Here is another view of the all the things I made for this gift. I have some chocolate to include but I took this picture before I got it. Today I plan to wrap it and pack everything in my mailing box. It will out out in the post tomorrow

I thought the button was made of Bakelite but it is not. I just Googled to find a test for Bakelite. The button failed the test. It also failed the test for celluloid; its does look a little like some of the celluloid buttons that I saw. I guess it is made of common garden variety plastic. That means the button is not as old as I thought. It probably dates from the late 40's and more likely the 50's. The design just does not look like something that would have come out of the 60's with the exception of the first year or two.

It is lightly snowing right now. Unless the temperature drops significantly and the snow falls more heavily, it will not last through the day. The weather this November has been extremely mild. I guess it is averaging out with the horrible, cold, snowy weather in October.

I have pictures to show you. I have completed the things I want to make for this gift and am ready to show you the last items. The little winders are finished. I decided that they would look better with paper on both sides. For the second side, I used paper with a letters and envelopes theme. Since the paper is from Italy, the letters are in Italian and the addresses and cancellation marks are also Italian.

Take a look at the close up of the button. It is a little hard to see the detail. I just love this button. I got it and several others at an estate sale. I have no idea how old it is but I would guess that it dates from the 30's or maybe the 20's. They were quite dirty but with a little soap and water look spectacular.

And Here It Is . . . .

My major respon- sibility today is the pie. You have been able to follow the process from the time we picked the pumpkins. This is the final result. Well, maybe not the final result because we have yet to cut and eat it.

Besides the pie, I also have the responsibility of preparing the cranberries. Our son is preparing the rest of the meal.

As I prepare this posting, I am sipping a mockmosa, orange juice with ginger ale. It seems very festive.

I am reminding myself of everything for which I am grateful; at the top of the list are my family and friends.

Do you remember the picture of the snow- capped pumpkins that I posted five weeks ago? Yesterday I baked two of them and here they are just out of the oven. I am using them to make our Thanks- giving pie.

Have you noticed that canned pumpkin and Eggo waffles are flying off the grocery store shelves and leaving empty places? There is a reason for both. Two Eggo waffle plants have been shut down. I am not absolutely certain about one; at least one is in Georgia where the flooding occurred. I believe that the plant was flooded out. The freezer shelves may not be restored until sometime in 2010.

Likewise with the pumpkin. Nestle holds Libby's label and says their primary pumpkin growing area near Peoria, Illinois is experiencing crop failure. In addition, Libby's does not have a backup stock this year. The price of Libby's pumpkin is significantly higher than other brands which has increased sales of the other brands. Libby's produces significantly more pumpkin than the other brands. When the Libby's pumpkin is off the shelves, that is it for us. We have to hope for a good crop next year and that the reserve can be built up.

So if you want to insure that you can bake pumpkin pies, pumpkin bread, and pumpkin cake for Christmas in the US, get some extra pumpkin right now. I really do not know how this affects supplies outside of the US or even if there is as great a market for pumpkin.

That being said, I hope that the US residents have a good Thanksgiving holiday. We are gathering together and have made our grocery purchases. We will be having a fresh, not frozen turkey. It is cold enough today for it to safely rest on the porch. There is so much for which we are grateful including you, our friends. For those readers who are not US residents, it is always a good idea to take a couple moments for gratitude.

It is Monday morning and we still have an internet connec- tion.

This is a set of project bags with co-ordinating fabric covered box and winders. They go with the metal box I lined. I need to do a little remedial work on the winders and make at least one more item and everything will be done for this exchange.

The paper lining the box and lid is the blue and white floral print that I picked up Friday.

Here are Alma's directions to make the winders.
Although I have already given you a link to Alma's directions to cover and line the boxes, I will give it to you again just in case you decided not to look when I first posted but want to look now. Click on this link and scroll down to the entry for 26 October for the beginning of the directions.

Just a little note. As mentioned in the past, we have connectivity problems which are only going to become worse with time. We have decided to transfer to a different ISP. The new ISP will not connect us until our present ISP disconnects us. As far as we can tell, according to the people we talked with, in order to have our present ISP disconnect us, the only way we will know we are disconnected is when we cannot access the internet. We have not been informed of a scheduled time to be disconnected and we will not be informed when we are about to be disconnected or have been disconnected.

According to our new-to-be ISP, we must call them as soon as we know we are disconnected and they will come out to connect us to their service.

Up to this point, everything sounds rather simple. We understand that although we have told our current ISP the day we want to be connected, tomorrow, it may take several days to complete the disconnect and new connection. Depending upon when the disconnect is effective, it may take a day or two for the new ISP to actually come out to connect us to their service; we have to take into consideration the fact that this is a short holiday week with Thanksgiving. Everyone on both sides says they are working to achieve our satisfaction but it sounds tenuous at best. We are getting a little tired of hearing, "We are concerned about you and are doing everything to make your experience a satisfying one." sigh

Although our current ISP knows we want it to disconnect tomorrow and our new ISP knows we want it to connect tomorrow, in reality that may not happen. It probably will not happen in a smooth, seamless process. Please, oh please keep your fingers crossed that it will be as efficient and seamless as possible.

Our present ISP is giving us a credit for the inconvenience it has caused us in the past and in the transition to our new ISP. The credit will enable us to keep our current e-mail addresses without charge for six months. During that time, we can decide how we want to handle our e-mail. Once this ISP changeover is complete, we should look no different to you. To us, it should be a vast improvement in that we should have a much faster internet connection.

I honestly do not know where the time goes. Last Monday, Roger and I together made ham loaf to put into the freezer to have for easy to prepare meals. Friday we discovered that our sons do not like ham loaf. Sigh
It would have been nice if they had told us when we brought home the ham and pork to make it.

Friday Roger and I made banana bread together. We already knew that our sons are not particularly fond of it but we made it anyway because we like it. I made the first loaf with Roger watching closely and giving a little help when asked. Actually I was showing him how to bake from a recipe. The second loaf, he made with just a little help from me. The banana breads both turned out well.

We both thought that it would be a good idea for Roger to learn how to make banana bread because he likes to buy "day old" bananas at the grocery store. Actually, they pack the bananas that are for one reason or another unattractive to customers in large plastic bags. They load the bags of bananas into a grocery cart and offer them to customers at a very low price. When we bring a bag home, Roger sorts out the ones he will eat and then suggests that I make banana bread. More recently he has suggested that we could make banana bread together. We did and it worked well. I think that he will be making more banana bread by himself.

We also like cinnamon bread, a yeast bread. Roger has occasionally asked me to make cinnamon bread but recently suggested that we could make it together. I think this togetherness project might work.

Yesterday I finished making all of the project bags that I intended to make. They are primarily for gifts. As I finish making the rest of the components of each gift, I will take pictures to show you. I have a few more items to go. Friday I picked up the lovely blue and white floral paper that was out of stock; I wanted it to line the inside of a fabric covered box. In the afternoon, I finished the box. I still need to practice my techniques but the box does look reasonably well.

I hope that you are enjoying these roses. I especially like their antique mauve color. They lasted very well in the house; I think it is because we have been keeping the temperature low. I wonder if they traveled to us via the Amsterdam flower market.

Yesterday afternoon we began our tutoring program. Jose is my tutoree; he is in the third grade. He seems to be having some difficulty knowing what sounds the letters make. Perhaps our curriculum advisor will have some helpful ideas for us.

November is making up for the cold weather we had in October. If the month ended today, this would be the second warmest November on record. I wonder if this is an example of global warming. The day looks gray and foggy but it is warm for November.

Yes, I finished the cat yesterday and I feel so very good to have done it. It is a special kind of satisfaction that I feel when I finish something that has been unfinished for so very long. I am not certain that it is a very good representation of a Siamese cat so I just hope my friend likes it.

There was so much else that I did yesterday. I participate in a tutoring program in St. Paul. It is sponsored by a church in a low to low moderate income area. We work with third grade children and tutor them in reading, math, and writing. I have enjoyed the children very much. Three times during the school year we have a family dinner for the children, their families, and the tutors and tutor's families. Last night was one of the dinners. Generally I make and bring in the dessert and the church members prepare the rest of the dinner.

For things like this, my philosophy is to calculate how much I need and then double it. I came home with the equivalent of one and a half cakes. I could have done well bringing two cakes but it would have been so embarrassing if we did not have enough.

Here is a series of six pictures of the yearlings that came into our yard on Sunday. The deer are shy. If we had opened the door or a window, they would have run from the yard in less time that it takes to blink your eye. It would have been the same with the buck that was in our yard two years ago. The pictures of the deer in the yard now show the same clothesline pole and the same fences that were in the picture of the buck. Unfortunately, we were able to get pictures of only one of the two deer in the yard. The other pictures are of both deer in the park behind our home.

The deer come into the yards on a fairly regular basis. Generally it is not in daylight hours. According to our neighbor, they are frequently in the yards between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. There is no way that we are going to be up to see that so I have to take the neighbor's word for it. They like to eat what is in the yards and gardens. In our case, in the fall, they are eating apples that have dropped from the trees. Both apple trees are in the garden behind the fence along which the deer is standing. You may be able to see the trunk of one.

In 2001 and 2002, a new bridge was built across the interstate highway that is to the northeast of where we live. The deer on both sides of the freeway walked around the incomplete bridge during construction. I assume that the deer on both sides of the freeway have now interbred.

Last night, I finished stitching the cat. It has been so long since I started it that I washed it before I took a picture of it. I also wanted to show you a picture of the deer, two yearlings, that visited our yard yesterday. But I cannot find them. I did find a picture of the buck that visited our yard two years ago. Unfortunately part of the clothesline shows on the right side.

As promised here is the picture of the whimsical Siamese cat. I am hoping to complete it by Thursday morning as I will see my friend then. As you can see there was quite a bit done when I set it down all those years ago. Right now, it seems to be on track. :-)

The seasons and year march right along. In the mornings it is quite silent except for traffic noise. There are no birds calling out; although we are on Standard Time, it is still dark. The insects have been quiet since our first heavy frost last month. Last week had beautiful weather. Yesterday and Friday were not quite as nice but the clouds were supposed to have cleared during the night. Sunrise still has not come so I cannot say how accurate the prediction is.

Yesterday when I took the picture of the ornament, I went out to an evergreen tree in the park. A squirrel was running through the trees overhead. A blue jay flew into the tree and scolded me for trespassing in its territory. During the day a cardinal flew in and out of the trees in our yard and even spent some time in the garden.

Earlier in the morning, when I went to the post office to have the postage metered on the packet, a woman was standing beside her car which had some serious front end damage. Not too far away was a dead deer. She appeared to be waiting, probably for the local police for help. On my return home, the police had arrived but it was difficult to determine who was doing what. Later in the afternoon we went to the grocery store to pick up something we decided we just had to have. All traces of the accident had been removed. At this time of year, we must be very careful because the deer are very active. It fortunately is not a problem for those who live further into the city. For us, it is always an issue and we must be very vigilant as we cannot predict what a deer might do.

This morning I posted some stitching that I just finished for someone else. It is a gigantic relief to know that it is returning to its owner. I am sorry that I cannot show it to you now; it might be possible to show it to you during the first part of 2010.

Meanwhile, I want to show you this little pear shaped ornament. It was a gift to me in an ornament exchange. If you scroll down through the previous postings, you will find a little sampler type ornament, Glad Tidings. I made it for this exchange.

Earlier this month, I found a not so little ornament like design that I had started more than ten years ago and then set aside. It is an amusing cat design. The cat is designed to be an orange and white tabby but I changed it to more closely resemble a friend's Siamese. After starting, I got stuck and then set it aside. When I found it earlier this month, my first thought was, "I know what I can do to finish this." Now I have the time to work on it. Tomorrow, I will show you a picture of it and you can follow me as I work on it.

Greetings, I am still here. Our son passed a large kidney stone this morning after struggling with it for a week. For this we are very grateful and relieved. He joyously canceled several medical appointments. We still have no idea how much of his expenses his medical plan will cover. For the past week, his bank account account has been hemorrhaging; now he is able to return to work and reverse that.

Right now our internet access is set on a path that will only deteriorate. Earthlink is our ISP; its signal travels on Qwest lines. Because we are so far away from the station source of the Qwest line, our service is deteriorating and will continue to do so as more customers are added between us and the station source. There is a new station source which is less than half the distance of our current source and has upgraded lines. Qwest is willing to switch us to the new station source but Earthlink has to approve and will not do so. Unless we can personally negotiate something with Earthlink to use the new station source, our only option is to find a new ISP which will probably be through Qwest. If so, the transition will be extremely rocky. Qwest insists that we must disconnect from Earthlink before they will connect with us and there is no guarantee that it will be very quickly. We are not certain that Earthlink will forward our e-mails for any period of time after we disconnect from it. I want to scream.

Right now a higher level customer service person within Earthlink is checking possible options for us. She knows what we ideally want and what we have been told. I really hope she can find a way through this morass for us.

I continue to deal with health and health care issues. It seems that there are fewer and fewer primary care doctors, not just in the clinic we prefer to use but throughout our area and probably into the US as a whole. I am being sent out to specialists to deal with issues that my primary care provider used to deal with. My primary care provider maintains office hours two days a week; the scheduling office insists that she is double booked and cannot see me before the beginning of December. Meanwhile, I have scheduled appointments with two specialists according to her request but I have no statement from her about what she wants the specialists to examine and cannot schedule an appointment with her to do so prior to both apppointments. Do not get me wrong, I know what the general issue is in both cases but there is more information that she should have but I do not know what it is. I have copies of all the lab work plus a CT scan on a disk. I guess that I will take everything to each appointment and lay it out with an explanation of what led up to each appointment allowing them to each decide where to go from there. That seems to be all that I can do. I feel like I am being fragmented between specialists with no one to look over me as a whole person.

This past week seemed to be extremely hectic. It certainly did not go according to my plans. I spent a lot of time in doctor and hospital waiting rooms for both myself and one of our sons. I am happy to say that neither of us is as bad off as it might seem; however we will both have a few follow-up appointments. We are both hoping to make quick recoveries. During my waiting times, I worked on a knitted baby hat and a crocheted baby hat. It seemed prudent to work on or to read my own things rather than touching anything in the waiting areas. We are all trying to prevent the spread of H1N1 as well as seasonal flu.

Yesterday we decided we needed a little relief from reality. We dropped several Mentos into a 2-liter bottle of diet Coke. The pictures tell the story. Here are a couple YouTube Coke and Mentos performances. I think these fellows have way too much time on their hands.
Mentos and Diet Coke #1
Mentos and Diet Coke #2

The Postal Service has been doing well. I posted the gift pictured below on Thursday and it arrived half the country away yesterday. I could ask for nothing better.

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, unseasonably warm for November with clear, sunlit sky. Today is supposed to be more of the same and I can hardly wait to see it. The sky is currently becoming lighter and showing color.

This has been an unusual week for our son the firefighter. His department was called to assist a neighboring community Thursday night. The house was a total loss. He feels that effective firefighting was hampered by some unusual construction techniques. Yesterday just before dinner he was called to a fire in our community. It was a large, expensive house. It did not fall into the basement but does have extensive damage.

Today shows promise of being a lovely autumn day. I hope the entire weekend is as nice as the promise of today.

Here are the project bags that go with the ornament. The gift is now on its way to its recipient. I feel reasonably confident that the recipient will not see this. But then, I have no idea how many people are lurking here and why.

I know that there are some who may be lurking because I invited them and suggested that they may feel more comfortable lurking without registering with Blogger or BlogSpot.

A couple weeks ago, I was quite surprised to discover from a mutual acquaintance that there is someone who is lurking here. I was surprised because I would have never thought that person would be interested in my random thoughts. Now the ironic thing is that that person who is lurking is a mutual acquaintance of the recipient of this gift.

Do you suppose that the gift is no longer a surprise? If you are lurking here and I did not invite you to lurk, will you please show yourself so that all of us may know who you are?

Tuesday brings morning volunteer time at the local Hospital. At the time I left to come home, we had already had four babies. We love those new little babies.

Yesterday afternoon, I finished the ornament by Blue Ribbon Designs. It appeared in the 2008 Just Cross Stitch ornaments issue. I had already decided on this design when I discovered that the recipient likes samplers. I think this qualifies.

The day started with a bang; well, it really was a crash. One of our sons knocked a large, think large wine bottle size, glass bottle of carbonated apple beverage from Germany on the floor. The floor is ceramic tile so of course the bottle shattered into minute shards. I think we were saving the apple beverage for Thanksgiving. There is plenty of time to pick up something to replace it. We have picked up most, but not all, of the glass and mopped up a lot of the beverage. Right now we are waiting for it to dry so we can vacuum the remainder of the glass from the floor. Then I can wash the floor. Normally I do not wash the kitchen floor on Monday morning but this will give us a nice, clean floor at the beginning of the week.

November Already?

As promised, here is a picture of my fabric covered papier- mâché box. Alma Allen, Blackbird Designs, presented a wonderful tutorial in her blog, One Stitch at a Time. Because her directions are so clear, anyone can do it. The link will take you to the first segment of the tutorial which begins on 27 October 2009. There is a second part so do not miss it.

Yes, Alma has posted this same picture. I sent it to her so she could see my fabulous fabric. I got to skip all of the fabric antiquing steps. This is the fabric right off the bolt. I knew when I saw it last year that I would have a very good use for it; I just did not know then what it would be. More boxes will follow, I just do not know when I will do them. ;-)

The first day of a new month always makes me wonder what I can do better in it. It hardly seems like we have almost finished another year. During the night, we went off Daylight Saving Time. I wonder why we did that. In five more months, we will turn the clock forward again. We are now spending more than half of the year on DST. I really miss the early morning daylight when we are on DST.