My Day All Alone

   I know, it's only 9:30 in the morning, but I thought I'd better do this while I have a chance. You see, it's also the Day of the Doctor... So I'll be busy watching Doctor Who, and making rubber band bracelets, hopefully to sell at the craft fair at FDR High School on December 7th. Come one, come all.


    Hubs got off to work successfully this morning, but I bet he's not very happy. You see, he forgot his bag of fireballs he bought yesterday. He has become addicted to those little cinnamon flavored devils. After searching all venues in the area, we discovered that Adams Fairacre Farms is the only local source for these candies.

  
    But now, if you'll excuse me, I need to finish my coffee, pour myself another cup, and enjoy the Day of the Doctor. I might just get in some knitting and possibly wash some dishes and run the carpet sweeper around during the dull bits. 

   P.S I did some thinking after yesterday's post, and realized I was wrong. Hubs has been home nearly three weeks, not two. And I am thoroughly enjoying my day alone, so far. I'm sure I'll miss him later...


P.P.S.  My very favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time are BLINK, with #10, David Tennant, and Vincent and the Doctor, with #11, Matt Smith. It makes me cry every darn time I see it.

Running errands today

    That's my job for today. I have a few things I have to do, and I better get them done since I will be watching the grandkids the rest of the week.  I feel very privileged to watch them, to be trusted with their care. But they do exhaust me. It's weird, it's like they suck the energy right out of me! But they are so awesome, it's worth it.


     So let's see, what do I have to do? I need to get some gas for the Jeep, then I need to head to Adam's, since we are out of chocolate truffle decaf coffee, and nearly out of regular chocolate truffle. Can't have that, can we? I also need meats for dinner, and more little cans of ginger ale. I have found that the meats at Adam's are superior, and not as expensive as other supermarkets.


    After that, I have a scrip to pick up at the pharmacy. And hopefully I will hear from my friend Bonny. She texted me last night, but I had misplaced my phone, and didn't find it until this morning. I sent her a text explaining what happened, but I haven't heard back from her yet.


    I am still knitting away on the super secret project. I'm pretty sure that I have enough yarn now to finish. I just have to find the time.

So far, it's a non-knitting day

    This morning, I got up with the full intention of knitting on the cat bed. It's now 3 pm, and I have yet to pick it up. I took care of my farmville farms while I had my coffee, then made a list for the supermarket.


    I needed to buy meats, and chocolate truffle decaf coffee, so that means a trip to Adams Fairacre Farms. Their meat is of excellent quality, and cheaper than other places. So off to Adams I went, after a shower.  I also had to visit our local supermarket, for a few things that Adams doesn't carry. After Adams, I went to the beer store. I had tried a beer that I really liked, but the beer store didn't have that brand. And I don't ask for help in a store. One of my lovable quirks, I guess.


    After I finally got home, I put away all the groceries, and poured myself a tall glass of very old iced tea. That brought down my core temp pretty quickly. It's very warm and humid out today. And that's another reason I have no desire to work on the double yarn cat bed project. It's very warm on my lap! Maybe tonight, after it cools down a little.


    As for the rest of today? I plan on washing some dishes, and bringing up the laundry from the dryer that was done yesterday. And I'm pretty sure that there's enough stuff in the closet for another full load. Does it ever end?  I don't think so!

In Which We Have a Shopping Day

    This morning, Hubs and I left the house, to do some Christmas shopping. On the way to our first destination, I got my notebook out, and we made a list. It constituted where we were going, and ideally what our purchases would be.


    All went pretty well. For obvious reasons, I can't tell you exactly which stores we shopped in, but we were both satisfied. We got gifts for our son, his girlfriend, and their housemates. Also for the girlfriend's step dad, and one of my friends. Then we got something more for our nephew. That leaves me with only one more gift to get, and I can get that one tomorrow.


    We even made it to Adam's Fairacre Farms, where I bought some more of his coffee, the chocolate truffle decaf. And since I was there, I got some of mine too. Before we went to Adam's, Hubs wanted to go to this little gun store out by our daughter's house. There is a really cute bald guy that works there, so I wasn't against going. Not surprisingly, they were pretty busy. After a while, I got bored, so I went out to the truck to knit for a while.


    I got through the whole upper part of the sweater, right to the row when I take the sleeve stitches off the needle, and put them on scrap yarn. Then I was supposed to connect the front and back of the sweater by casting on some sitiches where the sleeves were. I got a little confused by this, so I text messaged my knitting expert. She told me she would have to read the pattern to figure it out. So I put the sweater away, and went back in the gun store.


    In the end, Hubs bought a new rifle. Not a bad deal. Then we went to Adam's, then we got some chinese food, and then we finally went home. We ended up getting home just at dusk. We ate our dinner, and relaxed for the evening. Now he's in the bedroom watching football, while I watch whatever I want out here in the living room.


    Today was our 24th wedding anniversary, and it was nice to spend the day with him. At about the time we originally said our vows, we decided that we would do it all over again, and that it was a good decision the first time. I wonder if he remembers, all those years ago, that he promised me we could renew our vows for our 25th anniversary. I suspect that he didn't think he would live this long.....    


P.S.   I ended up deciding to give the sweater another whirl; I figured it's for practice anyway, so it really doesn't matter if I screw it up. It just so happens that I think I got it right.... So far, it's looking pretty good! We'll see what my friend the expert says tomorrow!

A Day in the Life

    What a good day it's been. I got up at 8:00, made myself a half pot of coffee, and sat down in my chair. A few days ago, I made a trip out to Adams Fairacre Farms to get more chocolate truffle decaf coffee. We were almost out. While I was there, I decided to try a new flavor I had seen on my last visit. It's called Maple Bacon. Now, I figure that anything that has bacon flavor can't be bad.


    That's the coffee I got to try for the first time this morning. With great anticipation, I sipped my first cup. It's pretty sweet, and not terribly mapley or bacony. But it's not the worst coffee I've ever had either. Tomorrow I'll go back to my regular chocolate truffle, thank you. I'll save the maple bacon for another occasion.


    I watched my favorite morning shows, then got dressed and went to the supermarket. That went well, also. Even though the parking lot was pretty full, there weren't that many people in the store. I even found a handicap spot near the door.


    While I was out, I also went to the Post Office and got the mail. When I returned home, there were two large, rather flat, boxes waiting on the stoop. My favorite UPS man, Dave, had been there in my absence. I brought the groceries in, then tried to figure out how to get the boxes inside. They were a bit on the heavy side, as well.


    I finally managed to get them inside. After I caught my breath, and put the groceries away, I finally got to sit and knit, while waiting for the laundry. The rest of the day passed peacefully; I was knitting while watching Cadfael episodes on Netflix. I got quite a bit done, knitting wise. I started the third skein of wool, this one a denim heather, and quickly found a problem with it.


    I usually manage to find the inside end of the yarn, in the middle of the skein, and this time I was successful as well. However, as I knit, I pulled out a rather large tangle, in which I could see at least two more ends. It turns out that there were two separate pieces of yarn, not attached to the skein, that somehow got put inside the skein. This is supremely annoying to most knitters. Fortunately, it seems to only be the two pieces, so far. I have knit over an inch on the bucket bag with the new yarn, and haven't come across any more of them.


    Now I am just sitting here, watching evening TV, waiting for Hubs to come home from work. I did the laundry, and also the dishes. I also cleaned out the cat box. It was a busy day, after all... All that's left is to cook dinner when he gets home.


    After proof reading this, I thought I should clarify something. A half pot yields two cups of coffee in my house. We have BIG cups. I believe they are 18 -20 ounces. So a full pot gives us two cups each, which works out perfectly.
   

Here's how my day went, with a little knitting.

    That's right, nothing happened today. I got up this morning, and I was going to go out as we need coffee. I discovered we have more coffee than I thought, so I don't need to go today. It isn't a good idea to go to Adams on the weekend. At all. You can spend hours just trying to find a place to park...


    I truly did nothing today. It's very hard to breathe, as it's so fracking humid. I did go down and turn on the pool filter, but that was the only time I left the house. It was very traumatic, though. As I was walking towards the pump house, to bleed the air out of the filter, I saw something moving in the grass. I stopped when I realized it was about a foot long section of a snake's tail. He was going  behind the diving board, which is on it's long edge, on the ground, leaning against the pump house.


   I carefully peeked into the pump house, and saw part of his body, then spotted his head, watching me bleed the filter. I finished, and very carefully backed the hell outta there. I had quietly moved the diving board so I could get a better look at him. He was about four feet long. No wonder we haven't had any frogs in the pool lately. He looked very well fed. I just hope he isn't eating my little chipmunks.


    I finally did end up going to the grocery store, as we really needed milk and half & half. I picked up a few other things we needed too. I didn't have to go to Adams for those things, but that's where I have to go to get my coffee. I also like to get meat and produce there.


    At one point I did try and knit a few rows on my stole, but I fracked it up. I started by doing the wrong row, but kept going anyway. After the wrong side purl row, I did the row I should have started with, and ended up being one stitch short. I cursed for a minute, then put it away. I told you I can't try to knit lace and watch TV at the same time!


    So now dinner is in the oven, and we are going to be eating late tonight. It was too hot to cook earlier. Now, the temp has gone down, but it's still really humid outside.


    Tomorrow is the karate school family potluck picnic! I am really looking forward to that. The kids love to hang out and play with their instructors. They have it at Hackett Hill Park every year, and the kids can swim, and they play touch football, and all kinds of games. It looks like Hubs won't be attending with me this year, he has to go to the Fishkill house and do some work on the back deck. He has the use of some tool-thingie for the weekend only, so he has to do it tomorrow.


    I will take my camera, so hopefully I can get some good photos of the picnic.

Let's Have Some Coffee!

    I was thinking about this the other day: everyone says that when I make the coffee, it tastes better. Even when I prepare their cup for them. This makes me laugh, but it's true! When daughter Sara comes to visit, she asks me to prepare her cup for her, she says it just tastes better when I do it.


    I have no idea why this is! Is it the level of sugar in the three teaspoons that go in the cup? (We use really big cups in my house) Is it the precise amount of half and half I put in? I was taught by my dad when we were up in Clinton staying at Hamilton College for his sabbatical one summer. He told me to pour the milk(then) in just until you see it come back up at you in the cup. It's kind of hard to explain. But I have done it that way ever since.


    On the rare occasion that I don't set the coffee maker up before going to bed, I can tell that Hubs was up before me, because the coffee doesn't taste as good as when I make it. Could it be how much coffee I use? That would be three, barely heaping, (two tablespoon) scoops per pot. Before I make the coffee, or set up the coffee maker, I always rinse the basket in really, really hot tap water. I also rinse out the carafe as well. I don't think that Hubs takes this step.


    For me, it's like a ritual. Turn on the hot water, walk to the fridge, dumping the old grounds in the garbage on the way, take out the coffee. By the time I get back, the water is hot. Rinse out the basket thoroughly, put it back in the maker. Rinse out the carafe thoroughly, put it back. Turn off the hot water, and turn on the cold. Put the paper filter in the basket, put in the three slightly heaping scoops of coffee. By now the water is really cold. Cold water is essential for good coffee. Fill up the water reservoir. Gently, push the maker back against the wall. (The water can splosh out) Either turn it on, or go to bed and turn it on when you get up.


    By now, you all know that we drink chocolate coffee. It doesn't seem to matter which brand, whether it's the Godiva Chocolate Truffle, or the chocolate truffle coffee I get at Adam's Fairacre Farms. Sometimes I even can find some at Marshalls!Since it's flavored, you don't need as much coffee per pot, that's why I only use 3 scoops. Well, one reason anyway. I don't like strong coffee! It just tastes bitter to me.


    Oh yeah, I almost forgot! There's even a ritual for preparing the individual cups. I always put the sugar in first. Then pour the coffee in, and stir. Remove the spoon. You don't want the spoon contaminated by the half and half. Take the cups, and walk to the fridge, put them down. Take out the half and half and pour in the correct amount. The coffee is still moving in the cup, so it mixes in just fine. Tah dah! you're done. Now go and enjoy the best chocolate coffee in the world!