Cooking, Cooking, Cooking

Due to the Kitchenless state of my house, I am at my mother's today to borrow the stove (and catch up on some laundry). Been cooking since about noon, here's what's for dinner. So to speak.

• Energy Bark (recipe on Live Like a Hippy)
• Tomato Salad
• Lemon Pepper Tilapia
• Tilapia with Beans and Sweet Corn (great in a Tortilla with shredded cheese)
• Orange Glazed Rosemary Pork Chops
• Breaded Pork Chops
• Chile and Cumin Fried Chicken
• Italian Sausage and Veggies Tossed with Penne Pasta
• Chicken for Chicken Ceasar Wraps
• Middle East- inspired Bulgar Wheat with Toasted Almonds
  

The tomato salad is for the PotLuck at work tomorrow and hopefully the rest of it will hold us over for a few days. Also, I will be leaving a serving or so of most of the dishes behind to thank my mom for use of the kitchen.

It would have helped too, if I had remembered to buy shredded cheese and ceasar dressing.

Dalmation Photo Journal.

So I decided to make my dad a dalmation for his birthday. And I decided to make a photo journal of my progress, so everyone can get an idea of how my doll-making process works. Also, to keep me on track for my deadline. Which was today.


Day 1.



Just a couple of legs, but a good start.


Day 2.



Starting on the body.


Day 3.



I've got the body finished, and arms attached. Just starting the head. One of the reasons this is going so quickly is that I'm using 2 strands of worsted worked together.


Day 4.



No measurable crochet progress, but I did buy his hat.


Day 5.



Body is finished and stuffed, just barely got a start on the detail work.


Day 6.



Great start of the detail work. Ears, tail and a few spots.


Day 7.



Trying out his hat. No eyes yet, I bought them but then I realized I don't have access to a glue gun.


Day 8.



Hanging out in my locker. I borrowed Darlene's glue gun to put the eyes on.


Finished!



Packed in his gift bag and ready to go.


Everybody got a kick out of him, particularly the Fire Truck bag. Hope this gives a least a little bit of insight to you all.

They're here!

So, it's been like 5 weeks since we thought things were finally getting back to normal and the cabinets finally were delivered today. At this point, they're telling us that now that we have the cabinets, everything should resolve pretty quickly from here.

I've been working on quite a few charity projects with what little yarn I have that isn't packed away and I hope to be posting those patterns to the website in the next few days. Also, I need to renew our webhosting and domain name.

My knee seems to be recovering, although very slowly, so maybe, just maybe, things can start to get back to the low level chaos we call normal around here.

Looks who's back!

So after all this time, we're finally getting settled back into the house. We've been living in it for almost 3 weeks, but it's only now starting to feel like ours again. All the damage from the fire has been repaired at this point but we haven't started to unpack yet because the bathroom remodel isn't done yet and repairing the living room floor and redoing the kitchen come after that, as well as the touch up painting in the whole house. When things are finished up, I'll post some pictures.

I haven't been totally lazy while I haven't been online, although admittedly, my dislocated kneecap is slowing me down quite a bit. But... I do have a few recipes to get posted over on Live Like a Hippy, including two for awesome salads, both using variations on Good Seasons dressing mix packets, and I've been crocheting for charity, and brainstorming a really cute draft blocker for you all.

I have my follow up with the orthopedic on Thursday, wish me luck.

Thoughts, Prayers, Vibes

Please keep our neighbors in your thoughts and prayers tonight. An arsonist struck our neighborhood early this morning. If you don't know, we live in row homes, so the whole thing was pretty scary for us, since it was the house next store to ours that burned.

We're fine, just temporarily displaced. Everybody next store got out, some with the help of the fire department some on their own. The house that burned was converted into 2 apartments. The family downstairs got out pretty safely, although their little guy was taken to the hospital just to make sure he was ok.

The upstairs family was not as lucky, the fire department had to force entry and all four of them were taken to the hospital. Their 5 year old daughter is in critical condition, but from what I've heard they think she'll be ok.

Please keep these to families in your thoughts, send vibes, add them to your prayer list, whatever it is that you do. Also, please think of the family on the other side who only closed on their house last week.