stitch sisters

It was a lovely evening at Stitch Sisters; we started by knitting on the steps of the church so that we could admire the lovely country view, the sunshine and pleasing temperature. As the light dimmed and the bugs came out we moved inside.

It being so close to my birthday my wonderful stitch sisters had a cake for me made by G. A heavenly confection of thin layers of the most decadent buttery cake, whipped cream, fresh raspberries and thin layers of meringue. One could become quite zaftig enjoying such delicious decadence. It was absolutely heavenly and as birthday girl I not only got the biggest piece I also got to bring home the leftovers.

I was gifted with a sweet card full of loving thoughts, a pair of handmade socks (like hugs for the feet!) and cilantro. An ecclectic collection you may think but one that makes perfect sense to us.

We ate, we crafted, we laughed, and I came home to discover that Miss D had vacuumed the downstairs and cleaned the bathroom! Wow! What a night!

gratitude

Having injured my knee I am currently left unable to drive a car. Given how far out we live and that there is no public transportation this presents a problem. Luckily for me there is an organization in our town that drives people to doctor visits if they are unable to do so for themselves. Usually they drive the elderly but sometimes they get people like me.

For every single driver who has volunteered one day a month to provide transportation for others I am exceedingly grateful. How wonderful to live in a place where people can be that willing to volunteer.

almost birthday

Yes, it's almost my birthday. Since Steve has to work that day we celebrated early.

Went to pick up my present, a fire pit, and dinner from Panera Bread yummmmmm. After dinner and loving presents from Steve and the girls we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the firepit along with a bottle of Steve's homemade wine. Nothing could be better. Crickets and bullfrogs in the background. Lazy conversation and hypnotic flames, it was very relaxing and wonderful. What a great family I have, I am so truly blessed.

memorial day weekend

We spent the weekend with my brother and his family. It was really great to see them. A barbeque on the beach, a lovely Japanese restaurant dinner and lots of conversations. Plus I borrowed two books, how cool.

It's always great to see them and this weekend was no exception. Usually we are busy going places and doing stuff but with my gimpy leg it wasn't an option this time. We still had a great time and hopefully they did too. Happy Memorial Day to all!

The books? Glad you asked, The Historian
and
How to Read a Book (A Touchstone Book)

advice for the day

If you think your life is so busy you can't manage. You're not getting things done the way you want. You feel like things are a bit overwhelming.

Don't trip over the dog.

How do I know...well, as you may have guessed, I did just that. Medial Collateral Ligament torn on the right knee. A brace, a cane, no driving for a bit. I'm tempted to say life just couldn't get anymore interesting, but then again I don't care to tempt fate so I wont say it.

One good thing is that the Manny, the guy who is coming with his crew to rip out half of our garden and replace it with grass came by. They're starting in two weeks. While I have loved this garden it is simply too much to take care of. I will still have the entire front, both side gardens and the top band of the back garden. But the rest will no longer be there. I am giving away plants to whoever comes to get them and looking forward to less physical and mental stress as I will no longer have to watch the back garden be overrun by invasives and weeds.

The rest of life is still a bit chaotic but hopefully it will come under control soon.

sorry sorry

For those who have emailed wondering where I am....

Life has been very hectic here lately. Lots going on, one graduation coming up, allergy season in full swing, one coming home from college (really gotta make her bed before she gets here), the white flag of surrender has already gone up on the garden, and on and on.

I'll write when I can but for now I can't, please understand.

wfmw - magazine recipes

It's Works for Me Wednesday again. Don't forget to check out all the wfmw goodness at Rocks In My Dryer.

I have a rather impressive collection of food magazines. Some of them are Cooking Light from when I had a subscription. Quite a few are Bon Appetit or Gourmet or that ilk collected from my library's Free Magazine basket. If you have magazines you don't want you bring them to the library. Take the ones you want, keep as many as you like. That works for me (hey, this is turning into a twofer).

My biggest problem with the food magazines is remembering which recipe is where. Such as my favorite Texas Chocolate Cake from Cooking Light. I know I could go online and print another copy but the waste of paper really bothers me. So after I've read a food magazine and decided to keep it I write down all of the recipes I like and their page number on an index card and staple the card to the cover of the magazine. The collection has gotten so big that my next step is to organize them by season instead of by magazine and put each season in it's own magazine box. It makes finding favorite recipes quick and easy. It works for me.

books

Speaking of books in the last post I somehow started reading two books at the same time. Given that my reading time has decreased to a painful sluglike pace I'm not sure how this happened.

The first one is Marley & Me I keep snorting with laughter causing my children to believe that I have finally gone round the bend. When I share passages with Steve he laughs too. I think it's laughter of relief. While Tobi is rambunctious and unrestrainedly lovable in his own special way he is not quite as...um....destructive energetic as Marley appears to be. This gives us hope because after all Tobi came to us completely un-housebroken and with no manners. He now IS housebroken and has manners. His only *ahem* challenges are learning that not everyone is dying for big wet sloppy puppy kisses and that compost is not meant to be edible. As you can imagine the book is very humorous, I like the writing style and am enjoying it tremendously.

The other is Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping I picked it up because I had seen a blurb about the author and thought the premise of the book was interesting. She and her partner decide not to buy anything that is not essential for one year. Of course his idea of what is essential sometimes varies from hers but that just adds to the entertainment. On a more serious note I've only read up to February and it's making me think about how we view ourselves and our spending; not to mention the over consumption going on all around us. Well written and definitely enjoyable.

birthday knitting

Not my birthday, but one of the Stitch Sisters. We had a surprise cake, a surprise birthday plant and a (surprise) lovely card designed by D. Amidst the knitting of the stash blanket, the scarves for a project and personal knitting everyone stopped to enjoy a fabulous Boston Creme Pie. Ooooooooooh, haven't had one of those in years and boy was it delicious!

The stash blanket is looking lovely. It was passed onto our stashless sister tonight...along with donated stash so that she could work on it. When it comes around to me again I'll take a picture so that people can see it. It's a fun project. We're not sure what we're going to do with it though. I thought the original purpose had been to donate it to something like Project Linus. Now a couple of members are saying that perhaps when it's done it goes to one of us and we start another one until everyone has a blanket that has been worked on by the entire group. I confess that while Project Linus is a VERY worthwhile endeavor there is also something appealing about having a lovely blankie made by the whole group. I guess we'll have to see how it turns out when this blanket it done. It may be the no one wants it..."No dear, you take it I don't mind waiting for the next one", "I'm sure those colors suit you much better than they do my poor sallow complexion", "We think you should be the first one to experience the love." On the other hand there may be a flurry of needles and yarn as everyone dives for it...who knows.

Today was also apparently bookswap night. We have a club book that is going around (I forget the title, when it's my turn I'll let you know) plus some paperbacks that some members were trying to foist onto share with the rest of the group. My only problem being that I haven't learned to read and knit at the same time and how the heck do you flip the pages anyway?

peepity peep

It may be a blazing 85 degrees outside today. It feels like we have gone from winter straight into summer. I confess that I love the warm weather and the cool delicious evenings. What I love most is that even though it may not feel like spring the peepers are back. Their little chorus is definitely music to my ears.

here there be dragons

With today being St. George's Day I thought you might like to see this fun link.

http://www.sonic.net/~ronnie/dragon.htm, a dragon's head made from cat food cans.

1564-1616

Today is the day of William Shakespeare's birth and death. I imagine not many people die on their birthday but it does happen.

I read a lot of Shakespeare in college (Theater major, English minor, it's expected that Shakespeare would be on the curriculum). One of my favorite quotes is

Now join your hands, and with your hands your hearts

It's from Henry the Sixth. Unfortunately it's not truly a love scene as the two characters being asked to hold hands are Warwick and Clarence, but taken out of context it is a sweet thought.

happy earth day

Whether you are doing something special to celebrate the day or not it's good to remember it as this is the only Earth we have.

Wikipedia info here.

horsie

D and I went to volunteer at a local horse rescue operation today. It was absolutely wonderful. The organization takes in all sorts of abused, abandoned, neglected or subject-to-slaughter horses and cares for them. It rehabilitates and then finds good homes for them.

We went for our initial tour and were set upon by horses eager for treats. They've obviously been well trained that people come with horse "cookies". We went through 10 pounds of apples and carrots before we got to meet all of the horses. We were then set to the task of grooming under supervision.

D's grooming customers were :



Mogul

Breezy

and Bronson.

Many of the horses are either Premarin mares (forced into successive pregnancies under harsh conditions), the results of Premarin pregnancies (which are usually unwanted), abandoned race horses, damaged show horses or horses that people don't take care of. There are currently 35 at the farm and I have to say they all look pretty content and are certainly "people" trained. A few of them will be leaving for new homes within the next month or so and then others will come.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time there and plan to go back.

laundry

Those of you who know me know that I am a bit silly about laundry. Having said that the first load of the year is hanging on the line. Waving in the breeze. I just love fresh laundry not-from-the-dryer.

A while back my mom shared an interesting article with me from the New York Times about laundry. Unfortunately it is no longer available for free, but if you have an NYT account you can access the article.

As I may or may not have mentioned, in my neighborhood it is against the rules to hang your laundry outside. Luckily for me I have a rather large screened in porch so that's where I hang my laundry. It helps to protect it from bugs and light rain so that's great. Not so great when we want to sit out there and enjoy the porch and the laundry is in the way. That seems to be the battle of the season but somehow we manage to make it all work out.

first garden day

It's the first day of the year that I have been able to get into the garden. It was mostly clipping woody residue, pulling out dead undergrowth and some weeding. The grass is very opportunitistic and has started it's lovely little runners. Even with the little bit that I did today that part of the yard is looking better.

The treehouse is in good condition, the furniture ready and waiting for leisurely iced tea and book retreats. I love this time of year.

when was the last time i...

tagged by Dawn I've decided to play along.

1. kissed someone? lots of kisses today, hubby, kids, even the dog tries to get in on the kisses here.

2. drank coffee? ummmm...about 8 or 9 years ago

3. read a book? Just finished The Ageless Woman

4. cursed? sounds too good to be true but unless you count dagnabit and darnitall I really don't curse

5. had a nightmare? maybe a few nights ago? I really don't seem to remember my dreams anymore

6. checked your email? A few minutes ago

7. had a crush? ummm...28 years ago, it was Steve

8. drove a car? A week ago

9. rode a roller coaster? I hate them so it was probably when I was a teen

10. took a nap? Yesterday, yah for vacations!

11. went to the movies? A long time ago, I usually wait for them to come out on DVD. I think the last movie I saw in the theater was Eragon which was very disappointing

12. drank alcohol? Tonight, a glass a white wine

13. went to a party? March - the neighborhood St. Patty's Day

14. said “I love you"? not that long ago

15. cooked a meal? Too long ago

16. exercised? A week ago? Amazing how lazy I get on vacation

You're next. If you are reading this you are tagged.

vaca

I've been gone. Headed south for a few days to soak up some sunshine. It was really wonderful. We went to FL and visited my Aunt.

Funny side story:

I once received a compliment on some clothes that I was wearing. My friend asked where I got them. I told her that they were from this exclusive shop in New York called My Aunt's Closet. Her response was, "Really? Where is it, I would love to go there." I had to tell her that it was REALLY my Aunt's closet."

The exclusive shop has moved to FL and I came home with a jacket, two shirts, four pairs of pants and a pair of shoes! Score!!!!!

Steve and I got to see lots of wonderful beachy views, nice sunsets, spend time with great people, it was a lot of fun.

I will say that I managed to get some kov (knitting on vacation) done. Finished (except for the fringing) a scarf for the latest charity project with Stitch Sisters. I also started a pair of wrist warmers that I have been meaning to do for two years! I've had the yarn sitting in stash for that long. It's finally in process.

The single yarn shop that I saw on vacation was CLOSED!!!! Aaaaaaaaugh! Steve was not too distress, I on the other hand.....

And in a true display of how knitter stick together, the flight attendant on our flight home and I had a lovely conversation about knitting, projects and stash in general and all sorts of other knitutia (knitting minutia). It was great.

Vacation is over, just in time to really see how much work is required in the garden. However, it was a good getaway.

rainy day

Rain rain and more rain. Thank goodness it's not snow like Melissa's area. However, we've had enough that some streets are flooded, cars have been abandoned in the middle of puddles big enough to be called lakes and I'm grateful that I know my way around well enough to detour everywhere.

I had a dentist appointment this morning to get fitted for a mouth guard. I've got TMJ and the drug store mouth guards just aren't doing the job anymore. From there to the grocery store, a couple of other stops while I was in the area, post office, library, bank and then back home. All by very indirect routes. Lots of police officers out, flashing lights and barricades; it's amazing how bad the floods are. All of the local rivers are seriously swollen and murky.

Luckily we live at the top of a hill. One of my neighbors, who has goats, horses, etc, once told her insurance agent, when being questioned about the flood plain, that if it flooded up here he should start looking for an ark. So now I'm home, warm, dry and safe.

funny fotos

Saw these on the internet and just had to share because they made me laugh.

from Oliver Daily.

and

from Cute Overload.