Now Norma Knits

Emerging From the Fog

Little by little, slowly but surely, I am trying to get my life back into order after what will hereinafter be referred to as The Crazy Time [aka The CamPAIN]. But am I? Yes, I think I am. I'm not sure.

I was up at 4:00 this morning due to insomnia brought on by the wild winds outside that woke me up, and then my mind started going a thousand miles a minute. 

I now find myself in another one of my periods of under-employment, but this is working in favor of getting some long-overdue organizing and decluttering done in the house and the ability to do things like take impromptu trips to New York and to do some cooking to try to get my nutritional needs back on track and to get in some more exercising and knitting, and even -- *gasp* -- to plan a vacation. It's all good, eh?  

I remembered at 4:30 that I had not written a blog post, and decided that it was not too early to do a drawing for the winner of the book. And the winner, as chosen by the Random Number Generator, is long-time reader and commenter Mary Beth Mathews! I've emailed you, Mary Beth. Congratulations to Mary Beth, and thanks to everyone for playing!

It continues to amaze me that all of you have continued to live your lives and write your blogs while I've been In The Mists of The Crazy Time. WTF? Really! I just spent an hour trying to catch up with Anne of Knitspot, and am totally gobsmacked as always as to how productive you are, Anne. And I could die at the beauty of your new sweater, Leaving. DIE. I want one! And/but I've got so much still on my plate, and have to finish up these sweaters I've been working on, and I hate to admit it, but my forearms are again being bothered a bit by the knitting. And the sweater is knitted in Kim's beautiful yarn, and I just had no idea about all this wonderfulness that was going on out there. It's all just like -- Wait, you guys! Slow down!! I can't catch up! 

It is truly freezing outside right now, and has been for the past couple of nights. And soooo windy. I'm afraid to look to see whether there is snow swirling out there on that wind. I don't think it was predicted, but I've been too busy or distracted (or something) to look at a forecast.

I did not have a chance to look yesterday, but I'm guessing that my broccoli plants that were hanging on and which I hoped to get some more leaves from for eating (the florets have ceased forming, but I've been harvesting and eating and freezing the leaves) have probably succumbed to the frost. I'll have to check on them today, once the sun comes up.

Also once the sun comes up, I have to make a trip to do a whole bunch of errands -- bringing donations to three or four charities and picking up the turkey and getting some groceries and stuff. This, of course, is probably exactly when it will hit me that I have not had enough sleep and I'll be useless.

Oh! Before I forget it, there have been some inquiries about Red Scarf and someone asked whether I'll be collecting red scarves this year. Well, I've never really collected them -- only been sort of the head cheerleader -- and this year I just haven't had time for that, as I've mentioned once or twice or three hundred times so far. Please, though, I hope you are knitting or crocheting or weaving your scarves and sending them to the Orphan Foundation of America. All the information is on this page.

Even with all that's been going on with me, I've knitted four scarves so far this year, so come on! I know you can do it too! I have asked for a status update from Lynn, but I have not gotten an answer yet. Lynn, if you are reading this, go ahead and put a status update on the scarves in the comments here, if you have one.

 

 

zzzzzzz.... what? Oh, Wait. Did I Already Say That?

It's taking me a bit longer than I expected to get back on my feet. I'm thankfully not sick -- just tiiiiiiiiiired. Lucky for me, I do have the luxury of getting some extra rest (I had a 2-hour nap yesterday), so hopefully I won't get sick.

I got a wonderful package from Marianne the other day, and in it was a note on this paper:

....and yes, I feel exactly like that. Beet! I mean: beat! 

I can hardly get out of my own shadow. I did manage to accomplish a few things yesterday:

1) I archeologized (Yes, that is a word. Because I say so.) my pantry a little bit yesterday and got rid of the big tubs of drink mixes that were either a) all clumped together in a solid mass, b) had use-by dates at least five years ago, or c) both.

2) Ditto with some ancient magazines.

3) I found a place for a new old table we bought the other day while campaigning. (Campaigning does have its good sides.)

From Vallee's Den of Antiquity in Grand Isle, VT.

4) I watered my houseplants -- the few that were still clinging to life after being ignored for five or six months.

5) I wound up this ball of yarn:

And then I collapsed. 

P.S. This just in:  The complete Grand Isle County voting results are now posted on The Islander's website.

 

Red Scarves and Spindles and Other Stuff at Grand Isle Art Works

Beautiful red scarves sent to Grand Isle Art Works from Rosemary McNutt, displayed in Jim's beautiful spalted maple wood bowl. Yes, it's for sale. Contact [email protected] for more info

An action shot -- Jim turning a spindle IN THE DARK, as he was doing when I arrived

So here's the yarn bowl I picked up for Kim.

It's beautiful, made of Vermont apple wood.

Jim's spindles

Zesty!

We had the most marvelous evening with friends last night. So much needed that even as we were walking from the car to their front door, I was already giggling -- even BEFORE I had the wine -- and I daresay I have not giggled in a few days. We opened the bottle of the Little Black Dress wine that I mentioned the other day/week/whatever, and I must say it went down quite nicely. We had lots of laughs and lots of strategy talk and lots of gossip. Just.about.perfect!!!!  

My friend Chris claims to not be much of a baker, but she served us some delicious lemon cake. Her only problem with it is that she says it's not rising as much as it should. This is her third try, and she was about to throw away the recipe.  

That's my crappy Blackberry photo of it. It's out of focus, but it tasted REALLY GREAT. Very lemony and almost shortbready for the cake part -- couldn't be better, in my book.  But she'd like it to look more like it looks in the photo in the magazine where she got the recipe -- it is considerably thicker in that photo. She said she tried new baking powder and baking soda, with no change.  

I told her no, don't throw away the recipe!  It was really too delicious. Let me see if some of the master bakers who read my blog can try it and see if it works out, or if indeed there is a mistake in the recipe. (Recipe appears in Victoria magazine, September 2002) 

Here it is:

Meyer Lemon Cake

1 1/2 sticks softened unsalted butter

1 c. sugar

2 large eggs

1 T. Meyer lemon zest

3 T. Meyer lemon juice

1 t. vanilla or lemon extract

1 c. unsifted all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/8 t. salt

1/3 c. sour cream

 

For the decorative icing: 

1 c. confectioners' sugar

1 1/2 to 2 T. fresh lemon juice

 

Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a deep 9-inch cake pan or coat it with vegetable cooking spray.

In a bowl with an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Beat in the lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract.  Into another bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the liquid, stirring until well incorporated.  Stir in the sour cream and blend well. 

Transfer the batter to the pan and bake for 30-40 mins. or until a cake tester inserted in the middle comes out clean. let cool in the pan for 5 mins. and invert it onto a rack to cool completely.

Make the icing:  Into a bowl, sift the confectioners' sugar.  Add 1 1/2 T of the lemon juice and stir the mixture until smooth and glossy, adding more lemon juice if necessary. Drizzle the icing over the cake and let dry before serving.  

 

Which Came First?

While I'm busy losing what's left of my mind over here, my friends always come through in a pinch. Just when I needed a laugh, I received this card in the mail from Margene:

Bwahahahahahahha. "Now we know the answer," wrote Margene.  

 

Man. *sniff* You Guys Rock.

Yesterday was such a great day. And boy, was I overdue for a positive day.  

First off, as of this writing, you all have shown us the love and you're making me glow. The fundraising effort brought in $520 yesterday, all from my blog friends and my old friend Steve of the eBay bidding war fame (Have I ever told you that story? If not, I really should, and right now reading this, Abigail is all like, "YAY, STEVE!"), which is enough to buy new signs and an ad.

This is so helpful, I'm feeling a little bit weepy. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Of course I'm not so terribly surprised -- I have seen the miracles that the blog world has worked -- right from the Utah ski slope broken leg of our favorite anesthesiologist's husband (I was going to say "our favorite anesthesiologist's anesthesiologist," but I knew that would be wayyyyy too confusing to my new readers) to the money raised for all the various natural disasters, right down to my own favorite cause, the Red Scarf Fund. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your support. 

And then we had a wonderful visit with lots of wonderful folks while at the Grand Opening Gala at Grand Isle Art Works, and then we stumbled upon some friends who had extra tickets for a dedication event in North Hero, so we got waylaid on our way out to dinner -- or I should say, that changed our dinner plans midstream, since the dedication event included dinner.

That brought us in contact with 200 more wonderful people, two of whom are old friends that we sat down with and had a lot of great laughs. The husband, a Republican lawyer who used to be a deputy state's attorney in Burlington and has a fabulous sense of humor, was so captivated and charmed and nearly pissing his pants with glee about the hilarity of the Republicrat story that he not only bought me a very stiff Margarita, he also gave us another campaign contribution:

That ought to do it.  

 

 

 

My Special Visitor

Scout and I only had a short visit over brunch, which was perfect since I was dressed for work and was all very Breakfast at Tiffany's. She shot this photo on her iPhone before I brought her to the airport in the middle of my UVM function. But we packed a lot of conversation into an hour and a half or so. Wish it could have been longer! Miss ya already, Scout!

How To Get Through Tough Times

Surround yourself with wonderful people!

Carol and her family stopped by my town for a visit on their way to Montreal a few days ago. We took time out for a relaxing cocktail at One Federal, and I got a head start on indoctrinating her into French Canadian culture by sharing with her a plate of authentic (I guess, or as near as you can get from a true border town) French Canadian poutine before she crossed the border into Canada.

Truth be told, I had never had it either, except for the lobster poutine I had in Nova Scotia, which was actually kind of bland. One Federal's was much more tasty.

Call it The Summer of Poutine for me. Never too late to experience the good life, I say.

Yeah, baby. Smile, Carol!

Poutine and mojitos, a multi-cultural feast if I ever saw one!

More About Mike

I've mentioned my friend Mike, the emeritus-organic-chemistry-professor-turned-artist, from time to time. He reads the blog and leaves pithy and hilarious comments, too, which I know have been the source of amusement for many of you.

On very short notice, he and his wife Rebecca got up at the crack of dawn last Saturday and drove an hour to meet me and David to do a photo shoot for the campaign. We can't thank them enough for their generosity and wonderful spirit in helping us out.

Rebecca is a great joke-teller, even at that uncivilized early hour, and between the two of them, they had us laughing our heads off. Maybe some of these weren't usable for campaign photos, but we had a blast, as you can see:

Lately Mike has been up to some amazing painting in a whole new style for him. I just love this new direction he's taking, and I've got my talons on one of the paintings, but I'm not going to tell you which one, because I know how competitive my readers all are, and I know you'd rush in and steal it out from under me before I get to write out the check for it. You would! Don't even deny it!

Take a look at some of the things, and do please notice that the colors go really well with my outfit in the photo up above. I'm sure this means something.

They are wonderful in the photos, but even more wonderful in person. Another friend and I went down to view them on the wall at August First, where they are being displayed, a couple days ago. Two of them were sold almost as soon as he'd hung them! Vermonters, you really should go look, but don't you dare take MINE!

Also, Mike is teaching a continuing ed drawing course, Drawing As A Way of Knowing, this fall at UVM. Sign up to take this course with a very fun person and I'm sure you will learn some great things about drawing while having a great time:

Here's the info:

Drawing As Way of Knowing (Continuing Education Course, 3 credits)

Instructor(s): Michael John Strauss

Location and Class Time:

• For meeting day(s): Thursday
  • Meeting time is 4:00pm to 8:00pm
  • Class location is Angell Room B203
  • Semester Dates: August 30, 2010 to December 9, 2010

 

Damn It, It's Over

Show of hands: How many of YOU [mere mortals] have flown on an airline that takes off a half hour early BECAUSE EVERYBODY WAS THERE?!  

I have!!!

What a great experience it was to fly with Twin Cities Air Service. Mr. Jefferies begs to differ, but hey, I'm the one payin' the bills around here.

I'm currently making my way back home, but here are a few more random photos from my vacation.  

Thank you to Paula for being such a wonderful hostess, tour guide, and chauffeur. Thanks to Sandy for being such a great travel companion. Thanks to both of them, and to Sandy's daughter Bethany, for being such wonderful help and support with Mr. Jefferies. And huge apologies to Paula's cats for having to vacate the house so the terrier could invade it. What a cruel, unfair world.