Princess of Bob

You know, I find it really repulsive that there are retail stores open tomorrow.

As President, on October 3, 1789, George Washington made the following proclamation and created the first Thanksgiving Day designated by the national government of the United States of America:

"Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being [God], who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us."

Since the birth of our nation, Thanksgiving has been a day for us to draw together as a people - families, friends, community - and celebrate the great and glorious bounty that we have been gifted with. All you have to to is watch the news and it's evident that most of us are blessed with such a bounty, such a richness of food, shelter, warmth, knowledge, and education that most people in the world even today do not enjoy. It should be a day set aside for warmth, food, fun, and thanks.

I understand that there are certain public sector jobs that people will have to work - EMTs, police, doctors, nurses, firefighters, etc. I appreciate their sacrifice and am grateful for the work they do. Heck, I even appreciate the tow truck drivers and emergency vet technicians. However, really folks - do we REALLY need to go to Old Navy, WalMart, Target, McDonald's, or the movies? Is it REALLY too much to ask for people to plan ahead and rent their movies, buy their groceries, gas up their cars, and prepare for tomorrow today? Is it too much to ask that people enjoy a day at home with family?

I challenge you - yes, YOU - to stay away from the stores tomorrow. The reason they're open is because they expect to make a profit, based on past or projected performance. Prove them WRONG. Stay home, eat turkey (or tofu-key), drink good wine, watch football, and play some board games. Think about the poor folks who have to work tomorrow who really shouldn't have to - and give the mega-marts something to think about, too.

Happy thanksgiving, ya'll.

Our little corgi likes to lay completely flat on his belly and looks like a little capital H. The fact that his little legs don't even reach his ears is just utterly adorable. :)

(Also, I really need to get the Droid. It takes MUCH better pictures than my Palm Centro!)

Last spring, I bought this lovely 5.0 oz sample of natural colored, undyed Coopworth roving from wildharefiber:

I spun them all in order, from dark to light, and then wound into a center pull ball and plied it back on itself. In the end, it came out like this:

I love the way that there is so much color variation between the 5 different sheep - it really shows how beautiful simple, undyed wool can be! :) I loved working with this wool - it was truly a pleasure!

Nom nom nom, as the cool kids say!

I work outside the home 40 hours/week, plus go to school in the evening - so a LOT of my food is purchased. Unfortunately, that has been detrimental to both my waistline AND my budget.

So my goal this week is to eat all my food from stuff we have at home - it will just take some pre-planning. One of the hardest meals for me is breakfast, since I tend to sleep in until JUST the last minute and then dash out the door. Starbucks has been my friend.

But... again, not great for the budget. We got a coffee machine for the office, so now coffee is taken care of. I decided to make some scones so I could have something to quickly grab on my way out the door. These are blueberry scones, using Grandma Johnson's Scone Recipe. They came out just wonderful - fluffy and cakey and just the right amount of sweetness. I used frozen blueberries (less expensive, and they don't get all mushy during the cooking process), and used the food processor to incorporate the frozen butter into the flour mixture, a la Alton Brown's 'Biscuit Method'. It makes cutting the butter into the flower nice, even, and easy. I'm a lazy baker. :)

They're tasty tasty - I'm just worried that they won't last the week!

OK - I'm going to try to sum up the last month during my lunch break. Wish me luck. ;)

Midnight at the Oasis II - We had a lovely time at the event, once we got there. Since we were daytripping, we ended up sleeping in WAY too late - I think we left the house around 11am. Got lost on the way there. But once we arrived we had a great time - Irmgart and Wilhelm and Princess Dot traveled up from SC, and we got to spend lots of time with them, yay! Himself did a bit of fencing, and I sold a bunch of floof.

It was also the debut of my new working class Italian dress: