Knitting the Blues

Random List Friday

Random list and it may be a short one because

• I'm having trouble coming up with the first item on the random thought list.
• Not a single thought.
• If I was meditating this would be what I was striving for.
• Except for all that talk of non-striving, which means I'd be succeeding and failing at the same time.
• But I'm actually trying to have a thought and getting nowhere.
• I know, I'll try meditating, that's when I have my best thoughts.
• Heh, anyway.....
• My Holiday Music listening season will begin this week.
• Thanksgiving is on the late side this year, so why should I miss those days?
• I shouldn't.
• Regarding my post of Wednesday the 11th, I may have been less than clear about my hoarding of packing materials.
• Full disclosure:  I also save any of those nifty shopping bags made of paper and with handles.
• I use them as gift bags.
• I'm not kidding.
• A little tissue paper (sometimes saved from a gift or a package) and WaLa!
• It's the gift and the thought that counts.
• (Unless you are meditating.)
• Mostly the gift though, right?
• (That's a joke!)
• And my thought is that I just saved a part of a tree or something.
• And a few bucks.
• The other misconception that some people may have had, thanks to me not being entirely clear is that I hoard to KEEP or HAVE.
• I would say that I SAVE to USE.
• I never know when I am going to list a bunch of stuff I'm so over to ebay or on a ravelry list and then I have plenty on hand to pack and protect.
• I do agree, I may have saved more than I might use anytime soon, but then again, I've been packing some of my own stuff up and it is coming in handy.
• I have loads of stuff in a pile that will likely make a yard sale.
• I could try to put some of it on ebay, but my enthusiasm level is sitting at Goodwill drop off.
• Or lower.
• Like at 'leave that pile in the corner until I absolutely cannot stand it anymore' kind of enthusiasm.

Thirty-two. Two packages arrived in the mail today. They were filled with perfect bubble wrap and that foam wrap stuff and the boxes are perfect! Stashing away.

Random Friday?

In former episodes of frequent posting I often found it helped if I had a plan for most days to focus my mind and get something on the page. Screen. Whatever. (For some reason that sentence came out in my brain in a sing-songy, poetry way. Like a famous Broadway actor is on a stage and it is the lead in to a song about the challenges and fun of blogging with a little advice thrown in and finishing up with a chorus that inspires all to continue on! Whatever the job! And then fall in love, have a silly miscommunication, sing love songs, then songs about how you really hate the one you love, then get thrown together in a whacky scheme to save a friend, realize you are meant for each other and end the show with a passionate kiss. Wait. That's the story line to Thoroughly Modern Millie....) Anyway, Friday has been in the past and will be for now, Random list day. This day could also occur on Wednesday, because I've done it then as well. You just never know.

• Now, because I typed 'passionate kiss' I have the song Passionate Kisses by Mary Chapin Carpenter in my head.
  
   
• And then I typed Thoroughly Modern Millie and 'we're so thoroughly MOOODDDERRN! MIILLIIEE! NOW!!!!' takes over.
  
   
• It doesn't take much.
• Unless I want something in my head, and then I can never dig it up from the dark recesses or get it in there any other way.
• I thought about doing a TBT post this week.
• I thought about it on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
• I had two ideas for it so this morning I woke up and decided, yay! TBT day!
• And then I remembered that I didn't think about it on THURSDAY! and posted something entirely unrelated.
• I guess I have something for next Thursday.
• I'm kind of a sports fan as in I have two teams that I watch, I will watch the games of other teams in those sports if the outcome impacts my teams or if there is some kind of rivalry or high drama.
• I will also watch sports because I like the thrill of victory, yada, yada.
• So any sport is open game for me depending on the weather and how much knitting has to get done and all that. Tennis, horse racing, maybe not NASCAR, gymnastics, figure skating, maybe not Soccer, any Olympic sport, including Curling, but maybe not bowling.
• I am a Patriots fan and have watched football with a lot of interest ever since I pretended to like it for Pete. Hey! I could sit and knit for three straight hours and Pete, who is not reachable during a game, just try to get him to notice there are words coming out of your mouth, would think we were doing something together.
• And now I know most of the rules better than he does, though he is better with player names.
• I haven't ever thought about watching college football and am always surprised that so many grown up old people invest their time and emotion in it.
• Until a few weeks ago when my daughter and her boyfriend were here and we watched the Penn State/Ohio State match up. (Darren is an alumni, but Gillian knew more about the players than he did).
• ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! It is absolute CHAOS during college games. A billion people on the sidelines all yelling and going mental, young men who are really still pubescent on the field and their emotions and decision making is reliable. Right. A stadium filled with nearly constant marching band music and crazy people all in the same color singing songs and chanting.
• I couldn't even hear the commentators, why do they bother having them?
• And with young kids playing, who are skilled and yet still wild cards and risk takers, each and every one, anything can happen!
• ANYTHING can go wrong or right at any second.
• It's better than the 'any given Sunday' philosophy of professional football.
• Seriously, any crazy thing can happen!
• The NFL looks so staid and orderly by comparison.
• I'm not saying I will become a fan, but I might watch a game this weekend. It was kinda fun.
• And Maroon 5 opens Saturday Night Football.
• Ummm. Yum.
• This is where I was going to add to this list, but before I finished it Pete coereced encouraged me to meet friends for dinner.
• Every once in a while you have to make the extrovert happy, right?
• I'm two martinis deep and the typing, it is difficult.
• Never mind looking for a photo to go with this post.....

Twenty-five. Drinks that are seasonaly themed with names like Witches' Brew and taste like Jolly Ranchers, but not so sweet and not so much like there is any alcohol in them at all should be banned from my consumption. But it was BLUE! and it had BLUE sugar on the rim which turned my lips BLUE! How fun is that?!

Not Ten on Not TuesdayThe Red Day

How the minutes get away from us! I had intended on writing a Not Ten on Tuesday post way back on Tuesday and while I didn't think I would come up with 10 things in the way I wanted it to look in my mind (you know, no pictures), I was surprised how quickly I came up with ten things that are red that I like. They aren't in any way original, but here are a few things I might have listed if I'd had the photos to go with the ideas.

• Gillian's hair. Not ten seconds after she slipped into this world all gangly, pale, and nearly bald, my cousin (my labor coach and a red head) squeeled, "She's got red haya!" You have to know her and our area. It's a part of New England where the letter r is used sparingly. I'll never forget hearing it.

Here she is, with me back when I was a blonde.
Oh look, there is a photo.

•  After I thought of my red things I went and read some of the other lists and found that we all like the same red things. Mostly. I know that once this post is read everyone will wish they had put Gillian's hair on their lists, but ha, ha! I get to and you don't!
• I though about how much I love cardinals especially in the snow and that was on a few lists and I didn't have a photo so I wasn't going to add it until my friend Mary Lu posted this photo on facebook. So I stole it.

 

• And then there is the post I've been writing in my head every time I look at my Amaryllis. I love those flowers, they bring a gush of color to my kitchen every year and I usually have several going, all at different phases of growth. I've had years when my plants had so many multiple blooms that the weight of them was hard to combat. All the staking and tying up in the world was barely enough and they were amazing to behold! I had one year that I tried to re-bloom the previous year's bulbs. That was not a success. Seriously, the plants are not so expensive that I needed to do that, I just thought I'd try it. My mom could have done it. She can grow anything just by thinking in its direction. Plants respond to her. Any plants that thrive around me usually do so despite any of my efforts, but I currently have a few green plants holding their own and I have more wins than losses with winter bulbs.  And now there is this year.

I started this plant on Thanksgiving weekend and it only bloomed this week. It is nearly the slowest growing Amaryllis I've ever had. Nearly. This stalk has three great blooms and there is another promising stalk working its way up, but they were all a long time coming. I can't figure what the difference is this year except that to me the house seems colder this year. Could be it. I did say nearly, though, didn't I?

I started these two on Christmas Eve. I'd about given up on them, but when I went to chuck them in the rubbish they suddenly....well, maybe not so suddenly were showing signs of life. Maybe it was me that suddenly noticed, sort of like watching grass grow, but slower. Or seeing that your kid has bigger feet. You weren't looking and WHAM! there she is crying and crying and you can't figure out why, because she is the one that never cries and maybe you should take her to the doctor, but she doesn't have a fever and yet, that is what you do when she cries because if she cries then she is definitely sick. Then you take her shoes off and she gets up and toddles away contentedly and you feel like the worst mother EVER! and it turns out that you aren't yet. In fact, you will do a bunch of other stupid things to seal the title, you're just a step on the way. It could be I'm better with the Amaryllis, but that kid? I bought her many pairs of new shoes and now she is the one growing a human and she'll do stupid things and think she is the worst mother in the world. Anyway, slow going it is, but it is going so I'm giving these bulbs a little more time. I've moved them closer to the heat and hopefully that super charges them.

• There are also the red roses I got for Valentine's Day, but in the business of this day I didn't get a photo, maybe tomorrow. During the blizzard.
• Hope you all had someone to love today. It's easy to forget all the people that really do love you and that you love. Well not forget, but take for granted in a little way. While I'm aware of that every day and make an effort to be appreciative of all of them, it is nice to have a day devoted to just saying, "I love you. Be mine!" Consider that from me to you.

Ten. I just reminded myself that maybe a purchase from Amaryllis.com is in order. Not enough blooming things around here! Except when Meg shows up. She is really BLOOMING!

Begin As You Mean To Go On

A little mantra for every January One. Some years I am way more successful than others, but like January One says, it's intention that counts, right?

Things I managed to get in:

• Ate a wonderful breakfast. It was healthy and delicious. I'm actually pretty good at this one, should be easy.
• I cooked and shared that breakfast with my favorite people on earth. We are on the cusp (like one or two days away) from being empty nesters for real so having all of my grown up girls in one place brings joy to my heart.
• Put my sneakers on and hit the road for almost 4 miles. I love working out in the cold and today was BRRRRR!!! There was a short burst of a run, I'm not gonna lie about that, but my ankle held up so maybe I'll try it again next time.
• I took a nice long stretch and used my foam roller and my massage roller. For some reason (probably years of stretching on the fly and lactic acid build up) my muscles are very sore to the touch and loaded with trigger points. I've been using the rollers and counting my stretches out and after a week I'm seeing some improvement.
• Knitting, I do a lot of that so that isn't a challenge, but today I might have been knitting for an addition to our family.
  No, not me, we will still be empty nesters, but one of my daughters is growing a human as we speak! We are excited about being grandparents!
• Spinning. Well. I thought about it and there is some alpaca (Diego's fleece blended with silk) and a drop spindle on my coffee table. We'll see where that goes. I might even set up my wheel hoping that looking at it will inspire me.
• Blogging. I'm doing it! Which leads to.....
• Take more photos (thought about it). I've really fallen off partly because we made the mistake of giving Erin a Canon camera last year. I have a Canon. I used to have lenses....... Now she is heading to photography school (she's been a working photographer for some time now and turns out she had some talent there) and I am bargaining for at least one lens to stay with me. I did get a lens for Christmas, now to replace that battery.....
• This. Somebody deserves it.
• Meditated. Gotta bump that up to a daily pracitce as opposed to every once in a while.
• Say something to make someone's day every day. Nobody in particular, just anybody.
• Making lists for a BUNCH of things I just didn't get to today which I'll share over time (if I can keep up with the blogging.
• And now I am going to dig one of these out and leave it in a conspicuous place so that I can actually finish them, or at least make decent progress, by next Christmas. There are a lot more where these came from (a large bin in my craft room AND a large container in my basement uh-oh).

 

One. This is not a list of resolutions. Nor is it a complete list of things I hope to get done this year. Just a list to focus my scattered brain on the possibilities.

Ten On Tuesday

I'm not a regular participant of most weekly things because 1. I am not a reliable blogger and 2. I can't always figure out how to contribute.

Ten Things On My Mind?! I can wrap my mind around that one, can't I? So here goes! Ten things on MY mind.

1. I need to write my blog post, a good thing for 10 things on my mind! First, I need a cup of tea, what tea shall I brew.......? (off to brew a pot of tea)
2. Okay, blog. Hmmm, maybe I should take or find a picture for this post. I wonder if I can get the photos off of my broken camera? (off to find camera)
3. Okay, blog. (spots knitting on table) NaKniSweMo! (picks up knitting and knits a few rows)
4. Okay, blog. (puts knitting down, eyeing it suspiciously) Is alternating skeins of this hand dyed yarn looking stripey? (spends a long time examining it in different light, photographing it and playing with the contrast to see how that makes it look) Can't decide, I should knit a few more rows.
5. Okay, blog! (sipping tea) Ugh, my tea is cold. I've been meaning to get one of those warmers for my little cast iron teapot. (falls down rabbit hole googles it) OH NO! I forgot to answer a message from a friend asking about tea kettles! (another fall down google it) Bottom line, I love my Zojirushi. (scuttles off to dispense water from it onto her tea leaves)
6. Okay, blog! WAIT! Did I find a tea pot warmer.....? Why would a teapot warmer have wine/water goblets on it? (ponders while sipping cool tea)(again)
7. Okay, BLOG! (hears chime) You've got Mail!
8. Okay, BLOG! Ooops, all that green tea makes you p*e! (runs to powder room, sees laundry to do, folds a load, collects more laundry, takes a shower-I mean, I'm up here collecting the laundry, right?-)
9. Okay, BLOG! (spies newly acquired stash within fondling reach) Oooh, I just love this yarn I got from Jen at Spirit Trail! And this yarn I got from Briar Rose! And this Portland Tweed! Or maybe I'll knit some stash yarn! (down another rabbit hole heads to ravelry to look for something to knit)
10. BLOG! The election is on my mind, I'd better go vote.....

Random Photo of a project I've yet to share.

Thanks, Carole! That was a great blog prompt! I just proved that I have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! on my mind. OR I have EVERYTHING on my mind, can't decide which.

2012. Fifteen. #ADDledmind #nowonderInevergetanythingdone #needtofocus #scatterbrain 

 

A Random Wednesday With More Than It's Fair Share of MusicDay Thirty-seven

Some random thoughts that came to me over the day. Or days. Or this minute. Some with explanation, some not.

Actually, there may only be a thought or two.

• Nineteen is old enough to know better.
• Are people driving like crazed monsters lately?
• I'm not even a slow driver, but if one more person tried to get intimate with my back side with his or her car I may have to take drastic action.
• Then there are the people who cross the street in the dark, while it is raining, without looking, in heavy traffic.
• Sorry, if you get hit I will feel badly for you, but still think you might have gotten what you deserved.
• And this was in the middle of a block that actually had a street light about 50 yards away.
• I didn't see this guy until I was right on top of him.
• No, I didn't hit him.
• It did cross my mind.
• I just occurred to me that this post might be used against me if I accidentally do hit someone.
• I promise, it will be an accident.
• I hope, anyway.
• And you know what really bugs me?
• People in big cars, SUVs, trucks.
• Say you are in a sedan and you are taking a right hand turn onto a road. You pull up to the intersection and have to wait, but in the meantime a big, honking vehicle pulls on your left intending to go straight across or make a left turn. Well. Now you can't see a single thing, and they aren't going anywhere because there is plenty of traffic in the far lane preventing them from turning, but you aren't going anywhere either because even though no traffic seems to be going in the right hand direction, you can't see and won't dare pull out.
• I used to have van and I tried to be aware of that and let the person making that right see and then pull up.
• Driving is stressful.
• I rarely check my blog stats.
• I did earlier this week and saw that I had more hits than usual and found that Margene had linked to me in her post.
• I checked again today and someone must have linked to me again yesterday because I had a BUNCH more hits and I was too late to check my browsing history to find out who it was.
• Was it you?
• I get really irritated when I see an ad for some gorgeously dyed fiber or yarn or ravelry and race to click over to etsy.com or wherever that click takes me only to find out that there is nothing there to buy.
• Then I get really happy that there was nothing there for me to buy.
• Whew!
• Mostly I am irritated, though.
• Back to those hits to my blog.
• No comments.
• Just wondering......
• That's okay, I hardly ever comment on a blog anymore.
• Not that I don't have plenty to say, but if you could see how I type.
• How POORLY I type.
• You might wonder why I write a blog where I have to type.
• I wonder, too.
• I love Mark O'Connor.
• The other day as I was removing music from my iPod to make room for Christmas music I felt sad to temporarily delete his and wondered why he didn't have a Christmas album.
• I've seen him in a small venue acoustic concert and he was fabulous.
• I have this album.
• And this one.
• They are both available to listen to on Spotify.
• This one is not.
• I KNOW IT!!!
• I just discovered it tonight and
• I don't have it.
• Yet.
• It might just make a great birthday present to myself.
• Here is a sample for your enjoyment.
• I love Alison Krauss, too.
• And I love when a new Christmas album mixes traditional Christmas music with not-so-traditional songs.

James Taylor!!!

Here is a Christmasy song from the album with Jane Monheit.

2011. Sixty. $2.41. I have a lot of thoughts. And there are a lot of numbers in my posts. AND! I start sentences with the word and. AND! I know that is a no-no, but I'll be I keep doing it. AND, I probably should have saved some of the music sharing for different days, but I'll bet I can find plenty more.

WeekendingDay Twenty-one

What to say today.

• This is an unusual weekend for me.
• Usual: Homebody, maybe heading out for take-out.
• Unusual: Party on Friday and dinner with friends (OUT at a restaurant) on Saturday.
• The food and drink caught up with me.
• Home all day on Sunday.
• Some of you may know that some food sensitivities or allergies have either caught up with me or developed out of nowhere over the last three years or so.
• Stick to the foods that are okay and I feel pretty good.
• Cheating can be okay if I only cheat infrequently.
• I have a problem with that.
• One cheat leads down a road that can last several weeks and leaves me feeling lousy.
• Once I start, though, I cannot seem to stop myself.
• This weekend is the culmination of a binge and it is now time to get my act together.
• Anyway, that subject bores me.
• Other than that, the weekend was so much fun!
• And the food and drink tasted so good.
• The rest of my weekend can be summed up as, well, OBSESSIVE personality disorder.
• Not quite Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but Obsessive for sure.
• I just diagnosed myself.
• See, I'm about to make a quilt and long story short, wanted a particular fabric that I have 1/2 yard of and need more.
• Five quilt shops: no luck,
• Internet search: no luck,
• Ebay: no.luck.
• The search started on Wednesday, but I had no information, only the description of the fabric.
• YOU do a search for "batik blue green" and see how far you get.
• I would have driven the two hours up to Center Harbor yesterday to take a look there, but....see above: The food and drink caught up with me.
• So I thought I'd go today.
• It's one of those things where you've been told by everybody that you can't get that fabric anymore, but if you don't go look it will always eat at the back of your mind.
• Well, it will eat at mine anyway.
• Plus, if I am told I can't get it, I take that as a challenge, not a hint to make another plan.
• As the morning wore on (and I was knitting and thinking about leaving) I decided to try ebay again.
• Guess what!?
• I found a fat quarter bundle with the fabric in it!
• You know what that means!
• I have a fabric company name!
• I head to their website and by a fluke of link clicking I get a stock number for the exact fabric I'm looking for!
• A quick internet search with the correct information: Hoffman 885 504 Montego gets me all the results I need.
• Phew! You have no idea how focused I was on this one thing for the last five days!
• Or maybe you do.

2011. Forty-two. $3.55. This post would be so much better if it included a photo of the fabrics that are going into my quilt, wouldn't it? You'll have to settle for this:

Ooops! I Almost Forgot!Day Eleven

I guess this blogging every day thing hasn't really taken hold and now it is late and I have to get up really early and I haven't a clue what to say.

• It's 11/11/11.
• Well, I guess by the time some of you read this it won't be anymore.
• It's kinda cool, but really it was just something for the newscasters to make a big deal out of.
• And new agers to add to their meditations about visualizing themselves doing or being something they really want and imagining themselves walking through three doors of opportunity.
• Ridiculous.
• Yes, I did it.
• Five times, because I did it at 11:11.
• Laugh at will, I am.
• In a few minutes it will be 11:11 on 11/11/11 again.
• I didn't cast on for my sweater yet.
• I was asked in the comments if I had given up yet.
• Ahahahaha!
• No.
• I believe I can do it and will until there is only a week or so left.
• Nevermind I am working two jobs and trying to keep up with a moderate workout schedule.
• Yes, I am running.
• Again.
• Couch to 5k.
• C25K
• I just finished week one.
• Again.
• Third time.
• Last time I got to week three and felt pretty good, so I'm hopeful
• Only eleven minutes to go.
• I don't think I'll do the visualization thing this time.
• Ridiculous really.
• After some random thoughts, a random photo:
• Some know my casual attraction to the color blue.
• Some know that I have a passing fancy for tea.
• Still others might have learned that I have a thing for those cold cups with straws to drink my iced tea or water out of.
• A couple of friends saw some things and thought of me and got me little presents.
• All that blue, all that tea, all that cup, all that knitting bag (JUST LOOK AT THAT FABRIC!).
• AAANNNDDD! I missed 11:11. BUMMER!

2011. Thirty-two. $4.82. Live Blue, people. Live Blue!



It's Friday, Friday, Friday....Day Four

Random photo, random thoughts:

• This photo was taken late summer when there were still some flowers and bees.
• I used a longer lens on my SLR, but not a super long lens.
• Yep, that is how I identify camera lenses.
• Don't even get me started on shutter speed or iso or exposure.
• Lack of knowledge has never stopped me from doing stuff.
• I occasionally take decent photos anyway, just dumb luck.
• On that day I got a bunch of them, but I'm going to spread them out a little.
• A month is a long time.
• Watching House Hunters with my husband is enough to make me crazy.
• With every home shown and price mentioned he has to repeat the cost of the home in tones of  shocked outrage.
• I mean, we all know that it is cheaper to live practically anywhere else in the world than New England.
• And he is ready to do just that.
• I, on the other hand, like it here just fine. Thank you,very much.
• I just had a random thought, but I forgot it as I was about to type it.
• Sadly, this happens about every other thought.
• There. It just happened again.
• I have a date next week with my middle daughter. Lunch and fabric shopping.
• She wants to make a quilt for her boyfriend.
• I warned her that some people (I among them) believe that knitting or sewing or any other thing for a boyfriend is to be avoided before there is a ring on the finger.
• She laughed.
• Then she thought.
• "But I already told him that I was going to surprise him with something I made!" she argued.
• Then she thought some more.
• Like over days.
• I really didn't want to discourage her from making a quilt.
• I've been about dying to have one of my kids show an interest in something, anything that I do.
• I also didn't want her to jinx her relationship with someone who might take her off my hands a guy she really likes.
• Well, thinking won out.
• She told the bf about the quilt/ring situation and is now making a quilt for herself and their future apartment, but in Ben colors.
• I have personal experience with the never knit for the boyfriend rule.
• My first real boyfriend, I decided to make him a sweater for Christmas.
• He was away at school at the time and when I mentioned it to his mother, a woman who didn't waste any of her love on me (God rest her soul), laughed at me.
• Something about sleeves being different lengths.
• GRRRR....
• Anyway, I knit the sweater, a nice Bernat pattern (ravelry link) from one of their Irish knits pattern books.
• It just ocurred to me that this post would be way better with a photo of said sweater on said boyfriend.
• It was a great fitting sweater (take THAT! mom of bf)
• But random posts written by me are pretty stream of consciousness and this one came in this direction with no prior plan.
• I have two choices:
• First, follow my nature and start digging around, looking for photos, obsess over finding that one picture I have of former bf in the jinx sweater, wasting hours of my life, driving myself crazy, knowing that in a perfect post that picture would appear right here or
• Get over it and finish this post and go to bed.
• Back to the Irish Sweater story, photoless.
• (I'm getting all itchy and anxious......)
• Anyway, it is no surprise that of course that relationship ended, I was dumped.
• Yes, I'm over it.
• I was over it in about two days.
• Must not have been true love after all.
• Then again, I'm usually over relationships in about two days.
• I'm not sure what that says about me, but I don't want to explore that right now.
• Or ever.
• BACK TO THE SWEATER:
• The break up isn't the end of the sweater break-up story.
• I got a call sometime later from the ex-boyfriend asking me how to clean the sweater, he had spilled beer on it at a frat party and it was stained.
• Seriously!?
• My best suggestion: Soak it in beer and dye it all the same color.
• Mmmm, yum.
• Anyway, this guy isn't as bad as all that, we were all very young.
• We're even facebook friends now.
• And I married the perfect guy for a selfish knitter.
• He doesn't even wear sweaters, so all that knitting time can be spent on sweaters for me.
• Loves hand-knit socks though.
• And he gets a pair every year for his birthday.
• OH, DAMN!
• That just reminded me that I never got a photo of the last pair I knit for him and wouldn't this be the perfect place to put one and maybe I should get the camera out and get him to put the socks on and take a picture, with far less than perfect lighting so I can obsess over the photo-editing all of which would easily take me a good hour.........
• Well now I think this post stinks.

2011. Twenty-five. $6.43. The perfectionist in me is chatting away in my head and making me anxious about all of those photos that would make this post so much better. I think I need a drink to shut.her.UP! Maybe two.

 

I've Been Known To Say That I Like Kids,My Own.

A restaurant in Pennsylvania has banned children under the age of six.  Hoorah! 

Now, I am really the first to defend a parent's right to take their kidlet out to eat.  It happens on vacations and on rough nights when dinner can't be made or for all kinds of occasions.  I did it myself, plenty of times.  Somehow though, some parents just don't.get.it.  There should be rules or something.  The only thing is, some parents refuse to know or read their children.  Over-tired and over-hungry children cannot self-regulate.  Heck, I know some adults who can't self-regulate in the same physical distress, at times I am one of them.  Those are good kids, too.  If you want to dine out with your kid you should plan it for when they aren't tired and aren't too hungry.  Don't depend on the establishment you are visiting to entertain your kid, bring quiet activities for them.  Choose your destination wisely.  I love kids, but if I am spending anything over $14.95 for my entree then I don't want your kid kicking the back of my seat or to be honest, to have dad pacing and bouncing to keep the baby quiet.  It is really up to the parent to be the adaptable, resilient member of the party.  Have a back up plan.  When it looks like your child is not going to make it, and I mean at the first sign of it, pack your food up and eat it at home.  Over stimulated, tired and hungry kids are not easy to negotiate with and it is a little stressful for them to be out of their home environment at any time.

Now, I am guilty of having taken my young children out to eat.  Many times.  It must have been rarely to "nicer" places, but we did go out.  My children left an impression of being well behaved and polite little girls most of the time.  That isn't because they actually were that all of the time, I just knew when it was a good time to go out and when it would be disastrous.  If things started to go wrong there was one warning, they had one chance to shape up or we would leave.  On the rare occasions I had to threaten, I followed through.  It was less about giving into their bratty nature and more about knowing that an over-tired or hungry child is not to be tolerated out, and they will not be able to bring themselves back from a point of no return, even a silly one, and other patrons shouldn't have to have their night out ruined by my loud kid. 

There are some places suited to kids, even sit down places, like chain restaurants that encourage families, but if it is late and your kid is tired, well.  Just order take-out.

Don't mistake me, I have so much compassion for that tired mom who, having just picked up her toddler from daycare and needs something for a quick supper is in the market with said toddler over-tired and cranky as well.  I never think badly of her, it is a hard life and sometimes stuff just has to get done.  It just comes down to knowing yourself and your child and knowing that just because you enjoy your child at all times, not everybody else does.  Heh, especially when you've hired a babysitter for a nice evening out with your husband without having to listen to kid noises.  Ugh!  I'd hate that!

I have to admit, now that my kids are grown I have less tolerance for kids around me and I think a lot of kids are not controlled will at.all.  I would definitely spend my money at a place that caters to adults.

2011.  Twenty. $8.44. I have another theory about all of this, but it would likely piss some people off so for now I'll keep it to myself.  There you go, treated to Terry's views of life and parenting.  I've got pleny of them!  I just usually don't speak out.  Norma must be rubbing off on me........ 

 

I'm A Little Bit Random........

In bullet format.

• Throughout the day I had bunches of random thoughts that I looked forward to sharing with the masses (hahahaha).
• Can't think of one of them.
• I should keep a little notebook, because I suffer from CRS.
• (Can't Remember Shit Stuff)
• Then I think that I do keep a little notebook, two actually, in my bag at all times.
• I am addicted to little notebooks.
• Especially blue ones.  Duh.
• CRSTUN
• Can't Remember Shit To Use Notebook.
• Watching American Idol.
• This is maybe the third season I've watched ever.
• There is a kid, Stefano Lengano (?) on singing Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer.
• I can only ever think of Tony Danza when I hear that song.
• It is somehow fitting that this kid is a cross between Joey from Friends and Tony Danza.
• I can't take it seriously, somebody should have coached him to sing a different song.
• I still can't remember any of my random thoughts.
• A lot goes on in my head through the day, it can be an interesting place to be.
• Lucky for me there isn't a test at the end of the day.
• And I still recognize my family.
• For today anyway.
• I may have mentioned Angry Birds Rio in a previous post.
• I've not been one for games, aside from Solitaire, on my phone.
• Now I'm googling cheats and hints for getting golden pineapples and golden bananas.
• There used to be a live entertainment establishment for adults only called the Golden Banana somewhere near here.
• There is a rumor that my soon-to-be husband was removed somewhat forceably from said establishment at a party mourning the end of his bachelor life.
• That doesn't sound like a time of mourning.
• Unless he really wanted to stay.
• To this day I don't believe a word of it.
• Or maybe I believe every single word of it.
• I'm not stupid, you know.
• And it turns out I'm not one of those wives-to-be who gave a shit care.
• I guess that means I'm a sufferer of the other malady, CRSS.
• Can Remember Some Shit Stuff.
• That story is some shit stuff I apparently do remember.
• I still can't remember a single thing I thought of today.
• Maybe if I tie a string around my finger I'll remember to take notes in one of my little notebooks.
• More likely I'll come down with a serious case of CRWIHASTAMFS.
• Can't Remember Why I Have A String Tied Around My Finger Shit Stuff.

2011.  Seven.  $45.00.  Duran-Duran is on Jimmy Kimmel.  They look almost exactly the same.  Lucky.  They sound almost exactly the same.  I can't decide if that is good....  UWPMB.  Figure that one out.

Random Wednesday

One more way to simplify, or keep from complicating your life?  Don't commit to things like blogging every day.  ;) (Remember when I threatened that the emoticon might be the post?  I only made it two.DAYS!)

I thought I'd do a little random and I'm thinking that I'm too tired to even think of random.  So I searched the internet for some random facts.

• Most dreams last only 5 to 20 minutes.  Reeeallly.  That long?  Has anyone else had that experience where you fall asleep for like, a minute.  Or a couple of minutes, but the dream you have covers days of running around in your underwear in what you think is your house, not because it looks anything like your house, but it just feels like your house and then it suddenly turns into what sort of looks like the place you went to college, but isn't exactly like it and you can't find the building that the final is being given to a class that you have skipped all semester because you forgot to drop it and........
• Yeah.  That's a little how my good dreams roll.
• If I remember another dream, a worse one, I'll share.
• Maybe.
• Statistically you are more likely to attacked by a cow than a shark. 
• Hmmmm....
• So, remember that summer you were afraid to go back in the water? 
• Could have been a whole summer that you were afraid to go back to the dairy farm.
• The film UDDERS! would have brought shudders!
• "You're gonna need a bigger tractor."
• Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
• I'll let that one go.
• If you plug your nose you can't hum.
• Tried it, didn't you?
• Heh.
• Children laugh about 400 times a day, while adults laugh only 15 times.
• Health benefit of laughter 1:  It relaxes the whole body, relieves stress and leaves muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes.
• Health benefit of laughter 2: Laughter decreases stress hormones, increases disease fighting antibodies and boosts the immune system.
• Health benefit of laughter 3:  Releases endorphins, the feel good chemical that produces a sense of well-being.
• Health benefit of laughter 4:  I don't know, some mumbo-jumbo concerning relaxing arteries and improving blood flow so it protects your heart. 
• Laughter also helps emotional health, bringing a positive attitude and dispersing negative feelings and emotions. 
• There are even laughter yoga classes. 
• Even just forcing yourself to laugh until you are really laughing is emotionally and physically good for you.
• When we were kids, my sister and I used to fake laugh when we were doing chores.  It was actually pretty hysterically fun.
• That was too many words ending in y. 
• Try it.  Let's fake it 'til we make it!  AHAHAHAHAAAAHHHHAHAHHHAHAAAA!
• I wish this would happen to me when I was on the T (watch through to the end! Yes, that is an order):
  

2010. Seventy. NaBloPoMo. 3/3. Just under the wire, so while this is technically a Random Wednesday post most will be reading it on some day after Wednesday. Whatever.  Oh, and read more about laughter and why you should bring humor into your daily life here.  And pass it on!

Ten On TuesdayThe I've Got Ten of Nothing Edition

I really don't have a list of ten things to post today and don't have the time to think of one.  Carole has again come up with a great list, but I don't have an iPhone and can't contribute except to say that I have downloaded the beta version of Opera Mini 5 to my phone and it is so much faster than the browser that came installed on my Droid Eris.  Instead, I decided that at those moments that my hands need a little break from the frantic knitting that I'm currently involved in, I would post something and maybe that will happen ten times and that will be my Ten on Tuesday for today.  Or maybe it will be one.  If it is only one, then here it is, good luck following my ramblings.

Number One.  Degrees of separation.

I recently read (read:  listened to the audiobook, natch) Girl With A Pearl Earring, a fictional account surrounding the people and events that lead to the painting by Vermeer.  I am not, by any stretch, an art historian (although I loved the art history course I took in college) so I haven't the faintest idea how much of it was taken from verifiable historical accounts and how much is fiction, but my sense is that most if it is just a wonderful story.  In the novel, Vermeer is associated with Antonie Von Leeuwenhoek, known as the Father of Microbiology for his work improving the microscope.  I can say that I don't remember much of him from science class, but his Wikipedia page is very interesting (and adds a degree to this story in a minute). 

Anyway, skip to the book I am listening to now, Art In America by Ron McLarty.  I won't go into the story, but I am sitting here knitting away and listening and the main character relates to a friend that he wrote a novel about Von Leeuwenhoek.  I mean, really!  What are the chances that Von Leeuwenhoek would be mentioned in two out of the four books I have read over the last week?  But it gets even weirder. 

Art In America is written and narrated by Ron McLarty (I know, I am repeating myself), who I first encountered when I listened to A Walk In the Woods by Bill Bryson (a great book, I must say).  I enjoyed his voice and reading so much that I looked for other books that he had recorded and came upon The Memory of Running, the first book I listened to that he had written and narrated.  So I have read that and another novel of his and now I am listening to this one.

Yes, this does get someplace.  Not necessarily anyplace meaningful, but when you are knitting like a mad woman and these little things happen they make more of an impact on you than they would if you were out in the world with other people to keep you on the sane side, OKAY!?

So, back to Von Leeuwenhoek.  I hear about him and the connection to the microscope, vaguely remember that I had heard that name recently, take a minute or two for the correct neurons to fire in my memory so that where I had heard the name could come clear to me and decide to increase the random information in my brain by looking him up and reading a bit on Wikipedia and what do I find there?  This:  "In A Short History of Nearly Everything (p. 236) Bill Bryson alludes to rumors that Vermeer's mastery of light and perspective came from use of a camera obscura produced by Van Leeuwenhoek."

Do you see the degrees of separation making one big circle in my little world?  Here is the chronology:

• I listen to A Walk in the Woods, by Bryson, narrated by McLarty
• I seek out more McLarty and read him.
• Some time later I read Girl With a Pearl Earring and hear of Von Leeuwenhoek (Man!  I hate typing that name!)
• Then I am back to McLarty with Art In America, again with the Von Blahblahblah.  Within one week!
• I check out Wikipedia and Bryson is connected to Von Whoosie-Whatsie, well, only in my mind because he mentions him in his book.
• In my mania of solitude and crazy I make more of this than should be made and having nobody home to share it with am forcing it on the few people that visit this little blog.

2010.  Fifty-two.  And she returns to her decent into insanity.

Random WednesdayThe Word Cloud EditionStolen from Carole

 

 

Random words taken randomly from random posts in this blog.  How on earth do they do this?  I mean really.  Permalink?  Comments?  How about didn?  Seriously, didn.  I'm pretty sure I edit better than that.  Or maybe I didn.  Who knows?  I have to admit, most of the words are good ones.  Yarn, tea, summer, sun, ocean, home, knitting, blue.  Random.  Pete.  Good thing it randomly got the name of my husband and not my, oh.  I probably haven (OH!  I saw haven and wondered what that was.  Another one of my typos apparently), so I probably haven mentioned anyone but my husband.  Except maybe in code.  Good thing i didn say anything because we all know I really haven got anything to hide.

2010. Forty-eight.  I think my cloud looks kind of pretty, randomness of it and all.  And right now I am having an anxiety attack brought on by sugar.  I ate cookies with sugar in them.  Real sugar, but no wheat.  I suppose if I hadn eaten half the container after most of a chocolate bar I wouldn be feeling this way at this moment.  Or, if I ate either of those things on a regular basis my body would be conditioned to the sugar and the chocolate and wouldn feel like I might puke it all up along with my pounding heart.  Ugh.  Time to drink a gallon of water and begin the flush.  I hope it passes in time to go to bed at a decent hour.  And that I learned the lesson this time and won do this again.  Until I forget.  Or maybe I should just eat all the sugar and chocolate I can every day and see if I adjust.  I don think it will happen, but you never know.

Late on a Wednesday, A Little Bit of RandomOnly Because It Has Been A While....

• I've thought a lot about blogging lately.
• It just has seemed like so.much.effort to get a post up.
• But.  Six Apart just sucked the yearly fee out of my checking account.
• In honor of that (and to make me feel it is worth it) I decided to put some rambling stuff here.
• One of my favorite British humor movies is Death At A Funeral.
• Chris Rock has remade it and I am not sure how I feel about that.
• I'm hoping that I will like it for its own merit, even though it will surely lack the accent and stiff upper lip-ness of the original.
• Which was perfect.
• If American Idol is giving us the best that the country has to offer then the future of music in our country is not looking good.
• We have had a little bit of rain here recently.
• By a little bit, I mean gallons of it have come through a leak in our ceiling.
• If we don't empty the bucket catching the drips often enough we have to clean up those gallons because the grandkitten thinks it is great fun to push it over.
• These problems are preferable to what thousands of people are going through with flooding and erosion.
• Speaking of weather, this is an early Easter year, the kind that most people have been talking about being cold and very unspring-like.
• In typical New England Fashion, the forecast has us expecting summer to visit with the Easter Bunny.
• In preparation, we have had the annual "time to put the screens on the three season porch" discussion.
• I lost.
• Which means there are screens in place of windows right now.
• Because a typical New Englander believes that summer has come on the first warm day of the year, even if that day is in January.
• Like they haven't lived here their whole lives and don't know that it will snow again.  Really.
• I have been knitting.  Recent knitting includes:
• A sweater that is blocked, almost completely seamed, but still needs buttons.
• A shawl, waiting for blocking.
• A shawl, about 50% complete.
• I joined 10 in 2010. 
• Shawls that is.
• I don't really care if I make it, I mean all 10 shawls, but I have a lot of shawl yarn in the stash and would like to get through some of it.
• Ditto the shawl patterns in my Ravelry queue.
• Another reality TV observation:  The Amazing Race is having an excellent season.
• Did you read A Girl Named Zippy? 
• There is a sequel, She Got Up Off The Couch.
• I LOVED them both and I recommend the audio versions read by the author.
• I usually think it is unwise for authors to read their books, but Haven Kimmel and David Sedaris are definitely exceptions to that rule.
• The following may come as a shock to some, so you might want to make sure you are sitting down and have swallowed.
• For various personal and health related issues (and to shut my nurse practitioner up already!) I have decided to complete my "cleanse" and have.......
• wait for it.......
• given up tea.
• I KNOW IT!
• I cannot explain what these last few weeks have been like.
• You know those ads that talk about smoking and doing all the things you used to to, but getting used to doing them without a cigarette?
• That is my life, except without a mug of tea in my hand, in the car, on the table while I am knitting, sewing, reading, internet surfing....
• Breathing.
• While some things seem unaffected, others might be responding to this change.
• I don't really want to talk about it.
• It makes me cranky.
• I am drinking a TON of water now.
• Water is boring.
• And makes me pee a lot.
• But so does tea.
• I probably have a photo I could decorate this post with, but I'm too lazy to do it.
• Naw, every post needs a photo, right?  Here is one from my childhood.
  
  
• Let's just say that bicycles and I don't have a great history.
• After that I did ride again, the next accident left me with shin bones sticking out of my leg.
• Probably why I prefer hiking to this day.
• I'll walk, thanks.

2010.  Forty-two.  I have more to say.  Who knew?  I'll tell the story of my face battering later this week.  It seems that without an explanation to convince you otherwise you might assume I was the victim of a beating and I'd better not let that thought live in your mind.  I promise, I wasn't.

Sheep ChairsA New Blue BlogIt's Thursday and I'm Thankful

Wow, you people have strong opinions about the Sheep Chair!  I can just picture it in my sewing/fiber room, all set up as my spinning chair.  That'd be good, right?  Spinning from my sheep chair.  With the sheep overseeing my work.  And I just know that if I threw party and invited everyone I knew, you would see the sheep chair would be, fought over allll through the day.  Thank you for being a friend.

Yeah, so.  Typepad has introduced a new blogging format, Typepad Microblog.  It would be really cool if I understood the purpose well enough to explain it to you.  See, the thing is, I totally ignore this blog for long enough intervals that when I come around to post or change my content, sidebars, all that stuff..... I have not a flipping clue how to do it.  Usually I am too tired to figure it out.  There is this Typepad Profile thing, friends, communities, I have no clue how that works, although I set up a profile, I just don't know what to do with it now that I have it.  Follow?  What's follow? (I think I need a private lesson.)  And now they've added this microblog thing, but! it happened now, when I'm paying attention and I thought it was kind of cool.  So I thought I'd try it out and started another blog.  (I know it!  I can't remember to categorize my posts correctly and now this?!  Well, this one can go under  You Thought I Was Sane?)

World of Blue will be mini-posts about things I find around the internet.  Some of them will be blue.  I can see how cool this could be.  A blog about any topic you are really interested in, say, cute little kittens.  Everytime you come across one that you want to share with other cat-ladies people who like cute little kittens you are just a toolbar click away from spreading the love.  Or short-term, the month of December with Christmas traditions that you come across, or great gift ideas or sales...  It's free and from what I tell so far, pretty easy to set up.  I could have one for great knits, quilts, tutorials, sales, other shopping.  This could get out of hand. 

So the most recent five or ten (we'll see how it goes) posts will be linked over in the sidebar.  It would be cool if those links would have a thumbnail.  I'll suggest it to Typepad............

I hear you laughing.  Norma.  Cookie.  I mean you.

It's Thursday And I'm Thankful For.....

• Dragon Pearl Jasmine Tea
• Steelhead Trout.  Yum.
• Car battery chargers.
• The alarm clock feature on my cell phone which lets me set multiple alarms.  Love that thing.

One hunderd eighteen.  Or day NINETEEN!  Told you I would just leave it from now on. Oh, and I was just poking around the Six Apart site, what the heck is blogs.com?  vox?  Who has time to work or play anymore, too busy with my virtual communities and social networking!

Random Wednesday

1. Salzman Shoe Repair blue neon sign, Greeley Colorado , 2. Lay off'a my blue suedes..., 3. blue, 4. blue shoes, 5. a blue place for a shoe shine, 6. Not available, 7. Blue suede shoes..., 8. Zinke's Drive-In Shoe Repair, 9. blue doll shoes, 10. Blue Star Kimono Shoes - Sole view, 11. Royal Blue shoes mural Nephi, 12. King Neptune's shoe locker. You can have any color as long as its blue, 13. Blue Shoe, 14. Selz Royal Blue Shoes "The Sole of Honor", (restored advertisement) Illinois, Chenoa (7,631), 15. Shoes!

• It's that time of year again!
• The most wonderful time of the year......
• For totally lame jewelry commercials with equally untalented actors.
• Yeah, I totally feel the connection between those two in the lodge in the forest during the storm.
• Give me a break.
• And perfume and alcohol.
• Well, bring on the alcohol.
• Especially if I have to watch those ads.
• Radio stations start playing Christmas music earlier and earlier every year.
• You won't hear me complaining.
• You probably won't catch me listening to them yet, either.
• I might be listening to some of my own holiday music though.
• I'll wait to come out of the closet on that one until Thanksgiving.
• Week.
• During my years of blogging I have not ever categorized my posts.
• About 18 months or two years ago I thought it would be a great idea.
• This is one of those places a sarcasm font would be just.right.
• I told myself I would just start with the post I was currently writing and go from there.
• But then I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave it at that and the thought of going through every post would have me putting it off.
• And off
• And off.
• Then I sort of thought I wouldn't do it at all.
• But that nagged at the part of me that loves to be all organized with lists and all that.
• Of course the longer I put it off, the more posts to categorize.
• Including that 15 months of daily blogging.
• Ugh.
• That is my way of saying I have started.
• That has always felt like an unfurnished room to me. 
• Now I am furnishing it up.
• And I can never remember to categorize the post as I publish it.
• Some people do Wordless Wednesday.
• I thought it would be funny if I used that as my title and hit publish.
• But I didn't.
• Maybe next week.
• While I am listening to Christmas music.
• Speaking of which, I always buy the new Christmas music.
• But.  As much as I am a fan I don't think I can bring myself to add the Bob Dylan cd to my collection.
• It just doesn't sound, well, right somehow.
• It might be just me, but lately when I want to listen to music on my iPod I scroll through by artist and album and genre and think, "Nah, not in the mood for that, there is nothing I like here," to every.thing.
• But if I put it on Genius and let the iPod pick the music for me it is like a radio station playing all of my favorite songs that I forgot I knew.
• Even though I just scrolled through them.
• Genius.

One hundred sixteen.  Or day EIGHTEEN!  Every day, when I type this postscript, I type One hunderd.  I think I'll start leaving it.

Random WednesdayRandom Flickr Faves

1. Not Quite A Little Teapot, 2. cup, 3. Teapot birdhouse, 4. Teapot Dome Service Station, 5. Teapot Gas Station, 6. Teapot Water Tower, Photo 1, 7. World's Largest Teapot, 8. Java Jive Teapot - Tacoma, Washington, 9. Cameron highlands

Some random thoughts.

• Who knew there were so many teapot houses?
• That last blue house is a hut in a tea field.
• I want some of that tea.
• I am not a comment whore by any stretch.
• The hope is when you ask for something, some people will comment and come up with an answer to entertain.
• With one exception it was crickets chirping all day.
• Either nobody is reading or you all now know just how hard it is to come up with just one item on the Ten On Tuesday lists.
• But seriously.  ONE movie?
• ONE SONG COVER?
• In the beginning I thought Aaron Carter was a spoiled little twit.
• Tonight I was truly sad to see him leave DWTS.  He grew up a lot over the last several weeks.
• After Kelly Osborne's reaction to making it to the semi-finals, compared to the mature response of Aaron's last week when he was saved, I really think she should have ended her tour this evening.
• I've loved watching the anniversary stuff on Sesame Street.
• I'm really a little too old to be a SS alum, but I have younger sibs and kids.
• I love Sesame Street.
• I remember the words to all of those songs! 
• Do you remember what "C" is for?
• Who makes bath-time lots of fun?
• And because I am too tired to have any thoughts right now, random or not, I leave you with this:

One hundred nine. Or day ELEVEN!  Muh nu mu nuh.  Deet dee dee dee dee... This month is feeling long.

Random WednesdayRandom BlueIt's True, I Really DO Waste Spend a LOT of Time Doing This.

1. blue hearts, 2. Blue Beach Cruiser Bike - MakaiBikes.com, 3. Dutch kiss, 4. Untitled, 5. Blue Teapot, 6. Blue Porch, 7. Chocolate Orange, 8. The Blue Room, 9. Little Blue Houses by the Sea, 10. Blue Roses, 11. Choose your blue..., 12. Color me lonely...color me blue, 13. pale blue dandy: 113/365, 14. Blue Room Neon Sign, 15. Communication, 16. rooftop, 17. r & r in blue, 18. rothko blue, 19. Blue Dasher male, obelisking, 20. Dutch Collection - Delft Blue Set Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Some random thoughts. Some of them blue.

• When searching "blue" on flickr the search turns up a lot of insects and digitally manipulated flowers.
• Then there are the birds.
• And the beach.
• Well, sky and water really.  It's just they show up so much bluer at the beach.
• That is when I narrow my search results by getting more specific. 
• Like blue rooms, houses, cups, plates, shoes, denim.....
• You get the picture.
• Or you will if you do a flickr search on your favorite color.
• Is there a way to make one of these on Etsy? 
• That would be fun to share.
• Google image search is just as fun.
• More even, because the search engine is better.
• I had no.idea! there was a Terry's Chocolate Orange mug to be had.
• And now I have to have one. 
• Especially because it is blue.
• I sense the beginning of a new obsession coming on.
• A quick search turned up this one, but it just isn't the same as the one in the mosaic.
• Jeez, I hope I find one soon........
• I totally didn't plan for the umbrella to look like it is sprouting out of the gable, like some strange church of the blue beach umbrella (although that is a congregation I might join in a second).
• I'm too lazy to change it.
• Ha! It would be way better if the blue martini was the steeple!
• Combine that with the blue umbrella and I'd come to worship every day.

One hundred two.  Or day four.  This is not the last of the blue themed mosaic.  This could get me through much of the month of November!

Randomly Yours,

• I decided to bullet these, but not number them because the numbers are a kind of pressure for some reason.
• You know, if you only have nine you should round out to an even ten.
• Or if you have twenty-two that is too many so you should eliminate a couple.
• I'll probably count them though.
• I hope Dancing With The Stars improves and fast.
• If it doesn't there will be a lot of free time in my prime time schedule.
• I'll probably switch to listening to books.
• Speaking of which, I'm loving The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
• Another translated book, which always has me wondering what, if anything, didn't cross over, but all in all I think this must be an excellent translation.
• So, I started this post on 9/22.
• Most of it remains the same.
• Except the book.  Finished it and recommend.
• I've read at least a couple of books since, but they must have been unremarkable because I can't remember them.
• I am at the end of The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox. 
• Three out of five stars.  Take that for what it is.
• I won't share my Rhinebeck experience with you.
• Heh, I stayed home and even before the reports of cold weather, crowded fairgrounds and long, snowy rides home I was not missing being there this year.
• Although I would have gotten a mug from Jennie the Potter.
• And I did miss seeing all of my friends.
• I'm still trying to remember what books I have read.....
• And by read I mean listened to, but you must know that about me by now.
• Two more Friday night football games and our marching band years will be over. 
• Yay.
• Twenty-three.  And I haven't said a blessed thing that is worth a random post.
• Deal.
• Here is something random for you:
  
  Is this ORANGE knitting at Knitting the Blues?
  What is it doing here?
• 
  
  Patiently waiting for a nice hot, agitating bath.

Ninety-seven.  In a future post:  I get carried away.  As usual.

Randomness

I'm wondering if I should even do a random Wednesday post, I'm having a cranky day and really want to stay a little bit upbeat.  You know, to fool you all into thinking I am a mostly positive and cheery person.  (Gillian, is that you laughing?)  I'll give it a go and if you don't read this you will know I changed my mind.  Or maybe not. 

1. Hey!  Thanks for all the compliments on my little skirt!  You guys sure know how to make a girl feel good.
2. If I didn't know better I would swear that Lynn and Renee (who is giving away yarn and showing off a really cute handy-man husband on her blog) were flirting with me!
3. Makes me really want to make some more cute blue things.
4. Or maybe I did, but I haven't shown you yet.
5. We'll have to have another warm day so I can get some modeled shots.
6. I'm a little tired of calling the doctor's office one second after they called you and you missed the call only to get voicemail and not hearing from them for a day or two or a week.  Does no one answer the phone anymore?
7. And what did the voicemail they left me say?  That they have set me up for two appointments, one for some yet to be revealed to me test and another for a follow up. 
8. Do I not have any say?
9. And I've had almost every test known to man, what could be left? is what I want to know.
10. I'm dreaming of pizza.  But there I go again, into crankiness because I cannot have pizza anymore.  And yet I dream.....
11. I almost wouldn't mind all of these changes and deprivation if I felt significantly better, but I am trying to be hopeful.  End of my woes, I don't want to talk about it anymore today.
12. Or tomorrow.
13. In a totally uncharacteristic move for me I cut and set up these fabrics to sew into blocks without totally overthinking it. 
    
    I set them up, made a change or two and then raced to the sewing machine and turned them into the blocks before I contracted Analysis Paralysis.  But, what will happen when I lay them out  in different patterns to turn them into a quilt top ?  Or have I done that already?  Was there agonizing or more racing to the sewing machine?  Wait and see....
14. No worries, I did find plenty of ways to over-complicate this project that will entertain those who who get some perverse pleasure chuckling at how my mind works.
15. I'm not usually too much a fan of the reality television.
16. So why does my weekly DVR line-up include So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, and Dancing With The Stars? 
17. The suppressed voyeur in me is really tempted by Hoarders and Clean House.
18. Now that would be the dark side, wouldn't it?
19. Just look at what an images search on Google turns up.
20. I think I can't watch because these people really need serious help, and not just cleaning their houses out.
21. Glee is on tonight!
22. And now to add to the randomness, I have seen Cookie doing these listy things from Unconscious Mutterings and decided to try it, here you go:

1. Omelette :: egg white
2. Classic :: Audrey Hepburn
3. Thrifty :: Scot
4. Search :: Google images
5. Fan :: Sleep
6. Fussy :: Cut
7. I am not :: Tall
8. Indulge :: My every whim
9. Poor :: Excuse
10. Manicure :: Need one.

Ninety-two.  That is enough random for one Wednesday.  What random thoughts are you having?  Come on, share!  By the way:  I would have done well on Jeopardy tonight. 

Random

First things first:  If you haven't heard yet, Margene is suddenly facing surgery.  Send prayers, good thoughts, healing energy her way and to the hands, hearts and alert brains of her surgeons and everyone else that is involved in her care.  She is one of my first and closest blog friends, I love her dearly, as do so many, and know that all of that love sent her way can only help.  Heck, it worked with Claudia and her brief extension, right?

It's Wednesday and since I am on a short little roll that could quit at any moment, I thought I would try and come up with some random thoughts.

1. I miss my 90 degree days.  Don't mistake me, the weather we are experiencing right now is about as perfect as you can get, but I didn't get enough heat this summer. 
2. So I am counting down until the days start to get longer again.
3. That always bothers me, talking about the days getting longer.  The days stay twenty-four hours long no matter what, it is the hours of daylight (or minutes really) that does the changing.
4. I notice all of those little details of language, it is hard to be me sometimes.
5. And yes, I could get into daylight savings and blah, blah.....  I did think of that.  See?  I just can't stop.
6. I almost typed in 365 days per year, but then got hung up on leap year and decided to let that go.
7. Then I mentioned it anyway.
8. I'm always surprised how an application of topcoat can spit-shine and add a week or two to the life of a pedicure.
9. I hate that no matter what I do, after I do my own nails without benefit of the nifty drying lamp/fans at the nail place, I get sheet marks on my manicure. 
10. And I thought I slept with my hands out of the covers all night.
11. It is not bugging me enough to change it yet.
12. I've been saving a little bit of money by not going in for a weekly polish change and painting my nails myself. 
13. It is agonizing for me.  I like to wait forever between coats, so it takes almost a whole morning, and then for the rest of the day I walk around like a hand model petrified of a scratch that might impede my work.
14. And today I stuck a seam ripper right into the polish on my thumb.  I don't want to fix it. Yet.
15. The photo above marks my re-entry into the world of quilting.
16. So I swore off yarn buying this summer, which went pretty well.
17. I replaced it with fabric stashing.
18. Not exactly the point.
19. The quilt above is pretty much finished.
20. I gifted it on Sunday to Cheryl, pinned to the back and unquilted.
21. Then I snatched it off her pregnant self and took the borders off to fix them.
22. Then it will get quilted.
23. But not by me.
24. Wait until you see what I decided to do with this sheep idea.
25. Think blue, think tea, think teapots.

Eighty-five.  I went to try and do some things to my blog last night and blast it all!  Typepad is all different and I cannot figure out a friggin' thing.  And I don't want to.  But I want to do the things I want to do.  I know, RTFM and all that, but I don't waaaaaannnnnnnnaaaaaa!

Swim Anyone?

Having just seen Claudia's post I was inspired to quickly throw this photo out there.  So, in the spirit of "there are just some pictures you have to take:"

 
Waiting for the perfect cannonball...

Eighty-two. If I get my act together there might be finished knitting, works in progress, quilting, garment sewing and all kinds of fun showing up here. Meanwhile....I don't know what.

Five On Friday

Since last Friday I have....

1. Visited a wonderful quilt shop and had lunch with Kim, a wonderful day.
2. Started a shawl something like four times and then, after finally settling on a loosey-goosey plan have ripped and reknit for mistakes and re-dos.  I'm still loving it though!
3. Had lunch with Meg sitting outside in Harvard Square on the most beautiful weather day that can be conceived by Mother Nature.  We got some great iced tea, too!
4. Made a halter top out of some pretty blue fabric.
5. Spent an evening not spinning or knitting (the wheel stayed in the trunk) with some really great friends that I just don't get to see often enough.  The pizza was excellent!

Eighty.  What I didn't do was take a single photo.  Bummer.

Random?

1. My mind is mush.  Everything plodding through it is random.
2. Alright!  ALRIGHT!  Am I so very tranparent?  You all had my number and Cookie had no problem calling me on it.  There is the TEA!  But I'd rather have somebody deliver it to me, "Here try this oolong, you'll love it!" than have to actually shop for it.  I get overwhelmed.  Do you know how many different teas are sold on the Harney website?  In my mind I think, "I'd love to try a new Oolong Tea, let's peruse Harney."  Then I get to the Harney website and things start to spin......  Should I try the Ali San?  The Wenshan Baozhong ?  It's easier to just brew one from my own cupboard.
3. Brewing from my own cupboard?  I can spend twenty minutes or more trying to choose from that cabinet.
4. What about Music, iTunes, you may as well include Audible and Recorded Books.  So.Overwhelming.  All those songs to dance to, all of those books to read.
5. I have just finished a couple of really great novels.  One is The Help.  This story is told from the perspective of three different southern women in the early sixties.  The audiobook is outstanding, employing three different narrators who expertly recreate the characters, two are black maids who work for white women and the other is a young white woman who was raised by a maid herself.  While the story is driven by the injustices suffered by the maids at that time, there is much humor and many beautiful moments of friendship and women coming together to support each other and teach one another about who all women really are, despite issues of race or class.  I highly recommend this book.
6. It did leave me wondering just how great it would be to have a maid.  Don't be mad, I'd be kind and pay better.  And probably help.
7. We spent some time cleaning up the porch this afternoon (yep, thinking of a maid then), clearing out junk, replacing the newly cleaned cushion covers and removing a nice, thick layer of dust and pollen. 
8. Then I enjoyed the room.  I drank tea, finished listening to a book, and had dinner.
9. There is already another fine layer of pollen over everything. 
10. A-Choo!
11. My porch is my favorite place to be when I am home and today I spent some time out there with this:

Sixty-four.  NO.  I wasn't just looking at it.

For a Random Wednesday

This just turned up on the NETA list, so many of you may have seen it.  It is too good not to share though, and while I could have waited until YouTube Saturday, well.  I didn't.  Random of me.

Other randomness?

• We have been subscribers to Blockbuster for a year now and I have had the first season of One Foot In The Grave at the top of my queue the entire time with a status of "very long wait."  Okay. 
• I am taking advantage of a free two week subscription to Netflix, put the same dvd on the top of my queue and had it in two days.  Hmmm...  And it seems the turn around is quicker.
• Having seen only one episode I'm thrilled.  British humor is worth the wait.
• Did I mention I finished the second Outlander book, Dragonfly in Amber?  It was pretty good, not as good as the first, but I never wanted to put it down for good until I finished it.  I still think the author goes a little too far for shock value, but the story is a fun romp.  Who can't use that?
• Now I am listening to The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.  I am a bit more than half way through, and typical to Lamb's novels, there isn't a whole lot to be happy about.  Then the journals of the main character's great grandmother come to forefront and I am loving this aspect.  I remember that when I was reading She's Come Undone and I Know This Much Is True there was a point about half way through each that I almost put the book down because I hated the main character or something and then there is a turn of some kind that made me want to really finish the book.  I'm glad I kept with it, I hope this book doesn't disappoint.
• I never realized that Amazon has author stores.  Here is Wally's.
• I found a copy of the second issue of The Knitter (their website is not low on the priority list, apparently).  Meh.  I still like it, but am not as impressed as I was with the first issue.  Of course, there is always the Mason-Dixon column, very much worth the price of the magazine, right?  I think the third issue might be out any day now.  I'll be looking for it.
• I've been drinking a lot more oolong tea lately.  It hasn't ever been a tea that I was drawn to, not for any reason, just too taken with other teas.  I love this stuff.  It blends very well with fruits and makes a light, flavored tea.  Yum.  My favorite right now?  Sweet Oolong Revolution by Teavana.
• Have I complained about Teavana here before?  Probably, yes.  You know, I am willing to pay for good tea, especially when I find some that I really like.  Companies like Adagio and Harney are companies that have a wide range of tea qualities and you can pay an average to a huge honkin' lot for a few ounces of tea from either.  Usually, very worth the price.  When the tea arrives, depending on what size you have purchased, it will often arrive in a tin or in the case of large amounts from Harney (I'm talking a pound or so), a pretty respectable bag.  I like the bag, because I have probably ordered it in a tin previously and will deposit some of the pound into the tin for easier scooping. 
• Now, Teavana teas are expensive.  Especially some of their flavored whites, white tea being expensive anyway, but if you look closely at the flavored white teas you might think you aren't getting so much white tea, but an herbal tea with some white tea leaves tossed in.  Still in all, I have my favorites and will continue consuming them when I can afford to. 
• Here is the thing that gets my dander up.  Every time I go to order tea at my local Teavana I get the hard sell to purchase a tin to store my tea in, because even at the high price, you get the tea in a little baggy that is not really appropriate to keep your tea fresh. 
• Did I mention that Adagio and Harney send the tea IN.THE.TIN?  I save those tins to reuse.  A couple collect change, the rest are washed, dried will be used to store teas in again.  Some of them will be Teavana teas.
• When I get the big push from the Teavana tea scooper I always tell them (and yes, I know they are just the employees doing their jobs) that I will never purchase a tin from them, that when I get tea from other wonderful purveyors of leaves they include the tin with the tea at no extra charge and I save those tins and reuse them to keep my Teavana tea fresh.  I just take off the little sticker from the bag they give me and place it on the tin, so I always know what I have. 
• Having noticed the hard-sell on everything in the store by the tea scoopers, I asked one happy young girl if she worked on commission.  Her demeanor changed dramatically and she said, "No, not really."  "Not really?  What does that mean?" and she replied that while she doesn't technically work on commission, they are pressured to reach sales goals and quotas.  That explains the tea scoopers jumping on me every time I go through the door.
• I know, I'm a complainer, but I'll still buy some of their teas.  But Teavana, just so you know.  I won't buy a tin from you.  Ever.
• I couldn't think of a random thing when I started this post, and now I have a million thoughts in my head.  Some of them are of all the things I should be doing right now. 

Forty-three.  Maybe I should throw a random thought in every post.  Maybe with fewer linking things though.  That'll keep 'em coming back!

Dispatch From the Sticks

Icy trees down everywhere <stop>

Power restored <stop>

Cable and internet still out <stop>

Hot showers and the hum of electricity a luxury <stop>

Posting from a friend's house <stop>

Back to regular posting as soon as possible. <stop>

Nineteen to go!  Leave it to one lousy ice storm to thwart my year long effort!  Fingers crossed for the weekend, and if you sent me an email, I haven't gotten it yet.

Honest Tree Top Angel! I DID NOT CHEAT!

You Should Have a Blue Christmas Tree

For you, the holidays represent a time of calm, understanding, and peace. You avoid family fights, and you don't get too stressed out - even when things are crazy! You like to make Christmas about making everyone's life a little bit better. You don't get caught up in greed or commercialism. You're too sincere for that. Your blue tree would look great with: Lots of silver tinsel You should spend Christmas Eve watching: It's a Wonderful Life What you should bake for Santa: Chocolate chip cookies

What Color Christmas Tree Should You Have?

Twenty-six to go. I am just way too tired to come up with anything more than this today. Have a fun weekend!