It’s been a long time since I did a “hmmm” post so I think it’s high time I write one. Here goes.

~I saw this thing on Oprah last week about treating dry and cracked heels. When you go to bed you rub your heel with a Stridex Medicated Pad, slather it with Vaseline, and then put on a pair of socks. Supposedly the salicylic acid in the Stridex pad helps remove the dead skin and then the Vaseline moisturizes it. They said if you do this every night for a week you’ll have the heels of a baby. I’m day 4 into this and I think it’s working.

~I haven’t turned on our furnace yet this fall. Now before you get all excited, please remember that we have a wood stove, so it’s not like we’re freezing to death here. I do usually cave before now, though, since the wood stove is in the living room and the kitchen and bedrooms really benefit from the supplemental heat from the radiators. I’ve resisted so far but I was mighty tempted yesterday when the kitchen was 55°.

~Paula is asking for help with her survey on starting a fiber processing business. You can fill it out here.

~While you’re clicking around the internets did you know that Sonny & Shear is holding a contest right now? They are giving away 8 skeins of Yarntini if you make a donation to Pennies for Bella. It’s a great cause and an absolutely fabulous prize.

~I know some of you live in Massachusetts and I wanted to give you guys a heads up on the brand new Massachusetts Library License Plate program. Proceeds will benefit public, academic, special and school libraries across the state and you can read all about this and how to sign up for a plate right here.

~Thanksgiving is one week from today. Have you started cooking yet? Don’t forget that you can make your pie crust in advance. Might be time to re-read my blog post on making pie crust.

And that’s all for today. Hmmm.

This picture has nothing to do with this post. But it’s pretty and I hate to publish a post with no photos.

Last week I got a phone call from the president of the local Lion’s Club. He asked if I’d be a judge in their annual speech contest for high school students. I teased him that he must be getting pretty far down on the list if he was asking me to do it but I readily agreed. As an aside, I find it interesting that Dale, my rock ‘n ‘roll singing husband, also gets asked to be a judge on occasion. Of course, he gets asked to judge things like the annual battle of the bands and the Mr. EB High School competition. But I digress.

So anyway, the program was Monday night and I have to say it was pretty great. There were 5 students reading their speeches and the topic was the media’s influence on today’s society. While each student had a slightly different approach to the subject, they were all in agreement that the media’s influence is a negative one. I found that to be interesting and maybe also a little sad. They are awfully young to be so cynical!

I thought I’d turn this one over to some of the smartest people I know. My readers. What do you think of the media’s influence on today’s society? Discuss.

We spent this past weekend in Ogunquit, Maine with Dale’s sister Lisa.  She has a time share up there for the weekend and was really sweet to invite us to spend some time with her.  The place was very nice and had some great features like a whirlpool tub and electric fireplace.  Unfortunately, the weather was crappy.  It rained Friday night and all day Saturday.  Sunday was sunny but cold and windy.

Of course the weather didn’t stop us from getting out a bit and exploring.  We drove up the coast and I took some photos.

They sure are different than the last beach photos I posted.

We visited L.L. Bean, where I did some Christmas shopping.   We played games and drank some wine.  We shared stories and shed a few tears of the very recent death of Lisa’s boyfriend.  We swam in the pool and took a turn in the sauna.   Mostly, though, we just talked and laughed.

And that always makes for a great weekend.

I had a fun but exhausting weekend away.  I promise details tomorrow but for today I need to catch up on some things.  Nothing too important, just sleep.  And maybe some blogs.

Come back tomorrow!

I had some fun with the macro lens this week.  I think a single leaf represents November quite well.

Have a great weekend.

I realized the other day that I never gave the Genmaicha mitts their proper blog post.  Sure, I showed you the finished mitts at Rhinebeck, but I think they deserve their very own glorious post.

And here they are, modeled by the lovely Hannah.

The yarn is Piece of Vermont Superwash Wool/Nylon sock yarn.  I think the color is fabulous - so rich and a beautiful shade of deep blue.

The pattern was very fun and quick and I know I’ll be wearing these a lot this season.  Once I get them away from Hannah.

Don’t they go great with my new mug from Starbucks?  Damn, now I’m going to have to get that away from her, too.

The other day Nora asked.  And then yesterday Margene asked.  It’s a simple enough question - what are you knitting?  My answer:

Oh Canada.  I love it.  I hate it.  I love the yarn - Kim’s Opulence -  and I love the simplicity of the design Anne’s brainchild.  I hate how long I’ve been working on it - since October 21st - and I hate how bored I am at this point.

I’ve got 15 repeats done.  I’m not sure I can survive the last 3.

Wish me luck.

I was searching the internets for blog content a week or so ago and I read something that said it was okay to recycle blog posts. The point was that many readers come and go and the current readers of a blog might have missed the post. Fair enough. So, I’m trying it because I think last year’s Veteran’s Day post was a good one.

Originally posted November 11, 2007

I did a lot of knitting and spinning yesterday and while I was doing that I thought about Veteran’s Day. I thought about the sacrifices that our veterans and their families make. I thought about how so many of our families are separated right now and how lucky I am that my family is together. I also thought about how unprepared our country is to deal with the rising needs of our veterans. I heard a statistic from a new study that says that 1 in 4 of our country’s homeless are actually veterans. That is wrong on so many levels and, while I don’t have the solution, I’m certainly aware of how desperate the situation is. And with awareness comes change, I hope.

So, allow me to take this opportunity to say “thank you” to our veterans. And to their families. Your sacrifices do not go unappreciated.

Is it really Monday already?  I had a great weekend with just the right amount of stuff-to-do and doing nothing.  There was a lot of spinning, some knitting, hanging out with my two best friends from college, and an afternoon in Plymouth with Dale.  Good times but nothing really significant enough to blog about.  Instead I’m going to blog about something that’s weighing on my mind.

As you may recall, my father died a little over 2 years ago.  It took almost a whole year for me to be named executrix of his estate and when that did finally happen I started trying to sell his mobile home.  As you may have heard (insert sarcasm) the real estate market is in a bit of a downturn these days and this home remains unsold.  Sigh.

I was able to rent it for the past year and that helped a bit but now my tenant has moved to Florida and I’m stuck with rent payments, utility payments, insurance and other associated costs with owning a mobile home.  The money left in my father’s bank account is about gone so I really need this place to sell.  Now.  I wake up in the night worrying about what’s going to happen.

I have seen over and over again the power that you all have when you work together.  So I’m asking now.  Would you all think positive thoughts for the sale of this mobile home?  Thank you.  My family and I really really appreciate this.

I had a very special olive in my martini on Halloween.  It helped me to keep “my eye” on things.   Heh.

Okay, so it’s not my best eye candy effort.  But it’s been raining for 3 days and the opportunities for shooting pretty photos have been limited.

Have a great weekend!