Good morning ladies! It is a bit cool this morning, but it has been getting into mid 70's everyday still for the most part so it has been lovely by afternoon. It is supposed to be near 80 for the next couple days.

I sat and paid bills this morning. We got our first Iphone bill and with the fees to connect the thing and a whole month in advance plus the several days between when we bought it and the due date, it was considerable, but from here on it, it will be regular charges.

I finished the other sock just in time. I made them for Kelly's birthday and her birthday is Tuesday. I now have to hurry and get a pair made for Jackson and Thomas. I have a pair on the needles so I have to figure out if they are sized for Jackson or what! Sometimes I make myself nuts when I do that kind of stuff. Boy was that row counter ap on my Iphone helpful. I could sit in my chair and knit then just tap the row counter and it would add the row. I did that with the sock so I had the exact came number of rows with both socks. A lot of people just measure, but I like to have them row for row so they are exactly the same size. This little ap sure is great. You can also do patterns. If you are knitting something like lace, you can keep track of pattern sequences this way, which is really cool.

I have laundry going and will get up in a couple minutes and put away the dishes in the dishwasher. I then need to get the bathrooms cleaned upstairs. I haven't gotten those done yet. Tomorrow Jack is home all day so I need to carpets vacuumed down here so he can shampoo. Luckily, no rain in the forcast.

This weekend is commissary weekend again and I will be getting stuff for Thanksgiving. My ham will be here today and Jack will go over to the BBQ place this afternoon and order the turkey. I found a great appetizer recipe for Thanksgiving on my allrecipes dinner spinner ap. It is a garlic and herb goat cheese spread. Have any of you ever eaten goat's cheese? I am sure Susan has. She seems to have tried all kinds of things. I really like it. It is so creamy and a pretty mild cheese. I also have a smoked salmon packet my dil gave me as a gift. I think I am going to mix it with cream cheese and have that for dipping too plus olives, pickles and the like. I will have to get a regular cheese ball because Jack doesn't go outside the box much! lol

You gals have a nice day today. I am going to get started on chores and Fortune is barking to go outside. Faye

Wonderful Wednesday
 

Good evening, ladies! Cold in the 50s all day and overcast.

I went to quilt guild last night and this morning was water aerobics and from 12 until 2 we had a covered dish lunch at the Y for the water aerobics classes and staff. A great time. Not having a lot of time to cook something, I signed up to bring plates, bowls and cups. Works for me every time. Another lady brought trash bags, napkins and silverware. There was a huge assortment of food and dessert. After that I went to TJ Max and Books A Million and the Dollar Store. I got some Yorkshire blend tea at TJ Max. I love trying different ones.

Maggie, I saw those ceramic cups there (TJ Max) for $6.99. They are just too small for me. I use a 24 oz. water bottle and a 20% tea travel mug and I have a 26 oz. coffee mug. I'm all mugged up. I'll empty my water bottle during a 60 minute exercise class.

Jean, I hope everything went according to plan for you today. It seems you are busier since you retired.

Faye, I love goat cheese. WW has a recipe in the Week 1 booklet in the menus for a salad with goat cheese and strawberries and almonds. It is so good. I have it often. I also like it with pears. Goat Milk Fudge is another treat I just love. I pretty much eat anything. We don't have mailboxes at our door. They are in units of 12 with a separate box pickup with 2 spaces. If we have a package, the key is left in our mailbox. They have cut back so much on carriers, they don't have time to go from door to door anymore. Oh for the good old days!

I'm having a baked sweet potato, pork chop and green beans for supper. Have a great evening!

Back For A Bit
 

Maggie, I have a condition called dry mouth as a result of having to use COPD and asthma inhalers so I'm drinking all the time and look for big insulated mugs.

Here's the recipe from the 2007 Week 1 Booklet:

STRAWBERRY AND GOAT CHEESE SALAD

3 cups mixed greens
tossed with 1/2 cup Strawberries (I use 3/4 cup), sliced
1/4 cup sliced Almonds
1/4 cup crumbled goat cheese
and 2 tablespoons fat-free Italian Dressing

6 POINTS

It's very filling and oh so good!

Here's another from the same souce that I sometimes make.

APPLE AND GOAT CHEESE SALAD

2 cups mixed greens tossed with
sliced cucumber
sliced baby carrots
1 medium apple, chopped
1/4 medium avocado, diced
3 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
1 teaspoon olive oil and
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

6 POINTS

Maggie -- I've been thinking about getting a food processor too. It seems like a lot of recipes suggest using one rather than a mixer or blender. Since I'm not a "fancy" cook I just haven't made the investment. I never thought about putting money into a credit card; that is a good idea and sounds safer. Enjoy your new beverage containers! :)

Susan -- Your area has the most interesting names! Books A Million is another one I've not heard of. Supplying the paper products for the lunch was a good idea and saves people from having to bring dishes from home along with their food. What does the Yorkshire tea taste like? Thanks for sharing the recipes with us; both of them sound good. :T I am busier than I was last year because I've added the volunteer job at the church, the so-called craft club, and another social group that I was invited to join. It seems like the hospital volunteer coordinator has called me to fill in more also. Our mailman told Bob that the postal service hates the cluster of mailboxes because they are never marked correctly and seem to be smaller than a regular box. The ones around here don't lock and kids beat on them to make the doors not close properly. We have a double wide one that large envelopes will lay flat in, but they still fold them over and use a rubber band around them. We get our local newspapers and local advertising guide in the mail too.

Good morning to you ladies. Woke up at 4 am and Fortune had to go outside so I gave up and decided to check out the news, check the bank to make sure Jack's deposit got there and post to you ladies.

To all our Veterans :drill: , we applaud your service to our country! :bravo:

I have started Jackson's socks. The yarn is called gold and is a nice color for a boy. It has different hues of golden colors. I am doing my first patterned sock. I have always let the colorway do the pattern, this time I am trying an actual pattern knit into the sock. It is a garter rib pattern and makes for a nice patterned sock for a boy. Here are Kelly's socks I just finished. This yarn is incredibly soft since I washed it and I hope she likes them. She likes to wear these funky colored and patterned low top converse sneakers and I thought some cool striped socks would be fun. The other picture is something I saw yesterday and thought was just so cute. They are called "smittens" and are actually a version of advent calendar for kids. You make 25 "smittens" and the hanging cord and you can hang them from your tree as a garland or on your mantel. You can put a little treat of some kind in each one. You can also knit them separately and make Christmas present money holders out of them, stuff like that. I wished I had seen them months earlier I would have liked to make Jackson and Thomas a set for their tree this year.

Maggie: Here is that recipe you wanted:

HERB AND GARLIC GOAT CHEESE SPREAD

makes 1 1/4 cups
2 Tbl 70 cal, 5 fat gr, 0 fiber

5 oz fresh goat cheese
2/3 c low fat sour cream
3 green onions chopped (use all of the onion)
1 tbl chopped parsley
1 tbl chopped basil
2 small garlic cloves
salt and pepper to taste

Combine goat cheese and sour cream in food processor and blend until smooth and incorporated. Add rest of ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate several hours or overnight for best flavor blend. Taste and adjust salt and pepper seasoning.

I was wrong. The recipe came from my Whole Foods ap but it looks great to me.

Susan: Thanks for all the great recipes. I am going to have to try a couple of these. Everyone here has a hodge podge of mailboxes. Ours go on the outside of the garage and like Jean said, our mailman drives on by if there is anything impeding him from just driving up to the mailbox. I swear this new one whomever they are might as well just fling the mail towards the gate as they drive by they are so lazy. I mean you take a job where you know you are going to have to get you bum out of the truck sometimes so get out of the truck and do your job. They don't have to do door service for packages, they can just leave it sitting right inside the gate, but this new person literally throws the package onto the deck and you have to chase it down like a newspaper! lol

Jean: We used to have something similar for our long distance. We would buy att phone cards and use them to call long distance. They were much, much cheaper than a long distance plan on our land line phone. Our new cell phones have nationwide local and long distance unlimited so I can call my friends more, which is nice. I am not sure his socks are going to go much faster! lol I emailed her and asked her for his shoe size. He was wearing an 8 so I figured he probably wore a 9 and started that sized sock so I could get started. She said he wears an 11!!! Luckily, the leg circumference didn't change and I hadn't gotten to the full leg length or the foot length so I was safe or I would have had to rip out the whole thing! He is gonna have big feet like his Nonny! :D

I called the vets and they had a cancellation for the groomer so I am taking Fortune in around 7:30 to be groomed. He is a little earlier than normal, but I noticed he is scratching which means he needs a bath. I checked him out for his skin problem, but found nothing so his coat is just dirty I guess.

Well gals, I am going to go. I have a lot I want to accomplish today so I am going to get started before I have to run Fortune to the groomers, which is only two blocks from here. Have a great Thursday. Faye

:mad:Good evening, ladies. I guess fall and cooler days are here to stay. At least the sun comes out. My depression gets worse in winter when we don't have sun. I have slowly been changing out all my light bulbs to the daylight bulbs that give white light. It seems to make a difference.

Faye, I love Kelly's socks! I'd cut the smittens out of felt and sew them with a buttonhole stitch around the edge and have them done in a few hours. You can get them made for next year and I know they will be beautiful.

Jean, Books A Million is a national chain of book stores similar to Barnes and Noble. They have a love coffee shop inside the store. It's called Joe Mugs. We have a lot of things with Indian names. We have several tribes close by and they have Pow-Wows several times a year.

I just spend 45 minutes on the English WW site. They all seem to be liking the ProPoints better than their old Discover plan. Carbs are really taking a big hit along with sat fats. It looks like most women are on 29 points with 49 WAPs. They have done away with the points quiz because it has been found bigger people really don't need to be eating that much more. I know when I lost all my weight, we all ate the same and it worked great. Half of the food they eat over there I have no idea what it is. 17 more days! I'm planning on getting a new scale, whatever the package of books, coupons, etc. is, and a new cookbook. They did pass out a points update for cookbooks that came out last year so that will be nice to get started with.

Tomorrow is day guild meeting and then I'm coming home and getting started on my house. I'm going to rearrange some furniture and move some bookbases out of the family room to the office upstairs. That should count for some exercise I think. The carpet in the family room and living room needs scrubbed. :stress: I have thought it over and I am going to paint my kitchen cupboards green and yellow. Then I'm going to stencil a border around the top of the walls. My cupboards were pickled oak but the pickled has pretty much worn away from scrubbing over the years. I'm tired of them.

Nothing today but work and Y. I'll be tuning in to Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice tonight.

Have a great evening!

Thankful Thursday