Knit n' Bead

Welcome...

2012-01-27T11:20:00.000-05:00

... to the new normal. Again. Every time I say what ELSE can happen, I find out. And it is never good. I cannot describe what it feels like for an entire community to be hit in the belly over and over. This new normal sucks. Really sucks. And I fear it is only just beginning.

Paterno was a good man, some will tell you great. He put his money and actions where his mouth was. He was smart, sarcastic, competitive, and meant what he said. He was also "untouchable"... until November. I won't rehash, or take back, what I've already written. I still think it's valid. However, he built something here that will not be replaced, and should be acknowledged. Many times I've attended sessions and meetings in the high tech auditorium and reading rooms in the Paterno Library. It is gorgeous. Many students are benefiting from the Paterno Fellowships, in Liberal Arts. My spidey sense tells me that there will be a cancer wing with the Paterno name on it at the medical center in the near future. (A wing is already under construction.) And most certainly the new Penn State Catholic Center and Chapel, also under construction with a large gift already from the Paternos, will be similarly titled. And this does not account for all their contributions to Special Olympics, THON, etc. There is no other athletic coach in history who has contributed this much for the greater good outside his/her sport. None.

So I fervently wish that the coach who, by all accounts went the "extra mile" for his players, staff, students and university, had also gone the extra mile back in 2002. Realistically, I understand why he probably didn't. One just wants to put something so heinous away from themselves as fast as possible. Do the appropriate thing and move on, fast - but it wasn't enough. The beleaguered board of trustees, did the right thing, in a ham fisted way. I can't blame them either, considering the circumstances of that week.

I have one memory of running into him, many years ago, after a football game. He was walking home from the locker rooms. DH and I just said "Hi, Coach", he said, "Howya' doin'?" No biggie, and I hadn't thought of it in years, until you start hearing the stories of the students who were thrilled when he barked at them "Get to class!", when they greeted him.

So the era ends. We knew it would. I wish the circumstances were different.

RIP

2012-01-23T11:37:00.000-05:00

End of an Era

View from the cheap seats....

2012-01-11T11:49:00.001-05:00

These are the things I think, I think:

I think you have to live in our insular world to have any concept of what has happened here, and continues. This is what I've finally sorted it down to. Hopefully, this will put it to rest for ME, for a little while anyway.

I think the alumni, university community, and neighbors who are still railing about the "unfairness" of the firing of Paterno (there is at least one new whine about this daily on the op-ed page), and to a lesser extent Graham Spanier: folks, think about this. If you were unable to do your job any longer, no matter why, would your employer keep you on? Maybe some do want to place "blame" at the feet of Paterno et.al., and certainly it is their right to do so, however, that, in my opinion, had nothing or little to do with the board's decision. Paterno and Spanier, were "players" in the NCAA and Big Ten communities. They sat on rules committees, boards and other groups that literally guided the ethical approach to college athletics and academic integrity. Even though, recently, he was a coach in name only, Paterno was still the moral/ethical leader of the football and athletics programs. This was a large part of both of their professional responsibilities. With the exposure of a possible crime that was committed under their watch, they lost the authority to represent a cogent ethical presence. Was it fair? Nope. But life is anything but fair. Ask the victims, particularly the victim who was "outed" by overzealous NYT reporting. (Nice work that.)To the cry babies who lament that he was "fired by phone". Please remember what the environment was like that Wednesday evening (and if you weren't here, take a gander) - the hordes of media outside the Paterno home, and the conference center where the board meeting was held. What would the pictures have looked like if a contingent of grim reapers marched up to the Paterno's home? Why would you want to do that to ANYONE? They attempted to keep a sad and bad business as private as possible. I'm tired of your whining. I'm sorry, but I am.

I also think Paterno built the culture that ultimately was his undoing. He had "control" issues. So do a lot of athletic coaches. In Paterno's case, it started out to be a good thing. Mandatory study groups for his players, EVERY NIGHT, mid-semester reporting for all athletes. (I once had a football player in one of my classes who missed a fair number of classes because he had an extraordinary number of relatives "die". In my mid-semester report to his adviser I mentioned that I hoped his family was coping with the tragedies (wink, wink). Not 24 hours after receiving my report, the adviser was on the phone to me asking me about my comment, we talked about the student's progress, how (and if) he could make up for lost time, and at the end of the conversation, the adviser said "His mother is going to KILL him!" I had to laugh. This was a good student who was getting lazy. He finished well. This is the only problem I've ever had with ANY athlete in more than ten years.) But in Paterno's case it progressed to other university aspects. He wanted to do EVERYTHING under the athletics umbrella. This athletics' omerta means that in general, unless you are here, and have some connections to athletics you didn't hear the "other stuff". I did, so I, and many others were not fooled by the press clippings. It was "normal" some good, some not so much. This is your wake-up call. Everything was not rosey all the time. The clue phone is ringing pick it up.

I think the cover of the current alumni magazine, we got it early last week, is brilliant. It is black, with shiny black letters that spell out the name "The Penn Stater" crumbled into a heap. But what is even more brilliant is an article by one of our sociology faculty, Eric Silver. Remarkably he was teaching sociology of deviance (BTW: this isn't exactly what you're thinking), and covering the topic of adult-child sexual contact when the story broke. In his essay, he focuses on the sociology of bureaucracy. It is lengthy, and I wish I could link to it, but here's one quote: "Everybody likes to think they would be the whistle blower. What I told my class was this: Statistically you're full of crap." The reason is that a whistle blower is deviant in his environment. This man is on to something. He also differentiates between moral and professional responsibility. Could we be seeing a decline in a moral imperative in our environments?

I think if I had to pick one of the administrators at whose feet to lay the bulk of this mess it would have to be the former business director. He oversaw the University police and met with the chief of police every two weeks. How hard would it have been to call the chief on the phone and explain what he learned and ask how to proceed. No one is blameless, but jeepers....he met with the chief, regularly. It was his job!

I can't imagine what to think if the state can't get a conviction. I think it is a realistic worry.

The students, themselves, are still struggling to make sense of this - to put it in some context. Most of them were in grade school, when Sandusky allegedly began his crimes. I think this is a worthy attempt to figure it out. Music and lyrics were written and performed by the two students.

I'm back ....

2012-01-06T14:53:00.000-05:00

...and wish I could say, "better than ever", but alas...it would be a lie.

Here's the short list of what I've been up to:

My mother and father-in-law are celebrating their 93rd and 91st birthday's respectively. Gotta love it. They're slowing down a bit in all aspects, but still living independently. Independently enough to make us wish that they'd consent to bring someone in a few hours a week to help. Not happening yet. This is the cowl I made for my mother-in-law for Christmas. (Still have Blizzard yarn in my stash.) Looks pinker that it really is. It is a pattern that I bought at my LYS. It was knit in a super bulky alpaca. I made it a bit longer so she could slide it over her head if she wished, or could button it up close. The buttons go through the cable crossings.

I'm thinking of making one for me in black alpaca for running. I think it will be very convenient with the buttons.

This is the ornament I created for my sister-in-law who shoulders the primary responsibility for the parents. Every year I bead her an ornament. I try to do something very different each year, but I cheated a little this year. The ornament you see is one of my personal favorites, and I added pearls as a twist. I was especially fond of the large pearl drops you see on the bottom. For Christmas 2012, I'm going to have to start much earlier.....like now. Taking care of elderly parents, is a pretty thankless job, frankly, so we try and do nice things for her whenever we get the opportunity. That included taking dinner with us when we visited, so she didn't have to come to the house for two nights (she did anyway, and we were happy to see her, but she didn't have to worry about someone checking on meds, food, etc.)

The rest of the break we spent finishing up chores (seriously), relaxing, eating and exercising. And just to show you what an exciting couple we are, we bought THREE, no kidding, THREE irons, before we found ONE that actually worked. (My hubby is an ironer, and he's really tough on irons. Well, between him and our calcium rich water, they don't last very long.) So this time we invested a little more (Rowenta) because I was becoming so frustrated with our current iron. (I really didn't like it overall. The hand controls were poor, it switched heat settings unexpectedly because of how it was designed, ugh.) So into the trash. But the first iron we bought didn't shut off as it was supposed to. We depend on the auto shutoff feature, so I returned it, and got another. Different store, different city, and what do you know - this one shut off while one ironed. What the heck?!!!! So New Year's Eve (see, I told you we were an exciting couple), I took it back once more. As luck would have it, it was the same clerk who had taken care of me the NIGHT before. This time I also bought, an additional (more expensive) model. Well, thank goodness third time's the charm and I got to return the more expensive iron. Now to train my husband to use spring water, instead of tap water. And what store was so patient with a seemingly crazy customer. Target. Never a problem returning to Target. (I do keep my receipts.)

And now I must ask for some advice. In a prior posting, I mentioned that I was making fuzzy feet for my husband. Well, I knocked them out pretty quick. I used Knitpicks, Wool of the Andes, and based on prior experience did not expect any felting difficulties. In fact, I was expecting it to felt like a sonofagun. Well, I would have been incorrect.

Here is a photo of the drying slippers. See anything unusual? Maybe not yet.

How about now? The black, foot portion is felted, and the yellow is completely not. And though you can not see it in the photo, the heel flap on the right one, is also not felted. This is all the same wool folks. Do not consider the white. That is a leftover, from another project and NOT Wool of the Andes. I had two choices. Try and force the yellow to felt, and then the foot would be too small, or just call it a day. Has anyone else experienced this?

I'm thinking that I'm going to stick to wools that have a touch of mohair for felting from now on. Like Lambs Pride. Any other suggestions would be most welcome. I'm putting the Fuzzy Feet in time out for now.

And don't even ask about the new coach. I don't have any idea or opinion. And I'm trying to decide if I even care.

Signing Off

2011-12-22T16:29:00.001-05:00

Signing off for 2011...Can hardly believe it!

If I were a slick blogger I'd have some fancy schmancy tree or ornament photo to put here--but I'm not so I don't.

Instead I'll leave you with this.

Watching it gives me the chills.....Another secret out...I'm a LOTR geek. Srsly. They are the only movies I've seen in theaters in a decade...(oops, is that another secret?)

December 2012

JUST. CAN'T. WAIT! (Listen to that dwarf song....!!)

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So everyone have a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year see yunz in 2012.

Thank you knitting elves.....

2011-12-20T12:11:00.003-05:00


Plain vanilla pattern, fancy cotton/wool yarn!!

By some miracle, the final toe was kitchenered yesterday morning, and they didn't have time to even be "blocked flat". Immediately into the box, wrapped, then on to the post office. I finished knitting the foot in the wee hours of Monday morning. No I didn't stay up to finish knitting, I was up for another reason, and found it convenient since I needed to finish knitting anyway.

Whew. I'm now making a(nother) pair of Fuzzy Feet for DH (by request, with more Steeler gold than last time), but I'm neither worried nor in a hurry. He gets 'em when he gets 'em. I know where he lives. I'm now working on Christmas cards. Again, not worried whether they get there before Christmas. Afterward will be just dandy with me.

Where's the wine?

P.S. And notice the other Christmas miracle in the photo.....the striping pattern matches exactly and I didn't even have to work at it. (And here's what I dufus I am. I didn't even look at the ball band and was shocked when I saw the fair isle striping appearing. I bought it because I like the way the colors looked in the ball. Duh.)

Some things I think, I think....

2011-12-13T15:50:00.002-05:00

And on it goes.....
I got a little bit of a snarky thrill, when I heard that Sandusky waived his prelim at the 11th hour. (I had been wondering about that myself, why bother?) However, to let the town of Bellefonte (Bell-font - see the last item) get their town knickers in a knot: bring in law enforcement - from the state police to off duty corrections officers; cover over the courtroom windows to discourage peepers; cordon off parking for the media; then allowing everyone to gather, only to walk away, can you say passive aggressive? Well, as far as the media goes, I was delighted to see them get their just desserts. The legal system will grind along with or without 'em, and I'd prefer without. From what I know of the man professionally, this is classic Amendola. He does everything "by the book", takes his time, and lets the prosecution run themselves ragged. I know of one case where the defendant wanted the issue resolved, but Amendola counselled patience, and the outcome was was better than expected.I also think this may have been a little payback for how they re-arrested Sandusky last week (appeared at his home with a warrent, perp walk etc.) Rather, in most rearrest cases, the attorney is notified by the police and they ask that the client surrender at a certain time. There may have been a bit of grandstanding..... It cost the town (pop: roughly 6,000), about $21,000 for the 5 minute circus. Can't wait for the trial. (NOT!)
Don't let the door hit you on the way out....
Finals week. Students are leaving. This town needs the rest.
The lawyer....
One of the questions that I keep hearing people ask, and that I see people write in comments, is the self-righteous comment "How can he sleep at night (meaning the lawyer)?" Let me say for the record that Joe Amendola is well liked in the community. He is active in civic affairs, he's an Elk, he participates in charitable causes (probably the Second Mile among others), he closed his office for four days when a neighbor experienced a tragic and unexpected death in his immediate family, so he could focus on helping. And here's the kicker, law enforcement LIKES him. I quote, "He's just doing his job. He's a "good guy", from a law enforcement acquaintance when the question was posed to him. What would the collective you rather? That we operate like Iran, and we just execute someone because he's creepy, or is accused of doing creepy things? I'm sure that's fine until it's you or someone you love. For the record defense attorneys do (should) not lie. They need to go into a courtroom to tell the judge and jury that you are not guilty, and will avoid your confession at all costs. Any evidence the defendant offers must be shared with the prosecution. So it's a no win, unless a plea deal is the outcome. That's how he sleeps at night.
Knitting Elves!!
I'm officially issuing a plea for an appearance of the knitting elves, along with the shopping elves, and decorating elves. Holy cow. I'm so far behind, I don't know what to think. Would it be so bad to send my mom one sock with an IOU?

Why polls are meaningless....

2011-11-30T16:30:00.001-05:00

..... in the past month, my home answering machine has participated in two political polls.

The first was just before the general election in November. I arrived within earshot to hear the "disembodied voice" ask, "what party will you vote for, primarily, in the election on Tuesday. Press 1 for ....". I fully expected to hear the "voice" say "we did not understand your selection, but instead, I heard the voice say. "Thank you for participating." Huh? I said to my husband, apparently our answering machine will be voting on Tuesday, however, I'm not sure for who."

Then there was yesterday. I heard the phone as I walked in the door. I didn't rush to answer, but instead stood at the bottom of the stairs to hear if it was a call I needed to attend to . Rather I hear the disembodied voice again, announcing a survey. Thinking that it would sense that there was a answering machine on our end and would terminate the call, I went about my business. A few minutes later I arrive at the desk where the machine is STILL recording the voice as it asks: "Who will you be voting for in 2012. Press 1 for Barak Obama, Press 2 for.." As I listened, the survey was apparently getting some kind of feedback it was interpreting as responses. When it got to "what party will you most tend to vote for". Press 1 for.... I intercepted the call and hung up. Who the heck knows what or how the signals the survey was getting were being interpreted. Bizarre.

So there you have it. Surveys are crap. Especially if it is administered by a computer, instead of a human.

And I'm still wondering who the answering machine voted for for school board.......

Send out the clowns...

2011-11-21T15:38:00.001-05:00

We're down to two...as of this morning's count. NBC and CNN still have trucks set up on College Avenue, and tents set up on Old Main lawn. I'm hoping they'll waste away from boredom. We're on fall break.

I think this article pretty much covers the craziness. If you look at the photos, you'll see what I tried to describe in my last post.

Please go home now.....

We're now getting used to the new normal. I can tell you that there are about 40,000 year round residents, and 39, 990 of us hadn't a clue as to what was happening. It is completely disconcerting when I think of it. We're now in a wait and see mode, and I think this mode is going to last a very, very long time. The one thing we are sure of, is that the abuse, at least from this alleged abuser, has stopped.

In the meantime, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you have much to be thankful for. We do. When we get back, I WILL have knitting....no kidding. I've not been knitting as much, because I've had an ongoing headache (what a shock!), and I'm way behind on Christmas knitting. There may be some Christmas knitting that won't get done....and so be it.

Now back to our regularly scheduled...

2011-11-14T12:19:00.001-05:00

...ummm...not so much.

Welcome to the "new" normal. It isn't pretty and it makes me throw up in my mouth a little.

I've been mighty snarky about the media circus that has ensued. But Friday, took me to another, very bad place.

DH and I attended a campus theater performance. (Life does indeed go on here, and there are other students.) Afterward, one of the local taverns was advertising jazz as their entertainment. Well, because this is such an unusual occurrence, we wanted to patronize said tavern. We also thought we'd get a bit of a break from the non-stop barrage of bad news.

B.I.G. mistake. As is true on most college campuses/towns, we left our car in our legal space and walked from the theater (walking is generally the travel mode of choice on a campus like this). As we approached the administration building we came across students who were leaving the candlelight vigil. As we continued to the downtown area, things changed rapidly. First, the main drag was as bright as daylight from the television floodlights. As we approached I could see a few satellite truck dishes above the screening hedge. But when we stepped into the street there were approaching 20 of these trucks and their attendant ghouls in a line up and down the street, clearly waiting for "something" to happen. It was just jaw dropping. In the mere block we walked we saw, literally, 6 state, local and PSU police vehicles on a slow cruise. Sometimes one behind another - with multiple officers on board. I can't even find a way to describe the scene adequately. It was horrific. We beat a path back to the dark center of campus as soon as we could. I was, and continue to be, stunned. The good news is that NOTHING happened.

The fallout hasn't stopped yet, but with any kind of luck, it will slow down enough to eventually allow the business of justice to move forward.

To the whiners and know-it-alls:

Joe Paterno was dealt with the way he was because by his "retirement" announcement, he was trying to do what he's always done. Whatever he wants. Sorry, that's the fact. For years many bemoaned the fact that there was no succession plan in place. He refused to think about how to handle this team he loves so well, and the multimillion dollar business it had become, when it was time to move on. The words selfish and Paterno were being linked more and more often. The message the board sent was that you are not the most important person right now. I believe they saw the standing ovations he would surely get at his last "official" games as antithetical to the "right thing to do". It is really that simple. And let's talk about coaching....can someone tell me how one coaches from a box, with no communication equipment and a cuppa coffee in hand? Shadow puppets? Telepathy? No one knows better than I that he and his family are consummate philanthropists. They have contributed to this community in ways that transcend just money. But it doesn't change the fact that EVERYONE HAS A BOSS and the board finally put on their pants and made that clear.

Lastly, this is not about football. This is about a group of powerful people throughout the community who somehow thought that they could control an alleged predator. They mistakenly thought that hiding information was going to protect the community at large, and their various organizations. I have no idea how anyone could possibly come to this conclusion. I also believe that holding this information in secret, put the rest of us as guardians out of loop.

There are two satellite trucks still here today: NBC and someone generic. However, with interim President Erickson sending an email to the campus community about every 15 seconds. I don't think they'll be getting much. So, move along folks nothing more to see. We're going to have to figure this out for ourselves. All that's left is a sad, stunned community.

Lord help me there's more....

2011-11-09T11:02:00.000-05:00

..... We are currently embroiled in a circus, inside a carnival, within a rodeo. I am beginning to scream at the radio because EVERYONE has[is] an assh.... uh, opinion, and apparently no one has taken the time to think this through. (Also my regular coffee shop was completely filled. No seats! How rude! And the streets are FILLED with satellite trucks.)

Here are a few more "facts".

Fact: The graduate student is not named in the indictment as a witness. GET THAT? NOT NAMED ( go ahead, read it, I dare you). It is a pretty easy inference, especially here, but still. Because someone speculates on a blog is not an adequate reason to crucify someone. IMHO.

Fact: Another eyewitness, named in the indictment, to a second, later, equally horrific event, at the same facility, was reduced to blubbering when he met with his shift supervisors. Does this not tell you what this does to a normal psyche? Also included in the report, is the little line that the perpetrator and victim saw both witnesses at the times of the incidents. For those that are hollering "why didn't [witness] stop the assault"...well, maybe it's because it did stop when they were seen. This information may possibly be in reports that will be used for prosecution. Didn't think of that did'ja?

Fact: For all of this, the victim of the first witnessed incident has yet to be identified. I have very good information (you can't imagine how small this town really is), that indicates two full time state authorized investigators have worked full time for six months to identify this individual, with NO success. While not deadly to a conviction, this can be used to cast doubt in a defense strategy. While on the search, they participated in gathering all the other witnesses that the GJ heard. (And yesterday, Victim Nine was forwarded to them.)

Fact: Has it not occurred to anyone that being quiet is the best strategy for the prosecution? If ONE of these allegations is true, this man is a monster, and I do not want to risk him getting off. That being said, another fact, is that he is being represented by a pretty sharp lawyer. He's local, but he's one smart cookie. I suspect he is waiting for information he can use to "pop up" in the press. I hope everyone who may be part of the prosecution just shuts up! NOW!

Fact: Everyone is making a big deal about Paterno's cancelled press conference. Here's the unvarnished story. Paterno has become the Andy Rooney (RIP) of the sports world. The filters between his brain and mouth have deteriorated. He regularly intimidates the local sports media, backing them down, they're afraid for their jobs and need PSU access, but the national media is another matter. Of course, he doesn't see it that way... We were settling in for a Woody Hayes moment, where he'd say something completely off the wall and he'd have to be locked in a closet for the remainder of the season. Also, there is the possibility I alluded to above that he might have compromised the investigation and prosecution. I can't imagine that this situation is REALLY a complete shock to him. Call me a cynic. Then there is the turmoil within the administration, while I have no sympathy for anything that's going on there, let's not make it worse. No matter what happens they're all pretty much done. Call the realtors now is my advice. So we have someone who is deluded at best, mean at worst wanting to answer questions--from a bunch of sharks..... Does this not sound like a train wreck to anyone?

Fact: ESPN is reporting that Paterno has announced his retirement. Too bad he procrastinated so long he's riding out on a wave of crap, rather than glory. Leaves his team and staff in a bad situation. Another post for another day. Won't be any retirement celebrations any time soon, I suspect.

ETA: As I walked back through campus, from honest to goodness university business...the worker bees are still toiling, every person I passed had a cell phone glued to his/her ear and what I inferred from the one sided conversations is that the board of trustees has asked the president to step down or be fired by the end of the day. Nothing official has been released. No surprise there. The PR faculty are thinking that this is the worst PR performance since BP, which recently overtook the Exxon Valdez as the way not to address a crisis. Nice, huh?

Let's get a few things straight....

2011-11-08T14:52:00.000-05:00

We are not a "state university", despite the name, due to an anomaly in funding. Our state schools are a set of loosely affiliated small universities-fourteen to be exact. So "the state" can't fire anyone. Officially, we are a state-related public university. So much for media fact checking.

There are literally, thousands of faculty, staff and students who are stunned by the depth and breadth of the indictment against the former coach. We toil, heroically for the most part, so those that attend get the best education possible. From the folks that wipe the desks down each day to the course designers, web developers, and subject matter experts, our focus is to enhance learning. We understand where we are in the "food chain" and just have to trust that those in responsible positions, will make reasonable decisions. And there's the breakdown.

It doesn't always happen. Particularly when it comes to a certain 80-something football coach. A friend from athletics and I used to joke that "everyone has a boss"...."except Joe Paterno". It's too bad it was true.

That being said.
Fact. The 1998 incident you are hearing about (and if you have the stomach for it I suggest you read the indictment--it does take a strong stomach though) was not pursued because, apparently, the DA decided he didn't have a case. Why? We'll never know because he disappeared in 2005. Yes, you read that right. Disappeared. Drove his car about 30 miles east, parked and "poof". He was declared dead this past spring. The only assumption that can be made is that there was not enough evidence to file charges. (He was a pretty cautious DA overall.)

Fact. In 2006, the next DA took, what is now a series of incidents, and decided it needed a bigger office with more investigators, and citing "conflict of interest" kicked it to the state AG (who is now our governor), and the investigation began in earnest. The grand jury was convened in 2009, and that brings us to today.

Fact. The university officials who were arraigned yesterday, were charged with perjury, nothing more. Unfortunately, there is no legal basis for shirking your ethical or moral duty to humanity (mores the pity).

Fact. We have people here pointing their collective shaking fingers at a certain graduate assistant who actually had the temerity to tell his boss what he saw. If you read the indictment and [his testimony] description of what he saw, you begin to understand how horrifying that experience probably was. He will not have me second guessing him. And here's the rub. I also suspect that when he went to a certain 70 year old, and used words like "inappropriate" rather than rape. My 70 year old mother wouldn't have gotten it either. Let me also say that graduate students are in horrible positions just generally. They can be kicked out of their respective programs for seeing the wrong movie, or changing a syllabus. They walk on egg shells. In this light it was particularly gutsy. Maybe not far enough, but hell, he did what ordinarily would be the "right" thing. (If you want to argue this point, fine. However, I see what goes on here with GAs, and it isn't pretty.) Also please keep in mind that in the past three years he gave testimony to a grand jury investigation.

Fact. Even though this former coach was banned from campus, particularly with kids in tow, few knew it. If I had seen him last week on campus with a kid, I wouldn't have thought twice about it.

Fact. We are all being painted as worshiping at the "shrine" of Paterno. Not so much. Rumors are now swirling around campus that there will be an "announcement" at Saturday's game. My current earworm is the "Hallaujah Chorus".

(Speculation: The administrators will be found not guilty, or have their charges dropped. And plausible deniability exists for the president and Paterno.)

Hit and run ...

2011-11-01T11:19:00.000-04:00

Hi!

Here is where we were a week ago Saturday:


Fort Ligonier

Please notice the blue skies and sunny weather.

This was this past Saturday:

Yeah, snow. Heavy wet, snow. It wasn't the earliest that we've gotten snow like this, but jeepers. It just wasn't fair. I was so glad we sold our tickets to the football game.

There's lots more about Fort Ligonier that I will save for a future post. The hair on the back of my neck stood straight up at the sight of original George Washington journal entries. And his saddle pistols.....!! I had no idea I was a history geek, but there you have it.

While I had the time I finally finished the languishing Leyburn Socks.

Please ignore the fancy pj bottoms....it's still cold here.

Zitron Trekking Pro-Natura
Lovely yarn. Has bamboo in it.
Pattern needed reworking (details here), and I had to fuss with the slip stitch pattern too much to make it worth my while to knit again. Another reason why they languished. They are very pretty though.

In addition to the socks, I also finished ANOTHER father-in-law knit cap (his favorite) this time in blue multi, and a neck warmer for my mother-in-law. Photos soon.

A little of this, a little of that..

2011-09-26T16:15:00.002-04:00

It occurs to me that I've been talking to myself lately. About what one may inquire? Well, about my astonishment that people I gave credit to for being tolerant, aren't. And not just intolerant, ignorant. It is upsetting and depressing.

I've said many times that I'm a true centrist. Because it is so important for folks to have labels, let me be clear about this. I evaluate issues independently. I base my judgements on my own thought processes and experience. If I can't figure something out, I wait until I can. Though it is occasionally difficult, I try and not judge others on their opinions alone.

Right now, I'd describe myself as a fiscal conservative, maybe even a Regan conservative fiscally, though I never voted for him, and a supporter of capitalism as the most resilient of the economic approaches. I've finally figured out that I lean toward social libertarianism, very different than being socially liberal mind you, except in two aspects, drugs and smoking. (I didn't say I was perfect, did I?) So that's the broad side. I can pick my way through discrete topics and can find myself on one side or another with perfect comfort and can accept that others will disagree without losing sleep over it.

What has me losing sleep is this: two people whom I know to be "good people" have begun to take to name calling. One is calling all Christians idiots because they disagree with him. I'm a Christian, I have a libertarian point of view when it comes to his pet cause, and it is opposed to his. As a libertarian, I feel that the citizens of his state have a right to self-govern. Some day they may change their minds, and in fact, probably will. But until then....suck it up. I am appalled that he finds it OK to publicly denigrate 85% of the country because he's having a snit.

The other attaches herself to every liberal nut that comes along. I already know this about her and like her anyway. She has contributed to the likes of Howard Dean, John Edwards, and is now posting the Elizabeth Warren rant on her FB page. The fact that the rant simply solidifies the notion that tenured faculty are not all they're cracked up to be (and some are, in fact, cracked), doesn't phase her. For a brief moment I toyed with the idea of shooting this nuttiness down publicly, but good manners held me back. Then I thought about maybe just sending an email privately, but I let the notion pass. It is too late. I understand how easy it is for someone surrounded by like thinking individuals to just grasp this stuff. Opinions are fine, but how about backing it up.

These two people live in the same state, and I'm beginning to think, instead of floride, they are putting intolerance in the water.By contrast, I live in a world where I must evaluate and support most everything I think. As one might expect I am rather an outlier. I must find the path that allows me to be true to myself, yet support others to be true to themselves too. Tolerance is everything. But apparently I'm an outlier in that respect too. Seems to be what I'm talking to myself most about.

As an antidote, my blankie....still in progress.......knitting the "connectors" between squares now.

The synopsis, and a burning question.

2011-09-14T17:05:00.000-04:00

Flooding, the quick synopsis:

Mother and extended family are fine. The levees held even in spots that were of concern. Turns out this was the ultimate test, and now they can "fix" the spots that were causing trouble. The crest ultimately was ABOVE the crest in 1972, as well as the "public" figure for the current levee system (41') at 42.66'. Apparently, the Army Corps of Engineers gave them a little "wiggle room" to 43' and that turned out to be the thing that saved the two towns (Wilkes Barre and Kingston).

I just spoke to my mom today, and things still aren't good however. River Street, one street below Main, where she lives, was inundated (outside the levee system) and remains closed. Thus all the traffic destined for Rt 81 is rerouted to Main Street . It makes it nearly impossible to get out of the driveway (if you're an 81 year old nervous driver). The water system is intact, and she didn't lose power. There are still three bridges closed, pending inspections. Market Street was opened this morning . Two in Pittston, and one that adjoins the county courthouse in Wilkes Barre remain closed.

Now the next new fight is going to start. When they reconstructed this levee system in the 10 years following Agnes, there were arguments about the height, and also about what would happen in the towns up and down river when the water was held out of Kingston and Wilkes Barre. Now we know. Folks that had water in their basements in 1972 had four or more feet on their first floors. Both up river, Pittston and West Pittston, and down, Bloomsburg, Shickshinny etc. Have no idea how they'll deal with this. I really feel for these folks.

But even so, the devastation is nothing like I remember from 39 (!) years ago. More dispersed, though.

So now, in the space of three weeks we've had a hurricane, earthquake and flooding. We're ready! Bring on the locusts. ( Re: the earthquake. The most interesting thing I noticed was that I became motion sick as the floor shook and the window glass waved. That was disconcerting.)

Finally...somebody please explain to me what are "they" thinking?????!!!!!!!

Attack Watch(!!!)

Please note the Twitter hash tag......#attackwatch!

Again?

2011-09-08T11:53:00.000-04:00

Have another post in draft, but must suspend operation until this is resolved

‘POTENTIALLY CATASTROPHIC’ FLOODING

My mom is above the flood plain, but I'm having Hurricane Agnes flashbacks (I was 15), and we're hoping the levees hold and the bridge barriers are enough. I don't know what we're going to do if the crest is higher than the levees (41 feet) and she is without electricity and water for any length of time. I've got 100 miles of low lying roads along the Susquehanna to traverse to get there.

Not So Short and Definitely Not Sweet...

2011-08-19T10:42:00.003-04:00

...I had a post nearly ready about 10 days ago. I can't believe how long it has been since I connected with the innernuts. But I deleted it. So I'm just going to summarize. The clue phone is ringing Mr. O. and surprise, IT'S FOR YOU! Keynesian economics is a theory, and apparently, a lousy one. So far, there is not ONE example where it has panned out in the long term....ask the USSR, how about France, maybe Greece, I could go on. I'd have lots more respect if the idiots who are advising this administration, most of whom are faculty with tenure, said, oopsy, not working, let's move on. Sigh.

So a few short hits:

Tomorrow my age and the speed limit ( the lower one) will match. That's not so bad, except for the above dilemma. Age to retirement is decreasing rapidly. (And I once had a fantasy of retiring at 59.....fantasy is right.)

About 10 weeks ago I started to run (C25K) and can now ALMOST make it 20 minutes without stopping. For those counting that is week 5 in a nine week program. I just keep rerunning the same weeks until I can do it without falling down dead afterward. That is a real accomplishment for me. And better yet, the owner of Rapid Transit Sports here in town fitted me with running shoes that have mostly mitigated my heel pain. I must stop in and tell him so. (He also told me I shouldn't be running, but walking, but let's split the difference and call it trotting.)

I was compelled to do something drastic (for me) because I know my age, genetics, and physical condition, are going to catch up with me SOON. I don't have much disease in my family, but I figure err to the side of best advantage. And if you think I'm shedding weight like feathers....think again. I've not lost a pound (bad). But I sleep better (good).

Santiago Rodriguez, a phenom, which is not nearly descriptive enough, gives me chills every time I hear him play (piano). He looks a little like Count Dracula, but plays like .... sheesh, I don't even have a good description. He specializes in Grieg, and Rachmaninov so he's no shrinking violet. If you are a classical music fan at all, listen to one of his performances. You will NOT be sorry.

The only thing I feel like knitting is the loony Parcheesi blanket. I don't know why. I need to move on soon, as I have no Christmas knitting in the pipeline. But it was so easy to carry around with me. I have no current photos, but I'll try to get some over the weekend.

I will not be going anywhere on my birthday. I'm not dumb. It is Arrival Weekend here in HV and we will be lousy with students, parents, and tourists by noon today (Friday). I'm thinking that driving to a state park and hiking to the top of the mountain, might be a good option.

I am conflicted over Marcellus Shale drilling. But that's another post.

I leave you with a "rain approaching" photo of Pine Creek:

Two Mysteries.

2011-06-14T16:58:00.010-04:00

Mystery One:

The photo of the finished Summer Mystery Shawlette (Rav Link)

I used my first shipment from Foxfire Sheep Shares.

This is Flock Sock in Marigold. I used a touch more than a skein and a half. It is about 48 x 29 and I probably could have blocked it more aggressively.

This was lots of fun to knit and I needed (read: was compelled to) to download the second clue while I was in Atlanta because I wanted to knit it on the plane. It was a fun and easy knit. And I'm not usually a KAL kinda gal. (I may even make another!)

I ordered two skeins of this in natural to make another Cable Crossings hat. I'm so glad I did. I really loved working with this yarn.

Mystery Two:

Why would you keep this as the name of your law firm?

Click to enlarge.

I've even seen this firm advertised on bus benches.

Seriously!!

(ETA: I thought the dumpster added to the ambiance.)

What were they thinking?

2011-06-07T16:54:00.008-04:00

And what didn't you understand about sending digital photos into the "wilds" of the internet?
And what made you think that someone who used inflammatory rhetoric as part of his schtick wouldn't be a target even for the most benign images?
And are you just a garden variety idiot? Never mind don't answer that ...rhetorical question.

Clearly, some twits shouldn't tweet.

Holy crow!!

With your multi-millions, you had to use campaign funds to hide your chicka?
How did the fact that this is a crime, escape your steel-trap legal mind?
I particularly like the addition of getting your staffer to lie for you.

I have no words.....Yes, I do. One. Slimy.....

And then there's my mom who's equating Christie flying to his son's ballgame with misappropriating campaign funds...ummm, one is stupid, but not a crime. The other is a criminal offense...... Yea, they're equivalent all right.

So I lied,,,

2011-06-02T13:53:00.016-04:00

Pictures today.

First things first, trip to Atlanta went well. Between forty and fifty folks attended my session (and there were nine other sessions at the same time) and NO ONE left, even though it was right before lunch.....Also, I didn't get tarred and feathered, which I half expected. In addition, I was given, what I considered a prime slot, the second time session the first morning (Saturday).

When I arrived on Friday evening, it was around....oh...90 degrees and there was a big bright thing in the sky. Looked vaguely familiar, but it had been so long since we'd seen anything like that in the sky in Central PA, I couldn't be sure. As if Atlanta knew I was coming, the aquarium, which usually closes at 5:00 pm (on a Friday! How dumb is that?) was open until 10:00 pm and had jazz in their atrium! It was about 6 blocks or so from the hotel, I was a assured it was a "safe" walk for a lone woman, so I went.

I guess I could have taken a pumpkin coach, but my name is Cindy not Cinderella.

The music was excellent, and I made many new friends:

Meet Ms. Grouper. Holy hell she was enormous!!
I wish this lousy cell phone photo could convey the size of this creature.

They have a window viewing tank, like many aquariums, but I've never seen fish get this close, and be so large. I tried to get a photo of the whale shark (about 60 feet long) and a graceful ray (they had a whole school of them) but I just wasn't lucky.

This "ocean" has a tunnel built right in. This is what I dubbed the "tunnel o'fish". The gentleman you see to the left is an aquarium volunteer, that has all the statistics, facts, and trivia about the animals at his fingertips.....He even knows the NAMES of the larger fish, like Fred and Stacy, (and can identify, male and female). Maybe he needs a life, but I'm glad he was nearby.

This is a freshwater rock eel. I don't know anything about him except that he has a face only a mother can love. Looks like he's having a bad day too.

On Sunday, after the conference wrap up, I found ONE yarn store that was open on Sunday afternoon, and with the help of Andre the concierge, got on a bus, and rode about 5 miles to the Needle Nook. The bus driver was very helpful in giving me a head's up when we were coming to the correct area, and lo and behold there it was in a little shopping center. Needle Nook has wonderful yarns (Malabrigo, Bamboo, Noro, all the Cascades, too many for me to remember), a wide variety of bags, needles, books, notions, jewelry and what not. And you wouldn't know it from the outside. From the outside, it looks like a garden variety shopping center craft store. Another unusual attribute is that the person running the store that day was a middle age gentleman (the owner is Arlene who I corresponded with briefly), and there was another middle age gentleman already there knitting a fair isle (or entrelac, I couldn't tell) chula hat. A lovely chula hat with llamas or alpacas dancing around it. I spent a fine hour deciding what I could fit in my carry on, which was my only concern (I brought a space bag with me - be prepared, and I'm not even a girl scout). The one disconcerting moment came when I was trying to decide on a color of Malabrigo Silky Merino for the Drifting Pleats scarf I've always wanted to knit, and two women joined me at the yarn rack. They smelled...no stank...of cigarette smoke. It was totally off putting and gag inducing. And I've never been known for a weak stomach. In desperation I wandered away but they were there for more than 10 minutes, chatting about the relative merits of lace weight......not Silky Merino (DK). I'm sorry if I'm insulting smokers, but criminy...you should know that you can't keep smoking a secret.

After the smokers left, and I made my decisions and retreated to Starbucks(!) which was a short hop across the parking lot, had a cold frapp (it was 90 degrees again), and knit for about an hour uninterrupted. Is there a better configuration - a yarn store AND a Starbucks? Except for the 90 degrees (which really felt like 90, unlike Denver, Atlanta has no shortage of humidity. Ask my hair!) It was then I caught a bus back from whence I came, meeting another nice bus driver, and getting to the hotel in time to have dinner with excellent sangria.

So here's my haul:

The red, which isn't this red, is Silky Merino for Drifting Pleats, and a light green Sublime Extra Fine Merino for the Victoriana Scarflett e (please don't ask why that pattern appeals to me, no idea). And, yes, that is a Laurel Burch bag in the background - a little one. And yes, it fit in my carry on.

I'm kinda glad I had a limit. I could have done some REAL damage.

Soon, some process photos.....sorry nothing finished. I can only wish.

Still here.....

2011-05-18T17:06:00.003-04:00

.... barely. I've had the month from hell. With the end of the semester, my workload exploded. Usually this is the time of year, when we slow down; town gets semi-quiet, we stop and catch our respective breaths. Instead:

There were grant proposals to review, I am PRESENTING at a conference in Atlanta this weekend. My title "What does your syllabus say about you?", a workshop I can do in my sleep, however, I've had to crank it up to the next level. So now I'm worried. Probably don't need to be but .... I'm working on a "course" with two other folks and I'm disappointed in the progress. I was tasked with the last session on Tuesday, the day after I get back from Atlanta. So EVERYTHING has to be ready by TOMORROW. Sigh. It's been a forever and a day long month. I may collapse on Wednesday.

Still knitting...one. more. Leyburn. sock. My left sock is languishing. Parcheesi blanket seems to be my favorite knit when I can't sleep, can't read, and am exhausted. I've started Wendy's KAL Mystery Summer Shawlette with my Sheep Shares Cormo Flock Sock in Marigold. I really love it. I'm thinking I'll take the sock and the KAL with me to Atlanta. I'm hoping to go on a yarn crawl on Sunday. Pictures maybe tomorrow.......

Some things I think, I think ....

2011-05-04T13:18:00.002-04:00

So, Sunday evening I'm waiting for DH to meander downstairs so we can watch the last installment of Upstairs, Downstairs (as an aside I'm not sure what the fuss is all about...it's OK, but maybe I'm not "highbrow enough), I'm flipping through the channels, and settle on my buddy Geraldo on Fox News. (I have a soft spot for Geraldo, has to do with my late dad, and it started in the 70's.) It's his usual show, but he's waiting for the president to make an announcement...This is about 10:27 pm..

G: We're waiting for a statement from the White House and we're speculating that it has to do with the fact that Quaddafi's house was bombed by NATO today, and he may be dead or injured.

More time killing chatter interrupted by Geraldo clearly listening to something on his earpiece.

G: My producer was just saying that wouldn't it be interesting if this has something to do with Bin Laden...... at this Geraldo brightens VISIBLY and begins to wax poetic about how great that would be. (He was one of the first press people into Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11. And possibly one of the first to be tossed out on his ear....but I digress.)

10:35 pm (5 minutes past press conference time)
G: Another pause where he is clearly listening to his producer even saying..."Can you repeat that?" Then We've just been told, UBL has been killed by US forces in a house in Pakistan. UBL is dead! Can we confirm it? Yes? Now it is confirmed.

I took this time to flip around the channels and NONE of the other channels (I admit, I forgot to check CNN!) were broadcasting this. By sheer dumb luck Geraldo scooped the competition. Funny how that happens. Then we watched the last of Up/Dn.

So why is this important? I'm fine with the op as it unfolded, I'm delighted we won't have to talk about it anymore (soon I hope), I love the ignominy of a sea burial (whoever suggested that should get a raise), kudos to all the covert ops, the presidents, CIAers etc. Do I worry that it will incite more violence? Nope! Why? Because there is nothing we could do, or not, that won't. The jihadists, do not need an excuse. And if they want to they'll find one. Instead of sleeping with the fishes and Big Pussy, they think UBL is communing with a retinue of virgins (with horns, hooves, and big man parts, I hope), and hope they will eventually do the same.

I was, however, a little put off, or more correctly mystified, by the "celebrations" in the streets. Something doesn't sit well with me. Though the context is completely different, it reminded me a little of the dancing in the Gaza streets, when 9/11 happened. There was no celebration when McVeigh was executed, or Ted Bundy, both monsters in their own right. I'm working on this.

Never did find out what happened with Moammar......

Hey...Maybe I should write a posting???

2011-04-26T18:10:00.001-04:00

Ya, think?

Lately I've found myself wondering why most of my online "friends" have absconded to Facebook and Twitter. I run through all my blog links (I've never done the RSS thing. Don't know why.) and am bereft when no one is posting. Well, yeah, I kinda get it. You only need two minutes to post a poorly spelled 140 character posting. And if you're a perfectionist (NOT!) then writing a blog posting can be an arduous task. Yeah, I get it. But I live in an academic world, and I've drunk enough of the kool aid to be wordy--to like whole thought through ideas. I even like to read things I may not agree with. S'Ok with me. Then I had a revelation...ummm maybe I should write something. Since I've not posted since...gulp...3/31!

Yeah, it's been a busy spring. And I've got a MAJOR ongoing project that will take me through the summer into September. My hairdresser/colorist is going to have her work cut out for her. Srsly!

Then there are the little "things". Gas prices [today] verging on $4/gal. The University declining to give cost of living increases for the second time in 3 years. You can't blame them really. The governor, who I can't blame either, is trying to balance the balance the state budget and has proposed cutting appropriation to state related institutions by 50%. That's a lot! So even though, as an institution, we are running pretty lean, some offices are still at risk for being collapsed. We won't know for about a month. Then that is only for the next fiscal year. Sigh. Hard to plan around that. And with gas prices, we are curtailing our personal travel, even though we have [elderly] family at either end of the state. The only bright spot is that everything here is less than 10 miles away from anywhere else, and we can get away with one vehicle and travel 10 miles or less on a "normal" day. Even with necessary "errands" we don't have to drive very much. How different it would be if I were living in the burbs and working at Pitt! So thank goodness for small mercies.

I'm still knitting away, though. Not really exciting stuff. I finally finished ONE of my Leyburn Socks, after many tweaks. Now I have to try and understand my notes and make the other one similar.

Here's the Bead Knitted Bracelet. I taught this class recently at my LYS and it was so popular that they turned people away....so wash, rinse, repeat. I'll be teaching the knitted bracelet class in June, and a crocheted bangle in July...... They're fun because when the participants walk out...they have a piece of jewelry. No washing, no blocking, no weaving in ends...how great is that? The crocheted bangle will be tougher to teach. It is a tricky technique, especially getting started. After about row three, though, it gets easier. I have a few tricks that I can share so we'll see how it goes.

I'm scheduled to give a presentation at a national conference in Atlanta next month, and even though I can do a variation of my presentation in my sleep, I'm beginning to panic. I'm in faculty development/programming (i.e., a performance artist) so this SHOULD be a slide on ice. Which we'll probably have tomorrow, since it's 75 and thunderstorming at the moment.

Anyway, anyone know of any good yarn stores near downtown Atlanta?

Finito!

2011-03-30T15:33:00.003-04:00

A Little Jazz

Fiesta Baby Boom in Spring Chill
< 1 skein (by choice)

#5 harmony circs.

LOVE. IT.

My ruffle is not as ruffley as it might be, but, oh well. Too bad.

I ...

2011-03-28T16:59:00.003-04:00

garter stitch....

I've never been a garter stitch fan, but all of a sudden....

I'm lousy with garter stitch. On the left is the Little Jazz from Spring 2010 Loopy Ewe "sock club".

And on the right is the beginning of a Parcheesi blanket.

Ummmm love me some garter stitch. A gs snob no longer.

I hesitated to post this but...

2011-03-10T14:08:00.002-05:00

...that ear worm just keeps on keepin' on. Could NPR alone be responsible for an uptick in unemployment this month, surely this woman should be replaced for dereliction of duty.

Reckless-disregard-for-the-truth-my-incredible-interchange-with-the-npr-ombudsman/

Why do I keep hearing.....

2011-03-09T10:46:00.003-05:00

.... Queen's Another One Bites the Dust?

This Monday is brought to you by the number....

2011-03-07T15:04:00.003-05:00

....TWO...

Two: the number of hours I spent trying to wind (with a swift and ball winder no less) 400 yards of Fiesta, Baby Boom (fingering weight, merino) into a usable ball. The skein was twisted on the swift, and the end kept working itself out to wrap around the swift post. The resulting yarn cake was kinda messy, so I attempted to "rewind" from the center pull yarn cake. Sweet sassy molassy, it pulled out in yarn barf with no redemption and took me two hours to untangle, and I had to [finally] snip it.

Two: The number of knots I will have in what started out as an unblemished skein of yarn. (Because I was so po'd I simply BROKE it in once place out of frustration.)

Two: The number of yarn cakes I have.

Two: The number of inches too short my Fuzzy Feet felted. Knit Picks Wool of the Andes is a very enthusiastic "felter". (Must purchase MORE black wool.....)

Two: The number of new projects I started, after I finished the Fuzzy Feet. A Little Jazz (with my poor knotty Baby Boom) and the Parcheesi Blanket, with all my worsted odds and ends. I may be crazy. I am still working on my Damask Kauni cardigan and Leyburn sock s, which seem to be kicking my butt! The sock was too narrow in the foot, so I made it wider. When I got to the ankle and calf, it was so wide, I couldn't keep it up.....so I pulled it out and adjusted the stitch count. I also keep fussing with the pattern counting. Fer cripes sake...it's a sock!

Two: o'clock. About the time the drenching rain turned into driving snow yesterday.

Two: The number of inches of snow we were expecting....eight (8) less than we actually got (the article says totals were measured at 9:30 am, should have read pm, it was still raining in the am).

Two: The number of hours the university was delayed in opening this morning. And the number of extra hours of sleep we got. (Yeah!)

We're so proud....NOT!

2011-02-28T14:18:00.004-05:00

....that in response to Kaye's comment to my previous posting.

The aftermath.

These two excerpts from the article are really telling:

As with previous years’ festivities, many of those getting in trouble are not Penn State students. Fishel reported misdemeanors involving students from the University of Pittsburgh, St. Joseph’s University, Slippery Rock University, Virginia Tech and the University of West Virginia.

And to this horse's ass I ask...do your parents know where you are?

One young man traveled 14 hours from Alabama to celebrate his first State Patty’s Day. After climbing atop a mound of snow in front of Five Guys Burgers and Fries and posing for pictures with a keg of beer, he expressed his excitement for the alcohol-fueled celebration.
“It’s a wonderful experience,” he said. “My best friend is a junior here, and he’s been trying to get me up here forever. He was recruiting a bunch of us for months. I don’t know any other place that has this much fun.”
When asked if he was drunk, he answered, “If you’re asking me if I’m having fun, my answer is yes.”

This is all about drinking....NOTHING else. And the fact that Penn State students aren't being "cited" is nothing to be delighted about. It just means that they've honed their skills during football season. The fact that some are "recruiting friends" is just downright idiotic and probably dangerous.

And to think I was hot because they closed the "state stores" early. I had no intention of going to a state store, mind you, but the fact that the entire town has to endure such measures because we have a temporary segment of our population that can't behave...well, really frosts my nanny. Seems like small potatoes now. I'd be a lunatic if I lived in Arizona....or Hazleton.

Some things I think, I think.

2011-02-25T13:20:00.002-05:00

We here in the land of the privileged boneheads, who pay (in state) over $14,000 to attend a Research 1 university (yes, we're at the top of the state related university tuition in the country), are bracing to endure another State Patty's Day. And no I didn't get that incorrect. Have a seat by the fire children, and I'll tell you a story.

In 2007 St (as in saint) Patrick's Day fell during spring break week. Here St Paddy's (not Patty's- idiots) it is [yet another] excuse for our student population to go to bars and binge drink. It was spontaneous the first time, and the local merchants "got into it", opening early, offering specials, green beer etc. The local constabulary, as well as the residents and university officials, were taken by surprise by the total chaos that ensued. Fast forward a year, and St Paddy's day, is as usual on a regular weekday. (I've taught classes on St. Patrick's day when ONE student out of twenty showed for class....seriously.) The students though didn't want to let go of the faux holiday, and it happened again. They simply pick a Saturday. We, townies, began to get disgusted-REAL disgusted. In 2009, the tavern owners, who apparently were beginning to feel a pinch from the LCB in the way of fines, started to downplay this "event". Several tavern owners even closed their establishments on that Saturday. This costs them dearly because they are small business owners with families, but they need their liqueur licenses. Now when the arrest records are released it is becoming clear that 2/3 of the DUIs, drunk and disorderlies are from out of town. They are not residents or students. So we've got drunks from the outside coming to wreck havoc and use our resources. (Does this sound like we're a border town or what?)

Well, here we again, State Patty's Day is this Saturday, and despite the public outcry, the community service groups who will be out "patrolling", the police from a three county area along with the state troopers who will be in town, some greedy business are still promoting an "event" that only celebrates drinking.

A year ago I was feeling pain in my lower ribs, and declined going to the ER BECAUSE I KNEW THE PLACE WOULD BE FILLED WITH DRUNKS. I waited and the pneumonia/pleurisy got a real chance to take hold. (Yes, I'm an idiot.)

I think it's time these fools give it a rest and use the $$ mommy and daddy are investing more wisely.

Ohwell...

2011-02-10T10:43:00.008-05:00

.... so things aren't so super here at Casa Black'nGold, n'at. But fair's fair, and three turnovers, well, what can one expect? And just because it helps to have a sense of humor about it:
The Morning (not mourning) File (my personal favorite is the last).

So looking forward to July (fingers crossed) and training camp at St. Vincents.

Worse Sunday news was that Geno Malkin is out for the rest of the year. Kiss the cup good-bye. Then there is Crosby's mystery concussion. (If someone is side-lined with a concussion for 6 weeks.....hummmm?) He hasn't been that fragile, so, it is probably safe to assume that there is something else amiss (or afoot).

But on to better things. Just to confirm...there ARE good peeps in the world.

Saturday was a hellish weather day here...lots of ice, freezing rain, and sleet etc - amidst sunshine. Major roads in and out of town were closed due to black ice and accidents. (There were 11 accidents and one death in about an hour and a half stretch, before the roads were closed, on Saturday.) My 80-year old mother is having issues of her own. She lives in her own home, however, none of us live close by, so when she is iced in, there's nothing much we can do about it. (She won't let us hire someone to help because it will "offend" a neighbor---please don't ask. If you have elderly parents this will make perfect sense.) When a younger friend called to see if she wanted to meet for coffee, my mom told her she couldn't get out of her icy driveway. About an hour later, Carol, and her husband Frank, arrived with tools, and proceeded to spend 3 hours(!) extracting the driveway and sidewalks from ice. Good grief...I'm not sure my siblings and/or I would have spent 3-hours! Anyway, Carol is a knitter, so she has a little thank you care package headed her way...(chocolates for Frank). These kinds of folks restore my faith in humanity. Truly.

But I have something to show for our "global warming" weather....BTW does anyone else find it interesting that if it snows (any amount)--it's global warming;
if it is hot, it's global warming;
rain, global warming;
cold, global warming;
if the cat pees on the carpet, global warming....

Seriously, can it be, maybe that it is just February in the northern hemisphere? And just to add some interest, we are currently 9 inches BELOW our normal snowfall. Oh right, global warming!! I forgot. However, one's nose hair crackles when you walk outside.....Pretty typical for this time of year. I'm old, I can actually remember!!

Anyway, I appear to be on a hat "kick". First a Cable Crossing (Rav link) hat:

It is a Loopy Ewe club pattern. I used Sanguine Gryphon Bugga (it has cashmere!!). You cast on 200 stitches, and a very clever cable pattern draws it in.

The designer is from Central CA, and clearly doesn't need a hat for warmth, because as I started the pattern I realized that it was a "beanie". In other words it doesn't cover one's ears!! If you live here...and you'd like to keep your ears, you do want them covered. So I knit an extra round of cables (and I think I'd knit a second extra round if I did it again.) This should be available in a couple months on the Loopy Ewe web site. The cables are a PIA, but the effect is lovely.

Next up, is a "pillbox". I always liked the way they look, but could never find a good standard pattern. I like this one Winter White Pillbox (Rav link), and I had the yarn in my small stash.

I like this hat because it is not tight to the head, and it takes longer to develop "hat head". And frankly, as I said earlier, if you want to keep your ears, you need a very warm hat when the temperature is in the single digits.

I used Reynolds Blizzard, a chunky alpaca/acrylic blend. It knits up really fast. I needed about a skein and a third, so about 90 yards of chunky.

Mods were that I eliminated a pattern repeat and I added two rows to the brim.

I will probably make this again, but I'd like to make the brim a little tighter. So a smaller needle or a few stitches less...I'll have to see.

So there you have it, that's what I've been up to. The tendinitis is still flaring occasionally, but it is much improved. I think the Kauni sweater kicked it off, so I am very careful how much I work on it.

Hi...

2011-02-02T10:31:00.004-05:00

This is serious, please follow along if you can. This is to the folks who are wailing with disbelief that an unconstitutional requirement in the "health care" (I use the descriptor loosely) bill was found unconstitutional, and that we are all now going down the tubes....that we are killing sick children and more blah, blah... Listen up.

The single payer advocates among you, who think it is the holy grail of social justice. Who are adamant that everyone who needs a liver transplant will get one, who don't understand rationing.... Well, listen carefully.... it is happening NOW, TODAY, and if you're a smarty boots, you'll find one of these companies and buy stock. I know for a fact, that there is a booming market for medical businesses that advise hospitals on which medicare/medicaid patients to admit, and which to treat and release. How I know is that I have acquaintances who have begun work with said businesses, and have moved like lightning up through the ranks. You need a job? Find one of these businesses. They are desperate for personnel. I am serious. Medical/technical training is the preferred background.

It is subtle, but here's a simple version of how it works. A medicare/medicaid patient comes into an ED (formerly ER) and is evaluated by a ED doc...he/she does the usual H&P, and begins treatment for the problem. If the hospital has an "account" with said business the ED case manager will call the intake personnel (who do nothing, but answer the phones and take information), and will walk though a list of evaluation questions, developed by the company to discern whether M/M will PAY for an admission. The information is passed to a doctor who is an expert in the rules of M/M and he/she sends his recommendation to the hospital. If it is determined that the admission will not be covered, the patient is treated and released. The ED doc (who really must focus on her/his medical evaluation), does not usually override this decision. You see, even a tiny hospital in podunk can lose over a million dollars a year on denied medicare/medicaid admissions. Most hospitals run on razor sharp margins, and cannot afford this kind of deficit. So they contract with a business whose job it is to keep abreast of medicare rules, and then they are billed per case. As medicare sets the bar higher for admission and treatment, the business responds. Hospitals save millions, even with the contract and case billing. My "informant" tells me that they are now also evaluating for certain diagnostic testing. It makes my blood run cold, really.

So how easy would it be for this to be extended to the rest of the unwashed masses in a single payer system? Our treatment would be based on whether or not the system will pay. And as $$ get tighter, the options will decrease. As someone who can actually see medicare in the future, it makes me sick...but then what?

ETA: So I guess Obama, Pelosi et.al., were right!! It will decrease unemployment!!

I never watch SOTU addresses....

2011-01-26T10:53:00.003-05:00

..... as Aurora Greenway in "Terms of Endearment" says, "blahhh, blahhh, blahhh..."

Instead, we attended a fun performance of "Fiddler on the Roof" .... Much, much better choice.

However, I've been hearing some good things about Ryans' rebuttal. Particularly, from an evenly split (between R & D) focus group. They liked that he spoke in facts....a little like Sargent Friday I suppose. But this quote is the tipping point. This vision is just so compelling (why yes, I am a little nuts, why do you ask?), from Jonah Goldberg at the National Review Online.

Ryan never comes across as a bomb-thrower, but tonight he talked like an ER nurse trying to talk down a violent hippy from a bad acid trip, which is pretty impressive given the substance of what he was saying.

The best compliment ...

2011-01-24T17:10:00.004-05:00

... a knitter can get is when someone ASKS for MORE of her/his hand knits....don'tcha think?

Well it happened twice to me recently.

Over the holiday my sister-in-law asked if she should wash and dry one of the knit caps I made for my father-in-law. He's 90 and always cold, and wears little knit watchcaps in the house. Well he's been wearing the one I made for him two years ago, and well it's stretched and worn out. (Never mind that I made him a "Turn a Square" last year, and an Israeli soldier watch cap this year. You know old guys...creatures of habit.) On the way home, I mentioned to my husband that I probably had some of that gray yarn around and could make a duplicate. He suggested a black and gold Steeler version. And while we were on the subject he wanted ANOTHER pair of Fuzzy Feet, in Steeler black and gold, only more gold. (I made him a predominantly black pair in 2005.) So I did what any good knitter does. I immediately ordered yarn for these two items.

And yesterday this is what my morning looked like:

A cup of blueberry tea, and my father-in-law's Steeler cap in progress.

Finished!!! Just in time...

...to wear for the Super Bowl.

Can't do better than that!! Fuzzy Feet will be in progress soon...but husband has black and gold handknit socks to wear on the big day. Not rushing the Fuzzy Feet.

Bad news....

2011-01-12T14:32:00.002-05:00

.... I've already broken one of my resolutions.

I was walking back to work through a nearby surface parking lot, after taking some time off for lunch (read: actual knitting time). A woman pulled up next to me and asked if I had any change for the meters. She had none. I had 3 quarters which I handed to her, and as she was looking for a bill to give me , I just told her not to worry..."have a good day", and walked along. OH NO!! Another RAK...albeit small. Well, this one has absolutely no strings.....Whew!

Good news...

Apparently, Virginia (Georgia, Tennessee, etc.) and Central PA have exchanged climates. Well maybe not completely, but while everywhere around us is getting FEET of snow. We have almost none. It very cold though. I went out without my hat today (what knitter does this?) and I'm not sure I still have ears. This seems like good news now, but wait for the drought come July because we have no snow melt.

Maybe now is ...

2011-01-07T14:14:00.005-05:00

...the time to explain why I may be swearing off RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) for a long time. This and "eat more bacon" are my resolutions for 2011. I don't think I'll have any trouble keeping them. There were two "events" but I'd like to describe just the last one.

I have "season" tickets to a professional ballet company about 3 hours away from where we live (you can figure out the rest, I 'd like to keep this as potentially "search proof" as possible). We get a "three-pack" and this year the ballets were poorly scheduled (for us). I had to take the Nutcracker as part of our series. Now this is not usually a problem as December weather is usually not too bad and driving is not an issue. (February, on the other hand, is a b&^ch.) When you are a season "patron" you have a few options with your tickets. 1) You can exchange them for another performance day; 2) You can exchange them for another ballet in the series; 3) You can turn them back for a tax write off. They are very liberal in their policies, and very accommodating. I have no complaints.

This year, however, the weather looked like it was going to be a problem and we were trying to decide what to do with our tickets. (I've described our run in with black ice before, and we have been very careful ever since.) As we were thinking about our options, I had what I thought was a brainstorm. Why not offer them to a family member who was struggling with a recurrence of a serious illness? She probably needed a night out, with a friend, daughter or family member, and the tickets would be put to good use. (BTW, they are excellent high end seats.) My DH was delighted with this suggestion, so I got in touch with said relative, who was happy to receive them. I exchanged them (a week in advance) for the date she requested and all was well....for the moment. THE NIGHT BEFORE the performance at 6:30 pm, she called and left a message at our home and said she was too ill to go, and could I exchange them for another night!! (I might add here that I didn't get home until after 8:00 pm that evening, which is when I got the message.) Now, I was sympathetic at this point because this is the nature of her physical condition. I wanted to call her back, but didn't have the number at home. I called my sister in law for the number and she said "Oh yeah, I have it here I RSVP'd for the party." (!!!) What party, I ask? THE PARTY SHE WAS HAVING THE NIGHT SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO GO TO THE BALLET!! I was dumbfounded. This means she KNEW she wasn't going to the performance at least a week in advance (she mailed the invitations a week earlier), and instead of calling me ASAP and saying her plans changed and could I make the exchange for another night... She, didn't outright fib, but was disingenuous in the extreme. I called and she gave me the story about her condition, and I listened and asked if she wanted an alternate date, then told her I'd try. Steaming all the while. At this point, I didn't KNOW if I could exchange them, and if I couldn't I'd have to make another choice (see above). And I had about four box office hours the next day to do it. And this is before Christmas, and I had other things I planned to do. Sitting on the phone was not one of them. I vacillated from anger to incredulity to simply ticked.

I exchanged them successfully, and then cut my communication. I didn't trust myself to speak to her again. I find I'm still stunned by this. I was hoping by now I'd have some distance. No such luck.

Can you imagine?

Hai...I'm back

2011-01-05T11:27:00.012-05:00

What an odd holiday it has been. While most bloggers were waxing nostalgic and posting pictures of candles, firelight, good food, and family, we have...dental surgery. Very successful dental surgery, but not without complications. Complications that made it impossible to have very many treats (other than adult beverages). Consequently, we both LOST weight over the most indulgent holiday of the year. Out of sheer frustration, I did make an awesome quiche on Christmas. Even DH liked it. Don't tell him that it contained about a pound of very fine cheese. But heck he had to eat something. And this is a man who eats a huge salad EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. and couldn't. So anyway, we had a very low key Christmas day. Culminating in a visit to a very dedicated dentist to have stitches removed the next day which just happened to be a Sunday.... A blistering cold Sunday.

Anyway, the rest of my time looked like this, in no particular order:

Finished three ornaments, that look like this (the first has already been gifted):

I'm currently working on a fourth that has pinks and grays.

I've hardly knit a stitch. My tendinitis was shifting from nearly unbearable to not too bad. Knitting made it worse. Beading, not so much. Which explains the ornament explosion. However, I have to get back in game shape for this:

http://www.stitchyourartout.com/2401.html

Third class down is me. I finished the sample on December 22nd. Now we wait. I do have until March, however, I have to work up a couple more in different bead sizes, just for fun.

We finally got to another hockey game!

The new Consol Energy Center Arena.

Your [my?] Pittsburgh Penguins!

We even saw a faux hat trick. It was originally announced that Sidney Crosby had made the goal, and the hats hit the ice. Then Matt Cooke was awarded the goal and Sidney the assist. It was pretty amusing just the same. That's Cooke's picture on the scoreboard. Anybody know what happens to the hats?

My MIL celebrated her 92nd birthday by going to the hospital nearly in diabetic coma. (Not enough cake!) She's fine now. FIL will be reaching the 90th milestone on Sunday.

We're enjoying the last few days without traffic and short lines at grocery stores and post offices.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas...

2010-12-22T13:41:00.003-05:00

...and bite me if Christ-mas offends anyone.

Here's what's going on:

1) Trying to file and make lists for next year, so I remember what I'd supposed to be doing on January 4th. Office closes at EOB today.
2) Dental surgery (yes, you read that right, not me but it might be better if it were)
3) Doing 2 jobs (3 if you count nurse) see above.
4) Beadwork, beadwork, beadwork...I have a Christmas ornament gift that will not be ready for Christmas, and a bead knitted bracelet example that I'll be teaching in a class for the LYS in March not finished, but needed.
5) I just finished ALL the Christmas cards. (This is usually DH's job, but see 2 above, Tylenol and codeine do not make for coherent addressing.)

There's probably more, but I'm too exhausted to think of it. Good thing I have a gift list or I wouldn't remember what I was giving to whom.

Some of my pre-New Year's resolutions:

No more RAK (random acts of kindness). I've been bitten twice, recently, very badly last week, but that's a story for another day.
Next time I go to the post office on the busiest mailing day of the year (and I always do), I will swat the woman who decides on that day to mail packages to Australia, without the proper customs forms and insurance.She tied up the ONLY two clerks at the counter. And to the lady right in front of me...WRITE DOWN THE ZIP CODES so you have them next time.

And I'm still struggling with tendinitis. After a course of NSAIDs and now steroids...I'm just beginning to feel better.

I'm going to chill completely on Christmas. There will not be much cooking see the first #2 above, so it's a good thing there's wine. Hope yours is quiet too.

Am I a good daughter or what?

2010-11-29T14:23:00.009-05:00

Thanksgiving was spent with my mom, sis, hubby and boyfriend (sis's not mine). It was great to see everyone, but my mom is a nervous nellie type of person. She can't sit still for 15 consecutive minutes. Think about what meals are like...always. She was whipping the plates right out from under our noses when we were growing up. She is 80 and in good health (mentally and physically) and spends her time trying to figure out how to drive her family crazy. I think it is her life's work.

We love her...for short stretches. My sister arrived on Wednesday night, and spent the evening and the following morning, doing chores to make the house more winter ready. She and BF did a lot of work. DH and I arrived, with the wine, just in time for dinner on Thursday. We had a very nice meal, the four of us chatting and listening to stories about sis's vacation at Lake Mead, In case you're counting, the fifth member of our party was not chatting but doing the dishes (even though DH and I told her we would do the dishes). "I'm just getting them ready..."

Sis and BF (I have a really had time calling him a boyfriend. They've been together over 10 years. Just recently have they begun sharing living space. It is kinda happening organically.) left after dinner.

I made coffee so he could drive, and she could nap because she had to work the next day....she sent me an email the next day to say that the coffee did no good. He was asleep before they got to the turnpike...about 20 minutes from the house.

Here we are wine and all....

The next day, crazy woman that I am, I took my mother shopping....on, yes, "Black Friday". We did not get up at the crack of dawn, we did not try to grab good deals. We simply went so my mother could go to places she is uncomfortable driving to. Like the shopping area that has Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Meanwhile, DH got to stay home in his jammies and watch Pitt get trounced, and the Penguins play. It was a madhouse, made madder by my impatient mother...but I survived. (I only had to threaten to drop her off in the middle of the street, for backseat driving, once.) Only TO GO BACK OUT with DH in the late evening. Fortunately, by that time most of the crazy people had gone home, and we had no trouble getting parking places etc.

The next day we were getting ready to go home, and I got to witness a local event that has been going on for, at least 40 + years. Any minute now, some idiot will be offended and complain, and that will end the tradition. It starts with hearing sirens in the distance.

They keep getting louder until you see this--moving rather slowly.

Then came a parade of classic cars.......

Then came Santa!!! And a lion (????) character. The fire/rescue department and library branch are housed in the same building.

Santa was escorting the Christmas Tree (probably now called a holiday tree) to the town square.

They have been doing this since I was little. You can tell based on the photo above, that it has been a long time.

I hope no one messes with this tradition. Ever!! (And did I mention that the courthouse has a creche on the front lawn....right next to the menorah. Wonder how long that will last?)

And so it goes...

2010-11-22T14:45:00.002-05:00

...the services over the weekend were exhausting. Larry always marched to a different drummer than the rest of us, and the gathering of friends and acquaintances and all the "Dead" and "rock and roll" T-shirts in evidence, attested to this fact. I've now been to two services where not only did friends say good things about the deceased, they cried as they did it. People wrote music and played, wrote and read poems, it was quite the gathering. And though Larry requested a closed casket for the viewing (he felt it would be too hard on his beloved wife because of his debilitated condition), the funeral director did such a good job he looked wonderful...Really. Very handsome. So his wife went against his wishes and had an open casket. She felt he would forgive her. Frankly, knowing Larry, he'd have been ticked if he looked this good, and didn't get to be seen. So now his family must pick up the pieces and be gentle with themselves. I hope they are.

Meanwhile remember the Kauni sweater? Well, enroute to the weekend it made a trip to the frog pond. I pulled it out down to the ribbing, and am now reknitting with at #2 (3 mm) needle. I didn't have time to take another photo, but picture it pulled to the ribbing. (I liked the ribbing because it has a purple cast on...very pretty.) I showed it to the LYS owner (read: yarn source), and she thought it looked OK, and that I had three options: 1) forge ahead, and we could make the steek a little larger....2) gradually move down to a smaller needle; or 3) frog and reknit. My decision was made when she said...hummm the fabric seems a little looser that I've seen. So I'm getting a firmer fabric now. It took over an hour all told to pull and rewind the yarn. Longer than I had anticipated. Then again, because I had steamed it some to check my gauge, I was a little worried that I was not going to be able to pull it out at all. But it worked out fine. So I'm back to the beginning again. I only had to pull out between 30 & 40 rows, but it took a long time. Especially since I didn't want the yarn to tangle.

So maybe I'll get something done over the holiday. What I really want to do, though, is finish that damn Cozy.

Everyone have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. I'm going to visit my mom...I'm taking the wine. Lots of wine.

Oh Hai...Part 2

2010-11-17T10:13:00.008-05:00

The beat goes on...

And so does Larry. We were expecting the end to be imminent....the messenger was wrong. Completely. It is near though. I can't imagine what this is doing to his immediate family. Every blinking light and voicemail notification makes me cringe.

ETA: Ahhh well....much nearer...rest in peace Larry dear. You will most certainly be missed.

Here are a couple of bones since this name of this blog does have the word "knit" in it:

The socks that took all summer.....

These are the Lava Flow pattern from a former (reformed?) blogger called Sockbug. Her's was one of the first blogs I read. She posted lots of cute patterns. She no longer posts, but the patterns are still available. Maybe she is on Rav. I never checked.

I used my regular eye-of-partridge heel and made them taller. The yarn is Lorna's Laces in "bumble bee". I called it the Steelers colorway.

These are a Christmas present for a Steeler fanatic, with chilly toes.

Next up...the Cozy that will never end.

I have had the Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool for this ... for-evah! I finally got around to getting it done. (I badgered my LYS into getting it for me.) When Cozy was first published many posters commented that it was a nice relaxing knit. And that might be true. However, I may just not be in the mood for relaxing. That and I have ALL of two years of Loopy Ewe sock club yarn to get on with. Most of which will be turned into other things rather than socks. I need to go about 5 more inches to make it usable for me. If you have been reading this blog for any length of time you may recall that Isadora Duncan's scarves have nothing on mine. Good thing I don't ride in convertibles.

My only concern is "what to start?" when I'm done with Cozy? I need some easily transportable knitting. (I do have a father-in-law hat for Christmas to knit, but that's pretty easy. I'm hoping I can find suitable yarn in my stash for it.) Isn't there something pathological about worrying about what to knit next?

This is my stay at home knitting......

Kauni sweater in a damask pattern. That's probably about 4 inches there. You can see the color of the yellow beginning to shift to green. I think my gauge is a "tad" off. More like 5.5/inch rather than 6/inch, but meh. It doesn't worry me enough to rip. I think I'm knitting a little loosely so that it doesn't pucker. I should probably try and tighten it up some anyway. It is really hard to tell.

I should probably stop out at my LYS to see what they think. If I need to rip back, now would be the time. This is going to take too much time and effort to be a bust.

Here's a close up.

We shall see....

And you know I just can't keep from putting in my two cents.......I am beginning to find the absolute angst about Palin hysterical. What the hell? I'm beginning to think some of these people really do need therapy.

I'm with Dennis Miller who called Palin a "tough broad" and said it would be fun to see her elected just to watch all the leftists go crazy....To see if those who are threatening to decamp to Switzerland or Italy (yeah....with all the rioting, don't they read the papers?) really do. If they feel they must, I'm going to quote Chris Christie....

Now I must get ready to travel.....again.

Oh Hai!

2010-11-11T15:18:00.005-05:00

Taking a break from politics or I'm probably going to blow a gasket. I am now convinced that "the public" is dumber that I ever imagined. And that they'll let anyone have a show on TV....where's Captain Kangaroo when you need him.....

So a few loosening ends.

Happy Veteran's Day to all my friends and family -- and all the veteran students here, who took time out of their lives to serve their country. Hug 'em if you got em....(ask permission first if you don't know them--just sayin').

We are currently on an "end of life watch" for a relative who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer nearly a year ago. He was being aggressively treated, however, the most someone in his situation can hope for is added months. He got those, plus a few. The world is going to be a less colorful place without dear Larry. A good thought, or prayer, whichever is your habit, wouldn't come amiss for him and his family.

I am considering Lasik surgery--complications abound.

I have started the Damask Kauni sweater. I needed a boatload of help from my LYS owner, to figure out how to sweet talk the original pattern into the damask chart. The color knitting is fun though.

Finally finished the "Steeler" socks, and oooo boy...it seemed to take forever. I have no idea what the hell was going on.....

Need about 12 more inches to finish my Cozy. This seems to be the black hole of knitting. The more I knit the shorter it gets. Ever have that happen?

I know I should be posting photos of all this stuff, but I am too freakin' lazy at the moment. Work is really cutting into my knitting time lately. Ever have that happen?

Oh yeah, I LOVE Zappos! I am on the hunt for the best red skimmer....I'm on my fourth, and they just keep sending them OVERNIGHT. What I don't understand is why I'm having such trouble finding good shoes that do not hurt. These are little flats people?

Get on with it!

2010-11-03T10:15:00.005-04:00

A message to:

Governor-elect Tom Corbett
Senator-elect Pat Toomey
[2nd Term] Representative Glenn Thompson

Congratulations. Now, time to get on with business gentlemen.

I'm watching and out of patience.

To:

Representative Joe Sestak and
Senator Bob Casey

WATCH YOUR STEP.....you two could be moving on to your life's work next. You boys have already gotten on my last nerve. I'm one of those bitter crackers clinging to my guns and religion....except, I vote independent, I don't own a gun, and I have a masters degree. Oh, yeah, I do go to church. Well one out of three.

One last thing....I was stunned that the old fart from Northeastern PA Kanjorski got booted....and high time. His challenger, the winner, Lou Barletta you may recall is the city of Hazleton mayor that took a hard line against the illegal immigrants sucking the life out of his town. (Lost the court challenge, but they are forging ahead.) You go Lou!

Last, last thing...California doesn't need to legalize marijuana. Apparently, it is already in the water supply. That is the only possible thing that explains the (re)election of Governor Moonbeam..... Way to go....

It was the best ....

2010-10-28T15:42:00.003-04:00

..of times...

A League of Women Voter's debate outside Pittsburgh:

Quite an "unruly mob" if you ask me.

It was the worst of times:

Poop. If I wasn't so entertained, I'd tell Joe to get his money back. What the hell made him think this was a good ad.

Also please read how there are blatant false statements in the ad. How stupid do they think we are? We are not all from Altoona!! (Home of the late John Murtha, the master of obfuscation.)

But I shouldn't be surprised. In a recent ad for the governor race, the (D) candidate berated the (R) candidate for RAISING TAXES and hurting the elderly!! The problem being the (R) candidate is the current State's Attorney General, and last time I looked had absolutely nothing to do with passing financial legislation........ !!!?? And in my personal experience, his office was very aggressive in pursuing businesses who preyed on the elderly. I think they too were just hoping that people were too dumb to notice.

Really how stupid do they think people are?

Eeeeewwww

2010-10-13T10:44:00.003-04:00

Does this creep anyone else out as much as it does me?

Parker/Spitzer

Srsly...what the hell are they smokin' over at CNN?

My brain never stops...

2010-10-05T11:04:00.006-04:00

...but you probably wish it would.

Last week I was meeting a job candidate (yes, we're filling ONE of our FIVE open positions), and was waiting in the lobby of a local establishment to escort her to dinner. No, I was not having a toddy, but I should have as you will shortly see. I pulled out my cell to make sure the ringer was off. Instead I noticed there was a voicemail. (This is strange, because I had just spoken to my DH, and hardly ANYONE else uses my cell.) Here is a paraphrase of what I heard: Hi, [name unknown], this is Michelle from [salon name unintelligible]. I just wanted to let you know I spoke to our aesthetician and she does not do "Brazilians". She does do regular bikini waxing. I've kept your appointment just in case, so if you do not want to keep it just give me a call. Thanks!!
What can I say....but OW!! EEWWWWWW also comes to mind.
WHO else could possibly get a stray voicemail about crotch hair!!

Has everyone else been winning the lottery, finding lost relatives, or being singled out to help cancer victims? Seems to me these things are on the upswing, or maybe I'm just lucky.
Here's a sampling:
Jennifer Wagner tells me "GOD LOVES A CHEERFUL GIVER"
As you read this, I don't want you to feel sorry for me, because, I believe everyone will die someday. My name is Mrs. Jennifer Wagner , a merchant in Dubai, in the U.A.E. I have been diagnosed with Esophageal cancer . It has defiled all forms of medical treatment, and right now I have only about a few months to live, according to medical experts.
Dear Jennifer, GOD WILL SEND YOU TO HELL FOR LYING. FOR $2 MILLION US I'LL TELL YOU HOW I KNOW!

"Barrister" Martins Williams thinks I'm an entrepreneur, and can't spell worth a lick.
Compliments.

We've been trying to reach you several times without no sucesss. we are trying if this email can get into your inbox to explain our investment intentions for you.

I am contacting you briefly based on the Investment of Two Hunred Million Dollars (US$ 200,000,000:00) in your country, as I presently have a client who is interested in investing in you to invest in your country, but he has never done business in your country before. I find it imperative to solicit for a partnership. Hence upon receipt of this letter, I implore you to kindly respond and let me know how possible it is to work with you in mutual partnership under the below conditions as follows:
Dear Martins...go to school. Through 8th grade will at least help with your spelling.

According to Brenda, there's a SCAM being perpetrated!! Horrors!!
The SPANISH HIGH COMMISSION in France, Portugal, Sweden and Germany received a report of scam against you and other British/US and Malaysian citizens, Etc. The countries of France, Portugal, Sweden, Germany, Britian and United States have recompensated you following the meeting held with the countries' Government and various countries' high commission for the fraudulent activities carried out by the countries' Citizens.

Your name was among those scammed as listed by the Spain Financial Intelligent Unit (SFIU). Compensation has been issued out in Certified Bank Drafts to all the affected victims and has been already been in distribution to all the bearers. Your draft was among those that were reported undelivered as at on Friday and we wish to advise you to see to the instructions of the Committee to make sure you receive your draft immediately.

Brenda wants me to keep this a secret, because apparently there is a hit to be placed on squealers.Dear Brenda, You can reach me at CIA headquarters.

Finally the piece of resistance:

This is to inform you that you have won a prize money of Five Hundred Thousand Great Britain Pounds (GBP 500,000.00) for 2010 Prize promotion which is Offered by Coca-Cola Company of England.
Coca-Cola collects all the e-mail addresses of the people that are active online, among the millions that subscribed to Yahoo! and Hotmail and few from other e-mail providers. Six people are selected monthly to benefit from this promotion and you are one of the Selected Winners.

PAYMENT OF PRIZE AND CLAIM
Winners shall be paid in accordance with his/her Settlement Center. Coca-Cola Prize Award must be claimed no la! ter than 21 days from date of Draw Notification. Any prize not claimed within this period will be forfeited.

As a bonus this had Coke logos splashed all over it!

Dear Cherry, Get a job. A real job. Not here. Anywhere but here.

So what's the deal? Does ANYONE respond to this crap any more? Are they getting more frequent, or am I just losing it?

On my mind....

2010-09-29T12:34:00.008-04:00

Some things I think, I think...

Why is it that I'm at work in hose with a wool shawl, and see students walking around wearing honest-to-God sundresses or shorts and T-shirts? What am I missing? This is not Gainsville.

Why is it that these same half-dressed students think that if they walk in front of my moving (albeit slowly) 2000 lb vehicle, and they don't even glance in my direction that I'm really not there? Do they think this is an oasis, and I am a mirage?

Why is it that people (read: politicians) think if they repeat something (over-and-over) enough, it magically becomes "true"? Trust me, if you can't prove it, it ain't "true".

Why is it that I find people (this may include presenters, artists, musicians, knitters, etc.), who for no apparent reason, and completely out of context, inject their political opinion/agenda into their work, gauche? I can be perfectly happy reading something, or listening to something, and then they "fall off the wagon with a "comment" sometimes subtly, sometimes not. Why do they think I care what they think any more then they care what I think. (Actually, here's some blow back DO NOT read Sweater Quest: The Year of Knitting Dangerously.)

Most importantly, Kindle or Nook?

Gotta Love Dennis Miller...

2010-09-23T09:55:00.002-04:00

..... he described the Delaware senate election as

"Bewitched vs Bewildered"

Gotta love it.

Which brings me to a curious thing. I saw a DE senate election advertisement this morning on TV. People this is Central PA....not even Southeastern PA, which maybe would make sense. We are closer to Maryland and West Virginia, but even that's a stretch. Hummmmmmmmmmm.

A little of this....n'at.

2010-09-07T11:03:00.011-04:00

We've been busy...so busy, I'm exhausted. We have spent the past three out of four weekends out of town...where I'm sure you're wondering (said in a sarcastic tone, I know it isn't important).....

Well, first I have to show you the wine we drank on vacation:

Who doesn't love a cheap wine with a llama on the label? And with a name like Funky Llama. Well.....

It is from Chili. It was all of $3.99 in a PA State Store (so you know it was cheap). We were not crazy about the shiraz, but the pinot grigio wasn't bad. And the entertainment was in the label anyway.

The rest of the time was spent at a music festival then hiking.

This is Pine Creek. It was blistering hot, but much cooler in the woods. We spent most of the time trying to photograph the raptors that were soaring over the "canyon".

Those two specks in the center of the frame are a pair of hawks who were playing.

We saw many hawks, which I cannot identify, a turkey vulture which was a first, and what we think was a juvenile bald eagle. There are nesting eagle pairs in this area, so it is not unusual to see an eagle...for some people. For us it was another first.

We had a weekend off, then went to visit my mother for a surprise 80th birthday party. She had spent about 6 weeks trying to convince us that she was "too old" and "too decrepit" for a party, so don't bother. We didn't bother to tell her and she had a great time. Does this lady look too old and decrepit to anyone?

I think not! Notice the snazzy purse. Hardly that of a little old lady. Sheesh

We had the party at the Mohegan Sun Casino at Pocono Downs. My sister was having second thoughts during the prior week of inviting elderly people to a casino (for brunch), but trust me...as soon as it was polite, the elderly guests were heading to the slots. So a good time was had by all whether it was for food, drink or to feed the one-armed bandits.....

This was my first trip to the "local casino" and I learned a lot. Like why casinos are a cash cow for the states and local towns. And the number of jobs it creates! And that there is too much noise and too many blinking lights for me. It was a stunning day outside, and we had folks following us to our car to get our parking space so they could go inside in the loud, flashing dark to gamble. No recession here.....

This past weekend was spent outlet shopping. All I can say is that if there is a recession...I didn't see it here either. Our hotel was a madhouse on Sunday morning of families going to Hershey Park (supposedly the "sweetest place on earth".... but more like, "where you can have a nervous breakdown and no one will notice"....but that doesn't look good in advertising... not catchy enough.) And when did it become deriguer for parents to ignore their offspring, or send them to get their own breakfast in a crowd of people in a public place? These are little people, and this is not your kitchen!! Sheesh....parenting people, parenting!!

Anyone remember the Kauni/cardigan (Rav link) craze of 2007? As is the case with so many "knitting fads", it was kicked off by the Yarn Harlot. Folks were purchasing Kauni from Denmark and translating the pattern...etc. For some reason I loved that sweater with the white hot passion that only a knitter can understand, but I thought it was too much of a PIA (and too expensive) to order the yarn from Denmark. I'm also not really a lemming (French Press Slippers aside). Well, last month my LYS got Kauni, and reignited my romance with the cardigan...but now, thanks to Ravelry I have become acquainted with the damask pattern. So I couldn't resist:

I will be making the damask patterned sweater. I will also be joining a sweater knitting group for the steeking and patterning support. As Cynthia from the LYS says..."there's a lot going on in this sweater. "

I may be crazy.

Affordability is in the framing...

2010-08-26T15:32:00.004-04:00

You remember the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Yeah, I'm sure you do....we're going to be a healthy and cheap utopia, remember? If you don't you're forgiven. You're probably blocking....

Well it's here...In the runup to the 2014 implementation, health insurance companies are making sure that they can fulfill the outlandish mandates, and stay afloat...all the while without having to compete. Here's what it has gotten me for 2011:

Heath care payroll deduction: up 10% (whew, could have been more)
Deductible: up 250% (yes that is correct-it is a newly instituted deductible, you do the math)
Coinsurance for ALL procedures & tests: up 100% (see above, this can also be called a co-pay)
Co-pay for specialist office visits: up 33% (I should explain here that because we are in a rural area, many specialists also practice as internists, so you pay the higher rate even if it is a routine non-specialty visit.)
ED (ER) treatment: up 100%

This delightful package was announced with great fanfare in a cheery envelope telling me that preventive programs will stay the same.

A more austere letter about a month ago explained that the "users" of health services would shoulder the costs for those services (my words). I think it can be translated as a "gouge the sick" policy. That idiot Grayson may have been prescient. And please don't get me started on the upward spiral of fees that medical institutions will begin to charge to improve the "reasonable and customary" fee table for both insurance companies and Medicare (if they're still accepting MC, that is).

So here we are....in the worst economy in 30 years, with salaries stagnating, I can't even begin to figure out how far behind this will put us.

Thank you, Mr. President, Congress, and all you know-it-alls who wouldn't listen to the will of the people. I will not forget this November.

ETA: HA! Our electronic newsletter just arrived describing our "plan" and it included this statement:

Legislation, such as health care reform, will cost employers and employees more as required changes are implemented now and through the next several years.

Tell me again how it isn't going to cost the middle class more.

Re-entry is a b&*ch!

2010-08-18T17:02:00.012-04:00

It took all of about 40 minutes to feel like I hadn't left. And daily it is getting worse because classes are starting next week, the traffic is horrific, and the invaders are gravitating back. We have a love-hate relationship with the students. If they mostly behaved like the adults they are supposed to be, well, it would be fine. However, when the bad driving, urination in parking lots start again, well, you quickly forget the positives.

Each year when we take some time off, we make an accidental trip to somewhere. By accidental, I mean we are actually going somewhere else, and the plan falls through. This year we were headed to Steeler Camp, but a late start, and road construction season here in PA conspired to make the trip not worth while (that day). So about 15 minutes west of Altoona, we decided to turn around, and spend the day in Altoona, and maybe go to the Curve game in the evening. Must. Be. Flexible.

Well, we got off an exit on I99 to turn around and there was a sign, "Horseshoe Curve 7 miles". For the uninitiated, the Horseshoe Curve is mecca for train enthusiasts. (And the Altoona Curve is named for this engineering wonder.) During WWII it was on a Nazi sabotage list.

I am making it my business to go to places, in my own backyard, that I've never been to, and that visitors come to all the time. Visitors actually stay at a nearby inn just yards from the train tracks so they can sit on the porch and watch trains. They set up serious looking cameras to take pictures. It's amazing.

So when we saw the sign, we said "let's go". The best times turn out to be those that are unexpected and unscripted. I'm sure of it.

It was a hoot!! We were there nearly 3 hours, and I would never have believed that watching freight trains would be so entertaining. Seriously. (I grew up with a dad who had about six complete sets of the original Lionel trains, that he set up in a room sized display. As a kid my brother had the "train bug". I forgot that it was probably in my genetics.) So we walked up the nearly 200 stairs to the observation park, brought our lunch, and watched the trains wrap around us, going both east and west. It was So. Much. Fun. (Keep in mind that I'm easily entertained.)

This is the view from the park looking east. We had to walk up the steps because the funicular wasn't running. There was a sign in the window of the gift shop to
alert customers to that fact.

A view of the funicular from the top.

Didn't think you were going to get away without seeing a train or two did you? This shot shows a locomotive coming up hill from the east and shows the curve. You are actually standing in the center of the horseshoe, and the trains run around you- up and down the mountain.

The engineers usually wave to folks standing by the tracks....which led us to the discussion of what do modern day train engineers actually do? Neither of us have any idea. (If you click to full size you can see the engineer waving.)

This is the train running past the curve, and heading west.

It was a grand time, and I am still kinda stunned by how much fun this actually was. And to leave you with my favorite train car....

Seriously...this is not an animal carrier, so who knows what this is supposed to mean......

And just when you thought it was safe...

2010-08-03T17:25:00.009-04:00

I've finally finished my long sleeve CeCe, and here's a photo. Don't mind the hair...I've since had a haircut ... and I'm not scaring small children anymore. At least not with my hair. Also don't mind the fact that a burgundy sweater DOES NOT match a tobacco brown skirt and a bright orange t-shirt. I took the photo, with my timer before work one morning.

CeCe by Bonne Marie Burns
Her sizing is spot on...just make sure you swatch. She uses cotton a lot, so also make sure you wash. This is Classic Elite Four Seasons. I don't know if they make it anymore. It is 70/30 cotton wool. You will notice that it is longer in the body...and the sleeves are long, rather than 3/4. I like 3/4 sleeves, but I felt I would use this more if I made the sleeves long. You will also notice, that the V isn't as deep...that was not by design, but by a pleasant coincidence.

Also, on Bonne's suggestion I didn't put in a button hole. Instead I used hooks and eyes and then decided it needed "something". I bought this hook at JoAnn Fabrics. I think I like it.

So.... CeCe by Bonne Marie Burns
About 11 skeins of Classic Elite Four Seasons.
I needed to go down one needle size, which I always seem to have to do with cotton. If you swatch and get gauge, Bonne's dimensions are spot on.

Mods: I lengthened the body by 1.5 inches, and it grew a bit more with blocking. I reworked the sleeves, with help from Bonne. She asked that I not share her sleeve stitch counts etc. But if you contact her, I'm sure she'll be happy to assist. I modified them further than her suggestions, however, because I felt the sleeves were too sloppy for my long, skinny monkey arms.

Here's a hint I can share. When you need to sew accoutrement on your knitwear, use embroidery floss. (I also use this to repair sweaters.) you can always get a color to match, and I think it holds up better.

I am going to do something I rarely do, and post a WIP. This is what I will be working on next week when I'm out of the office gearing up for the invasion two weeks from today. (It can't be!! Summer just started!)

On the left is my just started Cozy. I have lots more fascinating shawl patterns to knit, but I've had the yarn for this for, shucks, probably, at least, five years. It was one of the first wraps that interested me. I felt it had marinated enough, and though I could have used the Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool for something else, I felt this was fated and should be completed. I'm also trying to knit up some of my stash yarn. I don't have tons, but I'd like to use it up in some way.

The sock, the sock....I've been hauling this sock around all summer. No idea when I started it. This is a "bed sock" for Mr. KnB. (Yes, those cold winter nights are right around the corner.) You might notice it is also a Steeler sock. I finally finished the toe yesterday, and now have to start the second. I certainly hope it doesn't take me as much time. I kinda didn't follow the pattern on this sock, but did make notes, so I hope I can replicate the second one (at least so no one will notice). This is a pattern I've used numerous times in the past I got it here. This knitter was regularly posting when I first got back into knitting 6 years ago, but as you can see, doesn't so much any more. However, she was a very talented sock designer. I'm using Lorna's Laces for these socks, and though I like the yarn, I don't understand the hoopla about it. I like Dream in Color, Bugga, and others just as well, if not better. I had to up the pattern count by a repeat for these socks, and I didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but now the sock looks huge to me. Other mods as well, but I'll figure out how to account for those later.

So that's where I am. I'm also itching to start Miss BB. (There's a story here too, that involves stash yarn and purchasing more with a different dye lot, and how that will work, but it will have to wait.) If I make some Cozy progress, I may in fact start her, before I hit the ground running again.

Housekeeping...

2010-07-28T11:39:00.002-04:00

Attention, attention, it has occurred to me that I responded to several "commentors" in the past few months by responding to email that blogger sends......I now suspect that I've been an idiot and the commentor has probably not received my email. Also unless I've corresponded with said commentors in the past, I have no email address....

So in the interests of not being rude, Chrisknits asked for my "beet recipe". This is what I sent into the ether, through Blogger......

I used an approximation of this recipe:

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/roasted-beets-and-sauteed-beet-greens/Detail.aspx

It took over an hour for the beets to roast in the oven. I may try it again with smaller beets, and microwave them for a bit first.

The other odd thing was some of the cooked leftover white beets turned blackish (like a peeled potato) by the next day. I don't know why that would be. Maybe they weren't done enough?

I drizzled balsamic vinegar on em.....yum.

If somehow this message got through...feel free to let me know.

Thanks for your attention!

Delusional or Dumb ....

2010-07-27T12:04:00.004-04:00

.... your call.

Back in February I posted this rant:

If I hear one more Democratic congress person, liberal talking head, candidate or any of these other "do-not-know-it-alls" tell me that; "The public doesn't understand the (health care) bill"; " We need to explain it better."; "The public REALLY wants this bill." I'm gonna toss my cookies. For the record--are all you thick heads listening: I have a master's degree in a science/math field; I can read and understand content that would make your little pea brains 'splode; I can write in no less than 5 computer languages; I get really ticked when I'm patronized and marginalized. I do not need any more explanations. I need to have a bill produced and posted for WEEKS before voting, so I can digest the contents--and not on Christmas Eve. I am tired of dirty tricks, secret meetings, union kick-back, big pharma deals, and all the rest of it. While I hold out NO hope that these "things" will end, I will settle for having the opportunity to actually peruse the legislation at my leisure.

Now it can be told. It was posted in response to hearing Sestak on Ingram's radio program. She asked him how he could possibly vote for the "health" care bill when his constituents were were polling solidly against it. He responded that "people don't understand it", if they did, they'd want it.....I don't usually hear Ingram's program, and that a rep from PA was on was serendipitous. Being called ignorant just threw me off the hoop.

Who's ignorant now, Joe?

On sock puppets and other stuff.....

2010-07-22T11:30:00.011-04:00

I think that Dennis Miller is probably the funniest guy on the planet. He rarely expresses malice, but is real high on the snark-o-meter...a man after my own heart. He called Biden a "sock-puppet in a power tie". Seriously....I couldn't stop laughing. Sorry, but I'm still chuckling about it. (He does kinda resemble a sock puppet.) I suspect that based on what I know about Biden, he seems pretty secure ego-wise, he'd probably think it was pretty funny too.

I'm having monkey mind about starting another shawlette/scarf, because you know, ninety degree weather is the perfect weather to knit something one wears around the neck. I also think it means I have too many choices, and too much lovely yarn at my disposal. Yikes!! If I get off my lazy backside this weekend maybe I'll photograph all the choices, and see if that helps. Maybe ya'll can vote to help me.

At a farmer's market on Tuesday evening, I stopped at a booth that was selling yarn, Tamarack Farm. As I was longingly fingering a beautiful 3-ply, fingering/sport weight natural, charcoal colored skein, the proprietor commented "You can always spot a serious knitter. They have no problem feeling up the wool in this weather." It was lovely, and not unreasonably priced. About $8.50 for 188 yards. I'm thinking it might make really warm socks for my DH, who has a, seemingly, deadly fear of cold feet. (But he hates hot weather too. Don't know what to make of this.) I'm just not sure how much yarn I should get. Maybe I should consult one of my sock knitting references...duh. I'm thinking I should get three skeins. I'm guessing a #2, or #3, needle and 400+ yards for a decent pair of male socks, average foot length.

Sometimes I think that I have to illustrate the ....um....odd environment we have here. This is what one sees at the Tuesday night farmer's market in Boalsburg.

Notice anything unusual?

Yes, Virginia, that's a tank. Because I am not a WW scholar, I can't tell you if it is WWI or WWII, however, it is a real, decommissioned tank. (And before any commenter mentions it, yes there is a plaque, but I didn't want to walk back because the weather was threatening.) As I took this shot, I had my back to two 50 foot long anti-aircraft guns from the Battleship Pennsylvania.

We here in Central PA are not expecting an invasion, at least not a hostile invasion. (Our invaders wear sneakers and flip-flops and carry smart phones.) This particular farmer's market is held on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Military Museum. As is usually the case with residents, I've lived about five miles from this museum, share my life with a vet, and have never visited the place. I'm a bad girl. Yes, indeed.

As I was browsing the other wares at the market I happened upon a farmer selling beets. Now I've not been a total beet convert (my experience limited to the kind pickled in jars) but I've been seeing recipes that included sauteed greens (with bacon, can anything with bacon be bad?) so I decided to purchase a bunch. The fellow had three kinds - red, pink, and white (they all had specific varietal names, but....whatever) and I was vacillating undecided. I finally asked for the "pink" and, I think, because he was overwhelmed with beets, he asked if I'd like to try A white beet. Sure I said....he hesitated for a second, and said, here...take a whole bunch. I offered to pay him for the white bunch, but he refused. Nice man..."beeten" down I guess. (HA HA). The story doesn't end there however, my life is never without a complication, I now have two huge bunches of beets sticking up in the back of the Forester. I go to pick up my hubby from his office. He gets in and I say..."hey, guess what? I bought us some fresh beets at the farmers market." His response...."I hate beets". Sigh....I am now beginning to be "beeten" down myself. But the white beets are delicious - very sweet. And I was right about the bacon......

Knitting at last...

2010-07-09T15:33:00.005-04:00

...ya' know, I've been knitting really truly....but progress has been deadly slow.

I've had two regular projects going, but because I'm not inclined to take "in-progress" photos, well, there aren't any. I'm slogging along on another CeCe, and it's been slow going. Not because of the pattern, but because of the changes I made to it. I was marooned on sleeve island for A REAL LONG TIME....but, now I'm past the sleeves and am in, what I hope, is the home stretch. My purse knitting is a sock...it's been my purse knitting FOREVER, because I ripped the foot back once. Was lookin' too big and floppy. So eventually, I'll get past my sock.

In the meantime, I may have nearly finished my Christmas, in July, knitting:

OMG NOOOOOO!!! She's knit yet another pair of French Press Felted Slippers....yes, my friends I'm afraid I did.

The red pair is for my sister. Who I hope hasn't found this blog, yet. The last of the Super Bowl Sunday Sale Lamb's Pride.

This is a [poor] closeup of the button:

Pretty, no? I'm still trying to figure out how to use the macro feature well. Maybe I should read the instructions? Nah!

I'm a tad nervous about the fit of these. They may actually have felted too short in the heel. I'm not sure how that happened. But if it is an issue, I'll just make her another pair. I'm also debating about the anti-slip puffy paint on the sole, but I'll just let her decide. She does have mostly hardwood floors, so it will probably be a yes.

I didn't fuss with the quality of the photo, because it was HOT outside. Not triple digits hot, but in the 90's. And because it's July, and it is 90, it must be "Art's Festival" actually it's two competing art festivals in our little "burg". So every person on the east coast is here. Or it feels that way. I work downtown and apparently visitors forget that we...the worker bees are still here -toiling away, when they dash across the streets in front of our vehicles, and stand in the middle of the sidewalks, blocking all access.

Sigh...

Yes, I live in Wild Kingdom...

2010-06-30T11:50:00.004-04:00

....why do you ask.

It is very common around here to have to stop in the middle of a busy, main thoroughfare for a duck parade. Usually a mamma with a line of 10 or so babies marching behind her. Very often it is mystifying where exactly they are going because there are seemingly no ponds or streams in the vicinity. The following situation is also not uncommon......

No duck left behind....

Prosecuting bad guys is not the DA's only job.......

You know .....

2010-06-29T13:44:00.002-04:00

... you live in a small town when this is news!!

I guess I shouldn't complain.

Read the comments....priceless.

And just when you thought it was safe...

2010-06-25T15:33:00.005-04:00

....it's Just Shut Up Friday!

This is just too easy...like shooting fish in a barrel.

To quote an acquaintance:

Turn off NPR, take your head out of your bag of chips for 10 seconds and look at a map!

Yes, Peggy, Arizona is a border state.

Dem county supervisor: Arizona’s law might have been justifiable if it was a border state

For the record--we are living in an age where ANYONE in the public eye does not get a pass on the stupid stuff they say. Please think carefully about making idiotic statements in public. Trust me when I tell you, that this is not the 15 minutes of fame Andy Warhol had in mind.

Hey "Just shut up Thursday" is making a comback!

2010-06-24T12:32:00.004-04:00

..... nice when one actually confirms their own irrelevancy....

Gloria who?

Thanks for that! You can go away [again] now--and just shut up.

Some people ....

2010-06-23T10:04:00.002-04:00

... have multiple knitting projects, and can't resist starting yet another. (I have multiple projects, but generally finish one before I embark on another, unless I put one in "time out".)

... feel the need to have one of every sweater design/color on the planet (and you know who you are!) Most frequently heard wail "But I don't have ANYTHING like this!!

... some people think that a collection of baseball caps is the most essential element of any wardrobe.

... some people think that T-shirts with slogans are appropriate office attire. (I just threw this in because we've been discussing "fashioned challenged" colleagues recently.)

... then there is me. I am "involved" with no less that THREE novels. Concurrently. Really.

First there is the audio book I'm knitting by....The Help by Stockett. I highly recommend this book and the audio is fabulous. There are several actors voicing the characters, and they truly come to life. There is most definitely a movie in this book's future.

Next there is a Kindle book that I have loaded to my iPod. I have the iPod Kindle app, and it works beautifully. I found that I can read the iPod when I don't have anything else with me, or it is dark. Like in a hotel room when "my roommate" is still sleeping. This is a Kellerman book Self-Defense. I find Kellerman's books are inconsistent. Some are terrific, some eh. They have the feel of true crime about them, in a novel. I'm liking this one a lot.

Then last, but not least, there is a real live print book. I love me the feel of books with pages, I don't care anything about the other technologies......this is a Carol Goodman book, The Night Villa. I sorta got hooked on Goodman after reading The Seduction of Water. I like her use of "language". I can't explain it, but a much more "literary" colleague said the same thing--independently no less. Her books always have a "water feature", and she is deeply invested in Greek, and other, mythology. Don't let that put you off though. In addition to Seduction, I've read The Lake of Dead Languages, and The Drowning Pool (see the water thing?) and not a dog in the bunch. The one I'm reading now, may be my favorite so far--and yes there is water involved here too. I was at the library yesterday, and picked up her The Sonnet Lover, it doesn't come in paper, and I wanted to read it, and am not thrilled with hauling hard covers around. So that will be up next.

The question I began to ponder is how the hell am I doing this, and seemingly keeping everything in order (I mean in my brain of course.) Maybe because these three are so very different, I'm not having bizarre crossover dreams.....but it is still odd, no?

So those are my book reviews for the moment. If you want some complex reading I can highly recommend "The Girl with..." trilogy, even though I'm still resisting the last of the series until I can savor it on vacation.

Remember when I wrote....

2010-06-11T10:35:00.003-04:00

.... this

Well...now there's this.....

Point, set, match......

Catchup ....

2010-06-09T10:03:00.005-04:00

I thought I'd be finished with one of my two WIP. I took some time off at the end of May (it was a use it or lose it situation, I rarely find myself there), and helped my mom with some stuff. I wish I could say it was a lovely altruistic exercise, but it was not. I regret to say that my mom is "maturing" into a difficult person.

I also took some time off to plant annuals for my MIL as her Mother's Day gift. She's pushing 92, with a new hip, and is perking right along. I don't know how she does it. She is not "maturing" into a difficult person, though her daughter could possibly disagree with that statement.

Anyway, the time off did not help with my WsIP. I find myself going days without knitting. Last evening I was waiting in the car, on a divine summer day, and literally fell asleep knitting a row on a pair of socks. The universe is clearly trying to tell me something.

What are the odds that I will be able to refrain from starting The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, until vaca in August? I just finished The Girl Who Played With Fire, and was left with an extraordinary cliff hanger. (Could this be why my WsIP have suffered? Hummmm?)

Speaking of cliff hangers, I also just finished (audio), an Echo In The Bone. Yikes. What a story! And the next installment won't be around for at least two, or better, years. Frankly, this might be my favorite of all the books, though I really liked Outlander. I have a "thing" for revolutionary war history, so all the historical detail (though most were fictionalized) really rowed my boat.

This week my snit revolves around Comcast Cable. They are forcing us to convert to digital. (I'm still using my VCR regularly, and this pretty much eliminates the usefulness of that technology. Ticks me off royally.) Anyway, it turns out that we receive cable through our condo association, and much like a hotel, HBO is shown on a NOT digital channel. The free converters they give you will not allow us to receive HBO, even though we PAY for it. So in order to continue HBO we have to PAY for the service (which we already do) and PAY for the upgraded digital box. Huh? Does this make sense? I'm already paying a premium, I've gotten this service as is for 20 years (literally), and now I have to pay more for the same thing? Srsly!!

So, I cajoled , got nasty, found that most of the customer service people I spoke to weren't even born when we began getting HBO, and finally am getting upgraded service for less that we are paying now. Except, our boxes refuse to recognize the signals the company is sending, and insist that they are not "legally" connected. I must add that our oldest TV, which is adjacent to our exercise machine, has a digital box (needed to get Versus last year), and I installed it with no problem.....though we didn't get HBO on it. So I am not a happy Comcast customer. Today a tech is coming to sort this out, and my convenience has to be between 1:00 and 5:00, how the hell is that my convenience? Sheesh!

Congrats to the Blackhawks!! I regret to say that I missed the winning goal. Of course, so did most of the Blackhawks, and all the Flyers, except for the goalie.

If I were president ....

2010-05-21T10:15:00.003-04:00

... and a state passed a law that concerned me. Here's what I'd do.

I'd READ it thoroughly.
I'd get on the shoe phone to my AG and say, "Have one of the elves evaluate the federal statute with regard to this law, and write up a comparison. I want it in 48 hours."
"In addition, have the elves search case law for applicable cases and decisions. I hear there's this thing called LexisNexis (ETA: As per Bezzie--Thanks!). Write me a short report, and talking points and put in on the teleprompter."

If I did this, here is what I would have found out in 48 hours max:

That the federal statute gives far more latitude to law enforcement than the Arizona law AND that the Arizona law actually codifies the "no profiling" restriction, which which federal law doesn't.

Think the federal law is a lawsuit waiting to happen? Well, you're late.

MUEHLER V. MENA (03-1423) 544 U.S. 93 (2005)
332 F.3d 1255, vacated and remanded.

The Supreme Court found in a .... are you sitting down....9 to 0 decision (even Bader Ginsburg crusty liberal that she is, concurred), that the federal law is constitutional, and that law enforcement does not need a reason to ask for proper identification and proof of residency. This case revolved around unlawful search and seizure, and is very clear.

Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote the opinion...not majority opinion, mind you...the OPINION.

Read paragraph 14:

The Court of Appeals also determined that the officers violated Mena’s Fourth Amendment rights by questioning her about her immigration status during the detention. 332 F.3d, at 1264—1266. This holding, it appears, was premised on the assumption that the officers were required to have independent reasonable suspicion in order to question Mena concerning her immigration status because the questioning constituted a discrete Fourth Amendment event. But the premise is faulty. We have “held repeatedly that mere police questioning does not constitute a seizure.” Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 434 (1991); see also INS v. Delgado, 466 U.S. 210, 212 (1984). “[E]ven when officers have no basis for suspecting a particular individual, they may generally ask questions of that individual; ask to examine the individual’s identification; and request consent to search his or her luggage.” Bostick, supra, at 434—435 (citations omitted). As the Court of Appeals did not hold that the detention was prolonged by the questioning, there was no additional seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Hence, the officers did not need reasonable suspicion to ask Mena for her name, date and place of birth, or immigration status.

Once I saw this, I'd shut up. Or have my word smith elves construct a line or two that I could use that would not put me in an awkward position. (Mostly because I "like" law enforcement almost as much as I "like" the military, and can't seem to be able to keep this fact under wraps.) I'd then tell my minions to keep their opinions to themselves unless they could come up with grounds that wouldn't suck us down like quicksand..... I have no problems with pragmatists.

I would like to request that our elected officials, particularly those who are supposed to be smarter than God, understand the actual laws of the country they are supposed to be representing. Is that asking too much? (This debacle makes W looks like Einstein.)

Oh and ACLU....Game on!

Yes we can!!!!

2010-05-19T09:32:00.006-04:00

Hey hey hey good-by!

This morning on the way to work I asked my husband if I should send an "I told you so message" to Arlen, the ultimate opportunist. You may recall that when I wrote to him, in fury, about his support of the "health care" bull, I ended with how he should enjoy his last term in the senate, because he was "outta there". My husband, in an uncharacteristic charitable moment, said no. He's a better man than I. Just an FYI, switching parties wasn't the issue. Selling his soul to Obama et.al., as part of the switch was the real problem. The citizens of our commonwealth always expected Arlen to do their bidding, and most of the time he did. When he didn't this time around....he was destined for failure. Perfect faustian ending.

I should add here, that I'm an "unaffiliated voter" and we have closed primaries in PA. Just as in the presidential primary when I almost registered as a Dem to vote against Hillary (who now looks like a stellar choice, my how times have changed), I very nearly did it this time too. But decided against it. It looks like, unless he really screws up, Toomey can beat either of them. (I'm not completely sold on him either, but hell I'm looking at the lesser evils now.)

Big FAIL!!

2010-05-14T12:18:00.003-04:00

Complete Collapse!!

It's going to be a long two and a half months ..... until Steeler camp!

Aside: It's not that I don't like baseball, but the Pirates are so god awful. And their owner, prince that he is, refuses to sell to the Lemieux ownership group. At least then the team would have a sporting chance......

I'm an idiot....

2010-05-10T14:23:00.007-04:00

... you can't be shocked! For the second time in as many sleeves I've made the same error. Really. I'm knitting Bonne Marie's CeCe. This is the second time around, and I'm making long sleeves. (B. Marie helped me with converting 3/4 to long. If you would like advice, please email Bonne directly. She's aces.) It is a nice knit. However, for some reason I keep forgetting to size up my needle from the cuff ribbing to the sleeve lace. Duh. I am starting my second sleeve prior to finishing my first because I'm making a minor change in the design. So rather than ripping the first before I'm sure about what I'm doing, I decided to start the second. I've already made this mistake on the first sleeve. It is inconceivable that I forgot this time AGAIN! This sweater will be wearable long about November at this rate.

Just so you know that my pace is not glacial "just because", I did complete this in the meantime:

I made one of these a year ago and gave it as a gift. I had lots of pearls left over, and wanted one of my own. I finally sat down and over a couple weekends, finished the bugger.

This is constructed of size 6 beads (with the delightful name of cream soda) in a peyote stitch bracelet, and a variety of freshwater pearls and Swarovski crystals. The crystals are nestled among the pearls in the clasp, and are hard to see in the photo.

You can see some of the crystals if you look closely - they are peridot and amethyst.

In fact, I reconstructed this a second time too. I made it too long and the pearl clasp rolled around my wrist. I hate that.

So along I knit. I have a pair of socks and a sweater, that seem to be going nowhere.....Why is that? And surprise!! I have another pair of French Press Slippers ready to be stitched together and felted. Might be a good hockey game project.

Go Pens...please put the Habs away tonight!! Please!!

I probably should explain....

2010-05-07T09:45:00.003-04:00

... the women's movement rant.

It was engendered (no pun intended) by the ....ummm disgusting situation with Steeler's quarterback, Roethlisburger. Apparently, he has never been known as "Mr. Nice Guy", under the best of circumstances, but in the 'Burgh, keep your nose clean, and nobody much cares. The residents hold the "nice guy" athletes (Joe Greene, Jack Lambert (can you imagine?), Mario Lemieux, Franco Harris, Willy Starzel, way too many to name) near and dear to their hearts. But the bad eggs...meh. That is unless you turn into a really bad actor - which has a pretty low threshold in the 'Burgh -ask Plaxico and most recently Santonio. Roethlisburger is on thin, thin ice, let me tell you. That's the back story.

The other part of the context is where I currently live, a college town (which is emptying out even as we speak, it becomes almost livable for the next 75 or so days). If you live in South Bend, Ann Arbor, or Chapel Hill, I expect you know EXACTLY from whence I speak.

When the details of Roethlisburger's (hereafter referred to as "the Idiot") situation became public. I shook my head. I know those women. The underage partiers who CHOOSE (important point) to go out and binge drink. They don't care if they drink too much, and some do it systematically. Meaning--that is their intent. They go out in a posse, and drink themselves stupid. They figure as long as they are not driving they will be safe. (Here, lately, the authorities have been cracking down hard on establishments serving underage drinkers, but the overage drinkers are no smarter.)

Enter the Idiot (and others of his ilk), these women are not just easy pickin's because they are intoxicated (by choice), they literally are asking for sexual contact. And here is where the victim/participant line gets totally blurred and why this is nothing short of head shaking time. Before, a woman could be accused of leading someone on if she 1) wore short skirts; 2) tight clothing that showed her "endowments"; 3) drank too much; 4) flirted.... Everyone can probably come to some agreement that these behaviors, while not smart, and show a lack of personal respect, do not invite sexual assault, in and of themselves.

However, what to make of this?

The 20-year-old GCSU student and others in her group of sorority sisters were wearing name tags of a sexual nature—the accuser's read dtf, short for Down to F---. Witnesses said the woman was visibly intoxicated at Capital City, and one told police that the accuser had been "obsessed" with Roethlisberger's arrival in town.

Now I have no idea what really happened. And frankly, at this point, I'm too disgusted to care. You can read the SI story for yourselves and see if you can figure it out. However, envision what this DA saw in his report:

A visibly drunk student, wearing a profane invitation, and according to heresay, "obsessed" with the accused, is now claiming sexual assault. What a superb witness! I'm not a lawyer, and I don't even play one on TV, but I can hear the cross examination now....can't you? What choice did he have in the absence of physical evidence? But according to the feminist movement, this person is still a victim. Of sexual assault? Maybe...but we'll never know for sure. What we do know is that there are lots of victims of stupidity in this story.

The fun .....stuff

2010-05-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

Some people just know how to have a good time!!

Michelle the Knitting Lady

When I sent this link to Mr. KB, all he wanted to know was how she was able to get all those tickets!! (I want to know how she got a photo op with Mario!)

That was then...this is now...

2010-05-04T15:15:00.003-04:00

That was then...it was the mid-70's we were female, in college, and the "women's movement" was just showing the signs of coming to fruition. We were indoctrinated that we could do anything and everything....be a mom, have a career, marry a guy who could cook and do housework, and help with the kids.....nirvana awaited. (Never mind that I somehow grew up in a traditional family that didn't hold with traditional gender roles, and I never realized that I couldn't be an engineer or a veterinarian.) And I never even considered burning any piece of my underwear.

This is now...a woman of modest birth and education rises to a high political position as the governor of the largest state in the union. In that position she has a 15 billion dollar budget, control over the state national guard, and 15,000 state police. While in office, she arm wrestles big oil into providing stipends for state residents. She is a mother to 5 children, one with special needs (when she choses to continue the pregnancy). She has a hottie hubby who, probably along with nannies--let's be realistic, handles the kids when necessary. She hits the national stage, and what's the first criticism the icons of the women's movement level? Is it her policies? Is it fact based critiques of how state money was spent? Deficit spending? Nope! Women like Gloria Steinem and Sally Quinn, old guards of the women's movement, criticize her mothering of her children.

This is where the push for equality of women has brought us? Really? Haven't come too far have we ladies? Politics aside (whether one likes her or not), this is what women criticize? That she gave birth to a Down child because her personal stance is anti-abortion? Idiots.

That was then ... women were embarrassed and treated badly by authorities when they were sexually assaulted, especially when the abuser was an "acquaintance". They were blamed for leading him on, acting provocatively etc. The result was many perps were never punished. Women who were abused in this way, first by the criminal, then by the authorities, were debilitated for many years, if not forever. These kinds of scars are hard to overcome. The women's movement demanded better treatment for victims of sexual assault. Victims, but women in particular, were endowed with power to bring these criminals to justice. However, along with this power comes a responsibility, and some women didn't get the memo.

This is now... women are getting the sequence wrong. Somehow instead of understanding that one needs to respect oneself, that power is in the way one carries oneself through life (and this has nothing to do with short skirts, and ho' shoes), our younger, and probably elderly like me, women think that they have no responsibility to act like they actually respect themselves. They get snot snorting drunk and then couldn't identify an elephant in a nursery let alone someone who might have hurt them. But that's apparently OK. They willingly crawl into bed naked with someone (drunk or not), "do not say no" to the act, then decide it was rape after the fact - when the guilt sets in. (I wish I were making this up.) Our daughters have decided that it is OK to consciously act any way they want, then run to mommy and daddy judge (instead of mommy and daddy), and plead assault. Where are the strong women who make good decisions, keep control of their actions, and when they don't, take responsibility for them?

The upshot, of course, is that real, serious sexual crime, which is not as uncommon as I'd like, is tainted with this frivolous crap.

This is not popular of course. Victims advocates will find this appalling. However, because of our location, this is not an unheard of scenario. I am not talking about the woman who goes out for a few drinks, meets a guy, and gets ambushed on the walk to her apartment. I am not talking about the individual who leaves her window open on a hot night, and a lunatic crawls in her window and threatens her with a hammer. (Really happened. He's locked up for good, thanks to the victim's brave testimony.)

We, alas, have raised a generation of wimps. Where are the strong women who when they are harassed by another individual step up and tell the harasser that they're going to "rip their arm off and beat them over the head with the bloody stump", if they do not cease and desist, and in a loud enough voice to attract attention and embarrass the hell out of them? Where are they? I can not be the only one....

But we have to draw the line somewhere. Women who do not take themselves seriously, do a disservice to all the rest of us. Women who try to diminish others on their personal choices, rather than public action, do a disservice too. That's what the women's movement should have taught us.

Big fail!

The short version... believe it or not

2010-04-23T10:00:00.006-04:00

... of my ankle....

Last week I had a business dinner at a local restaurant. Mr. KB and I drive together in the morning, I drop him off at his office, and I keep the car at mine. (I do nearly all the extraneous shopping...anyone who shops with a husband probably understands why that is so much more efficient.) Anyhoo, this dinner was later in the evening, so I drove the car up to his office, parked behind his building, in case he wanted to go home while I was at this dinner, and proceeded to walk downtown to the restaurant. And it really is down, the campus is "uphill" from the town proper. It is probably a couple blocks. I was wearing regular business attire with a dressy pair of [sensible] clog type shoes. All of a sudden I was arse over tea cups tripping over something on the sidewalk...what? Dunno. Physical Plant has asked me twice now, but it could easily have been just a sidewalk join. This was not just a trip, graceful swan that I am, I am no stranger to a trip. This was a trip and fall. A woman student saw me and came over to see if I was hurt, that's how "violent" the tumble was. I had already leaped to my feet hoping against hope that no one had seen me. I told her I was fine, and she said that she had fallen in exactly the same place the week before. I continued on the restaurant, had dinner, and about two hours later, when I got up, was in horrible pain. For the next week my foot turned all shades of bruise. Of course, this didn't stop me from wearing high heeled ho'pumps to Swan Lake on Saturday night. Yes, I'm an idiot, why do you ask?

The problem appeared to be my foot, which was still bruised as of Monday, not my ankle. I felt for awhile, that I was improving, but this week the improvement seemed to stall. So while I went in for the scheduled test, that involved walking/running, I decided to see a doc/PA, just to have this checked out. I got sent for x-rays, and lo and behold, the radiologist found an "equivocal, non-displaced, fracture, of the lateral malleolus". Translated into English that means that they THINK there is a crack on that bone that sticks out on the outside, there is a lucency, but they're not sure. Because it is non-displaced, they can treat it like a bad sprain.

So here I am with anti-inflammatories, and a brace to keep my ankle stable.

So there you have it. The pain is from spraining the ligaments and I'm hoping to ditch the brace next week.

Meanwhile, what's brewing in my head is no great revelation, but it is antithetical to everyone's thinking around here. Please lower your expectations....Austen I am not!

Maybe I can distract you with Saroyan.

Really a fun knit. This is Malabrigo Silky Merino. It is gorgeous yarn. Alas I only bought two skeins. I would have made this a tad longer had I another skein.

I have no measurements.

It has been delightful to wear on the coldish spring mornings. When the tails cross in front, they hang down in a ruffle. It is knit across the short length, end to end, so it never gets boring. There is a pattern stitch on every row.

So there...everything else here is a work in progress....and I'm terrible at documenting progress.

I Couldn't Make This Up....

2010-04-22T16:53:00.002-04:00

Went for a diagnostic test and found a cracked ankle......which was completely unrelated to the testing. The test outcome was fine, I'm in great shape, the 15 year old disguised as a doctor told me so.

I'm just resolving the ankle issue, more to come.

I must also warn you. I am writing, in my head, an indictment of the women's movement as it relates to personal responsibility. I may have to share it or explode. Not a popular thing. Especially around these here parts.

Bad Blogger.......

2010-04-15T11:56:00.005-04:00

.... I started this yesterday, but real life, uh, I mean my job, interrupted.

When I wrote the title I was thinking about that commercial where the woman admonishes her credit score as if it were a puppy ("Bad, bad 509."). Yeah, my brain is still coasting.

But we finally got our taxes done and mailed (hubby is a Luddite). Besides the Post Office really needs our help.

My personnel review, as expected, came back like a boomerang for [minor] revision. [deleted text to protect my long term employment] If you're really interested, email me for the rant. I long for the days, when I sat down with my supervisor, and she and I had a casual chat about what was good, what needed work, and where the unit was headed in the near term. Along with that there were always griping about our own supreme poo bah. Often I was given a new and usually challenging assignment. Fun times....

I have one more med test lined up, to complete my winter of getting hit with the illness stick. This hopefully will wrap up my odyssey [fingers crossed]. I did however emerge with one overarching issue, and there is a not so simple solution...lose about 25 lbs.....There I've said it. It's not so simple because even though I'm a pretty good eater....little fast food, no soft drinks, not big on sweets (outside of sugar in my tea, and dark, fine chocolate), I am weight loss resistant. I have a bit of insulin resistance going on...yes, it is documented. I am also exercise averse....meaning outside of yoga, I hate exercise. A deep abiding hate. I find it wasted time, unless I'm going somewhere....like hiking. Oh yeah...and I'm over 50, you can figure out the rest.

The bright side is I could knit smaller sizes! I don't know how I'm going to do this, but it must be done. My doctor, who is really a nice honest gentleman, simply said, yes, the weight mattered. And I'm smart enough to know this.
But for following along this far you get a bonus.

MORE French Press Slippers!! Yea!! I know what you're thinking--that the flu back in January, or bad daytime TV, or both, killed brain cells. Actually, these are a Christmas gift 2010 for my Mom. So there's a method to the madness.

Details:

French Press Felted Slippers
Less than 2 skeins Lambs Pride Worsted (85 wool/15 mohair) my felting favorite. And I got them for half price at our LYS Superbowl sale.
The delightful Pistachio colorway

More details:

The button.....precious no? Bought it at JoAnn fabrics.

The soles with puffy paint hearts, which really do make them less slippery. (I know this because I jammed my too big flipper into them to check.) Yeah, not nicely drawn, but it was a bitch because the tip of the paint bottle kept catching in the wool. My mom's house has mainly hard wood floors, and if she fell and broke something because of slippers, MY slippers, my sister would murder me in my sleep.

I will soon be starting yet another pair in a wonderful goldish color. But because I don't know who they're for yet....I have several options, I'll forgo the puffy paint until I decide. Stay tuned.

I also have another finished piece that I've been wearing a lot this spring, but I'll save that for next week. Knitting has been verra slow lately. Work has been so busy, by the time I get home, grab something simple for dinner, I'm falling asleep and knitting isn't even an option.

Good news, bad news.....

2010-04-02T10:40:00.002-04:00

Good news...

The pneumonia cleared up completely. I didn't know how bad I was feeling until now. I'm even getting my feisty back.

Bad news...

Left me with a raging sinus infection and ten MORE days of antibiotics. I do not have one cell of fauna left in my whole body.The sinus infection, however, seems to be gone.

Good news...

After many weeks worth of angst, my personnel review is (fingers crossed) finished. (Backstory: for some reason, this office elevates a simple process to bizarre levels of busywork. It is horrifying.)

Bad news...

Even after several go-arounds, the "fat lady" hasn't sung. The exec. dir. has to "approve" the review. This has been tricky in the past...like hitting a moving target.

Good news...

I read a number of blogs, but don't comment on many. However, in the past month I've "won" two blog contests. I am someone who doesn't ever WIN anything. Hence my aversion to games and gambling.

Thank you Zeneedle for the Sublime Kid Mohair. So very cool.
And I just received a free pattern from Wendy Knits...her work is lovely!

To say I was stunned this morning when I was notified about the pattern is an understatement.

Bad news...

It almost makes up for me backing into my neighbor's bumper yesterday morning. (Though I don't think my husband will agree.) Fortunately, used loosely, the only damage is to MY car. My driver's side rear bumper is pretty much toast (which means the whole bumper will need to be replaced), and the tail light is broken up. There is good news here though. The fellow who's truck I hit had virtually NO damage save a little scratch on the underside of his bumper. I left a note and he called to tell me that it didn't concern him. (Good karma points to you Ron!)

So I hope this explains, the silence here from Happy Valley. I am now hoping that my review is passed along without further comment. Then maybe I can actually concentrate on my job!!

Knitting content is languishing on my camera......maybe Monday!!

Oh yes, and Happy Easter to those who celebrate the holiday, or holy day, you pick. And Happy Passover to my Jewish friends and colleagues.

What I did this weekend....

2010-03-22T11:53:00.002-04:00

1.) Filed and shredded documents that have been languishing.

2.) Finished, all but the felting, ANOTHER pair of French Press Felted Slippers (Christmas 2010 gift).

3.) Watched my tournament bracket get kicked to the curb...thanks a bunch Pitt and Kansas.

4.) Napped.

What I didn't do .......

1.) Watch the news (except for sports).

2.) Watch the cowards and greedy SOBs in the House pass what has to be the worst legislation in the history of the republic.

The week that will never end.....

2010-03-10T13:36:00.003-05:00

... and here's why.

As you'all may have noticed, I rarely post about health issues here. Just generic flu and such, nothing exciting, which is really how I like it. With crappy health care on the horizon, I'm even more old skool about posting forever information on the web. However, this past week, has been, well, from hell.

Cutting to the chase...if you ever want immediate care in an ER, just write chest pain on the little intake slip; sprain your ankle, "chest pain", cut your finger, "chest pain". You go right to the head of the line, even if you're standing upright, and not in particular distress. OK, I'm only kidding. Only write chest pain if it's true, and it was for me this past Monday.

Backstory: I'd been feeling pain for about a week (yeah, don't say it), but I'm pretty savvy about heart symptoms, and this felt muscular, and was relieved (somewhat) with NSAIDs. Saturday, though, at the end of a gymnastics meet (didn't participate HAHA), might have been all those great male buns in tights, I was seeing stars. As we drove home, I mentioned to my DH that I was trying to decide whether he should take me to the ER. In typical fashion he said, "Well, we're halfway there, so decide now! Don't wait until we get home!" Men!! Yoi! (I may add here that because I've got a pretty good background in the medical arena, understand the lingo, and can even spell the hard words, he defers pretty much to me.) Anyway we went home, I took 500 mg of Motrin, and the pain eased. By Monday though, when this hadn't resolved I called our doc. Though it is a large practice with a cadre of PAs, EVERYONE was booked. The nurse finally said, just go to the ER, even though this doesn't sound like a heart issue, women get weird symptoms, so go.....So I called DH at work, and he took the afternoon off and took me to the ER where we remained for 5 hours, they poked me more times that I could count, Xrayed, CT'd and EKG'd. I rang the bell on two blood tests, and with further testing determined that I had slight pneumonia and pleurisy in my left lung. They threatened to keep me overnight, but my wonderful doctor, who has been treating us for twenty years, told them to hold off, that he'd followup.

We did followup today, and things look like they're resolving. Still going to do a minor test to make sure nothing is missed, but wants to wait for the pneumonia to clear up. Smarty boots is our doctor. If the pneumonia had been on my right side, or both sides, this would have probably been different. Leave it to me to have lung problems exactly where my heart is supposed to be.

Some interesting things. We have a small town hospital here. In the trauma center where I used to work, you had to go through a medical (ETA: left for entertainment purposes, this should be metal detector!) detector, and a guard searched your bag. Not so here. EVERYONE from the treating PA, to the RNs to the LPNs, to the volunteers, were so nice! Professional and nice. And they were busy! It was Monday, and everyone who had problems over the weekend showed up. It is spring break week, so everyone who had been holding off because of students, showed up. (An aside: When I first felt the pain, it was "State Patty's Day" here, a totally bogus excuse for students to get blasted, and I added that to my "whether I should to to the ER" calculation because they are always busy treating alcohol overdoses. It was a resounding NO!)

They have TV's attached to each ER bed. Now, had I been alone, without my iTouch and knitting, that would have been a nice option. As it was, though, we had to endure soap operas and Judge Judy, from the bed next to me. (And that woman was being treated for migraines. Does bad daytime TV contribute to migraines?) They have free wifi, so when they told me something I could look it up immediately on web md. I tried to knit, but the IV--IN MY WRIST (which is the oddest place anyone has ever installed an IV) made it uncomfortable. On the plus side, there is no evidence that I even had an IV but for a little soreness. Speaks to the skill of the RN.

On discharge I was told to use Motrin(!) if I experienced more pain. What is it they say, even a stopped watch is right twice a day.

So we're back to business as usual that means:

On the way to drop my car off for maintenance service, my DH's car, with NO prior warning, decided to quit. Yes, just quit. We had to have it towed to the garage, cancelled my service, and are awaiting the diagnosis.

I was planning to travel to a campus to deliver two presentations at a campus wide event, only to find out that their chancellor passed away yesterday, from a serious illness. They are forging ahead with the event anyway. Which is rather shocking on the surface.

Just some trivia:

My sister (30 year critical care veteran) tells me that the term is no longer ER, Emergency Room, but ED for Emergency Department. (Who knew?) And that shortness of breath which used to be abbreviated SOB, for millennia, is now SOA for "shortness of air" because some SOB was offended.

Ben Rothlisburger had better get his act together. Outside of the whether or not charges are filed, he is going to wear out his welcome in Pittsburgh. I've said it often in this space, Pittsburghers love their athletes, if they work hard and stay out of trouble. (Think blue collar esthetic.) That's why they love the hockey guys so much. You rarely see them in the news--unless they're visiting a hospital or bowling for charity. To be fair, I feel that Rothlisburger is getting roasted somewhat unfairly, at this point. He buys an expensive house in podunk GA to get out of the limelight, goes to a local watering hole, and barring charges, cannoodles with the locals. None of that is criminal. (If charges are filed -- all bets are off.) But buddy, you need to pay better attention, that's all I'm sayin'.

Wednesday General....

2010-03-03T09:36:00.005-05:00

*1* This is the time of year that I think if I ever see another snowflake, it will be too soon (sorry Bezzie). We were just beginning to see our snow pack shrink. We still have about a foot on non-pavement areas, and the "warmish" days, like the mid-30s, encourage some melting, but keep us from having flooding runoff. The other good news is that it means we will probably have a well replenished water table, and no drought this summer, if everything else is normal. Yeah, sweet corn! Then this morning we wake to a soggy layer of snow [again] all over everything not pavement. Right now, as I type, there is a granular snow pelting down.

This is also the time of year, when after three months of constant wearing my winter gear makes me look like a homeless person. With vehicles encrusted with road grime, and just everything generally filthy, there is absolutely no way to keep anything clean. Ugh....that's all I can say.

*2* As I wrote yesterday the Penguins played the Sabres at home last night, so the two people who were the focus of the gold medal game were back together. While I'm sure many sports franchise PR departments are filled with bright people, the Penguins PR people have displayed sheer genius for years. (This in a town that has a 6 time Super Bowl team, and a [supposedly] major league baseball team, and big time college basketball, just to name a few.) From having their star players hand deliver season tickets, to having the players deliver pizza to the construction crews building their new arena, and to the students standing in line for the "cheap" seats right before the games, they never cease to grasp an opportunity to connect with the community. Last night before the game they had a short ceremony and introduced ALL the Olympians on both teams. Reserving Ryan Miller, Brooks Orpic, Marc Andre Fleury, and, of course, Crosby for last. It should not surprise anyone to hear, that the loudest, standing O was for Ryan Miller, who looked a little nonplussed by the response. Miller and Fleury were both sitting out, and were just wearing sweaters, but it was clear, that Miller was startled when he stuck his head out of the runway and only waved to the crowd as an afterthought. I thought it was pretty classy of the crowd. I also thought that Miller should enjoy it while he can. The next time the Sabres show up, there won't be any ovations......trust me.

When the winning Olympic goal was shown on the scoreboard, there was actually a scattering of boos. Not for Crosby certainly, who is loved in Pittsburgh, but for the result.

*3* As for the disposition of the Oceania sweater. I'm very temped to "experiment", but resisted, and cast on for a second Bonne Marie Ce Ce. This one in Classic Elite, All Weather Cotton (Which I can't seem to find anymore, I originally got mine from Webs almost 2 years ago). And will have long, rather than short, or 3/4 sleeves. (The Oceania sweater will have the ends sewn in, and will be "presented" to my mom. Maybe I'll wear it once or twice first, just because. She won't mind, and I'll be careful.) I cannot say enough about Bonne's patterns. They are immaculate, and I'm a chronic pattern mis-reader. I am also a big fan of her sizing. And I like her style--but that's just me.

I'm also in the final throws of Saroyan. But it's looking like I may run out of yarn before I'm done. I only had two skeins of Manos Silky Wool (about 300 yards, but I suspect less). I may have to rip back. But it is such an easy pattern to knit, it will not be a hardship. I just would have liked it a little longer...n'at.

*4* Finally, after a lull of sorts, I'm being bombarded by these (all three arrived in my junk box today):

We are pleased to inform you of the announcement today of winners of the NETHERLANDS ONLINE LOTTERY held on 19th February 2010.Your Company or your personal e-mail address is attached to winning number 20-01-2005-02MSW, with serial number S/N-00168 drew the lucky numbers 887-13-865-37-10-81, and consequently won in the first lottery category.

**************************************************
Hello My Dear How Are You And Your Family,
From sister Mary Konate
My Dearest in Christ

My name is Mrs. Mary Konate a nationality of Kuwait . I am married to late Mr. JAMES KONATE who worked with Kuwait embassy in Ivory Coast for nine years before he died in the year October 2003. We were married for twenty years with a child. He died after a the illness that lasted for four days.
***************************************************

From Miss.Linda Kona
Abidjan,Cote d'Ivoire.

Good day my dear,
In confidence,I have to introduce myself for I am linda kona 22 years old,I am the only child of late Mr and Mrs.Peter kona.I prayed before contacting you,please do not see my mail as embrassment as we do not know each other.

I wish to request for your assistance in my efforts to see the transfer of my inherited money for investment under your care and directive,while I continue my education of there in your country.I inherited Two Million,Six Hundred Thousand Dollars ($2,600,000.00) here in my name with one of the prime bank in my country and I will require your assistance in receiving the transfer of the money in your local account for investment purposes.
*********************************************************************************

Seriously!! Is there anyone left on planet Earth who responds to these things?

And don't call me "my dear"!! I'm not your dear!! And I'm in a foul mood.

Showdown at ....

2010-03-01T13:29:00.013-05:00

... high noon.

Yeah, it's been some time since I last posted. Mostly because I've been having a "time" at work. I'd love to be able to post the strum and drang here, but I'm too cognizant of the very real possibility that someone would run across this. Nothing on the innernets is private...nothing. A mantra I keep repeating to myself. Just let me say, it sucks and let to go at that.

Here's another thing that kinda sucks. My Oceania Cardigan. Why you ask? Well, the pattern sizes were cosmic in proportion. Like a medium was listed as 44 inches across the chest. Yikes!

Even though I knitted it in pieces and checked the gauge now and again, and it seemed OK-- stitched together it is 48 inches wide. Yeh, I gained 4 inches somewhere in my journey.

And take a gander at that neckline. I look like a bobblehead when I put it on. To even get to this point, I also endured all kinds of trials and tribulations. Detailed on Ravelry (the Place That Shall Not Be Named if you're Bezzie) if you'd like to bore yourself.

I would like to rip and repeat the neckband, but because the button bands were 5 stitches picked up at the top of the neckband, I'm afraid I won't know what to do with the loose and floppy stitches at the top of the button bands if I rip out the neckband. I'm thinking I could finesse it. Like put the 5 stitches on a holder and somehow knit them in with the new neckband, but dunno....any suggestions?

Here's the view of the problem area....

See to the left of the button? It so happens that red stripe is where I picked up the stitches for the button band.

Ultimately I have two choices. Give it a go, and see what happens. If the worst occurs, I'll have to reknit the neck and BOTH button bands.

Or, make it a Mother's Day gift to my mother, who would love it just as it is....I think.

Next up is the Lotus Blossom Hat from Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting.

(Yes--the hat is shown on a mini-basketball, and sitting on duct tape. Cut me a break.)

I don't know what goes on in Cat's brain, but it is frightening. I just couldn't get my brain around the mobius headband part, and how it could work, but damn it did. Beautifully.

I used a bulky yarn, with a similar gauge, instead of two strands of worsted, and needed less than one 165 yard skein.

To add to the fun, it is reversable. this is the "inside".

I don't know what side I like better!!

Now I'm sure that it would look even better in a semi-solid yarn, but I wanted something to blend with my Noro Scarf, and this works beautifully.

It is not a "serious" hat. It looks rather like one of those wrapped turbans one sees on elderly ladies on park benches.

As a bonus, one can bind off after the band and just have a lovely mobius headband. I'm definitely going to work up one of those. Maybe with Malabrigo.

This pattern is easy, peasy. The yarn is Ester Bitran Talinay #201 which I purchased at our LYS Super Sunday sale.

Finally, I was pretty conflicted about the gold metal hockey game. It was a great game, regardless of outcome! Ryan Miller was wonderful. But wouldn't you know...the one time I wish Crosby wouldn't score, he does. I just hope he keeps it up for the playoff run. Something you gotta understand about Pittsburgh sports, we love our players. Keep your nose clean, be a contributor, and you will always have a place in Pittsburgh's heart. Ask Plaxico. There were probably people standing in line to load the moving van when he went to NY.

And Nancy, the grading curve jokes not withstanding....that's "E" for effort. Apparently spelling isn't your strength either......

ETA (3/2): Mr. KB who is languishing at home with the flu (after getting TWO flu shots this year), tells me the Penguins are playing Buffalo tonight at the "Igloo" (Mellon Arena). So not 48 hours later it could be another Crosby/Miller dustup. ( I fully expect the Sabres to sit Miller though. He certainly deserves it. Crosby, and the other Olympians will get a hero's welcome home.)

What's a gal to do?

2010-02-19T10:58:00.003-05:00

I've been busy.

Olympic knitting? Nah...never much of a joiner and knitting is supposed to decrease my blood pressure. If I wanted to be in the Olympics, I'd pick curling. I'd be a mean sweeper!

Olympic watching? Not so much, but the hockey is starting to attract me....which brings me to the point of this.

What's a gal to do.....

Root for Team USA? Well, here we have Bugsey Malone (former Penguin), and Brooks Orpick (current Penguin and Stanley Cup Champion) and there's that nationalistic thing happening.

But how can you not root for Sid, the beloved boy captain of the Pens, and Marc Andre and Canada? (Sid was the hero last night against the Swiss). I just knew he would be.

Then there's Russia with Geno Malkin and Gonchar.....sheesh.

The Canada-USA dust up is set for Sunday. What's a girl to do?

Just Shut Up! Thursday

2010-02-11T12:07:00.003-05:00

Oh good grief.........please stop now.....you all are beginning to embarrass me.

Watch the video....seriously. These people should not even be allowed out without a "keeper and a shake rag". (This quote is from a very funny "coming of age" book, called Red Sky at Morning. If you can find it in your library, read it. I found a copy at a used book sale. But I digress.)

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/10/new-feminist-spin-on-tebow-ad-we-were-joking-but-not-really/

Famous Last Words.

2010-02-10T17:07:00.008-05:00

My words were that we weren't expecting much snow. And while we didn't get what my sister and bro, to the east, got, 24+ inches, we did get 15. We were so certain that this "storm" wasn't going to live up to the billing we, and 4,500 other crazy people went to the wrestling meet on Friday night. We went to have a little toddy, and left for home about 10:30 pm. We could see that it was still snowing, however, it didn't look that "serious"....until you got on the roads.

Now, we have an interesting snow removal system around here. Meaning, it's hard to see that there is any. I often say that the town has one truck, two guys, and one shovel. It really looked that way on Friday. The roads were so bad, we couldn't see where our driveway was, and passed it up. This is not true of the smaller neighboring municipalities, so it is odd.

Saturday morning, when I looked for the paper, I only saw snow (and this was after DH shoveled the patio at 11:00pm when we got home).

I couldn't find the paper. When I called the delivery person he said that he started to deliver papers, but there was so much snow that he couldn't even get to the doors/driveways to deliver them. So he stopped. He also had the horrors of tossing a paper, having it get obscured by snow, and sucked into a snow blower.

Don't blame him a bit. So we got Saturday's and Sunday's papers together.....

This was the view out the front door. Yup, a 15 inch wall of
snow. I quickly shut the door.

That brings us to today, we have the second major snow fall in a week, and this one did not live up to the hype. We're going to end up with about 5 [more] inches, but the roads are horrible. To add insult to injury, our campus and the campus in Erie, are the ONLY TWO who are open in the whole state and everyone is ticked off. Really, ticked off. I was so looking forward to catching up on the laundry. Even a two hour delay would have helped. I lead such an exciting life.

Anyway, here are some pre and post felting photos of another pair of French Press Slippers. I think the pattern is pretty amazing. It felts down exactly right.

This pair was a mix of black and gray wool held together. The buttons are ceramic and I don't know how well they'll hold up, but we'll see.

Just because I can't let it go.....

I was embarrassed by the bru ha ha that the Women's Media Center, NOW, and other groups made about the Tebow ad. The fact that they were apoplectic about an ad that they HADN'T seen was the first hint. Then Monday when the president of NOW declared that CBS was endorsing violence against women (paraphrase), because the ad NEVER directly mentioned abortion, or even pregnancy, I realized how inconsequential these groups have REALLY become. They are now meaningless groups of fools. It worries me in a way, because there may yet come a time that they really do need to stand up for something important, and they have diminished themselves completely. On the other hand, it's gratifying to see them "outed" and for others to see what some of us have known or suspected for years. (I had this vision of a "war room" at NOW or WMC and them wringing their hands over the fact that there was nothing for them to criticize. "What can we say that won't sound stupid?" Ummm...bad choice.)

Rest in peace John Murtha. I think you had honorable intentions in the beginning. I also think you got too big for your britches. (Yeah, it's me the "racist".) Now Altoona/Johnstown need to step up and do what's right for the state and the country.

A little bit of this....

2010-02-05T15:16:00.008-05:00

It's weird, I know. When I don't feel well, I get all kinds of creative. I mean my brain works overtime. Maybe it's because I get much needed rest. Maybe it has to do with bad daytime TV, but it never fails. Once I'm well enough to manage it, I start doing all kinds of things. Several years ago, I was home sick for several days, and I beaded enough flower broaches for a garden. I was just bangin' them out one right after another.

The first week of this year, when I wasn't hiding under my comforter, I did some knitting. Here are the results:

On the left French Press Slippers. I saw them on the Yarn Harlot blog, and they were just too cute for words. OK, not that cute, but I liked them, and I have a weird fondness for anything that's felted. (Which is why, I'll never buy a front loader machine no matter how much better they are.)

When I saw them I had the brilliant notion that I could use "waste yarn" to knit them. Goodness knows I've got loads of wool ends. Well, the best laid plans and all that. You'll notice that the "straps" are rather bumpy, that's because I used two different yarns. A planned deviation. My problem occurred when I didn't have enough of the same yarn to FINISH half of ONE toe!! So you may be able to tell that the inside of the right toe is also bumpy. That's because I had to go snag a skein of Lamb's Pride from my LYS. Sigh....best laid plans and all that. Nonetheless, they came out really well, and they're warm....really.

You knit them in "strips" and frankly when you have all these loopy loo pieces to stitch together, you're sure that these will NEVER look remotely like slippers. I shouldn't have worried. It's a great project to work on when one has a few moments. The yarn is held double (triple for the sole) and you use a #15 needle. So next Christmas....slippers for everybody!! I already have another pair (for me) ready to be felted. Probably tomorrow morning. I do my best felting in the mornings....

Number 2 on the hit parade is the Brooklyn Tweed Scarf . I used two colors of Noro Kureyon. I was an easy peasy fun knit, even when I REALLY didn't feel well. I soaked it with hair conditioner, now it smells like Pantene, spun the water out of it, then just let it dry. (I use Pantene because my hair didn't like it and I don't know what else to do with an almost full bottle.)

It's fun looking and warm and I'll be wearing it this weekend in our Nor'easter snow storm.

Looks like we're going to miss the worst of the weather again here in Central PA - only 4 - 8 inches through tomorrow. Trust me, I'm not complaining. Hope those of you to the south and east manage to make it through.....

Voice of reason....

2010-02-03T15:29:00.001-05:00

....... and an honest assessment - thank goodness!!

Sally Jenkins - WaPo

Some things I think, I think

2010-01-26T09:36:00.004-05:00

Just some random thoughts:

Every time I hear the country name Yemeni on the news, which is a lot lately, the exclaimation "Yumpin' Yemeni!" runs through my brain. (I have never made any claims to being normal.)

I lost interest in and respect for Arlen Specter when he bailed from his party, when it became apparent he might REALLY lose the nomination. After his little dust up with Michele Bachmann, I'm seriously wondering about his mental capabilities. I'm less concerned about the sexism aspects, but the question I have is "Arlen, what the hell are you thinking!!" I saw nothing in the exchange that should have prompted such a response, and Bachmann was clearly non-plussed (as was the radio host who was completely silent for about 45 seconds). Props to her for not flaming his ears off, which I might have been wont to do. Yet another reason to retire Arlen to his wing back chair in Philly, so he can yell at the neighborhood kids riding their bikes on his street.

If I hear one more Democratic congress person, liberal talking head, candidate or any of these other "do-not-know-it-alls" tell me that; "The public doesn't understand the (health care) bill"; " We need to explain it better."; "The public REALLY wants this bill." I'm gonna toss my cookies.

For the record--are all you thick heads listening: I have a master's degree in a science/math field; I can read and understand content that would make your little pea brains 'splode; I can write in no less than 5 computer languages; I get really ticked when I'm patronized and marginalized. I do not need any more explanations. I need to have a bill produced and posted for WEEKS before voting, so I can digest the contents--and not on Christmas Eve. I am tired of dirty tricks, secret meetings, union kick-back, big pharma deals, and all the rest of it. While I hold out NO hope that these "things" will end, I will settle for having the opportunity to actually peruse the legislation at my leisure. Which is more that most of you, including the afore-mentioned Arlen will do. I also believe, that I am not unique in the above attributes.......

I wish I could give this appropriate credit, but who said it escapes me.

This health care bill is bad because; 85% of the public is concerned about rising costs. Health care costs are rising 3 times faster than inflation; 15% are concerned about access, meaning that they do not have, or can not afford health care. Instead of concentrating on the rapidly escalating costs that concern 85% of the country, the Democratic congress with the blessing of the President, invented a convoluted, and high cost way to cover the 15%. This will eventually hurt the 85% in one way or another. If rising costs were addressed (by any number of means) it would eventually mean that more people would have access to, or could afford, quality care.

Question for White House Press Secretary Gibbs: Are you on crack? To try and explain that the Brown victory in Massachusetts was an ENDORSEMENT of Obama policies is just too bizarre to contemplate. My head is actually hurting. Crack and kool aid are a lethal combination......

Buh bye Air(head) America. You won't be missed. You will never get anywhere bashing the land that feeds you. There just aren't enough crazies and vitriol lovers to support this kind of commercial endeavor. (Al Franken, not withstanding, and my guess is that Maddow and that blow hard Olbermann are probably not long for TV if the Comcast deal goes through. Disclaimer: I know Olbermann from his ESPN days before he got booted outta there, I've never actually watched him elsewhere. )

Sometimes I just can't help myself.....

2010-01-22T12:00:00.001-05:00

... I admit it. John Stossel is a kind of hero of mine. I'm not a Libertarian, but he's a guy after my own heart. (And as a bonus, he's pretty easy on the eyes.)

Go get'em John.

The Stimulus Works

P.S. In the interests of full disclosure, I also have a soft spot for Geraldo Rivera. Ever since he used to have that show on late at night after Carson's Tonight Show (you know, the REAL Tonight Show). I used to watch him with my father when he got home after second shift.

Clue Phone is ringing.........

2010-01-20T08:18:00.004-05:00

Thank you Massachusetts!!

He did indeed!!!

..... and Arlen it's for you!! I'm one of those "unaffiliated" voters and we're coming for YOU!

(Party switch doesn't look like such a good move now, does it, Bucko?)

Better late, than never...

2010-01-12T13:20:00.010-05:00

....actually, last week at this time I was pretty sure it might be never.

You see we had an "interesting" holiday week. Spent Christmas through the 27th at my mother's. She's a lovely woman, who can drive a sane person to drink in 10 minutes. We stayed a day longer than planned, because my DH's back decided he didn't like the mattress on the bed, and began to devil him. (I made him promise to visit me at Muncy, SCI for women, if I attempted murder.) Got home, and spent an uneventful 3 days, unpacking, clearing up, and doing laundry. New Years, was peaceful and snowy, but who cared? We were not driving anywhere. Took a long walk, in the cold, quiet, dark neighborhood. It was divine.

Now here's riddle.....What does it mean when you don't feel like knitting?

Sunday, after New Years, something wasn't "right" with me. I was exhausted, and didn't even feel like eating....Big clue. Monday, my last day of vacation, it was clear, I was sick, and to add insult to injury I had a fever. I just spent the last week struggling with the flu. Not H1N1--I don't think I was sick enough for that, and had few respiratory symptoms, but "something". "Something" that wasn't in the flu shot cocktail that I dutifully got back in November. I had four solid days of feeling lousy, and finally one day when my temperature stayed below 99.

Answer: You've got the flu!

So despite all the "free" time on my hands last week the only thing I knit, sporadically no less, was this:

Yes, the Brooklyn Tweed Noro Scarf. I had just finished my second Ishbel (more on that later), and just wanted something that would be mindless and entertaining. So I used the leftovers from my Wrap Me Up (plus another colorway), and cast on for this scarf. This is knit in Kureyon, so it is rough rather than soft. (He uses Silk Garden.) But a soak in hair conditioner will fix that when I'm finished I think.

It was the perfect sick bed knitting. Except for the time I was trudging from the living room up to the bedroom and discovered that I had dropped one of the skeins downstairs, and had pulled the trailing yarn after me into bed. A little like Hansel and Gretel and breadcrumbs. I had to haul my flu ridden bones out of bed to retrieve the skein, because I didn't want to be responsible for my DH falling on the yarn and breaking his leg on the stairs.

So as of today, I'm 6 days behind in my office. With the retirement of my colleague, I am responsible for more than I was before, and I'm not starting out on the right foot. So Ishbel will need to wait another day. I leave you with a few other pieces though.

First: Fetching and Calorimetry in Malabrigo worsted, Ginger Carrot.

Fetching mods: I knit 8, rather than 4 rows for the palm. The four rows were too "short" for me.

Calorimetry mods: Used a size #6 needle for a more dense fabric, and cast on 88 stitches (I just took a leap.) The 120 cast on made it too wide, and long. I could have used a little more length, but not much.

This is a close up of the antique, or maybe the correct term is "old", button on the Calorimetry.
Pretty?

Here is ONE of the three Turn A Square hats I knit for Christmas. (Yes another Brooklyn Tweed pattern, notice a theme here?)

I ended up knitting THREE of these. Though the pattern says this is for an "average" head, and Ravelry didn't seem to dispute that, I'm thinking it was for an average pumpkin head. Now, I have a larger size head, but knit to the pattern specs it was way too large. In addition, my first attempts were for my father-in-law, who has a middlin' at best hat size, and were knit in Woolease. So some acrylic. Not a lot of "give".

Mod #1: decreased the cast on to 96 stitches (multiples of 4). Much better. This is the one I gave to my FIL, not pictured. But I wanted one for hiking, and this still felt too loose. I used Lamb's Pride and Silk Garden and

Mod #2: cast on 88 stitches. that's what you see pictured here. I like the way it fits, even on MY pumpkin head.

Ursis actually looks better in it than I do.

If I knit this again, and I might, I may add 4 stitches, and use a smaller size needle for a "denser" fabric. Anyway, this is a great "stash buster" project.

And just for your amusement: right before break our staff assistant sent this to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h05ZQ7WHw8Y

(Caution: "mature" language, very politically incorrect, and funny, all my favorite things.)

I was bemoaning the fact that I had once received one of these as a gift.

Then lo and behold, Christmas came:

And Santa brought my sister a snuggie knock off. We hooted with laughter.

To add to the hilarity, it is plaid, and has two pockets. (My sister says one for her "Bud" and the other for her pack of "Marlboros".)

Thanks to Curt for being such a good sport and modeling the monstrosity.......... Notice the Yuengling Santa hat, which probably explains the willingness to model.

My mother the giver of the gift was highly insulted.

My sister thinks the cats will like it a lot.

Twas the week before Christmas...

2009-12-23T11:01:00.003-05:00

... and all through the town,
The traffic was light, it was safe to drive now.
The students were home, nestled fast in their beds.
Their parents could worry about parties instead [of us].

Though shopping was stressful, and work hard to manage,
It was always a given that it would soon all be finished.

And as offices closed down, and gifts were all fine,
A deep sigh was heard...I'll have the Cabernet.

Merry Christmas to all. If you celebrate the Christ part, go with that. If you celebrate the federal holiday, excellent. Otherwise, it is simply the appropriate greeting of my people.

Take it in that spirit. See you all on the flip, MAYBE with the long promised knitting pictures. (I forgot and wrapped the pieces before I photographed them.)

Sigh. Dumb ass.

P.S. This is a hard closing. My one good friend, who I have known for nearly 20 years here, is retiring, effective 12/31, but actually at COB today. It will make my job exponentially more difficult. But I'm delighted for her. Every night will now be Friday, and every tomorrow, Saturday, for her.

Ignorance is bliss.

2009-12-18T14:25:00.004-05:00

... last year I was bemoaning the fact that the knitting elves had deserted me.

This year the knitting elves actually made their appearance early and have disapparated [sic: Harry Potter]. Do I have photos? Nope. I was feeling so sanguine about no more Christmas knitting, that I woke up one morning this week and suddenly realized that it was about a week before Christmas, and "ulp" I didn't have gifts that I needed to actually purchase. I had not ONE Christmas decoration scattered around. I still had shorts in my drawers, and my woolies in cardboard boxes piled up in the spare bedroom... (and it's cold here now...like in the 20s and 30s).

Unfortunately, I have to physically drag my sorry butt to stores tonight (in addition to some weekly grocery and wine (must. get. wine.) shopping) because tomorrow we have this arriving....

The National Weather Service has forecast that University Park will receive between 3 and 5 inches of snow during the day on Saturday, Dec. 19. As a result, the Office of Physical Plant (OPP) has declared a midnight clear for Saturday night. This means that there is no parking in any surface parking from midnight to 7 a.m., with some exceptions.

The good news is that most of the students will be gone for break. The bad news is that those of us who waited for them to clear out will be SOL.

And in an installment of "What Was He Thinking?"-- I'm trying to figure out how this idiot thought he would never get found out.....He is one of the most recognizable people on the planet. Am I surprised that he is a horn dog? No. But how arrogant can you be to think that it would remain a "secret" forever? I hope his soon-to-be-ex wife takes him to the cleaners.

Still working on the sister-in-law ornament to be mailed Monday.....what was I thinking????

Hopefully, photos Monday. Snow makes for lovely photography.

Too good to pass up...

2009-12-10T10:50:00.003-05:00

I know, that no one really cares what goes on here. Seriously, we're just a pimple on the butt of an elephant.

But sometimes, the bizarre just has to be shared:

Crow Wars

OK, the crows are a nuisance. And if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, Hitchcock's The Birds seems tame by comparison (ask me how I know this), but hearing and seeing the pyrotechnic flashes on cold winter nights, is weird. But heck...we can't shoot 'em. That would upset the eco-system, wouldn't it? Never mind MY eco-system. I also really like how they are lighting the area of the campus where they WANT them to go. How is that a sustainable use of energy?

Sigh. I couldn't make this up in a million years.

P.S. Read the comments...

Slight of Hand

2009-12-08T12:01:00.003-05:00

This little bit of news hardly made a ripple:

State College & Johnstown Among The Safest Places To Live

You will notice that State College is #1 on this list. If you look at the crimes that were considered:
murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft, it's no wonder. No public urination, no drunk and disorderly, no DUI, no disturbing the peace and throwing items off of balconies, or jumping/falling from said balconies. Without those there would be nothing for the police to do here. So there you have it. As long as you stay away from drunk men in need of facilities, you're golden (no pun intended).

This while the town council is trying to figure out how to pass an ordinance that will make the hosts of parties responsible for damage their "guests" might do. The ACLU seems to think this is unconstitutional because it would inhibit .... are you ready for this ..... religious or political meetings. Those wild and crazy Baptists, I'm sure they're staggering down local streets after prayer meetings.....who knew?

Sometimes it's good, sometimes not so much.

2009-11-30T14:28:00.005-05:00

Thanksgiving is usually a pretty low key holiday around these here parts. It was this year too...for the most part.

We visited my in-laws. Including my 90 year old, 8 weeks post hip-replacement MIL. How's she doing? Well, if dragging her quad cane behind her, like a bad puppy is any indication, pretty damn well. Around the house, other than getting out of bed in the morning, she really doesn't need it at all. She will use convenient furniture to support her if necessary, but she cruises around pretty effortlessly, albeit slowly. She carries the cane out with her, but it almost seems like a security blanket. I, personally, wouldn't care if she carried Gandolf's staff, if it helped.

If any of you watched Extreme Makeover Home Edition on November 29th, you saw my sister-in-law's employer in action. They were the contractor that built the home. She did all the behind the scenes stuff with the producers. I don't know much about it because we were watching the Steelers lose yet again.

The holiday downside was the unwelcome news that a relative, to which my DH was particularly close - a year younger no less, has apparently (I say apparently because we don't have all the details yet) been diagnosed with a vicious cancer. If it is what we've been told, the outlook is grim. It is particularly heartbreaking.

It's me...I'm back.

2009-11-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

Last week I was in Denver, CO for a conference - a BIG conference. Truthfully, I wasn't delighted to go. I had issues at home that needed to be resolved and managed, and the timing sucked. Well, I'm now glad I went.

The home "issues" while they didn't sort themselves out, at least remained manageable, and I got some "away" time I didn't realize I needed so badly.

The week prior to my trip Denver got FEET of snow. The week I was there the temps were in the high 60s and low 70s without a flake in sight. To say it was bizarre, doesn't quite describe it.

The conference was in the Colorado Conference Center. The upper level is an enormous atrium with stunning views of the Rockies--when they were not fog shrouded.

Outside the Convention Center the designers added a bit of whimsey. See the big BLUE bear peering in the windows?

Seems perfect for Denver. The Denverites I met were all very nice, and friendly! Even, are you sitting down?, the bus drivers. (I'm from Pittsburgh, and the natives are wonderful friendly there, UNLESS they are bus drivers. At least that's my experience....Maybe it has to do with passengers like me who leave their clog in the middle of the street while boarding a bus.....Hummmmm.)

On Wednesday night, I took a bus to The Lamb Shoppe. See this is how I know about bus drivers. I got some info from the hotel concierge about where to actually get a bus. Not only did this gentleman give me information, he walked outside the hotel with me to point me in the correct direction! When I got on the bus, it was dark (Standard Time), and I had no idea where I needed to get off, other than between Madison and Maple. I told the bus driver that I needed to get off at that stop (I knew the bus stop was near the shop because I called them), and would he alert me? He said "Sure!". Well, after about 15 minutes I got antsy, and we were in a VERY residential neighborhood, so I stood up to get a better look. He saw me and said, don't worry, it's another two stops away. He then told me where and when to get the bus back to downtown. When I told him I was going to a yarn store he said, "that's a first"..."it's usually BEAD stores!"

Anyway, another blogger/knitter once described the indecision of a knitter as "monkey mind". Well, I'm the original monkey. It used to happen in bead stores, I'd have a "plan" of sorts....("I'm going to buy Delicas.") Then as soon as I'm surrounded by gorgeous beads, well, forget it. I can't even remember I had a plan to begin with. That's exactly what happened in the Lamb Shoppe. The walls were just loaded with gorgeous yarns....seriously! Yarns that I've only read about. And here I was....with no room in my carry-on. In addition, there was a delightfully rowdy stitch and bitch group meeting up front. A table learning how to crochet, and another table of beginning knitters designing their own mittens...... Action packed doesn't quite describe it. For someone who, for the most part, is a solitary knitter, this was like an oasis.

So I wandered around for about 30 minutes, I bought some cotton sock yarn for my cotton loving mother, some Malabrigo, and a Skacel Zauerbal sock yarn, and herein lies a story.

A colleague of mine, who will soon be retiring (snif), recently took an extended vacation. She had seen a moebius shawl at one of our local arts festivals and was immediately charmed by the concept. In my "go big, or go home" approach to most things I said. I can show you how to knit a moebius. She is barely a beginning knitter by the way..... She bought needles, lovely Lamb's Pride Lanaloft, and I helped her cast on.... At her vacation destination, her knitting attracted the attention of other knitters one of whom introduced her to a skein of Zauerbal. Yet again, she was charmed and tried to describe it to me when she got back. I had never seen the yarn. However, lo and behold, there was Zauerbal, right on the Lamb Shoppe shelf! So I bought one for her as a souvenir from Denver.

Anyway, here is a [bad] photo, of the Malabrigo worsted (Ginger Carrot--has it dawned on anyone yet that I buy yarns because I like the color names?), and the Zauerbal.

I am using the Malabrigo to knit another pair of Fetching mitts. This time for me. They will "match" nothing...but I don't care. Nyah, nyah. I knit an entire pair of mitts while I was in Denver. They were that fast...and travel makes for lots of knitting time. (Not necessarily in the air, however.)

These are for my sister this is a new type of Araucania yarn. Loved it!!

I will definitely make the palms deeper (longer?) for me though.

There's more, but it's late here, and I do want to go home eventually.........

When I began this post it was Veterans Day, and I was going to tell everyone to kiss an available service person to thank them. Even though it isn't Veterans Day, I'm thinking this might be a good idea anyway.

All's well that ends well, eh?

2009-10-28T09:09:00.008-04:00

Not so fast sister.....

As we continue our saga (I had to take a time out for proposal evaluations and re-evaluation, and re-evaluations....etc. work re-entry is a bitch)you may remember that hubby and I decided to extend our vaca one extra day because we rolled craps on the weather. It was supposed to be a hiking vacation, and we had not done one step of actual trail hiking in in 6 full days. Fortunately, we usually schedule an extra day of vacation after our planned trip, and we used that to stay over.

We did finally get to walk in the woods. Sigh....it was lovely.

This is Jones Mill Run. As I said in a previous post, PA woods are lousy with these little runs.

Here's a little artsey fartsey shot of the run. Because of the six days of unrelenting rain, there was no shortage of water.

The difference with this particular run is that this is what you see at the head. Yup, it's that pretty.

Here's Dan'l Boone on the rocks next to the dam.

Anyway, the next day we headed back to reality. What's the one thing you don't want to hear when you walk in the door? Let me tell you.....it's hubby going into the half bath off the kitchen and saying "Uh oh!". Trust me, you don't want to hear "Uh oh" about anything after you've been gone over a week. (Last year the "uh oh" was because his car battery was dead and parked closest to the back door, and we had to unload the car from many more yards away.)

In this case, the "uh oh" referred to the fact that he was standing in stockinged feet on a wet bathmat. When I looked in the door he was staring up at the ceiling, which was marked with brown water marks and water droplets. Good gravy, what now!???

Apparently, something was leaking in our upstairs bath, though we couldn't find it, and had run down, into the walls, and out the exhaust vent (for the most part). Turns out, a washer blew, on the water line under the upstairs sink, and we had a pretty good drip going on. The good news was that it had probably just happened in the prior day or so. The bad news is that we still have to repaint the downstairs drywall...now that it has had a week to dry. The fun just never ends.

I leave you with a photo of Ishbel (I wish I knew the origin of that name.) I finally finished it...still with the tinking. I do love it though, and am considering wearing it in Denver, where I'll have to travel (under duress) next week. Only I would get sent to Denver where they are currently getting FEET of snow. Why couldn't the damn conference be in Tampa? Or New Orleans? Or Charlotte? Sheesh!!

Ishbel (blocking).
STATS:

1 skein Handmaiden Cashbah (some left over)no colorway on ball band - Loopy Ewe Sock Club skein.

#6 circular needles (48 inches)

Wingspan 48", depth 19"

There is also a shawl size. I'm going to wear this like a scarf. (Doesn't point to my worst ass(et) that way.

I would definite knit this again, and am thinking about taking version #2 as my plane knitting.

So how the heck have I been .....

2009-10-22T11:06:00.012-04:00

... some of you may have noticed that we here in Central PA had a "bit" of snow last week. If you watched the Weather Channel, you were led to believe that the most pressing problem was that PSU banned tailgating around the stadium and it was homecoming weekend. (The grassy areas were muddy, and there aren't enough paved areas to allow the huge RV's to set up their tailgates.) Never mind that there were folks who were without electricity from Thursday evening until Saturday evening (in some cases). My boss told me he came to work on Friday just so he could have electricity. I mention TWC because that's how we found out how nasty it really got. You see we were supposed to be hiking in the Laurel Highlands. I say supposed to be, because we really didn't get to hike.

I'm no shrinking violet. I've hiked in rain, I've hiked in cold, but on Wednesday afternoon, when I went outside to decide whether to wear a down vest, and realized that it was not just cold, but raining and sleeting, I gave up.

Cold AND rainy, means I'm not going anywhere. Add heavy duty fog to the mix, and well, you get the drift.

We heard about the snow in Centre County when I got a PSU text message on Friday morning informing me that classes were running on time, but that the snow was continuing to fall. Huh? Snow?

A look out the deck doors showed me unrelenting rain and fog, but snow? PSU began an emergency text messaging program not long after the VA Tech tragedy. They text message emergency announcements from water line breaks to panels blowing off the scoreboards and closing roads, to class delays.

An odd manifestation of the system is that my phone interprets the P in PSU as

Poetic, no?

So after getting the message I turned on TWC and by golly, one of the weather weenies was in a parka standing in a driving snow storm in front of the stadium. He was telling us that the University had prohibited parking in the grassy lots, and what were the homecoming tailgaters to do? It was surreal. Especially since here I was at a ski resort in the "mountains" and THERE WAS NO SNOW! (Not that I wanted any, mind you.)

So here's what I did instead....

Meet Ishbel and Ishbel meet Handmaiden Cashbah, no idea what colorway. It was the first yarn in the 2009 Loopy Ewe Sock club. It is so lovely...the color is no where near as lovely as it is in person, that I couldn't bare to put it on my stinky feet. Ishbel is a lovely pattern. Lovely, if you're smart enough to pay attention. I, apparently, am not nearly smart enough and have spent about 20% of my time tinking. First in the stockinette portion of the program I somehow added an extra stitch on one side and pulled it out 3 or 4 times, until I figured it out. Then, I can't seem to "read" the lace pattern, and make silly errors, on a regular basis, that I can only fix by tinking. The one thing I can tell you, is that if you have the time to put into it, it is a fast knit. I really should have been concentrating on my Christmas knitting, however, I have been itching to start this forever! I blew through the first three charts and stockinette in no time, and since I've been home, have knit two (count'em 2) rows. This job just really cuts into my knitting time.

So we missed the catastrophic snow storm. Here's what I saw on Sunday morning.

Sad part is that on the way down, there were still a lot of green trees. With all the "weather", it seems that many trees dropped their leaves without ever getting a chance to turn. The pelting rain, and heavy snow, just pulled leaves right off the trees (and in the case of Centre County knocked large branches down all over the place). We ended up extending our stay by one day, because, wouldn't you know....Monday, the day we originally planned to leave dawned bright and sunny -- cool, but dry and bright. The past two days it has been in the 60's.

Timing is everything.

The change of seasons.........

2009-10-07T09:43:00.010-04:00

A treat for the senses...... OK, just kidding, it's been a long week already.

First the FOs.

#1 Girasole

Soaked, blocked, and with a "real" photo shoot. These photos were taken at Medlar Field at Lubrano Park. Home of the PSU Nittany Lion baseball team, and the State College Spikes (short season, low "A", of the Pittsburgh Pirates, though it's hard to tell the difference from the big Pirates at this point-Sigh). "Fear the Deer" - I wish I were kidding. You can see Mt. Nittany in the background. We held a conference, which should get a post all its own, at the ball park (they rent out their facilities out of season), and I got the opportunity to take a few photos.

Updated Stats:
Pattern: Girasole
Yarn: Dream in Color Starry, Lipstick Lava
3 FULL skeins, fingering weight
Needle: #6, Options, 60 inch (though shorter would have been OK too), switched to Denise, when the join pulled out of my Options (which Knit Picks replaced pronto)

Unblocked I got 46 inches, blocked I got 58 inches. I am so very glad I did the extra repeat on chart G. But the stress was awful!

The lace also opened up like magic. I'm delighted with this piece, and wore it a bit in the morning yesterday, over my leather blazer, because we had "breakfast" on the open concourse in 50 degree weather. Gotta be a hearty soul to work for PSU. This was an EASY knit....really. I only had one misstep and it was right at the beginning. If you want to try your hand at lace, this is a nice, deceptively difficult looking, but easy-to-knit piece. As a process knitter, this is right up my alley. I am definitely planning another (or two) in worsted weight for my mother-in-law and mother.

#2 Wrap Me Up

This came about, not because I loved the pattern so much, but because it offered me the opportunity to knit with a local group. The local knitting guild meets Thursdays and that is generally not a great night for me. (OK, I'll fess up, DH and I, spend Thursday nights, shoveling out the hovel so we do not have to do much on the weekends. I really like this system.) This knitting "class" met Tuesdays, and that suits me fine. So I thought what the heck...the first class Cynthia (LYS owner extraordinaire)told us she planned for us to have this piece finished by the last Tuesday in November. By sheer dumb luck, it turns out that we'll be finished by the last Tuesday in October, when we'll get together for an ice cream celebration and FO shoot. Because of the Steelers, and the Super Bowl (during the game I couldn't stop knitting I was so excited), I got way ahead, and finished last week.

So here in a remarkably boring photo is Wrap Me Up, a la Cindy:

Notice the rapidly fading patio planters in the background. Those 40 degree nights are not making them happy.

So the details:

Pattern: Wrap Me Up
Yarn: Noro Kuyreon, 229 & 40, # skeins unknown.....I think I bought one or two more than was recommended and ended up with one left over (I bought three more and will eventually knit one of the Jared Flood's Noro striped scarves.) Lambs Pride worsted, Lotus Pink for trim (1+ skein - I had extra from other projects). The last thing you have to worry about in this pattern are dye lots.
Needle: #7, Options circ, various lengths.
MODS: Lots more beads. When I caught on to what the designer was doing, I put beads in most of the trim color areas. Unfortunately, I didn't catch on until one end of the wrap was more or less finished, so the beading is a little lopsided, but only I would think that. I also strung the beads first and used a bead knitting technique that "popped" the beads to the front of the piece. I didn't apply I-cord in all the areas recommended and DID NOT apply the little "piggy tails" (little unattached lengths of I-cord). Here is my largest mod:

Rather than fussing around with the two-toned "dragon tooth" edging, I bound off with I-cord. This is a five stitch I-cord using a #9 needle (two sizes larger). I'm lots happier with how this looks. I tried it several ways, but I ended up picking up the bajillion stitches along the edge, and then using the I-cord bind off. It made for a neater edge than applying I-cord directly.

The dimensions are "similar" to the pattern, but that isn't any more important than dye lot, it is plenty long. I soaked it in hair conditioner, and spun it for about 5 minutes, in a net bag in my washer. It didn't take very long to dry with much of the water out. Then I applied the I-cord and the edging.

This is one of my favorite blocks...I don't know why....

This is the basketweave block, and I had no idea how this would look until it was finished. I liked the surprise.

That is one of the fun things about this. You don't know, exactly, what you're getting until you're done. This is another process piece.

Because I was out of the office for the first two days this week, I need to get caught up. I expect that there will be radio silence for awhile, but I'll be back, with new projects....Christmas is coming and I've already started some fingerless mitts...my first. Yes, I was a fingerless mitt virgin.

Answer to the riddle....

2009-09-28T10:53:00.006-04:00

So what does any self-respecting knitter do when he/she thinks they are running out of yarn?

Why.... Knit FASTER of course. Why do I do this? I ask you! I had about 30 of the damnable points to finish, and vacillated between thinking I had plenty, just enough, and resignation that I would have to purchase a whole new skein, just to finish a couple edging points.

I had planned to finish knitting on a day trip we were taking to a not quite local festival, but the weather was so miserable (anyone who watched PSU v Iowa on Saturday night saw the rain), we decided not to go. The canceled trip also canceled my knitting mojo, and I spent the 2nd half of the game napping. As it turns out, both decisions were excellent choices. (We've been selling our [40 yard line] football tickets for the past few years. Long story short, the changes in the atmosphere of the stadium, and the poor early season scheduling, make it so not worth the effort to go, even for a local. I know lots of folks who feel the same way, weird, no?)

Anyway, I finally finished yesterday morning and THIS is what I had left .....

Ta Da!! That's all folks. Knitting is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

Here's the finished product. No blocking yet. I have to pin it to the living room floor in order to block, and need to choose a day when DH traffic is light. (And when I have the time to pin 200+ points.)

Stats:
Pattern: Girasole
Yarn: Dream in Color Starry, Lipstick Lava (3 FULL skeins)
Needle: #6, Options, 60 inch (though shorter would have been OK too), switched to Denise, when the join pulled out of my Options (which Knit Picks replaced pronto)

This is a 46 inch diameter, unblocked, and I'm hoping I'll get about 52+ inches total with an aggressive blocking. There is one extra repeat in the last chart.

Here is a better color representation.

I actually loved knitting this, but it took me a long time, not being project monogamous and all. I'd like to do a blankie for my MIL and mother maybe using Paton's SWS. I'm tempted to start the blankie for my MIL for her birthday in December...but I'm starting my Christmas knitting now and I'm not sure I'll have time.

Quickie update ....

2009-09-24T10:45:00.004-04:00

MIL update: Though surgery was successful, rehab has been slower than we had hoped. Mostly that it took a long time for the anesthesia to clear and my poor MIL kept falling asleep during her sessions. Time is a great healer though, and she is now feeling well enough to want to "get up and move" on her own. She'll be hobbling around, but hobbling independently. Needs to get her tiny appetite back though. As baffled Daughter #1 told me, "I can't understand it. I've never been not hungry in my life". My father-in-law, at home, is being nurtured by my delightful sisters-in-law with ongoing deliveries of delicious dainties and uninterrupted TV watching. However, we all suspect that he is reveling in his preferred diet of Raman noodles and frozen burritos. Daughter #1 says she sees the light at the end of the tunnel....she's also hoping it isn't a train.

News from Kitty Camp: Dementia and Velcro (aliases that only I call them, but are much more descriptive of their personalities), are "surviving", and the kitty counselor (read: sitter) has even had a few Dementia sightings. Dementia barely tolerates most people, and LOVES my sister, so spends most of her time hiding when my sister is at work. The fact that she has appeared to a perfect stranger (albeit one bearing food and treats) is a good sign. It's kind of like a visitation from the Virgin. (Step back, because I'm probably going to be a black mark when the lightning hits!)

Here they are ready to "help" with the remodel:

Dementia is on the top...

Meanwhile I have a riddle:

What do you do, when you think you may be running out of yarn ..... (this applies to any project, but this is the Girasole...I'm not pulling it out! NOT!)

Answer Monday...maybe with photos.

P.S. Thanks for the offer of the adult beverage....I'm liking nice cabs at the moment.

P.P.S. A "just shut up" (for Just Shut Up Thursday) to Barak. Buddy, 45 interviews in 9 months? (To compare: Bush (6) Clinton (7), or the reverse, in the same time frame) 1000+ "I" references in 41 speeches? You are so played out.....

I'm going straight to heaven.

2009-09-14T14:26:00.004-04:00

No, really, I'm not "passing go", not stopping to "collect $200", just straight to heaven.

1) I accompanied my mother to a Red Hat charity luncheon over the weekend. You know the "Red Hats", they're women over 50 who wear purple with red hats (if you don't know-Google is your friend). The things you find out about your mother when she's with her friends...I tell you. First, they think she's a hoot! They have no idea that my sister and I occasionally discuss where we'd hide the body. Second, she ALWAYS "forgets" her red hat. She has, at least, half a dozen, but apparently never wears any because she doesn't want to mess her hair. It was educational in so many ways.

Because she is on a fixed income and we weren't there for her recent birthday, hubby and I wanted to pay for the tickets, the majority of which goes to Ruth's Place, an agency for homeless women, a fine, but tiny charity. I knew there would be a brawl if I tried to give her money outright. So I left the cash, with a note, in an envelope on the dresser in the bedroom where we stayed. Sure enough, first thing this morning, I got an angry phone call asking why we did such a terrible thing. Ummm...maybe because we're working, we like to give to worthy causes, and treating ones family is hardly a hardship. Sheesh....Mom, just say thanks!! 'K? I have now fielded no less then 3 phone calls in 30 minutes about this, while I'm trying to work out a presentation with a colleague that we have to deliver on Friday. (See what I mean about hiding the body?)

I don't usually shill for charities, but if the spirit moves you Ruth's Place (that's Ruth from the bible by the way), is in great need. And while we're on the subject, there is also The House Of Care a tiny non-profit here in State College. They take care of individuals at the end of their lives and run on a shoestring. My director is the president of the board this year, and not only does he run the operations and finances, he mows the lawn. That's how small this operation is. I have a soft spot for those people who see a need and just do something. They don't have the weight of grants or the United Way, or whatever behind them. They just do SOEMTHING. OK, those are my PSAs for the month. Back to regular programming....

Anyway, the Red Hats raffled off donated gift baskets, had a speaker (who was too long, though interesting), and singing nuns....yes, the singing nuns from the Sisters of Mercy. The only one wearing a habit, also wore blue satin bloomers trimmed in lace under her habit. (Yea, ask how we all saw the nun's bloomers.) One of the other sisters looked like she was wearing hand knit socks....but, I never got a chance to ask her.

2) I would appreciate good thoughts, prayers, burning sage, etc. whatever is your habit (no nun pun intended) for this lady...My MIL fell and broke her hip (what else?) over the weekend. As of today, surgery was successful, we are hoping that the post surgical recovery is uneventful, and have our collective fingers crossed for successful rehab. To say the family is a tad worried, considering her age, doesn't quite describe it. Broken hips are very dangerous at this stage of life, and can really change the dynamic of how an elderly person lives. My sister, Nurse Rachet, however, was quite optimistic. She calls my MIL feisty, and if anyone can bounce back she can. I'm hoping she is right.

3) While fielding angry mother phone calls, updates on my MIL (because the sons never get those calls do they?), I'm getting worried emails from my sister who is leaving for vacation, and has a sitter watching her cats. She is worried about her cats. Shall I retype that? She is worried that her cats will be lonely. I told her to worry that they'll poop in her shoes from pique! One will spend the entire time hiding, the other will hardly know she's gone. I have also been given the task of not putting them in a shelter "if something should happen". I told her I'd sell them to a circus. Dementia would make a great lion (maybe not tame-able), and Velcro has a future as a clown. No problem.

OK...you can open those pearly gates now!!

Heard....

2009-09-02T12:00:00.006-04:00

As you may guess from many postings, we are news junkies in our house. And no we don't limit ourselves to Fox, though it is pretty good one stop shopping, because it is usually sourced and I can figure out the pedigree, and thus the accuracy, of any particular story. But last evening I was doing some chores to keep the authorities from declaring our place a Superfund site, TV was on I'm not sure what channel, and I heard this....[paraphrase]....

The person speaking was a Democratic strategist, I didn't get her name, but she was addressing the ever decreasing support that HR3200 is getting from "unaffiliated" voters. (That would be those of us who are not registered to a party or committed to an ideology...read: me.) She was postulating that Obama has to "TELL" us what is right and good with his policy so we understand that we should support this bill.

I have news...we are "unaffiliated" (i.e., independent) BECAUSE WE EITHER DON'T WANT OR NEED TO BE TOLD what to do or think. We have enough gray matter to figure it out for ourselves. And in some cases we will agree and in some cases we will not, and we, as a group do not move in lock-step and THAT'S WHAT IT MEANS TO BE AN INDEPENDENT VOTER. The idea lives or dies on its own merits. When these (define these however you wish) people start to truly understand this, well, the landscape will change. I'm not holding my breath. Until then, I am apparently, someone who should be TOLD what to think. (Makes me giggle just thinking about it.)

Speaking of independent, here is Wrap Me Up, pre-blocking:

Pretty interesting no? I am looking to "wrap up", pun intended, a project or two here in the very near future. I do not just cast on at a whim. I keep a couple or three things burbling, but never more than three, and that's counting socks. At the moment, I have the WMU, Girasole, and Oceania Cardigan, which is giving me the vapors. I'm at the end of the trail on WMU, and hope to finish Girasole in the next three weeks. As soon as I finish sleeve one, I am suspending operations on the cardigan until Girasole is finished.

But I digress, if you look at the pattern page for Wrap Me Up (and as an aside, does that model look pissy or what? I'm wondering if she thinks that's sexy-pouty or something--weird), you'll see that it has a "dragon tooth" edging on one side. (You will also see some other details that I refrained from including, but I'll deal with those when I finish.) I'm not that partial to that edging, so I'm thinking a nice applied I-cord might be better. I've also just noticed that the edging has two colors. One is the contrast color, screaming pink in my case, and the other is the main color. I think this piece has enough going on without adding to the circus with the edging, don't you? And as I sit here and contemplate my navel, instead of evaluating worksheets, like I should be, it occurs to me that I will also not have to pick up a bajillion stitches on that edge if I choose to do applied I-cord. Hummmm...an unexpected payoff.

So the wrap is soaked, spun in the washer, and blocked and dried, now I'm hoping to get the edging worked by the next knitting group. Then I'll be picking Cynthia's brain about the cardigan...I think I have fitting issues. I'm so not proud....