November

Beginning to get somewhat chilly. I am knitting a blanket for a baby gift using big needles to make it go faster. But I did miss the shower yesterday. The baby is not due for about 3 more months however so I have some time. Using acrylic yarn, double strand and keeping white as a constant in all the colors. Pale green, pink/purple and green/pink blended yarns in a stockinette stitch.



This is our Velcro. Takin a break in my desk drawer. It's usually Sox in drawers and such.






Sox sleeping on top of the little cave thing I got them at Pet Smart. He is covering his eyes to keep out the light.


Loaf of home made wheat bread I happen to be making a loaf as I speak.
I mix it up in the bread machine and let it rise, then take it out put it in loaf pans , let rise again and then bake.
This is a really good recipe. So good that I mixed up lots of batches, sans the yeast, molassas, oil and milk. So I can make it quicker.
I use part white and part whole wheat plus some xanthan gum and wheat gluten. The texture is wonderful and not crumbly at all like home made bread sometimes is.



Carrie's sweater back almost finished and Roy's bedspread blocks.
still have a long way to go on them both. I hope I have them done by NEXT Yule.

It's October

used to be my favorite time for decorating. I love to decorate for Halloween but lately I have not.

I love to decorate period but I don't anymore.

I got a summons for jury duty. I served once years ago. It was interesting. So I don't really mind doing it..I just hate getting up early. I have to be there at 9 am..for me that is the middle of the night. I shall have to train myself in the intervening weeks to go to bed earlier.

We got a new car.

in sandstone.

It's the first brand new car I have ever bought. Or Kevin that is. This is the first time in our married life (8 years) that anything has been on his dime. He is very very proud.

I've been knitting some though not too much.
this is the back portion of Carrie's sweater.

I have also been working on Roy's bedspread but don't have pictures of that.

I don't have any idea that it will be finished by Yule but ... maybe Next Yule..:P

Too HOT and now Ike is on the way!

East Central Texas will not get too much of the weather, rather not enough to make seriously effect us, however the coast line of Texas will take a beating. I have a good friend that lives on a bay off the coast, so I am sure that they have already left for higher ground. At least I hope so. I am sure my cousins that live a little farther down the road have also hopefully take off for San Antonio where they work or to relatives in West Texas.
My kids as well on the Mississippi Gulf Coast will undoubtedly get plenty of wind and rain though not as much as they did last week or when Katrina hit.

I've been knitting and getting a painting ready to start on. And gathering source material for another one that ... well I lost the reference stuff. *SIGH*. So I had to re print it.

Last weekend we helped out at the West Fest a local small town that throws one hellacious part every year. Most of the inhabitants are Czech decent so they go all out with the Polka music. I probably pulled several hundred pints of Coors light and Blue Moon. That's the station that Kevin and I served on. Of course they had Guinness and Heiniken, Bud Light and Bud, Michelobe and all the rest. I am a Sam Adams girl myself or Amber Boch (sp) Actually I'm an Absolut or Maker's Mark girl.
It was fun but nothing I would want to do full time.

Watched all the conventions and as you can see Made my choice.

My Chronic Fatigue has been keeping me at home a lot.

Visits, hot weather and dead gardens

The vegetable gardens are gone. This past two months has been so horribly hot that even watering once a day has not saved them. Everything was pretty much gone anyway.
We got tons of tomatoes, okra, eggplant and watermelons so I guess all in all that's ok.

My grown kids were here for a visit. We had a great time! My granddaughter didn't get to come however because of her school.

I've begun knitting on the kids Christmas presents.




this is the yarn that I got for the projects.










And these are the begun projects. :






I was going to do cables on Carrie's sweater but I was having a very difficult time. So I am just doing some repeating patterns in the section where the cables would have been.
Roy's bedspread will be a sort of zig zag design put together of knitted blocks.

Watching the Olympics. I have to say that they are some of the most beautiful games yet. I did not watch the Athens games for some reason. Probably apathy. Poe said "I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity", I have to fall right in step there with Poe. And add long intervals of apathy. Another saying that I love is "what's to be done about ignorance and apathy? I don't know and I don't care".
Between the allergies and the depression and the Epstein-Barr, I find even moving sometimes just too much trouble.


I wish they could give you a pill for that.

Speaking of Tomatoes!!!

This one I did get to eat and it was sooooooooo good!!

It's a Brandywine. One of the heirloom tomato plants I got at Greenlife Nursery in Waco.
I tried a lot of different kinds this year so next summer I will know better what I want to plant. Definitely the Brandywine, Caspian Pink and some type of yellow, Daddy likes the yellow ones.
I like the eggplants that I planted. Very small and thin. They were better to me than the round fat ones.. less bitter.
Rutabagas! I can't begin to tell you how good the home grown rutabagas are!. We got about 8 of them and I have that many more right now getting ready to go into the ground. Maybe more if I think I can stretch the season.
The Tabasco peppers are wonderful. I put them in pickled green cherry tomatoes and made some pickled just to use the pepper flavored vinegar on greens and fish.

And the all time summer treat Watermelons. The vines are working on their second offerings. So far I picked about 12, but had to throw away 4 that got eaten or rotted. Small and very sweet. There are still around 4 out there that haven't ripened yet.


Lots of sunflowers and I'm going to harvest what seeds I can for eating or planting.
I also have some Brussels sprouts that I didn't think were going to make but finally they are. The pumpkin and squash are still hanging on but no punkinz yet.




Disappointments were the cucumbers that never made it, the various bell, jalapeno and Serrano peppers that petered out. I couldn't get the butternut squash or the gourds to live or the poppies. My nasturtium only had one bloom. And of course the thyme died quickly.

On the crafting and art front:

a sweater like throw that is an experiment. I was going to make three panels with two of the short row and one of the basket weave. It's very comfortable and I am going to enjoy it this winter. KnitPicks was calling me so in order to get my fix I had to cut the throw short (lol) and finish it off. I just have to do the crochet trim.

Last is my latest flock. I've lost two of the older ones to the heat and one baby one to a raccoon break in. In the fall I shall get a couple more.

Garden, Knitting and Kevin

I kept this tomato around so long I didn't even get to eat it.


Kevin is home. Sick of course. Every time he goes away for the Seabee's he comes home sick or is sick while he's away. But we had a good day in town on Monday. We went to the movies, Incredible Hulk, which was actually pretty good. I wanted to see The Happening or Ironman, but we usually do the movie he wants. Then we went to Petsmart and got the "boys" some food and treats. After that to Best Buffet. I got the Mongolian grilled beef and veggies and sushi. We were going to go see another movie but we decided to go on home.
My Big Budder is coming in today for about a week. And I need to finish the straightening.

My poor garden has just about done all it is going to do. These two images are from several weeks back.


I wanted to take photos of all my veggies, the tomatoes were just beautiful and the eggplants are shiny. But I didn't get around to it.

I made tomato jelly (that didn't jell >( but tastes great and tomato pickles that are real good. I also canned some plain tomatoes for cooking or just eating.
I got about a dozen small watermelons.. MMMMMMMM
also rutabagas earlier in the season. Made a believer out of me. The home grown "bagas" are so much better than the store bought. I got enough peppers to use with my tomato pickles and a small jar of (tobasco) pepper sauce.
No squash yet or artichokes. Pumpkins are flowering.
It has been so hot here that keeping my babies alive has been mondo difficult.
I water daily and even then they look horrible by day's end.
OH I took a pic of my enormous sunflower, an old timey film pic so I have to get them developed but will post asap.

I am working on an afghan or throw. Almost finished with my first knitted top for myself. Although I think it might be too small for me.

I read alot while Kevin was in CA, but I'm out of new stuff right now. I read books by Robert Walker and Stephen King lately.

people who suck the joy out of everything

In my case it's the same person who ... never listens to anything you try and tell her.
The reason for that is because she is trying to formulate an answer or tell you her "story" and doesn't really care what you have to say. Then why ask you in the first place?

This is compounded by the fact that she isn't very .... how shall I put this.... cognitively with it... can we say that. She is great at keeping books.. She did it for years. But it takes her a while to figure out other things and even when she's wrong, she swears she's right. That she knew that all along.

At every meal. I guess she thinks no one can see for them selves what is on the table, because she has to ask if you've gotten your peas yet.. Or ask me if I've gotten them for Kevin. Like he can't help himself.

I am so tired of being second guessed, questioned, made fun of because I like gadgets or don't spend my money the way she would. I have turned to drink.

Yep.. you read me right. I have to have something potent daily. Or start screaming.
Gods!!



She used to run a very efficient house and still does. She's a hard worker.
Gotta give her ...her props, but christ on a Popsicle stick. I need a vacation.