Our day in the kitchen......

Remember these boxes of apples? Well, now it is down to one box. Our day was spent in the kitchen making 33 pints of applesauce.



Everyone helped.












And two apple strudels. (One went to the neighbors already)



Later in the week, I will tackle the other box and make one batch of apple preserves and dry the rest.

My plans for the weekend

Almost 100 pounds of apples to be turned into applesauce, muffins, and





other goodies like this....apple betty.






And dd's CIC vest that we finished last week. It's clickable so you can see the colors closely.

ARGHHHH! Matey!!

Today is..........International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Just before Pirates of the Caribbean 2 came out this year, there was an article in the local newspaper about pirates. There are several local pirate groups, and the international talk like a pirate day originated here in Oregon!! If you go to the Pirate website listed below, read the article written by Mad Sally about Keep to the Code.

Here's what was yesterday's Word-A-Day: Buccaneer


Guest Wordsmith John (Ol' Chumbucket) Baur
(chumbucketATtalklikeapirate.com) writes:

Every September 19 people around the world celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day. It's been marked on all continents -- even Antarctica. Why? Because it's fun, it's anarchic. Its very whimsy -- trying to get everyone on the planet to talk like a stereotypical Caribbean buccaneer on the same day each year -- sets it apart from other holidays.

The holiday had its genesis during a racquetball game between John Baur and Mark Summers, two friends in Albany, Oregon. It was a private joke that went around the world. The rest is, if not history, at least a good story, which you can read at their Web site http://www.talklikeapirate.com . To help you celebrate the day this year, we offer a sampling of words
based on pirate lingo.

A note -- I've often heard people talk about pirates' "cockney accents." Wrong! The stereotypical pirate has a Cornish accent, based on the performance of Long John Silver by actor Robert Newton in the 1950 Disney version of "Treasure Island". He was from Cornwall, and his over-the-top performance and native accent are the reason people think that's what a pirate sounded like. Of course, pirates came from all nationalities. But the pop culture image is firmly embedded, and Robert Newton is the reason why.

John Baur worked 23 years in the newspaper business and two years as a university science writer before casting his lot as a pirate author and performer. He and Summers are co-authors of the book "Pirattitude!")

buccaneer (buk-uh-NEER) noun

1. An unscrupulous adventurer in politics, business, etc.

2. A pirate.

[From French boucanier (buccaneer, barbecuer, hunter of wild ox), from boucan (a frame for smoking meat), from Tupi mukem.]

Today's word in Visual Thesaurus:
http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=buccaneer

Buccaneer comes from a French adaptation of a Carib Indian word bukan, a way of slow-cooking meat over a low fire on a grill. The first bouncaniers were interlopers in "Spain's" Caribbean, and the Spaniards tried to drive them out. It was only too easy for England to recruit the buccaneers into attacking Spanish interests. So modern day barbecuers, with their Webber gas grills and comical aprons, are actually descendants of the classic Caribbean pirates.

"[Greg] Palast's book is packed with groundbreaking new information about the corruption of empire, the lies of our leaders and the raiding of the treasury by crony capitalists and corporate buccaneers." John Nichols; Giving 'em Hell - And the Truth; The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin); Sep 7, 2006.

Sponsored by:

Ever wonder why we don't just talk, we chew the fat? Derivation, ahilarious
game about word and phrase origins. A great gift! http://entspire.com Monthly French, German, Italian and Spanish cultural audio magazines for intermediate-to-advanced learners. http://web.champs-elysees.com/wsmith1


............................................................................
Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions ... are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends. -Walter Lippman, journalist (1889-1974)

Discuss this week's words on our bulletin board: http://wordsmith.org/board

Remove, change address, gift subs:
http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html

Pronunciation:
http://wordsmith.org/words/buccaneer.wav
http://wordsmith.org/words/buccaneer.ram

Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/buccaneer.html

YIKES!!

Blogger is so slow today and they have an outage scheduled for this afternoon. No pictures here.

I just posted my tea stash to the Knitter's Tea Swap 2 site. Check it out here!

It's as bad as the yarn stash!!

I have done absolutely no knitting since getting back, just sitting and reading emails, blogs, etc. Dd has a cold and is keeping to her room. She's trying to take care of herself for once. She's also got some really good audiobooks right now. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, So you want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane, Holes by Louis Sachar, The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, The Christmas Doll by Elvira Woodruff, and Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath. I know she has listened to the first one and is on the second one now. She likes both of them. And my parents think she isn't learning anything because she's not reading. HA!! She's just learned about numbering the jews and helping them hide during WW2. It's real history. She's finding that there are other books out there that are like Harry Potter, her absolute favorite to listen to. HA!

Harummph!!

I was going to let you know we were headed to the coast for the week and forgot. I was going to work on my sweater all week and instead spent countless hours working on my Cedar Creek socks, knitting, ripping, re-knitting, re-ripping, many, many times!! I am past the heel for the 3rd (?) time and am trying to make it fit my foot. The last time that I worked on it, I was just to the heel, but didn't want to work on it until I could concentrate on this new heel technique that I really want to perfect. They look good on one side, but are more open and airy on the other side. I just can't get the stitches tight enough or something, so I will go in after I am done and tighten those areas.




I did NOTHING on my sweater, absolutely nothing!! I am disappointed, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel (for these socks) or is it someone's flashlight?

I did spend the morning catching up on the 100's of emails that I came home to, even though I set everything to digest, I still downloaded close to 200 emails. Man alive that was a process!! I'll post later about our coast trip. I will say, "It was fun!!"

A Rose is a Rose or Sweater Design

Sleepovers that turn into awake all nighters don't work for me. I am wiped out today. Our house is such that any noise made anywhere in the house is heard anywhere else in the house even if the doors are closed and the fan is on. I wish it wasn't that way, but it is.

Getting up early this morning, we found that it had rained some in the night. I've been thinking about my roses and I need to trim them a little bit and maybe fertilize them one last time. I have never done anything to my roses until this year. Due to that, they have been covered in rust and blackspot for many years and I've trimmed off every leave and stem that had yuck on it. So, about 6 weeks ago now, I bought some special rose fertilizer and nasty stuff killer. My roses look beautiful, new growth, no rust or blackspot. I had to take some pictures of them this morning.

























See this? I am designing!! I did some reading last night about sweater design. Then I thought, I've got to get this onto paper so I can continue on my sweater and not go too far before I need to do my decreasing. This is so cool!! I never would have had the courage to play around with a sweater pattern until I met other knitters who do this all of the time!! And there will be yoked neck, I just didn't add the design pattern to it. I will be following it from the pattern, actually no I won't, I will need to refigure the number of stitches and the pattern. Hmm, at what point can I call it my own pattern?



I have a better picture of the original sweater, Susan, it was several pages further to the end of the book. I couldn't get blogger to load it though. I must be at my limit for now.

I think I am headed off for a nap so I can do laundry later.

Yarn Harlot Signing

Last night was so cool!! Meeting an author of knitting books. Humorous knitting books. I am not good with numbers, but there may have been 150+ knitters at Powell's Garden and Home Bookstore last night. I think we got there around 6:50 pm, the event started at 7:30, and we literally got the last two seats that were together. There were probably two or three other seats scattered around the room that weren't taken. I'm not a good photographer in crowds either. I did take a few pictures, but I'm shy with the camera so didn't stand up and take the whole group in. Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee has such a great sense of humor, with a dead-pan serious look on her face!! At least that's how it started. I did see Stephanie crack a smile a couple of times, though.






Stephanie photographing her traveling sock.




Stephanie you have to know, that even though your teenagers think you are uncool, my almost teenager thinks you are COOL!! I am serious. Last night she was recapping to her dad the evening. (As we are laying in bed and it is past midnight). I am quoting her!! "That was SO AWESOME. She is SO COOL!!"

I stuck a home-brew in Stephanie's bag telling her it was a Pumpkin Ale, when in fact it was an Amber Ale. Miscommunication on our part at home. I hope she liked it anyways!!



On the left, Stephanie, middle is my dd, on the right is dd's friend.

I did see some folks that I recognized, Chrissy, Yvonne (I met both of them at Black Sheep this year), Tina and Kaci, and Kelly of KnitPicks, though I didn't really meet her, I did meet her little white dog. It was just enough to ask if we could meet the dog.

So cool! Well worth the time to go down and see her, wait and drive in Portland evening traffic!! Oh, Stephanie, I drove back down that hill that you climbed to get to Powell's from the Yarn Garden, I had no clue it was so steep!! No wonder you had a heck of a time getting back to Powell's!!

Oh, oh, oh!! I forgot, the woman sitting right in front of me had on the most beautiful modular sweater on. It was purple and blue. I should have touched it!! Later as we were standing in line, she had this cool looking book in her hands, with the books by Stephanie. She was telling the folks she was standing with about it, so I had to write the name down. Sanna, Sorceress Apprentice, by Roxanna Matthews. It has yarn winding it's way all over it. Once she got up to Stephanie, we find out that SHE wrote the book. You will have to read her experience on her blog!! So, I looked the book up when I got home, then found her blog and left a comment. I got an email back this mornng from her. She is so cool. She's a Certified Master Knitter as well!! Wow, what an inspiration. Someone who knits, knits very well, writes cool looking fantasy books, and was very friendly!!

Living Room Furnishings

I did take some pictures today of the two areas I moved around on Sunday. It is still cluttered, but not as bad. The loveseat may have a new home tonight, much to the dismay of dd. She is a worse packrat than I am!!

The wall on the far right with the three hangings has not changed. The mirror and 4 plaques are newly hung!! They are black lacquer and mother of pearl inlaid. I don't remember exactly what country they are from, but I do have it written down in my grandmother's handwritting. The elephant lamp is from her as well. The medium size teddy bear on the far right, she knit a long time ago. A lot of the knick-knacks on the piano are from her, as well as the stuff that is barely visible on the top of the bookshelf.





The spoon collection on the walls were started by grandma. She tried to get me interested in collecting stamps, but I had no interest at all. Then she tried this. I have probably been collecting them for close to 25 years. She gave me the rest of her own collection when she moved into assisted living. The one lone holder is full of the state quarter spoons from the US Mint.

See how the couch takes up too much of that wall? The piano didn't take as much room!! I am anxious to get it moved out!!

Just Ramblings

Monotezuma Castle National Monument in Camp Verde, AZ, May 2004.



I have a sweater I want to make put of some Rowan Felted Tweed in the colorway Sigh. It is a purple that I really like. This was supposed to be a simple sweater, with rolled hem, rolled sleeve hem and rolled neck. Until I saw one in a similiar yarn, with some cables on it. It is similiar to this one, but the neck isn't cowled, and there are about 11-12 cables around the front of it. I have had the yarn for it for quite a while, since last year sometime, maybe in the Fall? I started a swatch back then changing needles as the swatch grew bigger and I wasn't getting the right gauge. I started with US 6's, and am now down to US 3's and still just barely getting gauge. If I don't get gauge, the sweater will either be too big or too small, and I want it to fit!! I cast on 188 stitches last night and started my round. I need different needles now. The ones I have are either too short or too long and the round does not fit on it. So, off to the knitting store today!!

The Yarn Harlot is coming to town today!! DD and I will be there (with our books to sign and our camera) with the hordes of knitters wanting to meet her. She is hiliarious!! If anyone can make knitting fun, it is her.

Last evening, there was a knock at the door. When I opened it, a young man asked if we would like our stump drilled. Less than 20 minutes later and $45 out, we had our stump drilled. One less thing to worry about!! We had the tree taken out about 6 weeks ago or so. It was one of those mimosa trees, or as we called it, "that crappy tree is dropping stuff again", Silk Tree. One site I just saw said that they are short-lived trees, 10-20 years. We've been here for 7 years now and these trees were full grown when we got here. Dh didn't want them to do the tree in the back, he wants to try to compost it. You drill holes in it, soak it real good, fill with Nitrogen fertilizer and blow it up. JUST KIDDING!! You don't blow it up, but you cover it with tarp real tight and keep the rest of the soil around it wet. Over time it will compost itself from the over-fertilization.

What Kind of Flower are You?

I saw this on Sherri's site. What kind of flower are you?



"You are just a sweet person. When a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, you are happy to offer yours with a box of tissues as well. Once in awhile, you wish you could be a little more dramatic but then sensibility sets back in and you know that you are perfect the way you are."

I am a Daisy What Flower Are You?

Another Post Today of FO's!!!

This weekend has been somewhat productive. I got the kids pictures back up on the wall. The spoon collection is now back up as well. I had to take them down a few weeks ago for the roof to be done. I also changed the living room around a bit. I didn't take any pictures of it though, so you just have to imagine it. In one corner I had a love seat that was angled from the corner so I could "stash" stuff behind it. Back there was the leaf to our dining room table, and probably 2/3 of my yarn/fiber stash. It wasn't easy to get to, so I thought I would pull everything out and repackage it, or get rid of some of the yucky yarn that I know I won't use. I pulled everything out, moved the couch out of the way and moved the piano into that corner. It pulls the piano more into the room and it should be safer from the cold of the front door, and the heat of the wood stove come winter. I put the love seat on the little wall that the piano was on, and it is too much for that wall. It probably sticks out to the front another 6 inches than what the piano did, so I am going to get rid of it. I've offered it to the neighbors for their basement, but haven't heard back from them yet. If no one wants it, it will either go on freecycle, or there is an organization in Portland that gives these things out to the homeless who are just starting up in new homes. Now my stash is out in the open and I have boxed it up into large totes. I have one that is all acrylic that I do have a use for, one that is all wool, a nice chest that is a mix of both, and three baskets with a mix. There are also two big bags, one with acrylic that is designated for hats and scarves for local organizations and one that is all wool for CIC/Russian orphanages. I also cleaned out some of the book shelves, but the extra books are now in the big room with no place to go yet.

I also got two knitted items done. I started these socks back in July after finishing the last vest for CIC. I put them done after dropping dd at the airport, that first weekend of August, which was kind of dumb. I was just on the toe of the second one and could've finished it in an afternoon. But today I finally got it done.

If you notice on this first one, that little gray yarn stub about half way down on the right? That's what was left of one of the strands of yarn I was working with. TOO CLOSE for my comfort!!




On this second one, the little ball of yellow is what is left of the rest of the yarn.




I finished my Feather and Fan shawl on Saturday, but got all of the ends woven in this morning. It measures 83 inches by 30 inches when all pulled out. I used 6 skeins of LionBrand Microspun on size US 7 needles. It has a seed stitch border on all sides. I will have dd take some pictures of me modeling it later.

Another Daughter Photo Opportunity

Yesterday our dd was headed to a birthday coast trip/sleepover/brunch tea, with costumes for the tea. Here's some of the photos I took of her trying out the costume she would wear. I think it is a traditional dress of Singapore. Back in the 70's my maternal grandma did work overseas for our church. She worked mainly in the Adventist hopsitals overseeing the kitchens or doing office work. As she was cleaning out her closets before moving into assisted living, she pulled two dresses out and asked if I wanted them. The pack rat that I am, said yes!! I got them home, tryed them on and they really look awful on me. I put them back in the closet. This year I thought, oh, I could make some of those tiered skirts out of them. So, I pulled them out and asked dd for her opinion. NO WAY!! She tried them on and they look so good on her. So, without further Adieu.........






I sent some of these to a high school friend. She took one look at this one and emailed me back "Oh my goodness. In picture number 3 I saw you!!!!!!! She looks just like you!!!!!!" DON'T TELL DD THAT!!!

Quilt Blocks are in!

Jennifer did an awesome job on these blocks. It is really overcast/smoky here today, so I don't think the colors came through as well. I love how the purple flowers are growing, and the quilt hanging on the line. THANK YOU Jennifer!!

The pictures are clickable so you can see the details of the flowers.







I got mine sent out today to Jennifer. YEAH!!