Lynn Peterson's Blog

Crock Pot Chicken ala Renee

2011-04-16T17:32:00.001-07:00

This is the perfect thing to make on a weekend because it takes 8 hours in the crock pot, and it's absurdly easy.

What you need:

A whole chicken
Salt
Pepper
Crock Pot
8 hours + chicken washing time

I thaw my chicken in a bowl to keep juices from escaping into the refrigerator, and then I take that very same bowl over to the kitchen sink and set it in there with the chicken inside of it. Saves me having to clean the sink before cleaning the chicken. The first thing I do is take out the bag of giblets, rinse them off, and stick them in the crock pot. I give them to the cats, and they help to flavor the juices for making yummy gravy. I rinse the chicken off in warm water and remove any feathers that were missed by the defeathering process that happened when the chicken was processed. I stick the chicken in the crock pot, skin and all, and then I wash my hands really, really, really well. Then I salt and pepper the chicken, stick the lid on, and put the crock pot on low heat for 8 hours.

Now I've got 8 hours to do whatever I want to do, but first things first. The bowl and all chicken processing equipment such as my scissors to open the bag go in the dishwasher, the sink gets cleaned, and my hands get washed thoroughly once again.

Forward ahead 8 hours. In that time, I've managed to:

Take a walk with my cat
Watch Season 5 of Doctor Who
Catch up some on the Weather Channel
Poke about on Facebook
Finish 2 knitting projects for the contest I'm involved in

Say it with me, "slow cookers are awesome!"

I made a batch of biscuits using the Gluten Free Bisquick and substituting Ener-G egg substitute, rice milk, and vegan shortening.

Then, I pulled the chicken out of the slow cooker and placed it on a serving plate. Ok so it wasn't so much a serving plate but a 9x9 baking pan. But whatever, if the chicken fits, and it's dishwasher safe... I fished out the giblets and set them on a plate to cool for the cats. Then I poured out the juices into my Pyrex measuring cup and found out that I had a whole 2 cups of juices - perfect for gravy!

I know that a while ago, I posted about this absurdly easy gravy recipe. Seriously though anything involving making a roux is not easy, absurd or not. I found a much easier recipe online for Microwave Turkey Gravy, but it works just as well for chicken. It's a wheat-free, gluten-free recipe!

Here's what you need:

2 cups turkey OR chicken broth (The chicken made 2 cups of its own broth)
tablespoons Argo® or Kingsford's® Corn Starch (I use Argo)
tablespoons turkey fat drippings, skimmed from pan (The chicken also made fat drippings included in the broth - there is a method to my skin-leaving-on madness afterall!)

Here's what you do:

Stir turkey broth and corn starch in a 1-1/2-quart microwaveable bowl until smooth. Season to taste.
Microwave on HIGH (100%), 7 to 9 minutes, stirring twice, until mixture boils; boil 1 minute. (It never takes nearly this long, so be sure to watch the microwave. I average 3 minutes)
Remove from microwave. Stir in fat drippings. (nope, I don't have to - included in the broth)

This was a super-easy chicken dinner! Thanks Renee! You rock!

BLT Sandwich!

2011-04-13T06:27:00.001-07:00

Sometimes when you have as many multiple food allergies as I do, you can really get to missing foods that you used to love. Case in point: the BLT sandwich. I've no problem eating either bacon, lettuce, or tomatoes, and since I've learned of my allergies, I've developed an appreciation for bacon that I'd never had previously. Honestly, it's an easy protein, and when eaten in moderation, there's nothing wrong with bacon. Made in the microwave, it's not nearly as messy as making it on the stovetop. Being allergic to dairy and eggs means that meat is about the only protein I can eat.

All that said, however, the idea of bacon and tomato lettuce wraps isn't that thrilling to me. Then, Craig's friend, Chris, told him about an allergen free bread. So, Craig stopped at Whole Foods on his way home from work and picked up a loaf of this special bread, Ener-g's Yeast-free Brown Rice Loaf. It's free of gluten, wheat, casein, dairy, yeast, egg, soy, and nut.

Using my special, dedicated toaster, we toasted up some of this bread and made a BLT sandwich for me. I'm allergic to mayonnaise, so I used the Earth Balance buttery spread instead. The result was utter and wonderful deliciousness!

About my special toaster:
It is very easy to experience cross-contamination in the kitchen. Even a particle of an allergen can cause an allergic reaction! I'm not being hyperbolic either. I'm quite serious. I've reacted from even touching things that I'm allergic to. So, I bought a dedicated toaster. It's pink, so there's no mistaking my special toaster.

Crustless, Dairy-free, Egg-free Key Lime Pie ala Dad and Me

2011-02-23T10:18:00.000-08:00

I was in Florida last week visiting my family, and one of Dad's friends had given him a bag of key limes. I love key limes. I'll even eat them straight! But Dad and I decided to challenge ourselves and figure out how to make a key lime pie that I would not be allergic to, and he would not be either. Dad and I both have food allergies.

When making the first pie, Dad attempted to modify a recipe he has for homemade oatmeal and fruit bars into an oatmeal-based crust. It didn't taste bad, but it didn't add anything to the pie. We ended up eating slices of pie and skipping the crust bit. So, I suggested that we make life easier and make crustless pie.

Here is our key lime pie recipe:

3/4 cups key lime juice
2 1/2 cups soy milk
1 cup sugar
5 TBSP cornstarch
2 tsp lime zest

Whisk all the ingredients together in a saucepan, then turn on medium heat and slowly bring to a boil, stirring constantly until thick and creamy. Allow to cool slightly and then either pour into a pie plate or individual ramekins. Refrigerate until firm.

Chicken Soup ala Renee

2011-02-22T10:26:00.000-08:00

Renee makes an awesome chicken soup, probably the best I've ever had. I finally got around to asking her for the recipe, and I've been making it with good results. So, I thought I'd share the recipe. It's super-easy! Did I mention that it's gluten free and allergen free too? None of the big 8 allergens are in this soup!

Ingredients:
1 chicken carcass
1 TBSP Salt
Water
1 Onion
Veggies (carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, really whatever you've got is fine. The last batch I made, I used a package of frozen broccoli & cauliflower.)
2 Tsp black pepper
1 tsp parsley flakes

Instructions:
1. Put your chicken carcass in a big pot and cover with water. Add 1 TBSP salt and veggies. Put your pot on the stove and bring the contents to a boil.
2. Lower temp to a simmer and simmer for 2 hours uncovered.
3. Get out a plate, cutting board, or I use a cookie sheet. Pull out all of the chicken bones and set it on the plate. Walk away and let it cool for a while. Then put the meat back in the soup and discard the bones.
4. Add your parsley and black pepper. Taste the soup. Does it taste good? Too weak, simmer for longer. Too strong, add some water and simmer for longer.
5. Serve it up. Hooray, you've made chicken soup with no cans!

When I make it, the soup serves around 8, so I have lots of leftovers. I portion it up into containers that I freeze (you can only keep leftovers in the refrigerator for three days - that's it), and then when I want "fast food," I can heat up the leftovers in the microwave. If you don't have a microwave, it would be easy enough to heat up the leftovers on the stove too.

I served my soup for dinner with gluten free biscuits made from Gluten Free Bisquick. I substituted Ener-G egg substitute for eggs, rice milk for milk, and vegan shortening for butter. Yes, they still turned out good. Perhaps, if you didn't typically eat gluten free, you wouldn't like them, but I live with a fairly lengthy list of allergies. If you didn't want to deal with all that, you could serve it with a side of rice.

Chicken and Biscuits

2010-11-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

Ever since learning about my numerous food allergies, I've had to start cooking a whole lot more. I'd always cooked some but had thus far avoided making a habit of it. Heating packaged foods up in the microwave or the oven came so easy to me. I also ate out at restaurants frequently before my discovery of allergies. Now, I just don't have as many easy to heat up meal or restaurant options available to me. Therefore, I'm cooking.

It's mid-November, and as Wisconsin Novembers are wont to be, it's cold, windy, and damp. In other words, it's the perfect kind of weather for a hot, hearty meal like chicken and biscuits. However, there are a few allergy obstacles to overcome: dairy, eggs, and wheat. I was determined to make it work, allergies notwithstanding!

For the chicken, and this was the easy part, we split a boneless, skinless chicken breast in half, butterfly style, seasoned it with some salt and pepper, and cooked it on the George Foreman grill.

The biscuits were also fairly easy thanks to Bisquick for making Gluten Free Bisquick. All of the dry ingredients contained within are safe for me to eat. However, the cooking directions asked for milk and 3 eggs, so I substituted rice milk and Ener-G Egg Replacer, respectively. For the shortening, I used a vegan vegetable shortening. Making biscuits in this manner produced tasty results. The last time I tried making them, however, I didn't have any shortening, so I used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks. I do not recommend this substitution because it made yellow-colored biscuits that took forever to bake.

The next challenge was to make a gravy that I would not be allergic to. It couldn't have any flour or dairy products in it. I used Gluten-Free Girl's Absurdly Easy Gravy recipe. I had to modify the recipe some so that it was dairy-free, as her recipe calls for unsalted butter. I turned again to my Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks as a substitution. However, I had to use more rice flour than called for in the recipe because of my substitution. I just added rice flour until the consistency was right. Before this evening, I'd never actually made gravy. Instead, I used to purchase the stuff in a jar or ask my mom or my sister to do it. However, even though it was my first try, and I had to make substitutions, the gravy turned out nicely. It was smooth and tasty.

I served my allergen-free (at least for me) chicken and biscuits for dinner tonight, and both the husband and I agreed that dinner was a success!

Food Allergies

2010-11-19T18:00:00.000-08:00

I have food allergies, and by that I don't mean to say that I'm allergic to one or two foods. As my friend Alene put it, I'm pretty much allergic to food and all of its components. I've always known that I have *some* food allergies. I even knew for sure what one of them was. For as long as I can remember, I've known that I am allergic to red food coloring, most probably Red #40. I avoid all red food colorings, however, just to be on the safe side. Intense stomach cramps, vomiting, anaphylaxis, etc. is just not how I prefer to spend my time.

I've also known for about as long as I can remember that I am allergic to other foods too, but I just didn't know what those were. None of them had such a dramatic effect as when the dentist put the red plaque build up detecting tablet in my mouth, and I had a seizure. Ibuprofen sent me to the hospital when I was in high school for a nice shot of antihistamine in the butt following breaking out into hives and nearly passing out in the school nurse's office. I also avoid Ibuprofen.

However, there's always been some lingering thought that I was allergic to something else, but I had no idea what that something else was. I'd been also living with severe asthma. On good days, I wheezed when climbing a flight of stairs. On bad days, well let's just say, the ER was involved. Following two bouts of pneumonia and bronchitis within twelve months, I decided to do whatever it took to get to the bottom of this asthma business and get it under control. Ultimately, I wound up at Allergy Associates of LaCrosse where I was tested for *both* airborn and food allergies. Up until that day, I'd never actually been tested for food allergies.

I had to wait few weeks for my food allergy blood tests results. When I got the letter, I cried. I found out that in addition to the things I already knew (tree nuts too - anaphylaxis again) that I was allergic to, I am allergic to the following:

Wheat
Dairy
Eggs
Yeast
Peanuts

That eliminates an awful lot of foods, but I was not about to die of starvation. Instead, I've been adapting. I can eat veggies, fruits, meat, potatoes, corn, rice, and combinations thereof. While being allergic to so many foods is awful, I am seeing clear results in my asthma improvement. In a three month period, I needed my inhaler twice. Prior to the allergy results and allergy treatments that I am taking, I would need my inhaler up to four times a day.

Cat Shows - getting everything into the show hall!

2010-06-06T14:50:00.000-07:00

I'm showing a lovely Turkish Angora in the CFA Premiership class. While I love showing him, and he enjoys it too, there are some challenges that come along with showing a cat. One of my biggest challenges was figuring out how to get everything into the show hall in one trip without breaking my back. Some people can happily make several trips to and from their cars, but I have severe asthma, so one trip is about all I can manage. Some people show their cats with their spouses or significant others, resulting in an extra set of hands for carrying items into the show hall. While my spouse supports my endeavor to show a cat, he'd really rather be left out of the excitement, so that leaves me. I needed some sort of system that would allow me to get it all into the show hall by myself and in one trip, oh and did I mention that I drive a compact car?

I put this challenge to my friend and fellow exhibitor, Wendy, who told me that wheels were the way to go. She uses a rolling grooming cart. Basically, it's a wheeled platform. The cat carrier goes on top of the platform, a top piece goes over the top, and the two are secured together with bungee cords. Your duffel bag of cat supplies can go right on top, and you can sling your sturdi-cage (that's a security cage for giving your cat his own comfy little home in the show hall) over your shoulder and walk right in. You leave the cart set up in the show hall, and it gives you a built-in grooming station, which is of great use if you are showing a longhaired cat who needs plenty of grooming. There are several vendors online who sell this setup. PK Pet Products is one vendor.

While I've seen many exhibitors with this exact setup, it is not what I chose for my showing needs. What I did choose is more based on the fact that my cat travels in a soft-sided dog crate. I picked it up at Bed Bath and Beyond (no longer available), and I like it because it's big and lightweight at the same time. I can fit a litter box and cat bed inside of it. The cat can stay in there while we are in the car, and he can even stay in there when he's unattended in the hotel room, such as when I'm sleeping. It's a nice, secure place for him. Squishing a soft-sided dog crate between two wooden platforms was not going to work without resulting in a squished cat.

Therefore, I opted for a rolling cart like those you see at office supply stores. I pile my flat items on the bottom, such as a small folding table and Sturdi-cage. I set the cat's soft cage atop that, and I sandwich his duffel bag between the cage and cart handle. I bungee cord it all together, and we are off to the cat show! The cart folds flat and fits nicely in the trunk of my car, and I have found several other, non-cat show, uses for the cart. It helps me wheel my scrapbooking supplies into the crops I attend, and I even used it at my church's garage sale to cart items into the building.

My system for getting everything into the show hall is not yet perfected, but I'm able to get it all into the hall in one trip, as long as I remember to bring my coffee with me, not leave it in the car.

Calling All Crafters

2009-11-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

Calling All Crafters!

What? A craft fair in conjunction with our Fair Trade Fair
When? December 5th from 11:30 -4:00
Who? YOU!! We are renting out booths to crafters of all sorts and people who sell interesting things.
Where? St. John's Lutheran Church - 625 E. Netherwood - Oregon, WI - 608-835-3154

We have approximately 13; 10x10 foot spaces and 6; 10x12 foot spaces available. The 10x10 spaces are against walls, and the 10x12 spaces are free-standing. Both size booths are available for $50. If you require a table, it will be $5, and if you require more than one space, we can arrange a discount for you.

Contact me today to book your booth!!!

Fair Trade Fair and Craft Fair

2009-11-10T15:39:00.001-08:00

Where: St. John’s Lutheran Church

625 E. Netherwood, Oregon WI

When: Saturday December 5th

Time: 11:30 AM to 4:00 PM

Handicrafts from around the world available to purchase for Christmas gift giving. All proceeds from Fair Trade Fair items sold go back to World Hunger Relief, so this is an incredibly worthwhile event to help people around the world in need.

Check out www.serrv.org/lwr to see a sample of what will be available for sale.

In conjunction with our Fair Trade Fair, we are also hosting a Craft Fair featuring our local artisans and people who sell interesting things. Proceeds will go to various mission activities throughout the year. Plan to join us for lunch as well! The Guatemala mission group will be selling a lunch of homemade soup, bread, and dessert for only $5.

Support local and worldwide missions by doing your holiday shopping at this one event! How awesome is that!

Useful knitting resouces

2009-06-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

I have a number of sites that I consider to be good knitting resources, and here they are, in no particular order:
KnittingHelp.com
Knitty
Ravelry
KnitPicks Community
Learn to Knit at Lion Brand Yarn
Creative Knitting Magazine

Of course, I think the best resource is your Local Yarn Shop. There you will find knitting (and the occasional crocheting) enthusiasts who will gladly answer any questions you have. I have found my LYS, Off the Beaten Path, to be an amazing place. I've made friends with the owner and all the people who work there. They share in my joys as I complete a project and listen as I carp on about life or whatever. Of course, I'm not always as loyal as I could be. Sometimes I buy yarn at the other local yarn shops. This past weekend, I visited Lakeside Fibers and bought some yarn for making a tee shirt.

Caffeine can ease asthma symptoms

2009-05-19T20:25:00.001-07:00

My friend, Chris, a fellow asthmatic, swears by drinking coffee when his asthma is acting up, in addition to his regular medicines, of course. Apparently Chris is onto something. A couple of scientists in the UK studied how caffeine affects asthma, and they concluded that, "Caffeine appears to improve airways function modestly in people with asthma for up to four hours." I need all the help I can get, bring on the coffee!

Caffeine for Asthma.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Refracted Moments.

Organized Yarn Closet

2009-05-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

I organized my yarn closet this winter. I'm thinking I did this back in January, but I hadn't gotten around to posting the picture until now. Inspired by my local yarn shop's yarn displays, I bought a bunch of black metal cubes at Target. Although they have recommendations on the box, you cal really arrange the cubes in any way you see fit or in any way that will make them fit! The other part of the system is a black metal shelving unit that I think I bought at Menards. I'd used it to store plants at our previous home. I sorted the yarn mostly by color, and the projects are in bags on the black shelving unit. The two yellow suitcases are filled with afghan projects that I inherited. There are other non-yarn things in here too such as my jewelry-making supplies. I like this system because it makes it easy to find what I'm looking for and to see what I've got at a glance.

The second picture is of one of my new toys that I also bought this winter. It's a ball winder and yarn swift. I don't like umbrella swifts, so I got something a bit different. I ordered it on ETSY from a carpenter in IL, and I love it!

The rest of the crafting things you see on and around my drafting table are my scrapbooking/rubber stamping supplies.

Falcoon brushes his teeth

2009-05-02T09:51:00.000-07:00

Maine Coon cats are particularly susceptible to gingivitis, so it's good to brush their teeth. I know that in humans, there is a connection between gingivitis and heart disease. My husband's dentist explained this to him when he was diagnosed with gingivitis. He had his special extra-painful deep cleanings and has been flossing 2x daily. He's almost entirely reversed his gingavitis. With the cat, though, I figured we'd just try to prevent it in the first place as much as possible.

I decided to train Falcoon to put up with having his teeth brushed, and I honestly anticipated bloodied hands from the attempt. However, the training went a lot easier than I anticipated, namely because Falcoon had already been brushing his teeth. I just didn't know about it until I caught him using my husband's soniccare toothbrush!!!

One day, I went to Walgreens for something else and saw that they were having a sale of buy one get one free on toothbrushes, so I bought Falcoon his very own toothbrush so he'd stop using my husband's! I did replace Craig's toothbrush btw. We don't use toothpaste, but Falcoon just loves brushing his teeth. He sits on the cat tree, and I hold the toothbrush for him while he brushes it around his mouth. He's a very oral (read bitey) cat anyway, so for him this is just great fun. It's his special game that he gets to play with me. And he gets cleaner teeth in the process!

I finally managed to snap a picture of Falcoon brushing his teeth this morning! At our last checkup, the vet said that his teeth and gums looked very nice.

Green Socks

2009-04-10T15:39:00.001-07:00

This is my first pair of lace socks. I'm quite pleased with them. :) I made these from Lanette sock yarn. It's tough to find a good, solid color sock yarn, but this stuff is great, very soft. Also I have been wanting to make a pair of green socks for a long time now but had been having trouble finding a yarn that I liked. I used a pattern from the book, Socks, Socks, Socks that I reviewed over at Universal Book Reviews.

Fair Isle Socks

2009-04-10T15:37:00.001-07:00

These are one of the pairs of socks that I am working on currently. My first Fair Isle socks was a pair of slipper socks that I made for my mom for Christmas. They have hearts on the heels. These are a lot tougher though because the pattern is more complex. I'm enjoying making these socks, but they are definitely challenging.

Perking the Office

2009-04-10T15:35:00.001-07:00

Yay! Craig gave me flowers. I brought them to work so that my cat, Doc, wouldn't eat them or knock them over. Plus, I wanted to look at them while I was at work. The plant in the foreground is a grafted cactus.

Knitting Bags

2009-02-23T05:51:00.001-08:00

I was at my friend's place yesterday, and she saw that I was using a zippered bag that curtains come in to store my current sock project. She said that she uses the same thing! I like zippered bags such as those for curtains, pillowcases, and for bigger projects, comforters or blankets. Some other bags that work great are the inexpensive "green" bags that are being sold all over town as a replacement for paper or plastic bags at the grocery store. Of course, I find myself using tote bags as well to store knitting projects. At garage sales, you can find a ton of tote bags really cheap. People go to conferences where they are given these bags they will never use again. I don't personally care what the bags say or where they come from because they make great project bags.

Craig Peterson & Beyond Compare

2009-02-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Pictured to the left is my husband, Craig Peterson. He's the lead developer of a shareware utility called Beyond Compare. Recently, he was interviewed by Successful Software. A couple of months ago, he participated in the Podcast at Delphi.org where he also discussed the development of Beyond Compare version 3.

One of the things they were trying to ascertain in the Successful Software interview is why Beyond Compare succeeded despite the developers ignoring conventional wisdom and making some unusual decisions. I think it is precisely for these reasons that Beyond Compare is so successful. You cannot succeed if you just do what everybody else does. They buck the trends, and it works for them.

2009 knitting goals

2009-01-11T13:46:00.000-08:00

I'm not a big one for making New Year's Resolutions. I am also not particularly goal-oriented. It seems to me that often life gets in the way of our goals. "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry," adaptation of a saying by Robert Burns. However, when it comes to knitting, there are some things that I would like to learn, and maybe I'll even learn them this year. So here are three of my knitting goals:

Learn to knit socks on circular needles.
Learn to spin yarn from roving.
Learn to knit cables.

I hope, but I don't know if it's true or not, that knitting socks on circulars will be faster than knitting them on double points. I'm currently knitting a pair of socks from Sandy's Palette merino sock yarn. This is super-soft luxurious sock yarn, but it's taking me simply forever to finish these socks. I started them during our vacation in November.

I suspect that my sweater-knitting has cut into my sock-knitting though. Since November, I have knit two sweaters, and I'm currently working on a third that I just started last week. What I love about knitting is that it finally gives me a good reason to appreciate winter. I can fight back against the cold and knit sweaters! My current sweater is a Neckdown Pullover for Women by Knitting Pure & Simple. It's a raglan. I'm knitting it from Cestari Cranberry Tweed 100% wool.

Do tarantulas spin webs?

2009-01-08T16:20:00.001-08:00

I took this picture of this cute little fella at the Desert Springs Preserve when we were in Las Vegas this November. I know most people don't think tarantulas are cute, but they are fuzzy which makes them cute in my opinion.

So I got to wondering if tarantulas spin webs like other spiders do. It turns out, they do, sort of but not for the same purpose as other spiders. They do make silk, but rather than using it to catch bugs, tarantulas use the silk to line their dens. It helps them to detect intruders.

Here is a site with good info on tarantulas.

2008 the bad and the good

2009-01-05T05:34:00.000-08:00

I'll readily admit that 2008 was a pretty lousy year. Beyond the national and international economy stuff which admittedly is pretty big and important, my personal life was particularly challenging in 2008. Two really awful things happened. First, my husband's brother, who we all knew wasn't quite right in the head, completely lost it and physically assaulted me Memorial Day weekend. I spent the entire summer recovering from my injuries and undergoing Physical Therapy.

Then in early June, our basement flooded. It really could not have happened at a worse time as I was in no condition to deal with it. How do you pull down drywall, when it's too hard to pull on your own socks? It could have been worse though. Our house did not wash away like some did in Lake Delton. We decided to have a sump pump installed to prevent future floods. I have to wonder just who thought it was a good idea to build a house in southern Wisconsin without a sump pump? This area floods and not infrequently. Having a sump pump installed after the fact is expensive, but it seemed to be worth it. We also hired a construction company to come in and gut the basement. There was mold everywhere and mushrooms growing on the walls. Ick!

So that was the worst of 2008 for me. I am thankful that it was not worse. Although our house flooded, we still have a house. We both still have our jobs as well. Certainly not everybody fared so well in 2008.

All of the negative aside, there were some good things that happened in 2008:

Barak Obama won the presidential election!!!
We had a great vacation in November to Las Vegas and the Mojave Desert.
My parents are in good health.
My husband and I are both in relatively good health.
Our cat Doc recovered from his enucleation surgery and is doing quite well.
Sid and Falcoon, our other cats, are happy and healthy.
I reconnected with an old friend who I sorely missed and got to spend her 30th birthday with her this summer.
My grandfather had his 90th birthday party in January.
I had a great time at the Chicago and Milwaukee cat shows hanging out with my sister and other cat folks.
My sister hosted an awesome Thanksgiving party.
We hosted an awesome Halloween party (power tools + pumpkins = lots of fun).
I learned how to knit socks, and I also knit my first sweater.
I enjoyed working with my church's prayer shawl ministry to knit and crochet shawls for people in our community needing comfort.

Let's just hope that for all the good of 2008, 2009 is a much better year for all of us. I hope that a new administration can be the wind of change that we need to turn some of our problems around.

A New Use for a Seed Spreader

2009-01-04T10:09:00.001-08:00

This tip came from my sister who lives in the greater Chicago area. They get a lot of freezing rain down there. You can use a seed spreader to spread salt on your driveway and walkways! All you have to do is dump salt in the main compartment, open it wide up, and start walking. I have to admit that I've never actually used my seed spreader for spreading seeds, but it works like a charm for spreading salt! We had freezing rain last night and into this morning, so there's a good layer of ice on everything.

My Goldfish, Mir

2008-12-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

I spent more time this weekend with my goldfish than I normally do. My MacBook crashed, and I spent a lot of time on the phone with Apple tech support. The technician I spoke with was tremendously helpful and helped me get my computer all fixed. Looks like the operating system got corrupted. Anyway, when you are on the phone with tech support, there isn't much to do while waiting for things to load, so I watched the fish.

There are two goldfish in my tank: Mir and Pacman. Years ago, I decided to get an aquarium with pretty tropical fish. I was told that the first thing you need to do in a new aquarium to get the bacterial colonies growing is to get a feeder goldfish and wait for the colonies to grow. Well, I never did get those tropical fish. The goldfish just kept right on living. Our cat, Sid, was fascinated with watching the fish. He was a kitten back then, and he'd hop up on a chair next to the tank and say, "Mirrrrr." That's how we named the fish. We let the cat do it.

She (when a fish is big enough, you can determine gender) lived in a 10 gallon tank for several years until we could no longer keep the tank clean. It lived on the bathroom countertop to assist in this cleaning. Having to keep the tank by the sink is pretty silly! So, I bought a new fish tank on eBay. Well not really a new tank... It was 55 gallons though and came with a stand for only $50. Even though I had to pick it up in Green Bay, it was cheaper than buying one new.

She's gotten to be a fairly good size; Craig estimates that she is 12 inches long. I think she's somewhere around five years old. We feed her pellets for goldfish, and she will eat from your fingers, if you let her. She doesn't have teeth so no worries about biting, but it does feel kind of funny. If I am picking up the tank decorations or cleaning the tank, she'll rub up against my hand. That feels kind of funny too.

Our other goldfish, Pacman, is much smaller, probably only 3 inches long. While Mir is very long, Pacman is very round. That's how Craig named him or her. Pacman is a little too small to determine gender, but given the lack of breeding between the fish, I'm guessing they are both females. Maybe we ought to get a bow and name her Ms. Pacman. Pacman has also learned to eat from fingers, and is also quite insistant about being fed. Both fish go up near the top of the tank and move around a whole bunch to get the attention of whomever is in the room. Mir can also make quite a splash with her tail if swimming frantically is not working to get my attention!

Periodically I consider putting in a pond to expand the living quarters for my fish even more, but I have not yet gotten around to it. I am intrigued by the idea of an indoor pond though because it just gets so cold here in the winter. There's a Chinese restaurant in the Milwaukee area (actually Mequon) that has an indoor koi pond with some mighty big fish.

Gas and Snacks

2008-12-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here's another weird thing I am wondering about. So where I live, gas is down to $1.74. Whoo Hoo! Yay. Do you think that now that gas prices are less, people will buy more snacks at the gas station?

I read or heard somewhere that gas stations make most of their money on snacks and stuff sold inside of the gas station, rather than from gas. If gas costs less, are you more likely to buy a candy bar than if it costs more?

I think so for most people, but even when gas prices were so high this past summer, I still bought snacks. The difference between this summer and now is huge though, even with my 10 gallon gas tank. $4.25 a gallon translates to over $42 a fill up. And $1.74 a gallon translates to $17.40, so that's a big difference.

I'm glad my car isn't bigger though. I know a woman who drives a Suburban, and she was paying over $100 a fill up this summer. I could not have afforded that! Although a Suburban isn't exactly in my budget either... I'll keep my Civic with it's 36 miles per gallon average for city and highway. (I calculate my gas mileage periodically.)

A stumper...

2008-12-04T11:01:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to design a pattern for knitting socks, and here's something I am wondering about... If a number is divisible by both 4 and 3, is it also divisible by 12? If so, then I could make the number of cast on stitches divisible by 12 and life would be easy.

I want to do a ribbing pattern of 3 and 1, hence the 4. I like my stitches evenly divided among my 3 sock needles, hence the 3. I am strange, I know. Although I could do a 4x1 rib and deal in multiples of 5. I'm inspired by a cool sweater I saw somebody wearing. It was either a 3x1 or a 4x1 ribbing. I didn't want to stare though, so I couldn't determine which it was. But I thought, hmm that would look good in a pair of socks. And the numbers wouldn't matter so much, but I want to carry the ribbing down the top of the foot too.

What's an Alberta Clipper?

2008-12-02T15:54:00.000-08:00

Alberta Clippers are dominating our Madison, WI weather, and will through the week. We've got one on the way tomorrow and one following that on Friday. So what's an Alberta Clipper? A new hockey team from Edmonton?

It's a low pressure system that originates in Western Canada and brings snow, high winds, and unseasonably cold weather to the Great Lakes region. These are not the systems that bring the most accumulation of snow to our region, but they can bring up to 6 inches, just enough to make driving challenging. Once it passes over the Great Lakes, it can produce lake effect snow and if it goes into the Atlantic Ocean, an Alberta Clipper can become a Nor'easter. And I believe, if I am not mistaken, that Alberta Clippers travel along the Jet Stream.

I wonder how much snow we'll get tomorrow. I'm hearing 3-5 inches on the Weather Channel.

death valley

2008-11-17T16:25:00.000-08:00

Craig and I just got back from our Mojave Desert Vacation. We visited the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and Death Valley, all of which are in the Mojave Desert.

This is me at the Devil's Golf Course at Death Valley National Park. It's all salt deposits like the chunk I am holding up, and apparently only the Devil could play golf here (don't ask me). The elevation was somewhere between -182 and -282 feet below sea level and the temperature was 91 degrees F.

This is Craig at Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America. He's surrounded by salt deposits and extremely salty water. You wouldn't want to drink it, hence the name Badwater.

Death Valley is a funny place. It's between two mountain ranges made by two faults, and it's still sinking today because the area is still seismically active. What's weird though is that although we were so far below sea level, it didn't feel that way. The ocean was nowhere in sight, and all we could see in any direction was mountains.

The Lake is gone - not a good way to wake up

2008-10-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

Every morning, for years now, I've been listening to the Greg Bair morning show on 93.1 The Lake in Madison. It's a Classic Rock format, and it was a good mix of music and news. Too many morning shows are more talk than music, and that's just not what I want. This morning, my radio came on but the music was different. Hip Hop was playing, not Classic Rock. It turns out that The Lake is gone. What a horrible way to wake up!

I'll have to find another radio station. But for the record, I do not approve.

I hate stumps!

2008-09-26T17:03:00.000-07:00

I cut down these ridiculously ugly bushes in front of my house. Mostly I did it because they greatly reduced the visibility along the steps leading up to my h0use, making it very easy to trip! Cutting them down was difficult but not impossible. I used a chainsaw and loppers. It took a few days, but I was happy to see them gone, and I cannot wait to replace them with something pretty! My only stumbling block is the stumps they left behind.

I don't want to use one of those stump-dissolving chemicals because that would take a long time. I thought I could cut down at least to the ground with my sawzall, but no luck there. I saw a site online that suggested using a spade to dig a trench around the stump and then using a landscaping bar to break up the roots and lever up the stump. So, I went to the local hardware store to buy a landscaping bar. The trouble... Yes there was trouble. I couldn't lift any of the landscaping bars there! Ugh! So I couldn't even purchase a landscaping bar, let alone whack at roots with it.

So I'm at an impasse. I will probably hire somebody to come in and remove the stumps for me. Grr though because I'd really like to be self-sufficient in this matter and remove the stumps myself.

My inability to remove stumps also presents me with an expensive problem. I have a yard full of unwanted, ugly, and overgrown bushes. I could cut them all down, but I'd still be left with the stumps which would just regrow ugly bushes!

The Pineapple Project

2008-09-15T14:15:00.000-07:00

In every episode of Psych, there is a pineapple somewhere. Sometimes these pineapples are obvious, and other times, they are rather subtle. I looked around online and even on the Psych official web site, and I could not find a source listing the pineapples on Psych. I was left with one choice: watch a lot of Psych episodes and compile my own list.

Why is there a pineapple in episode? I don't know, and the Psych cast and crew have many of their own theories. By the way, there is a pineapple in the fish tank on the top of the official Psych web page.

Here are my pineapple sightings so far (at some point, I will organize this list by season):

Psy vs Psy: Shawn makes a pineapple upside down cake using an EZ Bake oven he bought on eBay.
If You Are So Smart, then Why Are You Dead: There are pineapple drink glasses on Shawn's Dad's tiki bar.
Gus Walks into a Bank: There are 3 pineapple sightings in this episode!
- Shawn complains about the pizza toppings that they don't even have ham and pineapple
- There is a pineapple in the fruit bowl. Shawn walks past it on the way to the bathroom
- There is a pineapple cutout on the zipline snack delivery system
American Duos: Shawn brings Emilina a Pineapple
And Down the Stretch Comes Murder: Shawn's dad gets him to wear a green Hawaiian-style shirt emblazoned with pineapples.

Pineapple picture courtesy of Flickr user Giniger.

Multitasking

2008-08-26T20:37:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article over at Lifehacker called Debunking the Myth of Multi-tasking. The idea is that when we multitask, we are not really doing two things at one time but rapidly switching between several tasks. The time to switch tasks add up and you become less productive.

I'm not so sure that I accept that multitasking is a bad thing. I think it has its time and place. I work in an office, and when I am running a large copy job, I could just sit there and twiddle my thumbs or watch the copy machine work, but I choose to do something else instead. As I boot my computer, I read the notes on my desk. But is what I describe really multitasking or technological delegation that frees me up to do something else? At home I multitask too. For instance, I empty the dishwasher while I wait for water to boil. Productivity is about making the small moments count.

I believe that if you can effectively manage your time, switchtasking can be a part of your routine too. I am an office clerk, so if somebody comes in with a question, there I am. If the phone rings, I need to answer it. Throughout the day, I rapidly switch between tasks. However, I think you can manage constant interruptions and still get things done by the use of detailed checklists. This falls more in line with David Allen's Getting Things Done theory, and it works for me. I have a daily checklist of things I need to do each day, and I have a list of tasks as well. I have also found a tickler file quite handy, but I took it a step further and indexed it. I have a spreadsheet printed out of the year and what each month's tickler file folder contains and upcoming events.

By the way, I wrote a book review of Getting Things Done over at my other site, UniversalBookReviews.

Tape and Paperclips

2008-08-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

Don't you just hate it when you lose the end to your packing tape? You've got to spin it around and search for the end and waste a bunch of tape because when you finally find the end, the tape tears as you are unwinding it. Grr, right?!

Here's a simple solution, place a large paperclip under the tape end when you are finished using it. That way, it keeps your end, and you are set to start taping right away.

Baby pumpkins

2008-07-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

We visited the pumpkin patch this morning to find baby pumpkins! This wasn't the only one but it was the easiest to get a photo of because it's right on the edge of the patch. It's a little hard to tell scale here, but it's about the size of half a football. It looks more like a watermelon than a pumpkin!

The vines all have flowers on them too, and we saw bees flitting about pollinating the flowers, which was really cool. Yay bees! I was a little concerned that they wouldn't find the pumpkin patch, but they seem to have found it just fine.

We couldn't stay out there too long though, not even long enough to get a count of pumpkins because there was a swarm of mosquitoes determined to exsanguinate us. I'll have to get some Deep Woods Off before I go back to count pumpkins and pull some weeds.

Mailing your luggage

2008-07-22T15:25:00.000-07:00

Wired had an article called Save a Buck (and Stick it to the airlines) by Shipping Your Luggage. I think that's pretty cool because it's something I've been doing for a while. I hate checking luggage, absolutely hate it, and so I try to avoid doing so whenever possible and just do carry-on. I am usually able to manage with either a small carry on rolling suitcase or a backpack. Rolling up my clothes works great on saving space, and I just bring stuff that doesn't wrinkle. And since I cannot heft a 50 lb bag over my head into an overhead compartment (I'm just not that strong), I limit my packing to what I can carry.

That said, some items like my wetsuit are just too bulky to pack. The last time I visited my parents in Florida, I stuffed my wetsuit into a large Priority Mail Flat Rate box and mailed it ahead of me to my mom and dad. And on my way home, whatever didn't fit into my suitcase, I stuck it in a box and mailed it to myself. The highest Flat Rate box is $12.95, so shipping a package there and back costs a little less than $25, a bargain compared to what the airlines are now charging. You also save yourself the hassle of standing in line at the baggage claim trying to be ever-vigilant that somebody doesn't walk off with your suitcase.

Although if I do check a bag, I have a special suitcase for that. I painted that suitcase so garishly that nobody would ever mistake it for their own. I painted a large green dragon on the front, and I painted my first name in block letters on all the other sides of it.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user ToastyKen.

Laundry or the Most Boring Post Ever

2008-07-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

I've been washing my clothes at the laundromat since my basement flooded. It didn't seem too prudent to operate electrical machines that were underwater. Going to the laundromat isn't the worst thing as there is a nice one near my work. It's a bit of a time sink though as it's not the greatest place for concentrating, so I can't get much done.

I do love the large capacity washing machines. I can wash an entire week's worth of clothing for two people in one of these machines. Just stuff, add soap and go. I use a smaller machine for my whites. My laundry sorting follows a precise scientific formula: can you bleach it? If yes, it goes in the whites load. If no, I consider it dark and toss it in the big machine. I love the smell of bleach by the way. It smells so fresh and clean, and nothing beats the smell of a bleached white towel fresh from the dryer.

Back when I was in college and the laundromat was the only place I could wash clothes, I owned no light-colored towels or pieces of clothing. Everything was dark. That way, I did not have to sort anything. Pretty clever, eh? Well, it's not entirely true though. I did own a white tee shirt from the Engineering Expo. I handwashed it to continue avoiding sorting.

So, yeah my laundry room was destroyed by the flooding this summer. It used to have nice walls, built-in cabinets, a built-in ironing board, two closets, and a counter for folding. When it flooded we had to gut the room. After gutting we realized that apparently previous owners had finished the laundry room, and no other part of the basement, to cover up flood damage. I'm guessing it was from the major floods we had back in 1997 because the ceiling tiles were stamped with a date that year. They didn't, however, do any real waterproofing, regrading of landscaping, and they did not install a sump pump. I guess that's all up to me now!

There was mold growing five feet up the concrete block wall underneath the wallboard we pulled out, and there were mushrooms growing along the base of the walls where they meet the floor. It was fungus heaven! I joked with Craig that if we didn't get the water problem solved, I was going to start a mushroom farm in the basement!

Now we've got the problem mostly solved. There's still one troublespot, so I called the waterproofing company to come back out and fix it. I have to figure out how I'm going to set up my "new" laundry room. I'd like it to be my well-organized laundry paradise, and it sure will be nice not to have to visit the laundromat anymore.

Knitting: First pair of socks!

2008-07-02T17:21:00.001-07:00

This is my very first pair of socks. I started them this winter when I took a sock-making class, but I missed a couple of classes. So, they remained unfinished in my knitting closet. I resolved to finish them this summer, and I did today. Yay!

One of the scary things about knitting socks is the kitchener stitch. However with good instructions, it's not so bad at all. First I visited, Knitty.com where I found a great tutorial. Then I found a great video tutorial on YouTube.

The way I did it was that I read and printed the tutorial. Then I watched the video to see it in action. I took it out to my couch, laid the directions next to me and went for it. Not so bad. I kind of got into chanting knit drop, perl stay, perl drop, knit stay. I'm glad nobody but the cats witnessed that silliness!

I knit these socks from tofutsies yarn. The finished product is really soft, but the yarn was a challenge to knit with as it was way too easy to split it. But that could also be my inexperience with knitting on small needles... Before this foray into sock knitting, the smallest needle I'd ever knit on was an 8! Now, I've used 5's a couple of times.

Are we really so rushed?

2008-06-22T16:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, a friend of mine called me as she attempted to navigate the detour between Milwaukee and Madison. Getting here took several hours longer than it normally does. It gave her time to chat with me though.

Along the way, she had to stop for gas. Apparently, she took too much time at the gas pump after fueling her car. There were plenty of other gas pumps available, and since she drives a Toyota Camry, I'm guessing it was Regular Unleaded, not diesel.

A man was waiting for the pump she was using and got impatient with her. She turned to him and said, "If you didn't have such a stick up your a$$, you'd smile more often."

Want to know what he did next? He smiled. She's right afterall. What's the big hurry?

First of all, I love that she had the guts to say that. I just don't have the ability to say exactly what's on my mind in the moment like that. I would have probably only been able to muster a dirty look. It makes me wonder why are we in such a hurry? A few extra minutes at the pump just gives you a little bit longer to listen to the song on the radio/ipod/cd-player before having to turn off the car. If we slowed down, we could take a couple of minutes to use the restroom, get a soda, buy a candy bar or lottery tickets. Look at the other cars at the gas station. You just might see something really cool. One day, I saw a car in the grocery store parking lot that had crocheted seat covers. How awesome is that!

Photo courtesy of futureatlas.com Thank you!

Pumpkins vs Crown Vetch

2008-05-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

The ground on the East side of my house is predominated by Crown Vetch. It's annoying because it spreads everywhere, and it looks really ugly in fall, spring, and winter. It's an invasive species too, so there's another reason not to like it. I thought I'd try planting some pumpkins among the crown vetch to see which vine would win. So I planted 8 pumpkin seedlings on the crown vetch hill. I planted two seedlings next to my driveway in case the crown vetch wins, I'd still get some pumpkins. I've heard that they are easy to grow, and that's what I need because I am gardening-challenged.

I went to the Fitchburg Farmer's Market yesterday and picked up some onion seedlings. I'm going to plant those and have some of my very own garden-grown onions. I'm quite excited, but I may have overdone it a bit. Since I have no faith in my ability to keep plants alive, I bought 55 of them. They were only ten cents a piece, so it was a good deal. So here's to hoping they grow!

Rainbow Fleece Farms was also there with some beautiful yarns and roving. I bought a needle-felting kit because it's something I've always wanted to try. The instructions were pretty clear, and it's a really simple thing to do! So far, I've needle felted a flower and a penguin. The only downside is that you have to be careful that you don't accidentally poke yourself with the needle.

Falcoon's lion cut

2008-05-06T20:07:00.001-07:00

Here are before and after pictures of Falcoon's lion cut. He shed so much this spring that he developed some nasty matts. It was quite unpleasant for him, so we called in a groomer who gave him a lion cut. Craig thinks he looks "positively ridiculous." I think he's cute, but it's like looking at a different cat. I'm so used to seeing a cat with tons of fur. What surprises me most is how slender he is. He looked so big with all that fur!

Our other cats, Doc and Sid, are rather confused by Falcoon's new look, but I'm sure they'll get used to it. And I think most of all, he's going to be much cooler this summer. Today was 80 degrees, and he was acting so hot. Poor baby.

I'm Dreaming of a White... Easter?!

2008-03-23T16:15:00.001-07:00

It's Easter, and it's snowing. There's still snow on the ground too. We've already broken a record. I don't know that we really need all that much more snow. Snow on Easter. I'm not sure if I can remember too many Easters when it's snowed, but then again, this year Easter is really early.

I *finally* finished my teal cotton sweater (see above) that I've been working on for what seems like forever! It felt really good to get it done. Of course, as I'm finishing it up, I had this terrible thought, "what if it doesn't fit?" All that work would be for naught! But I tried it on, and it fit nicely. I'm quite happy with it.

I knit with Plymouth's Fantasy Naturale, and I don't think it was a lot of fun to knit with! I kept splitting the yarn. And it was really slippery on metal needles, so I had to use bamboo needles, which meant that it took longer to knit. I'm just faster with metal.

Now, all I have to do is wait until it warms up so that I can actually wear something with short sleeves! I suppose I could just get impatient too and wear it over another shirt like I did in the picture.

Falcoon and the Fish

2008-02-14T15:34:00.001-08:00

Falcoon is entertained by the goldfish. I'd just fed them, so they were being pretty active. I sure do wish I could somehow keep my fish from knocking over the decorations in the tank! It looks prettier when the decorations are actually standing up.

Easy Freezer Chicken

2008-02-13T08:13:00.001-08:00

Craig and I eat a lot of chicken, primarily boneless, skinless chicken breasts. And really they are not that exciting. I am also always looking for ways to make cooking easier. So here's my method for making tasty chicken breasts.

Get a family-sized package of boneless skinless chicken breasts (not frozen - this is important)
Set out a bunch of freezer bags. For five breasts, I set out five bags.
Butterfly the breasts so you get two pieces of chicken and cut off the bits of fat. I figure that is approximately a portion for each person (there are only two of us).
Thouroughly coat the chicken pieces in spices. I use a variety of dry spices. But some of my favorites are Jerk and Rotisserie.
Put each butterflied and spiced breast in a bag, label it, and stick it in the freezer.
When the chicken freezes, the spices get sucked into the meat and embue it with flavor.

Now, when it's time to make dinner, you can pull a bag out of the freezer and cook the chicken. I typically use my George Foreman Grill for this, but in the summer, I'd use my gas grill. It's just too cold now to even consider outdoor grilling. You could also cook them in a pan with olive oil or Pam spray.

Last night, we had curry spiced chicken breasts with peas and rice. Very simple very tasty.

A very nice Christmas

2007-12-27T13:13:00.000-08:00

I had a very nice Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I worked Christmas Eve morning to finish assembling the bulletins for the church services that evening. There were three Christmas Eve services and one Christmas Day service. I finished up and went home for a bit to relax before going back to church for the 5pm service. It was very nice, and I enjoyed the candlelight. They turned off all the lights in the church, and we all held candles for Silent Night, which was just so cool. The acolytes lit the candles on the end of the row, and each person lit their candle off the person sitting next to them, so candlelight was passed all around the church.

After church, we went over to Chris's place. He made us dinner, which was so nice of him. And Chris is an excellent cook, so that's a big plus too. He made a ham, mashed potatoes, and corn. Yummy.

Then we played Rock Band on the Xbox 360. It's kind of like Guitar Hero, except that there is a drum kit and microphone in addition to the fake guitar. I did vocals while Craig and Chris switched between guitar and drums. I have no sense of rhythm, and have learned that the hard way with some of these new video games where you play guitar or drums, so I just hogged the microphone. It was a lot of fun, and I scored 100% on vocals for Black Sabbath's Paranoid. I did not miss one note or beat. Rock on!

Phooey! Fog.

2007-12-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

I don't have a picture to post. You wouldn't really want to see my world today. The fog is so heavy and has been for the last three days that when I venture outside, I feel like I'm in a 10-20 square foot box surrounded by nothingness. The first day of fog, I thought the trees looked ethereal against the snow, but now I am just sick of fog. I needed to get some pet supplies, so I ventured out to Mounds Pet Food Warehouse on Verona Road. Good thing I knew sort of how to get there and where it was because about all I could see was the tail lights of the car in front of me.

Of course with three days of fog comes bad air, very bad air. And mixing very bad air (particulate matter day to be specific) with bad asthma is a bad combination. I wanted to get into work today and get some stuff done, but I ended up getting in so late because I just could not get myself going. Grooming Falcoon, the cat, this morning took everything out of me. But he's all spiffed up and has no more mats. I use an electric trimmer like some men use to groom their hair. Craig held him while I groomed. I don't think Falcoon appreciated it too much until we were done, and he was like hey, no more mats and tangles! Yay! He petted my feet while I brushed my teeth. For those who do not have asthma, inhalers taste awful and you can get yeast infections in your mouth if you don't rinse. Yuck. So if I can, I brush my teeth after taking my inhaler.

I put on my bright orange sweater and macaw earrings today to brighten my immediate viewpoint some. Seems to be working a bit. I'm actually looking forward to tonight's snowstorm to clear out some of this nasty fog and air. And for those who know me, I don't typically look forward to snowstorms because I don't like driving in snow. I wonder how I'm going to get to church services this weekend. I want to go, but I don't want to have a car accident either. I guess I'll play it by ear.

Sid and Falcoon hanging out

2007-12-03T16:20:00.001-08:00

Falcoon and Sid are hanging out in the bathroom. Running faucets are so fascinating to kitties!

I'm quite impressed with how well Falcoon has managed to fit into our house. He and Sid have become best buds.

Falcoon!

2007-11-12T19:17:00.001-08:00

This is Falcoon. He's the latest feline addition to our household. He's a purebred Maine Coon cat, and his name I'm guessing is derived from him looking like a falcon in coloring and his breed. We went down to Chicago to pick him up on Saturday at a cat show.

He does not know how to show his best in cat shows, but he's a big lover and cuddlebug. He wants hugs and kisses all the time (when he's not hunting, that is). So he's a year old, a mere kitten and small by Maine Coon standards, and he's retired from the cat show life.

Maine Coons are "working cats." They were bred for hunting, and this cat has a strong hunting instinct. So, it's a good thing we live in an older house on the outskirts of a suburb, so there are plenty of things for him to hunt, ala bugs and mice. I know, I know, eww. But hey what are cats for, right? Well other than petting and loving.

Currently, he's getting used to us and our house. There are a lot of strange sounds and scents for him to contend with. Oh yes and two other cats. For right now, he's separated from them. He's got the downstairs guest suite all to himself. We're letting him get used to things slowly and at his own pace.

My dad rocks!

2007-09-05T20:02:00.001-07:00

Here's my new tile floor in my basement room, courtesy of my dad. Sid, the cat, admires the tile too. I will have to put on a baseboard, but I've not yet gotten to it.

(Though it looks wet in the picture, the floor is dry. It's just dusty.)

Like many folks in Southern Wisconsin, we got way too much rain in August, enough to flood my finished basement. The basement carpet was completely underwater, and I figured it would not dry before molding, so I decided to remove the carpet. I moved all the furniture upstairs. And then, with my husband's help, a utility knife, and a crowbar, we pulled up the carpet. It had been glued to the floor. Yuck. Fortunately, water being the universal solvent that it is, helped loosen the glue.

The next steps were cleaning and drying. Pretty much every time it rained, we went downstairs with our wet vac and sucked up the water. And I kept mopping as well. The goal was to keep the water away from the utility room, where the furnace lives, and the laundry room.

I was exhausted and frustrated, so my mom and dad offered to come help me out. They also came up to help my sister whose roof leaked in the same storms that flooded my basement. What's significant about their arrival is that they live down in Florida, not exactly close. I'd decided that ceramic tiles would be a good permanent solution in the basement. If the basement floods again, I can easily mop/wet vac the tiles. Then I went over to Menards, where I got great deal on the tiles. Of course, I would highly reccommend to anybody looking to buy tiles that they have somebody help them. Tiles are heavy. Boxes and boxes of tiles are heavy. You need a lot of tiles for a basement.

So anyway, Mom and Dad came to visit with their tile saw, and helped me tremendously by laying tile in the basement. Yay, Mom and Dad rock!

Dad and I also figured out something kind of cool. Using two laser levels makes laying tile a cinch.

Helicopter Ride

2007-07-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

We went to the Dane County Fair this afternoon, and they had helicopter rides. Since neither Craig nor I have ever been in one, we thought it would be really fun. It was a lot different than flying in an airplane because there isn't much forward momentum; it's all vertical. The other big difference is that you can see so much more from inside a helicopter. Oh, and I got to ride in the front seat, so in a way, it felt like I was floating over Madison. Way cool! The pilot did a loop around the area. We saw the Capital, the Monona Terrace, the city pool, the Beltline, and the Alliant Energy Center.

Heron in the pond

2007-07-06T19:50:00.000-07:00

There's a heron that hangs out in the pond across the street from my house. He's quite the handsome bird.

Brotherly love, two kittens cuddling

2007-07-01T21:34:00.000-07:00

After I returned home, my sister sent me a picture of the two kittens cuddling. Aww! Aren't they cute? The foot in the photo is Amy, the mother cat. You can really see how tiny they are.

Side note: the yellow on the blanket is betadine. It's kind of like iodine, and my sister is using it on the kitten belly buttons to keep their clipped umbilical cords clean and free of infection. In newborn kittens, the umbilical cord is a good place for infections to enter their bodies.

Kittens!

2007-07-01T14:35:00.001-07:00

My sister's Burmese cat, Amy, had a litter of kittens this past week, so they are only a couple of days old. I came down to visit and got to play with the kitties. She had a small litter of two boys. They are so cute, but they don't even have their eyes open yet!

Lynn note: After posting, I realized I'd posted a very unflattering photo of me. I'd focused my eyes so much on the kitten in my hands that I didn't notice how silly I looked. When I got home from my sister's house, I cropped the photo so you can just see the kitten's face.

4th of July bear card

2007-07-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a fun card I made for the 4th of July. I used Stampin' Up!'s You're Neat and Print Pattern stamp sets. I also used the ticket punch. I used red and blue markers to alternate color the diamonds before stamping Print Pattern. I think it's a cool effect.

Whee it's a Wii!

2007-06-03T18:25:00.001-07:00

Craig got up really early last Sunday to get in line for a Nindendo Wii. Fortunately for him, Target had 63 of them so he finally got his Wii! We've been playing Rayman Raving Rabbids (not Rabbits), which is fun but doesn't really show the true multiplayer capability of the Wii.

Friday night, Timin, Chris, and Matt came over for a Wii party. Timin brought SSX Blur, which is awesome! I will be buying a copy of that as soon as I get my next paycheck. All I can say is wow! Sure, they reuse a couple of levels from SSX 4, but they added dinosaurs which more than makes up for it. In terms of multiplayer functionality though, it's fine for two players racing, but that's it.

So, we broke out Raving Rabbids (I really like shooting plungers at rabbits and flinging cows!) and Wii sports. My arms are still sore. Since you are physically moving your body to play the Wii, if you play enough, you do get a bit of a workout. However, if you have five adults in a room, it is a good idea to be sure you have enough room around you. Timin accidentally smacked Chris while playing Wii tennis.

Chicks!

2007-06-03T18:06:00.001-07:00

Craig took this picture of the robin chicks this morning. 3 of the 4 eggs in the nest hatched. We noticed the fourth egg on the ground earlier this week. These three seem to be doing pretty well, and their mother is bringing them worms and other food on a regular basis. Of course, she doesn't appreciate us on the deck while she's feeding the babies, so we try to accommodate her as best as we can. I am happy to see that they are finally starting to look cute.

Chandelier

2007-05-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

When I was growing up, a beautiful crystal chandelier hung in my family's dining room. I loved it. I loved the way the light played in it and the rainbows it cast on the floor. I even drew pictures of it. When my mom and dad sold the house before moving to Florida, they took down the chandelier and replaced it with a regular light fixture. Although it was pretty, it didn't really fit the look of the house. They packed it in a box in my dad's storage shed.

In this house, I now have the right place for the chandelier, so that was one of the things I brought home from my trip to the storage shed last month. With Craig's mom and brother's help, we hung the chandelier.

I am so happy! It looks great!

Chicks!

2007-05-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

The eggs hatched, and we've got little chicks in the nest above the door. I honestly thought they'd be cuter. They look like lizards with feathers right now. I think it's pretty awesome though that a bird chose our porch to make her nest.

Mother's Day

2007-05-14T19:29:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day is always presents a challenge of how to show my mom that I appreciate her. She lives over 1800 miles away, so it's not like I can just invite her over, or can I? This year, I decided to fly my mom up to Madison to visit for Mother's Day. Right now, where she and Dad live in Florida is surrounded by forest fires, and the smoke is quite thick. I figured she could use a break from smoke inhalation for a couple of days!

So my sister and I bought her a plane ticket. She flew into O'Hare, and I drove down to pick her up on Thursday evening. She spent the weekend, and we had a great time! On Friday, we went to Olbrich Botanical Gardens, where we sneezed our way past many beautiful flowering trees. We saw lilacs, crab apples, and eastern redbuds. Of course, we also saw a ton of tulips!

After we had seen most of the gardens, we went shopping. I took her to Odana Antiques, which just opened on Odana Road. While we were there, I found the prettiest set of dishes. I've been looking for casual dishes for the longest time! These are Noritake China, UP-SA Daisy. It's a white dish with blue daisies. Very 1960's!

On Saturday, we went to the Dane County Farmer's Market, and my sister and I bought plants for our gardens. I picked up yellow and pink snapdragons for my small, annual garden around my front light post.

That evening, we saw "Enchanted April" at the Bartell Theatre. I loved it! The play was presented "in the round," and we had first row seats. The venue was so intimate that I was actually brushed with flowers by one of the actors!

Bird's Nest

2007-05-14T18:54:00.000-07:00

A robin has built a nest on my back porch light. I had Craig reach up and take a picture of the eggs. They are so pretty!

Fish Tank

2007-05-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

This past summer, I bought a 55 gallon fish tank and stand on eBay. I picked it in Green Bay on my way home from a weekend at my friend's cottage near Crivitz, WI. It's pretty wide, so it barely fit in my car. I put it in the backseat and carefully closed the door. I've still got a little dent on the inside of one of my car doors from the fish tank. Bringing large objects home is always challenging when you drive a Honda Civic!

A goldfish named Mir and a plecostomus catfish named Plecky live in my tank. I've had them both for about four years. Mir started her (when goldfish get big enough, you can sex them) life as a 12-cent feeder goldfish that I bought on a whim. Eventually, though, both fish grew too big for my 10 gallon tank, so I bought a bigger one. It's in the office so I can watch the fish when I'm working or playing on the computer.

By the way, it's a good idea to place large aquariums perpendicular to the floor joists.

Picture of New Couch

2007-05-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of our new couch. Of course, the cats have made themselves right at home on it! The gray cat is Sid, and the black cat is Doc. I collectively refer to them as "the boys." I had originally intended to have the couch more in the middle of the room facing the fireplace, but Doc thought the back of the couch was a fun place to scratch. I moved it up against the windows that face the deck. I am glad that I didn't start building bookshelves before getting the couch because I have changed my plan to accommodate the new couch placement. I'm going to build two tall shelves, one on either side of the windows. They will be as tall as the windows, and I am going to build a bridge over the top to connect them. I'll keep some of my antique books up there and some lighter decorative objects.

By the way, the purple thing on the back of the couch is a stuffed triceratops. Here's a fun fact: the the state fossil of South Dakota is the triceratops.

New Couch

2007-05-02T12:18:00.000-07:00

We finally picked a new couch for our library. It's purple leather. I'll take a picture of it tonight when I get home. This afternoon, Craig will be waiting at home for the couch to be delivered.

Last night, I swept up all the catnip to make room for the couch. Doc and Sid found a baggie of catnip and spread it all over the floor so they could roll in it. Goofy cats!

A Very Nice Saturday

2007-04-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

We still haven't managed to decide on a new couch yet. Although, I think the biggest reason for that is that I just have not felt like furniture shopping. It can just be so tedious - sit down, stand up, sit down, attempt to ward off salesperson... It's a regular aerobics routine!

I spent the morning scrapbooking with a great group of gals that I just don't get to see enough. My friend, Kimberly, is a Creative Memories consultant, and she hosts a Memoranza scrapbooking event twice a year. All proceeds benefit the Alzheimer's Association. Anyway, it's a great deal of fun! It's a huge group of ladies sitting around scrapbooking, snacking, and sharing our lives. I think I spent more time talking to Kimberly than I actually did scrapbooking, but I did finish my little green scrapbook about the condo we sold this past June. Normally, I "scrap" travel, so it was a challenge to scrap a house! But I'm done, and that feels so good!

I left early because, not only was I finished with my scrapbook, but I wanted to be outside. It was in the seventies today! I sat out on the deck with a book and just enjoyed the fresh air and nice weather.

My friends, Katy and Ethan, stopped by this evening to bring me my new Aldo Leopold Bench for my front porch. Katy's woodshop students at Marshall Montessori International Baccalaureate High School built it for me. I love it! My front porch is the perfect lightning watching spot, so I hope it storms soon so I can watch from the comfort of my new bench.

We wandered around the yard looking for tulips that survived the recent snowstorm. While there aren't a tremendous amount of tulip buds, I think I will get a few nice flowers, which is certainly better than none!

Dinosaur in the Library

2007-04-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

I finally found a dinosaur for my library. Although I'd scoured eBay, I could never find a good dinosaur statue. I happened upon one while looking at couches at Steinhafel's. We still haven't picked a couch for the library, but we do have a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

I put it in front of a six-foot tall bookshelf for scale.

Of course the dinosaur isn't the only plan I've got for my library. I plan to add a couch and an additional chair (there's a purple one there now). I'm going to build a wall full of floor to ceiling bookshelves to house my ever-growing collection of books. At last count, we had over 600 books. The particleboard bookcases just aren't doing the job anymore. Most of the shelves are warped under the weight of the books. I'll probably sell them or give them away on Craig's List after I finish building my shelving system.

2007-04-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

One of my cactii is blooming. It has such pretty fushia flowers!

More Books

2007-04-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a lot lately, which should come as no surprise. And I just read two really good books:

The Textbook Man by Paul Vincent
Body Language, Tales of the Medical Training Experience edited by Neeta Jain, Dagan Coppock, and Stephanie Brown Clark

I posted both reviews to BookReview.com.

Second Knitting Project

2007-04-02T16:45:00.000-07:00

This is my second project. It's another scarf, but this one is for my husband. I am making it wider than my first; I cast on 30 this time. I'm still using the #10 plastic needles, but I'm using two different colors of yarn this time. One is a green with speckles, and the other is black with speckles. The green bits are going to be the tips of the scarf, while the black will be the middle.

Learning to knit

2007-04-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

One thing I'm learning to do this year is knit. I'm not sure that it's what you'd call a New Year's Resolution, but it is a step towards being more relaxed. Also, it's something I can do that does not require me to be sitting in front of the computer. I'm taking knitting lessons at a really knifty yarn house in Monona, WI called Off the Beaten Path Yarnhouse. I love sitting in their kitchen and knitting, surrounded by yarn and sample projects. It's a very relaxing atmosphere!

Here is my first real project. It's a scarf made with a self-striping yarn. I'm really proud of it. And it's nice and toasty-warm. I made it on size 10 plastic needles.

Strange title, good book

2007-04-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

I just read a good book called, "Why You're Dumb, Sick & Broke... And How to Get Smart, Healthy & Rich!" by Randy Gage. I posted a review of it to BookReview.com.