Posting pictures, wierd celebrity obsession, whinning

As I am not a very techie person it seems to take me a long time to 1) remember how to post pictures on my blog, facebook, ravelry, etc. and 2) to then get them where I want them in the damn blog, facebook, ravelry, etc. I refer to Roy as "Help Desk"! We even have friends here in Mexico that call on Roy now when they need something figured out!

Do I sound like I'm whinning -- You betcha!

I am so sick of Michael Jackson, his family, his legal issues, his drug use, his beatification yesterday, etc. There was nothing else on TV yesterday except that crap -- I use TV to entertain and sometimes inform myself and there was none of that to be found leading up to and including yesterday. As someone said -- there are real issues to be talking about in the world now -- NOT MJ! WOW where did that come from....

Thank you I needed to get that off my chest.

Back to my original post title: posting pictures. I want to post pics on my ravelry page, but it's a pain in my a** to do it.

Can someone please let me know if there's an easy way to download just some pictures off your camera, put them someplace logical and push a button to then "paste" them where you would like to view them and let others view them as well??? Probably not -- too logical.

Enough whinning for today (maybe, not promising). Hope your day is turning out better than mine.

Visit to Texas

I was back in Texas for a couple of weeks and saw lots of family and friends. My Dad was in hospice in Longview, and is in good spirits and still smiling! Love you Spence and JoAnn. It was hard to see him immobile in a hospital bed but I'm so glad I was able to go and see him. My brother Mike went with me on the drive from Dallas. We had a good visit and did lots of reminiscing!

While in Dallas a tornado went over my brother's house -- pretty scary! Mike and Marisa were there for dinner and when they finally got home (which isn't too far) all their pool furniture was in the pool -- but the old fence was still standing pooooh! I enjoyed the time we all had to just be together and eat, talk, and watch some TV. Amy, David, William and Kathryn came up from Richards for a big garage sale at Mike and Willa's church. Even Carolyn got to come up for a night. We had a pool/BBQ party at Mike and Marisa's on Thurs so I got to see almost everyone expect Daniel (Carolyn's hubby) who had to work in Waco.

Went to Houston for my grandson, Forrest's, first birthday party. So much fun -- lots of little children and noise! Lauren and Forrest go to Gymboree and many of their friends came. It was so wonderful to see Dad's holding their babies and being involved with the party. Not like when I was little. Moms did the children stuff and the Dad's smoked and drank cocktails and talked about sports or business. Very refreshing to see fathers eager to participate! What a blessing for them and their children. Forrest wasn't having any of the cupcake with bright green icing though. He smeared off the icing and rubbed it on his ears, and hair, and face -- great pics. The little man was coming down with a cold so by that night he wasn't feeling too well along with his Daddy, Joseph. Roy came down with it by Monday -- so far Lauren and I have dodged the bullet!

Roy and I got to see Forrest's day care school too. It's really nice. Great security and the teacher/child ratio for his group is great. He's happy and has fun -- that's all you want for the little man! They read, dance, eat lunch together and learn something everyday. I'm so proud!

We also were there to close on the sale of our Bellaire house. There were many, many, many, many glitches in this process (as of today we still don't have our money). The buyer has no shame! Lauren's going to go to closing for us on Monday and hopefully call us with good news! We think things are all okay -- but with this guy it ain't over til they slide the check across the table! If for some reason he blows it Monday -- he ain't getting our house. We'd rather leave it empty then screw around with him any more -- he's used up all our patience.

I got to spend a lot of time with some friends too while in Houston. Some I haven't seen in a couple of years. I even met some new friends -- hi Pam and Lizzy! This, for me, is one of the hard parts about leaving Houston -- I miss my knittin' buddies! When we left Houston on Friday it was 98 degrees -- even hotter and more humid when I was in Dallas if you can believe that! When we landed in Guadalajara is was 78 degrees and raining. It was 68 when we got to our house! At 2:00 this afternoon it was 77 degrees and the mountains are turning velvet green! Muy bonita!

I am happy to be home with my dogs and hubby! I love it here, but I do miss my friends and the kids so very much. We all have to make trade offs though and thank God for email, facebook, Ravelry, VOIP phones, and blogs!

COME SEE US!

Knitting with Friends

Yesterday I had 4 friends over to knit. It was soooo much fun. They looked through my library and borrowed some books and Roy even served us cool drinks. Having a group here to knit with on a regular basis has been something I've missed from Houston. There was a group that I used to go to but the makeup of the group changed and there was lots of drama associated with who was there and who wasn't wanted -- so I stopped going.

This group is small and they have been getting together once a week for some time so I'm happy to have found them. We also have several alternatives for purchasing yarn here now too. Another couple of crafters who go back and forth to the US monthly have opened a yarn shop with mostly acrylic, but they will bring back special order stuff too -- like Lion Brand naturals, Vanna White yarn, etc. Still no Malabrigo though! -- I am dying to see this stuff. Got plans to visit several stores in Texas while I'm there to check out what's up!

Also, I've found a couple of people on Ravelry that live here lakeside. I've got plans to hook up with one of them later this month. Ravelry is truly amazing.

Well, sitting in my bedroom with 2 fans going and getting ready to break out the wet washcloths -- it's really freakin' hot today -- 93 on the patio -- and no A/C! This will be over soon, but OMG while we go through these dog days of spring here in Mexico it's pretty brutal!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day for me is not just remembering and giving thanks for those citizens and friends of the USA who have given the ultimate sacrifice for me, but remembering and giving thanks for all my friends and family who have sacrificed and loved me during my journey here on this plain!

I am feeling sentimental today and missing people that I don't get to see anymore on a regular basis. Thank GOD for the internet, facebook, blogs, email, Ravelry, and the phone. I don't think I would have been able to move to Mexico without being able to stay in touch with my extended family.

I recently have reconnected with friends from Dallas through facebook. What a gift! I spent many, many hours, days, weeks, months, and years with these people. They had quite a positive impact on my life in forming how I think about myself, life, the world, spirit!

THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING!
I love you this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!much!

Please know that you are often in my thoughts even though I'm over 1000 miles away. Hope everyone reading has a wonderful, grateful, reflective Memorial Day weekend!

Orenburg progress report

These balls of yarn are the three colors I'm using in the project. This is the first section of the right edge then you pick up stitches along the straight edge being created and use the copper color. The main triangle will be the sable color in the middle -- perrty huh?!

detail of the tooth edge

I've gotton some knitting done on the Orenburg lace and wanted to share some pictures of my progress. Once I wrote out the repeat lines from the chart I started enjoying the knitting more and making progress. However, it's getting a bit redundant.

Russian knitters primarily use k2tog or k3tog for decrease no matter which side you're on. I like that!

Anyway, I don't have a good book to read this weekend so most of my time will be knitting -- hopefully I can make good progress.

Orenburg Lace

I have started a shawl that I bought at a knitting conference in Sugarland, TX several years ago. It's a russian lace shawl that was featured in Piecework, Sept/Oct 2002, pg 51; "Triangular Warm Shawl" designed by Galina Khmeleva. It is all charted. I use to be able to do charts, even liked working from them--no sweat! My eyes are older now and my glasses aren't that great so words are better.

Roy scanned and enlarged the first chart for me, but it was taking me forever, knit one row, rip rip rip, knit it again, rip rip rip. So today I took the time to write out each row of the repeat section and away I went. Much more fun now and quicker. Actually making some progress.

By the way, I LOVE RAVELRY ! I found someone there who has made this same shawl and she (Karen from Bethesda, MD) has already helped me with my first "problem" in reading the chart. Knitters are the friendliest people.

Small world, Karen's husband used to live in San Miguel de Allende a while ago! I'll get a picture soon so you can see the progress I'm making.

Feather & Fan

too close and I can't get it in focus!

I have knitted many feather & fan shawls, baby blankets and samplers, but when I received this pattern (as a surprise) in the mail from my buddy Virginia Martinez I was looking for something to knit. This fit the bill.

I had previously gotten two different colorways of the new Noro Silk Garden sock yarn and so was ready to go. If I had gotten the pattern and then gone out to find yarn for the project I would not have used these two colorways -- one was for socks for Roy and the other was going to be a pair of bright socks for me. When I was working on the shawl, I wasn't sure I liked how it was turning out, but Roy kept telling me it was pretty.

One of the things I learned early on is that when you're the knitter you are sometimes too close to the project to see it the way others will. This is one of those projects. I think it turned out really well because of the light/dark effect of the two yarns -- two rows with one ball and two rows with the other.

I wish I cold take better pictures of my knitting, cause I think it's much prettier in person than in these pictures. Anyway...