I love these.
In the midst of 8 degree temps and a foot of snow outside, I can look at these socks and dream of summer.
My childhood summers were spent at my grandparent’s summer cabin, on a pond deep in the woods. Huge snapping turtles, slow little sun turtles, my grandfather’s row boat, wild blueberries…it was heaven.
Thank you, Will.
I’m starting to feel better, so I thought I’d sit here at the desk for a few minutes and at least send a short post about books. I’m always reading (my biggest lifelong addiction), and here are two books that I had to share with you.
A thriller:
At the start of British author Mackintosh’s accomplished debut, five-year-old Jacob Jordan lets go of his mother’s hand for an instant on a rainy evening in Bristol, England, and darts into the road, only to be struck and killed by a hit-and-run. The investigation lands on the desk of Det. Insp. Ray Stevens and his eager new detective constable, Kate Evans. Mackintosh alternates between the slow, but fruitless, police work and the movements of artist Jenna Gray, who’s haunted by Jacob’s death and relocates to an isolated Welsh village, where she keeps to herself, warming slightly to the local vet after finding an abandoned puppy, and even then keeping the details of her previous life a secret. Back in Bristol, Ray and Kate work the case to the ground, despite a lack of leads; predictable sparks fly, even though Ray is happily married with two children. Mackintosh easily shifts points of view and keeps readers on their toes, slowly upping the suspense, so that when she does reveal her twists they—mostly—work.
And a laugh-out-loud romance, from another first time author:
Congratulations, ladies! I look forward to reading your future books!!!
Pathetic. That’s me. I caught Banjo Man’s cold and now I can’t get out of bed. It’s been years since I have had a cold, so of course I am outraged. Ha! Those Texas germs must be pretty strong.
I have had emails from three of my best Rhode Island buddies who say they are also sick.
I feel sorry for all of us.
Here is what’s waiting for me. I like looking at the pictures. Maybe you will, too.
It wasn’t the worst party because of the game, though it was dismal. Nebraska, with injured players and obviously out of its depth, couldn’t beat Tennessee.
It wasn’t the food. I’d made a vat of chili in my new 14 quart pan. My daughter-in-law arrived with cream cheese and three kinds of toppings, plus crackers and pretzels.
Banjo Man made another batch of Chex mix and didn’t burn it.
There was gourmet root beer, lemonade for the Funny Grandson, Cheerio Bars (a mixture of marshmallows, peanut butter, butter and Cheerios), tequila, peach vodka and some tasty clementine-flavored soda.
We were so excited! It was our last day in Austin and we were ready to watch the game. No one expected Nebraska to win, but we were happy to finally get to watch a game together. And eat.
Ten minutes into the game, we heard a couple of “pops” and the power went out. Then we saw a young woman running past our front window. She was holding a fire extinguisher.
The neighbors at the condo next door had drilled into a wall and hit our main wire. It’s a miracle no one was electrocuted. But it would be another seven hours until our power was back on. An electrician had to be called. He made two trips to Home Depot. He hired an assistant. He worked in the dark. The neighbors apologized over and over again.
Meanwhile…this is how we watched the first half of the game.
See Son #2’s cell phone underneath the tv?
The guys went to a bbq place to watch the 4th quarter and grab some hot food. Banjo Man was coming down with something (allergies? a cold?) and stayed home, wrapped in a blanket, watching the last miserable minutes of the game on my cell phone (the other phone had run out of data, so I finally downloaded the ESPN app on my phone and got it to work).
Son #2 had lots of candles–and went to the store to buy more–and we had flashlights, too. There would be leftover chili for the rest of the weekend.
By 9 PM we had electricity again. Heat. Lights. Microwave. Internet. Television! But the party was long over.
Next year we’ll try again.
I now have Banjo Man’s “cold” and instead of sewing today, I’m going back to bed to sniffle and be miserable. I rarely ever get colds, so my plan is to sleep my way through this one while something British plays on Netflix here on my bedroom tv.
I’m looking forward to the new season of The Bachelor tonight. Nick is not a very likable bachelor, having been on other shows and having his “heart broken” (yeah, right), but he can be funny. I’m hoping he has stopped mumbling so I can actually understand what he says. It’s a stupid show and I don’t mind admitting that I’m a fan, no matter what.
Enjoy the football today, folks. I hope your power stays on and your chili stays hot.
We traveled home on New Year’s Eve, leaving Austin at noon and flying to DC. Southwest Airlines just added a DC airport to their flight list and it was our first time there. We spilled onto a circle of 9 gates, with a huge bar in the center.
It was like stepping foot onto the Millennium Falcon.
Each place setting had its own I pad. You could order a meal, drinks, dessert or play games.
We walked down this corridor to find a restaurant. There were no stores, just the bright, new corridor lined with magazines, books, snacks, fruit, etc.
I’ve never seen so many different kinds of chips in my life.
Our restaurant was lovely and modern, with giant TV’s broadcasting the news and the Alabama/Washington game. Banjo Man panicked when he saw the I-pad, but I took over the ordering and soon we had our sandwiches in front of us.
I had to giggle at this. Despite all the techie stuff, the staff at the restaurant still hung their Christmas stockings!
We had a three hour layover and spent most of the time on stools here. We ordered coffee and even shared a slice of peanut butter pie to celebrate the New Year. I played a few rounds of “Wordfinder” on my counter I pad, somehow competing against other people in the spaceship. I failed miserably and they won free apples.
After that humiliation I was ready to go back to the gate and read for a while. Banjo Man stayed to watch the game and by 6:30 PM we were boarding our flight home. In an hour or so we would be back in Rhode Island.
If you’ve read about our other returns to RI, you will understand that we were apprehensive about how this would go. This time we parked at a Hampton Inn, using the “Park and Fly” rate, because our usual parking lot had closed down.
Other years we have suffered through lost car keys (having to rent a car to get home), dead batteries, below zero cold, 1 AM arrivals, ear infections, lost receipts to prove we prepaid, late flights and emergency car rentals.
We had no idea what nasty surprise this year would hold. But our luggage arrived, the Hampton shuttle quickly picked us up and deposited us in front of our car (which hadn’t been towed, buried under snow or hit by another vehicle) and the Highlander actually started right up.
We couldn’t believe it.
Maybe we’re finally getting the hang of this traveling thing.
How cute is this? The Stitch Lab is located on S. 1st Street in south Austin and is actually comprised of two houses. They give lots of classes and seem like a really fun place to buy fabric and learn how to sew. Children welcome!
Shelves made from wooden spools.
They had quite an array of joyful, modern fabrics and an impressive number of solids, too. I’m thinking about making another art quilt, this time using a U.S. flag that was flown in the Pacific during WWII as my inspiration. I enjoyed the beginning-to-end creation of the “Gingko Quilt” so much that I am gearing up to create another original.
The Gingko Quilt, November 2015
There is a lot to consider with the design, but finding the kind of fabric that will fray is going to be the most important thing. Banjo Man gave me several yards of vintage silk for Christmas about 10 years ago. I need to unpack it and see if it can be turned into a flag. If so, I may try my hand at dying it in order to get just the right shades of red and blue.
In the meantime, I am working on Bonnie Hunter’s annual Mystery quilt. I didn’t care for her colors this year–too many purples and greens, with a jolt of magenta–so I selected my own (dark woodsy browns, soft blues, yellows, rose and cinnamon). They are waiting for me to turn them into blocks when I get home.
I didn’t buy anything at this pretty shop, but I did enjoy the beautiful weather!
Banjo Man and I were laughing at ourselves at the grocery store yesterday morning. With our carts (to stay married, we each have our own shopping cart and go our separate ways in the store) piled high with snack food and ingredients for chili, we were ready for one more party.
Today Nebraska plays in its bowl game. 2:30 PM Central time.
And no, they are not expected to win. Expectations are low (almost nonexistent) so the guys here will concentrate on eating chili and making optimistic predictions for next year’s season.
Tomorrow we head to the airport to fly home. The weather is supposed to be clear and hopefully our flights will be on time. Our daughter has made sure the playoff games will be recorded on the DVR so her father won’t miss any college football. We should be home in front of the television for the second half of the second game.
Banjo Man made a vat of oven-roasted Chex Mix snack yesterday. He thinks he discovered something new and is thrilled with himself.
Speaking of something new, here are flavors of soda I’d never seen before. Pumpkin? Peach? Candy cane?
No, thanks. I’ll leave all of that sugar on the store shelves and just take pictures.
We’re having hot cider instead. It’s a bit chilly here today, which makes a nice change from the 80+ temps of this past week. I had to dig out my summer clothes and sandals. How weird is that?
It’s back to the cold tomorrow, though. I have my red wool coat, scarf and gloves ready for winter again!
Happy New Year, everyone. And GO BIG RED!
The Funny Grandson wasn’t the only person in the family who wanted a new pair of western boots for Christmas. His Uncle Will liked the idea, especially since his fifteen year old boots looked like this:
Banjo Man got into the act, too.
Unbeknownst to each other, they’d picked the same boot to try on.
That was weird.
I debated trading in my sandals for these little beauties from the children’s section. (Hint: if you have small feet, the kids’ boots are wider and less expensive–a win, win)
Do you think I took these home??? Go ahead, take a wild guess.
Key chains. Love them.
I think we were in the store for almost two hours. I even had a coupon!!
Merry Christmas, Texas-style.
I’m not sure when this became a family tradition, but gumbo on Christmas Eve has been served at More Pie’s house for a number of years. Whether I’m in Texas or Rhode Island, there is gumbo.
Son #1 is insanely crazy over gumbo. When he visits New Orleans he goes from restaurant to restaurant sampling gumbo of all kinds. One afternoon we were all waiting to head to the airport, but he was missing. Turned out he’d sneaked out of the hotel for one last bowl of gumbo in a restaurant around the corner.
Over the holidays he is known as “Gumbo Belly”.
I’ve just finished up about five hours of gumbo-making. The chicken-andouille-okra version is finished and is simmering on the stove in a new 14 quart pot. The new 11 quart pot will hold the shrimp file gumbo, which is about half done. Banjo Man, who chopped all of the vegetables for me, has escaped to the store to get a couple of pounds of shrimp.
Because I come from generations of New Orleans people (French, Irish, German, Belgian), you’d assume I have a secret family recipe.
Sorry. My grandmother made lots of gumbo but she didn’t pass down the recipe. She was too busy for that. If you want to know more about my southern grandmother you can click here. She was quite the character and I always loved spending time with her.
I use Paul Prud’homme’s recipes. Here’s one of them:
http://www.gumbocooking.com/seafood_gumbo.html
It has been a lovely morning. I’ve been streaming my local RI’s radio show featuring Santa Claus. Every year for three hours Santa takes calls from children who tell him what they want for Christmas. It’s my own annual tradition and I love it. This year’s most surprising request was from a little boy who asked Santa Claus for bagpipes.
Poor Santa didn’t know what to say to that. He confessed he’d never had that request before.
When Santa asked a little girl if she’d been good this year, she hesitated and said, “Well, it depends on who you ask.”
I about dropped my whisk.
“It depends on who you ask” might be my go-to answer in 2017.
Merry Christmas on the day before the day before!!!
They say clothes make the man.
Do boots make the boy?
We did a little Christmas shopping yesterday afternoon.
Before:
And after:
He says he’s never taking the boots off. I know the feeling, Funny Grandson.
Maybe you have a little of Grandma’s DNA after all.
Next door was the Central Market.
Of course I bought a pie. We had a lot to celebrate!!
May your Christmas be filled with joy!
Fourth of July
Glen the Banjo Man
LIVE at the Dump
