Molly Bee's Attic

I found a guy just like this in the parking lot today on the way back in from lunch. He was very dead and a little squished but still in possession of most all of his parts. So I brought him in and asked my scientists to identify him. It took them a while, but he has been identified as Mort, the big, dead, water bug- also known as a “Toe Biter”. I can see why. He is proudly on display at my desk for Halloween. We almost learned a lesson the hard way when he was displayed much too close to the finger cookies and the line between which hideous looking things are edible and which are not became blurred. There was a quick intervention and so far, Mort remains safely uneaten, but I will remain vigilant. (These guys will eat ANYTHING.) I will perform a proper circular file burial for him at 5PM because, though he is an impressive wee beastie, quite honestly he is beginning to smell a little questionable. Happy Halloween!

"> Happy Halloween all! Here are some photos of the fistfulls of 'finger food' I made tonight. I'll give them to my scientists at work tomorrow for the big day! They love gross stuff! They're scientists! (Don't worry, it's just peanut butter fudge, gel frosting and almonds. But there is the matter of the pretzel stick in the middle to give it a nasty little boney crunch when you bite it. Surprise! Heh Heh Heh!) Raise mayhem where you can!

I went to the Belleville UFO festival with a friend on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. Went to a craft fair and had lunch at a local diner. But the best part was the parade. Lots of fun homemade floats about aliens and alien patrols. A million little kids dressed in their Halloween costumes (and some adults too) getting candy that the parade folks threw. The Shriners were there an their ATVs. There were approximately 172 Dairy Princesses and Queens. Why it was such a stellar parade that folks came from other galaxies to see it! A couple of them even traded in their vehicles down at the Ford dealership for hotel money so that they could stay the entire weekend, it was so much fun! We also went to a new yarn shop. Well, not new…it’s been there a year but the name of it is “Off The Beaten Path’…and it was...so I didn't know about it. It was really nice though-in a house-and the rooms were filled floor to ceiling with lots of yarns that I haven’t seen on other shops around. The staff wa...

Mrs. M. and I sallied forth to Belleville (UFO Capitol of the World-really check it out!) this evening to try a new restaurant there-Belle’Bleu. It is Continental/Rustic French cuisine, much higher than my normal Mcstandards, but Mon Dieu, it was magnifique! We started with a cheese plate that included a poached pear stuffed with blue cheese-two great tastes that taste great together as it turns out...who knew? Then I had the pistachio encrusted roughy with an orange marmalade sauce. It was really good too! Mrs. M. had a chicken dish stuffed with goat cheese, peppers and olives and wrapped in prochuitto that was sublime as well. We dined in high style-even had a glass of merlot. And it was less expensive than the new steak house down the street-go figure! Great food-great company…I can think of worse ways to spend a cold rainy Wisconsin evening! Now I should go continue on my acrylic fingerless gloves for Friend-Lu. Got one two- thirds done yesterday-maybe I can complete it before ER i...

Because of the verigation in the Cascade Yarn, you can't see the cables-or any of the definition really-oh well. I've already given them away so it doesn't matter. I will make my next pair with a solid purple. We'll see if those photograph better. At any rate they are warm and comfy! Friend-Lu thinks so too! They will keep her hands toasty while she types! At least I got to love them for a little while! (And no, I can't explain the angle of my bangs in this photo!They are straight across, I swear!) UPDATE! The Good News: I just got my gloves back! YAY! The Bad News: Seems Friend-Lu has a wool allergy and thinks I tried to kill her with them. BOO! I think some fuzzy acrylic ones are in order for her! Tuit suit!

So Mrs. M. comes over last night to watch The Bachelor. Oh. My. God. Will someone please hold Erika down for me so I can rabbit-kick that tiara off her spoiled little head?!?! Being a selfish, immature, whiney, little, rich girl from TX does not make you a princess, Princess! But anyway. I digress. We had tea and watched Lorenzo and I nearly completed my second fingerless glove. Photo coming soon I promise. Doesn't matter anyway because Blogger won't let me upload any photos today I guess. I was going to include the magazine pics of the glove and one of that princess-wannabe, Erika, but I can't. Oh well. I’m beginning to cave! I promised myself that this year I wasn’t making nuttin for nobody for Christmas. But there are so many cute patterns out there! And if I quit my job and work every nanosecond from now until December 24th at midnight…I could maybe get everything done…..Heavy sigh...There must be some kind of a seven-step program for this kind of problem.

Knit Night Friday night was great. There were quite a few folks there and I sat next to an interesting lady who farms silk worms and was knitting from the most fabulous yarn that she had harvested, spun with Merino and dyed a beautiful goldenrod color. She was knitting it in to a shawl. I found a pattern in the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gift magazine for fingerless gloves with a couple of cables up the back. Got one ¾ finished by 11PM. Finished it this weekend. I really like the pattern although I am knitting a little under gauge and they are still a little big. I will go down a needle size for the next pair. Would make a quick and easy Xmas gift for friends. Will put a photo up when I get the other one done. Saturday I had an at-home-alone day. Mr. Bee was away so I did a bunch of catching up and finishing. When he got home we went to see The Prestige which was wonderful. I love a film that keeps you guessing until the last frame. I give it an 8 out of 10-mostly due to some s...

It's nasty outside-cold and rainy. It's nasty inside-one of my favorite kids* just resigned and will leave in two weeks. I'm still snottin' and blowin' from my cold. I have a heel spur that's getting so bad that it's murder to walk on and my appt. to see about it isn't for two more weeks. I just want to curl up on the sofa with a box of See's chocolates and watch Oprah but I can't because I'm diabetic and Oprah doesn't come on 'til 4. Woe is me! There! This whine has been brought to you by Molly Bee. Thanks for letting me get that out of my system. Bossman is gone today so I am dealing with the general mayhem and disharmony that always accompanies his absence. My kid with the...hmmm....how to put this...'least people skills' likes to try and assert a command position much to the dismay of his peers. His orations are getting more lengthy, as well as more pompus and more condescending in tone (in so much as that's possible)....

It's been quite a whirlwind the last few days. Mrs. M took me out to dinner Monday night in an ongoing celebration of my most recently completed solar excursion. We went to Grey's Tied House. It is the yummiest! And the company was wonderful. We topped the evening off at her house watching The Bachelor on her new mega-huge TV. That little Italian prince guy looks even better life-sized! She recently finished a beautiful pair of socks and is starting another. Not to be outdone, I started another pair too-from a heavyish, tweedy-type yarn. It's really soft. Will make good slipper socks. Yesterday was one of those days I love. There were a lot of little things at work and at home that had been piling up and I managed to churn through all of them in record time; got my hair cut, got a lot of holiday shopping done,did laundry, took my old sewing machine out to the mall and gave it to friend Scott, cooked a nice dinner-roasted green beans, steamed broccoli and steak. The only ...

Yay! The Snot Sox are finished. I love the colors. I did indeed finish them before I finished the actual cold I'm sorry to say! Today is my b-day and Mr. Bee has certainly outdone himself. He started on Friday by having 3 dozen peach, pink, yello and white roses delivered to my office. He woke me up with breakfast this morning from the Pancake Cafe;Portabella Mushroom and Havarti Omelete and Blueberry Pancakes. I finished breakfast and picked up the Sunday Paper only to find a TQ Diamonds jewelry gift box underneath. In it was an amazing white gold topaz/citrone/peridot/amethest/garnet bracelet. Then he took me an hour north to the casino for an hour or so. Came out $200 richer than we went in! Then we went to an orchard and I got some of my favorite honey crisp apples and some cider donuts to take in to work tomorrow. We stopped at this roadside historical marker and got an easy geocache. And the perfect ending was coming home and walking down to the new Tied House at the end of o...

It snowed yesterday and last night! We even had a skiff on the deck this morning. Wee Doggie took one look when we let him out to pee this morning and decided he could hold it 'til spring. He hates rain and cold. I would too if my bits were low to the ground and dragged in the wet and cold too! Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake ! Click for the recipe! I made the cake part for this last night. It smelled heavenly and came out perfectly. I will go home and frost it in time to take it to Stitch and *itch at The Sow's Ear tonight. It's to celebrate my 41st successful mission completely around the sun. Well, if I make it to Sunday that is. I plan to embark on my 42nd trip first thing Monday morning! And as Steven Wright says, "I plan to live forever...so far so good." I was hoping to have my 'Robbing Peter To Pay Jack' quilt ready for the binding by tonight but that didn't happen. I actually went to bed at 7:30 last night I was so exhausted. I will finish up my secon...

I put my pedal to the metal last night and finished my Halloween Quilt top. It's a variation of the old Robbing Peter to Pay Paul Block. It looks really blue in the photo but it's actually mostly deep purples. Gotta love any holiday that lets you put purples and orange together. Off to get a bat tonight-machine quilt it tomorow night and hopefully put the binding on it at The Sow's Ear on Thursday night-just in time for the big day!

Since I am a football widow almost every Sunday afternoon-at least when the Packers play, I decided that I am going to do something I want to do by myself...for me. This afternoon was spent at a nearby park. I sat on the rocks by the roaring dam, soaked up the autumn sun, wrote in my journal and visited with this guy: You have to look really close but there is a huge heron fishing in the shallows below the dam. On the top pic he is on the left side of the dam. In the next one he is more in the center. He didn't seem to have much luck so after about a half an hour he moved over to deeper water above the dam. See his long neck and head? Then I moved to the other side of the park and just sat by the blue water under the blue, blue sky and meditated in the cool breeze: Sorry Wisconsin, but this afternoon was waaaaaaay better than a Packer Game!

Not much knitting going on this weekend. I will still have my Snot Socks done in a couple of days but that's it. Yesterday morning was spent in a neighboring town at a Fall Festival. It was a beautiful day-just check out that sky: There were polka dot alpacas... And baby ones too... Teeny Tiny Kittens... And pumpkin kitties too... And even a quilt show Doesn't get much better than that!

Do you ever have those days when if just one more person states the obvious you're going to crawl up on your desk and jump? There are, conservatively estimated...oh I dunno...say... 57 bazillion people where I work. I met up with at least 49 bazillion of them in the hall today. They said ‘hi’. I said ‘hi. Then all 49 bazillion of them said, “Oh…do you have a cold?” Since I work with scientists, let’s look at the scientific evidence shall we? My nose is chaffed, beacon red, and running. I have a box of tissues permanently attached to my left hand. My eyes are swollen, watery, slits. My normally melodious tones are now somewhere between Kermit the frog and an actual frog of some very nasty-sounding variety. I’d say that is pretty solid evidence. Yes, I have a cold! But toward the end of the day, I got over being so cranky about it and got to thinking that maybe folks aren’t as intellectually challenged as I was making them out to be. There could be other, very valid, reasons for my ...

Good Ol' Mr. Bee. He's such a generous man. He shared his cold with me and now that he's showing signs of improvement, I'm starting in snorting and blowing. My head feels like it's going to explode. I can only breath through my mouth and I sound like a muppet. Oh well, lots of knitting time while I recoop I guess...