The Cross Country Trip

When my daughter, Becky, got a job offer while home on vacation, I quickly volunteered to help her pack and move from Los Angeles to Minnesota. I flew out and we packed for 3 days, the truck came for her stuff on Friday, and we had Saturday and Sunday for good-byes and her last church jobs. Sunday she woke up with apparent food poisoning. There was no way she would be singing and/or playing organ at church. We still had hope she would recover enough to attend a farewell dinner at the Hamburger Hamlet. As the day wore on, even that had to be scrapped, and I was depressed to think we'd have to delay our Monday morning departure.
Monday morning she was feeling better, but we ended up leaving closer to noon, than the 6 AM start we had originally planned. At least we were on the road. Nothing appealed to me at lunch in Barstow at the Big Boy, but I ate a sandwich, and left most of the fries. We spent Monday night in Cedar City, Utah, and I only ate about half of my orange chicken bowl from Applebees. I figured it wasn't good to eat heavy that late, but it still sat in my gut like a lead ball.
Tuesday morning I woke up vomiting. This was definitely not the mother-daughter experience I was hoping for. We stopped at the Wal-Mart, stocked up on barf bags, Alka-Seltzer, etc., and hit the road. Neither of us could eat much, so we lived on Sprite and ice chips for the next day or so. We made it to Denver by Tuesday night. It was late, so no dinner, and Becky wasn't sure if her tummy was upset or just hungry.
Wednesday morning we managed toast and scrambled eggs. We got our earliest start so far, about 9 AM. Was great finally being out of the mountains where the driving was less stressful. We made it to Des Moines by early evening. I discovered it's not easy eating a bland diet on the road. We picked a Country Kitchen, thinking surely they would have chicken noodle soup. The soup choices were calico bean, cheesy broccli, or baked potato, which I ended up choosing.
We were within about 4 hours of home, and it was 8 PM, so we decided to go for it. Our saving grace was an audio book I had on my iPod. It couldn't have been timed better. We had been listening off and on the entire trip to Chill Factor by Sandra Brown. It's a "whodunit" that keeps you guessing until close to the end. The end of the book came as we made the last turn half a mile from the house.

Rhubarb Leaf Birdbaths

Several of us got together a few weeks ago to attempt to make those very cool birdbaths from concrete. We each found some large leaves. You need to pick your leaves right before beginning your birdbath. We had a bagged concrete product that we added water to make the consistancy of brownie batter. We each had a rounded pile of sand, which we covered in plastic wrap. I'm not sure this was necessary, because the leaf goes on next, face down with the veins up. Next, we placed concrete on top of the leaf, about an inch thick. The edges are smoothed, and you just follow the shape of your leaf, so that it forms an upsidedown "bowl" over the mound of sand. The concrete needs to cure for at least a couple of days.

We got together the following week to paint our creations. One bag of concrete goes a long ways. I'm looking forward to trying it again next summer. I wish the darn gophers, moles, etc., in my yard hadn't killed my biggest rhubarb plant.

Becky's Favorite Cookies

Becky will be home on Saturday for an almost two week visit, so I made a batch of her favorite cookies this morning. It's an old family recipe that I've never had anywhere else.

BANANA OATMEAL COOKIES

1 1/2 C. flour
1 C. sugar
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 C. shortening
1 egg
2 mashed bananas
2 C. oatmeal
1/2 C. chopped nuts

Cream shortening and sugar, add egg, mix well. Add dry ingredients, then alternate banana and oatmeal, and nuts last. Bake at 400 degrees, check after 10 min.

Men's Fingerless Gloves

Here's a pattern I created for men's fingerless gloves. I gave three pair as Christmas gifts. I used Lion Brand Woolease for two pair, and a blend of wool and microfiber for the third.

Materials: Worsted weight yarn
Size 8 (5mm) 32-inch circular needle

Using circular needle, cast on 44 sts. Divide sts in half, 22 sts each on front and back; make sure you don't twist when joining.
Work in K1, P1 rib until piece measures 2 inches.
Work in stockinette until piece measures 5 1/2 inches from beg.

Shape thumb
Rnd 1: Work 16 sts, place marker, M1, work to end of first needle
Work 6 sts, M1, place marker, work rem 16 sts.
Rnd 2: Work 1 rnd even.
(Rep Rnds 1 and 2) 3 more times. Then work 2 more rounds even.
Divide hand and thumb

Work 19 on front needle, bind off 7; bind off 7 at beginning of 2nd group, work rem 19 sts.
Work even for 1 rnd, joining above thumb opening.
Continue to work in stockinette until piece measures 9 inches.
Work in K1, P1, rib for 4 rounds. Bind off in pattern.

Let me know how yours turn out!