Bicycle

So I took my new-to-me thrift shop Schwinn to Main Street Bikes yesterday.  It's early May;  Michigan is finally admitting (late and grumpily) that spring is amongst us, and I have the itch to ride.

I haven't really ridden a bike since I was ten, but I've been thinking about it for a couple of years.  I look online at all the pretty bicycles, go to stores and test ride them, and then something comes up and the bike money gets spent on whatever the emergency is.  So up until last fall, I had no bike.  Wiggy now has three -- a hybrid bought new several years ago, a vintage-look, also bought new, and a thrift-store find of the newspaper-delivery type.  He doesn't ride any of them, and they tangle up in the garage with the out-of-work snowblower or lawnmower, depending upon season.  I actually like his hybrid -- a 2005 Trek  -- but the frame is far too big for me and I can't straddle the bar and have both my feet touch the ground.  It makes mounting and dismounting rather harrowing for a fat newbie.  I feel like Calvin on a bicycle.

Furstaneeta

Back again.  Lots of things happening, but every time I think of posting, my list of furstaneetas surfaces.   You know furstaneetas, right?  That's "First I Need To", frequently followed by thenaneetas, or "Then I Need To".  I plan to put out my autumn decor, but furstaneeta clear Wiggy's assorted technocrap off the hearth, coffee table and floor; thenaneeta vacuum and dust the living room, dining room and foyer.  Down to the basement to get the boxes of decor, but furstaneeta get past Wiggy's stereo stuff, scattered over the basement floor (my interpretation) or carefully laid out where he can find everything (his interpretation).  And thenaneeta drag the boxes upstairs, while not tripping over the dogs -- Molly supervises, Milo protects me from the Evil Horrible Boxes. (I just live here.  I know I'm not in charge.)

Anyway, the furstaneeta for posting is that I still haven't found my camera software for uploading and editing.  But this will just have to be a photoless post, for now.

I'm back to working on Midnight Watch.  I'd like to get this done and framed by Hallowe'en, so I moved it back up the rotation again.  I'm allowed to do that -- it's my rotation, right?  I also pulled out the 2000 JCS ornament issue, and finished a Pat Thode/Heartstrings Santa I have been promising myself to do for years.  I think he's a bit big for an ornament, so this may turn into a flatfold finish.  This will, of course, necessitate a trip to Joann's or Village Quilting for finishing fabric.  (Darn.  Fabric shopping.  How will I ever survive?)  I bet I have Christmas fabric in my stash . . . but that would be a furstaneeta, to find the stash in the first place.

And in wildlife news, we finally caught and dispatched the skunk that's been plaguing the dogs.  We don't let the dogs out in the back yard anymore until one of us has checked the bushes and hiding-spots for any lurking beasties.  When Wiggy went out late Sunday afternoon to beat the bounds, he saw that same skunk evict an opossum twice its size from bushes in the neighbor's yard.  It was still limping, still showing no fear and still out in daylight -- all bad news.  So we borrowed our friend Dave's Havahart trap, and caught the thing on Tuesday night.  We'll still check the yard before we let the dogs out, though.

There's a craft fair and a cider festival on Saturday at Diehl's Orchard and Cider Mill in Holly.  And it'll be sunny and in the 60's!  Can't wait!  I'll work on that camera software furstaneeta so I can post some pictures.

Arts & Apples. And dessert.

We moved here from North Carolina in mid-May, and one of the first things I did was to bookmark Michigan Festivals & Events, because Wiggy has been telling me about all the fun things that go on over the weekends here. 

Last Saturday was the 45th annual Arts & Apples Festival in Rochester, and since it's so close to home we put it on the calendar.  Wiggy discovered two weeks ago that they also hold an apple pie and apple dessert competition during the festival.  Now, I love to bake -- I do a killer cheesecake, and there's a lemon buttermilk poundcake I make that people in Wilson, NC call "crack cake" because it's that addictive.   But I've never entered a baking competition before, and I thought that this might be the time to start.

So I went through my favorite apple dessert recipes -- my piecrust needs a lot more practice before I enter it into any competitions -- and found a Bavarian apple torte that I'd made once before and thought needed some tweaking.  And I began to tweak.  Brown sugar, white sugar?  Whole wheat flour, or would that be too heavy?  The apples, the spices, the cream cheese filling . . . Wiggy, Mom and several friends ate an awful lot of torte in two weeks.

There were 13 desserts entered, and 12 pies.  To my complete and babbling shock, I won the blue ribbon for desserts!  This is the link for a post from Oakland County Moms with the recipes for my torte and the winning pie.  And this is a link to a story filed by CMNTv, a local cable channel -- you can see what I mean by "babbling shock". 

All the pies and desserts were cut up and sold by the piece after the competition, and I came home with a blue ribbon.  I am still flat-out amazed -- but I'm going to do that again.  That was fun!

Day, interrupted

Well.  Wasn't that exciting.

This time Molly got hit right in the face and chest, poor baby.  She and her brother have had two H2O2 baths, and she still has traces of the smell on her.  I haven't touched any stitching yet because I'm scared that any smell I have on my hands will transfer to the linen.  Something tells me that hydrogen peroxide and baking soda won't make a sampler happy!  So I'm not taking any chances.  I'll probably be able to stitch again on Friday.

There is an arts festival I've been looking forward to -- the Art & Apples Festival in Rochester.  It's a juried art show with craft booths and vendors, and also -- I just found out a couple of days ago -- an apple pie or dessert competition.  I've never entered a baking competition before, but I'm going to enter a Bavarian apple torte in this one.  I'm wildly excited about it.  Wiggy and Mom have agreed to be my test audience, and I'll probably drag a few friends into it as well.  I'm happy with the flavor and texture (just enough crunch, just enough juice), so now comes the part where I tinker with appearances.  Saint Julia, pray for me!

It heard me!

That wretched skunk that was on my mind?  Apparently it reads this blog, because when I let the dogs out at 10:30, it was right there in our yard and sprayed them both.  They've both had their hydrogen peroxide/baking soda/Dawn bath, but I can't tell if they're fully deodorized because the whole freakin' yard smells of skunk.

Shoot me now.

Snapshot of a Wednesday morning

I saw a version of this on Annette's Acre and I like the idea of a "snapshot" once a week.  Thanks, Annette!

Outside my window …..sunshine, a light breeze, and the beginnings of a hot day (for Michigan)

I am thinking about …. the Bavarian apple torte I'm auditioning for a baking competition in two weeks

I am thankful for …… having the time to bake!

I am wearing …..stretchy denim jeans, a lavender t-shirt and battered old moccasins

I am loving ….not having a job to go to (for now)

I am stitching …. DT's Marriage of Minds

I am looking forward to ..... the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild meeting in a week and a half

I am hoping ….. to find the software for my Nikon Coolpix camera, so I can reload it onto my computer

I am drooling over …. Abigail Colby's Workbasket  Accessories

I am sorely tempted by …..the beginner's quilting class at Quilt-n Friends, even though it doesn't start till October

I am hearing …… WQXR (my favorite classical station from NYC days -- gotta love streaming internet radio) and my cat Five who is snoring quietly on the desk in front of the monitor

I am reading …The Duke's Children, by Anthony Trollope

On my mind ….. the skunk that may have taken up residence under my neighbor's back porch.  Milo hasn't yet figured out that consorting with skunks earns him an industrial-strength bath and exile to the backyard for 24 hours.

Hoping your day is interesting and creative --

Catching up

How did it get to be Friday already?  I swear it was just Tuesday a minute ago . . . wasn't it?

I've been working steadily on Marriage of Minds.  This is not a pattern to be hurried through -- not that any needlework is to be hurried through, but especially not this one.  It's big, it's complicated and it's a bit finicky as to stitches, all of which are good things, and I expect to be many months on this project.  (Our tenth wedding anniversary is in January 2012, and it might actually be finished by then!)  Quite a change from Midnight Watch, with its big sections of fill-in-the-moon.  So I'm taking my time making sure that the branches of the tree are properly placed, and the leaves, and the roses . . . .  Y'all understand.

I've found some really lovely tiny samplers on a French blog, Echevette.  I fell in love with her freebie chart "Tea Time", and I think it would make an exquisite needlecase.   She has a lot of charming patterns, and even those of us who can't read French can appreciate her work -- we stitchers all speak the language of needle and floss, anyway.  (There is a button for a Babelfish translation on the webpage, but personally I think Babelfish makes matters worse, not better.)

Tomorrow we go to Fogler's Greenhouse and Greenmarket in Rochester.  Wiggy is packing up his cameras, so there should be some photos of our adventure.