Insinkerator

   Bill tried snaking it and got a some out, but it still wasn't quite working.  There were still leaks, but less so, and it was draining really slowly.  It was time to call in a professional.

  The guy showed up bright and early yesterday and ended up staying for about three hours.  It wasn't quiet work.

  He had to keep going deeper and deeper to get the whole clog out.  He had pieces he could attach to the end of his snake to make it longer.  Each piece looked to add another six feet and he had to put on 6 more pieces.  It could be heard in the basement vibrating the walls.

  He replaced the pipes and so far everything is working.  Tank is glad to be getting his wet food in the morning again.  I'm glad that when we want to eat anything we don't need to worry about dirtying a dish.

  Today Bill cut some new wood for the under-sink area.  He was thinking of staining it, but I also have a mat to put down, so you won't really see it and water shouldn't get to it anyway.  Things are back under there with a few less items, and hopefully everything will be happy for a while.

  I tried making one of those looped together headbands I've been seeing a lot of on TikTok.  I wanted to make it a cowl, so I made it a bit longer and tried to seam it so that it didn't have a front and a back.  I was sort of successful, but not as much as I wanted.  One side looks a bit off, but it doesn't look as bad as the wrong side of a seam would look.  I'm going to try another one and see if I can make it a bit better.

  I've finally started the brioche hat I mentioned before.  The one that has the same pattern as the blue one, but we will see if it works better with a different yarn.  So far I think it does, but on the body of the hat is where we will really be able to tell.

Christmas Time is Here!

   Tank got two of his presents today.  He really liked his new salmon bursting treats and he also got to go outside and eat some grass.  I wanted to get him some crinkle balls, but I wasn't able to find any.  Luckily he doesn't understand Christmas and I can give them to him later.

  My mom likes making these branch gnomes.  She had some troubles finding the branches this year, but we all got there in the end.

  The spread for the lunch.  Rolls, stuffing, Korean sweet potatoes, bacon wrapped brussel sprouts, pork loin, cranberry sauce, stuffed green olives, ranch pickles, and Muldy Apple drink (a drink I saw on Quincy’s Tavern's TikTok).  There was also wine and beer, it was very good.

  All the presents!  Everyone got something they will use/eat/drink.  It was fun and I always think it's the best part to find fun things that other people will like.

  I was blessed!  Nezumi used to sleep laying on top of me, but since I've moved out, I've become a stranger.  She's also 17 years old and might be having a hard time with memory.  She demanded some pork loin and after we were done opening presents she waited for someone to sit down so she could take a nap.  She even let Bill pet her some once she had a full tummy.

  After all that we went to meet some of the Popcorn Gang and watch a movie.  It was a good day.

Pre-New Year's Resolution

Pattern: Make Your Own Granny Square Sweater by TopKnot's Trunk - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Chip - Hook: 6mm

  I finished this a while ago and just hadn't gotten around to taking a picture until right now.  There is no real reason why it took me so long to take the picture or to post about it.  In fact, I have about three posts, not including this one, that I have started and never went back to.  They are just fine and I have no reason to not work on them, other than I don't have a finished project to show.

  I need to work on that.  There is nothing wrong with showing progress pictures, I've done it a lot in the past.  The new year isn't too far off, but I am going to try and implement this before that happens.  I don't know if I will manage to do that or not, I have a cowl that I need to take out because both my gauge isn't working and I cast on too many stitches.  The couch blanket has also gotten no love lately.  I need to get excited about it again.

  This year I spent more time at home, so I didn't find as many random things during the summer months for people as I have in the past.  I don't think anyone will be disappointed in any way though, there is some high quality stuff in that box.

  There have been some other things that no one on here has gotten to hear about.  Our garbage disposal had stopped working a while ago.  We were able to make it work with a sink plunger for quite a good chunk of time.  However, when I was rinsing out Tank's food bowl, it gave three big bubbles and got stopped up.  Bill was able to get a new disposal and was trying to get it installed, but it didn't want to cooperate.  It didn't help that we had to flip almost every breaker to get the old disposal to lose power.  It was labeled as Basement on the left panel.  There was then a lot of leaking and it didn't help that the wood under our sink has been bad since before we moved in.

  We are really close to it working though, so things are looking up.  Now it's time to go to bed so Santa can show up and bring Tank the rest of his presents.

Friendsgiving aka Tanksgiving

 

  It took a bit of moving things around, but we got The Chosen One to fit into the refrigerator.  I sent this to everyone who was coming to the big event to get everyone excited.

  Bill smoked the turkey this year.  This photo is curtesy of Shane because I was still getting Ryan when it came out of the oven.  It does most of the cooking in the smoker and is finished in the oven.

  Bill smoked the turkey (as seen above), and also made cranberry sauce, gravy, and yeast rolls.  J-Dub made the mashed potatoes.  Shane brought some King's Hawaiian Rolls and made two kinds of stuffing.  I joked that I brought Ryan.  We all ate way too much and had to sit around before we had the apple pie and/or pumpkin pie that Shane also brought.

  Once we were a bit more out of our food comas, J-Dub went home and the rest of us played Just Dance until we were too tired.  We even got Bill to play a few songs.  After that we watched random YouTube videos until it was time for people to either go home or find a place at our house to crash for the night.

  It was a lot of fun and I was worried about finding space for everyone, but we would have been fine.  A few people ended up not being able to make it, but I think we would have been able to fit them in.

  Tank was a bit weirded out by so many people being over, but he was being okay for it.  There was some pacing, but he didn't try and jump on the table or anything.  He got grumpy when we were playing Just Dance, but he does that when I play it alone.  I don't know why he is so against dancing.

  I then got to spend my Black Friday the way I like to, eating cold turkey dipped in ketchup and not dealing with people in stores.

Laptops, am I right?

   I don't remember if I posted about the time I ran over my laptop bag with my work laptop in it.  But I got the screen fixed and everything was fine.  After a few months I go to sit down to get some work done and it won't power on.  I thought I had forgotten to plug it in, so I checked that.  The brick's light came on, but nothing on the computer.  I ordered another one in case that was the problem and it didn't work.  Luckily I'm pretty good at backing up everything.

  I didn't mention that when I got my order of business cards for work, I also got some Toyota car parts.  The bottom of the box looked like it had opened and was taped back up.  VistaPrint had no idea about it, so I contacted FedEx.  I got a few numbers to call and eventually got to talk to someone who could help me out.  She said to put them back in a box and that they would pick it up, do some research, and see if they can figure out who the car parts were supposed to go to.  I got a call the day after they picked them up by a very confused guy.  Seems they didn't let anyone know what was happening.  He was confused and thought he was supposed to send them back to VistaPrint.  I told him that I was told that his end would do some research and see who might have filled a claim for a missing shipment of a Toyota Front Left & Right Outer Tie Rod Ends, since VistaPrint didn't add them.  He agreed that that would make sense and thanked me for helping to clear his confusion.

  We were able to meet inside at the Church, so Carola decided to come.  She's been a busy little bee while we were apart.  They are all so cute and it's really fun to look at all the little details.  They make me want to make more huggable things.

Look, Cookies!!

 

 Was hoping to tell you about the fun I had at the Renaissance Faire, but we kept missing out on tickets.  I was also hoping to show off some finished projects, but other things keep getting in the way of me working on them.  So instead, here are some cookies to distract you.

  We actually ran into someone from the Wednesday group and she said she could never get into the online meeting.  My mom and I told her that we are there most Wednesdays and she said that she might join us next week.

  The guy who takes our orders and the manager at Santini's both keep asking when the group is coming back.  Which is interesting since I heard the other tale.  I don't know who is right, probably a bit of both.

  Work is starting to pick up, but I'm going to make it my mission to work on something a little bit every day.  That way I can get some things done.

 

It Looks Like Ice Cream

Pattern: Waves of Hope Hat by LJM Designs - Yarn: Red Heart Super Saver in Cherry Chip - Needle: US 6

  I decided to make another one, using the right weight of yarn.  I like how the yarn pooled and made it look like there were long runs of the same color.  I now want to make one with beads on the yarn over gaps.

Pattern: Wheat by Tin Can Knits, Yarn: Red Heart Stripes in Icy Pond

  I didn't know how it would turn out with the variegated yarn, but I wanted to try this pattern with this yarn.  This was the yarn I lost before the trip to Glacier.  I was nervous about how the pooling would look, but I had a feeling, and it looks really cool.  It's also very interesting how a slight change in gauge makes the one part have a completely different pattern.  I'm not overly worried about skein changes, I won't be measuring some out to make sure I'm at the exact same point in a color shift, I'm okay with just letting it happen the way it does.  Maybe we will get some new fun color pooling patterns.

  I'm also using a Fisherman's Rib instead of the 1x1 ribbing the pattern calls for.  The garter stitch squishes down on itself, I thought the ribbing would pucker because those rows wouldn't do that.  I know that makes this a bit less of a beginner pattern, but I like how it's turning out and I apparently want more brioche in my life.

  Last Friday/Saturday was the first time I got to yell things at a screen while The Rocky Horror Picture Show played and people I know run around a theater in a long time.  Ryan found a place in Manassas that we could use.  Bill offered the use of his truck to help take the props from the University Mall theater to The Salisbury Center.  This place is really interesting.  They have boxing matches, there is a bar, and they have other shows.  I suggested we eat at The Philadelphia Tavern before the show, since I've been wanting to go there for a bit now.  Everyone who went seemed to really like it.

  The comedy show went long, so then the country music band went long, so we didn't get to start moving things until after we had been promised.  There also weren't stairs to get on and off the stage from the front, but the owner let us use some speakers as stairs.  It wasn't the best, but it worked.  Bill got adopted by the props people and helped on that during the whole show.

  The show was really good.  There were some imperfections, but when no one has really done this in a year and a half, that's to be expected.  They also didn't get to practice the show on the stage beforehand.  When they started to work on blocking, the people who worked at the location started to let the audience in.  The sound on the movie cut out twice, but some people were yelling the movie while others continued to yell callbacks.

  In a very Rocky tradition, we went to IHOP after the show.  Our waiter had recently been in a car accident and had a concussion.  They were also understaffed for as many people as they had, so the waitress who was helping the other table ended up bringing us our drinks, and it was her first day.  It was all just kind of crazy and we had been sat in a very cold corner.  Not the best, but it was nice to keep hanging out with some of the people after.

  I am definitely looking forward to the Transylvanian Concubines getting to be back at University Mall, but it might also be fun to go back to The Salisbury Center again, especially since they now know what to expect and we know what to expect.