No cookies

I was going to write a post about rain, wind, and boredom and my internal fight not to bake cookies (which is what I would normally do on a gray and rainy day), but just as I was about to write the first sentence, the power went out.  That was at about 4:00 pm. Drat.

I had been slowly undoing all of my "hurricane" preparations during the day as time went by and nothing dire had happened.  I turned the refrigerator back to a normal temperature.  I let the water out of the bathtub.  I dumped the drinking water I had stored in pots and pans on the stove.  I put away the candles and matches. I plugged everything back in.

So I did what any normal person with no electricity and no backup lighting might do at 4:00 pm.  I took a nap.  The lights came back on at 7:00 pm and woke me up. I got up and started turning off lights...and thought I might go ahead and write.  I downloaded some photos off my camera, cropped and resized them.  I got through the first paragraph. The power went out again. Double drat. 

I have now moved to the laptop on battery.  I might be able to finish writing, even if all I have to see by is the glowing screen.  Whether I ever get this posted is another matter.  Back to boredom and rain.

Saturday was wash day.  Not because it usually is but because the dirty dishes and the laundry were piled high and if I was going to end up with no power and no water for days -- per all the warnings from the weather services -- I wanted a clean kitchen and clean clothes to wear.

That's when the fight not to bake cookies started.  A clean kitchen just begs for a cooking project.  I kept thinking, "you're going to be cooped up inside all day tomorrow; it will be stormy and gray. Wouldn't it be great to have tea and cookies?"  This internal dialog went on all afternoon and evening. I knew if I made a batch of cookies, I'd end up eating most of them.

I attempted to find a project to distract me.  Every knitting project I have right now is a problem.  The mittens are turning out too small, I lost the pattern for the socks, the sleeves on a yoked sweater are too tight.  Sitting around ripping out knitting wasn't going to be enough of a distraction.  In fact, that depressing activity might have driven me back to the kitchen and the butter, sugar, and flour.

I had a whole pile of jewelry projects.  Not interested.

So I played with paper, stamps and colored pencils.  And made tomato basil soup instead of cookies.

Here's the paper:

And here's the soup:

No cookies.  But I'm thinking that the bag with the tag will be a great container for cookies at Christmas time.