Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving came and went.

We ate too much, and slept a bit. But all in all, very enjoyable.

This is what it looked like.

Blane took a pre-Thanksgiving rest

Cody played World of Warcraft (what’s new?)

Cody was also our best dressed family member

Dave cooked the Turkey, stuffing, and whatnots. And celebrated a Packer win.

Trixie Noodle waited for the leftovers

Beta was very intent on anything that might drop his way. This is his non-eye side. He’s got a haircut since Blane’s birthday.

 

This does not happen every day.

We took the requisite family shots

Dave is glued into place.

All of this food for the four of us. And the pumpkin pie isn’t even pictured!

I also did a bunch of quilting.

I finished turning twenty for Dave’s coworker

And I worked on the star blocks

I also finished Kate’s scarf (not quite finished in these pictures, but it is off the needles now)

 

This cat is such a camera hog

And when all was said and done, it was a pretty darn good mini vacation/holiday.

Blane’s birthday

Last week, before all hell broke loose, was Blane’s 25th birthday.

It looked like this

Wait, that’s the Packer game.

Blane looked like this

There he is, and that’s his football cake. He also had some presents

I made him a hat

I made it with Seattle Mariner’s Base Ball yarn double stranded with green Cascade 220 wool.

I got him a Geddes football hoody sweatshirt. I also got him a Geddes Country club shirt.

Beta came too. (Beta had a haircut today and doesn’t look quite like this anymore)

And Cody joined the festivities

We had Banquet chicken, corn and mashed potatoes, Blane’s request. He remembers having “chicken you can eat the crust off” as a little kid. Comfort food I suppose and oh, so artery clogging. But birthdays are meant for having your every wish come true.

Happy Birthday Blane.

 

By the light of the day

Laura said that the dark pictures did not do justice to the car damage, done by the deer who decided to end his life by leaping in front of my vehicle while said vehicle was travelling at 61 mph. I have decided I was just past Chester Woods, but exact coordinates are still to be determined.

So after a little jaunt to the cities with social worker Katrina in the Olmsted County Van (big enough to fend for itself in case of unfortunate deer encounters) we stopped by to get essential supplies from my car-such as sun glasses and cell phone charger.

This is the view in broad daylight

Or maybe this gives you a better idea

I still don’t think a picture can quite do it justice. I should have taken a picture under the hood. Or where the hood used to be. Squished. Katrina was very impressed.

So this is my new ride, for now

HHR. Very gangsta. Angie about busted a gut laughing at it. Better pictures soon to follow.

Estimate for repairs at $8800.00. So far. Although they have dismantled the whole front end and think they have found all the damage.

I keep asking the guy if the car will ever be the same and he assures me the work is guaranteed for the life of the car. Guaranteed!

So I have made it out of this week alive with only minor mental damage.

And I still haven’t even mentioned that Blane’s birthday was Tuesday and we had a little soiree for him last Saturday. I was getting around to that but, well, you know.

Next blog-Blane’s Birthday.

 

Deer 1, Sarah 0

Well, you know it all starts out so simply.

Get up, get dressed, get lunch, give dogs treats, leave at 6, get to work at 6:30.

Well, usually it happens this way.

Except for today.

Today, this happened.

Remember my new car?

Used to look like this?

Well, after an unfortunate encounter with a deer this AM, around 6:20 in an unknown location on Hiway 14, it now looks like this

Note the fatal hemorrhaging underneath.

 

The little Toyota decal that used to be on the front is gone. I wonder if it is stuck on the side of the deer, which was a buck, by the way and survived the dead on hit, the flight across two lanes of traffic, and the skid into the ditch. Only to be dispatched later by either the fireman who stopped to check on things or the state trooper. I didn’t stick around for that.

After the initial blow, I sat in the steaming wreck and wondered who to call.

Who else? Laura. Seriously, clerical support is exceptional at Olmsted County. Although when she got hired I am not at all sure picking up a crazed public health nurse on the side of the road was in the job description.

And she was so darn pleasant about being awoken at oh dark thirty to come to my rescue. Although she says it’s better than the “Cattle are out” phone calls from the farm. Probably not by much.

And, she gave me a ride home too. On another day I would have had her stay for dinner and some pleasant ear piercing squawks from Pete. But today I didn’t think of that. So I owe her a dinner and some pleasant squawks from Pete.

I also owe a debt of gratitude to Chris, the only person who stopped. (I think he just wanted to bag a deer), and to my glorious co worker Mary K, who offered to take me anywhere I wanted (I would have called her but I already called her early yesterday when I discovered I forgot my glasses and had to drive back home to pick them up). And for listening to me deal with the aftermath,  Cathy and Cheryl, who, by some weird accounting have 6 hits between them, some involving crazy situations like the deer hitting them.

I just can’t imagine what will possibly happen next……

 

We got cows…

Laura, my faithful blog muse, has captured best blog picture of 2009

Meet Twinkles, the latest addition to the farm, cow number 201. Laura’s parents live on the farm, which provides no end of amusement for me. The amusement factor for Laura? Not so much. But isn’t that just the cutest thing? I am referring to Twinkles, although not a bad picture of our little Laura, cow whisperer and Bejeweled Savant.

Which brings to mind this

People, we’ve got cows.

Hallelujah for the Sappy Christmas Movie

Ok, I know, it is too early for Christmas, it really really is. BUT-what can I say-the ABC family channel has started the Countdown to 25 Days of Christmas-November 10-30th.

I know, that’s a bit squishy but you get the point. Then I suppose it is the Countdown to Christmas, 25 MORE great movies.

Then I saw a commercial for Fa La La La LIfetime starting just after Thanksgiving.

Although I have seen most of the movies, you can’t help but be drawn into the predictable plots and ok acting. I love them!

Bring on the season!

 

November Already

My how the time flies. This week the weather has been lovely. Friday and Saturday in the 60’s. Weird.

Oregon lost to Stanford, how I just don’t know. It seems every time I watch a game the team I want loses. I thought about sending my story into the Onion-“Football teams ask fan not to watch-upsets directly linked to one fan’s viewing” Oh well. Today I can jinx the Packers (again) and possibly Seattle, although I don’t think they need my help.

This is my new office.

I am taking the picture from where I sit, which is over in this corner for now.

Although this is not actually my desk. I sit on the other side of this by the door and the wall, but I am filling in for someone so I get to sit at her desk and watch the 2100 building. It is very distracting because of all the hard hats around

Ok, there aren’t too many in this picture but believe me, they are there. I can watch them go in and out of the portapotties too. Which we never did decorate. Laura told me that on Friday, tall hard hat was hanging from a harness out here. I can’t believe I missed that.(We have names for all the hard hats-tall hard hat, bicycle hard hat, briefcase hard hat, no hard hat hard hat, you get the picture)  They are working over on the second floor of the 2100 where I will move in Jan, or Feb, or March-whenever. Most likely on the coldest snowiest day of the year. I thought it was supposed to be done in September but, well, you know. We’ll have a window over there too, but I am not sure we will have as many.

The 17th is Blane’s 25th birthday. I am making him something (it’s a surprise) and got him a couple of other things. We will be having a little party next Sunday. Which means CAKE. I’ll have to order one today.

I finished the block in the round. It is a hateful block. I made a zillion mistakes, the directions weren’t real clear and it looks like crap, but it is finished and I’ll hide it in the finished afghan somewhere unnoticeable.

It doesn’t look too bad in the photo, but in person-yuck.

Well, back to work. I have to finish up some homework. Only 3 more weeks of that before I take a break from school and rethink my options. I have a request to make a quilt for someone so I am anxious to work on that.

AND I got my Christmas Club check so I am off to do some online Christmas shopping. WhooHoo!

Halloween Babies, Among Other Things

Last weekend I went on a knitting spree. I finished two blocks.

This one I was close to done

And this one I finished in a day (it was easy)

Now I am starting the one for November, which I have ripped out three times. Finally, in a flash of insight, I figured out the mistake and will be casting on and getting lots more done today.

On Wednesday, my work went on a retreat. We went to Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch, which was a very nice place.

This was the building we were in. There were a few dead things on the walls…..

 

I don’t think this is local fauna.

We looked out on this

There were also extra large items scattered about

This is a big chair-look, we all fit in it

There was also this big tire coming out of the ground

Unsure of the purpose of this.

We shot wrist rockets at this target

We went on a wagon ride, the views were pretty.

Friday was Halloween. I saw some scary babies

And this one

Chase loves to touch Cora. I don’t think he believes his eyes or something. Cora thinks-bah, boys….

But I think maybe Laura and I were even scarier

 

I actually got Laura to smile. I think I win the scariest costume and make up contest.

I finally got to see Kristen’s cute little Peyton. Or as she is also known, Tater Pie.

In real life she looks just like a little china doll. And the hair! She was born with all that hair-she is only 5 months old!

Note difference between Cody and Peyton’s hair, or lack of it. Hmmmm. I think Cody was even older than 5 months here. I tell ya, I can’t wrap my head around it. So to speak.

Kristen and Peyton-two cute girls!

Saturday was the H1N1 clinic hosted by Olmsted County Public Health.

Although they planned for a thousand, I think we got about 400. My guess is not enough publicity, and not specific to the target audience, which was under 18, under-and uninsured, and caregivers, pregnant women. We did have a few children. Would love to have taken pictures of some of those kids. Man but they were cute. However, the law prevents me from plastering their pictures all over my blog, so here’s the empty rooms.

 

This is where they filled out forms and got vaccines. That little group of orange vesters in front are the interpreters.

This is where I worked. Screening. Hey, it was fun for a while. And I get next Friday off in return. Unless there is another surprise clinic.

I got this from my Starbucks swap partner, Lisa. When people knit up such great items I feel so guilty. I can only knit little things. But I do think I put together a nice package to send to my swap partner Nancy. And I bought a pumpkin spice latte with the gift card to get through yesterday.

Last, but not least, I went in the kitchen the other day and had that eerie feeling someone was watching me. I just couldn’t shake it. And then I saw this

Creeepy. She probably still blames me for the time she woke up and was missing a couple of canine teeth.

Here’s the big picture

That was last week. I also did some homework and went to the gym and watched some TV and played Bejeweled compulsively. The birds went to the vet and one has a cold and has to have medicine. The dog threw up once. Dave told many stupid jokes, most of which made me laugh.

All in all, just enough excitement to make things interesting.