Short Story Long

BFJ told me on Monday that I needed to get out and do something exciting so I could update my blog.  I've had too much going on but no words to aptly describe life, these days.  I have been knitting like mad for a friend, and am still working on that.  (Everything's due next Tuesday!)  And I've had four other people in the house all day every day this week.  It's been nice, but crazy.  What have I been up to besides contract knitting?   One of my little boys requested socks awhile back, so I am trying to knit those in time for Christmas.  I have finished making a couple of Christmas gifts, I have gotten almost all my Christmas shopping done, I've been working on a jigsaw puzzle (I need something to break up the knitting,) and just generally trying to keep up with my housemates.  They are putting together a band.  They've got a great name but I'm not going to tell.  Here's a sneak peek of the group.  (The third...

I've mentioned before that my dad plays Taps at military funerals and other services.  I had the privilege of attending the Ft. Logan Veterans Day service with him today.  I took the opportunity to thank a few of the vets there, and also saw strangers thanking my dad both for playing at the service, and for his military service.  We stopped at Applebee's , who is serving free meals to Vets today, and a gentleman drove through the parking lot in a diesel pick-up.  When he saw my dad, he stopped short, turned off his engine and told my dad thanks.  You know what they say, if you value your freedom, thank a vet.   Here's the group who played Taps today, the youngest bugler is still in high school!

Just a quick? update on the Book Club front; I don't want to go into long descriptions or give away major plot points, so I'll try to keep them short.  If you want more information, you can read other reviews, or read the books yourself! I did finish The Shack but did not get to the meeting to discuss it as I was very ill that day. I did enjoy this book. One thing I thought was interesting was how it broke through traditional paradigms of religion, like what God "is." I thought the writing was decent; I thought the story was interesting, and I thought the plot was great. I was disappointed that several people chose not to read the book "because of its subject matter." (Presumably religion?)  I should reiterate, it was a fictitious novel. That's not very sporting! One of the reasons I have always wanted to join a book club is to get outside of my comfort zone, my usual authors and subject matter. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~...

I have some handcrafted gifts (knitted and otherwise) that I can't show you, but here are a few items I can!   After discovering that sock blockers are not always easy to find in local shops, I talked my dad into making some for a yarn shop near me.  Aren't these neat?  They are made from a Colorado pine that was destroyed by beetle kill .  Interestingly, the disease  gives the wood this lovely silvery-blue quality.  Normally pine is more yellowish like the stripe in the toe, here.  Beetle kill has claimed over two million trees in Colorado.  We heard a lot about it on the news a few years ago, and one could drive down the highway and see waves of brown in our normally green hillsides.  It is no longer a hot topic and we don't hear it on the news much anymore.  My dad is also making some sock blockers from (non-beetle kill) dead pine which was cleared out to reduce the fire danger to the live tre...

This past summer I was looking for some salsa ideas but stumbled instead upon a recipe for apple butter.  I've actually never had apple butter before.  I keep seeing apples on sale at the grocery store so finally bought some.  Last night, the boys and I got started on this project.  Of course, as I was skimming the recipe I hadn't noticed the "stir for 1 or 2 hours" part!  I'm glad it didn't actually take longer than an hour to get to the buttery consistency.  We all had some this morning on toast.  Mmm-mmm!  No wonder I like fall.  I made this apple butter with Golden Delicious, per the recipe, but I also bought some Honeycrisp, which my friend Candace has raved about.  She lives a lot closer to the Pacific than I do so maybe they aren't as pricey where she lives.  I was glad to find them on sale, and bought five.  They are delicious, no doubt about it.     Now I have several little j...