Ten Fidy

All week I've longed for Packhouse quinoa "meatballs."  And tonight was the night.  

Along with this Oscar Blues Ten Fidy beer.  A stout.  " Ten FIDY (10.5% ABV) is made with enormous amounts of two-row malt, chocolate malt, roasted barley, flaked oats and hops. Ten FIDY is the ultimate celebration of dark malts and boundary-stretching beer."

10.5% ABV?  Oh, my.  And the meatballs were good, too.  And the Brussels Sprouts.

Angel and Calls

It just so happens that I need my embroidery machine for something else, so one more Christmas task is done, at least the embroidery is.  I can't believe that this has been in the hoop since, oh, probably, December 15.  Anita Goodesign Angels

This morning I called my senators to ask them to not confirm Betsy Devos.  I thought that taking positive steps for myself would help me feel better, but it didn't.

My senators are Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul.  Will they really pay attention to my opinion?  At least at Senator McConnell's regional office a real person answered the phone.  Not the case with Rand Paul, I got a recording telling me to call the Washington office, where I got a recording telling me to leave a message.  I wonder whether in both cases I gained only putting my name and phone number on a list for robo calls.

As I think over the past week, my lightness comes from a sign at one of the marches.  "Today I marched with the first female president.  I don't know who she is, but she was there."

We had a few flurries this morning and the sky is so gray that's it's almost white.  I enjoy January, I really do.  I enjoy the break from yard work and the gradual lengthening of the days.  I like to count back . . .  I figure that today we have the same daylight as we had on November 16.

Steps in the March

Yesterday I marched in the Cincinnati Sister March of the Women's March.  It was amazing, it was invigorating, it was hard sometimes.

For me, it wasn't a President Trump protest, let me make that clear.  I respect the presidency.  It was something different, something much bigger in my heart.

I marched because I have a granddaughter and I love her with all my heart.  I want her to live in a peaceful world with clean air.  I want her to live in a world that respects people of all colors, all religions, her LGBTQ brothers and sisters.  I want her to have health care and reproductive choices.  I want her to live in a world with good public education at all levels,  I want her to have equal pay for equal work.  I want her world to respect people with disabilities.  And I want her to respect.  And I hope that one reason she will respect is because that’s the kind of world she sees in me.  That’s why I marched.  Maybe a whole world is too much to ask for, I don’t know.  But I can ask for a country, that’s not too much to march for.

Mt. Carmel Brewing Company

Last night Steph and I shared a flight at Mt. Carmel Brewing Company, which just happens to be close to her house.  I knew that it was a local brewery, but when I'd seen those six packs of bottles I pictured the location to be somewhere else.  Closer to downtown, where it's hilly.  Although come to think of it, there are several "Mt" locations in Steph's neighborhood.

I always enjoy sharing those little samples of different beers.  Steph and I talked about whether the craft beer taprooms cut into the revenue of local bars but decided probably not.  Different crowd.  Mt. Carmel is set in a house with small rooms, nicely different from the large noisy spaces common to taprooms.

I read this week that the Northern Kentucky Health Department has said that no dogs are allowed in taprooms.  So Bridget, the dog we enjoyed at Wooden Cask, will need to wait until the patio is open.

What a treat to open CNN this morning and read about the circus, not politics.  Not that I'm happy that Ringling Brothers is closing, the point is that the news was about something ELSE.

Those Little Pieces

I have way too many little pieces of fabric on my shelves.  It didn't start out that way, probably the smallest were fat quarters, but I've snipped away at my fabrics and added others left over from projects.  There is just no way to neaten them, and I always seem to need larger pieces anyway.  So, one of my goals for the year is to get rid of those smaller pieces.

To keep them looking consistent, I'm making disappearing four-patch blocks with white Kona and those little pieces.  I'm using four five-inch blocks as starters.  You can find a tutorial here.  My goal is to make five blocks every week, very doable since they take very little time.  My finished blocks trim up at about 7 1/2" square - my seams are a little bigger than 1/4".

Most of the blocks will probably end up in baby quilts, I have no desire to make a big quilt with them.

And then there are those long pieces often left over from bindings.  I'll just start randomly sewing those together, jelly roll fashion, 2 1/4" wide since that's how wide I cut my bindings.

I'm still working on my goals for the year - it's only January 13 - but this one's in progress.

Taking Them Off

The little colored lights remain, but the ornaments are gone from the tree.  I enjoy packing them up.  Putting them on . . . it seems like something that needs to be done, with lots of other things.  Taking them off . . . I love packing them in their boxes and admiring about each one.  Thinking about the Christmas past.

And, I play the recording on this one several times.  
Whispers in the background
Aaron:  Merry Christmas, Gran B
Nora:  Merry Christmas, Gran B, I love you
Aaron:  Luv oooo

Precious

Bread and Corn

On Wednesdays, Blue Oven Bakery brings their bread to a local farmers market, which is held indoors during the winter.  This bread is terrific, chewy and dense.  That's cranberry apricot walnut in the picture.  Please, please, Blue Oven, keep coming on Wednesdays.

At Christmas, Aunt Sarah gifted the grands with a corn hole set she made several years ago.  The bags were no longer in evidence, and I've started making new ones.  Wanting to avoid a trip to the farm store, I got a bag of cob corn at the neighborhood hardware store, and that was enough for about half the bags.  What to do?  Back to the hardware and hope that the next bag contains the same corn to cob ratio as the first?  Or, go to the farm store?  Actually, I'm not even sure that they have shelled corn there.  Guess I'm a city girl now.

Not Too Late

It's not too late to visit the Christmas Show at the Krohn Conservatory - the last day is Sunday.

As always, it's a treat to leave the cold outdoors and come inside where it's warm enough and humid enough to steam up my glasses.

There was a really nice crowd, who knew!  I guess that lots of people hadn't seen this show yet or wanted to see it again.  They keep replacing flowers as needed, so everything still looked fresh even though the show started in the middle of November.

Christmas things at the gift shop were 75% off, so I got a few stocking stuffers for next year.

One of my goals for this new year is to just get out more often.  Like this, the cost is minimal, it's just a few miles from home, there's no reason to not just go.

Out With Family

I've been wanting to take the family to Packhouse, where they have the best quinoa meatballs and brussels sprouts, not that I'd expect the kids to like those.

Aaron and Nora tried the fried chicken meatballs.  Nora liked them but they were a bit spicy for Aaron so he tried a beef meatball.

Aunt Sarah did like the quinoa meatballs.  Stephanie missed out because she was working. 

The inside of the restaurant is just right, with exposed brick and chalkboards.

Last night Sarah and I went to Darkness Brewing in Bellevue and the Packhouse food truck was there.  We didn't try the food again, we were just stopping by to try the beer.

Another day, we all went to Wooden Cask Brewing in Newport and had a good time together after Stephanie's work day was finished.  No pictures - what was I thinking?  There was no food but the kids had a good time playing board games and an exuberant dog named Bridget kept everyone amused.  Bridget was just visiting with her person, she isn't a brewery dog.