Monday, October 6th, Shawna and I had been out for an hour and forty five minutes practicing her driving skills in Gilda the Golden, my 1991 Mercedes 300TE station wagon. A little while later, we were on our way to Shawna's driving school class, which you can.not.be.late.for. and the transmission decided it was finished. Phil came on the motorcycle with proper shoes and helmet and jacket for Shawna and managed to get her to class with two minutes to spare! Whew!
I had Gilda towed home and for the past ten days I have been vascillating about what to do. I do believe that if a compression check shows her cylinders to be good I will have the transmission rebuilt.
You should have seen poor Shawna's face when the car died..."do you think I did that to Gilda?" Our wonderful neighbors and friends have been loaning us their cars and motorcycles for transportation and to allow Shawna to continue her practice. And no, Shawna, you didn't do that to Gilda!
Can you believe that this is the best photo I have of my Gilda? If you look closely you will see that we have our kitchen set up in the back. We were car camping at Cachuma Lake at the 2005 Vintage Rally put on by John and Donna Mulrean. At the time this photo was taken, it was cocktail hour and we were making margaritas. These are our friends Nina and Scott, they are both members of the Antique Motorcycle Club of San Diego.
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Our neighbor Steven, last week when someone asked us about our neighborhood, said, "It is like having one great big front yard and it rocks!" I must agree.
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Saturday, October 11th, we had another dinner with our neighbors as I had decided that dinner rolls and lasagna were in order. You see, Steven's wife Lainie is an amazing woman. She has been making her own bread for a long time with a bread machine. She uses the dough cycle and then bakes it in the oven to perfection. This is not her only amazing skill, she is a home schooling mom of four very active, bright and well behaved children, and if that isn't enough to be called amazing...well, she is an incredible friend and human being too.
Here she is enjoying fresh grilled panzanella in my backyard:
After Phil bottled his plum wine a few weeks back, I found my bread machine in the pantry behind where all the carboys of wine were being stored. Lainie gave me a wonderful recipe for dinner rolls that are scrumptious!
Once Steven quoted a line in a book about bread that he wanted to sink his teeth into with "lumps of cheese" in it...I am the experimenter, so off I went to work on that request for our family dinner together. I made three batches of rolls and was not surprised that they didn't last the weekend!
Three varieties were made and tested: chunks/lumps of cheddar, blue cheese and sauteed garlic and butter.
Before they finished the second rising:
After baking:
Being taste tested by sweet Toddie - a definite YUM!
Being tast tested by sweet but "camera shy" Shawna - another YUM!
These rolls were "clover" rolls, three pieces of dough in the roll pan and let them rise together. I put the fillings in between the pieces of dough. As you can see from the photo above, they rise really well. Alot of the cheese was pushed up in the rising but melted back down in the baking. When I do it again, I will make sure the cheese is further down in the roll pan as the dough is so powerful strong it tries to eject the cheese!
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Look at our handsome double decker kitties. These are the boys of the house. Value is the black and white unit above and he is Shawna's baby. He is about seven months old now. Mr. Cosworth Motors is the black kittie on the bottom, he will be two years old in November and he is my baby boy.
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And last but not least, I am preparing for my big Autumn teaching trip. This year I will be going to Ashland, Oregon to teach my color class, as well as an evening event called a "yarn feast" at The Web*sters. I am excited about that theme because I like to make kits that showcase our yarns and I have clear egg cartons that are great for that purpose. Here is a preview as I build the yarn feast!
I took this photo last year in Port Townsend, Washington where I have taught and had yarn events for the past three years at The Twisted Ewe. Suzanne Murray, the owner, brings me in on the last weekend of October to do events surrounding our yarns to coincide with a big knitting retreat at Fort Worden, where the movie An Officer and A Gentlemen was filmed. Isn't it gorgeous?
Here is a photo of the shop. I really like going to Pt. Townsend and look forward to it all year.
Phil is going with me this year and he is excited because there is an awesome record shop in Pt. T called Quimper Sound where I made friends with a staffer there named Michael Townsend...no relation to the town! I walked in with Phil's music list last year and asked him if he could help me find something on the list and he freaked out! Wanted to know if I had time for him to read the whole list before I left. Phil's music list is eclectic and quite long. I had Michael find all of the best albums of the groups Phil was interested in for his Christmas and Birthday presents. Michael T did a stellar job of finding music for my sweetie, and the gift was such a hit that he has requested I do it again this year!
This year, Michael is putting on a musical show the weekend we are there that has to do with the themes of heaven and hell in music and there will be a great variety of artists. Should be wonderful!
