The Fibergoddess

Inspired by CGN #1

2011-04-01T20:26:00.001-04:00

This post is in response to CGN #1's post of Mar 16th - 13 Memories. In it she talks about her memories of her paternal grandmother. And it brought back memories of my Grammy. So here goes -
1.) Making Cookies - Mostly 'Wooden' (anise seed) cookies. It seemed like it would be out of the blue on a Saturday night, Grammy would ask if we would like to make cookies. We'd all go to the drawer in the breakfast nook and get hair nets and ask what we would get to do to 'help' mix the dough. Once the dough was ready it was time for serious work - deciding on which cookie cutters we would use. (It wasn't until a few years ago, making cookies with my own Grand's that I realized one of my favorite cutters was a fish.) And then waking up to the smell of fresh baked cookies. I usually gobbled a half dozen right out of the oven cause that was the only time they were soft enough to eat without total immersion in some kind of liquid - the warmer the better. But boy! were they good.
2.) I never, ever saw Grammy wear anything but a dress. I vaguely remember a few times in the winter when she put on a pair with her dress. I do, however, have a picture of her in overall's.
3.) Pinning her veil on over her bindilee at church. And feeding us SenSen to keep us quite during the sermon. Using her hankie to make a 'baby in the cradle' to keep our hands occupied.
4.) Grammy and Grampy on their bed, Grampy reading a letter from 'The Old Country' in German. I regret I didn't push to learn German to this day.
5.) Loading up the Rambler Wagon (which was a bit of a scandal when Grampy bought it as it wasn't the traditional dark color. It was CANARY yellow!)with bundles of newspapers and heading out the the weight station.
6.) Going to pick strawberries, gooseberries and raspberries. Picking apples and to make sure we'd return, having a old peanut butter jar full of hard candy close by. We'd take a piece of candy and wander off for awhile. When it was gone, we'd come back for another.
7.) When I was 5 I got chicken pox and was shipped off to Grammy's house so the younger siblings wouldn't catch it. It didn't work but I had 2 weeks of one on one with both of them. My most vivid memory was taking baths with baking soda to help stop the itching. However, Grammy wanted to save water, so she only drained the tub 1/2 way each time. Hot water and more baking soda would be added for the next bath. This worked out reasonable well until the cat decided that it wanted to eat. The cat was Aunty Linda's who was not living at home at the time. And it had reallllly looooog fur. Grammy forgot they feed the cat in the tub.... Aunty Linda happened to be home that night. All I have to say is A)Grammy was forgiven for trying to drown the cat and B)Thank goodness only the dining and living room had carpet.
8.)Christmas Pictures - we would be lined up on the stairs, in our matching nightgowns and be given candles. When it was time to snap the picture, Grammy would light the candles and Grampy would snap as many as he could in less than a minute so we didn't set ourselves on fire.
9.) How much she looked forward to meeting Oldest. Even before she was born, Grammy was calling Mom to ask about her.
10.) Harvesting the asparagus every year. It was planted next to the current's. Soon after the asparagus, the rhubarb would be in full growth and we'd have strawberry-rhubarb pie's for deserts.
11.) Making Uncle's favorite pie for his birthday. That would be an Onion Pie. Being a kid, I never asked to taste it but I wish I had cause I bet it would have been delicious.
12.) She had an electric stove and as a rule would set the burner on high 'for a quick start'. Sometimes she'd forget and we'd be cleaning up some interesting messes. Of course, there was the time she almost asphyxiated Mom while starting to make jam.
13.) How her lap was always available to snuggle in when I was tired or felt shy and needed to hide.
To this day, I miss her. I would have liked her to have met Youngest, The Boss and The Gift. I see so much of her in them. Her sense of wonder at the world and what it has to offer, her quiet ability to teach life's lessons and her ability to laugh along with other's when stories were told about her mishaps.

Thank you CGN #1 for inspiring me to write these few memories down.

Motivated?

2011-03-07T19:51:00.000-05:00

I'm not called The Fibergoddess because I only have a little yarn and fiber. I freely admit I have A LOT of yarn and fiber. The last couple of years I've come to realize I don't have the time, motivation or brain power to work on large projects. So I have decided to work through my S.A.B.L.E. a little at a time by making smaller projects.
The last few months of 2010 I went on a scarf kick. I think I knocked out almost a dozen using at minimum of a skein a scarf. Some took more but most were 1 skein wonder's.
Last month I was hit with 2 babies arriving in the next couple of months. So I'm off the scarves and onto baby sweaters. I'm finding these fun and I'm using up more yarn.
Heck I even 'designed' a top down raglan that I'm cleaning up and put out on Ravelry. Who knows, if this continues I just might have to buy some yarn!
See!? This is not my design - it's Lucy's available at Mind's Eye Yarns website.

I haven't uploaded the pictures of mine yet. I was so motivated to make another sweater I took the pictures and cast on for another. This one is Lucy's but done with cotton.
And I'm swatching for another design I have in mind.
So do you think if I keep this up I can get my S.A.B.L.E. down to a stash?

Hero or Zero

2011-02-27T18:06:00.000-05:00

The last few days have been very weird and busy. I am the admin. staff for the Maintenance Dept. of a transportation company. Husband is a part-time driver for said company as well. This is pertinent to the story.

A few weeks ago, Husband had a trip where upon returning the brakes quit working on the vehicle. He was able to get it to a safe place, transfer people and possessions to the rescue vehicle and return them to the pickup point. The vehicle was towed in and examined at which time it was discovered that there was nothing he did to cause the failure. Nor was the failure something the Maintenance Dept could of predicted of prevented. Top Dog of Company was not pleased and tried to blame Husband AND Head of Maintenance (*HofM) for breakdown. When confronted with evidence that neither could have been prevented or predicted the failure, he backed down.
This past Thursday, Husband had a trip with the same vehicle traveling across the state. His return departure time was approximately 9:30 that night so I was not expecting to see him until the following morning.
Said vehicle computer decided that something was wrong with the engine and shut down the power. As most of the miles were to be on highways and the vehicle would not go faster than 5 mph, Husband made the right call to stay put in the Safe Place he found until the replacement vehicle arrive.
*HofM had been home, fast asleep for about an hour when he had been called about above vehicle. He was the one that drove the replacement vehicle out to Husband and drove/tinkered with (cursed, beat, pleaded, stroked and limped along) the original vehicle back to the garage. He then went home and got another hour's worth of sleep.
The reason I know this was when I awoke at Oh'dark thirty Husband was not home. He walked in about 5 am and related the short version of what had transpired before face planting himself in bed. I got the rest when I arrived at work.

Yesterday, Husband had a trip that was going out of state to a ski mountain. All was well until he parked the bus and the state DOT did an inspection of the vehicle. They decided that it was not safe to drive and put the vehicle 'Out of Service'. This meant the vehicle was not to be moved until it was fixed or towed somewhere for repairs to be made. I was Husband second call regarding this, Dispatch being the first. I immediately called *HofM and volunteered to drive the replacement bus to Husband. Withing 10 minutes of my call to *HofM, Dispatch called and I was on my way. I arrived at the mountain with enough time to help Husband to transfer all the passengers belongings to the rescue bus and to put Youngest into the van that *HofM drove to keep her warm. It's now spitting flurries and the sun was going down. The temperature when we arrived was 4 and 2 hours later it was well below zero. But the bus was fixed and warmed up quickly.

Husband, *HofM, Youngest and I all arrived back at the garaged at the same time – 9:45pm. I'm on pins and needles until I get to work on Monday to see what Top Dog of Company reaction will be. Will he consider all of us Hero's – this was a well coordinated, flawlessly executed plan that went smoothly with minimal interruption for the passengers (and that is a whole other horror story from what Husband has related!) or Zero's for allowing the bus to leave in such a condition that the DOT put the vehicle out of service, causing the company to foot the expense of running 2 vehicles out of state and the purchasing of parts to facilitate repairs.

Observations

2010-01-12T19:09:00.013-05:00

So it's only a few weeks shy of my birthday and I sorta expected the onslaught of AARP stuff but to actually receive a membership card is, ummm, not joyous. Husband has been trying to get a rise out of me but I've been quick to remind him that his will be arriving in just a few months.

FiberCamp was awesome! I got to catch up with a few people. Took a workshop or two and decided that I WILL be taking the TKGA Master course.

I'm out of work (again!) but have been assured that as soon as a desk and computer are available I'll be working again. In the meantime, I've had some quality knitting time with a few UFO's and I've started to cull the UFO list.
These have been frogged

I had to tink these, again, back to the gusset.

I put them down and put the book with all my notes back on the bookshelf. So when I picked up the needles again, I just continued to knit with the needles that I had left off with. Turns out I needed to change needles in order for the thing to fit over my ankle! Tink, Tink, Tink!!!

I've decided on my plane project for next month. I've only to ball up the skein and add a set of needles. I'm hoping that it has that combination of mindless knitting and require just enough attention to keep me from going over the edge on the plane.

CG2 Niece is celebrating a birthday this week and we just received the invitation to The Boss's birthday party. Who said they could grow up so fast!

Oh! and Department of Public Utilities?! Next time you need to dig up the street have to common decency to knock on the door to see if I need to go out. Yeah, we had another leak (sewer this time) and this big truck with a generator behind it totally blocked my ability to move my car out of the drive. They finished around 11 but I had already called to change my 9:30 appointment.

Let the Party Begin!

2009-12-24T06:28:00.005-05:00

2010 will be the 50th anniversary of my birth. And because my birthday is in January I decided to create a list of 50 Not Resolutions but Goals/Wishes for the upcoming year. So, without further ado, here is the list in no particular order (except #1) –

1. Enjoy my birthday! I'm actually looking forward to being the Big FIVE OH! Sometime in the coming year I want to have a knock down, drag out party. A family, friends, good food, music, outdoors, last all weekend party. Might need some help with that one.

2. Spin more! I have 2 wheels and have not touched either in the last 3 months. In fact, one is buried so deep in the TV/Computer/Storage Room I can't even see it.

3. Be better to my self. By that I mean do something for myself that I used to do. Money has been tight the last couple of years (not to mention the jobs have been crazy) and I let a couple of things slide. So I'm going to give myself permission to get a mani/pedi once a month and at least 3 full on body massages in 2010.

4. More ME Time. In keeping with #3, I'm going to go to some events and happenings that I've been meaning to attend for years. That includes FiberCamp Boston in January and StitchesEast in October.

5. Be better about keeping in touch with family & friends. I'm horrible at this and I need to touch base with people more.

6. Get the UFO pile down! I spent a lot of time in 2009 getting my S.A.B.L.E and projects uploaded to Ravelry and scared myself in the process. My UFO's are almost more than my FO's. I need to get the really old ones finished or frogged.

7. Get some of the House projects completed. Same problem as #6. We've got things started here that have been languishing for years. I must make a list of what needs to be completed and what is needed to complete it. Then put it somewhere that is in my face!

8. Continue to declutter the house. Seriously, we have TOO much stuff!

9. Decide if I want to keep my full size knitting machines. I'd love to use them but they take up a lot of room when up and I'd need time to acquaint myself with them again.

10. Use my Bond more. I have 2 and should get a new carriage to replace the broken one. They are easy enough to set up and put away. And it will help with #11.

11. My S.A.B.L.E.! Jeez!!! I knew I had yarn but until I started cataloging it for Ravelry I didn't realize how much YARN I had. I need to get rid of some and use a lot more!

12. Make a date night with Husband and stick to it. We need this in order to stay connected. After 20 years I'm not going to let him go.

13. Spend more time with the grandkids. Especially The Gift!

14. Make a 'date' with Youngest to do something to get her moving. She needs exercise so find something she enjoys and do it with her.

15. Learn more about computers. Giving my money to have someone 'fix' a computer goes up my butt!

16. Take more classes/workshops for fun and profit. I want to get a few more 'work' related skills under my belt which will help me towards my goal of working from home.

17. Travel. I would love to take a road trip around the eastern US and visit family and friends.

18. Vacation somewhere I have to fly hours to get to.

19. Donate more to charities. Not money so much as time and things they need.

20. Go through all my pictures and get them in albums. When I'm gone I don't want others to not know who's who.

21. Adopt the change things you can blah blah blah mantra.

22. Open an Etsy shop. That would help with getting the S.A.B.L.E. down to a stash.

23. Don't let my job take over my brain and life.

24. Get Youngest moved into the Big Room.

25. Start the 'remodel' on the kitchen

26. Get some on the broken/not working properly things done on the house.

27. Get a new car. But I have to decide on what I want first. That could take all year LOL.

28. Eat! I need to eat lunch at work. I must be better at walking away from my desk and finding a quite spot away from the chaos and EAT!

29. Spend less time hiding at the computer. Too much time is wasted on playing Bejewled Blitz on FB.

30. Get a quality MP3 player, sign up with Audible and walk away from the computer.

31. Don't spend as much time vegging on the couch in front of the TV watching crap.

32. Teach more workshops! I have a skill at teaching knitting and I should share that knowledge with others.

Humm, getting harder to think of things I want to do.

33. Seriously look into Linux. I have become more cranky with Microsoft as I learn more about my computer.

34. Start writing down my life story.

35. Start writing down my parents life stories.

36. Don't let things drag me down!

37. Don't take on more than I can do in 15 minutes. I have the tendency to add more and more to my plate and then crash & burn!

38. Be more forgiving to others. But don't let them walk over me in doing so.

39. Get the Azalea and Rose of Sharron in shape.

40. Plant Glads out back as a present for Youngest.

41. Find a church! I feel the need to be more connected with people who share a similar belief in a high power.

42. Attend the fall Loudon race. Maybe even make a weekend out of it.

43. Take some classes/workshops for knitting/spinning/crochet. I might know a lot but that doesn't mean I know it all.

44. Stop smoking! The money saved alone would be worth it.

45. Do something with my hair. Decide if I want it long or shorter and colored and keep up with it.

46. Get my foot taken care of. Right now, it's hard to wear boots cause it cramps up. And I've noticed that my big toe and the one next to it are numb.

47. Take my girls and spend a day at a spa. Get the full treatment!

Only 3 more to go and it's getting really hard!

48. Find a way for Youngest to see her father and his kids. Without violating the court order and driving me insane.

49. Find someone who can spend time on regular basis with Youngest who is not family.

and finally Number 50!

Have fun, relax and enjoy the next decade(s) with my family. I'm looking forward to seeing my grandkids grow up and become adults and what all the niece's and nephew's are going to do/become.

There I did it! Whada ya think?

Memorial Day 2009

2009-05-26T19:51:00.007-04:00

I Love My Sport!

As you know, I am a NASCAR Nut. After the Daytona 500, the next race that is a must watch for me is the 600 which is run on Memorial Day weekend. Usually this is on Sunday but this year due to rain it was bumped to Monday.

It started at noon and should have been completed about 4 hours later. However, Mother Nature had other plans and so it misted, spritzed, spit and poured! It was a challenge to watch. Run 20 laps, yellow flag, run 20 laps, yellow flag, repeat, repeat, repeat.

I had heard about the moment of silence scheduled for 3pm and was prepared to mute the race in order to participate. However, NASCAR beat me to it. THEY STOPPED THE RACE!!!!!!!!!

Threw a yellow, had all the cars park and shut off the engines. Everyone in the place stood. Picture 100,000 spectators (Yes, I checked this fact, Charlotte Motor Speedway's seating capacity is 165,000) on their feet, hats off and heads bowed, pit crews lined up across pit road, safety crews out of their vehicles, and on the TV screen a shot of the flag at half staff. For the whole minute.

What other sport would even consider this??? I've watched many a baseball, football and hockey game. Yes the National Anthem is performed before play starts but usually that's as far as it goes.

NASCAR has ALL our military branches as sponsors, either in the Cup, Nationwide or Truck series. Each race is started with the National Anthem and, weather permitting, a fly over of some sort of local military plane. There has been Air Force, Marine, Army, Navy and Coast Guard, National Guard and Reserve aircraft and personal at every Truck, Nationwide and Cup race for years.

The only time I have seen other sports honor our military is for a 'special' event. NASCAR does it every race.

So I love my sport.

To all that have served and to all that have supported a service person, Thank you.

To those that given the ultimate sacrifice, you are not forgotten.

It just keeps getting better

2009-04-01T06:37:00.014-04:00

Monday the DPU guys turned the corner on my street . One new thing at the corner is this.

One of 2 hydrants that are part of the water main upgrade. However, the guys did a little damage when they got down to the triple decker across the street from me. This is what I saw as I turned off the main road to head to my house.

Lots of Gas Company vehicles.

I counted 3 utility trucks, 2 service vans, and this truck.

And then this was working away.

Not good.

They were just starting to replace the broken gas line. My across the street neighbor informed them his hot water heater was not working. Turns out that when the line broke ALL of pilot lights for ALL of the houses went out. So our houses were checked for leaks, the pilot lights for any gas appliances were lit and these guys were done about 8:30 in the evening. They not only dug up the side yard but really dug up the street.

Yesterday morning the DPU had gotten down to my house before I got out the door for work so I couldn't tell where the gas ended and the water started. The second hydrant was installed and covered by the time I got home from work. I'm not sure if we're hooked up yet and the street is half dirt. I'm just wondering if the city will repave the whole street or just where it was dug up. If they just patch pave, come winter we might not be able to get down the street.

And I'm almost done with Eric's socks. I'm not sure if I'll just knit until I run out of yarn or until I get sick of working 2-2 rib.

Challenges

2009-03-27T19:38:00.009-04:00

Yesterday was one of those days. You know, if things are going to go wrong they go in a big way. I mentioned that we had a water main leak a few weeks ago. The DPW guys were not unhappy that day as it resulted in overtime for them but it got Husband and I talking about how crappy our water pressure is and with the warm weather coming it's going to get even worse. And lets not go into the interesting color that comes out of the facets.
Anyway, last week I heard a lot of loud male voices outside my house and when I stepped outside it was a bunch of city workers spray painting my street.
See -

One color for gas and one for the water. They informed me the 2 inch water main was being upgraded to an 8 inch main! Yipee!!! We'll be able to flush both toilets at the same time.
So this has been living on my street for about a week.

Tuesday they started making the trench for the new pipe, which involved a very annoying machine that make all kinds of weird loud noises and it came down past my house. The upshot of THAT was this

A semi solid line down the street that ends at the stream. They also dug a really deep hole at the other end of the street which they do cover with a huge steel plate every night. Well yesterday morning just as the guys were starting to dig again, I had to call 911. My CO2 monitor was going off intermittently and you are suppose to call the Fire Department. Turns out it's an old unit giving up the ghost but they smelled gas in the kitchen and had to call the gas company. Which arrived about 20 minutes later and didn't find any detectable levels of gas anywhere in the house - not around the stove, under the stove, behind the stove or in the stove. However, we could SMELL gas every so often so he had to condemn my stove.

Which, for me is not so bad. I've wanted to replace this since we bought the house 15 years ago but I wasn't prepared to shop for a new one this weekend. I've got to work both days and also will have the little dogs overnight. We're looking for a used range to get us through until we remodel the kitchen. That's when I'll have the nice new cook top and dual ovens installed.
Sigh, why do hardware always go south when you just spent you last dime? But I have dual flushing to look forward to this summer!

O.M.G.!!!!!

2009-03-20T15:34:00.002-04:00

Warning - Put down any liquids and solids before clicking.
Check out the baby. Babyhood

Now check out the picture that didn't make the pattern. Baby Got Flack

Told you. Don't blame me for having to clean up a mess.

PS - The second link is why The Boss got her nickname. She came out with that look!

SPRING?

2009-03-13T19:48:00.003-04:00

Well, I know it's spring. The DPW department is fixing a water main break -again! Back in January, the big trucks were at the end of my street along with a front end loader and a whole boatload of men looking into a huge hole. Well, today when I finally got home for good, I noticed a huge puddle and bubbling water at the same corner. So for the last few hours, I've enjoyed the sounds of jackhammers, big truck backup beepers and a front end loader revving up.
Our house guest, Miss Wanda, is currently moping on the couch with Youngest as Husband had a baseball thing tonight. She tried her darnedest to go with him but she had to stay here with us. Check out Lucy's latest blog post to see what I'm talking about. She sooo wanted to get in the car as soon as I walked in the door. And then she was so disapointed that Husband wasn't here for her to worship. But she'll have a few days to soak him up.
As for knitting, I've finished a few small things but best of all I haven't started anything new. Now if Mother Nature will stop snowing on my day's off, I can get into my stash and really get it organized.
I realized that I put most of it into my Ravelry but about half of it has no designation as to which box I put it into. So maybe tomorrow I can get out there and really get it organized.
Wish me luck!

And So It Begins!!!!!

2009-02-15T14:28:00.003-05:00

In just under an hour my sporting season will start. It's going to be an interesting season. Lots of interesting rule changes, lots of new teams and lots of action!
I've got my knitting project lined up just waiting to be picked up after DW yells Boggity! Boggity! Boggity! How I've missed that. And how I'm going to enjoy it for the next few races.
Unfortunately, I've been laid low with a nasty cold and am missing The Boss's birthday party. She's 11! Which means The Gift will be 2 in a couple of months. And Youngest will be 25 after that. What is going on with the calendar?! How did these kids get so old so fast?
Well, I'm going to claim my spot on the couch, get comfy and enjoy the next few hours. I'm hoping for a great race with a tight finish and no injuries to any of the driver's, except The Other Gordon. He needs to crash right after crossing the start/finish line so I don't have to see his car on the track or hear his name mentioned.
Have a great day and if y'all don't hear from me until just before Thanksgiving, I'll be doing fine!

So I Didn't Win

2009-02-02T07:13:00.023-05:00

Yesterday a group of us from the Taunton SnB decided to take advantage of the Super Bowl. Black Sheep Knitting Co., in Needham was one of the many LYS having sales and we did ourselves proud. I DID NOT spend the most but I did manage to get a few noteworthy items as well as knocking off a couple of things on my wish list.
Look! Yarn!
Starting left to right from the back are Bashful Fibers, Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Regis Softy Color, Lang Jawoll Aktion (with a reinforcement spool!), Regia Silk and Lang Jawoll Cotton Jacquard.

I found out about Bashful Fibers from exploring other's stashes on Ravelry but didn't expect to find it so quick. My plan is to make Youngest a pair of tube socks with it.
I had to get the Bearfoot cause I don't have that colorway. I was asked what I was going to make with it. Well, nothing as a matter of fact. I buy Bearfoot to feel up not to knit with it! I have never even heard of the Regia Softy and decided use it to make The Boss and The Gift matching socks. The rest will eventually become socks for whoever.

But I didn't just buy yarn, I added to the accessories/books section as well.

Knitted Jackets by Cheryl Oberle, Addi 0000 (1.25mm) double points, a Mighty Bright clip on lamp (love the color!), pink and blue highlighter tape, another pair of 'reading' glasses, three samples of Soak, jumbo locking stitch markers and soft stitch ring markers.
I plan on using my Border Leicester hand-spun to make The Wrapper jacket. The pullover I had almost completed turned out Wrong! So I hunted around and found Cheryl had a new book out. This pattern jumped out at me as I wanted a casual jacket for the yarn. Let's hope I have enough hand-spun to complete it!
I've needed an small clip on light for years and this one seems to fit the bill. It has 2 LED lights and runs on 3 AAA batteries. I like the fact you can choose one or 2 lights and it clips or will sit flat. I tested it out last night during part of the game and I was able to see my pattern and knitting quite clearly. I have high hopes for this.
I'm always in need of reading glasses and I loved the color of this pair. Hopefully (if I remember to put them in the bag) I'll have an easier time of finding these than some of my other pairs.
I was called crazy when I showed off my find of a set of Addi 0000 needles. I have enough cobweb lace yarn to make a Wedding Ring shawl. Just cause I've had this yarn for almost 10 years and never started doesn't mean I'm crazy! My Mom has a magnifying lamp I can use.
The rest will probably end up being used for gifts bags on The Half Mystery Tour. Which is still in the planning phase. I'm waiting on a certain place to get back to me so I can get pricing done.

Oh, and if buying more sock yarn wasn't enough I even bought socks this weekend. See - I can shop for clothes. These are Smart Wool socks with a padded sole. I test wore them yesterday and I was impressed. My feet were warm but not overly so and the padding help with keeping my feet comfortable.
I did buy another style of Smart Wool socks but the company will be getting a nasty letter from me about those. Making the cast on and cuff tight for a pair of knee high socks that are designed for multiple sized feet makes for having the circulation cut off on your calves. Stupid people! The elastic in the sock will keep them up!

On The Down Side

2009-01-27T05:33:00.007-05:00

I've made it over the mountain and now I can see the finish line! I've spent the last month or so getting my Ravelry account filled up with FOs, UFOs, TOADs and the SABLE.
My next step is to really examine the UFOs and decide which I want to finish and then frog the rest. Then I'm going to attach the SABLE and try to get it down to a stash.
This has been a good exercise for me. I've finally got a handle on what I've got going and and how much time I have to play with it. I sorta knew I had KADD (knitting attention deficit disorder) but had no idea how bad it was! No wonder I have 8 size 4 16 inch circular needles and could not find one when I needed one! They were in UFOS! Some of which were years old and now that they have surfaced I can't figure out A) Why I started/stopped the project, B) Where I was in the pattern and C) What was I thinking???? when I started it.
This has lead to reflection in other area's of my life and home. I'm really starting to get the house into some kind of order without any input from Husband. He's just hopeless at that sort of thing. I'm not sure why but I've come to accept that he is not able to deal with anything outside of work.
So, this time next year I'm hoping that I have a dining room set up, a functioning kitchen and bedrooms that echo when you enter.

PS-Happy Birthday to me!!!

On A Roll

2009-01-11T02:17:00.004-05:00

Sorta. I've been busy entering my stash into Ravelry - http://www.ravelry.com/people/thefibergoddess/stash?view=thumbnail
along with taking pictures to go with the yarn. I am getting better with the digital camera which I consider a side benefit.
As I've pulled out my yarn, I've also discovered some old projects, some of which are TOAD's (Trashed Objects Abandoned in Disgust). I have decided that for 2009 I will work my way through my TOAD's and UFO's and either make them FO's or frog them and re-purpose the yarn. In addition, I'm going to take a serious look at the SABLE and whittle it down to a more manageable STASH.
And maybe, just maybe I can get an Etsy shop up and running for myself this year. I've been thinking about this for a while and have a couple of idea's on what I want to do. Now I just have to firm up which way I want to go and start it.

Famous Last Words

2008-12-23T20:05:00.004-05:00

In my last post I mention Youngest not being well and that it looked like she was on the road to recovery. An hour after that post, I was on my way to the emergency room with her. I thought she had appendicitis. 8 hours later it turned out that she had a kidney stone that had became stuck. This is waaay not good! She only has one kidney and I kinda freaked (quietly so's not to freak her out). Long story short, it was removed yesterday and she is on the mend.
Oldest came as soon as she was called and spent the first night in the hospital as I was asleep on my feet. I was with her last night and tonight she kicked me out as soon as the nurses set her up with the DVD player.
If she continues to drink her IV will be removed and she might be home sometime tomorrow. I know she's feeling much better as she's was starting to giggle this afternoon. I had to leave for a couple of hours and her nurse was going to wash her hair for me. They had an experience! The 'showerhead' fell off the hose and water went everywhere! Not a way I would recommend to clean the walls or floor but Youngest has clean hair.
I'm home for the night with cell phone on in case she needs to call. Love Muffin and Little Man are here for the rest of the week, we have lights, heat and presents for under the tree and life is good.
Merry Christmas to all.
PS - my sister had gastric bypass surgery yesterday and is doing well. She should be on her way home tomorrow as well.

I Win! (I think)

2008-12-21T11:52:00.009-05:00

I've been adding my stash (S.A.B.L.E. x2) into Ravelry. Ho Boy! I've only gotten a few boxes from the storage room (ala back half of the garage) and well .... you decide.

http://www.ravelry.com/people/thefibergoddess/stash

See the first tab? See that number? How did I let it get so out of control??? Mind you I haven't even started with the hand spun or the realllly good stuff that WILL NOT be put out there.
I was on a roll with this until Friday afternoon when the snow started which has not stopped! Husband has cleared a path twice to the door in between fixing my car.
Oh yeah, yesterday after clearing it off and shoveling the snow from around it, I tried to start it. Well, it was the original battery to the car which is 12 years old and it was 12 degrees out so I guess it was time for it to die. I now have a brand new battery and can go get my Honey Dew Chocolate Raspberry coffee today. Only I'll have to clear my car AGAIN.
And Wanda has been visiting. Thursday night she ran to the back door to worship at the feet of Husband. And has pretty much been miserably when he hasn't been around. See!

But she has been outside a few times. Right now the snow in the backyard is deeper then her so I've kept her to the shoveled walkway.

And she is definitely a hot house flower.

And snore! I'm not sure who is louder - her or Husband! At the moment, she's on the couch with Youngest who kept Husband and myself up all night holding her head and cleaning up messes. Not sure what the problem was/is but it seems to have run it course.
I'm off to try and get another storage box to add to my Stash or got get coffee or maybe just snuggle under the covers and finish a project or 2.

PS - did I mention we're in for another storm on Tuesday?

Curses

2008-12-07T09:56:00.005-05:00

Ok, so it's not officially winter. But it sure is looking like it. I took the dogs out at 6 am and the walkway's were wet. Hard pellets hit my face and I was instantly pissed. The grass is almost covered and I'm sure the back deck is slick as a hockey rink. I've got to find my boots, then clean the dust off of them before I can hit the S.A.B.L.E. for a new project.
Youngest is being a PIA cause she wants to go Shopping and neither me or Husband wants to move out the door. I'm out of coffee and waiting for a phone call before I go out at which time I will stop and get a can.
All I want to do is bundle up with a hot cup a', yarn and a good movie and not have to do anything.
But we need food and clean clothes so I'm hoping to get a couple of hours today of knitting in.
Well, at least the white stuff waited until December to start. I just hope this is not a preview of the rest of winter.

This and That

2008-11-30T13:49:00.006-05:00

Wow, it's been awhile since my last entry. No cookie for me. Been working and knitting - alot! Lately I've been on Ravelry (thefibergoddess) getting my projects, stash and needles input. Since the beginning of November I've gotten a few things done and today I added pictures! Now if I could just figure out the 'instant messaging' part, I be cooking with gas. We went to the in-law's as usual for Thanksgiving and had The Boss with us. She went home with Oldest yesterday and I do miss her already. With her help I was able to clean a lot of clutter out of the kitchen. She and I came up with a plan! I'm going to get her a couple of weekends a month and we'll work together on a project around the house to whip it into shape. For what ever reason, Husband and Youngest can't/won't help out and I can't keep up with them. The Boss really likes to be busy which makes her the perfect helper for me. I can stay in one spot and hand her stuff with orders as to what to do with it and she does it.
Once Husband gets home, I'm going to be boiling the turkey for soup. I need to warm up the kitchen, which will warm up the rest of the house. I ran out to the S.A.B.L.E. and it's COLD out side! So it looks like soup and home-made bread for supper tonight.
As much as Husband claims to be a cat person, he seems to get along pretty well with all the dogs I've brought home to visit. Check these out -

Well, he's pulling into the drive with my coffee so I'm off to make soup and bread. Stay warm and I'll try to be a better blogger.

House Guests

2008-06-22T13:11:00.009-04:00

I've have a few house guest overnight. Their quite, mostly respectful and a whole lotta fun! They've visited before, sometimes overnight and sometimes just for the day.
This time they arrived just before dinner and they'll be going home just before bedtime.
Meet Little Man and the Love Muffin.

Little Man will run and get his squeaky toy's for me to play with him. But he's so small I have to be careful with him here at the house. He can make it up the stairs but not down. I've got a baby gate across the stairs and he doesn't even bother looking at it.

Love Muffin is just that! She loves to be petted and will sit on you. If you don't pay attention to her, she'll give you a tap on the back of your leg. What she really likes it to have her belly rubbed.

Pretty soon, I'll be seeing them on a much more regular basis. I took a job with their owner and I'll be starting in a couple of weeks.

Now, I just gotta make it through the next 2 weeks at my regular job before I can play!

Meet and Greet

2008-06-17T17:59:00.015-04:00

Since I've got the new swanky computer and have uploaded a whole camera full of pic's, I thought I would show you a few.

This is the Oldest when she was about 4 months old.

This is the oldest 2 years ago. She is doing the Cotton Eye Joe, wearing her father's hat, in a strapless dress. What you can't see is the WHOLE skirt of the dress wrapped around her arm. I was impressed!

This is me with my girl's. Oldest is about 8 and Younger is 3. See, even back then I still had the braid.

This is Younger last year when she turned 23!

This is Brother on his wedding day almost 20 years ago with Husband.

This is Husband at the restaurant we took Oldest to for her birthday. He forgot his glasses and borrowed mine.

This is The Boss at 2. She was telling someone that she WAS opening her present and their's was next.

This is her at her mother's birthday dinner. Any questions?!

This is The Gift. She was 5 hours old in this picture

This is The Gift at my birthday dinner. Yes, she is mostly that happy.

And just so you know where I get my knitting from

This is my Mom's big sister.

Cha! Cha! CHANGES!!

2008-06-15T19:56:00.012-04:00

I went from this

to this yesterday.

A brand new, nobody else has used it but me, computer! I think I'm in love .....

Of course this is the result today -

Reinstalling software can be a pain, but since I organized where I kept them, I was able to get most of what I needed to reinstall done. Including the software and cable to upload ALL the pictures from the digital camera. Hence, these pictures!
There are still a couple of things on the old computer that have not been transfered over, but I can live without them for the moment.
Does anyone have a disk for Outlook 2003? I have a registration number but no disk (the last place that did the install stuff on the old computer did not give me a copy of anything!)

And Junior WON!!!! Youngest is a very happy girl.

Oldest is almost to Disney World and from the phone call that Husband got, The Gift is not happy. Sounds like she did not get the travel gene. I can't wait to hear what The Boss has to say about all this.

Oh and check this out

I made this over here - http://www.mylivesignature.com/

I think I'm becoming a bit of a computer geek LOL

Mother's Day

2008-05-11T22:00:00.002-04:00

How was yours?? Mine, not so fun. I did get the see all my girls. Husband did not play golf. I did have a good meal. But.....

About an hour before we were to leave to meet Oldest at the restaurant where we had reservations, Husband's back went out. BAD! So Oldest came down with The Boss and The Gift. But at least I didn't have to cook and even though I had to bring food to Husband I had a good day.

I got to listen to a new audio book and play on the computer most of the day. I got to play with The Gift and see her laugh at my silly antics. The Boss showed off her new Game Boy and borrowed a game from Youngest to play. And she helped with the food.

And I talked with both Mom and Mother-In-Law, a sister and my brother.

I have decided that I'm going to try to do a daily update and post it weekly. I'm hoping that might jump start me in getting this blog going on a regular basis. And maybe I'll learn how to post pictures and such as well.

So the wrap up – Ok Mother's Day (as far as the day itself went) but good times with family.

HEROES

2008-04-05T20:00:00.001-04:00

Today as I have listening to the radio 'they' keep remarking about the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. One show in particular made me want to write this. The show is 'Rabbi Shmuly' which I get on my satellite radio. Today his subject was Heroes. He made alot of good points about how this country worships the sports figure because of what they do when they perform in the sport or the Hollywood 'celebrity' because that's who the press focuses on which is probably the reason why our youngsters are so screwed up!
That got me thinking who my heroes are.

Well my heroes are my mom and daughters.

My parents divorced when I was less than 6 years old. She raised 4 daughters (my sisters are all younger than me) while working 2 jobs, one of them was third shift at Pratt & Whitney, paid off all the bills my father left AND still found a way to travel with us.
She bought a hard top camper and would load it & us into the car and take off on weekends. Picture a women with 4 girls pulling into a campground, getting the camper placed correctly and directing all those young kids. Now, picture doing this in the mid 60's! When she bought the camper, she didn't even know how to back it up! She asked AFTER she bought it and was TOLD how to.
We lived with my grandparents. The driveway had a steep entrance and was not that big. The trick was to pull the camper close to one side and angle the car the other way. Then we kids could unhook it, get the wheel on it and push it out of the way. She got so that she could do this maneuver in one shot even in the dark. Oh, and the car was a 3 speed on the floor stick with power steering and brakes. We had a few adventures with this car that I'll save for another blog.

Our first trip out with it, Mom met our first stepfather. He had rejected a campsite because he couldn't get his camper between 2 trees. He was recovering from back surgery and couldn't turn around to look over his shoulder. He even went so far as to tell the campground people that it was impossible to get a camper on that site. Along came my Mom and she looked at it and just pulled through the trees to get the camper set in the right spot!

When he died, Mom was now left with 5 girls, all teenagers and his mom to take care of. Money was always tight but we never went hungry, we had the basics for clothes and lots of love. She taught me the value of working for what you want and how to keep going when life throws you a curve ball or down on the ground.

After he died, she took a course on car maintenance so she wouldn't have to spend money on oil changes and tune ups. She took up square dance for exercise and sewed her dresses, which in my opinion, were much better than anything that could be gotten in a store. She did all the finish work on the new living room, which included taping and sanding the drywall, installing the carpet and installing the woodwork.

She always been there, leading by example. At no time in my life, no matter how bad my sisters and I acted or however we screwed up, did she not let us know how much she loved us.

My oldest is so much like me and yet so different. She repeated alot of my mistakes but she learned the lessons so much quicker than me. She is a phenomenal mother. I am constantly amazed at her ability to juggle 2 kids, work and school. Many's been the time that I wished I could win the lottery just so I could help her finish school faster, see her in a reliable car and a home of her own. I know someday she will achieve all of this on her own simply because she will find a way to do it.

My youngest has a genetic defect but she is one clever person. Her speech is very difficult to understand, yet she will find a way to make you understand her. She is passionate about country music, NASCAR and her favorite driver, 'Junior', the Pats and Red Sox, her nieces and other family members. She is always willing to try something once and will work hard at being able to do alot of things that we 'normal' people take for granted. I remember that it took 2 years for her to be able to use a pair of scissors. But she kept at it until she could cut along the lines. Oh, and she's left handed to boot!
So, if I'm ever asked who my heroes are these are the people that top my list. I admire alot of people. People like Abigail Adams, Rosa Parks, alot of NASCAR drivers, certain sports figures. But, my heroes will always be close to me.

BBC AMERICA TV CHANNEL

2008-02-10T13:59:00.000-05:00

I have been cleaning my house but stop to rest alot. And I completely stop at 3 pm. Why, you ask? Because from 3 to 5 I am hooked on 'How clean is your house' and 'You are what you eat'. Now, don't get me wrong. My house is no where near as bad the homes they clean up. But alot of what they (Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie) make sense to me. I just didn't realize how bad dust can be for those that have allergies to it. Like me and Husband and Youngest.
I like that they use 'green' cleaning. I've picked up a lot of tips and tricks from this show. And I've come to the decision that I'm going that route as much as possible. Now I hate shopping at Wal-Mart but the other day I spent close to $100 bucks at the local one to get the supplies I needed to get me going on this. I needed spray bottles and diapers and a few other things. Most everything else I already had here, such as white vinager, baking soda and borax. I've even bookmarked a couple of 'green cleaning' sites to help make the transition easier.
I've been cleaning up a storm this week to the point that I even took the oven door off my stove to facilitate getting my upper body inside to clean it! I've already noticed a big difference in how I feel. Normally this time of year, my outdoor allergies start acting up and I quickly start down the migraine, sinus infection road. So far, so good!
I've even started to develop a cleaning plan and have written it down. There are things that have to be done every day and then weekly and monthly stuff. I figure that with returning to work soon, with a plan I can keep up. And Youngest is becoming quite the helper. So it looks like Husband is outnumbered. He really hasn't taken to this so far. But Youngest is a better nagger than me!

And as for eating, we are very bland here at Casa Fibergoddess. I realized that most of our meals are brown and yellowish. No red, greens or any other colors. As I said in my previous post, I AM GOING TO TAKE CARE OF ME. Towards that, I have been eating well. I estimate that I've lost 10 pounds over the last few months and am determined to gain it back. The internet is a wonderful thing! But, I've discovered that I have to increase my caloric intake to over 2000 a day to safely gain 1 to 2 pounds a mouth. Yikes! So, it will be oatmeal AND toast with peanut butter for breakfast, 2 snacks before lunch, something besides ham and cheese on white bread for lunch, 2 more snacks before supper, lots of carbs and protein for supper and a bedtime snack. Now before you wig out, I'm not going the junk food route.
There is a 'gourmet' farm stand just down the street from work. They carry a lot of organic and healthy stuff. So, it will be nuts and dried fruit and fresh veggies for snacks. Whole wheat pasta and quality made box mixes. Not a lot of added salt and sugar, etc. I figure that Husband and Youngest (who has, on her own, lost over 10 pounds this year!!!) will also benefit from this diet.

I'm hoping that I can get my work schedule going in a direction that won't stress me out too much so I can function when I get home. Having a regular eating schedule is not possible but my plan is to put healthy snacks in a fanny pack and wear it. That way, before I get too hungry I can eat and that's the key for me. I can't wait until I'm hungry because then I don't want to eat.

DOG WITH A BRAIN

2008-01-30T12:46:00.000-05:00

My middle sister just called me and I have to tell you what she related to me.
Back in December, she and family stopped by and I took her to my S.A.B.L.E. to shop for some yarn. She and College Grad daughter crochet and I try my best to supply them with new yarn when they visit. Seeing a how Sister was to be on the road for the next few days, she shopped well.
This is what she told me today. She has 2 dogs, one who just realized it has a brain after having it's head coiffed. Her house is a split level and she was upstairs when the newly brained dog came through the door .... with yarn!
She had the yarn and WIP in a bag next to her chair in the living room and apparently he checked it out. And got caught up in it. A cat couldn't have done a better job! She reported that not only was it wrapped around most of the furniture on the first floor, he even managed to wrap the other dog with yarn.
I am happy to report that dog and yarn made a speedy recovery!

The Long Road Back

2008-01-27T20:27:00.000-05:00

On Veteran's Day I awoke to find that I had vertigo. Vertigo is not just swinging or spinning. Vertigo is full on gyro spinning! I talking about forward, around and sideways, all at the same time. For someone who hates rollercoaster's and get motion sick watching boats on TV this is NOT a 'good thing'. Since then I have been pretty much confined to home.
The first few weeks at home were basically spent on the couch, leaning to one side and carefully editing what I watched on TV. The ER doc gave me a prescription for a motion sickness pill. That worked OK for a few days. I'd take it and pass out for a few hours. When I was awake and wanting to get to another room, I'd have to hold onto something and make sure that my head was down and move at a less than a snail pace. But it started to make me feel even sicker the more I took it. So my regular doctor gave me a prescription for a motion sickness patch. These are worn behind your ear for up to 3 days at a time.
Turns out I developed Benign Positional Vertigo. I had blood tests, an MRI and multiple visits with several doctors. The ENT was the one that got me on the road to recovery. Unfortunatly, I did see him until the beginning of this month.
He looked at my ears, gave me a hearing test (to rule out several other nasty things that are chronic conditions) and referred me for physical therapy. Who knew that there was PT for gyro spinning! Well, I've had good days and bad days. The PT started to work almost the first day. Problem was that by this time I still needed the motion sickness patch to function. Turns out you can get 'addicted' to these.
How do I know? About 2 weeks ago, the patch I put on started to itch about 8 hours after I applied it. 3 days later when I removed it, it looked like I had be burned with a cigarette. Fool that I am, I decided to try a half patch instead. Same result, so I stopped using it. Turns out that I developed an allergy to the adhesive.
I wasn't sure what was worse, the vertigo or the intense nausea that I developed. So, back to the doctor's I go. I was laying on the exam table, curled in a ball when he walked in. Another prescription and I was on my way home.
Here it is, 4 days later, and I'm feeling so much better. I'm still not 100%. I'm almost walking full speed, I can eat, knit, do some housework and I'm sleeping much better. I can't read full speed yet and I still can't spin. I still haven't driven my car at night and quick side to side movements bring back the spinning. That is subsiding quicker but I can't go back to work until I have that under control. It's one thing to drive my car with only me in it and another to drive a company vehicle.
Today is my birthday and it's been one of the best I've had in a long time. We stayed home and the Oldest came with The Boss and The Gift. Husband got Boston Market chicken with alot of fixin's and we played with The Gift. She's very mobile and such a hoot!
The cards were great, the house was cleaned (including being vacuumed, which has not been done since I've been sick. Don't ask!), the food wonderful and the presents perfect!
Oh The presents! Flowers, 1 bag of Lindt Dark Chocolate truffles, 2 Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate bars (turns out The Boss loves this almost as much as I do!) and 2 large boxes of Junior Mints.
Oldest, The Boss and I sang along with some of my favorite country songs. I learned that Oldest, after many years of running screaming from the house whenever I played anything remotely country, now knows most of my favorite songs.
The Boss and I sang and danced to one of her favorite's – 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' by CDB! Gotta love that. And having received his newest one for Christmas, I was surprise to find out that Oldest knows all the words to 'Drinking My Baby Goodbye'! Turns out that the SO deemed that his song about her when they had broken up. And The Gift seemed to like it when I scooped her up to slow dance around the living room to my newest favorite song from Big & Rich.
So for now I'm OK with my progress. I need at least one more PT session under my belt and I'm hoping to be back to work before the Daytona 500 in February.
Oh and the house? Don't ask. I was making progress until last week. I'm hoping to get most of my spring cleaning done before I head back to work. I won't bore you with how much paper and junk I've thrown out so far or the state of most of the surfaces especially in the kitchen. Suffice to say, that Husband has not missed anything, Youngest is very happy with the shape of her room and I can walk around without tripping or sticking to stuff!
Having to stop cold turkey all activity has given me time to think and reflect. I've decided to change a few things in my life. I'm going to treat myself better. Maybe try yoga and see a nutritionist to pump up my immune system. I will not take on other's stress or try to do it all myself. I'm going to stop when I get tired and rest. I'm going to do something for my mind, body and spirit everyday and if it means that Husband and Youngest have to do for themselves so be it.
In other words, I'm going to be very selfish about what I do from now on.

Never Forget

2007-09-11T18:48:00.000-04:00

I'm glad that it rained today. I was able to work without wanting to burst into tears.

Do you remember where you were 6 years ago? What you were doing? Do you remember what the following weeks were like? How we forgot our differences. How proudly we flew the flag, how much we wanted to help others, even strangers. How our hearts broke with every news story, picture or even a brief thought?

I made a conscious effort not to glue myself to the TV. I didn't read much of the newspaper accounts and stuck to my regular radio stations. True be told I'm not much of a media hound. And knowing myself, I couldn't take alot of what was being reported.

There were a few instances where I wanted to smash a TV 'news' person. The one that stands out still makes me furious! A gather of was to being held at City Hall in Boston with Christian, Jews and Muslim religious leaders attending as part of a 'healing' service. I was sitting in my doctor's office, which helped me to keep my anger in check. The TV was on and some idiot was 'ON THE SCENE LIVE!!!!' answering question from the anchor back in the studio when the anchor asked the most idiotic, asinine, unknowledgeable, inexcusable question. This person asked 'If any Muslims have shown up yet?' and did it with not only a smile on their face but in their voice!

Of course, we all walk around with our religion stamped on our forehead so we can be readily identified as a Jew or Christian or Buddhist in a crowd. I must give the on the scene person credit because even he was stunned by the question. He did recover pretty quickly and give a short answer but for me that was the point that I noticed attitudes started to change.

When my doctor came into the exam room his phone was ringing and when he answered the poison that spewed out from it shocked me! He is not Muslim, he is not Iranian and he does not support terrorists. I so wanted to grab his phone, crawl through it and stuff my fist down the throat of the caller for being so ignorant! Instead, I apologized. I apologized for an American!

So here, we are 6 years later, more hated then ever. Fighting a war in 2 different countries, a war we can't win or even break even in. And we have forgotten. Forgotten the random acts of kindness we did in the weeks after. Forgotten the innocents lost and the innocents left behind.

Instead I see blind bigotry, blind following and outright hatred. So I'm glad it rained today.

Where have all the people gone?

2007-06-24T13:27:00.000-04:00

Having spent yesterday and today running errands I just noticed how empty the stores and roads are! That combined with the weather has put me in a fairly good mood. Now all I have to do is stop thinking about what both will be like in less than 6 months.

I am sloooowly getting things done. I moved another bin out to the new workshop. I'm starting to find all the little UFO's and getting those done. Work is getting easier. I've starting to get my routine down so I'm not so brain fried when I get home.

In retrospect, it could be that I'm no longer tied to the school calendar. After 18 years of kids having one week off out of eight and then the summer off, I'm fast becoming free! That was one of my biggest life stressors. Moreover, Husband wasn't able to help most times. Yes, he has lots of vacation time but with his back, he saves it for that. And my jobs like to pay me for showing up.

I'm getting Younger to help out more as well. Today we went to Shaw's and spent some of her 'free' money for lunches. I found they were selling those heavy canvas bags (which does have their name all over it – Oh well) so I got a couple. I hate those plastic bags! There everywhere and we never use all of the up. We were able to everything we bought into one of them and Younger was very eager to carry it. We made a deal that she will use one everytime she goes to the store and that way all her food is together for her to put away at home. Now all I have to do is convince Husband to use it.

I want less stuff. I hate how my house is so cluttered with it. Most of it is junk anyways and we don't use it. The basement is crammed with all kinds of unused, broken and I have no idea what it is things. And when I have a conversation with Husband about getting rid of things, he wants to throw out the antiques and what we really use. Go figure! Having three non functioning cordless phones packed away is not a problem but keeping a 100 year old WORKING treadle sewing machine is.

I've decided it's up to me to hoe out this place. He plans to play alot of golf this summer and I don't have to work a second job to make ends meet. Even if it's only one room that I can get done, I will feel like a million bucks.

And not have to weave my way around people and cars to get this done helps as well.

Mom’s Dress

2007-06-16T11:59:00.000-04:00

In 2007 I attended the NETA Spa and entered an item I was extremely proud of. It was not something I had knit but had been made by my mother over 40 years earlier. My goal in showing off this item was to encourage old and new knitter’s to sometime think about the future generations.
At the time this item was completed mom was single with 4 girls under the age of 10. She worked 3rd shift and drove a school bus in the afternoon to support us. In addition to knitting, she also sewed alot of our dresses, both for everyday wear and special occasions. Some of those dresses and hand knits were actually worn by her grandchildren!

Being young I can’t remember the exact year but I had to have been 7 or 8 when she started knitting this dress. It came down just below her knees and the yoke was done in Fair Isle. I have never seen the pattern so I’m not sure if she made any modifications to it.
What I can tell you is that it was knit with 100% wool using a small needle size, probably a 3 or 4. The main color is a light brown with green, pink and white for the contrasting colors in the yoke. The body was knit in the round, the sleeves were knit flat and the back of the Fair Isle is incredible. Oh, and she also knitted a matching tam. They are both a work of art.

I have pictures of her modeling it after it was completed and fuzzy memories of her wearing it a couple of times over the years. She started to gain some weight in the 70’s and put it away as it didn’t fit anymore. This dress is a timeless knit. It’s as stylish now as it was back then. And I am the only one of her children that can wear this – Hee Hee Hee! But I am taller than she is so it hits me above the knee. I guess I’ll just need to be careful about how I move.

When I started my knitting odyssey I realized what she had accomplished with this dress. At a time when good yarn was fading from the public eye and the “womanly arts” were starting to be actively discouraged, she forged ahead. Eventually we grew up and she lost the weight. She brought the dress out again to wear on special occasions and looked stunning! It is knit with 100% wool after all so it might not be worn alot but I will always cherish it not only for it’s beauty but for the memories it captured.

About the time she started knitting on the dress circular needles had just come out. They were made of plastic, in one piece and never straightened out. I know because somehow I ended up with a couple of them and every time I try to knit with them it’s a battle as they retain the curls from being in the package.

Not many years after Mom completed it; she developed Carpal Tunnel and was forced to stop knitting. She eventually had surgery on both wrists and has started knitting again with a lot of encouragement from me. She chooses to make smaller things now like preemie hats. I have taught her how to make socks using 2 circulars and she’s raided my stash a couple of times for yarn and needles.

She did eventually produce the booklet that the dress pattern is in but that part of it is missing! At least the yoke pattern is still in it. I guess someday if I get the motivation, I can knit my own version and possible pass it down to my girls. And who knows? 30 or 40 years from now, there will be another story out there about a knitted dress inherited from an older generation.

Holiday Weekend Or how I got my fix on!

2007-06-08T05:20:00.000-04:00

Every year there is a gathering of like minded people on Presidents Day weekend in Portland ME. We call it SPA. If you are into fiber, knit, spin or weave or are even a little bit curious about any of the aforementioned stuff this is your weekend.
Vendors with all sorts of yarn, spinning fiber, books, you name it. Wheels galore! And you are encouraged to try them out by their owner’s if you are so inclined! Knitter’s who are very eager to show off what they’re working on and quick to show you a new technique or help out of you have any questions.
Chocolate, alcohol, manicures, pedicures, massages, food! Shop till you drop, spin, knit to your hearts content. Do it all or do nothing but soak up the atmosphere. This is our weekend to truly indulge ourselves and our hobby\addictions.
For the past 3 years, I’ve tried to leave home on Friday morning to arrive de-stressed and ready to party. And for the past 2 years it didn’t happen. Both due to Husband and his back.
Last year was the worst. I had planned on being on the road by 9 am with both Husband and Younger leaving the house for work and school by 7. Which would have giving me plenty of time to pack and load and run errands before getting on the highway North!
At 7:15 am he was on the floor with back spasms and I was dialing 911. I didn’t arrive in Portland until almost 8 pm that night after spending most of the day at the local emergency room, pharmacy and arranging help for Husband care until I got home Sunday.
This year it was my car that decided to go down. Fortunately, it started giving signs that it didn’t want to make the drive very early in the week. Husband then very generously offered to rent me a car! So Friday morning I was at Hertz to pickup my ‘economy’ size rental car that I had reserved. Image my surprise when I got ..... Wait for it!
A PT CRUISER!!!!!!!!!
Now normally I don’t get too excited about cars. I’m rather picky about them as I have these long legs that smaller cars don’t accommodate very well. But a neighbor has a Cruiser and I’ve driven a couple of times and had a ball! And I had this thing for the whole weekend! Whoo Hooo!
I arrived in Portland around 3 after a leisurely drive north on 95 and a couple of stops along the way. My roomy was leaving down here around 3 and I calculated she should arrive around 6 so when 6:30 rolled around I gave her a call. Now I know what I sound like when I know I can safely vent my stress/frustration about being held up in traffic getting to an important event AND getting lost 2 seconds from my destination!
Roomy arrived a few minutes later; we got her stuff up to our room and hit the bar for food. Is it us or something in the air there that makes men want to pickup fiberist’s? All we wanted was food and a drink and quite conversation with each other and the guy’s on either side of us kept trying to butt in!
At least this year I didn’t have to explain about my Good Gene’s!
Saturday we made the rounds of the vendors and headed out to Halcyon in Bath with another friend. Thank god for K! I had printed out directions from the Doubletree to Halcyon from Google but was reluctant to rely on them as the directions I had used the day before to get to the hotel had me lost in South Portland!
K had a GPS and was a great back seat navigator! We got to our destination without any problems and she even spotted a yarn store while we were waiting to take a left turn. Picture 3 women turning 90 degrees to the rightin their seats and pointing at the same time!
I didn’t feel too bad for the guy behind us though. He had passed me on the highway and almost forced me into the breakdown lane as he came back to the right to cut me off. And I watched him do this to every car he passed as well as slowing down when he pulled into the left lane. So what if he had to wait a few extra seconds for me to move, we had found another yarn store to stop at on our way back to Portland.
I was very restrained with my $$ and then we headed out to the store we had spotted on our way. I did get a couple of skeins of Regia Stretch Color and the owner told us of a great place to have lunch. This is where it starts to get fun! We get off the exit only to find no left turns! I spotted the sign before the end of the ‘exit’ and turned right into a parking lot figuring to take a left out of that. No, there was a divider so antoher right turn until I found a place to turn around and make another right which got us going in the correct direction. Anyway, we made to the restaurant, had an awesome lunch, found out about a gourmet brownie shop and had dessert and headed out to a third shop that K knew about.
I got a book that I didn’t even know that I wanted and some yarn to make The Gift a couple of things. Now mind you, I only brought my wallet into the shop so I had less to keep track of and my hands were kept fairly free. As we headed back to the highway I couldn’t remember if I had brought it back out to the car. So, K checks my bag and asked several times if I had put it back into my purse. I’m starting to wig out as A.) I never drive without my license because I’ve got a commercial driver’s license and I’m a professional and know better than to hit the road without it and B.) I’m in a rental car with Missouri plates on it in Maine! My luck is such I would have been pulled over and ended my weekend waiting for Husband to pick me up.
In the mean time we’re trying to find a place to turn around to head back to the shop and K say’s “Turn right into the mall parking lot!” Being the good driver that I am, I did and ended up going North on the highway! Not what we expected! K calls the shop to ask if they found my wallet anywhere around and what time they closed. It’s now 3:57 and they said they were closing at 4. Yikes!
We did make it back to the store just before they closed. They remembered I had put my wallet in my shopping bag so we all checked the parking lot especially where I had parked to see if I had dropped it and then I decided to tear the car apart. I started with the bag from the store and proceded to my other bags. Somewhere in the frenzy I opened my purse and there was my wallet. I must have put it away and not remembered! Man, we were punchy from laughing so hard!
We got on the highway, going south this time and made it to the hotel in plenty of time to get ready for the Fashion Show that night.
I’m going to save the rest for another time because this is getting long but the ‘fun’ didn’t stop until after I left on Sunday morning.
I did arrive home relaxed and ready for The Daytona 500. I did get The Bosses socks completed and I did had a wonderful weekend.
Today is housework day and then back to work. This weekend is going to keep me going for at least the next 2 months until the Fiber Festival start and I can scratch my itch again.

PS - I found out much later that the Portlant Swingers Club meets at the hotel bar on Friday nights. Yea, those kinda Swingers!

I Never Win

2007-06-03T05:15:00.000-04:00

Last night we had Family Fun Night with the baseball league. Younger plays in the Challenger Division and I am proud to say that we have the oldest Challenger Division in the country!
Family Fun night is our equivalent to a regular leagues All Star game. All the team members and families get together, have burgers and hot dogs and play a few innings of fun ball. After the kids get a chance to hit and run the bases, the parents get to do the same, only with a twist!
Instead of regular bats and balls the parents use tennis rackets or golf clubs and try to hit water balloons and such.
This year was a little different then past. We combined Family Fun with our game under the lights. And we ate and had the raffle before the game. Husband is the president of the Challenger league and bought alot of the raffle items. And he had taken Younger with him when he went to the store. Remember this!
The raffle was set up with the items displayed with a bag to put the raffle tickets in. That way you had a chance at something you wanted. I was off, out of harms way, listening to the goings on as the numbers were being picked for each item when I heard that Younger had won..... a beading kit!!
Oh boy, just what I want to deal with for the next 6 months, little beads and such everywhere. This was also one of the items she had asked Husband to buy and had used most of her tickets for!
Husband said later that he should have had her play the lottery for him as well.

I tell you this story because it reminded me about one of the few things I have won in a raffle. A few years ago, I had the privilege of driving my parents and their square dance group to another club’s dance in upstate New York. They also were holding this kind of raffle.
As I was the driver and space was limited, I was very willing NOT to take a chance on anything, until I spied 2 hand-made costumes. One was a ‘Dorothy’ costume, complete with the gingham pinafore and the other was a ‘Princess’ dress with the head-dress. My mom walked up about that point and I pointed them both out. The Boss was about 4 years old then and as it was our duty to spoil her we decided to take a chance to win one of them. I put my ticket in for the Princess and Mom put her ticket in for the Dorothy.
Lo and Behold! Mom’s ticket was pulled! She informed the crowd that “This was for her Great Granddaughter!” Here’s where it gets weird. As they were calling out the next number, I put down my knitting and stood up and started walking across the floor because I knew I was going to be the winner! And I was. I told them that this was for my Granddaughter and it was the same child as the previous winner. Our group gave us a standing ovation. I hung both of them off the rack in the back of the bus. Everytime I looked in my mirror I could see them swaying and I could only laugh!

The Boss wore the Princess outfit for Halloween that year.

Purple Thang

2007-05-29T17:18:00.000-04:00

I've realized that I mentioned I knit and spin but have never posted a story about anything that I have knit! Well, here's one for you.
I love Purple Thang. It lives in my car year round. I have used it as a changing pad for The Boss, a blanket, lap warmer and carrier of stuff. It has also saved my from a possible head injury. If I had to keep only 1 of my shawls this would probably be the one.
I had purchased Folk Shawls when it was published. I love shawls and had made a list of the ones I wanted to knit from this book. Originally Purple Thang didn’t even make it but after finishing the Irish shawl, the Box Lace shawl and the Dimovia stole I was burned out with lace.
It was around the end of October and I was still driving full time and I need something pretty mindless that I could work on here and there. It so happened that I had a trip that would put me close to one of my LYS. I parked the bus and walked into the store and announced I needed help. At that time, I was in a color rut. I had come to the realization that I only went for blue. Blue work pants, blue jeans, blue yarn. I was happiest when someone else plunked down the yarn needed in a color I would have never even looked at.
Such was the case here. Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Worsted in Amethyst! And of course being at work I needed needles as well. I cast on immediately and knit happily until the shop closed. Over the course of the next month or so this was the project I took with to me.
My regulars got used to seeing this on my lap. And eventually I didn’t even need to remove it from my lap to drive. It kept my legs warm because there are openings under the dash that the cold air can get through. And my feet and lower legs would be frozen in less than an hour of driving.
I did make a modification to the pattern. I didn’t like the look of the ‘holes’ going all the way through the top border. When I reached the maximum stitch count for the top, I worked a K2t, YO row and then finished the top border.
I think it only took me 2 months to finish. I only LIKED it at the time. It was pretty and I did like the color. But garter is kinda plain and ordinary. And it was big! But it did grow on me over the course of the next year.
In March, I got a group together and we went to Patternworks in Poughkeepsie NY. I didn’t drive. DH did and being an observant person I knew that he would keep the bus pretty cool. Men like cold and the front of a bus is always warmer than the back. Hence, the driver usually keeps the bus cooler than is comfortable for most of the passengers. So I gathered up a few shawls in case they were needed.
We hit rain and yes, it got cool inside. Blissa fell asleep stretched out over 2 seats. She was wearing a tank top and nylon pants and when I looked at her I was cold! So I took Purple Thang and gently laid it over her. She told me later that she dreamed the sun came out!
Later that year, I had The Boss with me and she need a diaper change. I forget where we were but I do remember there was not place to lay her down to do this. Voila! Purple Thang to the rescue! Nice and big and cushy.
That winter was awful! Snow and ice and yuck! I’d throw Purple Thang over my coat as an added layer. It made a great wind blocker and head covering. One day I had shoveled the front walk and as I was walking up the street to my drive I slipped on some ice. Both feet came off the ground and I did a full body slam onto my back! As the shock wore off and I had mentally checked that nothing felt broken I was stunned to realize that I was OK. Purple Thang was around my head and shoulders and it cushioned the impact and probably saved me from being knocked out. And run over by the plow that I had heard turning the corner down the street!
I’ve worn it at Younger’s baseball games because we sit in the shade and the wind is cold. I’ve thrown it over my lap in the car in the dead of winter to block the draft coming from the car door. I use it to cover the steering wheel in the summer so my hands don’t get burned from the sun beating down on it all day. As time went on I realized that I LOVE Purple Thang!

The Gift

2007-05-27T06:39:00.000-04:00

If you look closely at my profile you should notice a small change to it.
A lot has changed since my last post. New job for one. I had been at the same company for 4 years. I started there just 3 days before Younger broke both bones in her right leg. A higher power had to be looking out for me as I could run home (not drive like a demon but RUN) when she called for help.
My direct ‘boss’ was wonderful and when he retired the supervisor moved up and he was great as well.
I knew my stuff, really liked the people I worked with and was settled in. I wasn’t happy about the money. I did take a second part time, part time job driving again but I was OK about what was my position in this company.
Shortly after my last post (which was when Blogger made me make changes that LOCKED ME OUT) the second company’s president called me and asked if I would come in to talk about what I did at my ‘real’ job. So I went, talked and showed off and was offered a job! At 25% more an hour to start!
I’m no fool, I took it. It’s meant changes in my work schedule which has affected some of my personal activities but that’s very minor.
I gave an over 6 week notice. I wanted the company to be able to hire someone and give me time to train the new person. I work with a program that is specific to the transportation industry. It’s not like Word or Excel or even Quick Books. But it’s very intuitive to learn and the tech support is phenomenal. Because I was the primary user I had set up alot of things to help the department run more efficiently and give my boss better information about the department. That’s what was going to take the new person time to learn.
Well, I ended up with only 2 weeks to train and it wasn’t until the last day I realized that this new person really didn’t know Word or Excel at all! Too late, I was out of there. This person was calling me multiple times a day for the first 2 weeks for help. I’ve even had to go back for several hours to straighten out some of the messes that were created and do more training on end of month closing.
On my last day, I expected that my boss would buy me lunch and maybe give me a card. Lunch time rolled around and he didn’t. But all the guys in the department did! And they made me cry! I was give pizza and soda and presents and boy do I miss them. But I do like my new job and most of my co-workers.
As I was pulling into the parking lot of the new place, my cell phone rang. Older was calling to let me know she was at the hospital and had been there since 3 am. This was to be the day that The Gift was arriving. I finally received another call at 3 as I was leaving that Taylor Grace had been born at 2:02 pm weighing over 8 pounds!
I got to see her when she was 5 hours old. Beautiful! Somehow we managed to take a picture of me holding her with the clock behind my head showing the time – 7:02 pm. And when Husband was printing out the pictures Younger and I took he started to cry.
The Gift looks just like her sister did except she has blond highlights, not red. And she is as laid back as The Boss is, well bossy! But she doesn’t like to be naked, just like her sister. Diaper changes and bathing is when she winds up and has her screaming fits. Once she has clothes on she goes back to being this calm person.
And now that the warm weather is here, Youngest has started playing baseball; Husband has started playing golf, bus trips have picked up and my new job?
Most days I come home with my brain fried! It’s a lot more that what was described to me. I’m super busy and can’t get everything I want to done each day. It’s challenging but I’m loving it!

PS – I also became a Great-Aunt 3 weeks after The Gift arrived. That means I’m not the only grandmother in my family and my mom now had 3 Great-Grand Daughters!

What the F%^((&^%$$#@

2007-05-26T21:26:00.000-04:00

With the help of a college graduate I am finally able to acess my blog! It's only been 2 months! Have I got stories to tell. But I'm too tired tonight. So I'll be posting more tomorrow.

9 YEARS AGO

2007-02-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

On February 11, 1998 at approximately 11:30 in the morning I was on my way to the hospital. My daughter had called and said ‘it was time’. I managed to make it there without having an accident or being pulled over for speeding.
Around 1pm my world changed. Shyann Patricia aka The Boss had arrived. It’s hard to describe what being a Grand is like. If you are in love with a child it to goes beyond that! Picture The Grinch’s heart at the end of the story. How it grew and grew until it was so large that it seemed to pop out of his chest. It’s kinda like that. Only more.
Yesterday, we attended her birthday party. She was having a pool party and was already in it when we arrived. I walked into the pool area to get my hug and even though it I go very wet I didn’t mind. I was amazed at how tall she is. But then again, she is her mother’s mother. We were all leggy at this age.
Over the past 9 years I have been continually amazed and amused by her and with her. She is one of the most polite kids I have ever been around. She is also one of the most stubborn and bossy kids I’ve ever know as well.
From the time she could sit up, I’ve been knitting and spinning around her. Little Miss “Me Do” has helped me treadle my wheel, knit on my machines and picked out colors for her knits.
I have a friend that works in one of my LYS that still talks about the time I brought her in to pick out the colors she wanted for her Easter dress. She was almost 3 and up to that point I would ask her before I went what color’s she wanted. After I directed her to the yarn I wanted to use, she picked out the colors and the proceeded to greet each new customer at the door with one in each hand proclaiming “Mema is knitting my dress and this is the colors!” And even though her dress didn’t require any buttons, we also left with 5 hand made parrot buttons because, well she liked them!
When she was 4 I took her with to spend the day out at my Mom’s place in the Berkshires. We ended up hanging out down at the neighbor’s and she did her best to empty her pond! Then when we were getting ready to leave, Mom asked if the girls might want an ice cream before we hit the road. I called her over and before she answered she looked around her, then said “Yes, but don’t tell my mom that I didn’t eat before.” Mom and I had all we could do to keep a straight face while she stood in front of us! Her mother was 2 hours away and Grandma and Great-Grandma were in charge! Like Mom could outvote the two of us if she was there.
And just a few weeks ago, she was helping get my sock stash in order. I needed to get it all together in a couple of bins and she was a big help in collecting the loose balls, skeins and such and matching them up. Just as we were completing one bin, she spied a colorway that I had forgotten about. “Mema! I love this color. Would you knit me some socks? When you’re not busy?” Guess what project jumped to the top of the list.
Last April, I took her and Younger to Texas to visit with my Dad. He lived in Corpus Christi on the Gulf and we had a great time. Although here’s an example of the where the bossy part comes in. She had a bit of a meltdown one day. Dad was making microwave popcorn and she ‘tried’ to tell him how to use the microwave to pop the popcorn. And didn’t take it very well, when he informed her that he knew how to use his own appliance Young Lady! She went storming off to the bedroom to sulk. From what Older tells me about school, most of her teacher’s report how helpful she can be but she’s also very willing to tell the other’s what and how they should be doing.
Time does fly by as you get older. I’ve come to realize that in 9 more years she will be graduating high school and hopefully go off to college and the be an adult with all of that stuff. But all I can think about for this time is how much joy and hope and laughter she has brought to all of us. I don’t know what the future holds for any of us. Things could happen and any of us could be gone instantly. I’m just going to enjoy any second that I have with her and hope that I can influence the adult she will become.

I Am Only a Little Stressed!

2006-11-28T06:25:00.000-05:00

Back up to Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. I had to work (thank the stars!) which left Husband, Younger and The Boss at home. When I left both girls were up, awake and raring to go. Husband, not so much.
He had a pretty full day planned with the 2 of them, starting with going to the post office, then to the bank and Home Depot.
So I’m working away at work when my Nextel goes off. Seems Younger left her wallet in my car and needs it. Mind you, I told her the day before when I spotted it on the seat to ‘Put it in you purse’ only to find it STILL on the seat in the morning. I had tucked it into my coat pocket intending on leaving it in the house as The Boss had also left stuff in my car. But out of site means out of mind.
Anyway, I met up with them in the parking lot, handed over the aforementioned wallet and was greeting with tears on The Boss’s face. Why? Because Aunty wouldn’t sit in the back and she was stuck in the middle of the front seat. Oh and they had locked Husband out of the house. In his shorts. And laughed at him through the window.
I didn’t get home till almost 7pm after getting a snippy response about missing dinner and the battery being so low on my Nextel I could only give a short response. And I was heading home in Black Friday/Commuter traffic on major commuter routes as well.
I’ve already written about the start to my Saturday morning. Wait, it gets better! The pump did a great job and with the bulkhead door open the floor was dry in a reasonable time frame. So I started working on Mt. Washmore. I had did my usual of 1 load in the dryer with 1 load being washed, set the timer (so I wouldn’t forget about either) and set off casting on for a few projects while catching up on podcasts.
Timer went off so down to the basement I went to swap loads. The Boss came with and I asked her to empty the dryer while I pulled the load out of the washer. ‘Mema, they’re still wet’. Huh? No, they must be damp. NO, wet as when they went in.
Called Sears and the service tech will be here “Between 8 am and noon on Wednesday”. Great. Another day of leaving work early under the impression that the guy is waiting for me at the house only to get here and wait 3 hours more.
And Husband was on the final leg of completion of my new ‘workroom’ which needed to be cleared out so the carpet could be put down. And The Boss needed her hair washed before her mother showed up. And Younger and The Boss were nit picking each other about helping Husband.
Sunday, I awoke early to get to the laundry mat so I wouldn’t waste half my day waiting for a dryer and managed to get 3 loads done so none of us would be a: naked and/or b: wearing the same underwear for 3 days.
Younger went to take a shower later in the morning and came down to inform ME that she had taken a cold shower. Huh?! Of course, as I thought about it, the last time I had used any hot water was when I washed The Boss’s hair. So I informed Husband about said situation and went to take a nap. He woke me up a couple of hours later to let me know he was on his way to Home Depot to buy and new one, his plumber buddy was coming Monday to install it and should he get the same size or a bigger one?
Monday, again working away at work, Husband calls to let me know that plumber buddy is working close by and might be at the house way early then expected. The new water heater was still in his truck at work, he was on the Cape and I might need to get his truck back to the house and let the guy in. He’ll let me know. No phone call at all until I got home at 3:45 at which point I called him. Well, plans changed. Plumber buddy got called to another job and shouldn’t be here till after 5. Oh, and did I make it to the bank?
Husband gets home and I help pull the box out of the truck, go downstairs to help clear out around the old one and YUCK!
My first computer had been packed up for the move here 12 years ago. It was put on the floor and had stuff stacked up on it over time to the point I couldn’t remember where it was. Needless to say, I found it yesterday, wrapped in an old bathrobe (cushioning for the move). Now I’ve got another project on my To Do List – get that out of the basement and to someplace else without Husband knowing about it. Because you know what he wanted to do? Fire it up! Because it might still work!
I went up stairs to spin while waiting for plumber buddy to install the new water heater. Both came up in less than 15 minutes. Boy this guy is good! Nope, it seems that the level of water was such that the pilot light went out. Ok, so we are not out a good chunk of change but for crying out loud! Husband couldn’t have checked?!
So to recap, dryer went south and was repaired a little over a week ago, sump pump was unplugged causing the basement to flood putting out the pilot light on the hot water heater. Dryer went down again, causing me to haul wet clothes to laundry mat. I’ve discovered 3 old computers in my basement. I didn’t get a new, larger hot water heater. I still have to wait for repair guy to fix my dryer, car in acting up (forgot to mention that one). Christmas is coming and we just received our quarterly taxes ($$), water and sewer bill ($$), Homeowners insurance ($$$) and Flood insurance ($$$$) which are all basically due by January first.
Anyone want to adopt middle aged women? I am housebroken and come with a S.A.B.L.E.

WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS!

2006-11-25T11:22:00.000-05:00

I am so pissed off right now if I tried to speak I’d be spitting. Over a week ago I had a repair person in to fix my dryer. He had a computer and other electric/electronic equipment with him to help diagnose what the problem was.
Anyway, it turned out to be the heating element (electric dryer) and it was replaced. I was glad to pay the $$$ to be able to dry my laundry at home and not have to make time each night to drive to a local laundry mat and spend more $$$ to dry each load.
Having to work yesterday with Husband and Younger home with The Boss needless to say, I’ve got Stuff to accomplish today and tomorrow. First and foremost is laundry. I mean it’s not bad but if I don’t keep on top of it, it’ll become Mt. Washmore in a hurry.
So, after a few errands which included buy a carpet for my new work space, I get home and grab the basket with the dirty clothes in it, head down the basement stairs and
What the *&^%$####!!!!!!!!
I have measurable water on the floor! Everywhere! A couple of my buckets I use to sort were over the other side of the basement. I drop the basket and call Husband (who was just pulling up to the house from his errands) and we grab flashlights to check out the damage.
(Here’s the story about that thing. It’s still the one that was installed when we bought the house 12 years ago and I’m always afraid that it will die when it is the most inconvenient! And because it hasn’t die yet, Husband won’t replace it with the pump I insisted he buy 2 years ago.)
With all the rain we got I was suprised I didn’t hear the pump going but I figured the ground was dry and we didn’t get our usual ground water upheaval. WRONG!
Here’s where I get pissed off. We opened the basement door and shed some light on the pump. I wig out . The *&^^%%$#@#$%^&&*!!!!!!!!!!! repair guy UNPLUGGED the pump! And never plugged it back in. I’ve got insurance that will cover any damage but that’s not the point.
This guy should have REMEMBERED that he unplugged something and made an effort to remember to plug it back in.
And Husband wonders why I get stressed out over “things”.

It's Not My Fault!

2006-11-13T18:10:00.000-05:00

Dear limenViolet
The following is all your fault!
I was catching up on your podcast. I love you guy’s. Listening to you reminds me of being at knitting group at Mind’s Eye. A group I try not to miss too often. Talk to Husband about how ‘fun’ the extra week is between visits.
As I was listening and knitting and laughing and snorting WACK! Violet mentioned Mountain Color’s Bearfoot and her reaction to it!
Hello! Welcome to my obsession. This is not my #1 yarn but it is in my top 3 below Lucy’s hand-dyed.
I was headed out to a LYS to drop off the Chuppa I blocked Saturday (that’s a whole nuther story and what is sitting on the floor? Their shipment of BEARFOOT! I was not planning on buying yarn. I don’t need anymore yarn, especially sock yarn. I will be knitting with sock yarn after I’m dead if this keeps up.
Not only do I buy 3 skeins of Bearfoot, I also walked out with a skein of Cherry Tree Hill in greens/yellows that can only be described as “Can’t say they didn’t see you coming” bright.
I actually went SQEEE when I saw it. I couldn’t help it.
After listening to 3 plus hours of Yarn Porn and Bearfoot and having missed group last week (for a good reason) I was helpless.
Please do not mention any more sock yarn in your podcast.
Sincerely,
The Fibergoddess

Happy 17th!

2006-10-31T05:30:00.000-05:00

Saturday was our 17th wedding anniversary. This year I was determined to get to Vermont. In the past, when Husband would ask where I wanted to go I would always say Vermont. We’ve been to Bermuda, New Hampshire, Cape Cod and Lake Placid. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself at all those places BUT it wasn’t Vermont!
I had done a lot of research and planning for this weekend that went totally out the window last week. Husband’s back has been acting up and everything was day by day. Not to mention the fact that both vehicles needed some maintenance and I was afraid of getting stuck far, far away from home. So, we decided to do day trips instead.
Oldest was to come down Friday to cover Youngest and we took off to The Berkshires to scope out a place that I found on the internet. I was very restrained and only got essentials. 2 sets of circulars and 2 skeins of solid Regia that I need to start a pair of socks for Nephew #1. I had sent him home on Thursday after he picked out yarn for a pair of socks. Of course, I only have 2 skeins and the color way seems to have been discontinued! Plan B is to work the cuff, heel and toes in a solid to extend the yarn because he is close to 6 feet tall with a size 11.5 foot! We had a great lunch and decided to continue north after calling home.
We were awaked Saturday morning by Husband’s cell phone ringing. Once we got on the road where we could get service he checked his voice mail to find a message from Younger. Basically she was calling to say, “I’m awake, no one else is. Come home because I miss you.” Later on when I turned my phone on, I had a voice mail message. It was from The Boss informing me that “Aunty called you and I was just letting you know.” Gotta love technology!
Friday was definitely the day to take pictures. We brought both the digital and 35mm cameras with. Guess how many pictures we took. Zero! Oh well, it was past peak foliage and I was more interested in getting into Vermont and trying to start a pair of socks for Nephew #1.
Saturday, well...... If you were in the Eastern US you know how the weather was. Rain, wind and chill. We did manage to get to both Vermont Country Stores. How I didn’t spend every penny I had was beyond me! I would love to have a credit card with no limit on it and just go nuts. We did get a few things, had a delicious lunch (I highly recommend dipping your grilled ham, turkey and cheese sandwich in maple syrup) and worked our way back to 91 south and home while listening to both the Craftsman Truck and Busch races from Memphis. Which kept me from wigging out the couple of times I couldn’t see the road and felt the truck hydroplaning down the highway.
Once we arrived, we had more surprises waiting for us. I had told both Oldest and The Boss about the sweater that I had finished but not gotten washed that was in the delicate bucket next to the machine. I didn’t see The Boss when I came in the door so I asked how she liked the sweater. She came around the corner saying she loved it! And could she wear it home? Ackk! She had on my CASHMERE turtleneck that was a gift from my in-laws! Not the one I had knit for her. So down the basement we went to find the correct sweater. It fit, she loved the colors and all was good even if she couldn’t talk me into letting her have my turtleneck.
Talking with Oldest it turned out that we had lost power overnight and needed to reset some of the clocks in the house. And a funny thing happened during the day. When The Boss went to the basement to find the sweater she couldn’t get the light to work. Turns out she was flicking the switch on the stairs not the switch in the hallway (which turns on the light). Sunday morning I hear Husband come downstairs, open the basement door and flick the switch. Turns out that she had turned OFF the furnace and he was cold. Good thing this wasn’t the dead of winter!
Sunday I spent in my pj’s, on the couch, spinning and watching the Cup race. I did stop with 20 laps to go because I couldn’t control the fiber. This track has a reputation of having exciting finishes and it lived up to it. I also managed to get a few loads of laundry done, though not as many as I had hoped. We lost power in the afternoon for about an hour and Husband, knowing that I needed to at least hear the race found the battery operated TV and set it up. And my dryer was not performing up to standards.
It was taking 2 full cycles to dry a load which was very irritating as it is electric! I had mentioned this to Husband 2 weeks ago and asked him to check the hose, outlet, etc. What I ended up doing was fishing out huge chunks of lint from just under the filter using a bent coat hanger. It is working better now, but it’s going to take both of us to complete the job as I can’t tip the dryer up, hold it in place and get to lint myself.
All in all, I had a relaxing time. We did get away, saw some sights, spent some money and are still together!

Never Say Never

2006-10-11T07:16:00.000-04:00

And never say never multiple times!
Back in 1998 I ran into Lucy’s shop holding a Knitter’s magazine over my head and proclaimed that “I need yarn!” So began my adventure in fiber.
At the time she was only open on weekends and didn’t have her wheel in the shop. At the time I had to be in Cambridge every Saturday and would spend my time in the shop watching her spin. When she asked if I would like to learn to spin I emphatically stated NO! I would never spin and would pay someone to do it.
About a year later, I felt this need come over me to try to spin. Lucy handed me a beginner drop spindle and some roving. I was hooked! Like most people I quickly figured out why it’s called a ‘drop’ spindle but I also quickly figured out how to use it. My problem was that I wanted to spin and not have to stop and wind up the single.
It only took about a month for me to order my first wheel. I needed one that was portable and could spin several weights. The Joy fit the bill to a tee. It took me almost 9 months to pay for it but the wait was worth it.
I could put down in the luggage bay along with my fiber and spend hours of quality time spinning in Foxwood’s bus parking lot. Although, the first time I was alone with it, far from Lucy’s help, it did not go well. I was ready to return it (in pieces no less)! With everything you have to remember about drafting the fiber, hand placement, coordinating the tread ling with your hands, etc I forgot she had casually mentioned that the roving had a bias and I needed to use one end. What I was getting was ‘novelty’ yarn. You know, thin and thick with huge lumps randomly thrown in. This was not how my yarn was coming out a couple of days earlier at the shop! Fortunately, I was able to get help and away I went.
Forward a few months later and Husband had asked what I wanted for Christmas. At the time, I wasn’t in lust with any particular thing so I told him I would let him know. That weekend I was sitting in the shop, spinning away when it hit me! I wanted a second wheel. And I wanted a Traditional. With the Lace Flyer! And I had the credit card with me.
Husband was at a buddy’s house watching the Pats and I caught him at half time. I told him that I wanted a second wheel and I had the credit card with me. No, I was not trading in the Joy. No I was not crazy. And no, it was not coming to the house until it was assembled.
It didn’t arrive in time for the holiday but just before my birthday. I used a honey oak stain with shellac to seal it, and then assembled it. It has served me well over the years.
I’ve spun progressively thinner 2 ply lace weight. I’ve been working with a beautiful natural Coopworth fleece that I got about 4 years ago. I hand washed it then separated the sections that seemed best for lace. When the mood strikes, I flick the locks gently and spin away. I estimate that I have about a thousand yards of 2 ply so far.
When I first started to spin, I had no plans to knit with my handspun. I just enjoyed the feel of the fiber in my hands and the product I was getting. I finally broke down about 2 years ago and started knitting small projects for certain family members, mostly Seaman’s scarfs.
My ultimate goal is to be able to knit a Shetland ‘wedding ring’ shawl using my handspun.
I have no plans to get another wheel but who knows. All it will take is the right place and the right time and I might come home with another!

And Husband? He didn’t understand why I ‘needed’ another wheel. So I asked him why he kept buying putters. And then it became clearer to him. And I get the secret pleasure of knowing that I have something to show for my money.

ATTENTION CLOTHES MANUFACTURES!

2006-09-27T06:00:00.001-04:00

All I want is underwear that doesn’t become a thong when I pull up my pants. And bra’s that don’t fall apart after 2 washes.
All I want is to be able to walk into a store and buy a pair of pants without having to try on every single ‘designer’ in a minimum of 2 sizes.
All I want is to have sleeves that fit on shirts. And pullovers long enough in the body that I don’t have to pin them down to keep it from becoming a crop top.
What brought this on you ask. Well, I needed to replace 2 pairs of pants for work. And where I work determines what type of fabric I need. Chino’s and khakis are good, dry clean only is not.
I walked into the local Sears store because I’ve had success before with a certain brand they carry. I walked through the women’s department, Misses department and the Land’s End department and found exactly 1 PAIR of pants!
I guess I should feel lucky that they are not hip huggers but they come close. And they do have pockets both front and back. Although I didn’t find out that the back pockets were sewn shut until I was at work. And my sharp pointy scissors were in my accessories bag at home.
Necessity is the mother of invention it is said. I had a very small multi tool in my purse and the knife worked great! Voila! Pockets I can use.
Husband gets a great laugh every time I get dressed because of what I do to keep myself comfortable. With the colder weather I wear long sleeve shirts and need the body to stay tucked to keep the ‘draft’ from blowing up my back. So I tuck it into my underwear because I can’t get pants that fit close enough to my waist to hold in. And then I have to readjust the back of my underwear before I zip because it just slipped into the middle of my butt! If I wanted Thong underwear I would buy Thongs! Which I have tried and hated!
At least I can get my knits to fit.

ATTENTION CLOTHES MANUFACTURES!

2006-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

It’s Back! I Think

2006-09-11T19:52:00.000-04:00

I’ve been knitting socks. And it’s gone well. I finished a toe up for younger and was able to cast on for the second with no problems. I’ve also cast on for a simple toe up pair for me. I’ve also pick up and started finishing a pair for an in-law that requested them over a year ago. So far, so good. I guess if I keep it simple I’ve got a chance.
What I really want to work on is baby things but I’ve got to get the holiday’s over with first. And I’ve got something in the works for the end of March. And I’ve got workshops coming up this fall that I need to get going on. And I’ve got 2 jobs that I’m working. And I’ve got my anniversary coming up and need to plan where we want to get away to. And, And, And.
So if all I can knit are simple socks I’ll take it.

New York, New York

2006-09-05T05:17:00.000-04:00

In all the years that I’ve been driving, I’ve only been to New York once. And it went badly. I got lost getting into and out of the city. As a result I would threaten to quit if any one tried to make me go. Basically I’m a country girl. I don’t like crowds or noise and I don’t need bright lights at night.
I would take any trip that put me in the country where the sidewalks (if they had any) were rolled up after dark.
Fast forward to Sunday. I wrote this sitting in my bus on 42nd St near the Port Authority bus terminal facing 10th Ave! I am still shaking my head as to what possessed me to accept this job. So far it’s gone well.
Friday night I got a call from the bus company asking if I could do a trip into Fenway. Just a simple job, drop the group at Fenway, wait and return. 10 minutes later, they called again asking if I could do a trip to NY! With the BIG bus. Now up to this point I’ve only had jobs that required a mini bus, usually only 15 to 20 passengers. I think they were testing me to see how I handled getting around and how I treated the equipment. I must have passed the test!
Well, I explained that I could get to NY. That’s easy, 95 south but I had no idea how to get anywhere down there. As long as I had explicit directions I would do it. Now by explicit directions I mean get off at such and such ramp with such and such being on the sign. Take a turn at such and such street with the street sign having that name. No nicknames or such that are not easily seen from a 45 foot vehicle going 30 mph.
Turns out there were 2 other buses going and they both knew their way around. So Sunday morning I picked up my passengers and tucked the bus between the other guys and away we went. And I had a good time. There was only one small hitch having to do with fuel, the sun broke out in Connecticut and stayed out the rest of the day, the group was great and I got home at 3 am!
And I was also thinking of all the bad stuff that I had heard other drivers talk about that had happened down there as well and I was a little nervous about my personal safety as well and damage being done to the bus. So I kept a good eye on my mirrors and always locked the door when I got off.
I was enjoying my movie, knitting on The Boss’s new sweater, when I say a man standing at the back of the bus by the tires. As I watched he unzipped his pants and that’s when I opened the door and yelled “Get away from my bus!” I was not what he was expecting! I almost feel sorry for him. I bet he though the bus was empty and if not, the driver would have been a male. Not a woman with fire shooting out of her eyes and yelling at a volume that made traffic stop! I’ll be giggling over that for awhile.
And I might go to New York City again.

Towards the End of Summer

2006-08-18T18:47:00.000-04:00

This has been a big year for me. Younger has finished school and started on her adult life. July 1st she started working full time. She’s out the door around 7 and home by 4:30 pm most days. Unlike me who still leave work around 2ish.
I’m still trying to adjust to coming home to an empty house. I had plans for all that ‘free’ time but life filled it up. Work is still crazy, she played softball this year and my body needed care.
So off to the chiropractor 3 days a week after work which usually gives me about an hour to do what ever. Softball practice took 2 evenings and most of Saturday mornings. And then I took on a second paying job driving again. The up side with this job is I only work when I feel I would be available. So far, it’s averaged once a week. And direct deposit is a wonderful thing! No having to remember to pick up a check and then figure out when to get to the bank to do something with it.
This month Younger turned 22 and then participated in the Special Olympics for softball. The team stayed at the UMass-Amherst campus and played in Easthampton. We had glorious weather this year for both the players and spectators. And they won Silver again! The team that STOMPED them last year only BEAT them this year!
I had picked up one of my nephews on the way out to the tournament who spent the weekend with my Mom and stepDad on the ‘Other side of the Mountain’ from Amherst.
Nephew looks soooo much like his mom but with more freckles. I was able to sneak a few shoots of him and will be sending copies to a few people. He turned out to be a real ‘boy’! Playing in the dirt, looking for bugs and snakes. He had a glorious weekend as well. Mom dropped him off at the field with dirt under his nails and a birdhouse he put together with guidance from stepDad.
Having Younger another year older, out of school for good and working HAS made me feel old. I don’t look my age and don’t act my age but inside I feel old. Not ready to not drive at night old. Not wanting to take up bingo old but old. I look at my Mom and she doesn’t look old. Even though her children are all parents, making her a grand mother 14 times over and a great grand she doesn’t look like that kind of old.
I feel old in an almost good way. My life will no longer be dictated by a school schedule with all of the days off and regular vacation weeks. No more fitting my work life around school time. No more stressing because she’s going to be home and I have to work. I’m free to plan vacations that don’t coincide with every school child being out at the same time and so every place I want to go is packed. I’m free to stay later at work if need be and not stressed about it. I’m free to come home and watch a show on TV with out having to ‘share’ it with anyone else. Or take a nap. Or do nothing but close my eyes and design a new knit.
Old is starting to feel good!

A Day Off

2006-07-30T14:56:00.000-04:00

It’s almost 2:30 and I just realized that I have done almost nothing today but sit in front of the computer reading blogs and listening to pod casts.
I did manage to get the last 2 loads of laundry done for the week but beyond that nothing. I blame Husband for that. He had left Friday night for a weekend camping with the guy’s and I was giddy with thoughts of what I could get done over 2 days.
I go the call Friday night that Youngers practice was canceled for the morning and with Husband gone Younger and I settled in and relaxed for the evening. I fell asleep on the couch so I have no idea what time she went to bed. All I know is that I woke up around 1 am with lights and fans on. If anyone looked in the window I must have looked like I was shot or drugged on the couch!
Saturday we took off to relieve Susan at Lucy’s and had a good afternoon. I made progress on the Clapotis to the point where I have dropped my first stitch in Section 3. I figured that I could get a few more stitches dropped but NOOOO! I didn't even finish the first repeat when I found my stitch count off! So, I set it aside and went to bed.
I awoke later than my usually time this morning (6:15) and settled in with my coffee and knitting to listen to a few pod casts figuring that Younger wouldn’t be awake for a couple of hours when I heard Husband’s truck backing down the street at 6:45 am! What the!??
The story was he was kept up all night both Friday and Saturday and came home to sleep. With the Nextel Cup having a weekend off I had nothing to watch this afternoon so I just sat here.
I have tried to start a new pair of socks for Younger in Fixation but had to frog it because I cast on too many stitches! So I decided to try using the 2 circ method and that went bust as well! I guess I’m going to make a burned offering of cashmere to the Knitting Deities in order to get out of this funk with being able to knit socks!
Maybe I should try and spin a little??

I Must Be Wearing A Sign

2006-07-26T16:34:00.000-04:00

You ever have one of those days where the public assumes you are in charge and make all the decisions? Well, today was my day.
I was sent to the RMV to put another new company vehicle on the road and take one off. Before I left the office I went over the RMV-1 and filled in the missing stuff. I also made sure I had the correct registration for the vehicle coming off the road. I have this routine down pat. I know what to expect when I get to the registry. I’ve learned from past experience what the people behind the counter will hone in on and NOT give you plates.
What threw me today is when I was informed that I Had To Call a certain state agency because that agency would not perform the requested function. I am only the messenger! I’ve been given the warning the past 6 times (in less than 3 weeks, mind you!) about the PROBLEM and I have passed the message on to the appropriate person who should have dealt with this PROBLEM already!
Of course, it’s not an emergency for them because they didn’t heed the warning. By the way, the person behind the desk said I could come straight back to them today as soon as the PROBLEM was taken care of. HA! It’s going to be a few days before I get back there.
Later on, my boss was out of the office and I had to call him to find out what vehicle was to be looked at by an insurance adjuster. He had been told this person would arrive at 10 am. It was not 10 am but several hours past that. He was standing in the office and overheard my boss say that the vehicle in question might not be available because of the 10 am thing. To which, this man rather rudely said we don’t make time appointments because we don’t know how long it will take to make our assessment of a vehicle and if the vehicle was not here he would call in a few days to reschedule. Then I had to fast walk after him to inform him that the vehicle was here and point it out to him. Yuck! When my boss returned I passed the message on about the not scheduling times and he has decided that someone else will deal with the insurance stuff from now on.
On a better note, I have been knitting. Because of the issues with the sock knitting deities, I decided to tackle a Clapotis using a silk and rayon lace weight yarn from my stash. So far, so good. I’ve got to work 1 more repeat in Section 2 then comes the fun part with the dropping of stitches. I’m hoping to give this a SIL for Christmas. And husband commented that SIL would love the colors.

Writing Letters

2006-07-08T20:31:00.000-04:00

It’s amazing what good stationary does! A few weeks ago, I was gifted with a couple of boxes of great quality, small note size stationary with matching envelopes. In the past week, I’ve discovered writing letters and mailing them.

I grew up in the age of paper. My grandfather came to this country after WWI from Germany and I can remember the look and feel of the airmail envelope. I can remember looking down the hall way and seeing them propped up on the bed and hearing Grampy reading (in German) all the news from the old country.
I remember being sent to the desk for paper and pen to write thank you notes and letter’s to family members that had moved away. It was exciting to receive mail in my name and know that someone had thought enough of me to do the physical task of putting pen to paper, writing my name on the envelope and spending money to insure that it arrived where I was living.
To this day, I still get excited butterflies in my stomach when I receive mail from family members and I still have letter’s and card’s I’ve received from when I was a child.

Don’t get me wrong. I now live in the electronic age. I spend a huge amount of time in front of computers both at work and at home. I love getting and sending email. I actually find it easier to write an email than a letter because I can erase any mistakes I make in spelling or grammar. Writing a letter in pen slows me down because I have think about what I want to say and then write it down. I’ve always thought faster than I can write and it became very frustrating forgetting what I wanted to say. Not to mention the fact, I can’t spell worth a damn.

Getting back to the stationary - During the week, I wrote a longish letter to a member of my knitting guild. She did not attend that last 2 meetings and I missed her. She has been my inspiration for a long time. She’s taught me so much about knitting and life in general and is always the first person I want to show off a Finished Object to. She is also a night owl, literally! She sleeps all day and is up all night so getting her on the phone is difficult. Not to mention that I don’t like to wake up her husband by calling too early in the morning.
And then tonight I was thinking about the wife of Youngers softball coach. She was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year and has not been able to come to any of the practices. We’ve been getting update on her progress from Coach but today it came to me that I wanted to let her know I was thinking of her and sending good energy her way. So I grabbed the box, pulled out a sheet and wrote her a short note. Then I folded it, put it in the envelope and addressed it. I’ll drop it in the mail at work on Monday.

Stationary is good!

I Can Not Knit.......

2006-07-04T14:51:00.000-04:00

Socks! I have been trying to make some new sock for myself since November? December? of last year. Oh, I’ve finished a few that were on the needles and I’ve completed a few simple pairs for younger. What I’ve been craving to make is a few more pairs of OOOH! AHHH! socks for my collection.
I’ve got all the popular books – Knitting on the Road, Vogue Socks One, Socks 3X. I’ve even bought a new one recently – Sensational Knitting Socks. I’ve got a gazillion patterns printed out from the web. I have a multiple sets of double point’s, 16 inch circ’s and 24 inch circ’s.
I have the desire and the need to make a pair that are chocolate for my feet. I can see these socks on my feet and feel the sensation of my body relaxing because my feet are happy.
So why is it that the desire is there, the knowledge is vast, the materials needed to complete this task are so available and I can not knit a pair of stinking socks!!!!
Since Saturday, I have cast on and frogged the same yarn 3 times. With the first pattern I chose I was able to complete the cuff and the simple 3 stitch ‘clock’ pattern down the sides defeated me. I couldn’t get the math to work. Of course, today it all made sense.
So I kept the cuff (I really, really like it) and found a different pattern for the leg. I got half way through the gusset decrease and frogged that! The cast on was a little tight, the leg was short and the gusset was going to be too large for my foot.
Today I attempted the original pattern again and I dropped a stitch somewhere in the working of the Cannel Isle cast on and didn’t find this out until I started the cuff pattern!
ARRRRGGGGGG!!!
It’s got to be some kind of karmic voodoo thing from some knitting deity who has decided that I should not knit fancy socks every again.
I give up. I’m going to knit lace.

Great Genes

2006-06-29T05:28:00.000-04:00

True story. I am a knitter. What!? We can do other things beside knit.
I also spin yarn. What!?
OK, I am a fiberist. Anyway, I digress.
Once a year we FIBERIST’S, get together for a whole weekend and have loads of fun. Not much sleep, but lots of knitting, spinning, weaving and fiber, fiber, fiber!!!!
This year I had worked my schedule so I could arrive at a decent hour on Friday and leave on Sunday morning. Not to be. My other life as a wife interfered.
I had taken a couple of vacation days so I could get some ‘girly’ things done Friday before I left town like get a manicure. My daughter was to be in school and husband at work. At 7:15 am he is flat on the floor in agony with back spasms and I’m dialing 911. Long story short, I did make it to SPA around 7 pm to hook up with my girlfriend whom I’m sharing a room with.
We unloaded my car and dumped everything in our room then I took a spin around the vendor area to scope out possible ways to spend my cash for the next day.
By now it’s waaay past time for me to eat so we decided to grab a quick bite and drink in the lounge. They had a DJ set up and the music was acceptable to me – early 90’s dance stuff with some newer stuff thrown in but the volume was such we couldn’t hear ourselves talk so we moved to the bar out of the high volume area.
Keep in mind, we are both in our mid-40’s, married, etc. It’s been a long day for both of us and it’s getting past our bedtimes.
So here we are, sitting at the bar with a drink in front of us, checking out the bar menu for food when this young man (he probably was in his late 20’s –early 30’s) can up to us and asked “ Are you ladies alone?”.
I looked at S. and didn’t say the first thing that came to my mind (which was NO! We’re together, you young thing. Go away!) What I did say was “No, we left them at home.” We chatted a couple of more minutes, he got another beer and went back to his table.
I leaned over to S. and said that he probable would be back and I was going to drop the bomb on him if he did.
He did return and I did drop the bomb on him! I forget exactly what he said but it was perfect thing for me to respond with “By the way, you are talking to a grandmother.” The expression on his face – mouth dropped open, eyes widened and I could see the brain cells trying to grasp that word – grandmother.
“You can’t be a grandmother, you are too young. You don’t have enough wrinkles or gray hair!”
(Meanwhile, I can see S. is about falling off the bar stool with laughter). And with a straight face I responded with “I have great genes.”
He said, “ Yes, you do.” And rubbed the knee of my jeans with his finger and walked away muttering a little bit.
S. and I got our food, ate it and headed back to our room. Waiting for the elevator, we looked at each other and starting giggling. Neither one of us had been hit on like that in years! Poor boy didn’t know what hit him!

In which we get a new house phone

2006-06-26T21:02:00.000-04:00

My first post!
‘We’ have issues here with cordless phones. ‘We’ replace the cordless phone about every 12-14 months. Now every cordless ‘we’ve’ purchased tells you not to have it mounted close to a microwave. Where is the only place in our kitchen to plug in the cordless phone? Yup, right next to the microwave! Has HE every read the instructions for ALL the phones HE has had to buy? Does HE every remember this when I read it to HIM every time a new phone is installed? NOPE!
This time I tried to ‘save’ him money by going to Radio Shack for a replacement battery. Never trust the clerk that DOES NOT check their computer that the replacement battery you hold in your hand is the correct one for the cordless phone you brought with you and are holding in your other hand! Two batteries and plus $20's later the phone is toast!
So today ‘we’ decided to get another cordless phone. I mentioned about the microwave problem and it might be a good idea to move the mounting away from the microwave. I literally could see the light bulb go off over his head!
'We' have a long phone cord that would reach through the doorway into the dining room where there is a short bookcase that has an outlet next to it!
So HE went to K-Mart to buy a new cordless phone. This time HE got a little smarter. HE purchased a unit with 2 cordless handsets complete with a new answering machine and both handsets have caller ID. Bonus! (The old machine has had issues since we bought it. Every other message that was left was garbled. Sorta like the trying to listen to a cassette tape that had be previously chewed up.)
Now comes the fun part! HE hands me his cell phone to call the house phone to check out what the new machine message is. This way I can decide to replace it with a differant one if I don’t like it. (That’s another story). So I call the house - Ring! Ring! Ring! And it’s not picking up!
Duh! It’s not plugged in to an outlet!!!!!! It took about 20 rings with him asking questions like “Is it ringing? It’s not picking up!” Then the good one – “I used the old power pack.” Different manufactures AND it’s not even plugged into the phone.

PS – correct power pack plugged in, phone picks up after 4 rings! And I like the message on the machine. Very male and the exact message I would have put on it.

PSS - a few hours later, after the handset were charged we got a call. I couldn't figure out how to what button to push to answer it! Got that straightened out (niece calling long-distance to see if she could use our couch for a few days) and asked where the instruction book for the new phone is.
It's in the box.
In the basement that has a river running though it.
Taped up!

Sigh........ I do love him.

Fiber Content - I've finished knitting the striped raglan cardigan and have started to sew in the ends. If all goes well, this will live at work for the summer.

The Fibergoddess

Inspired by CGN #1

Motivated?

Hero or Zero

Observations

Let the Party Begin!

Memorial Day 2009

It just keeps getting better

Challenges

O.M.G.!!!!!

SPRING?

And So It Begins!!!!!

So I Didn't Win

On The Down Side

On A Roll

Famous Last Words

I Win! (I think)

Curses

This and That

House Guests

Meet and Greet

Cha! Cha! CHANGES!!

Mother's Day

HEROES

BBC AMERICA TV CHANNEL

DOG WITH A BRAIN

The Long Road Back

Never Forget

Where have all the people gone?

Mom’s Dress

Holiday Weekend Or how I got my fix on!

I Never Win

Purple Thang

The Gift

What the F%^*((*&^%$$#@

9 YEARS AGO

I Am Only a Little Stressed!

WORDS CANNOT EXPRESS!

It's Not My Fault!

Happy 17th!

Never Say Never

ATTENTION CLOTHES MANUFACTURES!

ATTENTION CLOTHES MANUFACTURES!

It’s Back! I Think

New York, New York

Towards the End of Summer

A Day Off

I Must Be Wearing A Sign

Writing Letters

I Can Not Knit.......

Great Genes

In which we get a new house phone

What the F%^((&^%$$#@