Lazy Friday...

Moon Report: 33% of full. waxing crescent.

I know that the language of my passion

and the language of my art are not the same thing.

--Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects: Essays on Ecstasy and Effrontery

So, again I am back to writing. Not writing as blog, but writing as actual pen on paper writing. I forgot how much I loved it. I forgot how much I love the story, the characters. It has been a homecoming--scratching pen on paper and inky fingers with doodles for figuring out how things work.

It's nearing three and I have yet to eat lunch (or breakfast for that matter). My tummy is rumbling. However, I think I am going to pack it down to the local grocery store where they have an enormous salad bar. Something green and leafy is what my body is screaming for. I think I've overdone it with all the squash I've eaten lately. The green beans I had yesterday just didn't cut the craving. Every once in a while I just need a gigantor salad filled with spinach and endive and garbanzos and peppers and carrots and celery and sunflower seeds and mandarin oranges and cottage cheese. Yum. [I'll be able to get most of this out of my own garden this summer!]

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Although I'd heard of it before, I stumbled on to this site a few days ago and joined: Ravelry. This is a knitting/crochet community where you get to see what patterns people have developed on their own or the projects they created with found/purchased patterns. Believe me, there is TONS of inspiration and lots of cool people to meet! It does take them a few days to add people so join the queue. I think they add a set number of people at a time as to not crash their system.

Ok, so my sweater has been postponed for a bit. I found a toe-up sock tutorial on WetCanvas! by BeeBlueFern. This is a great lesson and I'm half done with my first sock...meaning I'm about at the heel. We'll see how we get on... [Sorry about slipping into a first person plural. I may have had a Queen Elizabeth I moment.]

I've been trying to work my sweater in moss stitch, but it isn't looking right. I think I am pulling my thread too tight and it isn't leaving the "seed" visible. Although better than my first attempts at a granny square (which, by the way, looked like it was chewed by weasels), it still leaves much to be desired. I'll see if loosening my stitches will ease the problem. Or maybe it will come back after being blocked? I don't know...

Black Friday and Turkey

Moon Report: Waxing Crescent 1%

We got a fresh turkey. A just butchered turkey--we even had to tweeze a few pin feathers from the tail end. Ick. I truly am glad I don't have to do the icky stuff like kill it or gut it. I couldn't handle it--squeamish as I am.

But it made a gorgeous dinner. A lovely bronze turkey (or it could have been a bourbon red).

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Today is Black Friday. I am staying home for the most part. My only excursion today was to the library to pick up a few books they held for me. Traffic was terrible...even the trains are running like mad. Glad I have no shopping plans...

a foodie moment: cheese and PSAs

Moon: waxing crescent. 8% full

I love cheese--not Velveeta or processed American cheese-food, but real cheese. I don't get to eat good cheese all the time, but every once in a while a splurge is in order.

Places to splurge: Zingerman's and iGourmet

No one on earth bakes better breads than Zingerman's! I highly recommend the Pain de Montagne--and get the giant loaf...it is perfect. Oh, and the chocolate sourdough and the chocolate cherry breads are wonderful too!

Zingerman's has cheeses and gift baskets and brownies as well as all kinds of "foodie" items. I can recommend their pomegranate molasses for pork roasts and turkey!

Oh, and if you happen to zoom through Ann Arbor, Michigan, stop by the store or the restaurant. Sometimes you could get lucky and happen upon their homemade chocolate marshmallows!

iGourmet is an online foodie store where hard-to-find items are in one place. I've been looking all over to find someone who actually carried Mimolette--and they've got it! Yay.

Cheeses I want to try:

Saxonshire--a five layer cheese alternating yellow/white cheeses: double gloucester, caerphilly, cheshire, leicester, cheddar
Mimolette--a round cheese resembling a cantaloupe inside and out with a nutty flavor. This cheese can come aged just a few months to about 18 months or so. Most people seem to enjoy them aged over a year.
Chimay Vieux--a Trappist Monk cheese with a hazelnut taste (I like Chimay beer, so I thought this might be interesting too.)

My favorite 80s Saturday Morning PSA