Sam brought the black Play Doh. And orange and green, too. I contributed the plastic bowls, of which I have many. Sam discovered all of them over the course of the morning, and we baked pies, cakes and burgers in the oven, microwave and dishwasher.
Sam is nothing if not creative.
The oven timer was a big hit. As was the oven light. And the plastic knife.
I see a big future for my little friend:
We rented this “on demand” last night, before we watched American Idol and Hell’s Kitchen. We were tired of the news and the endless political discussions on the news channels, so we went to…Mars.
I didn’t realize Matt Damon was the hero of the movie (I thought I was watching Leonardo diCaprio the whole time) until I uploaded this photo to the blog. And I really didn’t understand much of the movie. It was charming and exciting and interesting, but all of that scientific chatter just went in one ear and out the other.
During the movie (and American Idol and Hell’s Kitchen) I was busy pinning 252 little blocks of fabric together. And then I set up the ironing board in front of the couch and proceeded to iron 84 other sections of fabric patches. There was no way I could sit in front of the television for FOUR HOURS and not do anything. Sometimes I practice the dobro (without finger picks, so it’s fairly quiet) by mindlessly picking the patterns that Buddy taught me in December. Sometimes I read during the commercials. Sometimes I eat chocolate-and-salt-coated almonds, but thank God they are all gone and we can’t buy any more until we go back to Texas in March.
Anyway, back to “The Martian”: it was a good movie to rent on a cold winter night.
P.S. A “Bachelor” update will be coming this weekend, along with some notes on a few other shows. Stay tuned.
Welcome to my horse collection. This was a very big deal when I was a kid. These were souvenirs from trips and Christmas and birthday gifts. I loved them. I could stand in front of the display in any tacky Tennessee roadside gift shop and be totally entranced. I played with them endlessly. They had names and histories and families.
I unpacked them last week. I unwrapped each precious horse and set it on the kitchen island to admire. Banjo Man didn’t know what to say. I suspect he was afraid I was going to display them on the fireplace mantel. They’d been packed for about fifty years, maybe more. I always thought I’d have granddaughters who would want to play with them.
So far that isn’t happening. 
So I ask you, what do I do with them? Do I wait a few more years for that granddaughter to appear? Do I donate them to charity? Sell them on ebay? Put them back in their box and tuck them away?
I am not ready to part with them.
Which I am embarrassed to admit.
Just forget you read this.
Even Paul McCartney started somewhere.
This guy couldn’t believe his great good fortune, with a real electric guitar along with the use of his father’s microphone, stand and amplifier.
It certainly brought back memories of his father’s expression when he opened a Christmas gift to find a bass guitar.
We and his grandparents had combined our shopping funds in order to afford the best used bass guitar Banjo Man could find. Son #1 was very, very surprised.
Every once in a while a Christmas dream comes true.
And the beat goes on…
It looks like we’re getting the Big Storm after all. Sometime in the night the storm shifted a little bit north, which meant we are right in the path of a lot of snow and a lot of wind.
Banjo Man just filled his 55-gallon barrel and tested the special pump I ordered to go with it, so hopefully our bathroom habits can continue undisturbed should we lose power and water.
Life gets complicated when you don’t have electricity, doesn’t it?
How do you like this quilt?
Here’s the link, where there are lots of ideas: http://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com/2014/05/free-pattern-day-patriotic-and-flag.html
I’m sewing Quilts of Valor these next few weeks. February 6th is the “sew in” day across the country, but I’ll be sewing here at the house because I don’t belong to a quilt guild. I’ve been buying red, white and blue fabrics to supplement what I already have stacked up in the closet. The new fabric is washed and ironed (well, mostly ironed) and ready to go. I’ve done the math and worked out the design, so now it’s time to cut and sew!
Cutting is one of my favorite parts of quilting. I’m going to set up my cutting station on the kitchen island. And move my sewing machine to the dining room table.
We’re getting Mom shortly and bringing her back here for the duration of the storm. Do you remember a few years ago when she and Banjo Man had their adventure on a toboggan after a storm? (You can read about it here: https://isthereanymorepie.wordpress.com/2013/02/15/blizzard-tacos-and-ikea-part-2/)
Well, we’re never risking their lives again. Now we don’t take chances! Mom can curl up on the living room couch while I sew, and we’ll watch tv and drink tea and hope that the power stays on.
(There are three very confused deer in my front yard right now. They are huddled on the side of the driveway, under a tree. Is this their first big storm? Do they not have a place in which to hunker down?)
I’m looking forward to a cozy day! Stay safe, everyone.
I’ve been playing with my stack of half-square triangles. It’s baby quilt time!
Here’s version #1:
And here are the same 4 1/2″ squares arranged in chevrons.
This last one looks a little more modern. I could quilt some little feather designs in the white spaces. Add a white border and a delicate print for the binding…with lots and lots of intricate quilting…
The thinking continues…
Well, it looks like Winter Is Coming, as they like to say in ominous tones on “Game of Thrones”.
No, no! Say it isn’t so!!!
According to our very excited local weathermen, we’re going to get a big storm that will begin Friday night and end Sunday morning.
We do not want this. Last winter’s almost-constant snow storms began on the third weekend of January and buried us under snow and ice as if we were living in Alaska.
We don’t want to live in Alaska.
We don’t want to relive the winter of 2015.
Banjo Man and I are ready for a loss of electricity with this recent purchase:
This sucker holds 55 gallons of water.
We also have a little charcoal grill, bottled water, batteries and our propane fireplace.
But “flushing” is crucial, declares Banjo Man, proudly displaying his barrel.
I do not know how many flushes one can get out of 55 gallons of water, but I think we’re covered unless Banjo Man decides to make chili for Saturday’s big football game.
Let’s hope the weathermen are wrong and/or the storm shifts course and heads out to sea.
Okay, on Saturday we hit the 12:35 show of this movie, which opened this weekend:
I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Loved this movie. It was not a politically-slanted movie (Obama and Hillary were never mentioned), but at the end of the movie Banjo Man and I were left with one overriding question: why did no one come to help?
I have my own opinions about that.
Moving on….
Banjo Man knows how much I love pizza, so he climbed down from his Healthy Eating High Horse and consented to pick up pizzas to take home and watch the Patriots game.
Yummy, but not as good at the Garlic Rose pizza at Kingstown’s Pizza.
Sunday was yet another attempt to make an edible protein bar with no sugar and no flour. I’m enjoying the process and Banjo Man is really enjoying the low-calorie, no-sugar, high-protein baked goods.
When not baking, I made lentil soup in the crock pot. I washed fabric for future quilts. And I sorted through my box of vintage hats. I’d bought them for the velvet flowers and leaves and decorations. Some I’d dismantled, but there were 11 left. So I photographed them and will probably sell them in one big lot on Ebay.
I love this blue one:
Of course I tried them all on first. It was tempting to keep this one:
For some weird reason it actually looked stylish on me, in a crazed-menopausal-woman-going-to-church-in-1958 kind of way.
No, no, no! I am not keeping unnecessary vintage hats!
Even after watching Downton Abby last night.
Today we are heading north to see this movie:
She is not wearing a hat.
We’ve heard it’s wonderful.
It snowed last night, but only about 4″. Annoying, but no big deal. I keep hearing we’re in for a cold and windy week, with a snowstorm on Saturday.
I hope that’s not true.
Because next week we’re going to see this:
Cannot wait.
Everyone on the radio this morning is mourning David Bowie’s death. I know the name, of course. If you asked me who he was, I would reply, “A rock singer.”
That’s about it.
Banjo Man came out of his office to ask me about David Bowie. I believe his words were,”Everyone’s talking about him. Why don’t we know him? What years was he famous?”
“I don’t know. The seventies? Eighties? I think we were into Willie Nelson at the time,” I ventured. “And Waylon.”
“Huh.” Banjo Man looked perplexed. As if he should be more on top of things. More trendy.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “I call it ‘The Diaper Years’, when I was too busy changing diapers to know what was going on in the world.”
There were many, many diaper years. That was back when we were members of the Columbia Record club and a new vinyl album arrived every four weeks, via snail mail. It was an event that was very, very exciting in our little mountainside home.
No internet, no Pandora. No email. We had to go to the Post Office to get the mail (after 10 AM, thank you). And long distance phone calls were expensive and had to be timed via the kitchen stove timer so as not to break the budget.
The diapers were cloth, the bread was homemade and, for better or worse, we never crossed musical paths with David Bowie.
I feel really old this morning.
I’ve decided to make this a twin size and reduce the number of blocks I need to complete. 32 are enough, don’t you think?
Here’s a peek at the design wall.
Please tell me someone someday somewhere will want this.
Fourth of July
Glen the Banjo Man
LIVE at the Dump
is there any more pie? 