Listing

It might look like I’m sitting here doing nothing other than staring off into space, staring back at my screen, off into space, back at my screen, off into space, back at my screen…

But really, the cogs are moaning and groaning and slowly finding their intended interconnections. As a result, thoughts are forming! Plans are getting planned. Lists are straightened up (does anyone get that pun besides me?) and typed with bullet point precision on my brain, with imminent transferal to the screen looming. I’m printing maps; I’m calculating drive times. I’m heading off to Bet’s next weekend for the annual gingerbread house fete.

Since middle school, with just a few years missed here and there, Bet and I have made gingerbread houses every Christmas. They haven’t always been the biggest, the grandest, the neatest, or the greatest, but they’ve always been the most sincere. Linus would like ‘em.

And what could be the icing on top of the icing? I get to meet Murr! I love her writing, her point of view, her self-accepting style. The thought of meeting her gives me butterflies. I get to go eat at the popular girls’ table. Heaven help me.

Lists. I’m going to Powell’s, which requires updating my list of Books that I have/Books that I don’t have/Books I need to have/Books I might need to have.

Lists. I’m likely to hit the Sur la Table kitchen store near Powell’s, which requires updating my list of Tools that I have/Tools that I don’t have/Tools I need to have/Tools I might need to have.

Lists. I need a map to Bet’s. I need a map to Portland. I need a map of Vancouver in case I decide to go see the Fort again.

Lists. CANDY! Our houses will need red-hots, M&Ms, gum drops, chocolate rock candy, peppermint swirls, mulit-colored sunflower seeds…

Lists.

Lists.

Lists.

Oh my.

Odd Harbinger of Spring (by Kat)

One of yesterday's tasks involved taking my grandma to a medical appointment in the big city.
On the freeway coming home to our little town, we saw a semi truck with two trailers. The trailers were piled high with bags of bark mulch.

I never thought of bark mulch on it's way to market as a harbinger of spring.

But heck, I think I'll take it...

Bark mulch, coming soon to a garden center near you!

Thursday is the last day to enter the drawing for the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book. It's so good, I'm reading it one last time before it leaves my little home.

Good luck!

Post 100: Our First Giveaway! (by Kat)

I do this to myself a lot, and each time I do it, I tell myself not to do it again. But, for whatever reason, I do it again. And again. And again.

Heaven help me!

Where have I been this last week? Why did I tell you we're having a giveaway to celebrate post 100, then drop off the earth? What's up with that???

Well, post 100 sounds so monumental, so significant, so amazing, so WOW! I wanted to make post 100 really special. I wanted post 100 to be unforgettable. I wanted so much for post 100.

So, each evening as I sat down at my desk, totally uninspired, totally tired, and totally bleh, I just felt I didn't have whatever it was in me to meet the mighty expectations I had built up for myself for post 100. So, poor post 100 just didn't' get written at all. My strive for perfection often ends up with me doing less than poorly--it ends up with me doing diddly!

No more, say I!

Post 100, welcome to the world. No blog re-design for you. You're stuck with this same brownish-yellow theme all the other posts had to share. Sorry, but you don't even get a new header. But hey, at least you're finally getting written, right?

World, welcome to post 100. More of the same, for the most part, but with just a little touch of new!

Our first giveaway! How exciting is that?! You, gentle reader, might think you're the only one winning something here, but we will be, too. Bet and I have wondered just how many people read this little blog of ours. Maybe this will pull some of you out into the open, let us know who we're talking to, let us know if we should be keeping the light on.

So, some of you may recall back in October I had a streak of luck. I won two books from two of my favorite bloggers. I'm passing one of those books on to you! Suzanne, the Farmer's Wife read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, raved about it, then gave it away. I promised I'd pass it along when I was done, and now I'm finally doing that. I loved loved loved the book, and passed it along to Bet. She loved it as well, and passed it along to her mom. I'm hoping to get it back from her, and will pass it along to you. If not, you'll receive a brand new copy of your own. So you'll either get a famous blogger's copy (Suzanne, not me) or you'll get a brand new copy.

So, to enter the post 100 giveaway, just answer the following question: how do you like your books--new or used?

Enter between now and next Wednesday. The winner will be chosen at random and announced next Thursday.

Good luck, and I wish you ALL could win!

Another Nanaimo and Stuff (by Kat)

I really can't get over just how dang tasty these Nanaimo bars are. Here's a couple, served up with a raspberry concoction that was the filling for a cake we had earlier this month.

The puff pastry Daring Baker challenge from a few months back was really fun, and I've made puff pastry several times since then. I suppose, then, that the pastry challenge was the most useful challenge to date. The Nanaimo challenge, though, was the most fun. It wasn't as difficult as some challenges (like the cannoli), left a lot of room for experimentation, and is so super-freaking tasty that I can't get over it. I also like the fact that I learned how to make homemade graham crackers. I've been keeping a jar of them on the counter, and they make a perfect little snack.

In other (less fattening) news, I finished one of the library books and it was far better than I had hoped. "Trouble the Water" by Nicole Seitz was just fine. Not great, not original, but a very decent book all the same. Like every other (yes, I'm generalizing) modern fiction book, or at least every other modern fiction book in our library, this is a story of two family members who share a trauma. One gets over it to a greater extent than the other, and in the end they pine for what they've lost. Wash, rinse, repeat. What Seitz did in this book that made the boring story enjoyable to read was develop some totally off-the-wall characters and put them into totally unexpected roles.
I wouldn't buy this book, nor recommend it as a great book to a friend, or to you, gentle reader, but as a pass time it was a passable read.

On the agrarian front, another egg!

On the soap front, my last batch seems to be hardening up nicely.

Brain Dump (by Kat)

Today ends a three day weekend, here in our town.

Today was semester break for all the kids in town, whether they really have need of it or not. I just can't see a kindergarten-aged kiddo needing to cram for semester finals, but I also can't see them complaining about an extra day of weekend, either!

Tomorrow would have been our first day of home school classes, but Chirp-chirp (as I'm calling my daughter from here-forward) decided that she wants to try the new semester at school. The principal previously stated that there was no way Chirp-chirp could change classes, so we said we'd pull her from the school instead. Suddenly, as if by magic (surely it couldn't be capricious, right?) we were promised new classes with the new semester. So we'll see... My preference was to simply yank her and get started with our own learning at home. I'm not a big fan of wait and see. But, I'm outvoted, so... we'll wait and see.

On a brighter note, one of our hens laid an egg for us on Saturday afternoon. Then it snowed two inches on Sunday, and I guess that was that. I used the egg this evening in this month's Daring Bakers Challenge. I can't wait to show you what we made this month. It was so good, and so easy, that I made it twice! I can't unveil the challenge until the 27th, though, but I promise this one is really worth checking back for.

What else... I've read three books so far this year. All were books that Mr. Boom checked out from the library. None were really to my taste, except that I'm the type to pick up any book laying about and read it. This last book, "Glass House," by Charles Stross gave me very serious nightmares. This piece of science fiction is set way in the future, in a society where bodies are changed into any shape imaginable, and memories are erasable. Technology prevents people from growing old, and as people collect too much emotional baggage, they dump it through a quasi-surgical process. Successful surgeries only remove what the "patient" considered too painful to keep, but unsuccessful procedures can erase too much, or allow flashbacks to occur later on. Worst of all, if you go in for a complete erasure, how do you know afterward that you wanted your memories erased? How do you know it wasn't forced upon you? Creeeeeeepy!

After dinner this evening we walked over to the library. I found another couple of books to read. I don't assume these will be much better, but even a little bit better will help. Our little library doesn't understand the difference between science fiction and fantasy. I love fantasy, especially anything by Charles de Lint. Our library doesn't have a single one of his books, and very very very very little in the way of any type of fantasy. We have hard-core science fiction, we have romance, we have popular fiction. Bleh. I chose two popular fiction books, both promise to be thrilling page turners with heroines with deep dark family secrets. Bleh. Oh well, no nightmares ought to ensue from this reading this pap.

What I did get, that I've had my nose in quite a bit already this evening, is "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" by Peter Reinhart. I baked this week's bread yesterday. We need to eat those two loaves ASAP so I can try some of the 50+ recipes in this book. He talks a lot about techniques, and is a big fan of the ratio method of cooking. I'm so in love....

I've tried to crochet three hearts. You won't be seeing pictures of those! I also have a big pile of unraveled dishcloth yarn. I'm trying to learn the basket weave pattern. Practice and patience. Bleh.

Oh, and we lit a ping pong ball on fire last night. In the house. On accident. It was actually very breathtaking. And very stinky! Nowhere on the internet can I find what gas is inside a ping pong ball. I thought I could narrow it down by seeing if it was a heavy gas. I held the ball over a candle flame with a pair of tongs. Mr. Boom was just going to hold it in his hand, but it was my experiment and I insisted on the tongs. Well, it isn't a heavy gas, and that's about all I have to say on the subject.

That's my brain dump. No pictures--my brain is way to messy!

I wonder what's on your mind?

The Lacuna (by Kat)

Oy.

Just finished reading Barbara Kingsolver's new book "The Lacuna" late last night.

There's a pretty depressing review following the pretty picture. Just a warning. If you're in the mood to read depressing ravings, go through the forest (picture) and come out the other side. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Brrr. Snow!


I usually plunge into Kingsolver's books and emerge a day or two later feeling like a water nymph in the fountain of youth. I usually feel inspired to learn more about both current and historic political events. I usually start checking books out of the library dealing with wolves and other predators, conservation techniques, Nicaraguan refugees, cheese making, Appalachian history, development in arid lands. I can't look at a train without remembering that the conductor has to start applying his brakes just before the engine peaks at the top of the mountain pass. I look at stonewashed jeans and just cringe. I think to myself "a-ha, forgoing this purchase makes a bit of difference."

The Lacuna, however, just beat me down. It took almost a week to read, and at the end I just wanted to head out onto the street and exterminate the knee-jerk "patriotic" Americans who won't stand up for our constitutional rights.

Did you ever see the movie "Easy Rider?" Did you want to hunt down rednecks afterward? This book loaded me with ten times the vitriol, but aimed at people who want to teach creationism in public schools in place of science. People who wear their American flag lapel pins but want gun control. People living in America who think free speech applies to those who share their same values--everyone else should just shut up or move to Russia, they say.

The book ends up describing life in McCarthy era America. Some may see the book as a picture frame filled with troubling scenes of a by-gone era.

I saw it as a mirror.

During that era, the country fell under the spell of a few powerful people who convinced the government that anyone who doubted the direction of the current regime was a communist and should go to prison and/or face the death penalty. The citizens of America didn't protest their right to fair trials. They didn't protest their loss of free speech during the book bans. They didn't do anything when neighbors were hauled off in the middle of the night, under suspicion of communistic sympathies--even though the soviets and the US were allies up until the start of the second world war. As soon as Uncle Sam said boo, people were supposed to go back on everything they knew. AND THEY DID!

After all, getting rid of the commies was "best for the children."

On this side of the mirror, we're willing to put up with the same crap. Different war, different axis and allies. Same government saying you're with us or you're not American. Same government saying that, for the good of the children, we'll dispense with fair trial for anyone we think might be involved in terrorist activities.

Oh, and we won't let you know the evidence against you.

Oh, and of course we have the fight to tap your phone, even if the court says we don't have enough evidence to procure a legal warrant.

Oh, and Seattle's Mayor Nickel spent hundreds of thousands of dollars putting up signs banning guns after both the state and federal government told him that was unconstitutional.

Oh, and just read the paper. You'll see lots of people surrendering their constitutional rights. And calling themselves American at the same time.

The book was a mirror. What I saw was so ugly.

This time it isn't as easy as not buying the stone-washed jeans and learning more about predators.

This time it's figuring out how to combat the notion that laying down and taking it is good for the children.

I'm still crying.

Crochet Redux (by Kat)

So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that my learning to crochet from a book isn't a stellar success story...yet.

The previous dishcloth that I thought was a successful rendition of the double crochet stitch, was in fact a successful rendition of something I'll just call the spastic stitch.

I tried again, and this time I think I have it, folks.

I give you my new masterpiece, double crochet on a pumpkin:

It's squarer, it's sturdier, it's far more consistent from row to row.

It also used up the last of my ball of yarn. I need to get some more soon, as I want to figure out the seed stitch.

On a completely unrelated note, if you haven't seen Transformers 2, please don't. It ties with Doogal as the absolute worst movie I've ever seen. The only positive quality it possessed was that it in no way interfered with my crocheting.

And for a third random bit, I finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society last night. AWESOME book, folks, just awesome! I'm going to give Bet a chance to read it and then we'll have ourselves our first little giveaway!

That's it. I'm off to the store for some more yarn. Stay warm, and enjoy this last little bit of fall!

A new book (by Kat)

A certain book keeps popping up, and I haven't been able to get my hands on it!

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society," has received good reviews by a few people I know in the real world, as well as

Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy

Rechelle at My Sisters Farmhouse

and Suzanne from At Home with the Farmer's Wife

So imagine my hopefulness when Suzanne posted a giveaway for the book!

And imagine my glee when I found out this morning that I won!!

Wow!

So, in the near future, look for me to pass this book along to one of our readers...It will be our first blog giveaway. I'm excited about that.

Now, I'm going to set up a chair right next to the mailbox and wait.

Oh, and you really should click on over to see today's post at Suzanne's, I mean "Grace's" site. Hoo-boy golly can I ever relate!