so what am I doing today, you ask

Since many chores have been neglected lately, I checked the calendar for the week and discovered nothing scheduled to use as avoidance.  So, today we make the apple pies for the freezer.  David had sorted the freezer all out to make room for them.  We had planned a minimum of two large ones and up to 8 small ones ( 2 serving size).  I made a big batch of pastry, and mixed a big batch of sugar, cinnamon and minute tapioca.  David started peeling and slicing apples.  Oh, Oh--apples aren't so good, had to throw a couple away.  Ended up with two large pies in the freezer and a big bowl of leftover pastry.  So--we make butter tarts, but couldn't find the recipe.  Finally found one that sounded about right in one of my cookbooks ( it was surprising how many of them, including Company's Coming, had NO recipe for butter tarts!).  David commented that it might be a treat to have some cinnamon toast if there was left over cinnamon sugar--so I spent about half an hour trying to put the cinnamon/sugar/tapioca through a sieve.  Cinnamon toast for breakfast tomorrow! Couldn't save the tapioca, though.

Meanwhile I was ordering magazine subscriptions over the internet, and decided that it would be a good time to order a video I've been looking at for awhile.  An hour and a half to download, and I do this so seldom that I'm not sure what I'm doing.  It finished downloading and started playing( all by itself--I didn't ask it to!!) just as there was a crisis time in the kitchen, so I stopped it, planning to play it later.  It totally disappeared.  Nowhere to be found!  Frustration and bad words!!  So it was downloaded again, but  this time I pressed "save" instead of "run", and when the download was finished I sat and watched the whole thing, before exploring ways to save it for posterity.  Meanwhile David, discovered that the toilet was broken, and set out to fix it.  First set of "innerds" turned out to be useless and he is now trying to fit in the second set (That's two trips Rona in less than an hour) To deal with everyone's frustrations I have suggested that we walk over to the mall and get some shrimp fried rice to go with the chicken planned for supper.  Won't save any money but we'll feel as though we've had a treat.

And, this being Hallowe'en, the church across the street has a big sign out front inviting people in to warm up or use the washroom.  So, for today I'm grateful that I don't have to worry about having a toilet to use until at least 9:00 tonight

Now I can breathe!

Just got home from delivering my three pieces to the gallery in Selkirk for their month-long exhibition.  I will be volunteering in the gallery on three separate days during that time and there will be a reception November 13th in the afternoon--should anyone be available.  Now, I have no more deadlines until April, amd it's the time of year to hunker down and find busy work.  The next step is to sit down and make up a list of the next few commitments I have.  Luckily the commitment part is in my head and not on paper.

 Having said all of that, I've poked my head up and started looking around the house.  OMG!  So vacuuming, and freezing pies is in my immediate future.  Having bought poultry with Cathy's help, we stocked up on beef and pork this weekend.  Not a lot, as I'm not supposed to have a lot  (any?) of it, but every once in awhile I get that craving.  The price is certainly right this year, and I have to wonder why that is.  A lot of beef producers had to cull their herds with all of the flooding last srpring, and it's obvous that there isn't much hay around.  Always the little guy that suffers, isn't it?

We are blessed with nice weather.  I was communicating with a lady in North Carolina today and she said that the weather forecast for her area was for snow this weekend.  Never happened this early before on records.  So, of course, I had to tellher about the beautiful fall weather we're having here.  Someone will get me for that!

David had a cancerous growth removed form his nose last Wednesday.  It was supposed to be minor surgery, but he looks like he's been beaten!  A lot of bruising, and swelling,, and there are about 8 ugly, black stitches.  His face is too sore to shave, so I was out shopping with a pretty scruffy bugger today.

But we have food, ( freezers and pantry are full)  and shelter ( Hydro was in and changed the gas meter on Friday), and High Definition tv, so we are ready for winter--and for that I am grateful but broke.

Finally finished

The beading on the piece I need to deliver by Saturday.  I still have all of the finishing to do, but thankfully, it won't need blocking.

Everything else in my life has been on hold for a week and a half now.  David has been a brick, picking up a lot of the slack and running errands for me.  So you would think things will be back to normal now, but the next week is going to be  pretty busy.  Amber and the girls were over for supper tonight,and the little one was cranky and full of cold.   Amber says she hasn't been sleeping with the cold, and that tonight probably won't be much better.  Amber, herself is showing the strain, and I worry. She has a lot on her plate.  I remember those days of full time work and small children--not a good time in any woman's life.

We all have such different lives.  All of us have stressors, but they are very different for each of us.  I'm feeling very introspective tonight, thinking of life, love and mortality. Maybe the time of year reflects the time of our lives.  Wow!  Maybe I should just have a glass of wine and go to bed.  And I'm grateful for having enough wine in the house to do that--whenever it's needed.

Same here

Have been very busy working on a deadline for a new piece.  I really hate deadlines, and avoid them religiously, but got caught this time.  I have to have this finished for delivery a week today and have other commitments for most days next week.  So have figured out the hours and need to work every minute I can. 

I'l be in touch when I can.

Be - Still here....

...a quick note just to say I'm still here but haven't been able to check or write for awhile. So nice to see the picture – wine glasses and all! Terrible weather becomes very depressing day after day – and tonight a severe weather watch with forecasts of approx 40 mm rain, and winds up to 90km/hour. Yippee. Happy to read all your news and hopefully I'll be able to write a longer note soon. Take care

Holidays are over....

... time to go back to work for a rest. I think the closest I came to a vacation day was last Friday when I skipped meat draw and stayed home. I tried to suck Pati into taking some beets and carrots but I think she was on to me. As a result I have got 16 bags of beets in the freezer and we had some for supper. I put Auntie Lorrain's sauce on them. Yummy! I still have the carrots to do, but the garden is completly empty now. Jim is hoping to get some of the leaves tilled in to give the sandy soil some body. Rrain had a good time at her conference in Winkler. She met some nice people and made some good contacts for work. She came home excited. Except for the part where she did something to her neck and is currently living on T3's. She brought home some cinnamon buns too. My mind wonders back to food over and over. That must explain my size. We are having an inches challenge at work now. We are recording our cumulative loss of inches from now until March. I have a feeling that after this week I will be starting all over again. I think it is just a scam 'cause Patty & James are planning to get married and Patty wants to look good in her wedding dress. They don't have a date set, so I guess the challenge will go on until she is happy. Rrain says she will be crashing early tonight, but I think I might beat her. After digging up the garden and then processing the beets and cooking supper and cleaning everything up, I am sore and tired. One good thing about beets is that you DO clean up right away and don't leave anything until the next day. Tomorrow when I get up for work :( the kitchen will be clean. Today I am grateful that I got to see Pati, even though it was a whirlwind trip. It is nice to have that phyisical touch.

An adventure and lunch

But first----Lunch

Yes, a flying trip up to Neepawa to pick up the chickens and turkeys that we ordered.  They arrived unexpectedly yesterday. A beautiful fall day, and much better than maybe driving through snow in a couple of weeks.  But--another very windy day. David had quite a time keeping the car on the road on the way up.  We went through the best part of 1/2 a tank of gas just getting there!  We had said that  it would be a flying visit, but it turned out to be a little more flying than I expected--I don't think we spent 1/2 an hour there!  David really wanted to make sure we got home before dark and we made it around 4:00.

On the way up we noticed an "open" sign at the pottery, so stopped in on the way home.  We have wanted to get one or two more small covered casseroles for awhile now, as the ones we had are slowly cracking beyond use.  Well, I guess we arrived at the end of day 3 of the sale.  We found more fibre art than pottery, and no sign of any covered casseroles.  Just as we were about to leave David spotted one on the table behind the cash desk, and remarked that it looked like exactly what we wanted.  She then said that it had a rough spot and if we wanted it--she would give it to us!  Say what!?!

Of course, then I felt obligated to buy something,but we honestly couldn't find anything that we wanted--and we were prepared to spend the equivelent to the price of a casserole.  So we ended up buying a coffee mug to go with my collection, but now it's home, I see that it really doesn't match.

It must be a long time since we were out that way.  They are building two huge overpasses on the West Perimeter just North of the race track.  This is obviously a major project and the signs predict that it will take two years to finish.  It's also interesting to see the development going on in Headingly.  This is definitely a growing community.  There are housing developments North of the highway, for as far as you can see.  There is also water in most of the creeks and rivers--not common at this time of year.

The trip home was much easier.  The wind still howled but it was a tail wind.  It must be fall--there were an awful lot of roadkill.  And a lot of idiots on the road.  But overall, I'm grateful today for the washrooms at Tim's in Portage, and a day spent in the company of my husband