Sophie's Story

     A year or so ago I found a pattern for a 10 Stitch blanket. It is a blanket where you knit a ten stitch strip in a spiral. I liked it because it doesn't matter what kind of yarn you use and it allows for a lot of variation and creativity. I had several skeins and balls of bulky yarn that I wanted to use up. I couldn't think of any other way to use them. This seemed like the perfect project.    There are a few things I have learned in the process of doing this project.     The first is, follow the directions. My blanket has a hole in the middle of it because the first few turns require that you count rows. You knit a certain number of rows rows, knit the turn and then knit the same number of rows again. The reason for this is that you have to join the rows sideways to form the blanket. I didn't do this so I couldn't make the joins hence the hole. I can sew the hole shut.     The second lesson is that things are not as complicated as they seem. I figured out how to d

     The turkey breast is in the crockpot. C made the dressing the night before. We have potatoes and C has agreed to make some brussel sprouts. We have two pies for C and a nice piece of German Chocolate cake for me. Scamp is napping on our bed after a thorough grooming which he enjoyed.    Most of the time when I write my Thanksgiving Day column, it turns out to be a list of what I am thankful for. It's not bad to do this, but I don't want to get into the habit of tying gratitude to things. Today is going to be some assorted thoughts about gratitude.     This week I spent some time with my sister Dana. I brought her some fudge from Door County, something I've done for several years. We sampled the fudge but the best thing was that we got to spend some time together. She also helped me figure out a knitting challenge. What I didn't realise is that I got more out of that help than the ability to make the corners of my ten stitch blanket. It made me realise that sometime

     I am one of those crazy people who likes pumpkin flavoured food in the fall.  I drink pumpkin steamers, make pumpkin bread and smoothies and am game for just about anything pumpkin for about two months. One of the towns that I used to live in had a wonderful bakery where they made pumpkin donuts. I liked these donuts al lot and would buy a half dozen any Saturday that I wasn't working. They would be my breakfast Saturday and Sunday. I haven't lived in a town with a good stand alone bakery since then and I miss those donuts.    A while ago I found out that it is possible to bake donuts. They don't have quite the same texture as fried cake donuts, but it looked interesting. I toyed around with buying a donut pan, but didn't want to spend money on a kitchen thing that would just sit and collect dust.    Last week I was buying some things on Amazon when I decided to see how much a donut pan cost. There were a lot to choose form. In the end I bought a set of two silicon

     I'm so grateful that the midterm elections are finally over.  I can now watch TV and Youtube again without having to see political ads.     I've never liked political ads but every year they get worse and worse. Maybe I'm dreaming, but it used to be that two candidates argued about how public challenges should be dealt with. Now they are too busy slinging mud at each other to say anything about ideas they have to make things better. (Assuming they have are any....)    I'm pretty sure I wrote about this a few years back. If I had the ability to dictate how campaigning would be done this is what I would do. The first thing I'd do is limit the time candidates could campaign to two months. I really don't think that more time is needed. The another thing I'd do is to have a job application for each elected office. Each person running for office would have to fill out this application which would could include a maximum of five references. These references co

     I'm someone who likes to stay in her comfort zone. It's an inherited trait I'm sure, my Dad had one radio engineering job his entire life. He stayed at the same station for 50 years before he retired.    The past several years I have pondered my inclination toward familiarity. It's not a bad trait, but I do need to make an effort to do different things once in awhile. Today I'm going to write about some things I've done (or would like to do) to get out of my comfort zone.    The other day I had lunch with my friend, Wendy. We went to a popular soup and sandwich place near her home. While I was waiting for her I studied the menu. Usually I order the same soup and sandwich combo. Today was the day I was going to try something different. There was a pumpkin soup on the menu. I was going to try it. I've never eaten pumpkin soup before. I've had pumpkin bread, muffins, donuts and smoothies. I've had pumpkin spice steamers. I have even had buffalo mea

       The weather report for Wednesday showed that it was going to be warm and sunny. C and I try to have a date day or at least a date afternoon once a week. This week, Wednesday looked like it was going to be our day. It was perfect because I had a eye appointment in the morning and might need some cheering up afterwards. (My glasses and contact prescriptions always change and not for the better.) C looked around the northern part of the metro for places we could hang out. There really wasn't much within a decent driving distance. (Wednesday night is church night So we had to be home early.)    In the end we went to our favorite hang out place in Minnesota, Red Wing.    There's a lot to like about Red Wing. They have bike trails and bluffs to hike in. The Mississippi River runs along the edge of the downtown area. There's a lot of good places to eat and lots of cute little stores to shop in. There are beautiful parks along the river and on one of the bluffs overlooking t

     I've spent nearly half of my career working in grocery store pharmacies. I chuckle at that now, because when I got out of pharmacy school, I swore I would never do that. Pharmacies located inside other businesses were not really pharmacies, in my opinion, they were just another cog in the big business wheel. While I do still feel that big business has no place in health care, I've also come to realise that health care needs to be where it is accessible. That means places like grocery stores where people can get their groceries and medication in one stop.    The vast majority of the time I've liked where I work. (The ability to get a quick sandwich from the deli doesn't hurt either.) One of the complaints about social media is that people post only the rosy happy things that go on. No one mentions troubles or not so good things. Today I'm going to write about two not so good things that happened in my store recently.    A few weeks ago one of the staff noticed t