E:\LETTERS\MAYBAN11.TXT 1 May 2011 Had to re-sort my desktop icons -- and discovered that over half are there solely because I can't delete them. 2 May 2011 First thing in the morning, I rode to Owens for the chocolate that I forgot to buy Saturday. I thought I'd buy Ghirardeli and put in the whole bar, but the purest Ghirardeli was 60%. One can put in twice as much, but I didn't feel like calculating how much sugar to leave out, so I bought Baker's chocolate and now I have six ounces left over. I put the package in a zip-lock bag and put it in the freezer for next year. I was making a quarter of a recipe that called for four ounces of chocolate, so I put in two. (That made the butter rather stiff.) One egg, half a cup of sugar, a quarter cup of flour, two tablespoons of butter, one eighth teaspoon salt, a teaspoon of vanilla. I calculated that two of my three by five and a half loaf pans would equal a quarter of a nine by thirteen pan, but the loaves look rather thick and cake-like. Perhaps it was putting in the whole package of black walnuts! (One does have to dilute the sugar for a diet-controlled diabetic.) And the bottom of the cake is chopped english walnuts I put in the pans to keep the brownies from sticking. I frosted the thicker cake by putting pieces of 65% Madagascar chocolate on it to melt. Dave came home while I was typing that, and now the unfrosted cake is half gone. He didn't complain that it was cake instead of brownie. While he was nibbling the cake, I went out and dead- headed daffodils under the windows, along the property line, and in the tiger-lily bed, all the while thinking that they'd gone off awful sudden -- seemed like one day they were in full display and the next it was well past time to pick off the seed pods. When I straightened up at the end, I saw that the daffodils in the lily-of-the-valley bed are *still* in full display -- and those are the ones that I notice when leaving and coming home. They're the same bulbs -- came of thinning the row that was here when we moved in, or of thinning clumps that came of thinning those. I wonder what makes the difference? Perhaps they aren't crowded yet, but that seems more likely to affect amount of bloom than time of bloom. [Later on I noticed that only the clumps on each end were still blooming, and dead-headed those in the middle.] The apple-like tree at the corner of the house is covered with pink blossoms. And the leaves on the maple nearest it are still red. I was down for little more than an hour at naptime; Dave was surprised to find me up, and the cake already out of the oven. I'd expected to bake it after we got back from the new pizza parlor. 3 May 2011 Drat. I was about to put the sheet in the washer, paused to reflect that some of yesterday's mains cleaning might still be in the lines, and put the blacks in instead -- totally forgetting Dave's gray pants. They don't fit with anything else I plan to wash today, so I guess I'll have to run them through by themselves. We walked up to the recreational gym first thing this morning. Everybody was at one table, not expecting much turnout. Surprising, because the people who win the Republican primary will run unopposed this fall, except for one lonely Democrat. 2:20pm (14:20) Double Daylight Time -- I'm always forgetting to pack my pajamas, so they were the first thing to go onto the cedar chest today. I'm intending to lay everything out on the cedar chest in the parlor before deciding which suitcase to take. That's about all that's laid out so far -- the rest of my clothes are on the line, in the washer with the sheet, or on the floor in the hallway. The corned beef seems to be coming along nicely, but I wish I'd zapped the potato before putting it in -- Dave likes potatoes boiled all to flinders. I think I'll take it out and cut it in pieces before taking out the meat to boil the vegetables. Then I realized that it was still hours until serving time, took the tater out, and zapped it. May have overdone it. While I was napping, Dave brought the wooden benches in and started sanding them. He's planning to paint them yellow, and do something about the one that's bow legged. 4 May 2011 I put the gray pants in with the light colors. I planted the potato sets and the onions after supper. I still have enough multipliers to plant another row, and might plant some big onions if I find some non-generic sets. I'm all ready to jump into Alice's car. I took my nap before lunch instead of after, decided I might as well get directly into my travelling clothes -- and then remembered that I hadn't had lunch yet. So I'm wearing an apron too. Hope I remember to take it off! I'm planning to wear the same outfit all three days, and my underwear all fit into the Trafalger carry-on that I sometimes use for a purse. Plus one T-shirt in case of emergency. Back-up jeans would have taken up a whole bag by themselves, but I did pick pajama pants that I can wear in public if I have to. I put my red coat and a wool scarf out at the last moment. It looks as though I'll need a way to carry the raw-silk overshirt I was planning to wear as a jacket; it's pretty nice out. There's plenty of space in Alice's bag of books for stuff that I thought about after closing the bag up. I forgot all about Handwork Circle until Dave asked whether I was going to the church. At first I thought I'd blow it off, but then suited up and went, taking my homework along. I worked ten minutes past time to go home, and I'm nearly finished with the last page on the worksheet! The Big R strawberries are in bloom, and some of the Joe Rickets strawberries have suspicious swirls in the leaves. 7 May 2011 While writing the above, I clicked "shut down" on my computer and dashed out the door. Dave says he found it hung up the following day, and hit the power switch. It must have gotten through enough of the shut-down sequence, because I didn't get a "this crash was your fault" message when booting up. Crick went down to normal. Looks from here as though a lot of stuff washed up on the beach; I should walk down after breakfast and start picking it up. I have three books to review, but I butterfly-stickered two of them and put them in Alice's stuff, so I don't have title and author. The first was called something like _Murder Mistletoe and Mayhem_; I like the four-novella format, but read only the first and last pages of the last three stories. The first one held my attention all the way through, but I don't recall what it was about. -- Oh, a kid was vandalizing creche scenes to get his father back. The second was pretty good -- somebody doing the Tony Hillerman thing with Arapaho and a priest instead of Navaho and a cop. The book was good, but not promising as an introduction to a series; the occupation of priest doesn't lend itself to avoiding "detective must be a serial killer" syndrome the way "cop responsible for wide area" does. And the "on the wagon" theme got just a tad obvious. The obligatory corpse was gratuitous, but not dragged in by the ankles: he would have completely revealed the main crime, and if the priest hadn't been persistent in trying to discover what Mr. Body had meant to say during the appointment he didn't keep on account of being dead, the villain would have gotten away with all three of his crimes. Four if you count getting elected to an office of power. Could say the fourth crime was his motive for two-and-a-half of the others; oil is worth stealing for its own sake, and framing the kid was pure moustache-twirling nasty. The third book, which I'm half-way through, is REX STOUT'S NERO WOLFE DEATH ON DEADLINE by Robert Goldsborough, author of _Murder in E Minor_. 'Nuf said, yes? Goldsborough has the Stout style down pat, but I'd much rather have a story about Goldsborough's own immortal detectives. Aaaand I'm halfway through, and a team of overworked elephants has just now dragged the obligatory corpse onto the stage. The puzzle had been proceeding *quite* nicely without it. I've half a mind to butterfly sticker the book now. I took an Extra test last night, and missed only nine of the fifty questions. But I'm not sure the things I learned answering the forty-one will stick, and most of the nine were a complete mystery. While rustling in the freezer for a slice of bread to have with my sausage and egg, I noticed, "hey, I've got all this flour and the griddle is hot", put the egg back into the fridge, and made fried quick bread. I'd have preferred red wheat, but the white-wheat flour was on top of the pile of cannisters. Election news was naturally the headline in Wednesday's paper, which I didn't see until yesterday. I was horrified when a sub-head said that Tony Miller (no relation to Dane that I know of) had come in second, but somewhat mollified to see that he'd gotten only 23%. But even 23% suggests that some people believe that his quotes in the paper were a joe job. Dave refurbished his "joiner", which is a planing machine, and used it to square up the legs on his benches. I think the leg he just did is the last one. He's also sanding the benches and painting them yellow. 10 May 2011 I get plenty of cottonwood gunk on my feet now! My plastic pumice stone takes it off fairly easy, though. I think I've got a thorn in my paw, too. It's too small to see, so I may have to soak my feet in bleach, but I still have hope that it got abraded out when I scrubbed the cottonwood gunk. A while back Al escaped as usual, I put down what I was carrying and went after him, as usual, he dashed under the picnic table -- but very much not as usual, he suddenly backed out straight into my hands, so that I was able to pick him up with much less manhandling than usual. I thought he must have run his face into spiderwebs, but didn't see any. A little later, Dave asked whether I'd stepped on Al's paw and said he was limping. I denied the charge, picked Al up, and pointed his feet at Dave -- Dave found a piece of cottonwood gunk and picked it off, after which Al walked normally. I went on a Prilosec hunt yesterday. Found it in the first place I looked, but went on anyway, and bought two packets of machine needles at Lowery's. (One stretch, one universal, both #14.) At least I *thought* I found it in the first place I looked. Alice had told me that she'd bought omaprazole in bottles at CVS; it being time to buy more, I decided to go on a Tour d'Warsaw Monday and speak to the pharmacist at all four drugstores. But when I arrived at Walgreen's, the nearest one, I looked at the antacids first and there was a display next to the Prilosec: a boxed bottle shrink-wrapped to a box about right to contain two more bottles, and labeled "NOW AVAILABLE IN A BOTTLE -- buy 28 get 14 free!". So I grabbed it and went on with the tour -- arriving, somehow, at the Dollar General on Market Street too early to visit the Mountain Man Flea Market. But when I got home and opened the package, instead of two fourteen-day bottles, it contained four seven-day sheets of bubble-pack. I cursed rather loudly at having been so defrauded, then unpacked one of the sheets into my pill stick. On the brighter side, these bubbles are easier to slice open than Kroger's. I didn't think to look at the pill sticks anywhere I went. I must write that on my shopping list. A full load of blacks this week. The shirt I wore three days in a row last week is black. On Sunday, I got back from church with my black under-dress sweaty in the armpits, and on Monday, while eating a reuben after coming back from the Tour d'Warsaw, I dripped tarter sauce on the dark-navy sweatpants I wear for want of black tights. (We don't have any Thousand Island.) And I threw in Dave's blue-denim jeans. Meant to burn some more lake drift this morning, but the fireplace was full of ashes, and they were still hot so I can't just shovel them onto the garden. (I want to put a thin dusting on the potatoes.) I sifted some of the coals out with my perforated shovel and threw them to the back of fireplace, all the while reflecting that I needed a big sifter that I could shovel the ashes through -- and I've just now realized that we *have* a soil-sifting screen. Now it naptime. I think I'll make spanish rice for supper. Pretty good, if I do say so myself. I overdid the habenero, but not by much. For the first time I went to the garden instead of the spice rack for herbs. I put in common thyme, a plant that might be marjoram and might be greek oregano, a small garlic plant, and the leaves of two winter onions. (I added the white part of the onions to the dish of raw veggies.) Rode my bike to the church -- and got my linen jersey all sweaty, so I ran it through a rinse cycle when I got back. After re-filling the ice trays, I rode to Owens without studying first, and bought their very last brisket of corned-beef. I plan to poach it in the broth from the previous brisket tomorrow. It's much larger than the first one, which isn't surprising because I picked the very smallest to cook for two people. But it turned out that we both love corned-beef sandwiches for lunch, so I don't mind cooking three pounds. But I did resist the temptation to buy a package of liverwurst. 11 May 2011 One reason I was late for Handwork Circle was that I had a truly spectacular accumulation of cottonwood gunk on my feet. I'm wearing shoes today. Put the "brisket" on the stove. I didn't notice that the grain ran the wrong way until Dave noticed that the package said "round". Since it was the last bit of corned beef they had, I'd have bought it anyway. 12 May 2011 And it was good. I hope the two Comcast trucks parked in Boy's City Drive are working on the internet outage -- I haven't gotten on since a little after midnight last night. On the other hand, I cut out my new scarlet bra this morning, and Dave went to Ace and bought two bags of the rich potting soil Ace calls "composted manure", so I planted my tomato. I may put the rest on the potatoes. I also promised that if he bought marigolds, I would set them out in the fern bed. Trucks gone, connection not back. The thunderstorm, while impressive, was long gone when the connection went out. The storm gave our uninterruptable power supplies a good workout. 13 May 2011 I saw goslings in the lawn for the first time this morning. But I saw geese that I thought might be guarding goslings yesterday. Started to arrange the pots of marigolds and peppers in the fern bed to decide where to plant them, realized that I needed to hoe the bed first, pooped out when I was two- thirds of the way to the remaining lemon balm. I'm planning to pull all the lemon balm -- but that will leave our toad nowhere to hide. When I pull it. the lemon balm smells faintly of lemon and strongly of lemon cleaner. Two ferns made it through the winter. One is growing strongly, the other put out one feeble sprout, and yesterday I noticed that that sprout had withered and turned brown. I put too much salt in my cheese-and-bacon pancake at lunch. Dave had corned beef on a slimwich bun. And I don't know what I'm going to make for supper. 15 May 2011 The new fridge is on the fritz yet again. We have all our food stuffed into the soda fridge, except for fruits and vegetables that will keep at garage temperature. I overslept my nap and Dave got involved in re-writing his Web pages and didn't wake me, so we had Michelena entrees, frozen corn, and raw veggies for supper. Only one Michelena left, and that's a Lean Cuisine I bought by mistake. Haven't been studying lately. Were I to get with it, I could probably schedule an exam at the June meeting of the Hoosier Lakes Hams. (Complication: the new question pool will be in force by then, but the practice exams I've been taking won't be be updated until the old question pool is no longer in use.) I did work out how frequency times inductance comes out in ohms, but not firmly enough to re-derive the formula as required. But if I remember that the reactance of an ideal capacitor (i.e., one with a dielectric of infinite resistance) is infinite when the frequency is zero -- an alternate way of saying that capacitors don't conduct direct current -- and remember that you just multiply everything together, and remember that capacitance is the inverse of inductance . . . perhaps I should take a practice test tonight and hope that it asks a question that uses those formulae. Oo, oo, oo! I just noticed that the pool expires at the *end* of June, not the beginning! Now there's motivation to get ready by the end of May! Was fiddling around and discovered that WS_ftp recognizes *.fic as a text file, and Wordpad opens it without a murmur. Ding bust. Visited the Farmer's Market for the first time yesterday and the Yoders were there with their hothouse tomatoes. We had hamburgers that evening, then demolished the rest of the tomato -- I'd forgotten how good real tomatoes are. I'm saving the other tomato until one or the other of us buys a pound of bacon. Took another Tour d'Warsaw after the market. Bought some juice at Marsh, and read the last chapter of a Xanth story at the library. Which had a stomach-turning postscript in which Anthony explained that the fading of inspiration which has left him nothing but puns, panties, and summoning the stork to hold the readers' interest constitutes making the series "more adult". Far better to say "hey, it pays the bills" and write a sonnet or something whenever he gets a bit of spare time. The above was a reference to sonnets that would be utterly forgotten now if Shakespeare hadn't written them. Not that the Xanth tales are a legacy, save for _A Spell for Chameleon_. Came close to getting rained on, having stayed so long at the library that I had to rush home ahead of the storm. The rain doesn't appear to have dampened the Fat and Skinny Tire Festival any. 16 May 2011 Smith Appliances is coming over this afternoon. They want us to send a message to Fridgidaire -- they say that when they have to ask for a replacement fridge, it goes smoother if the customer has already complained. The children should label their left-overs better. The box of ribs and the box of two pieces of chicken that I bought after church turned out to be a box of wings and two halves of chicken. We ate all but one of the wings for lunch yesterday, and started on the two halves for lunch today. Supper is going to be the stuffed chicken breast with baked veggies that I started making before I noticed that Dave had thawed two hamburgers in honor of the tomato. I got it together too late to bake it on time anyway. I think I'll post a note on the oven to remind me to turn it on at 4:15. Last night I made a list of areas of ignorance the practice test exposed, and don't propose to take another until I've resolved at least one. I think the bandwidth of a Morse-Code signal would be easiest to memorize -- but perhaps not easiest to find. Only one load of wash this week. I jumbled everything together. 17 May 2011 I went to Aldi -- by car -- after supper last night, and bought so much stuff that one seeing only the length of the register tape would think I'd been to Kroger. We have made a rather disquieting dent in the wasabi trail mix -- particularly when one considers that I also bought in-the- shell peanuts and pistachios. And we still don't have a lot of meat and entrees in the freezer. I bought a package of tilapia filets, but couldn't find any chicken thighs. This morning I'm off to Owens to buy bacon. I should mention at intervals that Owens is Kroger. Also stocked up on frozen dinners and entrees. Twelve ounces of Value bacon cost more than a full pound of Kroger bacon -- what's up with that? Then I helped Dave get boat parts down out of the barn attic, and looked up "morse code bandwidth" in the old Extra book. It seems that bandwidth in herz is the baud rate times the key factor, one WPM is 5/6 baud, most transmitters use a key factor in the general neighborhood of 4.8 in case of poor propagating conditions, and *that's* why you multiply WPM by four to get bandwidth. When "multiply by four" was all I knew, it seemed as though there ought to be some direct connection, like frequency shift and bandwidth, so I kept remembering "two" because there was no way I could explain "four". And now I understand why interference on a PA system is clicks -- it's the act of switching on and off that causes off-frequency emissions. I don't think that that sound was on the DVD. And that passage was immediately before one that defines "compadored", so I've killed two stones with one bird. "compador" is sort for "COMPress and exPAND", and has nothing whatsoever to do with the meaning found in the O.E.D. Not to mention that there is an "n" in "compandor" -- no wonder Google, Wikipedia, and the Oxford English Dictionary were no help. 18 May 2011 I spent the whole day digging fifty-two tiny holes for four dozen marigolds and four pepper plants. Tomorrow I'll take the pots off the plants and bury their roots in bagged topsoil. Well, part of the morning was spent hoing the marigold bed, and separating the pots and setting them out to select an arrangement for the plants. And a few seconds were spent using Dave's vise to bend my trowel back into shape, then selecting one of his crowbars to pop rocks out with. I found that the crowbar was also useful for hooking tree roots that had gotten in my way. My $0.99 (I do wish this keyboard had a cent sign -- didn't that used to be standard? I have an old typewriter around here someplace, I should find it and look.) pocket knife was surprisingly effective at cutting roots. We also had a banner-committee meeting this evening. Ironing on and cutting out, for the most part; Martha did the crayon work on one poster. 19 May 2011 Them thar goslings are growing like weeds. Smith is coming to take the fridge away tomorrow. I hope the replacement isn't from the same batch. I slept sitting at the computer most of the morning, but got most of the marigolds planted between nap time and cooking time. Scared our toad again. I'm glad to see that he survived the loss of the lemon balm. Perhaps the daffodil leaves will provide shelter until the marigolds bush out. Last Tuesday, I took my books to Handwork circle, re- read the last chapter in the General book -- it's on electrical safety, and it never hurts to go over *that* an extra time -- and filled in the last three blanks on my work sheet. Never put a fuse in a ground wire. Obvious, but easy to overlook on a multiple-choice question. 20 May 2011 The boys from Smith came in the morning instead of the afternoon, so that's all over. The boys said that they had orders to scrap it, but wanted all the books that came with it. Perhaps that was to make sure we didn't read the wrong book. Dave put his temperature logger in right away, but we are leaving the other stuff in the soda fridge for a while. Now that the running around is suddenly over, I feel as though it were time for my nap, and can't get my mind back on the dart I was about to sew when they called. In cleaning the fridge out, we learned that I'd been leaving the water bottles alone because Dave put them in, and he'd been leaving them alone because I'd put them in. It was foggy enough this morning that I heard about it on the scanner, but it's developing into such a nice day that I wish I'd put the hot whites in to soak last night. We're not running short on pillowcases and dish towels quite yet, but it's getting hard to stuff more things into the hot white bin. Lunch today is whole-grain yellow-corn grits, boiled in left-over corned beef broth, seasoned with celery, assorted stuff found in the garden, shoyu, three-pepper blend with onion, canned salsa, and a sliver of corned beef. 23 May 2011 Yesterday we killed the corned beef in two grilled reubens for lunch. Then I fried two italian sausages for supper, with "Three-Pepper Blend and Onion" and the last two hot-dog rolls. I'm going to do it again tonight, but split the sausages so they'll fry better and be easier to eat. I bought brats at Marsh Saturday, so the weather has settled in rainy. I also bought a pound of bacon, because I'd bought two hothouse tomatoes at the Farmer's Market on the way to Marsh. $3/lb., and worth it. While taking a practice test last night -- I flunked -- I wanted to look something up in Dave's old Extra book and couldn't find it. Oh, yes, it's in my attache' case because I took it to the Fellowship committee meeting -- I'd thought I was going to get there early, but arrived exactly on time. And then I left the attache' case on a bench, intending to pick it up on the way home from the Farmer's Market. Remembered it when unpacking & said "It's just as well", because it would have been very difficult to add something that big to my load; I think I'd have had to wear it. And I'd already put my sweaty clothes in the washer so I couldn't hop on the unloaded bike and go back; I figured I'd take a walk later in the day. I must have walked right by it Sunday morning, because I went to the kitchen to refill the ice trays -- the bin had been completely empty when I refilled them after the meeting on the day before -- and then went out through the ramp room because I planned to go down the steps on 9th Street. I detoured past Studebaker Spring, by the way. The basin was full, but not to the top. I wonder why it stopped running across the sidewalk. It had dried up entirely for a while -- during a rainy spell. I've told Lyle and Loren that I want to take the exam the Thursday after next. I'd better hit the books. Flunking during a group test wasn't too bad, but flunking one scheduled just for me would be embarrassing. I have learned that one can buy stronger Ghirardeli in the candy aisle than in the baking aisle. Still not 100%, though. The radar says that we'll be between thunderstorms long enough to dry my pillowcases and dish towels. But I don't think I'll put in another load when that one comes out. On the other hand, I'm running short of undies. Last night I minced the last bit of chicken breast, and mixed that and a hit of chopped celery into the left-over tartar sauce and called it chicken salad. Then I had a fried cheese Spamwich for lunch, so that I could have left-over tomato on it. Second load in. The sun came out while I was hanging the pillowcases, so I might be able to dry both loads outside. If not, everything that doesn't go on a hanger will fit on the drying racks. On Saturday, I stopped at the pawn shop on my way home, and saw that they had three of the $1.00 knives left, so I bought the black one. I should have picked one of the bright-colored knives to make it easy to remember which one is fresh and sharp. I dropped it into the coin compartment of my wallet to keep it from getting lost. It's still there, and might remain as long as the pair of pliers that I dropped into the folding-scissors compartment. No chocolate at Sherman and Lin's, but I bought a bottle of ginger ale. Had to put it in my jersey pocket, as there wasn't any space left in the panniers. May have been some in one of the door bins I picked up at Smith Appliances -- the other was filled with my package of emergency stuff -- but if so, I wouldn't have wanted a glass bottle bounding around in a clear-plastic bin. The two tomatoes occupied most of a pannier, because I hang them from twisted bungee cords to keep them from getting bruised by the rough pavement. Some of the first load was dry when I took the second load out, just enough to get all of the second load up. The radar shows all the storms going north or south of us, so I'm going to risk leaving laundry on the line while I take my nap. Getting rinsed with rain water might do those grungy pillow cases some good. 25 May 2011 Won my bet. But I forgot that I'd washed a third load after my nap until I went to the laundry room to undress for bed. Luckily, I had remembered to put it through the rinse cycle, so all I had to do was to drape it over the racks. Where it still is. About half past seven yesterday evening, I reflected that I hadn't gone for a walk that day, decided to put my shoes on, thought about where to go -- perhaps to the church and back AAAGH! It's time to come home from Handwork Circle. Which I found so dispiriting that I didn't walk at all -- I'd taken care of the ice trays when I went for my attache' case Monday. At which time I was terribly embarrassed to realize that the shirt I'd changed out of after the committee meeting had been lying in full view in the mirror alcove of the ladies' room all through Sunday. Came back through the Village, and went into the new weaver's shop and the bead shop, since I hardly ever get to the Village at Winona when it's open. Didn't take the full tour because it was getting on toward time to cook. Grokked Smith charts this morning. They are quite simple when explained. Sometimes I wondered why the explanations in the Extra book are so convoluted; I figured that out, too, when it took three laps around robin-hood's barn explaining that 1/j = -j, without ever actually saying so. There were frequent references to the mysterious laws of Algebra, which must be accepted without understanding. Finally the dime dropped: they are assuming that the reader never took ninth-grade algebra. (Jesse gave us all the principles of it in sixth grade.) Taking just one lap around robin hood's barn, "j" stands for the square root of minus one, which the book calls an "operator", but treats like a constant. I tend to think of it as a kind of unit, like ohms or apples. Anyhow, if you know how to change fractions to a common denominator -- I think we got that in fifth grade -- it's obvious that 1/j = j/jj = j/(-1) = -j . I wrote "jj" because there ain't no superscripts on this keyboard to write "j squared" with. No radical signs either, so I'll say it in harder-to- understand words: they also seem to think that the student can't be expected to understand that one divided by the square root of two is half the square root of two. (Multiply the numerator and denominator by the square root of two.) 26 May 2011 Time to sew darts into the bra front lying on the leaf of the treadle. Remove cat, drop onto floor, examine pattern, go to sewing room to fetch chair. Remove cat, drop onto bed, un-pin pattern, carry pattern into sewing room. Remove cat, throw onto bed, examine the lines faintly marked in easily-removed chalk, go to sewing room for self-removing marking pen. Discover that a human not only can pronounce the Cat word for "I am totally fed up and will now proceed to eat your liver," but will spontaneously do so under the right circumstances. It didn't stick. Al is now napping on the treadle leaf -- but my sewing is in here waiting for me to clear a spot on the ironing board and press it. 28 May 2011 Got the darts sewn, then sewed the shoulder seams and pinched creases in to show where to fold for the casing. Then draped it over a lamp -- Al doesn't sleep on lamps -- and it's still there. We were completely out of bread, so I went to Aunt Millie's by way of Big R yesterday morning, then went to Owen's East after my nap. Bought an oregano plant at Aldi, and put some of it into the potato salad tonight. Aunt Millie didn't have any whole-grain bagels, so I bought some whole-wheat flat bagels at Owen's. Rode my bike this morning, though the weather was so humid that I perspired despite being chilly. Ran everything I had on through a rinse cycle when I got back. Except my sweat pants, which I'd worn over my linen knickers. It never got cool enough to strip off the sweats, but hoo boy did they live up to their name! Pity one can't buy wool tights or washable-wool fabric. The "large" hothouse tomatoes looked rather small -- not many of them either; I suspect all the good ones had gone with earlier customers. So I bought four of the cheaper small tomatoes. Should have bought six, as we are more inclined to cut into a single-serving tomato. Then I went downtown to look at the entrance where I'm to meet my examining team next Thursday. It's a good thing I did. By "the building", I presumed that Loren meant the deconsecrated church building where the ham club meets. There are no doors on the north side of the church, and not really a way to get at that side of the building, though I did walk along the gutter between that building and what appears to have been a parsonage or Sunday school when the church was a church, and still conceptually connected. However, on the back of the annex north of the church, there *is* a door with a wheelchair ramp marked "employees only". It's on the west side of the parsonage, but on the north side of the church building. But when I walked along the south side of the church, I saw a "long wheelchair ramp" that is a *much* closer match for the description, on the justice building across the street. I will, of course, e-mail Loren and verify this. Owing to a torrential rain, there is much less garden in the potato salad than I planned -- I used dried thyme that I bought last summer, and pruned the oregano plant that I bought yesterday. But I did dig up some garlic chives ahead of time, and the soggy ground made winter onions easy to pull. I put the tops into the salad and put the bottoms away for relish plate. Because of the constant rain, the winter onions haven't gotten soapy tasting even though they are going to seed. I serve my raw veggies out of a refrigerator box, which is apt to hide the radishes under the carrot sticks. I've been wanted something wider and shallower, and not too long ago, I remembered that there are pie plates with dome lids, I'm going to try to hold out for one with a transparent lid, so as to encourage nibbling veggies between meals. And in all the places I went yesterday, I never thought to look. 30 May 2011 Aha! It's so breezy that the first load is already dry, so I brought some underpants in off the line. When putting them in the drawer, I noticed a familiar bright-yellow cotton triangle, reflected "That's not a handkerchief, it's a scarf" and pulled it out to put it on the scarf hanger. And there underneath it was the fuzzy orange scarf I had searched desperately for all through late fall and early spring. I just took a sheer linen scarf out to the bike, and hung up the lightweight red one. Which matches the red bra I'm making. No co-incidence -- I chose that piece of fabric because it was cut on the true bias as a result of removing the scarf. It's getting rather hard to add a scarf to the "half of a forty-inch square" bar; perhaps I should put those on a hanger all their own. Should I see another "pants organizer" in a thrift shop, I'll do it. There isn't nearly enough onion in the potato salad. Onion tops look like an enormous amount when they are only a gentle hint. 1 June 2011 I find that I don't like Ghirardeli 85% chocolate a speck better than Moser-Roth 85% chocolate. Nothing done yesterday except washing one load of rags and dishtowels (and one pillow case; must not have been changing them often enough) and burning a handful of beach debris, but in the evening I sewed up the side seams of my new bra, put in two of the five rows of stitching for the triple casing at the bottom, and passed a practice test. I *still* haven't sewn the rod pocket onto the banner, but I did tear the muslin off the roll -- just when it was too late to wash it. Banners will never get wet, but it's nicer to pre-shrink everything. Completely forgot Handwork Circle again. Goal for today is to hoe the marigold bed and mulch it.