Friends, Food, Home.

There is a lot of craft action going on right now - my co-workers have really continued in their knitting fever and there is a "knit lunch" usually about 2-3 times a week, and sometimes even an after work knit-and-chat not far from my place (WOO-HOO!). And I have a marvelous temporary roommate who knits. The Blanket is progressing (WOO-HOO-HOO-HA!). I hope to update with pictures on all of that very soon.

More important today is tomorrow: Thanksgiving. We'll be a table of 10. I will not give you a picture of the beautiful linen plaid tablecloth that has not been made yet. Errrrhm...I think it will perhaps have a Christmas debut instead. Neither have I a picture of the table-runner in progress that will hopefully lend a more continuous and deliberate look to the two different tablecloths which will grace the table this year. Who says a plaid cotton and a satin stripe aren't made to share the table?

Let's focus instead on the things that HAVE been accomplished before Thanksgiving.

We have a dishwasher. We installed it ourselves, which involved 4 trips to the hardware store, several evenings of pushing it into the hole and pulling it out of the hole, a new circuit breaker, and a professional electrician who was at our house one, two, three evenings in a row figuring out the inanity of the kitchen circuitry. It all works now, and we even have a ground-fault-interrupt outlet at the sink now (that's the test/reset kind that saves your bacon when you get a splash of water in there).

We have lights. We were living in darkness. Ok, dimness. Our living room had no overhead light fixture, just a large expanse of drywall, poorly lit by two Ikea lamps with compact flourescent bulbs and the occasional Netflix flicker of the movie box. With the help of my father-in-law and our non-knitting temporary roommate, we cut a hole in the ceiling, snaked a cable of wires from the hole to the switch, installed boxes and had it all ready. With the help of Schoolhouse Electric, we had a fantastic fixture to put up there and it looks great now. I can tell, because there's light in there now, and I can get a good look at it. While we were at it, we also got and installed two new fixtures in the dining room and our hallway. They're just lovely.



Did I mention I have two temporary roommates and have had five houseguests in the past 2 weeks and my house is clean? And ready for two houseguests on Friday? I really love having guests and having people in the house. I've had the excuse to make 4 pans of gingerbread, souffled crepes, whole-wheat dairy-free pancakes...

Photos are of pre-turkey shopping in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. More pics, including the larger-than-life pig at the pork store over at The Jeff Next Door.