It's a Blowy and Snowy Wednesday - Winter Has Finally Arrived

So, it's snowing. We got the leaves raked and the patio put away just in time! I'm proud of us (and rather surprised that we managed it). Although originally they had predicted around five inches, I suspect it will be closer to three. Still, I'll have to shovel the driveway soon. I think my grocery store will be running their usual hours, so if I get out there around 7:30 am, I should be fine. There are a few things that I HAVE to get - I'll be running out otherwise - and I need to make a batch of Ogre Juice today for the upcoming week. I won't get Friday off, so everything has to be accomplished today. No chicken for dinner, however, since I have a 14 pound turkey in the refrigerator waiting for Thursday morning. 

I'm thinking about making another batch of sweet 
potato spears. It's such an easy recipe and they're 
so very tasty. 

I'm skipping swimming today because of the snow. We got anywhere from 3"-5" inches overnight, although it really didn't start falling on us until around 2:30 am. It's not bad by any stretch, but I have to get the driveway shoveled. Of course, I forgot to charge the batteries for my automatic shovel, and I'm uncomfortable about using the snow blower (although DH has demonstrated it for me several times). So, I'll have to shovel with my trusty lime green shovel. It's not my first rodeo, but it is my first real snowstorm since my cancer surgery, so I might be exercising muscles that don't get used in my swimming or treadmill days. 

Turkeys are actually pretty easy - they cook themselves while 
we watch football - LOL. It'll just be nice to have a day off 
before jumping into the holidays with both feet. 

Speaking of the treadmill, on Monday it came up with an error code. That was disturbing, but I was too busy at the shop to put any time into it. I was too busy yesterday as well, I'll have to contact them today, though. I unplugged it overnight to see if it might reset on its' own when I restore power later this morning. It sure would be nice if it did. 

I adore my treadmill, but having the virtual scenery is 
essential to my being on it. Otherwise, it's just too 
boring. Right now, however, it's coming up with a computer 
error code. So ... I unplugged it and will check it out again 
today. Just one more thing - LOL. 

So, that's it for me on this snowy Wednesday. I won't actually post tomorrow (except to wish people a Happy Thanksgiving Day). I'll be back on Friday, however, the first day of our two day sale - Black Friday. The e-mailer went out (I'll double-check that a little bit later today), the store is a disaster, but that's because we're working so hard on getting everything ready to clear out next year. We'll manage, but a good holiday season is mandatory, so Friday and Saturday will be crucial. I'm not sure I'll put up garlands, but I don't need to have them up for the weekend, I can do that early in December. DH wants to change ballasts in our overhead lights (something he absolutely HATES to do), so we're both looking at some early morning hours to actually be ready for Christmas. Have a great day and a good Thanksgiving and I'll be back on Friday. Slava Ukraini. 

Thanksgiving Was A Lovely Day - Food, Football and Holiday Cards

Thanksgiving turned into a very productive day. It was warm enough (barely) for DH to finally attack the gutters around the house, clearing out the leaves so that we will have less ice buildup over the winter. He was chilled and grumpy afterward, but also glad he got it out of the way since he's been wanting to get that done for a few weeks now. 

Our turkey looks slightly overbaked, but it was 
absolutely fabulous. The skin was crispy and 
perfect, the interior was juicy and flavorful. It's 
one of the best turkeys I've ever roasted. Yippee! 

I, on the other hand, started working on my turkey at 7:00 am and had it in the oven by 8. I followed the directions of my favorite on-line turkey guru to the letter (almost) and even added chopped rosemary and thyme into the melted butter that I put between the skin and the meat of the breast.  Then, uncovered in a VERY hot oven for 20 minutes (although I forgot and left it in that very hot oven for 40 minutes instead), and then covering the whole with foil and turning the temp WAY down for the next few hours. 

We like a well-basted turkey, so I was up basting it every half-hour or so. I had my digital thermometer inserted, so wasn't worried about anything else. I turned it around 180 degrees mid-roast and re-inserted the thermometer in a different location which did seem to need more heat, so it was good that I did that. DH started making his side dishes and I pulled the turkey out to sit and rest for 20 minutes while he cooked. Finally it was ready, and it was absolutely AWESOME. Very flavorful (the thyme and rosemary were an excellent idea) and yummy! I steamed some fresh green beans and had a large salad, DH had his stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy and corn. The best part of this meal will be the leftovers. 

I love my Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I don't have 
this many, but I do have a very nice selection. 
I'm going to need to start buying the refills for 
them, so I'll have to start a list of which ones I 
own and which refills I've already purchased. I 
think that will make a nice holiday gift for 
myself - one that DH would never think about 
getting for me. 

I spent the majority of my day, however, working on painting my holiday cards. I got about 2/3 through the fronts of the cards, and then I'll tackle the inside of the cards on Sunday. I'll (obviously) finish the fronts first before starting the interior image. It's been fun to pick up paint brushes again, it's been a few years since I've painted my cards so it's a nice change. It'll still be a bit before they're finished and ready for mailing, but I'll tell you when they hit the mail so that you can watch for them to arrive at your homes if you've on my list. 

DH did a great job with the store tree on 
Wednesday. I ended up going over to the 
shop Wednesday night to spend an hour or 
so getting the garlands up and the wreaths 
on the door and front case. I have holiday hours 
signs in my laptop bag to hang on the door and 
windows today, and some handouts for the 
bags of our customers. I think we're as set as 
we can be for our Two-day Sale. 

Other than that, we watched football for the day. Some really good games were played yesterday and apparently, the Minnesota Vikings ended up winning their game. (Since it was the late game, I went to sleep before halftime.) Still, all in all, it was a lovely Thanksgiving. Today and tomorrow is my Two-day After Thanksgiving sale at the shop, and Sunday is the last Sunday I'll have off from working until Christmas Day. That's a rather depressing thought, all around *sigh*. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Gifts and Holiday Schedule - A Bird and An Upcoming Sale

Yesterday was crazy/busy and I ended up missing a zoom call completely because I messed up the time. They always state the time in New York time zone for their US customers, and I know there's an hour difference between NY and my home state, but for some stupid reason I suddenly thought it was an hour later, not an hour earlier. Oh well, the calls are recorded. I can catch it on replay. And I was busy wrapping holiday gifts for DH at the time anyway, so it would have been hard to pay attention to a Zoom call and deal with scissors, paper and tape at the same time. 

I'm pretty plain with my wrapping - there are 
only the two of us - I'm pretty sure that if I 
didn't wrap it, it's for me, and if I did wrap it, 
it's from me - LOL. 

As some of you might remember, I had purchased a new blender in mid-November (the 18th to be precise) because the carafe on my old one (purchased at the end of March) had cracked and it was leaking badly. I had glued the cracks but that was a temporary solution. Since they no longer had the carafe available, I gave up and bought a new one. So ... I had used it 4-5 times, and noticed I was getting cracks in the new carafe on the new blender. I called customer service and they arranged for me to get a new carafe, which arrived earlier this week. 

My Ninjo Professional blender doesn't have the 
food processing bowl (far right), but it does 
have the other items. However, if the carafe simply 
can't hold up to what I make, it's worthless 
to me. 

Yesterday I use the new carafe for the first time. I took photos before using it, because I have a feeling that this is an engineering issue and that the problem will happen again, probably just as quickly. But I was able to use my blender as needed yesterday, and I'm going to keep a very close eye on the carafe. If it's the physics forces that I think - the blade and the torque causing problems - I'll be trashing another new blender within a few months and buying a different brand - something substantial that will hold up making my veggie smoothies. You wouldn't think it would be so difficult to puree a bunch of fresh veggies that are cut up, but I guess I'm wrong and it's much harder than I thought. 

We usually do our holiday gift exchange on Christmas 
Eve, but since we're closed for Christmas Eve this 
year, we're doing it tonight after we close the store. 

Today is our final open day at the shop before the holiday. We'll do a small gift exchange tonight before we go home, and then we'll have three full days off. BLISS! I will be swimming at 5:00 am tomorrow morning - I really don't want to miss my time in the water - but then I'll come home and cook a turkey in my new oven. I'd better double-check my recipe file on my computer to find my turkey instructions.  I did bake my chicken breasts yesterday night, after having done a thorough self-clean cycle on the oven earlier in the day. The chicken breasts turned out perfect, so call me a very happy person. The turkey will be our "trial by fire" for the new oven, though. We'll see how well it does on my bird - LOL. 

We like a nice brown skin on our bird, which I usually get 
by basting it every 20-30 minutes for at least two hours, usually 
closer to three hours. It just gives a lovely bird. We're having 
our Thanksgiving a month late but now we have an oven, so 
all is good - LOL. 

Have a wonderful day and I'll be back tomorrow, but then I'll skip the entire weekend and relax before we dive into our 4-Day End-of-Year Sale to wrap up 2021. I'm hoping things will be a bit of a zoo, but not so busy that we can't take care of our customers with our usual level of efficiency. I'm also crossing my fingers that my computer system won't spit. It's ancient, and it's been having "issues". Enjoy your Thursday. 

It's Gong To Be A Great Week - We Get An Oven Tomorrow, So We Shopped

DH and I actually had a rather nice Sunday, even though we had to work-. It was our final Sunday open, and we needed to do a lot of other things too, so we were shopping for a turkey and groceries at Target and then at CUB grocery at 8:00 am. Why a turkey? Because our oven will finally be delivered and installed tomorrow, and we want a turkey for Christmas Eve. We didn't get our own turkey for Thanksgiving, went to the buffet instead for that lovely meal. I'll have to look back at my posts, but I believe it was August when the oven broke, three days after the refrigerator. I know it was before Sharon came to visit us and attend the State Fair. 

If I'm correct, our new oven should look quite 
similar to this. It's a GE oven, in stainless steel 
and black to match the rest of the kitchen 
appliances. At this point I don't care what it 
looks like, I just want a functional oven again. 

I'll check dates and talk about this in a bit more detail tomorrow, but we bought a turkey, and stuffing, and assorted other things. I'll still need to do a Wednesday shop, and maybe even an early Friday one - even though that will be Christmas Eve and shopping should be vile. But our neighborhood grocery store is closed on Christmas Day as well as the day after to give their employees a well-needed break, so if I need something over the weekend, I'm out of luck. 

I might have to use actual butter. I'm looking through 
butter substitutes for my turkey and I'm not really happy 
with any of them. I use a butter substitute for my 
grain-free toast in the mornings, but it just doesn't 
have the same properties and I want this turkey to be 
perfect for DH. 

I'm trying to think of a reasonable butter alternative for the turkey. I try to stay away from dairy as much as possible (sometimes it sneaks into something, but generally, I've been pretty successful with this goal). But the turkeys that I made in the past, used quite a bit of butter under the skin, as well as for basting the turkey. It gives a great flavor as well as that perfect brown look. This year I'll be using my remote temperature sensing thermometer, as well as the new oven which actually has a window in the door. I just hope I don't get that residual metallic odor that can sometimes happen with a new oven. Sometimes it takes several days to burn that out, and turkeys are pretty sensitive to that. 

We picked up a nice, small turkey, about 8 pounds or so. 
It should be the perfect size for DH to pick at for a few 
days, and it will give me a nice drumstick and some 
breast meat. He eats most of the turkey. I don't mind 
turkey, but I get bored with it fairly soon. Of course, the oven 
needs to be installed first ... one step at a time. 

If the gym is open on Friday, I'm still planning to be there to swim before diving in to food preparation and three days away from the shop (hallelujah!). I have a lot to do before then, however, so I'm just going to get started right now. Have an excellent start to your week and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Rain in Late November is OK

We're in that in-between time when snow and rain each seem to have equal footing. Last night and throughout the day today it will be rain because we're just a few degrees above freezing. That's just fine with me. As long as the wet stays above freezing and I don't have to drive on iced-over roads, I'm a very content person.

I love falling asleep to the sound of falling rain. 

I finalized my holiday card list last night. If you were on the fence about asking for one to be sent to you, I still have a few slots open, just message me and I'll add you to my list. I'll be printing up envelopes and doing the final interior designs this week and, if everything goes smoothly, they will start to get mailed during the first full week of December.

The best thing about Thanksgiving is that one large bird can give us a lot of meals. We had our main meal on Thursday, then ate hot turkey sandwiches on Friday. DH had more sandwiches on Saturday while I opted for a day off from turkey and did Chipotle instead, and on Sunday we made new mashed potatoes, stuffing and gravy and had another Thanksgiving meal. The carcass has now been denuded and is in the trash, and there are two zip bags of turkey still in the refrigerator for DH to munch on and have for more sandwiches. That's a lot of eating for less than $17. Gotta love it.

DH loves his hot turkey sandwiches. He'll end up finishing all
of the leftover meat by the end of the week. 

Our Friday and Saturday sales went really well. Thank goodness. I think I picked the right items to put on sale and quite a few of our customers came in on both days to take full advantage. Now I can relax again until Christmas and our after-Christmas sale. Guess I'd better start thinking about what I want to feature for the last days of the year.

I don't run Cyber-Monday sales, even though I do have an on-line
presence for the shop. I'm not selling DVD's or TV's. My line
of product works much easier in person. 

I hope all of you have a wonderful Cyber-Monday. I glanced at the advertised sales this morning, but there really wasn't anything that I need, so my bank account will be happy. It'll still be a busy day, though, since Chickie is off on Mondays and I work the sales floor solo most of the time. Have a wonderful Monday, I'm off to the pool. OH, and I just realized, TODAY'S POST IS NUMBER 2400! Yeah me - LOL!

Snow and Ice Finally Came to the Northlands

Well, we got our first snow yesterday and we'll be below freezing all day today, so the roads will be icy as I drive to the gym and to work. I will have to build in a little extra drive time this morning because the roads might be a bit dicey with the first snow of the year.

The roads may be icy this morning, and since we'll be below
freezing for the day, driving may be nasty. We'll all be relearning
our winter driving techniques. 

I'll be changing my jackets today. It's time to put away my fall leather bomber jacket (love it) and pull out my winter parka (certainly not as cute, but a lot warmer and more waterproof). Suddenly I will become one of the masses of Minnesotans who exercise really poor fashion sense for months while pushing through the winter months. I expect I'll be able to put the parka back into the closet in April.

It's time for our winter coats. This is the season of scarves, hoods, hats and
little eye contact because we're watching the surfaces we're walking on.
Nobody wants to slip and fall on an icy sidewalk. 

I have a 16+ pound turkey sitting in my refrigerator slowly defrosting. Thanksgiving is rushing toward us and will be followed by our two-day After Thanksgiving Day Sale. I started working on the e-mail notification yesterday and I'll be working on it again today, getting it ready to send out early next week. I only run two major sales each year - one after Thanksgiving and one after Christmas.

We love our Thanksgiving Day meal. Turkey and stuffing and lots
of veggies - it's a wonderful meal that almost cooks itself. 

I'm setting up the final printing file for my Holiday Card envelopes. I'll be contacting some of you directly to find out if you would like a card again this year. I don't want to miss anyone who might want one!

Sure it's not Christmas (yet), but I'm making my envelope
list for my holiday cards and yes, I'm checking it twice. 

So, a boring post today, but I have snow and ice on the brain and I'm focused on getting things completed here before I can head out. Sorry ... not every post is a winner. Winter is calling! Have a wonderful weekend.

Hell Day #1

Today is the first day of our End-of-Year 3-Day Sale. I reslly don't like running sales, it makes customers wait for a special before buying and we pride ourselves on our pricing year-round. But, we have had a year-end sale for the past few years and it has always been successful. This year we had our three day Thanksgiving sale and now we will have this one, that's it. I guess two sales isn't too bad.

The first day of any sale is usually the busiest and I'm hoping we will get people in quantities that will allow us to help them adequately and not overwhelm the staff. We'll be working hard and I know I'll be very grateful when 6pm rolls around and I can lock the doors again until tomorrow. I'll probably be so exhausted I won't even have the energy to write.

So I'm already looking forward to my New Year's weekend. We're closed on Sunday, of course, our standard hours are only six days a week, but we are also closed on Monday so I'll have a rare chance to have two days off in a row. DH wanted a turkey for Sunday dinner, so my refrigerator is currently hosting a turkey getting ready for the oven.

I've been listening to some CD's that I won on a charity auction. The group is called Boiled In Lead. They are a Minneapolis musical group that started in the 90's and play Irish influenced music and some of the Irish standards, but with a very distinctive twist. I'm just loving it. Want a better idea of the group? Here's a You Tube link for you.

New Year, Same Salt Mine

So, today it is back to the salt mine for me.  Work beckons, and I start the day out with a visit to my Chiropractor.  It was wonderful having two weeks in a row with two days off in a row in each one.  On Saturday, January 1st, I roasted a turkey for dinner per my DH's request.  The bird took longer to cook (my oven is rather wanky), but I also cook turkeys by instinct rather than written instructions, and I baste it - a LOT - which causes the oven to constantly be losing heat.  But it makes for a luscious and moist bird with a beautiful crackly brown skin.  Yummy!  My DH is loving picking at the carcass and he will continue to do so for the next few days.  One side of the bird is, as of today, completely eaten, and one side remains.  We also had the usual fixings - mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, gravy and cranberry sauce.  Our Thanksgiving, delayed by a little over a month. 

This wasn't my bird - I'm not that fancy to have all that

"stuff" around the bottom.  But mine looked that good

for all of 15 minutes while it sat before it was cut up and eaten.

On Sunday, my DH wanted to watch the football game at noon, and I wanted to go to Barnes & Noble to download some more books ($ of course, but worth it).  So, off I went to Barnes at noon, parked myself in a chair with my Nook, and read, searched, purchased, downloaded, etc for a couple of hours.  I decided to download some of the more recent Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey that I didn't already own, one more of Patricia Cornwell's novels, and a set of four novels by Ariana Franklin dealing with her character, the Mistress of the Art of Death, medieval historical fiction in the time of Henry II in England.  Fun.  This, plus the tales that my friend Surgical Steel passed on to me last week, should keep me busy for a while.  My DH says that he is happy to see my nose in books again - I haven't done a lot of reading of novels since my Lasik surgery.  I'm just delighted to be able to carry so many books in such a small package - happy me.  What a nice way to start my new year. 

Decisions, Books and Arts

Well, it was a nice weekend. DH and I played LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online) for several hours, working on getting a couple of characters up in levels. We ate pasta on Saturday (the usual wonderful pasta from Bascalli's) and the last of the turkey on Sunday. "They" (the ubiquitous "they") say that turkey should be eaten within three days of Thanksgiving or put into the freezer. I prefer to just eat it and end it. I think I'm turkeyed out for several more months and think I'll do ham for Christmas instead. But it was very good, and actually healthy (although the amounts DH and I ate maybe were over the "healthy" mark).

I am looking forward to putting my kiln into my car on Tuesday and bringing it home so that I can get some serious work done on Wednesday while I'm home. I'm trying to think of the best place to place it so that I can work easily and still contain the heat that it normally generates. I don't have a real secure and non-shaky metal item/rack/shelf to place it on that also has good lighting. Normally I would put it onto the chest freezer - I use that space for my electroforming, my dehydrator for my metal clay work, and for my toaster oven for any resin enameling or mass image transferring for my etching work. I know it will handle the weight of the kiln without a problem. I'm just not sure about the heat, and the lighting isn't great right there. But it may be the best choice. I'll contemplate it a bit more today.

And last night I had fun with decisions. I've got my head deep in a book (actually some fan fiction that I am really loving). I had a choice - do I spend the calories for a piece of pumpkin pie that I really don't want, or have a glass of wine that I've been wanting for several days. Wine won out. I'm pleased with the choice and may have some more tonite :-) Have a wonderful Monday - think artistically.

Turkey Day and Black Friday

Turkey Day was absolutely wonderful, even if I was in serious pain from a small microfracture in my shoulder-blade. These are never fun and always take several days before the pain is reduced But turkey, stuffing, corn, potatoes, cranberries and gravy with pie later that night certainly helped to minimize the pain :-) I actually had a really good holiday for a change - no major arguments, a good meal, all things worked. It was SO nice to have a full day off.

So today is Black Friday. In years past I was one of the crowd of shoppers who would be at the stores at 5am. Well, it's 4:44 am, I'm sitting in front of my computer in my shrug, and I have no intention of running out and shopping at all. I'm trying very hard to spend an absolute minimum of money this year for gifts - I just don't have the money available. So I'm thinking about everything twice and making as many things as possible. Next Wednesday's studio day will allow me to try out some oil enamel paints that I picked up. If they work as well as I hope, I'll be one step closer to another gift for my DH. Hope you enjoy your own Black Friday.

Production Envy

I have production envy. I look at what other artists are able to produce for sale or in their "off" time and they are making scads of stuff. Simply SCADS of stuff. And then there's me. Even with things that should be quick and easy, I only have 1-2 hours every 2-3 days to work on things so I get a small amount of things actually finished. Today will be another day like that - although I hope that things will at least progress to the point that I won't mind wasting my Turkey Day (tomorrow) with playing Lord of the Rings Online with my DH and cooking my turkey.

I'm going to start today at one of my favorite places, Continental Clay in Minneapolis. I want some overglaze paints for my enamel. I've been trying the powdered pigments in my enamel paints, and I simply don't like them. I can't get a good consistency, it burns out WAY too easily, it just doesn't act the way that I wanted. I thought back onto what Linda Darty (see book above) had available for us to borrow when I was in her Master Class at Revere Jewelry Academy in April of this year. Her paints were ceramic paints and they worked really well. I know she said that the brand she used was no longer being made, but I have found a substitute available at Continental Clay that may work for me. They open at 9am. Ohhhh.....shopping! And if the paints work well I can progress with the portrait for my DH's holiday gift.

I'll have to go into the shop for a few hours this afternoon. Today is the day that we decorate the store for the holiday season. We'll put up the tree, string garland, and make sure that the front window lights are operational. And I'll stay FAR away from the grocery store today - all of those last-minute turkey shoppers can be very intimidating. I don't plan on posting tomorrow - just enjoying a full day off - so I wish everyone a wonderful Turkey Day. Have a safe and happy day with family, friends, and the foods that you love to eat.

Reflections and Saturday Musings

The turkey has been purchased. For those of you outside the US who are wondering "why is a turkey purchase so important?", let me take a quick moment to explain. Next Thursday is a holiday in the US called Thanksgiving Day. It is traditional, on that holiday, to eat a menu centered around a roasted turkey. I have to admit that there is something really wonderful about the smell of a roasting turkey filling the house and when you have turkey along with stuffing, gravy, cranberries, mashed potatoes and corn....well, that's a meal that is near the top of my list of holiday feasts. So, I now have a turkey slowly defrosting in my refrigerator. Happy, happy me!!

I also have my new update for Lord of the Rings Online...The Mines of Moria...waiting for me to play. I have held back for a few days because I just didn't have the time, but I promised my DH that I would play with him this evening. I know I'll be tired enough to not spend more than 4 hours playing, so it'll be fine. Playing LOTRO is the closest I will ever be able to come to actually living in Middle Earth, although I very much doubt that the variety of tasks and battles that each character has to do in the game is even close to what JRR Tolkien had in mind with the books. But it's a lot of fun and one of the few things that I can do along with my DH that he seems to truly enjoy. So, once again I will take up my characters and weapons and begin to fulfill tasks, get experience points, and play with my dwarvish friend. (I'll also be starting the cloissonae work on his dwarf pendant over the next few days, so I'll get a chance to see his character in action again.)