Housekeeping...

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 ....

.... 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.....

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...

...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...

....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 .....

... 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...

....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!

..... 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 ....

... 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....

.... this

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

Point, set, match......

Catchup ....

1. 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.



2. 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.



3. 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?)



4. 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.



5. 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!



6. 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 ....

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

1. I'd READ it thoroughly.
2. 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."
3. "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!!!!

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!!

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....

... 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....

... 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

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...

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

... 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....

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.