Knitting News

Yes, I have been doing knitterly things ...

First, I scored Lorna's Laces sock yarn in Franklin's Panopticon colorway:

After calling around town I found it at Sheepy in White Bear Lake. I am so excited that I will have Franklin keeping my feet warm this winter (I love how that sounds!)

Also, I found a kit at 3Kittens for a tank made from a Karabella that is a silk/cotton blend for summer:

Even though I just finished a tank - this how it looked before blocking - the cotton looks very cottony, but I rather like the way it turned out anyway:
(I really should give up with the 100% cotton yarn for sweaters)

I've made good progress on a pair of gift socks in bamboo:

And I finished the first of my Mothers' Day socks - made from the bamboo/wool hand dyed hank that I got at the Yarnery with a gift certificate from my kids:

It's Mean Girl's Reversi pattern and I really like the way it looks!

Bucket List

I've modified a bucket list that I received from a friend today (no, I didn't see the movie. I don't like feel-good movies).

**************************************************************************
Copy and paste - place an X by all the things you've done and remove the Xs from the ones you have not, and send it to your friends.


Gone on a blind date -X
Skipped school - X
Walked out of a job -
Been to Canada - X
Been to Mexico - X
Been on a plane - X
Been on an ocean-going ship - X
Been lost - X
Been to a country where you can't read the street signs - X
Gone to Washington , DC - X
Swam in the ocean - X
Played cops and robbers for real - X
Read a classic novel that you missed in high school/college - X
Sang Karaoke -
Paid for a meal with coins only - X
Crossed over party lines when voting - X
Done something you told yourself you wouldn't - X
Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose -
Caught a snowflake on your tongue - X
Danced in the rain - X
Written a letter to Santa Claus - X
Watched the sunrise with someone you care about - X
Blown bubbles in the last ten years - X
Gone ice-skating in the last ten years -
Been skinny dipping outdoors -X
Seen more than one movie on a single ticket at a mutiplex -


Now answer these questions...

1. Any nickname? lots
2. Birthplace? Minnesota
3. Favorite drink? coffee and beer (depends on the time of day)
4. Body Piercings? ears
5. Do you like your job? yes
6. Favorite number? 9
7. Favorite vacation spot? Spain
8. Ever been to Africa? yes
9. Ever eaten (just) cookies for dinner? no, but just popcorn yes
10. Ever been on TV? yes
11. Stolen a traffic sign? no
12. Driven over 100 mph? yes
13. Drive tractor? no
14. Favorite pie? strawberry rhubarb
15. How do you relax? watch a movie, read a book or knit
16. Favorite movie? I have many - most recent that I liked: Wall-E
17. Favorite holiday? Christmas
18. Favorite dessert? all of them
19. Favorite food? most recent favorite consumed: shrimp scampi
20. Favorite day of the week? Saturday
21. Favorite brand of body wash? anything almond or vanilla
22. Favorite toothpaste? don't care
23. Favorite smell? ocean
24. Favorite sound? laughter
25. How do you relax? watch a movie, read a book or knit
26. How do you see yourself in 10 years? traveling more
27. What do you hope to have done in those years? been to Tanzania

Treasures

Found a few treasures at my mom's house - both happy and sad.

First, the Leaflet Missal from my parents' wedding plus picture:



And then we found the "In Memory of" from my dad's funeral which included the picture of Jesus on the cross in the clouds (a very unlikely one for him, I think, but what would I know?):

With my mom in a nursing home it's going to be very hard to go through all her stuff and make decisions about what to do with it ... sifting through family history one little piece at a time...

New Bumper Sticker

One more thing ... so I saw this bumper sticker the other day:

(read without the *)

*<*/bush*>*

Which, when put in proper html, deletes *bush*

Clever.

Odds 'n' Ends

Here we are - it's Thursday already...in trying to get back to normal, here are a few musings for the week:

*We saw the new Batman movie last night - arrived too late to see it on the IMAX, so ended up at MOA and saw it on a regular screen. It was too long. Not enough Bruce Wayne. I liked Batman Begins better. I love Morgan Freeman.

*Yes, Heath Ledger did a good job, but seriously, when did a movie like this ever get considered for Oscar nomiations for anything but special effects and/or sound?

*I hope Heath Ledger had a good time being the bad guy since he had only had pretty-boy parts before.

*My Stitch'n'Bitch calendar directed me to a blog done by a group in Madrid. It lead me to another spot where there is Spanish knitting vocabulary and some nice patterns. I can also dream of being in Madrid.

*This comes not long after seeing Vantage Point which took me back to Salamanca. And a friend sent me postcards recently from Barcelona and Sevilla. I am suffering Spain nostalgia in a big way.

*I found a kit for a tank in sage green yarn by Karabella at 3Kittens during my week from *ell. I think the gods were pitying me. Now all I have to do is finish what I am currently working on so I can cast on the new one.

*Pictures coming this weekend. Hopefully.

Look, Ma, No Braces!

Finally we have no more braces of any type in our family - check out Boy-child and his beauuuuutiful teeth:

I'm not sure, but I think it's been six or seven years of teeth and/or spine in braces of some sort in this house...we welcome the newfound freedom!

Last week was quite *ellish; hoping that this week will be better...

Mini-Golf

Didn't get anything done that I was supposed to do this weekend, but I did play mini-golf at the Walker. Each hole is artist designed and most of the materials used were either recycled or found dumpster-diving.

The Water Trap:

Can't remember what this one was called:
The Wave:

Now I guess I'll have to catch up during the week...and maybe next weekend more golf - this is my kind of sport!

Books and Movies

I guess today's Thursday This and That will be book and movie focused:

*The Modern Marvels discussion this week was about Maus by Art Spiegelman. It was great and we'll be looking forward to going to the next four.

*Get Smart was a fun movie - I don't know what the critics' problem is. It was exactly as I expected: silly and fun. (Of course, they are a bit snobby at Salon).

*The Wind in the Willows is boring. There, I said it. I'm not sure I'll be reading it for book club because it's just too slow. (I will, of course, go to book club to kibbitz and nosh whether I've read the book or not).

*Mad Money was not fun it was boring. I thought Queen Latifah, Katie Holmes and Diane Keaton would be better. I was wrong. (No, I wasn't expecting a brilliant film, I wanted to be entertained).

*I scored a used copy of Ken Follet's latest book, World Without End at a used book store for $18.00.

*Tomorrow is Drunken Knitters Night at Merlins Rest. Be there or be square.

*I finished a pair of socks today.

I'm Voting Republican

Thanks to SyntheticHuman for the great video and to Joan for telling me about it.

Genius

Thanks to KMKat for the link ... a readability analysis of my blog has given me:



Honestly, I'll be laughing for at least week on that - thank you so much!

Political Legacy

A fellow liberal knitter is wondering if she's a ghoul for celebrating a death.

I don't think so.

The Bill Cobey quote comparing Jesse Helms' death on the 4th of July with that of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, the ultimate patriots, is a travesty. Thank God the founders gave us a document that would endure in spite of the efforts of people like Senator Helms.

The whole thing makes me wonder about political legacy, and legacy in general. I just watched In the Shadow of the Moon yesterday, which is a moving documentary on the race to the moon in the 1960s. What a legacy those men left. It also reminded me of many things related to my childhood: the Cold War, the Space Race, VietNam, Civil Rights, you name it. (We then went to pick up a friend of Girl-child and with his retro 'fro and mirrored aviator sun glasses, I swear I felt like Link of the Mod Squad had just gotten into my car.)

What a different world it was then. So much upheaval. So much hope.

And then I think of the legacy of the Current Occupant; we can only hope that history will be written by people other than his friends and family.

Which brings me to think of my mother and her rapid decline ... and off I go for another day of tending to her care (or maintenance, as it is rapidly becoming), and there is another legacy...

Happy 4th

Where the He**?

I found this link in my weekly update from the American Library Association.

Not library related, just fun - just what I needed, actually.

Enjoy!

Flowers

In spite of the fact that I dislike hot weather, I do enjoy a number of things about summer. Mostly the flowers.

I love clematis, and this one is particularly cool because of the furry centers that are left lingering after the petals are gone:

And these roses were quite a find - not hard to care for and they bloom twice a season now that they're fairly established:

This is the original clematis that started as a sickly, last-one-left-at-the-nursery pathetic little thing. Now it climbs up the vine on the house so the flowers are everywhere: