More Monkey Business~

The monkey is at home with us.  After a tour of our little townhouse, we settled on a cheery spot where most of the action takes place.

We sat around and chatted for a while.  I thought it was important to get to know each other and to make our new tenant feel welcome.  I have a good feeling about this.  I think it is going to be great fun! 

After a good long chat, we adjourned to the living room and watched a Christmas movie together.  GN plopped on the floor with the monkey, a blanket and some pillows and I retired to a corner of the couch with some knitting.

I should admit something here; It won’t be the first time we’ve adopted a stuffed monkey.

When Angel was sick, a very dear friend of mine sent her a monkey from Ramstein, Germany, where he was stationed in the Air Force.  Angel was in her twenties, but love reached her in all sorts of ways: the monkey being just one of them.  After Angel’s death, the monkey went to Goodnight.  We called the monkey MOHO, the acronym name we gave him which was short for ‘Monkey On His Own.’ 

We still have MOHO and he is our car monkey.  He’s taken all kinds of trips with us and we have the photos to show for it.  We initially snapped pictures to send to my friend, the gift-giver, but now we just keep up the photos because it’s fun.

So, with our newest addition to the Monkey Family, I need to run out for a new photo album and . . . more bananas.  

Wanna hear a 14-year-old giggle?

I have no idea what possessed me.  Blame it on my age, exhaustion, stress . . . or blame the flexibility I have to make up my own Grammy Rules.

After church this morning, I turned right instead of left when exiting the parking lot.  Left means home and right mean endless possibilities.

Out of the clear blue, I drove to a department store, walked to a predetermined location, picked up a LARGE predetermined item, and marched to the check-out counter to pay for the item.  Goodnight started giggling as soon as I reached for the item on the top shelf in the toy department. 

GN: Whatcha gonna do with that Gram?

Gram: I decided we needed a cheery something in the dining room.

GN: Really?  It’s not a Christmas gift for someone?

Gram:  Nope, it’s coming home with us!

And so it has – but not without joining us on a Sunday drive on GN’s lap.  Both were appropriately buckled into a seat belt.  GN giggled and waved to passers-by.

I LOVE sock monkeys!  This one is four-feet high and will be joining for movie nights!  Road trips, too, methinks!  

Truth is, that girl is growing up right before my eyes.  She has her friends, activities, school work, etc., but she’s still willing to linger at the table after dinner and just . . . talk to her gram.  We play games at that table.  She likes to do her homework there, too.  Time will come soon enough when she will have other places to be, but if the sock monkey makes her memories of home more pleasant, my right turn out of the church parking lot was worth it!

“Super Address” – Super Scarf #44

I have completed another Super Scarf for the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl.

Lucas Oil Stadium (LOS) is an obvious fixture in Indianapolis, so anyone attending the big game should have no trouble getting there.  When I flew to Indy for the final fitting of Blue’s uni-scarf, I used Indy’s public transportation everywhere I went.

From the airport to downtown Indy, GN and I  took the Green Line.

From the knit-in at the Marion County Library to our hotel, GN and I took a city bus.

From our hotel to Lucas Oil Stadium on game day, GN and I took a cab.

All of them worked out just great!  But I got to thinking about my cab ride and wanted to be helpful, at least to the one person who receives this scarf. 

Here’s how it goes.  You hop into your cab and tell the driver you’re heading to the stadium . . . or just hold up the following Super Scarf!

The lettering reads as follows:

LOS, 500 South Capitol Avenue, Indianapolis, IN

The scarf was constructed ende-to-end using the garter stitch with a long center panel of stockinette stitch for the lettering.  Since garter and stockinette do not have the same gauge, I used short rows to accommodate the difference.

I just checked the Super Scarf website and it shows a total of 11,551 Super Scarves have been collected so far.  It’s been fun to watch the numbers climb.  Check it out for yourself at: 
http://www.indianapolissuperbowl.com/super-scarves/

Out with the Basketball, in with the Butterball®

 

We’ve come around to the most humbling time of the year in the kitchen for me.  I’m not talking about Thanksgiving Day.  I’m talking about a birthday.  I’m not so good with the cake thing.  I could probably knit a better looking cake than I can decorate, but once a year, I give it my best shot.

Madame President is going to be 14.  She’s on the basketball team again this year, I decided to bake a basketball cake.

There are LOTS of options on the internet for producing a variety of basketball-themed cakes.  I picked one from a magazine and just plunged in.  The directions said “oven-proof bowl.”  Hmmmm, shoot!  What to do about that.  Major rummaging and then bargaining with my inner grandma.  (I HAVE to talk to myself.  It’s often the only adult conversation I get.  If I didn’t talk with myself from time to time, my blog would read like, I mean, it would, um just be, so majorly influenced by my young housemate’s version of English.  OMG!)

 ”I don’t know if this glass bowl is oven-proof.”

“I could try it anyway, just to see if it works.”

“If it breaks in the oven, I’ll have a big mess to clean up.”

“That’s okay!  If it works, the cake will have a great shape!”

“But if it doesn’t work, it will be a big set-back time-wise and I’ll be up all night.”

Back to the cupboards and more rummaging . . . and more inner bargaining.

“Metal!”

“Metal should be oven-proof.”

“The metal is rather thin.”

“It better work.  It’s already getting late, I have to work tomorrow and there’s no time to clean up a leaky or exploded basketball in my oven before getting the turkey in there!”

I followed the recipe, mixed the batter, and poured it into a metal bowl the approximate size and shape of half of GN’s basketball.  I peered into the bottom of the bowl, praying that the amount of batter down there would inflate like her ball does when I have to pump air into it.  I slowly closed the oven door while chanting, “Yao Ming, Yao Ming, Yao Ming, Yao Ming.”  He’s tall, GN’s not, but they both might like the notion of a basketball cake if it turned out okay.

I watched the timer count down the last three minutes of baking like it was the end of a very competitive game.

Ding!  Game over!  I mean . . . the cake was done.

All of the previous activity was not even the part about birthdays that makes me nervous.  The nervous part comes after the “ding.”

Let’s see . . . make the frosting, tint it the color of . . . exactly what color orange would the basketball be?  I tried the copper.  Too dark and not enough yellow.  Golden seemed too light, but I shoveled the tint into the frosting bowl and stirred it in.  Good enough!

I spread the frosting on the cake and then unrolled the licorice wheels to get the black lines on the cake. (The store didn’t have the shoestring licorice, but we’ll live with this.)

The last thing I needed to do was make the dimples on the ball.  How did they do that?  Back to check the directions.  A meat tenderizer?  Shoot!  I don’t own one.  It didn’t matter anyway because the frosting was too soft for the dimples to work.

So . . . there it sits – that basketball cake!  It’s on the counter in the kitchen, exposed to the air so it can firm up a bit before I make the dimples.  I decided to take one of the dried mini-cobs of colored corn from my Thanksgiving table decorations and roll it over the frosting to make the dimples.

At least I got the basketball out of the oven in time to put the Thanksgiving turkey in!

I hope GN thinks it’s like, totally coolio!  I have 364 days before I have to do this again, though in the meantime, I’m going to try to convince her that swimming is a good winter sport.  I think I could make a swimming pool cake with much less stress!

Happy 14th, sweetie!

 

 

 

Lovers’ Mitten

Officer Friendly and I held hands a lot.  We got along together rather nicely, so we liked holding hands.

Knitters have a way of making handholding romantic and fun – even in the coldest of weather.  There are lots of images of Lovers’ Mittens on the internet and the designs vary in construction.  I enjoy the variety.  Even today, as I checked for some of the current images, I had to smile at the creativity. 

The basic idea is this:  people want to hold hands and they don’t want mitten-to-mitten handholding.  But handholding in the winter without mittens on can be too cold.  So, the Lovers’ Mitten has two separate cuffs entering one mitten area where the hands can join but be protected from the cold.

I knit a Lovers’ Mitten for Officer Friendly and gave it to him as a gift with one of the CD’s full of love songs for our anniversary.  That guy LOVED that mitten!  It showed up in fun places, unpredictably.  He even pulled it out at the movie theater, once.  Mostly though, he kept next to him in his truck, so it was handy when I was sitting on the passenger side.

OF’s hands were much larger than mine, so I had to allow for both of our hands in my design.  His cuff had to have a larger diameter than mine.  It all worked comfortably and that’s the point, I guess.

I have our mitten in a shadow box and hanging on a wall in our home, but I realized I didn’t have a photo of it for my knitting file, so I took it out of the frame and took a couple of photos.  The front and back are the same except for the cuffs.  I used twined knitting as a little bit of embellishment just above the hearts.

Back on the wall it will go . . . . but maybe not until I’ve eaten my Red Velvet cake . . . in the kitchen . . . as I listen to some sweet love songs.  I don’t cry, though.  I smile.  That ‘marriage thing’ worked for us.

Making up my own Rules

Officer Friendly has been gone for more years then we were married, but I still remember our anniversaries.  I don’t count the ‘would-have-been’s’ (as in this would have been our eleventy-second).  The would-have-been’s only highlight the loss.  We had four years together and they were sweet.   That’s what I remember and that’s what I celebrate.

We met late in life and it made for some interesting dates.  He took me to the doctor when I needed to have foot impressions made for orthotic shoe inserts.  The doctor told me they would be ready in two weeks.  When I asked OF if we could have another date to go pick them up, he winked at the doctor and said, “If we’re still seeing each other.”

He said that a lot as we dated,  but it turned out that he had more confidence than I did that we would be seeing each other for a while.

We danced in the kitchen while we washed the dishes and we would sing ”Oh, How I Hate to Get in the Morning” nearly every Saturday when we woke up.  I found I didn’t need the orthotic inserts for dancing in the kitchen and soon ‘lost’ them.

I always gave him love songs or torch songs for our anniversary – you know – for the dancing in the kitchen part.

I was never terribly confident that I was a good wife to him, but I know that I LOVED walking out of work, dialing his cell phone number and saying “I’m on my way home.  See you soon.” 

Since he’s been gone, I’ve never been confident that I’ve been a very good widow, either.  I didn’t wear black to his burial service.  I wore blue.  It was his favorite color.  I quickly rearranged the furniture after he passed away.  I didn’t want the empty spaces to remind me of what I was missing.  If there are rules to being a widow, shhh, don’t tell me.  I don’t want to know.  I prefer to make them up as I go. 

One of my rules is that I sill buy love songs for our anniversary.  Though I will keep the exact date private, it’s coming close enough that I will be out this afternoon looking for just the right music.

The fabric in the background of the photo below is the dress I made for our wedding.  Red roses ALL OVER!

Do you have a favorite love song our torch song?  Let me know.  OF like “Autumn Leaves”. 

One of my other rules of being a widow is that I drive to the restaurant where we ordered our wedding cake, buy one slice of red velvet cake, take it home and eat in the kitchen  . . . where we danced . . . . . to the loves songs I bought him. 

“XLVI – the Patch” Super Scarf #43

I have another Super Scarf ready for the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl. 

For this scarf, I used purl bumps to form the design – XLVI – the Roman numerals for Super Bowl 46.  It’s simple; it’s repetitive, and it’s rather monochromatic except for the block I reserved for the official Super Bowl patch that is being sewn on to each Super Scarf when it arrives in Indianapolis.

The official XLVI patches are being sewn on by volunteers at the Indiana Women’s Prison and by the looks of the total shown today, on the Super Scarf Project website, they have sewn on 11,283 patches so far!

I want to take this time – and this Super Scarf – to thank them for their work. 

“Please Leave a Message After the Beep . . . “

“I’m sorry I missed your call.  The Super Scarf Project for the Indianapolis 2012 Super Bowl is approaching the deadline by which they want to receive scarves and I have decided I have enough time complete another one.  So I’ve found a fireplace, a cup of hot chocolate and some quiet music.  My feet are propped up and I and have been . . . knitting.

My answering machine is on duty while I knit, but you should know that I have the volume up loud enough so I can hear whether you are being ‘naughty or nice’ when I don’t pick up.

Please leave a message after the beep.  While you wait for me to return your call, please feel free to hop over to the Super Scarf website and see how they are doing: 
http://www.indianapolissuperbowl.com/super-scarves/.
  I will get back to you when I finish this scarf.”

    

    

School/Work Lunches and Science

It was a quiet Sunday here.  A bit dreary too, so it seemed the perfect day to get some things ready for school and work lunches.

First, Goodnight and I had a burrito-making marathon.

After I washed all the dishes from the first round of cooking, we had an egg roll-making marathon.

Then . . . we each had one egg roll and one burrito.  You could call it quality control, but we just called it – lunch.  Then I beat her at dominoes!

When the burritos and egg rolls were cooled, we wrapped them all individually for freezing and quick grabbing for school/work days.  I’ve got two days per week covered until I’m off for the college semester break.  Yum!

After lunch, we were busy shooting soda pop out of bottles for her science fair experiment.  The underlying objective is to understand super-saturation and nucleation however, I think a more important objective at this level is to have fun with science!  We met that goal!

I should point out that GN’s science fair is not until January, but she is nearly done with the entire project.  I have to give her credit for deciding what she wanted to do so quickly.  She prepared a looping video yesterday so it can run during the science fair.  She charted the various sodas results and the charts are easily translated to graphs.  After that, the paper will nearly type itself.

I’m thrilled that she likes science enough to get this done now.  I’m not keen on the idea of shooting soda out of bottles in my house, and I wouldn’t really want to be doing this in the snow.  Although . . . now that I think of it, if we had waited, we could have made some funky snow cones!

Maybe not.

I finally decided!

Gosh!  I can’t believe it was way back in June that I rescued a pile of crocheted squares from a thrift shop.  Below is the photo I took of them.

I know I’ve been busy knitting Super Scarves, but I can’t believe I’ve let these pieces ‘age’ as long as I have!  I finally decided what I’m going to do with them.  I dumped out the lot, sorted them out and found the most dense blocks.  I’ve paired them back to back and am crocheting them together to make potholders – for me!  I needed to replace some of my beat up potholders and this is my inexpensive solution.  By the end of the day, I will have replenished my supply.

There are less dense blocks that have lovely designs and I’ve decided to use them in a decorative antimacassar for the back of my couch.  I will connect the squares on the diagonal and try to arrange toe colors to achieve some symmetry. 

But for today, just the potholders Goodnight is at basketball open gym.  When she’s done, we are going to wrap up her science fair experimentation out on the front lawn.  She’s way ahead of schedule with the project, but we need to take advantage of the good weather for this one.