Back to Beads

The beads I ordered finally arrived. At top, those gold ones seemed a lot more green on the website.

Book Corner 2021.7

by Gail Honeyman

Eleanor Oliphant, misfit with a scarred face and hands, 30 years old living alone in Glasgow. Very alone – her only companions being vodka, and weekly calls from “Mummy” – a total bastard of a woman who torments Eleanor with put-downs and reminders of a horrible past tragedy.

As happens in novels, a Series of Events unfolds to slowly change things. There’s an odd friendship with an IT guy at work; an old man’s heart attack in the street that he and Eleanor witness together; and a crush Eleanor develops on a local singer. Together they form the whirlwind that finally sends Eleanor first to rock-bottom before lifting her towards becoming possibly, finally, maybe not completely, fine.

She’s a real pip. And Raymond, the IT guy, is a doll. ( )

Another Work of Art

I just took this off the loom (hence all the threads hanging off it and messy borders). It’s not a scarf – it’s too short and not comfortable. I’m just modeling it.

And It’s February…

Product Name	SKU	Price	Qty	Subtotal
Gold Rush Yellow Wax Bean Size 1 OZ	2232-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Provider Bush Bean Size 1 OZ	2210-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Napoli F1 Carrot Size 250 SEEDS	2322-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Red Cored Chantenay Carrot Size 1/32 OZ	2320-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Red Mist Lettuce Size 500 SEEDS	2577-A	$5.00	Ordered1	$5.00
Sora Radish Size 100 SEEDS	2855-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Long Pie Pumpkin Size 1/8 OZ	2830-A	$3.25	Ordered1	$3.25
Green Machine F1 Summer Squash Size 10 SEEDS	2890-A	$4.10	Ordered1	$4.10
Orangeti F1 Winter Squash Size 10 SEEDS	2944-A	$5.10	Ordered1	$5.10
Valentine F1 Tomato Size 10 SEEDS	2993-A	$6.50	Ordered1	$6.50

Product Name	SKU	Price	Qty	Subtotal
Moonbeam Grape Tomato Size 1/10 GRAM	3026-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Dwarf Jewel Blend Nasturtium Size 1/8 OZ	7160-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
California Orange Poppy Size 1/64 OZ	7094-A	$2.95	Ordered1	$2.95
Esterina F1 Cherry Tomato Size 10 SEEDS	2981-A	$4.20	Ordered1	$4.20

Extreme Beerfest 2021

Beerfest? In the middle of a pandemic? That’s right! Xopher and I printed out the full beer inventory of the Waterbury Craft Beer Cellar and pretended we were looking over the list for an official beerfest. We headed over there yesterday, pretending we were going to Boston, and braved a public indoor venue to quickly load up on 15 exciting-sounding brews. Then we quickly braved a public supermarket to buy beerfest grub: frozen pretzels, frozen waffles, frozen potstickers, momo’s.

We decided to attend the 6 PM session, and when time rolled around, we rejoiced in not having to stand in line outside in single digit weather, but instead just headed right on into our kitchen, and started opening beer and heating up pretzels.

The most hands-down delicious beer I had was Blueberry, Coffee, Chocolate & Vanilla Sour from Collective Arts. Every single one of those flavors managed to come through. The coffee was particularly forward – coffee in a bitter beer is kind of gross to me, but coffee in a sour is a horse of a different color altogether. It reminds me of Dannon coffee yogurt, which I used to chomp down all the time in days gone by. Several years ago at a ‘real’ extreme beerfest, I rated as my favorite another coffee sour – it was some tiny brewery in the Hudson valley as I recall, and I never found their beer again. This one alas is naturally a limited edition, so while I’ll enjoy it while it lasts, it’ll probably be a long time again until I light upon a coffee sour…

And by far the most disgusting beer that came anywhere near my nose or mouth, not just last night but ever, had to be the Hof Ten Dormaal Sloe. Just no!

This morning we rejoiced anew that we had no need to wander around the Boston Seaport neighborhood in -2 degrees looking for brunch.

Damn that was a good time!

Book Corner 2021.6

by Lauren Wolk

This is a juvenile novel I read for book club. I guess it’s OK, but I don’t feel I can judge. I don’t really like juvenile or YA fiction. I know totally well that it’s for younger people going in, and the whole time; yet when I finish I can’t help but think, “Well, that was pretty juvenile.” It just never has anything to say to me.

Spiced Apricot

Hmm, I thought Cushing Apricot (on loom) was closer to Pro Chem Spiced Pumpkin (in blanket) than it really is, I guess. It’s pinker. Makes sense. An apricot & a spiced pumpkin aren’t remotely the same thing.

Cushy

I got a big stash of old Cushing dye envelopes. Tried “Apricot” for starters. This reminds me a lot of Pro Chem “Spiced Pumpkin” which I wove into a blankey long ago as one of my first dye/weave projects. Anyway this Cushing seems to work perfectly fine and it’ll be fun to go through all the envelopes.

Book Corner 2021.5

by Nicole Lapin

Every now and then I cave and buy a shamelessly silly self-help book. It’s just kind of brain candy. Nowadays, I’ve beyond aged-out of their target demographic, so I have to take the advice with more and more grains of salt. I did get a couple of good ideas out of this one, which I’ve already forgotten. ( )

Really, I should be spending my time better.

The unfortunate title brings to mind the best part of Woody Allen’s Stardust Memories. Super-intelligent (and wise-ass) aliens give advice to Woody Allen’s character, who wonders if he should be doing something more meaningful with his life, like “helping blind people” or “becoming a missionary.” Here’s the advice:

“You’re not the missionary type. You’d never last. And incidentally, you’re also not Superman; you’re a comedian. You want to do mankind a real service? Tell funnier jokes.”

Consider it generic advice when you just feel too tired to contemplate “Becoming Super Woman.” You’re not superwoman. You are what you are. Want to do mankind a service? Do it better.

They Call It Mello Yello

They call it mellow yellow…. quite wrongly.

The color on the right, that is. On the left, the original white, for comparison.

So from the Little Book of Life Skills, look at this trick I learned:

It’s what to do with the toilet brush after you’ve cleaned the toilet. Let it drain right there for a while. It seems so obvious, yet I never thought to do that!!!