Medieval Monks in the Monastery Had It Easier!

In spite of an incredibly busy week, I managed to bind off the "Which Came First Shawl."

I still have to weave in ends and block. In this photo, the shawl is folded and folded again, so it's four layers. When I block it, I'll try to get a photo of the length.

In the meantime, I managed to get a few hours of quilting in. (You're probably getting tired of looking at this project in various positions of the hoop, but it really is moving along, although slowly.)

Most of the fires in our part of the state are out, and the air is clearing. We started out the week with a fairly high AQI, but by Saturday it was down to 10. It still smells a little smoky in the house, so we're running the big air purifier in the kitchen/family room.

I participated in Swing Left's "House Party" on Monday, which I pretty much just use as background for writing letters, because I can ask questions of people who are doing this, too, if I need to. This event was on early this week, because of the Hamilton event. Here's my work station for writing letters.

There was another letter-writing party on Saturday. I'm finishing up on the last 20 letters which will bring my total to 340.

The Hamilton event was great, but I didn't get too many letters finished during the program, because I kept watching the show. They had some interviews with the actors and songs from the show.

I also received postcards in the mail to write. I drove to the post office on Sunday and dropped the finished postcards in the mail to go back to the people who sent them. They have to mail them from there.

The pups went to the groomer on Thursday. The church is having the blessing of the animals this Sunday, and it will be virtual. We had to send in a photo of ourselves with our pets. I don't have a long enough selfie stick to get the four of us in a photo, so I had to use the laptop Photo Booth app. It isn't a very sharp photo, but we were able to get all four of us smiling.

The new Little Kidz doll I will have coming to join the cast of The Doll's Storybook is turning up on Facebook by people in Europe, who are already receiving the dolls. Here's a photo taken by Gisela Eigner and posted on Facebook in one of the Götz doll groups. I like how she fixed her hair. (The cat isn't included, and Gisela changed her shirt.)

This photo was posted by Birgit Költringer on Facebook. It shows the relative size of the Little Kidz and the larger Happy Kidz.

Speaking of The Doll's Storybook, the cover has gone to the publisher and looks OK. I had to download Adobe InDesign to get the cover in the right format.  It took me most of a day to put it together. Learning new software is a challenge. However, I think I could do it again if I had to. I was able to get a free temporary version of the program. I have it for the rest of the week.

I needed Microsoft Word for the inside pages, although I think I could have done those using InDesign, too. We'll see if this works first, though. I had to pay to get Word for a month.

I ended up having to key it in again and then put the photos in place. Because of the retyping, I proofread again, made corrections and then printed off a copy for DH to proofread. As a result, I've had two PhDs proofread, since our son-in-law proofread the earlier copy.

I'm aiming for December first for the beginning of my fundraiser with St. Jude. I will need to have the books by then.

For this week's cuteness, I thought you would enjoy seeing how Johan decided to dress for school. Life is never boring with the grandkids.

Speaking of grandkids, our older granddaughter became ill during the week and had to be tested for Covid-19. She tested negative, so it's just the flu. That's both granddaughters now who have needed testing. I'm so grateful for the good result on both.

What's on my needles: The Which Came First Shawl is off the needles. Still working on dish cloths.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for costumes, but I have two of them in my head.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. More progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Fire! Don't worry, no one gets melted. However, it was a good opportunity for them to talk about fire safety.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I've just been listening to music.

What's in my wine glass: Bruno 2018 Petite Sirah Clarksburg, a California wine. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: If you only use half an avocado, leave the pit in the one you store. It will help it keep from turning brown. I usually put the cut avocado inside a sandwich bag to keep it from drying out or getting on other food. This also works with guacamole or avocado dip...up to a point.

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.

Taking a Breath

You may remember our Air Quality Index reading last week of 525 (September 12), which was "Hazardous." By Wednesday, we were down to 264. 

As I write this Sunday evening, it's 46, which is "Good."

We kept the pots of water and the air purifiers going all week, including during our anniversary dinner on Tuesday. We had grilled salmon (cooked on the outdoor BBQ by DH wearing his N95 mask) with air fries, salad and aparagus. We had a nice dry white wine in our special glasses that say "50th Wedding Anniversary," even though it is now 55 years.

By Saturday morning our AQI was down in the "Good" range, thanks to some rain, but then started back up to "Moderate." I think we will be smelling the smoke for some time.

The fires seem to be under control now. I hope so, anyway. The fires have brought great cost, however. Some towns in Oregon have been completely wiped out, including a town not too far away named "Phoenix." I can only hope that the town lives up to its namesake and rises from the ashes, along with the other towns in the surrounding areas. You may remember our visit to Belnap Hot Springs the week before Memorial Day. Much of the forest in that area has burned in a separate fire. I'm glad we were able to enjoy it while it was still there. The facility was left intact the last I checked, but they were closed due to the smoke and closed access roads.

A good part of this week was spent on trying to get the arrangements for the book settled. I was finally able to talk with Beverly at St. Jude's Fundraising Department, and, based on her directions, set up a fundraising page on their website. I have a tentative start date of December 1st, but that may change if I don't have the books in time. There's still a lot to do. Here's a look at the tentative front cover.

There will be three stories from the story blog, all starring Mariah. I've had the layout done for some time, but when I spoke with the publisher, I learned that I had it in the wrong format, so I had to redo it. (I won't bother you with the details.) I should have spoken with them first, but if there's another book, which I hope, it will be easier to do. I will keep the amount each book cost me, and  then all the rest of the money received from the sale of the books will go to St. Jude. 

I picked Mariah as my subject due to the attention given to the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. I felt that children needed, and the public is open to, looking at race relations in a positive way. I hope the book will help in some small way.

In that same vein, this week's story was about Mariah's disappointment over a friend's assurances that she was "color-blind" when it came to Mariah, in Color-blind. The story goes into explaining what real color-blindness is, but then Charlotte and Mariah talk about why it bothers Mariah and what her friend might have been trying to say.

The garden continues to produce. Our grape tomatoes are really going to town. Temperatures are dropping, though, so it's not going to be long before our garden is done.

I'm continuing to write letters. I'm up to 300 letters and had to get approval to download more. I had to send this photo.

We've been having a "party" every Saturday to write letters, safely done by way of Zoom. We needed four "pages" of participants, with one person left over for a fifth page, because we had 101 participants. We're up to 7.06 million letters written as of Saturday evening, asking people to vote and giving them the information for how to find out how to vote in their individual precinct.

Today, we will be writing letters with the cast of Hamilton. I don't know if there are still slots available to participate, but if so, you can sign up here. We aren't asking voters to vote for any particular candidates, just to vote. 

The Oregon grandchildren, Johan and Soren, started school on Monday.

Their parents survived the first week of school. 'Nuff said.

In other grandchild news, Miss Daphne has become a movie producer, producing her first movie.  Well, she produced the trailer for it. We will have to wait for the actual movie. Zachary was an assistant producer/director.

Daphne and Zachary had outdoor dance performances on Saturday. They were really happy to be performing again.

Saturday was DH's 79th birthday. I had ordered him a new, smaller Aerogarden for his present, but had not yet received notice that it had shipped. I was planning to call them today to find out about it, but after DH opened his "coupon" telling him what his present was, the FedEx driver dropped his present on our front porch. He didn't get to unwrap a package with pretty paper, but he did get his present on his birthday.

We felt bereaved at the loss of the amazing Ruth Bader Ginsberg. According to Jewish tradition, a person who dies on Rosh Hashanah is called a tzaddik, a righteous person. A Jewish teaching says those who die just before the Jewish new year are the ones God has held back until the last moment because they were needed most and were the most righteous. I have admired her for years. I'm sure she will inspire future generations as well.

Sunday we went for a walk with the pups, since the air quality was so much better. The trail was dirtier than usual, perhaps because of the ash from the fires. We had a good time though.

I'm praying for all the fires to be out, and for all those made homeless to be restored to proper and comfortable housing without becoming infected. I'm feeling very lucky.

I've continued to work on the whole-cloth quilt each day. I finished a couple more rows of the "Which Came First Shawl" during church (shhhhh!) and while we Zoomed with the kids. I will be able to finish it quickly whenever I have time to work on it again.

What's on my needles: Still the Which Came First Shawl. A few more rows done. Also a dish cloth with the leftovers. I need to have something mindless handy to take when I have to go out.

What's on my sewing machine: Waiting for Halloween costumes for the dolls, now at the idea stages.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. More progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Color-blind.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: No change from last week. I can't listen to audiobooks and write letters, so just music.

What's in my wine glass: Baywood Cellars Classic White. I don't usually like white wines except for very dry Gewürztraminers or Rieslings. Chardonnays and Chablis are not to my taste in most cases, but I really liked this one. We had some for our anniversary.

What's my tip of the week: You can save water when you wash smaller dishes by filling a bowl or pot that needs washing with hot water and dish soap, rather than filling the sink.

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.

Smoked

I really want to finish my whole-cloth quilt this year.

It's hard to tell that I've made any progress on it, but it really is happening. I've also made a couple of dish cloths from the yarn left over from my dish mat, finished a couple of weeks ago and have almost finished a third. I think I can get a total of four from the leftovers, or maybe five, if I don't mind having a knot in the middle. Or maybe I'll make a set of coasters.

As if the pandemic were not enough, we now have wildfires. As of this writing (Sunday, September 13, 2020) we were not in danger of losing our home and have not received any alerts to be ready to evacuate. However, we are inundated with smoke. Saturday the AQI (Air Quality Index) for Bend was 530. Sunday it was lower, but still hazardous.

We have been doing what we can to mitigate the air quality inside the house. We have no air conditioning, and the furnace isn't turned on, so we can keep a lot of the smoke out. Air filters can help, if we were using our furnace. We have two air purifiers running around the clock in our living area and in our bedroom at night. We have added a pot of water on the stove and the slow cooker running with the lid off. My little air cooler (which works by evaporation) is also running to add humidity to the air indoors. What the added moisture does is combine with the smoke particles, causing them to fall to the floor. It has made a big difference.

Here's a shot of our neighborhood.

Looking through the trees.

Even though we have not been told to get ready to evacuate, we have been thinking about it. I had my batches of letters (going to voters, urging them to vote) sitting around in stacks. I looked at them and thought about how difficult it would be to grab them and go. After all that work, I didn't want to leave them behind if we had to get out in a hurry. I decided to use the lid to the envelope box to store them in for now.

Our garden is finally starting to produce. Besides a few more of the grape tomatoes, we found this zucchini under a leaf. We had overlooked it. We have another one coming on. (The teaspoon is for size.)

I managed to put it in the story that came out Friday. Emil was proud of what the compost he helped make did for the garden.

You may remember that I had to record my part for a virtual choir performance of "The Lord Bless You and Keep You" by John Rutter. The finished product was performed during our church service on Sunday. Counting the organist and the choir director, there were eight members of Trinity Episcopal Church who participated. The others were from a number of other faith congregations in Bend. It was lovely to have such a big choir, and we are sharing the result with everyone, not just the congregations that took part. It is dedicated to our helpers: medical personnel and those dealing with the wildfires. Feel free to share with anyone you know who would enjoy it or be comforted by it.

Speaking of comfort, during our weekly Zoom family meeting on Sunday, our daughter told us that her daughter, Daphne, has been stressed by the danger of the pandemic, which she knows about and understands but with which she has not yet developed the maturity to cope. Our daughter told us that Daphne finds comfort in playing with her dolls and reading the stories in The Doll's Storybook. She says that Daphne started reading them from the beginning again. Here she is with her doll "Misty," (Götz Happy Kidz "Honor") wearing their matching nightshirts.

It's heartbreaking to think about all the people who have lost loved ones to Covid-19 or their homes to the wildfires.

What's on my needles: Still the Which Came First Shawl. A few more rows done. Also some dish cloths from the leftover yarn from the dish mat.

What's on my sewing machine: Thinking about Halloween costumes for the dolls

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. More progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The second in the two-part "Composing Compost."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Proof of Corruption by Seth Abramson. Not very far yet. I've been enjoying listening to the story, but I need to concentrate when I write letters, so I've also been listening to music.

What's in my wine glass: Land of Hope 2017 Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Not bad.

What's my tip of the week: It's good to think about what we might take if we had to leave in a hurry. We have faced this before, because we used to live in a forest in Utah. I would grab my dogs first, important paper, phone + chargers, laptop, medications, quilts (especially the most special ones), important papers, etc. However I have been thinking about what we might need if we had to prove what we had to our insurance. It's a good idea to take photos of the furnishings in each room. Also, if you have records of what you have done to your house, you should have those. If everything is digital, it helps.

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.

Sign of the Times

I've been working on my whole-cloth quilt while watching Star Trek: Voyager in the evenings.

Most of the week I was working only on the cross-hatching, which was getting a little boring, but Saturday night I got to start a different part of the design, a sign that I'm making progress.

Friday we went to pick up lawn signs for candidates in local, state and national elections. It was nice to see everyone wearing masks. They were giving them out at the park where we usually take the pups to play with other dogs.

We stopped at the dog park before we went home. There were no other dogs there, but the pups enjoyed being there anyway. 

Although we arrived only 30 minutes into the yard-sign handout session, they were already out of the Biden/Harris signs, so we had to get on the waiting list and go to a different park on Sunday. This one also had a dog park, so we sampled that one, too. There was a dog for Dusty to play with, and the owner stayed away from us. She had been there for some time already, so they left after Dusty and the other dog played for a while. When we were alone, the pups had a good run, chasing balls. 

We took two balls, so they could each chase one. Rocky can't outrun Dusty anymore, and he appreciated having a chance to get a ball, too.

I'm still writing letters urging people to vote. We don't ask people to vote for any particular candidate, just to vote. We each say why we vote. I usually mention that I have grandchildren, and I want to have a say about the world they will have to live in. We had our weekly Zoom party on Saturday. It's fun meeting people from all over the state and sharing tips with each other.

Someone I know from choir came and picked up forty letters to write. She didn't have a printer, so I printed them off and left them on the front porch for her. Later we talked on the phone. She won't have her computer back from being repaired until Tuesday, so she couldn't join us for the party, but I hope she will next week. The goal is 10 million letters to voters. We (the nation-wide organization) are at five, but they say we're on track to finish in time.

I finally started having good results with my sourdough bread. I make it in the bread machine, but then I turn it out and knead it, put it into a bowl and let it sit overnight or all day long, depending on what time it is when I finish mixing it. Then I knead it again before putting it into the pan for the final rising. It gets more sour with the longer rising time.

We have been feeling the effects of the fires in California. We can smell the smoke, and sometimes I cough a lot when I first get up, until we can close the windows to keep the inside of the house cool. Sometimes the moon is red and the sun gets red, too. This was what it looked like one morning this past week. It's pretty, but I feel sorry for people in the areas that are burning.

The four younger grands will be going "back to school" soon. Zachary and Daphne start tomorrow. Their classes will be entirely online to begin with. The School District will decide during the term when/if it's reasonable to meet in person for classes, but for now, they have a semblance of a normal schedule, having to be in their "seats" and online on time when the class starts. I'm sure there will be glitches, especially at first. Their learning will be different, but they will be learning skills for a new world, one that is changing.

They met with their teachers during the past week, one at a time, and everyone wearing masks.

What's on my needles: Still the Which Came First Shawl. A few more rows done. Only one pattern repeat to go and then a few rows of ribbing. Making dishcloths from Peaches 'n Cream yarn left over from my dish mat.

What's on my sewing machine: Halloween Costumes for my characters, in the planning stages.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. More progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Composing Compost," in which Emil gets a lesson about how kitchen garbage can be turned into nourishing soil for the garden.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Mrs. Tim of the Regiment by D. E. Stevenson the beginning of the Mrs. Tim series. It was delightful and funny. I'm looking forward to the others. Just started listing to Proof of Conspiracy by Seth Abramson.

What's in my wine glass: Sertório Vinho Tinto (Portuguese). Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: I discovered that those little plastic tubs that mushrooms come in are just the right size and shape to hold my sprouting jars at an angle so they can drain properly. In this photo are a jar of mixed sprouts and a jar of mung bean sprouts, which I used in a Thai stir-fry recipe.

Our local city recycling program won't take these little tubs anymore. (I think it has something to do with the Chinese not wanting to take our waste because of Covid-19, which is sort of ironic, but I'm not sure. I got the information third-hand.) I'm trying to find uses for them around the house, so I don't have to put them into the trash.

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.