HighFiber: September 2024

Monday, September 16, 2024

Uh-Oh!

This is going to be a very short blog post. I'll explain why later. It was another busy week until...well, I digress. Dusty and Sandy went to the groomer this week. Here they are, checking the state of the neighborhood after getting home.

The AQI fluctuated from good hazardous. We tried to keep an eye on it and get out when it was no higher than moderate. We took a nice long walk before grooming time.

We took the flap out of the dog door for the summer, but we have a metal panel that we can use to close it, so the dogs have to ask to go out. Everything outdoors is covered in ash, and some of it creeps inside.

After their grooming appointment, I took the pups outside to get some portraits. They don't stay pretty for long. Here's Dusty.

And here's Sandy.

We watched the debate Tuesday night. We had another Madroña meeting during that time, but we recorded the debate so we could watch it later. There were literally some things I did not have on my Bingo card. It was interesting, and I got some knitting done.

We put up our signs the next day. These are our choices for President, Congress and State Senate.

Early in the week I made the Easy Black Bean Soup again. We made it twice during our trip, once while camping and once in Wisconsin. While we were camping, I added some diced potato to make it go further. I don't remember what I added in Wisconsin. I think we might have had some leftover rice. This time I threw in some of the baby greens we use for salad. It's the lime juice that really makes it.

I finally got a photo of the finished soup, so I added it to the recipe in my Recipe Box app. (The recipe doesn't say to sauté the onions and garlic, but I usually do.)

Kitty Katie is growing. She seems very comfortable with her new family.

Things were going very well until Saturday morning, when I woke up with a scratchy throat. That's where the "uh-oh" comes in. After avoiding Covid for nearly 4 1/2 years, it finally got me. I went to urgent care, which I wouldn't have bothered with in the old days. My throat was barely scratchy, my nose was running a bit, but I felt OK otherwise. They took samples for two tests. The first one was positive, so they didn't bother with the second one. I just got my booster on the 6th, but it takes about two weeks to take effect, and it's of probably no use. The PA at urgent care said I was borderline as to whether I needed to take Paxlovid, but I qualified because of my age my blood pressure issues. I decided to take it, because it's better to take it as early as possible. So far, symptoms have been like a mild cold, but with a fever. The challenge is keeping Charlie from getting it. I'm sleeping in the guest room and wear a mask when I have to leave the room. I had a fever most of the day yesterday. I expect it will climb up again today. I'm glad I got it identified early.

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of any of our books, including Emil, Mariah or Classic Tales Retold, please leave an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Oregon Cardigan.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover. I did use my Featherweight to take up the hems on a new pair of pants.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: On Friday, we had another reedited story, this one about rainbows and colors. Here's A Colorful Story.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci. When you have to lie in bed, it's good to have an audiobook to listen to.

What's in my wine glass: No wine for several days due to my illness and related medication.

What's my tip of the week: Covid is rampant again. If you go out among other people in a closed environment, wear a mask. It takes about two week for a booster to take effect.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook is available from the BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.

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Monday, September 9, 2024

Four-legged Friends and Family

The week began with good weather for walks. Although hot later in the day, it was pleasant until after 9:00 or so. On Monday, we met one of our neighbors, also out for a walk. We have a lot of deer in our area. We give them their space, but they aren't as dangerous as the moose we always had in Utah.

Because Charlie doesn't like to get up early, the pups and I went alone. There were a few other people out for walks, though.

We're fortunate to have such a nice trail for our walks. There is sometimes a barking dog behind this fence. That reminded me that I had thought it would be nice to be right on the trail and not have to walk a few houses down on the street to get to it, but our dogs would be barking all the time. Poodles are very territorial. They don't bark back when we're on a walk; they only bark when they're at home. We're better where we are.

Because our camping trip turned out to be longer than we expected, we had to postpone our grooming appointment. The next one we could get was not until later this week. Sandy's hair grows very fast, so he's become a real fur ball.

Dusty doesn't look too bad. All he needs is a good brushing. We can even still see his eyes.

About midway through the week the smoke started to interfere with our walks. I always check the air quality index before we leave the house, and it was getting into the red zone. We don't go out if it's even orange. I don't want the dogs breathing in the smoke while we're exercising. Charlie had planned to get up early to hike with me up to the top of Pilot Butte, but we've had to put it off.

Today it's in the purple range: 205. "Very unhealthy." Well, I couldn't walk for a couple of days, anyway. We got our flu/Covid boosters on Friday, and that kicked in my arthritis pain, which disturbed my sleep. I used two heating pads to relieve the discomfort but ended up taking some acetaminophen.

I did get a little knitting in. The second sleeve of the Oregon Autumn Cardigan is coming along.

Charlie had to mow the lawn after our long absence. We came home to find a sunflower had popped up in the front yard. He mowed around it. We'll see what it does.

I'm planning to defrost the freezer when it cools off a bit, so I've been trying to use some of the food stored there. I determined to use up the last of the frozen tomatoes. I made some tomato jam, this time with honey, because we have a big container of it.

This is my recipe. I have a canner, but I decided we had room in the fridge for it, and we use a lot of jam.

I also made a batch of pasta sauce. We go through a lot of sauce with pasta and pizza, so I knew we would use it up quickly. That took about three pounds of tomatoes. I've already used some of it. This was full.

I think that's the last of my frozen tomatoes. I used up some mushrooms, too.

I made another batch of granola. We seem to be eating a lot of it lately. Yum!

On Sunday I took part in the "Authors' Table" at the Condega Celebration at Trinity Episcopal Church. I sold a few of my books, with the proceeds going to the Condega Project.

The Condega Project is an international outreach of Trinity to the people of Condega, Nicaragua. Each year a group from the church visits Condega, taking school supplies and funds to support schools, including a residential school for deaf children, along with school uniforms, medicine and other things. We support other projects, such as a new water tower for the special needs school.

Speaking of school, the grands are back in school, so our grandcat, Katie, found herself alone all day for the first time. She took the opportunity to explore the house without supervision.

Daphne took part in her first band competition. She plays the flute. She looks so grown up.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Oregon Cardigan.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover. I did use my Featherweight to take up the hems on a new pair of pants.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Sam and Holly Go Camping Emil reads a letter from his friend Holly, who has been camping with Sam and Sam's family. They come across some interesting animals, see some tourist attractions and find out camping when you use a wheelchair can be a challenge, but rewarding.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci. It's a fascinating book, but very long, and I've been busy with things this week that are incompatible with listening to an audiobook.

What's in my wine glass: Terra d'Oro Chenin Blanc and Viognier. Nice!

What's my tip of the week: We have one of these silicone baking mats.

It was always flopping around in the drawer. Easy solution? I rolled it up and put a rubber band around it. It stays tidy in the drawer with the parchment paper and foil.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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Monday, September 2, 2024

Home Again!

This doesn't look like much more has been done on the Oregon Autumn Cardigan, but the lighting is better, and I'm back to using the chart I made using Stitchfiddle. It's easier to read, because it's only dark (background) and light. (I've worked another few rounds since I took this photo.)

The colors change every 2-3 rounds, though, so I've written them in alongside the rounds in the pattern. I've also indicated which rounds are the decrease rounds. I didn't get much done on this project this week, because I spent a lot of time unloading the RPod, doing laundry and catching up on emails and house stuff.

One of the things we did was put the Pod back into her space next to the house. It's an easier job than backing the 5th wheel into this space was.

While we were traveling, I resolved to solve the issue of our upper cabinets. The first time we traveled with the Pod, the securely closed doors came open, and everything spilled out. I've been tying the handles shut with a dish towel.

When I was fastening the table in place before we moved the Pod a couple of weeks ago, I had an idea. The table came equipped with a nylon-webbing belt that can be fastened and then tightened, to minimize shifting during travel. (I always put a towel over the table to keep it from rubbing against the wall; the belt doesn't completely prevent that.)

I remembered that I had cannibalized the nylon-webbing belt that came with the dogs' treat pouch. I took the pouch off, and it is now on the belt that goes with the hands-free leash arrangement I use when walking the dogs. I used a section of the webbing to replace the lost tether to the safety harnesses the dogs wear in the car. I still had the leftover nylon webbing and the buckle, so....

We were gone a week longer than expected, so I was concerned about our sourdough starter, still sitting in the fridge. I needn't have worried, though. It was happy to see me and bubbled up nicely when it was fed.

Our new grandcat seems to have settled in nicely in her new home.

Katie really knows how to relax! (The shaved tummy is left over from her surgery on August 20th.)

She does more than sleep, however. (Charlie and I helped put this cat tree back together. The top part had been dismantled.)

Katie seems even more drawn to her human family members than most cats are. Here she is, using Zachary's shoulder to relax on. She seems to be equally attracted to all the family members.

Meanwhile, one of the other grandsons got into trouble for putting a hole in the wall. Now he's learning useful life skills doing the repair.

The dogs and I are back to walking almost daily, now that we're home again. This time of year, you have to check the air quality, and since I don't have much sense of smell, I can't tell if it's bad unless I can see the smoke in the air. Here's Sunday's AQI report. The red X indicates about where our house is. the Air Pollution Station closest to us is right above it and to the left. The name of the station is "Kitty Corner."

I also have to take them early in the day, because it has been getting pretty hot from midday on.

Here's Dusty, checking his peemail. (This term came from a friend.)

We usually go a little more than two miles.

A new story is in the works. It will come out on Friday.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still working on the Oregon Cardigan.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Being Grateful, the dolls put aside some of their money to give to a charity. Each doll has chosen a different charity to give to.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci for my personal listening. We've almost finished listening to The Martian by Andy Weir, which we started while traveling.

What's in my wine glass: Yellow Tail Pinot Noir 2022, one of our staple picks.

What's my tip of the week: It isn't good to leave your phone charging after it reaches 100%. I'm assuming that applies to other devices with batteries, such as tablets and laptops, so I'm unplugging when they get close to fully charged.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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