I stand corrected...

Natural childbirth was easier than making candy apples - - well...at least the labour was shorter!!!

I very nearly threw the first batch out. See...I got this idea that I should put them on wax paper to cool.

This is NOT correct. Don't do this.

The wax from the wax paper stuck to the apples - sorta melted it to it. UGH!!!! But Hubby stopped me from tossing the whole bunch, we thought about it for a minute, and decided to try "burnishing" the bottoms of the apples with a hot wet cloth, and that fixed them right up! The second batch went much better - - this time I sprayed the cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Speaking of Hubby .. neither one of us can EVER remember our wedding date. I usually keep it narrowed down to somewhere between the 7th and the 10th....but I'm never sure. We got married on Thanksgiving weekend 2000.

I woke him up this morning - - and we snarled at each other for a few minutes - - trying to get some paper work done....I was running late....I didn't have a good night in the first place....a little stressed out....and the dumb ass insisted on suggesting that I....I?....I was GRUMPY!!!!!

The snarling continued until I was just about to head out the door, and I caught sight of the champagne glasses from our wedding in the china cabinet, with the wedding date engraved on them.

Happy Anniversary sweetheart!

....so there's a bake sale at school on Thursday

I joined the Social Action Committee at school, and one of the events we are planning is a bake sale in support of LUSO and their 1000 Acts of Kindness campaign.

I spent a good chunk of my afternoon class trying to decide what I could make, that wouldn't take FOREVER, but would still be really good. Suddenly, a scathingly brilliant idea popped into my brain!

ME: I've got it!

CLASSMATE: What?

ME: I'm going to make candy apples for the bake sale!

CLASSMATE: Oh...that's gooooooood. Uh...have you ever made them?

ME: No.

CLASSMATE: Uh...do you feel pretty confident that you CAN???

ME: I have passed entire human beings through my vagina. I can do ANYTHING!!!

So, Itty Bitty and I went to the Bulk Barn and got a kit to make candy apples. The instructions looked pretty simple. .....much easier than natural childbirth, anyway.

Sewing....but just a smidge

I promised myself that I would spend a little time sewing this morning, since I haven't sewn a stitch since last Sunday afternoon with Gail. I've got to add some borders to this yet. I'm thinking a 1.5" light border, then a very wide piano key border.

I'm afraid I have to get back to my homework - waaahaaaahaaa!!!

What....no photos???

Ya - true

Been soooo swamped. I have one bazillion assignments all slamming me at once, and the regular weekly reading has not diminished one bit.

I've learned soooo much this week! I wish I had time to tell you about it ~ LOL!!!

Besides school? Well, I'm teaching Gibby kitty English.

ME: Who's a pretty boy? Who's a pretty boy?
GIBSON: Me!
ME: Who wants ice cream, huh? Who wants some ice cream!
GIBSON: Me!

This cat is a freakin' genius.

TEN down.....SEVEN to go....

I've been reading alllllllllll day! With a total of 17 chapters to read before Tuesday, I'm better than halfway there. Some of these chapters are overlapping - some completely contradict others.

For example, I just read a chapter about Anna Freud, and what she had to say about defence mechanisms, but just before that I read a chapter in another book, all about what a bunch of whack-jobs the Freud family was, and had been for several generations (which was the whole point of the chapter - to show that dysfunction can repeat in patterns through generations). In one book, I'm reading all about the CASW Code of Ethics (uh...AGAIN, for like the billionth time in the last two years!), and in another how the 2005 Code is a fluffy piece of neo-conservative crap compared to the 1994 Code, which defined the values of social work as humanitarian and egalitarian.

Not a stitch of sewing this week. In fact, my sewing machine "Lucy" still has not even been plugged in. Her cover is still on! I'm hoping to plough through a bunch more reading tonight, and have a chunk of time tomorrow to sew.

Blog entries are soooooooo boring without a photo. I got this milk glass jar at an estate sale near London last weekend, on my way to Woodstock. It was filthy dirty, hidden in the bottom of a box of garage/workshop stuff, and I paid a quarter for it. It's less than 4" tall, and the image is in good clear condition - - and looks very art deco to me. It cleaned up nice.

Kirkin' o' the Tartan

As I've mentioned before, I live in a rather old neighbourhood. Within a two block radius, I imagine there is at least five churches or more.

The Kirkin' o' the Tartan tradition is an old Highland one. After the defeat of the Scots by the English in 1746, the wearing of the tartan and the keeping of any Highland ways or culture was forbidden in hopes this would forever subdue the rebellious Scottish spirit.

The Kirkin' was an important part of this in that one Sunday a year, the populace went to church wearing a concealed piece of the tartan and, at a certain moment set aside in the service, the tartan was touched while the minister pronounced a blessing on all tartans and the Scots once more pledged their loyalty and respect for their old traditions.

Scots who came to Canada brought with them the Celtic customs that were their heritage -- the tartan, the bagpipe, the kirk (the church), the songs. One of the songs piped in the parade this morning was a song that was piped at our wedding, nine years ago:

Step we gaily on we go
Heel for heel and toe for toe
Arm in arm and row and row
All for Mairi' s wedding

I captured this last photo, especially for my Social Work class, to remind us that as professional social workers, we can never make assumptions about people; that each of us comes from a multiplicity of interconnected cultures. I was reminded of that this morning when I noticed this young lady near the end of the parade, carrying her tartan into the 'kirk'.

Prayer for the Blessing of the Tartans:

Almighty God, who has promised that in all places where your name is honoured, you will
meet with your servants to bless them, we rejoice in this opportunity to present these
tartans to you as symbols of our unwavering loyalty to you and our steadfast faith in Christ
our Lord. We praise you for our Scottish ancestors: for all those saints of long ago who
brought Christ’s word to Celtic lands; for the risk-taking of Scottish immigrants who came to
this new land and with hard work, ingenuity and integrity created a new homestead. We
pray that in the present day, the dedication of these early pioneers may still inspire us to
greater achievements in the service of Christ and our fellow citizens. As represented by
these tartans, bless us, O God. Amen.

What a week! WHEW!!!

I've got my first full week back at University under my belt. Talk about information overload!

Technically, today was my day off - - but I spent all morning, until nearly 1 o'clock this afternoon just getting my books and my calendar organized, and catching up on all the news on my course websites - - yes, every course (all seven of them!) I'm taking has it's own interactive website, in effort to approach a "paperless" society.

I didn't get to start reading until this afternoon. So far I have 1/2 the reading and notes written for Communication & Interviewing Skills, and the reading (but not the notes) for Small Group Work Theory. I know it sounds like I'm behind....but seriously, I'm in a better position this weekend than I was last weekend.

Onto the Quilty News!

My Pick & Choose quilt is back from the quilter. It looks AWESOME!!! I hope to get the binding on before Thursday night's guild meeting.

Tomorrow, I'm going to an all-day workshop at Country Patchworks in Woodstock to make a "Courthouse Stars" quilt with Barb Scott. I'm doing mine in browns and blues -- all RECYCLED SHIRTS!!!

I know it's not a good time to run away to a quilt day, but I had signed up and paid for this workshop back in the spring, when it was originally scheduled for June. However, the class was cancelled, and rescheduled -- and since I already had all my fabric pre-cut and ready to go, I figured I could sacrifice a day to sewing.