What are you up to today? This week?

[heidiiiii]

Wow Holly! And here I am witching about a measly two mile walk in my vicinity. LOL

Natalie and I made pancakes last night and watched NCIS together..LOL We put bananas on top. We both only ate a piece of chicken. No carbs. It was one of those days. So all of sudden I got the urge..she jumped on the bandwagon and it was good.

That front has come thru like gangbusters here this morning. Rain rain rain rain. I should not complain because it is not snow. We just have to keep an eye on the basement.

[havanaholly]

We took a break Friday and spent the day in Marianna, hitting their thrift stores (we also found a tiny thrift store in Blountstown); I found quite a few things to use to make minis, but our favorite shop had a Nordic stovetop waffle iron CHEAP!!! and I don't think it had ever been used more than once or twice.

We had waffles one AM in the camper and then last night I made some jalapeno cornbread batter and served chicken a la king over them. Heidi, they were GOOD!!! Anyway, my little knockoff waffle iron has gone out to the camper to live (BTW, we do like waffles).

[KathieB]

Welcome back, Holly ... sounds like a great week all around once the rain stopped.

Woke up this morning feeling good about my pulled teeth but a bit chilly. The motor on the furnace has goes toes up. Repairman is here now. Temp in house is currently 51 degrees. Lloyd refuses to get out of bed until the heat's back on. I baked a cake as an excuse to turn on the oven to warm up the kitchen. Unfortunately, it's the only room in the house that doesn't have doors to close it off, so the warmth doesn't stay long. May have to bake some cookies; bread dough won't rise when it's this cold.

Fingers freezing on the keyboard ... see y'all later!

[bookmarm]

ummm, that sounds good Holly!

I need to get rid of a few kitchen items I never/seldom use. A friend will be getting the 4 slice toaster I thought I needed a few years ago. It takes up too much counter space.

[Lynette Smith]

Holly, thanks for the maps! It's fun to follow your travels!

I've been on an all night genealogy binge. Boy those pilgrims are inbred! I'm fairly certain I'm my own cousin well over the 16 ways the program shows - there are glitches which don't allow some relationship calculations, plus I need to merge all the duplicate people to link things up. I was amused to find a distant uncle on Mom's side married the widow of a g etc. grandmother on Dad's side! There are lots of families intermarrying left and right, and if I could just link them all up...

[havanaholly]

I don't think there were all that many choices back then, especially amongst the LDS.

[Muriel]

Had a good day at work today! It is always so nice to have a good day! Often days are 'normal' or 'ok', some days are bad, and occasionally a good day crops up

Monday I measured out all the bits needed to fill the gaps in Bullwinkle Terrace. Chris was out so had to wait for him to come home before I could use the power saw (we made a pact that neither of us would use it without the other one present to call the ambulance if needed!) He came home too late, so cut out the bits last night. Tonight fitted them in place and glued them. They are currently lying flat drying and it is difficult resisting a peak just to see if how they are. But will resist and let them dry properly until tomorrow! Hopefully I'll put it back together again tomorrow and do some painting and carpet template cutting. Then I'll need to order some brick paper for the outside of the house and figure out how to attach the hinged roof. Also gotta paint a whole load of inside window trim. Wondering if I can do some spray painting for that instead of brush painting. There's a few pictures of the Terrace in my gallery.

[Sherry]

Muriel, that is looking great! I love the style of it anyway. But the way you have bashed two of them together, it looks like it was designed that way, so often they don't. And that space in the back will make such a cute little yard! It's looking wonderful!

[Muriel]

Thanks Sherry!

I resisted peeking and they're lovely and stuck this morning But having peeked this morning I'm about to be late for work!

Have a good day all!

[woodland_miniatures]

Oh, it's good to be back online, at least temporarily! Even though I'm still having to use the computers at the library, it's pretty quiet here today, so I can take the time to say "Hi!" to my friends here again.

HI!!

Tuesday afternoon I decided to do some overdue housecleaning, starting with mopping the floor in the storage closet in my apartment, which is where the hot water tank is as well as the catbox, and a few unpacked boxes of craft supplies. So I'm moving those boxes out and realized there was WATER standing along two of the walls of the room, and this icky black mold growing up the wall where the hot water tank attaches to the pipes. Turned out the wall was just mush with being wet from a leak in one of the inside-the-wall hot water tank pipes! The manager came, took the "dry"wall down on the wall to expose the pipes and the studs, drained the tank and then called a plumber. So I spent that night with running COLD water, no hot. BRRRR!! aND THE PLUMBER SHOWED UP AT 5:30 A.M. the next morning, but was able to replace the leaking pipe in about an hour's worth of work. Now we're waiting for the walls to dry out before replacing the torn-up wall.....

But I DO have my hot water back!!

Also, Koko's rash is healing, but very very slowly. Thank heavens it's between his shoulders, where he can't reach, so he can't mess with it and make it worse. Touchy little guy - who would have thought that a major brand of dry catfood could have set off such a horrid reaction in the little guy!

Be back soon, I hope, and I hope I have some new things to show. I'm working on making some 1:12 clothes, and am making a Colonial-era dress, apron and mob cap, based on a Barbie pattern but considerably rewritten. I'm using two strands of quilting thread to crochet with, and am getting some interesting results. Pictures later when I can get back online!

Please take care, everyone!

[havanaholly]

Thanks for dropping by with the update, Mary. Muriel, which one is Bullwinkle Terrace? (I love the name!)

[Muriel]

Bullwinkle Terrace is a house I'm building for one of my colleagues. It is made from two edwardian terrace houses bashed together (bought them from Maplestreet). Basically she discovered I built dollhouses and asked if I'd make her one. So I gave her a couple catalogues to look through to see which house she might like. While looking through it she came across a miniature stuffed moose head. Her son has had a comic stuffed moose head that he has moved around the place with him, and so she decided it would be great if we could do something similar to his current house. As it is deeper rather than shallow like most dollhouses I suggested maybe sticking two together would be a good solution. Anyway, the name Bullwinkle came from the moose head!

[havanaholly]

...the name Bullwinkle came from the moose head!

I figured as much

Quiet day, the travel trailer goes into the shop to fix two light fixtures and install another outlet and then another campout to practice more hiking (and maybe a paddle or two, if the weather ever cooperates!). I installed the pendulum, I'll probably have to disassemble the tower roof to finish decorating it.

I think I'll finish off the strawberries in the freezer with more shortcake, and make it on waffles this time (did I mention I just LOVE my Nordicware waffle iron?). I also reduced the pattern for the Knole settee/ sofa, in case I get the iso FF carcase finished off this week. I found the perfect necktie to upholster it with, I might also try a matching chair (and I have to make a library table).

[heidiiiii]

I am only complaining about the rain in the context that my back hurts. I will take the rain instead of the snow we COULD be getting. CT is too warm and we are right on this invisible border where we just get rain (a bit of snow in upper regions). Lots of rain though.

I was going to tackle more of the kitchen today but it never happened. I did wash all the dishes and made dinner. So back hurts but not awful awful.

I can say I am like fully healed from the surgery except for the barometer effect that I have.

My foot numbness goes away longer now. I still have it sometimes but not as often. I can bend over but I watch what I am doing. I can put socks and shoes on..LOL No more help with that.

I am going to ladies dinner tomorrow and I am making the dinner. I am making chili.

So I am relaxing right now and hope for a painless night sleep.

[heidiiiii]

Oops double post.

[havanaholly]

...I can put socks and shoes on..LOL No more help with that...

[Lynette Smith]

I don't think there were all that many choices back then, especially amongst the LDS.

Actually, my parents were converts. One branch of family did go west with the pioneers in 1847, but these families all arrived in the 1630's to 1660's and include some very prominent families in colonial New England. Different population, but similar lack of choice. Mormon genealogy could get very intertwined with polygamy.

This afternoon, my neighbor with the twins was telling of a prominant ancestor of hers (and my sil's) visiting a family overnight in Nevada or California. He was shocked when his host offered him either of his beautiful teen daughters for the night. In his writings he was quoted "If it wasn't for the love of 5 good women back home, I might have given in." To which my neighbor's husband added, "and knowing there might be 5 angry women with rolling pins when he got home".

I did discover a few branches which migrated to Canada, so maybe some our neighbors to the north are my kin too. Now if I could find a few Kanga and Kiwi cousins...

[heidiiiii]

Poo!

Ladies night dinner is canceled because of the weather. It is most likely going to get icy later on tonite.

I guess I can just rent a movie for all of us to watch instead.

[grazhina]

Reporting that the power is out in I guess most of Maine & New Hampshire. It went off last night @ 10PM. We and several of our neighbors are on generators. My husband thinks more of them bought generators because they kept driving past our house the last time the power was out for a few days and saw ours chugging away in the yard.

We have lights in 3 rooms and heat, and our refrigerator is on. There's heavy duty extension cords running from the only working outlet we have in the kitchen to power the computer. We need it for New England Miniatures. Luckily the cable service is working.

When the power goes out in Maine it's out for at least all day, or several days. It's unusual for it to be out for only an hour or so.

I don't want to open the freezer down in the basement, so I guess I'll have to go to the market and get something for dinner. Our town is one of the few places that isn't part of Maine Central Power, and the only place in the whole county and beyond that has power. Unfortunately, about 100 years ago the sliver of Kennebunk we live in was ceded to CMP's power line. Kennebunk Light & Power has apparently only had a couple of power outages in the last 40 years, thanks to a farseeing plan, which CMP has never bothered with.

PS..

I wanted a piece of toast with jam, so I shook the crumbs out of my toaster and carried to the family room so I could plug it in. I popped in the bread and discovered that my toaster is now broken. It makes heat, but it won't hold the toast down. I guess I shook something loose.

[havanaholly]

Cold here. I told DH I felt like cooking lasagne for supper and he broke into the biggest grin...

[Starfire]

The forecast was for 18 to 24 inches of snow and we got between 38 and drifts up to four feet here on Boxer Hill. Our snow plow guy gave up using his truck and front plow this morning. He is now out front using a backhoe and it is incredible how little snow he has actually been able to move over the past four hours. Our drive is about 130 feet long and problem is there is no place to put it. We have incredible views from sitting up here on the highest point in the valley but we also get some of the deepest snowfalls when it hits our area. I was in a mini panic because I was supposed to go over to Syracuse to see the cornea eye specialist this morning after already canceling out yesterday. Luckily our daughter was able to shovel a path for us out of the garage and we were able to connect with what he had managed to plow out earlier. We did make the appointment but it was a mess driving out to the thruway. The healing is going slowly but it is healing. The dr put a "bandage" consisting of a clear contact lens over the ulcer. It is supposed to speed up the healing process.

My thoughts are with you folks up in New England who are without power. We installed a generator six or seven years ago after that terrible storm that knocked out power all through upper NY state and up into Canada. We have been lucky to have few power outages since then and those we have had were fairly short.

[grazhina]

Wowie kazowie, Beverly, that's a mess of snow for you to have to handle. I don't mind big snow, though, as long as the power's on.

My daughter in Philly keeps getting snowed on. I can remember having years with some huge snowfalls when I lived there as a girl.

It doesn't look like we'll have power back online any time soon. No CMP trucks have been sighted anywhere around here as far as I know. Some people in our area are convinced that CMP saves us for last just because many of us are so vocal in our desire to released from their grid.

Maybe I'll venture to the mall tomorrow. Malls and big stores have their own generators. The ad from The Christmas Tree Shops came in the paper and they've got a few things that look exactly what I've been searching for. I hope I get up early and be there before the other shoppers. My alarm clocks are all electric. Luckily I happened to wake up at 7 this morning and drove my son to high school before the late bell.

Maine power outages make me so gosh darn cranky.

[Starfire]

I took some pictures and when I have time I will post them!

[champagne]

Well found at Thursday that Katie (step-daughter) is leaving on the 2nd for Airforce basic training so this weekend we will all be running around getting everything she needs done. Her original orders had her leaving on the 9th so we scheduled a weekend in Charleston the 7th, and 8th (she is leaving from Charleston AFB. Well all those plans are shot. We are going to have to just drop her off on Monday night in Charleston because neither of us can get out of work on the 1st or 2nd and we do not want her to drive and have to leave her car down there for 4 months. I hate that we can't be there when she leaves. I cannot believe they did not inform her that the dates had changed until 4 days before. Her recruiter said that her old recruiter must have forgotten to tell her (DUH!!!)

She will graduate from basic on April 30 so we will go to San Antonio for graduation and make it a vacation as well. She should be back home at the end of June. It is going to be really weird in this house with just Bill and I. Not sure I will be able to sleep because usually I am awake until I hear that girl come in the door safe and sound.

[havanaholly]

Sharon, I promise you'll get used to having the house to yourselves. When that last little bird leaves the nest, it takes a while, but they do just fine out there on their own!

DH has gone to Chattahoochee to help clean up the city park and work on weeding invasive plant species (like Brazilian pepper!) out of the woods. I gathered together some of the bagsful of new acquisitions and sorted out the ones whose containers I could get to. I'm waiting for the spackle to finish drying on the second tower roof so I can sand it and take it out on the back porch to spray it copper.