Happy 14 Years of Blogging, Librariandoa

 Naturally my post earlier got me thinking about the blog and what I've liked and not liked about it over the years.  I think I've liked it best when it's been more spontaneous.  Somehow I've worked in too many "regular features" over time, I think.  I spend too much time planning, writing and scheduling those "required" things that other more more interesting things may go by the way side.

 

Today I'm thinking: 

Move posts and sidebar features from Librariandoa 2.0 here, then delete that blog which competes in a way with this one, even though it is inactive.

I'm going to do the same with my DOA in the Garden blog, which I enjoyed writing at first, but no one, really no one read the thing. Hmmpf.  So poof, Librariandoa in the Garden.

My other blog, The Adventures of Merlyn Perilous, I may reactivate.  Simply by writing any bookish things there.  By chance we've signed up for two conventions this year, and I made my Badge Name Merlyn Perilous for both.  I shouldn't appear at bookish conventions with my Book Blog Name, and no book blog, right?  I'll ponder this move.  If I do make this this move, the Book Reviews are the only thing moving. Book Notes will stay here because Wordpress is super annoying about links to sites sometimes.  It either won't link to them or it does the linking for you sometimes in an obnoxious way.  I really enjoy doing Word Finds for the books I read, those will stay here too.

Here on DOA Central, I'll be adding sidebar sites galore.

I'm going to drop What's Cooking altogether, and just write about recipes I try out for good or bad, sometimes, in no regular way.

I'm also dropping the ever popular First Line Friday.  It gets decent views, but doing it drives me buggy.  Something always goes wrong with the picture, or the font on the picture showing up clearly or not.  Poof!

Also staying are Sunday Puzzles of all types and their answer keys.

I will also add links to my not so Social Media sites here, just to be all 21st Century about things.

Again, thanks for stopping by!  Fourteen more years or bust!

Librariandoa

Missed My Blogiversary Again!

 Perhaps because it’s been such a long time since I started this blog, or my brain really has basically gone kablooie, but I always forget to mention/ celebrate the date I began this blog. Except for the two years of my Librariandoa 2.0 Wordpress experiment, I’ve faithfully kept up this little corner of the universe. Thanks to those who stop by and faithfully read every day!

February 15, 2008 The 23 Things On A Stick program brought about this online diary, as blogs used to be thought of.  Huzzah, DOA. Onward.

http://librariandoa.blogspot.com/2008/02/23-things-thing-one.html

I Love Pink Blanket Part 2

 I’m working on my third color in the I Love Pink Blanket. It is so pretty and a pleasure to work on. I’m doing all of the squares first, then I’ll add the borders.

The colors so far are Baby Pink, Perfect Pink, and Pretty N Pink.

DOA's Answer Key for the February 20, 2022 Cipher Puzzle

 Last week's evening Cipher Puzzle is from Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.

https://philipreeve.com/

Librariandoa's Sunday Word Finds: Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery

 

Librariandoa's Sunday Word Finds: The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan

 

Sunday Puzzles: A Cryptogram for February 27, 2022

 Happy week two in our puzzle rotation for Sunday mornings.  This week we have a longish cryptogram. I got carried away. I'm also using the Armored Penguin Cipher Maker that I use for the Sunday evening puzzles. You see how these things happen. Click to enlarge!  I've also provided the text enlarged below.

DOA's Answer Key for the Woman In Cabin 10 A Word Find

 

DOA's Answer Key for the Mostly St Patrick's Day Word Find

 All this love of the green, and it isn't even St Patrick's Day yet.  

First Line Friday February 25, 2022

 

What's Cooking February 24, 2022

 For your dreamy pink kitchen:

Set aside a bit of Fika for yourself today:

Actually Mr. DOA has no trouble opening these bags.  I just hand him the veggies and in they go.

From the Slow Roasted Italian, a homemade version of Lipton's Onion Soup Mix.   Use it as soup, in a dip, or with roast or stew. It looks very good!

https://www.theslowroasteditalian.com/2022/02/lipton-onion-soup-mix.html

 

Chocolate Chocolate and More's Homemade Butter, made with your stand mixer technique is fun for us butter lovers.  It also gives me the opportunity to share the memory of my first or second grade class passing around a jar with cream in it as we all sat in a big circle on the floor.  Everyone gave the jar a good shake when it came to them. We kept passing it until miraculously, butter!  We got to eat it on some soda crackers.

https://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/homemade-butter/

 

Around the World In 80 Days Episodes 7 and 8

 Episode 7

 

The companions travel across America.  In the sequence of this trip covered in the story, Fogg and company are traveling at good speed in a stagecoach, hoping to connect with a train in the next town.

The coach is stopped by a Black Sheriff Bass Reeves.  His prisoner, a southern white man seems polite at first but soon reveals himself to be a leader of a supremacist organization.  He chastises Fogg for allowing the romance between Fix and Passepartout which Fogg hasn't noticed at all.

Not far behind are the captives Civil War compatriots, who plan to kill the sheriff and set their friend free.

Reaching the town where the train will arrive soon, Fogg and his companions stand with the sheriff against the killers, almost missing their train. 

Abigail can't resist sending her father a telegram to let him know they're all alive, as they were reported lost at sea in the previous episode.

Episode 8

 

Reaching New York, somehow Fogg still has his cache of postcards calling him a coward, including one for the Grand Central station clock sent just before he left on his journey.   He stares at the clock.

Once out, he goes to the liner that will take him home, but then runs back out and to the train station.  He is waiting for a woman under the clock, explains Passepartout.  

Estella does indeed come, and the two have fine moments talking about the lives they lived without each other.  She now appears to be too practical to be whisked off to England and adventures beyond, as I hoped would happen once she was actually there.

Making his way back to the ship, Fogg is beset one last time by Kneedling, but a New York gang interrupts and wants part of the action.  Fogg and Kneedling fight the gang, not exactly together.  When Kneedling is stabbed with a knife, the gang vanishes, leaving Fogg with Kneedling who hands him a telegram saying use any means necessary to stop Fogg from getting on the ship.

In London, a final frustrating block to Fogg's progress: the warrant from Hong Kong is still seen as active in Londom and he's put in a cell till the governor of Hong Kong can be wired.

Finally released, dejected because the bet was lost as time has run out, Fogg's ancient servant tells them they gain a day as they traveled so there's time to get to the club yet.  Running through the streets, they make it right on the second the clock strikes the hour.  Bellamy tries to say there was no bet but Fogg had a check delivered to the club before he left.

Bellamy's bankruptcy is discovered and the crowd at the club chants him out the door when Fogg gives him the check.  

The episode ends with Fogg, Passepartout and Fix running down the street laughing arm in arm, on their way to find a new adventure.

For myself, I enjoyed the series over all, particularly once they stopped making Fogg the butt of every joke, an object of scorn.  That went on far too long for a show in which his character is the main one.

Once the three were on the desert island, and they were down to their basic humanity, and the friendship that had been forged was allowed to shine, the last episodes were a pleasure.

Review: Trixie Belden and The Red Trailer Mystery by Julie Campbell

 

Picking up almost exactly where Secret of the Mansion left off, Trixie, Honey and the governess Miss Trask leave in a trailer called the Silver Swan to find Jim before he leaves the area forever.

They know Jim will be trying to get work at a summer camp relatively nearby.  He's had a head start, but they think they can catch up, stopping at campgrounds along the way.

At their first campground, they're parked next to a luxurious, large red trailer for the night.  It's called the Robin.  Trixie and Honey are certain a wealthy family must own it. They long to get a peek inside.

When they see the owners, however, they see a family in worn clothing looking completely dispirited. A couple with several children emerge briefly, long enough for the girls to see the trailer is definitely luxurious, but it doesn't fit this family at all.

As Trixie, Honey and Miss Trask travel looking for Jim, they hear radio alerts saying thieves are stealing and hijacking trailers, and everyone should be wary of leaving their keys in their cars, and their trailers unattended.

They wonder if the red trailer has been stolen, but they can't see the sad family as part of a gang.

It's a book that makes you want to hit the road in your trailer (Scamp), solving mysteries, eating cake and pie baked by a kind farmer's wife, and fresh fruit and vegetables from road side stands. 

There's something about this series that's like a big hug for the reader.

 

 

Review: The Great Hunt: Wheel of Time #2 by Robert Jordan

 

In this second volume of the fourteen volume series, the forces of The Dark One begin to move more openly in the world.  As many become convinced that the Last Battle nears, The Great Hunt is called to find the Horn of Valere.

This horn can be wielded by anyone, whether they are on the side of the light or dark.  When the horn is used, the dead will answer it's call.

Stolen by the Darkfriend Pad Fain from Fal Dara, Rand and a band of soldiers from Fal Dara pursue him across the world.

Egwene and Nynaeve begin their training in Tar Valon.  Egwene as a novice and Nynaeve as one of the Accepted.   It's interesting that the Aes Sedai are willing to work with Nynaeve at such a high training level right away, particularly when she seems most able to channel her powers when she's angry.

Travel is anything but ordinary, given the distances.  In addition to the Waygates, and the perilous travel through those dark ways, there are Portal Stones, rune covered stones and portions of stones which can transport a traveler to a mirror world.  

The first time one is used it's by accident, and the world they've entered is a strange, almost empty place.  Traveling there allows the group to journey a hundred miles in a short time once they find a way back home.  In another instance of using the stone, all of the travelers see other lives they might have lived.

As with the first book, the Great Hunt is packed with adventure, romance, and betrayal.  You feel as if you're right there along with our heroes and heroines, so well realized is the world.  An epic battle at the end of the book could easily have been the series end in any other story.  Luckily far more adventure awaits.

Book Notes February 22, 2022

 A few things book lovers have in common:

Don’t interrupt a Reading Cat!

 

I think if it was me, this winter, they wouldn't be able to tell it was a human from the chalk outline :(

Modern Mrs Darcy recommends a few children's book series"

https://modernmrsdarcy.com/series-kids-parents-love/

 

When It Takes 10 Tries To Get The Pattern Right

I mark and print out many patterns. Eventually, I try out some with new stitches that are slightly above my pay grade skill wise. Normally I’d give up, if there's too much trouble getting a good start, but sometimes, I like the pattern so much, I just keep trying. 

In the case of Red Heart Yarns I Love Pink Blanket, I was sure I could master the stitch, after watching several YouTube videos demonstrating the Crossed Double Crochet stitch, which the pattern uses. I knew I had yarn colors that would look nice with it. 

As it turned out, all of the videos have you working this stitch into another double crochet stitch. After several tries, I thought I had it right using a test swatch with Red Heart Retro Stripes Yarn.

Oops. Reading the pattern carefully, and writing it out longhand without the pattern abbreviations, I saw the Double Cross Stitch here is worked into a Space, not a stitch.

Try, try again, and in Baby Pink, I now have the pattern down.

The next step was to dig through my massive yarn stash for the required three pink shades plus a border color, which would never have been black as in the original.

Look at all of those pretty pinks!  Red Heart Super Saver Jazzy is a great choice for the border. It incorporates several of the shades I have.  Seeing all of these together, I want to use them all.  If I do two squares of each shade I have, I'm just one skein short of the sixteen squares.  Unless! I dug through a third time and I have a Caron One Pounder in Soft Pink that is absolutely compatible with the Super Saver Yarn.  Now I can do 2 squares of each of eight colors.  So mathematical!

I have more fun than you do, just sayin'.

https://www.yarnspirations.com/red-heart-i-love-pink-blanket/RHC0502-018295M.html

 

 

My Pink Shades:

Red Heart Super Saver

Baby Pink

Perfect Pink

Light Raspberry

Petal Pink

Shocking Pink

Pretty 'N Pink

Red Heart With Love 

Sweet Pink

 

Red Heart Super Saver Ombre 

Jazzy

Caron One Pounder

Soft Pink

Librariandoa's Cipher Sunday February 20, 2022

 

Librariandoa's Sunday Word Finds: The Woman In Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

 

Sunday Puzzles: A Mostly St. Patrick's Day Word Find

 Top of the Morning to you in advance of St. Patrick's Day.  I needed a week one of the puzzle rotation word find theme, and what better than St Pat's?

DOA's Answer Key for Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase Word Find

 

DOA's Answer Key for the Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose Word Find

 

DOA's Answer Key for the Valentine's Day Secret Code Puzzle

 

Thanks for trying out the secret code puzzle.  It's from a silly Valentine's poem:

Everything Reminds Me Of You

I look at a tree,
And what do I see?
My Valentine's face
Smiling back at me.

I spot a cute rock,
But, oh what a shock,
For it reminds of you
And that is no crock.

Everywhere that I turn,
My feelings just burn
With thoughts about you,
My love please don’t spurn!

Each rock and each tree,
Each cloud and each bee,
The earth and the sea,
It all reminds me...

I love you awesomely!

By Karl Fuchs

First Line Friday February 18, 2022

 

https://brightweavings.com/

What's Cooking February 17, 2022

Easter is late this year but that just gives you more time to shop for pretty pastel bunnies and eggs.  You also have time to learn to make chocolate covered Peanut Butter Eggs, like these:

https://butterwithasideofbread.com/peanut-butter-easter-eggs/

 

From Cookies and Cups : "The Best Beef Noodles".  I can see using leftover roast, but cooking one just for a noodle dish, I'm not so sure.  I do have some stew meat, which might work perfectly here as well.  The dish looks really good.

https://cookiesandcups.com/beef-and-noodles/

 

Here are some Beef Enchiladas from Two Peas and Their Pod for a week night meal.

https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/beef-enchiladas/

 

Here are Joy the Baker's Tips for a perfect Cream Cheese Frosting

https://joythebaker.com/2022/01/baking-101-5-tips-for-making-the-best-cream-cheese-frosting/

 

Thwarted when I wanted to make a Stouffer's Frozen Lasagna this week, (freezer case at the store cleaned out. No lasagna of any kind, any brand) I'm looking for a small lasagna to make from scratch myself next week.  Those 9x13 pan recipes are way more than we can eat.

So next week, I'll look for the ingredients for this lasagna made in a 9x5 pan.  I think I'd like a bit more sauce on it than the picture shows. Otherwise, it looks like just the thing.

https://www.chocolatemoosey.com/2021/02/04/lasagna-for-two/