The Weekend

It was a good weekend, though not a particularly noteworthy one. Saturday started out a bit earlier than either "J" or I wanted it to. We usually like to take out time getting up and going on Saturday morning, but this time, before we were quite ready to face the world, the telephone rang. It was "J"'s brother "B", calling to report that their mother was having some problems. The dear lady is 80 years and is not in the best of shape, so a call like that in the morning is not a good thing. So, "J" went out to visit his mother and I putzed around the house most of the morning. As it turned out, his mother was not in danger, it was (this time, at least) not as big an emergency as it seemed.

After getting ourselves squared away somewhere about noon (or a bit later), we got on our bikes and went for a nice, long ride. It was pretty much perfect weather for bicycle riding - not too hot and no wind to speak of. We rode beyond our usual turn-around place and then stopped there on the way back - for a "small smackerel". All told, the trip was 20 miles long, and took a good couple of hours - of course that's counting the time we stopped, too.

Today (Sunday) has been pretty mundane. I sing in my church choir, so that consumed a great part of the morning. Early on in the afternoon "J"'s friend "B" came over to get some help with his computer. My dear husband is a PC technician, and is glad to provide some help to his friends. That job was accomplished, and there was much rejoicing - "B" got his data off of a computer whose power supply had died - Yay! We celebrated by going out and purchasing a couple of items we had been pondering over, probably for too long - a printer and (drum roll, please) a clock radio! The printer is one that can print photos, so we'll finally be able to tackle the job of printing our wedding photos! Hooray!!! The clock radio is to replace the one I've had for more years than I care to try to figure out.

I know, this is all probably too much to take in in one post, but I couldn't think of a way to divide up the post. You'll just have to read it in small pieces and try to contain your excitement. (OK, I'll turn the sarcasm off now.)

Dinner, in a Nutshell

For some definition of "nutshell". Actually, it was a squash shell, though the squash was Acorn squash, so it sortof is a "nutshell" - haha! The recipe was one I found at bitemekitchen.blogspot.com (the entry for September 11, 2009) - Sausage and Spinach stuffed Acorn squash. I won't go into all the details here, but it is a wonderful dish! I made it pretty much according to the recipe, and both "J" and I could barely contain ourselves! The recipe says that one serving (as a main dish) is two halves, but neither of us could eat more than one. So, if you like winter squash, or would like to try to add more of this yummy vegetable to your diet, go try this recipe!

What a ride!

OK, I've been trying to exercise a bit more this summer. One of the things I enjoy doing, that also counts as exercise, is riding a bicycle. So, my intrepid husband "J" and I went bike riding on Sunday. Our destination being a Culver's location about nine miles south on the Keystone Trail. Normally this would be a good ride, but nothing too horribly strenuous. However, yesterday it turned into an exercise in willpower (at least for me). The wind was coming out of the South at probably about 15 miles per hour. Do you know what it's like to ride right into a wind of that speed? My darling husband scored a whole lot of "gallant husband" points when he volunteered to ride in front and "break the wind" for me. We did get to the Culver's, got something to drink and, not so incidentally, refilled our water bottles. Then, the reward for our efforts - the return trip! We had been working *hard* to maintain a speed of 10 mph on the way south. On the way home, it took a lot less effort to maintain about 15 mph. What a difference a tail wind makes! My legs didn't particularly like me when we got home, but it was a fun ride!

I Love A Parade

On Saturday we (that's me, my wonderful husband "J", his best friend "D", and his wife "D") went to Nebraska City for the AppleJack festival. Now, if you live anywhere in the Midwest, you know that late summer/early fall is the time for small-town festivals. Any weekend you choose, you can find a festival celebrating one thing or another. This particular festival celebrates apples, there being several apple orchards in the vicinity, and right now being about the time of the apple harvest.

One of the features of every festival - not just small-town festivals - is a parade. I love these parades, and I've seen quite a few of them. In a lot of the towns, the parades consist of farm equipment, the local high school marching band, local people dressed for the day, somebody's dog all decked out, maybe a few neat cars and that's about it. I still like them - the people who've dressed up (or dressed up their dog) are having fun, and it shows. However, the NC parade was quite a bit different - it started off with what seemed to be every piece of equipment from the local volunteer fire department. Several fire engines, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles, all with their lights flashing and sirens going. Quite a sight and sound!

Then they started in with the bands! Remember what I said above about a lot of small-town festivals? The (as in only one) local high-school marching band? Well, there must have been at least twenty (yes, 20) marching bands in this parade! They came from middle schools and high schools throughout the area. Every single band was decked out in their uniforms, and were playing their hearts out. Great Fun!

We went to some of the other events of the festival, too. We saw a fantastic quilt show, saw some crafts at a craft show, and went to the fine arts show at Arbor Lodge. These were all interesting and fun things, but the most fun was the parade. To me, that's what a festival is all about.

We now interrupt this knitting for some other knitting

I have been working on my "February Lady" sweater, and making pretty good progress. I'm into the into the first sleeve now. I've heard they can turn into a slog, if only because you're so close to the end you can practically taste it, but you've still got all this knitting to do! Well, I may have to interrupt that knitting to do some other knitting. I have a niece that is expecting a baby in February or March and I want to make something for the little one. I've ordered the "Baby Surprise Jacket" pattern, and I'm working on getting some yarn for the project. I know, I know, the pattern really works to use up stray skeins in your stash, but I don't have much in the way of yarn, in the right weight, and washable, to use for this. I promise you, I'm not going to *buy* yarn for the project - I have two friends that each have yarn they would be willing to give me - one of them in trade for knitting something up for her, the other in trade for something as yet unnamed. Fortunately, the one who will trade yarn for knitting something up doesn't have a deadline for the project. So, I should be able to get busy on the BSJ soon.

If I don't have to interrupt the FL for the BSJ, I'll probably end up interrupting it for Christmas knitting. I've got one thing planned, and probably several other things will come up. Several people in my family are quite happy if I give them hand-knit socks for Christmas, so we'll see. I do enjoy giving kntted Christmas gifts - I get the fun of making them, they're pretty much unique, and I don't have to fight crowds for parking or shopping! Of course, that only applies if I actually *do* the knitting. If I don't, I have to go out and do a bunch of last-minute shopping, which is worse than not-last-minute shopping. Well, with some planning, I should be able to knit some of my Christmas gifts this year. We'll see how it comes out - I don't want to say more than that - it would be tempting the knitting goddesses, and they love nothing more than giving an arrogant knitter a good smackdown!

War on the Weeds - Part 2

So today was a bit frustrating at work, as in, I spent *way* more time than I wanted to just getting back to where I was at the end of the day Friday - Argh! I did, eventually, get my stuff working, fixed the bug I needed to fix, and went on. But it left me wanting to destroy something! I got home, decided I really couldn't stand the way part of the yard looked, and took my frustrations out on the chlorophyll. I filled three garbage cans with an assortment of weeds, bush trimmings, and the current "dirty rat bastards" - the pseudo-sumac trees that are called "Tree of Heaven". Where they got that name I'll never know. They are invasive, brittle, easily broken, and they *stink* when you cut them. It felt pretty good to get rid of all those weeds and things, and the particular part of the front yard that was annoying me looks a lot better. I think I'm going to have to "express my Kali nature" (as my wonderful husband "J" puts it), more often.

Labor Day

I had thought to call this post "The Labors of Miriam", but then realized that would be pushing it - I did work hard at some things over the weekend, but the work was most definitely not Herculean.

What did I do, you ask? Mostly, I baked.

Saturday, I made a batch of molasses cookies and took most of them to church on Sunday morning for a reception after a concert in the evening. I didn't go to the concert, but I'm on the sponsoring board, so I made cookies.

For a lot of the rest of Saturday, I knit. Between the knitting on Saturday and what I did on Sunday between taking care of the bread, I finished a lace stole for a friend. She had bought the yarn and given it to me to "knit something" for her, in the spring. It had languished a bit over the summer, but I got it done and blocked over the weekend. I've since picked up my "February Lady" sweater and am making progress on it, now.

Wait a minute, you're saying, what was that about bread up there? Sunday evening I started a sponge, or poolish, for some bread. I let it ferment all night on Sunday and then on Monday (the holiday) I used it. It was a really good, wheat bread. The recipe came from a book I picked up at a really wonderful used book store in Minneapolis we visited - Magers & Quinn. Side note here - I don't usually shop at used book stores - I have found them to be unorganized and musty smelling. Magers & Quinn was extremely well organized and not musty *at all*. I would love to have access to a used book store that good here in Omaha. Alright now, back to the bread! It used wheat in four (or five, depending on how you want to count it) forms - all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, wheat bran, cracked wheat and bulgar. It came out nice and crusty on the outside, and with a tender but chewy interior - yum! I may try to make a weekly habit of bread baking.

The thing is, I got the bread mixed and on its first rise, and then mixed up some lemon-ricotta pancakes. We'd had these at a place called "Hell's Kitchen" in Minneapolis, they were soooooo good that we decided we had to try making them at home. The internet to the rescue! Unfortunately, I made a few mistakes. The first one was not believing the recipe when it said it made 4-6 pancakes and would serve two people. I doubled the recipe, and it was way more than enough! We had leftovers for breakfast on Tuesday. The second mistake was heating the skillet and then turning the heat down too much. This made for a hot center and cool sides, which is a very bad thing. We eventually got things straightened out, and the pancakes all tasted good, even if they didn't look very good. I'll try the recipe again, but I won't double it, and I'll take more care with heating the skillet.

So these were not Herculean labors, but it was more time than I'd spent in the kitchen for a while. It was time well-spent, too, as we both get to enjoy the bread and the cookies I kept back. We both also enjoy the knitting, though in different ways. I enjoy the process and the results, while my husband likes seeing me so engrossed in something, and he likes seeing the results, too.