Get ready to ooooh and ahhhhhhh! Look what I finally learned to do:
Need to get closer?
Yes! Finally, I learned to entrelac! I tried it before, a million times. I tried it a billion this week...finally I read somewhere that it's like turning the heel of a sock...you don't try to make sense of it, you just do it! After reading a buggaboolillian tutorials, I went HERE and found the best tutorial I found yet. Check it out. Can you do it???
Ha! Got you...I've been tagged by Karyn and now I'm tagging you. If you are here, consider yourself tagged!
Four jobs you have had in your life:
Exercise instructor, wedding photographer, school bus driver, school photographer.
Four movies you could watch over and over:
Forrest Gump, ET, Sleepless in Seattle (my late sister was in the crowd of the New Years Eve party), It's a Wonderful Life.
Four places you have lived:
Pittsburgh, Seattle, Niles Ohio, Rochester, NY.
Four TV shows you love to watch:
Today Show, 30 Minute Meals, Something on the biography channel, Weather Channel. Can you tell I really don't watch TV?
Four websites you visit daily:
Times On Line, my hometown newspaper, eBAy, and a bazillion blogs!
Four places you'd rather be right now:
Seattle, Ganonoque, Ontario; In bed or Italy or both...
Four bloggers you are tagging:
You and you and you and you!
Face it, I live in a very old house...so old, in fact, the main beam of one section is a tree. I kid you not, back in the mid 1800's (1842 to be exact), they did not call Lowe's or Home DeePot and ask for a beam to be delivered. They just find a tall and straight tree, wack it down, cut off most of the branches and build a house on top of it.
If you go down into our basement through a trap door in our laundry room:
(no, our house is not that dirty...the picture was taken the day we put in an offer...over 2 years ago), and I mean YOU...I was down there once, saw the ice trough and the crawl spaces and the 5' high ceilings and that was enough for me, you can peek into the crawl space and see the tree. I'm not going back down there.
Now, getting back to the story...we are not in the boonies, but we have an acre with tons of mature trees, ground ivy and mice. Our first summer in this house, we had a flock(flock?) of baby mice who got lost on their way from the pantry to the bathroom almost every night.
Luckily, Andy had a girlfriend who would shoo them into a corner and lift them gently and take them out on the patio and let them go.
Come to think of it, maybe we had one mouse who came in daily for a snack and a ride out of town in Christy's hand? I don't know.
Back to the story...We have two cats. Although they love to find mice, they rarely inflict fatal injuries. Usually they end up fighting each other for the mouse and the mouse gets tired of waiting for them and leaves. We also seem to go through huge amounts of cat food.
Since we also have a very fat and lazy dog, I started feeding our cats on a high shelf so our lazy dog did not become a fatter dog.
I wondered for a while if those pampered mice were feasting on our cat food while the cats were looking for mice. Today, when Tony came home from school, he sat down next to Race Car and we may have figured out just where some of the missing cat food went. Could it be here?
I wonder...
Next on my list tonight...guilt. Look at this:
and this
and even this
250,000+ fans converge in Pittsburgh today to show affection and admiration for 'our' Steelers. Do you see my son, one of the most dedicated fans?
No...do you know why? I wouldn't let him miss school. Although my personality has gone from an A++++++ to a B+, I still have my anal elements. Going to school is one. Good thing we don't home school, I'd never let the kids leave the house!
When Tony came home today and said there were 250,000 people there, I admitted I would have liked to have gone. He agreed...said it was a chance of a life time. Now what do I do? Should I feel guilty (Mom gave me lessons, I can do it!) or hope to cheer the Steelers on to win again next year...when I know better?
This morning, after listening for an hour or so for a snow delay, we realized that when our school announced on Friday that Monday was not a holiday, they were serious, my kids got ready to head off to school.
Twenty minutes later, I looked out the window and saw this:
Can you spot the idiot?
How about now?
And now? Of course I can, I gave birth to it!
Yes, that is Tony who refuses to ride the bus or get his license. He says it's fun to ride in the snow...
What? You don't think he's a little (ahem) different? How about this:
We were trying to decide what kind of windows we wanted for this HOTH. We knew what we wanted them to do, we wanted them to operate smoothly, keep heat loss to a minimum, yada, yada, yada...we just couldn't decide how we wanted them to look! We drove miles and miles, looked at old house after old house and narrowed it down to two or three. We came home and Mark duplicated the design on our window with masking tape. This is my favorite, a copy of an old house in town.
This is Tony's choice:
Need I say more?
When it's the score on my personality test...
You Have A Type B+ Personality B+ You're a pro at going with the flow You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done You're passionate - just selective about your passions Do You Have a Type A Personality? I'm getting better and better!
Aha! Now that I have your attention, you might be wondering just where the farting dogs come into play. Well, the dog belonged to my friend Jill, and I have no idea what became of it...Maybe we all need to jog over to Jill's Blog and ask? On second thought...knowing Jill and her family, maybe it's better not to ask...
I know I made a resolution to blog more often, and a secondary resolution to blog in the morning so I don't fall asleep in the middle of a post. I had wonderful intentions and I'm going to blame it all on Andy, my middle son.
Andy was the most pleasant child on earth. He smiled all the time, was polite and affectionate and his eyes closed promptly at 9 PM every night and opened about 6:30 AM every day. After the first week of life, he never kept us awake at night.
Now, 19 years later, he's working in a machine shop several nights a week until 10:30. He loves his job. Every work night, I try to sit up and wait for him. Every night, about 10, I pretend that I'm going to go up to bed and read until he comes home. Most nights, I don't even hear him come up the drive in his Jeep. Every night, I hear his Doc Marten's clumping up the stairs toward our room (Yes, I was the one that fell in love with that pine staircase and thought anyone who might suggest carpeting was insane!)...I can feel him standing next to our bed, and as soon as anyone stirs, he asks, "Did I wake you?"
Answer yes, answer no, it matters not. Eye contact is not necessary. All you have to do is change your breathing pattern and he sits on the edge of the bed and begins talking...
In minutes, we know what machine he worked on tonight, what the tolerances were (1/1000 inch?), how many parts were made, what they had for dinner and how cold the drive was home. He then wishes us good night and heads for the shower, leaving us to resume the rest that old parents like us needs...
Mark can do it, but I'm not so good at going back to sleep...so here I am...
Now whatcha wanna talk about?
I was really planning to talk about all the people in blogland that I 'know' and watch...about Laura's upcoming baby (and maybe a new house), or LynnH and her Color Joy...I love those words, color brings me much joy. I've always maintained that my favorite color is plaid!
Have you heard about Stephanie's (aka Yarn Harlot) new concrete floor? Are you sending healing vibes to Joan's husband and Bliss' precious dog? Did you spew coffee on the screen when you heard what Jill's daughter said? Do you feel as though these people are a part of your family? Do you worry when they don't post?
Am I nuts or what???
On the other side of the coin, I thought you'd like to see what's on my knitting needles these days...
Project #1...a size 2, top down raglan sweater. No clue where it will go when it's done. I started it as a k with my darling daughter, but I passed her at the starting line...but it's fun and mindless knitting.
My Irish hiking scarf from Hello Yarns, and a cabled hat from a pattern by Judy Gibson all made of Wool Ease. I was going to give it to my oldest son's SO for Christmas, but it just didn't happen.
Now you gotta have sox...lots of sox...and here's the current pair on the needles. I think it's Magic Stripe, and they are certainly for ME!
Last but certainly not least...
Clogs from FiberTrends! These still need the outer sole, and they certainly need felted, but they are Kool Aid dyed. I'm not sure where they are going once they are done, I have several people on my list who claim they are for them...
Well, hope this hasn't put you to sleep...but it certainly did the trick for me...I'm off to dream land. Sweet dreams to you!
Last night, Mark was spending the night with his father and Andy was at work. Tony and I went shopping, had dinner out and came home to watch TV.
I have a short attention span, so I wandered around the house, looking for things to do. Tony lay on the love seat in the living room and must have fallen asleep.
Next thing I heard, he was sputtering and grouching. I peeked in and this is what I saw:
Apparently Arnie wanted to lay on the love seat (he hates cold floors) and Tony didn't move in time...
Nope, my dog is not spoiled!
