squcps

I'm A Little Teapot....

2011-06-17T13:04:00.001-07:00

Ridiculousness knows no bounds. I started to crochet a miniature tea set and lost interest after the teapot. Now I'm too much of a hoarder to throw it away. Anyone want a crocheted miniature teapot?

One friend who saw the photo on Facebook inquired whether it would be suitable for her fairy house. I offer the following two photos for purposes of scale:

A Plug for Jessica

2011-06-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

I helped out at a friend's wedding by making bouttonieres for the groomsmen and a corsage for the mother of the bride. You may recall the wedding where I did the bouquets a few years ago in this blog (key word "weddings"). The groom at this wedding was the brother of the bride at that wedding and when he got engaged, he told me he was counting on me doing the flowers. This was right before my surgery, so I told him he'd better find someone else. As it turned out, though, I was able to a little bit with the corsages (photos below).

But what was really adorable at this wedding were the program place cards at each place on the dinner tables. Unfortunately, my cell phone photo cannot do it justice. I found out they were done by Jessica Marcotte, an absolutely fabulous designer for parties and such who works out of the bay area. You can find her blog here. Check it out!

Father of the Bride


Mother of the Bride


Groomsman

I'm Back!

2011-06-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

I've been gone a while, Friends. Mostly I've been rather incapacitated and in too much pain to tend to my blog. My right hip had been displaced since childbirth, unbeknownst to me, and after a fall and an injury back in 2008, it became obvious what was happening.

I had total hip replacement in March and I am still recovering, but as you can see by my photo taken at a wedding last week, I am free of pain and suffering! I haven't felt this good, well, ever!

I've been busy with crochet projects on and off when I could manage, and I've posted a few of them here. I'll try to be more diligent in future about keeping this blog updated.

Lap Robe for Mrs. H

2011-06-08T14:43:00.001-07:00

I found a huge lot of crocheted afghan squares at an estate sale recently and this is the first product resulting from those squares. It is a lap robe for my friend Linda's mother. I did not crochet these, obviously. All I did was join them and crochet a border.

Emma's blankie

2011-06-07T20:31:00.001-07:00

I saw Baby Emma for the first time live last Friday. She's so tiny, I hope they use this blanket as a stroller cover until she grows into it, or else she may get lost in it.

Orion's blankie

2011-06-07T20:30:00.001-07:00

This is the longest baby gift I have ever created. The "baby" in question is about 2 now, I think. Orion's mom and dad are scientists. I mean real scientists. His dad worked on a project involving dust that came from Saturn. I mean, really! How many people can say that?

Anyway, way back when his mother was expecting, I heard rumors that the baby's name, although they were keeping it a secret, had something to do with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and I got this great idea to applique symbols from the book onto the blanket I was making. I planned a goldfish and a porpoise and that funny little face with the skinny little arms and the tongue hanging out and a "Don't Panic" button and some mice with a teapot and....

It got so complicated I knew I'd never finish it. So when the baby was born and they announced his name was Orion, I got another great idea! I'd applique stars on the blanket in the shape of the constellation Orion.

That was a great idea until I found out how many stars are actually in the constellation Orion! I had no idea! It's not at all what you see on the Orion Pictures film headers.

Then I got to thinking. Of course, that's when all great ideas stall, when someone gets to thinking.

These guys are scientists. They're going to know if the stars are out of alignment. I was so obsessed with my artistic license, I couldn't finish the blanket.

Other babies and baby gifts came and went and I thought sure the parents thought I was snubbing them or something.

Finally, I spoke to a mutual friend who told me to get over it and just finish the blanket already!

So I did. I took a lot of artistic license and the constellation is probably only recognizable to me, but at least I finished it before he grew out of it completely. I think. I'm going to give it to them this Sunday. If they are at all offended by the poorly crafted constellation, they're polite enough to keep it to themselves, I'm sure.

My Review of Buffalo plaid mega tunic

2010-11-19T09:39:00.001-08:00

Originally submitted at WomanWithin

This amazing mega tunic is easy to wear, soft and cozy...and fashionably plaid. We provide the finest plus size tunics and plus size plaid tops for the price.

A-line shape
Button placket
Mandarin collar
Rich pintucking
32" lo...

Love It!

By Myownigloo from San Francisco on 11/19/2010

Sizing: Feels true to size

Pros: Great Color, Figure Flattering, Quality Materials, Versatile, Washes Well

Best Uses: Travel, Casual Wear, Work

Since I was a schoolgirl, Autumn has meant plaid in the wardrobe. I love this plaid tunic so much I got it in two colors and two sizes (because I'm losing weight and want to wear it when I get to the next size down). Comfortable, gorgeous, just like the photo.

(legalese)

Giants Rock!

2010-11-08T12:55:00.001-08:00

Testing remote blog posting.

Labor of Love

2010-07-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it took me seven months to find the time to get back here after I reported back in December 2009. http://squcps.blogspot.com/2009/12/radio-silence.html

The least I can do is show everyone what I'd been working on all that time I was gone. (It's actually been finished a few months now, but I'm catching up with the rest of my life and since my osteoarthritis has taken all the cartillage out of one of my hips, I'm cane dependent and very slow. Everything takes longer than it used to, so my time is even more precious.)

But here are photos of the friendship afghan that I assembled. I'm sorry they aren't the best quality photos because I used my cell phone in bad light. Still they do give the general impression of the project.

First are photos of the work in progress. I crocheted a navy blue frame around each square so that they would more easily line up. Then I laid out the squares on the bed until I was satisfied they would make a balanced presentation. I had help from Booger, who was quick to take her place as project supervisor whenever she saw the squares coming out of their package. The lirtle pieces of paper contain names of the maker of each square.

Following are photos of the final product with the name tags removed and all squares framed and assembled. Each square was knitted or crocheted by an online friend of the recipient, a young woman widowed much too soon. It was our wish to comfort her in whatever way we could, and this was the result. Some of the squares have significance to her because they are reminiscent of her husband's likes, such as the center Tetris board.

Bastille Day Story

2010-07-14T12:09:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while.

Someday I'll have to catch up with y'all and let you know where I've been and what I've been doing.

Someday.

Meanwhile, stop me if I've told this before.

Whenever Bastille Day rolls around, I always remember my trip to Paris when I was 17.

I was traveling with a church youth group to England in 1970. It was quite a momentous trip in many, many respects. I had never flown before. We had gotten a charter on the first 747 plane to cross the Atlantic -- the return flight to Paris. In Paris, we had a 24-hour layover before we went on to Heathrow. It was so exciting!

I was 17. Besides one other girl on the trip, who was 15 or 16 at the time, no one spoke French. And our claims to "speaking French" were quite nebulous, especially since this was Paris where we learned that the French spoken is analagous to the American English spoken in the Bronx. We couldn't understand a word!

But we were so determined to use our French in possibly the only 24-hour period of our lives when we'd have the opportunity, that we just kept trying.

Because of the time zone difference, we arrived at our hotel in Paris at about dinnertime on our biological clocks, but it was after midnight there.

My friend the Freshman in French and I, the Junior, roomed together. We were wide awake as Paris was shutting down. We occupied ourselves by laundering our delicates in the "funny little sink in the bathroom" and then writing letters on the little balcony. So romantic! We were in our pj's and bathrobes. It was 2:00 a.m. local time and most of the hotel staff was leaving the hotel, their shifts having concluded.

Two young men saw us sitting on the balcony and called up to us to come down and join them! OMG! What do we say?

We closed the French doors and consulted each other. How do you say "Go away?" Ummmm. Don't know.

"Um" (me), "let's tell them to 'Come back tomorrow!'"

(Her): "Great idea!"

We opened the French doors and peered out, saying, "Come --"

-- and before I could say "back tomorrow," in my faulty French, they entered the hotel and came up to our room and started banging on the door!

OMG. Turn off the lights! Shut the door! Be quiet! Don't answer! They'll go away.

Then went back downstairs and outside and counted the windows (we peeked through the curtain with the lights still out).

They came back up and started banging on the door again!

OMG!

Then we got another great idea! We should use Morse code and knock S-O-S on the wall between our room and the one next door, summoning two strapping young men from our high school to rescue us.

I took a shoe and started knocking. The French guys went down stairs and started counting windows again. They came back up.

I stepped out on the balcony and the guys next door stepped out on theirs.

"Jo Anne, this is your own stupid fault. You should never have talked to those guys in the first place! And by the way, that wasn't S-O-S you were tapping, you idiot."

They went back inside.

So much for chivalry.

Well, eventually the French guys went away, but not after waking the entire hotel. (We learned later that one of the high school guys went down and went out drinking with them.)

Next morning while my girlfriend and I were having our petit dejeuner of croissants and cafe au lait, the Methodist minister who was the leader of the youth group came over to our table. Without even asking us what had happened, he said, "You girls are forbidden to speak French for the rest of the trip."

"But, Rev!"

"No buts. No French. Period."

Well, then it was time for our tour of Paris. We soon learned that our tour was taking place on Bastille Day and that on Bastille Day, all Parisians leave the city and go picnicking in the country. The place closes down! We saw the Louvre from the outside. From the tour bus, we saw the Arche de Triomphe and the outside of the Tour d'Eiffel because they were -- well, outside. Other than that, we were spoken rudely to by anyone we met except in one little cafe where we stopped for ice cream. (The BEST coffee ice cream I ever tasted in my life.) There I surreptitiously spoke a little French with the waiter until I saw one of the adults giving me the evil eye.

Finally, it was time to go to the airport. The minister was having a hard time understanding the tour guide and apparently the gates had been changed for our departure. The tour guide was trying to direct the minister where he should go and he couldn't find all the English words. He answered a question of the minister's in French and the minister turned to my girlfriend and me and said, "What did he say?"

You know those times when you remember later what you should have done or said and then kick yourself?

This wasn't one of those times. We'd been carrying this grudge for over 12 Whole Hours!

My girlfriend and I looked at each other, then turned back to look at the minister, shrugged our shoulders and said in unison, "I don't know, Rev. I can't speak a word of French."

Happy Bastille Day, Everyone!

Radio Silence

2009-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

So sorry I've been lax in posting on the blog. The latest project is taking up a lot of time.

It's a joint afghan by a set of international contributors to a message board that I frequent. We are making an afghan for one amongst us who lost her dear husband suddenly and after only a couple of years of marriage. It's a small way for us all to comfort her, a virtual hug turned real.

I am the one putting the squares together, so my time to post on the blog is quite limited.

But I had to share this bonus I received with the square sent to me by PipneyJane. She knows about my penguin fixation and whenever she has cause to send me something, she includes one of these:

At Long Last!

2009-10-15T12:47:00.000-07:00

This gown took longer to make than the baby took to "germinate."

And here is the Little Miss and her lovely mom:

Nearly There

2009-09-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry about my absence for so long.

I have been working frantically to finish a christening gown that I started when the mom was 3 months pregnant. The baby was born on July 31st. The christening is in November.

Crochet projects have all been on hold while I concentrate on this and I'm so happy to say I'm almost finished. I expect to wrap up by the first or second weekend in October.

Here are some really bad photos of the work in progress ....

...AND two of the more important COMPLETED project (for which I cannot take any credit):

More photos of the baby (and a fantastic photographer if you're looking for one in the Bay Area) at The Jess Page.

California Girl Encounters Tennessee Wildlife

2009-06-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

DD has moved to Nashville. She is encountering as new and strange the sorts of things I took for granted growing up in the Midwest.

Her latest email to me was so LOL funny, I just have to share it. With her permission, I present it here in its entirety:

"I didn't get to tell you about the wildlife out here. This is like the roadkill capital of the world!

"The first time I ever experienced a traffic jam near our house, when we finally got to the scene of the "accident" and saw that the slow was caused by a very large buck that was right in the middle of the road. I don't know how some idiot managed to hit something so big. It's like running into a parked car.

"Since then I've noted a carcass every 50 feet or so on every major highway.

"Now, in Nashville, the drivers here are rather obnoxious with regard to speed. The rule of thumb is generally 5-10 miles BELOW the speed limit. There's a cop pulling someone over for speeding, every few miles or so, and that's for people who go 1-2 miles over the limit. So I was über stumped as to how these slow pokes manage to hit so many animals.

"Then I had a few experiences of my own and I've found that the animals here tend to be a little red-neck themselves. For example...

"One morning I had a chipmunk run in front of the car, then a squirrel then a cat, all that I barely missed. Shortly after that, a large turtle was sitting in the middle of the road and it took two people to move it. It turned out to be a snapping turtle and it looks like someone had already hit it with the car because its shoulder was smashed and bleeding. We got it to the side of the road but, while moving it, it peed on us. It was some really bad stank in the car after that.

"One night I saw a cat in my lane so I moved to the next lane to avoid it. It looked up at me and then jumped right in front of the car as I drove past. I didn't hear any bump. I stopped and was freaking out. So someone got out and looked and told me nothing was hit. I guess it went right under the car.

"The next day there was a dog running along side of the car. I got this premonition/vision of it jumping in front of the car so I slowed down to about 15 mph. It then walked in front of the car and sat there. I stopped and it looked at me with this silly-ass grin and its tongue hanging out and then it ran off.

"A few nights ago there was an opossum in the road. I stopped for it and it stared at me for a few seconds. Then it turned around and went running down the road in front of the car - not getting out of the way but just running along like I'm supposed to follow it. It was friggin' hilarious and we were all laughing so hard watching it waddle that I could barely drive. It finally jumped in a bush from embarrassment.

"Yesterday morning a chicken crossed the road in front of the car which then inspired about a million-and-one chicken-crossing-the-road jokes.

"Then last night there was an opossum crossing the road and we passed it while it was in the lane next to us, heading toward our lane. I breathed a sigh of relief that it hadn't gotten to my lane as I don't think I would have seen it in time. But then a second later I passed a car going in the opposite direction - oh no! This morning I checked and there was no new road kill so I think it made it.

"This morning I almost hit two vultures that were picking at a carcass. I also avoided hitting a turkey and a pea hen.

"These animals are seriously stupid and just oblivious of human life around here. You'd think they'd evolve into some sort of sentience regarding pavement but... they don't.

"Anyway. Fun times.

"Love ya’."

My Own Igloo

2009-05-22T17:03:00.000-07:00

I gave myself my moniker years ago when trying to set up a Yahoo! account. I tried to make it PenguinLover but that was taken. I really don't like adding numbers to a screen name that is already taken, so I tried MyIgloo.

That was taken too. By then I was getting a little annoyed, so I said, "Well, all right" (and yes, I really do talk to my computer screen), "how about MyOwnIgloo?"

Thus, a globally challenged persona was born (scroll down to the bottom of my blog to see my trademark).

May 2009 is a signature month for myownigloo because in May 2009, a law firm partner who likes to bake on the side made me My Own Igloo!

Ain't it grand?

Meet Nellie Nester

2009-05-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

This was the handmade item for my Warm Ewe Up swap on Ravelry. It took so long to make, I had to send it separately from the last package.

I completed Nellie weekend before last and didn't post her pic because I wanted Mo to get a chance to see her first. Turns out, the timing was perfect. Check out Mo's post on her own blog.

Mo's photos are much better than mine, but you can get a peek into my apartment in mine. That's my favorite piano there in the background. If you look really closely on the right-hand side in the background, you can see my penguin bathrobe draped over my balance ball. As a housekeeper, I make a lousy photographer. (Or is it as a photographer, I make a lousy housekeeper?)

Mo collects nesting chickens and what better gift for a winter swap than a cozy?

Warm Ewe Up Final Reveal

2009-04-08T19:24:00.000-07:00

I am happy finally to have some time to devote to the ol' blog. This public thank-you is long overdue.

My poor swap partner had quite a challenge in me because I have so much stuff, I have no business participating in a swap. Yarn has become my screen monster that threatens to eat our home. So when someone says, "What do you need? What colors do you want? What kind of yarn," yada yada yada, I put my hands up in a defensive gesture and scream "Noooooooooooooo!"

In spite of all that, she uncannily chose absolutely perfect gifts for me! I'm not going to build up the suspense here because I am so excited about these fingerless gloves, I simply can't put off mentioning them:

She designed and knit them up herself and every detail was a thoughtful gesture for Yours Truly. She tells the story of their creation better on her own blog, where I am proud that my gloves share space with Pavarotti.

I am positive she has ESP. I was eyeing sock monkey patterns at the lys while she was choosing these pattern book to send me. All of them are perfect for me and thoughtfully take into consideration my taste and the type of projects I do.

She is a very good photographer, too, and sent me a photo taken in her home, upstate New York, near where my own DH was born and raised. I love it up there, and her photo captured the autumn leaves that I recall so well from the only time I ever visited there. (A portion of the photo is barely visible under my fingers above.)

The little lamb has already found a home with the Baby in the Seafoam Booties. The two are very good and fast friends now.

Now I have officially sworn off swaps until I have finished all my UFOs and made a dent in the yarn that threatens to push us out of house and home.

Brooch Contest: First Prize

2009-04-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

It's been a while, hasn't it?

I think enough time has passed that I can safely show you first prize in the brooch contest that I sent off to Norway a while back. Hopefully it has made its way across the ocean by now. (See Vote on a Brooch herein.)

Congratulations to Sølvi (aka xGvJx,) who asked for a Gryffindor scarf bookmark.

This is crocheted using embroidery floss instead of yarn.

I got the idea for this bookmark last year when I scored a huge lot of embroidery floss on eBay for the Best of Hats/Worst of Hats hat. I recognized the colors and made a bookmark similar to the one above for my daughter.

I didn't have the colors anymore, so I went to my lys to purchase more floss. What lot of colors there are from which to choose! I did not trust my color memory. Luckily, as I was trying to decide whether I'd chosen the right colors, a very Aloof Young Woman (aged 13? 14?) strolled past me.

Me: I said, "Excuse me?"

AYW: (eyeroll)

Me: "Um, are you a Harry Potter fan?"

AYW: *(eyeroll) Yes. (with an implied, almost audible "Duh!")*

Me: (showing her the colors) "Gryffindor?"

AYW: (Repeat response between the asterisks above.)

When I'm ready to make the other three houses' scarf bookmarks, I think I'll take my daughter, or at least one of my younger friendly-type friends, with me.

Warm You Up Winter Swap Blog Question #5

2009-03-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

The question is what pattern would you make again and again?

In all honesty, I can't say there is one pattern I enjoy that much. My attention is always on the next project and the next and the next and the next. I often think "This is a good pattern to make again for so-and-so," but I never get a round tuit.

If it ever did happen, among the running would be:

some gorgeous glass cozies made from thread that I don't even have a picture of to show you;
the Love Knot dress for babies (I'll add the photo later if I can find it....);
cotton shopping bags;
zombie Amigurumi;
the bridal purse (search "weddings" herein); and
baby shoes

Now, to celebrate spring, here is what my Christmas cactus looked like this morning. Its second blossom to come to full term is showing, plus another one aborning:

Woot! Loot!

2009-03-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

I apologize for my infrequent blogging these days. Demands on my time and all. I won't bore you with the details.

Crocheting time has become dear, as well. I am very far behind on promised projects, including the prize for the brooch contest, but I hope to have that completed by the end of next weekend.

Meanwhile, I received this fantastic package from my Falling for Ewe secret swap pal. Dear, dear, Pal. You and I have far more in common than you may have realized. I cannot wait to "meet" you for real and exchange private emails.

Just opening the outer package gave me a lift. Just look at all the pretty packages!

Inside was the most luscious, soft, heavenly yarn imaginable. And the color! I wish the photo could do it justice. It's a bit on the watermelon side of true red, and looking at it just makes me sigh. I'm not sure what I'll do with it, but I'm looking for scarf and hat patterns right now that will suit it. I would love feeling this yarn caressing my face in the San Francisco fog.

I am afraid I have given my spoiler a bit of a hard time because I mentioned that I don't really need any more yarn. Add to that the fact that I can't have scents and shouldn't eat sweets and it's kind of hard to spoil me, isn't it?

Well, she manages quite well, I must say. These Dove sugar-free chocolates are fabulous! My candy jar at work was in need of replenishing, judging by the "innocent" comments of passersby who have been looking in there. I shared a few of the sweets with the jar, but most of them are stashed in a drawer where only I can sneak them out!

I love the sage green cotton thread. I have so many projects in mind requiring cotton thread, I don't know which all I'll choose for this thread ultimately, but I'm definitely going to be making glass cozies and beaded evening bags and sachets for a start!

Speaking of which, this book -- which came from my spoiler's personal stash, by the way -- is actually a book I once checked out of the library! I love most of the patterns in it and it's especially wonderful because it has cat toys in it! My cats were gifted by a previous spoiler with knitted cat toy mice and they have abandoned all their other toys for those three mice. One of them goes hunting every night at around 3:00 a.m. and carries those mice around the apartment, dropping them and yowling about her conquest. (Luckily, DH and I are relatively sound sleepers.) I had always hoped to have crochet patterns of cat toys.

But there are more patterns in there I love -- and plenty for cotton thread, like sachets and purses and wash cloths. It will definitely get use.

Spoiler, thank you so much! I'll get a proper thank you in the mail this week.

A Paean Worth Watching

2009-02-11T13:07:00.000-08:00

Trader Joe's is one of my favorite places. I will tell you a story about that someday soon. (Many of my friends already know the story. It's one of my favorites.)

Meanwhile, if you do not have the fortune of having your own local Trader Joe's, then this will show you what you're missing.

I'd suggest relocating. Seriously.

Warm You Up Winter Swap Blog Question #4

2009-02-09T15:11:00.001-08:00

What are your plans for Valentine’s Day this year?

Valentine's Day is a sore subject around this place.

See, DH and I sort of eloped on Valentine's Day. Or at least we decided to elope on Valentine's Day but by the time we got ourselves to Las Vegas and got the requisite marriage license and found an open chapel, we were actually married on February 15th.

We had a wedding all planned for June and we went ahead with it anyway, for the family's sake, but it was our little secret that we were already married.

We have friends who were married in three different ceremonies and we actually planned on having three ourselves because it sounded like fun, but it took so long to get our respective households combined and somewhat organized (in fact, that project isn't completed to my satisfaction even today....), we never did do the third one in San Francisco.

DH is not very creative when it comes to holidays. He gives cards. Only cards. From all I can fathom, that's all his family ever did for any occasion was give cards. He is quite pleased with himself when he hands me a card, and I have given up on trying to augment his ways to include even poorly thought out gifts.

All that aside, our first year, I didn't get a blessed thing on Valentine's Day. Then on the 15th, I got an anniversary card. I wasn't happy.

Carefully, I tried to explain to DH that just because our anniversary was on the 15th, that did not exempt him from his Valentine's Day obligations.

Not only that, but the February wedding was not my favorite occasion to remember. The chapel minister was a dirty minded man who made a comment about what DH must have been thinking simply because he offered me the wrong finger to put the ring on. (I mean, some people count the thumb so when you tell them "your third finger," they just might get it mixed up, right?)

Anyway, between my mixed feelings about celebrating the anniversary in the first place and its proximity to Valentine's Day, DH just can't get it right, poor guy. Not his fault.

So I try not to think about Valentine's Day at all. DH and I are going to a seminar on how to survive a recession, not a bad way to strengthen a marriage, eh?

If I happen to get a card or a flower for either occasion, that'll be a bonus.

The Winners

2009-02-01T12:48:00.001-08:00

I'll make this short and sweet because I know you're eager to know before the Super Bowl starts.

Third Prize Winner:
Anna
Second Prize Winner:
funlovingal
FIRST PRIZE WINNER:
xGvJx
Please send me your snail mail addresses via Ravelry and, xGvJx, please send me your email address as well so we can discuss what your prize will be.
Congratulations everyone! Talk at y'all later.

You Only Turn 40 Once, Right?

2009-01-27T15:58:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday, Beth!

We had a birthday party at work today for one of my coworkers, Beth.

Her family is back East in Ohio, snowed in. They were planning on surprising her with a visit for her 40th birthday, but the weather had other ideas. So instead, they sent her a Birthday in a Box that we're all enjoying. (What a family, eh?)

Someone made her hat out of some of the cellophane wrapping paper from the box and a paper plate. (A propos of nothing, did you know that cellophane used to be a trademark? It lost its trademark status because too many people used it generically. Just like what happened to zipper and what will probably happen to Kleenex® tissues someday....)

She's holding the candles backwards on purpose, thinking maybe people will think she's 4.

Behaviorwise, I guess that's not far off.

She did her best Fosse imitation right after this picture was shot. It's a good thing she has a day job.

Warm You Up Winter Swap Blog Question #3 (West Coast Version

2009-01-26T15:04:00.000-08:00

What would you do to stay warm and cozy while it’s snowing?

Yes, I remember snow. And ice. I'm an Illinois child, remember?

People who don't live in California often think that I live in a sunny clime. But San Francisco is not often sunny, and it's not at all the balmy paradise that folks imagine.

One of the pastimes here in the summer, especially in July, is watching the tourists shiver their way around town in their wholly inapproriate attire: shorts and sandals. They don't often think to bring winter gear, but July is actually our coldest month.

I caught pneumonia in San Francisco when I first visited here in July of 1966. I had spent the day before in Sacramento where it was 106 degrees in the shade, got the worst sunburn of my life (3rd degree in places), and then came to San Francisco where my all-weather raincoat was insufficient to keep me warm, especially considering the temperature of my skin.

Still, I haven't seen much snow here except on the mountaintops or on a trip to Tahoe or Reno.

What I used to do to keep warm was to bake. I still do that here, even this past weekend. I'll bake or roast something and then prop the oven door open and let the air get warmed up by the leftover heat. Sometimes I even stand in front of it, warming my hands and behind, until it's all cooled down.

Also in the running:

Wearing a very fluffy warm bathrobe;
Taking hot, hot baths;
Wearing woolen socks or houseslippers with a cuppa tea;
Wrapping myself in an electric blanket with a cuppa cocoa;
Snuggling with a) a cat; b) two cats; c) a reluctant husband (who is cold-blooded anyway so he isn't much good to me in these circumstances).

Bonus: a picture of my Christmas cactus right before Christmas. I raised it from an accidental cutting that got knocked off of a hostess gift I took to a Christmas party in 2007. The cutting was just three sections long. Look at how big it got! You can just see its first bud forming.

An Act of Swapper Love

2009-01-23T16:28:00.000-08:00

Today I got my first package from my swap partner in the Warm Ewe Up Winter Swap:

Look past the yummy yarns (Burgundy cotton and Tofutsies in a lovely lavendar ombre).
Look past the portable crochet pattern booklets (with the adorable ducky and dinosaur baby toys inside that only I know about.... Wait a minute. I just told you about them. Well, only I have seen them.)
Look past the pretty notes...
Look past the bottle of natural, unscented Eucalan no rinse, delicate wash laundry concentrate (which I've never seen before and which I can't wait to try!)
Look past the Dove chocolates -- Yes! I said look past Dove Chocolates! Me! MOI! I SAID THAT! (Yeah, I don't believe it either.)

See that card at the top of the photo? The one with the picture of the knitwitch with her sweet cat riding a knitting needle to the stars?

That is a loving work of art from my swap partner. What a warm and loving letter she sent to me -- a virtual stranger!

And get this line she wrote about the laundry concentrate: "Please forgive the dented bottle. I fell down the stairs this morning on my way out to work and dropped the bag."

Wow. The mind boggles.

First of all, I do hope she's okay. Those soft tissue injuries can sneak up on you later.

But get this. She's told me -- her secret pal -- that she fell down the stairs. She has given up her rights to post on Ravelry about her injuries and thus garner sympathy from all of us loving knitters and crocheters or else risk outing herself to me.

Now that's an Act of Love.

Warm Ewe Up Question #2

2009-01-12T18:12:00.000-08:00

If you could only knit or crochet with one brand of yarn for the rest of the year, what would it be and why?

If I could only crochet with one brand of yarn for the rest of the year, it would be the brand that I have the most of in my stash, whatever that is. I suspect it's cotton, either Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co. or Lion Brand.

In fact, Lion Brand would be a good choice because then if I used up all the cotton I have in that brand, I would have a wide range of fibres to choose from when I had to buy yarn.

But then, choosing Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Company is kind of a cheat because it would include Peaches & Creme and crochet thread, so I'd have a broader choice of projects to make.

The reason I would rather choose the one that I have the most of is because I'm a bit -- well, let's say thrifty, and I could kill two proverbial birds with one proverbial stone: I could reduce my stash considerably and I would be forced to focus, so I would catch up on all the gifts I had planned with that yarn.

Not exactly what you were thinking when you asked the question, eh, moderator?

Vote on a Brooch

2009-01-08T20:05:00.000-08:00

I promised you in the post Ravelry Swap on a Budget Great Reveal that I would show you the brooch I had bought to go along with the shawl that Beth of Needle Bling fame knit me.

Not only did I buy a handmade brooch that matched the shawl perfectly, but I also found that I had two others in my brooch stash that also matched.

(My coworker Maria, who was there when I opened the package, wants me to tell you that I wear this shawl at work practically every single day.) I alternate brooches on it depending on what I'm wearing or what mood I'm in.

So, vote for your favorite brooch and win a prize!

Here's how.

Vote by leaving a comment with your Ravelry ID or an email address or website, a way to contact you in other words. (It's not a contest, really. More like a drawing. I'll put all the names in a hat or a shoe or a bucket and draw one.)

First prize is something crocheted by me. (Don't get too excited. It'll probably be a cotton wash cloth or a soap saver or something equally banal.) First place winner can choose from something I've already made (which isn't much) or negotiate for a particular item in a particular color, as long as you are willing to allow time for me to make it.

Second prize is Kool-Aid dyed alpaca yarn from Needle Bling. 100% sport weight alpaca yarn from Frog Tree Yarn. Two 50-gram skeins, approximately 260 yards. (Photo courtesy of Needle Bling.)

Third prize will be a $10 gift certificate from Needle Bling.

Refer your friends to this contest and get an extra entry for you and for them. They just have to mention in the contest that they were referred and by whom.

Here are the choices:

Brooch #1:

This is the handmade brooch I bought the weekend before I got the shawl. It has a jade backing behind white filligree with a bird in the center. I'm not sure what the white is or how it is made. And since your vote doesn't affect the contest, I don't mind telling you that this is my favorite.

Brooch #2:

This is a brooch I found on eBay. It just caught my fancy. It is a faux Victorian brooch with a cameo center. The bright green doesn't go quite as well with the shawl, but I still like it.

Brooch #3:

This brooch was a little lagniappe that someone on eBay sent me when I purchased some clothing from her store. I love it.

There you have it. Vote by the end of January and I'll announce the winner on February 2nd.

Why Did I Learn To Crochet?

2009-01-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

OK, in all fairness to the Warm Ewe Up Winter Swap moderator, I'll answer the question that she meant to ask me.

I was born to crochet. It is my destiny.

Seriously.

My maternal grandmother crocheted. She was a 4'8" spitfire of Irish heritage and she was left-handed. In fact, she had several (I'm thinking maybe 8? but I can't recall how many) siblings, and they were all left-handed.

Sadly for her, both her children -- my mother and my aunt -- were right-handed. They longed to crochet like their mom but they couldn't quite learn from a left-hander.

When I was born and showed a preference for the left hand, there was much rejoicing because now Gramma (she was still just Gramma then. Later she would be known as "Little Gramma" by her great-grandchildren to distinguish her from their grandmothers) would have someone she could teach to crochet.

I learned to make a chain when I was 4 or 5. I would have gone on merrily making chains until Kingdom Come but for a pivotal and rather traumatic moment in my tender childhood.

One day a lady came to our house to do business with my mother. I am not quite certain what the business was -- my mother was an Avon lady at the time and probably it had something to do with that -- but for some reason, it was important that manners and protocol prevail that day.

The woman sat in a chair in the living room and waited for my mother, who went off somewhere else in the house to fetch something for her.  While she waited, the lady pulled out of her handbag two needles and began knitting something. I was fascinated and nosy, of course. I asked her questions about what she was doing and she answered sweetly. We were having a delightful conversation when my mother re-entered the room just in time to hear me tell the lady, "I crochet."

"Do you?" she crooned. "What do you crochet?"

"Oh, chains," I answered proudly.

The two women dispatched their business and the lady left. My mother had no sooner closed the door on her than she whirled around and berated me soundly. "Don't tell people you crochet! All you can do is make chains! That's not real crocheting! If you tell people you crochet, then they expect that you can actually make something."

Looking back from an adult perspective, I realized that that lady and what she thought about me and my mother was of Very Great Importance to my mom or she wouldn't have been so harsh with me.  But at the time, I was devastated that I'd made an awful faux pas (even though I wouldn't have understood the term if someone had told me then that I'd made a faux pas.)

As soon as Gramma visited again, I went to her and demanded that she show me something else. Something more than a chain. Something like what she was doing.

Thus I learned my first stitch. And my second. And lo and behold, a Granny Square!

Every year someone gave my grandmother a gift subscription to Workbasket.  She kept them in a trunk in her living room and used the trunk as a footstool. She let me read them and I taught myself how to read a pattern and began making Barbie clothes and toilet paper covers, the usual Workbasket variety of FOs. My grandmother was envious of my "talent" because, she said, she didn't know how to read a pattern. I guess the person who gave her the Workbasket never knew that because she kept getting them every year. By the time I was grown up, they filled the entire trunk. I'd grab a few of them every time I visited her but by the time I was in college, I had no time for crocheting. I didn't pick it up again until recent years.

But nowadays, every time I make an FO that I'm proud of and I post a picture of it on Ravelry or on this blog, I think, "See Mom, I really can crochet!"

Question #1: Why Do I Knit?

2009-01-08T19:08:00.000-08:00

Ahem

(I don't knit.)

A Bootie Story

2008-12-28T16:12:00.000-08:00

At the baby shower (Baby Booties of Past):

Three months later (Baby Booties of Present):

And for this baby, Baby Booties (and more) of Future:

Overdue Wedding Flower Photos

2008-12-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos when I played Martha Stewart for a good friend's son and his bride. (See "What Is It About Weddings?").

Here I am with the bride, pointing out the crystal heart bead I put into her bouquet that corresponded to one in the groom's boutonniere. Her bouquet was made with hydrangeas, roses, peonies, stefanotis and lemon leaves.

I made the groom, best man and family of the bride and groom's boutonnieres from roses and gave the groomsmen thistles, which perfectly matched the color scheme. I decided on the thistles hurriedly as I went through the flower market the day before and the mother of the bride -- who wanted final approval on all decisions -- sounded a little doubtful when I told her about them on the telephone. By that time, there was no time to change our minds, so I assured her she was going to love the look.

Next day when I pinned a thistle on the first groomsman he was kind of steeling himself to wear a flower. You would have thought that he was going to be giving blood instead of getting a boutonniere pinned on him. When he opened his eyes and saw the "flower," he looked surprised and said, "Hey, what's that?" I told him it was a thistle, and he puffed up like a rooster and strutted away, all proud of his boutonniere.

Then, when I pinned the roses on the brothers and best man, they asked why they got roses instead of thistles and I explained it was because they were family (and did not explain that it was what the mother of the bride insisted on). They seemed to feel like they'd been shortchanged rather than honored.

Note to self: make boutonnieres out of the manliest "flower" you can find!

The bridesmaids carried bouquets of hydrangeas with a deep purple calla lily in the center. This allowed me to tie the bouquets into the bride's bouquet and still make them different and less elaborate than the bride's bouquet. We were really lucky with the hydrangeas. I'd had the bouquets in the refrigerator overnight, but I took them out and put them into flower vases with a little water in the bottom to wait for the wedding party. As in all weddings, there were some glitches and the wedding party was over an hour late. Hydrangeas won't last for much over three hours. I am happy to report that these lasted through the wedding and until the last photo was shot. By the time the bridesmaids made it to the reception, their bouquets were very droopy and even spritzing them with water didn't help much.

I made wrist corsages for both the mothers.

The bride also wanted me to decorate the top of the cake with flowers, sight unseen. She ordered it plain but I only had a description of what it would look like.

The mother of the bride insisted that she wanted hydrangeas on the cake to match the bride's bouquet. I had to explain to her firmly that there would be no hydrangeas on the cake because hydrangeas are highly toxic and we wouldn't want the wedding day to turn tragic. We opted for silk hydrangeas with roses.

Unfortunately, with little funds and no time to experiment, I followed a tip I found online to freeze fresh flowers the night before if they were to go onto the cake. By the time the white roses thawed, they had begun to brown. No one noticed but me, it seems, but I will never freeze roses for a cake again without testing the result the week before.

The photographer was a friend of the couple's and she did a fantastic job on the photos. I have her to thank for allowing me permission to use the photos on my blog. (Thanks, J!)

Ravelry Swap on a Budget Great Reveal

2008-12-09T17:03:00.000-08:00

I got my package yesterday and my spoiler was no less than Beth Bowles of Needle Bling fame!

She started out by wrapping almost everything in this gorgeous rose patterned tissue paper. Very pretty.

And what goodies were inside! Of course, you can see the wasabi cashews have been almost all eaten up in the photo and I can't for the life of me find that square of Ghiradelli chocolate....

Those are Pilot gel pens on the left, my favorites. And those two gorgeous chunks of chocolate in the center? Those are bars of SOAP! What a guilt-free way to indulge myself. There is a luxurious wooden crochet hook that I can't wait to try. And handmade stitch markers from her shop. I'm drinking some of that moroccan mint tea right now.

The thread and navy cotton yarn she included only add to that "stalked" feeling -- the one that makes you feel loved and not eery -- and that skein of variegated blue-greens? That's soy yarn that she dyed especially for me!

I never really thought I had a "favorite" color but seeing myself through Beth's eyes has made me realize that I really do. In fact, when I got to the yarny goodness, my coworker gasped and said, "Look! It matches what you're wearing! Put it on!" So I put on the shawl (sorry, it doesn't show up very well in my photo. Hopefully Beth will have it in her projects section) and felt so taken care of! It's perfect for me. And, no, Beth, I'm not going to add fringe with that extra skein of yarn you send. I love it just the way it is. In fact, my coworker said, "You should put a pretty pin right *there*" and emphasized it by showing me how to close it, and suddenly I realized that I had bought the exact *perfect* pin for this shawl at a craft show over the weekend.

This was one loving swapper! I am very, very pleased. And warm.

Thank you, Beth! Give my love to the ferrets!

Warm Ewe Up Winter Yarn Swap Questionnaire

2008-12-09T16:15:00.000-08:00

Do you knit or crochet, or both? How long have you been at the craft?

Crochet. I learned when I was 5 or 6 and I am now over a half-century old, but there are decades-long gaps when I haven't been "at the craft," so I don't know how to answer. But I can do most anything I want to do with it. Most.

Do you spin?

Not that way you mean when you ask.

What yarns/fibers are your favorites?

Soft ones like alpaca and cotton and soy.
Colorful crochet threads (no. 10 or 20).

What yarns/fibers do you not like?

Mohair. Too hard to crochet with it.

What yarns/fibers would you like to try but haven’t?

Hmmm. Surprise me.

What are your favorite colors? Colors that you don’t like?

Almost any color appearing in nature.
earth tones
heathery blues and greens and greys
jewel tones
coral and peach
not maroon
not so much the black and white.

What are your favorite types of projects to knit/crochet?

Anything for babies or children.
Anything gift-y for friends that they really appreciate, such as:
hats
scarves
market bags
Amigurumi
threadwork like beaded bags or
snowflake ornaments.

What are you currently working on?

I'm finish up a christening outfit that should be done next week.
Then I've got an alpaca throw for a wedding gift
I must get started on and some stuffed toys for gifts: a monkey and a bear and a set of penguin bowling pins.

What is your favorite FO? (Please post a picture if you have one.)

I'd still have to go with the beaded bridal purse. See my blog entry on it entitled "What Is It About Weddings?"

Are there any techniques that you want to learn?

Eventually, but I have plenty to work on before then.

Hairpin lace
broomstick lace
Bruges lace
Irish crochet
And I intend to learn to felt without a washing machine, like with a little washboard or felting washboard that I've seen at my lys.

Do you have a yarn winder and/or swift?

Nope. Don't want one either.

How do you store your needles/hooks?

I have rolls that serve the purpose, one of them made by someone in an earlier swap which I will keep forever.

Do you collect anything?

Egg cups. (I own only one but I would like it to turn into a collection.)
I have a collection of comb-bound grass roots type of cookbooks, like from church bazaars, but that is sort of accidental. See my blog post about it.

Do you like sweets?

Oh, dear. That's Pandora's box for this borderline diabetic! Sugar free chocolates for me or the occasional bite of dark chocolate for me.

What are your favorite scents?

Allergic. Can tolerate some natural scents, but not vanilla -- it's usually not really natural when you get it in candles and the like.

Are you having a birthday during this swap?

Nope.

Do you have any online wish lists? (Amazon, Loopy Ewe, etc.) Please include a link for your pal.

Also see my earlier questionnaire for these swaps, August 12, 2008, Question 20.

What is your living situation (Are you married? Do you have kids, pets, or both?)

Living situation: chaotic
Married.
Pet kids (two cats)
Grown, married daughter lives 700 miles away

Are you allergic to anything?

Wool, most likely, but I kind of ignore that.
Molds, so don't send any bleu or Gorgonzola cheese or penicillin.

Is there anything else that you would like your pal to know?

This is probably not a welcome admission, but I really don't need anything at all. (Well, actually, I don't own a pair of fingerless gloves which I understand are good for typing.) I have more yarn than I can make into something in the next three years. I join the swaps because I like giving. I guess if you want to send me something handmade, if you send something suitable for giving to my favorite charities, that would be welcome. Just be sure to tell me that you're giving it to me for that purpose. For instance, lilybugs or Children and Family Services.

Breaking Virtual Silence At Last!

2008-11-15T15:44:00.000-08:00

Falling for Ewe Question of the Week #7

Question: What foods do you like to bake this time of year? Are there any that are traditional to you?

Answer: For holiday gifts, I often make an old family recipe for Scottish shortbread. In fact I made it recently for a swap -- not this one (sorry, spoilee). I put the finished shortbread on a red plate and cover it with plastic and add a plaid bow and Voila! Instant gift. Well, I guess it's not instant if it takes an hour or two to make, right? Whatever.

At home, I love comfort foods at this time of year. One that comes to mind I learned from a TV cook who has gone on to the Great Kitchen of the Beyond. It was called cranberry toast and consists of buttered toasted bread (we use rye or whole wheat) with canned whole cranberry sauce spread on it, topped with sharp Cheddar cheese and broiled until it's bubbly and brown on top. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Now I want to go to the grocery store and buy the ingredients and make it for dinner.

I guess that last one doesn't count as baking, but I cheated. At least I use my oven for it.

Update on Me:

In other news, I have a job!

I started on Wednesday and I love it there -- except for the part about zero tolerance on personal computing. I'll try not to let the blog suffer.

Latest Creation:

Snowflake ornaments.

Until next week...

Virtual Silence

2008-10-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

If I don't blog for a bit, it's for good reason. Now that I'm officially terminated from my job, my occupation has become The Hunt.

On top of that, I've come down with a ghastly bug. I've had to postpone all my interviews this week save one and take to my bed.

But one good thing about this is having discovered photos on the old laptop that I thought I'd lost. The slippers above are called Slam Dunk Slippers. I made them for a ginger-haired boy in Washington who has outgrown them by now and has probably passed them along to his baby brother.

I'll be back with good news in a jiffy!

Take care!

Question of the Week #5

2008-10-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

This is the Question of the Week #5 in the Falling for Ewe Swap on Ravelry.

Do you like football?

What is your favorite team?

What happened to Questions 1 through 4? you might ask. I think I answered one or two in the blog somewhere but I can't remember where I put it. But I didn't like the others or they didn't seem to apply to me so I didn't answer them.

This one doesn't apply much either, but it's a good opportunity to tell one of those anecdotes I'm so fond of.

My dad was a practical joker. One of his proudest accomplishments was making his youngest sister ditzy. He did it by answering innocent questions with false information.

"Brother, what is the roller derby?"

"Well, Sister Dear, you know what the Kentucky Derby is?"

"Yes. That's when the horses run around the track."

"Right you are, Little Sister. Well, the Roller Derby is the same thing, except in the Roller Derby, they put roller skates on the horses."

Years later, my aunt's husband would call my dad to laugh about some of the things she fell for. They would roar with laughter over it.

When Aunt Betty was all growed up, the ditzy making fell to me.

The most frustrating thing about this ditzy making was its sleeper nature. Since one didn't know she had the wrong answer, one would not hesitate to pipe up and use her knowledge in front of others whose reaction would range from uncomfortable silence to out-and-out guffaws.

Remember the hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter? (See Another Yarn Contest: My Black Hills Summer Vacation, archives July 3, 2008). I was set up to fall for that joke where all basic education starts: at home.

To this day I cringe to think that someday I might come forth with some perfectly reasonable explanation for something and face blank stares and titters.

So my answer to the Question of the Week is this:

No, I don't like football TYVM!

So, I don't have a favorite team.

But my favorite player is the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Someday I'll tell you a story about that one. As soon as I quit blushing over it.

Black & White

2008-10-08T13:15:00.000-07:00

This thank-you post has been a long time coming. Apologies to Kim.
It all started when DH, who is originally from upstate New York, took me to see where he grew up. There, he introduced me to the most wonderful confection -- (Ambrosia, Food of the Gods, Bliss on the Tongue) -- that I had ever tasted.
The locals call them Moon Pies but somewhere I got the name "Black & Whites." I'm not sure if this was DH's name for them or whether I made it up on the spot. Basically, they are sugar cookies iced half with white icing and half with chocolate icing. I guess they must look like moons to some. Anyway, I had never seen them in my 45 years of U.S. travels (at the time). My relatives Back East know that if they want to make me happy, they must send these to me by FedEx. But it's been a long time since my relatives wanted to make me happy, I guess.
Anyway, when Kim became my partner in the Summer of Yarn Love Swap, early on I asked her if she'd send me one after the swap was over. So, true to her word -- three months later and long after I'd forgotten I'd even asked -- I got a package from Kim with two -- count 'em!!! -- black 'n whites.
This only goes to illustrate why I have a blood sugar problem.
I opened the package in the car outside the post office. When I saw there were two, I was so impressed at Kim's thoughtfulness of including both DH and me.
But then I noticed that they weren't the same. One of them had a sugar cookie base and the other had a chocolate cookie base.
Which one should I eat? Did I really care whether DH got one? I mean, he'd had enough of these in his childhood, right?
Traditionally in these swaps, people take pictures of what they get. Here's mine. Taken before I'd even started the car for home:

A Wall of Importances

2008-09-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

As my days at the office wind down, I am getting blindsided by something I hadn't predicted. It seems stupid that I wouldn't have realized it, stupid is the name of the game when you're reeling from a heavy loss.

Every day another coworker says good-bye. Every. Single. Day.
I've built walls of protection around myself, only to find I've walled in something forgotten. Then I have to build another wall within the first, and another, and another, until I find myself looking through the windows (never one to completely close myself off, I put windows in my walls) at important things that I am not dealing with right now.

Things like flu shots and washing the windows and getting the last little bit of filing done.

It's at times like these that my tendency to organize every facet of my life comes in handy. I'm making lists.

Someday, after I've landed on my feet, I'll pick up the lists and start ticking things off.

But right now, adding "talk to the recruiter" and "set an appointment for an interview" and "get a haircut" to my usual daily routine is about the most change I can tolerate.

Top of the daily routine list is "when you've finished crying, remember to smile."

When I took pictures of my coworker wearing the hat I'd made her, one of them showed the address of the building where we work so I left it out of the blog. Now that it's no secret anymore, I include it as a memento of our years here.

Falling For Ewe Swap Question No. 3

2008-09-25T17:19:00.000-07:00

What meals or foods mean ‘Fall’ to you?

Not exactly a meal or a food, but where we went to get food in the fall back in my hometown: Eckert's.

Best apple butter on the planet!

I Knew It!

2008-09-21T20:43:00.000-07:00

September Procrastination Challenge

2008-09-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

I have joined this challenge a little late, I know, but by the end of September, I should be able to get one of these three tasks accomplished, and maybe both of them if I'm really diligent! (But my challenge for this month is just to do one of them.)

Open all the financial related mail that is stacked up on my computer desk at home and file it;
Collect the remaining financial filing from 2007 and get it into the 2007 tax storage box; or
Get all my Criminon students' files up-to-date: all lessons graded and a letter out to every student

Anyone care to join this challenge? (There's a prize involved.)

The Summer of Yarn Love Swap Final Reveal

2008-09-17T11:03:00.000-07:00

I figure as long as I am on borrowed time at my job that I should catch up on blog posts.

The final reveal for the Summer of Yarn Love Swap at Ravelry was kind of like the end of the world: except that it ended with a whimper and a bang. My spoiler Pamela (of Pamela on the Farm fame) and I had gotten to know each other quite well in emails and I was pretty certain I knew who she was, so the reveal wasn't all that surprising. It seemed more like a mint on my pillow after full day of heavenly languor on the sun deck over Caribbean waters. (This is the "whimper" part.)

In the last box she sent, Pamela included a letter that linked each item with her and her family and tied us together with our common threads -- and there are so many of those, it is uncanny. I don't think she even realizes how linked we have become.

I don't think everything that she sent is visible in the photo above. She sent playing cards and a car air freshener to represent both Ohio and the inevitable "life in the car" that moms like her lead.

There was lots of sock yarn for my baby projects (she knew I wanted to try making the Berroco design Celestine crochet dodecahedron). (In fact, I have already started one this week):

What Pamela didn't know (at least on a conscious level) was that right before this package arrived, I had decided to try my hand at crocheted socks. So not all of this yarn will become dodecahedra.

That book in the foreground? Another one of the Amazing Pamela's Mind Meld products. One of the questions on the questionnaire for the swap was, "Do you collect anything?" At the time I said no, but when I saw this comb-bound recipe book from the Ohio State Fair, I realized that -- albeit not on purpose -- I actually do collect something. Behold! My grassroots comb-bound recipe book collection:

Clockwise from the far left:

Best of the Fair previously seen;
a Greek cookbook from a Greek festival I attended in Oakland when DH and I were first married;
my grandmother's church's cookbook (Grace Lutheran in Northern Illinois); and
last but not least, my childhood church (State Street Methodist in East St. Louis, Illinois) cookbook circa 1961. I distinctly recall my mother and the ladies in her church Methodist Women's circle collecting the recipes inside. They even wrote to then First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and received "her favorite" recipe for tomato aspic. That recipe, along with a cover letter from her personal secretary proudly grace the first pages of the cookbook.

See that little bag resting on top of the Best of the Fair cookbook in the earlier photo? I really suspect that Pamela made what was in that bag and that it's a recipe that's in that cookbook, but she neglected to mention it in her letter, so we'll forever be in mystery. (Unless she decides to comment on this blog post, that is.) Anyway, it was a yummy treat that sent my blood sugar soaring and would have caused great damage had not my Dear Husband been nearby because after I'd tasted it and it became obvious that it was Not Long for this World, he thoughtfully disappeared the rest of it. (He liked it a lot, too!)

Now, I would have been perfectly content with all of this, but then I saw the homemade item! (This is the "bang" part.)

This bag is perfect in so, so, so many ways. First off, it's entrelac. I mean, I can't even knit and purl anymore, so just the thought of attempting colorwork this complicated boggles the mind. Second, it's a bit of Ohio culture. It's called a buckeye bag. I wish I could go to Ohio and pick buckeyes and carry them in it! But I'll have to settle for carrying crochet projects when I go to very special events. Thirdly, although the photograph doesn't do them justice, the colors are just beautiful. And fourthly, she felted it! This is another craft skill I haven't done yet. I am in absolute awe of Pamela's skills.

I have Pamelaonthefarm to thank for making the summer of 2008 delightfully memorable!

Our Roost Rulers

2008-09-11T18:58:00.000-07:00

These are who DH and I answer to.

This is Booger.

It's hard to explain about Booger because I always get caught up having to explain her name. See, technically, she's my daughter's cat. But when my daughter moved out of my home, she couldn't take her with her to her new digs. Then when I moved to San Francisco, Booger came with me.

She was my daughter's 18th birthday present. At first she named her Michelle, which I thought was kind of odd. I'm not all that keen on naming cats people names. (Which may seem incongruous when you meet my next cat, George.)

One day DD came home and scooped the kitten up off the floor and put her on her shoulder at eye level and said, "Hi, there, Booger!" It was meant to be a term of endearment.

But then the aha! light came on in her eyes and despite my protests, the name stuck.

For several years, I was too embarrassed to tell the vet what her real name was. So in Los Angeles, the vet has her on file as "Baby" (my last name).

When I moved to San Francisco, I decided I'd better own up and tell the new vet the truth or I'd forget one day and regret it. When I told the vet's assistant, she said, "We have a few of those."

Booger is half Siamese. You can't tell it by looking at her, but you could if you heard her. She talks a lot. She's really bossy. She bosses all of us around, including the other, older cat, George.

This is George.

George was one of a pair originally. She and her litter mate sister were "twins" of a sort. They had similar markings and the patches, but the black on George's face is on her left side and the black on her sister's face was on the right. I called them our bookends.

The owners of the mother didn't want to separate the two kittens because they were obviously so attached to one another. They were so attached that for the first year of their life, only once were they in separate rooms and that was an accident. When they found out, they both jumped up and high-tailed it toward each other and lay panting in each others' paws for the narrow escape!

Well, the sister went missing after a year or so. Later, we found her a couple of miles from where we lived in someone else's yard. Apparently she had either been picked up by someone else or had adopted another family. By then, she and George didn't recognize each other.

Yes, George is female. Another long story. I will tell it some other time.

And finally,

These are cat toys

There are more toys than this. I got tired of finding them in odd places after the cleaning people vacuumed -- and of stepping on them -- and finally collected them all in a basket. The cats come select the ones they want and scatter them around the apartment, but we pick them up faithfully once a week.

A Teapot Story

2008-09-09T21:50:00.000-07:00

This is a story of my three teapots. I am getting a little ahead of the Tea Swap over at the Odd Ducks of Ravelry. I figure someone someday is going to come looking at this blog and want to have this information.

The Teapot of Parties Past

This is the teapot of parties past. When I originally conceived the idea for this blog post, it was to be entitled My Three Teapots. Composing the post in my head made me want to use one of my teapots, so I pulled this teapot down from the cupboard and brewed me some Genmaicha. I love me some Genmaicha of a weekend. It's very soothing and the little "popcorn" (rice, actually) kernels are fun.

As a helpful note, Genmaicha is best when it's made in a mug or a restaurant. By which I mean, if you're going to serve your Genmaicha from a teapot, go to a restaurant. If you brew it in a teapot at home, then you are left with cleaning all the brown rice and green tea leaves out of the pot and that can be awkward. One could accidentally break the lid of her teapot while cleaning up after a pot of Genmaicha. And then one would have a late teapot. (And by that I mean late in the way that Precious Ramotswe uses the word when she is referring to her father or the way that John Cleese uses late when he is referring to a recently purchased parrot.)

For what it is worth (very little unless you're planning on making a coffin for my late teapot), and as you can see by the ruler in front of it on the table, this teapot is 3.5" high and 8.5" from handle to spout.

This teapot has now been reassigned as the future home of an ivy cutting that is growing roots in a vase on the kitchen windowsill.

The Teapot of Parties Present

This teapot belonged to my late mother, may she rest in peace. (And I am using late in the same sense as Precious's father and Cleese's parrot again.) This teapot is 6.5" from handle to spout and 4" high. It is much smaller than the other teapot, but it is an ideal size for the amount of tea I drink. This teapot will never contain Genmaicha. In fact, this teapot will never contain tea leaves unless they are contained in tea bags. (For the purists among you who protest about making the perfect pot of tea, let me remind you how few late mothers' teapots a person can own in a lifetime.)

The Teapot of Parties to Come

This teapot was featured in my blog back in 2005 in a post entitled Jungle Fever. I had high hopes for it, but it has only been used one time. It has been another one of those "too good to use for everyday" items that is about to become an everyday item unless I get a teapot to replace my late teapot cum flowerpot. I still have all the matching plates and I am awaiting an occasion to use it/them. It measures 10" from stem to stern and is 6" high.

When all is said and done, I think I'll stick to mugs.

Autumn Question No. 1: What is your favorite thing about Autumn?

2008-09-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

Here is where I risk alienating my vast readership and perhaps getting myself committed. But swap requirements being what they are, do I have a choice? The mod says answer the question, we answer the question.

"One thing I miss from Back East," people say in California, "is the seasons." But the first September I lived in Los Angeles, California, I opened the window and distinctly felt fall arrive. The leaves didn't change colors, the temperature was still hot as blue blazes, the sun was still burning brightly, but there was something in the air -- something I couldn't quite name -- that told me autumn had arrived. I could breathe it in, even in this state without the seasons.

Back in my childhood lo these many years, there was this -- for lack of a better word -- feeling that would engulf me at rare, unpredictable moments.

It was partly physical -- my skin would tingle, my head would flush from my scalp down, and gradually this feeling would swell as it pervaded my chest, my arms, my heart.

(No, it wasn't a heart attack! You guys snickering in the back there can go now.)

As it moved through my body, it became more of a spiritual sensation. I would feel part of something grander -- a family, a community, a nation, a people -- until joy would pervade my whole being.

Like I said, it was rare. It was unpredictable. There was never anything I could pinpoint that triggered it, no sudden heart-stopping moment, nothing anyone said.

However, it usually happened in the autumn as I was entering my house -- not on a special holiday or anything, just opening in the back door and feeling the warmth of the kitchen begin to escape as I walked in. I would have just come home from school, spotting my favorite trees at the end of the street turning to gold and red, following the driveway to the garage stairs and the kitchen door.

I never knew when it would happen until an instant before it did, and feeling it come on was akin to hearing reindeer hooves clicking on the roof Christmas Eve. "Oh, goody!" I'd think. "It's happening again!"

Then it would engulf me and I'd feel so damn grateful that I was alive, that my mother was cooking dinner, that I had a warm home and a family to come home to, that the piano was there for me to practice, that my cat was there for me to pet, my books for me to read, my television to watch, and our table for me to set.

Don't get me wrong -- my childhood was nothing to write home to the Waltons about. In fact, on a scale of dysfunctional families, mine probably ranked at least a 7.5 out of 10. So there was no real tangible reason for this feeling to be there, really.

It hasn't happened since I left home for college. (In fact, truth be told, it was probably earlier than that when it stopped happening. The dysfunction in the end won out.)

But I never forgot it. I hold it as knowledge in my heart that happiness and true contentment exist in this world, and I never let go the hope that the feeling will grow into constancy in my life.

What Is It About Weddings?

2008-09-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

I am a sucker for weddings. It's not that I want to go to the wedding so much -- although I do like to attend them. I want to be part of creating the wedding.

So when I recently got a swap partner in the Ravelry Swap on a Budget Swap who said she was getting married in November, I had to jump in with my two (or more) cents. I stalked her all over the Internet and contacted her friends and family until I found out what her colors were and then I started to crochet a bridal purse.

I hadn't worked with thread in over 25 years, and even then I had only made one project, a pillow for my grandmother. This one turned out to be quite a challenge, but once the first side was finished, I'd gotten into the rhythm of it.

It took about 40 hours total. In fact, I had to take some vacation time to finish it on time to send.

I am so happy she was pleased with it and she really does plan on using it at her wedding.

The final product:

So now not only do I have another FO to be proud of, I have a new-found passion for working with crochet thread. Today, mock Irish crochet. Tomorrow Bruges lace!

It Was the Best of Hats; It Was the Worst of Hats

2008-08-26T15:03:00.001-07:00

A coworker asked me to crochet a hat for her. We found the perfect pattern for a fabulous pillbox hat crocheted in embroidery floss in a Vogue Knitting on the Go book called Crocheted Hats.
It was designed by our own Ravelry designer Kathy Merrick and calls for tying two sets of over 60 hanks of embroidery floss together and forming them into a ball. To tell the truth, that turned out to be the hardest (IOW, not hard at all) part of making this hat.

Crocheting the hat was a breeze, and it was so much fun to watch the colors change under my fingers. I couldn't wait to finish -- and luckily I didn't have to because I think it took less than an afternoon to do it on a vacation day.

My coworker loved it! She gleefully showed it to all our other coworkers leaving the building at lunchtime where she was trying it on and posing for my camera phone. See her smile:

***

***(Dramatic foreshadowing: This was before we went to lunch.)

We had lunch a couple of blocks from the office, marred only by one tiny event. As she was talking to me, she reached up and discovered an earring was missing. A gold-sapphire-and-diamond earring.

(Here is the earring that wasn't missing:

)

I kept hoping it had fallen off into her clothing or her handbag, but no. She left me at the restaurant and retraced her steps while I combed the restaurant floor. Then she came back and I left with her and searched again. Later that night, I happened to be walking in the same area and I searched again. No earring.

She is a very gracious and spiritual person and assured me not to worry, "It's just a thing," she said. But I know it was a very special thing given to her by a very special person and I don't think I'll ever think of this particular hat the same way again.

But wait! A friend of mine just offloaded a whole bunch of embroidery thread on me that she wasn't using. I'll just have to make another one!

I'll make it for my sister(-in-law) and make absolutely certain she isn't wearing earrings when she tries it on.

Falling for Ewe Swap Questionnaire

2008-08-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

The Summer of Yarn Love swap on Ravelry was so much fun, we're doing it again this fall. You can find my questionnaire for that swap on this blog as well.

1. Do you knit or crochet? How long have you been at your craft?

I crochet. I used to knit about 40 years ago but haven’t been very competent at picking it up again. My crocheting has been random in my half-century of living. I started at age 5 and kept it up through college, then dropped it for 25-30 years. Started up again this year when I quit smoking. Something about keeping my fingers busy and spending my pocket change on yarn instead of cigarettes is working.

2. Do you spin? What type of spinning do you do?

No, I don't spin. But I am becoming intrigued at the idea. Maybe in a few years when I retire….

3. Are there any other crafts that you participate in?

I have created wedding bouquets. I have decorated cakes. I have done needlepoint in the distant past. I have also upholstered small furniture, done batik, embroidered and can sew. I don’t have room for much more than crochet in my apartment nowadays, but I am pondering taking up macramé. You name it, I’ll try it!

4. Are there any types/brands of yarn that you are dying to work with but haven’t gotten a chance?

Well, if I haven’t worked with them, then I don’t know, do I? I keep hearing about Noro and Malabrigo and Sea Silk but I have no idea why they are desirable. Since swapping, I have ventured into soy and bamboo blends and those are working out nicely. There are some shiny satiny yarns that look interesting for hats. (Maybe that's Sea Silk?)

5. What are your favorite types of projects to knit/crochet?

Baby clothes, hats, bags, new things untried as yet.

6. What are your favorite yarns/fibers?

Soft ones. Pretty ones. I love heathery, rich colors. I have a lot of odd skeins of Debbie Bliss in a variety of greens and fibers. I would like to somehow pull all those together into cohesive projects, maybe by adding additional skeins in coordinating colors for each fiber combination, enough so I could get a hat or scarf out of it. See my stash.

7. What are your LEAST favorite yarns/fibers?

Wool-linen blends. Scratchy wool and scratchy acrylic. Don’t care much for black and white. Also don’t care much for Red Heart-type variegated yarns.

8. What are you currently working on? Anything you plan to start this autumn?

What I am working on right now is a secret. (See next question.)

This autumn I will be making a Tunisian crochet throw in lavender llama and a pillbox hat made from embroidery floss (see my projects on Ravelry).

I also have a huge long list of presents to finish by the end of the year holidays, things like

a snitch and crocheted flipflops for DD
a crocheted Yoda for DSIL
some zombie dolls for an 18-year-old friend
some fish-shaped sacks for little boys’ marbles
some stuffed animals for some toddler friends (a monkey and a teddy bear)
a set of penguin bowling pins

not to mention the Odd Ducks group swaps on Ravelry where there are some pretty interesting projects aborning.

9. What is your favorite FO? (Please, post a picture if you would like.)

It is my handmade item for the Swap on a Budget swap on Ravelry that is due on August 24, 2008 to arrive in my spoilee’s hands. Once she has it in her hands, I will post a picture on my Ravelry project board, so look for it at the end of August. It is my proudest accomplishment to date.

10. What is your oldest UFO?

Just recently I happened upon an old project bag containing a vest that I had started with some hand-dyed chenille yarn. I think I was on Round 2 when I put it away and forgot about it. That would have been about four or five years ago, I think. I can’t remember for sure.

11. Are there any knitting/crochet techniques that you would like to learn?

Oh, yes! I’d like to learn to knit again but I’m afraid I’ll have to do it the way you teach children, with huge knitting needles and chunky yarn. I have the chunky yarn. I’d need the huge needles. If there’s a pattern that uses both and creates a child’s or baby’s cap that I could give to charity, so much the better, because the chunky yarn I have is earmarked for charity.

I’d like to learn every crochet technique there is, including:

Painted Crochet
Filet and Beaded Filet
Irish lace (I mean really, not the imitation kind I did for my Swap on a Budget project.)
Hairpin lace and broomstick lace – I did this long ago using a real broomstick. I don’t own a hairpin lace contraption that’s needed to do the hairpin lace.
I’d like to learn to tat. I have tatting shuttles but don’t know how to use them.
Bruges lace

12. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Not yet. Don’t knit yet. I have been known to crochet a sock or footie now and then and I love self-striping sock yarn for toy projects like the dodecahedron. I wear between a 7.5 and 8.5 shoe (39 European).

13. Do you have a yarn winder and/or a swift?

Nope. Don’t have room for a swift, but a small yarn winder might be nice.

14. Where/how to you keep you needles/hooks?

I have a rollup case for my regular sized hooks but I need another one for the tiny steel hooks. They’re in an old wooden box that has a faulty catch and they keep getting spilled all over the place.

My knitting needles – what few I have – are at the bottom of a drawer and at the bottom of a plastic bin in my closet.

15. Do you collect anything?

Dust and practical penguins, jellyfish and lady bugs– no stuffed animals or knickknacks, please. Per my self-imposed household rules, it must serve a purpose or I can’t keep it. (Jewelry serves a purpose. So do stitch markers.)

16. What is your favorite type of music? Are you MP3 ready?

I love almost all music, with a few exceptions. I am a classical pianist, so love that genre and instrument. Also love harps and Celtic music, in fact, any ethnic folk music. I'm not a huge hard rock fan, but I love the classic music from my generation's youth (fifties, sixties, seventies). I like a lot of indie bands I've heard, believe it or not, techno and otherwise. And jazz. I have even been known to move my body to a little rap now and then -- as long as the lyrics aren't completely offensive to women and parents.

I am MP3 ready times two. I have an ipod and I have a Juke cell phone that triples as an MP3 player but I’ve never used it more than a phone and a camera.

17. Do you like sweets? What are your favorites?

I can’t have sugar because I am borderline diabetic. I love the following sugar-free treats, though: Russell Stover chocolates, especially the “turtles”; Whitman’s chocolate-covered almonds; Baskin-Robbins hard candies. Also love macadamia nuts, cashews and any low-carb snack such as jerky.

18. What is your living situation like? Any pets? Children?

Very small, cramped apartment for DH and me. Grown, married daughter far away. Two late middle aged fur daughters (cats) living at home.

19. Are you allergic to anything?

Cats – yes, I know. I refuse to kowtow to that allergy! Penicillin. Supposedly wool, but I’m thinking that was just a prejudice my mother had because it’s scratchy. I do find it scratchy, though. And perfumes. This one I do kowtow to. Unscented candles and truly natural oils/fragrances, please.

20. Do you have an online wish list (Amazon, Etsy, Loopy Ewe, etc.)? Please include links for your swap pal.

Etsy

Amazon

DaWanda

21. Are you having a birthday during this swap?

Nope. May 16 if you're taking notes.

22. What is your Ravelry ID?

MyOwnIgloo (aka MOI)

First Ever Contest!

2008-08-08T14:01:00.000-07:00

So there's this person over at Ravelry who has this avatar (except we call it a "Ravatar"; get it?) and she and I have decided we are twins separated at birth because we have so much in common. We are not paying attention to the fact that I think there's somewhere between 20 and 30 years' difference between our ages....

I digress. She's got this Ravatar that has created quite a stir because it's something of an optical illusion without meaning to be an optical illusion. Everybody who sees it agrees. It's a picture of a butterfly and a ____________________.

Some people see a caterpillar. Some people see a whale's tail. Some people -- MOI included -- see an elephant trunk sniffing at the butterfly. And one person who shall remain nameless saw a butterfly fart.

It has been the subject of much speculation and finally the person -- "mkrval" to us -- revealed what it was one day and poof! The caterpillars and the tails of whales and the elephant noses vanished.

Magic!

I digress again.

Anyway, mkvral had her 1,000th post recently at Ravelry -- she's a real chatterbox, that one and she's over 30 posts past that now -- and in honor of her first millenial post, I put up a contest (technically, it's a drawing with a writing assignment) for people to reveal their own experiences with this mystery Ravatar.

It is posted over at Ravelry on the Swap on a Budget group board. Can't miss it.

So what do you see?

To be included in this drawing, all you have to do is post a story on your blog (or in the thread on Ravelry) -- fictional or non -- about what you see when you look at the Ravatar.

Prizes are highly relevant stitch markers.

First prize: Set of 6 caterpillars-and-worms

Second prize: Set of 4 penguins (no, nobody saw penguins in the Ravatar. They're just my favorite and it's my contest, so there.)

Third prize: Set of 3 orange elephants.

Contest closes at 9:00 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, August 13th. Drawing to be held sometime around 3:30 PM PDT on Thursday, August 14th.

Blogging While Keeping Mum

2008-08-06T12:59:00.000-07:00

It's time for my weekly check-in but I have a conundrum. What I've spent most of my time on in the past couple of weeks has been a handmade object required for the Swap on a Budget swap on Ravelry.

It is such a cherished project that I'm dying to tell someone about it, but I can't lest my Secret Pal in the swap venture over here and see it.

In other news, another online friend of mine is going through a rough patch and her other online friends are making an afghan for her. I did manage to eke out a square to send away for it, so that will be my subject today.

It is from the book 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans by Jan Eaton. I worked it up in Lion Brand Vanna's Choice acrylic yarn on an E hook. It is Block No. 46 in the book, called "Meadow."

Stay tuned. In two weeks I'll probably be able to let the cat out of the proverbial bag and post pics of the Super Secret Swap Project.

The Summer of Yarn Love Strikes Again

2008-07-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Watch me jump up and down and overuse exclamation marks!

I received my July package from my spoiler!

When the mail delivery guy at work came by with my package I was so excited. I'm expecting several packages right now -- mostly from yarn swaps -- and I didn't know which one it would be.

I was a little behind on work so I couldn't ethically stop and open it. I used it to help stop my procrastination and told myself that if I did this and this and this, then I could open it.

So I did a few of them as far as I could take them and took a lunch hour and decided that was the time to open the package since it was my lunch hour, after all!

So just look at all of this:

My benefactress (is that a word?) heard my plea for more of the SWS yarn in the same colorway, so now there's a Curly Q scarf in my future crochet plans. Finally something I get to keep! (Or maybe not. I may be short on gifts this year....)

Anyway, look that beautiful American flag star in the background is going to hang on my front door. Isn't it gorgeous?

Continuing clockwise, there's a ranting journal with Sponge Bob on it. Or else a regular journal with a ranting Sponge Bob on the cover. I haven't decided yet. I don't do a lot of ranting, so probably it'll be the latter.

Next is hand lotion called Gloves in a Bottle that I used right away because my hands are super dry. But I'm wondering where online I mentioned this because if I didn't, then my Secret Pal is carrying that stalking thang a bit too far.

Next, gorgeous linen yarn. The color ranges from orange to fuschia with graduated shades in between. Gorgeous! I'm gonna hold onto these skeins before I decide what to do with them because there's one more package coming next month and maybe.... Well, never mind.

And last (if you don't count the note that I'm not going to mention because that's between me and my Secret Pal and I only put it in there so you could see the pretty stationery): A Jar!

When I saw this jar I thought perhaps my Secret Pal hadn't gotten my message about not sending sweets anymore because of my high blood sugar. It has the yummiest looking candy apple on it. I thought it was a jar of caramel and I didn't know how I was going to resist opening it and pouring it into my mouth!

But it's not sugar! It's a candle. I tried sniffing it to see what it smells like, but looks like I'm going to have to take it home and burn it to find out. Either that or test my office's sprinkler system.

Maybe not.

Secret Pal, wherever you are and whoever you are, you're still the bestest!

Thank you bunches and bunches!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In Other Crafting News

2008-07-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend creating bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for a very elegant wedding (for less than wealthy people).

It is my second favorite craft to crocheting. At least today it is.

When I have received the promised digital photos from the photographer, I will post more details. Meanwhile, all I have are these two inadequate shots of the bride's bouquet that I took with my cell phone.

Note the entwined crystal heart beads if you can find them. They were my favorite creative touch. I included a matched pair in the groom's boutonniere. He smiled when I told him.

Well, the first wedding pics are in and I'm adding one of them below. You can just make out the amethyst hearts in both the bride's bouquet and the groom's boutonniere.

Hair

2008-07-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

At my office's holiday party in January someone took this photo of the back of my head. She was fascinated with my hair.

It wasn't my hair.

Well, actually, it was my hair because I paid for it, but it didn't grow naturally out of my head.

I started to chastise her for something -- not seriously chastise mind you, but in that party-going, too-too way one does when there is alcohol being served (I can't remember what for, either, some remark or something) -- and just as I was making a disapproving "mou" with my mouth, the little stinker snapped another photo.

I was disappointed my hair was getting so much attention because -- besides the fact that I felt so unphotogenic -- what I really wanted to get noticed was my armadillo handbag.

(In answer to your question, I will quote Mary Poppins: "made of." You can only just see the strap over my shoulder in the photos.)

Oh, well. I suppose there will be other parties.

Another Yarn Contest: My Black Hills Summer Vacation

2008-07-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

See that panorama up there? Those are the Black Hills of South Dakota. Where I come from originally (Illinois), they're called Mountains. (Since I've lived in California now for over 30 years, I have a new understanding of the difference between hills and mountains.)

But way back when I was a teenager in the '60s, those were the highest mountains I'd ever seen. The summer I was 15 I went with a youth group to a summer camp -- not for camping, mind you, but to work. Our job was to dig a trench from the top of the mountain down to the camp to hold a pipeline from a water supply for the camp.
Every day in the morning, we climbed this mountain. Every day at noon we climbed down for lunch and a rest period. Then we climbed back up and back down at nightfall.
I hated this youth group. I'd only been a member of the group for a year or so because my father, a church choir director, had just moved from one church to another. So not only was I a "new kid," I was a choir director's kid. I got picked on a LOT, and especially by the boys.
It seemed every time I turned around the boys were playing some sort of trick on me and snickering at me and thinking I was a stupid dolt.
Mind you, I know now why they were doing it.
My daughter is the spittin' image of me and has been at every stage of her life. In fact, she looks so much like me that when sorting family photos, if they're not marked with the year, I sometimes have to stare at the photo and look at the background and figure out which one of us it's a photo of.
This is what my daughter looks like today. She's 29. She doesn't look much different than she did at 15 -- and therefore not much different than I looked at the same age.

Not bad, eh?
So, like I said, in my old age (and after it's too late to work it), I realized that those guys were teasing me and tormenting me because -- Dang! I was hot!!!
(I'm not even going to say "If I do say so myself" because at the time I thought I was really, really ugly. It took having a look-alike daughter and seeing her every day and watching the men sniffing around her to find out that that coulda been me if I hadn't been so stoopid!)
Of course, people tried to tell me, "It's only because they like you," but I never listened.
Anyway, I digress.
One day after lunch time on a really, really hot day I was wandering around the camp biding my time and enjoying my rest period when these four guys from another cabin walked up to me and asked me to help them.
Of course, I was immediately suspicious. But they seemed really desperate. "Hey, Jo Anne," the hottest one of the bunch called out, "can you help us? We really need to find a hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter to clean out the fireplace in our cabin and we can't find the camp director. If you see him, will you ask him if he has one?"
"Come on, guys," said I, "you think I was born yesterday? You guys are pulling my leg again."
"No!" they yelled. "You gotta help us. Rev (the minister leading the work tour) is gonna kill us if we don't get this fireplace cleaned today!"

By the way, I ran across this public domain photo on the internet and it looks surprisingly like the cabins we stayed in:

I felt sorry for them and told them I'd try to find the camp director. "But what was the name of that thing again?"
So they had me repeat it over and over and over again and I walked around the camp reciting, "hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter"
until I found the camp director.
"Say, Mr. Camp Director," I said, "do you have a hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter anywhere? The guys need one to clean out their fireplace."
"Oh, sure!" he said, not missing a beat. "It's up on top of the mountain hanging from a sky hook!"
Oh, no. If these guys were going to get their cabin cleaned in time for inspection, I'd have to climb the mountain, find the hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter, come back down and get it to them before we had to climb back up again for the afternoon shift.
So, being the helpful and generous soul that I am,
(oh, yes, Dear Reader, I did)

I. Climbed. The. Mountain. Again.

Well, I guess I gotta make this long story short. Lucky for me, my friend Pam wasn't hungry enough at lunch time to come down the mountain and had decided she'd rather stay up there than have to climb it again in the afternoon.
She had no idea where they kept the sky hook up there but she helped me look for a little while.
Then she said, "You know, Jo Anne, I think a sky hook might be some kind of a joke. I mean, where would you hang a sky hook from?"
I didn't tell her about the hollow-J goose-necked smoke sifter. I just waited on top of the mountain for the afternoon shift to arrive.
Along with the raucous laughter.

Hello, I'm Jo Anne and I'm a Swapaholic

2008-07-02T16:13:00.000-07:00

I have so many crochet projects clanging around in my head daily that today I decided to be a legal secretary about being a crocheter.

I sat down and started -- *gasp* -- a list!

Then I checked all my online places where I get involved with swaps (mostly Rav, of course), and gathered them all up and put them on the list.

Then I put in every charity I had promised a crocheted item.

Then I put in every baby and wedding gift upcoming.

Then I put in every birthday and holiday gift upcoming.

Then I printed it out.

Then I thought of a gazillion more projects I'd forgotten to put on there that I'd bought yarn/patterns for.

I tried putting due dates on them but most of them said ASAP.

I'm in trouble. Deep, deep trouble. So I started my 12-step program today (is there a pattern for that?)

Anyway, meanwhile, I received another swap package. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Barbara from the Atmyhouse Yahoo! group who sent me two scrunchies in colors I just happen to LOVE and a bunch of recipes*, all of which I happen to LOVE, and candy ('nuff said) and a pencil and an emory board, and -- well, just look at the picture and see for yourself.

*(I am learning so much from participating in these swaps. I never would have thought to include recipes! And I love receiving them. I will definitely use these!)

Yarn Addict's Dilemma

2008-07-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

My yarn stash has outgrown its containers by about double.

I live in a very small apartment.

So what am I doing entering a contest for free yarn?

*eye roll*

Be sure to mention my name, okay? You'll see why when you read the entry rules.

Tagged!

2008-06-26T19:40:00.000-07:00

(Truth be told, I sort of self-tagged over at Kim Guzman's blog.)

What was I doing ten years ago?

Hmmm. I was living in the San Fernando Valley, learning to survive without my daughter at home by pouring my heart into all those activities that I'd put on hold since I'd become a mom.

I'd started playing piano again and had teamed up with an operatic soprano. We met Thursday nights for rehearsals at my house. I was working at a law firm (that I absolutely hated) only because it was within walking distance of my apartment so that I could get home in time to practice before my neighbors got home from work.

I was having a long-distance dating relationship with this man in San Francisco who would come down for my concerts or have me up to San Francisco for touristy stuff or meet me halfway in Morro Bay. Life was good. (I married him. Life is still good.)

Five things on my non-work to do list today:

Work on my Tunisian crochet homework.
Read in the book that was due back to the library last weekend (but which they won't let me renew so I have to pay a fine to finish).
Go to the post office to mail a letter to Canada and buy some pretty stamps.
Lunch and the farmer's market with a friend.
Browse the Internet and upload photos to my Ravelry page, plus add to this blog.

Snacks I enjoy (in no particular order):

Haagen Daazs Vanilla Swiss Almond ice cream
Wasabe peas
Chips and Salsa
Chocolate anything
Cookies
Fresh Cherries
Nuts
Prunes (really!)

Things I would do if I was a billionaire:

Crochet to my heart's content.
Practice piano and other instruments more.
Hire a personal trainer to keep me fit from all that sitting.
Give most of my money to charity or set up a foundation to do it for me. Then set up annuities or funds to make sure DH and DD and I are taken care of for the rest of our lives.
Live in a nicer place nearer to the center of my interests.
Have houses or townhomes in a few cities around the world.
Pay someone else to do my laundry (and throw away my underwear when it gets dingy).
Have the kitchen of my dreams.
Have a music room with a concert harp, a baby grand, a harpsichord and whatever other instruments I wanted in it with enough room to have small recitals in there.
Have a library with plenty of room for all my books and reference materials plus sitting room and audio visual accoutrements.
Build on my little lot in Southernmost Illinois that my parents left to me and spend time there in some of the most beautiful land in the country at least every spring or fall. (The photo at the beginning of this entry was taken in parkland near my little lot. I took it the day I scattered some of her ashes there.)

Places I have lived:

Southern Illinois (three different suburbs of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area)
Urbana, Illinois
Los Angeles, California (and 'burbs)
San Francisco, California

Jobs I have had:

Snow cone truck driver
File clerk/Girl Friday/emergency room receptionist/switchboard operator at hospital
Bookkeeper
Keypunch operator (now known as data entry clerk)
Court reporter's transcriber
Legal secretary

People I want to know more about:

All the designers on Ravelry
All the crocheters and knitters I meet online and in real life
Musicians
Librarians
Veterinarians
Firemen
Most everyone I meet who catches my fancy

The End.

Look At My Psychedelic Loot!

2008-06-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

I got my first Summer of Love package from my super sneaky secret pal! She made me think she was someone by her emails and then her package return address made me think she wasn't that person and now I have no idea who she is at all.

She might not even be a she! (Totally appropros for a San Francisco swap.)

I tried to take a photo that would do all the goodies justice and failed, I'm afraid. (Though not bad enough to give this post a failure label, you'll notice.)

Here's the first pic:

Not a very pleasing presentation visually, eh? Yeah, I thought that too.

Here's what was in my package though! The description'll get you drooling.

Clockwise from the center top of photo:

A box of floral notecards and envelopes.

A hang-in-the-window-faux-stained-glass-window thingy. (I think it's called a sun catcher but I get sun catchers mixed up with dream catchers.) Anyway, whatever its name, it's totally wonderful and will get good use because I have lots of windows!

Two -- two -- skeins of Patons SWS (Soy Wool Stripes) yarn in Rose Natural ombre colorway. It's soft as a baby's bum and very luscious looking but like its new owner, not very photogenic.

Two -- again, two -- skeins of Caron Span bamboo blend yarn in a colorway called Ocean Spray, which is even softer than the Patons SWS if you can believe it and has a lovely sheen to it that my Secret Pal pointed out to me.

A lovely note (barely visible pink paper under the Spa yarn).

A spectacular Hairy Zoo pen by inkology that lights up when you whack its head! Lots of fun and a good outlet for work frustrations.

The most appropros and themefully delicious bandana for a Summer of Love yarn swap. Like, Totally Copacetic, Man. Right on!

A barely visible (and not long for this earth) bag of yogurt pretzels.

So, like I said, I decided the presentation lacked balance and aesthetics, so being the True Artist that I am, I did it over again.

Except by this time, the yogurt pretzel bag had *ahem* accidentally gotten opened so I had to put the *ahem* remaining pretzels in a bowl.

Then I decided wouldn't it be cool to whack the Hairy Zoo pen's head and make him light up while I was taking the photo!

Except the flashing lights made movement which made for a fuzzy photo:

I'm sure sorry about all that.

But (I decided again), I simply must capture the design on that kerchief. So the following photo is my final say on the matter after I say,

I have the best Sumer of Love Secret Pal in the

Whole Wide World!

Baby Shower, San Francisco Style

2008-06-17T19:34:00.001-07:00

I got a two-week advance notice for a baby shower and panicked.

Then I found this poncho pattern that looked like it might work up fast. I started it with yarn I had on hand. Of course, the only way it would be "right" for a San Franciscan baby was to leave off the hood and add fringe. (That Summer of Love Yarn Swap is playing with my head.)

A few days' worth of BART rides and the poncho was complete (except for the fringe, which seemed to take forever -- a whole Saturday shot, at least). Plus I got the bright idea of putting a peace sign medallion on the front and embroider a "chain" for it. As time got closer, though, I decided to opt for whatever applique I could find that looked remotely hippyish.

The result:

When I started on the matching pants, another lightbulb went off and I fringed them, too.

Only thing is, when I showed them to a very wise (and not-very-tactful) Chinese grandmother, she shouted, "Too small. Baby BIG. I know."

Considering how tall the dad-to-be is, I'm afraid she might be right.

I'm hoping maybe they'll put him in this when they take him home from the hospital. Then he'll at least get a day's wear out of it.

In case you're wondering, I taped the baby doll's eyes open. It looked so wrong to have them shut when I was photographing her.

The Squashed Blossom Purse

2008-06-17T19:15:00.000-07:00

Everything I have to say about this purse I said here, on the Lion Brand site.

In case that link doesn't work, this is the story.

I wanted to make something special for a little girl I know. I found this purse and thought it was cute.

I started crocheting it up and it was coming out very special. Like so:

But I thought it should be lined. A purse should be lined, right?

Well, if I lined it, I'd need to stiffen it to hold up to the lining, right?

So I interfaced the pieces with fusible interfacing. This squashed all the beautifully crocheted (if I do say so myself) stitches.

Then I needed to sew the two halves together, but because they were fused, I couldn't match the sides stitch for stitch, the way I could have done had I not interfaced the blessed thing.

So then it looked really ugly and needed a lining, which turned out nearly impossible to do because by the time you make it so the lining doesn't show around the petals, you don't have much room for the inside of a purse. Good thing it was for a child's hand.

Finally, I sewed a snap in it to close. The final product was a little wonky. What with all the weight I added, it threw the balance of the purse off and it doesn't hang like a purse when you pick it up by the handle.

Looks good hanging from a chair, though.

And I remembered to put a penny in it before I gave it to her.

Lessons in Crochet from the School of Hard Knocks

2008-06-10T10:48:00.001-07:00

So all that newly acquired yarn in the pretty pictures I posted yesterday?

Not at all suitable for baby booties. Unless maybe I could start a business selling orthopedic baby booties. What a concept! Correct your baby's feet before it starts to walk.

I don't think so.

So I'm thinking what to do with all that yarn and this is what I've come up with so far.

1. coasters, placemats and dishcloths (of course)
2. market bags
3. purses (although the colors I have aren't all that suitable)

I'm wide open to suggestions because I don't have enough friends who need as many gifts as this is going to make. And I'm not willing to sell off the yarn yet.

Score! (Yarn this time)

2008-06-09T17:13:00.000-07:00

I shouldn't browse eBay. I was looking for pink and blue cotton yarn for the hospital baby booties project and I found some.

And then some.

That blue spool reminded me that I've always wanted to try making those dishcloths to see how they work and give away to friends and whatnot. So why not buy in quantity?

So I bought this:

Plus, 4th of July is coming up and red-white-and-blue yarn could come in handy.

It all came today.

Good thing I brought my rolling backpack to work almost empty.

Swap Loot - Coaster Swap

2008-06-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

Wow! I got loot! This is my first ever swap anywhere.

It's from Joye in Tennessee and it was from a coaster swap in a Yahoo! crocheters group.

Joye sent not one coaster, but three! Well, two coasters and a huggy thingy to wrap around my POM Tea glass. I'm already finding uses for my coasters on my desk at work.

She also sent four tea bags and two sugar-free iced tea mixes. (I think she's been reading my blog. She didn't send any sweets at all. Good going, Joye!)

Plus, she sent this little bookmark thingy she calls a book thong, which she invented. It's made of gauzy ribbon that's hard to see in the picture, but you can see the beads. It's kind of winding among the coasters.

Last -- but not least -- she sent a magnetic note pad. I've got it on my cubicle wall now.

I have to comment on the note pad. It's kind of a testament to the age we live in. It's got a picture of a lighthouse at the end of a street full of Cape Cod style houses with a big palm tree between two of the houses. It's called "Tropical Lighthouse" and the design is by Bradley Hales Clark. It's printed in China for a company called "Notations" located in Yarmouth, Maine.

I'm in San Francisco. Joye is in Tennessee. And we met on the Internet.

How global can one thing be?

Score!

2008-06-09T12:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend when I was on my way home from errands, determined to finish some UFOs that afternoon and not start any new projects until I had cleared my stash, what should I see but a sign, "Estate Sale," and an address in a very nice neighborhood between me and home.

Hmmmm, in a house that size, maybe they had a yarn stash, thought I.

When I got to the house and saw how many stairs I was going to have to climb, I opted to ask the first couple coming out whether they'd seen any knitting supplies. "Look in the basement," said the woman, "I think I saw something like that down there."

Sure enough, up the stairs and down the stairs into the basement went I, and when I reached the bottom of the stairs, I gasped so loud that these Korean ladies hovering over the yarn stash looked at me as though I'd farted.

There on a table at the bottom of the stairs were eight banana boxes full of needlecraft magazines! I was in heaven looking through them! They dated from the 1990s back to Lord knew how far and no one was even giving them a second glance.

I chose the ones I wanted, while I waited for the Korean ladies to finish with the yarn. They took it all except eight skeins of orange acrylic. Oh, well. (Halloween isn't that far off and DD and all her friends could use some pumpkin place mats, I'm sure.)

On my way out, I asked the estate sale guy what he'd do with the magazines at the end of the sale?

His answer, "Sell them to you for cheap." Ha ha. Cute.

"No, really," I said, "I have friends who knit and I want to tell them where to find them. What will you do with them after the sale?"

"Chuck 'em," he said.

Heaven forefend!

So it turned out he was right. I went back the next day at the end of the sale and he sold me what was left of them for $20.

They sat piled in my living room for a week while DH and I tried carefully to tiptoe between them to get here and there without breaking our necks.

Over the weekend, I managed to clear out space in my closet for them.

Bottom line: I didn't manage to keep my resolution about not starting something new before finishing the old, but at least I now can see my closet floor!

There's Something About Swapping

2008-06-05T10:00:00.000-07:00

So, I'm browsing Ravelry to find ideas for my swap partner in The Summer of Love Swap and what do I do but find more ideas for me!

I need more ideas for me like I need another dozen holes in my head.

But just look at this bag! I love this yarn!

Finished Objects

2008-06-04T11:31:00.000-07:00

I finished a ponytail holder for an exchange yesterday at lunchtime and my coworker loved it so much she wanted one for her teenaged daughter. I started hers right there at the table and finished it last night while listening to local election results and Obama's speech after winning the nomination.

It's made with an Egyptian cotton yarn that I picked up on eBay called "Baby Bomull." It's manufactured by AS Knappehuset in Norway. I hope I can get my hands on some more of it because I'm just having a great time finding new things to make with it.

It's a great yarn for the baby booties that I make for UCSF Children's Hospital.

I think of it as my Carnivale yarn.

Questionnaire for Ravelry Summer of Love Swap

2008-05-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Do you knit or crochet?
For our purposes here, let's just say I crochet. (I have knit something in my lifetime but it may be another half century before I venture to knit again.)

How long have you been at your craft?
Half a century give or take a decade or so. (I learned when I was 5 but I guess I've only actively crocheted for about 6 years in all that time.)

Do you spin? What type of spinning?
Not the kind of spinning you're talking about!

What are your favorite yarns/fibers?
I haven't had enough experience with enough yarns to say! I'm kind of new to yarn snobbery. I hate to admit this, but I'm most used to "plain wrap" yarn like good ol' Red Heart acrylic. That doesn't necessarily mean I like it all that much. I just haven't ventured into the exotics too much yet.

What are your least favorite yarns/fibers?
Wool, cobweb mohair and bedspread cotton. (Actually, I really like wool but I'm allergic to it. Whenever I break down and use it, I regret it.)

What are your favorite colors?
Depends on what I'm making. I love heather-y colors. My personal palette is Spring/Autumn line, so black and white are out. But most of my crocheting is for others, so I can get excited about any color.

What are your least favorite colors?
In general, non-colors like neutrals, black, white, beige (but see below re the 200 squares.) I'm not fond of maroon.

Are there any yarns/brands that you are dying to work with but never have?
See "favorite yarns" question, above. I've also got a crochet project in mind (a toy, actually) that calls for colorful self-striping sock yarn.

What is/are your favorite types of projects to knit/crochet?
Wearable stuff for babies and children and scarves/hats for BFFs (I make BFFs too easily to have just one) and toys.

What are you currently working on?
A puffy poncho for a child; a purse for a child and booties. Lots and lots of booties.

Anything you plan to work on this summer?
Cotton booties and caps for babies on life support in the hospital and cotton wash cloths.
(NOTE: I have plenty of cotton and acrylic yarn for these projects. I don't need any more.)

I'm also in the 200 squares group on Ravelry and we're crocheting 200 squares. I haven't got the yarn for it yet, but I'm leaning toward earth tones (brown, camel) plus aqua, cornflower and navy blues as accents in Vanna's Choice yarn. I don't think there's a dye lot so I can get the yarn piecemeal. (Hint)

Then there are the triplets for whom I'm making lacy ponchos (see Ravelry queue). I think I'm going to use the fuschia fuzzy acrylic I have in my stash for those.

What is your favorite FO? (Post a pic if you would like.)
The baby cap pictured above. Also see my flickr photostream.

What is your oldest UFO?
A pair of baby booties for a the kid for whom I'm making the poncho. She has a little sister now.

Are there any techniques that you want to learn?
Yes. There's a way to do something that looks like Fair Isle in crochet using the afghan/Tunisian stitch. I'd like to do that. I'd also like to do free-form crocheting but I'm giving myself a few years to learn that. And I'll ignore my allergy to wool because I really want to learn to felt.

Are you on Ravlery? What's your ID?
Yes. Myownigloo

Are you a sock knitter?
No. I am a sock (ahem) crocheter.

What are your foot measurements?
Size 8.5 shoe

Do you collect anything?
Besides dust? I'd like to collect interesting egg cups, but I only have two plain ones right now.

I like penguins, but don't want any that aren't practical (IOW, no stuffed animals or knickknacks). Anything penguin themed that isn't Christmasy but can be used for something (ice cream scoop, pencil sharpener, pens, mouse pads, stud earring, etc.), I'm all over it!

Ditto ladybugs.

Ditto jellyfish.

Do you have a yarn winder and/or swift?
No, neither. I live in a very small apartment. OTOH, I could certainly use a swift if it folds up flat and goes into a closet.

Do you love sweets? What are your favorites?
I hate all sweets except those start with the letters C-h and end with the letters L-A-T-E. Oh, and tiramisu and Napoleons and coffee ice cream and of course pecan pie. Then there's Red Vines and Goobers and M&Ms and Snickers... (See allergies below).

What are your favorite scents?
Truly natural fragrances are okay. Rosewater, lavendar, sandalwood, essential oils, etc. No perfumes, please (allergies and asthma).

Where do you keep your needles/hooks?
I have a roll-up case that I ordered from eBay but I haven't received it yet to see whether it will be sufficient. I also keep an assortment of totes and little bags for supplies in a bin under my bed and throw them away when they wear out. And I'm hard on them, so I'm always in the market for a cute project tote.

Do you have a wishlist (Amazon, Etsy, etc?)
Not that it's all that relevant here, but: Amazon.

Even better: DaWanda and Etsy, too!

Having a birthday this summer?
Nope. I just had it on May 16. But I like unbirthday presents just fine and my wedding anniversary is June 25.

Are you allergic to anything?
Allergic to perfume-y stuff like sachets, soaps, perfumes, candles, but unscented are okay. Wool and I don't always get along, but the softer alpacas and mohairs, etc., are OK. And truth be told --

(I'm having a hard time typing this. The little devil on my shoulder is fighting with the little angel.)

-- I am pre-diabetic.

(I can't believe I said that!)

(Ouch! Don't hit me!)

No sweets for me, eh?

Suggested alternatives to sweets:
coffee beans
herbal teas
spices and meat rubs (I like to cook)
jerky
wasabi peas
lime-chili peanuts and cashews from Trader Joe's
Teeccino (I like all flavors)
dark chocolate with 72% cocoa (in very small quantities)

Good-Bye Amanda

2007-11-02T11:24:00.001-07:00

I always admired your spirit and determination. I wish we could have had more time on this earth together. I will think of you every time I laugh with my daughter or sing your songs. You ain't singin' no sad songs anymore.

Uh-0h (Not that I didn't know this already....)

2006-03-15T17:54:00.002-08:00

You Are 44% Evil

You are evil, but you haven't yet mastered the dark side.
Fear not though - you are on your way to world domination.

How Evil Are You?

My Funky Inner Hair Color: Orange!

2006-03-15T17:54:00.000-08:00

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind.
You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

No one has ever said this to my face. I'm not quite sure how to take it: You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

Bad News/Good News

2005-12-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

First, The Bad

Lately I've been wondering whether I have Alzheimer's or dementia or senility or something like that.

I thought I'd found the answer to the problem in nutrition. I don't always include the oil allotment in my daily diet. Because it's only a couple of teaspoons, I tend to try to save it up. I'll use a fat-free dressing on my salad at lunch thinking that I'll want to have olive oil on my dinner salad, and then end up not eating a salad at dinner.

Add that to the fact that I'm too Points cheap on the Flex Plan to eat anything but fat-free everything: milk, yogurt, cheese, and the result is I was virtually on a fat-free diet for most of the days of the week for a couple of months.

For a few weeks I've had this intermittent memory loss. It's not my usual ditziness, which is somewhat always there and tends to be endearing and cute, but I'm at least aware of it. This was scary memory loss that made me wonder whether DH was going to get a telephone call from some men in white coats saying they had me in a padded cell and would he please come sign the commitment papers.

Of course, anything that affects me as dramatically as that gets me poring through my nutritional books and what did I discover? (Not that I didn't already know this at one time or another....) If you take all the fat out of your diet, your body won't absorb some vital vitamins and minerals. One of them is calcium. Another are some B vitamins that are crucial to cognitive functioning.

I changed my daily routine to take my oil on a teaspoon with my other vitamins right after breakfast each morning. If I wanted olive oil on a salad, I just counted the Points. I did feel better, but there wasn't a really appreciable difference in the memory loss.

I still felt as though I'd lost my "edge." I was sleepy more often and worried nearly constantly about it.

It was affecting my work. My head had a constant pressure in it and I had to think really hard to do normal everyday things. It took a lot of effort to get through the day.

I believe I now know how someone with Alzheimer's must feel in their good moments.

A couple of days ago I suddenly recalled that I'd had a head injury a few weeks ago when a six-foot-long window shade roller fell from about 10 feet over my head onto it.

I was dazed but didn't fall over unconscious, so I just continued with my day.

Today I asked DH to take me to the doctor to see if the accident and the brain fog symptoms were related and yes, I have a concussion! The doctor expects the symptoms to last as long as two months.

I'm getting a CT scan next week to make sure nothing's going on in there that we need to worry about. The doctor didn't think there was because my neurological tests were normal, but just in case....

And Now for the Good

It's temporary.

And Even More Good

For those following the weight loss:

1. Not only can I wear that red plaid dress now, but the mother-of-the-bride dress I wore at DD's wedding in 1999 fits better than it did then;

2. Thanksgiving did not affect my downward trend; and

3. I'm down a total of 30.8 pounds.

Rewired Circuitry

2005-11-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

I've been spending three to four evenings a week at 24 Hour Fitness for the past six weeks or so.

Not only am I seeing results in my body, but my mind as well. For one thing, I'm actually listening to those pep talks I give myself.

But the funniest of all the mental phenomena involves my circuitry.

We listen to Classical music at home. It's what we play on the radio. If we reach for a CD, nine times out of ten it will be a symphony or an opera. (The one out of ten could be anything from bluegrass to comedy.)

When I got a song stuck in my head, it would be a symphony or a piano sonata or, rarely, an operatic aria.

Since I've been exercising at the gym, I've noticed my circuitry has gone Techno.

This morning I made breakfast to the driving strains of "I'm turning Japanese, oh, yes, I'm turning Japanese, oh, yes, I think so."

Weight Loss Progress Report

2005-09-28T13:12:00.000-07:00

I have been working to save our Weight Watchers at Work program for the past two weeks.

Last week our meeting was actually "dark" because the leader was giving us one more week to come up with the minimum number of people.

The week before last was so stressful, I didn't have time to eat properly and I fell off the plan big time.

I realized it was really silly for me to have so much eating stress over getting enough people to join a Weight Watchers group and it really wasn't worth it for me personally to blow my eating plan. I decided it was the last time I was going to do that and I announed it today at our meeting, which we pulled off by the skin under my fingernails. (Five minutes before the meeting, even, someone dropped out.)

Anyway, I knew I had gained last week and I joined the gym and got the trainer as a place to channel the nervousness instead of into eating.

So overall, I gained 0.2 pounds, which could just as easily be some muscle I'm adding because of the training. Anyway, I'm happy with it and expect I'll see a loss next week.

My weight is now 211.8 which makes for a total loss of 26.2 pounds.

Mr. Murphy Lends a Hand

2005-09-27T17:37:00.000-07:00

You know those people who say, "I never win anything?"

I'm not one of those people. I win things.

Really!

It started when I was 14 years old and one of my friends had her own telephone. ("Huh?" you say? Don't all 14-year-olds have their own phone? It's called the Family Plan, right?)

Okay, don't get smart with me. (Har har. Get Smart**, remember? The spy who had a telephone in his shoe?)

I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but kids these days just don't know how lucky they are.

But I digress.

See, I wasn't allowed to have my own telephone and certainly wasn't allowed to use the family telephone (party line -- know what that is, kids?) to call radio stations.

Anyway, my friend Dee had her own telephone and I used to spend a couple of hours every day at her house calling radio station contests. One day I won two tickets to see the Ice Capades in St. Louis (the nearest big city, 20 miles away).

I thought my parents would be furious. After all, 1) I wasn't allowed to call radio stations; 2) someone had to go to the box office to pick the tickets up; 3) there were only two tickets so my parents would have to spring for a third if we all wanted to go, and on and on.

But since there was no way for me to collect the tickets at all unless I told them, I stiffened my upper lip and told my mom.

Who was just pleased as punch!

"I have always wanted to go to the Ice Capades!" she gushed.

"But" -- sputter, sputter -- "there are only two tickets and we have to drive all the way to St. Louis to pick them up!" I moaned.

No problem!

I was so struck dumb that I hadn't been struck dead that I forgot to say, "Gee, I never win anything."

Since that fateful day I have lost count of the number of things I won, but here are a few:

A number of record albums (kids, picture CDs only much bigger, black and not digital) ranging from blues to Anne Murray

("I just love Anne Murray!" gushed my mom.)

An untold number of door prizes and centerpieces.

A trip for two to San Francisco, including air fare and hotel. (Before I lived here....)

The California lottery -- 5 out of 6 when the odds were much better. (I think my share ended up being about $3,000 or $4,000.)

A $2,500 shopping spree at a huge shopping mall in Los Angeles.

And only today I was the right caller at the right time on my local Classical radio station with the answer to the question: "What was the name of the cat in the 1950's Dick and Jane readers?"

(Answer: Puff.)

I was so excited! Luckily, I remembered to ask the DJ when the tickets were for (I hadn't heard that part). They're for the night DD is going to be here and we'll be in San Jose at the theatre (see Everyone's Favorite City Disappoints MOI, herein).

I had to pass the tickets to the next caller.

Murphy's Law strikes again.

**When I originally wrote this, I did not know that the star of the show, Don Adams, had passed away a couple of days before. I was amazed to find he was seven years older than my own mother. In my mind, he was still younger than I am now and still cracking me up with his silly antics. Well done on a life well lived.

My Coworker Pinky Toe

2005-09-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

The coworker who sits nearest to me is originally from Korea. She was raised Catholic and now studies Buddhism.

We share a work ethic, the love of mankind and Classical piano. Since we can never find time to get together to play duets, we are contemplating returning to the earth as twins in our next life.

I explain to her American idioms and she tells me parables. We each make the other laugh.

A couple of weeks ago we were walking to a work luncheon together and she told me about her pinky toe.

She said that one time she hurt her pinky toe very badly when she closed a sliding glass door on it.

The pain referred to her foot, then to her leg, then to her lower back, then to her neck and then to her head.

She said, "'Oh, Pinky Toe,' I said, 'I have newfound respect for you!' Here was something so small and seemingly unimportant, yet it created big and far-reaching effects."

By that time we were nearly at the restaurant. I was at once in stitches and reminded of why I love her so. But then she went on to tell me about her boss.

(Of course, I know her boss because we sit so closely together, but this was her perspective on her boss.)

"Sometimes," she said, "when I am so intent on my work and have to work really hard to make a deadline, I shut him out and do not talk about anything but work, work, work. Then he gets a really long face.

"But when I talk to him about my life and my family and my interests, he gets very cheerful.

"I think," she said, "that maybe I am a pinky toe."

When we returned from lunch, I told her, "From now on, I will call you Pinky."

She corrected me.

"Pinky Toe!"

Lessons You Can't Teach an Optimist

2005-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

The other day someone told me I was too charitable. I disagreed, especially in the context in which I was told this.

On further reflection, I realized there may be a kernel of truth in that statement.

Some lessons I haven't learned no matter how many times I've been taught them.

Take food, for instance.

It seems there are a few foods I don't like. I'm not a picky eater, so the list isn't long.

(Random musings: Why is it that someone who reads lots of different books can be widely read but a person who eats a variety of foods can't be widely eaten?)

When I was a little kid, I didn't like watermelon, popcorn or lobster.

Eventually my taste buds changed and I grew to love lobster, tolerate popcorn and sometimes enjoy watermelon.

Perhaps because of this change in tastes, I have always given my dislikes the benefit of the doubt. (Then again, maybe it was just too many readings of Green Eggs and Ham.)

"Maybe I've changed my mind," I think. "I'll give it another try."

This doesn't apply strictly to food, either. It could be art, music or even people. (Thus, from the friend's point of view I can be too charitable.)

Today I have decided to learn a lesson. In order to learn this lesson, though, I need to talk to my future self. (Bringing me to the full range of Talking To Myself, within blog.)

So, Self, please remember this:

I really don't like okra and I really don't like Milky Way Bars.

This hasn't changed in over half a century.

It is not necessary to keep trying them to see if maybe I've changed my mind, because unless the slime is genetically altered out of the okra and the recipe for Milky Way Bars deletes 70% of the sugar and adds some nuts, this won't change.

Nor does it make a difference that it's in a different recipe or that the company has changed CEOs. You really won't like them and if you try them, you'll feel like punishing yourself for forgetting this lesson.

So please, Self, resist the temptation to "Just try it" this once.

Just don't.

Thank you, thank you, Sam I Am.

Everyone's Favorite City Disappoints MOI

2005-09-15T14:18:00.000-07:00

It seems the world is conspiring to drive me to cookies.

Sometimes it's hard to believe I live in a major metropolitan area. We're talking San Francisco, fer Pete's sake! I mean, how do they get off calling it The City?!

Unless you're into the bar scene, the sidewalks roll up here even earlier than some of the one-horse towns where I lived in the Midwest.

My DD is visiting us in October from L.A. and there is not. one. single. musical. theatrical. performance. in San Francisco during the week she'll be here.

Not one!

She's missed Wicked and now Annie and she's too early for any of the holiday stuff.

Of course, there's Teatro ZinZanni but I refuse to pay those outrageous ticket prices and pay an additional $10 for a "dinner fee" once I get there. Maybe I'm just cheap, but I'm perfectly willing to let the tourists spring for those tickets.

I thought it was going to have to be Beach Blanket Babylon or nothing, but then I found this an hour's drive away:

Little Women with Maureen McGovern.

Perfect! We drive down for an evening show, spend the night in a hotel so we don't have to worry about driving home too late, and voila! The perfect mother-daughter night.

Don't make me sing it alone, now...

"Do you know the way to San Jose?" La, la-la-la la LA la la la-la la-la.

Testing My Mettle

2005-09-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

It's not fair.

I was good.

I followed the plan.

I avoided (most) temptations all week long.

I gained 1.4 pounds!

I used to think my weight loss was showing results from the week before weigh-in because that's how it seemed. But I've been good for two whole weeks, so that logic doesn't fly.

Of course, my bent now is to abandon the plan entirely. I know where that path leads.

I'm going to stick to it another week and hope that I get rewarded big time next weigh-in.

But in the meantime I'm still going to pout.

More Good Penguin News!

2005-09-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

The penguins from New Orleans have been rescued and are now safely residing nearby.

I am happy about that. I will certainly pay them a visit while they are in the area.

Talking To Myself

2005-09-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

I doubt it's very unusual to talk to oneself. I hear people say they do it all the time. (Usually followed by that chestnut about answering oneself, hahaha. Some people have no imagination.)

I didn't put much more thought into it until a few years ago when the habit became an obsession and moved from the vertical to the horizontal. Or something like that.

(Cue back story)

When I was a pre-teen, I was obsessed with Mark Lindsay, then lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders. (Now I say I was obsessed. Then, I knew I was in love.)

I had three girlfriends at the time and we were all obsessed-cum-in-love with all of the Raiders, but they (being wise and cognizant of solid leadership and possessing the better part of valour) pretty much allowed me dibs on Mark Lindsay.

Every afternoon we watched Dick Clark's Where The Action Is and swooned over Mark. I nearly needed a blood transfusion when he announced he was going to cut off his ponytail, and I felt entitled to win the contest to own it when they did. (I thought I'd never forgive the person who won it for not recognizing my entitlement to it.)

(No, I did not stalk her.)

(She had an unlisted number.)

We babysat and mowed lawns and always managed to buy every single teen magazine Mark was in. I wrote a poem to him and sent it to him. I sketched his portrait from one of his photographs and sent it to him.

One time we went a little too far. A photograph in one of the magazines showed him talking on a telephone. There on the face of the telephone (pre-cell phones, pre-Touch Tones by golly!) we could just make out the telephone number when we used one of our grandmothers' magnifying glass.

So we took the number and pooled our money and met early before school one morning at the pay phone outside the cafeteria and we called it (squeal)!

We were so smart that we even knew that we needed to use the Los Angeles Area Code and dial a 1 first.

What we didn't remember was that Illinois was two hours ahead of California. And since this was also pre-answering-machine/voicemail-to-screen-calls, we woke some poor guy up at 5:00 a.m. asking for Mark, only to be told we had a wrong number.

I thought I would

Just.

Die.

Mark later left the Raiders and things were never the same. I won't get into all the drama of the lawsuits over the rights to the songs and Mark's right to use the Paul Revere and the Raiders name on his website, etc. That's legal history and it's pretty boring if you're not as much of a fan as I was. Besides, I'm legally bound not to tell because....

A few years ago I found myself on a temp job in Studio City working for an entertainment lawyer who, it so happened, represented Mark Lindsay.

Moreover, he still represented Mark Lindsay.

Morever,

(jump up and down squealing)

MarkLindsayCameToHisOfficeWhileIWorkedThereAndIGotTo

MeetHimAndShakeHisHand!!!!!!!!!!

(dead silence)

(pregnant pause)

There's something about pre-teen love. As hard to believe as it may be, it doesn't last.

Here I was a middle aged woman with a grown child of my own who I'd already seen through her pre-teen years. I met Mark Lindsay and his wife and we chatted a bit about the past and how much a fan I was, the present and how much he loved living in Hawaii, the future and how if I ever came to Hawaii I should visit. Quite tame, really.

The first thing I thought of doing afterward was to call my 13-year-old self on the phone!

Here was news! I had to tell someone! It was the exact impulse I would have had at 13 but there was no one who would understand it the way I -- and my contemporaries -- could. I had long lost touch with my pre-teen compadres before I even got out of high school.

I really needed to talk to me!

I think I pondered that concept for at least two weeks. To this day I still haven't managed to wrap my wits around it entirely.

I still think you're okay if you talk to yourself.

Hell, after all that, I even think you'd be okay if you answered yourself.

Hahaha.

Stick by Stick

2005-09-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

I didn't post my progress report after weigh-in on Wednesday. Current events made my weight-loss efforts seem too petty a subject, and there were already more than enough words flying around about the current events themselves. To add to them would have been meaningless.

So I gave $100 to a volunteer who needed air fare and called it a day.

Still, the weight-loss news is good. I lost 0.8 pounds last week for a total weight loss of 27.8 pounds.

It takes a little bit of creativity to take comfort in a less-than-a-pound loss in a week.

What does it for me is butter.

Butter is pure fat that comes in quarter-pound sticks. Whenever my week's loss is 0.2 pounds or 0.5 pounds or 0.8 pounds, I imagine the equivalent in butter. Am I happy to have lost the equivalent in fat of over 3 sticks of butter last week?

You betcha!

I just imagine those sticks of butter and then I melt them down in my mind and see how much ghee they make. Then I imagine the fat in my body melting and the ghee flowing out of it and puddling at my feet.

One great thing about imagination: the cleanup's a snap.

Phishing Phun

2005-09-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Whew! Today is my lucky day! I got this email today that says:

"PLEASE READ THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY

"Congratulations! You have received this Notice because the records of PayPal, Inc. indicate you are a current or former PayPal account holder who has been deemed eligible to receive a payment from the class action settlement in accordance with PayPal Litigation, Case No. 02 1227 JF PVT, pending in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose.

"In your specific case you have been found to be eligible for a payment of $88.99 USD."

Hee! $88.99 USD! Can you believe it!

I never win anything!

Wow! This must be an international class action suit because they have to put "USD" after the amount. That means U.S. Dollars so someone in New Zealand or Canada doesn't get confused and think they're entitled to NZD or CAD.

I never even heard of this class action before! And I never even spent $88.99 in my entire history with PayPal!

I just cannot believe how lucky I am.

Now, what do I have to do to get my $88.99 USD?

Let's read on.

"Confirm Your Bank Account.

"The aforementioned settlement funds may be transferred directly to your bank account providing you have a linked card. The funds may not be credited directly to your PayPal account as this would render Paypal to be accumulating interest and thus profiting on litigation settlement funds which contravenes Federal law. Your bank account will be credited within 7 days upon submission of account details."

Is it my imagination or does this writer kinda talk funny? He sounds like a furriner if you ask me. See, I work in a law firm and I understand legalese, so I know it's not funny sounding because it's written by a lawyer. Unless it's a foreign lawyer who learned English as a second language. From a British teacher.

Oh, well. Maybe his rates are lower than anyone they could find in the U.S. Or maybe the original party to the class action was a furriner and hired someone he could relate to.

"To credit your bank account please click here.

Don't forget to check your bank account for the PayPal deposits and get Verified!"

Huh?

"If you are seeking an alternate method of receiving your funds PayPal will be contacting those who do not submit their details by the 31th of March with instructions to receive a cheque in the mail. However this will incur a 7.5% processing fee deducted from the settlement amount and therefore PayPal only recommends this option to those users who do not currently have a bank account with linked Bank Card."

31th, huh? That's funny! I say that sometimes, too, just for a joke. This foreigner has a real good sense of humo(u)r. It's even funnier when you say "32th" because it sounds like "thirty-tooth." I wonder if he says that, too. I need to meet this guy!

"Please Note that under United States federal law credit cards are not a legally approved method of settlement for Class Action suits and cannot be processed for transferal of funds in this case."

Huh?

"This notice is a summary and does not describe all details of the settlement. For full details of the matters discussed in this notice, you may wish to review the Settlement Agreement dated January 11, 2005 and on file with the Court or visit https://www.paypal.com/settlement/. Complete copies of the Settlement Agreement and all other pleadings and papers filed in the lawsuit are also available for inspection and copying during regular business hours, at the Office of the Clerk of the Court, United States District Court for the Northern District of California, 280 South First Street, San Jose, California 95113."

Hmmm. I know that court. Filed a few things there myself. In fact, I could send our service over to get a copy of those papers during regular business hours so I can inspect them. Of course, it would kind of eat into my $88.99 USD to pay the service for the trip and the copying.

This is sounding more and more legit, isn't it?

"DATED: September 02, 2005

BY ORDER OF THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA"

Okay, now that's weird. (Scratching chin....) I mean, this arrived on September 1st (oops. September 1th) my time. And my time is San Jose time. Courts don't usually date things in advance. That much I know. And here this thing is dated September 2th.

Oh, I get it! I think this is just like that test they give you in school to see how well you follow instructions. The one that has as step one, "Read the entire test through before beginning." Then at the end it tells you to disregard all the instructions after number one. So the people who can't follow instructions are picking up their pencils and writing their names and making circles and squares around them and all sorts of stuff that are in steps 2 through the end and the people who can follow instructions are just sitting there doing nothing.

Like I said, today is my lucky day. Luckily, I passed that test and I've been READING THIS NOTICE CAREFULLY just like it says.

Know what else? If you enter the referenced website (https://www.paypal.com/settlement/) into your browser (rather than link to it), you find out that PayPal has put a huge notice to their customers that THIS EMAIL IS A PHISHING SCAM!

Yup, my lucky day. I got to forward something to spoof@paypal.com and get phodder for my blog all in one day.

Another One Down

2005-08-31T13:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't post last week out of embarrassment because I had climbed back on that plateau and weighed in at my 25-pound loss again.

This week I'm down two pounds for a lowest-weight mark since beginning this program in January.

Yay! I get to add another paper clip to my chain.

My weight is now 211 for a total of 27 pounds lost.

But, of Course!

2005-08-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

I got a perfect score on the Discovery penguin quiz.

Hee hee!

And I Didn't Think I Was an Investor!

2005-08-25T17:47:00.000-07:00

I've never bought stocks but back in my halcyon days when I had an American Express card and used it prudently, I bought a set of china.

I was well beyond my newlywed days by then and the china I already had looked embarrassingly ingenue. Amex had enclosed a circular offering 12 place settings plus serving pieces of a Villeroy & Boch pattern for $550.

I didn't hate the pattern and it seemed a pretty good buy, so I ordered it. It's been my special occasion china ever since. It's seen me through many a birthday, Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashana, and the occasional dinner party. Some of the pieces I've used even more often. (I remember one time at 3:00 a.m., working tête à tête with a court reporter on an expedited transcript, serving coffee with the full coffee service just to keep our spirits up and our bodies awake.)

I kept Small Island Trader bookmarked in my viewer and occasionally pondered whether to buy another serving piece or two. (The link goes to my pattern, Botanica.)

Today I checked the bookmark and learned that the link to my pattern had been changed and -- Holy cow! -- so had the cost of the replacement pieces!

I just finished adding up all the pieces I own at the prices they're asking and came up with $2,824.99. I'd say that wasn't too bad for my original $550 (including shipping) investment, but some guru will have to answer the question.*

Is five times the original purchase price in 16 years a good investment?

I was gloating over this discovery when I realized the reason for the price increase on the pattern is because it's probably discontinued.

Discontinued patterns: What dead ladies leave in their estates.

I so much preferred thinking of myself as a savvy investor.

Now I feel old.

*No spam, please.

Back on the Road to Onederland

2005-08-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally cracked that plateau I'd been on for two months.

Remember the red plaid dress that was supposed to revitalize my resolve to lose weight? (The Target Now In the Sights. See Previous Posts in this blog.)

Nope. Didn't do it.

Nor did the size-16 jeans my DD shrank out of. (Dang! I was going to get skinny first and show her how good she could look when she got old. But then she lost 6 pounds while she was in Italy and it motivated her to keep going. Unfortunately, I can't afford a trip to Italy at the moment.)

Nor the two pant suits that my office manager and fellow Weight-Watchers-at-Work meeting attendee shrank out of last week and gifted to me.

No. This is what did it.

Tower Market on Portola. More correctly, Mollie Stone's Tower Market on Portola.

I rarely shop there unless I happen to be passing by on my way home at a time when I'm tired and desperately need to pick up something and the thought of driving past home to go to my regular store is too much to bear.

That is why I had no idea that the solution to my problem plateau hung right inside the entrance.

You can't miss it. It's a huge, round, convex mirror. It's the kind that you put at the end of a driveway or garage or a blind curve in an alleyway to avoid collisions.

Ouch!

See the biggest mirror in my apartment is the one on the medicine chest in the bathroom.

When you walk into Mollie Stone's Tower Market you just can't help but stare up into that big, round, convex mirror because your own motion above your head draws you into it.

What did I see when I looked up there?

I'm still fat.

That's all it took. A loss of 25 pounds seems like a lot to most people. But when it's only about a quarter of what you need to lose, it takes something like the sight of yourself in a big, round, convex mirror to realize you're not finished losing weight yet, Darling!

Ahem.

So....

At weigh-in yesterday I'd lost 1.2 pounds for a total of 26.2 pounds down. I'm back on the road to Onederland!

When I hit 50, I think I'll do some grocery shopping on Portola.

If that doesn't work, I'll go look for a House of Mirrors at Pier 39.

Jungle Fever

2005-08-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

Some time back in an effort to control our portion sizes, DH and I started to buy smaller sized dishes with fun patterns on them. Usually they're children's dishes with colorful cartoonish animals on them. Eating at our house is not very elegant, but it sure is fun!

As a result of this project, I now have a new and wonderful obsession. It started with this:

I happen to love animal prints anyway, especially leopard, so when I caught sight of these demitasse cups on eBay, I just had to have them.
Once I got them, I wanted a teapot to match or at least coordinate. I got outbid on one that the same seller had on sale, but she was kind enough to inform me when she got more jungle animal crockery to sell.
Which led to my buying this:

and then this:

Luckily, DH loves them. I've been justifying the purchase by exploring recipes that will present well on them when taken to potlucks. I'm going to have to rearrange the china cabinet to fit them in and I have very-little-to-no wiggle room for any more china in the apartment now.
The eBayer who sold me the above has become one of my favorite sellers. They don't have a lot of china to offer so I'm lucky in that respect, but they do have some great toys my adopted grandkids are going to love.
Although, my original standing search for a jungle animal teapot came up with this recently. I successfully resisted bidding on it:

Until yesterday.
Oh, well. Maybe I should start searching for curtains, rugs and pillows in animal prints to complete the theme. At least I have some room left for those in the apartment.

In the Company of Geniuses

2005-08-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

wrnglrjan is a genius! (see her comment on my last post)

You mean I can blog again?

"Overthinking a coincidence." I'm so good at that I should have it trademarked.

I'll be in touch, ya'll.

Blogspot Is Evil

2005-07-29T10:30:00.000-07:00

I tried posting to my blog from home this morning and I couldn't.

Blogspot said that I didn't have java script or cookies enabled on my browser.

Not true. I checked. I double checked. I closed the brower and reopened it.

Blogspot still wouldn't let me log in.

Then I recalled that yesterday at work while I was browsing through the blogs, hitting "next blog, next blog, next blog" suddenly something started streaming into the line at the bottom of the screen.

So I quick did an anti-virus check of the C drive and found out an Adware thingie had been added RIGHT THEN -- right then when I saw the streaming.

So I.T. had to run Spybot and they found hundreds of these things in my system.

Boy did things speed up after they were finished!

So I'm thinking my super-duper internet protection at home was keeping Blogspot from opening because they couldn't install that Adware thingie on my computer at home.

So I'm left on the horns of a dilemma. A moral quandary. A tough decision.

Do I keep blogging on my breaks and lunch hour and after hours at work knowing full well that I'm leaving my employer's computer open to this stuff and clogging it up with Adware?

Or do I let the guard down on my Internet protection at home enough that I can blog, leaving my personal computer open to attack?

Sometimes I hate having been a Girl Scout.

I know the answer.

I can't blog anymore. Period. It just isn't ethical any way I slice it.

So unless I find out there's a way to fix all this so I can have my cake and eat it, too (oh, spare me the diet metaphors!) I have to quit this blog.

If you want updates on the weight loss, email me (if you know my address). Everybody else, sorry. 'Bye.

Love,
Jo Anne

Best News of Today

2005-07-28T15:27:00.000-07:00

'Penguins' march defies summer box office trend.

A cold story that warms my heart.

This is the Best. Movie. Ever.

The Target Now in the Sights

2005-07-28T12:13:00.000-07:00

You wouldn't know it by this photo, but this dress is drop-dead gorgeous!

I found it on eBay (permission to use the photo given by the seller). It's red plaid rayon and the bodice and sleeves are embroidered all over with a filigree pattern in black which isn't visible in the photo.

It's a size smaller than I am.

I realized that my progress began to slow after I had lost enough to fit into a pair of jeans I loved. I still had two more pairs of jeans that were a bit smaller, but I didn't care for their styles.

So rather than aiming for the size, it appears I should have been aiming for the specific article of clothing that inspired me.

This oughta do it.

I've bought the accessories to go with it so that the day it finally fits is the day I get to wear it.

Onederland*, here I come!

*Onederland: That place where all your weigh-ins are under 200 pounds.

squcps, a history

2005-07-27T18:03:00.000-07:00

Before you ask, it was the funny-looking word in the box that you have to type when you create a blog.

Obligatory Pet Reference, No. 1

2005-07-27T17:52:00.000-07:00

These are my cats, Booger and George.

Booger is the grey striped one. She is half Siamese, although you can't tell it by looking at her. You can sure tell it by listening to her, though. She has a lot to say and she ain't afraid to speak up at any time of the day or night.

George is a female. She got her name because of Fate or Kismet or ESP or Eerie Conicidence or however you prefer to think of it.

She was part of a pair of nearly identical kittens. Her sister had the same features but with black on the opposite side of the face and white on more paws.

DD, then about 15, was holding the box the two of them were in as we brought them to their new home. We'd agreed that we'd each claim and name one of them. She had chosen to name hers Metallica for obvious reasons and to call her "Talica" or "Tally" for short.

I was still pondering a name for mine while I was driving. The name "George" kept popping into my head and I kept ignoring it because this was a girl kitty.

But then I remembered my favorite character in Nancy Drew was a girl named George, and I thought George Sands and just when I was thinking in those terms, the kitten popped her head out of the box again and my daughter poked her back down and said, "You're just like Curious George!"

That did it. How could I ignore such an obvious communication from the cat herself?

I must say, it suits her.

Weight Loss Progress Report

2005-07-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

Back to accountability.

After losing 25 pounds I'm plateauing.

This isn't a "my body is catching up to its new size" plateau.

This is an "I'm tired of all the planning that it takes to lose weight" plateau.

The good news: I am at least down 0.6 pounds for the past two weeks.

The bad news: The way I did it.

I did it by:

1. Getting very, very sick;

2. Staying home where there was no "illegal" food; then

3. Getting well and returning to work with no groceries in the house and having to eat out every meal and thus throwing diet to the winds and enjoying pizza, chocolate and chicken tikka masala to my heart's content.

Now I have to get back into the habits I so easily threw away. I'm not off to a good start today but hey, I've got another six days before my next weigh-in, right?

Okay, so here are the stats:

Down 0.6 pounds for a total of 25.6 pounds lost since mid-January.

Weight: 212.4 (Ouch! I did promise to be accountable, though, didn't I?)