The books arrived right on schedule on Monday. One of them didn't even make it into the house. The UPS driver already has the first four books. He was happy to take home the new More Classic Tales Retold for his kids.
I love having my books go to new homes, where they will hopefully teach kindness, appreciation for diversity and some science as well as entertain. When I get a chance, I will deliver one to each of the Little Libraries in my neighborhood, where they always disappear, never to return. I will also take one to the church library and another to the public library.
We watched the first two games of the World Series. One of the Dodgers was injured in the second game trying to steal second base. Apparently it wasn't too serious, because he will be playing in Game Three. My beloved Red Sox aren't in the Series this year, but Charlie is cheering for the Dodgers, having grown up in Southern California. We were talking during a commercial break, and I commented that I couldn't understand why some people think baseball is boring. "It's like a walk in the park," I said. "The sun is shining, the birds are singing, you walk along, admiring the flowers, when suddenly...."
"You get mugged!" he said.
That explains baseball.
I got some knitting done while watching the games. The border pattern on the second sleeve is starting to take shape.
I needed to bake some bread, along with another batch of granola.
We didn't get too much walking in due to rain and cold at the wrong times. On Sunday, though, the pups and I got in our usual two-mile amble up the trail in each direction. We stopped at the bench for a photo. Sandy was happy to pose, but Dusty just wanted to get down from the bench. He enjoyed the rest of the walk though.
Daphne and Zachary's other grandmother and one of her aunts came to visit. They got to watch Daphne play the flute in the band at her high school.
Here she is actually performing.
She and Zachary performed as dancers over the weekend in the Ballet La Crosse production of "Alice in Wonderland." Daphne was in the points corps and Zachary was a playing card.
Daphne also played Alice's reflection in another scene.
In yet another scene she was a horse's...um...back two legs
The Beaverton grandkids expect to be with us for Thanksgiving, so we have that to look forward to. In the meantime, I'm working as a volunteer to get out the vote. This will be a busy week.
Don't forget to turn your clocks back next Saturday night, and if you have a minute or two, please go to Amazon or Barnes & Noble online and search for More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart! They order based on searches. They don't have the image of the cover available yet, but it will look like this.
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 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: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is A Baseball Game with a Strange Ending. It's a coincidence that it coincides with the World Series. Did you know that some people don't like to be touched?
What's on my iPad/iPhone:Started listening to Dean Koontz's new book, The Forest of Lost Souls. Also reading a physical book, In the Shelter of Each Other by Milree Latimer. Still not very far into either yet.
What's in my wine glass: Yellow tail Cabernet Merlot 2021. We've had it before. It's very nice.
What's my tip of the week: If you need oil and and honey in the same recipe, see if you can measure them in the same cup. Measure the oil in first, then add honey to the oil. Almost all the honey will come out without sticking.
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
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.
My books are due to arrive later today, and the (my) excitement is building. In the meantime, I got some knitting done. I've finished the first part of the border pattern.
I had to print the graph again. I don't know where I put the one I already used. Then, because it was only in black and white with no symbols, I had to write in the colors used for each row.
The dogs were at the groomer on Monday. They always look so nice when they're clean and nicely clipped.
Some time during the week was taken up with medical appointments and arranging for a new phone provider, which is done. Yay! My old provider had lowered the rates for all the plans but only for new customers or people who changed plans. I got charged extra on top of that because I went over my data usage during our trip. Now I have one with unlimited data for less than half the price. Yay!
Our ballots came Friday, but we've had the voters' pamphlet for almost a week. It's as big as the phone book we had when we were newlyweds living in Casper. The candidates' sections were about normal, but there were some measures that took a lot of pages to explain, including the arguments for and against. It took the better part of a day to read it all.
Friday we finished our assignment (filling out our ballots) and went to the drop box that's on our way to the park.
It was a lovely day. We had a detour to get to the ballot box, but it wasn't marked as such, just the road was closed. We made it, though. It's a drive-through drop-off, but we always park, so we can get out and take photos.
From there we went on to the park to give the pups some off-leash time and have a walk on the off-leash trail. We've been getting rain, so the air quality is back to normal, but catching good weather between rains is important.
I forgot to start the Walk for a Dog app when we left the car, so we actually walked farther than this. I actually started the app at that green upside-down teardrop shape that has a white dot in it. I let the app run all the way back to the car when we were done, though.
We had some of the new black bean soup recipe again, this time with some fresh bread. This is a small loaf, baked in a pan that has room for four little loaves, but I used it to bake only one. I use a half recipe for these little loaves.
In family news, my brother-in-law sold his Class B camping RV (that's the van type) and decided to buy an R-Pod 171c (c=classic), which is like ours, but without some of the special features, such as the front window, the outdoor shower, the internal vacuum and the solar panels on the roof, and the outside speakers, but they gave him an awning with it. I'm not sure what kind that is. It could be like ours. I don't think he get the TV, either, but we almost never use ours. We watch DVDs on my laptop, if we need entertainment. This isn't his, but this is a photo of the same model. He got it from the same dealer we got ours from, but they took down the photo after he bought it. Next time we go camping together I'll get a photo of his actual rig.
This is our 171 Hood River Edition with the awning up, for comparison. You can see the big front window that he doesn't have. (The handle sticking out next to the door lifts and closes against the door. Ours is open. His is closed.)
The Wisconsin grandkids are in a couple of ballet productions coming up. First will be "Alice in Wonderland" and then "The Nutcracker." I'll post photos when there's something to show.
The Beaverton family is getting into the Halloween mood by reading some of the scary stories from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. They will be coming to visit us over Thanksgiving. For a whole week! That will be fun.
Meanwhile, our grandkitty is learning how to hide, presumably to be able to jump out and scare people when the time comes.
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 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: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is Being Green Makes It Easy, which first appeared in 2020, and has been updated.
What's on my iPad/iPhone:Started listening to Dean Koontz's new book, The Forest of Lost Souls. Also reading a physical book, In the Shelter of Each Other by Milree Latimer. Not very far into either yet.
What's in my wine glass: Pinelli Montepulciano D'Abruzzio 2021. Fairly nice.
What's my tip of the week: We like to get those English cucumbers because they don't need to be peeled and they have a nice flavor. They last longer if you take them out of the plastic shrink-wrap, however, unless you're ready to use the whole thing. I remove the plastic entirely, then wrap the cucumber in dry paper towel and store refrigerated in a zipper bag. They last quite a long time that way, even after cutting.
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
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.
Well, the finished new book is on its way. It was a big job, partly because it was the longest one yet and partly because things kept getting in the way, like our long camping trip and my coming down with Covid last month. Now it's done and will soon be on its way to me. Here's what the front cover looks like. The Doll's Storybook belongs to Veronika (the doll), but she's happy to share with children and doll collectors everywhere.
I had to redo the back before submitting the cover, because one of my wonderful editors recommended adding something to one of the stories that inspired me to add Nico to the book, and of course, that meant he had to be in the group photo on the back. I hadn't changed the text to include Pam, another new character since the last book, so I didn't need to fix that. They are all introduced by name inside the book.
Here's the table of contents. Now you will know which stories are in the new book. This is the biggest book of the series so far: 92 pages.
These stories have appeared in the blog before, of course, and maybe you have already read them online, but we have added some things, so some of the photos and characters are actually brand new. We have a "Reader's Challenge" at the end of each story.
I didn't actually operate the press––Book Baby does that––but I feel a little like Gutenberg by doing the layouts, at least. Fortunately, publishing has been modernized since he printed his first Bible.
The proof copy arrived late in the day on Tuesday. I found some layout issues I wanted to change, like enlarging the margins at the top. I don't notice everything until it's printed, which is why I get a proof copy each time. I found another odd apostrophe and a couple of things I wanted to reword. It's easy to fix things at this stage. I just upload a new "inside pages" to Book Baby.
I included the links to the free knitting and sewing patterns that appeared in the last book, but just as a list in the back. This time I included the links along with photos of each one, perhaps a bit more useful.
Regarding the last book, I had a couple of medical appointments this week, including one with my dermatologist. She told me she had given a copy of "Our Favorite Verses" to a friend who had a preschooler. She said it was the little girl's favorite book. She knows all the names of the characters. I'm glad I added some Reader's Challenge sections to some of the poems. That way, the book can grow with her. Some of the words, especially in "Veronika's Vocabulary Verses," will be difficult for her, like echinoderms and maritime, but when she encounters them later in life, she will remember.
Elizabeth, our new priest at Trinity, has three children. I thought the younger two might enjoy my books, so I gave her a copy of each of the first four. She told me last week that her daughter (age 10, I believe) loves them. She finds them on her bed when she goes into her room. I love to hear that!
You might wonder why I'm self-publishing. Well, when I wrote the first book, I looked into submitting it to a big publishing house and decided against it. I would need an agent ($), and then I would have to submit to one place at a time and wait. I decided I didn't want to wait and perhaps have the first book come out when I'm 105 years old, so I started to look into self-publishing. I realized that I could do the layouts myself and hit up family members for proofreading and editing. So here we are with book number five. Book Baby handles the printing and distribution, and they have it available in the Book Baby Book Shop. I realized the royalties wouldn't amount to much unless I paid for advertising, and the money I would receive would have to be reported as income, which would complicate our taxes. I'm not in it for the money, so I arranged for the payments to go directly to St. Jude. That way, we don't have to declare it as income...because it isn't, and I don't pay for advertising. I also can't deduct the printing and distribution costs, either, because there's no income from it, but I could be spending just as much money golfing and have nothing to show for it. Besides, I suck at being a golfer.
We had our Madroña Vineyards pop-up meeting on Tuesday, the day the proof copy arrived. It's always fun to visit with these online friends. Everyone toasted the new book. Several other people had things to toast, as well. (We always use "Nebbiolo," a wonderful grape variety, as the word to toast with.)
During the meeting/party, Charlie and I had the TikTok Pasta, but with gnocchi instead of pasta, and I added chopped greens to it instead of the salad olives, which is what I usually put in it. It was delightful that way, too, and with the feta cheese, it doesn't really need more salty ingredients. We had some freshly baked whole wheat sourdough bread and a Madroña Merlot with it.
Later in the week, I made apple crisp, because we had some apples that needed to be used. We had it topped with Butter Pecan ice cream. It's also good with a dollop of plain yoghurt, I found out.
We've had a fire about twenty miles to the southeast of us for several days putting the air quality in the hazardous range for much of the week, but Saturday we finally had an acceptable level of pollution, so we went for a walk.
We didn't have much notice, so we just took our regular route.
The next day the AQI was in the hazardous range, so it was good we got our walk in when we did.
Sunday we celebrated the Feast Day of St. Francis, including the annual Blessing of the Animals. It was a week later than usual. We sometimes have other animals, but mostly of the canine persuasion, and this year the only felines attended in absentia (as photos), because they tend not to care to share the room with dogs. I didn't see any other animals, but a few people had photos, and it was hard to see what they were. Dusty likes to sing when he's in church. You can hear him through most of the service if you care to watch here. He's a boy soprano, or as Charlie says, a castrato.
Sandy was calm and quiet throughout the service. He made friends with the other dog sitting in the front row with us on the "Gospel side," as well as the people sitting close to us and behind us.
Elizabeth, our new priest, often sings part of her sermons, and she led the offertory song, "The Butterfly Song," by Bryan Howard, assisted by some of the children. Most of us sang along once we heard the melody.
Here's the song, if you don't want to listen to us sing it in the link above and/or don't know it. It was a lot of fun.
Some of the poodle people came to greet our pups after the service. Our organist has a minipoo who is about the same size as Sandy, so a bit big for a mini. Another person has a standard, but I didn't see the dog. He wants to get another poodle, maybe a mini, to keep the older one company. He wanted to know what breeder our dogs come from, so we told him about Ash's Mystical Poodles. It didn't bother him that Marie is in Pahrump, Nevada. He says he has a trailer. Someone else from the church has a standard poodle puppy from the same breeder. We saw a toy poodle at the service, and I know of at least one "doodle." We almost have enough for a poodle club just at the church.
I finished the audiobook I was listening to while knitting a few rounds on my Oregon Autumn Cardigan. Here are the two sleeves side-by-side, so you can see how close I am to starting the border motif, right after the next dark rounds. I'm excited to get to that part. Then it will be time for the cuff and on to the neck and front bands.
I hope to hear later today or tomorrow that my books have shipped, as they were "in production" on Friday. I think the date the book will be available is December 5th in the US, but it will be available for preorder before that, so plenty of time for delivery before Christmas.
Whew! Time to start on the next one!
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 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: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is A Different Kind of Challenge, which first appeared in January 2020, but has been updated.
What's on my iPad/iPhone:Finished January 6: A Novel, by Normal Brewer. It was excellent. Total fiction, as novels are, but giving a better understanding of what actually happened in our county in terms of influences on individuals. Started listening to Dean Koontz's new book, The Forest of Lost Souls.Also still reading a physical book, In the Shelter of Each Other by Milree Latimer.
What's in my wine glass: Crystal Range Barbera 2020 from Madroña Vineyards. Always a good choice.
What's my tip of the week: Copper and brass can tarnish is they aren't coated to keep them shiny...but then you can't use them to cook with. You can buy copper cleaner that will clean them up, but a cheaper alternative is white vinegar and salt. I pour a little of the vinegar onto a sponge, wipe the pan, then sprinkle some salt on it. You can wait a bit, or you can start rubbing it around right away. Not a pretty smell (as I remember), but it does the job.
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
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.
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.
