Halloween Wall Hanging

 

Some weeks ago, I saw a pattern for a Halloween wall hanging called Cat-BOO-ccino. It was 24x30” with a cat, a bat, a teacup and saucer and a spider. I thought the idea was clever, but lacking in execution. The cat, bat and cup seemed out of proportion. I don’t drink cappuccino, but I feel the drink is all about the pattern in the foamy top – which doesn’t show in the quilt design. The spider and the cat’s eyes were round appliques (not my favorite). I did like the Dear Stella prints, some with tiny cat’s heads and others with a pattern reminiscent of Haunted Mansion wallpaper. So, I bought the fabric and designed my own 20x36” quilt with a moon mug, a larger cat and bat. I swapped the spider for a pumpkin, and I'll sew on button eyes after it's quilted. I’m happy with it, but it isn’t Cat-BOO-ccino anymore. What should I call this?

One Dozen Sheep Folds

 

When we met Joe, John was twenty-four and I was nineteen. Joe was seventy. We managed the apartment complex where he lived. We’d visit him monthly to collect the rent, and at random times when maintenance was required. The other apartments in the building all looked exactly alike. But the walls of Joe’s place were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. During one visit, Joe showed us a very real-looking human skull. It was a souvenir, he said, from when he’d played Hamlet in New York. Joe De Santis told us he was a retired actor, but we didn’t realize until after he’d passed that we’d actually seen a lot of his work. He’d appeared in some of our favorite TV shows and movies. If we’d known, we might have asked him what it was like to work with Dick Van Dyke, Humphrey Bogart, Lana Turner, or Lucille Ball. Would he have been pleased, or annoyed? I guess we’ll never know.

Rail Fence Block

 

Slow Cooker Tamale Pie

 

1/2 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Small can black beans, rinsed and drained

Small can Rotel tomatoes with chilis

10 ounces red enchilada sauce

1 green onion, sliced

1 package Jiffy Cornbread Mix (If you can’t find Jiffy, buy another brand and use 1/2)

2 eggs

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

 

Add browned ground beef and seasonings to slow cooker. Stir in beans, tomatoes, corn, enchilada sauce and onion. Cover and cook on low 6 to 8 hours. In a small bowl, stir together corn muffin mix and eggs; spoon over meat mixture. Cover and cook another hour, or until cornmeal is set. Sprinkle with cheese and serve hot. Makes 3 or 4 servings.

Twelve Evening Stars

 

The Ward Clerk

He kept the minutes, typed each note,

And put them in the file.

The membership he knew by rote;

He labored with a smile.

The ordinations, births and deaths

He faithfully recorded

For forty years, until at last

He went to be rewarded.

The people he had known so well

Turned out to shed a tear,

And pay respect to this good man,

Gone to another sphere.

But as the choir rose to sing,

They saw with consternation

The good man from his coffin step

To count the congregation!

 -Author Unknown

Hovering Hawks

 

“Today many feel lonely and isolated. We want to hear each other’s voices. We want authentic belonging and kindness. There are many reasons we may feel we do not fit in at church—that, speaking figuratively, we sit alone. We may worry about our accent, clothes, family situation. Perhaps we feel inadequate, smell of smoke, yearn for moral cleanliness, have broken up with someone and feel hurt and embarrassed, are concerned about this or that Church policy. We may be single, divorced, widowed. Our children are noisy; we don’t have children. We didn’t serve a mission or came home early. Mosiah 18:21 invites us to knit our hearts together in love. I invite us to worry less, judge less, be less demanding of others—and, when needed, be less hard on ourselves. We do not create Zion in a day. But each “hello,” each warm gesture, brings Zion closer.” – Elder Gerrit W. Gong

Fantasyland Ticket Booths

 

Last week I mentioned four 70-year-old ticket booths still standing in Disneyland’s Fantasyland. We found them all! The first – a medieval circus tent – is between Fantasyland Theater and It’s a Small World. It blends in with popcorn stands and gift shops, so you could look right at it and never notice. The second is a mushroom at the entrance of Alice in Wonderland. The lighthouse ticket booth is at the entrance to the Storybook Canal Boats. This ride was closed for maintenance during our visit, but luckily the lighthouse is outside the construction site fencing. The fourth – a cottage – is near the Dumbo Circus Train, which is also down for maintenance. I assume they’re replanting the succulent “quilt” and upgrading Storybookland miniatures. It was hard to get a shot, as the cottage is completely shrouded in fences and scaffolding. I’m taking that as a good sign. If Disney had decided to get rid of it, it would already be gone.

Nine Sheep Folds

 

When I was a kid, it was common for breakfast cereal to come packaged with a toy in the box (as if all that sugar wasn’t addictive enough). In 1963, Cap’n Crunch came with a piece of plastic that looked like a bosun’s whistle. It produced a 2600-hertz tone, coincidentally the same sound used by AT&T to control its phone network. It unlocked a loophole in the system, allowing people to hack into AT&T and illegally get free long-distance calls. These early experimenters, dubbed “phone phreaks,” laid the groundwork for what would later become modern hacking culture. Hackers built “blue boxes” that more precisely reproduced the tone. Even Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built and sold blue boxes during their college days. So, if you’ve ever watched the 1992 movie “Sneakers” and been puzzled by the character Whistler and his criminal background, now you know. If you didn’t know long-distance calls used to be very, very expensive, I can’t help you.