Happy New Year 2019

I hope everyone has been having a great holiday season.

We leave Beaverton today to go back to Bend, exhausted but happy. We had a very pleasant visit with the grandkids and extended family, including a party at the home of the other grandparents, with presents for each person from a "Secret Santa."

We got a great photo of Soren (in yellow) and Johan (in blue), along with their cousins Leo (in red, the biggest boy) and Elsie (the baby and only girl, Leo's sister, in pink).

Elsie made the rounds. She was very popular. Every member of the extended family wanted some time with her, including yours, truly.

Meanwhile, back in Beaverton, Krandall the Elf appeared in a different place each day, but disappeared Christmas Eve night, not to be seen again. He tried to stay up high.

There is a danger if he is hanging around within reach of boys.

Cousin Leo seemed to enjoy my reading of the Christmas episode of The Doll's Storybook, "And to Dolls a Goodnight."

Grandpa did some reading to the younger boys.

The same boys did some serious napping on Christmas Day, because we were out way past their bedtime on Christmas Eve.

There was no point in fighting off sleep. 

They were busy when awake, though.

We had a nice dinner on Christmas Day and a few more presents to open. We went to McMenamen's for lunch on my birthday. We had a nice hike the next day. On Saturday we watched football. Our Ohio State fans were disappointed, but it was a great game.

I managed to get in some knitting, working on my Maine Memories pattern. The pattern is starting to show up with the third color.

We went to Knotty Lamb in Forest Grove on Sunday, where I picked up some yarn for the Mystery knitting project (one of my birthday presents) for the Rose City Yarn Crawl in March, with the first "clue" coming out January 20th.

The Yarn Crawl is like a quilt shop hop, but for yarn shops. There is a mystery KAL and a mystery CAL (crochet along). You can participate in the "alongs" without attending the yarn crawl. I did that several years ago, before we moved to Oregon. This will be a triangular shawl in two colors, probably with some lacework. It calls for two different solid or tonal fingering-weight yarns, 100g each skein. I picked Magpie in "Alloy," left, and "Hell's Bells."

From The Knotty Lamb, we went on to the David Hill winery for a wine-tasting and a round of Splendor, as you can see from this photo taken by a young man named Daniel.

We will be home for New Year's Eve. I hope everyone has a happy one and a great 2020!

What's on my needles: My "Maine Memories" using the pattern Midcoast by Jennifer 
Steingass.

What's on my sewing machine: Dormant.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress. I didn't take it along.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Happy New Year. This week's story finds the dolls spending New Year's Eve discussing what they have done during the past year.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz, for the trip home.

What's in my wine glass: Montevina Skyland Ridge Zinfandel and David Hill Winemaker's Cuvée Pinot Noir 2016, a lot more expensive, but a better wine.

What's my tip of the week: An app that produces the sound of heavy rain, wind or surf can cover up snoring, a TV or other sounds if you need to sleep at night. You may need to turn it up.

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.

Frohe Weihnachten 2019

Stuarts Weihnachtsbrief 2019

Um herauszufinden, was wir das ganze Jahr über gemacht haben, habe ich mir unsere Fotos angesehen. Es gab aber zu viele Fotos, um auch die Highlights hier aufzunehmen, aber hier ist eine Zusammenfassung.

Erstens die Arbeit. Wir haben viele Reparaturen und Verbesserungen am Haus vorgenommen, einschließlich des Austauschs aller Beschläge an den Türen, und den meisten Wasserhähnen und den dazugehörigen Armaturen, obwohl wir noch einige davon austauschen müssen. Wir ersetzten die Hälfte der Fenster. Wir ließen eine Reling auf dem Achterdeck anbringen und die Reling zwischen dem Küchenessbereich und dem versunkenen Familienzimmer ersetzen. Wir fügten eine Auffahrt von der Straße durch das Tor zum Hinterhof und weit genug in den Hof hinein, um unser Anhänger für die Lagerung zu halten. Wir hatten Wärmeband auf dem Dach installiert. Im August haben wir das Äußere streichen lassen, bis auf die Decks (die später gemacht werden). Wir haben ein Farbschema mit warmem Grau als Hauptfarbe mit schwarz-weißem Rand gewählt. So sieht es jetzt aus:

Neben dem Bemalen der Decks und Geländer haben wir im Inneren noch viel zu tun, aber wir haben das Gefühl, dass es langsam Gestalt annimmt.

Unsere Gesundheit hat sich relativ gut gehalten. Charlie entschied, das Skifahren nach einer Verletzung in der vergangenen Saison aufzugeben. Seitdem ich für neue Orthesen ausgerüstet war, die meine Fußbeschwerden lösten, haben wir begonnen, öfter Wanderungen to machen. An den meisten Tagen gehen wir, wenn das Wetter es zulässt, drei Kilometer entlang des Wegenetzes und gehen manchmal in die lokale Wildnis, wo wir erlaubt sind, die Hunde frei zu lassen.

Es gibt auch einige schöne Wandergebiete innerhalb weniger Autominuten.

Die Hunde wissen, was zu tun ist, wenn sie erschöpft sind. Rocky wurde Ende August 15 Jahre alt. Er ist immer noch voller Energie, also hoffen wir, dass er es noch ein Paar Jahre durchhält. Dusty liebt all die langen Spaziergänge und Besuche im Hundepark.

Mein Schreiben hat meine Bastelzeit verkürzt, aber ich habe es geschafft, die Steppdecke fertigzustellen, mit der ich im Jahr 2000 begonnen habe, und sie hängt jetzt an der Wand.

Dieser Quilt hat lange gedauert, weil ich mich immer wieder von anderen Projekten ablenkte. Das Zusammensetzen, Applizieren, Sticken und Quilten erfolgte allesamt von Hand, ein langsamer Vorgang, der das Ablegen leicht machte. Ich bin wirklich froh, dass es endlich soweit ist!

In Bend gibt es viel zu tun. Es gibt häufige Konzerte (Klassik, Folk, Bluegrass usw.), von denen viele kostenlos sind. Es gibt Meet-up-Gruppen, die verfügbar sind, wenn wir sozial sein möchten, und wir haben einige Freunde gefunden.

Wir fahren gelegentlich nach Portland, um Peters Familie zu besuchen oder für verschiedene Veranstaltungen. Im März war die Auslosung der Rose City Yarn Crawl. Alexa (Peters Frau) und ich haben es geschafft, es zu allen teilnehmenden Garngeschäften zu schaffen. Wir hatten unsere Pässe in jedem Geschäft abgestempelt.

Alexa gewann eine Zeichnung für eine mit Garn gefüllte Tüte in einem der Läden.

Während wir in der Gegend waren, hatten wir eine Tour durch die Laika Studios und konnten einige der Puppen, Kostüme, Requisiten und Sets sehen, die im kommenden Missing Link-Film verwendet wurden. Sie hatten auch einige interessante Gegenstände aus früheren Filmen. Es ist eine Tour nur für Familienmitglieder und Freunde von Laika-Mitarbeitern, daher hatten wir das Glück zu sehen, wie die Filme gemacht werden. (Wir haben uns den Film angesehen, sobald er im April der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich war, und sind bis zum Ende geblieben, um Peters Name in den Filmkredite zu sehen. Er und der Rest des Spezialeffektteams wurden für den Film für einen Annie Award nominiert.)

Wir waren im Juni zurück in der Gegend von Beaverton, um Johans Vorschulabschluss auf dem Nike-Campus zu feiern. Auch an diesem Wochenende haben wir einige Wanderungen unternommen.

Dann, im Juli, besuchten wir die Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. (Wie konnten wir das nicht? Sisters ist eine Kleinstadt nur eine kurze Autofahrt von uns entfernt.) Später im Juli waren wir wieder in der Gegend von Portland, um an den Portland Highland Games teilzunehmen.

Am Labor Day zelten wir mit Peters Familie am Suttle Lake. (Johan hat beschlossen, Paläontologe zu werden, daher haben beide Jungen die entsprechenden Westen und Ausrüstungsgegenstände.) Wir sind um den See gewandert, haben aber keine Dinosaurierknochen gefunden, obwohl wir viele interessante Dinge gesehen haben. Hier sind Johan und Soren, die dafür ausgerüstet sind, Fossilien zu suchen und zu identifizieren.

Gegen Ende des Wochenendes nahmen wir am Great Drake Park Duck Race in Bend teil. Unsere Enten haben nicht gewonnen, aber es hat Spaß gemacht, das zu sehen, und der Erlös ging an einige lokale Wohltätigkeitsorganisationen. (Alle kleinen farbigen Punkte sind Gummienten.)

Später im September flogen wir zu Charlies 60. High School Reunion nach San Diego. Wir besuchten alle Veranstaltungen dort und besuchten das Grab seiner Eltern in Ft. Rosecrans. Wir haben uns auch mit einem Freund aus unserer Unizeit getroffen. Wir sind zu unserem 54. Hochzeitstag zurückgeflogen. Es hat Spaß gemacht, die Orte zu besuchen, an denen wir waren, als wir uns trafen.

Im Oktober wurde der Segen der Tiere in der Trinity Episcopal Church abgehalten, wo wir (größtenteils ich) Gottesdienste besuchen, um den Festtag des heiligen Franziskus zu feiern. Dies ist die erste Kirche die wir besuchten, in der die Tiere in die Kirche gekommen sind. (Charlie musste unsere Hunde begleiten, weil ich im Chor gesungen habe.) Hier wird Dusty gesegnet und Rocky wartet darauf, dass er an die Reihe kommt. Am meisten Spaß machte es, wenn einige der Hunde die Hymnen mitsangen.

Ich habe Kimchi und Joghurt sowie Brot gemacht. Wir haben eine Brotmaschine und eine Joghurtmaschine, aber alles, was wir für das Kimchi brauchen, ist eine Presse, die wir seit mehreren Jahren haben. Kimchi kann ohne die Presse hergestellt werden, aber es macht es einfacher.

Wir haben ein paar Whiskyverkostungen besucht und während eines Besuchs in Beaverton etwas Saki probiert. Wir haben viel Bier und noch mehr Wein getrunken, viel davon aus der Region. Es ist schön, dort zu leben, wo es so viele Möglichkeiten für die Besten von allen gibt.

Wir haben auch an einigen politischen Demonstrationen teilgenommen.

Natürlich müssen wir in einer der örtlichen Brauereien landen.

Überall begegnen wir Hirschen und anderen Wildtieren.

Die Enkel werden erwachsen. Karens Kinder, Daphne und Zachary, haben weiterhin Tanzstunden und andere Aktivitäten belegt. Hier ist Daphne:

Und Zachary:

Letztes Weihnachten hatten wir alle vier jüngeren Enkelkinder hier mit ihren Familien. Es war interessant, nachdem wir gerade umgezogen war. Die Spülmaschine war außer Betrieb, weshalb das heiße Wasser zum Waschbecken abgestellt werden musste. Wir holten heißes Wasser aus dem Badezimmer, um das Geschirr zu spülen. Alle haben sich gemeldet, um zu helfen, also haben wir es geschafft und hatten viel Spaß. In diesem Jahr gehen die Harts zu den anderen Großeltern nach Texas und wir fahren zu Weihnachten nach Beaverton.

Von Zeit zu Zeit können wir über Skype mit Tim kommunizieren ... nicht oft genug, da er lange Arbeitszeiten hat. Ich "sehe" Alex gelegentlich auf Facebook. Ich hoffe, sie kann irgendwann hierher kommen, um uns zu besuchen.

Ich habe jede Woche eine neue Geschichte in “The Doll's Storybook” geschrieben. Ich weiß, dass viele Leute die Geschichten lesen, aber ich bekomme nur Feedback von Erwachsenen. Ich habe im September einen weiteren Jungen hinzugefügt, der hör- und sehbehindert ist, was zu mehr Vielfalt beiträgt. Ich habe vor kurzem die Erlaubnis vom Hersteller der Puppen (Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH) erhalten, die ich für Illustrationen verwende, um ein tatsächliches physisches Buch zu veröffentlichen. Ich hoffe, das nächstes Jahr zu tun. Hier ist meine Besetzung von Charakteren:

Die Einstellung wird ihnen nicht gerecht. Sie sind in der Lage zu tanzen, zu spielen, Fahrrad zu fahren, Hausarbeit zu erledigen. Überprüfen Sie den Link, wenn Ihr daran interessiert sind.

Hier sind unsere Kontaktinformationen:

872 SE Airpark Dr., Bend, OR 97702

Charlie: 435-729-0893, tupsu99@hotmail.com

Peggy: 435: -714-0048, pudelfreund@me.com

The Doll's Storybook: http://thedollsstorybook.blogspot.com

Merry Christmas!

In a twist on "Where's Waldo," our grandcat decided to hide in the Christmas tree.

Can you find her? It took me a few minutes, and DH needed to have her pointed out.

Earlier in the week, I attended choir practice for Christmas Eve, even though we won't be here for Christmas. Rikki, who is to my right in the photo, was retiring from her job, so a few of us went out for a drink after practice to celebrate.

Thursday we went out again. Flat Bread Pizza lets you have a free Margarita pizza for your birthday, which you can collect any day during your birthday month, assuming you've signed up to get their promotions by email, a small price to pay. I will be a year older before my next blog, with a birthday on Thursday. Last year, I missed out on the free pizza because I put it off until the last minute and then came down with pneumonia, so I was determined to get my free pizza this year. We decided to go out on Thursday to collect on it, with DBIL paying the bill (drinks and pizza for him and DH), to reward me for taking him to the airport on Saturday morning. (Pick-up time was 3:00 AM!)

DH got to go along just because.

After getting coming back from the airport Saturday morning, I never went back to sleep. I was too awake, although a bit sleep-deprived.

Saturday I roasted vegetables.

Sunday I put the leftover roasted vegetables in an Indian dal recipe I like. That made enough for about three meals, so we ate it Sunday and froze the leftovers.

Also on Saturday (busy day), I cast on a sweater, so I would have something to work on during the trip. It's the Midcoast pattern by Jennifer Steingass. I'm making the pattern as-written except that I'm adding an extra color, and I'm going to steek it and have a cardigan, which required putting some extra steek stitches in the center front and placing a beginning-of-round marker at the center back, which is where the pattern starts after joining to work in-the-round. The steek is about at 2:00 in this photo. The green marker at the bottom of the photo is the center back.

That created a mental challenge, because there are short rows across the back, and they were written as if you were starting the round at the center back. I think I have it figured out. Here's my Ravelry project page. Here are my colors.

The purple will be the dominant color. The white will be the outline of the motif, with the turquoise filling in between the green and the purple, if that makes sense.

Sunday I got to sit in the congregation at church for a change, as the choir wasn't singing. We had a performance by the children who were there. They sang The Friendly Beasts and held up the appropriate paddles for the animal who was talking. (That's the newly retired Rikki in the bottom right of the photo, leading the children in song.)

I slept a bit late on Sunday morning, having slept for ten hours straight. I found this photo on my phone when I woke up. It had come in after I turned off my phone.

This is Elizabeth, Daphne's birthday doll. (You might have seen her in my blog last May.) She is trying to control her excitement at her first trip to Texas to visit the other grandparents, whose turn it is to get a visit and who have real horses!

I put the photo below in my blog every Christmas.

It was taken by Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the first mission to orbit the moon. That Christmas Eve so long ago is etched in my memory.

First Anders said, "For all the people on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you." Then he read from Genesis.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness."

Then Jim Lovell took up the reading:

"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. and the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Then Frank Borman took over the reading:

"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Then Borman added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you––all of you on the good Earth."

––Wikipedia, Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast

God gave us this good planet to live on and made us stewards to watch over it. I pray that we can preserve it for future generations.

I wish you all the best of Christmases, a happy Hanukkah or happy Kwanzaa, depending on which you celebrate, or if you don't celebrate any of those, I wish you happy days off from work, time to spend with people you love. See you next week.

What's on my needles: The Midcoast by Jennifer Steingass

What's on my sewing machine: Still resting.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "And to Dolls a Goodnight," in which the dolls hear noises and get up to investigate.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Christmas music, and still Blowout by Rachel Maddow. We will be continuing with The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz, which we began during our last trip to Beaverton.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw Red Blend, 2016, one of our favorites because of the price.

What's my tip of the week: Parchment paper can be used for most of the purposes for which we use aluminum foil, but it's a better value and saves aluminum. Pieces can be reused if it doesn't get too messy, and, unlike aluminum, it can be used in the microwave. The only disadvantages are that it scorches around the edges if used in a very hot oven (minor problem), and a folded package doesn't stay closed unless you tuck the ends underneath or put the opening on the bottom. It's useful for lining cookie sheets when baking cookies or roasting vegetables.

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.

In Stitches, As Always

Ta-da! My Trickle Brick Socks are done after only four years! One more UFO out of the way for 2019, and just in the nick of time as the calendar ticks down.

Our annual holiday letter took up some time this past week. It pretty much summarizes our activities for the past year, including getting another UFO out of the hoop and onto the wall. We posted it as a blog this year, because it was going to be too long to print and mail, and too big to email, with all the photos. You can find it here, if you want to have a look.

Along the lines of knitting, our church has a prayer-shawl ministry. Our temporary pianist/organist is going to have knee surgery in January, so the group of knitters gave him a shawl that matches our robes. It was presented during practice before church Sunday morning.

One of my projects from several years ago has gone on to another recipient. It's one of the Baby Surprise Jackets I made for Soren before he was born. I used Knit Picks Stroll Sport for wear (third baby, so it worked) in "Winter Night" and "Mink Heather." The model is the almost-brand-new Miss Elsie, our DDIL's niece. Details are here. This was one of the ones I made with a hood.

If you enjoy knitting, this is a fun project. It's an unusual shape as you knit, sort of like a potato chip. Then a couple of seams at the shoulders/sleeves, and it's done. It's really good with two colors or a multi, which will show off the corners of the rows, as you can see in the photo.

We had rain for several days, which cut into our walking time. It was very cold rain, and who wants to walk in that? However, we did manage to do some walking after the rain stopped.

The pups always enjoys some off-leash time, especially Dusty. (I wish I could bottle that energy. I could make a lot of money.)

Rocky has recovered from his dental procedure and is pretty much back to normal, although he's still on antibiotic. The stitches in his gums dissolve on their own, so he doesn't need to go back.

The dolls' story this week was about a charging failure with Emil's hearing aids. He couldn't hear, so Billy watched out for him on the way to school, at school and on the way home.

I set up a donation for my birthday on Facebook. I selected Hunger Prevention Coalition of Central Oregon, which I talked about last week. I'm hoping a few more people will donate by the end of the month, but most of the people I know don't live here. I will be just as happy for people to donate to a soup kitchen or shelter closer to home. There are hungry people everywhere.

What's on my needles: Ready to CO the Midcoast sweater.

What's on my sewing machine: On vacation

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Emil's Big Problem. This week's story is finished and scheduled, and next week's is in the works. I'm not taking the dolls with me when we go visit the kids in Beaverton; I shudder to think what they might get up to while we're gone!

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still Blowout by Rachel Maddow, and holiday music.

What's in my wine glass: Charles Shaw Red Blend 2016 ("Two-buck Chuck," although it's $3.00 where we live.) One of our favorites, because it's such a great value.

What's my tip of the week: Stains in vases can be removed by filling with vinegar, adding some tea leaves, and swirl and shake or stir until the stains disappear.

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.