Wild moment

Have you ever seen something so unexpected that you thought you were dreaming? On my way home from work yesterday I saw something I've never seen in the wild. I was on my motorcycle riding up the mountain and a big black bear ran across the road in front of me! He was about 30 yards away so we weren't going to collide or anything but it sure freaked me out. I've seen deer, kamikaze squirrels and even turkeys on the road before but never a bear. I had to call Mr. Aitch at work to tell him about my wild moment.

The peanut butter cookie dough was made last night and in the refrigerator. I'll make the cookies later today. Procrastinate.

I only have a couple more rows of neck shaping on the second eyelet sweater. My goal is to finish that today. Shouldn't take more than an hour then I can do the front bands, neck edge and be finished with it. I'm not sure if I will make another eyelet or lace thing again. Too much concentration for me. Not that I don't like a challenge but too much pressure having a deadline and making two from a pattern that I made up.

Drink more water

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and had some good news and some not so good news.

The good news is that I lost five pounds! Yes, the 10 minutes workouts I'm doing every work are paying off. I also started working my upper back to get rid of that unsightly back flab. I know I can't spot reduce but my goal is to tone that area hoping the increased muscle will burn off more fat overall. And eventually the flab on my back will be gone, too. Since doing these upperback exercises, my back doesn't seem to get as tired while riding the motorcycle.

The not so good news was that I need to drink more water. Now water is my choice of drink 95% of the time. I do enjoy a cup of green tea almost every morning and I do like my wine in the evening but for the rest of the time it's water. I just don't drink enough. I have to make a conscious effort to drink. My mother was the same way. She just didn't drink very much.

I did knit on the eyelet sweater last night. The next row will start the neckline decreases. Only 10 more rows to go before I do the front bands and neck edging. Then I will be finished with the second sweater.

We are visiting Mr. Aitch's brother this weekend and I wanted to take some banana bread and peanut butter cookies to him, my FIL, and my aunt since all of them live in the same town. I think the bananas are beyond banana bread. I touched one last night and it felt liquified under the peal. Too far gone.

I remembered to take some butter out of the refrigerator before I left or work this morning so I could make the peanut butter cookies tonight. Yes, I know Mr. Aitch doesn't like the oven on when it's hot but he's not going to bo home tonight.

It's time for me to check out the water cooler.

Kettle corn and knitting

My boss brought in a bag of freshly made kettle corn yesterday. I had a handful today. Crunchy, sweet, salty goodness. I try to make this at home but it's just not the same.

The recipe is fairly easy:

1/4 cup oil

1/3 - 1/2 cup popcorn

1/4 cup granulated sugar, can be all white or half white and half brown

1/4 tsp salt, optional

Heat oil and three kernels of popcorn in a large 4-6 quart pan with a lid until the corn pops. Add the rest of the popcorn and sugar. Cover and shake until the popping slows to 2-3 pops. Immediately dump popped corn into another container. (I use a parchment lined cookie sheet.) Sprinkle with salt. Fill pan with hot water to make clean-up easier.

I also use a Whirley-Pop Popcorn Maker. It has a stirring rod in the bottom that you turn so you don't have to shake the pan. I don't work for or receive any compensation from Whirley-Pop. I just love their popcorn maker.

I brought my knitting with me again today hoping I can work on the eyelet sweater during lunch.

Eyelet sweater size 1-2 yrs

Having twin granddaughters means having to make double. This is a combination of 3 patterns so does that make it an original?

Thunder and lightning but no knitting

I woke up this morning at o'dark-thirty to the sounds of rain and a very loud thunder-clap. The alarm wasn't to go off for another hour. Robbed of one hour of sleep. Actually I was awake enough to just enjoy the storm. Two minutes before the alarm was to sound, I turned it off. Why listen to the beep-beep-beep when I was already awake? You guessed it. I nodded off. Twenty minutes I woke up with a start. I hate when I do that.

Fortunately I decided what I was going to wear while I was awake during the storm.

My knitting bag was next to my purse so I still managed to get to work on time. No knitting was done today. I really need to make this second eyelet sweater a priority since it has to be finished by next week.

Crabby Bay Fries

Mr. Aitch and I went out for lunch yesterday, which is something we don't do very often. It was later than usual for lunch. For me. He dropped me off at the fabric store while he took his truck to have the tires checked. They were out of balance. Usually I can spend hours looking around a store but I felt that he was going to be back soon so I purchased my things and went outside to wait for him.

While waiting, I played several games of solitaire on my phone. I'm so glad I could entertain myself. I was really hungry and my stomach was growling. I hadn't eaten anything up to that time and I had spent an hour weeding my flower beds earlier in the morning.

We got to the Sand Springs Saloon and Steakhouse around 1:15 and placed our order in right away. Mr. Aitch had hot wings. I ordered Crabby Bay Fries. I usually don't order fries but these were smothered in a hot, creamy crab dip. This could have served 3-4 people. It was delicious. Other than Mr. Aitch sampling 2-3 fries, I ate the entire plate.

I had water the rest of the day as I was still full from lunch. Mr. Aitch wanted some popcorn while we watched an old movie last night. Real popcorn, not the microwave stuff. And real butter. No salt for me. I had a small bowl. Such buttery goodness.

Weeding

I decided to weed the front flower beds as soon as I got up this morning. We were supposed to get some rain overnight but we didn't. There was enough dew on the plants and ground to make the job easier.

Left side

Can you see the poppy?

I don't know what those pink flowers are but they love the heat from the brick sidewalk and are pretty drought resistant.

Right side

Looks like the stacked stone needs some help.

After an hour, this is what it looks like. Granted it's not perfect but it's so much better. It was getting too hot to do much more.

Left side after

There's the poppy on the right

Right side after

For some reason the left side always needs more weeding than the right side. The Candy Tuft has taken over more there. I also love my balloon flowers thought they are just now beginning to bloom. Maybe more will be out later in the week.

Tomorrow is another day

I'm really looking forward to cleaning tomorrow. Yes, looking forward to cleaning. I managed to clean out one kitchen cabinet (or is it a cupboard?) last Monday even though I had visitors. I arranged my spices (in alphabetical order by bottle size) and threw out all the old ones

My best friend and I talked last night and she mentioned her step-daughter-in-law(?) and her obsession with organizing her spices. I don't know how other people do their spices but if they aren't in some type of order, how can you find what you need without going through the entire cabinet? Unless you only use salt and pepper, how do find things?

I am certainly not OCD...just look at the rest of my house.

Tomorrow I will tackle the cabinet above the microwave/range hood and possibly the one where I keep my dishes. Maybe even a drawer or three.

Our community yard sale is tomorrow. I'm not participating but may have my own yard sale later in the summer. I need less clutter, less things, less emotional attachment to stuff.

Wish me luck

Rain

It's cool, foggy and rainy. I just want to curl up with a cup of hot tea and knit.

Summer hours

We started "summer hours" at our office last week (though I started it this week.) We work four 10-hour days with either Monday or Friday off. I chose Mondays. Mr. Aitch works either Fridays or Saturdays and is the choir director at church so Mondays seemed to be the best day for us. Makes for nice long weekends. The kicker is getting to work an hour earlier and staying an hour later. So did I set my alarm to get up an hour earlier? No. Just a half hour earlier. I won't eat breakfast at home until we switch back to our regular hours after Labor Day.

So my plan for this past weekend was to continue my cleaning. Didn't happen as planned. Friday night my daughter-in-law called asking if she and their two kids could spend the weekend with us. My son works nights and is off Monday and Tuesday nights. They only have one car so he brought them Saturday and picked them up last evening. My grandson is four and wants constant interaction. Play with me, Nona. Not a lot of cleaning done over the weekend.

I got up to the armhole openings on the second eyelet sweater and started the first sleeve four times. I dropped a stitch and had to start over. I had an extra stitch and had to start over. I don't know what I did and had a huge gap and started over. I'm well into the sleeve and should finish it tonight and possible finish the second sleeve so I can start to join everything. Goal is to have the sweater finished Friday night.

I did get a couple of loads of laundry done. I even cleaned out one cabinet in the kitchen yesterday morning. Spices. What is the shelf life of spices and flavorings? We moved into this house 16 years ago. I threw out some spices that I brought from my other house. Granted I hadn't used them in the past 16 years so it was safe to say I didn't need them. This was long overdue.

Treasures I found were an apple baker and a garlic baker. Both in their original packaging and both brand spanking new. One was a gift and one I had purchased.

I had paper plates and plastic spoons and forks taking up most of a shelf. We don't really use paper plates very much unless it's a BIG party. Same with plastic ware. So those things went into a box to be put in the basement with the other picnic-type things.

Our community yard sale is this weekend. I doubt I will be ready for it but will continue to clean out drawers, cabinets, closets and rooms. Maybe I will have my own yard sale later in the summer.

Only the buttons left

I finished the eyelet sweater last night except for the buttons. I still don't know the best way to sew on buttons on a knitted item. I wove in all the ends and grafted the underarm seam of four stitches. I used the kitchener stitch but still have holes on either side. I try to weave/darn those holes but I'm not satisfied with the result. It's going to have to work for now but I do need help with finishing seams.

The sweater is blocked and I will update this post tonight with pictures. ***See picture below.

My camera and computer are fighting. Sometimes I can upload pictures easily ans sometimes I can't. Not sure what the problem is. I put the digital card from the camera into the card reader and I either get errors or it works without a hitch. I will try again tonight.

I adapted this sweater pattern so I didn't have to sew seams. I like to sew fabric but not knitted items. I'm working on writing out the pattern so I can refer to it when I knit the second sweater...which I started last night.

Sausage toes

Yesterday Mr. Aitch and I were reviewing the leftovers in the fridge and decided to cook and eat the last two hot dogs and two hamburgers for dinner. To make the meal healthier we also had baby carrots and white zin. Yes, wine is a health food in my book.

By the end of the evening, my toes were like little sausages. I try not to consume much sodium but could not pass up the hot dog. As I was knitting on the button band on the eyelet sweater, my feet felt funny. They were swollen and my toes looked like little sausages.

Today I'm drinking a lot of water to help flush out the sodium and will be eating a bit healthier, too.

Progress on the eyelet sweater: It's almost finished! I have the button band finished on the right side and have the left side yet to do. Graft the underarm stitches, weave in the ends, sew on the yet-to-find buttons and block. Yay! Then I can start on the second one hoping it won't take near as long since I made all the corrections on this one.

As soon as I type out the chicken scratch pattern, I will post it.

Honeysuckle and helmets

I rode the motorcycle to work this morning and I need a "CAUTION: Helmet hair" sign. I realize traffic problems in my area doesn't even come close to what a lot of people experience but I couldn't get out of my development this morning for at least five minutes. School buses and the cars backed up from the various stops made for a very long line of traffic.

Once I got moving, I could smell the sweet perfume of honeysuckles. They grow along the roadside on steep banks. I would love to have honeysuckle around my house but I think it's rather invasive so I'll appreciate it while I ride.


Courtesy of: http://nyis.info/images/0001065_Japanese_honeysuckle_flower.gif

Where did May go?

June 1st already? Where does the time go?

We had a wonderful weekend. Mr. Aitch is a master with the grill. Sunday's menu was grilled chicken, pasta salad, baked beans, white zin, and fresh strawberries and blueberries.

The twins were so cute. I even got one sweater done to the point where I could try it on one of the girls to see how it fit before totally finishing it.






Needless to say I ripped it out down to where I started the neck shaping. I started it too soon. Of course if I was just using one pattern instead of three, I would be finished with BOTH sweaters by now. The clock is ticking now to get both done by the end of the month. I've knit baby sweaters in a couple of days before but I was actually following a real pattern. When will I learn?

It's always sad when everyone leaves after a great weekend. I try to hide the tears as they pull out of the driveway.