1. Questions in the comments about the recipes: Here you go! Squash Rolls – I can’t believe so many recipes are featured in this Google Book. If you’re interested in other recipes from this cookbook, I highly recommend their French bread, the apple pie with cheddar cheese, and the Cuban black beans. (Sadly, two of those recipes are in the “omitted” part.) Here’s the recipe for Libby’s Great Pumpkin Cookies. Git to bakin’!

2. The Tripping Point: No mention of Tripper the past while – that dude wears me out as much as I adore him. So I think he’s staying with us. Two weekends ago I was at 85% certain he was ours, JWo was at 40%. But then this past weekend, JWo made the point that Tripper’s Fetching Tag will have to say “Three’s Company”. That tells me the little dude might actually be a NuWo for good. Granted, we are now outnumbered by the dogs, but Tripper needs us on his side, since Suzy and Polly are still none to pleased by his presence. Polly at least romps & plays with him? Suzy just low growls and will occasionally lunge at him to remind him that SHE is not to be trifled with. And the consistent use of peanut butter in his Kong is pissing them off. Sigh. I think I’ll be better with it all once he’s out of puppy stage – and just when I think I’m at my wit’s end with him, he’ll do his real hard leeeeean up against you, just every ounce of his being squirming and telling you he’s RIGHT HERE and ready for some love.

3. Halloween Costume: I was intending to come as a client – either one with lots of changes, or one with lots of cash. But now, I think I’m going as spaghetti & meatballs. So I gotta make some meatballs that can be attached to clothesline (spaghetti) & I’m going to wear a red shirt. Then I can drink red wine freely at the afternoon party!

4. Aw hell. My new socks that I finished knitting are black & orange & won’t go with the above outfit. I’ll get pictures up tomorrow, hopefully, but still. Maybe I’ll wear black & figure out something else for the red sauce. ARGH.

5. The new camera is a little Kodak, purchased from Costco on sale – 12.1 MP, EasyShare V1233. It isn’t on the website anymore, it looks like it was one of their limited time offers – under $200, with a free 2GB digital card, and I had a gift card from my birthday (thanks Momma Linda!) which made it even more attractive. Pretty sweet, and it’s SMALL, which was the one thing lacking in my Canon. Which still takes amazing pictures, it’s just too bulky to put in my purse. (And I have some big purses.) I still need to install the software, but anymore, it’s just so handy to take the digital card out, offload the pictures, and be done. If only I had mad photo editing skillz….

6. I bought a SNUBNOSE cap gun at CVS over lunch. It was the name “snubnose” that got me. I was really in the aisle for a Tide-to-Go pen, and the snubnose cap gun caught my eye. (You can buy most everything you need at CVS. Laundry needs, toys, craft supplies, clothesline? Check, check, check and CHECK.) I never had a cap gun, or really got to play with caps at all as a child. Better late than never. Plus, I think it might be an effective way to handle some of my frustrations with deadlines and changes. Controversial, yes, but therapeutic nonetheless. The brand is “Super Bang” and I kept reading it as “Super Bad” which only appealed to me MORE. Aw hell. I’m reading the directions and cautions right now. “Do not use indoors.” Fuck. Oh and I sure won’t want to have it around in my encounters with KC Swat – “This product may be mistaken for a firearm by law enforcement officers or others, that altering the coloration of markings (my snub is orange, green, yellow, red & clear – clearly the choice of hard core advertising bangers everywhere) required by state or federal law or regulations so as to make the product look more like a firearm is dangerous (really? Duh.) and may be a crime and that brandishing (oh hell, I’m a brandisher) or displaying the product in public may cause confusion (the public, they are easily addled – by FIREARMS, plastic or otherwise) and may be a crime.
Now, how many 8-year olds are gonna read THAT fine print? And I must say, the most fun part – next to brandishing – is already ruined, because the barrel doesn’t spin. Sigh. That’s what lets people know you’re a true badass. Super Badass.

7. I just noticed that this lovely “toy” was made in China. I guess it gives a whole ‘nother level of caution & alarm to eating my gun…..sorry, gallows humor. But seriously, all sense seems to be lost anymore & governments have to step in and be parents – like the dude on NPR this morning, who informed us that there’s a huge recall of those fugly fake teeth, because they have “too much lead paint” in them? Maybe we shouldn’t use lead paint on things that GO IN OUR MOUTHS.

8. That’s all folks, for today. I’m disappointed in the state of our trees – that spring frost and unseasonable weather really jacked up our foliage displays, they’re normally gorgeous and this year they’re just blah. I guess I wasn’t quite done. Oh, and I was thinking that my number ONE driver irritation is people who go BELOW the speed limit. Followed quickly by lane drifters, due to jabbering (or texting) on the phone. Third would be shitty lane changes/cutting off cars/forcing yourself into a lane even though you knew you had to be in that lane but the line was shorter over there and now you’re being a dick about it and creating a problem for everyone? OK. I’m done. Fo’ real.

AOKey in your dokey, here we go.

1. I took Friday AND Monday off from work. And from most things in life, except you know, knitting, tv, food and sleep. Oh, and shopping. I did shopping tours of duty three out of the four days. (Some of which involved necessities, like groceries.)

2. I barely made a dent in my List. Oh, List. You sweet cruel mistress. I am a forgetful gal and having a list is so helpful. Except when you leave the list at home and you’re at the grocery store. That’s how you end up with 5 12-packs of Diet Dr. Pepper, 2 bags of Nestle Chips, a tub of sour cream, some Miracle Whip and a can of crab meat in your cart. And then, my whole saving-the-earth thing, bringing my own bags? Yeah, that doesn’t work if you LEAVE THEM IN THE CAR. And the one thing I said I’d get done? Sew a skirt? Nope. Didn’t happen. I did locate the fabric. Maybe I’ll get it washed so I can try at that list line item this weekend.

3. I have to go shopping again because Tripper? (Who has not found a forever home, or HAS HE AND WE JUST DON’T KNOW IT?!) Tripper loves the baby Kong, and it goes under the various sofas a LOT. So in an effort to get it (and prevent the yelping of displeasure, for there is only one thing he wants when the Kong is under the couch and that is THE KONG), James accidentally knocked over the floor lamp (that we bought to replace the last one that was broken (by someone else)) and I need a new lamp! It’s too dark to knit in the living room without it. Poor Wo, I made him go out to his workshop to get sandpaper, because the lamp also gouged a chunk out of the barn door table and it was rough and discolored and was sending my personal universe spinning into the Black Hole of FreakOut (Things are messed up! Things are different! Things aren’t how I want them to be! Oh My God! I am not in control!), and I wouldn’t let him eat dinner until it was sanded & oiled. Actually, I had dished up his dinner but he was perhaps making a bit of fun of me and my Unsettled-ness that eats at me and makes me slightly unbearable when things need to be done in order for things to be Back To Normal. A casual observer would think I beat him, but don’t you believe a word of it. As it is, order is barely restored, it is hanging on by a thread, until we get a new lamp. And perhaps the jumbo Kong, one that will not roll under a sofa!

4. Sunday was a nice day together, we drove down to Schell City & visited his duck club (the house where the hunters all stay) and took Polly and Tripper on some water retrieves. Poor Tripper, he didn’t go out far enough so he was coated in algae. Poor Jen’s Shirt, because Tripper is still learning Do Not Jump Up, and my naive belief that I wouldn’t get dirty was trashed within five minutes, as muddy pawprints and shaken muck decorated most of my t-shirt.

5. Back at work, there were a few gems waiting for me – but for the most part it hasn’t been too arduous or enraging. However, the day’s only half over. :)

6. I was surprised and delighted to learn I won the Guess-How-Much-Stuff-I’ll-Buy-At-Rhinebeck contest over at YoYo Knits! I started daydreaming about going to Rhinebeck myself, and wondered if I’d just get so overwhelmed, I’d climb into a pen with a sheep and clutch it, emitting low moaning sounds and twitching. Please note that in my daydream, I have no idea I’m kneeling in poo. Anyway, thanks for the shout-out, Alyson, and it looks like you had an awesome time! I feel lucky…oh so lucky….. :)

7. Speaking of dinner (back a couple of orts), I made a kickass soup yesterday – and since it was a cold windy day, it was perfect soup weather. I just slow-cookered up half a brisket (cut up) with some of the straggling garden tomatoes (crushed), and diced onion, carrot & potatoes – some seasonings, beef bouillon, a little water – on high all day. It was yummeriffic. We put some habanero vinegar (homemade) on top & it gave it just the right amount of spice & zing. I was worried the meat would be too tough, but it was perfectly tender.

8. Dudes, I’ve only had rice crackers for lunch & I have to move my car so clients have a place to park (bleah, I hate our parking situation) so I better get to it. I’m overdue for a blog post & everything’s sorta floaty-out-there – just like it is in my head! Latah gatahs……