April 28, 2006
Okay, I've had it
I have seen it repeatedly at blog after blog. You'd think it would end, but NO! It happens again. And again. How much longer can I be expected to turn the other cheek? I'm human, after all! I have feelings too!
So, it was just a matter of time:
Picot Edging.
I'm not strong enough to resist it's pull.
April 25, 2006
Show me the way to go Gnome...
I know I said I'd show you more pictures of the fun Friday night. And I will (stop nagging :) But for now you get a picture of my new gnome. I have been eyeing him in the store for quite a few weeks. When I saw that this little guy was the last one, I had to indulge myself. Who gnew I loved gnomes so much? Not I! But there you go.
I. Am. A. Gnome. Lover.
Fig is wondering what the heck it's all about? Certainly, it's not cuter than him?
April 23, 2006
Blogging the hate**
**This was a predetermined blog title, hatched up while sitting at a table where fun abounded. I promised Jackie and Kate that I would name the blog entry with those words because in truth, they hated all over me. They were a teensy bit jealous of my yarn purchase, you see. We all understand that. What yarn exactly? Artyarns Merino.
The most wonderful, soft, richly colored sock yarn in the whole world. But, knitters, let's ponder the price, shall we? Who really WAS the wise one in this instance. If you walked into a store and saw a pair of socks for $40 (about 32 EUR), would you buy them? I wouldn't. Absolutely and resolutely. No. but I see yarn that will cost me $40 to have a pair of handknit socks and I don't hesitate. Okay, I DID hesitate. And when I shelled out tons of this hard earned money, I caught grief. Just jealous, really. :) So, I dedicate these money challenged future socks to Kate and Jackie, who proved to me that age is not necessarily wisdom when it comes to matters of money or the feet.
Knitters turned out in droves to the small shop to support one of our own. It was a soul satisfying evening for me, just what the doctor ordered. I thought of you. Here's some pictures:
We stood elbow to elbow, in our support of a Yarn Harlot. And what's a knitter to do while waiting?
Here's MamaCate, Carole and Kat with a K, who impressed me to no end as she knit on birch all evening long. Don't they all look great?
And Stephanie, of course:
She looks happy along with her traveling sock du jour.
And Linda? I'm always happy to see her! We share a love of peace fleece!
I do believe that is her husband Jay who was the bodyguard of the evening. Just so no scuffles develop over any yarn. You know us knitters? (See pink yarn up above)
Bookish Wendy, in all her cuteness holding her future Birch yarn:
She's not really giving anyone the finger. It's just accidental.
So, as you can see. A good time was had by all.
Really. It's obvious from the pictures, isn't it?
There's more, but I will keep it for tomorrow. Can't get all my blogging done on one day, can I?
April 20, 2006
No knitters will be sued. Not today. Not anyday.
I'm hoping no one will actually sue me for misuse of the phrase Sandy's Knitting. Because, let me tell you folks, she Isn't! Knitting. At all. For about a week.
What have I been doing? Do you really think that I have been rolling around crying all week in misery? ~ALright, who said YES?~ Okay, I have done my share of shedding tears at all the wonderful, supportive comments left BUT I've been a bit busy doing this:
I'm almost done the 3rd book of the Stephanie Plum series. I may have to go to either the library or the bookstore tonight to get more. I'm hooked! I have found myself giggling right out loud sometimes. Stephanie is my kind of girl! Well, if you don't count that I have never ever come across a dead body. Or eight. And I hope to keep it that way!
So, reading. Feeling lucky and happy as a clam for having friends like you. I can see that this empty nest thing will be a lot easier with the bunch of you routing me on!
Bethany is gone to Philadelphia on the band trip until Monday night so we get a test weekend. It's awfully quiet in here already!
Tomorrow, in celebration of practice empty nest weekend, I am going to Classic Yarns at Grafton to see a certain friend. With a certain friend. And wouldn't you agree that spending time with certain friends is a certain way to good mental health?
Hmm?
Sure! She's the one reading and going to visit knitting friends and I supposedly have a boring life??!!
April 17, 2006
From the recesses of my mind
Did you have Easter? I hope it was filled with loved ones and great food. Even if you just had a Sunday instead of an Easter Sunday, I hope that for you.
I have done my fair share of consuming chocolate this weekend while I search my heart for the real reason for the raging blues as of late. I do know what it is. Tears come easy for me, though, so it's easier to not discuss.
But here it is. Pathetic as though it may be.
Bethany is graduating. Our youngest. We sent her deposit to UNH. She is going away to college. And growing up. This is what is supposed to happen, and at the root of it all, I am happy. I AM. But I am so damned sad too. I am sad because she is who I talk to. She is like me in a lot of ways. We have the same sense of humor and laugh and joke and talk easily. I will miss this. I weep at the thought of not having it. She has a boyfriend now, her first, and doesn't really want to share much of it with me. I understand. I get it. And yet I want to hear every blessed detail. I want to hear about the hand holding and the laughs and the tears and the first kiss. I want to hear it. She doesn't want to tell it. More moving away from me. Disposable Mom.
There.
That's what it is. Silly. And stupid. And oh so true.
Other than that? I knit a bit. Eat more chocolate. And enjoy every moment that I can.
I woke up today feeling infinitely better. Being busy is the best cure. Let me tell you that my home could use some busyness in the form of sweeping, vacuuming and dusting. It's good for the soul, cleaning. Symbolic in ways I can't even begin to imagine. Tonight, I plan to watch Celebrity Cooking Showdown. I will, of course, whip the knitting out. My constant companion.
And can we talk Lost for a minute? We just finished watching the last of the first season and POOR WALT! Oh my god! That is so horrible! I can't tell you enough how much I love that show! I cannot wait for the second season to either go into repeats or come out on DVD. I'm not sure I can wait. And the hatch? What could be down there? (Please, take pity upon my behind the times self and don't actually tell me. You can tease me, however)
And finally, just because I can, not that it has anything to do with anything, the church across the street from me sometimes looks so pretty!
Thanks to you all.
April 15, 2006
serious blech
Sometimes, I just have to give in and mope. The mood is dark today. Alternately, the skies were bright, but it did not seem to matter. You know, it starts out innocently enough. You just kind of feel sorry for yourself, for no particular reason whatsoever. And then, like a snowball rolling down a mountain, it gains steam. All of a sudden, every single life choice I have ever made is swimming in my mind, the rotten mood making me question my very being.
Yeah, it's ugly.
But I plan to just let it happen, have a glass of pinot noir and get to bed to sleep it off. Tomorrow. It's only a day away. The sun will come out. Blah blah blah.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a mood to tend to.
April 12, 2006
Play some funky music
Last night I had the pleasure of sitting high up in the bleachers, comfortable seats that they are (good for an ailing back as well), my ears and soul treated to music. All of the Beverly school bands played, including Bethany. She looked beautiful. See?
Can you spot her?
No?
Okay. Here.
She plays the flute. Although for me, of course, seeing my daughter play the music she has studied so hard to learn is the highlight of the evening, but. BUT. Seeing these guys had to equal it's importance.
These wonderful men are the Synergy Quintet. It's too bad that I cut the 5th guy out of the picture. It is not meant to be a personal statement. Only that I was sitting close to the clouds in the aforementioned comfortable bleacher section and the altitude must have affected my depth perception through the camera lens. How else can we explain it?
How to explain Synergy? Words leave me feeling quite inadequate. They created music so beautiful that my ears could not believe that these men standing before me were actually creating it with their metal instruments. The air was filled only with their delightful sound as the whole place was stunned into wonderous silence. I am in awe of them and wonder how they can create such beauty and make it look so effortless. I will be buying their CD. You can listen to some of their music here. I think you'll like it!
Other than that, life is busy, is it not?
~
April 10, 2006
Project Spectrum, April
Project Spectrum for April is, as you may know, orange and yellow. It appears that I do not have much in this color around my home. Perhaps it's time to right this wrong. Such happy colors. Colors that evoke the feeling of spring. I did take a little walk in and out of my home and this is what I came up with.
Forsythia about to bloom
Blooming Daffodil
Fig's dish. One of them, that is!
Orange cactus and it's mirror image in my dish garden
My April Project Spectrum project. A project that I need, may I add, like a hole in the head. I have plenty of projects on the needles. Even more on the brain. But this one snuck itself right onto the free US1 needles, before I even knew what had happened. The yarn is Scheepjes invicta colors, colorway number 1713. Perfect for this orange month, don't you think? A big re-thank you to Terri for gifting me with this lovely yarn. It's a sock, in case you didn't recognize the signs. And I was trying to do an eye of the partridge heel. Look at the bottom of the picture and you can see the beginnings of that. I do believe that heel will have to go. I can't, for some reason keep track of which row I'm on. I know. It's simple enough, but for some reason it challenges me beyond belief. Today.
Orange and Yellow. It's good for what ails you.
~~~
Huge thank yous to all of you who fawned over Fig. As my kids often say, "He is the man!" He sends out an affectionate rub to you all, I'm sure. And if you offer him Science Diet, he may just love you forever.
~~~
One of our own knitbloggers could use some words of encouragement and comment love. Go on over and tell Julia to keep fighting the fight. She's feeling low and needs extra bloggy love!
April 06, 2006
S is for story which is about F for Fig who likes to E for eat P for Parakeets
There once was a time when we had a menagerie of small pets. No cats, though. I was not a cat person. We did have a parakeet named Ernie,who looked like this:
This was the days before digital cameras and I probably have an actual picture of Ernie somewhere, but that would entail hours of going through picture boxes and frankly, I'm overwhelmed thinking about it! So, let's just make believe this is the real Ernie.
And we had a hamster named Bert. (Can you guess about how old the kids were when we got them? Hmm?)You can see what Bert looked like HERE.
So, Ernie liked to fly out of his cage. He liked to land on our shoulders. He liked to eat cheez-its and popcorn and ice cream, oddly enough. Sometimes he liked to bite ears, but that's not for this story. Somewhere along the line, a little friendship budded between Ernie and Bert. Ernie liked to sit on Bert's cage and give his call "TWEET TWEET" meaning, of course, "Come on out, Bert!" And Bert would. Come out of his little sleeping house and push his face right into the bars of his cage and Ernie would stick his beak into the cage and scratch Bert's head. I kid you not. It was a sight to see, I'll tell you.
Bert being part of this story is for pure entertainment value only. He was gone before Fig came into the picture. Ernie sure did miss Bert when he was gone. It was quite touching.
Back to Fig.
One day my neighbor showed up on my doorstep with a bowl, some cat food and a water dish. She told me that her family needed to leave their apartment for a month so it could be deleaded for her kids sake. She wanted us to leave food on the porch for the cats. They would live outside, being June and be no bother. What could I say? I didn't want her kids to get lead poisoning. But I did not want 2 cats. There were 2 cats. Fig and Rocky. Rocky was a 13 year old long haired orange and white sweetie. And Fig was a 1 year old kitten. Rambunctious and raring to go. I had never ever had a cat. Or thought about having a cat. So, now we had 2 confused cats living on our porch. The month came and went. The neighbor brought another bag of food and said it would be a couple weeks more, but she was definitely coming back. They weren't my cats yet, I was just catsitting. On the porch.
Then it turned to fall. And the nights started to get chilly and there was no sign of the neighbor. So, we would put the cats into the basement at night. Sure, it's not great down there, but it's better than outside, right? I mean, the neighbor will be back anytime for her cats. Right?
Every now and then the cats would come into the house, but we'd have to be extra sure that Ernie wasn't out flying around because, well, didn't cats like birds? I mean, especially to EAT?
In October, Rocky got very ill and I brought her to the veterinarian down the street from me. The neighbor had told me that she brought the cats there. They told me that they had no record of the cats ever being there. This was my first inkling that perhaps the neighbor was not ever going to come back. I know, most people would have gotten it by now. But not me. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, long after, even then they deserve it!
So, Poor, sweet Rocky had kidney failure. And incidently, a tumor under her tongue that was most likely cancerous. We made the difficult decision to put Rocky to sleep so she would not suffer anymore. Because suffering she was. She died without ever seeing her owner of 13 years again. That should be a crime, don't you think? On the way out, I made an appointment for Fig. He obviously needed his shots and to be neutered.
But he did stay in the basement in the evenings until his appointment the next week. When he came home from his :ahem: little operation he was so pathetic looking. Andy and I had a long talk, after we put Fig on the couch to sleep off the anesthesia. We had to give him the loving home he deserved or find a home for him. We glanced over at the cat sleeping there and decided we'd keep him. He was kinda cute. And he was good with the kids.
He never again slept in the basement. Believe me when I say that it wasn't long until he was sleeping on the beds. But I digress.
One day, one of us was leaving the house, not noticing that Fig slipped in the door unbeknownst to any of us leaving. Ernie stayed out of his cage during the day, with the door propped open if he wanted back in. Our foolproof plan had been foiled. For a whole week and a half we had been careful.
Cat in: Bird in
Cat out: Bird out
This time
Cat in: Bird out.
I opened the door about an hour later and Ernie was lying on the floor of the hallway, weakly chirping at me. Fig was sitting down the hall with a look of, well, there's no better way to describe it: Like he had just ate the canary. And he had. I picked Poor Frightened Ernie up and lay him on a towel, looked him over. There were no obvious injuries. We brought him down to the vets office and they pronounced him okay. No broken bones, no gaping wounds, which is a miracle, is it not? I have seen birdies in the yarn that Fig has eaten for appetizers. And it was not pretty. Fig had really just PLAYED with Ernie. So, when I say that he ate our parakeet, it was figuratively, not literally.
Sometime that night, I heard Ernie's bell ring one last time. He had most likely hit his favorite toy on his way down. Poor little thing probably died of fright. There was a funeral. And more than a few tears.
But looking at Fig, I knew he did not mean it. I knew it was just what cats did. If he had wanted to hurt Ernie, he would have. But he only played with him a bit. He did not know that Ernie could not take it.
We forgave. And we even got another bird. Tweety. He was a blue parakeet. But he did NOT come out of his cage. Ever.
That was our last bird.
Bert the second was our last hamster too. When he was dying, Fig lay vigil next to his cage until he had gone. I wondered how Fig knew that Bert needed someone.
Fig has also outlasted Mac the turtle and the unnamed goldfish that lived for years and years.
I think we'll keep him.
Still reading? You get extra bloggie brownie points. Thanks for all the great comments and requests to hear more.
I think I'll keep you, too!
April 04, 2006
F is for Fig
I was not a cat person. Until Fig came to live with us.
Fig was born in a dumpster, abandoned by his first family and came to be on our doorstep with apparent randomness. But perhaps not, after all. The first week in our home, he ate our parakeet. Despite the murder, we began a love affair that grows to this day.
I am a cat person. But more than that, I'm a Fig person!
April 03, 2006
Good vs. Evil?
Rowan kidsilk haze in the color blue (I have forgotten the official name, so I'll just refer to it as BLUE) hopefully resembling the wonderful Mountain Stream Scarf. Do you know? Lace is my nemesis. Everyone has one. Lace is mine.
I try to overcome the lace. But it always beats me. Always. Not to be daunted, I try again. I may just have some kind of lace deficiency or something. Perhaps there is a vitamin or a shot I can take? Is there a superhero for me? The bumbling lace knitter?
Who will you root for?
Bumbling knitter? Or lace nemesis?
Who will win the ultimate battle?
Who.
~~~~
Christmas already?
Actually, my Christmas cactus is a Thanksgiving bloomer. This year, I get a bonus April bloom!
April 01, 2006
japanese umbrella pine: japanese umbrella pine
That is what I repeated to myself over and over and over today. We went to a parent tour at UNH today and as luck would have it, there was a flower show in the Whittemore Center, the hockey arena. As the rest of the family took in the long, looong wall of hall of famers (or something) I took a gander at the plants in the FREE part of the flower show. I fell in love with a Japanese Umbrella Pine. Perhaps you should know that Pine trees are a specific love of mine. And I'd love to find a different yet slow growing one for my yard. I don't think the Japanese Umbrella Pine fits the bill though as it can grow to be 30 feet tall.
So, there I was sore back and all: hoofing my way around the campus after an hour long back cramper ride. I really AM better than I was, just not ALL better and the back firmly reminded me of this fact today. And it was HOT. I don't appreciate this season skipping. Please. One season at a time.
So, to review: me, sweating, hurting, mumbling "japanese umbrella pine" frequently. Poor Bethany, really. It's bad enough to have to be seen with your parents, but THIS?
When we got home, though, this is what greeted me in the evening. A good sign, no?
And that was NO April Fools.