March 2005 Archives

Two packages arrived in today's mail with wonderful surprises! First, a butterfly hot pad as a thank you for an RAOK I sent. The second was a wish granted from my list of 3-4 balls in one color of Bernat boucle. The purpose of which is to make a sweater!

Both thoughtful gifts have perked up my day! And it needed some perking up since I'm feeling the twinges of PMS brewing.

Thank you my fairy godmothers. You're the best!

Deliberately swiped from Princess Trish, because I need a little humor today.

1. YOUR PORN STAR NAME: (Name of first pet / Street you live on):
Tippy Pearl

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (Name of your favorite snack food / Grandfather's first name):
Chips Evar

3. YOUR FASHION DESIGNER NAME: (First word you see on your left / Favorite restaurant):
Pad Safura

4. EXOTIC FOREIGNER ALIAS: (Favorite Spice / Last Foreign Vacation Spot):
Clove Victoria

5. SOCIALITE ALIAS: (Silliest Childhood Nickname / Town Where You First Partied):
Miss Mae Chehalis

6. "FLY GIRL/BOY" ALIAS (a la J. Lo): (First Initial / First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name):
L-Car

7. ICON ALIAS: (Something Sweet Within Sight / Any Liquid in Your Kitchen):
Yooper Joy

8. DETECTIVE ALIAS: (Favorite Baby Animal / Where You Went to High School):
Kitten (W.F.) West

9. BARFLY ALIAS: (Last Snack Food You Ate / Your Favorite Alcoholic Drink):
Cherry Pie Blue Hawaiian

10. SOAP OPERA ALIAS: (Middle Name / Street Where You First Lived):
Mae State Highway 603 (doesn't sound funny, I know!)

11. ROCK STAR ALIAS: (Favorite Candy / Last Name Of Favorite Musician):
Twix McLachlan (sounds like a country singers name)

12. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: ( First 2 letters of your first name and the first 3 Letters from your last name makes your first name. Take the first 2 letters of your mother's maiden name and the first 3 letters of the city you were born in):
Locar Sc'cen (ooo! that sounds evil! maybe i'm part of the sith?)

Now, go have some fun with this yourself! Tee-hee!

I'm in a purple mood and have been using purple as much as possible. The romper will eventually have a cardigan with hat and booties (will be starting that today). The other romper and cardigan set I made also featured a lot of purple. Purple to me is suitable for both sexes, but I know most people don't hold that opinion when in regard to babies. I'm not sure how the whole pink and blue thing got started anyhow. Be that as it may, I am thinking I might work up a romper set to enter into the Fair.

What was awarded the 1st Place prize last year was a "hideous crochet monstrosity"—the kind of thing that gives crochet a bad reputation. I just hope the judges aren't partial to HCMs, but I know some people must like that type of crocheting style otherwise it would have died out long ago.

I've also whipped up a hat for a classmate who said she'd wear it. She has the ability to wear hats and look extraordinary in them, and I keep seeing her in this hat, so I figured I'd make it a reality. It's adapted from a baby-sized pattern. Just increase the hook size and a few more rounds on the crown and viola! adult-sized hat.

My ambition is running low. I have a general feeling of fatigue or malaise. My gut is amuck and I feel drained. I'd like to sleep 20 years and have a never-ending pleasant dream. Maybe I need a cheeseburger? Sometimes that seems to solve a variety of ills, and yet also create a few. Hmmm...maybe it's the low barametric pressure, or induced by a butterfly flapping its wings—you know—chaos theory at its best.

So on today's list of to-do's, which is topped with "take a nap", I'll get started on the romper set cardigan and hope for the best. Pooky disappears to work around 6:30pm. When he leaves the house feels HUGE and spooky.

Oh, and something odd was going on with our koi last night. The one with the Hitler mustache kept jumping out of the tank! It would fling itself out and fall behind the tank (where the cats couldn't get at it, thank goodness!). Pooky rescued it twice and then we agreed that some kind of make-shift lid needing to go on top or else we'd lose him overnight. Mr. Doo (Lovely Insistant) broke the original tank lid and we've not been able to find a replacement since (or it's been that we're too lazy to find one, take your pick). The koi seems to have calmed down today and is no longer auditioning for Sea World.

Recently I've received 3 different RAOKs.

First, a lovely set of book thongs from Deneen. I've determined you can never had too many book thongs! I just counted most of my books for school and the number is at 60 books with another bunch to count.

Second, I received a bright and brilliantly colored washcloth and a Yooper chocolate bar. I devoured it instantly—the chocolate bar, not the washcloth.

Third, I received from a fairy godmother (I have a good idea who it is!) a rose scrubbie and a CD, plus jelly beans. Pooky got the jelly beans with the proviso I'd get the licorice ones.

Thank you to all of you for your thoughtfulness!

Years ago I used to own a little flashlight from Energizer called The Pocket Trout. They stopped making them but have a new version called The Pocket Bass. I found one site that did sell them but they are out of stock. I've not been able to find any other retailer who is selling them, and I've not seen them in my local stores. If you have found them, please let me know. I am in need of a Pocket Bass!

I adore Yoko Suzuki's designs because of the originality and challenge she brings to thread crocheting. My perception of her is that she "thinks in crochet". If only my mind could be so clever! The way to build skill is through pushing the envelope. This doily pushed me into a new arena of expertise. Magic Crochet should have created a new skill level category: For the Insane; this doily has the power to not only test crocheting skills but one's rationale and reasoning. It did not help that the picture printed in the magazine showed the wrong side facing up.

Each individual loop was not a challenge to crochet: it was the assembly of the doily that presented the frustrations and travails. Certain parts had to be joined at certain times; the shape of the doily was not stable until the inner motifs would anchor the loops into position. The center motif couldn't be placed until all six loops were made, and without it there was very little stability.

So what will become of this doily? It is going to be submitted to the Puyallup Fair in the hopes that I may take something higher than 3rd Place. It will go along with the Twists and Turns doily that I made previously (also designed by Yoko Suzuki).

I do have my next Yoko Suzuki design lined up to begin soon. It's from one of the books I have acquired of her collection. It's rather large and enormous. It's filled with flowers and leaves and is shaped like a football. I have other projects in the queue. Two are secret gifts, one is a sweater for a classmate, and the last is a baby outfit for a classmate.

I found this list idea this morning from Eyes For Lies, who got it from another. List ten things I have done that others probably haven't:

1. Lived in an historical village that was living museum. People would tour the town to see the coal miners' homes that were built in 1850-51.

2. Been in 10 different hospitals with an accumulated hospitalization time of at least 3 years.

3. Between 1997-1998, I self-published a personal magazine that I mailed to friends called Homeburrough East.

4. I attended with Pooky at Radio City Music Hall tapings of the Jeopardy! show for their $1 million dollar Tournament of Champions. We didn't see the final round of shows, but what we saw was simply a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

5. I made a special trip to see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile in person, and I got to step inside of it. (If only I could have gone for a ride in it!)

6. My sister and I had the same dream about OJ Simpson being found dead (murdered). She lived in Washington state and I in Pennsylvania at the time.

7. I won a digital camera by entering a contest that used an online multimedia software program to create a multimedia slideshow presentation. (That was before the days of broadband and it took forever to download and upload!)

8. I've had an ileostomy twice and waiting to have a third permanent one.

9. A couple of times in my childhood/adulthood the Goodyear Blimp landed at our municipal airport and we went to see it up close and personal. It is freakin' huge and just a wonderful thing to see in real life! They wouldn't let you get beneath it, but we got as close as they would permit. I thought I took pictures of it, but can't find any.

10. At our wedding we jumped over a wedding broom and we had the wedding officiant pronounce us "frog and pig" instead of "husband and wife". (We used the line from The Muppets Take Manhattan, the wedding scene in which Kermit and Miss Piggy marry. The preacher says: "Then because you share a love so big / I now pronounce you frog and pig.")

Update
I thought of an 11th item for this list. I've been to three of the homes that Laura Ingalls Wilder lived during her life. We visited Rocky Ridge Farm in Missouri; Walnut Grove in Minnesota; and De Smet, South Dakota. It was an incredible experience that I'll always treasure!

Feel free to copy this list idea to your own blog! Ping me through trackback and I'll read your list!

Question from Sara:

1. You are given a chance to go "Quantum Leap" and rectify one thing from your past. What would it be?
I'd do things differently in regard to my relationship with my sister. We haven't spoken to each other since 1997 or so, and we used to be so close! I keep trying to reach out to her, but she won't respond to any of my gestures of goodwill. Sometimes I don't know if I should keep trying or give up, but she's my sister and I miss her and love her.

2. What Sesame Street character do you most identify with?
Oscar the Grouch! Not because I'm grouchy (well, I can be) but because Oscar doesn't put on pretenses of fake happiness. He knows who he is and I'm ok with that. He symbolizes to me that there is a place for grouchiness in our lives along with the good. And I think it kicks ass that he lives in a garbage can.

3. Tell me about a teacher that has made the biggest positive impression on you.
That would have to be my 5th grade teacher. He inspired me to let my intelligence come out and I really shined brightly. He had more of an interest in my learning and intelligence than my own parents, and I wish that he had been my dad.

4. Now what about the teacher that has made the biggest negative impression.
We had a misunderstanding between us when he was my 8th grade teacher. He was also my 7th grade teacher, too! He moved around in the school system so I had him a couple of times. I said something he took the wrong way and it made a rift between us that I don't think ever really healed. I wish he would have been more open to fixing that—but at the time I was a pretty upset teenager, so it probably wouldn't have done any good.

5. If you were given the chance to be male for one day, what would you most like to experience/see/do from the male perspective? I'd like to know why they find porn movies and pictures so appealing—what is it about seeing an obviously dim-witted, blond, anorexic, breast-enhanced woman who deliberately acts as a sex object that they find far more arousing and desirable than REAL women?

For Sara:
1. We're out together in the world's largest bookstore when we lose each other. Where do I know in what section(s) to look for you?
2. Out of all of the modern gadgets and things we have today, which is the one you could most live without and the one you wish they had invented 100 years ago?
3. List three things you would like to do before you turn 70 years old.
4. Tell me about one of the dreams that you have that has stayed with you over the years and you wish you knew what it meant.
5. You're standing on a street corner in a large city when one of the crazy street people comes up to you and tell you the meaning of life. What do you they tell you?

For Kari:
1. What experiences in your life have most shaped your political views?
2. For some strange reason, you keep living the same day over and over like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day. Which day keeps repeating for you?
3. Why do you think Britney Spears is so popular?
4. Which three Tarot cards (from a classic deck) do you most identify with? (They can be both major and minor arcana.)
5. A supernatural force visits you and says you must pick five different people who represent five different stereotypes to live with on a desert island for all eternity. Who do you pick and why?

Answers

1. You have one cable channel and it only shows reruns of one tv series from the past. What show would you pick to see on a loop?
The original Star Trek. I fell in love with it when I came down with the chicken pox at age 13. For the longest time I wanted to be a Vulcan when I grew up.

2. Given the choice of dating a male character from the Simpsons, who would you pick and why?
Without hesitation I would be C. Montgomery Burns. I have had a crush on him for years. I'm drawn to his frailty and pure Evil disposition. Everytime he says "Excellent!" I swoon a little. *sigh*

3. What song will you be happy if you never hear again as long as you live?
I'll have to go with Whitney Houston's rendition of "I Will Always Love You". When it was popular I had upstairs neighbors who would play it LOUD at 6 am and waking up to hearing Whitney screech at that hour in the morning was a tangible slice of hell.

4. Bungee jumping, Going over Niagara in a barrel, or going into space; Which one of the three would you choose if you had to pick one?
Definitely going into space. I've often felt like this planet isn't my real home. Wouldn't mind looking for the place where I should be living.

5. You have to carpool to work. There is one space in each carload of your coworkers, who do you team up with? A) The fast-tracker workaholics; B)The slackers and guys from the mail room; C) The geeks from the IT department; or D) the (female) office gossip circle?
I'd have to go with the geeks from the IT department. Generally I have more in common with them and I'd at least not be bored with their conversations, and I'd probably not get stupid looks from them if I wanted to talk about such topics as the holographic theory of the universe, string theory, or who was the better captain: Kirk or Picard.

Questions

1. As a teenager, what was the most rebellious, possibly illegal thing that you did?
2. Under what circumstances do you think it is ok to tell a little white lie?
3. If you could have anything crocheted from thread, what would you most want to have?
4. How valid do you feel is the concept of reincarnation and past life memories?
5. What is one thing that your husband does that absolutely drives you crazy (it can be either a total turn on or turn off)?

For Ro:
(I just want to say I had no idea you were a Star Trek fan when I answered your questions!)
1. In your secret life you'd be.....?
2. If you don't already have a sixth sense, which sixth sense would you like to have: a)telekinesis; b) precognition; c) communicate with the deceased; d)mental telepathy; e)remote viewing; f) dream walking; g) seeing auras/medical intuitive.
3. Why do you think crazy people always think they are Jesus?
4. You find yourself in a room with Elvis, Albert Einstein, and Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom. You can ask them each only one question. What do you ask them?
5. A weird world crisis develops and the only thing left to eat on the planet are hot dogs. Which brand would you pick to eat, and what toppings would you want on your dog?

For Mitzi:
1. What do you think is the most important political issue that our nation is currently having to deal with?
2. It's 8pm on a Wednesday night: what are you doing?
3. What do you like about your personality?
4. Who was your first love or crush and what was it about them that made you swoon?
5. Describe an experience you've had that defies all logic and rational explanation.

For April:
1. What has been the most difficult decision for you to make?
2. What TV game show would you most like to be a contestant on?
3. Where do you find the perfect cheeseburger?
4. Do you sing along with songs while driving in the car?
5. How would you explain sex to visitors from another world?

For Princess Trish:
1. What single gift do you most want for your upcoming 29th birthday?
2. If you could have a conversation with anybody, alive or dead, who would you want to talk to?
3. How do you alleviate stress?
4. When is your favorite time of day?
5. What is one thing you'd really like me to know about you?

I made the purse about two years ago and never sewed on the flowers and beads because I loathe sewing and I didn't know what I'd do with the purse if I completed it.

Anyhow, the occasion arose to give the purse as a belated birthday gift to my dear friend from school, Mara. She likes jewel tone colors and I thought the excessive use of bling-bling would make this purse really snazzy.

I did a stitch variation on the original pattern. It was all single crochets and I did something different. It may have been single and doubles. It was so long ago I have no idea anymore. I think I also altered the size a bit.

I've not made anymore purses since then. The nylon cord is a bit spendy ($5 a spool) and it takes two to make a purse. Not to say I won't make the purse again—it makes for a lovely gift. Maybe in the future I'll whip one up as a Secret Pal gift.

I was inspired by Deneen's posting about her weekend visit to Cape May to dig into my photos and re-live some happy memories. Hard to believe three years has past since we spent a weekend there; so much has happened since then. Mostly the dreams we had back then—our hopes for the future—weren't realized. We've had to make new ones. And now even the new ones are going to have to be re-written since we let them slip away.

I sometimes wonder why I bother making dreams for the future when something else turns out in the end. I suppose it's part of being human to have hopes, dreams, a goal to live for—otherwise the uncertainty of life would be too much to bear. It's a false sense of having some control in the chaos. But I have learned my lesson to some degree: I don't really have any steadfast dreams anymore. Not like I used to. I feel foolish to even dare dream I'll complete the LIOS program. It's my hope that I will, but experience has taught me not to take anything for granted; sometimes, I forget that simple wisdom.

In looking at these pictures I'm reminded of so much of that which I had hoped for; those hopes Pooky shared with me. Somewhere along the way we lost our way. We're good at taking U-turns. We made about two dozen of them on our roadtrip across the country. I'm surprised we haven't realized sooner we've gone astray and that now is the time to make one of our famous "yooies".