kmkat and her kneedles

OMG, it is Wednesday already?

photo credit: Gee, wonder why the unemployment site is overloaded via photopin (license)

I seem to have been incredibly busy for the past few weeks. Every day I fall behind a little bit more -- unread emails pile up, postal mail ditto, the laundry screams, another must-do appears. This is what being useful feels like, right?

Anyway, no time to do a complete post right now. Here's whats been happening:

• I finished two pairs of socks and a hat.
• Tonight I vow to finish a pair of fingerless gloves that have been OTN for a month.
• A pair of summer socks OTN for on-the-go knitting.
• Found I despise knitting with 50/30/20 wool/cotton/nylon yarn, which is what the summer socks are made of.
• Too bad I have enough for two more pairs of socks.
• I got two free (2!) (free!!) knitting machines.
• Plus a crapton of pattern books and accessories and punch cards and who knows what all.
• No time to delve into it.
• Need to donate a rocking chair and matching ottoman to humane society garage sale to clear out some space..
• But they do not want accept anything until mid-May.
• Need to deal with another crapton of stuff we removed from Minneapolis house when we rented out the the last bedroom (the one we used to use) to clear some more space.
• Then I will permit myself to set up the knitting machine(s).
• And explore the world of machine knitting.
• My daffodils are blooming their little hearts out.
• I thank the unseasonably cool weather we had for a couple of weeks. It permitted them to stay in their blooming condition instead of withering.
• Warmer now.
• Haven't finished the book for the last two book groups I went to. 
• Bad Kat.
• But the first one, The Boys in the Boat, has been chosen as next month's book for the second group.
• I was enjoying it whilst reading.
• I get another chance!
• I am involved with starting up a brand-new chapter of the League of Women Voters.
• Hence, some of the busy-ness.
• Just discovered our mortgage, which has been on automatic payment from my checking account for years and years, did not get paid this month.
• New loan servicer.
• New crap-tastic loan servicer.
• Several phone calls, all fixed.
• Sheesh.
• Went to Yarnover last weekend.
• Forgot to bring yarn; had to buy two skeins of fabulous CVM/alpaca/angora worsted.
• Oh, shuckydarns.
• Learned how to do brioche.
• Started a brioche cowl with the new yarn.
• Decided I needed to do it somewhere with no distractions until I get it cemented in my muscle memory.
• Took a cast on/cast off class from Amy Detjen.
  
• Taught her a new cast on.
• I rock (but I didn't invent the cast on; it was one I found several years ago on YouTube when I searched for "stretchy cast on".)

That's enough. Gotta go move the laundry from washer to dryer.

This is so cool!

 

When I showed this to Smokey, he began singing, Round, round, gitaround / I git around.

Sunday, silly -- and random -- Sunday.

I started this post several weeks ago. You get to read my Unconscious Mutterings (or not) as I catch up.

1. Language :: teacher.
2. Obvious :: -ly.
3. Skull :: -duggery.
4. Insidious :: sneaky.
5. Struggle:: class warfare.
6. Unspeakable :: mysteries.
7. Orchid :: fuschia.
8. Fish :: oil.
9. Annoyingly :: patronizing.
10. Payroll :: tax. The tax accountant scores!

1. Astrology :: utter crap.
2. Funeral :: black.
3. Candor :: refreshing.
4. Dynamic :: IP address.
5. Oh my god! :: O.M.F.G.
6. Cancer :: Aries.
7. Ross :: Perot.
8. Heroes :: TV.
9. Rachaell :: Friends.
10. Effortlessly :: aahhh!

1. Greatness :: Grand Canyon.
2. Struggling :: underway.
3. Noise :: white.
4. Doorway :: to happiness.
5. Soap :: in the eyes.
6. Cancer :: ewww.
7. Sipping :: coke.
8. Stacks :: computers.
9. Perfect :: cake.
10. Test :: run.

* * * * *

Things you might have overheard at our house recently:

Smokey, reading the answers to an online trivia quiz: The marine creature that has no bones is, yes, the shark, just as we said.

Kathy: Neither does ice cream!

Smokey: ...

 

Younger Son: Me and Daryl* are  gonna be going to Kuala Lumpur for two weeks!

Kathy and Smokey, who had just last evening had a discussion about whether the Petronus Towers in Kuala Lumpur were the tallest man-made structure(s) in the world: Will you be going into the Petronus Towers?

Younger Son: There is no such thing as the Patronus Towers. A Patronus is summoned by the, um,... patronus...

Kathy: ...spell?

Younger Son: Yes.

Younger Son, after hearing the backstory of the Petronus Towers reference: Okay, but the tallest man-made structure is still Mt. Everest.

* Daryl is his boss. And, yes, Younger Son DOES know proper grammar, he just doesn't bother to use it all the time. 

* * * * *

Elder Son had to get an actual mailbox at his house. There was a mail slot in the door and he hung a bag inside to catch the mail before Moose The Ginormous Dog could trample it, but he was getting SO MUCH MAIL FROM BIG PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES INVITING HIM TO FREE CONFERENCES IN TAHITI that it overflowed the bag.

And that is why my prescriptions today cost me $97.13.

* * * * *

It may be SuperBowl Sunday, but we may or may not watch. It's just a bunch of overpaid, over-ego-ed, over-steroided, wife- and child-abusers running around after a funny-shaped ball.

Not that I am stereotyping them, no.

* * * * *

I went into the Twin Cities on Friday and Saturday: got my eyes checked, ordered new glasses, had dinner with soxanne, knit with the Knit Night Orphans at Starbucks, stayed overnight, packed many boxes of stuff from our bedroom at the rental house, had Younger Son carry them to my car, and came home. Now that neither Smokey nor I work in Minneapolis any more, we will rent out the third bedroom in that house. By a stroke of luck, my friend Julie's son was looking for a place to live right when we decided to rent it. The bed and dresser and desk and bookshelf will have to stay there until spring, but we are busily emptying the rest of our stuff out of the room. 

ETA: Younger Son brought up another load of stuff on Saturday, including the LazyBoy rocker. He said that when he moved the chair he found a circ and a crochet hook under it. Funny there were no stitch markers; I seem to move through the world strewing them wherever I go.

On a slightly related note, did you know that a person can pay their rent via PayPal? Welcome to the future!

 

 

 

 

 

History!

photo credit: Troy B Thompson via photopin cc

I talked to a local judge last night at a meeting. She said she had performed the first same-sex marriage in our county that day. It was for two women who had been together roughly forever. Their two kids were at the ceremony. Judge said she had tears of joy running down her face during the entire ceremony. History was made yesterday in Polk County.

As much as I dislike our current governor, I have to give him credit for saying that Wisconsin will follow the law and not block same-sex marriage. And I will not mention that he may be saying that simply because the election is 24 days away and he is in a dead heat with his opponent and, clearly, public sentiment is on the side of allowing adults to marry whomever they chose. No, I will not say that.

Q: How long has it been since I did a post on Sunday Wenesday?

A: Roughly... forever. Yes, I wrote this on Sunday, but Typepad locked up and I walked away and didn't get back to it until Monday. When the knit links post went up. So you get this on Tuesday  Wednesday. Please hold your applause/tears/whatever.

* * * * *

1. Equality :: yes.
2. Strappy :: sandals.
3. Kitten :: YES!
4. Program :: library.
5. Inventory :: take.
6. Choice :: pro-
7. Scuba :: dive.
8. Purchase :: YARN!
9. Promotion :: advertising.
10. Organization :: lacking.

* * * * *

Today I must clear some of the debris from my desk. Also from the table by my chair. And my bedroom. Maybe start the laundry.

Life has been so frickin' busy the past few weeks that my mind is basically fried. Just trying to hang in there and not miss anything that I committed to -- library, farmers market, humane society, political (mostly political), not to mention family.

Retirement? Sheesh. I am over-committed and actually said NO to something last week. Yay for me.

* * * * *

And now, because what is a blog post without photos, a view of my revolving desktop wallpapers.

Sad, sad day.

Last night a friend/neighbor died unexpectedly from complications of a low blood sugar event -- she had type 1 diabetes, which I did not know -- and cardiac arrest. Marcia was a kind, gentle, good-hearted, generous person, and a big library supporter who worked tirelessly on the building campaign. She has done so much for our community. When Smokey was in the hospital last March she and her husband took care of our dogs. I fell apart when I read her husband's email today. I am still reeling. 

Sunday, Sunday!

1. Fish:: eyes.
2. Dreaming :: love.
3. Living :: dying.
4. Expectations :: unmet.
5. Mug :: china.
6. Jacket :: denim.
7. Bowl :: pipe.
8. Confession :: true.
9. Socks :: hand-knit. Duh.
10. Tank :: top.

* * * * *

Things are a-changin' in our living room. First there was the new TV.

Old.

New.

Yes, there is a lot of crappe in our living room. Smokey's knees are so bad he walks as little as possible, so all the paraphernalia required by whatever project he is working on are scattered around his chair. And the rest of the living room. Such is life.

Next, new (to us) chairs.

When I drove a carful of books and stuff to Sioux Falls to help Elder Son move, I stayed for a couple days. One thing we accomplished was to get him some furniture from the St Vincent de Paul thrift store. Said store is a block from his house and was having a 50% off sale on furniture. He was adamant that we needed to check it out. For $47 he became the proud owner of a couch (later exchanged for a smaller love seat because we couldn't get the couch through his 30" front door), a glider rocker and matching glider ottoman, and an end table. That glider rocker and ottoman were wonderfully comfortable, and it was I who insisted he buy them. 

When Smokey and I visited a couple weeks ago I spent almost every minute in that chair, rocking/gliding and knitting. On the way home I announced that I had liked it so much I was going to get one for myself. Being the wise husband he is, Smokey agreed that that was a fabulous idea.

We checked out some furniture stores and looked online, but didn't find anything properly comfortable. But yesterday while I was serving my turn at the Dems tent at the county fair, he searched Craigslist and found a pair of glider rockers with matching ottomans. Which are now nestling in the back of his Trooper (oh, yeah, he bought another car a couple weeks ago) waiting to be carried up to the living room.

His beat-up leather chair, purchased new in ::counts on fingers:: 1983 will be offered to each son and donated if neither wants it. My powered recliner will go to the basement family room for the next time one of us needs it. It was invaluable when my hip was bad and after his back surgery.

 
Old. Note the delightful cat-scratching-post nature of my recliner.
The other side of the leather chair looks the same way.

New(ish). X2.

If you need me any time in the next ten years, I will be gliding/rocking in the living room with my knitting and watching Netflix on the big screen. 

Randominity and navel-gazing.

I have noticed that any number of [non-fiction] books have a premise that would be perfect for a long article or a pamplet*, but which do not warrant an entire book. Not that that stops the pundits and analysts and socio-political commentators from writing them. In that vein, I present any number of my recent thoughts and occurrences that do not warrant an entire blog post but which are perfect for the blog equivalent of a not-book.

* * * * *

We have been taking care of Elder Son's new dog while he is at Bonnaroo. Said dog is bigger (105 pounds) than our own two dogs put together (45 pounds + 55 pounds). This means we are buying twice the amount of dog food and cleaning up twice the amount of poop. This dog's name is, most appropriately, Moose. In the photo at left, he is standing on the floor with his paws on my chair. Notice how I am eye to eye with his collar. When he wants to get on the bed, he doesn't need to jump -- he just walks onto it. Happily, he is a big softie who wants nothing more than a head rub and to be told he is a good doggie. And to be fed. 

He also drinks what seems to us to be an incredible amount of water. Smokey and I marvel at how frequently we find ourselves filling the water dish; Elder Son remarks, "Wow, I wonder what his medical term that was gobblety-gook to me rate is?"

Moose was a bed hog the first couple nights after Elder Son left. I would wake up at 3am and find him occupying the entire lower two-thirds of the bed. Then I would discover that moving a 105-pound inert mass of canine was not as easy as I might have hoped. But after rolling him out of his spot those two nights, he seemed to understand that his place was between Smokey and I, not in the place where I wanted my lower body to be.

* * * * *

On Father's Day I saw several gifs and posts about things people were taught by their fathers. My dad was a very shy and insecure man not much given to being a father, although he tried. What he taught me was never to walk on ice with my hands in my pockets. Not exactly a life-altering lesson, but not a bad one, either. It has saved my butt -- and wrists and probably hip -- any number of times. 

* * * * *

I was out running errands one sunny day last week and saw four convertibles with their tops down. The next day was stormy and Younger Son reported he saw four accidents on his way here from Minneapolis, one of said accidents requiring an ambulance. Coincidence or enemy action? Hard to say, really.

* * * * *

Haven't done the unconscious mutterings for a while. Time to re-start my tradition, albeit on a different day than before.

1. Today :: is Monday. I wrote this yesterday.
2. Lips :: that long to be kissed.
3. Seethe :: rage.
4. Desired :: under the elms.
5. Patrol :: plane. A P3, to be exact.
6. Nails :: long and red.
7. Pastry :: chef.
8. Jacket :: potatoes.
9. Button :: -hole. The Lion Brand blog just posted a little tutorial on making buttonholes. I need to get on that, stat.
10. Feel :: good.

* * * * *

I think I mentioned I have been binge-watching House for the past few weeks. His character seems to me to be a medical version of Sherlock Holmes, right down to his affinities for music and drugs. (I realize that this similarity  has probably been remarked upon years ago by TV reviewers, but I just noticed it. Never read any reviews of the show when it was new.) Imagine my delight when there was an exterior shot of his townhouse, showing its number: 221B. 

Smokey was watching it with me last night and pointed out that the House character also has a lot of similarities to the Doc Martin character in that PBS series. Both are arrogant and abrasive, but other characters put up with them because of their life-saving brilliance.

* * * * *

Smokey had an appointment last week with his ortho's physician assistant to get shots of rooster comb in his knees. This PA is the one who started and did much of the CPR that kept him alive when his heart stopped just before his knee surgery in March. He brought her a bouquet of flowers at this appointment. She was quite touched. I told him he should bring her flower at every appointment from now until the end of time. She is our hero.

 

* Does anyone besides the Jehovah's Witnesses write pamphlets any more? Save some trees! Bring back the pamphlet! I say.

Bouquet photo credit: anne arnould via photopin cc

Sunday random.

1. Voice :: activated.
2. Counter :: sales.
3. Marked :: man.
4. Loving :: cuddle.
5. Coat :: fur.
6. Pounce :: cat.
7. Dehydrate :: tomatoes.
8. Desire :: in the elms.
9. Concern :: related.
10. Broth :: chicken.

* * * * *

Now for the truly random...

• I cleaned up one of my email inboxes yesterday. It had over 600 messages; now it has 3. The rest all got filed appropriately or deleted. I feel very good about this.
• One of these days I need to do the same thing with my Gmail inbox, which has 341 messages. At least none of those are unread.
• It was 6 above on Friday. Today the snow was almost melting. I was too warm in my wool sweater.
• High on Wednesday is predicted to be several degrees below zero.
• On a somewhat related note, I am loving this winter. Lots of snow = a gorgeous sight, and ultra cold weather just means piling on the hand-knits. 
• I was discussing this winter with a colleague on a committee last week. We agreed that this is like winters used to be back in the Good Ol' Days.
• Yes, I occasionally find myself being one of those who refer to times past.
• But I still like a real winter. None of this wimpy stuff with not enough snow to keep the septic drain field from freezing, not enough cold weather to be able to wear wool.
• ...and it was uphill both ways.

* * * * *

From Neil Gaiman's blog:

My not being currently on Twitter meant that you did not have to endure any grumbles from me about Federal Express leaving packages at houses they were not addressed to, or, alternately, handing over packages to the US Mail service, who then stoutly maintain that the house I'm in does not actually exist and returned said packages to the sender.

I can sympathize. We ordered a new color laser printer/scanner/fax from Amazon on December 27. FedEx delivered it about January 2 or 3, but left the 70-pound box by the mailbox. Which is ~300 yards away from the house, up the hill and through the woods. I guess I can understand why the delivery person did not want to venture down our semi-plowed driveway, but anyway. Smokey found it a day or two later. This was all during one of our extended periods of below-zero weather. Guess what? The toner cartridges -- all four of them -- were damaged by the cold, so the printer prints really, really badly. 

I contacted Amazon and they will exchange it, but new ones are on back order, yada yada, so the whole process is going to drag on. I predict that at the end of that process, either 1, that item will no longer be avaiilable, or b, the price will have doubled to what it was from any other vendor on the planet.

The alternative is to keep the machine and order new toner cartridges. The three color ones are >$100 each, the black is merely $70. New toner cartridges would cost more the the entire machine.*

::grumble::

Speaking of FedEx, they also decided to leave another package from Amazon at the local post office, who said they sent me a notice -- which I never got.

::grumble x2::

* * * * *

Discussion of all the viewpoints is nice, but when an organization is supposed to stand for something, eventually we have to stop airing our individual viewpoints and decide where we take our stand.

And that is all I have to say about that.

* * * * *

Tomorrow I plan to blog about knitting. Remember knitting? It is a wonderful hobby that we all enjoy, and I have been doing a lot of it. Smallish projects, but still knitting and still enjoyable.

* * * * *

And now, because what good is a blog post without a photo, here is what I was doing at 6:30 tonight.

Percy's and my handknit sweaters were getting acquainted.

 

 

* Writing this made me realize I should recontact Amazon and see if I can get replacement toner cartridges instead of trying to exchange the entire thing. It also made me realize that if I had bought the machine locally (not even possible, and even if it were I would have paid ~4X what I did), I would be dealing with someone I know instead of someone in Cambodia or the Maldives or Tierra del Fuego or wherever Amazon's customer service center is located. Oh, well, first world problem, right?

Stuff.

The shirt Elder Son was wearing when he left.

Slayer is one of his favorite groups. He said the name was an acronym, standing for Some Lads Always Yearn to Experience... [Younger Son jumped in to help] ... Ravelry.

* * * * *

As I have mentioned, Younger Son has been working for us on the weekends. This weekend he finished straightening the attached garage.

 
Use your imagination to put these two photos together.

Previously, I was taking my life in my hands to attempt to walk through here. Now there  is a clear path, plus they moved that car* on jackstands about a foot and a half to the right -- not only can I put my car in the garage this winter, I can open the door to get out of it. This is the first time I have been able to put my car in the garage in at least ten years. Baby steps...

Other highlights:

Part of cleaning always involves throwing out crappe.

 

Misha and Percy always get along better outside. This was the best photo I could get
of the two of them... running at top speed.

 

YS admires the shelves he filled.

 

Heavy stuff is heavy because batteries.

 

Remember Picasso's Blue Period? This chair is from YS's Stenciling Period.
"Put your butt on Dubya."

* The car is a 1990-something Subaru SVX that Smokey bought about ten years ago to be my winter car. It has 4WD :-) plus it is zippy and sporty and fun. But it needed some work done to the rear end (I think, can't remember) and has been up on jack stands nearly its entire life with us because the repair coincided with the time when Smokey's back and RA began to get really painful. Now that I have the AWD Volvo I have little interest in the SVX. 

 

Sorry, cannot blog.

I am going out soliciting today. 

For donations to the local humane society's fundraiser! Get your mind out of the gutter.

Finished a pair of socks yesterday, started a new long-term project. 

More later/tomorrow/someday...

No links today -- HB2ME!

photo credit: Ѕolo via photopin cc

Today is...my birthday! I am so many years old that I cannot count that high. Yo tiene mas años que tu. 

Notable events from the year I was born:

• January 11 -- Los Angeles received its first record snowfall.
• February 22 -- Grady. a 1,200-pound cow, gets stuck inside a silo on a farm in Yukon, Oklahoma and garners national media attention in the United States.
• March 28 -- English astronomer Fred Hoyle coins the term Big Bang during a BBC radio broadcast.
• April 4 -- The North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington, DC, creating NATO.
• May 1 -- Nereid, a moon of Neptune, is discovered by Gerald P. Kuiper. (The Kuiper Belt is named after him.)
• June 24 -- Smokey -- aka Dick back then -- celebrates his first birthday.
• July 1 -- The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is established.
• August 10 -- The Kat™ is born.
• September 10 -- Bill O'Reilly is born. 
• October -- nothing happens. Oh, wait. Chairman Mao declares the People's Republic of China.
• November 28 -- Winston Churchill makes a landmark speech in support of the idea of a European Union.
• December 1 -- Pablo Escobar, drug lord, is born.

 

Cleanliness is next to something or other, I forget what.

Younger Son and Teenage Helper were both here yesterday. Whilst I slept until 11, Smokey set them to work to remove old washer and dryer and install new ones.

We inherited the old washer and dryer from Smokey's mom. They were first generation Maytag frontloaders, a generation of washers known to be crap. In my experience I found that they got things clean but did little to remove pet hair from the laundry; rather, they would roll it into many little balls stuck to the fabric. Easier for me to remove that way, I guess.

We bought the new ones -- Samsungs, selected after consulting Consumer Reports -- at a Twin Cities appliance dealer big, big annual sale* last November, but they have been living in the back of the van ever since. Getting them out of the van and up a flight of stairs, plus taking the old ones down the stairs and loading them into the van for donation at the local ReStore, was a larger task than Smokey and I could tackle alone; it required much more/younger muscle.

Ser Percival The Energetic was banished to the little deck outside the laundry room during the transfers. He was not pleased, especially because he could see our dogs running free outside.

Later, YS and I started the first load of wash.

I'm glad he was right beside me. There were still a few tweaks to be done -- tightening connections, moving the washer a few inches, figuring out why there was no water entering the tub.

Yay!

* I have since noticed that they seem to have similar sales every couple months. Oh, well.

Sunday stuff.

1. Arrow :: shirts.
2. Hum :: ho.
3. Cornerstone :: of democracy.
4. Flight :: of the bumblebee.
5. Music :: box.
6. Determine :: -ist.
7. Analysis :: financial
8. Better day :: tomorrow.
9. Audio :: video.
10. Meditation :: sleep.

* * * * *

I am nearly done with my bulletproof socks. They were not as much fun to knit as I expected. Worsted weight yarn on US#2 needles = hard work. The socks will last forever but I'm not sure they are worth the effort. I think the second pair will be knit on US#4s.

* * * * *

We think winter may be over. It hasn't snowed for over two weeks. (Hope I didn't jinx us with that statement.) Ice went out of the lake two weeks ago. We haven't had the heat on since Tuesday or Wednesday. Temp has been well over 70˚ for several days. I have opted for capris instead of long jeans. Our winter down comforters are just too warm for comfortable sleeping.

Let the summer begin!

* * * * *

I ran out of coffee a couple days ago. Oh, the horror!

Happily, I had put in an order for my favorite -- a 3-pound bag of Alakef French Roast -- at the coffee kiosk in my tiny town. Younger Son picked it up for me on his way here today so I am currently enjoying a perfectly marvelous homemade quad latte.

::sigh:: Life is perfect again...

* * * * *

Cleaning out my blog folder.

 

Muttering through Mother's Day.

1. 537 :: is more than 400
2. Horizon :: line.
3. Episode :: seizure.
4. Character :: -driven.
5. Crossed :: town bus.
6. Shipping :: charges.
7. Jump :: Whoopee Goldberg.
8. Bowling :: Lebowski.
9. Grumpy :: Old Men.
10. Them :: Us.

 

I celebrated my own Mother's Day yesterday -- spent pretty much the entire day in my recliner reading, watching Netflix, drinking coffee/soda/wine (as the day progressed), and knitting. This is Smokey's weekend to work (always with the night shifts) so when he is home he is tucked up in his bed with two dogs and a cat and a box fan for white noise. Today I might be productive. Hard to say, really. 

 

Reading: 
A few weeks ago I read a piece in The Nation by Deborah Kopaken Kagan about her experiences as a woman author and how she was demeaned by the publishing industry. I was so inspired/enraged by her experience I clicked over to bn.com and bought all four of her books to read on my iPad. (I also clicked over to her website and sent her an email telling her what I did; she emailed back that it made her cry.) Anyhow, I want to recommend her books. She came from an ordinary middle-class background, graduated from Harvard, moved to Paris, worked as a photojournalist covering a lot of gritty stuff (ex., she went into Afghanistan alone during the Soviet-Afghan war), eventually married, had three kids, started to write. The woman has lived more in her 40-odd years than a dozen other other people put together. I highly recommend her books, especially Shutterbabe (memoir) and The Red Book (fiction). Her collection of essays, Hell Is Other Parents, is pretty damned good, too.

Yesterday's book was Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich. I had read the first 60+ pages in fits and starts and was not particularly engaged by it, but yesterday I decided to give it a chance to pull me in. Which it did, in spades. Protagonist is a quant who specializes in the odds of disasters; the 3-person consulting firm he works for makes him rich. Then a real mega-disaster hits New York City -- essentially Hurricane Sandy plus Katrina -- and his life changes. Some of the scenes were lifted straight out of the news stories of Katrina. Good book, four out of five stars.

Last night I startd NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Creepy as hell, that one. I follow the author on Twitter. He is currently on tour for the book and every day posts photos of readers attempting to kill him in various ways.

 

Knitting:
I am enjoying having several projects to hand at all times. A hat, a pair of socks, the top-down set-in sleeve sweater, a scarf of the same yarn as the hat. They are strewn about my chair in various stages of doneness. When I sit down there is the delicious feeling of What shall I pick up this time? Project monogamy, begone!

Stuff:
Remember the humungous external hard drive? I have moved most of my data files over to it and gone into my most-often used programs to direct them to that drive for files. Two programs have me stumped, though: Excel and iPhoto. I can deal with the former, but iPhoto is being a bugger. I have searched through all its menus and preferences and cannot find a place to tell it where to store its files. My internal 160GB hard drive has 76GB of photos. It would be nice to get them all moved and backed up. All suggestions welcome. (I started to email Younger Son yesterday to ask him but got distracted, had to reboot, lost the email, yada yada. So I'm asking y'all.) 

No photos popped into my head to illustrate today's post. Here, in honor of Mother's Day, is a gratuitous one from 1984 of me being a mom to Elder Son.

42. It's another name for random.

Look at this message I found in my Ravelry inbox yesterday morning:

Is that awesome or is that awesome! I immediately sent her a reply that blathered on about how much I like that book.

* * * * *

Took the Jeopardy qualifying online test last night. 42 was not the answer.

* * * * *

I just looked out the window and DA YEEP IS WORKING! Smokey is currently plowing the driveway, which had not been plowed* since before Thanksgiving. Every time he went out to attempt to plow there was something else wrong with Da Yeep. (This is what happens when a 20-yo vehicle sits for six months. He was never able to get it really ready for winter because of his back surgery/recovery and all the other tasks that got postponed because of it.) But now the battery and the electrical cables and the accelerator cable and who remembers what else are apparently all functional.

As much as I love where I live, I (and we) curse certain parts of it every winter, mainly the hill that is the driveway.

* * * * *

Hip surgery has officially been postponed and is tentatively scheduled for Monday, April 22. Thanks for all your good wishes and kind thoughts and thoughtful opinions. The majority seemed to favor waiting until all the snow and ice are gone, which will make recovery and the required rehab exercise easier. (A good friend likened the surgery to having a baby. She said, "I had one baby in January and one in May, and the May one was waaayyy easier because we could get outside." Having had a December and a May baby myself, I found that thought to be absolutely true.) Those who are even slightly familiar with taxes also thought that skipping a tax season was not the best option.

If I could do whatever I wanted with no thought to consequences, I'd have the surgery ASAP. But I am being an adult about this. 

In the meantime, my PA put in an order for two cortisone injections to keep me relatively pain-free and mobile for the next three months. First one is next Tuesday.

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Have I bored you yet? I am always a little surprised when bloggers talk about the details of their life being boring. I find such minutiae of others to be a way of connecting with their lives. We all experience some of the same things, but some stuff is unique to each of us. 

But if minutiae bores you, you probably stopped reading this blog a long time ago.

 

* The ever-helpful folks at Typepad suggest other Typepad blog posts that may be related to what one types in their post. Apparently my reference to plowing caught their attention. This is what they thought you might find interesting:

Related articles

The Art of Plowing

Crud and those who have it much worse and some other stuff.

Smokey backed my car into a hole next to the driveway a couple days ago (coulda happened to anyone). We spent a bit of time this afternoon getting it out. Da Yeep is broken, his 4WD Subaru tried but couldn't do it. A neighbor with a 4WD pickup happened by (what a delightful coincidence!) and pulled it out. As I was watching them I wished I had a camera -- blog fodder! Then I remembered I had my iPod in my pocket.

Here is what I tweeted.

It took a number of tries and an additional, longer tow rope to allow the pickup to be farther up the driverway on the flat part instead of on the hill. But my car is now free.

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I have a cold. Later I will call the hospital and try to find out if this URI crud so bad that they will have to postpone the surgery. I do not have much hope that I will be able to get a definitive answer on a Sunday. So we will have to get up @ 4:30 am on Monday to get to the hospital by 6 am, the time I was told to be there. And perhaps end up driving back home.

Crap.

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Read this blog post and the comments.

It is hard for me to believe there is so much hatred in the world, in this country, in high schools, on the internet, everywhere. My life is filled with love and it seems that the blogs I read reflect a similar condition in others' lives. How terrible not to have that love, only hatred.

Pondering.

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Seen on Twitter (wait for it).  

Ramblings.

My hip replacement surgery is scheduled for Monday, January 7. There may be a slight tremor in The Force that day, but fear not, my friends. Tis only the mightiness of my new hip.

I may have neglected to mention that this was on the horizon. Back in May when I saw the ortho PA and she recommended, among other things, going gluten-free, the x-ray showed my hip was bone on bone. No wonder it hurt. My surgery had to wait until Smokey was recovered from his back surgery, then until after the October 15 tax season, then for a new x-ray and a CAT scan, then for surgeon to get it scheduled.

I am looking forward to this big-time. Surgery does not scare me at all, even though it probably should; this will be my ninth (2 C-sections, 2 polinidal cysts, twice for the broken ankle, a few other things) so I know much of what to expect. The aftermath may be painful but the eventual ability to walk easily should be worth it.

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That massive blizzard that hit the Midwest yesterday mostly missed us. We got less than 1/4" of snow but lots of wind and cold. Temp this morning was 6˚F; 18˚ now.

We are not plowed out yet from the last snow dump that occurred almost two weeks ago. Smokey managed to make one plowing pass from the house to the road before Da Yeep broke. And broke again. And possibly again. We can drive from the road to the garage and pole barn that are 75 feet uphill from the house but must walk the rest of the way. Yep, these northern winters do make one hardy. 

Elder Son is supposed to be driving home from Ann Arbor yesterday and today. We have not heard anything from him. I hope he checked the weather before he left and waited a day. (He may be brillliant, but sometimes his common sense falters. Also, his phone appears to be off.) When he does get here I hope he does not attempt to drive down to the house. The two cars blocking the driveway may be enough of a hint.

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I was reading blogs in my Google Reader this morning and saw this over at sneezingcow.com, Michael Perry's website:

Al is married to my good friend Colleen. That quote sounds just like him. Al, a retired English teacher, is also notable for having taught Neil Gaiman's son, Mike, at Menominie HS.

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Our geothermal heat system has been giving us fits for several years. The major problem was that the installer's crew(s) knew not what they were doing back in the early aughts, not to mention that the unit we got seems to have been a lemon. After spending thousands (and thou$and$) of dollars having it fixed and replaced and fixed and fixed yet again, we hired a different contractor to replace it. He seems to have somehow missed that fact during the preliminary talks and bid that, while his unit needs 14 gallons/minute to work most efficiently and effectively, our well only produces 6 gallons/minute. So we will perhaps be relying on (expensive!) electric heat to supplement the geothermal. Rats.

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On the (very slightly) bright side, the Christmas mittens for our teenage helper are turning out quite nicely. So nicely, in fact, that I am tempted to make a pair for myself in different colors. 

I'd really like to to show how they look, but a few days ago my computer/iPhoto announced that it could not find my iPhoto library of several thousand photographs. I have searched the hard drive myself to no avail. My Mac Mini had been acting unreliably this fall, so about six weeks ago I hooked up a backup drive and turned on Time Machine to back up my hard drive. Great, I thought, I'll just do a restore. So far repeated Restores have not helped, nor have they actually restored anything. Neither the Apple site nor Google have been particularly helpful so far, either; their tips on fixing iPhoto don't work for my problem.

So you won't be seeing any photos here for awhile...

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Have I bummed you out sufficiently with all my (admittedly minor) complaints? Good, my work here is done.

Two-fer Tuesday.

Coupla things.

As horrible and devastating as SuperSandy was/is, it is good to remember how much worse it could have been.

• No major buildings collapsed. Nurses had to carry sick babies down nine flights of stairs while pumping air into their tiny lungs, but the building -- and 99.999% of the others -- stayed up. Thank you, building codes and inspectors.
   
• The majority of people heeded the days of warnings and stocked up or evaculated as they were instructed. Thank you, television and radio and internet and organized government, also thank you, common sense.  (A certain NJ mayor is excluded from this thanks.)
   
• Millions of people are without power, but millions more are not. Thank you, ConEd and other utilites for shutting down pre-emptively and for building some redundency into your systems.
  
  
• Those in harm's way were being rescued, even at the height of the storm, by dedicated police and firefighters and EMTs and other emergency personnel. Thank you, all you heroes. And thank you to those folks 150 years ago who decided that such services were needed and organized and funded them. 

Think of it: a 100-year storm hits the most densely populated area of the country, affecting 50 million people, and the death toll is (as of an hour ago) under 50. That is kind of miraculous right there.

And now, some humor found at blackbird's blog. She lives somewhere near NYC, close enough that she commutes to Manhattan by train every day.

 

 

One more thing. Did anyone else see this photo of the sandbags in from of Goldman Sachs Wall Street headquarters and think, Huh, they are protecting their building with bags of money.

Kat links.

A little challenge inspiration for you quilters.

Here is what has been making news in Wisconsin for the past year or so: frac sand mining. When thinking about the road wear, keep this in mind: one mile of road = ~$1 million dollars to replace.

Just in time for September: school bus demolition derby.

How much of a sriracha addict are you? Younger Son got an 84%, Elder got a 90%. I took the quiz imagining I was some combination of them and got a 90%. Had I taken it as myself I would have been somewhere south of 0%.

Make your own chalkboard paint. The advantages: it is (probably) cheaper, and you can make it whatever color you want.

And now for something completely different: how to photograph a former* Mob boss.

Found on Chris's Tumbr: war on religion? No.

 

* "Former"? How does one become a "former" Mob boss? I thought it was a lifetime position.