A good time was had by all

My TableTop Game day was great fun. I wonder how many others celebrated like we did: 3 Boomer ladies playing Book Lover's Trivial Pursuit, then Bookology. And noshing quite a lot. We all agreed, we have to do this more often!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures. Ah well, there's always next year!

TableTop Day!

I'm doing it. Having some friends over next Saturday afternoon, and we're going to do justice to snacks and tasty beverages, and play some table-top games! No twelve-sided dice here, though, we're Old School Boomers. My guests might bring some games, and the ones I have on offer to play are Doctor Who-themed Yahtzee (lovely recent gift from a friend), Book-Lover's Trivial Pursuit, Bookology...there's another one but I can't think of it right now. Anyway - fun times!

Now, to plan...cleaning, baking...

Oh, and here's the web site that explains what it's all about.

Bread day

OK, OK, where's the drawings, I petered out on that one, OK. Let's move on.

Making bread today. For your amusement, I've taken a Food Channel photo:

Dough's still rising so I'll post another picture once it's baked. I started with mom's white bread recipe and substituted some whole wheat flour for some of the white, some molasses for some of the sugar, and I'll make round loaves and fancy them up with a mix of corn meal, ground flax seed, ground wheat berries, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, and some other stuff I can't remember right now. I like fancy bread. 

...Several hours later. Bread's done. Good batch this time.

'Scuse me, I need to eat dinner now...

Day 5, Drawing 5

Annnnd. here's a small corner sneak peek at tonight's effort. I always bite off more than I can chew. This is gonna have to be a two-parter. I'll finish it tomorrow and post the whole thing, scanned, but for proof that I'm doing it, here's a snippet:

Day 4, Drawing 4

I forgot to post this here yesterday.

It's really more of a doodle; I was trying to think of something cute for a note-card to an old friend. I think he looks pretty friendly, don't you?

Day 3, Drawing 3

Tried some colored pencil today. Well! Now we can certainly see where Terry needs practice, can't we!  I've never been very good at colored pencils. And I never found any medium that I could get to portray metal at all. Not even close. So...here's the thing:

Day 2, Drawing 2

This isn't much because I didn't get around to it until I was almost asleep, but when I know I don't have much time (before my face hits the desk) I try to focus on one aim. This time it was trying to convey both wood grain and native color, AND shading. I don't judge (lol) I just hope to get practice at something useful, and I think I did that, anyway, no matter how poorly it was executed.


It's a wooden box with a velvet-lined drawer, and a little house, er, can't remember the name - a Russian house elf? I couldn't remember from where I was sitting what he's got, a violin or a flute, which was excellent because it forced me to just draw what I saw. (It's a flute.)

Re-setting my 30 drawings in 30 days

So, let's try this again.  Here's today's entry, No. 1:

So, once more into the breach. 

ETA: Put in a scan instead of the crappy iPhoto copy.

OK, I'm re-committing

One drawing, one day, and then three days of feeling so cruddy I didn't even want to think about a pencil. So I'll re-start the 30 days. Typical of me, I know.

Looking around for something to draw...

30 drawings in 30 days

OK, I'm finally committing.  I really do want to get back to doing art like I did it as a kid - for fun, all the time. It's so easy to put other stuff ahead of that. So I'm going to take the pledge: post a piece of art - drawing, watercolor, charcoal, pastel, *something* - every day for 30 days. If anyone wants to join me, I haven't seen one of these challenges lately so let's brighten February up a little here, what do you say?

Here's today's effort:

It will be interesting to see how well this scan transfers online...

My mom used to call me "a little merchant"

but I think it was because she thought the words sounded cute, because I've never been much of a business-head. It wasn't like I was out peddling lemonade on the curb at age four, or nagging to get a paper route. No, as you know me now is pretty much as I have been: not that avid for money. I admire kids who get started knowing the entrepreneurial spirit early.

But occasionally I have a flurry of an inkling of liking the ol' buy & sell from the seller's end. Like this weekend, I've been posting some of my Excess Stuff on Craigslist. And I keep unearthing Stuff I didn't even know I had - like, there's been this big cardboard box in the basement that used to hold a lot of my late husband's darkroom equipment. A couple years after he died, I spent some months unloading most of it online, and I thought all this time I knew what was still in the box: a couple of used, dusty, plastic darkroom trays. I thought of them today because I was thinking I probably have the items I need to build my own seed-starter system with a light and everything. I thought one of the trays would be useful as seed trays. Imagine my surprise when I got into that box and found TWENTY darkroom trays, from 6"x 10" on up to , I don't know - 20" x 36"? or so?

So I got out one of the big ones and a medium-sized one to use for my seeds, and put the rest on Craigslist. We'll see how other people view their usefulness at $1.00 per tray...

I also discovered 6 sheets of MDF in the garage. Now - it's not like I've never been in the garage before - so why didn't I remember ever seeing those? Onto Craigslist they went. NO idea why Bob bought them, but he must have.

It's like my house is a mini-shopping mall or something...

The sekrit project is done!

I built an extension onto a little bookshelf unit my late father-in-law made for me to do sewing on. He added a particle-board top that sticks out 5” from the shelving unit but that really wasn’t enough to make the piece very useable for a sewing/crafts table, so I added more.

Before:

After:



Why did I stick those funny legs into the middle? You might well arsk. It’s because the hinges I used to attach the tabletop to the shelf were pretty small, and I had to switch down to shorter screws because the ones that came with the hinges were too long. Therefore, I was concerned that if I put too much weight on the tabletop, it would work the hinges loose. I could envision a complete disaster with my sewing machine crashing to the floor and the table wrecked into splinters. So I added those two funny legs to support the hinges. 

It took an unbelievable amount of cogitating to figure out how to put this thing together. I mean, it should be simple and straightforward, right? Nope. Not that simple. I give thanks to my friend E.T. (Not, *that* E.T. - the one I know personally) for figuring out for me how to do the folding-legs arrangement. 

This is one of those things that if my son has to dispose of all my assets, this one will embarrass him, I fear. I can just see him conducting the yard sale out front, with someone asking what the hell is THAT? And him rolling his eyes and saying, “Oh, my wacko Mom made that.” LOL - I’m leaving you such a rich legacy, my son!

Edited to add: I've decided against the carpentry class. This project taught me that it's not something I care to do very much or often, and also that I *can* cobble together something if I need it badly enough - and I doubt there'll be anything else I need this badly. Not having a sizeable work surface presented a bottle-neck to a LOT of projects that need doing. Sorting, creating, etc. So now I don't have THAT excuse any more!

Belated follow-up

The Christmas cookie extravaganza seemed to be a success, if people's ravings about the cookies are any indication. There's always the possibility that they're just reluctant to hurt my feelings. But for the sake of sanity, I choose to accept the compliments as stated, and everyone who received them is very welcome.

To prove I really did bake cookies, and that the "halfway" photo wasn't just a staged scene, here's a picture of some of the cookies:

Clockwise from the top, they're: Ginger sticks (they have fancy gold and green sugar on them but they're turned on their sides in this picture); eggnog cookies with eggnog frosting; lime & ginger cookies; chocolate chip cookies, and Jammy Dodgers. 

Jammy Dodgers, you will no doubt recall, are proclaimed by Doctor #11 as "The Best!" and he even uses one to bluff the Daleks in one show. These are made from scratch and I vow, as Chthulu is my witness, I will never ever do that again. WHAT a pain in the neck! I'm so slow, it wasn't until I had the  sugar boiling in the pan that I realized that this "raspberry caramel" stuff I was making WAS CANDY - you know: caramel! And I don't make candy. I learned long ago, candy and I do not get along in the making process. But, since I'd bought fresh raspberries and gone to the trouble of extracting the juice, and since the cookie parts were already baked and waiting, I followed through the best I could. It did not turn out perfectly, but no one has complained so again, for sanity's sake, I'm going to assume they were eaten and enjoyed. But next time I'm buying caramel candies and frozen raspberry juice, and saving myself a lot of work. 

New Year's Eve 2012

It has been a pretty good year for me, all things considered. I mean, a whole year of being retired! Wow has it been nice!

It has had its ups and downs but the latter are mostly troughs self-imposed, in a way. I fight depression daily - not suicidal depression, just what you'd call The Whumps, which keep me inert and in my evil nest, over-eating and feeling useless. They're kind of cyclical and I've learned that when I'm feeling OK, like a grown-up, tending to my home and pets and friends and family, staying active (for me), I need to really double-down and get things done, because when The Whumps arrive, and they do, I have visible accomplishments to look at and think about, and that seems to both enshallow the trough, and shorten its duration.

I can tell I've succeeded to a measureable degree in resisting the allure of the evil nest because in the past 365 days, I have reduced my BMI by 3.1 units, having lost 8% of what my weight was on this day last year. I still have a long way to go but my approach seems to be working so I will continue to work on that. The less I weigh, the more I feel like moving around, so it's all good.

This spring and summer I also got out and just walked around my neighborhood a lot. I really enjoy that, and walking certainly shows you a LOT of interesting, amusing, and beautiful sights you don't notice when you drive past!

I got out and joined several local organizations: The Henry Doorly Zoo, Fontenelle Forest, Joslyn Art Museum, Lauritzen Gardens. All of these give me privileges that include hiking and walking, seeing wonderful things, and being with people, terrific places for practicing my own amateur art work and photography. They've certainly made it more fun for me to write blog posts here! And they've got me out of the house, which is the point. I also joined the neighborhood library's Mystery Book Club, which has been great fun.

In 2013 I will apply to volunteer for The Literacy Council of Omaha, hoping to be trained and then practice helping adults learn to read.

I am looking into what it would take to get into an Intro to Carpentry course at Omaha Metro Tech CC; there are several factors, not the least of which is the cost. But I have a chaotic garage full of tools from three generations of Hickman men:

(My son, looking put-out about it all. He helped me organize *some* of it, bless him. That's going Above and Beyond the Call of Duty!)

And it's high time I found out what all that stuff is, and figure out what I want to sell and what I want to keep. Because I could definitely see the use of knowing how to build simple wood projects and make simple repairs myself.

I've made strides in Getting Rid of Extra Stuff around here. There's a long way to go but the place is much nicer to inhabit already. Seeing the corners and spots where I've cleared away and cleaned out is inspirational. The Secret Project (the one hinted at in the picture with all those tools a few days ago) is kind of at a standstill until I get some additional advice from a friend who knows how to do that stuff, but once it's done, that will eliminate a hindrance to rapid progress in this realm. Also it will help in a different realm. Isn't that mysterious though? Don't be too impressed or you'll be disappointed when I report success, lol.

I've enjoyed honing my baking skills by 1) baking cookies once a month to send to my grand-daughter! She seems to appreciate them (she's just 4 so isn't terribly articulate about it yet) and her folks *definitely* do. and 2) Switching to baking almost all of my own bread. I really love bread-baking and it's a great way to boost the nutrients of what I eat.

Somewhere around April I seem to have emerged from a long dark cave I entered when Bob died. It took more than 5 years, five years during which I thought I was doing OK the whole time, but sometime early this year I stopped looking back and started looking forward. I don't make resolutions, but I can say, I like the view forward better.

And here is one of my favorite things about 2012:

That's a billion-dollar piece of machinery that humans sent up into space and actually landed on the surface of another planet, and that is now sending back incredible amounts of data about that planet, all remotely-controlled. I am so glad I stayed up late the night they landed Curiosity during the famous 8 Minutes of Terror! That was a lifetime high point, just watching it. Wow wow wow wow!

Halftime

I bit off more than I can chew, again. Only got halfway through the cookie-baking plan. This is what halfway looks like:

I'll finish up tomorrow, and then start making the packages. Once they're in the mail Friday, I might just go celebrate with my second viewing of The Hobbit...

Another ! Mystery !

Like any good story-teller, I've left you hanging after that last post, haven't I? I bet you're dying of curiosity. Well, sorry 'bout that, but you're going to have to wait a day or two for the mystery to be revealed. Because - tada! - I've got another project to do today! Here's a hint:

And speaking of KitchenAid (R) mixers, I just found a *wonderful* video showing what to do if your mixer leaks oil! (Mine doesn't but I understand it can be a problem if it sits around a lot without being used. Plus, mine is probably 20 years old so I bet it wouldn't hurt to do this procedure anyway. AND I have all the tools!) 

Anyway - the video is here.  And I sure hope that guy gets ALL the presents his heart desires. WHAT a huge help this video is!

Must run - my kitchen is calling to me...

Uh-oh.

Be afraid. 

Be very afraid.

Goodbye, dear little friend.

Tonight I'm watching Doctor Who DVDs and eating KFC, just me and my two kitties.

This morning I had three kitties.

The Empress, Prolix P. Hickman (aka Lixie), age 17 years, who has been dwindling for a year or more, presented symptoms this weekend that told me it was time to help her bring her life to a painless, peaceful ending. She went to sleep in my arms this afternoon, with my words of love and thanks in her ear. The veterinarian and his helper were wonderfully kind and understanding.

My other two kitties, Adams (the boy) and O'Keefe (the girl), are siblings. They're Maine Coon cats, fluffy and ten years old; just in the past year O'Keefe has blossomed into a beautiful cat with resplendent ruff and glossy black overcoat. It was almost like she was getting ready to become the new Empress. She didn't get any smarter. Adams isn't very bright, either. They're both as smart as they need to be, though. They're my sweet little cats.

I didn't think having just two would feel so different than having three.

It's really Autumn

What with the wacky weather we've had this fall, I was able to deny it longer than usual. But, now the nights are cold enough that I've turned on the furnace, and my going-to-sleep thoughts have been on where I stashed the leftover interior window-sealing plastic (drat it, I don't have enough so I'll have to go to the hardware store), and today shortly before noon I looked out the back window and saw this:

and if that's not Autumn light, nothing is. It drew me outside with my camera. 

My neighbor's garage, I hope he never "smartens" it up

My happy Buddha in his Clematis arbor

My brush pile in the back corner, home to garter snakes, rabbits, squirrels and birds. And, it appears, poison ivy, but that's all over the yard.

And I put together a squash-apple bake yesterday; chunks of tart apples and butternut squash baked with walnuts, raisins, and a drizzle of maple (flavored) syrup. 

I changed my bathroom theme from Paris to Autumn.

And I (foolishly, no doubt) got all enthused about knitting myself a sweater so I found a free downloadable pattern on Ravelry, and ordered the wool to knit it.

Something that's been bugging me for, oh, over a year, was that the new doors I put on my back yard shed had a gap between them, and suddenly today I found myself out there with my cordless drill, a trio of mismatched screws, a strip of board, my skinny little manual band saw (if that's what it is), and a pitiful assortment of clamps, most of which didn't fit the project. However, in an hour, I had the gap closed and a nice job of it I did, if I do say so myself. Felt like freaking Wonder Woman, I did, and came inside to brag about it in my journal and as I wrote the date, I remembered. 

It took me until 5:15 pm to remember that six years ago tonight my husband died in my arms.

Going to Paris in 2007 was my attempt to put something so spectacularly great in October that it wouldn't be a miserable month for me forever after.  Going last week was just because I love Paris so much, but it seems my strategy of using Paris to re-color October has worked. Since I returned last Saturday, all my time has been taken up with talking about, thinking about, writing about, and messing with my photos of, Paris, or dealing with the crappy head cold I got Monday, or doing housework, or sleeping. Until 5:15 this evening, I didn't remember October 21, 2006. 

That's a good thing. His absence is a daily ache, a constant hole in my heart. I don't need to ruin our favorite month of the year with additional pain. 

I've changed my mind. I *am* going to buy candy and go get as many second-hand kids' spooky books to hand out on Hallowe'en as I can find and afford. I am going to do a little fall decorating. I love Autumn.

In light of the NINE HOUR LAYOVER I have at O'Hare before my plane leaves for Paris, I've bought a scarf kit to knit to help while away the wait. It is NOT a cheap deal, neither the kit nor the circular needles I got (didn't think I'd want to be crawling around on the plane floor chasing escaping double-pointed needles - they do, occasionally cast off the something-something bonds of knitting and fling themselves onto the floor), so I am gambling some money that TSA will let me take it on board. I have heard from many knitters all over the country that MOST of the time there is not the slightest bit of trouble - particularly if you've got a project ON the needles - so I shall cross my fingers and give it a go.

I *love* the colors. The kit's got five one-ounce skeins of different colors that you work into gradually. It's ribbon yarn, which I haven't used before, but it's no different knitting than wool.  The pattern says to cast on 241 stitches; it's meant to be way long, and 5 inches wide, with the pattern looking "sideways," which *is* a cool look, but I do not do well with so many stitches to cast on. I tried that with the shawl and the first knitting class I ever took, not too many months ago, and I only lasted 2 lessons. I got fed up with the pattern, disgusted with my knitting, and grew to loathe the yarn, so I just dumped the project and frogged the work and am waiting for the right pattern for that yarn. It is nice yarn, in a color I like, so it will get used.

Here's what the Mountain Colors scarf looks like so far:

I put down the Hedgerow sock a couple weeks ago. I'm not discouraged, I just got bored with it. I'll pick it up when I get back from my trip. I've made a right hash of the stitch pattern, LOL. It's supposed to look like this:

See the nice neat lines down the sock? Where'd my lines go? Hahahaha! I *think* I might have mis-counted a time or two - whaddya think?

Maybe it won't look that bad once they've been gently washed and blocked. Blocking solves a multitude of seeming problems, they say.

I've found someone who's willing to work with me to dye some wool in exactly the colorway I've had in my head for years, but have never been able to find anywhere. If we can do it, I'll get enough to make a whole sweater! But that'll be later in the year, too.

Other creative things...I baked peanut butter chip chocolate cookies tonight for my September dozen I'll send to my granddaughter. Yes, I know, it's past September, but I'm hoping she won't notice.

I'm starting to see references to NaNoWriMo crop up in peoples' blogs and Live Journal posts. I'm resisting...resisting...I never did anything with last year's novel because once it had sat for a few months, I realized it really WAS crapola and had too many problems of ALL sorts to make it worth trying to get it into shape. I'm glad I did it, though. That was the breakthrough NaNoWriMo novel for me, it proved I could do it. But I'm resisting the pull...what is that strange attraction about, anyway, I wonder?

On yet the other hand, B & N tells me Gwen Hernandez's Scrivener for Dummies is in the mail wending its way toward me, finally.  I'll have some days after Paris to study it before November 1...I believe Scrivener is what enabled me to finish the novel last year, and it's got so many powerful tools I've not even scratched the surface...maybe...and last year, I was still working! This year, I'm retired! It should be a piece of cake!

See what I do to myself, every October?  Damn you, NaNoWriMo!  Every year your siren song turns my empty head...I have a LOT of time in airports and airplanes coming up. Maybe I could spend some of that time rooting around in the attic for novel ideas...