7 Quick Takes (Vol 262)

Greetings from the place where no blogging has occurred for a whopping seven days. Bad Debbie! Bad Debbie! You know what you must do. When you are done harvesting the blog blather you need to click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of my 82 year old neighbor’s car going down our street (SLOW DOWN!!), over to Conversion Diary.

The blog where blather goes to die.

1.
The clean out of The Cottage has been completed. I know I said I would tell you about it this week but obviously I lied on that one. Still a bit too emotional when I sit down to write about it. I have started the blog post, honest I have, but I am having trouble completing it. The thing is going to be massively long and for that I apologize. I hate doing blog posts in parts, just a personal thing with me, so you are going to get it all in one big bite.

Oh I am going to miss her.

2.
I brought home a number of things from The Cottage…..like a car full of things actually. It is a good thing that I didn’t bring Max the Magnificent with me because there might not have been room for him on the way home. Or he might have had to sit in the front with me which would not have been pleasant. His breath could strip paint without any difficulty at all. If he were sitting in the front seat with me I am afraid that it would be MY head that was stuck out the window in order to survive.

Not a pretty sight.

When I arrived home on Monday afternoon I fed and walked the dog and then got to unloading, sorting and putting away what I had brought home with me.

Maybe I should tell you something first. When HHBL and I started the massive homestead cleanout many years ago, after being staggered by the amount of stuff that we had accumulated over the years, we determined that whenever we brought things into Chez Knit, we would also send things out of Chez Knit. A zero sum game, if you will.

I just had to look up “zero sum game” to make sure that I was correct in my thinking of it’s definition. I was so we will move on.

In flow into Chez Knit should equal outflow from Chez Knit…as closely as we can achieve it. In fact if possible outflow should be greater than inflow. I am not sure that counts as far as knitting stash is concerned. No, I am sure that it doesn’t. The stash doesn’t take up THAT much room…..really it doesn’t.

Moving on.

Everything was put in it’s proper place, except for the books which are still being integrated, and I actually culled a car load of stuff that I took to Goodwill on Tuesday morning.

Zero Sum Game.

3.
I have to say a HUGE thank you to Parental Unit Mimi for allowing me to take home something from The Cottage that I really really wanted……

Oh isn’t she BEAUTIFUL! My old Kitchen Aide, my white work horse Artisan that HHBL gave me in 1989, was on her last spindly legs. The Artisan model has a steel pin that holds the mixer head to the stand. Over the years, with the really hard and constant use that the mixer gets here at Chez Knit, that pin had become somewhat mobile. What that means is that every time I used the mixer, especially if I was making bread dough, I had to keep an eye on that pin and pound it back into place with my meat tenderizing mallet when it started to wiggle out. Needless to say I didn’t leave the kitchen with the mixer was kneading bread dough.

This beauty is the bigger, more badass (sorry) Professional version. No pin holding top to bottom. And the dough hook!! Oh the dough hook!!! I made bread this week….because I really needed to check out that dough hook, you know. Perfect, perfect, perfect.

An added benefit is that all my attachments (Grater, grinder, slicer etc.) fit this model as well. Sweet!

Thank you SO much Mom!!!!!!!

4.
Today is the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe. I am assuming that we all know that. And even though my plate is pretty full today I may have to sit down and watch at least ONE of the WWII movies that I have in the DVD collection. Not all of them actually pertain to D-Day but all of them are fabulosity. Which to choose? Decisions, decisions.

Battle of Britain
The Longest Day
Saving Private Ryan
They Were Expendable
In Harm’s Way
Band of Brothers
The War
Tora, Tora, Tora
Pearl Harbor (the documentary not the awful Ben Affleck thing)

5.
Next week my Bible Study group starts an intensive study of the book of Luke. One of the things that the first chapter in the study book asks you to do is read through the entire book of Luke in one sitting and as you are doing this to outline the book.

OH MY GOSH I forgot how much I absolutely love to outline books. And no, that is not said with any sarcasm whatsoever. I really do like to outline things. I take my sermon notes in outline form. I used to take all my notes in college in outline form and then, when studying, I would re-write all of my notes. Entire forests were denuded of trees when I was in nursing school just to keep up with my consumption of College Rule paper.

I started my outline last night, as I read Luke aloud to myself…and I think I am going to incorporate outlining in all my future Bible studies.

Obsessive? Whose obsessive?

Overly organized nerd? I know not what you speak of.

6.
One of the unfortunate consequences of my being out of town and all around when I am in town and just a general sort of malaise at the moment….

My office in the bowels of Chez Knit is a bit of a disaster.

There might be some understatement in that.

I do not work all that well in total disaster, although some clutter in my workspace is OK. I actually think that some clutter is more in the line with a creative mind….at least my creative mind. But there is going to have to be some organizing going on down here in the next few days or I am going to lose more important documents….which I did find eventually.

7.
Let’s see what I did on Instagram this week shall we? And if you are so interested you can always come and find me over there. I am stopherknitting.