Incoherent Scribblings

Here is my slow but sure progress on the Autumn Chair for Chris’s round robin. I am all caught up with my homework so I will be working on it some more tonight after I finish this post.

Sorry that I don’t have any other stitching to show, but the looming deadline of this round (October 15) combined with my limited stitching time these days has managed to make me a one-at-a-time stitcher again. All I can say is thank goodness I haven’t committed myself to any exchanges or additional round robins, because I would never get them done on time!

I do so love to rotate, but I can’t say that I am unhappy about being a OAATer again. With my current schedule if I work on only one project at a time I actually see some progress and eventually a finish… and we all know how important that finish is! Hopefully once this round of the robin is finished I can start rotating again though.

And in other news… I think I can finally say that the SBQ is on an indefinite hiatus. I no longer have any new questions to ask and I really don’t have any desire to recycle old ones. If you have an SBQ that you would like asked, please feel free to send it to me and I will ask them as I get them. However, as long as I have no questions I will not be posting the SBQ. Thanks for understanding.

Saturday, September 20 – I had originally planned on starting my vegetarian experiment on Saturday, but I was invited to a Texas barbeque that day. As a result, I decided to push my experiment back a day. However, there were actually quite a few meatless dishes to choose from at the barbeque so in the spirit of my experiment, in addition to my barbequed chicken I tried the spinach salad (loved it), a spoonful of corn and black bean salad (didn’t love it), some type of risotto dish (didn’t really have an opinion), and some grilled Portobello mushrooms (loved them too).

Sunday, September 21 – I went to the grocery store with a meatless list in my hand and came home with stuff to make homemade macaroni and cheese, apple salad, and spinach lasagna. I made the apple salad and ate croissants.

Quick Apple Salad

• Apples
• Seedless Grapes (I prefer red)
• Pineapple Chunks (drained)
• Walnuts
• Cool Whip

In a medium bowl cut up the apples and grapes. Add pineapple chunks, walnuts, and Cool Whip. Stir up and serve.

Monday, September 22 – I ate apple salad and croissants for lunch and for dinner I made homemade macaroni and cheese. It had been a long time since I had made macaroni and cheese and I just made the recipe that I made when I was a kid with good old Velveeta cheese. It was edible, but apparently I have become a cheese snob in my old age because I kept thinking that next time I make macaroni and cheese I am going to make it with cheddar.

Tuesday, September 23 – Left-over macaroni and cheese.

Wednesday, September 24 – I had a long day at work and didn’t feel like left-overs so I went to Sonic… and had a hamburger and fries.

Thursday, September 25 – I had the last of my apple salad, the last of my macaroni and cheese, and some cheese and crackers.

Friday, September 26 – Mr G came over and I made the spinach lasagna (and cheesecake). The lasagna turned out wonderful! It was a recipe I made up as I went along, but I will definitely be making it again. In fact, even if my vegetarian experiment doesn’t work out in the end I seriously don’t think I will ever make hamburger lasagna again… that is how good my spinach lasagna was.

Saturday, September 27 and Sunday, September 28 – Lasagna (and cheesecake) left-overs.

Spinach Lasagna

• 1 (9oz) pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained
• 1 tub Ricotta cheese
• 1 brick Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
• 1 brick Parmesan cheese (shredded)
• 1 pkg finely shredded Italian cheese
• Parsley
• Onion (chopped)
• Garlic (chopped)
• Oregano
• Basil
• Italian Seasoning
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Lasagna Noodles
• 1 jar Spaghetti Sauce
• 1/3 cup water

In a skillet sauté onion, garlic, oregano, basil, Italian seasoning, and pepper in olive oil. Add spaghetti sauce. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine spinach, cheeses (minus the package of finely shredded Italian) and parsley.

In a 9×13 pan, alternate layers of noodles, spaghetti sauce, and cheeses until finishing with a layer of noodles and spaghetti sauce. Add water to the ends of the pan. Sprinkle finely shredded Italian cheese on top. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until noodles are tender and lasagna is bubbly.

Although I refer to her a lot here on this blog, I am not sure how many of my readers are aware of the fact that Dawn and I are best friends. Of course I know lots of people through the Internet and have made many friends that way, but Dawn and I have been best friends since we were 11 years old and before most of us even knew what the Internet was.

However, Dawn is more than just a friend to me. She is as important to me as my own family. In fact, I consider her and her family part of my family. I chat with or talk to her almost daily and visit her at least once, if not twice, a year.

I was privileged enough to be one of the first people she told earlier this year when she found out she was pregnant. The day she called me with the news I could tell from the tone of her voice that she still wasn’t sure whether or not to believe it. After I got over the shock of the news we spent the next few minutes laughing and joking about the fact that it would be funny if she was pregnant with twins.

A few months later I got another call and once again I could sense a note of disbelief in her voice as she told me that I had jinxed her… she had just been told she was expecting twins! Unfortunately a few weeks later I got another call. This time, instead of disbelief, the tone of her voice was one of heartbreak. She had learned that she had lost one of the babies. Together we mourned for her loss, but we also tried to stay positive. The other baby was doing fine and we were going to focus on that.

Since then all of my positive thoughts for her have gone towards the healthy growth and development of the Little One. With every good doctor’s appointment that Dawn tells me about and every day that the Little One stays in the womb I have been grateful.

However, when my phone rang the other day in the middle of the morning and I saw who the caller was, I was immediately concerned. Dawn had told me that she was going to call me on Saturday to give me an update of the latest doctor’s appointment, but this was Thursday. She told me her doctor’s appointment had not gone so well and that the Little One would more than likely make her entrance into the world this weekend.

Later that day when I talked to her again she told me she going to be admitted to the hospital and it took everything in me to resist jumping into my car and driving 14 hours to the hospital to be by her side. Although I am excited to meet my new goddaughter, the fact is my best friend is going through a really scary time right now and it’s driving me crazy that I am not there to help her and her family through it.

Yellow Rose of Texas
Originally uploaded by blondelibrarian

Wednesday night is class night, but tonight we got out early. After I went to the library to pick up a couple of books so I can write my prospectus for next week, I came home.

The sun had set, but there was still some daylight left and as I went up to my apartment the rose garden behind the old post office caught my eye. I noticed the other day that roses in the rose garden were in bloom again and, with a touch of autumn sadness, thought that this is more than likely the last time the roses will bloom this season.

So, instead of immediately heading upstairs and immersing myself if the preparation of my prospectus as I had planned, I decided to take some pictures of the spectacle before me. This one, appropriately entitled “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” is my favorite.

It was SAT weekend this past weekend and although I didn’t stitch a whole lot over the weekend (blame it on Mr G who took me to a fund-raiser on Saturday), I did manage to squeeze in a few hours’ stitching on the Autumn Chair for Chris’s RR yesterday before I buckled down and continued reading the latest book for my Wednesday evening class.

It probably doesn’t look like I a did a whole lot this weekend if you just do a glancing comparison between today’s progress picture and last week’s, but I did over two hours of backstitching before moving on to the leg of the chair!

I’m afraid that’s it for today… I need to get back to reading The Education of Henry Adams.