We did a lot: (part 2)

But wait, there's more...

On Friday we all headed down to Mt. Vernon. The day after Thanksgiving was probably not the best day to visit here, as the line going into the house was very long. But the weather wasn't bad, and the grounds are lovely. Mom and I were able to duck into one of the gardens as the others held our place, and further on Ann and I dashed over to see some of the outbuildings. The trip through the house was pretty quick, but we did get to go up to the third floor, which usually isn't open.



Mr S wanted this shot to prove to his students that he was really there. Notice that daughter's hair is considerably shorter than nephew's.


The view across the Potomac from this side of the house is breathtaking.


On our way back, Brother-in-Law and nephew took off in one car for the new Apple store in Bethesda (nephew being totally enamored of all things Mac). The rest of us stopped at Arlington Cemetery and walked to the Kennedy graves.





Most of the group went on to see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, but Mom was pretty tired and not really able to face another uphill climb. So my sister and I waited with her at the reception center, and watched twilight fall and the lights come up on the Lincoln and Washington memorials. Then home to the Thanksgiving leftover feast, which is almost as good as the Thanksgiving feast itself.


On Saturday morning, my dear friend Gayle and her husband came by for coffee. Gayle recently taught at Stitches (How to Use Japanese Knitting Patterns), so it was fun to catch up on that - and to hear about her trip to the Shetland Islands. She came with a wonderful gift:



That's WEBS Valley Yarns 2/14 alpaca silk blend in Eggplant. Enough for a shawl. Now to come up with a worthy pattern (all my problems should be so pleasant to contemplate). But I digress.

We left for the airport at 1:00 (a good 45 minutes sooner than we would have needed, but who knew traffic would be so light?) Uneventful flight back to Madison, home in B'ville by 10:00. Couldn't have asked for a better trip.

We did a lot in four days:(part 1)

We just arrived home last night from a trip East for Thanksgiving with my sister's family in Rockville MD.

Tuesday afternoon, in precisely timed airport run, I picked up Mr S from work, we drove to Mom's, where we were joined by Lovely Daughter, then dashed to the airport (where we discovered there were not yet long holiday travel lines). Well, I would always rather have more time at the airport than not enough. The flight from Madison took off on time, but we were delayed in Detroit. Landed at Baltimore, picked up the rental car and finally made it to Rockville at about 1:00 am, where my sister (bless her) was waiting up for us.

All slept in on Wednesday (well, all but niece and nephew, who had school in the morning, and brother-in-law who had work). That afternoon we went to a lovely little history museum in Sandy Springs,

and also stopped by the Friends Meeting House, which is 190 years old and still in use (though this is relatively new, as the Society has been meeting there since 1753). Then we met up with my brother-in-law for dinner at a Tai restaurant (yum) in downtown Rockville, and then went in to their beautiful new library.

On Thursday (Thanksgiving), sister Annie drove us all into DC while BIL Lee stayed home to make dinner. Thanksgiving Day is the perfect time to visit the city. The museums are open, the crowds are sparse, even parking close to the mall is easy. We started at the (new to me) National Museum of the American Indian. The building and grounds alone are breathtaking.

We were only able to skim the surface of the collections/exhibits, but enough of a taste to want to go back and see more.

Then off we went across the mall to the National Gallery. Looking over to the capitol, we could see the scaffolding/seating going up for the Inauguration.

You can probably see it if you click the picture to make it big

After lunch, Mr S, Mom and I went up to see the Dutch paintings, while Ann and the kids headed to the contemporary section and Lovely Daughter took off for the Natural History Museum. Again, our visit was all too brief, but wonderful. It is stunning to be able to stand with your nose six inches from a Vermeer or Bruegel or Van Gough and just drink it in. I stared at the colors in the shoulder and arm in this Van Gough for at least 5 minutes, but I could have spent 20, or an hour, or a week. The colors are so wonderful.

We were rather stunned to find that photography was allowed.

After a quick swing past the White House, we headed back to the house for Thanksgiving dinner. Lee is a Serious Cook, and he did himself proud. (Sweet potatoes roasted with olive oil and just a touch of maple syrup are a universe apart from brown sugar and marshmallows and far, far better. Plus the man makes his own cheesecake!)

Off to bed happy and well fed, to a guestroom with good pillows, a stack of books and visiting cats - bliss.

Happy Turkey Day

A small list of things I am thankful for:
Family, friends, food and shelter, The Gettysburg Address, cats, the employees of our local Post Office who always go the extra mile, Cajun music, Talkingpointsmemo.com and Andrewsullivan.com, Ravelry, the way tree branches look when they are outlined with snow, Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring", snow plow drivers, Bill Moyers, Russ Feingold, Aretha Franklin, poppies of all varieties, water, air and earth.

What I Ended Up Doing

Elizabeth and Junior Goddess Bets both had very clever ideas for filling an old sock draft stopper (and I rather liked Laura's collie suggestion), but here's how it all unfolded.

As I was still mulling over possibilities, I happened to take down two roller shades from two narrow windows. They had never worked quite right, and were starting to look old and tatty looking. Yet they weren't so bad that I could bear to just throw them away. As I was sticking them in a corner for the time being, I realized that they were almost the width of the doors that needed to have drafts stopped. And because they were made of fabric lined with thin foam, and had a narrow ruffle on the end, they had enough bulk to fill out the circumference of a sock pretty well. So I poured about a cup and a half of rice into the toe of one sock and pulled it over one end of a shade.

Repeated with other sock over the other shade end, and there you had it: The lazy women's quickie draft stopper.

The rice in the toes is far enough from the holes in the heels that I think it will stay put.
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Laura asked whether I was going to try to match the stripes on the baby socks. I thought about it, but when I started pulling out yarn to get to the right starting point on the second, I realized that I might not have enough to complete it if I did this. So the socks are fraternal, rather than identical.

I was pleased with myself for at least lining up the yellow stripes. I have persuaded myself that this gives a certain "unity in diversity" effect.

Kitty Litter

Play Sand
Beans
Split Peas
Dry Corn
Popcorn
Insulation Foam
Fabric Scraps
Dried Pine Needles
Copper Pipe Insulation Foam

Thanks to all for the draft stopper stuffing suggestions. The additional possibilities above came up when I Googled "how to make a draft stopper."

I'm beginning to lean toward the "combination of fluff and weight" concept (a la Molly Bees and Elizabeth). Needs to be heavy enough to stay in place, but not so heavy as to totally stretch the sock tops out of shape, and nothing that would be liable to leak out. Roll some rice/beans/corn in quilt batting ? But would that be heavy enough? Would it be flexible enough? Or should I sew a fabric tube and pour in the kitty litter, then pull the sock tops over it? But if I actually haul the sewing machine out of the attic, and clear off a space on the dining room table to set it up, and sew the darn thing, why bother with encasing it in old sock tops?

And why is it that this idea for thrifty recycling now seems to involve going out and buying more supplies?

Let's see: if I cut the worn out foot off a sock, and sew the cut end of the leg closed, it will probably make a handy dandy dust mitt. Given the amount of dusting I actually do in any given week, those two pairs should keep me nicely suppplied for the rest of my life.

Years ago, I saw a household hint (I want to pin it on Heloise, if you remember her, but that may be unfair) suggesting that one could make lovely plastic place mats out of old shower curtains. Somehow, I found the concept less than appetizing. I bring this up to remind myself that some thrifty ideas, while doable, maybe really aren't so hot.

I still need a couple of draft stoppers. I haven't completely written off utilizing the socks. But I'm mulling it over.

As the days get shorter and darker

I find myself craving bright colors, so I dug out the brightest leftovers I could find and started in on these.



Looks rather huge in close up, but that's a little baby sock. Almost instant gratification color fix.

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I hadn't been to the FreeRice.com website in a while to play the vocabulary game (might have had something to do with a slight fixation on political websites over the last few months), but I popped by a week or so ago. Oh frabjous day! The have added new categories. And the one I just love is "Famous Paintings". They show you a picture, you pick one of four artists. I'm pretty darn good at the Western artists (if only by knowing enough to do some decent process of elimination). Hopeless at the Middle Eastern and Asian. But I love seeing all the paintings.

Now the Chemistry and Math areas, I'm not even going to go there; but I may take a whack at English grammar.

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Question: has anyone ever made a draft stopper, and if so, what did you use to fill it? I have drafts under some doors. I have socks that have perfectly good legs, but feet that have been mended more than once. I have a little recycling idea.....