Fickle Trickle

Tell me this isn't a weird happening?  In the last two weeks I have had to put gas in my tank, what a surprise.  My "normal" gas station is a Pilot and in these two situations I used "other" gas stations.  One was a Speedway and I was filling the tank and it was not an extreme weather day nothing unusual but the tank filled at $20.00.  I thought it was odd but didn't matter, when I was on my way to my destination I did notice the tank was only 3/4 full???  Normal fill up is in the $30.00 range so it made sense.  The gauge went to almost empty on the freeway traffic jam and once again went to a different station and filled it up and it only took $17.00.  Oh oh my gauge or my sensor on my tank must be faulty.  One last try, I will go to my favorite Pilot and see if it was just a fluke or I need to schedule an appt.   This morning I go to the Tucson's favorite gas station Pilot and she guzzled her usual $30.00?  I got in the tank was full?  So apparently my little car only likes to drink a certain gas, and burps on the generic brand?  Who knew?

Renaissance Faire

So I picked the hottest day of the year to go to the Ren faire.  I was at the gates 10 am and when everyone goes to the right I went left, I was ahead of the herd.  You are not allowed to bring in anything to eat or drink which is fine, but I am a water baby and there is no water there.  First stop a henna tattoo, I love the paisley type tattoos and I get it on my hand.  Right out of the gate, first thing, 20 steps in....it is really pretty, then they pat some lemon sugar stuff on it and we have 98 degree sticky sweet stuff on my hand.  Can you say bee invitation?  So I start trekking down the hill and it is in the sun and hot and I am thirsty....sarsaparilla that is a thirst quencher right?  I also have my camera, I am traveling light but two thick straps around my neck, my left hand full of goo and I am ordering the root beer, oh I have to pay for this right....money is in my left pocket where it always is, just a minute......so I just removed a small part of my henna...enter the bee, as I go to swoosh it from attacking my sugary hand I smoosh the rest of it....and I am hot, did I say it is hot out.  I guzzle down the drink, pitifully look at my hand and figure it was not a good idea to do this, it was kind of like me and glue, I can never wait till it is dry.  So I sit down by the pond and there is this chunk of wood sticking out, here comes this cute little nymph, she starts to climb out on this dead limb I am sure she is going to be swimming any minute and me being the non swimmer is the closest to her will have to put my new henna hand in the water to rescue her  one foot after the next, she must have done this before, she sits on the end of the stump and starts doing her nymph thing....I think I have 20 photos of just her, she is so cute it is almost hard to think she is not truly a fairy perched on that limb.  But I am hot so that lasted a few minutes and then off I went in search of more watery stuff....to drink....On the good side my foot didn't hurt???  I find another spot to catch a breeze more like hot dragon breath and some really old lady dressed in costume comes by me and says, "it is really hot isn't it sweetie?"  I agree and I think she wanted to ask if I was going to make it, I am sure my face was tomato red and sweat was running off of my head like a sprinkler.  I shook it off like a horse and headed for the gate....I did the Ren faire in two hours, I did not eat a thing, it was too hot to even breath...the next challenge getting to the car....then wipe of what is left of my pretty henna.

Itching

This morning I am itching to do something.  I want to go to the Renaissance fair, but it is supposed to be hot and poor air quality today, of course.  I am still toying with the idea?  I can always leave if it gets too bad right?  I do have stuff I need to do here....did I just say that?  I want it to be Fall, when I walk outside the leaves are already falling on the ground and are crunching and the smell is of wet leaves.  The orchards are opening and apples are a good sign of Fall.  I don't want to sweat anymore....I don't like Summer.  I do know however without Summer there would be no flowers and and, mosquito's and bees and tell me again oh yeah flowers, and I do love flowers.  I want to go to a farmers market this morning.  I think I am in a restless state right now, and this could get scary.  I could clean the hou....nevermind, bad idea, housecleaning makes me sick, you know asthma and dust and ew unhealthy.  Housework is over rated anyway.  My mom used to move the furniture to vacuum behind it every Friday, I hated when we had off of school because we had to help.  I always say no one ever says at a funeral, "they kept such a clean house!"  I am going to say that at me moms funeral I promise!  I don't remember having to clean our room because we never played in it, our house was always magazine staged.  Right down to the plastic runners, let me tell you how much I hate plastic protective anything!!!!  You will never find any protective cover on anything I own and tend to peel it off even when I don't own it.  When my brother and I were bored we would turn the runner over and pretend we were walking on a bed of nails, the other side of the plastic had these pointy plastic prongs, no wonder I have feet problems.  One time we forgot to turn it over and my dad walked on it and we were rolling on the floor laughing as he did a hollering hop and dance, and there was much swearing.  Our couch had a sheet on it, and washcloths on the arms, this was the one we were not allowed to sit on unless we had company.  Fact is the minute my mom left the house, I would deliberately drag my arse all over that couch (not naked), like I was marking my territory , I would lay on it and rub my body all over it like a cat?  Ha little did she know I "did" sit on that couch and I did enjoy every minute of it.  So this pristine living room that only company was supposed to use became my fascination.  We had a stereo that we never played, or they never played, I did I listened to Herb Albert, Taste of Honey over and over and over, remember if on the record changer you left the arm out it would keep playing the last album?  Remember those yellow plastic things you put in 45's to make them fit on a stereo player?  I loved those things, I used to put them in my mouth and blow through them...easily entertained.  Ok, I need to find something to do....

Bad eyes

I am the first to admit that my eyes are getting worse.  I can see like an eagle if it is far, but up close it is getting harder and harder to see things clear.  True confessions, for years I was one of those that shaved their legs faithfully, no stubble no picky hair folicles, I was a clean shaven babe.  My theory on that was I was afraid if I got hurt at work and they had to lift my pant legs or see my underarm in some freak accident that I had to lift my arm, I was going to have baby smooth skin.  I didn't get to shave my legs till I looked like Magilla gorilla, and then I would wear nylons and that black wirey hair would wrap around like a huge comb over.  I used my dad's straight razor to shave my legs the first time...needless to say I did not do a good job and almost plugged the bathtub.  I remember the first time I got to wear nylons, it was the Christmas party at my dad's shop.  I had a really pretty dress and patent leather shoes and begged to wear nylons not ankle socks.  My mom brought in the flat package that held the neatly packaged pair of nylons, they looked like an ironed pair of legs, silky and fleshy colored.  Now how do these stay up???  You will not believe what contraption she had in mind, where the hell she got this thing is beyond me, no one has ever heard of or had one like this.  It looked like a harness, it went over your shoulders and had garter like straps that you had to untwist and tangle and really mom where on earth or not  did you find this thing.  I guess my enthusiasm for wearing nylons was more important than the harness to hold them up.  I can describe is as a cross between suspenders and lederhosen??
So now after all of those years of shaving and being smooth, I opt for "who cares"  it's not like I might have that magical " get lucky" moment and I sleep alone and I can't see?   One time I went to a hotel for some retreat and had on my suit and was in the hot tub, it must have been winter and my legs were clean but as I raised my arm to relax in the hot tub, this bush of black hair made me whip my arms back to my sides...opps must have forgot about those babies.   So I was going to do a clean up job and in the bathroom mirror, I held up my arm and did a hmmmm, my underarms look like I just shaved them??? When did I last shave them?  I don't know, maybe it all fell out???  Mind you this is without glasses and about 3 feet away from the mirror.  On closer examination, the hair did not fall out and it has not been shaven, it just went white....yeah, another aging moment white hair in my armpits?  

Where did it go??

Yesterday I went for a ride, the Igster, friend and I...my intent was to take some photos.   When I intend to do something for some reason it never turns out that way.  I guess my final destination would be Port Washington, Smith Brothers restaurant, a landmark.  We get there the sign is there and we park, walk up and it is a coffee shop?  Is there an entrance to the restaurant here?  No that has been closed...what? we were a little in shock.  Port was known for it's restaurant, not that it had great food but you felt like it was fresh from the lake, perch and gills that were just taken from a freezer pack, caught and cleaned and put in front of you.  It was an integral part of Port Washington, so in search for another place to eat, we found a somewhat interesting looking place but it turned out to be, a multi ethnic place which makes me think "family" restaurant.  It was Ok, not what I was looking for.  If you have been to Port Washington it is a quaint little town, lots of closed business's just like the rest of America.  No more Smith Brothers, Ewig brothers is still there and they have the best smoked fish around.  I just looked on the net to find their name and found Newport shores just north of the harbor...go figure we missed that one.  I see another road trip coming.  No photos were taken?

The hardest delete....

I was driving to go to breakfast this morning and passing over roads, my boyfriend and I would travel when he was sick.  He would get this deer in the headlights look from his medications, and I would say "let's go for a ride"  it distracted him and I loved to take rides.  He would drive slow and deliberate, sometimes it made me kind of crazy, I liked to drive...the "speed limit" at least.  As the cars would pile up behind us, I felt agravated and wanted to turn around and yell at them "he's dying, let him drive slow"  He would say, I don't want to drive fast, just to get there I want to enjoy the ride....lesson learned...enjoy the ride.  After he died, the hardest thing, the thing you can hold on to for just about ever, is the voice mail he left.  The voice from the grave, it was the hardest thing to delete.  I knew it was not healthy to keep playing it over and over, I knew I had to delete it, but it was my link to hearing him.  It wasn't a wonderful message of loving thoughts it actually was something like..."hey what are we doing for dinner? "  or "how did work go today?"  or maybe it was just a "give me a call when you get this".  I knew when I would press the delete, I could never retrieve it again...my finger hovered over the button, I knew it was not good to hang on to the past.  My finger feeling the soft smooth button beneath it, he is gone, let him go..."delete"
Of all the things in my life I deleted, that was the hardest, now I kind of wish I could hear him.  Sometimes when you lose someone you love, you are afraid you will forget what they look like or sound like....but you never really do....He reminded me today of our time together, driving slow and enjoying the ride.

I feel the need

.......to take some photos.  It has been so hot and humid, I can't even think about walking around and taking pictures of anything.  Do you have anything in your life that you just miss doing???  I have lots, if I am not knitting on something, I miss knitting, if I am not doing something at the time that seems to be what I am missing.  Like a spoiled little kid that wants the one thing they are not to have at that moment.  I have set up my knitting machine with the hopes that we get along better this time around or it is out the door....we are doing well, now why is it the last time I had such bad luck with it...is it maturity, patience???  Maybe not under the pressure of learning so intently????  Whatever it is,  it is going fine, I am up to the armpits of a swing coat, which by the way took every needle on the machine.  Then I never do anything easy like using a pattern written for a knitting machine, oh no I am using a knitting pattern that I realized is just a lot of stockinette knitting, so decided to try the machine.  If I can get all the pieces to match I will be happy, I am taking notes and hopefully won't leave it sit for a few years and forget what I did.
I still want to take some photos and I want to paint too...now that mom is moved, maybe this week I will fulfil some needs!!!

Asian Pedicures

I normally go to a Vietnamese couple that do pedicures and manicures, but due to a time constraint, I needed to go somewhere else.  So I went to this place I went once before in my old neighborhood, I am sure this is one of those indentured slave type places and no one speaks English only "pay now" and "what you need"  "we do"  and "you like?"  I asked if they could do a pedicure in 30 minutes and maybe that was my mistake?  One girl runs the tub with water and throws the blue crystals on my feet?  Not sure they weren't going to burn a hole in my skin.  Then comes the older woman, kind of like the boss or someone with some authority.  She smacks the leg I am to take out of the water and put in front of her, she clips my nails, she is holding her head really close to the feet and I get grossed out thinking of the woman next to me's toe nails flying in my direction, this Asian is going to get toe nails in her face....ewwww.   So she does the cutting and the trimming and gives me a reassuring grinny smile and I smile back???  She smacks my other leg and has this brush in her hand like a vegetable brush but pretty pink and she goes to town scrubbing my legs like she is cleaning a dirty potato?  I fear I will have no skin left when all of a sudden, she pushes my leg up in the air and my butt check is dislodged from the comfortable spot on the vinyl chair.  Still smiling I am sure she is thinking "I am going to give this one a work out"  meanwhile she is still scrubbing and soaping and scrubbing and then she goes to the bottom of my feet which are normally not too ticklish but add the vegetable brush and hard scrubbing and I am jumping around like I have a burr in my pants.  She smacks the other leg and here we go again twisting my leg like I'm Gumby and she is smiling to the point I am now going to smack that smile off of her face.  She stops and now she is lotioning my legs, it feels good after the burn I got from the brush, she is gentle and then goes to the toes.  Now my little toe is permanently bonded with the toe next to it, they don't move away from each other and a long time ago someone said never split your toes apart or you will get athletes feet...so I never did, I never did but she did and I could feel the skin split and burn between those toes.  Now I am thinking great I am going to get some fungal infection in my foot.  I am waiting for her to do the next leg but she must be getting tired and we are in the polishing phase...whew, she does one coat and then a top coat and slaps my legs and I'm done.  I am also very tired and my legs are sore, burning and red......so if you want to get Asian exfoliation and a work out to boot, I can give you their number.

To do list

I am not normally too structured, but I do have to have a to do list, partly because, I will forget what I wanted to do?  I learned the list method a long time ago to help with my attention span problem.  So in the morning or before bed, I write down if I have some specific things I want to do in the day ahead.  It also helps me sleep better, other wise I keep thinking about it so I don't forget?  Then I pick the poopiest job on the list to do first so that the bad job is done and I always reward myself with something fun!!!  Pretty easy concept actually.  On another note, musty wash....I started to do my wash on Sunday morning, then went to my mom's to start packing.  When I hobbled into the house the last thing I was thinking about was the wash.....Monday moving day and Tuesday Oh oh, guess what I remembered???  Yeeaahhh, schtinky vash...so with some added vinegar I had to rewash....When my son lived at home he did the wash and apparently if you leave the wash in the washer long enough it will dry and he folded my work shirts after they dried in the washer.  So at work, I began to sweat which in turned ignited the stink that was on the shirt, I kept getting a whiff of funk and it was me!!!!  My shirt stunk so bad and with no alternative but to chew his butt out and threaten him with wearing the clothes he left in the washer, that never happened again.  I can still smell that shirt....ugh

Come on and take a Free ride...

These two couldn't be happier, and who took my mom and please keep her, I really like this new one?  The difference an apartment makes???  I actually went over there again yesterday to just check in on her and to see if she was her old self and we went for a ride, or Iggy and her went for a ride.  Iggy really likes this riding thing, also she did a walk with her walker up and down her hallway to get some exercise and he was following her to make sure she did her walking...what  a goof. She was dusting and cleaning a little, good for her.    On the other hand I am getting nothing done around here but next week it will change.  The weather here is beautiful so who wants to work in the basement or inside in general.  I have to go get a shot of cortisone in my heel today, this is a usual procedure and I try to hold off for as long as I can.  I have planter faciatus and it feels like I have a nail pounded into my heel, this time it is a little different and is on the back of my heel...I have an awesome foot Dr and he will fix me up.  Today is a a good day!!!  Knitting tonight at Panera!!!

Smiling

I am tired and sore but the move has been done and my mom is in her new apartment.  We still have lots of unpacking to do and I am lucky to have such a great sister in law and brother.  I spent the day yesterday directing the movers as to what had to go and where it had to be put.  Who knew two bedrooms would require 3.5 hours of professional movers?  The great thing is the new apartment is laid out exactly as her old one was, but is much closer to the center hub of action.  She had been located on the end of a long hallway of a wing and with her walking ability diminishing she is now close to everything.  That is one perk!  The other wonderful thing is her view, her old apt. had a view of the garage and parking lot and lot's of highway noise, this one is the serenity of a garden and trees and wildlife.  I put her kitchen table right by the window so she can have her coffee or breakfast and look out the window.  Very rarely does my mom ever state she is happy about something.  It makes me feel so good to hear her repeatedly saying " This is so wonderful, this is really like a nice apartment, I never really thought of the old place like that"  It makes me so happy to know that she is accepting this move as a positive and wonderful thing... I believe she is truly happy and I agree it is much more pleasing to be in this place than the old one.  It just seems brighter and more comforting than her old place.  My mom was always on a regiment, she did everything by the clock and maybe that is why I rarely do.  I am very spontaneous, prompt but spontaneous.  There is no structure in her life and we think maybe this is why she is doing "nothing".  Hopefully moving closer to the hub of events will encourage her to be more involved.  So many of us are dealing with aging parents and we can all relate.  Making these decisions are daunting, you want to do what is right and some seem so radical and heartbreaking.  We are also hiring a Granny Nanny to get her into some kind of schedule, a companion.  My mom falls for no apparent reason, she fell yesterday while we were chatting and just and I mean just missed a corner that would have cracked her head like a nut.  She is pretty good at falling and I think she could be a stunt person for old people, she hit her head but got up and walked back to her apartment, I choked back tears walking behind her.  This is so hard, I am so glad my dad died in his sleep, no warning , no suffering, we just had to deal with the loss...no watching his decline...just his loss.  I guess it doesn't get any easier with aging parents.  On a good note, after I left, Cheryl looked out mom's window and Doe and her fawn were eating in the garden.....this is a good thing.

Empty Hands

After all the hype of finishing a project is the lull of deciding what you will move on to next.  I just finished knitting the Iced sweater in the previous post and I knit on it almost every waking moment, because I loved it.  This morning I got my coffee and sat down and..hmmm nothing next to me to pick up and knit, nothing on the floor to do...what will I do next?   Ok now I have several projects in the works but I don't want to knit right now I need to give my hands a rest, from knitting.  But...knitting is such an easy thing to pick up and do??  Mundane, relaxing and just so portable.  I do have some ply split braiding to work on but I need to get all the pieces together to start, the collecting and assembling all of the items is the part that is so distracting.  I am weaving but certainly can't bring the loom to the couch...not the one that I am working on.
A hot new knit is the Eternity Cowl on Ravelry, it is really pretty, but, with my swan like neck I can't wear anything that close to my neck, I would die of suffocation.  Another one of those, sure wish I had a long neck, it would take up some of the fat from my face.
Speaking of suffocating, in this humidity we are all talking about how hard it is to even get dressed or undressed after working in this heat.  One time I decided I wanted to wear a bra with no hooks, a sports bra type thing, no support just being there.  My idea was comfort as always, so I picked one out and then realized when I got home this has to go on over my head?  I have no idea how else it would get on, the bra fairy doesn't zap it onto your boobs.  So I took a nice hot bath and being a little wet, started to embark on putting on this bra.  Over my head arms up and this once 8" piece of fabric rolled into a tournaquet, it was lodged just above my boobs, under my arms, the more I pulled the tighter it was getting.  It has turned into a boa constrictor, tightning and my panic is rising.  Now if you are a reader you know I can't tolerate anything tight, it makes me turn into the hulk and rip and panic.  The harder I tried to unroll this rope, the worse it got and I was sure it was going to strangle me, so I got out the scissors and cut it off.  A rush of relief came to me blood once again went to my brain as I stood with a now vest like looking rope that stayed on only by my armpits, with no hope of ever meeting in the middle again.  Into the trash it went with no plans on ever getting one of them again!

Mother Earth

Finally finished!!! 8 days from casting on to blocking. I did have to rip the collar off, because due to my math adversion didn't count how many stitches I picked up on one side and the other so one side had 72 stitches picked up and the other side had mmmm 50?  For some reason it hung kind of funny but it was Ok if I leaned to one side and hunched forward and held my hand on the edge....that's all.  This is Happy Hands new colorway Mother Earth, in chunky wool and she dyed matching roving so I could felt a pocket, I have to have a pocket.  This sweater will be going on tour...and then it is mine...I just hope that it stays cold for a long time, this is my go to sweater.  If you have been wanting to try a sweater and never had the guts, this is an easy knit...seriously it is top down, has great directions and fits beautifully.  The pattern is Iced from Knitty.com it has very large size, the changes I made are no decreases on the body because I am so shapely so it may take more yarn and then I did an I chord bind off on the bottom and sleeves.  I felted the pocket with roving she dyed also.  This was a fun knit, now don't get me wrong I am glad it is done, but what beautiful colors and each stitch was a journey.  Two skeins of Kim's yarn!!!   So now back to weaving which I did some this afternoon, not much but a little, I was kind of busy ....today was Admiration day....sit back and admire what I did all week!!!

Oh Star doesn't buck.

My relationship with horses has been something of a love hate thing.  I love them, their main concern is getting me off of their back.  They say horses can sense a beginner and treat them carefully, I don't know what horses those were.  I always wanted to run like the wind, one with the horse, wind blowing through my hair, carefree and bareback...Ok so that is what I wanted?  When I was dating we went to Kettle Moraine to ride horses...everyone gets on their horse and my horse is a huge, I mean huge tall horse, I am thinking Clydsdale but it was an American Quarterhouse or something??  Quarter horse to me meant 1/4 the size of a real horse.  I had to stand on a picnic table to mount this beauty.  Which also means my legs were pretty much straight out from the horse and we will just say some arse pounding went on.  Then up north we got my brother to go riding and I was behind him, watching him and his horse blanket had ball fringe on it, so when the horse would move that ball fringe would bounce around and the horse was a gas emitting machine, all I could do was laugh and gag.  My friend was getting married and lived on a farm and the one horse they had, was used to pulling a buggy, but I with all my horse sense said I wanted to ride...it was a job getting the horse away from the barn.  After about 45 minutes we got a mile away and I the horse decided to go back, it saw the silo and we did a minute mile getting back to the barn.  I had bugs in my teeth and my hair was slick back, so much for the wind blowing through my hair.  Then there was Star, a pretty horse with a star on his forehead.  I had my barn boots on and the "kids" wanted to go for a ride.  I said give me a mellow horse..."Ah ol Star here don't buck"  no sooner out of his mouth and as I was swinging my leg over the saddle, Star decided he would prove, farmhand wrong.  I really had no clue what was happening because my leg kept getting higher and didn't clear the saddle and suddenly I was launched into the mud of the corral.  I missed about 20 little round rocks the size of loaves of bread with my butt, I was not hurt.  Then there was the horse back riding at the Dells, my sister and I decided it would be fun and really they were trail broke old horses...so they are helping my sister get on the horse and I am looking at my horse kind of strange?  not sure what kind of horse this was it was tall but had really big ears and slanty eyes?? So when I sit on it, my head is in a tree...uhm can we get out of this evergreen tree??  Jokingly I say "come on hoss, let's get moving.  The guide says "that's not a horse it's an ass," well that was all we needed to hear from one ass to another!!!!

Ohhh do I itch...

I am allergic to perfumes and lotions and soaps with perfumes, mineral oil, latex and I know this.  Why oh why do I feel I can go to a little shop and smear the free sample all over my arms???  Ok I think I brewed the perfect storm, I have been using mosquito repellent, who hasn't, I use home made soap.  , but I have  a zillion squeeto bites on my arms, so they are itching.  I went to a little ditty shop and they gave me the cutest little container of lotion.  On a normal day, it probably would not have bothered me too bad but with all the other irritation....I have topical dermatitis.   I have tried Bendadryl lotion, calamine lotion, nothing and then my tattoo goo, which is all natural and soothing...nothing is stopping this itching.  A call to the Dr and trip to Walgreens and I have some relief, if nothing touches it and starts it itching againg.  I could take a  benedryl pill and be in a coma for about 12 hours, no kidding if not longer?
I am on the second sleeve of the sweater so I am almost home to the collar....sweet victory and then I am felting two pockets that will match.  I want to go and knit at a coffee shop today??

Sweetness of doing Nothing

Julia Roberts was on GMA this morning talking about Eat Pray Love.  She made a statement about the "sweetness of doing nothing"  isn't that just the greatest phrase?  I love that and I do have the ability to enjoy the sweetness of doing nothing.  One of my nothing moments occurs when I would go squirrel hunting.  It is a fun thing to do and those furry creatures are pretty predictable even though if you don't know their habits you would not think so.  It goes like this, you walk into the woods and they scamper and watch you or you don't see them at all.  If you are a team you split up and go two different directions, this has to be planned before you get out of sight of one another.  Then you sit and wait, quiet and you must not fidget, or twitch or move.  You must sit very still for at least 20 minutes...me sitting still for that long takes great discipline, but while I am sitting, I listen very hard....I hear the woods, I go zen.  It is my "sweetness of doing nothing"  It is my church, my closeness to my God, me sitting quiet and becoming one with the foilage of the woods.  No one preaching, talking or even stirring around me, my time to listen to my self.  My distractions are a leaf falling or wind blowing and I can feel it on my bare skin, tickling my face and the smells are earthy, fresh dirt or of Fall.  After about 20 minutes you will hear the woods start to move again. You will see the movement come to life.  And the squirrels will either feel you have left, or have gotten comfortable with you being there.  Then you motion for your team mate to start moving, the squirrels will move to the opposite side of the tree that they see movement on and you draw them into your sight and this is your shot....hopefully you will see them with a mouth full of winter stock, it makes a really cute photo.  Try the Sweetness of doing nothing, it is amazing how much you learn about yourself.  Start with 10 minutes and work up to 20, see if you don't look forward to this buzz.

Are you itching yet?

I have not heard of anyone suffering from West Nile Virus yet and with all of the mosquitos, I am truly surprised. The door to the studio is laden with squeetos, sniffing a warm body behind it and when someone opens the door they ride in on that human sacrifice. I have never seen them so bad, never, poor Iggy must have bites on his legs because he is chewing on them. Of course he is the one that stirs them up with his sniffing in the grass and meandoring around in the weeds. Personally I can't wait for Fall/Winter. I know I kind of made a comment about I wish we could stop wearing heavy coats, but how I yearn to curl up with a blanket and hot coffee, and no bugs. I look out at my deck and think, someday I may get to go out there for something other than to feed the mosquitos and water the flowers. Then there are the phantom bites...that is when you quick look at your arm thinking you are getting bit and there is nothing, or you just slap because you may be getting bit, nothing. This must be a funny phenomenon to someone, certainly not me. I want to see the leaves turn orange....cooler weather. I am even tired of my Margerita machine, yeah I know but I have drank every frozen concoction you can think of....I want hot chocolate, coffee... chai tea...I want Winter....
disclaimer: I do not want bitter cold

My first weaving project

My first weaving project was probably making pot holders, but that too came with those darn rules. Don't waste the weaving cotton thingys and don't do this and don't do that....so that project ended pretty quick...too many rules. But my first weaving and public Art statement was on a bridge. After what must have been a boring summer day, and finding golf balls to sell from the golf course up the street, one had a big smile in it. So with some prodding and carving found that if you remove the outside covering of a golf ball, it was an endless rubber band? Best part was the hollow rubber center, that was a precursor to the super ball. So this was an awful lot of rubber band and being bored, I decided with the assistance of a Franklin my boyfriend/partner in crime, to thread the rubber bands between the two side rails of the creek bridge. We picked the bridge with the least traffic so not to break the rubber bands while working diligently on this public art project. Now really what possess someone to do this? Where did this brainstorm come from? I puzzle myself and just a warning when I get bored stuff happens. So with Franklin on one side of the bridge the golf ball was tossed carefully back and forth from the top rail to the bottom rail and all over, till we had a huge web of rubber strung across the bridge. I think one of the ideas was a huge car sling shot/trampoline and who knows what other crazy idea I had. So after about 3 hours of this (20 minutes) We got bored and we left. We had the inside treasure to go and bounce around the playground, so off we went. With such a short attentions span, we took another bridge home and then wondered if any cars broke through our web of steel...did it ricochet off and with all of those stands of rubber get caught up in it? Is that car on the Moon right now?? In those days all of the focus was on going to the Moon.....Mind you we are speaking of a car here? The summers were so long and so much time to think of new and creative ideas.

Chicken Salad

If you think that my translation of words is funny, my brother is a real trip. We were at a fish fry and he said I hope they have marble eye bread? huh....Cheryl and I were both cracking up we tried to explain it is, Marble rye.....but an even funnier one, on Channel 12 we have two woman news reporters and ones name is Sally and the other in this situation is Porsche. Sally does the weather and was saying how the Greek Festival is on and the weather should hold out, and it has the greatest food at this fair. Porsche remarks, "I can't wait to get some of that chicken salad" so my brother goes off on rant, "can't wait to get some of that chicken salad?" can't wait to get some of that chicken salad" and Cheryl is looking at him, with a blank look as he carries on saying "who has chicken salad at a fair?
Cheryl has to cut in and tell him, she said "Can't wait to get some of that chicken, Sally!" So now whenever I hear these too talking I can't help but here Scott saying Chicken Salad. I can't stop laughing about it.
Maybe we were both born with a genetic hearing gene. But it is funny how when you grow up hearing something wrong you perpetuate it, without even knowing. My mom always said Kinny garden, so does my brother, somewhere along the line I lost that one and have always said Kindergarden. But mine was Great fruit, oh we were having great fruit and once I ate it didn't think it was the great, (grapefruit). Reading and translating things were my downfall, my mom was making supper and on the counter were black eyed peas, but I read the label..."Birdseye" Holy Crap mom is feeding us birds eyes...and they looked like it. The best one is Philadelphia, till about 5 years ago I think I pronounced it as Philadelthia, I never read it, I just said it, Cheryl heard me say it once and that was when I got busted, I never read the word, and how much cream cheese have I bought? Cheryl is trying to idiot proof us Massies....lots of luck

What we need?

Today on GMA, there was a segment on Chelsea Clinton's Wedding. I am happy for her and I used to pity her when they dressed her in Pollyanna dresses with her extremely corkscrew curly hair and she was kind of homely. Not her fault this is how she was presented, they pulled her hair back and she looked like a dork. She should not have had huge bows all over. I have this vivid photo seared in my mind because that is when my heart went out to her, remembering my mother dressing us in clown suits that she made. We too looked like dorks, she claims they were Vogue, not sure where she bought Vogue maybe at Barnum and Baily. So this woman is saying, This wedding is what America needed, we are in a depressed state and this wedding was what we needed? Really, why do depressed people that are not working, have no money, no jobs, no hope, need to see a million some dollar wedding? I had no desire or need to watch anything about the wedding, I can't relate. Don't get me wrong, I am happy for her, it is great, I think she handles herself better than either parent has. I don't need to know that it costs more money than I will ever make in a lifetime, or even dream about. I do not see how rubbing it in our faces (not Chelsea, but the media) makes me feel better that business's are closing, jobs are lost and people are running out of unemployment??? I don't feel better knowing they spent blank amount of dollars on a cake? That price tag could feed me for a lifetime, who cares? This is not what America needs, don't even think this was the Royal Wedding of the Century...I am sure Chelsea would rather have remained virtually under the wire of publicity. If someone has a lot of money, good for them, it is something that has never bothered me they I am sure have their own issues to deal with. I am content, but on the other hand don't rub my nose in the fact that You do have money, I don't care....to me, if I have "enough" I am fine. Other Countries think that America is what they see on TV....all the glitz and friviolty of Bridezilla, The Bachlor, jetting off to various Countries...don't know about you but that isn't my America..Won't those legal immigrants be surprised when limos don't roll up to pick them up....
I am working on Color on Color scarf by Kathryn Alexander, in the book scarfSTYLE. It is a fun knit with lots of changes of color and an uncounted amount of ends to sew in!!! But it is holding my interest and I am on phase 13 out of 19, so I am moving right along, I think the finishing may be more intense but I am actually working on this quite steadily, that is until Kim from Happy Hands brings me the hand dyed yarn I want to knit Ice from Knitty.com. it will be a chunky yarn so it should knit pretty fast. I hope

The turn is made

August 1st is the first day of the new Studio. I feel so good about where I am going and what I will be doing. I have made lots of changes that you can't see and some you can. Moves that will save me money, little things. I have cut hours so I have more time to do the things I want. So where do I begin....today is the first day....I am going to drink my coffee right now, and I have family coming over later for a cookout. I have not had family over for a while, we all get so busy and they go up north a lot. It is supposed to be nice out let's hope so. I want to go visit the Quilt exhibit, I have heard it is wonderful at the Art Museum, I love the Art Museum. So this week I open on Thursday, 10am....Looking forward is better than looking back.