Weekend fun and games.

The N-boy and I had a pretty quiet weekend, following a rather stressful end to the work week.  I love working with students, but sometimes it can be hard. 

Saturday we saw Skyfall, drank a lot of coffee, and watched college football. Let's just throw in a Go Irish! for good luck here. I cannot believe that they're undefeated and ranked number 1. It's absolute craziness.

On Sunday we took pictures of the N-boy with the awesome steel frame bike he received from Grandpa for his birthday. This bike had been hanging in Grandpa's garage for years. He moved into an independent living facility this summer, and the Momcat found the bike when she was helping to clean out the house. N-boy loves his newest bike (this would be bike number four for those keeping count at home), and we wanted to let Grandpa know that.

I also worked on some English paper piecing for a project (more on that project coming Wednesday!)

And we baked sourdough rolls to take to Thanksgiving. Don't worry; we checked and made sure they weren't poisonous before we packed them up. ;)

Our biggest adventure of the weekend was the eviction of an opossum who had taken up residence in the garage. I'd heard something rustling around in the garage earlier this week and had actually called the N-boy on my phone from the garage to come take a look. We couldn't find anything then, but the next day something had gotten into the birdseed and made a mess. The N-boy thought it was just a squirrel or a chipmunk so he blocked the crack under the side door and cleaned up the bird seed. Then today he went out to rake leaves and when he grabbed the big canvas leaf bag found Mr. Possum inside hissing irritably at having been disturbed from his slumber. 

Animal removal is definitely not thing we learned in grad school. We called my parents to see if they had any suggestions (their ideas were leaving the door open so he'd come out, calling animal patrol and something involving dry ice-I didn't ask for details on this last one). Finally we just used a long pole to loop through the bag handles and pull the whole thing outside, shutting the garage door behind it. We went inside to give the poor little guy some space to get out, but a couple of hours later it was obvious that he had no intent of leaving his comfy nest. The N-boy (carefully) used the pole to move the bag into the backyard and gently pushed the bag over until the opossum crawled out. Hopefully this is the last animal adventure we'll have for a while. 

Have you ever had to conduct any animal evictions? 

Farmer's Market Bounty, Freezer Cooking and A Get it Done Challenge!

I had a very busy and unusually productive weekend, getting lots done on multiple fronts: cooking, crafting, housework and packing for the move!

The N-boy and I ventured to the Farmer's Market as usual on Saturday. We've gotten very efficient inside as we have our favorite vendors for different products, make a list before hand, and try to get there earlier, as to avoid the crowds.

This week included blueberries, eggplant and heritage carrots!

Every time we look at the carrots we both hear in our head the Chairman from Iron Chef America announcing "Carrots!" as the secret ingredient during the carrot episode. If you don't know what I'm talking about you should check out Iron Chef America for free on fancast.com. Seriously-one of my favorite shows ever!

One thing that the N-boy are working on for this fall is planning/working ahead as much as possible, as to reduce stress during a very busy time of year. So when it's my week to cook, I've been trying to cook extra to add to the freezer.

On Sunday I may have gone a little overboard, cooking a chicken pot pie casserole and a beef burgundy stew, plus cooking up 3 cups of diced chicken for use in things like tacos.

I used the Freezer Cookbook for both of these recipes on the Organized Home website. The woman who runs this website CEO, is the same woman who has the wonderful Organized Christmas website. Check them both out if you have a chance!

Finally, I'm joining Kim over at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure for her challenge to "Get It Done in August!" She's challenging us to get as many projects finished this month as possible! I'm in, as I think I need a good kick in the rear to get going on some (many) of my unfinished projects!

Here's my list (as of today). I reserve the right to add to this list as I remember/unearth more projects that I've forgotten about.

1. Four Christmas table mats -sandwich, quilt and bind
2. Amish Waves baby quilt-Finish quilting, bind and send to baby (Note to self-it's time to get this done and stop worrying about making it perfect.)
3. Crown of Jewels-Piece top
4. Paper pieced heart wall hanging-Finish piecing top, quilt, bind
5. Tutti Frutti- Lay out and piece top
6. Cut and sew first step and second step for mystery quilt-Because starting another new project is a good idea

So far I've worked on the Christmas table mats-here's a picture of one of them with the quilting half done.

I actually finished up the quilting on it last night, but forgot to take a picture!

The Near Death Experience of Mr. Coffee

I am, without a doubt, addicted to coffee. I don't know when I became officially addicted. I started drinking coffee my senior year in high school, but only drank it on and off throughout college. It wasn't until graduate school that I started needing it. Every single morning. My morning coffee is now affectionally referred to as Mr. Coffee and he even has his own theme song (to the tune of 'Rubber Duckie, You're the One'). Parents-I blame you for giving me the coffee addiction gene.

The N-boy used to be just as addicted to coffee, but lately he has cut back due to health reasons. Now he drinks---NONE! Oh the horrors! However, one of his "jobs" each night before bed has always been to get the coffee pot set up to come on automatically the next morning. Last night, as I was reading blogs in the other room, I hear an ominous "uh-oh" from the kitchen. The N-boy says, "The coffee pot just broke." Scarier words were never heard.

This is the piece that broke off. It's that tiny little hook that keeps the basket for the grounds latched into the whole unit. Who knew such a tiny piece of plastic could be so important Luckily, I am both resourceful and too cheap to want to buy a new coffee pot. A few strips of lab tape later and...tada! A working coffee pot. The N-boy has suggested we get some velcro to make this a more permanent solution, so we don't have to re-tape it every night. And I don't go bonkers from lack of Mr. Coffee. The coffee came out fine this morning, so until we get some velcro the tape method will work just fine. And since Daddo gave us a large quantity of very festivly colored lab tape last Christmas, we have no shortage of tape supplies.

On a somewhat less scary note, I made ginger cookies last night! I used a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. I'm happy with how they turned out, even if ginger cookies aren't a "summer" cookie.

Clearly the batter was equally as tasty!The N-boy and coworkers have given them a thumbs up, so I think the recipe is a keeper!