Throwing in the Towel

Ok, I've had it.  I'm sick of all these Biggest Loser things at gyms and all of the women losing this percentage and that percentage of their body mass.  Blah, Blah, Blah.

This new year, I'm going to start a new trend.  It's going to be called the Fatest Winner.  Let's all see if we can GAIN 20% of our body mass!  Shouldn't be hard, right?

I bet I'll get a lot of followers.

We'll be HUGE.  Ha ha, pun intended.

What do you think?  Are you on board?  Trade in the running shoes for fat pants?  Healthy snacks for fried oreos?  Can you resist this?

What I Did On Thanksgiving

And I didn't fall off this time because I knew I was jumping.

Makes a big difference when she says "jump over that jump" instead of "trot over that jump"!

That swishing noise must be someone sweeping right behind k-ster.

And that's Myla the wonder dog slinking around.  She was so afraid of k-ster that she sat in the ring, trembling and at one point, you might r-ster actually dragging her away from the jump.   That's not an aid for jumping or anything!

Knit One, Purl Two

For this Feel Good Friday, I'll show you some of my accomplishments that I feel pretty darned glad about finishing!

 

I've been a little busy with the pony hats and trying to dismantle and reassemble k-ster's winter coat (more on that later) among other tricks and treats.  This is a neat corkscrew scarf that is available on my etsy.  It's the craziest thing to knit.  You start with like 100 stitches and when you're done, you have 720 on circular needles. I can't even explain why it works, but it's neat.

I like to think it's ironic that I'm modeling a scarf in a tank top.

I've made a couple of sweaters before, but they always look homemade.  And this time, I was determined to use a lighter yarn.  One that IS NOT acrylic.

That meant I had to go to a real yarn store and speak to real women about my real plan and cringe as they looked at me like I had no real business being there.

I found the pattern online and bought some washable wool.  I get very itchy in all wool, but I thought this might be OK.  It's very soft.  So far.

And you buy it like this, which means you're serious about your work, right?  No tube of Red Heart Yarn here!


After much confusion about assembling it, by the grace of God, it turned out looking like a real sweater!

I should fire my photographer, cutting off my face, like that!

The now common in my posts midriff shot.  This was a mistake as I was setting the self timer, but it lets you see the detail better, right?  RIGHT?

It still looks more homemade than I would like, but it's not bad.  And my on the fly alterations worked just like I wanted.  This sweater is VERY stretchy and that's a VERY good thing.

I went on youtube when I realized I had no idea how to sew raglan seams.  The idea I got was so brilliant, I sewed all of my seams that way and removed the bulk.  What did we do before youtube?  Oh yeah, we started projects and threw them away when we couldn't figure them out.

I'm debating making another one but a little larger. I would like it to be a little looser.  I'm not a tight sweater kind of person. I'm not a tight anything kind of person.  My pants would say otherwise, but I do like this to flow a little more.

I didn't have to pay full price for the yarn because I bought a gift certificate super cheap at an auction.  Now I have to think about what I want to do if I make another one.

K-ster has a Tommy Hilfiger coat that has nothing wrong with it, but the teeth on the zipper came out.  I went to the cobbler but he said he couldn't do it and suggested I go to a seamstress.

Hellno!

I went to Joann fabrics and bought a parka zipper for like $4 with a coupon (maybe less after the coupon).  The old one was a bitch to remove.  It was sewn in a couple of different ways to make it look really pretty and neat and tidy. 

I think I did a pretty decent job replacing it!  I didn't fold it and sew it from a million different angles like Tommy did, but it's wearable and no one will know the difference.

I even managed this complicated little foldover doohickey.

Give Thanks For Meeting Me

After you make and try this recipe, you will be so madly in love with me, you'll become my newest stalker.  I swear.

Last year, we went to my sister a-ster's for Thanksgiving.  It was just the 4 of us, with baby l-ster on the way, and my sister made the whole meal, not allowing much help from me.

She did a lot of the same recipes that we grew up with but with a few additions.  I have stolen this one and then added my own twist and when we become famous on the food network, I declare this will be our signature recipe.

First, the practically no-cal version:

12oz cranberries

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch green onions chopped to 3in lengths

1 jalapeño minced

Juice of two lines

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch salt

Put everything in food processor until desired consistency. 

Then you dip whatever you want into it.  By the time she made this, I was so hungry I could have dipped my toe into and eaten my entire foot off.  I think we dipped tortilla chips and I'm pretty sure I dipped celery into it.  I also think I might have just dipped my fork into it and eaten like it was the main course, when she wasn't looking.

Since I had a few trillion cranberries left from earlier this fall, I asked her for the recipe so I could use it this "salsa" for Thanksgiving.

Here it is, all ready for dipping.

And then I thought, hey let's really ramp up the calories and the tangy flavor with some cream cheese and stuff celery with it!

 I have no idea what quantities of the cranberry "salsa" I used or the cream cheese, but just add enough until it looks like this.

You may be thinking this is the most bizarre combination of flavors, but I promise you, your mouth will be working on enjoying these flavors for the rest of this year. 

I stuffed the celery and then had some left, so i just dipped some celery pieces into it.  I don't think there is anything you can't dip into this. 

And the salsa is great on the turkey meat itself.

 And extra great on fingers as you lick the bowl clean.

Feed My Addiction

I have received one comment in the past week.  ONE.  I don't usually get hundreds, but I do usually get at least one per day.

Is something broken?  Are you trying to leave me comments and it won't work?

I'm getting traffic.  I can see my stats.  I know you're there.

Why aren't you saying anything?

One of the most fun parts of blogging is the comments!!  I've been out there, commenting my brains out, even though I'm busy with the holidays.

I'm ok with just a HA or funny!  or I KNOW!  for a comment.

So comment, dammit!

Please?

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mine grows nicely in November, thank you very much.

This is the big experiment winter, now that the greenhouse finished.  Remember, I live in New England, so I'm supposed to be done with the gardening.  I have always been able to keep broccoli and Swiss chard going right until Christmas, so this is nothing new.

Planting new seedlings of both in the greenhouse IS new.

I am not heating the greenhouse.  It's not very tight and it would be silly to waste the money.  I'm not selling my produce or anything.  I have everything closed up and lots of black fabric.  It gets really warm during the day, sometimes too warm, but once the sun goes down, it's as cold inside as it is outside.

 It's hard to believe that we've had some frost and cold nights and these things are just blooming their brains out.  I took all of the rest of my outdoor flowers into school because it makes the front foyer look nice but I wanted to keep a few in the greenhouse and see what happens.

 Poor tomatoes.  They're trying to turn red but they aren't quite getting there.

 All summer, k-ster tried to get lavender to grow.  It was a real struggle.  and then suddenly, in September, things took off and they are now flowering.  In November!  They definitely didn't get the message.

 New broccoli.  I think they will be fine in the greenhouse and I predict actual broccoli florets in January!

 Very tiny Swiss chard seedlings.  I have them in this old wheelbarrow.  I planted some potatoes in the top part and the Swiss chard is here on the flatter part.  My theory is the black plastic of the wheelbarrow will make everyone happy.

 This hibiscus has had a very hard life.  I won it in an auction a long time ago and everything was fine until the summer I went to Belgium.  I went for a month and k-ster was in charge of the garden.  I left everything so that all he would have to do is water it. I put a lot of mulch down and figured whatever weeds would grow would be manageable once I got home in August.

He went to work with a self timer on the hose and thought he had it all figured out.  What he didn't know is that this poor hibiscus was in a pot that had no drainage.  It was a pot inside of a pot.  No idea how this happened.  It was sooooo swampy when I got home.

That was 2003 and it never flowered again.  I've been growing these sticks with some green leaves for all this time.

In August, I went to cut down the sticks and see if I could make it thrive from the bottom again and lo and behold, there were BUDS!  I got a few flowers then and now I have one more! 

 These are zinnias that I got from a 25 cent packet from the dollar store.  They have NOT been a disappointment!  I cut off the old blossoms and they keep growing taller and producing more.  These are not as tall as I am 5'2" and still plugging away!

 Out in garden #1, I still have Swiss chard and broccoli.  I put a lot of grass clippings around them when I mowed last weekend, so they are all snug for the cold.

 They are the lone soldiers left in the garden.  I'll probably harvest the chard one more time and then it will be done.  But I pick the broccoli as the florets form and they just keep producing more.

I picked this bagful today.  We eat the flowers too!  I have 9 plants and will probably get enough for the two of us to eat a few more times.  I haven't blanched the broccoli like I did with the green beans because I always seem to have just enough for supper, never enough to put away for later.

Finally- A Legitimate Use For The Poof

You know the poof.  The bath poof.   You get them every Christmas.  From well meaning people.  Who think you aren't washing yourself properly and need some help in the shower.

I used to think they were great.  And then I started thinking about the bacteria festival that goes on in those things after just one use and I was done.  D-U-N.  DONE.

And then k-ster started seeing them and thought I liked them, so every Christmas, he gets me a couple.  I even made a big deal last year about how I don't like them.  And please don't get me any more.

He thought I was kidding.

When I left it with my Christmas presents and didn't do anything with it right away, he brought it into the shower and stuck it to the wall with the handy suction cup.  In case I forgot what it was for.

And it sat there until today.  Because I take most of my showers outside and didn't really see it there.

But today, it was time to clean the bathroom.  It's been stinking lately.  Of toilet.  No matter what I do, all I can smell is toilet.  And after all my scrubbing today, it still smells like toilet. 

I realized that I can use the poof to scrub---- the bathroom!!!  OF COURSE!  It lathers nicely when I put Ajax on it and it's a nice handful of scrubber.  I just went crazy in the tub, scrubbing and having a grand old time!

Now, I can toss it in the wash after I use it and when it falls apart, I won't care because I used it.  For scrubbing!  Just not on my body.

**Don't criticize me for my harvest gold bathtub.  What, you don't scrub the very tub you grew up using?  The one that was put in circa 1970 something?  When all anyone could see were 4 colors:  brown, orange, gold and avocado?  It's lost its luster, so it's a bitch to clean, but now that I have my handy dandy poofs, nothing can stop me!

I thought I'd wrap the package all neatly with a picture of the floor.  Yep, the original linoleum.  From the day linoleum was invented, I think.  I have this in two bathrooms!  I'm so lucky!

Feel Good Friday

It's so hard to find Feel Good Friday moments lately.  My days pass in a frantic haze.  But I'll try.

We did a one mile walk or run this morning at school and I chose to run.  I enjoyed it and didn't even get sweaty.  It was COLD!

Along the lines of physical activity, I taught my spin class tonight and it was fun.  Kind of like old times!  Part of this is because I found a lot of music that had been deleted out of itunes, for reasons I still cannot understand.

K-ster made supper on Wednesday which pretty much preserved our relationship because I had a lesson until 7pm and was hungry before I even went.  It's amazing how when someone else has made supper, eating it at 7:15 isn't such a big deal.  If I had had to make it myself, I probably would have gnawed off my hand in the process.


Lia sophia has COMPLETELY lost their minds.  From now until Christmas, you can buy 1 item at full price and get TWO at half price.  As always, the most expensive items are half price!  Truly insane.  Let's get shopping, ladies!  I'll have it shipped to you in time for the holidays if you get your order in by December 16th.

And the best thing to feel good about:  we have two half days and then 3 days off next week.  The half days are actually full days for teachers, but I only have to teach in the morning, so this is a good thing.

Now go write your own feel good Friday moments and then come back here and tell us  where to go!

Turks and K-ster

It happened again.

We had some visitors. 

They were quite as plentiful as last time and they were definitely younger and smaller.

No matter their size, I just think wild turkeys are the most bizarre creatures! They are so prehistoric looking.  I always feel like I'm looking at dinosaurs when I look at them.

They paid us a visit the other morning, just as we were both leaving.  They didn't seem too fazed by us and since there were no males, nobody got all puffed up and aggressive.

K-ster has an app on his phone for animal calls, so he played the turkey call.  I figured it was so digitized they wouldn't even know.  It was intriguing.  They didn't immediately react, but they started making noises and moving toward the sound.  He played it a few times. 

 THen he was like the pied piper, ushering the turkeys down the lane.

Everyone wants to know if he got one.  You cannot shoot females.

Plus, it's way too easy when they are dining right in your driveway.  And he's too much of a softy to really kill one.  I'm pretty sure.

Besides, who shoots a turkey at 7:30 and then hops in the truck to go to work???