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

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

Gloria who?

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

Quickie update ....

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 wasn't planning this but .....

It's "just shut up" Thursday, and I have a couple or three candidates:

1) Robert Gibbs the Press Secretary of the president:

Briefing reporters Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs suggested that the opposition is being organized by a small group seeking to create "manufactured anger."

"I hope people will take a jaundiced eye to what is clearly the AstroTurf nature of so-called grass-roots lobbying," Mr. Gibbs said.

Umm... Mr. Gibbs I believe those among us, not in a coma, recognize this for what it is...an attempt to dismiss and ultimately chill First Amendment rights. Since every word you say is now saved-somewhere-FOREVER, you (and ultimately the administration) can't take it back...You definitely should just shut up- and maybe quit the job you are so ill suited for.


2) That US Senate embarrassment (though she has a lot of company) SENATOR Barbara Boxer: Boxer says she can tell that they’re fakes, because they’re too well dressed. How does she know that this is a problem? Because well-dressed people apparently told her to get the hell out of Florida in the Bush-Gore recount, too...[video]

So, if you want to be taken seriously by this administration and their lackeys, dump the tie, don a Save the Whales T-shirt.

Barb, please, do us all a favor and just shut up.

3) From white house new media Director Macon Phillips:

"There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care,'' W.H. blogger Macon Philips wrote. "These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can't keep track of all of them here at the White House, we're asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.''

Ummm the only problem Mr. Phillips is that all this information will be permanently SAVED. There is no help for it.....You should just shut up about your snitch list, and go back to programming.

Does no one else see a pattern here?

ETA: It's not the real point of this article (based on the title), but read Mr. Caldwell's 5 Steps to improve our current health care system. Nearly genius. I, as a lone voice in the wilderness, believe there are problems in our system that should be addressed, however, HR3200, ain't gonna do it.

Thank you for ....

...indulging me for the last loony posting. I guess I'm tired of worrying myself to death about the great Cap and Trade con, that will probably drive my elderly mother from her home, which we probably won't be able to sell because it's over 40 years old and not energy efficient, and we do not have the resources to have it either inspected or upgraded... of course, we'll probably be too sick with no viable options to even worry about it, and on and on. In comparison, the Sportbeat "issue" seemed almost "solvable". I'm incredibly cheery am I not?

But on to knitting. Here's were I am on the Wrap Me Up shawl:



This has turned out to be a fun piece. And even though I still don't really feel the Noro love, it looks pretty cool. I can't imagine actually wearing it, but they'll be setting the building temps lower in order to save money this winter (it's much warmer in here now in the summer), and I might need it. The other fun thing is that this piece lends itself to lots of ad libbing. Don't like a color, instruction, pattern? Do something else. It's all good.

I may as well knit ahead, 'cause I won't be getting to my group this month. My Amish friend is coming to help "spring clean" that day, and though we'll be long done, I'll be a wet rag by evening. Last year I drove her home, stopped and got fresh corn from a farmer, cooked and ate it standing up in my freshly cleaned, yet disarrayed kitchen. I was just too mentally and physically tired to do anything else. Blah!

Here are two progress pictures of Girasole. When I took the first, I had just reknit it to the point you see. This was right after the July 4th weekend.



I had not paid attention and ended up with THREE more stitches after the first chart. One then knits six stockinette rows, and when I started the next sequence, I was shocked to find I had extras. I pulled it out to before the stockinette rows and started over.


This is almost through the third chart. I'm doing much better reading the lace, so I can see the errors before I get too far. You didn't think I stopped screwing up did you? I just know how to fix them better.



In this photo you can see the bits of silver in the Dream In Color Starry.



It's a little blurry because I'm struggling with my macro feature. Must. Read. Manual.

Still working on the cardigan too. Pretty boring photo fodder though.

I'll leave you with two cell phone photos from the Altoona Curve game. The ball park is a very nice place to attend a game. You will notice the roller coaster, Leap The Dips, in the background. That is a vintage wooden coaster which is classified as a National Historic Landmark. When the amusement park is open the cars have GO CURVE on the side as they climb the hill facing the ball park. The first photo, is so typical of a minor (AA) league team. There are all kinds of games and prizes and the "kids" run the bases after the game and are greeted by the bizarre array of mascots, including, this year, a goldfish!! No idea how the goldfish relates to the Curve in particular, or Altoona in general. I just thought the last photo was interesting as the fireworks lit up the coaster. (Which had just been doused in water by the fire department to make sure it didn't get set aflame.)

"Just shut up!" Thursday.

With apologies to Mike (Greenberg) and Mike (Golic) ESPN radio's irrepressible drive time duo, from whom this is a complete ripoff, I'd like to start a new tradition..."Just Shut Up Thursday". You get to vote for whomever you'd like to "just shut up!" (Gah! That was horrible to write. Still isn't great! Maybe I should "just shut up!")

1) Our girl Nancy, for her ever shifting story, six at last count, of what she knew when.
2) Joe "Loose Lips" Biden, before he reveals BO's "tighty-whitey" size.
3) Arlen "No-Cred" Spector, who neglected to mention, until now, after 30 years in Congress, that our intelligence agencies lie. (You mean the way congress people lie, Arlen?)

I wish I had a prize, but alas, I don't. Maybe I can figure that out in future weeks. Vote your choice for the "Just Shut Up" Award for this week.