Merry Christmas!

I know most of you are already vacationing but I wanted to wish everyone a very merry Christmas.

I found the top angel while cleaning out my closet and couldn't remember for a second if I had made it, it had been lost so long.

Since my cheap little tree (Home Depot baby!) had all these random sticks at the top from when they shaved it, I thought I'd do a choir of angels at the top.   Don't have anywhere else to put them... my mantel was full.

Ignore the scarves being blocked on the carpet... I'll be posting about my knitting exploits AFTER Christmas and all the present giving :-).

My tree is on a timer so it's on when I get up in the morning and when I get home from work.  My goal is always to be in bed before it turns off... not always attainable.

The poor thing is dead.  All these pictures were taken last week before it completely crumpled.  But.. you get what you paid for when u get ur tree from Home Depot.  And never fear, I'm going home to NM tomorrow and my tree can finish drying out all by it's little lonesome while I am away. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone!

The Great Turkey Shoot

This Thanksgiving there was lots of fun and games in Idaho Falls... and a turkey shoot.

Here are most of the participants.

Don't see the turkeys?

They are very round.

There is a small one and a big one.

Ohh.. look at that concentration!

I've got the stance down.. I watch Castle.

And now to go along with the following silly pictures, I will tell you a story... that has nothing to do with the pictures.

Its a common theme on my blog.

Once upon a time, Jim and Bethanie had cable in their rented house but no TV.

Emily wanted to rectify that situation so we could watch football on Thanksgiving.

Cuz that's what you do on Thanksgiving.  So she got onto Craigs list and found a TV for 20 dollars in Rexburg.  Woo Hoo!

Jim thought it sounded a little big and really the Dietrichs weren't that interested in a TV... but the Aunts persevered by saying Emily could take it back for Megan to use at college. 

And off they drove to Rexburg in Emily's Forester.

They found the house, climbed the stairs, and saw the monstrosity sitting on the floor.  The man selling it smiled, recieved the 20 dollars, and said, "good luck". 

The stairs were narrow and Emily and Alecs hands hurt very badly by the time the thing was manuvered into the back of the car (in my defence I didn't realize it was SO heavy!).  It filled the WHOLE space.  There was no way it was going back to Utah unless the travelers decide to leave all their luggage in IF.

Well, Bethy can sell it on Craigs list after we watch some Football.

The TV was brought into the living room, this time with the help of others to help spare Emily and Alecs hands.

But alas, the cable did not work.  After a few calls to the cable company and trying different connections in the house, Jim found out the cable had been turned off by the owners the previous month. 

There was nothing to be done until after Thanksgiving so instead we had to rake leaves, talk, cook, eat, and play games.  And tell the story over and over again to whoever would listen.

The End.

Another Tri.. Kinda

Emily was so sad to miss the Pumpkinman Triathlon a couple weeks ago so I told her I had been thinking about doing the Telos tri again up in Orem.

Next thing I know Bethanie and Angela decide to drive down (just for me of course... ignore the fact that Angela was already coming down for a concert in Salt Lake) and my niece and nephew in Provo decide they are going to watch.

OK OK! Twist my arm! I'll do it.

Most of my cheering squad.  It was cold!

Did I mention I've been obsessed with Harry Potter and knitting?  Oh wait, haven't done that post yet.  Well,  lets just say sitting on the couch knitting until the wee hours of the night every night doesn't make for great triathlon preparation.

But no matter, I told myself, its a low key race.  And low key it was.  Low and slow.

About here is where I could finally feel my toes.... coming into transition (they do it backwards with the swim last cuz nobody wants to develop frost bite by running wet with little snow flakes falling around them).

After taking my bike across the wet grass and racking it before the start, I came back later to find ice on the tires.  It was cold!

Apparently someone warming up on the bike had crashed and gone to the hospital so they limited the ride to the parking lot... about .05 miles, give or take .02 miles.

I shouldn't have bothered to put my shoes.  But do you see those two water bottles? This time I had no problems with dehydration on my .01 mile bike ride (gets smaller every time).

FYI, take off ur helmet BEFORE trying to strip down to your swimming suit.  Its a good thing they didn't get a picture of that.. 

All in all it ended up being pretty fun, even though the pool part was pretty annoying... as I knew it would be.  That's what I get for being such a slow runner.  I finally just started swimming over and through people, although I did try to be nice to the dad walking his swimming son down the lane.  I also didn't realize I was at the end and so started another lane b4 turning around. 

Low key, Melanie, Low key.

It WAS nice to be done in less than 45 minutes.  Then we could get Megan and Alec off to their other commitments and the rest of us off to Neaders for a French toast breakfast.  YUM.

The rest of the weekend we helped Emily get her garden ready for winter.

And by help I mean played in the leaves..

He's Escaping!

Watch out for falling leaves :-)

BTW, because of the "modified" bike ride Telos has given me a $10 coupon for their next tri in April to "keep you motivated to workout through the winter months". 

Hasn't worked yet.

It was Halloween 2011

You recall the much time and energy I spent creating pioneer outfits for myself and others in July? Well, you may think this would translate easily into a Halloween costume and truck-or-treat idea.

Man, that was sooo July. October its all about HOGWARTS. Unfortunately that picture and the following,
were the only pictures I got at the trunk-or-treat. Yes, I forgot my camera. Yes, I parked in a poor spot for pictures. In my defense, last year I was all washed out so I was trying to get away from the big lights.

I think the big lights would have helped this year. I thought later I should have brought my oil lamp. Duh.

Other people took my picture (some on the sly) and a few said they would send them to me but I've heard that before (from me).

But never fear! My good friend Pat come over afterwards so she could take pictures of it all set up in my garage. Its what good friends do.When they saw me, most people said "Harry Potter!" To which I replied "Do I look like a boy?"Here's the outfit. I remembered the next day that I was going to do my hair in braids... For some reason the hair always gets forgotten in my costumes (unless I'm wearing a turban).
Can you tell which house I'm in? After "Harry Potter!" it was "Hermione?"
"BLUE TIE! What's my middle name?"
"Are you a teacher?" "I'm Penelope Clearwater from Ravenclaw... " (the four house colors and crest)
"And I'm making polyjuice potion in my NEWT level class."
(It was the only recipe I could find on line. Wanted to do Veritaserum cuz its clear but couldn't find a recipe.... not that it really mattered... )
Of course I had my book bag filled with books and parchment... and a water bottle. Wizards need to stay hydrated as well.
Here Pat is Vanna-ing the sorting hat.
I just took my witches hat and made a brown fabric cover for it. Elizabeth's older children tried it on and when I asked them if they were brave, smart, cute, or sneaky, they both replied "SNEAKY!" Slytherin it was.

I forgot to put a few things out for the photo shoot outside so I set it back up inside again.
I had already done a trial run the Saturday before. With all the ideas I had running around in my head (a chess set, random things in bottles, rolls of parchment and books) I'm glad I did. I had plenty to fill up my table and didn't need anything more.
Labels such as salamander blood, doxie eggs, eye of newt, and powdered bicorn.
And my pot, bubbling with dry ice.
A set of brass scales (which Emily told me looked like drug paraphernalia)
My escaping frog (I'm an older student so frogs were still in vogue).
I put some threads in this jar (essence of murtlap) so it would look nasty but you couldn't tell in the dark of the parking lot.
My father made this beautiful wand for me... which I didn't have time to paint but I think it has its own character. Ash, 9 3/4", Unicorn Hair.
All in all, I think it was a success. I might or might not still have it all set up in my living room.
I think I managed to keep up the standard I set last year. BTW, anybody need a nice white men's shirt (medium) and/or charcoal sweater?

PS. Here are some close ups on my color bands in the sweater. It took a long time to sew on so you need to appreciate it. The scarf I spent 3 weeks knitting wrong will get it's own post.I wore my costume to work on Halloween (minus the cloak) and it wasn't until 2pm that one of the engineers stopped on his way past my cubicle and said "Wait... its that kids movie! I've been trying to figure it out since this morning when I heard you say you were in costume".

This is why I've never done halloween for work before (witches hat and my "Italian Goddess" t-shirt doesn't count). Perhaps if I had been wearing the cloak and brandishing the wand..