I Survived My Civil Duty

Well, I finally got called in to do my civil duty.  There really isn't much to tell.  I could give you the short version, or the long drawn-out boring version.  Both versions will put you to sleep.  But if you are so bored that you feel you might be entertained by a boring read, then I'm happy that my boring life can add a little excitement to your day:

I had to arrive there by 8:30 on Wednesday morning.  There were a lot of people in there, so when I entered the room, I took a quick glance around to see if I recognized anyone I might know.  I didn't, so I chose a table to sit at where a harmless-looking older lady was already sitting.  Everyone had to fill out a form and put it in the basket.  Then we had to just sit and wait for further instructions.  I made it through two magazines and started to read a short story on my iPad when we finally got escorted into "Courtroom 2".  There were so many people that the room quickly got filled up by the time I went through the door.  The judge told the rest of us to go ahead and sit in the jury box, and "don't worry - if you sit there it won't increase your chances of getting selected".  That was supposed to be a joke, so this is the part where you're supposed to laugh.

So I had to sit in the jury box with a few other folks while they described the case to us.  It was a DUI case, and the judge said that it would only take a day or two, and that they only needed 6 jurors.  So that made me feel better cuz that would cut my chances down of getting picked.  So they started off by randomly picking 12 people, and those 12 people were supposed to sit in the jury box to get "interviewed".  So as they got picked, those of us who were in the box had to move out of the box. (that room was so full!)  They were going to pick only 6 out of those 12, but they also wanted backup jurors in case they all needed to be excused for one reason or another, so they randomly selected 12 more names to sit and wait in case they were needed.  My name got picked for one of the backup jurors.  So the 12 of us that were "on reserve" had to stay and they let everyone else go home.

So I sat there and listened to the 12 potentials get interviewed, and I was starting to feel nervous just listening to the questions because if I still ended up getting picked, I didn't know how I would've answered them.  They were asking a lot of questions about drinking, and whether or not they had any experience with drunk people, and if so, would you be able to make a fair and unbiased decision.  With every question that was asked, I listened for how each individual answered them, while at the same time wondering how I would've answered that question.  With my childhood background, I think I would've had a hard time answering them.  Three of out of those 12 people got excused, so they had to randomly pick three more names out of us "reserved" potentials, and I got nervous every time they picked a new name.  I am SO very thankful that my name did not get picked because I didn't wanna answer those questions!!!  After they selected their 6 jurors, they swore them in, and then they let the rest of us go home.  Whew!!!

I still have another week left to call that dreaded phone number every night, but I think it's unlikely that I will have to go in again.  But with my luck, I know it won't be long before I have to go through this all over again.

So, now that THAT's finally behind me, I can now relax and go back to my hum-drumminess.

I finally made it to JoAnn's and bought some batting for my quilt.  It was on sale (yay!)  Ma, I wish you were there with me to help me pick it out cuz I'm not sure if I picked something that I'm gonna be happy with.

Then today I went to my neighborhood quilt store and browsed for some fabric for my back panel and my binding.  It took me a long time to find something acceptable.  I was looking for something specific, but had to go with the best that I could find. Since this is a "scrap quilt" I guess it really doesn't have to match perfectly.  I think it'll be okay once I get it together.  So this weekend I will be sewing my panel together, and then I have to psyche myself up for that back-aching job of pinning it all together.

I will end this boring post with a boring picture of a bored cat.

"Got boredom?"

February 11, 2016

Since this post is really all about nothing, I didn't know what to title it, so I just put today's date in there.  So in the future, whenever you see a date instead of a title, you'll know not to read what's in there cuz it will be boring.  I am only posting today because it's been awhile, and some of you may be wondering what I've been up to.  So here is my boring life.  Well, not boring to me, but probably boring to you.

Here is Bossy sitting in my clean laundry:

Every time I get clothes fresh out of the dryer, I take them to my bed so I can fold them.  But if Bossy's around, she will climb into it and make herself comfortable because she knows they are warm.  I try to grab as many items as I can before she starts to growl and try to bite my hand off as I try to grab the smaller items out of it.

So possessive!

So I have to walk away until after she's had her nap in my clean laundry.

I know lots of people wouldn't put up with having a cat nestling in their clean laundry, but we spoil our cats; what more can I say?

This next part is for Ma.  If you are not interested in quilting,  you might wanna fast forward.

I finally finished my quilt top, so now I am waiting until I can get to the store to buy the batting and some fabric for the back panel.  Still not sure if I like it very much.  I think there's "too much going on" in it, ......almost boggles my eyes.  But that's okay.  It's a learning experience.  And as long as it keeps us warm at night, I guess I'll be happy with it.  So while I'm waiting for my next trip to JoAnn's and my neighborhood quilt store, I went ahead and got started on my next project:

I am making a crib sized quilt with Halloween fabrics.  It'll just be a throw quilt to have for decoration.  I am using this pattern that I found in one of my quilt books:

I know there's a big glare there, but I think you can see it good enough.  It's an "envelope" pattern.

I know it doesn't look like much right now, but I'll show it to ya when it's all done.

BTW, today is Ma's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Ma!

Okay, my next obsession was to finally do something with all those tomatoes in my freezer that we yanked out of our garden last fall.  I had three gallon-sized bags left full of whole frozen tomatoes. I had been using them in soups, but decided to test my culinary skills for something new.  I wanted to try making my own spaghetti sauce.  So after consulting with my Google friend, I tried simmering one whole bag of tomatoes on the stovetop.  It took several hours, but they finally simmered down to enough for one jar of spaghetti sauce.

For the other two bags, I tried an idea I saw on another website where you just throw them all into a crockpot.

Of course I skinned them first.  This is what a pile of tomatoes looks like after you take the insides out:

I had to show you because I thought you might be excited to see a pile of tomato skins.  But I gotta tell ya, if you get excited over a pile of tomato skins, you got worse problems than I do.

I didn't bother taking the seeds out cuz that would be way too much work.  And the seeds don't really bother me anyway.

Okay, back to the toms.  After they thawed a bit I smashed them up with my meat chopper thingy:

This was really easy to do after the toms were half thawed.  Then I set the crockpot on high and kept the lid off so the water would evaporate out.  Holy cow, there's a lot of water in tomatoes!!!

Last night when I went to bed, there was still more water than tomato pulp, and I was beginning to wonder if this method was a good idea.  But I didn't wanna give up just yet.  I set the crockpot on Low, went to bed, and hoped for the best.  This morning when I got up, a lot of the water was gone.  And by the time I was done eating lunch, it looked about ready.  Or ready enough.  It took about 24 hours to simmer it down to a thick sauce!!  So I don't know if I prefer the crockpot method or the stove top method. With the crockpot method, you don't have to babysit it. The stovetop method is a lot faster, but you have to be around to check on it every now and then. 

Can you smell it?  .....aaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!

I didn't add any spices to it cuz I figured I would add onions and other flavors to it when I actually use it on my spaghetti.  That way the flavors will be fresher anyway.  Can't wait to try it!

SO!  I took some of the stewed tomatoes out and pureed it in my Vitamix to make tomato sauce, which also took care of the seed problem. And then I made some pizza sauce out of it, using my own concoction of pizza spices.

Now my house smells like a pizza joint.

Mmmmmmmm.................

Then I took the rest of what was in the crockpot and stuffed it in a jar and then put my goodies out on the back porch to cool off, so I can put them in the freezer later.

So, out of two gallon-sized bags of tomatoes, I can get one jar of "spaghetti sauce", and two pizzas worth of pizza sauce.  You only see one jar of pizza sauce here cuz (of course) I'm going to make pizza for dinner tonight! 

Don't let the peanut butter lid throw you off. I know I should seal them in a water bath in sealing jars, but I didn't feel like going through all that work for just three jars.  If I put them in the freezer, they don't need to be sealed.

So now you know what I've been up to.

I still have this dark cloud hanging over my head:

During the first week, they did call in some groups, but they didn't reach my service # yet. Every night after supper I dutifully call that dreaded phone number to find out if they "need my services" the next day.  I know my turn is coming up.........

Here is what our winter looks like this year:

Chuck said something yesterday about mowing the lawn.

If you want snow for winter, don't bother coming to Alaska.

Our poor poor snowmachines are neglected.

(That's "snowmobiles" to you folks who don't live in Alaska.)

(or if you are an Eskimo, it's a "snow-go")

It feels to weird to say "snowmobiles" even though I grew up saying it.

Maybe in my next post I'll have something more interesting to report.

I know I'm going to lose my already small audience if I don't come up with something more worthy.

Earthquake!

If any of you have been paying attention to the news lately, maybe you have seen a small article hidden behind the more important headlines mentioning our most recent significant earthquake.  I say "significant", but we are ALWAYS having earthquakes, it's just that most of them are so small we don't feel them.  But every now and then we get one that we do notice in a significant way.  It's funny how we always have it in the back of our minds that we could have an earthquake at any time, yet when it comes, it always catches us off guard.  Kinda sounds like the 2nd Coming, don't it?

To me, earthquakes are a thrilling part of living here.  I mean that in both ways.  Thrilling in a "scary" sense of suspense, and also thrilling in an exciting kind of way.  Like hanging on the edge of your seat, biting your nails kind of thrilling, and when it's over you say, "that was awesome!"  (like riding on a "scary" loopy roller coaster) Although earthquakes can make me tense up with suspense, I have gotten used to them enough to not be frantically scared out of my wits.  I would gladly take an earthquake over a big ol' hairy spider any day.

Anyhoo, this time it caught us off guard because it came at 1:30 in the morning when we were sleeping.  The weird thing was that I could feel it coming before it hit.  I must've been half asleep cuz I swear I could feel a subtle vibration.  But at the same time, my cat was on the floor and I could hear her scratching, like she was itching herself.  And I remember laying there thinking that it was weird that her scratching would be causing the whole room to vibrate.  But I was half asleep, so it was hard for me to separate reality from dreaming.  And now I'm wondering if my cat was actually scratching on the floor cuz she could feel it coming too??

Then all of a sudden it hit.  The house started "jumping around" and rocking and swaying, and it seemed like it was lasting a long long time.  I sat up in bed and watched the ceiling fan violently rocking back and forth, and waited for it to fall off and land on top of us. Thankfully, it did not fall.  I could hear all the clutter in my room shaking and finally I heard something fall off a shelf. This was the first time for me that an earthquake ever actually knocked anything off a shelf. (It's a good thing I wasn't watching any kind of scary paranormal movie before I went to bed cuz that was almost what it was like.) I wasn't frantically scared, but I did have a tight grip on Chuck's arm.  He just laid there and said, "You can't do anything about it."  I have to say, in all my years living here, I've experienced some real rockers before, but I think this one was the worst one I've ever felt.

When it finally decided to die down, it still took a few moments for all of the vibrations to go away.  Finally everything was calm, and we went back to sleep.  Apparently, there was a 4.something aftershock a few hours later, but we slept through it.

According to the website "Recent Alaska Earthquakes", it measured 6.79 on the Richter scale, but the newspaper said it was 7.1.  (take your pick)  The epicenter was about 165 miles away from us and 76 miles deep.  Wow.  Just think of all that energy. I guess some people all the way up in Fairbanks felt it too, but for them it was only a small rumble.  (Steph didn't feel it.)

With all of the rattling and rumblings going on, I thought I would wake up in the morning to all kinds of messes on the floor to clean up.  But this was all the evidence that I had of the earthquake:

Some plastic flowers fell into the bathroom sink:

1. My antique plate and a little knick knack fell on the floor:

This old antique clock began ticking again:

And some of my scrapbooking ribbons took a flying leap:

That was about it.  Thankfully no damage. So, in case you were thinking about us when you heard about the earthquake, now you know that we survived and thankfully the results of it were humdrum, at least at my house.  Unfortunately, for some people who live down in the Peninsula, they were a lot closer to the epicenter, so there were some homes destroyed and some gas lines broke.

Now for a few other boring subjects going on behind the scenes:

I thought you might be interested in seeing my burnt snowman friend that lives in my oven:

No one needs to tell me that I need to clean out my oven!

This next one is for Ma (Hi Ma!).  I got back to work on my quilt again:

I got all my rows sewn together.  Now I can start working on the inner border.

And then there's the dreaded jury duty summons.

Oh how I HATE getting these in the mail!!  I don't know why it's always ME that gets these things.  Chuck only got them twice, one of them while he was in Iraq so of course he got out of that one.  I've gotten summoned many times.  So far I haven't actually SERVED on a jury.  Last time I was summoned, I got as far as being "interviewed", but wasn't selected to serve.  It's only a matter of time before I actually get selected, and it makes me nervous.  I wish I would quit getting these things, but that would require giving up my PFD checks every year.  I think most states summon their jurors by drivers licenses, but here in Alaska they randomly pick names from the pool of PFD recipients.  Some people never get picked, while others (like me) seem to get picked all the time.  Anyhoo, I am being summoned for the whole month of February (and of course this just happens to be leap year, lucky me!).  I will keep you all posted on that, even though it's humdrum news.

Too bad I can't send Kiska in my place:

She's good at anything if you just let her sleep through it.

A Hobby Challenge

This is probably gonna be a boring post, but this is what I've been up to. Most of you know that scrap booking and making cards is one of my hobbies, and no one knows more than Chuck just how much money I have invested into all of my "toys" to support said hobby.  So last week he came home from work and said, "There's a guy from work that's gonna be retiring.........."  Say no more, I already know what you're gonna ask.  You need me to make a potluck dish, right?  Wrong.  "I need you to use all your thousands of dollars worth of scrap booking stuff to make a card."

"And it needs to be a fishing theme."

"And it needs to have extra pages inside it for all the signatures."

Okay then...........not a problem.

Spent the first few days looking for ideas on the internet.  Found lots of ideas and inspiration, but in the end I went with a design that I found in one of my card pattern books (in my scrap booking "library").  Then I had to figure out how I was gonna incorporate that design into a fishing theme.  Here was my problem:

As you can see from my fish stamp inventory sheet, I don't have a very big selection of fish to choose from.  They were all the wrong style except for that little tiny one in the upper left-hand corner.  

So I proceeded to play with that one.

This is what I came up with.

A cute idea, but it was not manly, and plus I was having problems with masking the trees behind him.  I gave up on that idea.  Chuck said he wasn't too keen on that bear anyway.  He suggested an outdoorsy theme with a cabin.

The only cabin I had showing in my inventory was this one:

With a heart on the door?  Cute.  But cute is not manly.

But wait!!  Didn't I make a Christmas card a few years ago using a different cabin stamp?

Yes I did!

Now, that's more like it!  But where, or where can I find that stamp in my stamp stash?  If I don't have it in my inventory binder, I'm at the mercy of my limited brain cells to help me remember where to find it.

It turned out to be a part of the "Backwoods" set that I had stashed with all my other wildlife stamps.

And surprise, surprise!  Lo, and behold!!  There's a fish stamp, a MANLY fish stamp that I can use!

Woo-HOO!

So, to make a long story short, I played and played and played and played, and I kept bringing the card downstairs to ask Chuck about my progress:  "Is this okay?  Is this okay?  Is this okay?"

In the end, this is what I ended up with:

I'm not 100% happy with it (could've done better on the tree background), and if I had time, I would play around with a whole different design using that fish stamp.  But Chuck said it was perfect and paid me in kisses.  So I'm done.  Whew!

In case you're wondering, the strings on the top are there because I tied the inner pages into it.  I thought the string would also serve as an embellishment for the card.  I love when things turn out to serve a dual purpose (smile).

Now that I'm looking at it, I think I could've added more trees.  The background looks too bare.  Well, I'm not touching it now!

Oh yeah, and by the way,  at first Chuck said, "what are those buttons for?"  Being a man, he wouldn't understand or appreciate embellishments (roll eyes), but I wonder, if HE doesn't appreciate them, I wonder what the recipient of this card will think of them.

 Maybe I should've left them off or put something else there.

Anyhoo, my mission is accomplished and before I put all my toys away, I made sure to update my inventory pages with those stamps.

Now next time I need a manly fish, I'll know that it even exists.

my scrap booking partner

Change Subject.

Genealogy is another past time that I like to dabble with every now and then.  It's not something I get into very often, but whenever I get the "bug" for it, I really get the bug for it.  This time it started all because me and Chuck were watching some kind of English show on BBC, and we talked about maybe going to England someday.  And that led to the conversation of his ancestors who came from there.  Before you know it, we were pulling out Civil War Pension Papers and reading all about his great-grandfather.  And of course that led into wanting to find more information and more names further back on his family tree.  So I spent days and days and days on the internet, doing some research and I learned some really exciting things.  He has ancestors from Germany too, but just in the Sutton tree, most of his English ancestors came from the Kent area.  Now it's true that you can't believe everything you read on the internet, and that is especially true with genealogy.  But from what I have found, I think that what I found is probably reliable.  And if it's true, then many of Chuck's ancestors were married in this church building:

It was built in 1062 AD.  When I saw it, I got so excited.  Just look at all those old tombstones!  They date back to the 1600s!  I wanna go there really really really bad!!

Here is another one that his ancestors were supposedly acquainted with.  A lot of babies were christianed there:

I think that one was built in the 1200s.

And then here is a church in Durham that someone may have gotten married in.  I'm not real sure if this is the right one cuz I didn't spend a whole lot of time researching this one.

Anyhoo, all of these pictures get me real excited to take a trip there to find these places.  If we could get to these places, we might find some official documents in their archives proving that these are the right places, and also proving that all the names on the family are correct, and maybe finding some of his ancestors in that graveyard.  That would be very thrilling.  I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Starting A New Year

So, here we are in the new year.  2016  Anno Domini.  I don't know about you all, but I don't get very excited about New Year's.  I like the way it was expressed by one of the characters on the TV sitcom "Third Rock From the Sun":  "New Year's is just a random mark in the orbit of the sun" (or something like that).  Really, what is the origin of Jan 1 being the mark of the new year?  Why that specific mark in the orbit of the sun?  Why not another place in the orbital path?  Is it the Chinese who have a different notch marked on the orbital path to symbolize their New Year?  Something to research, I suppose. ("Google is a wondering thing.")

The only reason I take note of New Year's is because everyone else does, and then there's the friendly reminder from the neighbors who shoot off their firecrackers all night.  Unfortunately it is legal to do that here - apparently. (my poor poor scared cats) How in the world they can afford to spend so much money on that stuff is beyond me.  Anyhoo,  making New Year's resolutions is the choice topic of conversation among many people this time of year.  I am glad that people use this opportunity to better themselves, or at least think about it (if you are one of those - more power to ya!), but for me, I make the same New Year's resolution every year and that is to not make any New Year's resolutions.  That is the only New Year's resolution that I can manage to keep.

Last week in church, someone made a comment in his lesson that I have kept in the forefront of my mind in light of the holiday.  In passing, he said "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."  That is taken from Mark 14:38.  I know that, in context, it is talking about sin, but I've been thinking about it in the perspective of the New Year's holiday and the annual tradition of making new resolutions. I think it does a very good job at summing up why I don't make resolutions and I never really thought about it until he quoted that passage.  In a nutshell, I don't make resolutions because I always end up breaking them.  So why even bother to set myself up for disappointing myself?  

"The spirit is willing" -- yes, I LOVE to imagine myself eating better, losing weight, sticking to an exercise routine, cutting those XCheddar goldfish out of my diet, getting more organized, or doing whatever it takes to strengthen my various and numerous character weaknesses, etc.  My spirit is ready and willing to do those things and I get excited just thinking about it.  But "the flesh is weak".  Reality hits.  I know I should go for a run today (my spirit talking), ......but.........(fill in the blank).  "The flesh is weak" and I will come up with any lame excuse to not do it.  Like Paul said in Rom 7:15:  "For what I will to do, that I do not practice".  In spirit I am willing to do what it takes to make the changes, but my flesh is weak (not willing to make the physical effort).   Yes, I took that verse out of context to apply it to New Year's.  My point is, I am confessing my reason for not making any New Year's resolutions. Basically, I'm physically lazy (the flesh part of me) and not motivated enough.

But it's not like I'm giving up before I'm trying; it's just that I'm not "ready".  There are times (on other random marks of the orbital path - take your pick out of 365), when my flesh is indeed strong enough to carry out the will of my spirit (again, I'm not talking about sin here, I am talking about common secular goals that anyone might have), and I find that if it's really important to me, I can make it happen, because I came to the conviction on my own, not because the calendar says I should.  I think it's true that goals are more successfully reached by people if it comes from the spirit within themselves, rather than from outsiders, like an inanimate paper calendar hanging on the wall.

So all that being said (from my soapbox), I don't feel bad about not making resolutions because I know that I can get things done at the time of my own choosing and conviction, if it's the Lord's will.

Nuf said.

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope everyone out there had a very nice Christmas this year!

Christmas here at my house wasn't all that exciting, but that's because we have no small kids in the house anymore.  To me, it's kids that make Christmas fun.  

Charlie and the cats doesn't count.

It was nice to get a quick visit from Steph and Isaac as they were passing through from Fairbanks to Nikiski.  Even though they only stayed one night, it was worth it to see them.

I didn't get any posed "formal" family pictures this year - just didn't think of doing it - so I just have a few snapshots of what went on at our house, which really isn't much.

To me, maybe I'm weird, but one of my favorite things about Christmas is cooking a huge Christmas dinner, even if I do it all single-handedly, which I ended up doing this year cuz Steph and Isaac weren't here for Christmas dinner.  (and PeeWee doesn't like helping in the kitchen).

So I did it ALL BY MYSELF this year!!

We had ham, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, corn, stuffing, gravy, and dinner rolls.  Plus desserts (pumpkin pie, banana cream pie, and cheesecake.)

We broke a few traditions with our meal this year.  Chuck wanted a ham instead of a turkey, just for a change.  And that was okay, BUT!......  He is one of those people that doesn't like "funky" flavors on his meat, so he insisted that I not put any kind of glaze or anything on it.  So the ham was okay, but I thought it could've used some kind of flavor enhancement.  Anyway, now I have this leftover ham bone to experiment with.

I want to try making some ham and pea soup with it, something I don't remember ever making before, so it will require some research before I attempt that one.

Another tradition broken, but perhaps a new one made, is that I made my own jellied cranberry sauce out of scratch, instead of opening up a can.  What I hate about opening up cans of food, is that I feel like I'm opening up a can of dog food - and then we eat it.  (but that's just me....)  Plus I hate feeling like I'm compromising nutrition for convenience.  But mostly, I was just curious to see if I could actually make a good tasting batch of it, and how hard is it to make?

It was actually pretty easy to make and I was real pleased with the texture of it - surprised that it actually worked out!  And it even tasted good, but if I make it again, I will have to make a note to myself to use less orange juice, and less sugar.  To me it tasted a bit too "orangey", and Pee Wee said it was too sweet.  And if SHE says it's too sweet, trust me, it's too sweet.

Okay, the stuffing.  Usually, I cheat, yes I cheat, I hate to admit it, but I do cheat with this one.  Normally I buy a box of Stove Top and dress it up with onions and sausage and so-forth.  But at the last minute, I realized I FORGOT to pick up a box of Stove Top when we were at the commissary.  And I was NOT about to run to the store on Christmas morning just to pick up a box of Stove Top.  My choices were to either not have stuffing (gasp!), or improvise and make my own from scratch.  Like Chuck often quotes:  "Google is a wonderful thing", so I got on the internet and found a recipe for stuffing that was very similar to how I dress up a box of Stove Top, only it used crumbled up cornbread.  It looked good and sounded good, so I quickly whipped up and baked a pan of cornbread and made stuffing out of it.

At first I thought it tasted almost "bland", but that's because I was used to all those flavors that come in a box of Stove Top.  But it didn't take too long before I realized it was pretty good, and I liked that it didn't taste like it came out of a box.  So, I don't know if I will make it again next year, but it's a good backup plan if I ever forget to buy Stove Top again.

Also something different:  the gravy.

The problem with not roasting a turkey was that I didn't have any turkey drippings to make gravy.  So this too, I had to improvise with the help of my Google friend.  It was good, but somehow I forgot to add salt to it.  But that was okay, cuz people normally sprinkle salt and pepper on their potatoes before they eat it anyway, so it didn't make any difference.  I'm just glad that I had all that extra (homemade) chicken broth in the fridge - that is what made this gravy turn out good.

Anyhoo, now that my fridge is stock full of leftover food (and three kinds of desserts), it's nice to know that I can take a "vacation" from cooking for a few days.  But there's still always dishes to wash.......(.......sigh!)

But what a blessing!  Be thankful for dirty dishes, right?  It means you have food to eat!

May you all enjoy your post-Christmas days before normalcy returns.

Whatever that is!