New Year's Eve - December 31, 2024

Last night, as The Husband and I were holding down our recliners, he said, "Are we doing anything tomorrow night?"  

He meant was I cooking and inviting the neighborhood to eat.

I gave him the stink eye. "There's no food in the house.  I have no plan." 

He looked surprised. "You mean , , . no cabbage or anything?"

"Nope."

This, after an unrewarding day.

Of course, by this morning, I'd acknowledged that I had to go to the grocery store if we're going to eat in the future.  I asked The Husband if he could think of anything he wanted to eat.  He said, "Meatballs?"

So I shook a leg and went to the grocery store before 8 a.m.  Got enough for the neighborhood.  Texted them all that it'll be ready by 6.  

I've already baked a pan of brownies.  The meatballs are baking.  (I'll sauce them and put them in the crock pot later.)  There's a ham waiting in line for the oven.  I bought 20 frozen biscuits and worry that we'll run out.  But I have self-rising flour and a left-over carton of heavy cream that I didn't use at Christmas, so I can come up with more biscuits in a pinch. 

We may not have many to show.  The Sister-in-Law won't be home until 8.  My Son-from-Another-Mother is at his deer camp.  My own kids may already have plans.  Might just be us and Nanny.  If that happens, I won't cook for days.

I guarantee you that I will NOT be awake when the New Year rings in. 

It's 10:30, and the meatball timer just beeped.  

Soon as I wrestle this ham into the oven, I'm going to paint.  :)

Cat in a Cage - December 30, 2024

Welcome to Day 1 of my Retirement.

It's only 10:30 a.m., and I have already considered UN-retiring.

I got online this morning to start the official paperwork process.  There are decisions to make that I was not expecting.  My mind is all a-whirl.  I should have started the process a long time ago.

Part of my mental discombobulation stems from an unrelated problem.  

About a week ago, I loaned The Grandson my Wrangler so that he will be able to get to/from his classes.  He called last night and said that the vehicle is having transmission issues.  He swears that he had not gone offroad or otherwise "dogged it," and I believe him.  The Wrangler had been having transmission issues for a while.  We had it repaired back in August, and the repair is still under warranty (assuming he hasn't put 10,000 miles on it in the week he's had it).  I called the transmission shop early; they said they'd send a wrecker to get it right away, just leave the key under the floor mat.  I texted and called The Grandson.  Of course, he didn't call me back for two hours.  Hopefully, by now the Wrangler has been towed to the shop.  Hopefully, the problem can be fixed by the time school starts back, for we're about to run out of vehicles to loan!

At the moment, there's nothing I can do to further either of the two processes along.  I need to shower, get dressed, and find something productive to do.

Or maybe I should just stay in my pajamas and start drinking. ;)

Hand Quilting - Part 3 - December 28, 2024

True to my word (from the last post), I made quilt sandwiches out of the remaining 10 blocks, but only 9 of them are ready for quilting.  This is because my mind drifted while I was cutting one of the blocks, and I CUT OFF THE FREAKING SEAM ALLOWANCE on one side of the block while I was cutting out the batting.

At first, I thought I might leave an extra seam allowance to the other side of the block and use it, anyway.  This would make the embroidery slightly off-center in the block, but only by less than 2/8ths of an inch.  I planned to baste a row of blocks together to see if the off-center block stuck out like a sore thumb; if it was too noticeable, I'd bite the bullet and embroider another block.  Then, while I was cutting the backing for that same block, I CUT OFF ANOTHER FREAKING SEAM ALLOWANCE, this one on an adjoining side.

Sometimes, you just gotta cuss out loud. Twice.

Thank goodness I made both blunders on the same block so that I'll only have to embroider ONE MORE instead of two.

Thank goodness I had a spare block.

I'm going to quilt a few of the 9 ready-to-quilt blocks before I have a go at embroidering the replacement block.  

Retirement - May 28, 2024

I did it.

I retired yesterday.  

It seemed as good a time as any.  The Project that I began this spring is almost finished.  I've done what I was asked to do. There are a few more things I'd like to do when I can get some muscle.  This can wait until the new year,

There's another project coming down the road, one that is "right up my alley," as my mother used to say.  I will go back to work part-time when I get the go-ahead.  It may be six months, it may be next month.  I kind of hope it's somewhere in between.

So, what am I going to do meanwhile?

First on the list is to finish the quilt for Granddaughter #3.  Ten of the 20 embroidered blocks are quilted.  I still have to cut batting and backing for the remaining 10 blocks.  After some trial and error, I've figured out how to sew the quilted blocks together.  This task can be done in the recliner, at night, while The Husband and I have our TV time.

That leaves the days to fill.

The problem is not thinking of something to do; the problem is deciding which of a zillion things to do. 

I'll pick one after I cut out the batting and backing for those other 10 blocks. 

Canned Corn - December 27, 2024

Christmas Eve when I made a pot of taco soup, there was about half of a can of whole kernel corn left that did not go into the soup.  I decided to put it outside for the animals to eat.  We have 'possums, 'coons, armadillos, squirrels, lizards, birds, chipmunks, and probably critters I've never seen.  To be fair to them all, I stepped off the porch and flung the corn all over the back yard.  A few kernels landed on the pavers outside the porch door.  I left them there, thinking they'd probably be gone in an hour.  

They're still there.

Why?

This morning I've watched squirrels and birds pecking around in the yard and haven't seen anything eat a kernel of corn.  One bird came very close to the pavers and appeared to have not even glanced at the bright yellow corn. 

Wonder what these animals know about canned corn that I don't know?  :-\

Christmas - December 26, 2024

It's quiet at my house this morning.  After having been off since last Wednesday, The Husband has gone back to work.  I slept until 7, which is about two hours later than my norming wake-up time.  The sun is shining, and it's warm enough to have my coffee on the back porch.

It was a good Christmas.  We had time with all of our children and grandchildren.  The folks on the hill came here for supper Christmas Eve, and then we all went to Nanny's yesterday for breakfast.

Until The Husband's Grandmother died, we went to her house on Christmas Eve.  At first, dinnertime was 6 p.m.  Over the years, as grandchildren married spouses who had their own family traditions to do, dinnertime crept up to 5, and then finally it was "get here when you can."  We picked up the tradition for our branch of the family when The Grandmother passed away.  "Official" dinnertime is 6. We used to tease The Grandmother about moving dinnertime backwards; we said she just wanted to get to the present-opening sooner.  But now we know better.  

This year, folks started texting me around 4:30, wanting to know what time we were eating.  These are the same people who had received the original group text, "Soup and nibbles Christmas Eve at 6 p.m." (I guess they don't know how to scroll back *snicker*),  Translation:  "We're hungry NOW."  By that time, the taco soup was done, and the nibbles were assembled and only needed to be baked for 15 minutes. I was hungry, too.  I told them all to come on and went ahead and put the nibbles in the oven.  Some of them got here before the nibbles finished baking.  By 6, almost nothing was left.  Thank goodness The Brother-in-Law thought to put away a plate for The Sister-in-Law, whose work shift ended at 7.  

The festivities ended around 3:30 yesterday.  Everybody had been needing a nap since noon.  Grandkids fell asleep in their tracks - well, all but the LRB, who was buzzing around her front yard in her new purple Jeep, "radio" blasting, screaming with delight.  In the rain.  She steers quite well but, like her father, she likes to look behind her while she's driving forward.  She nearly ran me over with it.

I ended up with some good loot.  The Husband gave me a drone.  (It's charging as we speak.)  I'd been hinting for one for YEARS, and this year I finally said, "I WANT A DRONE FOR CHRISTMAS," and even told him where to get one cheap enough to crash without causing too much regret.  A few days later, there were national news stories about mysterious drone sightings, and I thought, Oh, crap...I hope he doesn't get me a drone.  One of the locals will probably shoot it down now.  But I still wanted one. ;)  This one may be a little fancier than the one I suggested.  I should probably look for a "how-to" video before I power it up.  

The kids gave us a seriously cool metal sign to put outside the back porch.  It says, "Welcome to the Back Porch with Grandmama and Poppy."  It's got music notes on it.  :)

I also got a new watercolor paint set, swatched it last night before bedtime.  Maybe I should use it to finish all those Christmas cards I started in November.

First Seed Catalog - December 24, 2024

My first seed catalog came in the mail today.  It's from some company I never heard of.  I haven't opened it yet.  I'm not sure I should even plant a garden next year. 

Nanny did most of the weeding this year.  We jumped on the weed/grass problem fairly early, and paved the rows with cardboard or landscape fabric, but there was still weeding to do.  I was going to work every day and tending to the community garden plot, and I'd let the garden get pretty hairy before I'd tackle it (plus all the rain made it hard to find time to get in there).  And before I'd get to it, Nanny would do it. I asked - we all asked her not to do it, but she didn't listen.  The only way I can figure out how to keep her out of the garden is to not plant one.  At least not at her house.  

However, I do have a son living on the property across the road.  And there's room enough for a good-sized garden . . . .