How Fast Were You Going?

I was stopped for speeding this week.  I will readily admit that I was speeding when I was stopped.  I was speeding by a lot, and I slammed on the brakes as soon as I saw the officer's car.  He turned on his lights as I drove past his car, and I pulled onto the shoulder in front of him.

Before the officer even got out of his car, I had pulled out my license and registration.

"I pulled you over for speeding.  Do you have any idea how fast you were going?"

I knew full well how fast I had been going, but I didn't want to admit it, so I answered with the best answer I could think of as I handed over my documents.

"How fast did you clock me?"

He laughed as he took my papers, and told me how fast I'd been going.  Thankfully, the radar registered significantly less than I'd been doing when I crested the hill.

He was a very polite officer, he laughed at my joke, and he was very pleasant as he handed me my ticket.

What more could you ask for?

Cockeysville Library

It's been a while since I last posted pictures of a library!  I've visited many, and I've taken pictures of many of them over the last few months, I've just been very slow in getting them posted!  As always, the most difficult part of getting library pictures is getting them without the faces of other people in them!

I ventured north of Baltimore recently to visit the Cockeysville Library.  This library was originally begun in 1947.  This particular branch was opened in 1982 and then renovated and expanded in 2009.  It is a gorgeous branch!   As you enter the library, Elinor (who is dressed for St. Patrick's Day) greets you at the front entrance on the Circulation Desk.

Do you see how many people are here?  This place is packed!

The area around the reference desk. Children's is to the right.

The children's section is my favorite part of this building!  It looks like a greenhouse, added across the front of the library, and running the length of the building.  It is gorgeous, light filled, and airy!

Love that mural at the end of the children's section!

Just look at all that light!  Just off to the left is a huge open play space for the kids.  (Full of kids when I was there, so no pictures.)

 

 

 

Back inside of the main library, these pictures were taken along the wall in the older child section.  Behind the yellow bookshelves is the teen (Young Adult) section of the library.

The Young Adult Section.

Looking along the back wall from the teen section.

Looking down one of the aisles to the Reference Desk.

Inside of the glassed in area is the magazine area and the quiet  study room.

Straight ahead is the door and the circulation desk.

Knitted Swiffer Cover

I found this wonderful Scrubby yarn at Wal-Mart not too long ago.  It's 100% polyester, and it has fibers sticking up out of the yarn.  It's intended for use as dishcloth yarn.

Now, I've made my own dishcloths for years.  They do the job, and hold up fairly well over time, but they do eventually rip, tear, or fade.  Ten years ago, somebody gave me a huge spool of dishcloth yarn.  (It was on a cone....unused.)  It was pink.  I honestly didn't care about the color of the yarn.  I knitted up all of the yarn into a lot of dishcloths, and I've been regularly using them since.  They are starting to fall apart.

But hey, I found this yarn and decided to make some dishcloths.  I bought two skeins and I've whipped up enough dishcloths to keep us going for a while when I had a thought - why not see if I can use this yarn to make a cover for my Swiffer and see if it can handle to job of cleaning the kitchen floor?

Directions for a Mop cover:

1 Skein of Scrubby yarn - or a similar dishcloth type fiber.
1 set of size 10 knitting needles.
yo = yarn over

Cast on 5 stitches.
Knit 3, yo, knit to the end.
Continue until you have 50 stitches on the needle.
Knit 3, yo, knit 2 together (twice) knit to the end.
Continue pattern until  you have 5 stitches left on the needles.
Cast off.

Congratulations!  You have a mop cover!  Wrap the cover over your mop head, tucking the ends into your mop holes.  And away you go!

I use this on my Wet Jet, and it works really well!

*IF you'd like to use this pattern to make a dishcloth, follow the directions written above, but continue until you have 30 stitches left on your needles, and then begin to decrease.*

Random Thoughts

Barre Class
I went to a Barre class this week.  Now there was a challenging class!  Nothing but small little movements while balanced with a ballet barre. It seemed like a good idea at the time!  The teacher was wonderful and supportive.  Even though I was not the most fit person in the room, she did take the time to make certain that I felt welcomed and a part of the class.

Days later, I'm still sore.  Yeah, I really worked out those muscles!  I'm looking forward to doing that again!

A snow covered field last week.

Knitting
I've been teaching a knitting class recently.  I knit Continental - the way many people who learned to crochet first learn how to knit.  It requires holding the tension of the yarn on your left finger while you hook the yarn around your right needle - much like you would wrap the yarn around a crochet hook.  I've been working with people who already crochet, so they understand the concept of keeping the tension constant in your left finger.  Teaching this group has been a lot of fun!

Baking
Monday was an unexpectedly productive day for me.  Not only did I get ALL of the laundry done (a task which I normally spread over a week), I made Cranberry Orange Muffins, Granola, and Cranberry Walnut Power Balls.  Before I left for work, I managed to leave dinner for the husband and my daughter in the oven.  I even managed to clean the bathroom.  Overall, a really productive day!

A Find While Cleaning
Part of the purge of the basement is finding stuff I thought I'd lost.  The latest find?  Not one, but two Easy Bake Ovens.  I knew we had one before we moved here 10 years ago, but I never could find it again.  Once I got here, I couldn't find it again, so I always just assumed that I had given it away before we moved.  I dug into a closet yesterday and what did I find?  The original oven!  The newer one was on a shelf in the storage area of the basement.  Now what do we do with two Easy Bake ovens?

Interview Clothes
Middle child has job interviews starting next week.  We were going through his clothes today, trying to figure out what he had to wear that was professional - and we realized we hadn't really bought any dress clothes for him since before he went off to college.  Even worse, we hadn't bought him a new pair of dress shoes since he was in MIDDLE SCHOOL!  What were we thinking?  So today, we went out and bought dress shoes, pants, and a couple of new shirts.  Can he really be old enough to be interviewing for jobs in the real world?

Kids Home
I'm appreciating the fact that my grown children choose to come spend their vacations with us!  How lucky am I that they still like to spend time with us?

Baked Potato Bar (No Spenduary)

I had all of the kids home over the weekend.  What to feed a houseful of kids that is inexpensive and fills everyone up?  A baked potato bar, of course!

I love baked potato bars.  Not only do you fill up on healthy food, you get a chance to empty out some of the leftovers from the freezer.  You put the potatoes in the oven ahead of time, and then you let them bake while you get the chance to interact with your family.

The list of possibilities is endless.   You are only limited by your own imagination!  The cost of a meal like this is minimal, and everyone gets to eat as much as they want.  Best of all?  Because much of this meal is make ahead or made from leftovers, you won't find yourself spending a lot of time in the kitchen!

So, what kinds of toppings do you use?  These are my favorites:

Steamed Broccoli
Bacon
Shredded Cheese
Chili (leftover)
Chick Pea Stew (leftover)
Sauteed Mushrooms
Sauteed Onions

Our potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and broccoli came as a part of the $25 produce bundle that I get from our local farmer who runs a year round farm store.  While she doesn't grow all of the vegetables, she IS sourcing everything from small family farms within a 100 mile radius of home. 

What are your favorite toppings on a baked potato bar?

Cutting the Cord

Years ago (we're talking 1980's here) my Dad had an answering machine in his condo.  He would frequently get into arguments with his girlfriend, and then he would not answer his phone and would let the machine pick up instead.  (Let's call his girlfriend Lois.)

There was one argument in particular when he had refused to answer the phone for the better part of a week. 

Pissed beyond words that she had not been able to get ahold of him, she finally drove over to his condo on a Sunday afternoon.

She knocked on his door and yelled "I'm not going to stop knocking until you answer the door!"

When he finally answered the door, she pushed past him, went over to the answering machine, pulled scissors out of her back pocket, and cut all of the cords that attached the answering machine to the wall.

Without saying a word, she pushed past him, went back out to her car, drove back to her apartment, and then called him from there.

Ridiculous, I know.  But it still makes me smile when I remember the story!

Monday Musings

Zen Sculpture at Penn State.

Snow is in the forecast, and life in the Mid-Atlantic is screeching to a halt.  We haven't had much snow this year.  Snow in March in this part of the Mid-Atlantic is unusual.  Big snow storms in March are rare. 

The last big March snowstorm that we had was in 1993. I'd just had my oldest child, and had my 6 weeks of maternity leave.   I was teaching at the time, and I'd been back to school for a week, and family had covered that week of babysitting for us when the storm hit.  I hit the jackpot!  We were out of school for a week!  My husband's family leave kicked in once I went back to work, and he was off for an additional 4 weeks.  It was great!  We managed to get 12 weeks between the two of us before we had to put him in day care.

I went to the grocery store early this morning.  I worked this weekend, and I really didn't want to go stand in long lines.  I had hoped that the store would have had the opportunity to restock the shelves.  Sadly, not everything was restocked, but I did okay.   There is a rub, though.  I haven't really been shopping yet this year. I've picked up a few needed items here and there, spending anywhere from $20-$40 a week.   I've been trying to eat out of the freezers and the pantry.  We are almost at the end of the food I had on hand, and I really needed to restock.  Today was the day I had planned on shopping.  I've been working on that list for over a week now.   I am sighing heavily as I admit that I spent $269 on groceries this morning.  Granted, I'm mostly stocked again, and it'll be a while before I have to go back to the grocery store again, but I really hated shelling out that kind of money in one trip.  On the other hand, it really is nice to have oatmeal, brown sugar, and gluten free flour again!

One thing I love about our grocery store is that we have hand held scanners we can take with us as we shop.  We scan the item, put it into the bags in the cart, and when we get to the end of the store, we scan our scanners into the self-checkouts, and it rings up the order automatically. What is my least favorite part of the trip - unloading a cart full of groceries onto the belt, loading it all into bags, loading it back into the cart - is now the easiest part of my trip.  I almost enjoy grocery shopping when I've got an Easy Scanner in my hands!

If you're in the path of this impending storm, stay safe and warm! 

Spring is only days away!