7 May 2007 The last entry for April said that I was about to make a quarter batch of Brownies Cockaigne 8 May 2007 The cake came out brilliant, but I don't recall what I intended to say about it. I put in a lot of pecans, but think I could have worked in more. But the little loaf pan -- one of those I used for Christmas cakes this year -- was nearly too full as it was. Too poohed to write a report Monday; today I had to go to the dentist. Thought I'd lost a filling Friday morning -- just before loading the car to go to camp -- but I had broken a cusp off a molar. Temp in now; no caramel until the "overlay" is installed on May 30th. Caramel had already been stricken off my diet anyway. Considering how tired I came home today, and how much wash I had to do yesterday, I'm glad I couldn't get an appointment for Monday. Went to Handwork Circle after supper: carefully fitted my bag with hooks, thread, thimble, and everything else needed to finish the hooks and eyes on my new jeans -- then forgot to put the jeans in the bag. So I finished grafting the toe back onto a sock on which I'd re-knitted a defective stripe. Easier than I expected, and I went around a second time to make up for the wear on the yarn. Saw swans in the park today -- feral mute swans, I think. Didn't check for black beaks, but Tundras are usually too shy to graze in a park. A king-sized foam mattress topper, folded in half, and a stack of wool blankets made a pretty good bed. I also took my feather pillow and two duck pillowcases that each had two old flat polyester pillows forced in. The extra pillows were particularly comfy when lying down for a few minutes between classes. Used two wool-flannel blankets for sheets, and was much warmer than last year. Of course, it wasn't raining, either! Last year I took a book, lent it, and didn't get to read it. So this year I took a whole stack of books, and nobody read any of them. Nor did I open the book I'd won in a raffle -- it was the last class before leaving, and I wanted to leave the wrapper on it when stuffing it into a suitcase. When shaving Sunday morning, I reflected that I'm not usually that wrinkled. During the Tree ID class, people kept fussing "Is Joy going to be all right? Can you handle this path?" It wasn't until today that I connected those two events. Managed to give away my teaching shuttle -- the student learned only one stitch, so can only make Josephine rings. Was hoping to teach the other one later, but we didn't have time. So I must remember to get around to making more variegated Speed-Cro-Sheen and winding another cheap tatting shuttle. 14 May 2007 Dave is off on a shopping trip, and dropping off one of the kitchen windows to be repaired. A few days ago, I noticed a spiderweb crack on it, which closer inspection showed to be centered around a small hole in one layer of the double pane, and yesterday Dave took it off the hinges. I was looking through the double window when he pressed a piece of cardboard into the hole, and felt as though I'd gone blind in one eye. Dave has two or three times said "I didn't know how much light that window let in!" One assumes that they'll have to special-order a double pane, so we may have a dark kitchen for a while. I'm very glad the window is a pair of windows instead of one big one! Today is laundry day. I hope to get some other work done too: I've a great many sewing projects backed up, and it's time to plant radishes and dill. If I can find the dill seed. 15 May 2007 One of the iris buds has opened, and smells delightful. This is the first time the iris has bloomed since we moved in. We dashed out for a quick point seven between showers. Only 0.17" so far. 17 May 2007 Meant to ride around the lake and pick up some pistachios and dried cranberries at Warsaw Health Foods, then decided to go in the other direction so I could drop off a couple of Reader's Digests at the emergency room, then decided to stop at the library for a Dewey book -- one was checked out and one turned out to be the other Dewey (I *wondered* what "Dewey in 90 Minutes" was doing among all those philosophy books!). So I got a Wrede instead, and got to the health-food store so late and so tired that I went straight home. And they were out of cranberries. Dave went to an S.A.R. meeting tonight. He spent the day working on the bathroom: changing the carpet for linoleum has turned out much more complicated than expected. We broke a flange getting the toilet out, the carpet had glued itself to the cement where people stood in front of the sink, he found a great deal of moldy drywall, the baseboards need painting, etc. But today I think he turned the corner from taking it apart to putting it back together. He sawed a hole in the drywall and put in an access panel for the plumbing. I remembered today that I was supposed to go to Handwork Circle Tuesday. I walked to Kroger instead, and carried home two gallons of milk back in a backpack. When we lived on Nimitz Drive, I carried a gallon in each hand -- but the handles were on top in those days. 18 May 2007 Another hike to Kroger: I forgot to buy calcium chews on the previous trip and we took the last one today. About halfway there, I remembered that I'd meant to ride my bike so that I could buy some seltzer too. I picked up a couple of jars of peanut butter while I was at it, and picked a sprig of catnip on the way home. Al was much interested, but saved most of it for later. 20 May 2007 Rode to the Farmer's market Saturday morning, bought half a pound of black walnuts and a potted tomato, then changed shirts and did a major shopping at Aldi. That night I discovered that I'd forgotten to buy lettuce, so after a supper featuring cole slaw with blue cheese, I put my bike clothes back on and went to Kroger, where I also got two gallons of milk and two two-liter bottles of fizzwater. The catnip stem is still on Al's shelf, but only a few leaves. Kitchen is still dark enough that I can tell when I turn the light over the window on. Dave put the new floor cover in the bathroom today; it looks *ever* so much better! And removing -- and painting over -- all that mold is bound to help his allergies. And the repair flange has been installed. He says that he's sure he can take the other pot off without breaking the flange, now that he knows what he's doing. The floor-cover is a much more complicated shape in the other bath, though. We have three different colors of iris. Finished threading elastic into my new bra during a Sherlock Holmes movie yesterday, and wore it today. I think quarter-inch elastic in casings is better than the underwear elastic I've been using. 23 May 2007 Catching up: the kitchen window has come and been installed, on Monday Dave and Ward spent the whole morning re-installing the toilet, and yesterday it came back into service. We are both very pleased with the new floor cover. Yesterday I saw a guy with a weed-whacker edging the sidewalk where I'd picked the catnip, and thought of picking up the pieces, but I couldn't remember precisely where it had been, and I didn't see any familiar leaves even though I got off the bike and walked. Header for next section: Oh, well, I needed the exercise. I have been in desperate need of new shoes for some time, but it takes the whole day to go to a shoe store, and there's only a slight chance of acquiring a pair of shoes on any one trip, so I've been putting it off. A few weeks back I read an ad for a new shoe store on Sheldon Street, and they said that they had wool socks. So, says I to me, there's my motivation: some chance of getting shoes, and a sure shot at getting socks. So yesterday I decided that it was finally time to go. I remembered about halfway up McKinley Street that I hadn't looked up the name of the shoe store before leaving, but Sheldon is a very short street. There are no shoe stores on Sheldon Street. There's a "Shoe Show" on a street parallel with it, but that's a copy of "Payless Shoes" and most definitely not the store I'd read about. I did ask for wool socks -- at least the clerk was familiar with the concept! I looked over the sale on sandals -- sandals fail suddenly, so it's a good idea to have a backup pair -- but they had sold out of my size. So I bought olives, suit hangers, and split rings at Walmart and came home by way of Fox Farm Road. Stopped at Warsaw Health Foods and bought cranberries even though I'd written pistachios on my list by mistake. Since I was already pretty tired by then, I feel clever about that. I forgot to put olives in Dave's salad that night. (Got them off the bike this morning.) Pleasant walk to Handwork Circle -- once we got up the hill; I should have gone up the gentler slope on Chestnut instead of the steep climb on Sunday Lane. Force of habit: Sunday Lane is quicker, and I'm usually late. I staggered a bit coming home, but I wasn't trying very hard not to. Darned at two pairs of socks, and didn't get either one finished. Both are pretty close, though. 24 May 2007 Yesterday I started assembling stuff for my embroidery-teaching gig next week -- which is called "bracelet-making" on the schedule, so I guess I'd better take some ribbon. All the Altoid tins that I stashed small, vital items in are missing. I greatly fear that I have put them someplace safe. But in looking for them, I found Mother's celluloid shuttle and my spool of #150/6 thread, which is worth buying another packet of needles and making another plethora of cardboard circles. 26 May 2007 Dave has taken the other bathroom apart. Seems to be going smoother this time. He painted above the shower and behind the toilet, and you have to get pretty close to see that the paint is a tad whiter. Still no sign of my Altoid tins of needles etc. I duplicate-stitched a hole in a sock while watching a Sherlock Holmes movie. It was neither of those that I didn't finish at Handwork Circle. The darn came out so neat that I ought to photograph it for _Rough Sewing_. Baked buckwheat-raisin bread with honey in it. Would have been better with brown sugar instead, but we've eaten most of it already. 28 May 2007 And now both bathrooms are in service, though Dave says there is touch-up work still to do. Still no sign of my boxes of needles etc. Prediction is for rain, but the first two loads of laundry got dry -- well, dry enough to bring in -- before nap time. On the way to Aldi's for pizza supplies last Saturday, I toured the dollar store, and finally found a lightweight mirror to hang behind the computer so I can tell whether or not my data cable is plugged in. 31 May 2007 I'm chewing symmetrically again. Can't tell which tooth is gold without looking; Dr. Hollar was chortling over how good the "overlay" was all the time he was installing it. Finally sewed the hooks on my new pants at Handwork Circle Tuesday, and wore them to Pinewood Derby yesterday. Got a lot of customers, but didn't teach any embroidery. The first girl who wanted a needle had had the course before, and she taught the next two. Which was lucky, as I was up to my ears in two small ones who decorated their cloth with permanent markers I'd brought for signing the back, and had to have everything else done for them. None of the embroiderers had time to finish, and I sent cloth, needles, and thread home with them to bring back next week. I've remembered that I put the Altoid tins in a muslin bag, but can't remember what I did with the bag. Hope I find it before next Wednesday, as markers go through the cardboard circles a lot faster than embroidery does. I picked up two packs of needles on the way to the dentist's yesterday. Handed out three needles of the larger size. I tried out the bake kettle Monday, and Dave liked the bread so well that I'm doing it again today. I put the dough in a little round cake pan that I found in Grandmother's top-of-the-stove oven, put the dutch oven on the grill of the outdoor fireplace, and started a fire. Just one rotten hollow log; you could almost have started it with a match, but I burned up a lot of greasy paper towels anyway, since I didn't fancy putting grease-soaked paper that had been near the fire back into the container. By the time the bread had raised, the kettle was hot and there were coals in the fireplace. I put a shovel of hot ashes on the concrete -- I'll include a few visible coals this time, as the bottom wasn't as brown as I like. I was just a tad too afraid of burning it. Moved the kettle onto the hot ashes, dropped in the pan of bread, covered the lid with coals. When the top of the loaf was a little bit brown, I shook the coals back into the fireplace and put the lid back on until suppertime. What a struggle! The City of Warsaw web site doesn't open and the Winona Lake web site has no news, but the fairgrounds web site confirms that the fourth of July will be on June 30 this year. Maybe I'll bake kettle bread for those who come on Friday and stay the night. Once again, I overdid underdoing it. I put coals in the hot ashes this time, but came back in ten minutes and swished the poker back and forth under the pot to knock them out. Next time I'll leave them there until they burn out. The bread is good even though it's pale on the bottom. On our way back from this afternoon's walk, I found a flourishing plant in the catnip cage on the south side of the house, and several viable (if somewhat ragged) catnip seedlings along the wall, and decided to start thinning the catnip in the garden instead of trying to figure out how to move the surplus plants. So I pulled two and brought them in to Al; a plant or two per day should keep ahead of the growth, if I remember to do it. -- Joy Beeson http://joybeeson.home.comcast.net/ http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/ http://n3f.home.comcast.net/ -- Writers' Exchange http://www.timeswrsw.com/craig/cam/ (local weather)