Goodbyes and Hellos

We had to say goodbye to Rocky in Tuesday. We had a great goodbye walk with the stroller on Monday, because, although it was cold, it was sunny and there wasn't much wind.

We wrapped Rocky up with a blanket and the heating pad, because he would mostly be sitting. We got him out to walk for a bit when he indicated he would like to. He walked for about 15 minutes. On Tuesday we had sort of a little party. The dogs had some doggy birthday cake left over from Rocky's 18th birthday. 

After the vet left, I wrote up a eulogy blog post for him. It was therapeutic. When I was done writing it, I checked Ash's Mystical Poodles website, in Nevada, thinking ahead, just to see what our breeder, Marie, had. I found this.

Two of the boys were available. Not sure if Charlie would agree to another puppy, I decided to wait for the right moment to bring it up. The next day, he came back from a dental appointment and wanted to talk to me. I could tell he had planned what he was going to say. The bottom line was he wanted me to go to Marie's website and see what she had. I told him I had already looked, and she had two boys that could be perfect for us. They will be ready to go to their new homes right about the time we will be coming back from Arizona with the trailer, which would save us a two-day trip in the car. (We’re further away now than when we lived in Utah. She will send them by plane but with a courier, in-cabin. I can’t imagine what that costs!) Charlie wanted to call. What if they were both gone by the time we were ready? So we have a new family member joining us in March. 

Here’s an update on the cedar closet. Saturday I filled the storage bins, organizing by cardigans/pullovers/shawls by size and socks. Some of my knitted things I hadn’t seen in a while. There’s room for Charlie’s knitwear, too, and our laundry basket fits.

When I sorted through items to put into the storage boxes, I came across one of these gloves. They are the gloves I bought to take with me to Europe on 1960. My mother thought they were too expensive, and I would just lose one. I talked her into getting them by betting her $25 I wouldn’t lose one. Every postcard I sent home had "I still have my gloves!" added at the bottom. They got separated when we moved. The thread is brittle now, so I can’t wear them.

Remember a few weeks ago when I said goodbye to my laptop? It was repaired and given to UPS more than three weeks ago! The Best Buy website still says "in transit," but on Saturday I called again and asked if they had a tracking number. I wanted some idea when it would arrive, so I could plan. They gave me the tracking, and that led me to the information that it had been delivered to the Bend Best Buy on the 17th! I called again and asked why no one had informed me and why it still says "in transit" on their website. Their answer? They had to check it out before giving it back to me. No!

Yesterday I called and told them I was coming to get it. I had to make an appointment, so I did. Best I could get was 6:20 PM. When I arrived to pick up my computer, I found out it hadn’t been repaired, because they had failed to collect the fee for the repair (still under warranty?) and (and this is the kicker) they couldn’t get in touch with me. Now the space bar doesn’t work at all. The only way to put in a space is to copy a space that already exists and paste it where you want it. Needless to say, I will be on the phone with Apple today!

Remember the water on the floor of the laundry room? The repair man came to have a look at our 1982 Maytag. 

It turned out that one of the hoses had become brittle and had a crack in it. The replacement should be here this week, so we’ll be back in business. Let’s hope it goes better than the computer.

I’m a little behind on the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, but catching up and should be ready for the next clue.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. 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 and Mariah, 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 the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (still hibernating).

What's on my loom: Dust, but I still plan to make some placemats.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "Looking for Snow," Jolena leaves to go to Idaho to practice with her team. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Christopher Paolini's "Das Vermächtnis der Drachenreiter," and will probably finish this week.

What's in my wine glass: Viñalba Reserva Malbec 2019 from Argentina. Excellent.

What's my tip of the week:  Sticky labels are hard to remove, but there are tricks that can make it easier. I try to keep the label all in one piece, because when the outer layer is removed and only the sticky stuff is left, it’s harder to get off. Using a hair dryer run over the the outside can heat up the glue a bit and make it easier. The bits that are left can be removed by tapping the sticky side of the removed label to the bits and pulling the label to the side. If all else fails, you can remove it with Goo 

Gone.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green Greatcoat, The 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 here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, 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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Racked Up

The pot rack is up!

You may remember that we thought Josh could take out the pot light and use his little periscope to look around in the ceiling. It turned out that the pot light is in a box, so that didn’t work. However, a stud finder worked well, as long as you don’t press it too hard against the ceiling. About an hour and $25 later, the rack was up.

I got out my copper pots and pans, which I haven't been able to use because I had no place to keep them in the kitchen. They needed some cleaning, because the copper had tarnished while they had been stored. A mix of white vinegar and salt, combined with a little elbow grease, did the trick.

As you can see from the first photo, I’ve added a few things. We ran out of hooks, but when I get more, I’ll be able to add a few more items to the rack.

You may remember the renovations going on in the bathroom over the summer. Just to refresh your memory, here’s how it was. First the existing shower, which was smaller than it looks, because there was a seat in the molded enclosure taking up half of the floor space. (It’s behind the towel.)

We also had taken the doors off the closets on each side of the soaking tub because they opened into the closets. We had Josh install them so they open out.

This is what it looks like now.

Of course, we needed a shower. What we didn’t need was this huge soaking tub.

This is what we did. We’re happy with our new shower. It even has controls that allow us to adjust the temperature easily.

Besides his and hers closets on each side of the new shower also have a linen closet in the hall. What we needed was a cedar closet for all our knitted items. We had been carrying around some cedar boards left over from a closet in our house in Dana Point, California, which we moved into back in 1987. We didn’t have enough to finish this project, so we bought more. Then shelves went in to hold plastic bins for our woolens. Charlie did all the work himself. 

I have more plastic bins coming this week for the rest of our woolens, which are still in big plastic zipper bags in my closet.

I finished the first clue for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL on Wednesday.

Here’s what I had by Saturday night. The second clue changed to the other color. I’m about halfway through the second clue.

I received one more 1942 birthday gift from our daughter this week, a coffee mug. It’s covered with important things to know about 1942. (The Battle of Stalingrad isn’t mentioned.)

I’m still doing this on my iPad. Here’s an update on my laptop, however. I learned on 

Friday that it had been repaired and was ready to ship back. When I checked on Saturday, it had been shipped. When it arrives at Best Buy, I’ll go pick it up., which will probably be this week. I managed to get Friday's story done on the iPad. It’s getting easier to manipulate the photos and enlarge them. To enlarge a photo in Blogger using an iPad, you have to pull the text box up close to the top so the bottom of the photo barely shows and then tap the photo, then pick the size. It might take several tries.  It’s still much easier on the laptop. One thing that’s easier on the iPad is typing. I may continue to type the stories and my blog on the iPad and then put the photos in using the laptop. I should have it back before I have to do another story. 😅

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. 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 and Mariah, 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 the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL, the Talvinen cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating, of course).

What's on my loom: I still plan to make some placemats. Right now, it’s shielding our Christmas tree (in its box) so we don’t trip over it.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt. 🙄 (One advantage of having to use the iPad is the access to emojis.) 

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress, but it’s calling me. I may try to get it done after I finish the Mystery KAL.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Holly and Sam Get New Wheels," Emil gets a letter from his friend Holly and finds out that Sam is in the choir at school. She got to ride in the big school bus with her classmates to a concert. The dolls are excited to hear all about it.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to listening to Das Vermächtnis der Drachenreiter (Eragon 1) by Christopher Paolini. I’m about halfway through the story. 

What's in my wine glass: El Accorde Merlot 2019 from San Juan, Argentina. Nice.

What's my tip of the week: Tarnished copper and brass can be cleaned without using regular tarnish remover. Wet a sponge with white vinegar, sprinkle on some regular salt and start rubbing. Add more vinegar and salt as needed. Finish with a nice bath in hot soapy water.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green Greatcoat, The 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 here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three stories in Mariah are Being Little, Besties, 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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