Molly Bee's Attic

Time spent in "The County"... Is the calls of sweet little chickadees in the cranberry bush... The antics of woodpeckers working on the suet... The appearance of 'invisible deer' in the side yard... And in the dooryard... Fiddleheads on the dinner table ... A feast of epic proportions... And time spent with loved ones.... Hope your holidays were as happy as mine!

I can't believe how fast the time is going! We're almost at the end of our stay and it seems like we only just got here. We went Christmas shopping an hour up-country in Presque Isle on Saturday. Got to meet my Mum's school chum, Lovely G., her husband, Handsome D. and Delightful Daughter, M. They have built a fantastic home on the side of a hill that overlooks the fields, farms and forests for miles and miles and miles. It's an absolutely magnificent view. I think Lovely G. and I are twins separated at birth when it comes to crafting, although she outclasses me by miles. She has a beautiful quilt room and several of her pieces were available for me to drool over as well as the most gorgeous stained glass cabinet doors and window hangings I have ever seen. I think we could have chatted for two days straight without taking a breath! We went to Marden's in Presque Isle among other places. If you don't live here and don't know about Marden's , you...

We made it to Northern Maine with surprisingly few glitches given the state of the airlines these days. The biggest problem that we had on the whole trip was the fact that we couldn't tilt the driver's seat back on the rental car, thus forcing the 6'6" Mr. Bee to sit upright, cramming his head into the ceiling of the car, giving him a wicked case of static cling head. He also couldn't lean back far enough to see the entire speedometer. He only knew how fast he was going if his speed was between zero and 30, or 80-100 mph. The rest of the dial was obscured by the dash overhang. So I co-piloted from the passenger seat. It snowed the first two days we were here. Not a lot. I guess they got more down in 'tropical Maine' (south of Bangor), but up here it was two full days of snow-globe snow that dithered about in the air before settling into a 2-3 inch powdery layer. Today is brilliantly sunny and the snow on the ground and trees is sparkling like diamonds. ...

Just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before Mr Bee and I jet off to Maine tomorrow. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog while I'm there. There's lots of other stuff to do. Last week we had a decorating competition with some of the of the other departments at our company. The judging was this morning. The kids put off making any kind of a move until noontime on Friday, thus lulling the competition into a false sense of security. Then they made their admin (moi) scramble at the last minute gather all of the supplies they'd need for their masterpiece: Wrapping paper, ribbons and bows to wrap the entire department, walls and all: $153.47 15 Ph.D's x 4 hours each: $ A decabazzillion dollars Seeing their faces when they opened their first prize package which contained two bottles of cheap wine and a 6 pack of snowman peeps (the ultimate wine glass garnish): Priceless. We had a holiday lunch today in another building on campus. All 15 of them put thei...

Antarctica!!! Snow Snow Snow! We got another boatload of the stuff yesterday and we're running out of places to put it. We got stuck in the dooryard coming home yesterday because out whole neighborhood was unplowed and 7 inches of snow had fallen. What made it worse is that a wee bit of sleet fell first so there was nothing to get traction on under all that snow. But we persevered and managed to get it all cleaned up in record time and tucked into a huge crock-pot full of roast beast, potatoes, carrots, and pearl onions for our trouble. Man I love my crock-pot. There's nothing like coming in from the cold and finding dinner all done for you! Mr. Bee limits his portions because next-day-roast-beast- hash is his favoritest ! After supper we wrapped all of the presents. Some have to be sent off by UPS, some have to be hand-delivered and some will sit until after the first of the year when we go North for Christmas II in Marshfield . Mr. Bee and I cranked up the Barenaked Ladie...

Have you had the dream? You know, the one where you somehow forgot to dress and show up at your high school one morning clad only in your flannel grannie nightie and piggie slippers? Then you spend the rest of the night trying to act like that was what you intended to wear; that you were making a fashion statement rather than exhibiting the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Now I know that the young whipper-snappers coming up today think nothing of sporting their jammies to school or the mall or whatever. I’ve seen ‘em around. But in my day, if you showed up anywhere sportin’ your Underoos, well then Lucy, you had some ‘splaining to do! So after spending the day ill, I rallied, showered and changed my actual sleep gear (ratty old t-shirt) for a stylin’ pair of red,flannel jammie pants, elegantly covered in cavorting penguins and my pink, plush, piggie slippers, Hank and Lefty and headed for the Sow’s Ear for late night knit night. It was to be a sleepover, but after the day I’d put in, I ...

I guess it was inevitable. I really thought we had the situation under control at first. After the initial attack the first day I brought them home, we had a fairly lengthy 'Come-to-Jesus' talk that included phrases like 'NOOOO!', 'Bad Dog!' and 'Thou Shalt Not Eat Piggy Slippers, Ben'! But the lure of all that pink, porcine, plushness was just too great. While the world was still, snow falling gently, and Mr. Bee and I tucked snuggly in our bunk, Mr. Bentley tippy-toed into the closet and snagged Lefty. I like to imagine it started as an innocent snuggle and kiss. Then one thing led to another and before he knew it, he was in way over his head; chomping, chewing and tearing the stuffing out Lefty's snout with reckless abandon. Lefty bore it stoically. He surrendered his innards with nary a word to alert the sleeping world of the horrendous mauling that was taking place. He's one tough piggy slipper that Lefty. I awoke the next morning, cracked...

I finished the Scarfigator and RammieGays Istmas - Chray Ocks -say. Here are a couple of truly hideous, hastily-taken photos. The scarfigator is drying on the blue towel so I couldn't mess with him to take a pic. Even though I got the gauge that was called for in the pattern and added 3 full scale repeats to his back, he's nowhere near the 6 feet long he was supposed to be. He's the runt of the congress* I guess. The width is correct but the length is too short. I'll probably go up a couple of needle sizes next time to try and nail it although he'll be a bit wider too. But he's a good size for the Employee Art Show at work next week. He was SO MUCH FUN to knit! And the socks are...well....just basic socks made out of Tofuttsies ( sp ?) yarn. It's REALLY splitty stuff and I won't be using it again. I noticed it was splitty when I made my Tidal Wave Socks out of it, but this time it was SO splitty that it had separated and made a rats nest in sever...

Me! Me! I did! I did! Our five-day vacation is almost over. Jeez I hate to see it go! It's been relaxing, we had fun and got some chores done too. Doesn't get any better than that! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with friends D & T. Here is a shot of out table before we descended upon it. After dinner we went to see 'Fred Claus'. And ya'll know that in my world....any day with Vince Vaughn is a very...VERY good day. We spent plenty of quality time with the fur babies, who in turn spent quality time basking in the sun..(the little white lump in the blue cage in the upper left of the bottom picture is Sneakers the bunny). We had friends E and A and their kids R and E over last night to play games. For once, the adults wore the kids (and the Bentley) out first! They slunk off to the living room to rest from the excitement of playing Hoopla. I went to last Saturday knitting and had a wonderful visit with all the lovely ladies. Elizabeth is working on an ab...

The pumpkin pie is fresh out of the oven. The loaded mashed potato casserole is in the fridge beside the cranberry, mandarin orange, raspberry, pineapple salad . All ready for tomorrow's feast. Friends Donna and Tom are coming over and we'll have our dinner at lunch time and then spend the afternoon at the movies or playing games. Low key and relaxed. Donna's bringing the pecan pie and the squash. I've got a 6# chicken in a roaster bag, a head of broccoli in a steamer bag and fresh rolls all ready to go! Yum! I've been having a lot of 'silver lining' moments this week just in time for Thanksgiving. One of my best friends back home had a double mastectomy at the end of October. She's 43 and had been doing 'all the right things' since she was 30; self exams, mammos...and they never caught it. The silver lining? Actually there are two. They feel they got ALL of the cancer AND 3 years ago, when she turned 40 she was overweight and at a crossroads in...

It was a big day for Bentley Bee! As loyal readers know, Big Ben LUVS Mailman Travis and his Magic Mail Truck. If we know he's on the way up the street, we go out on the front step and watch for him. We wag and wag and bark hello before toddling to the mailbox to help bring in any especially drool proof mail. Today, Mailman Travis backed the Magic Mail Truck right into Ben's driveway and got out! He was beside himself with joy! Mailman Travis opened the Magic Mail Truck up to get some boxes for Mr. Bee out and Bentley Bee jumped right in! Once he was convinced to come out, Mailman Travis lavished him with lots of mailman love and attaboys . Big Ben was beyond ecstatic. Mailman Travis was considerably soggier that when he first got out of the truck. It was a red letter (get it?) day in DoggieLand . Blissful sigh! I got my 6 th Secret of the Stole clue finished last night and took this truly pathetic picture today! Yay . A whole night to knit my alligator scarf before the nex...

Mr. Bee and I share a car so I knit to and from work. Just socks 'cause it's easy, portable and I don't have to think much. Yesterday we hit a bump and I poked a size 2 nearly through my palm. I had to forcibly pull it out and it bled...a LOT! I couldn't get it to stop so ended I up sporting a dorky-looking bandage around my hand all afternoon because I couldn't get a Band-Aid to stick to my palm. The 'kids' asked what happened and I told them. Now the balance of power has shifted. They are uneasy. Unsure. They are afraid that if I'd do that to my own self, there's just no telling what I might do to THEM. I'm liking having the upper hand, even if it does have a 2.75 mm hole in it. The kids are extra funny today. We got a demos of a new gadget that lights up when someone is on the phone. Honest to God, they are like a bunch of chimps with a June bug; poking at it, scurrying away and chattering at each other about it. I suspect they will spend the ...

Dah Da... (First two notes in 'Jaws' theme) Dah Da... (Second two notes in 'Jaws' theme) Dah Da... (Third and fourth notes in 'Jaws' theme) AAAAAHHHHHHHH!! Nah, don't be afraid! It's just a scarfigator!

I went to a seminar today. I think the speaker may have been a whack job. She started out normally enough but then by the time she finished she was spinning tall tales about disarming hijackers and saving people from exploding airplanes. I gave her the benefit of the doubt as long as I could, but a quick Google search on a few of her more interesting stories didn't pan out which leads me to believe she was having a psychotic break of some kind. It was...er... entertaining...in a train wreck kinda way but not that educational. On a happier note, I made the Cranberry Pie recipe from Knitzu's site and it was FANTASTIC. I posted it over on Molly Bee's Kitchen. The link is on the left side of this page. We had it after a smothered pork chop dinner tonight ( Doncha LUV the Crock pot !) and it was delish ! You HAVE to try it! Off to the living room to finish hint five of my Secret Of The Stole project. It's good that I will get it done a little early this week so that I ...

As I promised, here are some of the entries for the gourd contest. You could only use things that were around the department. You couldn't take it home or bring in anything special. I won for Scariest with "After the Alien Autopsy. Plus I made the kids uneasy when they got a little too much insite into how my mind really works. Click to make the bigger! The Fly (won judges choice) Turkey Cousin Itt Alien Autopsy

November is ‘Blog Every Damn Day’ month or some such nonsense. So I thought I would give it a try. Since I won’t be home this evening…KNIT NIGHT AT THE SOW’S EAR YAY !!! (Happy Dance)…ahem (gathers self together) I will just post a shorty from work on my break. Here is an example of the conversation going on in the dept. at this very moment. 'Diet Pepsi is bad for you in the long run. You can tell this by some experiment that someone heard of about someone watering their crops with Gatorade which is full of electrolytes which plants love in the short term but kills them in the long term. ' I kid you not. They are almost in a fist fight about this. Of course I'm paraphrasing but you get the gist. Meanwhile the other half of the group is trying to figure out how to dress up gourds to look like flies, turkeys, monsters and in one case, a camel, to enter into the departmental gourd decorating festivities. (Pictures in tomorrow's entry) Judging is in 30 minutes. The p...

I am the queen of the last minute finish! Officially I have 4 hours until midnight to complete this week's section. Pleeennntttty o' time! :-) I am really loving this stole. It's been a long time since I attempted lace and it seems I have some experience under my belt because this is going pretty smoothly now that I'm into it. Let's just say that my last lace project- Violets by the River (or Violence by the River or Violets by Chernobyl since none of my 'violets' ended up with the same number of petals...) didn't go as smoothly. Still haven't guessed what the theme of this stole is though although I can see crabs, fish and bubbles..... hmmmmm . Am thoroughly confused about the weekly word clues to get the anagrams to spell the theme so unless I happen to stumble on it, I guess I am out of the running for that contest! The joy is in the making anyway, not in the prizes. Anyway, here it is in all it's unblocked glory! The swelling in my lip ...

( Warning: This episode contains a graphic medical mishap that may not be suitable for all readers. Parental Guidance is advised .) I just had to document this here, because I'm not convinced that this weird-ass crap happens to anyone but me. I'm like that old Bad Luck Schleprock cartoon guy these days; the little cloud of doom never far from directly over my head. I just went to the dentist to have an old filling replaced. While he's in there working (if you're squeamish, this is the part where you may want to look away) he gets the inside of my upper lip wrapped around the high speed drill . That's right. You read it correctly. Apparently it got too close to my lip, just grabbed it and twisted it around there until it tore open. I was oblivious except for a slight tugging since my head is so full of Novocaine it may never truly thaw again. I was clued into the fact that something was amiss when he jumped back, exclaimed 'Uh Oh' and grabbed lots of gauze ...

Things have been pretty busy around Casa de Bee. We've been on the hop with a lot of social stuff. Friend-D took me out for a birthday lunch at Casa De Laura... flautas YUM! Then Friend-E took me to a new Mexican place the next day for lunch. I think it's called La Taquero or something. It was a pretty authentic place. Good food. Lots of it. Cheap. Went out with friends D&T to Clauggagh , my favorite Irish Pub, and then to a movie which was so raunchy that we snuck out and into another one-giggling all the way. I felt like I was in high school again! Except back then we would have been trying to sneak into the raunchy one. We also spent time with friends E and A and their kids and pup at the dog park. Big Ben do like the dog park, yessir he do! Only problem is, other dogs and people don't understand that every tennis ball in the world is his so if someone else is playing with one, they must mean for him to play too! He's not aggressive or possessive, he just...

I am just having the worst time of it, Y'all! I've felt lower than a snake's belly for the last several days although nothing seems to be 'wrong'. I did get a migraine yesterday and the medicine for it made me stagger around like a tranquilized rhino all day. Bleck! I'll be glad when whatever this is goes away! Through it all, I did manage to get caught up on my Secret of the Stole. This is it through hint # 3. Hint # 4 comes on Friday. Lace is really, really, really hard for me...especially in my current less-than-enthusiastic-woozy-rhino-on-a-bad-acid-trip state, but I'm getting the hang of it, slowly but surely. Not that you can tell by these photos! Mr. Bee gifted me with one more birthday surprise this week. He ordered me Tammi Bowser's 3.0 Quilted Photos Express Quilt program and her latest book! He really loves me....or he really screwed up and I just haven't found out about it yet! I'm going to try to get to the workshop and work some on...

Not much to report. I've been working diligently on my Secret of the Stole project. I have to get the second clue done by Thursday night. I knit and frogged , knit and frogged , knit and frogged until I thought I would lose my mind. Then I figured out that after I do the right side, there is always 99 stitches. So if I count the darn things at the end of every row I knit, I can find the mistakes easier and sooner. Duh! Now it's going a lot smoother although as carefully as I pay attention, I still seem to miss a yarn over the first time around EVERY ROW! Maybe I'm not smart enough for this project! Other than that, I've been babying my foot. I went to the doctor on Monday and learned that I have tendonitis and a cyst in my Achilles tendon of my left foot. Apparently my self diagnosis of a 'heel goiter' was not accurate. The doctor didn't even crack a smile when I called it that. Geez , tough room. If I don't take care of it (wear the special fashion ...

What a wonderful weekend! Mr. Bee treated me like a queen and managed to squire me all over the countryside to celebrate the upcoming completion of my forty-second successful mission completely around the sun. My plan to live forever is coming along nicely. Yesterday we headed to the shores of Green Lake to go to a most interesting bookstore. The first interesting part was trying to find it. You'd think a bookstore in a manure storage bin wouldn't be difficult to find, but you'd be wrong. There are no signs-no nothing. But with a little help from a scruffy looking local the Kwik trip we finally got there. It was well worth it. There are actually 5 buildings of books on the farm-lots of antiques etc. But the building that intrigued us the most was this one: Yup! It's a manure bin. Castle Arkdale . I wish I had taken picture inside, but it was a little dark. It was absolutely beautiful. Wood walls and a second story balcony that went all the way around; just gorgeous! Yo...

If you haven't yet gone to the IMAX here in Madison to see the new National Geographic 3D "Monsters of The Deep" film, go out and get in your car, grab the bus, call a cab, saddle your mule, whatever you have to do to get there, and GO! Er...unless you're one of those folks who catches up on your Bloglines at 2 AM....then wait until tomorrow, check your local listings and GO! I took nephew Ty last night and it was the best $8 I've spent in a loooooonnnnnggg time. And that includes yarn purchases, People! It's only 40 minutes long but I was amazed! The last 3D I saw was a TV dealy with red and blue lensed glasses that had been punched out of the back of a cereal box. This was a totally different deal. I was IN the shallow prehistoric sea that once divided the U.S. Sea creatures swam right up to me and then over my head. At one point one swam BETWEEN Ty and me! It was SO COOL! I think all movies should be like that. 40 minutes felt like 5 and I'm sure ...

I couldn't wait. I don't have all the pieces on the top yet, but I LOVE how this quilt is turning out. You can kinda see how big it is. When it's done it'll only be 20 by something. The further away you get the better it looks. Squinting helps too. Can't wait to see if it gets sharper when I sew it. I think I'm going to have a lot of fun with this method! I can't show you the original photo without his parent's permission so just rough draft quilt will have to suffice for now. 8 feet away 12 feet away Can you see him?!?!?

Gosh! I'm so far behind I think I'm first! Where to begin to catch up? Most recent and then back I guess. Yesterday Mr. Bee and I went to T&D's house to eradicate a nasty computer virus that had preyed on them . Mr. Bee did all the fancy footwork and D and I visited. While we were chatting, I finished my first Sherbet Sock. The pattern is from the Charlene Schurch book (the first one). It's in the five stitch repeat section and I think it's called slip stitch cable or something. Anyway, the blurry blob in the whole sock photo is condensation. It's October 7 th and hotter than the hinges of heck and muggy- Oy ! But anyway, here it is and a close up of the the stitch pattern on the leg (sideways view). Friday night was the Grand Opening/Anniversary Extravaganza at the Ear. It was WONDERFUL. I got to meet Dale-Harriet and her daughter, Mary, and Beth (finally). Elizabeth came as did friend Anne and all of the wonderful regulars I normally visit with. There w...