King of the Acorns

We’ve had an abundance of acorns this autumn, and no matter how many times we’ve swept or raked them and disposed of them, they’ve been replenished. Folklore has it that excessive acorns mean a hard winter* (an indicator that animals will be well fed during unusually long or intense cold seasons). Folklore is rarely dependable in today’s climate studies.

Still, I dubbed Rocky “King of the Acorns” today at his annual wreathing.

*I used this factoid in one of the novels in the Neverending Saga after a conversation with Lynne.

ETA: Later, after Tom and Debby returned from running errands, Tom took me outside to see what Timothy had done earlier in the day. He’s been working on cleaning and pruning the front yard, and he wanted to try some plants/herbs in Rocky’s flower bed, where they can get more light. Thanks, Tim!

And Tom has put the Christmas wreaths in the windows, including two in the windows of Lynne’s room.

And four in the living room windows. They now have little plaid reindeer on them.

Tiny Tuesday!

Tim cracks me up. I was in a text exchange with him and Jim this morning, and I shared this.

And Tim quickly replied:

Then he amended that isn’t always true of K-POP bands, which reminded me that I have Mattel’s Jimin doll from the K-POP band BTS (standing for the Korean phrase Bangtan Sonyeondan, which in English translates to “bullet-resistant boy scouts.”)

Jimin is another of the dolls that represents a character in the Neverending Saga. In 2021, Wardrobe was called in to redo his look to match his character.

The character is a private investigator.

Back to wardrobe! If the Jimin character gets a kilt, that’ll bring the number to seven, same as in BTS, and the shunned doll can rejoin his friends.

This is not faithful to canon, meaning Tim has inadvertently created the first fan fiction for the characters in the Neverending Saga. WITHOUT EVEN READING IT. It’s magic!

I should give props to the band in case you’ve never heard them.

Now I’ll keep thinking of this group of dolls as the Bangtan Scots, which kind of fits, though to my knowledge, only one of the characters is of Scottish descent.

somewhere you’ll feel free


Such terrible news to get today, and I was fortunate to hear it from friends who knew you as I did, having also experienced your humor, your heart, your generosity. The last year and a half, including your eleven months under medical care, were brutal on you. Still, you looked forward to a better life in the aptly named “Fairhope” with the old friend who invited you to move there. You told me your mother said she might move there, too, then you wanted to travel to England and Germany with her and maybe take a Rhine River cruise together. To know that your mother died nine days before you makes me imagine just the two of you again, as it was for much of your life, facing a future together against all odds. I hope you’re both at peace.

I regret that I’ll never get to read that novel you’ve been writing. You had such a gift of voice, pacing, and making everything turn out okay for the women you wrote. You’d have given Summer a happy conclusion, just as you once did for Emily–and you hoped to write a second Emily book one day, too.

I will imagine a happier-forever-after for you, where you save a place on that boat on the Rhine for your forever dog Dash to sit between you and your mother, with Kissing Michael on your other side. You belong with your love on your arm.

Bon voyage, Marika.

Mood: Monday

Yesterday marked the last day of Game & Puzzle Week. One thing we haven’t done in quite a while is play cards on holidays. It’s hard to get everyone together with enough time to play, and there are other things that make it challenging. Plus we usually just enjoy talking and catching up, since health issues and concerns keep us apart a lot.


Apparently, even the world’s earliest civilizations created games to play. I found this public domain photo of a Pompeiian mural that shows “an innkeeper throwing two brawling backgammon competitors out of his establishment.”

Some things never change. As Lynne and I well know, backgammon can definitely be a mood! Happy birthday to you, Lynne, and may you make lots more game memories to laugh about.

Button Sunday

Before this Thanksgiving weekend is over, I wanted to send out a message to some of my friends and family who’re going through some stuff right now. Some are ill. Lonely. Struggling with family problems and career challenges. Some are grieving the loss of family members, friends, and cherished companion animals.

In the midst of feeling gratitude and thanks for so many things these past few days, you’re all in my thoughts, too, even those of you who are very quiet as you deal with your lives. I always think about you and send love, strength, support, and hope to you. Many of you have done that for me in the past, and I remember.

I’m thankful for all we’ve shared through the years.

Scenes from our Friday celebrations

Here are a few photos from Friday, when we celebrated Thanksgiving late and Lynne’s birthday early.


Tim, Debby, and Lynne


Dessert table with some of Lynne’s gifts, plus at one point or another, homemade chocolate chip cookies, brownies, birthday cake, rum balls, bourbon balls, Kahlúa balls, pumpkin pie, sweet potato pie, cheese straws, sausage and cheese balls, and the cream cheese crack dip.


Tim, Debby, Tom, and Lynne


Closer look at Lynne’s birthday cake with unicorns and rainbow candles.

Don’t know if I got a photo with all the food on the feast table. Here I see: dressing, fried okra, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, broccoli, and turkey breast.

And from this angle: squash casserole, mashed potatoes, gravy, a basket of rolls, and field peas with snaps.


Tim, Debby, Lynne, and me

After dinner, gift opening and birthday song singing and cake eating for Lynne (her birthday is this coming Monday)!

Because of some of the foods we cook, dishes we use, and conversations we share, there are a lot of memories on this, my favorite of holidays. Last year all of our Christmas decorations were up by Thanksgiving. This year, Tom and I will probably be handling that next weekend.

We do have one Christmas tradition already in process. Lynne took about fifty photos from which I chose the family Christmas photo. The gratifying thing is that only a few days ago when I was talking to another friend on her birthday, she said she was looking forward to the Christmas card/letter/photo I’ll send in December. I always hope people like hearing from us. I love getting cards, letters, and photos from our friends and family. As soon as the photo’s printed, I’ll tackle the Christmas and holiday cards to send out.

Today (Saturday), Tom and Lynne watched the Alabama-Auburn football game (while I only watched the score in the writing sanctuary). Tom’s and my alma mater, Alabama, won the game. It never matters what both teams’ records look like going into the game, ANYTHING can happen in the fierce Iron Bowl rivalry. Of course I always want Alabama to win, but we have so many people in both our families who went to Auburn or are big Auburn fans, that however it turns out, I’m happy for the ones who get to celebrate.

Also, there were lots and lots of conversations during the days Lynne was here about the Neverending Saga. I have officially begun the seventh novel (while Lynne reread the sixth). Soon, I’ll probably be back to posting playlists of what I listen to while I write. I found something online I meant to save so I could share it when I talked on here about the series, but I can’t find it now.

The dogs were a lively, cute, exasperating, always lurking for a handout or something tasty to drop to the floor, and very welcome part of the weekend. I thought I shot a photo of Minute sleeping on the hearth in front of the fire, but apparently I didn’t. Tom got this shot of Delta and Jack sharing Eva’s favorite dog bed.

I caught Anime and Delta on the run outside.


Pollock very much enjoyed having Tim with him at Thanksgiving.


A very fluffy Stewie, having just been brushed by Debby.


Eva being held by Tom next to the food table–after the food has been cleared, alas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ll be sharing more Saturday about the Thanksgiving celebration we’ll have tomorrow. But I did manage to get a photo of Lynne’s chocolate chip cookies. Delicious.

While Lynne was with her other family today, along with some food prep for tomorrow, I washed, dried, and ran a hem around fabric I got last week at Jo-Ann’s, turning it into a Thanksgiving tablecloth. Crafty!

Someone’s in the kitchen

Today, my MacBook came home to me (cha-ching!), but I feel like I’ve been in the kitchen since yesterday, and I’m just now getting the Mac back in business.

Here’s a recap.

Lynne got here Tuesday afternoon for a visit until Saturday. She’s spending Thanksgiving day with her kids/grandkids from the other side of their family on Thursday, so we’ll have the Houndstooth Hall Thanksgiving dinner with her on Friday, which will also be her early birthday celebration. =)

The dinner I prepared for Tuesday night was a hearty homemade soup that simmered most of the day to go with cornbread.

One of the chapters I wrote in the sixth book of the Neverending Saga has two characters sharing a lot of confidences while they have a pre-Christmas baking day together. Maybe that’s what made Lynne and me decide to have a full-on baking day like we haven’t had in a long time. Tuesday night, while I took on dog watching/feeding duty, she and Tom went to the grocery store to get all the supplies I didn’t have or she hadn’t brought with her. After they got back, she and I began shelling pecans from her friend’s pecan trees.

Today, Tom worked from home, so as soon as I got up, I put together Jim’s delicious egg casserole for breakfast and added fresh cut fruit on the side.

After breakfast, the real work began. While Tom worked in the home office, Lynne and I shelled more pecans, enough to use for rum balls, bourbon balls, and Kahlúa balls. This was our first venture into Kahlúa balls. They all taste very good. =)

While I was rolling out the rum, etc. balls, Lynne made two servings of crack dip, one for the Hall and one to take with her tomorrow. It’s basic: cream cheese, chopped green onions, chopped pastrami, and dry Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix blended together. No one knows why it’s so addictive. It just is.

I grated enough cheese for two batches of sausage cheese balls. These are also highly addictive. We both rolled them out, and now there’s one container for the Hall and one she’ll take tomorrow.

Oh! I forgot she also made a gazillion deviled eggs. One to take with her with sweet pickles, and one for the Hall with dill pickles.

Stacked here in the fridge, our deviled eggs on the bottom left, and above that, her many containers of sausage and cheese balls and deviled eggs that will go with her. I can’t remember what’s in the dish middle/top, but those are the Hall’s sausage balls under it, and on the right, that’s the turkey thawing for Friday’s meal.

Okay, it was driving me crazy. That Corning Ware bowl contains leftover chicken I chopped for us to use to make chicken salad sandwiches when we all ate lunches at different times. We also still have leftover soup and cornbread. So probably no cooking until Friday. (I’m sure there’ll be photos of that, too–can you tell Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday?)

We haven’t had these in so long, and in the ’70s and ’80s, they were a constant treat: a brownie recipe created by Lynne’s Uncle Austin, and they will melt in your mouth.

Another one of Lynne’s specialties is chocolate chip cookies, and she made a batch for us and a batch to take with her tomorrow, and I don’t seem to have a photo of those.

Finally, I grated (in the food processor) enough cheese/baking mix/margarine mixture to make three batches of cheese straws, which we halved–one for the Hall, one for her to take tomorrow. Lynne and Tom, who was by then off of work, rolled them into doughs and seasoned them with red pepper (hotter for Lynne’s batch, a little milder for ours, because I don’t like too much heat). Because the batches contained a variety of cheese brands and margarines (usually, I use butter, but the actual recipe from Lynne’s sister calls for margarine, so we did that this time), they were different colors and textures. They all taste great, though!

We put in about a dozen hours of kitchen time, and while Lynne handles most of the baking, I handle most of the clean-up. It’s a good thing I actually like washing dishes, because there were a lot of bowls and pans used, washed, and reused throughout the day. Even the dogs are worn out; I can hear them snoring all over the Hall. It’s about to be lights out for me, too. A good day hopefully gives me a good night’s sleep.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Photo Friday, No. 884

Current Photo Friday theme: Fall


Renaissance Festival, Todd Mission, Texas, 2012

You can’t see leaves changing colors in Houston this time of year, but there are other fall sights in the countryside.

Bonus photo from the Renaissance Festival in 2008. You never know who you’ll find in the woods, be it musketeer, Viking, pirate, tavern keeper, knight…