Dear Blog,

I think of you every day, yet, I never take the time to write.

So this is a quickie:

In our house we've been plagued with colds and sinus issues. Two rounds of antibiotics and steroids each. And one of us is still hacking.

As the two readers of this page may recall, I'm a big ballet fan. I've been a season ticket holder (that's patron) to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater for thirty(!) years. I'm a believer in supporting the arts you love - be it professional wrestling, jazz, or whatever. Our ballet is incredibly flexible in their season ticket holder policies. So when my mother-in-law passed away, and we just didn't feel like Giselle ten days later (even though it's my DH favorite - he has a "thing" for the Willis), we exchanged the tickets for another performance and gave them as a Christmas gift. Well, two weeks ago the creeping crud invaded out home. See above, and we didn't feel up to traveling. So I exchanged another set of tickets for the following weekend. We were packed and ready to travel Saturday (tickets were for Sunday). However, when I got up Saturday morning, we were in the middle of a snowstorm. A full blown snow storm, not the predicted flurries. So reluctantly we changed plans (you may add "yet again" here). We'd drive right to the theater on Sunday, stay overnight, and drive home Monday. The weather looked promising. Fast forward to early Sunday morning. First thing I did was to look up the weather and what did I see? A travel advisory for our entire route!!!!!???? Not for Sunday, but for Monday. That meant that we'd certainly be able to get there, but coming back was going to be a problem. As we discussed the possibility of it not being a serious advisory....it changed. Now it was a severe weather warning. So, here we are, all packed up and no where to go. Fortunately, the box office and ballet theater allowed me to swap these tickets for the final performance in April, when there is no possibility of snow - even in Central PA. At least none that will stick around. But I now have four tickets to Cinderella (with the PBT Orchestra). Anyone want to buy 2 excellent seats to Cinderella? This has not been a good year for traveling...or ballet for us.

Lastly, I'd like to share some gratuitous knitting content. My Wurm (not Raveled yet, I need a better photo). LOVE. IT. Even though it's getting a little to warm to wear it, says the woman who lives where it is currently 25 degrees.

 I used a worsted superwash called Giusto, dyed by an indie dyer Altobish. Sadly, she has given up dying yarn and has gone back to teaching viola and violin full time. I say sadly because this yarn was to die (pun intended) for. I actually bought two more skeins. It only took one to make the hat, so I have another skein in the blue, and one in spring green. It was great to knit with and I have a feeling it's going to wear like iron, which is really good. I'm not particularly gentle with my knitwear.

 Then there is this. This is Four Play, in the Gypsy Heart colorway. I find it fascinating that the skein looks so much different than the cake, which knits up totally differently in the scarf. Scrunchable Scarf,  that is. With the busy variegation, I wanted something that would be poofy, yet I didn't think cables would be a good choice. And it looks even more different than in the photo because I changed the cast on. What is in the photo is 32. I upped it to 38 (multiples of 3, +2 for selvage) and found the flashing and pooling overwhelming and repetitive. So  settled on 35 and that seems to have worked better. A 3 stitch difference really mattered.  I just love these simple yet lovely patterns. They let the yarn shine. And if you ever get the chance to snap up some Four Play, do it. You will not be disappointed. Srsly.

Maybe now is ...

...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?

The Good, the Bad, and....well more Good ....

This past weekend we were supposed to be doing some fun stuff, but first we had to get there. Naturally, it snowed (and snowed and snowed) on Friday, and that made the traveling we were supposed to do on Saturday a risky proposition.

So I switched our season Saturday night tickets and we ended up doing this on Sunday afternoon. It was fabulous. Etta Cox has some set of pipes on her!


Unfortunately on the way back to the hotel to change here's the bad.....





Sigh. Rear ended at a stop sign on an on ramp to the Ft. Pitt Bridge. Yunz in the 'Burgh know exactly where I'm talking about.












Then..."it was a hockey night in Pittsburgh"! (With apologies to Mike Lange.)







And wow was that fun! It was my very first hockey game. The boys (two thirds of the team are under 23 and a handful, the best players, are under 21, I'm not kidding when I say boys) won! And we saw an overtime and a shootout.












Not the final score, but dandy anyway.
















And Rich was impressed too! He's just very intense when it comes to sports.







You can't say we're not eclectic!