It's Here!

 It's here!  It's here!  My new gravy boat is here!

I've never had my own gravy boat before!  

Don't envy me my exciting life. 

What's the big deal about a gravy boat, you may ask?  Well, I'll tell you.   A week or so ago, I got all this free food from Ibotta, and one of the free items I got was a little  packet of brown gravy mix.  Another of the free items was a packet of mashed potato flakes.   

And I thought, "Free food.  Might as well eat it."  So I'm going to make mashed potatoes and brown gravy to go with our Thanksgiving meal.  In addition to the stuffing and giblet gravy, and also in addition to the sweet potato casserole.  It doesn't have to be one or the other, so we're going to have both. 

Honestly, I don't understand these families that actually fight over what to fix for holiday meals. I mean, why?  Why fight over what you're going to serve?  My philosophy is to make it all.  Let everyone who is coming bring their favorite dishes, and have a regular old smorgasbord.  Holidays are supposed to be a time for joy, not stress.  And besides, you can freeze some of the leftovers for Christmas.  

Now, that is one thing I'm weird about.  For Thanksgiving, I want all the traditional stuff -- turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie and the like, but Christmas...I'm much more flexible about what to have for Christmas dinner.  Whatever you want to have is good with me.  I've actually gotten kind of spoiled by Cody making gumbo for Christmas dinner, but he wants to make it for Thanksgiving this year, since he and Brennan are still mostly vegetarians.   Cody and I already discussed it.  I'm going to make all the traditional side dishes, most of which are vegetarian anyway, and he'd need to bring an alternate source of protein for them.  They've recently added seafood back into their diets, so he wants to make a shrimp and catfish gumbo.  I have a huge gumbo pot, so there'll be plenty enough leftovers for me to keep. 

Shh, don't tell them...I bought some sausage to put into it after they've left.  I might even put some of the leftover turkey into it, too.  And a squirrel or two, if I ever get around to going squirrel hunting, that is...

In knitting news, I got the cowl out and washed and blocked it.  

That yarn was soft even before I washed it, and it's super soft now.  One thing, though -- I was stunned at how much it bled!  The dyer must not have used a fixer.  I'm not sure what the official term for it is, but it's something that sets the dye so it doesn't run.  I usually use vinegar when I dye things, but there are other things you can use.  I don't know what this person used, but it didn't work too well.  The first bowl of wash water looked like blood when I was done because so much dye rinsed out.

Nevertheless, I finally got it washed and blocked.  Now it's safely wrapped and ready to be sent to its recipient.  

And finally, I have finished the first Schaum piano book, the red book. 

I still need to practice the pieces up a bit, but I've gone through the entire playlist on YouTube.  The one covering that book, I mean.   Honestly, I didn't enjoy it, and I'm not even sure I want to go through the blue book.  I'm enjoying both the Alfred's and the Aaron courses so much more.  I'm almost through with the Aaron Level 1 book, so I think once I'm done with it, I'll just take a break until after Christmas, then decide what to do.

And when I say "take a break"  I don't mean I'm going to stop playing the piano.  No way.  I just mean I'm going to take a break from the lesson books, and just play from my Christmas books for a while. 

I mean, that's the whole reason I'm learning to play, isn't it?  To just enjoy making music. 

In fact, I think I'll go make some music now.  

Laters.