Friends in High Places

 

The Mister and SIL run a football pool that includes lots of folks The Mister schmoozes with on his daily travels. That includes a couple of city workers and one of them, who always forgets to put in his weekly picks without a Saturday night reminder from The Mister, is in charge of the city snow plowing. Yesterday afternoon he called when he was on the way home to see if we needed any help since he had his own personal equipment on his truck. The Mister was in seventh heaven after getting a wide path plowed down the driveway. We can't drive the car down yet but we can at least walk up it now-carefully.

Speaking of friends, Brown Betty and Betty White have a little friend. I've been keeping their discards in a big jar in the fridge and for the first time ever I resurrected a bit of it in a small jar. Not only did it come back to life, it came back with such vigor that it made lots of lovely bubbles on the sides of the jar which is something that the big Bettys haven't done yet. What this means is that I don't have to keep up the feeding schedule anymore. I can put all the Bettys in time out and just feed them when I want to bake. I can do this but I won't. I'm not ready to end my science experiment any time soon. The kitchen would seem like a lonely place without Betty to fool around with. 

Still Digging

 

I ventured out for a few minutes yesterday to see what was up out there. It's insane. All that snow that is now covered in ice is crazy. I've been through an actual catastrophic ice storm and what's underfoot now is worse than that was by far. 

I'd be fine just sitting here waiting it out but I live with....him. As soon as his eyes open in the morning he's fretting and fuming about it. He's driving me crazy. I remember now why I recall that ice storm more fondly than this. The Mister was stuck at work for most of it. I was here alone with the kids for several days and even without power, we got along just fine.

The day after the storm he took his wood maul and crushed a path up our steep driveway so he could at least get up to the car and get out of here for a bit. He's been going down to the local market everyday to pick up an item or two. Getting stuff down that ice skating rink is harder than getting it up there. I've been grateful for the few minutes of peace and quiet I get while he's gone. 

This is the kind of stuff I have to deal with when he's here. That's my heat gun. He wanted to see if it would melt some of the ice that's up against the doors. It didn't. Then there were pots of boiling water that just made more ice. I swear I'm going to be featured on Dateline if this ice doesn't melt soon. 

What have I been doing while he's ranting at the ice? A little of this. A very little. 

I don't know what's going on with my sinuses but when I try to look down at projects my head feels pretty bad. Terrible pressure. I dug out my old cold mist humidifier yesterday in hope of getting some relief. It looks like it's close to the loom in this photo but it's not. I wouldn't do that to her but I'm sure she's enjoying this bit of humidity. Everything is dry as a bone with enough static electricity to kill a small mammal. You should see my hair. 

On My Feet

 

I'm still sniffly but at least that terrible cough is gone. I don't think I've ever experienced a cough like that. It was dry and itchy and made me gag. I went through a bag of cough drops and gallons of hot tea and honey. Thank goodness it only lasted about 24 hours. The only knitting I've done all week was on these socks and I worked on them while walking around the kitchen because leaning over projects with a leaky beak is still a no go. 

I did work on the warp for the towels a bit. Standing upright is the thing to do right now. The more I get on the warping board the more I can see an issue. I'm betting all the white in the variegated yarn is going to pool with the white solid. I'm thinking that I'm probably going to have to end up re-doing this draft with better colors one day. For the record, I picked the color but it was one that was recommended for the kit. 

So what have I been doing with all my free time since I'm still iced in and too sick to work on projects? Re-watching Stranger Things from the beginning. Having just watched the finale it's been fun going back and seeing how all the pieces fit together. 

Wednesday WIPs: In the Kitchen with Betty

 

Right before my nasty cold hit me, I made another loaf. This was my favorite so far. It wasn't too sour. I cold proofed it for 24 hours. I'm not sure if it made a difference but it was nice and fluffy on the inside with a crisp crust. 

That night I used Betty's discard to make my first crackers. I thought they were good but The Mister thought they were too thick and too crunchy. 

My second try was too thin. The Mister declared these chips and that they needed salsa...lol. Oh, well. I don't need to be eating crackers anyhow.

I've also got two starters going now. Brown Betty is on the left. She's the original one that consists mostly of wheat and rye flour. I used a bit of her to start another all white flour Betty that I call Betty White. 

I put a very little bit of both their discards in a bowl in the refrigerator overnight and had my first starter explosion. It came over the top of the bowl and pushed off the lid. What a mess. At 34 days old Betty is really starting to flex her muscles. 

TNT: Nothing to See Here

 

Between the two Grand sitting gigs, the sick dog, the snow prep and then a miserable cold, I haven't a thing to show off this week. I haven't even picked up my knitting in days. What I can show off is ice. Lots of it. Everywhere. 

We started out with this much snow and then the ice came and glazed over it all. Not enough to pull the wires down but enough to make a big mess. 

The cats have been enjoying the weather. Since the top layer is hard ice we've been throwing seed out on top of it for our feathered friends and they've been putting on quite the bird show. We're hearing rumors of another snow storm heading our way at the end of this week. Hopefully, I'll be feeling well enough then to get out there. We've got the sleds ready to go when we are. 

Dammit

 

I haven't had a cold since I had Swine Flu back in 2009. I kid you not. Not a sniffle. Not even Covid but I've got one now and so does The Mister. All that pre-snow crowded rush was probably a field day for germs. At least it's not the flu. Not yet anyway. I would have loved to spend my snow days working on my many projects but instead I'm under the covers with a bad case of brain fog, a leaky beak and a wicked cough. No fun there. No fun anywhere. Argh...

A Knitter Notices

 

There's joke about not wanting to see Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel show up in your town but the folks in NYC got to see him out and about waiting for the big winter storm in this really cool hat. It looks like someone knit that hat. I wonder if it has a story...or a pattern.

And...a big thank you is in order to Dee in Ohio. She sent me this puzzle which sent The Mister over the moon because...

....he had done a similar diamond art project a while back and really liked it. He's working on a snow scene right now but as soon as he finishes it, I'm sure he'll want to get started on the tree. He'll probably have had enough of snow-inside and out by then as will we all. 

I was asked about what I was going to do about all that tofu. Nothing fancy. I freeze it, then thaw it in a big pan of cold water, cube it, toss it in some olive oil and low sodium soy sauce and then crisp it up in the air fryer. I keep a container of these cubes in the fridge to eat along side of whatever I'm cooking for dinner since I don't eat meat. Sometimes I just snack on the cubes. I have a pre-diabetic condition that has decided to roar back with a vengeance according to my latest blood work so tofu makes a great non-guilty between meal tummy tamer. 

And...speaking of tummies, while everyone was frantically getting ready for the big snow/ice event yesterday we were here. The emergency vet. Pup had a scary tummy issue late last night and our vet wanted her checked out asap. After the triage that thankfully confirmed that she did not have bloat or a blockage, we waited another five hours to see the vet who confirmed it was just a bad stomach ache. It was a long night. We got home right around midnight after driving home an hour in that terrible cold. Pup is right as rain today and on a very restricted diet until we get past this weather mess. At this writing they are calling for 1/4 inch of ice overnight which is a nightmare scenario. If I disappear for a while, you know the trees got the wires-again. Sigh....

Old Dog, New Tricks

 

It's been a crazy week. First it was the unexpected two kid sitting adventures and then it was the weather. In between the madness I still had soap to get wrapped and mailed. It's my favorite part of the process but I had to do a rush job to beat the weather. 

SoxieKnitter recommended Pirate Ship which took me a while to figure out but made it all so much easier. Instead of multiple trips to the post office, I could click a few buttons and drop it off. It's so cool I didn't want it to end. 

Betty also taught me a new trick. I made a giant jar of starter and turned it into...

...a pile of pumpkin/blueberry waffles. I might not like sourdough bread but these I can eat.

Canadian Soap Friends: For the first time ever I got asked about tariffs and taxes on those two measly bars of soap. I didn't know how to answer the questions other than say they were just gifts. No money was changing hands. I apologize in advance if this ends up costing you anything. The post office clerk hadn't seen those questions before either and was of no help in deciding what box to check. I have read online that you can refuse delivery and have it sent back to me making me responsible for any payments. Again, I'm sorry. Like so many others have discovered recently, sending things between countries has been made near impossible. What a shame. 

Friday Fluff: DMV Insanity Edition

 

DMV for those of you who don't know stands for The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia and I can tell you the place is rocking. The S word always scares the stuffing out of us here in the Mid-Atlantic. What's crazy is after a week of extreme cold temperatures, it was so warm yesterday that I had the windows open for a while. Right now it's hard to believe anything cold is coming our way but they say we won't be out of the teens for all of next week. 

Just in case the ice and snow does show (it doesn't always), I put in a pick up order at the big grocery store across town. We had already been to our little mom and pop grocery that morning but they were out of everything. We were told when we got to our pick up spot at the big store that they were backed up by at least FOUR HOURS. We didn't want to sit and wait so I grabbed a cart and tried to remember what I had ordered. I didn't do too well but I did get the water and tofu along with a lot of fresh vegetables. The place was insane. I feel really bad for the workers.

As for fluff, this is how it started back in October....

....and this is how it ended. It's Merino. It's an okay skein considering I really lost interest in it around the holidays. The colors don't do much for me. 

The best part of finishing something is going stash diving. I found this beautiful BFL which will make a very nice Olympic spin. Until then, I'm giving the wheels a rest. 

Winter Weather Advisory

 

We are all in such a dither here about the snow that's being forecast. It's been a long time since we've had a really big snow. On my travels to the Grands I brought along the Ski Sweater to work on. The Mister's Riddari is too big for travel knitting now but I wanted something warm and cozy in my lap since it's been so blasted cold. 

We arrived early in the morning so we had two whole days to play. Big Grand got a space capsule for his birthday a few weeks ago and we had a lot of fun playing space man. Of course I had David Bowie playing in the background. There was a lot of Major Tom to Ground Control going on. You're never too young for Bowie.

My sister, who is also on a sourdough journey, stopped by on Tuesday to pick up some of Betty's discard and brought along a family heirloom. It's a 1960 Brio carousel pull toy that Baby Grand loves to bits. It has a bell that goes clang, clang so we had to ration his play time with it before we all went mad. 

Speaking of Betty, we cut the little loaf we made and Big Grand declared it delicious. He ate several slices at lunch and then finished it off at dinner. My sister and The Mister got a big laugh out of learning that after all this work, I am not a fan of sourdough. Never have been but being a process person it doesn't stop me from wanting to make it. I don't like scented soap either but I always make plenty of it just because I like to fool with the fragrances. 

As for that Betty discard, look what my sister made from it yesterday. Now that's a pretty loaf of bread.
 

Wednesday WIPs

 

I didn't pack up my projects this week to head up to the Grands because after Saturday's adventure I realized there isn't going to be much down time with those two anymore. Back at home, I did get a few rounds on The Mister's Riddari. The next round I work on will be the last of the 3 color rounds. Hallelujah. 

I've been trying to put four rows on each of these projects every night we've been home. Slowly but surely. I think there's still enough winter left for me to get some use out of the mittens but that cowl...it's going to take some time. 

The Mister has another big finish this week. After whining and complaining about how many pieces there were and how big it was and how the colors were all the same, he blew right threw it in a couple of weeks. He's packed it away now which is a good thing. Every time I walked past it I got hungry. Kraft Mac and Cheese? Haven't had it in years but it was good.  Hostess Snowballs? Yes, please. 

And...The Mister finished his sparkly fall diamond art project this week as well. He's been on a roll getting things done. I wish I could say the same for me.

TNT: On the Road Again

 

There's not much progress to show this week because of all the back and forth to Daughter's house to sit the Grands. I had meant to pack this away after I finished the small snowflake on the right side of the heart last week but then the bigger snowflake underneath it looked interesting so Christmas Quaker is still with us for at least another week. 

When you unexpectedly wake up to this, stitching snowflakes seems like the thing to be doing tbh.

If you told me I'd be on the 4th block of the Patchwork of the Crosses quilt so soon I would not have believed you. I don't spend much time on it every day but I do spend some time on it and I'm surprised at how it's moving along at such a nice pace. 

I don't have much to show for a week with the needlepoint projects but I did work on them both. As for slowly but surely, The Mister finally finished his Halloween PbN last week. I had a good time watching this come together. It looked like absolute slop for most of the time and then like magic it came together. I like it. 

And...early yesterday morning I decided to experiment with Betty once again after giving her a very heavy nighttime feeding. This time I followed along with the lady on the Life Changing Same Day Sourdough YouTube video. It was the very first time I got a dough that acted like dough. No sticky glop. Eureka. 

Twelve hours later I got a rather beat up looking mini loaf of sourdough bread. It's still a HUGE improvement from what has come before. It actually poofed up this time. I'm not sure what's going on inside of it because I'm not cutting it until I get it back up to the Grands today. My little helper deserves to see the first cut.