7 Quick Takes (Vol 90)

Good golly Miss Molly where do the days go?? Here it is Friday again and time for the inane blather that is usually my 7 Quick Takes. Who knew I could fill up so much space with so little actual content! Remember to click on the picture above to whisk, with the speed of winter’s approach, over to Conversion Diary to see what everyone else has been doing this week.

And now, without further ado and blathering……

1.
I have to say that I haven’t fed the birds in the neighborhood for at least the last 9 months. The realtor insisted that I take the bird feeders down as they made a mess on the deck and heaven forbid there might be a mess.

But, in the spirit of my continuing “stagers strike” I have again put the bird feeders up, at least the ones in the front anyways. I was very afraid that the birds wouldn’t come back. I know I am surrounded by trees but you just never know. But I needn’t have worried. Within 24 hours the greedy little things were back and emptying the feeders with great abandon.

Now I just have to fix up a feeder on the deck.

And buy stock in a company that grows Black Sunflower Seed. I go through a lot of it in the winter time. But it is worth it because I surely do love the birds.

2.
It is almost time to start thinking about the holiday baking. Now that the progeny aren’t at home for most of the time I have really cut back on all the cookies that used to get baked around Chez Knit. There were several years when I was invited to a number of cookie exchanges that required me to bring…..

12 DOZEN cookies.

That meant that I went home with the same number of cookies. And that is A LOT of cookies.

But, the cookie exchanges have seemed to dwindle and I don’t bake so many holiday cookies anymore. Although I will be baking….

Norwegian Filled Cookies
Honey Bars
Lemon Bars
Mama Cuccia’s Cookies
Mint Oreos
Orange-Almond Biscotti
Gingerbread Men
Sugar Cookies

But I am cutting back you know so those are the only ones that I will be baking. And since they all freeze well I will try to get them done early. And you might see one or two of the recipes appear on the blog.

3.
When we had our wood delivered I paid the fellow in cash. He just stood there for a second as if he had never seen money before. It just sat there in his sweaty palm. And then he sort of got a grip, thanked me and they left.

Does no one pay cash for larger items anymore? It was such an odd experience.

Max just thought that I should get out there quicker to throw him the stick.

4.
Can I just tell you, in a totally non-political way, that I am sick to death of political attack ads. Sick. To. Death. And I mean those from both sides of the aisle because all the parties with candidates running are doing this. Please do not tell me how bad your opponent is. Just tell me what YOU are going to do when/if we the people decide to elect you. That is all I want to hear.

And I have to tell you, we have a friend who is running for a very local office, nothing big, nothing major (although all politics is local and therefore major I guess). And the opposition was calling people to dig up dirt on him (none to be found thankyouverymuch). Slimy.

Tell me what YOU are going to do in office. Don’t tell me how bad your opponent is.

My campaign slogan is, “Sock Yarn for All!”

Thank goodness for the mute button.

5.
It is now dark enough in the mornings that I have to carry a flashlight when we walk at the lake. And we have altered the path that we walk, at least on Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, just for a change of pace, we would walk clockwise around the lake rather than our usual counter clockwise. We are wild women. But when you walk clockwise around the lake you start out walking through the woods….and it is really dark in there…..and we just thought it might be better for our general sanity if we walked counter clockwise ever day.

What is really bad about it being so dark in the morning is that it is hard to see this stuff….
Yes, that is goose poop. And there is often times a fair amount of it just waiting to coat the bottom of our walking shoes. Every morning it is “tip toe through the goose poop” at one point on our walk. It plays havoc with our walking pace as we have to slow down so much.

Why can’t those avian freeloaders from the north go south for the winter.

6.
As if I don’t have enough knitting that has to be completed I have decided that to go along with my Hogwarts scarf….

I will need some Hogwarts socks. I am trying to finish the current socks that I have OTN and then I will cast on for these. I have no idea what they will look like as they will be sort of design as you go. AND because I decided that I needed them yesterday and I don’t want to order yarn just for the gold color (I already have some burgundy in the stash) I made a trip to our local yarn shop, which is always dicey. I seem to come out of there with more than I intended to buy. I only needed gold, fingering weight yarn. But I had the terrible feeling that Edie wouldn’t have that, and I was right. She has loads of nice yarn but not a very great selection of sock/fingering weight yarn. She is German. She views sock knitting in a more utilitarian way that some of the rest of us. Self-striping yarn is great but not all that there is in life. But I did find some yarn that is the right color but of a slightly heavier weight. It will work….I think. If I had to order yarn then I would order more yarn than I needed, I mean I really would want to avoid shipping so of course I would order over $50 of yarn. Even though the cost of the yarn and the shipping would be UNDER $50. Avoid the shipping at all costs! And I can always use sock yarn you know. I have whittled my sock yarn stash down to only enough to make……I think around 15 pairs of socks.

I am really running low.

7.
Even as you are reading this I might be photographing another wedding. I am scared spitless and I don’t scare that easily. My photo/knitting buddy, Erica, recommended me for the job. Thank you Erica. It is a small wedding which is all that I am really capable of doing. And I am having a total crisis of whether I have any skills at all in the photography department.

Gads I hate it when I get like this. But once I am in the midst I am sure that all will be fine. But please, can’t I just take some pictures of babies now.