By the Itching of My Thumbs

Have you ever had one of those moments when you do something and almost immediately your mind catches up with your actions and you think, "Oh, oh.....that wasn't wise!"  I'm thinking this morning was one of those moments.

It started out great.  The morning dawned cool...even cold by my standards.  This was perfect weather to get outside and do some weeding, especially since we were going to have company arriving tomorrow.  The front flowerbed was in bad need of attention and since the Commander didn't seem to be stepping up to the plate, I figured I'd better do it so that our guests didn't need to be issued pith helmets to make it to the front door.

I dressed in a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, put on work gloves and headed outside.  I hate yard work but the cool breeze made it tolerable and soon the front bed looked pretty good.  But did I stop there? Oh no, I was on a roll.

I decided to go around to the side of the house and trim back the butterfly bushes to encourage them to bulk up their trunks.  I trimmed the sides of the bushes, too so that my coleus plants could be seen between each bush.  I was working my way down the side to the end where our lilac bush was and was almost finished when I trimmed some shoots and grabbed the fallen ones and pulled them out onto the yard.  I pulled, dropped, and pushed my glasses up onto my nose.  Then I took a closer look at what I had just dropped onto the yard.  Crikey!  "Leaves of three, let it be!"

Oh, no....this was almost exactly where the poison oak had gotten me two years ago.  That was a real disaster which had one of my arms swollen up like a balloon, festering sores over my arm and chest, and ended with a visit to the emergency room and a shot in the backside after 3 weeks of misery.  After that little joyride my doctor had forbidden me to do yard work since I was obviously now quite sensitized to poison plants.  I didn't do any yard work last year.  But I'm more apt to cave in due to feeling shamed by the state of our yard than the Commander and the thought of company seeing a tangled mess was what had me outside today.

I dropped everything and fled inside.  The first thing I did was scrub my hands and face with warm soapy water.  The next thing I did was get out of my work clothes and take a long shower, sudsing everything down with soap.  The clothes went into the wash (and I did NOT touch them with my hands.  I used a towel to pick them up and put them in the wash.)

Now I'm praying that I was quick enough that this time I will have escaped the consequences.  Darn, I don't want to have to go through all of the "seeping swamp monster" stuff again.  And as for all the debris on the side of the yard?  I showed it to the Commander and told him "Have at it!"  You can fool me once.  You can fool me twice.  But a third time?  Shame on me!

Baby's Got a Brand New Skin

Gelaskin covering the back of my iPad

I'm still playing with my new iPad 2 and the latest accessory I've added to it is this nifty new Gelaskin cover for the front and back. 

I first encountered Gelaskins several years ago when I ordered one for my laptop.  I didn't use one of their stock designs.  Instead I used one of my old photographs of myself as a young girl and added a little slogan and the custom skin came back just as nice as could be.  It still looks brand-new and has protected my laptop cover from scratches most effectively.

This time around I again chose one of my own photographs to upload to the Gelaskin folks and within a week, I received my new custom skin cover for the front and back.  These skins are re-positionable and can be removed without leaving any residue.  How neat is that?

Gelaskin covering the front of iPad

Even cooler, the folks at Gelaskin email you a wallpaper image to go on your device that is perfectly sized to align with the skin border that you will be installing on the front.  Isn't that neat?

Since I'm a prairie gal, I picked a photo I had taken at Pioneer Village outside of Worthington, Minnesota.  This was inside an old sod house that had been reconstructed onsite and furnished with belongings from early residents of Nobles County, where our farm was located.  That's one reason the picture is special to me.  The other reason is that I love to spin fiber and when I first spotted the old spinning wheel sitting in the sleeping area, I immediately felt an affinity with the lady of the house who must have spent many evenings spinning wool while listening to the wind howling outside.  I remember reading once that many women in the early days of life on the prairie went mad, a combination of the harsh living conditions, the constant moaning of the wind sweeping across the flat plains, and the loneliness.  But that's a story for another day.

Smart Cover still fits

The Gelaskin skin covers on the iPad do not interfere with the smart cover at all, which is nice since I also love my Smart Cover even if it isn't quite as exciting-looking as my custom skin. And to top it all off, I also received my new screen cleaning cloths in the mail today.

These are nice little cloths from Mobile Cloth and boy, do they ever work slick to remove fingerprints from the iPad screen.  For that matter, they also work great to clean the screens of my iPhone, my Kindle, and my Nook.  Yay, a multi-purpose tool!  Even better, they are inexpensive.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play with my toys until it is time for "So You Think You Can Dance."

What a Bag!

I know that I've only mentioned it in passing, since it was eclipsed momentarily by the big power outage we had over the holiday weekend, but I'm now the happy owner of an iPad.  Actually, as I'm discovering in iPad forums, I should probably be identifying myself in a manner such as this: "Dee/ 64GB Black WiFi iPad" and then, if I really wanted to be an Apple hardcore, I'd go on to also list the attributes of my iPhone and any other Apple devices I might own.  Back to the reason for this post, however.  Today the bag arrived that I had ordered to carry my iPad around in - a Tom Bihn Ristretto.  Tom Bihn makes the most fantastic bags and this one doesn't disappoint.

The general measurements are around 12" x 9" x 5" (click on the link I provided you to see the exact measurements) and it is designed slicker than our driveway after an ice storm.  There is plenty of space for my "must-have" gadgets and also my necessities to get out the door.

The back inside compartment has special padding with a clever padded flap that folds over your iPad after you slip it in.  The front divider has room for your e-reader (I put my Nook Color in here just because it is bigger than my Kindle 3 and I wanted to test the limits of my new bag), a small notebook, and a billfold.  There is also a zippered pocket where you can put things like your keys or credit cards.  The front section, which is under the flap when closed, has spots for pens, your cellphone, plus another small pocket where I intend to put a small pouch that holds some of my less frequently used credit cards and frequent-buyer cards.  Oh, and let's not forget the nice big slip-in pocket on the back of this bag.  It's not made for thick things but it is perfect for slipping in datebooks or airline tickets.

Comfort is always important to me and the Ristretto does not disappoint.  There is a very nice shoulder strap that can be worn either over your shoulder or across your chest like a messenger bag strap.  That's the way I prefer to carry my bags simply because I have such sloping shoulders that any straps I try to just sling over a shoulder are forever falling down my arm.  There is also a nice nylon web loop near the top back that is quite handy when you are just wanting to quickly grab the bag off a table or chair.  If you are so inclined to wear this bag around your waist, Tom Bihn has provided for that option as well.  There is a detachable waist strap included.

The proof is in the pudding, though, so let's take a look at what I put in the Ristretto.  I easily fit my iPad, my Nook Color, an iPhone, my wallet, a date planner, 2 pens, a small notebook, lipstick, and keys.  There were still plenty of small spaces to slip in other things like a pack of kleenex or other small items.

You might be wondering if Tom Bihn bags are durable.  Well, if past experience is any indicator, I have no doubt that this well-made bag will last a good long time.  I am already the proud owner of a Tom Bihn Swift bag that I have had for about 4 years now.  I carry it with me on all plane rides and use it as a purse and to carry my knitting supplies when I'm traveling.

It's made of the same sturdy fabric as my new Ristretto bag and this bag still looks new.  I recently took it to Indonesia with me where it saw some hard use for five weeks over there.  I LOVE this bag.  The only thing I would change on it is to have the option of a shoulder strap that I could wear across my chest but that's just me. 

The inside has clear see-through pockets, straps with clips for things like your keys, and the neatest little bag for holding a ball of yarn.  You can check here to read how this bag was designed specifically for knitters.  The company truly listened to the types of things we knitters wanted in a bag. 

But back to the Ristretto.....I tell you all this about the Swift just to illustrate how responsive this company is to the wants and needs of their customers.  I have no doubt that the same careful attention to the needs of iPad owners went into the design of the Ristretto.  I'm sure there are other good bags on the market for the iPad but I really don't think you can go wrong with a bag from Tom Bihn.  I know that I'm one happy 64 GB WiFi iPad owner. 

Watt's Up?

Well, not our power, that's for sure, but let me backtrack a bit.   Thursday started out to be a VERY promising day.  Guess what arrived one day ahead of schedule?  My iPad!

Luckily I was at home instead of off running errands or else the delivery fellow would not have left it at the door.  Apple requires a signature for these things to be delivered.  I signed for and grabbed that package faster than you could say "Christmas" and had it on my table and unwrapped even faster.

I had already received my Smart Cover earlier along with the device to transfer photos from your camera to the iPad so it wasn't long before I had the smart cover attached to the iPad and I was ready to read the instructions on how to use my new toy.

Gulp!  This was all that was included in the way of instructions.  One little playing card-sized sheet of "instructions."  Not much for someone who likes things written down step-by-step.  Luckily, I had picked up two books at the bookstore last week that gave much more detailed information on how to set up and use the iPad so I forged ahead.

Soon I was synching my new iPad with the help of iTunes and then I was off to the races, so to speak.  One of the first things I did was download the Season Two premiere of "Justified."  I wasn't sure if I should pick the HD version or the standard version.  I had plenty of memory in my iPad since I got the 64 GB version so the only variable seemed to be how fast my internet connection might be.  We have Verizon FiOS, which is pretty darn fast, so I picked the HD version.  Hmmm, I don't think I'm going to do that again.  It took almost 40 minutes to download one episode.  Next time I'll just pick the standard version.  I'm sure glad that I didn't purchase the entire season via HD.





So that afternoon I was enjoying playing with the iPad and also researching what apps would be good to put on it.  I was happily engaged in that activity when my friend sent me a text message.  Hmm, a tornado warning had been issued for our area.  About that time I got a text message from my hubby.  Same thing.....tornado warnings for our general area.  I grabbed the iPad and my iPhone (are you sensing a theme here?) plus my Kindle and headed to the basement.  That's where my hubby found me when he got home from work, in the recliner with my feet up, knitting and watching the Weather Channel.

The Commander joined me as things were starting to get exciting but suddenly the lights flickered.  Oh, no!  Another flicker!  I dashed upstairs to turn off my computer while he dashed into his computer room to turn off his and then I made sure both of the dogs where downstairs as I returned to "Command Central."  We had just made it to our seats when the room was plunged into darkness.  Drat!

To make a long story short, that was around 7 p.m. Thursday evening.  Dinner was heating in the oven so we ate supper by candlelight in the basement.  Luckily, the iPad, the Kindles, and our iPhones had a pretty good charge on them so we spent the rest of the evening reading and playing games on our devices.

Friday morning dawned with still no power.  I headed off to the library with my chargers, iPhone, iPad, and knitting.  I found a nice study carrel with plugs and plugged in things and then settled down to spend the morning.  By Friday afternoon, we were still in the dark.

At 9 p.m. Friday evening, our power finally came back on.  We had already spent time mopping up water around the freezer and the refrigerator where the ice maker tray had leaked.  Now it was time to assess the damage.  Yikes!  Most of our items in the freezer and the refrigerator were not salvageable.  We had to catalog and throw out a lot.  Thank goodness that our downstairs freezer had very little in it and that I had been making a real effort to use up what had been in our upstairs little freezer. It could have been worse.

At least this way, we had an excuse to clean our refrigerator/freezer surfaces, which made the Commander happy, although it wasn't exactly how I planned to spend the beginning of our holiday weekend.

I did really appreciate his help, though with all the throwing out of leftovers that were ruined and washing out the containers.  We made a good team of washers/dryers.  The dogs stood nearby and watched for crumbs.

Moral of the story?  Make sure your electronic devices are fully charged whenever possible because you never know when you might lose power, especially with all these horrible storms that have been sweeping through the country lately.  Second moral of the story?  Buy a generator!

Martha Stewart, I'm Not!

I love a good casserole.  In fact, if I can "dump, stir, and shove," I consider it a culinary triumph.  That's why I was delighted when I found this "chicken smash" recipe.  Throw some shredded chicken and shredded cheese in flour tortillas, roll them up, and then smother the whole shebang with a mix of cream of chicken soup, green chilis, chopped onions, and sour cream.

For its crowning glory?  Lots of shredded cheese, of course!  How can you go wrong with cheese?  Of course the recipe did say to boil up some boneless chicken breasts to use for the chicken but hey, why go to all that bother when there is perfectly good rotisserie chicken available in the supermarket?  I'm not about to touch raw meat it I don't have to.

I have a favorite character in a series of books by J. Michael Orenduff.  He writes the Pot Thief mysteries and if you haven't read his books, you should definitely give them a try, especially if you enjoy witty mysteries that make you chuckle.  The "pot thief" in his books is Hubie Schuze and Hubie is a bit of a food connoisseur.  He has a neighbor named Gladys Claiborne who delights in bringing him casseroles that are the stuff of nightmares for dear old Hubie.  Yet he finds himself occasionally admitting that they don't taste half-bad.  They always sound pretty darn good to me.  In fact, I recognize an awful lot of them.....have probably made quite a few of them myself.

If I can throw something together in 5 ingredients or less, hallelujah!  If one of those ingredients is a can of cream of something soup, even better.  If another ingredient is cheese, I'm in nirvana.

In contrast, I also made a Lemon Merinque Cake today for a social gathering that I'm attending tomorrow.  It was a fussy recipe involving lots of steps.

I think it will taste pretty good.  It has a nice lemon ganache in the middle of the torte and a fluffy cream cheese, lemon juiced and zested and whipped cream topping on top of that.  But I slaved all afternoon over it.  And when I went to put the cover over the holder, it smushed the topping down along the sides.  Drat!

I just hope the ladies at the luncheon tomorrow don't blanch when I unveil it and let them know that it is a new recipe.  The last "new recipe" I tried on them was the one for the maple syrup sausages that turned out hard as rocks when the maple syrup solidified because I let it boil over the sausages too long and it turned into rock candy.


My chicken enchildada smash casserole is out of the oven now and cooling the requisite fifteen minutes before serving.  It certainly smells good.  As I head off to enjoy it, I'll leave you with this pic of little Mika.  She's turning into quite the water baby down in Houston, as the family awaits the arrival of her little brother.

How DARE You Preempt My Show?

This was to be the big week of season finales for many of my favorite TV shows.  I had carefully  gone over the TV Guide and coordinated our viewing schedule with the Commander.  Where there was a conflict, he had set up our DVR to record shows so that we could watch them later.  We were all set!

Tuesday evening I was in my favorite recliner, knitting in hand, and had just settled down to watch NCIS when it happened.  Twenty-five minutes into the season finale.....in what was promising to be a real cliff-hanger, the local TV affiliate broke into the show and started giving us a severe weather warning. 

OK, it's probably a good idea to know if a tornado is headed your way.  Even Jethro Gibbs would agree with that statement.  But come on, folks!  Five minutes later, they were still showing us doppler radar and telling us the track of the storms and expected arrival times as well as giving us advice about where to head inside your house in case of an approaching tornado.  Ten minutes later.....same thing.  Fifteen minutes later......same old thing.

Who knocked my NCIS off the air?  Just let me at them!

By this point, my blood pressure was approaching the boiling point and I was practicing my sailor's vocabulary as I addressed the news station, loudly.

"They'll probably switch back to the show after the alert runs out," called the Commander from the computer room.  (He was wisely keeping out of my line of fire.....just in case.)

Thirty minutes into the weather commentary I had had enough.  I stalked upstairs, put my head in the freezer while I tried to cool off, and then decided to make myself a large plate of cheesy nachos.  Nothing says "relax" like a tasty snack.

"They've just switched over to "NCIS: LA," my husband called upstairs, "and they've promised the viewers that they will let it run in its entirety."


"Who cares," I hollered back.  "They've already ruined my entire evening."

Just then, the microwave dinged and the nachos were ready. OK, so maybe things were starting to look up.  But I'll tell you this, I will not EVER watch a local newscast voluntarily on that channel ever again.  Hell hath no fury like a viewer preempted!

Spin Me a Fish Tale

The spinning retreat is history and my wheel is set up once more in my craft room.  I unpacked the last of the fiber samples today, put the extra bobbins back in their spot, and should have all of my needles reorganized soon.  There's always a certain hint of sadness when I return from a retreat like this.  I miss the camaraderie of fellow knitters and/or spinners.

I probably won't spin a lot of these fibers again simply because I tend to purchase 4 oz. packages of dyed and prepared fiber.  I think I have "fiber ADD" in that I get bored very easily when I'm spinning and 4 oz. of spinning one colorway is about all I can handle before I'm ready to move on to the next color combination.  It IS a good feeling, though, to know that I CAN flick locks or card wool or comb it if I have to.  I know how to do those things and, should the need arise, I can prepare and spin fiber in less processed forms.

Saturday afternoon I left the retreat and headed straight over to our church for the dress rehearsal of our children's musical.  That's me, the old overgrown "kid" in the middle.  Despite being exhausted from 4 days of knitting, spinning, and not enough sleep, I managed to get through my scenes.

We gave two performances of "Fish Tales" on Sunday and the congregation in each of the services seemed to enjoy it.

I had a sore throat but only had one choking spell (unfortunately in a scene where I had lots of lines).  Since there was no good spot to turn off my mike, I just hacked away and then made some comment about having a fish caught in my throat.  Groan!

Speaking of fish, we only had one little mishap when one of the children was supposed to pull a fish out of the "pond" attached to her fishing line.  The fish came up fine but then fell off her hook down below the stage.  She looked at me with big eyes because the next few lines were all about admiring the fish.  Not to worry.....I handed her a fishing net and suggested that the kids try to "net" the fish.  Luckily the little magnet on the end of her line snared the fish yet again.  I didn't dare try to get down on my stomach and try to reach the fish myself because it would have taken half the cast to get me back on my feet again, I'm sure.

I even got to do a kazoo solo and let me tell you, I was sweating it about that.  I never knew that playing a kazoo could be so challenging.  I couldn't get a buzz out of that thing initially but eventually I got the hang of it.  I swear that kazoos were round, white things back when I was a kid.  Maybe there is a different technique to the ones today.

I managed to do most of the choreography for the songs and remembered most of the words to the choruses although I did get a little freaked out at one point when the girls faded out on me and I was practically singing a solo - on a section that I didn't know all that well.  Here I thought that I'd just lip synch through the parts that I didn't know very well and let the kids do the singing in the spots where I was shaky.  Not to be, eh?

The kids who had the speaking parts did great.  They got their lines down pat and also did a great job on their solos.  All in all, I had a lot of fun being back on stage.  Now I just have to get through one more performance at a retirement community and then we can put "Fish Tales" to bed.

On Fiber Overload

It's been a busy few days of spinning and knitting.  Yesterday and today we've been spending the mornings flicking or combing fiber and then spinning it up.

Once we've spun enough to ply, we've made up little sample skeins for ourselves and have been encouraged to knit up little swatches, when we have the time. 

I haven't found that time because I've been too busy working on the Pine and Ivy shawl for the knitting portion of our retreat most evenings.

Anne Hanson has been giving us some fantastic lessons in lace knitting and then sitting with us while we work our way through the shawl patterns we've chosen.  Today's lesson was particularly insightful as she brought out swatch after swatch in different yarns to show us how the same pattern can vary so much in appearance, texture, and size by using a different yarn.

I've been working LATE every evening trying to get more rows done on this shawl although I'm usually so tired that I end up knitting the same row over and over as I make foolish mistakes.  I was thrilled, however, when yesterday Anne came over and picked up what I've done so far and showed it to the class.  I'm hoping some of her expertise will rub off on my needles just by her having touched them.

We also did a little exercise in provisional cast-ons yesterday, knitting a tiny swatch and then going back to pick up the live stitches from the provisional cast-on edge.

I always run into trouble when it comes time to take out the provisional stitches but Anne showed us the trick to easily removing them.

Now I'm headed to bed to do a little reading and then to call it a night.  We have one more day of spinning and knitting and then our retreat is over this year.  Phooey!  Just like last year, it's been a great experience.

On Site and Ready to Spin

I headed out today to the Pheasant Field Bed and Breakfast in Carlisle, PA for a 4-day fiber spinning workshop with one of my favorite spinning shop owners, Beth Smith from the Spinning Loft and one of my favorite knitting pattern designers, Anne Hanson. 

I've got my own room with private bath.  How lovely!  And I've only been dive-bombed by 2 stink bugs so far.  My friend, Linda will appreciate the fact that I just screamed very quietly when I saw them.  Usually, she has been my stink bug killer when we've gone to scrapbooking retreats but this time around, I have to be brave and get those buggers myself.  Ugh!

There's a little desk and a TV.  This week is a pretty momentous week for some of my TV shows so I might be tempted to retire early several nights to watch my shows but then again, if my hubby will PROMISE to DVR them for me, I'll try to concentrate on my knitting and spinning.

To help me keep that resolve, there's a lovely chair in the corner where I can curl up and knit.  I still am working on two sleeves for my Havre de Grace sweater and I might get a good bit of it done.  Then again, since we'll also be working on a lace shawl as part of our class, I might not get any of it done and just work on the shawl.

Time to call it an evening so that I'm wide awake tomorrow morning.  Breakfast is at 8 and then it's a full day of fibery delights.  Yippee!  And may I send any further stink bugs your way?

Ladies, Start Your Wheels!

Day One of our spinning retreat and we're off and running.  Well, we're off and spinning, I guess I should say.  Every seat had a goody bag filled with different kinds of fiber when we arrived but we had to control ourselves and not dig into it before our instructor, Beth Smith gave us the go-ahead.

First on the agenda was a lovely bag of Polwarth wool.  This was what we practiced on this morning, as we tried different wheel settings to spin laceweight yarn.  It was quite educational to observe all the different wheels in use and how each person's yarn varied.  One of our spinners was spinning yarn so thin that a normal camera couldn't even capture a picture of it.  We needed a hi-definition camera to see the thread.

Mine wasn't any where near that fine.  However, it was a lot thinner than I had been spinning it.  My main goal this retreat is to learn how to get more yardage out of my fiber and I'll just be thrilled if I can get around 400 yds. of plied yarn from 4 oz. of fiber.  The spinner in the previous paragraph HAD been spinning around 800 yds. of yarn from 4 oz. of fiber.  Wow!

We even had "guests" in our class.  One of our group brought her two greyhounds with her.  She set up their cushions by her wheel and they settled right down and slept while we spun.

After a great lunch, we switched to the lace knitting portion of our retreat with Anne Hanson.  I'm doing her Pine and Ivy shawl pattern.  Casting on 303 stitches for the small version was challenging simply because it was afternoon and I'd had a big lunch but then, once I started knitting, I really had to keep on my toes from the sheer terror of thinking I might lose my place in the pattern and not be able to figure out where I had been.  Thank goodness for a growing ability to "read" my stitches, which DOES help, if that happens.

Now I'm back in my room and ready to put my feet up and work some more on my shawl.  It's a long day when you've been in a spinning class for 4 hours (doesn't that sound so physical?), especially when you say that you "covered a lot of territory."  Ha!  As if this body would ever be poured into spandex and sweating on a bicycle in a gym.