13 October 2008 I may have mentioned that I couldn't see how the stone-covered concrete pillar figured in the naked-grandmother statue that was supposed to go into that spot. The photograph had shown a statue balanced to stand without external support. We walked that way a few days ago, and it turned out to be a pedestal: she's about six inches high. And she's wearing an evening gown. I probably threw out the issue of the Village Voice that had a photograph of the model in it, so I can't look to see whether I mis-perceived or the artist corrected it. (I *thought* it extremely weird to put clothes on the child and none on his grandmother.) So if I want to keep referring to the figurine, I'll have to remember what the official name of it is. Theme is "heritage" -- the grandmother is teaching the child to dance. I'm beginning to wonder whether they *ever* intend to put up plaques so you can see what the titles are and who the artists were. One of the early artworks has already decayed: The spheres with solar-charged lights that were supposed to shine out through the holes that formed Significant patterns on the surface of each sphere, only the insides of the spheres were painted black so that it was only by putting your eye right up to a crack that you could see the light, and it was only recognizing the solar cell that made you suspect that there might be a light to see. The solar lights have broken away and fallen into the spheres, and the shells have begun to rust. 16 October 2008 I made a point of walking that way on my way back from Handwork Circle last Tuesday -- I'd wanted to finish the toe of my sock, so it was quite dark by then. One of the lights is still in place, and still working. It's quite bright, as can be seen by the patch of light on the concrete -- I stood so that my shadow fell on it to verify that the light was coming from the sculpture and not the street light -- and also by looking down at the transparent area around the solar cell. [I think that used to be painted black.] You can even see the light through one of the decorative holes that it's supposed to illuminate, if you stand where the decorative hole lines up with the hole in the bottom, so that you see white concrete through the decorative hole. Holes that line up with black interior remain invisible. Finished my beta shirt for my fall suit today. Verified that the sleeves are the correct length for elastic in the wrists, then opened the seam and pulled out the elastic for the wearing-around-for-a-while test. The elastic I'd put in was *away* too tight. For a working shirt, the sleeves are better rolled than gathered, so I just mended the hem without putting in longer elastic. I need to raise the sleeve cap and add a little more ease to it; I'm confident enough of that alteration that I won't make another beta. I'm going to have to trim a quarter inch off the seam allowance around the neck. I'd thought I'd pin the dramatic slit in front in various places to see how short I could make it, but it's just exactly long enough to slip over my head. I don't want to put an opening in the center back, either, so it looks as though I'll have to open at the shoulder seam again. This time I'll open *both* shoulders. (I've done one shoulder twice before: once with a short zipper, once with hooks and eyes.) And the shirt pattern has a curved hem that can't possibly work with the border print I intended to use. I could cut the border off and sew it onto a shortened shirt, but that would be kludgy. Luckily, I also have five yards of a khaki linen-blend print. It's a trifle lightweight, and the print has enough direction to it that I can't cut it crosswise, but it should work. 21 October 2008 After several hours of hard work on Dave's part and utter confusion on mine, I can send e-mail again. What he did to fix it makes no sense to either of us. Took a couple of bandannas, the gamma version of my do-rag pattern, a sheet of paper, and some drafting tools to Handwork Circle tonight. Drafted a delta version, and cut top and sides out of one of the bandannas. But when I started to draw threads to cut off strips to piece together to make the band, I realized that the only note of exactly how wide to cut the band is written on the beta pattern, which I'd left home. I knew it should be cut 2.5" x 36", but wasn't willing to trust my memory, so I packed that job back into the bag and moved back to the ramp room -- I'd been using the table in the parlor -- to draw threads to straighten the other bandanna so I can use it in appliqué. A few seconds after I began, I broke the thread, reached for my magnifying glasses to pick it up again, and discovered that I'd also left my little bag of tools behind. It's lucky the church was open for the Prime Timers -- my little bag of tools is also the fob on my keychains. There remained fifteen minutes, so I took out the copy of _The Gratitude of Kings_ that I checked out the last time I was in the library, and ended up leaving half an hour late. Pity that books that one can read in forty-five minutes are rare these days. I had hopes when Dell Purse Books started appearing at checkout lanes, but they seem to have tanked. I never bought one because they never had a title I was interested in. I seem to have missed several Lythande stories. They don't have the slightly-tainted smell that some of Bradley's books do, and I enjoyed this one very much. 23 October 2008 I baked two breaded fish filets for supper yesterday, and made tartar sauce with chopped onion, mayonesa, and red-wine vinegar. We liked the taste but weren't all that enchanted with petal-pink tartar sauce! I just used up the last of it with my bedtime snack, and was surprised to see that it now appeared to have been made with red onions. I think I'll open that little bottle of brown-rice vinegar when I bake the other half of the package of filets. I'll use plebeian cider vinegar when I make potato salad next Saturday for the pitch-in after church on Sunday. I think this is the first time I've remembered to make plans to attend an after-church pitch-in, and I dithered a long time as to what could be prepared ahead of time, carried in a bag, left out on the counter for hours, and wouldn't leave awkward left-overs. Finally settled on the old standby, potato salad. This evening I put a pint of water in one of my semi-disposable half-gallon dishes, put another half-gallon container in it, and put it in the freezer by way of dealing with the "sit on the counter for hours" part. I put a chunk of frozen bread in the inner container so it would sit down in the water a little; don't know whether the ice will hump up and spoil the contact, but so far it seems to be working. If it does hump up, I suppose I could unmold the chunk of ice and turn it over, so it would be flat side to the flat bottom of the inner dish. [The freezing ice bulged the bottom of the container, but the top of the ice remains the same shape as the bottom of the dish.] [But I should have used only one cup of water.] Bought two more pairs of heavy wool socks at Big R on my way to Aldi's. Makes six pair, which should be ample. Much to my surprise, I can wear them with my current shoes; instead of pinching my toes, they cushion my corns. I suppose the fluffy wool mashes more than the thinner wool socks I've been wearing. But they fill up most of one of the little shallow drawers in my dresser, so I've got some cleaning and neatening to do. Hope it sticks longer than sorting out the canned goods in the pantry did! At least I won't have stuff behind stuff in those little drawers. The chest was meant for gloves, but does tolerably well for socks and lingerie. 24 October 2008 Finished the bandanna do-rag today. Spent most of the day fiddling around with the computer. Baked the other two "encrusted" [breaded] tilapia filets for supper tonight. Dave said my brown-rice vinegar tarter sauce was better than the red-wine vinegar sauce. I put in more mayonesa, mainly. Nearly forgot to lay out eggs to get warm for tomorrow's potato salad. 28 October 2008 And I did forget to put celery seed in my potato salad. There was a bit left after I filled the half-gallon container, so I minced a turnip into it -- I got some *good* turnips on the last two Saturdays of Farmers' Market; they taste like old-time radishes. Then I minced the piece of jalapeño in the salad box, forgetting that it was enough for an entire batch, and Dave ground some black pepper into it -- again, enough for an entire batch. The salad reserved for us is right zingy! Luckily, I brought more than half the half gallon home. The bland and zingy and some chopped ham and cheese and a little more turnip mixed together make a pretty good second supper. (We eat at five thirty, and I need to be fed every four hours.) I dreamed last night that I dreamed that I was rollerblading inside some sort of large establishment -- seemed to be a restaurant inside a warehouse. I wonder what *that* means! I'm *away* too old to learn how to skate. Or anything else that involves falling heavily. In the dream within a dream I never thought of of the possibility of falling. Bad hip started hurting me last Saturday -- when I was in the basement of Bishop's Bookstore, of course. In the library, I figured out that it hurt less if I didn't limp -- after that, stairs were easier than walking on the flat, because I could glide along the handrail. Pity I didn't have a four-wheeled walker! Without something to balance on, not limping is not easy. Luckily, pedaling didn't hurt, and my hip had forgotten about it by the time I got home. Visiting Bishops' was a kick in the head. I'd gone to Marsh on the way to the library, ducked into an alley to avoid Center Street, realized that it had been ages since I'd been to the used-book store, arrived at the other end of the alley to be faced with a sign that suggested that everyone had gone ages between visits: all books are on clearance, final closing this coming Friday. But when I dropped into Reader's World to make sure *they* were still there, the clerk told me that what had really happened was that Mr. Bishop had died and none of the heirs wanted to run it. 30 October 2008 For Handwork Circle this week, I took the orange bandanna and other stuff, intending to embroider page numbers for a couple of alphabet books I hope to finish before the kids go to college. Drew threads in the orange bandanna to mark one-inch strips and was ready to mark them into one-inch squares when I realized that I'd left my removable marker at home, so I couldn't draw numbers to embroider. So I sorted out the other swatches, finding several that belonged with a different project, and drew more threads. I also find that I have no green, my blue is too dark, and I'm not happy with the violet. I'd best draw the numbers today so I can have them to work on while waiting for children at Trunk or Treat tomorrow. I'm supervising the craft table. "Craft" means that I hand out little bags of pieces, and the children's parents help them glue them together. My main job is to keep track of the bottles of glue. 31 October 2008 No basil in the casserole I'm making for supper tonight. The parsley is as healthy as ever, if a bit hard to find under the fallen leaves, but the spicy globe basil is a hard-to-see spray of thin dry stems. Lovely day out, and the painters are here. I hope they can finish up today. Can't find the hat that goes with the Wizard suit I'm wearing tonight. I think I would find it if I could pull out the drawer that I keep my scarves in. It's in the garage, and I couldn't clear much space between it and another piece that's stored out there. Anybody want Dave's grandmother's secretary? Or his mother's sewing machine? I think we'll haul the stereo to Goodwill. Would make a good blanket box, but we are up to our knees in blanket boxes. 1 November 2008 Ended up reading Hitchcock between customers. Seems to have been a successful Trunk or Treat. Not a lot of demand for the crafts, but at one point I had to ask one of the fathers to help me haul a second table into the easy-to-clean corner of the Fellowship Hall. Never found my hat, but I did find the slippers that go with that outfit. I think I'll leave them in the pocket of the robe for next year. I wore Dave's black do-rag for a hat, tied high and pulled up into a point. I have the sleeve drafted for my new suit. Can't finish it while there is still time to get any use out of lightweight linen, so I'm poking around the stash again. I could wear navy plaid wool suiting all winter. Might want to gather the sleeves into cuffs instead of elastic, though. Exactly how much do I have of the red-and-green silk print? Enough for the shirt, at least, and I'm not at all sure I want slacks that *loud* anyway; it would look good with my black polywool slacks or my black cords. -- 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.