Magda loves yarn too!

This is my Mom's knitting chair. We sit here together sometimes when she's knitting. I thought she'd enjoy my decorations!

Hi everyone, aren't I cute!!! I found some of my Mom's yarn while she was out of the house. I love yarn almost as much as she does. But when she got home, the look on her face wasn't what I expected. I thought she'd be so happy that we could love yarn together, but nooooooo -- she got mad at me. What's that all about?


Magda has never shown any interest in my yarn until recently. As I wrote earlier, Friday night she went completely crazy with yarn I had in my basket. I should have seen it coming after this episode with just a couple of yarns. My bad!

She has a really bad habit of knowing when she's doing something wrong. Then when you try to get whatever she has taken off with, she runs off and hides under the bed or runs around the yard. This is here listening to mommy ask for the yarn back! HA

But I love her :~))

Calamity

Roy and I went to dinner on Friday night. When we got home, my lantern moon basket (the round one with handles) which was full to the top with sock yarns for my blanket (approx 20 different balls) was emptied and ALL the yarn was spread from the living room to our bedroom. Magda apparently was bored!

I was sick when I saw it. Lots of chewed up ball bands, lots of tangles, lots of mess. My stomach is hurting now just remembering it all. Until recently, she's never shown any interest in yarn before. So, I've kept all the yarn for this project in the basket next to my chair -- no problem, until now. It took me about 5-6 hours to straighten up one skein of Lamb's Pride sock yarn.

I was sitting on the floor in my bedroom trying to sort out the worst tangles and even resorted to, say it with me -- SCISSORS! Those of you who know me well know I abhor scissors around yarn, except for cutting yarn with a purpose. To cut into a mess of yarn and create more ends is a sin in my world. Today, being Sunday, I'm asking for forgiveness from the knitting gods and doing penance.

Magda is still with us, so far. Roy told me he was glad that he'd bought the "taxidermy at home" kit for Christmas cause we may need it now. LOL :~)) She can't grow up fast enough!

Lazy Weekend and ramdom thoughts

Okay, this is not a first -- I never got dressed all weekend long. I didn't get out of the bedroom on Saturday until 6:30 or 7:00pm except to feed myself, the dogs, and hummingbirds. Sunday I did leave the bedroom, however, and ventured as far as the living room to watch TV shows I had TiVo'd. That was around 10:00am.

I knitted, read, watched TV, and played games on Pogo.com (which by the way if you don't know about this website, and like to play lots of different free games, I highly recommend). I love weekends like this. No one was here but me and the doggies.

I would be happy if groceries would just appear in the kitchen. All the food doesn't have to come cooked, although frozen stuff you just heat and serve isn't bad. I love my alone, quiet time. I think I could live like a hermit, just my pets and me, for a long time. I think, though, that I'd require electricity for my satellite radio, a coffee pot, the refrigerator of course, and my phone so I could talk to people. Calls would be controlled, I think only outgoing at first -- to see how I liked that -- not sure how long I would want to be isolated and control the isolation, just a thought...

When I was a little girl and we had moved from the farm into "town", my bedroom was on the top level of our house -- if you know what a "Cape Cod" house is there are multiple levels of 1/2 floor plans so from the outside it looks like a 2 story house, but there are really 3. Anyway, I lived upstairs across the hall from my Meemaw (I loved her so much and she loved me too). We shared a 1/2 bath in the middle. My room was also the way you got into the attic, through my closet. When I was small I used to hang out in my closet -- could be because it was away from all the chaos in the house. I think I felt safer there. I had my dolls and my own world. I think that's where I went to "survive". Could be that my bedroom has always been the place that I felt safest. I could "hide" from the world "out there" and pretend I was in control. Just another thought...

I gravitate towards activities that I can do alone. Knitting, reading, watching TV, gardening, these activities don't require group participation -- although you can do most of them with other people. Sometimes I like doing some of them with other people especially knitting -- that seems to be an activity that calls out for community. What are you working on? Where did you get that pattern, yarn, needles, etc. I want to do that too, want to do a knit along together? I feel pretty safe in this community. Good people -- knitters and crocheters. My Aunt taught me to knit and crochet when I was young. I loved her too and she loved me. She was one of my anchors then. Meemaw, Aunt Gertrude, Joy -- they all helped keep me here, grounded.

Anyway, it's Monday now and I have to get out of bed soon (I'm writing this from my laptop) and shower cause Socorro will be here around 10:00 and I have my Spanish class at 11:30. So here I go, preparing to reenter the outside world.

WOW, that came up from nowhere. Thanks for listening.

Fiesta de San Andres 2008

We made it through the Fiestas de Los Patronales this year. We (Roy, the dogs and me) spent a lot of time in the bedroom because we had pillows in the windows to muffle the sound of the cohetes, which is Spanish for sky rockets. Beau and Magda especially don't care for them. Rey seems not to be bothered as much. During the 9 days there are literally tens of 1000s of cohetes fired off starting at 6:00am until midnight. VIVA MEXICO! Can you say beach house?

For those of you who are not familiar with skyrockets, they are like M80s on a stick. If they go off close to the house it feels like a sonic boom. It hurts my ears just thinking about it now. When we lived in our rent house we were east and perpendicular to the plaza and church and the sound was muffled. Now we live directly above the plaza and church and sound apparently travels up -- go figure! I don't remember that fact being in the real estate brochure.

There's a party every night of the 9 nights in the plaza. Big bands, lots of cerveza, tequila, michiladas, food, people, etc. There's also a castillo, which is Spanish for castle, which is made of sparklers, firecrackers, and fireworks. It's quite a sight to see. They are made by hand and have several sections. They are lit from the bottom and each section spins and twirls and lights the next higher section until it reaches the top. Some are quite elaborate depending on the patrons of that night and how much money they have raised.

If you like to eat, drink and party -- this is another great time to visit.

I'm it -- Marisa tagged me

Apparently I have been tagged and have been trying to come up with 7 things that you don't know about me...some of them may leave you scratching your head thinking, "what was she thinking?"

1. I was the Secretary for the Dallas County Young Republicans in 1982-83.

2. My mom, brother Mike and I took the train from Baltimore to Lubbock, Texas to visit my brother Don when I was 5 years old. It was a ball running between the cars, eating and sleeping on the train and sitting in the observation car with the bubble top. It was the summer of 1957. DDT was not outlawed then and at night the trucks would drive through the neighborhoods spraying for mosquitoes. With the windows open and the attic fans going the fumes would be pulled into the house and gag us! Twitch, did someone say something about a twitch!

3. I was robbed at gun point when I lived in NYC while entering my 5th floor walk-up apt. That guy was really desperate to get my stuff cause he had to walk up 5 flights of stars to get it. He pointed a gun in my face (it was a revolver and I could see all the bullets in their chambers) and told me to go to my apt. He pulled the phone cord out of the wall, tied me up with it and made me sit in my bathtub while he loaded up my 2 suitcases with stereo, money, jewelry, etc. He told me not to move for 15 minuets and I believed him. Muy tonta!

4. My mom, brother Mike, and I were caught in a blizzard in Maryland driving home from school one day. I was 4-5 years old (kindergarten). It was a white out and Mom had to drive with her head out the driver's side window and Mike was hanging out the other window guiding her so she didn't drive off the highway. We had to abandon the car at the entrance to our neighborhood (cause the roads hadn't been plowed there yet) and walk about a mile to our house. I left my gloves in the car and probably had a mild case of frost bite by the time we got back home. My mom had to run water over my hands to unfreeze them. OMG, that process has left scares in my memories! Again muy tonta!

5. When I was a younger, single woman I went to a KVIL radio happy hour party at a new club "Elan" in Dallas. Leeza Gibbons was a local TV personality in Dallas at the time and was interviewing people in line (that's so you'll know how long ago this was). I met a guy that night. He asked me out for a date. We went to a party at a Cowboy's house. Well, how can I say this easily...it was a swap party and people were watching porn on the TVs, walking out completely naked, and swapping partners. You'll be happy to know I never took off anything, didn't touch anyone, didn't swap anything, and after a couple of beers, asked him to take me home!!!
Another muy tonta moment.

P.S. Not all blind dates are good and not all are bad. My first date with Roy was a blind date, however, we didn't meet at a bar but were introduced through a mutual friend.

6. I waited on Joe Nameth, Barbara Walters, and Robert Wagner while working at Bonwit Teller as a Christmas Elf in 1973. I followed Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman down Park Ave one spring day for a couple of blocks. I ran into John Lennon and Yoko Ono (I smiled and he smiled back) coming out of my dentist's building. Roy and I walked past Prince Phillip in London when he was getting out of his limo in Leichester Square going to the theater.

7. I had to be tutored in geometry in the 10th grade so that I could graduate. I totally didn't get it (the final grade was a D)! Now that I'm a knitter I understand and appreciate math so much more. I also wish I had learned more then. Roy is a math major -- really, really smart like my brother Mike and my nephew Mike. Roy's helped me appreciate math more now that I have to use it. Knitting is all about the math!

Well there you have it -- 7 things you may or may not have known about me. Some of them pretty stupid things too!

Christmas is coming

I can hardly believe another year has almost passed. I'm starting to panic about Christmas presents. Every year I plan to make more and more things for gifts, but I have a problem making and giving knitted things for people who look at them and respond with "oh, thanks"! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! SERIOUSLY? It's only happened a few times. I'm a quick learner here.

I am making socks for my 81 year old day this year. He asked me for a pair. I'm also making socks for a friend's mom who is a needle worker herself so she'll be happy and appreciative about getting handmade socks. I have been working on an afghan for my housekeeper -- it's about 15% done -- YIKES. I'm running out of time.

I guess the thing that's hard for me about giving hand knitted things is when people who don't make things with their hand don't get it -- how much time and effort goes into making anything by hand. If this means I have expectations and should be able to give something with no strings attached, then I'm just not there. I can buy something and/or give you a gift card or money and do that without expectations -- but when it comes from my heart and hands it's a bit harder for me to be detached.

Then it seems, there are people who don't want something that's hand made -- no matter who made it or what it is. I understand this to some degree, but there's nothing more special then to receive something that with every stitch and turn of the needles love and good thoughts are placed into the fabric created. And those thoughts and well wishes are just for you alone!

WOW that was cathartic! Gotta run -- need to keep knitting.

Hope Won

I'm so excited that Barack Obama was elected to be the 44th president of the United States of America. I am proud that our country was able to see beyond color and gender and, in my opinon pick the right person for this time in our world. There are probably people in my family who may disagree with me, but that's what's so great about this country -- we're allowed to disagree and engage in healthy debate.

He needs and deserves our prayers as he goes forward to tackle the some of the toughest issues facing us and the world. I believe he is up to the task.

Gobama!!!!!