Static Electricity

After making many hats this winter, I returned to making an afghan. After finishing it, I decided to wash it and dry it as my dear sister-in-law and good friend does when she makes them for her family. Usually I don't wash an item after I complete it! How dirty can it be? Well, maybe that is a good idea.

 

So I used very little soap, short washing time, cool water and then low temperature in the dryer with a short time there.

 

Here is the result:

 

This thing was full of static electricity and all the "fringe" which I had planned to trim, was shredded.

After letting it rest for a few hours, I discovered it had relaxed. I do believe I will just leave the long, shredded fringe stay the way it is. Now sister-in-law/friend feels guilty. I told her it's not her fault! She has made six or more and has never had this result. Oh yes, we also use the same brand of yarn so that's not a factor.

 

Verenike/ Peirogi

Friday night was liverwurst dinner at the Journey in Yoder, KS. We didn't go this year. I am the only one who enjoys that menu (the women assured us there was no liver involved ?) so we stayed away.

However, Saturday was Central Christian High School's day for the German/Polish delight, dough stuffed with dry cottage cheese and smothered in ham gravy. I sweet hubby insisted on getting a platter of that to go for me! Delish....

Hen Scratches

One of my concerns is that the schools are no longer teaching cursive. I have read that learning to write helps one's brain develop fully.

This was my name on a drink last week at Starbucks. It may be a cross between printing and cursive! I do like the way Lou came out.  Looks as though it could be pronounced, "ooh oh ooh."  My dad used to say his handwriting looked like hen scratches but I could read it and it was legible and old style and CURSIVE.

Childish Insults

This isn't a very large photo but I think you can still see the knobby knee!

In school the kids called me bird legs.

Was that bullying? Nope, just kids stating the obvious. Everybody is sooo sensitive these days. I also remember alligator skin and Chiva - which meant baby goat.

I must have really had thick skin like an alligator because I laughed  these terms off. One guy said I looked like Helen White and I was too dumb to hear "Hell  in white."

This all relates to yesterday's blog where I left out the part that people are suing to get books taken off reading lists because they don't want their little darlings exposed to new thoughts in the real world. I believe in free speech but respect and decorum seem to be out the door. It's a tough choice.

Perhaps it involves telling the truth and not making statements that are libelous. 

Webster's says libel means a written or oral defamatory statement or representation that conveys n unjustly unfavorable impression. Didn't people used to sue for that?

One Deep Thought

"There is a wonderful quote from Epictetus that I think of every time I see someone get terribly upset about one of these things (I try to think about it when I get upset about anything): “If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.”

He said that some 1,900 years ago. Even then we felt that it was easier to police the outside than examine our inside."

 

This is from a piece by Ryan Holiday. He is an author who also wrote "Trust Me, I'm Lying."

 

As I read the above paragraph, I immediately thought of so many folks who are upset about things going on in our world.

 

I guess my main thought is that we worry about what others are doing while not minding our own business.

Cousins

This is my cousin, Marcheta, whose birthday is today, February 18th. I miss her. She had one brother and I had none; one of those "only" children. But we were as close as sisters. We had more fun and giggle time than you can imagine from the time we could remember until she died. Love you, crazy girl!

 

How Lucky Can You Get?

Today we had an un-February-like temperature of 72 degrees. It was also the day our furnace went on the blink. My husband, who has excellent hearing, noticed the fan sounded "different." Why he had the furnace on with the outside temp being springy, I will never know.

No air was coming out of the vents.  I made a call to the wonderful heating company we use here and they agreed to send someone between 2 and 4. He was here at five after 4 and at 5 we had a new switch and an operating furnace.

Tonight's forecast is 25 degrees so we need that rotating fan to blow warm air.

Thin Hamburgers

After sixty-three years of making hamburgers the same way, I learned yesterday that my husband would like thin burgers. So out came the parchment paper and the rolling pin.

He found Sandwich Slims at the grocers to replace those thick buns.

 

 

 

The last photo is a little confusing but that is a skinny hamburger standing on end and slightly curled against the foil. With sliced tomatoes, onion, mustard and catsup, the meat was barely tastable.  The wiggly red line tells me the computer doesn't recognize tastable as a word. Hardly noticeable would be a better choice.

Jelly Doughnuts

My husband found these at our local Dillon/Kroger grocery store. I wondered about pronouncing this word so I read the fine print on the side of the box. It seems that the word is Polish and the way to say it is: punch key. In Austria they are called Krapfen and in Germany, Berliner. That makes me think of John F. Kennedy's speech at the Berlin wall when he said, "Ich bin ein Berliner." This actually states in the German language, "I am a jelly doughnut." An obscure mistake in a language that has many wonderful idiosyncrasies!

 

 

By the way, the Paczkis are very good.

My Mom's Birthday Today

She was born in 1904 and this must be her christening dress!  She died at only sixty years. Miss her.
She would be amazed that I am still around at almost 85.