Happy Thanksgiving

This will be short. First of all, Happy Thanksgiving, to those of you in the US.

(I know I post this image every year, but it's too good not to.)

I've been busy this week getting ready for the big feast. I did manage to get the story out on Friday, and this week's is scheduled. Here's an action shot from "The Surprise."

I had to do a photo shoot "on location" in the wilderness near our home. This week's story will be up on Friday. 

I also made a batch of kimchi, which has become an addiction.

In the meantime, I got a little knitting done while watching the hearings. There is still a lot to do, but the second sock is coming along.

I hope everyone has a nice week, and I'll see you next Monday.

What's on my needles: The Trickle Brick Socks

What's on my sewing machine: Dormant.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Surprise. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Music

What's in my wine glass: Red Blend Portugal, Casa Santos Lima, 2017. Very nice, and a pretty label.

What's my tip of the week: When buying milk products, read labels carefully. Whole milk doesn't say it's whole milk. It just doesn't say otherwise. I have accidentally bought "fat-free" half-and-half (half milk and half...what?) by accident. It's full of all kinds of stuff I don't want to consume. I have also bought low-fat Greek yoghurt, because I didn't read the fat content, and "low-fat" wasn't prominent on the label.

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.

Interesting Times

Scotch tasting!

We met with about 18 other members of the meet-up groups for single-malt scotch tasting Tuesday evening. This is the second of these events we have attended. We sampled four different scotches and ranked them according how we liked them.
Our samples were small, but they are pretty high in alcohol, so we had food. Everyone brought something.

My favorite scotch was Ardbeg, which is produced on the Scottish Island of Islay (pronounced EYE-lah).

During one of our walks this past week, we encountered more deer. There were about eight of them, all young males. They were pretty spread out, so it was hard to get them all in the photos. The pups found them interesting.

I finished the first Trickle Brick Sock. I had a lot of knitting time in the car on Monday when we came home from our trip and while watching the two days of hearings.

When we arrived in Beaverton last weekend, I discovered I was missing one of my earrings. It must have been caught up in my shawl, but it wasn't there. We combed through the leaves next to where we parked the car. I kept the remaining earring, thinking I could put it on a chain for a necklace. When we brought our things in from the car after returning home on Monday, I went through each plastic grocery bag for receipts. At the bottom of one was my missing earring. Here they are, reunited.

Last week's story was "Parts of Things," taking a look at fractions, their uses and how they work. I had to take a lot of photos for the story.

Rocky had his yearly wellness exam. The vet recommended a dental cleaning now, even though his teeth were still pretty clean, with only a bit of build-up. The recommendation was to do it now because he is 15 and he may not be healthy enough later on when he really needs it, so a preventative cleaning. All his blood work came back normal (excellent, actually, considering his age), so we decided to go ahead with the dental. 

Sunday we went to another concert.

Here's the program:

The musical groups here are amazing, and the drive to the high school auditorium, where the performances take place, is only about seven minutes.

On our way home, we found the sky filled with contrails. We found an explanation here. It isn't from today, but I'm assuming the explanation still fits.

Not deer, but still interesting.

The trip to the vet, the hearings on TV, our walks, the concert and two choir rehearsals pretty much used up the time this week.

There is a Chinese curse that goes, "May you live in interesting times." I guess we do.

What's on my needles: The second Trickle Brick Sock; just starting the pattern.

What's on my sewing machine: Back to trying to get some winter clothes made for Emil.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Parts of Things. The dolls explore fractions and what they can be used for.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz and Blowout by Rachel Maddow. DH and I are listening to The Tower together while driving, so it may be a while before I finish it. I'm finding Blowout fascinating.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw Red Blend 2016 (aka "Two-buck Chuck"), appropriate to go along with the small herd of bucks we saw on our walk.

What's my tip of the week: Onions and potatoes stored at room temperature will sprout sooner than those stored in the refrigerator, but if your garage is warm enough in the winter, you can keep them there. We put them in the refrigerator in the summer, because our garage gets too warm

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.

New Adventures

The Trickle Brick Socks are coming along.

I started these in November of 2015. Then they went into hibernation, coming out just recently when I started to feel embarrassed that I had started them and then went no further. I also wasn't sure if I would be able to wear my hand-knit socks anymore, due to my foot problem, but now I know I can, so I'm looking forward to wearing them.

In doll news, I was so happy with Emil's haircut, I decided to have another go at Billy's. I think this is his fourth haircut. I discovered that I could put a rubber band around the wet hair to hold the edges of hair close to the head, and when it was dry, I was happy with the result.

It's still a little ragged in places, so I will be tweaking it, but Billy will probably have this haircut for the rest of the stories.

On Friday, we drove up to Beaverton to visit the kids. We had a luncheon to attend today in Portland, so we thought it was a good time to visit.  I also wanted to visit the Nike employee store, because we get a 50% discount on anything in the store, and I wanted to get some water-resistant walking (running, although I don't run) shoes. We went Saturday morning, and I found these. They are Air Zoom Pegasus 36 with the Nike Run Utility Shield. Not entirely waterproof, but they should keep my feet dry until I go SCUBA diving.

The plan for the middle of the day was to go Saké tasting. We stopped for lunch at McMenamin's in Forest Grove.

Our next stop was at SakéOne. We had a sip of each of the different Sakés they had available.

We left with a couple of bottles of the ones we liked best.

Sunday we hoped into two cars and drove to Thousand Acres Dog Park in Troutdale. It was hard to find a place to park, because everyone had the same idea, but it's a big off-leash park, so it wasn't crowded on the trails, except we brought our own crowd.

It was a bit chilly, but the dogs played in the water anyway. Rocky was always the first one to the sticks we threw for the dogs. At 15, he can still swim and run. It's good to see him enjoying himself. Dusty and Louis are best buds. They ran and ran.

We walked a total of 3 1/2 miles. Everyone was tired when we got back to the parking lot.

We had packed a lunch. Fortunately, there was a picnic bench available.

We're going to the luncheon in Portland today, and then on the road home. Have a great Veterans' Day. Hug the veteran of your choice.

What's on my needles: The Trickle Brick Socks, first sock almost done.

What's on my sewing machine: Resting this week.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Besties. Charlotte and Mariah wonder why other dolls don't get along.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listing to The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz. We started it in the car.

What's in my wine glass: Laurel Ridge 2015 Oregon Pinot Noir.

What's my tip of the week: If you leave for a few days and don't want to have someone come in and water your plants, you can put each plant in a pan of water in a large plastic bag and tie up the end. Be sure to leave your plants in a place where they get enough light. The moisture evaporates and condenses, so the plant doesn't dry out.

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.

Deer Me!

We'll just get this out of the way first.

We were coming out of the home of our host for an Italian dinner with people from the meet-up groups in Bend, when we found ourselves needing to "pass the buck." They aren't as dangerous as the moose we had in Park City, but we gave him a wide berth as we passed.
We had just finished a wonderful dinner, cooked for us by a great Italian chef who likes to host small dinner parties (eight people, including himself). The people who attend pitch in to pay the costs of the dinner. He gets to indulge in his hobby and enjoy the company of congenial people. I was too busy eating to get photos of everything, but this was the bread (home baked, of course).

We had rice balls as an appetizer, then a celery and anise salad with shaved parmesan, followed by two entrees. Mine was vegetarian. Eggplant. Yum!

We had two desserts. Lemon ice cream:

Then a citrus cheesecake, made with ricotta cheese.

Then we had some (also homemade) limoncello, which was marvelous, not syrupy like most commercial brands.
When it was time to go home, we went out the front door, and there was our deer. What a perfect evening.

We didn't take the buck home, of course. We leave the wild animals in the wild where they belong and where everyone can enjoy them. It made me think of this part of last week's story, though, which was about pets. Jolena brought home this creature from the wild.

Victor, shown in the photo, was a present a few years ago from my friend Joanie. He isn't a pet. The point, of course, was that we should leave wild animals where they belong, and if we see a wild animal in trouble, we should tell an adult, who will call someone who knows how to help. We shouldn't bring it home and try to make a pet out of it.

In the story, Mandy takes Marmalade to the vet, and our vet obliged by allowing me to shoot this photo "on location." He suggested we might do a story on the vet's office, with one or two of the dolls getting a tour.

This week's story is ready to go, so now I'm planning the one for the following week.

Our choir has grown, which is very exciting, so of course I had to get a photo of everyone putting their music in order.

When I take photos like this, I always ask first if anyone is in the Witness Protection Program, so they can hide their faces or I can edit them out. I was sitting in the back but got up to take this photo.

The washcloths for the troops go out today. I managed to finish five.

I ran them through the wash, so they wouldn't bleed odd colors into the recipient's laundry. It also pre-shrinks them.

My new orthotics seem to be helping with my foot problem, and I've been told I can wear pretty shoes occasionally, so now I'm back to knitting my Trickle-brick socks, since I actually should be able to wear them.

What's on my needles: Back to the Trickle-brick socks. I may be able to wear them, so I might as well finish them.

What's on my sewing machines: Getting oiled, both of them. 

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Keeping Pets. The dolls show us what they have to do to be responsible pet owners.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still Blowout. Not much time to listen this past week.

What's in my wine glass:  Colossal Casa Santos Lima Red, 2015. Another great discovery.

What's my tip of the week: Letting the sunshine in through a window helps warm up the house, but if the sun shines in through on your quilt on the bed, it can cause it to fade. You can protect the quilt with a blanket until the sun moves.

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.