Who is he who knits, blogs and likes cats? Why Pooky of course! This post is a shameless Pooky plug. He's started a blog that mostly is of photos that we've taken from our crazy adventures across the country. His blog's title is Nearly Sane. He'll probably never post a rant, nor get politically incorrect with his entries, rather he'll dig up a funny or serious image and supply a caption to it.
Recently Pooky made his first felted item, a "ge-felted" fish as he calls it. (I think this play on gefilte fish comes from the fact he dated a Jewish girl in high school.) I loaned him some skeins of my Wool of the Andes yarn (Note to Pooky: You know how you can repay me *wink, wink*) for his felting experiment. Turns out that the front loader washing machine does an awesome felting job. I think he's developed felting madness now.
As for the cats...well, it's mighty peculiar but Theodore Montague, Pooky's baby and love slave, has taken to stalking me for his usual scrubbing! T. has become so affectionate seeking with me that I've nicknamed him my T-leaf. He still will sidle up to Pooky in bed and spent 20 minutes kneading, drooling, and purring loudly at Pooky, yet I'll awake in the morning to find T-leaf curled up at my feet.
I think Pooky needs to felt T. Montague something, maybe a fish or something else. I wonder if Pooky could come up with a potato since T. is fond of potato chips?
Dear Beloved Pooky (aka Pooka-beast, P-Cake, and Sir Hiss),
I know you are a busy Loving Husband who doesn't have the time to purchase his Darling Wife a special gift that will make her feel appreciated for the domestic activities that she engages in (and truly despises doing), such as making sure there are groceries in the house, a hot dinner to come home to, clean toilets, happy cats, tamed laundry, mostly clean floors, and a peaceful and quiet evening in which to decompress from the stress of working at the Orange Box.
Therefore, on your behalf, I treated myself to a little gift that I know you would have purchased for me if you had the time. The threads that I picked out will be used to make the doilies that I plan on entering into this year's Fair. These doilies will never be used but admired under the safety and protection of glass and a highly sensitive security system utilized by fine art museums.
Thus, when you see the charge on the credit card (yes, I know we agreed not to make purchases without consulting each other) you can pat yourself on the back for being a Kind & Loving Husband who treats his Darling Wife very well. A happy wife is a good thing to have!
Lovingly Yours,
Pip
P.S. If I take first place the prize money will pay for my gift. So think of this as an investment.
It all began with MamaKelly's post about the Housewives Tarot. I knew I had to have a copy after seeing the deck's Death card.
Saturday I had a wedding in Seattle so we were near Archie McPhee and I had to stop there to by my SP7 pal some goodies. I purchased for Theodore Montague a Squeak Salmon. (I will eventually take his picture doing his sea otter routine with the salmon on his tummy.) I also bought some things for my sister: the Marie Antoinette action figure (she thought this was better than the Avenging Unicorn), a couple of corn dog air fresheners (with yummy mustard scent), and a sushi air freshener.
I got myself two packages of their newest candy cigarettes: Death Row and Black Lung, and I am now showing my support for bacon.
Then on Sunday Pooky went to the monthly store meeting and found out that his bonus check was a lovely amount, and he suggested we go to Fuddrucker's and do a little shopping we had been talking about. It was then that I knew I needed to by the Housewives Tarot that day from Powell's Books.
We discovered a new branch of the Powell's empire! In a neighborhood in Portland on Hawthorne Street is the Home & Garden store filled with cookbooks and gardening books! I only looked at a fraction of the available cookbooks, and Pooky scanned the gardening. He found us a book on vegetable gardening in the Northwet.
And a bonus....they had a small crafts section! Pooky made the ultimate score in finding this:
It was marked as $13.95, but at the register it came up as $19.95. Well, since the sticker had the lower price, he got it at that! All of the other books were correctly marked! Talk about the deal of the day!
I found for my sister a book of tablecloths and placemats all in size 20 or 30 thread. She has been bemoaning to me the fact that there are no patterns done in these sizes of thread, especially large projects. The book was only $5! What is scary is to make a 53 x 72 tablecloth some of them require 300+ motifs! Talk about taking awhile to make!
There's a back story to this post. When I first met Pooky I knew he was The Pooky I Wanted To Spend The Rest of My Life With. So I told him that I wasn't like most girls (I am a Shrone) and being a Shrone I didn't want the standard ring and marriage proposal. No, I required something much more meaningful because after all, I'm unique just like everybody else and by golly I wanted him to explore the depths of my soul and find out what magical marriage proposal he could create that would truly capture his understanding of who I am (as a Shrone, of course).
Three years went by. I dropped hints along the way that might point him in the right direction. He rebuffed my hints saying I would expect that and he wanted to surprise me. The more I tried, the more he resisted, the more furious I began to seethe inside. Time was running out. I wanted to marry on Leap Day 2004, and if we missed that date we'd have to wait another four years.
It was a chaotic time. Our original marriage plans crumbled before us as both of our families had no interest in being part of our nuptials. Financial concerns were an issue as well. How could we realize some of our wedding dreams without going broke? As Leap Day got closer time was of the essence and we rushed to carry out a watery version of the ceremony we had envisioned. Pooky slipped under the radar without a marriage proposal.
I resented him for that. He had three years to work on it!
Fast forward now to tonight. I was emptying out my ostomy bag before going to bed. I thought of how Pooky has been my unsung hero this past month. He's been stalwart at my side going to work at night, coming to see me in the hospital during the day, tending to all 5 felines and for much of that time bottle feeding the kittens to picture perfect health, doing the laundry, keeping the kitchen mostly clean and ant free, not killing the fish (though their tanks are in need of a good cleaning), sometimes watering the flowers, mowing the lawn when it hasn't rained, answered all of my e-mail regarding the wedding officiant business, took care of "business" regarding school for me, paid the bills on time, and didn't turn any of the whites pink or unusual colors in the laundry, bought food, made food, got me food when I craved it while in the hospital, slayed dragons, battled demons and slimey sea serpents...OK, you get the picture. He was UNFAILING in his duty as protector of the realm. A true KISA (knight in shining armor). And last but not least, he even managed to knit himself a pair of socks during all of this!
I truly think he is like the god Krishna with multiple arms, or at least the ability to be in two places at once.
So back to my emptying out my ostomy thinking just how AWESOME Pooky has been and what kind of wonderful Pooky he is. See, during my evil spells of vomitting up food, Pooky would be there, racing for the basin and then get me a tissue or towel to clean up my face. He'd patiently wait until everything came out and then he'd take the basin away and tend to it. You know someone really loves you when later on when it is time to leave and say good-night they still want to kiss you—the same mouth that just had a few hours earlier spewed god-only-knows-what. That is Love no matter how you look at it. And it says to me that Pooky really does know the depth of my soul.
That there are no words that could be spoken, only a kiss that could be given that says, "No matter what, I'll always want to kiss you good-night."
John, You'll Always Be My Pooky
kiss, kiss
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".
To My Dear and Loving Husband
If ever two were on, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize they love more than whole mines of gold
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.
They love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever.
~ Anne Bradstreet
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