I finished the bookmark I started for a co-worker.  I used 2 strands of sewing thread, and a size 12 hook.  It turned out the perfect size!  I'm very happy with the project, and so was the recipient.  Here is the new version:

And here is the original version:

I did a little different border on the second one - the thread was a little harder to work with than I thought it would be, and I didn't want to try anything too fancy with it.

Good thing we decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner this year.  Ralph tried a new (to us) Alton Brown recipe, and the timing was a bit off.  The recipe says to cook for 4 hours at 400 degrees.  It was done in 2 hours, even after he dropped the temp down.  The taste was marvelous, but the skin was a bit too dark!  I did manage to get the rest of dinner ready while the bird was resting, so it worked out.  My biggest problem was that I had just eaten lunch at 1:00, and wasn't ready for dinner at 3:00!  Not that that stopped me, as I was still able to eat turkey, and dressing, and mashed potatoes, and gravy, and rolls, and....Yum!  (I did save the pumpkin cheesecake for later in the evening.)  Now we are ready for cooking dinner tomorrow for the rest of the family.  I think Ralph is researching a better cooking time/temp.  The brine that he used was good, so he will keep that part of the recipe.  I found a 60 minute dinner roll recipe and tried it out as well - which turned out quite tasty - even though it did take me more than 60 minutes.  Maybe if I hadn't been trying to cook everything at the same time I could have done in in 60 minutes, but....it still wasn't very long for fresh rolls.

Finally - what feels like a few minutes, all to myself!  This week has been such a rush - busy at work, busy at home, busy in the morning, busy at night...... today it is quiet in the house, at least for a few more minutes.  Here are a few random pictures from the last week.

Mom got a squeaky pig toy for Koori when she got some for her dogs, thinking Koo would like it.  Wrong.  Koo never had a chance.  Jasper stole it and has it with her most of the time.  The little pink pig sounds like a real pig when she carries it around - too funny!

Road conditions going over to Susanville

What my car looked like Sunday morning - it kept snowing until around noon, and there was a lot more on the car by then.

Some leaves from trees in the Walmart parking lot - through my sun roof.  This last storm probably blew all the leaves away.

We went out to dinner at Mom's Friday night - mainly because the power was out at her house.  Alli was an angel!  Here is a picture of her and Mom.

It was quite a weekend in Susanville - not the actual visit, but the drive to get there was a bit white.  On Friday, I ran several errands in town, and then picked Alli up from school at lunch.  On our way out of town, Mom called and said that Highway 44 was closed - a jack-knifed truck was blocking both lanes of traffic.  I wasn't very far out of town on Dersch, so I turned around, and headed down to Highway 36.  According to Road Conditions, it was clear when I left Red Bluff, but by the time I got to Mineral, it was R2 conditions.  The RAV is 4WD, and I have good tires, so I wasn't very worried.  We just drove really slowly (the car in front of us was driving a lot slower than really needed, but....then again, we had no issues!)  It took me almost 4 hours to get to Susanville.

The storm cleared up Friday night, and things were good - until another storm came through Saturday night.  I think there was 4-5 inches of snow at Mom's on Sunday.  Road Conditions had restrictions on all roads leading out, but around 11:00, they started easing them, so Alli and I left at 1:00 or so.  The roads were completely clear!  I don't think they were updating Road Conditions in a timely manner!  The road were only wet - no snow anywhere, and Susanville had more snow than anywhere else.  It figures!

AJ and I took a walk out in the back field and through the neighborhood this weekend, and I took some pictures of our neighbor's trees.  I love our trees for the shade in the summer, but they are boring in the fall - just brown!  These trees are gorgeous!  Every year about this time, I wish I had planted a 'fall' tree, but....I never do.  One of these days!  Of course, where would I plant it?  The front yard already has the three sycamores, and I don't want any leaves in the backyard to blow into the pool.  Maybe that's why I haven't planted one yet - I'll just enjoy the neighbor's!

A couple of finished projects - I made another pair of motorcycle booties.  Ralph didn't like the buckle on the first pair, so I used the pattern's design (like I should have the first time?) and made another pair.  They are cute, I admit!

I didn't like the size of the first bookmark I made, so I downsized the letters and made another one.  Only problem - I switched the order of the letters!  I really like the lettering in the larger bookmark, so I may try it in size 30 thread, and then try to dye it pink.  We'll see how for I get on that project!

I thought all the frogs had gone into hibernation, but yesterday afternoon, I had this little guy back on my kitchen window.  (Don't you just love the African violets!)

Picot decided to help me yesterday, as I was trying to pay bills and balance the check book.  She was not a lot of help!!!

She loves to sit in front of the computer screen - which is fine is she lays down, but she's hard to see through if she doesn't!

I spent most of yesterday cleaning, and my house doesn't even show most of it!  I cleaned carpets yesterday, which does show, but the rest of it was just the normal cleaning, and a couple of hours later, you can't tell that I did anything.  Oh well - I know it was cleaned!  (The carpets do look much better! - my back doesn't feel that great, though!) 

I finished a few projects this week - don't ask me how.  I have meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday, and between them and the time change, I was pooped.  The first one was for a Yahoo group - he Traveling Hook is making its rounds again.  One hook is sent throughout the members.  When you get it, you make something with it and send it on to someone else.   Here is a picture of the one I received:

And here is the one that I made to send along:

I was trying for a 'autumn' feel - the colors and pattern reminded me of wheat.  I also finished up a huge doily for a co-worker.  She wanted a large lavender doily - and it is large!  It is about 25 inches, and it might have been larger if I had a larger blocking board.  Mine is only 24 inches, so I couldn't really stretch this one out as much as it could have been.

I also had a co-worker request some baby booties that were 'biker boots'.  I'm still not really happy with the buckle on these - I may try them again with a different approach, but they were fun to make.  I just sent her a picture this morning, and she said these were perfect, and the baby arrived last night, so I am just in time!

I was right - Alli was up at 4:30 this morning.  All week, I've been having to wake her up, and today she wakes herself up.  I was expecting it, so I did go to bed at a decent time, but....so much for catching that extra hour of sleep when the time changed!  Oh well - the sooner I get started on laundry, the sooner it will be done.

My back and I are still hobbling around.  It does just fine until I move wrong, or forget and pick up something wrong.  Ouch!  This morning I had to bring in a bag of pellets for the stove - more than I probably should have picked up.  (But it was cold in here!)  Yesterday, it limbered up quite a bit by evening, so I'm hoping it will loosen up as the day goes along.  I put my sore back to good use yesterday - laying around on the couch.  I'm working on a doily for a friend, and I got quite a bit done on it.  Alli and I also took a nice nap in the afternoon.

I sent out the announcement that we will be having a craft bazaar at work this year, so I am now committed to doing it.  I don't know how much more I want to stockpile vs. using what I have as samples.  I do need to get a bunch of gloves done - they always go fast, and I need extra for my teacher gifts this year.  (That way, I can take a break for a couple of weeks and work on other things, maybe??)   I always have more things to work on than I have time.

Winter is coming!  I spent most of yesterday afternoon with a cat curled up in my lap.  Of course, that means I spend most of the afternoon sitting on the couch!  I actually spent most of the day sitting on the couch.  As I was putting Allison's breakfast dishes in the dishwasher yesterday morning, I pulled something in my lower back.  I spent the rest of the morning sitting.  I did get a lot of crochet work done, but not much else.  Hopefully I'll get something done today!  My back is still sore, but not as bad as yesterday, so maybe with some ibuprofen I'll be fine.  I hope so - but I'll miss the cat in my lap.

My new office area has beautiful view of the sunrise.  Unfortunately, that means that I am at work when the sun is coming up.  Pretty soon, I will be there when it sets, too - the days are sure getting shorter.  I'm looking forward to the time change this weekend - it means I get to sleep in a little bit in the mornings.  I don't know how long it will take to reset Alli's internal alarm, so we will probably be getting up at the same time as we do now, for a while at least.  Then I can sleep in!

Made it to Friday, and I have the day off!  Since I don't think I've made it home much before 7:00 any night this week, I need it to catch up with myself - busy week.  As promised (finally!) here are some pictures from Halloween.  Most of my pictures of people in costume didn't turn out very well - too dark, even with a flash.

Casey's work area

A window in the department

My desk

The sun on the webbing

One of the spiders we had stuck around everywhere

Jan and Blake 

Cassey, Berneice and Justine taking pictures

My "Hobo spider"

The hallway past our department 

Jan's 'treasures"

More of Jan's 'booty'

Blurry picture of Berneice - a 'black widow"

Justine - a 'Parson Spider" (Her spider on her back is holding a bible)

Cassey - also a black widow

Halloween was a success at work - I went in early to finish decorating, and we strung more spider webs, and set up our props.  The pot luck was delicious!  Our theme as a department was 'spiders' and we had three black widows (ladies dressed in black compete with a veil) and the rest of us represented a different type of spider.  I was a "Hobo Spider" - and my little friend even had his own bindle.  Here's a picture:

I have a ton of pictures on my camera - but haven't had time to load them yet.  More pictures tomorrow???