Monday, September 30, 2024

The Cakewalk

Most of this past week was spent catching up on chores, especially laundry and cooking. Because I missed both our anniversary and Charlie's birthday, I baked him a cake on Saturday...from scratch.



Here's what it looked like before I cut the first slice. Did I mention that I made it from scratch?



I didn't have all of the ingredients I needed, so I went to the store on Friday. I put on a mask when I left the house and didn't take it off again until I got home. I was pretty sure I wasn't contagious, but...why not. 

You may remember from last week's blog post that I took a Covid test on Saturday, just to reassure Charlie, and it was negative. I took another one on Monday and again on Wednesday, because I planned to go to choir. Both were negative. I was the only soprano who showed up, and my ride, Gail, was the only alto. She had missed the Condega event because she was out of town. The two other choir members who got sick when I did were not at practice. One, I believe, was still feeling unwell, and the other was still testing positive. They both expected to be back on Sunday, and it was an easy program, so we should be fine. What I didn't expect was a fever Saturday night. It woke me up in the middle of the night. I moved back into the guest room, took another Covid test, and it was negative. I don't know how I could have caught something new, and my temperature was normal again Sunday morning. I still don't know what was going on, but I wasn't sure if I was contagious and didn't get much sleep, so I didn't go to church.


During the week I managed to get some knitting done while listening to the rest of Anthony Fauci's On Call. I could identify with him somewhat when he talked about how he went to an event wearing a mask and took it off because he was the only one wearing one. He came down with Covid a few days later and took Paxlovid. He felt better after the third dose, but he had to miss his daughter's wedding! Well, missing one anniversary and one birthday isn't nearly as bad as missing your daughter's wedding. It's always fascinating to read or (listen to) details of events you remember from the news years ago. I've been around almost as long as Dr Fauci, and I remember many of the events he wrote about: AIDS, Zika, Ebola, H5N1, H1N1, etc., as well as the Anthrax and Smallpox scares, and then Covid. I can recommend this book. There are a lot of descriptions of the scientific discoveries and how they work, but he has spent most of his life explaining things to laypeople, so his explanations are easy to follow. So, as I said, I got some knitting done. Just a few more inches before the border pattern on the sleeve.


We often see deer roaming our neighborhood, but it's unusual for one to bed down in our front yard. This fellow made me think of the quote from President Harry Truman, "The buck stops here."



We did some walks this week when the air quality and temperature permitted. On Saturday, we took a short detour through the wilderness on the other side of the trail.



It wasn't much farther than if we had stayed on the trail. The pups often take a nap after a walk. They get a lot of exercise chasing eat other in the back yard or playing in the house, but there's nothing like a nice walk, even just two miles.

Dusty got some vaccines on Tuesday. I stayed home with Sandy, because I wasn't needed at the vet's for just that. We weren't having a checkup or anything, and I would have had to do an extra test.


Finally, my wonderful editors are finished with my manuscript, and I'm just finishing up fixing things. I hope to send it off this week. To follow up on one suggestion, I had to take another photo and add Nico to the cast of characters. Now I'm trying to decide if I need to change the photo on the back cover to include Nico. I think I will.


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 needles: Still working on the Oregon Cardigan.

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: In Different Ways To Write, Mariah is learning Arabic and Charlotte is learning Hebrew. They explain to Emil that these two languages use letters that are different from English and that you write both of them from right to left.



What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just finished with On Call: A Doctor's Journey in Public Service by Anthony Fauci. Now 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, an author I met at the Condega event on September 8th. 

What's in my wine glass: MadroƱa Riesling 2019. Riesling will go with anything, and this Riesling is my favorite!

What's my tip of the week: For those of us who are US citizens, we have an election coming up. You can check your voter registration for any state at IWillVote.com.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 
Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook is available from the BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. Poems included are Valentine's DayKeeping PetsBack to School, Victor the VultureThe Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.
The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green GreatcoatThe 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 hereThe three stories in Emil are Best BudsGetting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.
The three stories in Mariah are Being LittleBesties, 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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