5 December 2008 Time to double-wash a sheet so I can shake out Grandma's quilts and wrap them in fresh muslin. At Grandma's sale, I noticed that one of the bidders intended to make her quilts into wearable art, hastened to out-bid him, nobody out-bid me, and I ended up owning them. They have been stored in a box ever since, which isn't any improvement over being destroyed, really. Is there anybody on this list who wants antique quilts and knows how to take care of them? 7 December 2008 I went to the festival at Village of Winona yesterday, and found nothing going on except for a gingerbread-house workshop at the auditorium, and all that was was plastic-covered tables on which you could assemble a $15 kit consisting of cookies and tubes of icing to glue them together with. When I went in to see what was going on, a lot of people were coming out of the auditorium carrying kit boxes in a manner that suggested that they now contained assembled gingerbread houses, so I suppose the event was a success. On the other hand, I also saw a large pile of kit boxes that appeared to be unsold merchandise. Now I'm wondering where I put the gingerbread recipe I copied out of Mom's file box. I don't think I've ever made it, but it would make a *much* better house than stale cookies. 9 December 2008 For once, I remembered to pack my pajamas on top. And I arranged my underwear so I can use the suitcase as a dresser drawer after peeling off the jammies and shirts. I'm taking my shirts and spare jeans on hangers in the back seat. Packing underwear was simple: since I don't know how long I'll be gone, I packed all of it. The socks alone filled up half the suitcase, though I have only half a dozen pairs. Dithered over the shirts. Usual discovery: I'm short of long-sleeved shirts. Also took one short-sleeved shirt, plus a T-shirt for dirty work. 10 December 2008 And I'm off! Will shut down the computer as soon as I've backed up this entry on the remote server. To put the following paragraph into context, I'm working on an appliqué project that calls for ten different solid colors, and I'm not at all happy with the purple and the blue I have. I went to Lowery's for a spool of thread yesterday -- bought two, after spotting a display of heavy-duty polyester that might be better than what I've been using to sew on hooks & snaps. After buying the thread, I toured the store and noticed a quarter-yard of violet quilting cotton in the remnant bin, and when I took it to the register, I spotted a blue roll in the "odd shapes for fifty cents" bowl. (This, it turned out, was also a standard quarter-yard cut.) But when I got the fabric home, each was a perfect match for what I already had! 18 December 2008 Driving with impaired vision three days in a row is *quite* enough. Tuesday Alice and I came back from her therapy appointment through freezing rain, and I never had more than a tiny clear spot of windshield to peer through. (Thank goodness the side windows were fairly clean.) When telling about it afterward, Alice said she'd found out how brave I was, but I was nervous whenever I could spare the time and attention -- about three seconds total for the trip. Then on the way home yesterday, I discovered that my windshield washer is broken, and the roads were still dirty from the day before. I had to pull over and pour water from my drinking bottle on the windshield every time I found a good place -- and once when I found a bad place. When leaving, I was tempted to swap the full bottle in my purse for the empty one in the cup holder, but decided to go back inside and fill the empty one. I was glad I had a back-up before I got home! And today I had an appointment with the eye doctor and drove back with shades on. I considered not stopping at Owen's, but I went in and found some kohlrabi and romano to put in tonight's salad. I was tired, so I made two and put a lot of ham and cheeses in, and called it chef's salad. I bought the romano for grating cheese, but the package said "good for dicing into salads", I sliced the point off the wedge, ate it, and decided that this was a tasty alternative to blue cheese. During supper, Dave said "There's something in this salad I don't like." It turned out to be the romano. He says he thinks that he'd like it on spaghetti. 20 December 2008 Woke up to ice all over everything yesterday, and the winter fairyland is still there today. I didn't set foot outside yesterday, but Dave went to the mailbox. Today he put a foot on the icy driveway, then came back in and drove to the mailbox. Later, I decided that it was *way* past time to carry the garbage pan to the compost heap, and put on my coat and sheepskin slippers. Had to be careful, but it wasn't too dangerous in the back yard, where the ice is over fluffy snow. Weird sensation, though; I'd take a step, the crust would hold for a moment, then I'd fall through. I hope the roads are reasonably clean when we go to Linda's party tonight. 21 December 2008 Today is the solstice, I hear. And just as I typed that, I noticed that the sun had come out to cast sharp shadows and sparkle on the ice. I hastened to take a good look, because it can't sparkle too long before it starts to drip. Roads not bad yesterday, and my walk to church was fairly pleasant -- but the wind brisked up while I was in the building, and I faced into it more walking back. When I came in, Dave said my face was red. It was a while before I got around to cleaning my glasses, and by then my face had faded. I chose to come back by way of ninth street because of the handrail -- had I thought of how exposed to the wind it is, I might have gone back the way I came. But Sunday Lane is not really safe to walk downhill on, and I'd have been walking into the wind on Columbia anyway. I had a musical trip down the steps; apparently I was the first person today, and most of the way I was knocking tinkling flakes of ice off the handrail. We didn't sleep well last night, what with all the rattling and banging and so much rolling that we were surprised not to see a ridge of brush under the eaves when we got up, not to mention shrieks from the carbon-monoxide detector and chirps from the uninterruptible power supplies. We've been very glad that we *have* UPSs the last few days! 23 December 2008 Went to Marsh, because the potato salad will use up all the mayonesa and Owens has only mayonnaise. Spent over a hundred dollars and still didn't get everything on my two-page shopping list. And I didn't think to put cheese on it. Nonetheless, I think we could get snowed in for two weeks with no particular discomfort. Dave cleaned up half the garage so that we can keep one of the vehicles inside. Which caused us to notice that our sedan is significantly longer and wider than our pickup truck. Speaking of the truck, Dave did a search and discovered that it's worth more than we paid for it! "???" said I. He said that it is a better design than later Tacomas, and some people think it's enough better to pay collector prices for low-mileage trucks. Alice writes that Nancy set off for home early this morning, hoping to beat the weather. Seems to have worked at least this far; there have been flakes in the air all day, but they are just now (2:11pm) starting to blur the far shore of the lake and show on the formerly-bare concrete just outside the bedroom window. The national radar map looks pretty much the same from Tennessee to the Upper Peninsula. The local map shows the southern half of Michigan fairly clean. 24 December 2008 The snowplow drivers are complaining that somebody ran a Zamboni over the roads, and they seem to spend half their time pulling each other out. A very good day to stay home and bake! I have eight fruitcakes in the oven. Prediction is still for good weather tomorrow, but anything that's wet tonight is going to be ice tomorrow, so we're going down 31. Dave isn't looking forward to Kokomo -- I told him to just make up his mind that he's going to park for fifteen minutes. He's hoping that traffic will be light on account of it being Christmas day. I've got the potato salad made, and the eggs are on the counter getting warm. As is a ball of formerly-frozen pizza dough -- I'd have baked it last week, but I thought I already had. All I've got to put on it is turkey pepperoni and a paper-thin layer of cheddar cheese. 29 December 2008 Dave and I have been having fun eating very thin slices of jalapeño cheddar on whole-wheat saltines -- I zap mine for four seconds -- but we haven't been having near as much fun as Al has been having with the tissue paper it was packed in. I put it on top of the recycling pile, Al found it, Dave tossed it into the middle of the room, and it's becoming apparent that we won't ever be allowed to throw it out. Got my first after-supper walk in ages Saturday -- in the morning, when we could see where we were putting our feet. Dave has been out several times -- and is out now -- but all I've done is to walk to church and back yesterday. There's still ice in sheltered spots, but nary a speck on streets or walkways. I hope this holds until Thursday! Haven't touched my needlework, not even the mending. I did iron a patch onto one of Dave's Carhart shirts, where Al made a three-cornered tear with a back claw. I used woven interfacing on the inside, and it doesn't show *too* much. 31 December 2008 Grumble, grumble gripe -- Motzarella's "overview database", whatever that is, has crashed and I can't read my newsgroups until they repair it. Maybe I'll get the Banner into the mail on time for a change! Picked the stitches out of the hem of one sleeve of my silk banquet gown today. Last Sunday, I looked at myself in the mirror in the ladies' room at church and quit wondering whether I should let out the sleeves. Not only is three-quarters a dorky length for sleeves that full, it makes the absolute most out of how weathered and red my forearms are. First I was thinking of letting them out to wrist length, then I thought about what a pain my flannel gown's sleeves are, and thought I'd let them all the way down and put elastic in the wrists, then I though I'd set the elastic back an inch or so to make a ruffle at the wrist; now I think I'll face the hems with a silk scrap so I can use three or four rows of elastic to make a short of shirred cuff. Each row of elastic will have to be the precise correct length; I think I'll pin the ends together so that I can adjust them. Think I'll get to wear that dress again this winter? I have a plate of deviled eggs in the fridge, but we aren't going to eat corned beef and cabbage at Don's house tomorrow. Dave has bronchitis, and I'm not 100% sure I'm not infected too. No seasoning at all in the eggs, if you don't count salt. Just neufchatel cheese, olive oil, a dash of rice vinegar, and a dab of mayonesa. They are delicious. When I got around to washing the blue and purple quarter yards I bought, I dithered over which load to put dark colors that had never been washed in. Then I remembered that I didn't like the colors, and put them in with the rags and dishtowels, which I bleach. Turns out that they are good fast colors. Happy New Year, y'all. -- Joy Beeson http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/ http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather) west of Fort Wayne, Indiana, U.S.A.