This and That

Hello-
Hope everyone is enjoying the fall leaves!! We are suppose to get snow Tuesday - finally! Scott bought a huge rake to rake our huge lawn. I am starting to feel scared whenever he says " I like (fill in word here)" painting for instance - and now raking. All the things he likes bring soreness to me.

 Yesterday I moved a ton of boxes into the house - all our stuff is either in the basement or in the two-car garage - I cleaned out one car worth of boxes. When I took a box to the basement I tried to bring up a box that was down there but didn't belong - ugh!! When Scott came home we moved the rest of the entertainment center into the living room. Isn't it funny how much smaller a room looks with furniture? Even getting carpet made it smaller - because there was no more echo I guess. The other thing we did (that I am quite impressed with us about) is move the headboard to the bedroom.

Looks small in the picture but that is a king-size bed. The movers said they could not get the headboard up the stairs unless it was taken apart. They were getting paid by the hour so we said we would take it apart ourselves - apart it can't be that heavy. Scott tried to take it apart last night - that thing is built to last!! The pieces fit into one another and they must have glued them on the inside as well as several screws on the outside because we could not get it apart! So.... we turned it upside down - put a bathroom rug on the arch - rubber side toward the wood and moved that monster up the stairs. It weighs 200lbs I am sure of it - it is like picking up a person. An unbending person. (we rock) We scuffed up the paint a little - but who doesn't mind painting more (UGH) Ü I can't believe we got it up there!! If we would have gotten halfway up and it wouldn't fit I don't know what we would have done!! We have decided that if we sell this house - it comes with a bed!!  I crocheted the blanket a few years ago- I used two strands of yarn - one strand being black. It's so heavy and warm that we can not sleep under it, we fold it back at night!! The wood and the blanket are a little darker in real life - damn phone camera!!  
This morning Mo was looking outside. There was a squirrel out there - Mo jumped at the window.

he has lost some weight!

 Most surprising - the squirrel jumped back and hit the window!! Then stuck it's little paws on the sill and looked in the house!! Mo made a funny little noise - they were nose to nose (thank goodness for the glass) It was hilarious!! Mo has a nemesis!!
The change in the weather makes me want to cook comfort foods. I made a roast. I used Scott's brand new (got it for his birthday) Dutch oven - Scott says it's the best roast I have ever made!!

I made rolls too!

My Gram used to make the best roast. She used an electric skillet -  I have been striving to make a roast like hers for years. It's been more than 15 years since I've had hers so I'm sure it has reached taste status that isn't realistic but I can try.
I also tried a new recipe - Edgar over at Blacksheep's Bit of the Web posted a recipe for "Mom's Fresh Apple Cake" holy wow is it good!! The link will take you to the blog page with the recipe. I used Honeycrisp. As usual I over-bought!! It calls for 4 cups of diced apple -I thought one apple per cup - these were huge apples - so I got 6 to be safe. I didn't even use two whole ones - big apples!! So if you decide to make it I would get two huge, or 3 medium or  4 small - plus an extra to be safe (see, I just can't help it!!)

One Thanksgiving 20 years ago I was in charge of bringing mashed potatoes - well, I had some crazy notion that it was a pound per person. I'm not sure why Scott let me make that many - maybe because I was pregnant with Ryder and not to be toyed with Ü ha ha but we ate mashed potatoes for weeks - WEEKS people!!
I have a WIP to show you!! I've been working on it a week - as much as I can anyway. It's Orchard Valley Quilting Bee by Little House Needleworks (it's the last one on that page)

Coming along nicely!! I am enjoying working on it!
I just finished the first book to the Outlander series.**SPOILER ALERT** read no further if you don't want to know about the book!!!
 I listen to books on tape - I love to read but I love to stitch too so listening to books on disc makes it so I can do both. Sadly, I have to also download the ebook from my library because sometimes you will get a disc that skips and you have to have that back up - if you don't it's frustrating. Unfortunately when I start reading I usually end up reading for much longer than planned (I do love to read) Scott bought me a Kindle before he moved to Indiana so we could skype - love that thing for reading books!! Anyway - back to Outlander,  I'm not sure I love these books - I don't like books that use rape. I don't think it needs to be in any book - I don't think that it adds to the story. I realize that the time she is writing about it was prevalent but still.  This was male on male - which the era the book is written in - would not have happened the way she laid it out. And the whipping incident involving Jamie and Claire - stop pandering. This is one of the reasons Game of Thrones was so awesome - no pandering - and closer to reality - hard to explain  - I like books written about old times to be fairly accurate in the way people behave - you can throw in dragons, zombies and time travelers but I don't believe late 1700's Jamie Fraser would have said anything about being the lowest common denominator - just saying.   Time travel aside - a lot of the things in the book are unrealistic Yeah, yeah, it's just a story - a long one at that. I don't give up easily though and I got on the library site and requested the rest of the series on audio - I picked up some this week. Funny thing is they split some in two (because they have 30-40 discs each) but I ended up with part two of two of the books!!  Book 2 - Dragonfly in Amber came to me all in one so no worries on the others - by the time I get to them I will have them loaded. I use a Sansa player - love that thing! I will "read" the second book and if I don't love it then I will just delete these - if I love it then I have them all ready to go!! I am on Goodreads -so I read the reviews - before checking out a book. It's funny that so many women love Jamie Fraser. Well, of course they do. He is a young, strapping, redheaded warrior in a kilt but most importantly  - he is written by a woman. The other men in the book are truer to what men of the era are like. Also, Gelie? Why would a woman from the 60's go back and give up her life for a cause that has nothing to do with her - plus she already knows how history works out and she would have to know that in a small town and being a woman she could not have changed history. I'm done - Thanks for listening to my rant!! If you want a good book to read - The Book Thief or the Game of Thrones series or Crooked Letter Crooked Letter, or the Falvia De Luce series, or The Graveyard Book, or Wildwood Dancing  - oh there are so many. You could friend me on Goodreads  I think my name is on my profile - or email me.Ü
Well, I KNOW I have to go unpack and clean the kitchen and so I better get busy!
Thanks for stopping by - hope you have a wonderful no headboard moving day!!

PS Welcome to my newest follower - I want to put the kettle on and get to stitching!!  

PSS I just realized that the cat picture shows my sad wood floor that needs the paint from the last guy cleaned off and the walls that still need brown paint put in between the slats.... The picture of the brown is pretty accurate colorwise!