Easter Deluge
6:28 p.m. - 2006-04-17


I finished knitting the parts for the kelly green cardigan (raglan sleeves, V-neck front). Not bad for just knitting on my lunch hour and a little on the weekend. I started last Monday. Now I have to sew it together and put on the front band. I think I will try something different for the band. I usually do ribbed or garter bands, but this time I think I will try a band in stockinette, which, since I like the band to be perfect, exactly even with the bottom edge with no drooping or pulling in, may take a little more finesse than I am used to. Which reminds me of a pet peeve of mine. Often times, bands are shown in magazines with buttons way too big for the band, too wide and/or too heavy. I think some band should show on either side of the button.

Then I tried to start the light fuschia sweater. I put the front on the machine and started a wide lace panel with cables on either side. For some reason, it was just not cooperating with me, and if it is not fun, I won't do it, so I ripped the whole thing out, all 10 rows of it. You can see that I tired of it very quickly. So now I am going to get it back on the machine and start with a narrow lace panel with cables on either side, like the red sweater I made for Auntie M except that I am going to do garter bands all around so it will be more tailored like a jacket.

In truly amazing news, the sun is out today and it is supposed to get to the mid 70's tomorrow. The weather guy on the radio was moaning about the levees being stressed, so no one wants the temperature to go up too fast or all the Sierra snow will melt fast and overflow everyone. And such is life in the golden state.

Easter was very nice over at the EG's. There were only the EG's, us, Bev, and Susie and Tom. Susie was wearing some of Melissa's jewelry and raved to me about it, how she bought it before it even made it out on display in the shop. Bev has recently hurt herself in a fall and she broke three ribs, but she is determined to get back into action soon. She had just started a line dancing class and loved it, so waiting to get better is aggravating for her. She is such a terrific lady, still leaping into life in her seventies. I was assigned to bring a hot vegetable dish, so I got the Paula Deen cookbook and found a Squash Casserole recipe. I couldn't find yellow squash so I used zucchini. It is one of those strange Southern recipes that are so delicious. It has eggs (I used fako eggo), milk, the squash, grated cheese, and a ton of pulverized Ritz crackers. The Paula Deen original called for 6 T of butter, I have no idea why, so I left it out and the dish was still delicious. I had enough filling of one and a half of my pans, so in the second pan I threw in a lot of frozen corn and a handful of cooked bacon bits. In addition, I made a marinated salad of garbanzo beans, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Susie was supposed to bring dessert so she just brought two packages of those frozen eclairs and cream puffs. No effort on her part and we just loved them. A great choice.

Not the most springy of Easters because it absolutely poured and poured all morning, so not too many outside egg hunts this year.

EG tells me that JTFM left his radio job because the station did not expand the way it had promised and he was making only about a third of what I make, and since I make diddlysquat, that is a salary one could not live on. So he had a chance to get back into the mortgage business and that is where he is now.

Now I am off to prepare the wonderful last day of tax season dinner, just what he requested: egg salad sandwiches, yum.