Blessed cool

 Temperature in the 70s, cloudy, wonderful.

When you see headlines like this do you feel as if you need a calculator to find out where it came out? 

This is how lawyers who know the backstory write. The rest of us struggle. How many negatives make a positive. What made the chicken cross the road, and was there an injunction in place in the junction?

In the rest of the news, this is all your doing, Ellen, I ordered a used silk sari, half-price in an Etsy sale. Figuring on maybe glam pajamas. Using the pant pattern.

This was after staggering  in sticker shock at fabric prices. Long time since I bought fabric,  clearly. I could get beautiful natural fabric at Dharma Trading, very reasonably, but it's white or natural or black. I fancied a jazzy readymade print.

My other trouser fabric source plan is a big size skirt from the thriftie once I get in there again, already washed so it won't shrink. We'll see what they have.

Meanwhile back at the stove, Handsome Son was visiting today, so we needed snacks.

Black and red plum crumble, with maple syrup in the crumbly bit. 

The top picture includes my lunch, top right, a test run for a new invention.

No idea what to call them, suggestions welcome. Same old dough, now my all-purpose material. Good for tortillas, the original idea, for pasties, for crackers with herbs rolled in, and now Tiny Veggie Pies.

I think I could make beads with this dough. Seriously, I might try it. 

Ages ago I made Tiny Apple Pies using wonton wrappers. So this dough seemed like a candidate for that shape, too. Couldn't find any cutters so I used a wine glass.

Stuffed with the roasted vegetables and hot sausage, sealed with egg white I had in the freezer in case I ever found a use for it, brushed with same. 10 mins at 400°f.

Gone in short order, once introduced to Handsome Son, who declared them potpies and very good. I thought it would be good to have a nonsugar item for once with our tea and dessert .

He changed a lightbulb for me too, one of those high up ones in the bathroom I could climb up to but better not.

And we discussed his current soldering experiments on a diy electronic music thing he's building. Our experience intersected in wire and soldering, mine from long ago, art not electronics. 

He's deep into the kind of from-scratch music player  creating that nobody would pay you to do nowadays.  Which he patiently explains to deli colleagues wondering why he's not working in that industry and earning millions!

Frankie and Grace. I watched the first half of season one, and I think I'm done. Just couldn't go on trying to enjoy it. Too fake, too fifties, too Hollywood Gets With It. But I gave it a fair try. 

I continue to be engrossed in the latest Stacey Abrams, While Justice Sleeps. She's a terrific writer, great suspense, knows her stuff, being both politician and lawyer, both fields starring in this novel of suspense. 

Probably F and G suffered from comparison with Abrams'  excellence. This happens sometimes when you experience an okay work along with a wonderful one. Everyone doing their best. One's a swing and a miss, in its genre,  one's a home run, bases loaded, in its own genre.

Moving along, I'm thinking seriously about those beads. Or miniature teacups and saucers. This musing led me to search for this, made from a similar dough I made, nearly fifty years ago

Small apple included for scale. Made and painted  by six year old Handsome Son. The kitty doesn't need to rest on the saucer, she's balanced to crouch alone. You just slide the saucer under her chin.

The fact that I found it among my most valued jewelry tells you all you need to know! 

 

The waters recede

The floodwaters are slowly receding. Trees down, still many roads closed or only one lane open. I did get one errand done, to the local CVS which actually had the things I needed. 

I didn't try for the library, since too many roads either partly or totally under water. My needs can wait a day or two. People are trying to get to work.

This morning as I was making tea I glanced out of the kitchen window and there was a hummingbird busy in the Russian sage. It didn't have a twig in its beak, but it still seemed quite biblical and cheering. Closest hummingbird sighting I've ever had.

And the robe is done. I will gradually do seam finishing on the inside, probably flat hemming  lace, since the terry is too thick for felling or French seaming.

Anyway here she is! See how the pockets work. So it's ready in case the weather ever gets cool. This is a much better use of the fabric than a quilt backing that might never happen.

And the beaded figure almost has a completed head, 

seen here in the workbox. The facial expression looks different depending on what angle you see it from. 

Then I needed a bite for supper and haven't had pasta in a while. Didn't feel like a red sauce, so I thought something along the lines of an alfredo white sauce might be good.

Many subs of course. I fancied blue cheese rather than parmesan, didn't have cream, used whole milk, but I did have garlic and Irish butter and parsley. No fettuccine, but I fancied farfalle anyway, butterflies. Or bowties. These are the real Italian ones from Misfits. 

It turned out well. This pasta needs 14 minutes' boiling, they weren't kidding. The sauce is lovely, garlicky, pungently blue cheesey. Thick enough to cling.

Didn't last long. This used all the sauce, and there's another bowl of cooked pasta ready for a different sauce on a different day.

Here's what's accompanying my beading and cooking, audiobook

And my Austen festival is still going, on Kindle, Lucy Worsley

Stacey Abrams finally arrived on the Kindle

Waiting pick-up at the library are the Sonya Philips sewing book, and DVDs of  Grace and Frankie, 

only just heard of the series, yes, not quick on these things, thought I'd try. Because Lily Tomlin, you know. I can't bear her co-star, so we'll see. But there's also Sam Waterston, so there's that.

I think we're all set here.

Great Day in the Morning! Exhaling finally.

 This is all we need to say today:

 

Yes, it's Stacey Abrams, who masterminded the voter registration and getting to the polls yesterday, to save the entire Senate.  She was suppressed out of a Senate seat last time around, so guess what, she came back and took the whole thing!

She's also written some great suspense/romance novels under her nom de plume.  But all in all, she's once again proving that Black women will save us all.

The players on the Atlanta Dream women's basketball team, who were early supporters of Warnock in direct opposition to their team owner, Kelly Loeffler, yes, the loser last night, who bitterly criticized their daring to support Black Lives Matter. 

 Abrams' brilliant organizing skills, and all the canvassers and supporters who went door to door, after they found that a lot of people didn't realize there was a runoff, and got many thousands more of them to vote. 

And now we've taken back the Senate, both Georgia senators now Democrats.  One a Black man, pastor of Martin Luther King's old church, and Ossoff, a Jew, both defeating the white supremacist opposition.  Ossoff so scared Perdue he failed to show up after the first debate.  Fast thinker on his feet, when Fox approached him last week for a quick word, he instantly stood in speech making mode, gave a fabulous two minute address and thanked Fox (!) viewers for listening!  Not exactly what the gotcha interviewer was looking for.  Warnock, a Black senator from a once segregated state.  

These are people we need. And if we needed more, if there's a tied vote in the Senate , a Black woman Vice President will cast the deciding vote.

Sweet day.  I woke up very early, checked the news, then couldn't sleep again.

So what with Monday, phone all set up, yay me, Tuesday, car all set up, new battery of course, as we expected, yay again, car is very happy now, and last night.

I think I have to lie down now.  But first I'm making a veggie pizza.  Mushrooms, scallions, broccoli, on that pizza dough I made a while back and liked a lot.  Made with yogurt and flour mainly.

Still exhaling, and checking to be sure.