Meeting Abe

We had a late Thanksgiving with my parents in Illinois this weekend. The highlight was our trip to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield. It was quite a drive but well worth the trip. The exhibits were interactive and quite entertaining. Not your typical museum at all. The wax figures were eerie. We are pictured here with Abe, Mary and son Willie. There was a show about the Lincoln library that was part history lesson, part magic show. Really cool! We were so mesmerized by the show that we had to ask the docent whether the actor was real or fake (answer: real!). I highly recommend the museum if you have a chance to go there.

Ch-balls

Since my dad says I never post, I figured I'd show him and do two in one day.

Corey decided after all that sausage cooking the oven needed cleaning. He turned it on "self clean" and our entire house filled with smoke. We opened the windows and turned on fans and now the level of smoke in the house is tolerable.

To continue with my fried food kick (I made funnel cakes for breakfast) we made ch-balls tonight. They are actually cheese balls, but its much more fun to call them ch-balls. Just as my friend Laura.

Its that time of year again...

... so Corey is making sausage. Corey got 3 deer already. Here is what has become of them.




Random thoughts: For awhile now, I've been thinking of doing another 365. Corey is not loving the idea. He says it takes up too much of my time. Also, I've been doing a lot of knitting as of late. The last thing I made I LOVE but I can't share it yet because its a gift. I'll post the photos after Christmas.

For Nin

I think she has started a fashion trend...

Sick day = completed socks

I've got a cruddy chest cold so I took a sick day. The socks fit fairly well - just a tad bit big, but that is probably for the best, just in case they shrink.

Working toward the toes

I've successfully negotiated the heel turn! Woohoo! Now I'm in the home stretch to the toe section...

And since cinnamon rolls are oh-so-beautiful, I had to photograph the batch I made today.

The sock experiment

I've never attempted to knit socks before, so it seemed like it was about time to try. I'm using the two at a time method from the Knitting Circles Around Socks book. So far so good but the coming heel-turn looks pretty hairy.

Quiz

My lovely friend Susannah sent me this quiz, so just to be different, I thought I'd switch it from email to blog. For those of you who have blogs, please copy and paste this into your own post so we all can learn just how quirky you are (as if we didn't already know).

1.What is your occupation right now? Conservationist

2.What color are your socks right now? Gray. How boring! Usually I've got dogs, or girls doing yoga, or something else way more interesting than gray.

3.What are you listening to right now? This American Life Podcast on my iPhone.

4.What was the last thing that you ate? A rice crispy treat.

5.Can you drive a stick shift? Yup. Learned on my parents old truck when I was around 11. They needed me to drive so they could pick up hay bales in the field. It was 3 on-the-tree with a really hard clutch. I remember killing it over and over and finally running from the truck crying, only to have my mother drag me back to try again until I got it.

6.Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mother-in-law, TC.

7.Do you like the person who sent this to you? Of course. Susannah is da bomb.

8.How old are you today? 31.

9.What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Not a sports girl. I can't think of one.

10.What is your favorite drink? Right now, its hot chocolate. It changes by the day.

11.Have you ever dyed your hair? Yep. I went through that dark purply-red stage for a while in my teens...

12.Favorite food? Pastry. Pretty much any kind.

13.What is the last movie you watched? Religulous.

14.Favorite day of the year? Probably Christmas.

15.How do you vent anger? I usually let it build up until I eventually blow. I'm also a big fan of passive-aggressiveness ;)

16.What was your favorite toy as a child? Not a toy but I was huge into making forts.

17.What is your favorite season? Fall for sure. Today is about as good as it gets.

18.Cherries or Blueberries? Blueberries.

19.Do you want your friends to e-mail you back? Sure.

20.Who is the most likely to respond? Cami.

21.Who is least likely to respond? Zack.

22.Living arrangements? Me, the hubby and the menagerie (2 cats and 2 dogs). Oh, and right now, we have lots and lots of freeloading ladybugs.

23.When was the last time you cried? Obama's speech.

24.What is on the floor of your closet? A frightening pile of unfinished craft projects.

25.Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to? Aimee.

26.What did you do last night? Had dinner with Aimee and went to a meeting for work.

27.What are you most afraid of? Losing someone I love.

28.Plain, cheese, or spicy cheese hamburger? Spicy cheese, hold the burger.

29.Favorite dog breed? Mutt!

30.Favorite day of the week? Saturday.

31.How many states have you lived in? 1 (Indiana). How boring!

32.Diamonds or ruby? Neither. I'm not a jewel person, but especially not diamonds.

33.What is your favorite flower? I don't know what its called, but I once got this HUGE snowball looking white flower at a flower shop with petals sticking out in ever direction. It was so cool but I've never seen another one like it.

Okay fellow bloggers, its your turn! Laura, Jennifer, Cami, Casi - this includes you!

I love this county

Thats all I'm going to say :)

Such a pretty fall

Hasn't this just been the most beautiful fall? These are some photos from yesterday. The weather was just perfect, right through the evening when Corey and I worked at the park's Haunted Trail. It was quite fun, scaring the poop out of people.

Scary spiders

We made candy corn shaped cookies and these cute little spiders for the friends of the park bake sale. If you would like to make some of your own, here is the recipe. We used regular semi-sweet chocolate chips. I'm not sure you can call it a "recipe" with only two ingredients, though ;)