No electricity, oh my...

We live out in the country and along with the joys of living out here goes the risk that the electric company comes out here last to fix it.

Wednesday morning around 3:20 a.m. our power went out. D was watching tv at the time and he said that when the power went it was like hundreds of blue flashes around the countryside. We just snuggled down under the covers and waited for morning to come and with it probably power. Well, morning came but the power did not.

Since it was exceedingly cold (down in the teens) we called our kids and D's mom to tell them to come up here. We have a fireplace that we had just put gas logs into so we had heat. By 10 a.m. they were all up here along with their dogs.

We had 2 miniature dachshunds, an English Bulldog, hubby's shepherd/Saint Bernard mix, my St. Bernard, and my 4 cats. Amazingly they all got along really well. For the most part my cats all stayed upstairs away from the strange dogs.

Friday G remembered Crit. I went out to the office to bring him in. He was fine but he had evidently been so cold he had not run on his wheel. He made up for lost time as soon as he got a little warmed up. I finally had to put him in the living room to give us all a break from his wheel. Poor fella.

The outdoors was really beautiful but a lot of damage was done to our trees. I have a Maple in my front yard that I planted when my son was a baby. I have babied that tree, splintted it back together, argued with D that he could not cut it down. Well, I think he has now won the argument. The top and a large limb off of the side came down from the ice.

The voice in the video is me, the background one is my SIL. The video was taken from my front porch. It was really snowing hard and trees were falling in the woods like crazy. It was really kind or surreal.

Luckily with all the extras here it is a good thing that we have a large house. But now that they are all gone the house seems so empty. I am feeling kind of let down. I will get over it but for the evening I am going to be down and dumpy.

Silly Little Crit

I forgot to tell about Crit going missing. Crit is my RoboHamster.
The week of Christmas while we were in VA my daughter called me and asked if Crit had died. I told her not that I was aware of. I had just cleaned his cage on Sat and he was fine then. She said that he was not in his cage now. Since he had not died and I had not disposed of him she and her brother started a systematic search of the offices. (I had to take Crit out to the office since D's dog had decided that Crit belonged to her and would snap at the cats when they would get near his cage.)
I talked to G later in the day and they had not found him yet. I told her to put his cage down on the floor and open the door and maybe he would just find his way back by himself. She did as I asked.
The next day when we talked she said that he had been to the cage as the food that they had put out for him was gone. I laughed and said well that isn't working. They left the cage that way for a few days and each morning the food was gone and so was Crit.
Finally, G decided to take the top off of the cage and make a ramp up to it. Sure enough the next morning Crit was back safe and sound in his cage.
We figure that what happened was when I cleaned the cage and put his wheel back on I got it crowded over to the side and the bars were spread apart enough for him to slip through. He is just a little squirt and he could, and probably did, get out that way. I am glad that he is back. I enjoy watching him when I am in my office. Also, now that it is cold he will let me stroke his belly. I still cannot pick him up, but we are making progress.

About two weeks ago when it was freezing cold outside I saw my cat Velcro at the slider and I thought immediately that "Oh, no, it has started to rain again." Then I looked closer and realized that he was not wet from the rain but he had apparently fallen into the pool ( we had closed the pool as far as taking the pump, etc off but we had not gotten around to putting the winter cover on). I got him inside, got a towel and rubbed him down vigorously. I went out to the office to tell Dale what had happened and that we had to get the pool covered. I came back over to the house and began to rub Belly (Velcro's nickname) down with another towel. He was shivering so I wrapped him in a fleece blanket and sat down to hold him. He was shaking so hard he was making me shake. I was about to call the vet when the shivering started to subside. I continued to hold him for a while longer. He is fine now and did not even get a cold of the sniffles from his escapade. The pool is now covered so I don't have to worry about any more of my babies falling in. Bell was so lucky because he fell in near the skimmer so he had something to get a hold of to pull himself out and also because I was at home and in the family room when he came to the slider. If either of those had not been so I am sure he would have frozen to death. I figure he used up 3 or 4 of his 9 lives on that one.

I have no pics to show. I have been really slow knitting here lately. I am working on a sweater that is really taking some time to do. It will be months before it is done, I am afraid. I will try to take some in progress pics this week and post them.
The pattern is called "Cardigan to Love" #LW1660-WM0312 designed by Lynda Cyr and can be found free at http://www.coatsandclark.com/.
I am knitting it in a sport weight alpaca so it is going to be a lot lacier and looser knit than the picture. So I am making it in a larger size to make it fit. I did a swatch this time (OH! MY!) and got the gauge I needed. I hope I did not mess up in my thinking. So far it looks as if it will be fine.
I made the sleeves wrist length as I just can't handle 3/4 length sleeves for winter and being made out of alpaca it is going to be a winter sweater. I have both sleeves knit and about 4 inches of the body. I am really loving it.

More later.

Belated Merry Christmas and Early Happy New Year.

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas. I did. I was at home and had my kids and family around me.
I love Christmas, the reason for it, the family gathering, all the wonderful food, the decorating, the songs and movies, just all of it.
I used to start playing Christmas carols in Aug and start my holiday cookie baking in Sept. I would bake dozens of cookies of all kinds. Then the kids grew up, D developed hypoglycemia, and I just don't need the calories so I have all but stopped baking for Christmas. This year I baked a couple of "packages" of store cookies. I really cheated. Oh, well.

D and I are back here in VA. We will be here all week so the kids are on duty at home taking care of things.
My son called this morning to see if my cell phone was working because theirs were not working back in Ohio. Then my daughter called to see if Crit the RoboHamster had died. He is not in his cage. Nope, he had not died as of yesterday. Guess they are now tearing the office apart trying to find him. I hope they do. Crit is a little cutie and so soft to pet.

It is almost time to go on my daily "food forage" to get dinner tonight. I think I will fix pork chops for dinner tonight. I also think I will try Shake-N-Bake on them. Hope it turns out ok. D's Grandma always used to use Shake-N-Bake. Grandma also always would unthaw things for dinner. I'll fix a baked potato. a veggie, and a biscuit for us. I'll see what "package" cookies they have to bake. Hey, I don't have a mixer down here to make my own (that is my excuse and I am sticking to it LOL).

D and I will be here for New Years so I have to come up with something special for Wed evening. Some easy to prepare snacks. I told D to ask the project manager if he wanted to eat with us Wed evening since he will be away from his wife and he and Dale have become good friends. This is the 3rd job that they have worked together on.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and a great 2009. God Bless.

Going home...

Yesterday we made the trip back down here to VA thinking that we would be here until Christmas Eve, then have to turn around and come back down here Christmas night. Well, they didn't get some kind of dig permit so we get to go home in the morning and don't have to be back for him to work Friday. Hooray!!!
Now I should be packing up everything to leave in the morning but I am not. I will get it done. I am the one who does all of the packing and usually I even pack it into the van. I seem to be able to pack in more than D can. I have the knack I guess.

Now I will be home for Christmas Eve and can get things ready to take to my MIL's and have time to get everything done at home. Thinking that I might not be home until late Christmas Eve I did make sure that all packages were wrapped and the cleaners will be there tomorrow or Wed so I am pretty much set.

Back in the spring or summer (not sure exactly when) I had a crown put on. I don't know what is wrong but boy is it hurting now. I can not bite down on anything with that side of my mouth and have to be very careful biting down on the other side also. I called my dentist but he cannot see me until Jan 5. I don't know if I can stand it that long. I am on the cancellation list though. I will have to call again tomorrow and let them know that I will be home this week but not next week.

Well, I best be getting busy starting to pack things up to go home in the morning. Woohoo!!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

Home, Sweet Home

I have been home since November 14 and I am loving it. We will have to go back to VA at least once more but I get all of last week, this week, and probably all of next week at home. I love it.
I have been busy the last two days cleaning the house and getting ready for our company Christmas party Sat night. The cleaning people are coming today, but there is so much that has just piled up since I have been gone that I have to do. I have just about got it conquered. I also have most of the decorating done. There are just a few minor things to do. I need to put the lights up around the deck, but am waiting to see if D gets an outlet put in for me or if I have to run extension cord. Where I start the lights will depend on where I can plug them in. If D gets the new outlet put in I can start at the end of the house and I will be able to turn them on and off with a wall switch in the family room. I am hoping for the new outlet, but then it was "supposed" to be in last Christmas so I am not holding out much hope. (I went and bought a timer for an extension cord.)
Just as soon as I finish my cleaning I need to go start embroidering the long-sleeve tees for the guys. These I just bought a couple of weeks ago so I am not wayyyyy behind on getting them done like I was the short-sleeve tees (I had had them for over 2 years.)
This past Sunday we had Thanksgiving at D's Moms. She started doing that when all of her boys were older and D and I were married That way the boys could be with their sweeties on Thanksgiving but she and G would also have a Thanksgiving with the kids. It works out fine.
Thursday we go to our son's house for dinner. His wife asked me several years ago if it would be OK for her to do the meal and I told her to go for it. I will fix several dishes to take down but I don't have the full meal to do or all of the cleaning, although this year it will be done anyway. But I won't have the cleanup.
Back to work.
Ta...Judy

Can you believe it?

I never thought to see gas this low again. Just over a month ago, Sept 28, we filled my van up and gas was $3.83, that is almost a $2 drop. It is nice to see the price go down but it is also scary. Time will tell.

I am still down here in VA but I have both of my dogs with me. Betsie, the smaller dog, now sleeps in Katie's old cage. Yesterday when my little friend A and her Mom and brother came to visit me A decided that she wanted to play that Betsie's bed was her house....

At one point Betsie was in there with her but I must have missed that picture. It was cute and Betsie was very careful to not hurt A.

Katie says, "Just let me lay here and keep watch."

Later in the evening Betsie got into her little hidey hole and took a nap.

That is the fireplace in my room. It is a gas one so it is just a flip of a switch and I have a nice fire. Only bad thing is that it has been too hot this week to use it. Well, D did turn it on Monday morning but it was so hot in here I could barely breathe so I had to shut it down. Looks like we will be in this room pretty much the rest of the year so I should get to use it.

Back in Virginia

We got back to VA Sunday evening. This time I have both of the dogs with me. It is so good to have Katie along. I really missed her when she was at home and I was here. She is a good dog and a good traveler. Her one big problem is that she is mouthy. She has to bark at anyone new she sees until I tell her to hush. Betsie hardly ever barks.

I got a new "toy"/work item. Here it is. Is'nt she pretty? It may not embroider as fast or as large as my commercial machine but she is portable. This way I can get all those shirts for D done that I just do not have the time to do when we are at home. Monday it took me about half of the day to figure out how to run her, how to set up the design, and which presser foot to put on so I only got 4 shirts done. Yesterday when I started I had all of that figured out so I managed to get 12 shirts done. One thing about her sewing slower is that I have time to knit a row or two between having to change shirts. (So I am getting some knitting done this week.) I have 4 more XL's to do, 17 L's, a pullover sweatshirt, a zip sweatshirt, and 11 fleece beanies. I hope to get all of that done before we go home this weekend. Then next time we come down I hope to have some longsleeve tees to do up. It makes the day go so much faster with something to do.

It is a little after 9 so it is time to go "shopping" for the day. I have to get a few things for dinner tonight and I need to find some silicon spray for my embroidery. Also, I go out at this time so Wilma can come in and clean without having to work around Katie. (Katie is too big to fit in the dog cage.)

Audrey and Marit, I mailed out your PIF packages last week. Aud, yours may be there now or in a day or so, Marit, I don't know how long it will take for you to get yours. Hope you girls like what I sent. :)

Maybe more later.....