Friday, April 30, 2010

soup and salad for dinner

Mmmm asparagus. Steam it, grill it, turn it into soup....I love it. Until tonight, I had never had made a dish with it raw though.


I saw some version of this flipping through a magazine somewhere, and just had to try it. It was delicious and refreshing. The asparagus was organic. I used fatter stalks than I normally get, and shaved them very thinly with a vegetable peeler. I drizzled it with a lemon from the garden, some organic extra-virgin olive oil, and a little coarse sea salt...tossed and let is sit for a few to wilt...and then topped it off with some shaved parmesano reggiano.

Hate to sound like a food snob, but if you are only going to use a few ingredients, they should be the best you can get your mitts on.

Served it up with some soup, and some country bread with a dipping oil.
I will definitely make this again. Yumm.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

the blob in the background

Ok guys, that was NOT dog poo or dog barf in the background there in yesterday's photo.


(Riley, reprise)

That splotch you see on the floor there is actually a DOG COOKIE.


I think maybe it's the cookie shaped like a squirrel ;-)

Now you may wonder how a person would ever be able to get a photograph of a dog cookie just laying there next to a dog. Most dogs (at least every dog I have ever been around--besides this one), you give them a cookie, they scarf it down.

Not Riley.
Riley does something we here at the CasaDeAmpuTeeHee fondly call "CookieManangement." Dang, I should trademark that. "CookieManagement(tm)."

Anyhow.
Riley spends ALL. DAY. LONG.
  • Licking the cookie.
  • Burying the cookie in piles of throw pillows.
  • Hiding the cookie in his dog bed.
  • Hiding the cookie underneath chew toys.
  • Moving the cookie to a new hiding place anytime he hears a dog bark outside.
  • Moving the cookie to a new hiding place anytime he hears a dog bark on television.
  • Moving the cookie to a new hiding place anytime he or sees anything on the the television resembling a four-legged anything (he sometimes even hides the cookie from ladies on the television with big hair).
  • Taking the cookie outside and laying it the sun.
  • Bringing the cookie back inside.
  • Moving the cookie from place to place to place for no apparent reason.
  • Making sure the kittehs do not get too close to the cookie.
  • Leaving the cookie in the middle of the hallway where I am certain to roll over it in my wheelchair, dividing it into two pieces thereby making it a REAL dilemma for him to manage.
Never on that list though has been leaving the cookie in plain view and peering out from behind the wall at me with a guilty look on his face. I have no idea what this means (speak, Riley! speak!).

CookieManagement(tm) is a day-long ordeal. At some point during the day the cookie is eaten. Sometimes I see it happen, sometimes I don't.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

sneaky dog...


looks...sneaky.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

do it again! do it again! do it again!


Ripped the danged thing out last night and every attempt to restart it looked sloppy, probably because my eyelids were hanging so low. Got it going again this morning so I could have it under way for my visit with TheLadies (the knitting circle at the convalescent hospital, which isn't so much about knitting right now...another story). Banged out a few more repeats than what you see above while we visited over yarn and tea.

Then got home and took a closer look at that section of twisted stitches in the middle there...only to see that while chatting away I had failed to twist like 7 of them in random places.
Lovely.
I dropped down and fixed it all, but still.

These little blips better not be little signs from the knitting gods trying to tell me to not knit this thing.

*shoves fingers in ears---lalalalalala!!--can't hear you!!*
I shall prevail!!!!!!
I'm the ruler of my yarn, dangit!

(not much else, though)

Monday, April 26, 2010

bugga

I have been picking up some very unusual (well, unusual for me) colors of yarn lately. Greens, oranges, yellows, golds...just not stuff I normally am drawn to. Maybe it's the season. Maybe those yellow socks I knit last year broke the color barrier for me.

Anyhow, in the mail today arrived this:




...and I tried to resist its charms for a couple of hours (because I am working on something else already and I really want to finish for crying out loud), but my new delivery very quickly became this:


And then seeing it all wound up all nice and tidy like that very quickly became my matching the yarn up with a pattern, whipping out the needles, and casting-on. I have been wanting to make this little shawl/scarf thingy called Herbivore for awhile, and so there ya' have it. Off we go.

I did the fiddly little cast-on. I did the set up rows. I did one repeat of the first section.

And then I realized that when I had assembled my interchangeable needles together for this project, I had picked two differently sized needle tips.
(for the non-knitters this means that some very wonky knitted fabric is the result)
Yay me.

(starting over)

Sunday, April 25, 2010

snaps on saturday (on a sunday)



Den. Updated.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

dead on the bed

It's 11:30pm and I am way to beat to do anything that looks like a real blogpost today. Dudes, I worked so hard around the house here today. I woke up before MyFavoriteKid and TheMostImportantGuy, so I was lucky to have an hour of calm to myself to chat online, read a few blogs, and knit a few rows. It was lovely.

But once they were up? I didn't sit still for a moment. Many many things, I took care of, but one of the biggeys was to revamp the den and breathe some new life into it. It looks great. Also worked some in the garage, which I hope to have completed before the hot weather comes and it gets too ridiculous to be out there working.

Also cooked for Michelle's birthday potluck, and got there early to help set up and do a walk through of our performance. Danced on an empty stomach ('cuz try to bellydance with a full tummy), then came out after changing back into street clothes to find most of the real food was gone, so I ate too much birthday cake instead. Now I'm totally trashed tired, but have a sugar hangover, and it aint even the next day!

So I'm off to bed. TheMIG has this funny idea about waking up at 5:30am to go the zen center.

Have a good time, dude LOLOL.

Friday, April 23, 2010

the day just required a photo heavy post

My day started on the other side of the bay in Marin County, the town of San Anselmo, to be exact. I had an appointment with a therapist who works out of a home office. Driving out of her neighborhood as I was leaving, I spot THIS out of the corner of my eye:


OhMyGosh, wow. I parked and slowly eeked my way down the driveway hoping this was some sort of open studio and not some party I was crashing.

Open Studio, it was....although from gauging her familiarity with the other people coming and going, it sounded like she had only advertised this by notifying friends or former customers. Guess that still makes me a bit of a party crasher, but whatever.


So it turns out that this lady with the open studio travels regularly to Zambia, and is helping some women in a village get all set up to do production work. They hand dye and paint the fabric. It becomes tablecloths, runners, napkins, and totes and bags of various sizes. She is now just starting to teach them how to quilt, too. She was neat.

***Spoiler alert if you are Michelle (which I highly doubt because she absolutely refuses to read my blog...but her husband sometimes pops in now and again to see what's up here ..so if you are reading this, HubbyOfMyFriend, mums the word).

So it's Michelle's 50th birthday party tomorrow and she asked me to bring a tablecloth for the potluck buffet table, because she doesn't have any. I was glad to do that of course, but when I saw these linens, well...they are just so her, I had to get her one. I had another gift in mind, but this is just too perfectly fitting. The one I picked out for her is pretty much like the one on the far right in the top photo, except that the base fabric is eggplant in color. It's beautiful. Turns out they are very easy to care for, too. Normal wash & dry. The lady selling them showed me some of hers that have been laundered and they are actually even more lovely now that they are worn in.


Okay, so my next appointment today was in the north end of Napa, and my GPS said the fastest route from Marin to Napa was through Sonoma. Besides this being one gorgeous country road, this took me right past one of my favorite places ever, The Fremont Diner (if you want to see some really great pics, do click on that link and then click on the pictures to see an album. This joint is VERY charming and photogenic). Here's proof:






That last one cracks me up. "Praise The Lard."
HA.

Lunch was amazing. The best Shrimp Po'Boy I have ever eaten, with a green salad on the side. I knew TheMIG would have a wild case of the envies that I had been there without him, so I brought him home a mini Straberry Rhubarb pie. They bake them all folded up like a Hostess Pie, if you know what I mean. So cute.

After lunch I drove on to the appointment in Napa. It was with TheNewLegMan (which I will have to call him for now, until I can think of something better. When I call him a "prosthetist", which is what he is, y'all think I am saying "prostitute", which he is not.)


Here's my new set up, under construction.

What you are seeing is test-socket number three. Every week I go in and I am a different size. I tried to tell him this would happen, because it is what always happens, and he did not believe me....but he does now. You'd think that getting me into a new prosthesis would be a piece of cake because all they really need to do is make a socket (the upper plastic part). I already had all the hardware (the lower part of the leg, the mechanical bits). TheNewLegMan originally estimated a 3 weeks from start to finish to get me out the door.
We started this process in February.
(FAIL)
Oh, well. No biggey. I expected it. The newly projected date is that I should be walking out of his office with it in 2 weeks. We shall see. I'm not trying to be negative. In fact, I am quite positive about this whole thing. I just know how I tick is all, and well....when it comes to "fitting in" to anything, I'm just downright quirky.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

like having your own personal jeweler or something

I use stitch-markers a lot when I knit (for the non-knitters reading, stitch-markers are little do-dads that you slide onto your needles or pin onto your knitting, and they help you count and keep track of when you need to do things). Because I use them a lot, I have many.
Many.
Many as in, when I see them and they are cute (which so many of them are), I have to work very hard to resist buying them, because I honest to goodness do not need more than I already have. I have amassed quite the collection.

But.
I still window shop. Lots. And when I saw these....


I had to have them.

It's like they were made just for me or something. I mean, stitch markers...with crutches?? Ha!!
MINE.


(purchased at the Velvet Hippo on etsy)

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

how are you?

I had a conversation the other day with TheMostImportantGuy about how to respond to people when they ask, "So...How are you?"

Now, we all know the ins-n-outs of what saying "fine" often means, and what happens when you respond by telling people how you really are, so I wont bother getting into all that here. For me personally, I sorted out this whole little conundrum of how to reply in my early 20's. I came up with a workable formula for myself. It looked something kinda like:

WhoIsAsking + TimeAvailable ~divided by~ DoIEvenKnowHowIamDoing
= HowIamGoingToRespond

Based on the maths, I'd either tell you I was fine, or I'd let you in and tell you a little bit about myself. I have a hunch that I have been operating this way for two decades, unwaveringly. It's totally subconscious by now. Auto-pilot. But lately, I am finding myself responding to the "how are you" question in some very odd ways. It's as if the part of my brain doing the formula-thang has decided to go have a margarita or something.

Ok. Probably not.

I think what is really happening, is that for the past several months I've been working on cultivating the habit of noticing what is going on RIGHT NOW, right in front of me, then attempting to act or respond accordingly. So these days when you ask me how I am doing, I become highly aware of what is right smack in front of me, and then out comes this blurt of how (or what) I am doing (or hearing or seeing or smelling or feeling) right now, right this very second.

And by blurt I mean I am saying stuff like:

How are you doing?
Toast is burnt.
How are you doing?
Grass is green, sky is blue.
How are you doing?
I hate my refrigerator.
How are you doing?
Wash your bowls.

I mean, it makes no sense. It's gibberish. Except that it's my truth at that moment of your asking. It is what is most on my mind or in front of me when you ask, and I kid you not, it just FLIES out of my mouth unless I catch myself. Unfortunately, I've been honing the "being in the moment" practice so well that the "blurt" is now actively taking place before the "I'm fine" response has a kick in. And it's not very appropriate, and it's not making me any friends (just ask people like the grocery store clerk or the UPS guy), and it may end up getting me set up for some sort of psychiatric evaluation.

Okay, so I tell TheMIG about this the other day (as he is currently practicing the cultivation of the In-The-Moment-Thang, too), and he says to me that when he was little, he used to just respond to "how are you" in the moment naturally (the way little kids will do) and he started to realized he was being asked to say "fine" and he didn't want to, because that isn't really what he was feeling...so he developed HIS version of "the formula". And he's been doing it for even twice as many decades than I have done MY formula.

His formula is to always respond with a statement about physicality.

How are you?
Tired.
How's it going?
Hungry.
How are ya'?
My eyes are burning from looking at the computer too long.


I bet hungry and tired are his top two. Seems to me he's almost always one or the other. LOL

Anyhow, it's an interesting strategy. It's the truth. It's in the moment. And it's relatively palatable to the outside world. I might give it a try. But usually when someone asks me how I am doing, my impulse is to scan my f-f-f-feeeeelings, not my body. So this could get interesting.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

shopping stars align

So here I sat at 7:45pm tonight, staring at the blank page on the screen here, not even sure where to start with a post (typical these days). I decided to employ stall tactics in hopes that a bolt of creative lightning would set my head on fire, and so I checked in over at the blog of DonnazChaos. I read about how she had just been to Kohl's to use up her "Kohls Bucks" coupon-thingy before it expired. This is when I jumped up screaming:

HooooleeeeeCrap!!! I have one of those buck-thingys, too!!
And it's FIFTY DOLLARS WORTH! Gah!!!


I had forgotten all about it. I rarely shop at Kohl's, but a couple of weeks ago MyFavoriteKid needed to pick up gifts for the other side of his family tree. His Grandma and his Uncle were both celebrating their birthdays, plus MyFK needed dress shoes for his band concert, and I needed a new pair of tennis shoes (yes, a pair...they are working on building me a new leg...but that's another story). Anyhow, I didn't want to go running all over hill and dale to get all those items and I knew that Kohl's could fix me up toot sweet in one stop, so off we went. While I was there I also bought a couple of T-shirts for myself.
I could not resist.
Why?
Because at Kohl's they carry the Daisy Fuentes line of "Favorite T" T-shirts.



Now, these shirts might not look like anything special to you, but let me tell ya'....whenever I get a new Daisy Fuentes T-shirt?? The very first time TheMostImportantGuy sees me in it, he immediately knows what it is. And EVERY time I wear one, whether it's new or one he has seen before, his eyes sparkle and his face lights up, he giggles a little bit, and then he goes, "Daaaaaaaaissyyyyyyy Fuueeennnnnnnnntessss!"
So , ummm YAH...
I troll the Daisy Fuentes section whenever I am in Kohl's, even if I AM only there once a year.
I don't even care if the reason he likes them so much is so he can pretend I am her for a bit.


Whatever. Fine be me.

Anyhow. I spent so much dough that day MyFk and I were shopping for gifts that the nice Kohl's Lady shoved a $50 coupon in my hands with my receipt as I was leaving. Faaaancy. And after reading Donna's post tonight at 7:45pm, it sounded like my "bucks" coupon had sadly expired, but I ran to the car where I had stashed it, and lo & behold...it was still good through today. Squee!

Ok, so now it's 7:50pm and I'm whizzing out the door to Kohl's to buy $50 worth of my all time super-favorite, response-invoking T-shirts. I go flying into the store, beeline for the Daaaaaisy Fuennnnntes section of the store, and then I notice the little signs posted above all the Daaaaaisy Fuennnntes racks.

NO. WAY. GET. OUT.
All Daisy Fuentes is buy-one-get-one free.
Double Squeeeee!!!!

Ok, so it's buy one get one, and I have $50 in bucks. And everything I am digging they have in my size. And my head is practically exploding. And I decide this is so great. And that the stars of Shopping, Sales, and Coupons have aligned (which therefore must be a sign from God), and so if I go a wee bit over, it's worth it because it will all pay off in starry-googoo-DaaaaaisyFuennnnntes eyes from TheMIG anyhow.

I got out of there with 6 items for $34.68. Four Favorite T's, and two other items from her line that are a bit dressier.

At the checkout the lady at the register hands me the receipt and says, "Thank you for shopping at Kohl's. You saved (looks at the slip)....one hundred and twenty dollars....daaaaaaang! You know how to shop, woman!"

No coupon this time as I was leaving, though. Heh.


Donna, my friend: I thank you :-)
For the reminder AND for the blog fodder.
I'm sure TheMIG thanks you, too. LOL xoxo

Monday, April 19, 2010

absolutely fascinated

I am absolutely fascinated watching the cherry tree directly outside the sliding glass door.



It's changing almost daily, it seems. I love watching it. It sort of surprises me. It's like one day it's bare, the next it has buds, the next it has flowers, the next is has leaves. Not that fast of transition, but I what I mean is that some days it feels like it looks one way when I go to sleep, and then it looks like a whole 'nother tree in the morning.


I wish my laptop would do that.
Still not fixed. It IS charging now at least (new adapter came today), but the battery at full capacity now is only for a short duration. Looks like I'm on to battery number three. Ugh.

*kachink!*

Sunday, April 18, 2010

cat's out of the bag

Well, actually the cat is not reallllllly out of a bag.
He is in a lump.
On the floor.


MrDarcy always looks like he's a passed out drunkard when he is sleeping



I mean, seriously. Look at him. Lush.
I wonder what is in them kitteh treats.

But as for me, let me get my stuff out of the bag. I need to tell y'all the reason why I haven't been posting much "substance" lately.

My laptop is fried.

It's an issue with charging/not charging, and bogus battery (I'm on my second one now). I'm trying one last thing to fix the situation, but the gist of things is that I am basically tethered to an outlet at this point. I have to be plugged in at all times to use this damn thing, and I cant even unplug it long enough to get down the hall and into the den to hook up to the printer if I need to.

And I have a very strong habit of doing my blogposts while NOT being tethered to outlet. I start at the diningroom table. Then I move to the couch. Then I do a few lines while I am cooking and the laptop is on the counter. Then maybe finish things off when I hop into bed.

Apparently this unplugging and replugging the damn thing 30 times a day is just to much for me, because now instead of moving in around all day like I am used to, the stupid laptop just lives in the same place all day, and it's making it really difficult for me to write anything.

Made total sense to me until I started typing this explanation up for you, and now it sounds more like "the dog ate my homework".
LOL

Well, I am in the process of trying to get a fix (TheMostImportantGuy has ordered spare parts), and if that doesn't work, I'm ready to shop for something new. I guess. Kinda pisses me off, though.

Anyhow, that's what's been up, though. Not a great excuse I now see, but it is at least the reason. Now that I have identified the issue and started on a fix, I can see that now I just need to develop a new strategy for how to work with what I have in the interim. Which means letting go of old habits.

Ahhh, habits.
*sigh*

Saturday, April 17, 2010

snaps on saturday


The workshop I went to today.
More tomorrow.

Friday, April 16, 2010

oooo it almost got away from me...again!

Oh, I'm so tired. I just dozed off watching stand-up comedy and went to turn the tv off, and realized I'd forgotten to post.
Kinda like last night!

Well, I know what did it to me today. I spent the better part of my day cleaning out the garage. The weather is perfect right now for this...not too cold, not the baking heat of summer. I went through a bunch o' crap that I seem to think I need (but of course, do not), and made a run to the Goodwill to get rid of a bunch of stuff. I have more to do, still...hoping to get through some of it on Sunday, and then the balance of it one day next week.

It will really feel good to get it done. I come and go through the garage...it's how get in and out of the house. Rarely do I enter through the front door. When the garage gets out of control it always feels like a WellThatsAFineHowDoYaDo sort of moment.

Tired.
Sorry if this is rambly and pointless. I'm gonna sack out. Big day tomorrow. Going to a workshop all day.
Need.
Sleep.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

oooo it almost got away from me!

Almost blew Blog365 tonight!
Got home from dance class tonight quite late, shut the house down, got all nice and tucked in, and then....*bing!*...HolyCrapItsAlmostMidnightAndI'veNotPosted!
eeee!

And I've got nothin'.
eeee!

Hmmm. Let's see. Well, I have a nice weekend planned, I think. MyFavoriteKid is off with his dad. That may very well bite me in the arse next week because MyFK has a whole bunch of homework to do over the weekend, and his dad doesn't exactly always manage the follow-though. In fact, he's often PartyParent, and then MyFK comes home and I get to be TheBitchEnforcer. Hate that.
But back to the nice weekend: date night with TheMostImportantGuy Friday night. Saturday we are both going to retreats at meditation centers, but not at the same place. So that will be kinda interesting to compare notes at the end of the day. And then Sunday, well...I'm not sure what's going on yet at this point, and I kinda like that :-)


Better click this through so it posts before I turn into a pumpkin!

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

toodles!

Whaddya think. Me in 50 years or so??



(note to self: good thinking, lock 'dem wheelchair brakes, sister)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

fancy knittin'

It's been such a long time since I have finished something, but this has been soooo worth the wait (and the effort).






It's a super yummy scarf that is wide enough to be worn as a wrap. It's made out of a 50/50 merino wool & silk blend, dyed in gradations of grays through purples and then into lavender.

Link to Ravelry Project Page

Link to pattern
My mods:
Did “5x more” on the increase section, so scarf=95 sts wide (set-up used about 43g)
Did “14x more” on the straight section (ea repeat used about 12g)

The yarn is from my Crack Dealer (I mean, an Indie Yarn Dyer) at Twisted Fiber Arts
This was 3 skeins of the "Catnip" yarn base dyed in the colorway "Warlock" Evolutions (the top two photos are the most accurate color representation). I had 10g of yarn remaining.


Here's a shot of it blocking so you can see how the transitions played out. This scarf is knit on the bias, and there are dropped stitches to create that open work. (all you knitter folk know all this already because there have been what, close to 15,000 Clapotis knit so far?? I bet you have done one yourself! These explanations are for the non-knitters, just to keep them entertained)

The scarf blocked out to be 19”W x 75”L, so it's plenty ample...but super soft and squishy. I think we have a couple more chilly mornings on the radar, so I'll get to use it a few times this season before summer hits.

Monday, April 12, 2010

wee

I think I am sinking into a wee bit of a pit. Just a wee one.

For sure, there is some big stuff going on...but mostly, on a day to day basis what is happening lately is that lots of stupid little crap and piling on top of that big stuff, and so the stupid little crap is adding up to feeling like a gigantic load of crap.

It's starting to get to me.

And little crap just has its way of hitting you in the face. Doesn't it?!?! Here is something that happened to me first this morning that might give you an idea of what I'm talking about.


MrDarcy (one my kittehs; named Darcy for a reason by the way, because he's gorgeous, but he pretty much acts like a social retard that has a golden stick up his arse)....

Well, apparently Mr.Darcy's servant did not clean out his cat box in a timely fashion (*ahem* that servant would be ME) . So MrDarcy found the yoga pants I had tossed near (but not in) the hamper last night, pulled them into the middle of my bedroom...danced all over them, covering my black pants with a whole bunch of chalky white litterbox kittyfooty-prints...and then peed on them.

Ass.

UNMITIGATED AND COMPREHENSIVE ASS.

(that's an inside joke for you '05 P&P fans)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As usual, I'm pretty capable of finding the humor in all things apparently, because as I sit here editing this post, I realize that MrDarcy peed on my clothes, and I am describing myself as being in a "wee" bit of a pit.
HA.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

weekend scorecard

It really was not a bad weekend, but...it sorta feels like if I had to attach a score to it, it would be a loser.

  • TheMostImportantGuy's dad has been in and out of the hospital this week (actually he was in, then out, then in again, then out... but sent on to another rehab hospital for a bit instead of home).
  • Aside from the bummer of his dad's health, this also meant TheMIG and I had very little time together while he was drove up to their place to help out.
  • MyFavoriteKid invited a friend over to stay over Saturday night, and it only took a few minutes of his being in our company to recognize that he was delivered sick. His mother, given the freedom, had immediately split for the weekend so I could not send him home. I put on my hazmat suit and ran around with Airborne and Lysol, but who knows how it will all play out.
  • The weather was cold and crappy yesterday, then rainy all day today.
  • I got some great knitting time in this weekend, but only to find out that I screwed it all up and need to go back a bit through a complicated section to fix it.
  • I swear to you---I cleaned up the kitchen like 4 or 5 times today, and every time I turned around again, the little elves had covered it will piles of dirty dishes. *sigh* Let's not even discuss laundry.

For the first time in a long while I am looking forward to a Monday.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

sort of a snap on saturday


Cherry blossoms at night, in the garden.
Leaves just bursting forth.

This is the male tree, the one that does not fruit (but provides excellent shade for the house). The female cherry tree gets a bit more sun. She has already flowered, is full with leaves, and she is starting to show signs that it will be a bountiful cherry season

Friday, April 09, 2010

i've been pondering this quote for a few days now...

We don't see things as they are,
we seem them as we are.
~~Anais Nin

The more I observe myself and note the way my brain ticks, the more I believe this observation to be totally accurate.

The flip side of this (coming from what I am learning via meditating more) is:
The more I get "me" out of the way (ie...the more there is no "me"), the more I do see things as they are.



End of granola ;-)

Thursday, April 08, 2010

this shouldn't even count

Why do Blog365, if keep asking, when there are moments like this. *sigh*
This shouldn't even count.
It's eleven fifty-something, I just got home from dance class and got the house tucked in for the night. Was just about to tuck myself in as well, and it's like, "Oh yeah. Blogpost."
Gah.

So here it is.
BLOGPOST.

Well, I guess I do have a wee bit of content. Kids, TheMostImportantGuy's dad? He got out of the hospital last Friday...but he's been back in again twice for blood sugar issues. He's in right now, actually. Might get out tomorrow, but perhaps they will keep him another day.

It's making me a little sick with worry.

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

what you see depends on who you are

So this is a shot of what I call "TheArsenicHour".
(I should trademark that)



Looks calmer as a still photo than it is in real life.

The Kid on the left is complaining about having to do homework and/or needing assistance with said homework; assignments that I probably do not even understand (ie I am not Smarter than a 5th Grader, and he's in 7th).

The dog on the right is barking hysterically at something outside.

Me? Well, I'm nowhere in this shot because I am out of the frame on the left in the open kitchen trying to figure out dinner. (I'd rather be on the laptop sitting there, which is just begging me to be trolling ravelry, if you notice).

The only calm one in this photo is the Buddha statue out the back door there in the garden watching over the lettuce I just planted.

So what you see and what I see when you look at this photo are probably not the same. For example if you are my mother, what you see are the new little lamp shades on the chandelier LOL.

Perspective. Such an interesting thing.

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

on pbs

http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/

showing April 7th on pbs

tv. sucked in. again.

It's times like these that I wonder if I should remove all tv's in the house so I can be more productive and less of a BoobOfTheTube.

Well, at least it's PBS.

Tonight was Nova and program about telescopes. But I've mostly been sucked in by the current programming surrounding religious faiths. Mormons. Adventists. I know very little about either, and it's been super interesting.

Tomorrow is a program about the Buddha, and also an Independent Lens program that I've heard is good.

Like I said, at least it's PBS.
And I might just have finished a scarf by the end of it, too.

Monday, April 05, 2010

coming going

I know it's not a good thing for me to project into the future (much better to live in the moment, to be sure)...but I'm already dreading tomorrow morning.

First day back at school for MyFavoriteKid, a nightmare of a commute in order to make an early morning meeting with a real estate agent/attorney in town, then I visit both convalescent hospitals.

I'm sure it'll be fine. Even just typing it, it doesn't seem so big of a deal anymore. I just know there will be some sort of scramble in the darkness before the sun even comes up, is all.

I'm thinking I should finish up here and get to bed so I rise and shine.

Instead of worrying about tomorrow, it may be an even better idea to look back at a good moment from today, instead....


MyFK and his friends are working on shooting a video for a school project at a nearby public park at the waterfront. For a couple of hours I got to sit in the car, knit, listen to an audio-lecture on cd, watch the clouds go by, and the rain off in the distance over the water. It was pretty great.
Calm comes.
Calm goes.
Scrambling comes.
Scrambling goes.
Whatever.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

run bunnies, run!



Hope y'all had a Happy Holiday! I actually kinda forgot it was Easter this morning, to tell you the truth. MyFavoriteKid was off with his dad for the weekend (perfect timing because aside from it being Easter, this week was also his grandma's and uncle's birthdays on that side). Because MyFK was gone, there was no whipping out of the Easter goodies (my hips don't need them, and besides, I'm still working off Passover dinner). I did do some gifting later, though. MyFK has been begging me to buy peeps for weeks and kept telling him to wait for Easter (one serving of those is enough, thank-you-very-much).

TheMostImportantGuy and I woke up with all of these grand plans to go out to breakfast and outfit my car with new tires. So much for that, because everything was closed. More poached eggs for us though, so that wasn't too bad...and then a day spent lounging and watching the rain come down.

Saturday, April 03, 2010

sort of a snap on saturday

More like "It's Saturday, and I've snapped."
Super tired. Yesterday was going up to TheMIG's folks so we could spring his dad from the hospital he's been convalescing at and get him home. Today was buttcrack-o-dawn meditation at the center, then for him back up to his folks, and for me to a potluck lunch to watch the video of our last troupe performance. Dog park, and lost of cleaning up here because it looked like a cyclone struck it.

Got a few minutes to spin some of this up on a drop spindle, though...something I haven't done in a while.

Friday, April 02, 2010

Pet Names

(guest post by TheMIG due to too TheAmpuT having too many chores before bedtime):

Hello everyone.

I was going to write about all the permutations her name has gone thru as I've made ever-more intricately silly pet names for her. But then she pointed out that her real name has not been mentioned on this blog, and we'd like to keep it that way, so all my pet names for her may give it away since they're not all THAT different from her real name.

So, how about the names of actual pets? Here's the list of cats I've lived with (the bold text) who were given fairly normal names which, over time, morphed into crazy nonsense-names. You will notice a few recurring patterns:

Tad (cuz he was so little kitten)
Tadington
Tadlingtone
Tadlingtone Face
Tone Face
Face

Ginger
New Mew (cuz she was he newest cat in he house)
Newpus Mewpus
Newpus Poopus

Spike
Spike-a-mento
Pimento
Pimento Loaf
Loaf

Tisha
T-bone
Bone Face
Facey Face
Fusty Mew (cuz in her old age it just seemed to fit her cranky personality.. she was just all ... FUSTY)

Gaara
Gaara Bobara
Gaara-gaara bobara banana fana fofara me mi mo mara
Kitt-ing-tong (whaa?!?!)

Mr. Darcy
Darcy Farcy
Darce The Pharce
AssCat

She's done with chores and coming to bed so I'm logging off! (Dog is in bed too ... Riley, aka Rile-a-roni).

Thursday, April 01, 2010

a few more additions


Getting things ready for the garden. Earlier this week I put in a few tomato plants and some rosemary. Going to get the Lacinato Kale in toot sweet, but might wait another week or two on the lettuce and less hardy herbs. We did have a heat wave here, but now it's gotten very cold again.

(PS I have no idea what I'm doing by the way...I make gardening up as I go, it would seem. I'm a bit of a hack that way. But I'm learning.)