Not So Good News

Let's get the not so good news out of the way first.  I called the vet this afternoon to check on The Incarnation of Evil, and she said she's concerned about one of the cat's injuries -- the one that was so infected.  They're going to go in tomorrow and do another procedure to clean it out better and pack it with something so it'll stop draining.  They said I could call again tomorrow evening and check on her then, but from what it sounds like, it's still going to be a minute before she can come home.    

In the meantime, that other cat is still hanging out on my back porch.  I don't know where she came from or who she belongs to, but she thinks she belongs to me.  I've got some not so good news for her!

In other slightly better news, the first batch of Christmas cards went out in the mail today.  The not so good news is that none of you got wax seals on yours.  You either got a pre-decorated envelope, or a sticker.  

I've been in what I'd thought was a bit of a funk, then today I realized it was more than that.  I woke up this morning and my back was so sore.  I couldn't figure out what I'd done to hurt myself...then I went into a fit of coughing.

"Oh," I said.  "That's where it came from."  I'd been coughing so much over the last few days I'd made myself sore.  Not that it's anything to be concerned about.  It's pretty normal for me this time of year. 

All that to say, I wasn't up to doing sealing wax, but at least I got the cards done.  And look what I found in my mailbox this evening:

Yep!  I got a card!  This one is from my younger brother, and is now taking its place in my card display, right next to the one from my Australian pen pal. 

I haven't really felt like doing much this afternoon;  I didn't even light a fire in my wood stove, even though it's been gray and drizzly all day long.  I just didn't feel like fooling with it.  All I did was sit in front of the TV and watch baking shows while knitting on the next sailor hat. 

And finally, a bit of housekeeping -- as of January 1, 2026, I will no longer be posting links to either MeWe or Pinterest.  If you should happen to come here from one of those sites, you'll need to find an alternate route.  Not that any of you do, which is why I'm stopping the links.  I'll probably stop posting to Substack, too, unless someone speaks up and says not to.  

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

December 7, 1941

Tell it to your children, 

and let your children tell it to their children, 

and their children to the next generation.  --Joel 1:3

So that we may never forget.  

Look Who's Back

Look who is back.  

She's been sitting outside my door all day long, just looking in the window.  Except for the time I had to go out and break up a cat fight on my back porch, between this one and another cat.  Neither of them is mine.  Mine is still at the vet.  

I called this morning to check on her, and the vet assistant told me she's doing well.  They'd sedated her and checked her over really well and found some bite marks on her that had gotten infected.  That's why she's been drooping these last few days.  They have her on antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and pain killers.  The assistant said, "She's mad at us!"  I laughed and said, "That sounds like her!"  

Anyway, the vet will be coming in over the weekend a couple of times to check on the cat, and they'll let me know if something untoward happens, but said if I don't hear from them, assume that everything is going fine with her. 

In other news, I said I was going to cut back on sending Christmas cards.  I was wrong.

Well, not completely wrong.  I did cut a few out, but when all was said and done, I'm still sending out 37 cards.  I got them all signed and addressed today.  Now, I just have to decorate the envelopes before sending them.  Some of them will get wax seals, but I suspect most will just get stickers and washi tape.  And some came with pre-decorated envelopes, so those will be sent as they are...

In the midst of all of that cat wrangling, phone calling, and card addressing, I managed to finish another sailor hat.  

 Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Green/Turquoise/Red

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles: US 8/5mm

I've cast on the next one, too.  Same yarn and everything, I just didn't take a picture.  

Not much else went on today, other than watching football.  Ohio State vs Indiana is on right now, so I think I'll go watch it and knit some.  And maybe decorate some envelopes.  

Hasty banana.  

I Gave In

I gave in this morning and took the cat to the vet.  

She'd seemed to get a little better, but then she just stopped improving.  So, I called them and they said to bring her on in.  I crammed the cat into her carrier, and hopped into the car so quickly I didn't even shut the back door.  

I mean, I'd pulled it to, but it wasn't closed completely and it sure wasn't locked.  Thank goodness for honest neighbors -- not that anyone would know unless they were in my back yard, but still...

I get to the vet, get checked in and I'm waiting my turn in their freezing cold waiting room, when a woman rushed in with her dog and she was scared to death, because the dog was holding his head at a very odd angle.  They kept asking her if he'd fallen, but she didn't know.  They took the dog right back because of the fear that he might have a head injury or something even worse, and they hadn't come out when I got called back.  I hope the little dog is OK. 

Anyway, they finally called us back, and the vet checked the cat over and asked if there were any other cats around she could have gotten into a fight with, and I said yes.  There is that gray tom cat that's always coming up into the yard and picking fights with her.  Sure enough, the vet found bite marks right there on that joint she's been favoring.  

The vet said she wanted to start the cat on antibiotics and asked me if I could give her a pill.  I said maybe with a bit of trepidation, and told her the cat could be a bit spicy.  I explained that I'd taken her in after her first owner had to be put in long term care. She was the only family he had left, and I said, "In fact, it was his wife that was killed over there at that intersection"  pointing to the corner beside the vet's office.  

She -- the vet -- knew exactly who I was talking about, and I pointed to the Incarnation of Evil and said, "This was her husband's cat."  Long story slightly less long, we agreed that the cat should stay with them, so I'll know she'll be taken care of.  And by that, I mean, they can shove the pills down her throat.

The plan is to start her on antibiotics, then sedate her so they can check her over really well and go from there.   Then it took all three of us -- me, the vet, and the vet's assistant-- to cram the cat back into her carrier and the vet said, "I can see why you want her to stay!"  

I left the cat at the vet, and said to myself, "Self, since you're already in town, might as well get your shopping done."  And that's exactly what I did, even though I didn't really need that much.  I did splurge a bit and bought some lobster bisque from the deli section, and got a couple of things to give to Cody for Christmas, then came on home and... didn't do my Christmas cards.  

But at least I got my card table out and set up, and the boxes of cards set up on it.  So that's something.  

By the way, this is not my cat.  

She's been outside my door since I got home, and accompanied me while I was moving some wood to my new rack -- which I did by hand because my wheelbarrow is still full of dirt...and I thought it would be a good way to work off some of the sugar I've been eating lately.  

Kindly ignore how dirty my windows are.  It's all the rain we've been having lately.  At least, that's my excuse...

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go now.  I've got a couple of Flossmas videos to catch up before I watch the local Christmas parade.  Hopefully, they'll stream it again, because I'm already in my jim jams and I'm not leaving the house again. 

Laters. 

Sometimes You Get Lucky

My new little Christmas candles crapped out on me pretty quickly, but it's my own fault.  The instructions said to change the demo batteries out as soon as you get home, but I didn't do that.  I said to myself that I was going to use them as long as they would still work.  Sometimes you get lucky and the demo batteries last quite a long time.  I've had some things that the demo batteries actually lasted a couple of years  

I didn't get lucky this time. 

Oh, well.  It wasn't that big of a deal.  I changed the batteries as soon as I got home this afternoon, and hopefully that fixed the problem. 

I fully intended to blog yesterday, but I was so exhausted when I got home, I just didn't have it in me.  It's not so much physical exhaustion as it is mental.  It's the stress of having someone standing over you all day hollering that you aren't doing enough, but that same person refuses to solve the problems that slow you down so much.  

I was thinking about it just today.  I spend at least 25-30% of my day doing things other than brazing -- from filling out redundant and un necessary paperwork, to doing tubing's scrap, to reordering bad parts...that's the most frustrating part.  Having to walk back and forth to tubing all day reordering parts because they won't make them do them right the first time. 

I'm tired of getting a shrug and a nonchalant, "Just re-order it..."  NO!  I don't want to just re-order it!  I want them to do it right the first time!  That shouldn't be too much to ask, but apparently it is. 

Oh, and I got up with the head of the safety department about when I fell during the fire drill back in October, and he said I absolutely should have written an incident report about that.  If I had been going home, then no, but since it was something the plant made us do, then yes.  I told him I went up to first aid and tried to do just that, she told me I didn't have to.  He said he'd go up there and educate her about it.  

In other news, I debated about whether to do Blogmas again this year, but decided not to.  I didn't want to do my Advent poster again, because I've done it twice before and I'm sure you're bored with it, but I couldn't come up with any other ideas.  

My friend Marcy is doing Flossmas over on her YouTube channel, and in her first episode, she asked what our favorite Christmas movie is.  My answer would be that there are too many good ones out there to choose just one, but if I had to it would be It's A Wonderful Life.   

The ironic thing about that is that the first time I watched it, I absolutely hated it.  However, I don't think that was because of the movie as much as me.  See, we were having a college and career fellowship after church one Sunday night, and they showed that movie.  I already wasn't feeling well, and had a raging headache, which was exacerbated by the fact that they had it sooo very hot in the fellowship hall.  All I could do was lay in the floor with my eyes closed until my friend Jennifer took pity on me and drove me back to the dorm. 

It was years before I even tried to watch it again, and I was like, "This is a lot better than I remembered!"  But then, all I remembered about the first time was how hot it was and how much my head hurt.  

Now it's one I never miss.  I also love the all of the old favorites like Charlie Brown, Santa Clause Is Coming to Town, and all of the versions of A Christmas Carol.  However, a lesser known movie I really, really love is The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey.  It's available on Tubi, Plex, and Pluto TV, and if you've never seen it, I highly recommend it. 

In yesterday's video she asked what our favorite Christmas ornament is.  I'd have to say it's this Victorian lady, which I bought from Avon years and years ago. 

It doesn't have any sort of sentimental value or anything.  I just like it. 

And finally, the cat seems to be doing a bit better today.  She's trying to put a bit more weight on her injured leg, and seems more perked up, so to speak.  She even tried to go outside with me when I went to get some firewood, but I wouldn't let her.  "You're still too gimpy!"  I admonished. So she went into the bedroom and pouted.  

At this point, I don't really think a trip to the vet is necessary, but I will keep an eye on things just in case. 

Hi Ho

It's back to work I go.  I sure didn't want to, but hey, somebody's got to pay the bills around here and I don't exactly see that cat rushing out to get a job.  

Speaking of, guess who came in gimpy last night.  That's right, the cat.  I can't see anything amiss, so I'm hoping she just tweaked her shoulder or something.  If she's not better in a day or two, I'll take her to the vet.  

But as I was saying, it was back to work, and it had been so long, I almost forgot how to get ready.  Fortunately, I remembered to turn on the coffee pot just in time. I really wish they'd let us have our insulated mugs back, because those stupid clear plastic things they make us carry don't keep our coffee hot or our water cold. 

Nevertheless, I made it through the day and found a nice surprise in my mailbox when I got home. 

Funny, it was raining so hard I almost didn't check the mail, but now I'm glad I did.  

I got my cards and stuff out, but so far, the only one I've gotten ready to mail is the one to my Australian pen pal.  

 As I mentioned earlier, I'm just not feeling it this year. 

And right now, I'm not feeling there's much else for me to talk about, so I'm going to end this here and just watch some TV until time for bed. 

Laters. 

Monkey Off My Back

Finally!  I am so happy I got this monkey off my back.  I'm speaking, of course, of the Demeter Fade hat I've been working on for the last few weeks. 

I finished the thing...well, except for weaving all of those ends in, I mean.  I still have to do that.  Overall, I'm ok with how it turned out, but if I had it to do all over again, I don't think I'd do it the same way.  I didn't like knitting it with two strands, even though it made the color changes less obvious.  It still looks a little stripey to me, but I guess that can't really be avoided unless the yarn is specifically dyed to fade seamlessly.  

I bought the set to make a hat for my sister in law, but now I'm not even sure I want to send it to her.  I'm sure she'll like it, but I've sent her so many hats over the years that she may have hat overload by now.

The next monkey on my back will be to get my Christmas cards ready and mailed.  I want to send them, but I'm just not feeling it this year.  I'm going to greatly reduce the number of cards I send out for one thing.  Now, I don't expect to get a card back from every single person I send one to, but last year, I sent 40 cards and received three.  That was it.  It's discouraging.  

I know part of the problem is that stamps have gotten so high these days, which is why some of you will get American Flag stamps on your Christmas cards.  I bought two rolls back when they were still .55.  They're up to .78 now, and I can understand why people don't want to pay that much.  Unfortunately, USPS is a monopoly, and they can charge whatever they want because there is no competition and no other option.  

In other news, I'm sure you'll all be pleased to know my little candles turned on just when they were supposed to.  I'd gone outside yesterday evening and turned them on right around 5:00, then I walked out and took a picture of the outside lights. 

I was going to go take another photo once it got a bit darker, but it started raining and didn't stop until sometime after I'd gone to bed.   According to Raindrop, we got .6 of an inch.  Still doesn't completely relieve the drought conditions, but at this point, every little bit helps. 

Part of the reason is that we haven't had any hurricanes or tropical storms in the Gulf this year.  Not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S, which is highly unusual.  A lot of the storm chasers say that this is the reason why our Fall tornado season is expected to be especially sporty, because we haven't had any tropical systems to churn the heat out of the water.  So yay...Today is the last official day of hurricane season, by the way.  

Back to what I was saying...it was raining last night after it got dark, so I went out and took a photo tonight. 

My new neighbors and my been here longer than me neighbors both have their houses all decorated, too.  Even my across the street neighbors who don't usually decorate have bows up on their porch posts.  The neighborhood is looking really pretty. 

You know what else is looking pretty?  My biggest Christmas cactus.  

I don't know exactly what I'm doing with this one that is so right, but I'm not going to mess with success.   I need to prune some of the longer branches, but that's all I'm going to do to it. 

Well, Thanksgiving week is over, and I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I'm plumb sick about it.  Ole Miss fans are plumb sick because Lane Kiffin is now the new head coach at LSU.  I need to go to X and see what the former players are saying about that.  They had some pretty harsh words about the culture Brian Kelly had developed -- saying it's a culture of softness instead of competitiveness.  We'll have to see if Kiffin can re-build both the culture and the team. 

And finally, your meme of the day:

 Yeah, go ahead and judge.  Most of you are going to do it anyway. 

And I'm OK with that, because if it weren't for people judging me, I'd have never realized how obnoxious and unlikeable I used to be.  Hopefully, I'm a much better person now.  

But I still don't like the new kick off rules in the NFL.  

All Done

Just like that, I am all done with my Christmas decorations for the year.  

I got up this morning and drove into town to do my weekly shopping, stopping by the town square on the way to see the big Christmas tree they put up a few days ago.  They didn't put it up last year, but I don't know why.  I think the city council had something to do with it.

You know, we were in the running to get an Academy Sporting Goods store here, but half of the council members didn't even show up to the meeting to discuss the matter.   Batesville has one.  Batesville is growing and thriving and their city council has forward vision, unlike ours.  For the entire 30 odd years I've lived here, I thought Batesville was bigger than Grenada, but it's not.  They're about half the size of our town, but you wouldn't know it to look at their downtown and business districts.  

Oh well, it is what it is, and Grenada will never grow and prosper until we get it through people's heads that they can't keep voting for the same old same old and expect things to change. 

Wow, that was quite the tangent I got off onto, so let's get back on track.  I went into the store and sure enough, they had two more boxes of the large lights I needed to finish my house.  

I bristled a bit at the thought of paying full price, because I normally buy this kind of stuff on clearance after Christmas.  But I wanted to finish my house more than I wanted to keep that $3.00 and change, so I bought them, and it didn't take but a minute to string them along the rest of my house. 

I'm telling ya, having a taller ladder made it so much easier to do.  With my old ladder, I had to stretch to reach the hooks, but this was a breeze.  

Then I got the three strings of smaller lights and looped them along my fence.  

I'm thinking next year, I might try looping a little outdoor safe garland along that fence as well.  That ought to give it a nice festive look.  The last piece of the puzzle was these little light up candles. 

I'd been looking at them in the store for a few weeks, debating whether to get them or not, and I finally gave in.  I was bummed when I opened them to discover that they are strung together with wires that lead to an external battery pack.  The photo on the box doesn't show any wires, so I thought each one had it's own internal battery compartment.  That was a bit of a disappointment, but not enough to take them back....So, what are you supposed to do with that battery pack?  I've got mine just sitting on the porch for now.  

It's supposed to be waterproof, so I may just tuck it into the grass beside the first candle.  Now, as of this writing, I'm just waiting for it to get dark so I can turn them on.  They're supposed to be on a timer -- six hours on and 18 hours off.  

In other news, I slept pretty good last night.  In fact, I fell asleep at half time in the Texas vs Texas A&M game.  I woke up just in time to see the last five minutes of the game, so I knew who won.  Even so, I watched the second half this morning before I went into town, and now, the debate is raging over whether Texas should have a spot in the playoff picture.  

Some are saying they should, other are saying a three loss team shouldn't be in the playoffs.  If won/loss record is the criterion, then Navy is sitting there at 9-2, and they aren't even ranked.  Others are saying you have to look at strength of schedule, and if Texas had scheduled a cupcake for their first game like most teams do instead of playing the defending national champion, they'd already be in, and Arch would be a Heisman contender.  His stats are almost identical to Julian Sayin, yet Sayin is the favorite, and Arch is considered a flop.  

Meanwhile, we're still waiting to see what Lane Kiffin is going to do...

But I digress....again...

I did not sleep well at Cody and Brennan's house, and not just because it's a strange bed.  They live right down the street from a fire station, so there were sirens going off all night long.  Not to mention that they keep later hours than I do.  They started -- STARTED -- a movie at 9:45.  I guess they aren't used to having guests in the house, because they didn't even try to be quiet.  

All that to say, I was plumb tuckered when I got home yesterday.  I guess it's a good thing my new case of coffee pods arrived.  

You know what?  I really wish they'd sell that hot chocolate separately, because that chocolate cherry is good.  Really good.  I'd buy a case just of that.  If they sold it that way.  But they don't.  Pity.  Oh, and my new advent calendar arrived, too.   

Just a plain chocolate one.  I'd bought Cody and Brennan an escape room advent game on clearance last year.  I thought it would be a fun thing for them to do together, instead of just getting a piece of candy.  Brennan seemed pretty excited about it when I showed her, so I hope they enjoy it.  

And finally, I said I was going to slow down my spending, but I keep finding things I need.  For years, I'd had a blanket hung between my kitchen and laundry room, because the previous owners had taken the door down.  

They had a thing about doors.  I'd wanted to put one back up, but my washing machine made that very difficult, especially after I got the new one a few years back.  It's too big to allow a door to close.  The only realistic option would be to block this door off, then use the one in the car port to enter and exit the laundry room, but I like not having to go outside, especially since I'm also using it as a pantry.  Thus, the blanket. 

So, I was on Amazon and saw one of those suggested for you things showing privacy curtain used for a door.  

Hmmm, that's a good idea, I thought right before adding to my cart.  Now I have a curtain for a laundry room door.  It's a lot better than that blanket, because I can push it open instead of having to fight my way through a blanket. 

And when I'm done, I pull it across the door, and it blocks the sunlight and keeps the heat from the dryer out of the main part of the house. 

It's the little things...

Whee Doggies

Whee doggies, as old Jed Clampett used to say.  I've got a lot to catch up on, so let's just dive right in.   As most of you know, I drove down to Jackson and spent Thanksgiving with Cody and Brennan, and because I didn't want to rush to get down there in time for the parade, I drove down Wednesday and spent the night.  

Heh, I was sitting in my chair along about noonish on Wednesday, watching TV and watching the clock, when I said to myself, "Self, you can watch TV at Cody's house.  Might as well drive on down there."  And that's just what I did.  

I had a couple of bumps in the road --so to speak-- on the drive down.  The first one happened when I was trying to adjust the  volume on my phone, and my phone holder decided to fall apart right in my hand.  The good news is I was only about 1/4 mile from a rest stop, so I pulled on and put it back together and continued on my merry way. 

Then I unintentionally got off at the wrong exit, because I got over too soon and got stuck in an exit only lane.  Again, not a problem.  I turned around and got back onto the highway, but you'd think by now I'd know which lane to be in.  

On the other hand, I don't really go to Jackson that often, so maybe I don't know. When I go shopping, I usually go north.  Not all the way to Memphis, though.  But I digress...

I get to Cody's house with no problem after that, and text him to let him know I was there.  No answer.  I wait a few minutes, then call him and say, "I'm here."  He replied, "Oh, I didn't know when you were coming"  which was weird, because I'd set my GPS to share updates with him.  I guess it didn't do it right or something because it apparently didn't work.   He wasn't getting the updates I'd thought he was, so I surprised him.  On the other hand, they never let me know when they're going to come, so turnabout is fair play.  

As soon as he got off work, he drove us to Costco and we got something to eat at the food court.  We were about halfway back to the house when I noticed the road looked a bit dark, so I asked him, "Are the headlights on?"  He was so used to driving with the lights set to automatic that he didn't even think to turn them on manually.  Even so, we made it back to his house safely and enjoyed our dinner.  Cody got a hot dog and I got a turkey provolone sandwich.  

When Brennan got got off work at 8:00, they had them a little bite of supper, but I was still full from the sandwich, and declined.  While they were eating, I introduced Brennan the Harry Potter:  Wizards Of Baking show, which she seemed to enjoy, being a big Harry Potter fan herself.   

We got up bright and early the next morning to watch the parade, and I almost missed it because I was thinking it used to start later.  Didn't it used to start around 10:00?  Because I seem to remember it always ending right at noon central.  So, there I was watching The Squid Game Challenge when Cody came in and said, "It's time for the parade."  Good thing, or I'd have missed it.  Still, I m

got it turned on it in time to see Tom Turkey, 

and they always replay it anyway.  Even if I had missed the beginning, I could have watched the replay.  And as old as I am, I still choked up a bit when Santa Claus made his appearance. 

After the parade, we watched the National Dog Show, and Miracle on 34th Street-- while I was watching the Lions/Packers game on my Kindle.  Brennan isn't a football person, but we did watch the Cowboys beat the Chiefs on the big TV.  We really did more than just watch TV, I mean.  We did a lot of visiting while the shows were on, too. 

Thanksgiving dinner was pretty late, because they'd bought one of those big hams from Costco, and Cody greatly underestimated how long it would take to thaw.  When he put his probe in, the center was still reading frozen, so he had to put it into the microwave for a bit, but it was finally done, and tasted really good.  Brennan had made macaroni and cheese with three different cheeses, and focaccia bread from scratch. 

 We also had my broccoli casserole and the sweet potatoes I'd made.  I don't know what I did differently, but the potatoes turned out really soupy. They still tasted fine, so no big deal. 

We did not have any stuffing, because Cody didn't even think about getting some.  I said if I'd known, I could have brought one of the two boxes in the cabinet at home.  No matter, we had plenty of food, and it was all so good.  They'd bought a pumpkin pie from Costco -- I get the impression they do a lot of shopping there -- so I didn't even bother to take a pie, even though I made two of them. 

Oh well, more for me.   

Brennan has been trying to learn to crochet, so I told her about Fiber Fun In The 'Sip, and said to watch the website and see if they have a beginning crochet class she could take.  You know, there aren't any yarn stores left in Jackson.  The one I used to go to ... not very often because it was one of those high dollar stores -- has closed, and there was one in Ridgeland, but last I heard it was up for sale.  I don't know if it's still open.  

OK, I asked GROK, and it says the shop in Ridgeland is still open, so I sent the link to Cody.  I know she could watch videos on YouTube or TikTok, but sometimes it's better to have someone to teach you one on one.  I kind of wish I still knew how to crochet, so I could help her.  I stopped because it was so hard to keep correct yarn tension with my left hand.  She's got one of those rings that you thread the yarn through to tension it.  I've thought about getting one, but haven't.  No excuse.  I just haven't done it. 

I also told her, "Did you know there's a park up near Tupelo where you can go hunt for fossils?" and her face did this:

(Image is AI, not really Brennan)

Once she could breathe again, I told her the name of the place, she looked it up, then turned to Cody and asked, "Can we go?"  He kind of grunted, so I reckon they'll be going to the Browning Cretaceous Fossil Park in Baldwyn, MS pretty soon.  I keep saying I'm going to go one day, but I haven't made it up there yet. 

On a completely unrelated note, Navy beat Memphis, and I was totally not expecting that, since Memphis was projected to win the conference.  Navy now has a 9-2 record, but are still unranked.  Go figure. 

OK, moving right along, Cody and Brennan both had to go back to work today, so I got up and came home pretty early hoping to miss the worst of the traffic, which I did.  I got home in plenty of time to watch the Egg Bowl while eating a plate of leftovers, along with a box of that Stove Top that I made for myself.   

And of course there was a fight.  I said, "It wouldn't be the Egg Bowl without a fight!" 

The only other thing I did today was to put up some lights across the porch.  

I decided to go with the string of bigger bulbs, even though I didn't have enough to do the whole house.  I'll look when I go to the store tomorrow morning to see if they have any more of them, and if they do, I'll pick up two more strings and do the rest of the house.  I might get the other strings -- the ones with the smaller bulbs -- and put them across my fence.  We'll have to see how that goes. 

In knitting news, I finished another sailor hat.  I actually finished it down in Jackson, but wouldn't you know the one thing I forget to pack is a tapestry needle, so I had to wait until I got home to weave in the ends. 

Yarn:  Knit Picks I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Plums

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8/ 5 mm

Naturally, once I'd finished, I cast on another one.  

Yarn:  Hobby Lobby I Love This Yarn

Colorway:  Green/Turquoise/Red

Pattern:  Basic Beanie

Needles:  US 8/5mm

And finally, it looks like something tried to climb up my woodpile while I was gone. 

I guess I'm going to have to hurry up and empty my wheelbarrow, so I can move some of it back into my new rack. 

That's about all I'm going to talk about today.   I've still got more to tell you, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.  This post is long enough already.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, and Hook 'Em.

A Good Day

Today has been a good, good day.  Why?  Because we finally got some rain last night!  

See my bucket?  

This is a five gallon, and it was slap empty yesterday.  And my little 2 gallon was completely full. 

I found some empty peanut butter jars and stored as much as I could for the dry season next summer.  Why?  Because a Venus Fly Trap is very sensitive to minerals and they must have either rain water or distilled water.  The more rain water I can collect and save, the less distilled water I have to buy.  

Anyway...I also checked my garden spot, and it seems to have settled very well.  There are still a few high spots I can shave down and scoot the dirt over into the lower spots, but overall, I'm pleased.  By the way, the little anti scratch cat spray didn't work.  I'll have to put the plastic stuff down in the rest of the beds, hopefully I can get to that after Thanksgiving and before I have to go back to work.   It doesn't take long, and the stuff is very easy to cut.  

In more good news, someone came and picked up all the stuff I was trying to give away -- even the stadium seats I've been trying to give away since September.  You'd think with it being football season,  someone would want them, but apparently they didn't.  

This guy, I think he runs a thrift store or something, because he's come and gotten junk from me before.  Some people would get all bent out of shape over this, but I'm OK with it.  This guy works as a security guard at a local factory, and they don't make any kind of money.  Whatever I can do to help someone out, and it helps me out as well by decluttering my house.  

In other news, I've been trying to figure out how to decorate my new baker's rack for Christmas, but couldn't come up with anything.  Everything I tried interfered with actually using said rack.  The best I could come up with was to hang some Christmas mugs on the hooks.  

Looking at this photo now, it looks like I have room for a couple more mugs.  I don't know why they included six hooks, when there isn't room in that space for six mugs.  The most I have been able to fit is five -- and that is really cramming them in there.

I've got the rest of the house decorated, except the outside lights.  

  

I noticed this year that several of my strings of lights are dim and flickering.  I don't know how fast they are supposed to wear out, but I do know that as much as I paid for this tree, they should have lasted longer than just five years.  That's not even counting the ones that were chewed up a couple of years ago by mice or whatever it was.

There is a customer service number you can call to order replacement parts, but I'm wondering if it's even worth it.  ON the other hand, if the mouse or rat or whatever damaged the strings that are dim and flickering, maybe I should get some new strings.  Oh, and I discovered my heavy plastic box I bought to store it in has a place to put a lock.  I won't need a lock, but I can put an s-hook in there just to make sure nothing can get the lid open. 

Abrupt change of subject.  Apparently when I repotted my Christmas cacti, I got a sprig of the red mixed in with the pink. 

It's going to stay that way until I repot them again, too.  

And finally, I've spent pretty much all day cooking the stuff I'm going to take down to Jackson tomorrow.  I even made two pies -- which I'm not taking down there.  Cody said they'd buy a pumpkin pie at...Costco, I think he said, so we don't really need mine.  I made them anyway...for me.  

All of that cooking has gotten the house pretty warm, but don't touch my thermostat. 

It's Sunday!

I woke up bright and early this morning, and my first thought was, "It's Sunday, and I don't have to turn my alarm back on!"  At least, not for a few more days -- which will go by way too quickly.   But for now, the good thing is I was able to get stuff done without feeling like I have to rush to get it completed by today...or not wanting to start stuff because I won't be able to finish it. 

I spent most of the day taking down and putting away my Fall/Thanksgiving stuff and starting to put out my Christmas decorations.  I'm a bit flustered because of my new baker's rack.  I usually hang a Santa and some elves on that wall, but with the baker's rack covering up most of that wall, I don't know where to put them now.  

I'll have to come up with something .... different.  I know.  Try to contain your horror.  I'm the kind of person that has to put everything in the same place year after year.  I even take photos to make sure I remember where it all goes.  

Not only that, I've got me a little problem with my outside lights.  I had four strings of this kind, 

and a couple of years ago, one of them went bad.  Try as I might, I could not get that string to work again, so that year, I only ran two strings across the porch.  Last year, I bought another box of those lights on Christmas...or so I thought.  

Turns out they weren't the same lights after all. 

Now I don't know what to do.  I don't have enough of either to do the whole front of the house.  I kind of want to use the bigger ones, and just run them along the front porch.  Or maybe use smaller lights, because I've got a butt load of these -- bought on clearance over the years. 

I also still have the white icicle lights that I put up a few years ago, but didn't really like.  I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll come up with something.  

In other news, I forgot something yesterday.  The websites I was looking at said to put a baggie over my rosemary cutting to make a sort of greenhouse.  

After I posted, I ran in and did that.  It's kind of a pain taking it off to water the cutting, so it's a good thing I don't need to water it that often.  

This morning, I opened up my barrier stuff and put it down in the bed with my oregano and tarragon. 

It was plastic, so it was very easy to cut with regular scissors.  Right now I have bricks holding it in place, but in the spring, I'll get some of those stake things to hold it down, then I'll put mulch on top of it.  That ought to keep any and all critters out of the bed. 

And finally, all of my life -- since I was about 12 or 13, I guess-- I've heard that Giant Pandas aren't true bears.  I mean, as a small child, we always called them Panda Bears, but I remember somewhere along the way, I'd read or heard that they aren't true bears at all, and were more closely related to raccoons than bears.  I was sure I remembered reading articles in magazines about it, and all.    

Just a few weeks ago, I found out that Giant Pandas are indeed bears, in the family Ursidae, and suddenly my whole life was a lie. 

That was one heck of a Mandela effect.

Or so I thought...

Because I'm not the kind of person who can let something like this go, I dug into it a bit deeper and discovered that I wasn't as wrong as I suspected.  As it happens, for many years, there was confusion about the taxonomy of Giant Pandas.  As per Wikipedia:

For many decades, the precise taxonomic classification of the giant panda was under debate because it shares characteristics with both bears and raccoons.^[12] In 1985, molecular studies indicated that the giant panda is a true bear, part of the family Ursidae.^[13][14] These studies show it diverged about 19 million years ago from the common ancestor of the Ursidae;^[15] it is the most basal member of this family and equidistant from all other extant bear species.^[15][16]

Apparently, I missed that memo, but even so it wasn't as Mandelaic as I believed. 

Oh, and one more thing.  The person who wanted those glasses I was giving away never showed up.  Typical.  I guess I'll post them in the local groups again and hope someone else wants them.  Usually, it's the third or fourth person to claim an item that actually shows up to get it.