A Year Ago Today

Hello Mary,

I was doing some math this morning. It is that or laundry...

A year ago today Mom had just gone into the hospital. My how far we have come. I am sure glad it is 2009 and not 2008. Tomorrow we are going to Pirates of Penzance for Dad's 85th Birthday. We are also forcing him to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at Chanhassen Dinner Theater on Tuesday for the same reason. Jim and I will be married 20 years if we make it to the 17th of March, Mom and Dad will have been married 61 years on the 25th and Mom will be 90 if she makes it through to May 17th.

Whew!

This picture is not from last year. I found I did not want to look at them. This one is from 2005.

By the way, Jeni check your email. Deb is trying to get in touch with you.

Love,

Nancy

What's new with me

Hi Nancy,

First off, I think that sweater looks wonderful on you. Although I don't know what stealing a sweater has to do with being the oldest. However, you might have made a point about that which I forgot by the time I got to the end of reading the post. I find that I often do that, which is why I have disgustingly detailed notes on what I read for school.

Anyway, you ask what's new. Well, one thing that is new is that I can download from my camera again. So I now have pictures of the mystery birds. I had to post-hole my way through the snow on the side yard to get them.

But, drat. Who could tell what kind of bird that was from that little bitty picture? Wait, maybe I have a better one....

Okay, there he is. The female has a rusty cap on her head. I had not seen a crest on their heads, which is why I denied Brian when he said they were waxwings. But later on, I saw one of the females more closely, and she might have had a crest on her head. It's much more fun to have mystery birds, however. These ones are really very red looking, more so than the picture shows. And, oh yeah, they are not red all over as I claimed - they sort of have a red hood - it goes down their back a little ways, and down their chest a little ways - kind of like those dickies that boys wore when we were in high school. Dickie. What a funny word. Soon it will cease to exist, although I saw a dickie in the second hand store a few weeks ago. I can't imagine seeing anyone wear one anymore. How the hell did I get to dickies? It must be time to go to bed.

Love, Mary

The Oldest Sister

Hi Mary,

You know I am the oldest sister. We all know that. You are the youngest and Jeni is in the middle. When I was much younger than I am now my sister Jeni must have once borrowed clothes of mine. Not that I can remember that far back.

However Jeni left a sweater here last fall. She may have left it on purpose since it is way too big for her. However it fits me perfectly. It even has pockets for the cell phone I am supposed to carry in case the doctors find me the perfect kidney. So I have borrowed it. I thought I should document this thievery so I stood in the upstairs spare bedroom in front of the mirror and attempted to take a photo.

Alice helped.

In fact she was so helpful I resorted to bribery.

Luckily Jim had recently gone to the store with a handful of coupons and came back with an assortment of cat treats.

They were quite useful.

Once I was done I attempted to move them to a safer place where little kitty teeth could not open them.

Hmmmmm.

On second thought I might wait for a while.

What's new with you? Got your taxes done yet?

Love,

Nancy

Speaking of food...(and we do, often)...

I ate this the other day:

I'll leave it to you to find out what it is.

Food and Cards

We had a good time on Sunday. We played a game of hand and foot, but before we started Jon and I put together a slow cooker recipe that Jim had found and I bought the goodies for. Then at the end of the game we had chicken with apricots (and onions and carrots). It was a moroccan inspired dish with cinnamon and honey and wine so I served it with couscous that was cooked in the wine and honey sauce the chicken basted in.

Yum! We ate like little piggies and I still had some chicken left over for Enchiladas tonight and maybe stir fry tomorrow.

E took this picture with her cell phone camera.

Love,

Nancy

My new (old) 99 Singer

Hi Mary,

I just had to post pictures of the new vintage machine my boss at H&R Block gave me on Tuesday. It is a Singer 99 in a bentwood case. It has everything with it and I know he rewired it because the wiring is way too good for something that was 'born' in 1925.

A 99 is a 3/4 size machine but it is still heavy as sin. The case has a little ding on the top. That is fairly typical of the bentwood cases. That and broken locks and handles that have pulled out of the case. None of those problems beset the new little one. It locks, it's handle is intact and it even has the knee lever for running the machine instead of the foot pedal.

I was going to make it a hand crank but I am in love with the knee lever and might have to keep it as is. After all the wiring is perfect.

A little examination shows me that I might have to rebuild the tension assembly and I need to buy a new 'tire' for the bobbin winder. For some reason after 85 years the rubber tire has hardened. That again is typical and I am sure that Cindy Peters at StitchesinTime has them. I have bought them before from her for other machines.

When my boss, AKA Robert Ackerman, told me about this machine I thought it was his mother's. But after a little discussion it came out that this was his own machine. He has owned it for at least 20 years and used it for sewing repair on clothes and other fabric items.

When I asked him what he used it for he said

"nothing creative". It had been stored at his mother's apartment and now she is downsizing and this is one of the casualties. I am really excited to have it. Now I have to decide whether to name it after 'Bob' or not. It will be my second machine named after a man if I do. My featherweight is Andy.

The new little machine has all sorts of goodies hidden in the lid. I noticed the knee lever immediately because the other Singer in a bentwood case that I own is missing the lever. I made that one, a 128 from 1924 into a hand crank last September at the River Rat TOGA. Or rather Paul and Treadlin' Mary did the motorectomy for me. But I watched and it is dead easy. But I was telling you about the goodies. It also has the cutest little oil can in it's little oil can slip in holder. Also there is another slip in holder for the green cardboard Singer parts box. I should have opened that up and shown you the parts, but they are fairly standard. A few extra feet and an extra screw for the feet and a Singer screwdriver are in there. If anything wonderful turns up after I have TreadleAnnie look at it I will let you know.

I am still enjoying exploring it and am bummed that I didn't bring my tool kit down here so I could clean and polish it up without having to go out and buy everything all over again. It is sure hard to wait to get my hands all dirty cleaning it up

Love,

Nancy

Okay, I'll bite.

And by that, Nancy, I mean I'll post something too.  If only I had gotten a decent picture of the latest Mystery Bird outside our window.  Females: rusty head; Males: red head, back, breast.  About the size of waxwings.  Stout beaks.  Wings on both that are black with white bars.  As Dave Barry is prone to saying, "I am not making this up."

Meanwhile, last weekend we had the Whitefish Winter Carnival.  I went to the Catholic Church Pie Social with the library ladies, and later, to the parade.  It was the usual February thaw, and with sunny skies it was a good day to stand around on a snow bank and watch our friends and neighbors go by.  Here's a picture of the  bagpipes: 

The bagpipes were on Second Street.  After I went home and changed the batteries in my camera (dang batteries!), I trotted over to Central Avenue because I just had to catch a glimpse of the Working Women of Whitefish.  This year, in with the theme of Fairy Tales, they were dressed up as Whitefish's Fairy Godmothers.

 

After the excitement, it was back home, so I could help Fatty Kitty do statistics.  He's getting pretty good at it, but only if he reads all the material he's supposed to before he tackles the exercises.  

    And that's about it for now.  The Winter Carnival is gone, but statistics are still here for about five more weeks.   Love, Mary

Work Work Work

An armful of AbbietheKitty....

Hi Mary,

All I have been doing is working at H&R Block and trying to go to bed early so as to get up in the morning half way awake. But I had these pictures in my camera forever so I thought I would give The Skeeterness something to look at.

Hope the schooling is going nicely for you and you are enjoying having the sailor at home.

Love,

Nancy

Obey Me Earthling...

I am SuperCat, see me fly!