Snow!

 We got snow!  

Even though it was really coming down there for a while, we didn't get any accumulation.  I put my bowl out just in case, but this is the most that stayed on the ground, and it melted pretty quickly after I took the photo. 

But it was snow!  Real snow, not that sleety mess we usually get.  And before any of my northern friends comments...I'm just going to leave this right here:

OK, moving right along.  My big project for today was to watch playoff football.  No, really, it was to watch playoff football and finally make all that turkey noodle soup I'd been planning on doing since Thanksgiving.  

Imma tell you one thing... when you boil down the carcass of a 17 lb bird, you get a lot of broth.  I used a gallon and a half for my soup, and still have tons of it in the freezer.  Once I'd added the meat, vegetables, and noodles, I probably ended up with three gallons of soup, most of which is now safely nestled in the freezer.  

We've got three more years of Bare Shelves Biden.  I might need every last drop of that soup before it's all over.

Anyway, the only thing I wish I'd done differently is to check how much of the celery Cody'd used for the gumbo he made.  I'd bought an entire bunch, and cut it all up, thinking it would be enough for both batches of soup, but he used a bit more than I thought he would.  If I'd checked, I'd have bought more.  But it's still good soup, even though most of you would think it needs more salt.  I'd be inclined to agree with you, but I don't like salt, so I don't add a lot of it to my food.  

In other news, I'm still knitting away at the same old scarf.  I'd show you picture of it, but it looks exactly like it did in the last picture I showed you, just a few inches longer. I've been working a bit on my needle felting.  I made a cute little cowboy hat:

And a horse: 

I'm going to make a boot, too.  And what is all this going to be, you may ask?  I'm going to add them to my Texas (for which I made a little Orange heart to put where my home town is)

and I'm going to make a sort of shadow box thing out of it all.  I probably will do a star, too...you know for the Lone Star State.  

The best part is, I got to play with some of the fiber in the kit my sister gave me for Christmas.  They may be tiny bags, but they packed a lot into them.  

He Jinxed Us

As we were leaving work yesterday, one of my coworkers said, "Maybe tomorrow will be better.  I don't see how it could possibly be any worse." 

Yeah, he kind of jinxed us.  Today was worse.  Much worse. 

When I made my rounds this morning, not only did none of the lines have work, they all had units sitting on the conveyors waiting on headers.  I rushed back over to sub brazing to try to get some headers ready for the shifts, only there was nothing ready to braze -- for any line.  It was another one of those days. 

I don't know what's happening on B shift, if they're having machine troubles or a lot of people out, but I'm getting tired of going in every morning with no work, and the lines right on us.

So, after work, I went to the store, and kind of on impulse, I said to myself, "Self, I think it's time to fire up the old grill and grill some brats or something."  Me being me, I don't see the point of burning charcoal just to cook one or two pieces of meat, so I bought a bunch of chicken thighs to put into the freezer for later.  I also got some ribs, and of course, the brats. 

I'm planning on doing all that grilling tomorrow, but for now, I'm going to bed.  Because I'm tired. 

Good night.

Appliances

They didn't tell me I didn't have to be at work at 5:00 this morning.  Group Leader said, "I thought you knew."  Um, why would you think I knew if you didn't tell me?  But you would have been proud of me.  I kept my mouth shut.  All I said was, "I was wondering, but nobody told me to stop, so I came on in at 5:00."

Saturday evening, I got into a funk.  I don't know if maybe I was just really tired, but I decided I didn't want my Instant Pot.  I boxed it all up, and got ready to send it back.  Somebody asked me why I was sending it back.  Did I think it was too hard?

Ummm, no.  You've no doubt heard of the Island Of Misfit Toys.  Let me introduce you to the Shelf Of Neglected Appliances.

Let's start with this one.

It isn't an appliance.  It's a very large stock pot.  I bought it back when the plant was giving us 20 lb turkeydactyls every Thanksgiving.  I needed something large enough to boil down the carcass to make broth for soup.  Since the HR guy who felt we needed to feed an army retired, they've gone back to giving us 12 lb birds.  I haven't used this pot since.

Next up, this crock pot that I received as a wedding gift back in 1993.  It comes complete with dust bunny and wee little spider living underneath it.

I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've used it.

Here we have my coffee grinder.

It was included with the coffee pot I got from work for my 20th anniversary gift.  I bought and ground one bag of whole bean coffee.  One.  I haven't used it since.

This is the food processor that I just had to have.  I haven't used it in so long that I completely forgot it has a lid.

I had to go find said lid and take another picture.

My Kitchen Kettle that I was so excited to get I even wrote a post about it.  In the three years I've had it, I've used it exactly twice.

I used to use this breadmaker a lot, but now, it sits so far back in the corner that I didn't even try to dig it out to take a picture.

Same with the ice cream freezer.

I hadn't used it in so long, I gave it to Beverly and James.  They gave it back.  Now it sits behind an unused power strip and a spare piece of drywall.

I think this slow cooker was also a wedding gift, but I don't rightly remember.  I use it maybe once every 2-3 years, but haven't since everyone moved away.

Same with this little crock pot.  I use it maybe once every two or three years -- but haven't since everyone moved away. 

Now, lest you think I just collect appliances to collect dust, there are a few I actually do use.  On the left we have my Fry Daddy.  I use it quite a bit.  On the right is my vacuum sealer.  I probably use it the most of all my appliances.

And finally, my George Foreman knock off grill.   

Out of all those appliances, there are three that I use regularly. 

It took me four days just to take the Instant Pot out of the box.  I got it all put together and set up, and spent a few minutes looking around at some YouTube videos -- recipes and such.  It all just seemed so complicated and time consuming.  I mean, why should I spend 30 minutes Instant Potting oatmeal when I can zap it in the microwave for one?  There's nothing instant about that. 

It seemed the Instant Pot would soon find its place upon the Shelf Of Neglected Appliances. 

Once I'd gotten a good night's sleep, I relented and took the pot back out of the box.  I did the water test, then when I got home from work, I started searching for a quick and easy pork chop recipe.  Just a simple pork chop with a little bit of seasoning.  No vegetables, no sauces, no gravy, no rice.  Just a pork chop.

OK, forget the recipe.  Just tell me how long to cook the stupid thing!  

After fruitlessly searching for an hour, I shoved the Instant Pot back into the corner and ate microwaved pasta. 

I'll cook the pork chop tomorrow -- on the George Foreman knock off grill. 

Wild Hair

Every so often, I get a wild hair, and end up doing things I wouldn't normally do.  This is one of those times.

I go through this every few years.  What is it, you may ask?  I buy a pie pumpkin and cook it down.  When I do this, I remember why I just buy canned pumpkin.  Then a few more years go buy, and I say to myself, "Self, you ought to buy a pie pumpkin and cook it down."  So, I do, and I go through the whole process once again.  And remember why I just buy canned pumpkin.

This was one of those years.

I bought a pie pumpkin to cook down and make fresh pumpkin puree'.    That was my project for today.

The hardest part is cutting the stupid thing up.  This time around, I had an epiphany.  After using my big knife to hack off the stem, it occurred to me that I have a hacksaw.  I went and got said hacksaw, and went to work with it.  That thing cut through the pumpkin rind like butter.

I was tempted for a moment to go fire up the old chainsaw, but restrained myself.

Anyway, I got the thing cut up, then had to scoop the goop out.  I'm telling you, I think the more you scoop, the more goop there is.

It's like the pumpkin is producing more and more of it in one final act of defiance.  The reward for your persistence is pumpkin seeds to roast.   After you separate the seeds from all the goop, that is. 

At long last, the pumpkin was cut up, the goop was scooped and the two halves were in the oven to cook down. 

And I was once again remembering why I just buy canned pumpkin.

They're still predicting temps in the low 30s tonight.  In anticipation of the impending freeze, I spent a few moments with my marigolds, zinnias, and vincas.  If it does frost/freeze, that'll be the last of them. 

The bad news is, my heater seems to have gone out.  It's always something isn't it?  It blows, it just blows cold.  We'll be OK until I can get it fixed.  I'll just swipe the space heater from the snake room when I take a shower.  Other than that, my little wood stove will keep the house warm enough.  It got the house so warm today I had to open a window. 

The good news is, I got the lights in my shed fixed.  One of the maintenance men from work came out and fixed them.  Turns out it was just a bad switch.  He replaced it and we're good to go. 

One step closer to getting my woodworking hobby going. 

Weekending

The phone and I are slowly getting used to each other.  For some reason, this phone has decided that he wants a name.  I've never had a phone with a name before, but this one wants to be called Fred.  Since I have been known to lose arguments with inanimate objects before, I decided to just go with the flow.

The phone is now named Fred. 

I went to Wal-mart after work yesterday to see if I could find a case and a car charger for Fred.  They were all out of cases, so that was a bust.  I looked on Amazon, but there were so many choices that I started to get overwhelmed.  I didn't order one yet.  I can't decide whether I want a Doctor Who, or Sherlock, or Walking Dead, or Dallas Cowboys....

They did have some car chargers, but I didn't want to spend $30 on a new one.  They had an adapter that I could have used with my iPhone 4s charger, but it cost just as much as a whole charger.  I ended up getting this:

It cost 1/3 as much as the charger, and I can use the cord that came with the phone.  I can also use it to charge my Kindle, if I take a road trip or something. 

A couple of weeks ago, a coworker asked when I was going to bring some more cookies to work.  The ones I brought in for Valentine's Day went over really well, so I figured I could make some more around Easter.  I had some Easter cookie cutters around here somewhere, or so I thought. 

I searched high and low, but couldn't find them.  Eh, I thought, I'll just buy some new ones.  They're cheap.  I started searching the stores for Easter type cookie cutters -- not just eggs, but anything Easter related.  I couldn't find anything.  I found butterflies and flowers, but nothing specifically Easterish.

Next step, check online.  I checked Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy.  They had some cutters, but not the ones I remembered.  Not the ones I wanted.  I was about to give up, when I wandered into one last vintage bakeware shop on Etsy.  Lo and behold, there they were!

Naturally, I ordered them straight away -- fearing all the while that someone else would type faster than I, and would beat me to them.  But no...I got them, and they arrived today.  Yippee!

While I was waiting for them to get here, I bought some colored sprinkles to decorate the cookies I plan on making. 

I also dug out my Easter cookie stamps. 

Now, I just have to wait and find out if they give us Good Friday off.  Some years they do; some years they don't. 

Either way, we're going to have cookies.  It's only a question of when.

One last thing:  it snowed today.  In Mississippi.  So, how's that global warming working out for ya?

Just Another

Typical Thor's Day.

I walk into work this morning, and Group Leader Fernando meets me halfway down the aisle with a header (manifold) assembly in his hand.  Whoever brazed that assembly had done a very poor job of it.  The brazing rod wasn't completely melted, and there were large leaks around the adapter tubes. 

"Can you fix this?" he asks.

"Yep," I responds.  "It won't be pretty, but it will be fixed."   I hadn't even clocked in yet.

I go ahead and clock in, then go to the break room to fix myself a jug of ice water.  By the time I get back, Fernando had put two more headers on my table.

"What are these?"

"I need you to take those to the tubing department and drill the hole for the pressure tap fitting, then figure out which adapter tubes you need and have tubing make them for you.  Then braze me one of those assemblies."

Note:  That's not exactly what he said, but I figured if I used the in-house slang we typically use in such conversations, many of my readers wouldn't understand what he was saying. 

I take the header over to tubing, drill the appropriate hole in the correct location, go back to my stand and braze the correct fitting into place.  Then I start sorting through the box of adapter tubes Fernando had brought me, trying to figure out which ones I had and which ones I needed to have made for this particular assembly.

I hadn't even finished doing that when Fernando comes running back over to my stand.  The previous shift, whom we are not allowed to hold accountable for anything, had brazed an entire 80 piece order of assemblies incorrectly, and they wouldn't fit onto the evaporator coils.  Fernando says, "I need you to fix these." 

I had to rework the entire order, which involved heating the metal enough to melt the brazing rod, so that I could remove and replace the incorrect adapter tubes.  Sigh...And all this before 7:15.

By the time I got finished reworking the order, and re-doing the first header assembly (the other brazer did the second project for me), it was after 9:00  AM.  Someone had already written on the communications board about the incorrectly brazed order, so I added in the time it took me to rework it.  Under that, I wrote,

"Somebody owes me a flammenwerfer!"

Group Leader Fernando was greatly amused by this.  That is, until he found out that flammenwerfer isn't German for flaming weenie.

"Good Heavens!"  I exclaimed.  "I wouldn't write that on the board!"

Flaming weenie, indeed.  

The best thing that happened to me today is that I came home and found that I did indeed have some shrimp and sausage gumbo in my freezer. 

Because you know, shrimp and sausage gumbo makes everything better. 

Buuuuurp!!!

In Spite Of Everything

In spite of everything else that is going on, I had a rather productive weekend.  Besides the usual laundry and vacuuming, I actually mopped my kitchen and bathroom floors.  Yay me!

Before Mike's little incident, the original plan was for James and me to spend Sunday afternoon grinding up deer meat.  So, I needed to make some room in my freezer.  I dug way down to the bottom and found four bags of tomatoes. Fresh garden tomatoes.  Well, they were fresh when I swiped them from James' garden and put them into my freezer a couple of years ago...

But enough about that...

I cooked them down, and will eventually make soup out of them.  Which will have to somehow go back into the freezer.  Imagine my horror when I got home from work today and discovered I'd forgotten to put an entire box of Jenny O's Turkey Burgers back into the freezer.  Even as cool as it has been, after sitting out for 4 days, I felt that discretion was the better part of valor and tossed them.  I guess that's where I'll get my room in the freezer for the soup.   Whenever I get around to making it. 

In other news...

I've been wanting to clean out my computer/craft room for some time now.  It was starting to look like something that belonged in an episode of Hoarders.  During the non-stop rain Sunday, and other plans being put on hold, I finally got to it. 

The first thing I did was drag all the yarn that was sitting around in boxes and bags on the floor out and put them on the couch.  

That's a lot of yarn.  That's not even counting the what is still on shelves in the closet, or the yarn I had already dragged out to weave with. 

Can you believe I haven't bought yarn in a year????  And I still have that much left. 

After getting all of that up off of the floor, most of what was left was old receipts and junk mail waiting to be shredded or burned.  Today being a relatively calm day, and with the ground still being saturated from nearly 24 hours of non stop rain, as soon as I got home from work, I bagged it all up and headed out to the burning barrels.

You know that old saying that smoke follows beauty?  Well, that smoke must have thought I was the most beautiful thing that ever existed. South side of the barrels, here comes the smoke.  Move around to the North side, yep, the wind switches and suddenly the smoke is blowing that direction... No matter where I went, it followed me.  Whatever, I finally got all my junk burned, reflecting as I did so on the sad state of our society.  A society in which healthy, able bodied people would rather dig through someone else's garbage than be independent and self sufficient. 

There is still a lot of stuff in my computer/craft room floor, but it's a lot better than it was. In the midst of all that junk and clutter, I found an entire bag full of completed scarves. 

You get a picture of the bag and not the scarves because I'm so together like that.  I used to knit scarves for a charity called Scarves From The Heart, which donated them to a couple of cancer centers in their area.  The last time I went to the website to look up the address to send them some more, I found that the site had been taken down and the charity disbanded.  Or disassociated.  Or whatever charities do when they stop being charities. 

So now I've got a bag full of frou frou scarves and no place to send them.  They are more decorative than warm, and hand wash only, so not suitable for homeless shelters and such. Oh, well, I'll find somewhere for them eventually. 

Speaking of scarves, I found this lovely bit of Cherry Tree Hill stuck in the back of the closet and promptly warped the loom with it. 

The color is Spring Frost.  I haven't started weaving yet, though.  I'm still having some slight tension issues, and the accompanying frustration has kind of put me off for a while. 

Now, the moment I'm sure you've all been waiting for...at least those of you who read my earlier Facebook status. 

Today at work, we had our annual Thanksgiving dinner.  On the menu this year was ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and cranberry sauce.  Oh, and cake. 

It was all very delicious, except the green beans and cranberry sauce, which I didn't get because I don't like them.  As I was enjoying my potatoes and gravy, I came upon a brown, globby mass in the gravy.  I pushed it around with my fork a minute, then said, "I don't know what that is, but I'm fixing to eat it." 

If that isn't proof that the people who invented haggis are somewhere in my ancestry, I don't know what is. 

Off And On

I'm tired.

I stayed up way too late last night watching football.  The Cowboys had the Sunday Night Football game, wherein they dominated the Saints the entire game.  Then, as usual, I was too keyed up to fall asleep easily, so it was after midnight when I fell asleep. 

Time being the uncooperative entity that it is, 5:00 AM still came at 5:00 AM.  I wasn't out of bed for 10 minutes before I was eagerly anticipating getting back into bed at the end of the day.  Nevertheless, I have just enough wits left to give you a rundown of my weekend. 

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day.  Partly cloudy, breezy, but just a bit too warm to open the windows.

Still, it was fallish enough to put me into the baking mood. 

Look!  Mini pumpkin pies!  I made six, and put five of them in the freezer.  The other one met its unfortunate demise in my stomach.  I still have quite a bit of pumpkin left, so I might make a few more pies, or I might try that pumpkin soup recipe. 

Well, sort of.  I view recipes more as suggestions.  I'll probably just pick the best parts of the several recipes and wing it from there.  There is one drawback with cooking without recipes, though.  When you make something really, really good, and can't remember how you did it.  Been there...

Just to cheer you up, here is a flower. 

OK, onward...

I finished the scarf I was weaving. 

Then I warped the loom for another one. 

This one is Red Heart Supersaver in Gumdrop for both warp and weft.  I like the way it is turning out. 

Finally, Squeaky has laid claim to a sweater piece that I'd tossed on the back of the love seat.  

"Dis mine nao.  You not getz it back." 

Tired On Tuesday

I was at work yesterday, just a workin' away.  Group Leader Fernando wasn't there.  I didn't think anything of it.  I just figured he'd taken a day off. 

We all do it from time to time. 

But then, people started running up to me and texting me and asking "What happened to Fernando?" like they thought I would somehow know.  I'm not sure why they all thought I would know, but they did.  Think I would know, that is. 

After about the third time someone asked me that, I figured I'd better find out.  I started asking questions.  Seems he'd been having severe headaches, and was just feeling lethargic all weekend.  Sunday his sister talked him into going to the hospital. 

Well, I'm not going to go into all that, because it's his business and not my place to be putting it all over the internet.  Be that as it may, the hospital wanted to send him to Jackson, but they didn't have any beds.  They sent him to Greenwood instead, where they ran some tests on him. 

One of my friends said she and another co-worker were going to go see him after work, and I asked if I could ride with them.  I did want to go see him, but you know me, I wouldn't have gone on my own.  I was really glad she said she was going, and that I could go, too. 

I'm always like, thinking that people wouldn't want me around, but this morning, she stopped by and thanked me for going with them.  She said they really had a great time. 

Anyway, we got to the hospital and found his room.  Crystal knocked, and Fernando's sister called for us to come in...

"We came to see how you are doing," said Crystal, hugging him. 

"We're here to cheer you up," said Edna, hugging him.

"I'm here to finish you off," said I, strangling him...not really.  I just hugged him, too. 

We visited with him a bit, and the doctor came in and said he was OK, and could go home.  A few more minutes and the nurse came in with his discharge papers.  "Oh, I still have to take your IV out," she said.  "OOOOOH, can I?"  I volunteered -- which was met with a resounding NO from Fernando.  Gee, I wonder why...

We saw him safely off with his sister, then we came on back to Grenada.  I made it home just in time for the season premier of The Big Bang Theory, followed by the season premier of Sleepy Hollow.  By that time, I was just tired and ready for bed.

The bad news is, I tossed and turned until after midnight before I fell asleep.  Even then, I woke up two or three times before the alarm went off at 5:00 AM.  Needless to say, today has been a bit of a zombified day for me. 

But look who came to visit:

This is the neighbor's puppy, and he's the cutest little thing.  I was trying to figure out how I could keep him without them finding out.  Eventually, I decided that they wouldn't appreciate that too much, so I let him go on home. 

In other news, I bought another pie pumpkin and cooked it down over the weekend. 

I found a pumpkin soup recipe that I want to try.  You know I'm all about the soup.  I'd better be.  I've got enough soup in my freezer to feed an army. 

Finally, the fish has decided he wants to be named Gabriel.  

"Why Gabriel?" I asked him.  "It isn't a very fishy name." 

"Because I like it," Gabriel said.  And that was the end of that discussion. 

So, Gabriel it is. 

Once Again

Last week, I mentioned that I'd bought some mini pie pans to make home made pot pies.  I'd intended to start making them the day after I got the pans, but one thing led to another and there was stuff and shenanigans. 

Beautiful word, shenanigans. 

Be that as it may, I didn't get around to starting on them until today.  Proving once again that I can't seem to do anything halfway, I made enough filling to feed an army.

I didn't use a recipe.  I just winged it.  I put carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, and of course, chicken in there.  I'd intended to put green peas in instead of the celery, but I forgot to buy some.  Being that I had celery on hand, and didn't want to go back to the store, that is what got used.  The good news is, if I get tired of doing pies, I can just add some more broth and make soup. 

Not that I don't already have enough soup in my freezer to feed an army...Hey, it's hard to cook for just one.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Anybody want a pot pie?  Or some soup?  Or pulled pork?  Yeah, I made one of those on Saturday.  I won't be going hungry for a while, that's for sure.  I reckon if I keep on cooking, I'm going to have to break down and find me a feller to cook for. 

By the time I got done with that, it was too late to actually make pies out of it, so that will have to wait until tomorrow. 

Yesterday we had a cookout at Beverly and James' house.  While we were eating, I found this little fellow on their feeder.

The pictures turned out pretty good considering I took them with my phone.  So intent was I on taking the pictures that I didn't even notice that I'd run Cody out of his chair.  Ah, well, he didn't complain.  He knows how his mama gets when she has a camera in her hand.  Even if it is on a phone. 

Speaking of hummingbirds, my little hummingbird vines are really coming on.

They're actually bigger than this now, but it's raining outside, so you get a three day old picture of them.  My lantanas are really starting to bloom now, too.

And look, I'm going to have a yellow one!

My Gerbera daisies  aren't doing so well, though.  You'd think a plant originating in Africa would be more heat tolerant, but these don't seem to be.  By the time I get home from work, they're drooping and wilted looking.  They perk back up after the sun goes down, and look good in the mornings.

My plain ones are hanging in there, but the fancy ones are dying.  The one at the top right is dead already, and the one on the bottom right is on its way.  I'm not sure I'm going to plant these again next year.  We'll have to see how these make it through the summer.

My celosias are struggling, too.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong.  Maybe it's just too hot for them.   Well, that's the beauty of annuals.  I don't feel too badly about killing them, since they only live for a year anyway. 

Maybe this good rain we're getting tonight will give them a boost.