Wrapping Up, Stuffing and Unwrapping

On Saturday I finished the final clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along. There was a section of Latvian Braid followed by a section of "honeycomb" and another section of Latvian Braid. 

When I got there, I knew we were going to be grafting the whole thing together, so I went ahead and did that. I found it easier to remove the provisional cast on after picking up a section of stitches, rather than one-by-one.

Here it is, all grafted and ready for blocking.

But oops! I looked at the instructions, and I was supposed to block it before grafting. Well, I wasn't going to take out the grafting stitches, so I went ahead and blocked it then. Fortunately, it's very dry in our house right now, so I was sure all four layers will dry fairly quickly.

This morning I took out the pins, turned the cowl over and then readjusted the position of the cowl on the blocking wires, so I won’t have creases where they were. It should be dry later today.

We had a Madroña Vineyards pop-up "meeting" on Tuesday. (It's actually a wine-drinking party.) I was having an endoscopy the next day, so I needed to be finished eating by 6:30, so we ate during the party: crustless quiche with roasted vegetables and salad, accompanied by a nice viognier.

I was able to drink liquids up until midnight, but I was going to bed long before that. The prep for an upper endoscopy is much easier than for a colonoscopy, which I had just over a year ago. We were looking for the cause of my reflux. It turned out I have a hiatal hernia. I'll see my regular doctor this week to find out what we need to do.

The pups and I usually start each day with a nice brekkie. I feed them in the doorway to the kitchen, so I can watch and make sure Sandy doesn't eat both servings. I could feed them right in the kitchen, but Dusty's feet slide on the floor when he bends over.

It snowed a few times during the week, but we had enough breaks in the weather that we were able to take the pups for walks. Both dogs were intrigued by the smells on the top of this mound.

They did a lot of running around, chasing each other and checking on the smells along the trail.

Sandy's Lamb Chop toy, which is almost as big as he is, finally got disemboweled. I decided she needed a repair.

On Saturday I got out some quilting thread and a needle. I restuffed her first, using the stuffing I had picked up from the floor. Then I sewed her up. She had another hole that needed repair as well, so I fixed that. 

Now she's almost as good as new and should last for a while, since I didn't replace the squeaker. (When they discover the squeaker, they can't contain themselves until they have it out.)

Remember this doll that arrived in December? Her name is Olivia.

I finally managed to wash her hair and change her clothes. I have a new story written, and she's in it. I'll take the photos this week and schedule the story for the 28th.

We finished the crustless quiche Saturday night. 

We almost always have leftovers, since there's just the two of us. I made some Easy Black Bean soup this week, too, and some cornbread to go with it. We still have some of each.

I also made cookies (which are all gone now) and a batch of carob brownies.

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 More Classic Tales Retold or 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, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses or More 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 Sunday Morning Wrap and finishing up the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to How We Learn To Be Brave by Mariann Edgar Budde. Excellent book! I'm using the AudiobooksNow app.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready to make binding for the T-shirt quilt, which should be back from the quilter soon.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Since Valentine's Day was on Friday, I had to republish the Valentines Day poem from Our Favorite Verses.

What's my tip of the week: Don’t you hate it when you pour your boiling water into your cup and the tag on the tea bag slips into the cup? I do. That’s why I wrap the tag and string around the handle before I pour. The tag stays dry.

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 More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. 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.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The 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, because the publisher gets a cut. 

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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Removing Things

It looks like we finally will be able to pick up our new Rpod-171 on Monday. We plan to move it to a campground with hookups to check everything out. Then we'll head out to the coast.

It has been a challenge getting this far! We were all set to go last week, but hadn't figured out soon enough how we were going to manage the removal of our old 5th wheel. The person who bought it on June 27th had a problem with his tow vehicle. It ended up taking three weeks to get the part. By the time we had figured out he wasn't going to be able to come the week of July 16th, it was too late to schedule a pick-up time for that week. They offered us a time this past week, but we had doctor's/dentist's visits and grooming for the dogs in the middle of the week, leaving only a couple of days before Sandy's puppy training class, not enough time to drive to Eugene, pick up the trailer and take it to a campground to check everything out. Our buyer called later in the week to discuss picking the trailer up, and Charlie pointed out that we would be gone all this week, so it was either the week of July 23rd or he was going to have to wait until the second week in August, because he was going to have to help hook it up using the special 5th wheel hitch. Tuesday we got a call from the buyer. He had found someone who could drive to Bend, pick up the trailer and drive it to Portland. We had to work the scheduling around getting the pups to the groomer, Charlie's doctor visit and picking the pups up again. For once, things went our way. After the doctor's appointment and while the pups were at the groomer, Charlie pulled the trailer out of the RV driveway.

He had to drive all the way around the block and pull up in front of the house, then back up to park on the street in front of our house, where it would be easier to hook up. Someone else was parked behind that spot, so he couldn't just line up the wheels next to the curb and pull forward. He was disconnecting the truck from the trailer when the buyer's friend, John, drove up. Charlie showed him how to hook up. 

They had to check out the lights and make sure they all worked. 

When everything was working, John drove off, and we said goodbye to our old vacation home, which had sheltered us in many places in the country during the 23 years we had it.

We had removed all our stuff, cleaned it inside and out, and done some repairs, including preventative calking the seams on the roof to prevent leaking. I had made up a checklist for preparing the inside for setting up and then moving, including how to move the slide out out and in. I taped it to the table when I went in to check and make sure the poles were in position above the slide out, to keep it from moving during transport, and that nothing was left sitting out on surfaces to move and possibly damage something.

Then it was time to pick up the pups. We had scheduled Sandy's neutering for the next day. I explained it to him. I'm not sure he understood, but he does now.

Both dogs looked good, as they always do, fresh from the groomer.

Sandy's neutering was not expected to be ordinary. As Marie from Ash's Mystical Poodles had prepared us, Sandy's...um...testicles were not where they should be. The is apparently common in the parents' particular family. The vet might have to dig around for them if they didn't come down before neutering. We waited until Sandy was 6 1/2 months old before scheduling it, in hopes the extra month and a half would make it easier. Our veterinary clinic prepared us for a possible $1K more than the cost of normal neutering. We lucked out, though. The vet who performed the surgery guessed correctly where the little gems were hiding, so the cost with everything was only about $300 more than if they had been correctly positioned. The toll on Sandy was less, too. It was about as invasive as a spay would have been. The vet said where the testicles were located, it was unlikely that they ever would have descended, and without surgery, that could have made him susceptible to testicular cancer. Better out than in, as they say. By Wednesday evening, Sandy was home and relaxing on the couch with Dusty and Snowball.

The recovery has been going well. We still have to prevent strenuous activity for another week, which is a challenge, but he isn't licking his stitches, so he doesn't need the dreaded "Cone of Shame."

As if the trailer and Sandy's surgery wasn't enough going on this week, Josh has been working on the back deck, and it's coming along. He will be putting another coat of stain on the front porch for us this week, so we moved all the furniture from the porch into the house. Between the trailer, the neutering and the deck work, it has been crazy around here. This is our living room.

At least we have plenty of places to sit. (I should have taken a photo when we had the puppy play yard set up the first day after Sandy's surgery! It was really crowded then.)

The back deck is done, and it looks good. We can move the deck chairs back when we come back from our trip to the coast.

In preparation for our long trip this week, I wound up two skeins of the main color and the other skein of the contrast color. It might have been overly optimistic, but I don't plan to take the ball winder with me, and I'm keeping all the yarn together in my knitting bag. (Sandy has been leaving it alone.)

Someone in one of the RV groups on Facebook mentioned being in New Zealand with a big trailer. That brought back memories of our trip to that country in 1996, when we were living in Indonesia. We spent three weeks traveling in a rented "campahvan." We had a cooktop but no oven, so when we were planning our trip, I put together some recipes for things I could cook on the stovetop. I printed them off and had them spiral-bound in a book. As we traveled, I wrote notes the recipes of what I fixed and where we were at the time. I dug out the book and had a look. I think this cookbook might come in handy with our new trailer, which will have a microwave/convection combination, but no propane oven, so no oven to use if we don't have power. 

Speaking of cooking, I started come kimchi on Monday. I usually use my rice canister to place on a plate on top of the cabbage and brine, to keep the cabbage submerged. When I picked up the rice canister I found a lot of bugs inside. I took the whole thing outside where the light was better to have a look. Rice weevils!

I put the lid back on, squashed the ones that had escaped, and went online to find out what to do. Every pest control company under the sun insisted we needed to have them come out and eradicate the buggers. Iowa State University had some actual good information. I chose the freezer option. Three days in 0ºF should do it. I put the whole thing into a plastic bag and made room for it in the big freezer. I'm not even going to look at it until we're back from the coast. I may not have removed them, but they won't be going anywhere on their own.

I used oat milk cartons to weight the plate on the cabbage. Later that day, the cabbage mixed with the other stuff went into the kimchi press.

The kimchi was ready to put in jars on Saturday.

One of our neighbors came by and picked up my extra jar of sourdough starter. (It's easy to make more.) The next day, she sent me this photo of the result:

I love to see my little creations going out into the world. The sourdough starter is just one thing.

Speaking of my creations, my editors finished working on the manuscript for the new book. This one was more involved. I've been working on corrections for several days. I hope to be able to finish it this week. It's longer and more complicated than the first three.

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 "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. 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 and Mariah, 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 the Kultainen käki cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom: I didn't make any progress on the placemats.

What's on my sewing machine: Still quilts for the grandsons.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Jolena learns about lying and bullies in "Flying or Lying," this week's story from #TheDollsStorybook.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende. Just when you think the story is over, it continues on. Well-named, but it's fine that it goes on, because I'm enjoying it.

What's in my wine glass: Pyramid Scheme Cabernet Sauvignon 2021. Excellent!

What's my tip of the week: Here's a knitting tip this week. I've found that careful choosing for picking up the floats results in a smoother appearance. I pick a spot anywhere from three to five stitches from where the new color started to pick up the float. I make sure I pick up the float with both legs of that stitch. On the next round, I'm careful not to pick up the float directly above the one from the previous round. It's tedious checking the row below each time, and the light has to be good, so I mark my pattern where I'll put the float, with an eye to the next round as well. Sometimes I have to erase and move it.  

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

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories 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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Repairs

Another chapter in the repair saga follows, beginning with an update on my laptop.

If you read last week’s blog post, you will know that Geek Squad kept my laptop for three weeks without repairing it. The excuse was they were supposed to collect money, but didn’t, which is, IMO, something male cows leave in the pasture, because I have AppleCare+, and I even checked before I took it in and found out it was covered at 100%. I had planned to talk with Apple about it on Monday, which I did. They sent me a shipping box. It arrived on Tuesday. Someone at Apple walked me through shutting everything down (why didn’t Geek Squad do that?) and the laptop was back in the hands of FedEx by 3:00 pm. Apple received it Wednesday and gave it back to FedEx. It was supposed to reach me on Friday, but they had some kind of problem, and now it’s supposed to arrive today (Monday), with any luck, actually working. I was disappointed in the ability of FedEx to communicate exactly what was going on, so I suspect it wasn’t weather so much as something in their system. Tracking Sunday morning said it reached Portland, so that’s hopeful. Stay tuned.

You may remember we had water all over the floor of our laundry room, and the washer repair person had come and identified the problem: a hose (40+ years old) had become brittle and was leaking. (Washer and dryer are Maytag from 1982.)

This week he came back with the new hose and replaced it, so we’re good as new (better, in fact) and I followed up by doing five loads of laundry in two days!

Obviously, our sweet old Rocky was beyond repair, but we have been receiving sympathy cards, which warm our hearts.

What a nice collection. It makes me feel good, every time I walk by the counter and see them. We are still sad and missing Rocky, even though we know he had a great (and long) life. We’re looking forward to our new family member, though, and know that there are new things to learn from the little one when he comes into our lives. We’re looking forward to warmer weather and opportunities to get out and do some hiking, not just walking on the beautiful trails here. We’re trying new names on to see what seems to fit. We’ll know better once we know what exact color he will be (dark brown or coffee with cream), but right now we’re leaning toward Rusty. Dusty seems to be able to tell the difference and isn’t confused by the rhyming names. We will be getting new photos from the breeder periodically, but here is a photo from last week. Their eyes were just starting to open.

These are the three boys. We don’t know which one will come to us yet, but they’re all pretty cute. They have a sister, too. There were four in the litter.

This is more prepare than repair. I’m making more kimchi. This should be ready by Friday.

Yum!

We got the fifth and final clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL on Friday. Here’s my progress so far:

For some cuteness this week, here’s Johan, cleaning his room. Safety goggles, just in case something explodes, and a tie, because you never know who might drop in.

I’m doing this blog post on my iPad again, as I still don’t have my laptop. It’s still difficult, but I’ve learned to work around some issues. I’ll be sooooooo glad to get my laptop back, though. While I can type faster on the iPad, dealing with the photos on Blogger with it is very cumbersome, as is copying and deleting large sections text.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. 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 and Mariah, 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 the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom: Dust, but I still plan to make some placemats.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Pippa gets a new hairstyle for Veronika’s birthday party in "Dolled Up."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Das Vermächtnis Der Drachenreiter by Christopher Paolini. I thought I would be finished this week, but things got in the way.

What's in my wine glass: Amafu Cellars Semillon Breedekloof South Africa 2020, nice, but I see Splash is sold out. 

What's my tip of the week: Don’t believe anything you read online unless you really trust the source and have checked it out.

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

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories 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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