Turrible Tuesday. Well, not that bad.

I tried to go to the local knitting group at La Scala in Walnut Creek last night, but parking was awful. Everyone who wasn't in Walnut Creek on Saturday must have driven out there last night. So I gave up and went to an Italian place near my house instead. Kind of out of character, it was almost 8 o'clock (normally I am in bed, not necessarily sleeping, but don't rule it out) and it was out of my house. I'm getting stir crazy lately. It's the rain and the cold weather. I love it! It makes me want to run around. Or lay around reading and knitting.

Sheba helpfully woke me up around 2am last night wailing like a banshee for water. Actually, I think that she heard Hezekiah in the garage (she snuck in, probably because it was raining but you would think that she'd go home, considering she lives next door. I wonder if they miss her? They never say anything to me about her but she's at my house all the time. Of course, I do feed her. And let her sit on my lap. And fix the lawnchairs so she has comfy dry pillows to sit on and bask in the sun. Other than that, I mean.) In a way, I feel like a guy who is dating a younger version of his wife. Hezekiah looks just like Sheba did, at her age. It doesn't help that Sheba gives me those "You've been seeing THAT CAT!" accusing looks either. Finally. Three marriages later and it's my cat I'm cheating on. Figures.

At last. The beginning of the Grinch Season

At least that's how I feel at the moment. I never get into the Christmas spirit until roughly the 24th. If then.

Working short rows messed me up on the vest, but nothing too horrible. I completely forgot to do the pattern on one side, so I was dropping stitches to drop the pattern back in and it might be a row or so off. It was definitely shorter on one side. It's for my Dad. He loves me. Besides, it will probably drive me mad and I'll have to fix it perfectly. Please let this be before I bind off for the underarms.

Went and saw Pride & Prejudice last Friday. It was okay. I was expecting horrible and it wasn't, although I like Matthew MacFadyen better in MI-5. Keira Knightly played Elizabeth fairly well except for relying on that winsome smile 9 hundred thousand times. And the close ups! Although to be fair, that probably wasn't her fault. The movie would have been a half hour shorter if they'd cut the close ups though. The movie took dialog straight out of the book which made some of their choices really odd. Mr Bennett was a gentleman, not wealthy but not poverty stricken. I don't think cattle roamed their front parlour. Lady Catherine did not show up to cut off her face to spite her nose at MIDNIGHT. Georgiana was shy. Very, very shy. Not in the movie, but then again, she had one scene in the movie, and she wasn't there then in the book either. (when Elizabeth runs into Darcy at Pemberley).

Hmmm. Can you tell I reread the book over the weekend? I also picked up the A&E version on my way home.

I saw one of those lovely Public Service Announcements on the History Channel that when I first saw it, I thought, well, duh, but the more I think about it, the more it bothers me. It was a man, in a suit, 40/50ish, getting bent out of shape and a little too short with a waiter who was not bringing him his wheat roll he requested. The businessman says chummily and annoyed, to the 20ish guy at the table near him "If they're in our country, they should speak English, don't you think?" And the younger guy firmly says quite politically correctly, "Actually, no I don't."

Which sounds fabulous. Why should the waiter abandon his culture and language? Except that he is clearly in an English speaking restaurant, with English speaking customers who are presumably paying for what they order and oddly enough, want what they order. Don't get me wrong, I think we should all keep our heritage, I'm sad that my family did not.

But where does that leave the waiter? Is that guy saying that the waiter should be happy to get any low paying job where he can speak whatever language he pleases? Because unless he also speaks English, he's not going to be very employable.

All in all, that PSA just made me think that we're working to keep an underclass. Go to college!

Working on A Wednesday

No, not on that. Well, maybe. The bad thing about cute, soft, teensy yarn? It takes forever to make even a scarf. Particularly when it's not the only thing I'm working on. I'm not used to regular needles either, but for once, a circular needle didn't work well for me.

Speaking of work! Working on a Wednesday and for the whole day! At last, no doctor visits, no medication supervision, no mother being at death's door. Yay! It's actually kind of nice to be at work, under these circumstances. I had on old Bob Dylan CD playing until his voice drove me mad. Maybe I shouldn't have played just the one CD over and over.

It's Sunday? Are you sure?

The Evil Princess

You are drawn to the sinister side of life and
gravitate towards darker things. You are quite
proud of your dark side and often flaunt it.
Your sinister nature and your willingness to be
cutthroat often result in you playing the
villainess.

Role Model: Snow White's Stepmother

You are most likely to: Team up with an evil dragon
to spread terror across the countryside.


What Kind of Princess are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Hmm. I don't think of myself as evil. Cranky occasionally, a little manipulative, but not evil. Maybe I should have picked the woodland creatures dancing for the sacred acorn.

Kind of a quiet day. I realized around 2pm that it was Sunday and that I could have gone and seen Pride & Prejudice w/Sheri (at least that was the plan Friday night) but there's something about working weird hours, schlepping your critically ill mother to hospitals and clinics, or just visiting her in said hospital, or probably today, from not going to church that messed up my sense of days. I think it was mostly skipping church. Watch, I will have at least one person say to me this week, quite archly "oh, you skipped church! Now you're going to Hell." Ummmm, no. There are a LOT of things that I'm probably going to go to hell for, but I think skipping church is waaaaaay down on the list.

Oh. It was probably the Benedryl. I'm being eaten alive by something. It can't be fleas, unless it's fleas that don't like cats but only people? Bah. I think it was that rug I scrubbed down yesterday.

I love that rug. I have no idea whether my parents picked it up in their cross country drivings when they were young, or if it was left at my great grandfather's dry cleaning store, but it's cool looking. Dusty though. I scubbed it with a brush and I think the former residents were disgrunted at being evicted.






Oh, here's a lovely look at my mother's arm. And she is doing this at home. Better home than a hospital though. one more day and she's off the IV and onto pills.

And here's the vest so far. Finished the back, it came out pretty good, cast on and got past the rib when I realized.............er, button band. Or buttonholes. Neither of which occurred to me. Oh well. Dad's got a Santa tummy going anyway, so I'll just narrow the upper chest for the button band and leave the lower half alone. The pink yarn is me not being able to stand not working on a new project and casting on a twisted cable pattern for a scarf. At least I'll have something I'm currently working on for the Cable KAL. Not what I was working on mind you.
That sweater is currently still in the UFO pile for the 3rd year. Maybe the 4th. I just have about half the front to knit and seam the darn thing, but, well, it takes time to work into these things. Not to mention it's wool, and cabled and the weather here? I think it's been at least 75 degrees all freaking week. In November. Just wrong.

Fine, my eye.

Cardiologically speaking. Is that a word? Well, it is now. It's my blog, right? So mom is fine from what they found in the angiogram but she developed complications and is now hooked up to an IV of Cipro in the hospital for a few days. Nice way to spend a Sunday. Not. And the worst part? (I mean, other than being scared silly about her health) was that I left my knitting at home. It was horrible! Plus she looked wan and drawn and well, sick, and here I was, unable to STFU for more than 20 minutes at a time. All day! We got there at 10am and I left around 8pm. But she is on the mend now. And has a diagnosis, which usually means the worst is over. [knocks on wood].

On Saturday however, I had fun! Watched Rachel play two of her 3 final Soccer Tournament games (checked on mom during the middle game). Guess how many games Rachel's team won? Guess how many I was there for? I don't care if I am a jinx, they'll just have to work through it because I'm still going to go to her games. Hopefully I can make all of them next year. This year is over. [action photos go here, when I download the pics].

Her coach, after letting the girls "do" his hair (for luck, presumably)




What a great way to get some fresh outdoor air. Go to a park, sit in a lawn chair and cheer the kids. Pass the coffee and doughnuts, willya? (See the pink box in the corner? Doughnuts for everyone! But it's California. I think Sheri took home one out of the 3 dozen she bought and that was after 3 games.

Thankful Thursday

Well, maybe not thankful. Well, yeah. Thankful. Mom is fine, all her stents from a year ago look good, the 40% blockage she had in her coronal artery(?)is now at 20%. So evidently she's doing well. No medical reason (cardiology wise at least) for being out of breath and having pressure walking. Yay! Now I can amp up the rate a bit. Strolling around a park for a mile and a quarter is better than nothing, but it's not exactly going to drop the pounds.

She had to lay flat on her back for six hours after the angiogram. Oh, and it took three nurses and AN HOUR to get her IV in before the procedure. Not a good idea, having tiny rolling veins.

In other good news, my dad might actually get his vest this Christmas! I got an amazing amount done yesterday. Something about enforced hanging around and the soothingness of mindless activity through fear.

Darn. No picture of what I finished on the vest yesterday. I'll snap one and post it tonight.

Or tomorrow. As in today. But look! Much progress! It would help if my Dad were a smaller man.














Wow, what a difference in lighting. They're both on the kitchen island, but hours apart. The top of the first one is the top. As in, that's as far as I got.

Whoops, Stargate SG1 is on. See ya!

Playing With Digital Camera. At long last.....

This was taken, oh so long ago, maybe Labor Day Weekend? or thereabouts, at the King's Mountain Art Festival at.......wait for it.....King's Mountain in Redwood City. Beautiful. I couldn't remember the last time I'd driven down the peninsula but once you cleared South City and Millbrae it was all rolling hills and trees.
This is Lisa Souza's "shop" in the woods.

Oh, much fun! It was incredibly easy too. Now I feel like a dolt.

In knitting news, I finally abandoned the baby blue scarf I was making because I lost the pattern somewhere.

(Note to self: do NOT rip patterns out of books no matter how much you intend to go to Kinko's and get them put in a spiral binder! You will just lose it).

So far for the Baby Blue Yarn? Two frogs. The other frog was what was darn near a completed shawl collared cardigan (I was a sleeve short) mostly because I didn't think of the cardigan part until I had to steek it, and honestly, I bought the yarn for my dad to match his crazy baby blue eyes so I felt bad co-opting it.



(That picture is taken up on my knee, in bed, my favorite place to knit. And to read. Watch TV. Okay, I'm a slug.) The ribbing is called Hunter's Rib from one of Nicky Epstein's edgings and border books, it's a k2, p1 pattern so it's almost a seed stitch rib. (I'm wildly fond of seed stitch & its variations for some weird reason). The body is going to be made of of huh. Simple seed stitch. Hopefully the k3, p1 pattern every 1 and 5 rows out of 8 will make it a little more than mindless but not requiring me to shush people while knitting.

In Tuesday news, go watch House. One of the local PBS stations is running Jeeves and Wooster at 7pm on Tuesdays which is cool because I've never seen it before. Boy howdy, Hugh Laurie looks young there.

Give a quick thought for my mom too, willya? She goes in for her 4th angiogram tomorrow. Hopefully just stents again, if that, like the last two. Wow, it's been since August a year ago that she's had one. Bad Mom. Little teensy veins and naturally high cholesterol. Bad combo.

What Does Your Birthdate Mean?

Your Birthdate: August 14

You work well with others. That is, you're good at getting them to do work for you. It's true that you get by on your charm. But so what? You make people happy! You're dynamic, clever, and funny. And people like to have you around. But you're so restless, they better not expect you to stay around for long. Your strength: Your superstar charisma Your weakness: Commitment means nothing to you Your power color: Fuchsia Your power symbol: Diamond Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

Rachel Being Goofy

....at Mimi's Cafe, probably a month or so ago. I'd show a cool action shot of her playing soccer today but camera phones suck on the far away action shots.

Soccer. Much more fun than I thought. At least to watch. It was beautiful out today too, blue skies w/fluffy clouds and in the 60's. It's good to get out and get some fresh air [deleting picture of me getting my fresh air sitting on my butt in a lounge chair].

I am Lion! Hear Me Roar!

Isn't he cute? If I do say so myself. He's supposed to be a baby present - he's a rucksack (that's what the book called it) but I have it on High Authority (Adrienne) that no little boy would be caught dead toting it. What if the little boy was say, 3 months old? And is a Leo? (And clearly, not getting his baby shower present anywhere close to on time.)

But if said baby boy would find Mr. Lion something he would be embarrassed to tote around (by his mother presumably) then can I keep him? And make him into a purse? I have no idea what's in fashion for babies. I don't want to stunt the growth of the Future President of the United States (after Rachel serves her two terms).

How was Hallowe'en? We had a grand total of 19 kids. Used to get at least 100 or more. Either the neighborhood is aging (again) or they do things differently nowadays. Kids used to get bussed to our neighborhood, and I'm sure our kids went to other neighborhoods, but that was after they hit all the houses here. The new subdivisions are where everyone goes now, I'm told.

On the reading front, I picked up the audiobook of Beowulf by the most recent translator, Seamus Heaney who also reads it. It was meant to be listened to the cover said. He does have a lovely lilting Irish accent that makes listening easy.