazo ZEN. And cold tea, G&Ts, IPAs, H2O.

Eating… Well. We've been doing so much cooking at home, and the fridge is usually bulging.

Enjoying… Junah's exploding language and imaginative play. Gin's bright eyes and ever-ready smile.

Hoping… to get Christmas going again. I was getting in the mood but lost it at the thought of hauling the tree up and the decorations down. I have started to do a little bit of shopping.

Knitting… I have two pairs of Squad Mitts going, two gift knits for the grandkids going (awaiting delivery of special-order safety eyes), and two more rows of ribbing before binding off my Rainbow Warrior Cowl!

Listening to… Simply Christmas by Leslie Odom, Jr., especially loving "My Favorite Things" and "Winter Song."

Looking forward to… Ann & family arriving the day after Christmas!

Needing… to make room for the tree.

Planning… well, not exactly planning yet… but beginning to think about Christmas dinner!

Reading… Winter Garden for book club, In The Company of Women for inspiration, Homeland and Other Stories just because.

Watching… Vikings (Season 1).

Remembering…

It was a beautiful evening for a drive into the country – this was the apropos scene on Golden Glow Road.

Wondering… What's up with you right now!?

_ _ _ _ _

And another NaBloPoMo is in the books. This one has been a bit of a struggle… since about November 9th. Thanks for reading along, sharing comments and suggestions — you've made all the difference.

Travel bug

November 29, 2016August 8, 2025 Vicki9 Comments

We were this >< close last week to booking crazy-low priced flights to Valencia. Alas, sometimes it’s really hard to get your ducks to line up in a timely & efficient manner, and by the time all was situated, the sale was over… we missed it by hours. It was heartbreaking; I even lost sleep over it. Ugh.

The bug had bitten!

Kate’s making plans for a UK/France visit in early winter; Rusty’s making summertime CA plans; and I will likely go to Spain in June, hopefully overlapping a bit with Maddy & Kate as they meet up during summer travels.

In the meantime, I’m taking Annie up on her offer to come & stay in New Orleans at the end of February when she’s there for a conference. She’ll be there for a week; I’ll head down mid-week… we’ll have evenings and perhaps an afternoon or two together. I’ve already scouted yarn stores. I think we’ll catch a concert in a nearby park one evening, and maybe go to Emeril’s for dinner on another… what shouldn’t I/we miss??

Speaking of Emeril and food and travel, I really enjoyed his Amazon show, Eat The World. His show on Food Network was one of Maddy’s favorites when she was a kid, and we’d often watch together… so perhaps I’ve a little soft spot for Emeril. BAM! 😉

Create Your Own Visited States Map*

I am looking forward to coloring in this map (and my world map) a little bit more in 2017!

*According to my rules, if I’ve driven/traveled across you numerous times and/or got lost in your mountains for an afternoon, I’ve “visited” you.

Knitting-Parcheesi · NaBloPoMo 2016

Weekending: Knitting

November 28, 2016February 8, 2019 Vicki9 Comments

I did some cooking over the weekend, and some knitting, and a whole lotta putzing and/or nothing.

It felt SO GOOD.

Saturday. I made Meatloaf. Two of them, actually, because it's so good and we want LEFTOVERS!

This is the Rainbow Warrior Cowl… at least that's the pattern I'm using. I'm confused about the floats, so have contacted the designer for clarification. The way I'm reading the pattern, there should be a slipped-stitch float on the front of the work, but it doesn't look like there's a float in any of the pattern photos. I didn't like how it looked with this particular colorway — to me, it would work better with a super busy colorway — so am doing all floats on the back.

UPDATE: The designer got back to me right away… turns out I was using an outdated pattern. There'd been an update to correct the error. NO FLOATS ON THE FRONT! Whew. I was kind of driving myself crazy with that. Carry on…

Sunday. I made Ina Garten's Roasted Potato Leek Soup. Yum.

Happy Birthday Parcheesi!

Six years old and still awesome.

Food and Drink · NaBloPoMo 2016

Beer Bread

November 27, 2016February 8, 2019 Vicki10 Comments

Who knew? How have I lived in Wisconsin for the better part of my life and not known about BEER BREAD?

Best extra-curricular use of beer, especially one you may not care for all that much to drink.

It could not be simpler. I used this recipe by Gerald Norman (summarized below). Sift the flour, people!

BEER BREAD

3 c. all-purpose flour (sifted)
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sugar
12 oz. beer
1/4 c. melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease/butter a loaf pan. Sift & combine dry ingredients; mix in beer. Scrape dough into the prepared pan; pour melted butter over the top. Bake for 1 hour; cool in the pan on a rack for at least 15 minutes.

So yummy.

I used one of the two remaining New Belgium/Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ales that I had from Thanksgiving. I'll be adding a cup of chocolate chips to the loaf I make with the last bottle of that beer. And I will have to do some research to see how the flavor differs when using a different type of beer altogether.

For RESEARCH!

NaBloPoMo 2016

Doors

November 26, 2016February 8, 2019 Vicki11 Comments

Hit it Jack:

Front door.
Junah watched happily while Kate wrapped the pillars on Thanksgiving Day,
"Now it's Christmas!!"

Doors at our house:

Front door
Upstairs apartment door
Shed door
Back/Side/Kitchen door
Basement door
Garage door(s)

We've lived in our house for almost 30 years. Unfortunately, the door bell button at the front door has never been anything more than sporadic, so we've had various little notes posted above it stating (one way or another) that if no answer, please go to the back door.

Defunct doorbell & note at front door.

We've had many deliveries over the span of 30 years, as you might imagine — countless deliveries — from just about every delivery service you could name. Sometimes they knock, sometimes they don't; sometimes we have to sign for packages, sometimes we don't; sometimes a parcel is left at the front door, sometimes the back door, and once even at the shed door.

The upstairs apartment door is… up those stairs (garage at left).

On Wednesday, according to tracking info, UPS left a package at "rear door." I looked at the back door, the shed door, even the garage door; I sent a text to our tenant asking if she'd found a package — nope, nada, nothing.

The shed door.

Hubby's note on shed door since a delivery was found there one time.

Mulling over what to do…

Freshly painted rear garage door & season's first dusting of snow.

On Thursday, I asked Rusty to maybe take a peek over at the neighbors' (it didn't look like they were home) to see if somehow it was delivered over there… They wouldn't have delivered it at our basement door, would they??

The back/side/kitchen door. Roughly 50% of our parcel deliveries are made at this door, even by USPS.

Lo and behold! I can't believe he came up with it.

If thwarted at the front door (and I don't know why it wouldn't have just been left there on the "delivery chair"), you would pass the stairs to the apartment door, the shed door, and the back door (not to mention the garage door), before hitting a FULL STAIRCASE leading to the lower yard and, finally (about 20 more feet to the right), the walk-out basement door… which is where the box in question was found on Thursday morning.

Seriously?

Thank you, UPS, for giving me blog fodder as we cruise toward the end of NaBloPoMo!