Weekend Thread, November 2024

I am putting together a new soup recipe for dinner this evening. Our high is only going to be about 60 degrees (F) so this is the real intro-to-fall meal. Biscuits on the Side. Otherwise, reading and thinking and maybe constructing an outline.

What have the rest of you got, going on?

I am finishing the last day of my etching course. Mostly printing today. I am excited to see the final result.

I need to do some work on a Science of Reading course I’m taking. Then probably watching some football. Hopefully a run or walk after it warms up a bit. It’s only 31 degrees (F) out. A pretty mellow Sunday.

>1 jillmwo: Had to check my calendar to make sure this was indeed Sunday and not Saturday. Amazing how the days become all alike as soon as you don't have to be at work every Monday.

Sunday is clean the cat litter day (as are several other days in the week) because the garbage man cometh on Monday.

I am making what I predict to be a failure bread. I ordered some vegetable powders for coloring baking goods early this year. Never got around to it, and I think they work better in cakes than bread, but bread is more what we like to eat. Yesterday I cut my normal bread recipe in half, and of the amount of flour, I added 1/2 c. of the vegetable powder instead. I think the proportions are still ok, there are 2 c. flour. Mixed 3 batches; one with beet powder, one with matcha tea powder, and one using oatmeal to make the 1/2 c. I added too much water to the beets and the oatmeal dough. Decided to use my Kitchenaid to knead it (this is always sketchy with sourdough because it can get too hot, but I did it carefully letting the dough rest between mixings). It rested 4 hours on the counter last night, and possibly in my imagination it started to raise a bit, or it could have just spread out in the bowl. At that point I had to go to bed and didn't want to leave it out all night, so it went into the refrigerator. It's out now and I will watch and wait for the dough to rise, no matter if it takes all day. Since the temperature in my house is 63°, it just might take that long. When it does puff, I will braid the three doughs, let it rise again, and then bake it. After I made the doughs, I read that vegetable powders do not keep their colors after baking, but turn a dull sort of color unless you add some vitamin C to the dough. Oops. So if I get bread at all, it will be ugly and probably taste a bit odd. I don't know why I get these whims, but at least I will have learned something.

I might make some pease porridge hot today. Yellow peas, carrots, celery, onion, garlic, ham broth, some greens minced up and some garden herbs. If not today, then tomorrow.

I also sent a pleading sort of text to my daughter-in-law asking when we get to see the grandson again. I mean, we haven't seen him since Halloween! ;)

>4 MrsLee: Well, I enjoy your adventures. Frankly speaking, I want to know how that bread comes out, ugly or not. Inquiring minds and all that.

>3 catzteach: You're below freezing! (And yes, I vaguely know you're further North than I am, but still...31 is below the magic temperature.)

>2 tardis: I'm sure the output will be wonderful.

>4 MrsLee: Ah, adventures in baking! I am keeping my fingers crossed.

>2 tardis: Exciting!

It's been a pretty calm weekend, with a concert highlight:

I was lucky and managed to get tickets for a Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott concert. So husband and I went on Sunday evening, and it was a delight.

>7 Alexandra_book_life: Lucky you! I've seen Kathryn Stott performing, but not Yo Yo Ma.

The lows in central Texas will be in the low 60s, except for Tuesday morning when it's possible that my immediate area could dip below 50°.
So, I roasted a whole chicken and hard boiled a few eggs this evening.
Tomorrow, they're going into the crock pot with 2 containers of broth, potatoes, beans, carrots, broccoli, and celery (and probably other stuff I can't think of at the moment). Bacon - a couple of strips (cut up) of crispy bacon - with most of the fat cut off. It's more of a gumbo than a soup, but I like it.

This is the product of my etching class. 4 days over 2 weekends. This is the best version so far, but there are a couple of others that I'm happy with, and some day when I have time I will go back and print a few more.

>10 tardis:
It looks super.

>10 tardis: That's lovely! So much detail.

>10 tardis: I knew you'd turn out something wonderful. I really like the image.

Oooh I love it! Fat bird!

>10 tardis: That is lovely! Excellent work!

>10 tardis: That is gorgeous! Well done!

>10 tardis: Oh wow, that's impressive!

Went to see my 1 yr old grandson (and his parents) this last weekend. It was a very nice trip. Grandson is adorable of course. His parents went to a fancy dress party on the Saturday night. The them was The Great Gatsby, with wine and cheese parings. Fun idea, and no one ended up dead in the pool. There was no pool. There were cocktails though, and all arrived home safe and sound.

On the way home yesterday we were driving into the west and for about an hour were treated to the most beautiful sunset I have seen in a long time. Now and then the view was amazing with mountains and valleys, and at one point the river was winding away towards the sunset. The car could not be stopped for a photo however, because we were trying to get home before dark. We didn't quite make it, but got there before full-on darkness.

>18 MrsLee: I'm so pleased to hear there were no cadavers in the pool at the party's end! And that sunset sounds heavenly.

>18 MrsLee: That sounds like a fun party! And I'm glad you got to enjoy that glorious sunset.

Quiet weekend here. Spent an hour or so Saturday afternoon cleaning up the previous weekend's storm damage in the front yard. We had intermittent thunderstorms for three days, so there were a lot of small branches down in the yard. The old, old maple tree sheds branches in the mildest of breezes, so storm winds bring havoc. This wasn't so bad, though.

Sunday was a lazy, lazy day. Woke up around 7 a.m., did my usual morning routine, then curled up on the sofa and dozed for an hour or so. Puttered around a bit, did a load of laundry, reheated pizza for lunch, then fell asleep again on the sofa after for an hour or so. Finally summoned up the energy in the afternoon to make a crustless pumpkin custard from a recipe I found online. It turned out very nicely, and the kitchen smelled great because of the cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice.

>21 Hammy_JLK: I love quiet weekends! Going out is fun but sometimes you need down time at home.

Or in a cell. Hey, it's only weekend detention, right? I can still commit crimes during the week.

>23 MrAndrew: Oh, dear. I thought I'd shared with you that committing mayhem in broad daylight is a bad thing. You should do what I do -- surreptitiously slip the strychnine into the individual's tea and then beat it out of town like the proverbial bat out of hell.

Hubby should be home this evening and we're planning just to be together at home. With him traveling so much, we only see each other a few days each week. Nothing too exciting. We did chores last weekend so might have all free time with no commitments. I discovered that the 1980s tv series Crime Story is on Amazon Prime and so have been reveling in the early days of Dennis Farina's career. Other than hair going from jet black to snow white, he hasn't changed. Love it and we'll probably binge some of it since it's so fun and features actors who have gone on to become more famous, or infamous. Oh plus it has a GREAT soundtrack.

My wife and I are heading to Belfast to celebrate my sister's 80th birthday. I have just been digging out a 1951 recording I have of her reciting a poem that was her party piece. The poem is presented below:

My Daddy

My Daddy is a big, big man,
He stands just six feet high.
When I look up at him he seems almost to reach the sky.
He takes me on his shoulder and gives me a nice ride,
All round the room, and up the stairs, and on the grass outside.
Sometimes he is a dancing bear
He walks on hands and knees
And like a bear, he picks me up and gives me a big squeeze.
But Daddy never hurts me,
No. He makes me laugh. It’s fine.
There never was a daddy half as good and kind as mine.

>26 pgmcc: Enjoy the celebration. Love the poem.

>26 pgmcc: Your sister wrote that wonderful poem on her 9th birthday?!? Impressive!

>27 MrsLee:
Glad you like it.

>28 ScoLgo:
I do not believe she wrote it. She recited it at a family gathering for recording greeting to five family members in South Africa. I have just corrected the date. It was Jan 1951.

While I do not believe she wrote it I cannot identify a source on the Internet for the poem. I thought it was generally well known at the time, but if so it has not yet developed a digital footprint.

Have a wonderful celebration!
The poem is great :)

I'm going way outside my comfort zone on Saturday night.
Inside said zone is playing guitar and singing in any of over a dozen Open Mic Night venues in Austin and parts north. Wooden music.
Tomorrow night, #1 son invited me to check out where he works. He's a manager at an electronic music venue near the airport, a place called the Concourse Project. I expect it will be loud, with a laser light show and I will likely have a migraine before I leave.

We are becoming empty-nesters again! Younger son moved out (mostly) today. He'll be back for more of his stuff, but as of tonight he doesn't sleep here anymore. This is the second time he's moved out. The first time was before Covid, and he moved back just before the world shut down. Hope this time it works out better!

Other than that, I have a Conservation Weekend event tomorrow morning, at which I am probably volunteering. Probably because I was supposed to be a last choice if they couldn't get anyone else, but I haven't heard one way or the other.

And Sunday I leave for Salt Spring Island again to look after my mother for a week and a bit.

>31 WholeHouseLibrary: is an "electronic music venue" like a nightclup? Take earplugs.

And be sure to get your boogie on at the dancefloor, you'll be amazed at how good it feels.

Last weekend was busy - I got sucked into organizing this year's annual chili lunch served at the seniors centre after the Remembrance Day ceremony. It's a fundraiser, and we usually get a good turnout. Since we don't currently have a working stove, I had to borrow portable burners from the library. I also had to ask for and pickup the groceries from one of our grocery stores (they donated everything), and take the meat, which we already had, out of the freezer in time to thaw. We cooked it Sunday. The only thing I messed up was not getting enough celery. Many of the volunteers had helped before, so they knew what to do. Monday I got all dressed in my fire uniform for the ceremony, went to the seniors to make sure we were ready, helped finish decorating, then left it to other volunteers and went to the ceremony. Both it and the lunch turned out well. Friday night was a book club meeting, which is more social than bookish.

We have enough snow to ski now, so I'm getting out most days. My friend set the tracks on Thursday, which makes it nicer. I'm working on the annual Arne and Carlos Christmas stocking knit-along at the seniors and library knitting groups on Thursday and Fridays. Last night was another get together with some book club friends. One of them called us together to share that she was breaking up with her husband of 26 years and would be leaving town. Today I'm running errands, going for a ski, and getting ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow I have a follow-up echocardiogram booked. Unfortunately those have to be done in the hospital in a town 4 hours drive away, so most of the day will be driving there and back. I have several audiobooks ready for the drive.

>34 NorthernStar: how big is your town? I am imagining a small town like in Northern Exposure (remember that show?)

This weekend is pretty uneventful. Staying at home and hoping to put up some of the Christmas lights. Doing it now as yucky weather is moving in. Today it’s cold: we woke up to temps in the teens (F). Brr.

I’m also hoping to work on my temperature blanket some. I’ve been having elbow troubles so I couldn’t crochet for a couple of months. I am way behind.

And I would like to put in some serious reading time in my book. I also have some lessons to look over for the next couple of weeks.

>33 MrAndrew: I don't boogie. Motorcycle accident over 50 years ago chewed up the nerves in my right leg, and I had to learn to walk again. Walking, even standing still, is a conscious act. When I play at OMNs, I have to sit in a chair. If there isn't a chair, I could lean up against something - maybe. Stools are iffy. Too much effort to stand (or balance on a stool, sing, and play the guitar at the same time.

Like the philosopher Callahan said, "A man's gotta know his limitations."

>35 catzteach: not quite that small, and nowhere near as cute. Plus no Chris in the morning. I think the town is currently about 3500 population. It is shrinking, as we have lost a lot of major employers - chiefly our lumber mills and biggest gas plant.

A slow weekend, we haven't been doing much (chores, books, maths and reading with my son). It's been getting colder - ca 6C (43F) during the day and 3C (37F) during the night, so I prepped some of my plants for the winter and moved some inside. It was satisfying. I am planning to work for a couple of hours today, with stuff I haven't managed to do last week because of too many meetings, lol. That should be satisfying too.

This is the second slow weekend in a row, maybe I should make some plans for the next one ;)

We have a football game tomorrow. It's supposed to be pouring the whole time. I'm guessing we'll leave at halftime because we will be losing and The Husband won't want to stay in the rain and watch them lose. We haven't had the best season. :/

It's the first weekend of Thanksgiving break - my district takes the whole week. Mine is already busy: two ultrasounds on Monday, Wicked the Movie with friends on Tuesday, and someone coming to clean my blinds on Wednesday. In between, reading and working on a Christmas puzzle I picked up today.

I'm still on Salt Spring Island. Mom has been in the hospital all week so I've been spending most of my time there. Fun times. Don't know when she'll be discharged, but she is getting a bit better.

>40 tardis:
Best wishes for your Mom. I wish her a speedy recovery.

>40 tardis: I hope your Mom gets better soon!

>40 tardis: Wishing your mom a speedy recovery.

I'm going to be preparing food and getting ready for next week's guests this weekend. I think there will be 25 of us at my sister's next Thursday.

>40 tardis: speedy recovery to your mom.

>40 tardis: I'll join my wishes for your mom's recovery to everyone else's above. The situation can't be easy, so be sure to take care of yourself as well.

>40 tardis: What Jill said. Pictures in the Tread the Globe series seen on YouTube recently (but filmed a couple of years ago) made Salt Spring Island look very scenic.

>40 tardis: I hope your mum gets better and can come home soon.

Thanks for all the good wishes for my mum. I left yesterday and she was still in the hospital. A respiratory therapist put an oxygen machine in her apartment and my step sister (who is WONDERFUL) says she's being discharged today. Mom is 94, frail, and has congestive heart failure, but you never know! She's pretty tough, all things considered.

>48 tardis: I hope she continues to improve and does well at home.

Today is Thanksgiving dinner prep, though about all I can do today is make cranberry sauce and get a few things ready, and clean.

>48 tardis: I'm glad to hear she can go home. Best wishes to you all.

We are celebrating our Thanksgiving meal on Saturday, so I have a couple more days before the real pressure is on. Although, this year I am only cooking a few things I want to and my daughter/daughters-in-law are doing the rest. Still, no one is cleaning the house except me. Sigh.

I've been struggling with a mild stomach bug for a couple of days, but I think it's going away.

My company arrives Friday, then most of them will be going to a light show in a park. I will stay home because I know I will be too tired by that time. On Saturday, we will eat the big meal around 3, then off they will go to the town's Christmas parade, again, I will stay home. After the parade they will all come back here (including my husband's sister and her family) and we will have dessert and games. Big weekend. Sunday our son plans to clean out the gutters on our roof before he heads home.

I have a brother in the hospital, he is recovering from pneumonia. We are hoping he will be able to be home soon.

>48 tardis: I’m glad your mom is able to go home.

>50 MrsLee: sounds like a wonderful weekend coming up. I hope your brother heals well and quickly.

I’ll be doing all my cooking tomorrow. We have our neighbors over, but that’s it, so it’s not hard to put together dinner. And this year I have an air fryer so it’ll be even easier with the oven not being needed for a couple of things, stuffed mushrooms being one of those things. :)

>48 tardis: I hope all goes smoothly!

We're eating at my sister's, but we are all bringing dishes, so I have been making one dish per day since Sunday. We are expecting torrential rain tomorrow, so I might pack my car tonight. It's in an unheated detached garage and it's going to be 40° overnight so the pies, wine, crackers and cranberry sauce will be fine. I will schlep the creamed onions and assorted cheeses through the rain tomorrow.

I forgot to mention, while I was on Salt Spring I bought CHEESE! Quite a lot of it, direct from the goat farm. Mostly chevre with various flavourings, but I'm going to savour every bite :)

>53 tardis: That sounds amazingly delish

>53 tardis: Yum!

>49 Karlstar: The 'usual' (post covid) group will be here soon. My parents, my sister and my nephews. My niece in-law is working today. My sister works at the same hospital lab, so they essentially alternate who has holidays off, on a 4 year cycle.

I've been unaware of the situation of tardis's mom, but am happy to hear that things are looking up for her.

I played "Alice's Restaurant" on the guitar and sang/said all the verses this morning. I stopped hosting Thanksgiving dinners after Karrell died and have generally spent this day alone (my choice) since then. My sons will be not celebrating the day by visiting their mother and having pizza again (her choice.) No doubt they'll be out of there no more than two hours later. But, in a couple of hours, I'm going to one of my regular Open Mic Night (OMN) venues for a Friends-giving celebration. It's the first of these I've ever been to, and am glad I was asked to join.
Happy also to say I'm going away for the weekend - and I won't be alone. Too early in this relationship to even mention to family members, but she a very good blend of what so endeared me to MrsHouseLibrary while being in many ways not like Karrell at all. I'm optimistic.

Well that sounds like a heaping helping of positive, WHL. May things go well.

For most of our relationship, Thanksgiving has been just me & hubby. Our choice, especially now we live in another time zone. So I just peeled pears for a pear crisp and will do whatever else is needed to get the meal done. I'm not the cook, so I do the scut work generally. It's ok. We'll have turkey, mashed and gravy and then maybe watch Wall-E later.

>57 WholeHouseLibrary: Hope your OMN is great and hope your weekend is wonderful.

>48 tardis: It's great that your mom can go home! I hope she will continue to get better.

>57 WholeHouseLibrary: Good luck with OMN, and I wish you a wonderful weekend trip.

Gee, thanks for all the encouragement, but I need to set the record straight. The Friends-giving celebration will be at the OMN venue (coincidentally on the day that the OMN normally occurs,) but there will be no OMN event.
And there's a very long explanation as to why, so I won't. You're welcome.

>58 Bookmarque: Pear crisp sounds great! I am overdue to make apple crisp this season, just haven't gotten to it.

I'm a bit overwhelmed and tired. Recovering from the wonderful weekend with all my children and the grandsons.

Saturday was odd. We were in full meal preparation mode. I had been up since the wee hours making a cranberry curd pie, mushroom stuffing, eggnog and dinner rolls. The turkey went into the oven an hour late according to our calculations, but finished an hour and a half earlier than we expected it to. I had just pulled it out of the oven and discovered this when the power went out. So "yay" the turkey is done, but "oh no!" none of the sides were ready. So we covered it with foil and sat around visiting to see if the power came on. We figured that if it wasn't on by 2:30, my son would take the potatoes to his house to cook since they had power, then we could eat turkey, carrots (which his wife made) and maybe a couple of side which they could heat in their oven while the potatoes cooked. The dinner rolls were baked, as were the desserts. As my son was walking out the door, the power came on, so we all jumped back into meal prep mode and had dinner on the table by about 3:45.

They made it to the Christmas parade in time, my daughter and I cleaned the table, put away the dinner (please explain to me why there seemed to be more food after feeding nine people than there was before?) and got the desserts ready for the next infusion of company. Husband's sister and her family (6 people) came over for dessert and games. People were still visiting at midnight when this grandma went to bed.

Next morning all my family arrived for more visiting and a family photo and an attempt to eat some of the leftovers and divide and conquer them by sending home some with each of the three families. Husband and I still have loads here, but it seems more manageable.

A lovely and exhausting weekend. Today I am recuperating. No reading except for a Peppa Pig Christmas book to my grandson. I don't know if the book in the touchstones is the correct one. He loves Peppa pig. The other day he came into the room where his father was and said, "I'm a cheeky boy." Now that is true, but his dad had no idea where he picked up the phrase and how he used it correctly. It is not common speech here.

Tomorrow I will be treating my brother to some fried oysters for his 71st birthday. He had a bad result on his P.E.T. scan, but we are enjoying life and thumbing our nose at cancer for now. Fried oysters were something my grandmother excelled at and we both love them. I will be making a frittata for our spouses, along with fried potato patties and fruit.

Other brother is doing better, and should be released from the hospital to physical therapy today or tomorrow.

>64 MrsLee:
It sounds like a wonderful but exhausting weekend. Best wishes to your brothers.

>64 MrsLee: My dear woman, sit down and get those feet up. Of course, you're wiped out with exhaustion. (All those people in and out -- regardless of how much loved they might be -- is enough work for the holiday.)

>64 MrsLee: Of, I'm so glad that the power came back on in time! I've never had the power go out on Thanksgiving, but I have had it go out at very inopportune moments, and ended up grilling things that are not usually associated with that method of cooking.

I'm so sorry about your brother. Enjoy those oysters. They are supposed to have very medicinal properties!

Amongst others.

>64 MrsLee: You deserve a good rest after this wonderful and exhausting weekend!

My best wishes to your brothers.

>64 MrsLee: That sounds like a lovely weekend. I'm glad you and your family are focusing on enjoying life.

Well, last weekend didn't happen. She had Thanksgiving with one of her sons and the grandkids, and picked up some kind of bug; cancelled out of an abundance of caution. And she was sick for two days. But we've been talking on the phone every day and we're going to meet for coffee in a couple of hours. It's going to be raining here for the next several days, and she's feeling much better, so it looks like at least some of last week's plans will play out this coming weekend.

>71 WholeHouseLibrary: I am sorry to hear that! But it looks like you will do nice things anyway, so best of luck :)