Stage 19 & 20 and Challenge Day Prize

Stage 19 - Friday - I did an hour of spinning in the morning with Karma and then Will and I ran his errands. After dinner was made, homemade chili and cornbread, and eaten, and while watching Juno I spun for another two hours.

Stage 20 - Saturday - Time Trial - I got up and started spinning after doing the dishes. Spun for a couple of hours, got caught up on reading and also posting Deep Blue Sea in the Challenge Day Prize Contest in the Tour de Fleece 2008. The link is good if you're a Ravelry member. The contest ends on August 1st so I'll have a long wait to find out if we are good enough to win. Heck it was just cool to be able to enter, you had to have a completed yarn done.

I've spent another three hours spinning on Karma Chameleon while watching TV. I've only gotten two more blocks blocked today. Lots of cloud coverage and just a little bit of a breeze. The second one took hours longer than the first that had more sun. I'll wait to put out block 19 until tomorrow with hopes of more sunshine. Since this is a Time Trial day, I'm going to try for a few more hours tonight spinning. The left thumb is still feeling sore but I'm learning to hold it in a different position.

Another break to get dinner started, homemade chicken enchiladas, and starting some mustard. Yup, you read correctly, mustard. I made homemade mustards for Christmas last year, and they turned out well. I have some mustard seeds left and so I started two batches.

One is a German based one - dark beer is part of it. I did have a dark beer in the refrigerator, but it's Belgian and Raspberry flavored. I think it will still work. ;^) The other is kind of French, since it has sherry. Again, I didn't have sherry on hand, but I did have some Spanish sherry, Marsala. The seeds have to soak in the liquids for 48 hours and soften up as well as soak up the liquids goodness. Then they are blended with some additional seasonings and called good. You can use them immediately, but like other things, often taste better if allowed to age for a week or more.

I still have 27 Dresses and Atonement DVDs to watch, not sure though that the boys will be willing to join in though. The boys are currently playing D&D out in the garage. Something about more space, but there is a distinct lack of air conditioning.

Sometime tomorrow I need to get out into the garage. Brandon on Friday put legs on to my desktop. I now need to stain the legs and then put the sealant on. I'm going to add more to the desktop because I'm not happy with how it's not keeping the dust repelled. This I think will put us closer to rearranging the rooms where the computers are and my sewing/craft stuff.

Domestic Goddess & Day 14

Today has been busy and productive, all without leaving the house. ;^) A blog post in progress throughout the day:

Get up, wash dishes, see that the potatoes really need to be used up before they go bad. Only three left so add those and eggs to a pot of water to boil away for potato salad. Decide that I'm on a roll so make pancakes for breakfast. More dish washing.

Have towels that need to be washed so check the drier, those clothes aren't ready yet, so start another wash load. Since sink is now clean and empty grab one of the Cascade Lizard Ridge blocks and get it wet so it can be blocked. Pull out the fabric pad that I got for quilting and using the mini-iron that has handy grid lines on it to block the block. Set outside to sun/air dry. Please don't tell me this is bad for the yarn!



Grab camera and take pictures of some of the backyard, the dried first block, and the finished BFL from last night. Come back in and make up the potato salad and a pastrami sandwich. Get second block blocking.



Brandon had dropped a piece of wood on his foot Thursday. Doesn't think anything is broken. That night has a lovely bruise from where it hit that he does ice a bit. Spends Friday outside doing stuff around the yard and more time upright on the foot than he should have. Today, instead of gaming with Luke and Will, he's got his foot finally elevated and icing (RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation). He'd been using his shoe for the compression, but totally skipping all the rest until I strongly suggested that he do that. Foot looks worse with the bruising around it that probably came from being on it yesterday. Men!

Since he's not gaming I'll watch some shows with him and spin. The boys are on the xbox gaming until their 4:10pm showing of Wall-e. Off to eat that sandwich....

A few hours later....I've done more dishes, the second block is done drying and I have a third one drying. I've divided up the BFL into eight little bundles and have spun up two and started a third. Good progress there.

ETA: sorry, the photo that was here was deleted to make space on Flickr, I refuse to pay for the Pro service when I'm already paying for a web site....

Put on my landscaping hat, really clippers, and finished up the bushes in the front yard and moved into the backyard. Trimming up berry bushes: blueberry, honeyberry and gooseberry, as well as the grape vines that were running rampant. Speaking of rampant vines the hardy kiwi was also running amok so trimmed it back as best I could. When Will mows the lawn tomorrow he'll mulch all that into the grass.

The CLR blocks are blocking out at 10"x15" so a little longer and narrower than gauge. Well the three so far, and since they lay like the others, I imagine they all will block this way.

I've heated up the leftover Papa Murphy Chicago Stuffed Pizza for dinner, off to eat that and continue spending time with Brandon and spinning the BFL. The boys are back from the movie and in painting their figurines.

Not a bad day.

Faire in the Grove

Brandon's D&D group (Will, Luke, Nick & Jesse) all stayed the night Friday. Okay, Will doesn't count for 'staying the night' cause he lives here. They stopped gaming just before midnight and the four of the 'younger' group headed over to Beaverton to do some Cosmic Bowling. They apparently got back around 2:30am and then stayed up until 4:30am playing Munchkin. They all obviously forgot that Brandon had told him we were getting up and out of the house before 10am.

So by 8am the showers were going with people being woke up along the way for their turn. By 9:45am we were headed off to iHop for breakfast. I didn't want to cook for the group and also do the dishes. Much easier to do it elsewhere. From there with Will driving to iHop and on to Pacific University in Forest Grove to go see this year's Faire in the Grove.

We arrived and quickly ended up splitting into two groups. Brandon and I wandering in one direction the rest in another. I found a nice beaded bell anklet that fit, after finding that the amethyst one needed another half an inch to fit. We looked through all of the tents at the wares offered. The person selling the mustard last year appeared to be absent this year. I went back to the tent with the woven baskets. I think they were made by them, rather than those that can be found much more expensively at the Saturday Market. Brandon helped pick out one that now contains many skeins of yarn. I could use another basket or two still.

I pointed out a dragon ring to Brandon that I had spotted earlier through our lap around the tents and he found one that fit his pinky finger. I thought that if I was pointing it out to him, I must like it too, and found one that fit me. Brandon liked the idea of matching rings, so we both walked out with new rings.

I'm still on the hook to get the patterns and with Brandon's help, pick out the fabric, and he did say he would help cut out, for some 'authentic' faire type garb. I'm not really interested in sewing like that though. Maybe later this summer?

We sat and watched the sword fighting. Nick spotted an old co-worker that he'd been trying to find a contact for, so was very happy. After three hours of walking and watching and some purchasing, we headed back home. You can view the photos that Brandon took here.

Everyone else to continue gaming, me I ended up napping. A combination of restless sleep the night before and walking/sun was starting to cause a migraine. So I thought a nap would help. It did some but I ended up walking up on Sunday with the same migraine.

I did take out my sock and worked on it. I've done the heel flap, picked up stitches for the gusset and currently working it. I think I may be able to get one pair of these socks from one skein of yarn.

I made a pot of chili and baked some cornbread for dinner last night. Plenty leftover for lunches and the like. I do enjoy chili though it often doesn't enjoy me later. I think its the cause of my restless sleep last night with a stomach that wasn't quite settled. No acid reflux so it was a good night. Still woke up this morning with a migraine and no job calls that weren't in an elementary school.

Before heading to bed last night though I pulled off the camera, took some more pictures, and then processed all the photos that had been waiting to be posted. I think through the previous posts, you've had opportunity to click to those photos.

There! That catches me up on things going on around here. I'm going to try to check out Kathy's Knit Korner to see if she has some of the Paton's Kroy sock yarn in stock and take advantage of her 50% off moving sale. There may or not be a trip tonight to the Men's Warehouse to get Will's tux rented for the Spring Prom. Apparently they might try to have another practice for the Talent Show, since it is on the 1st. They are going to try to do their own version of the Ohio State Wrestling Team's Talent Show act. Will is the guy in the yellow polo. Luke will be one of the other 'dance' team members. I'll be a good mom and record them at the Talent Show for future sharing. ;^)