Just a Quick Rundown

Next year's Rose City Yarn Crawl doesn't start until March 7th, but the Mystery Knit Along (KAL) and Crochet Along (CAL) are giving us a head start on the new projects. I was lucky to find the perfect yarn in my stash. It took some digging, but when I found the lovely stuff on top, I knew it was perfect. Then I had to do some digging to find something compatible for the second yarn.

The MKAL starts with a provisional I-cord cast-on (CO). I've done this before, but not exactly this way. It calls for optional beads, and I love adding beads to a project. I had some, but they're smaller than called for (although they would work) and a pretty silver color, but I don't have enough, so I'm going to buy some just for this project and get the size required, today, I hope. I have named this project the Happier Days Shawl.

The sleeve of the Kultainen käki Cardigan is coming along, although not very fast. I'm on the straight knit with no increases section. When it's long enough, I'll CO the second sleeve.

As for weaving, I finished the first Raggedy Placemat. Finally! I decided to do the hem stitching while it's still on the loom. I need to put in a spacer, and then I can start the hem of the second one. I'm using 1/2" strips, mostly cut width-of-fabric, but some lengthwise and some on the bias, because I had some 1" bias strips left from the Raggedy Rugs, and I could use them by cutting them in half lengthwise. The weaving goes very fast, but it's hard to do if I have to watch our sneaky younger pup!

We're still working on the trailer before we put her under her blankie. The teak mat we ordered for the wet bath came this week. The surface stands a bit above the floor of the bath, allowing water to drain and protecting the floor. I think it's perfect!

We also got the tension rods to put up our shelving, something like this. It won't rest right on the cornices, but just above, and we can't put anything heavy on them. (We will have one over the dinette and one over the bed, each place where the roof slopes down.) We still have to get the wire shelves, and zip ties in white, so they won't be obvious. (Not our pod, but one like ours.)

Sandy has been keeping us busy, as usual. He got my wallet early in the week. He took all the cards out and spread them around in the yard. (I'm watching my credit card statements for unexpected charges at Chewy and the pet shops.) Later he got my knitting. Again! Both of these were up high, supposedly out of reach. He opened my purse and took out the wallet, not disturbing anything else, just like a pickpocket. My knitting bag had the handles tied together in a square knot in the middle of the dining room table. He had untied the handles, taken out the knitting, scrambled the yarn and left the knitting bag right there where it was. I have noticed that he tends to do this kind of thing first thing in the morning, so for the last few days, I've been closing the dog door after the pups come back from their morning potty sessions. Sandy got one of Charlie's caps off the coat rack and took it to the back door, where he was stopped. He just dropped the hat and went to have a snack. Fingers crossed this works! He does relax, though.

Saturday we went back to Good Dog Trail. I took the photo of the map and changed it to B&W, upped the contrast and exposure and adjusted the highlights and shadows to make a more readable version. Then I wrote in the names of the trails, using my computer to zoom in on the picture, so I could read them. The roads are for nonmotorized vehicles, like regular bikes. They have numbers, but no names. The trails are for dogs and hikers. 

It was fun, although we met a man who was clearly afraid of dogs. The first I noticed was Dusty barked at him, which he never does. Dusty must have realized that the man was anxious. The man moved off the trail, as if he thought he would be safe there. I told him our dogs wouldn't bite, and his reply was "I've heard that before." We called the dogs and moved on along the trail. We wondered why a person who was so afraid of dogs would hike in an off-leash area, and on a Saturday, too. 

We took the trails that appeared to lead most directly to the river, then found out later, that's the hard way to go. It's very steep. The dogs were excited to find the river, though.

It was really beautiful, and the day was sunny and warm.

After both dogs has a drink, Sandy wanted to go for a swim, but we were worried about the current, so we called him to come back.

We went back to the trail and continued on. Eventually, it came back to the way we came in. 

I didn't get any photos from our Madroña pop-up meeting, but it was good to see everyone, and we had a good time.

That was pretty much my week, except that my Covid booster apparently triggered my arthritis, and I didn't get much sleep for a couple of nights. I had to use the heating pad, and at one point I took some Ibuprofen. It came and went for about three days. Then my knee was still a little tender for a couple of days. By Saturday, it was gone. 

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 the Kultainen käki cardigan and now the Happier Days Shawl. (Of course, the EmPower People Kerchief is still hibernating, but with winter coming on, it will be handy to have to use, so I'd better get on it.)

What's on my loom: One placemat done.

What's on my sewing machine: I didn't get any work done on Johan's quilt, but I washed the backing for Soren's.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "Reading, Writing and Recycling Again," Jolena learns how to organize her thoughts before writing and why we put paper (and other things) into the recycling bin, a recycled story that first appeared in 2018.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende, no progress this week.

What's in my wine glass: Avalon Blend 2020, Red Wine from California.

What's my tip of the week: A flannel or corduroy bag filled with regular white rice makes a great heating pad. It can be microwaved and then it molds itself to your body, wherever you put it. However, it cools off and has to be reheated. For long-term use without having to get up, an electric one is perhaps better.

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 Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook 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.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>  

Covered Up

The salad and garlic naan we had with our Slow Cooker Indian-Spiced Red Lentil Soup. I just thought it made a pretty picture.

The first sleeve of the Kultainen käki Cardigan is coming along, in spite of a busy week. One more increase, and then straight until it's long enough. I really like the feel of the yarn.

While I was at church yesterday and Charlie was "watching" the dogs, Sandy decided to take up knitting again. The yarn was a tangled mess when Daddy took it away, still indoors, having not made it out the dog door to the muddy backyard. Fortunately, the few stitches dropped from one needle on the sleeve were easily replaced, and the tangled mess was only attached to the body, right at the sleeve divide. It's so much easier to untangle if you can find one single end, so I broke the yarn at the sleeve divide and untangled it while rolling it into a ball.

I've since wound the ball into a center-pull ball, so I'm ready to go when I get back to the body again. He had already raided my purse earlier, removing my knitted cap, gloves and my wallet and taking them out to the backyard. I found them all spread out there in the yard, as if he were trying to figure out how to use what he had discovered. The wallet itself will need some repair. The credit cards and various ID documents were a bit dirty. I recovered everything, I think.

As promised, here's a photo of my progress on the placemats. One placemat almost finished. Just one inch more of the rags, than the edging/hem to do and finally some weaving to space the placemats apart. Since the weaving is turning out 14" wide, I've decided to make the placemats 20" long instead of the 18" planned. They will probably shrink when washed, anyway.

The design is made by the warp. I'm putting the rags (weft) in helter-skelter, as the mood and supplies dictate. Each placemat will be different.

I picked up some backing for Soren's quilt this week. It's a quirky quilt, but I think he will enjoy looking at all the fabrics in it, the way I did when I was a child with a quilt on my bed. I think the backing looks like a galaxy far away.

Another step in winterizing the RPod 171 was a challenge. We had to turn off two valves in the water heater before putting the antifreeze in. (You don't want the antifreeze to go into the water heater.) We knew where the water heater was: under the bed, right next to the fridge. Posts we had read indicated that we might have to lift the plywood bed platform to get to it, so we moved the mattress into the "dining room."

Then we had a look at the plywood section of the bed platform that covered up the water heater and that side of the pass-through storage. Charlie unscrewed the plywood and then we started working on trying to get the plywood up.

It probably would have come up easily, except that this one piece of decorative molding on the fridge cabinet was holding it down. 

We debated about whether we were going to have to cut a hole in the plywood or make a notch in the molding. I couldn't believe it would be that difficult, if we were supposed to get to where the water heater was and turn off or on the bypass valves twice a year. I decided to have a look at the area where the water heater was in the storage area. The arrow in the photo below points to the bay door. Right under the tip of the arrow is the vent for the water heater. (You can turn the power on and off there, but you can't reach the valves.)

I opened the bay door and peered in. I found a panel covering the water heater. There were screws in each corner, holding the panel onto a sort of a wood frame. Hmm....

Before we start sawing wood, I suggested, let's call the service department at the dealer, and Charlie agreed. (For him to ask directions, he really must not have wanted to start cutting up this expensive investment!) We soon had someone from Service on the phone. We put him on speaker, so we both could talk and listen. We explained what we wanted to do and what our problem was. The dealer sells lots of different makes and types of RV. Our RP 171 may have been the only one of that model they had in the past year. However, when I mentioned to the service person that this panel had screws in it, he suggested that we try that first, since it would be easy to take off.

While Charlie did that, I set to work making more tomato jam. I wrote the date on the top of these jars, because this was the second batch I would have in the fridge.

I was just wiping them off when Charlie came in and said that he had turned off the valves on the water heater and was ready to pour in the antifreeze. He said it was easy. (Easy if you know how to get into the water heater.)

We didn't get many walks in this week due to rain at all the wrong times, but Friday was a nice day, other than being cool, so we decided to go to Good Dog Off-leash Trail just after lunch. Dusty cried all the way there, because he had figured out where we were going and was excited. The crying got louder after we crossed the overpass over Hwy 97. Sandy just sat relaxed and looked out the window. When we got there and let the dogs off their leashes at the trail, they were both on the same page, though.

Dusty made sure to scatter his version of bread crumbs so we could find out way back.

We were able to walk quickly along the trail. Both dogs stayed fairly close to us, running up ahead and then making a loop back around us.

We took a picture of the map of the trail, although it's hard to read on your phone. Later we found a pdf version for next time.

Here's a screen shot of our hike from the Walk for a Dog app. We were hoping to come across the access to the river (that blue squiggle in the bottom right corner), but gave up when we thought we had been out long enough.

Next time, maybe we'll pack a picnic lunch and follow a planned trail. We've seen photos of the dogs playing at the water's edge, so we know we can get there. It was a lovely hike, though.

You've probably heard that we had an eclipse. Charlie got up early, because it was supposed to start about 8:45 AM and reach full magnitude about 9:13 AM. We took the dogs and went down to the end of the street, where we expected to have an unrestricted view of the eclipse. Charlie had his special glasses.

It was pretty cloudy, so we didn't really expect to see much of anything, but periodically the clouds would shift, and you could use the special glasses to see what was happening. Later, as it got closer to the full magnitude, the clouds were thin enough that you could see the eclipse with the naked eye. I tried to take photos of it, but the camera couldn't capture what we saw.

We had a nice visit with the neighbors who live in the house on the corner.

Sunday, besides church and Sandy's misadventures, Charlie and the dogs went to a meet-up group outing at Pine Nursery Off-leash area at 3:00 PM. I had an appointment to get my next Covid booster. I dropped them off and drove to the pharmacy, where I had an appointment. I was a half hour early. They told me they were running about an hour behind schedule. I was supposed to pick up my family at 4:00 PM. As it turned out, I got my shot at 3:30, the time for my appointment. I don't know what the delay was all about. There was only one other person getting a shot. (Update: They didn't fill in my shot record. They send you a link to an app called "Clear." You have to input all your previous doses. It keeps it on file in case you need it, but there's no way to print off a copy, as far as I could tell. I ended up filling in the information on my own vaccination card. You need the brand name and the Lot number. I wasted a lot of time trying to download a copy of the proof of vaccination to print it. Didn't happen.)

I got back to the park to pick up Charlie and the pups a little after 4:00. From there, we went to 10 Barrels Brewing for beer and some food. I ordered a beer called "Call of Nature." I almost didn't order it because of the name. It was good, and it didn't live up to its name.

Our next-door neighbors arrived with their two dogs, who found a nice place to wait.

Dusty and Sandy waited under the table.

One more thing: Someone who bought a copy of "Our Favorite Verses" has a friend who works at St. Jude in Memphis. She took the book to show her friend, since the royalties go to St. Jude. She shared this photo of the book and her doll Katharina with St. Jude in the background.

It's so nice to see my little books go out into the world.

This book arrives at booksellers on Wednesday of this week.

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 the Kultainen käki Cardigan.

What's on my loom: Some progress on the placemats.

What's on my sewing machine: Johan's quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Forgiven, Pauly learns something about how to deal with anger. This is an all-new story in #TheDollsStorybook.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende. Not much time to listen this week, for some reason.

What's in my wine glass: Shannon Ranch Big Horn Red Blend 2020. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: Most of the time, I'm just cooking for two, but we often buy packages of frozen food designed for six or eight people. If you take out enough for only two it may leave a space of nothing but air when you put the package back in the freezer. It may cause the rest of the package to stick together making it difficult to remove only enough for two the next time. I've learned that if I divide up the package into two-person amounts when it first comes into the house, it's easier to deal with.

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 Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook 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.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>  

Challenged!

Sandy wasn't the biggest troublemaker in my life this past week for a change.

He still finds things to get into, but we got him a toy to challenge his brain. A pet store chain that has a store near us has a special coupon for 25% off our entire purchase, including sale items. We needed some kibble, and with the discount, it was cheaper than we could get anywhere else. The dog puzzle toys were on sale, and the discount applied. We asked a store employee which one we would start with for a puppy too bright for his own good. She suggested the Outward Hound Casino. When we got it home, I discovered that it was a Level 3 puzzle. I was afraid it might be too challenging, and he would give up before it started being fun. I put a Cheerio into each drawer. He could smell it and figured out quickly how to open the drawers. The next time I locked some of the drawers. It slowed him down a bit. (Maybe if I had loaded it with Vitamin D capsules, he would have been faster.)

He's still growing but starting to fill out. On Friday he hit 20 lbs. The checks are coming in from Trupanion to help us with the vet bills related to his "dietary indiscretion" of three weeks ago. Sandy didn't give us too much trouble for the past week.

No, the biggest troublemaker during the past week was my iPhone.

This phone has rendered reliable service for the past nearly six years. Virtually all of the photos in my story blog and books were taken with this phone. I've used it to get Siri to tell me how to get to where I wanted to go. I've used the Walk for a Dog app to record my walks with the pups. I've used it to adjust my hearing aid and to listen to audiobooks and music. It's my calculator, banking branch and phone-call monitor, screening those annoying telemarketer and scam phone calls. I've used it to text photos of what I wanted Charlie to buy at the store.

Now it needs a new battery. It had been trying to tell me for some time, but when I tried to use the Walk for a Dog app during our hike at Timothy Lake last week it lost all battery power and died, after recording only 0.01 mile, even before I took any photos. A hike of nearly four miles didn't register enough distance to qualify for any points, which was disappointing. Not being able to take photos of the boys and the pups playing was an even bigger loss. Fortunately, our daughter-in-law took some photos on the hike and shared them with me. These treasured memories would have been only slowly fading memories without the photos!

(Just a side note about the dogs off-leash. This campground allows them to be off-leash when playing in the water or swimming. They were otherwise leashed up all the time they were outdoors.)

I would happily replace the battery and continue on with the same great phone, except for a couple of things. First of all, I would have to send my phone in to Apple and be without it for a week or drive to Tigard (close to Portland, 169 miles) to get to an authorized dealer who could deal with it. (Simply Mac closed down during the pandemic.) While trying to find someone local who could change the battery for me, I was told that that older phones like my iPhone 7 are vulnerable to hackers, if I do any online banking with it. The person told me she recommended getting a new phone instead. Less important, but still a consideration, the new Spoutible app doesn't work as well with the older phones. I can like and echo a spout I like, but the only spouts I can send are emojis, no text. That's really of minor significance, because I usually use my laptop or iPad anyway, when I have to type anything beyond, "Yep!"

To make a long story even longer, I've ordered an iPhone 14. (Photo from apple.com)

Many thanks to Jennifer at Apple for helping me figure out which phone would work best for me within what I could afford. She spent the time needed to find out what I do with the phone, so she could advise me. The phone should arrive later today. A very nice person at CREDO said they will help me transfer the SIM electronically if I can't figure it out, and an Apple Advisor already had me update the software and back up to the cloud, in case I decided to send it in to them. I will do that again, just to be sure, before making the transfer. 

Also this week, I wrote a new story for #TheDollsStorybook and took the photos with my iPhone 7, which still works, even though I never know how long the battery will hold the charge. I'm going to try to do one story a month for now. I sent off some copies of my most recent book to people who wanted an autographed copy, including two copies to the Wisconsin grands. Their dad was one of my editors and a great help with the poetry. Now that I've mailed two in an envelope, I know how much the postage will be, in case someone orders two.

I'm still working on getting the R-Pod organized. We're going out again with the Oregon grands and their parents next weekend. We're going back to LaPine State Park Campground. Our daughter-in-law has put in a request for a rug to catch the dirt and sand at the entrance to their tent. (Camping in Oregon always seems to come with dirt or sand or both!) I offered her the second of the two smaller rugs I had woven on my loom.

Consistent readers of my blog posts will perhaps remember that I originally made the rugs for the old fifth wheel. There was a lot more floor space in the old trailer.

When we sold it and bought the R-Pod, the rugs didn't fit as well. The larger one fit in front of the door just fine, but the "hallway" (put in quotes, because calling it a hallway is like calling a VW Bug a limousine), was too narrow for the rug to fit. I trimmed one of the two smaller rugs to fit and bound the raw edges with fabric. I had planned to do the same with the other smaller rug, but now I won't have to.

The trimmed rug fits nicely now.

That's the door to the wet bath on the left, the fridge on the right, and you can just make out the internal vacuum in the lower right-hand corner. You heard me: the internal vacuum. I can plug in the hose where that circle is and reach every corner of the pod, or, if that's too much trouble, I can just sweep everything in the general direction of the internal vacuum, give the little panel next to the hose opening a kick, and swoosh! No more dirt or sand, even in Oregon. At the top of the photo is the area under the bed, with things stowed away for travel: from left, the poo can (if you have minipoos, they will live up to their name), the stool I use to get out of bed or to reach into cabinets, and a plastic storage box with my clothes.I would have had to slide the other rug partway under the bed if I kept it. I plan to weave two more rugs to fit the space in the new R-Pod. Sometimes you have to pick one up and put down another, so having spares is good.

In the old fifth wheel, we had one of those hanging sacks you can stick plastic bags into to reuse later. It was large and bulky, and the colors weren't compatible with the R-Pod, so I copied it and made a smaller version. It's about half as tall as the old one, but just as big around. It took a fat quarter, some elastic and a little cotton rug yarn.

Now I've been working on some toiletries storage pockets for our wet bath. When we bought the pod, we thought this set of three mesh pockets was supposed to be for toiletries. Then we discovered that if you put anything in the middle or lower pockets, the lid to the toilet wouldn't stay up. (In the photo, there's a pair of flip-flops in each of the upper pockets, but that was marginal.) So what's it for? Magazines? Why have a mesh magazine holder in a wet bath? Mesh implies it won't collect water. Magazines would get wet and be hard to read. It's still a puzzle. I thought about cutting off the bottom pocket and tying the bottom corners to the lower fasteners with some kind of waterproof string, but the middle pocket is still too low for the lid to stay open. 

We took down the pocket thing, leaving the four fasteners. (I was inside the wet bath without a wide-angle lens, so only the top two fasteners show, but you can see the top of the lid to the toilet.)

It's too wide to fit on the other wall of the wet bath. We're still trying to figure out a way we can use the thing. In the meantime, I put a tension rod up along the side of the wet bath just above the enclosure and just under the ceiling.

There's 12" from the top of the enclosure to the hand-hold things. (I thought those were supposed to be shelves at first, silly me!) I'm thinking of making some kind of holder for toiletries to hang from that tension rod. I picked up some grey mesh to make it.

I was thinking of having a pocket for the tension rod to go through at the top of the unit, like a curtain. The grey mesh is quite a bit thinner than the set of pockets that came with the trailer, but I think it's strong enough to hold the little airline bottles of shampoo, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, deodorant and other things we would need to store there.

I did get some knitting done during the week. The straight stockinette is moving along, although it isn't as interesting as the stranded colorwork. Time to get back to my audiobook!

Our anniversary was on Friday. We didn't do anything special this year. We've had enough excitement with the new puppy, the R-Pod and camping trips. It's hard to believe it has been 58 years. The anniversary gave me the opportunity to look back on the various things we have done and the adventures we've had. We're still in touch with all of the people in this photo from our wedding except for the young man on the right. 

Choir has started up again, and we sang yesterday. I was a little nervous about losing Christian, our director for the last four years, and his replacement seems so young, but I think it's going to work out fine.

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, Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses, 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 Kultainen käki cardigan. Some progress made.

What's on my loom: I didn't make any progress on the placemats.

What's on my sewing machine: Toiletries pockets for the R-Pod.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In The Arithmetic Problem, Pippa finds out that sometimes there are better ways to help than the first thing you think of.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende. Just when you think the story is over, it continues on. Well-named, but it's fine that it goes on, because I'm enjoying it.

What's in my wine glass: Shannon Ranch Big Horn Red Blend 2020. Very nice!

What's my tip of the week: You can extend the lifespan of an iPhone battery by following these tips. I'd be willing to bet these same suggestions would work for other brands of phones as well. I did some of these things. Wish now I had done them all, but maybe it's good to have a new phone.

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 Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook 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.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>