A Flurry of Writing

I say flurry because I saw some this morning on the way into work. I saw a co-worker walking in the building at the same time as me and I called out "It's Flurrying! It's snowing! Isn't it beautiful?!?" and she just kinda looked at me like I was crazy.

But you know what? It was beautiful. It didn't stick to the ground, nor did it last more than 5 minutes, but there is something about the way snow looks when it falls that breaks my heart (in a good way). They were huge snowflakes.

And tomorrow we're supposed to get our first winter storm. I am much less excited about that because in VA that usually means some kind of ice or something. We'll see. Hopefully it will be pretty pretty snowflakes.

So this weekend we decorated our apartment. I say decorated in a loose term. We have no room for a Christmas tree or anything... but we did put up lights, garland and ornaments. We got the new LED lights and I have to say I love them. They use something like 1/800th of the electricity the normal lights do, and they stay absolutely cold to the touch - which I still find amazing. After 5 hours on - they feel exactly as they did before I turned them on. Here is what it looks like.

As for what else is new - I haven't really been up to much - been knitting on this sweater (my 1st sweater!!!) and it is taking a while because I am a very slow lace knitter. I am not good with the lace and even this simple pattern makes me rip back every so often. Anyway - I am getting there. I can't remember if I posted what it looks like but you can see pictures of the finished version over here. I am making the neck a little lower as I think I would be driven crazy by a turtleneck that tall.



And Happy Hanukkah to all my friends who celebrate! May it be wonderful and peaceful, and I wish you and yours joy and love!!

What's new!

So usually I don't post this often, but happy news! I got some yarn int he mail today (I'm going to gloss over the part where I left the magazine with the pattern I want to knit at work so I can't start it yet, grr!).

Also I had a bunch of coupons and some things I occasionally go to Giant to buy were on sale so with all the coupons combined with the sales I saved 8 dollars (and I only spent 13). So that is pretty cool. Kristina at Yarnsticks is the inspiration - since I've always bought things on sale and I have used coupons but I never consciously put the two together. From now on I am pretty sure I'll scout the pages for things I want and then seek out coupons. If you want to know more about her strategies, look at this older post.

But mostly I posted today to tell you that last week Harland was interviewed by a finance columnist about some new practices the TSP will be using. Click here for the article. He is quoted near the end and it is only one sentence.

And so that is that. :)

Thanks for Thanksgiving!!

Hi - we got back yesterday from a fantastic Thanksgiving at my parents house. I didn't have the time to put pictures up until now though.

So first up - Best part about thanksgiving is... well, the food!


Then on Saturday my hubby, my dear dad and my Uncle Buddy all went to Monocacy Hill, a great little walk near the house. If you want some more information about it, here is a link to their website. Unfortunately from looking at their website to link it here...I saw that it looks like people are trying to use the area for some timber harvesting, which would be a real shame since it is one of the few areas in the middle of farms and houses that has a bit of woods. Please note: it is currently hunting season and people are allowed to hunt in this area.

Anyway - here are some pictures from our trip:
Along the trail there were all these great Norway Maples that were a festival of bright yellows. Here is my Uncle in the midst of a sunburst on the trail.


Pictures from the top.
As you can tell we had 3 cameras for 4 people... which is kind of funny. I am looking forward to seeing my Dad's and my uncle's pictures. Here is an action shot of a photographer at work while another photographer is hiking up.



Here is the view!!


And here is another action shot - One photographer taking a picture and the only person without a camera (Harland) is looking through binoculars.



but the fun doesn't stop there... At the bottom of the hill there is this mysterious structure from 1925. And the Hill Conservation Assoc. put up a sign so we finally learned what it is!!


I'd tell you, but where is the fun in that?

DC Day

Yesterday was the Walk for the Homeless and luckily the weather wasn't terribly cold, it was in the 40's and although we started out cloudy it cleared up during the day. My place of work had made a sponsor donation so we could walk for free, and so I dragged H. (as well as two of my coworkers) out of bed on a perfectly good Saturday to go walk.







After the walk H. and I went to the Natural History Museum for a little bit to look at the Hope Diamond and other rocks. It was a lot of fun, but soon we got hungry and we went to another part of DC to eat at this hot dog place we had heard of (H. is having a serious craving for Chicago style hotdogs, if anyone out there knows where we can get one in the area, please let me know). Unfortunately it is nothing to write home about and for all the walking we did to get there, it wasn't worth it.

It was a busy Saturday - as when we came back we watched "An Inconvenient Truth", which we may be some of the last people I know to see it. It certainly is worth a watch if you have not already seen it. We borrowed a copy from the library.

And in the evening I made some peanut butter cup banana bread (really we eat is as cake). And so it was all in all a productive day.

Oh and I made a 2nd apple pie for the office Thanksgiving pot luck and it came out good! Yay!

Hope all is well.

Fall Fall Fall

Well, I haven't posted in a little while. It has been a sad week for several of my friends, and I just couldn't think of what to post that didn't seem insignificant or silly or both.

So I encourage all of you to take the time today and tell a loved one you care, and to take a minute of of your day to think about America's Veterans and how they have sacrificed in many ways so that we can all be free.

...And what's more American than apple pie?

We have an interesting twist in this household this weekend -
What is it??
Apple Pie Wontons of course.
These are fairly easy to make. And they are so much lower in fat than apple pie crust. Wow. I hate to say it, but you could eat 18 apple pie wontons per one slice of pie. And they're baked, not fried. They're a Weight Watchers recipe, or else I'd share it with y'all.

Yum. They are tasty.
I'll probably end up making another batch tomorrow.

Anyway, We also went out to enjoy the fall air today - lately it has been raining so a lot of the prettier leaves are now gone... except in our apt. complex where there are bright yellows, oranges, rusty reds, blood reds, and cherry colored reds. It is so pretty, but I don't want to be "that weird person" who is taking pictures in the apt complex, especially after this bad ex-cop in our apt complex.

What a crazy world. Now I'm glad there was no trick-or-treating this year.

Anyway - happier subjects. Here are some pretty fall pictures from our day today. And we also renewed our National Parks Pass (which is now called the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass And so we will be looking forward to all excuses to use it in the next year to make sure we get our money's worth.

Apple Pie and Other Achievements

Okay - so as a few of you know... Before last night I had made 2 apple pies in my life. And both were absolute disasters. I mean, if you could think of anything that would make an apple pie inedible - that was what was wrong with my pies. They were somehow extremely watery (even when I added to one pie a 1/2 cup of flour). And the crusts would burn in one spot and be gooey in another. I mean the worst pies EVER. It was especially terrible because apple pie is my husband's favorite desert. And these pies were made during our courtship. I was worried he wouldn't marry a gal who couldn't make an apple pie that was at least edible. But mine came out embarrassingly bad. So I went on strike. Whenever anyone says "why, that's easy as pie" I secretly got mad! I haven't made an apple pie in over 3 years. And I certainly never made my own crust.

But for whatever reason last night I got a bee in my bonnet to make a pie with apples fresh from my parents orchard (alright, backyard). And since I was too lazy to drive to the store to get crust, I made my own.

And it somehow actually worked! I made a really good apple pie! With homemade crust! And it turned out the correct consistency! Not only can one eat it, One can actually ENJOY it. Hooray, I now have the opportunity to become the perfect wife!


(of course I used the apple pie and the pie crust recipe from my favorite cookbook ever - except I used butter instead of shortening because that is what we had, but I know why those pastry chefs get those doodad that you can cut the butter into the flour, because it took forever with two forks).

Also - got my bloodwork back today and I do not have any dangerous diseases like leukemia or bone marrow diseases or anything. They do not know why my platelets are too high, but they are not high enough to cause problems yet, and my platelets are normally shaped, so I just have to get checked up in a year. Yay!

Also I spent some time this evening watching various clips of human tetris on google. OMG, we need a TV show like this here in the States. It total cracks me up. In case you haven't seen it, I'm enclosing it below.

My 1st Cable

It is very exciting here today - My first cable EVER was taken off the needles today! yay!
I know that no one will be as enthused as I. I don't know why I never tried cables, I guess I thought they would be a pain. But they are not, they are quite fun to do!!

My first cable project was out of Barbara Walker's Learn-to-knit Afghan Book. It is a good book that walks you through various types of knitting and eventually (after 63 squares) you sew them all up and Viola! A new Afghan.

63 squares though. That is a lot of squares. So I decided when I bought the book I'd do a square here and there and then I'd have something cool. I have not been doing enough squares though - three a year... well in 21 years I'll have a blanket. Hmmm. I really need to step up production.

I've decided that I'm just not going to get everyone a knitted present this year. I think maybe I'll just start knitting for next year and give up on this year's projects. I'm overwhelmed. Hopefully I'll at least finish a pair of socks for mom.

But what is all this depressing talk? On to the cable pictures!!
Since I didn't block these (i'm waiting to get all the squares done so I block them all to the same size) I needed a little help from my two favorite vases to hold the square. One of these vases has been shunned by its creator, so I can't tell you who made it. They told me I'd better never admit who created it. I think they are both great though. The other vase was made by Susan.



Oh and here, I took a close up without flash to show the depth of the cables. but it turned out yellow as my pictures do with this camera with low light. So I turned it Black and White. the thing about cables is they look so much cooler in person. Maybe that is why I was never motivated to make cables... it just didn't look so fantastic. But in person - whew. They look awesome.