Ten on Tuesday — 10 Things I Want for Christmas

Hmmmmmm…….. since Sweet Baboo and I decided not to exchange gifts this year, I haven’t thought too much about it. But because you’re asking……

1. A Dyson “DC15 The Ball™Animal” vacuum cleaner. Ugly little critter but it’s supposed to be great for people with allergies.
2. A completer set for My Pfaltzgraff Mission Flower pattern plates
3. A muzzle for my cat because she won’t st0p meowing while I’m trying to do this.
4. A skein/hank/ball of every kind of yarn my LYS has on hand.
5. Two sets of every kind of knitting needle made.
6. New bed sheets
7. A gift certificate to have a free manicure every week for a year.
8. A year’s supply of a pill that will counteract the effects of chocolate.
9. An HD Plasma TV (do they come like that?)
10. And cable or Direct TV to go with it.

 

Ten on Tuesday — come try, it’s fun!!

My sister is complaining that I haven’t been blogging…….

…which I so funny, because it took me months to get her to read it, and now she wants me to write something as often as I can. My next goal is to persuade her to write it with me. My sister is a Virgo Libra. It may be years before I can get her to do it. But as to why I haven’t been posting, I do have a reason. I have been busier than usual (ergo more tired than usual due to the busier than usual) because I AM FINALLY ON VACATION!!!!!

And of course, I am by turns ecstatic and bummed. It’s so cool having days off before Christmas but I hate leaving my partner in crime at the office to do everything. Saturday morning was my regular Saturday to work, and usually it’s a great day to catch up because that particular doc is usually much less busy. Usually. This past Saturday was a zoo with zero chance of doing much of anything more than reacting to each crisis. (Insert huge sigh here) But as she likes to say, just do what you can and eventually, it will all get done.

So, I’m not going anywhere except possibly to buy stocking stuffers and a couple of other things. Christmas has never been one of my favorite holidays, inasmuch as most holidays make me cringe. Christmas is by far the worst. The last few years have been somewhat better, but I’ve pretty much resigned myself that I will never be an over the top type of celebrator of any holidays. A good holiday for me is one where I am able to just be quiet and enjoy the day without a lot of distraction and hub bub. Do I sound Grinchy? I don’t mean to, but that’s the kind of holiday that I like. I so envy people who get all excited with Christmas spirit and wish I could participate in it. Many people have told me that I just have to make up my mind to have a good time at this time of the year. As much as I would like to, I think that sometimes it’s too late to turn your behavior around.

I tried to explain why this phenomenon occurs in 4 different ways, but I can’t get it to sound unwhiny. Christmas celebrations just weren’t fun for my sissy and me. ‘Nuff said.

I will mail out Christmas cards, wrap presents and put up the tree. I will think the happiest thoughts that I can manage and will try to be a kinder person than the jerk that is honking his horn in back of me at the coffee drive through. (Does that fool think that I will actually move faster because he does that?) And I will spend my Christmas Day at home with my Sweet Baboo, happy that I am able to finally spend my holidays the way that I want in the peace and quiet that I have always craved. It’s exactly the best possible holiday that I could ever hope for.

Friday Fill-in #49

1. I love and hate Christmas. Love it for the notion of what it should be, hate it for it’s commercialized idiocy.
2. Teeny white lights is my favorite color for the Christmas tree lights.
3. The candles in the window have white bulbs. So boring, I know.
4. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is one of my most favorite Christmas movies. Just love the Griswold family.
5. My favorite Christmas lyric(s) is/are “me and my bum”, from the Little Drummer Boy. I know those aren’t the real lyrics, but that’s how a gal I work with likes to sing it. It always cracks me up..
6. I’m dreaming of a a decent night’s sleep. Maybe two..
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to starting to knit a bag, tomorrow my plans include meeting friends for dinner and Sunday, I want to do some more knitting on the bag and Sissy’s socks and relax!

Come try Friday Fill-Ins — CLICK HERE!!!

Ten on Tuesday — 10 Favorite Things to Complain About

1. Mean people that take their aggression and bad mood out on service workers (receptionists, cashiers, deli workers etc) because they know they can get away with it. Or they just don’t care.
2. Weather forecasters — oh, so sorry, meteoroligists — who think it is their job to whip people up into a lather over possible bad weather that 9 times out of 10 amounts to nothing.
3. Television reporters — who seem to delight in shoving their microphones and asking “and how did you feel when the police told you that the body of (insert murdered loved one’s name here) was (insert horrendous details here) all the while claiming freedom of the press and the public’s right to know.
4. People that think it is their duty to forward every piece of crap email that is sent to them to every person they have in their address book.
5. Also, these seem to be the same people that don’t/won’t check out ridiculous stories on snopes.com and just assume that everything sent to them is true.
6. Organized religion — need I say more.
7. Any war in general, the Iraq war in particular. Sally Field made a good point at the Emmys.
8. Books in which authors seem to just want to try to impress their readers with the number of big words they can use.
9. Caller ID — can’t tell you the number of phone calls we get at the office saying “yeah, somebody from there called me?” and it’s then up to us to run around trying to figure out who did call. Jeez, we’re not the Borg!! Get an answering machine, for crying out loud!
10. And about answering machines — when I am queen of the world, answering machines will pick up after 3 rings, not seventeen and it will be against the law to have an outgoing message on your machine recorded by your child/children. It’s impossible to understand and contrary to popular belief, annoying as all hell.

 

Ten on Tuesday — come try, it’s fun!!

On Deck — Sockies for My Sister

I’m really getting into this knitting socks on circular needles. The hardest part of knitting for me on any kind of knitting needles (and this has always been a problem) is that I am a horrendously tight knitter. I have to constantly remind myself to loosen it up. And these are no different — they should wear like iron. I’m about 1/2 done the first sock — more pics when I get more done.

The pattern (Simple Sock in Three Sizes) is from Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordhi. I like the part in it that says you could make only this sock for the rest of your life just changing the yarn weight and type of yarn. A great book that is worth every penny.

Isn’t this yarn yummy? It’s Galway Paint from Plymouth Yarn. The colorway is #808. I just love a worsted weight yarn!

Finished Object — My “Just Winged It” Knitting Bag

This was great yarn to felt, once I got a handle on what I was doing. I used Donegal Tweed Homespun 100% Pure New Wool. I just loved the hand in this yarn, plus I had to frog it a few times and it held up very well. I used 2 ends — started with a crocheted oval about 5″ at it’s widest by 10″ in length, then knitted up from the stitches on the outside of the oval. Started increasing here and there until I got the shape that I wanted. I ended up with about 110 stitches in circumference, but not sure what I started with.

The I-cord was a 6 stitch with one end of the yarn. I think it was about 5 feet long when I finished. To attach the cord, I used a DPN to make 4 holes in the bag about 1 1/2″ from the edge and about 3″ in from the sides, then threaded the cord through it and tied. Not real fancy but it gets the job done. I didn’t attach the cord until it and the bag were done being felted.

I was a little hesitant about the felting, having felted one other item and it came out pint sized due to my overzealousness. I erred on the side of caution this time, and finally got the effect that I wanted after felting it 4 times. This yarn can really take some abuse in the washer!!

This picture looks like there is a skew in the yarn from this angle, but it must be my camera.

Ten on Tuesday — 10 Best Games

1. Mario Brothers — the original. I bought the game and Nintendo for my daughter, then got hooked and stayed up most nights til 3AM playing it.
2. The Legend of Zelda. See number 1 above for particulars. I played this one after I wore out the Mario Brothers cartridge.
3. Yahtzee!! I love the sound the dice makes in the cup when you shake it. Plus I’m the world’s best Yahtzee! player. Just ask me.
4. Are crosswords considered a game?
5. Pitch. Haven’t played it in years, but loved it when I was younger. Used to stay up all night playing and drinking coffee. Oh, and smoking cigarettes too. I was such a little scamp!!
6. Monopoly. It’s great that it can literally go on for days.
7. Sorry! Another game from the staying up all night drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes days.
8. Trivial Pursuit. I have a brain that soaks up the most ridiculous facts. I used to play this with my sister and her then dipshit husband and beat the pants off him. Take that for thinking I’m an airhead girl!
9. Uno. I can’t remember how to play it but I know that I loved it!
10. Skip Bo — another game that I haven’t played in a dog’s age but loved it when I was a kid.

Ten on Tuesday — come try, it’s fun!!

Sunday Scribblings #87 - Walk

It’s amusing how one word can free associate into a memory.

I have lived in Connecticut since 1980, roughly half my life. I’ve come to think of it as home, but I also think of my life before 1980 as “back home”. The truth is, I really miss back home — especially the Adirondack Mountains. Growing up, they were just always there and I didn’t think much of them. You could always see them if you looked “up south” as my grandfather used to say.

I always had a hard time explaining to Sweet Baboo why I loved it parts of it so much up there, when there were also a lot of parts that I hated. The weather in the winter was abysmal (-35° was not an unusual temperature in January), the area was not near any kind of cultural or educational complexes, the nearest interstate highway was about 45 miles away, family issues.

All of that aside, one of my favorite places was Lake Meacham, smack dab in the middle of the Adirondack Park. My grandparents spent their summers there — the lake area was being developed back in the ’60’s and Grandpa worked there clearing land and building campsites and picnic tables to go with them. It was a place that had no bad memories for me. My worst memory of the lake was that 9 times out of 10 when I visited my grandparents, it rained. For the entire week I was there. For several years. No kidding.

Ten years ago, my graduating high school class had a class reunion. Sweet Baboo and I decided that we would bring our camping gear and stay at Lake Meacham, since he had heard so much about it from me. I warned him that it would rain. And it did.

We attended the reunion, then headed back up south to our campsite after we had picked up some coffee to go. At least that night, it wasn’t raining. It was actually clearing!

Arriving at the lake, I told SB that we should go for a walk. We walked slowly down the road, sipping our coffee and talking softly to each other. We veered onto a path that would take us down to the lake. A flashlight badly in need of a charged battery lit our way. Sort of. We held onto each other so as not to fall, because there is no place darker than an Adirondack lake when there is no moon. Moments later, we came out of the trees and onto the little sand beach that surrounds the lake. Looking up, SB saw the Milky Way clearly for the first time. No moon, no clouds and the star canopy reached down to the horizon. You could practically hear the stars twinkling. I believe the words “wow” and “incredible” were used extensively that night. And now, because he and I took that little walk, he understands part of what it is that I miss from the ‘Dacks.

 

 

If you would like read more about walking, click here for Sunday Scribblings.

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