Going Lost or Down the Wrong Road?

If you missed last week's blog post, Monday (Dec. 26th) was my birthday, which has been celebrated all week. Charlie gave me these beautiful earrings:

(I think he must have spent some time on a Finnish website.) However, to get back to the earrings, they are supposed to be inspired by the Moon Goddess, Kuutar, from the Finnish epic poem Kalevala: Moon Goddess, fair maiden, ruler of the night sky. Moon Goddess spins golden yarn, holding the spirals of eternal life in her arms. With her tinkling charms, like the golden rays of the moon, she casts away evil thoughts and lights up the world and mind. The earrings were designed by Germund Paler in the 1940s. (You might be interested to know that the Kalevala inspired The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R.Tolkien.) I love that Kuutar is a spinner.

The first day I wore them, I discovered one of them was missing. We looked everywhere: the jacket I wore to take the dogs outside, the floor everywhere I could remember walking, the sweater I pulled off over my head, the afghan I had used, even the grass outside. Finally, I went to grab my reading glasses to have a closer look at the floor, and there was the missing earring, cozied up in the chain I use to keep my reading glasses around my neck. Charlie was still out looking through the grass in the back yard, so I called him in from crawling around in the mud, ice and...well, we have dogs. I took the chain off my reading glasses while I'm wearing the earrings.

Later in the week I received this great wine glass. It indicates that 1943 is a very rare vintage. It's supposed to be for a person's birth year. Apparently 1942 was so rare they didn't have any left. (That's what happens when you're a year-end model!)

Our daughter says she ordered 1942. I'm guessing they were out of my year and thought I wouldn't notice. She has ordered me a new one...or would it be an older one...from another place.

The theme for my birthday this year seemed to be my birth year:

...and that I'm officially old.

Not too old to appreciate a little humor, though. This was in the church bulletin.

Also not as old as the Thompson chest we've been hauling around for 50 years. It had been stripped before it sat in the beach apartments my parents owned. The drawers no longer open and close, and I had decided to get rid of it when we left Utah, but I found this photo of a similar Thompson chest that had been refurbished for sale for $5K, so I kept it in hopes of finding someone who could do this with it.

Joshua picked it up on Wednesday. Stay tuned.

I did get some knitting done this week. (I would probably have finished my pullover if I didn't have a blog post to write.) It's getting close!

However...the first clue in the Rose City Yarn Crawl will drop this week.

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 our other books, 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 Hinterland Pullover (working my way down the second sleeve), no progress on the EmPower People Kerchief nor the Talvinen cardigan.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: It has become a New Year's Eve tradition for the dolls to share what they think was their favorite event of the past year. The story for this week was Goodbye to 2022. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Plan for the Worst by Jodi Taylor. Just starting Das Vermächtnis der Drachenreiter: Eragon 1, by Christopher Paolini. The English version of this is called Eragon. I thought it would be fun to listen to it in German.

What's in my wine glass: Sparkling white, Schloss Biebrich Brocken (dry). Happy new year!

What's my tip of the week: If you have a recipe you need to reduce to 1/3 of the quantity to serve, say, two people, it's very easy to convert any measurement that calls for tablespoons. Just change the number of tablespoons to teaspoons, since there are three teaspoons in each tablespoon.

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 world wide. 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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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.