femblog

House Cleaning

I am taking a quilting master class this week with Ruth B McDowell and don't have a lot of time to blog.  So I'm falling back on house cleaning my photo archives today.

First up, a photo of my son at his school concert last month.  He insisted on going shopping and getting a shirt and tie.  It even comes with a matching pocket handkerchief!  I didn't grow up with brothers and am always a little surprised and tickled by boys vanity.

   

Then we have my daughter's art show.  I wish I could show you the progression of her work and how much she is developing as an artist.  This is about as good as I ever got, even with a couple years of art school.  And she's only in seventh grade.  Keep your eye out for her in the future.

   

In the "Stupid Signs I've Seen" category we have this:

I don't know about you, but I don't think spending $29.99 on something qualifies it as free.  I think it is just a grammar problem, but still.  I think it's a silly ad.

I'll leave you with this nice picture of my local library, surrounded by ornamental cherry trees in bloom.

Have a nice week!

NH Wool and Sheep Festival

On Sunday I went to a wool festival.  A friend of mine calls it the "Sheep to Shawl" festival after the contest by the same name.

I tried to explain this contest to my husband, "Okay, so there's a sheep.  And then the people have to shear it, card it, spin it, and weave it into something in a certain amount of time."

My husband looks at me blankly and then says, "And then what."

Me: That's all

Him: So ... you just sit around and watch someone ... knit?

Me: Well, weave, but yes.

Him: Do you get to interfere with the other team?  Steal their sheep or something so they can't finish?

Me: No

Him: What's the commentary on that like? "Team A has pulled ahead by one inch! But wait, Team B has a secret stash kept in reserve!  I think their going to make their move...yes...yes...Amaazing! Did you see that weaving!"

Me: You can stay home.

I thought it was a fun little fair.  Some requisite animals:

   

This is Alpacas, Sheep, and Goats.  Couldn't get a good picture of the bunnies.

There was sheep shearing, amusing to everyone but the sheep:

I didn't get to see the Alpacas being sheared, but they sure looked funny after:

There was also a woman winding silk off of the cocoons - very cool!  I had never seen that before:

    

Can you see how it comes off the cocoons (they're in the simmering water) and up through that little metal holder and onto the winder (a swift?).  Then you turn the handle and it just unravels. Its like magic!

I ran into Sarah, Haptotrope on Ravelry. She's the one who organized the fabulous Boston Knitters yarn swap at the Somerville library. I saw her latter with quite a haul of roving, so I can guess what she's doing this week!

I was very restrained, and only bought two skeins of yarn!  One is a present, so no pictures.  This is undyed Alpaca (with a little nylon) sock yarn:

  Very soft.

And I finished my stripy socks!  Despite mean, bus-stop guy not letting me sit down.

 

I know many people like their self-stripping socks to match up perfectly (Yarn Harlot is always trying to do this) but I actually like the non-matching, matching-ness of self-stripping socks.  They clearly go together, but are not identical.  They are on their way to their new home.

I hope you all had a nice weekend!

Through the Looking Glass

It all started innocently enough.  There was an email at work, asking if anyone would like to participate in the Boston Adult Literacy Fund annual fund raiser.  A spelling bee.

And I thought, in what was clearly a moment of insanity, "sure, why not, could be fun."

Each company was to put together a team of up to four people.  I immediately got cold feet when I found out that all the other members of my team had actually been in spelling bees before and a couple of them had dashed dreams of spelling bee greatness after having come in second in tenth grade (or some such thing).  I mean, I actually can't spell very well.  Certainly not without writing it down to see if it 'looks right.'

But I persevere.  Then yesterday I get a call from the woman giving me a ride, informing me that the bee starts an hour and a half earlier than I thought.  Did I mention that I have four kids?  Changing plans on a dime is not exactly easy.  My amazing Oldest child completely rose to the occasion.  I met the kids at school and she took them home on the city bus.  And then made dinner, as it turned out that my husband had a meeting that I had forgotten about in my panic and so he wasn't home (whoops!)

But there's more.  On the ride to the bee, I was informed that it was a $500 a head fund raising dinner and that Tom and Ray Magliozzi, your know, from Car Talk? Which I love. Yeah, they were hosting the event.

I walk in and promptly freak out.

There were grownups there!  You know, grownups who don't wear jeans everyday.  And if they do, they are not covered with little finger prints where their kids have wiped their hands on them (and, lets be honest, probably a few adult prints as well).  They have not "thickened" from having four kids.  They are wearing nylons without runs and haven't forgotten to put on their lipstick.

I go hide in the hall and call my friend and leave an hysterical message on her answering machine and manage to slop half a glass on wine onto my "good" pants.

Deep breaths.

I go, sit down with what's left of my wine and try to look like I belong.  Then Tom and Ray stand up and I have another surprise.

Okay, from left to right, that is Ray then Tom (looking nothing like I imagined, but still cool to be in the same room with them) and that tall man?  That is a man I've known my whole life.  He is an old family friend whom I have lost touch with in recent years.  His wife babysat me as a child and was a second mother to me (I remember using those exact words to her in fact)!  I was so surprised and happy to see him, although I had to wait through the whole bee to talk to him because he was the moderator (he was in charge of the letter 'J' for the Webster's Dictionary once for, like, ten years).

And really, it was fun.  We spelled as a team and were able to write our ideas and confer with each other before we spelled aloud.  A couple women from work (and their husbands) came to cheer us on.  We were eliminated after about five rounds (on the word Kiaugh, which I no longer remember how to pronounce, let alone define) but since my goal was to not go out on the very first word, I was pretty happy.  We weren't even the first team to be eliminated.

All in all, not bad.

I might even go again next year.

If I can find some clean jeans.

Pet Peeve

It was my husband's day to have the car yesterday, so I took the bus to work.  The bus stop on the way home has a seat for two and then an open space so if someone in a wheelchair is waiting for the bus, they can stay dry too. So I walked up to the bus stop to wait for my bus home and I saw this:

This guy is sitting as close to the middle of the seats as he can, almost leaning over the arm rest/divider thingy.  But the part that really made me feel he was hogging all the space was that he was smoking and blowing his smoke over towards the other seat. 

This kind of thing gets my goat.  Did I mention I have a "thing" about personal space?  Who wants to sit next to some creepy guy, blowing smoke in your face, with clear control issues? 

I walk up, iced coffee in hand, large bag over shoulder.  He glances up at me, than away. Clearly I am not his problem.   Aaarrrrgggg!  I am tired!  I just want to sit down with my knitting (really cute, self-stripping socks) and wait for the bus!  Not try to balance my iced coffee in my bag while standing and knitting anyway.  Which is what I did.

On the other hand, I met two lovely ladies on the bus who were fascinating by my knitting and we had a nice chat.

But tomorrow, I get the car!

100 Things About Me

It's my 100th post!  I'm not sure whether that feels long or short.   Anyway, I figured I do the "100 Things About Me" meme. These aren't really in any particular order.

1. I am short - only 5' 0"

2. I have four kids.

3. I am 38 (but only for another week)

4. I have a love/hate relationship with my minivan (I love that it holds everything including the kitchen sink but I hate that it's a minivan)

5. I own a cat (orange).

6. I live in my hometown (born here, raised here, raising my kids here)

7. I married my high school sweetheart.

8. I went to five colleges before I finally graduated.

9. I graduated Magna Cum Laude.

10. I have Meniere's Disease.

11. I also have Andometriosis. (and I'm not really sure which sucks more)

12. I like dogs but I am not a "dog person".  I'm glad I don't own one.

13. I like reptiles a lot and have always though it would be cool to have an iguana.

14. I like to wear black, mostly because it is just way too much effort to coordinate my clothes.

15. I live in a city.

16. I rent my apartment (but dream of homeownership).

17. I love chickens and hope to own a few one day (even if I'm still in the city).

18. I wear men's cologne (currently Aqua di Gio, by Armani).

19. I love books and reading.

20. I am in school to get my library degree.

21. It will be my second Master's degree.

22. I wish I knew how to belly-dance.

23. I think all problems can be solved by reading a book.

24. I hate getting wet (I mean, I have to push myself to shower a lot of the time because it involves water) although I like to swim.

25. I am fairly reserved but I push myself.

26. I don't care about dirty dishes in the sink.

27. I like to be organized (although it's often too much effort to be that way).

28.I have a "thing" about personal space - it's mine, please get out of it, thank you.  That goes for my things too.

29. I like living somewhere where the seasons are like in a children's book: colorful leaves in the fall, snow in winter, bulbs and flowering trees in the spring, long evenings in the park in the summer.

30. I have only broken one bone in my body in my life - my head when I was four.

31. As I get older, I have become a total sap and almost always cry at the movies (well, not stuff like National Treasure - you know what I mean).

32.  I am moody. Quite.

33. I like to make things (that's why I like quilting and cooking and knitting)

34. I think relatives are people related to you by blood, not acquired (so yes, if my sister got divorced, I would not consider her ex-husband a relative).

35. I am not a saver. This has never been a problem so far (I've never said, oh darn I wish I hadn't thrown that thing away).

36. I like watching TV alot.  Movies are good too.

37. Some favorite movies: Life Is A House, Independence Day, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, The Fifth Element, Gentlemen Prefer Blonds.

38. I have never liked soda (although this didn't become a good thing until I was an adult.  I was basically a freak as a kid).

39. I'm nosy. Quite.

40. I don't like lying but I'm good at it.

41. I don't like peppers of any kind but I'm working on it.

42.  My favorite flavor is vanilla (well, maybe custard).

43. I cook well from a recipe but badly without one.

44. I can get very paranoid.

45. I like to eat organic, close to the land, local, whatever you call it.

46. I grind my teeth.

47. I have wide feet (it can be hard to buy shoes).

48. I am an "early bird"

49. I am grumpy in the mornings (bad combo that - getting up early and grumpy).

50.I have to get 8 -9 hours of sleep a night.  I don't understand people who say they don't need sleep.

51. I don't like chocolate that much (its okay, but I hardly ever really want it).

52. My first cat's name was Sam (named by my sister); My cat now is named Sam (named by my daughter).

53. I hate doing laundry and refuse to do more than cram everything in the washer at the same time and wash it in cold water. And I dry everything on high heat.  This horrifies many of my friends.

54. I'm big on semantics. Many fights with my husband are over the meaning of words.  This has come back to bite me in the ass with my kids, "Mommy, you didn't say 'this', you said 'a' and it's not the same".

55. I own a pair of Ugg slippers that I love.

56. I can read and walk at the same time.

57. By the time I was in high school, I had 12 fillings.

58. I've already had two root canals.

59. I can be a little ritualistic about things. Like, you must never turn on the lights by the kids room after they are in bed or they will wake up. 

60. I hate my knees.

61. I hate my stomach more.

62. I love Starbucks Carmel Macciados but I hate Starbucks the corporation.

63. My husband and I moved nine time in the first six years we lived together.

64. I played the violin as a kid.

65. I went to a prep school for high school (but on scholarship).

66. I am abrupt.

67. I tend to take the easy way out.

68. I avoid confrontation.

69. I was a summer intern for Congressman Joseph Kennedy (when he was a congressman, obviously).

70. Despite seven years of Spanish classes, I can't speak Spanish.

71. I have a good memory for dates but not for names.

72. One of the best years of my life was when I was 13.

73. 20 was a good year too.

74. I am allergic to dust mites.

75. I get claustrophobic in crowds (all those heads towering above me).

76. I am a horrible clothes shopper.  I am why stores stay in business. I would rather pay full price to shorten the shopping experience.

77. I love giving gifts.

78. I have fewer clothes and shoes than anyone I know, including my husband.

79. I suffer from motion sickness (like, I can't go on swings. I can't even rock in rocking chairs).

80. I have a good sense of direction.

81. I am the opposite of a perfectionist - finished is good enough, it doesn't have to be finished well.

82. I like learning new things but then I'm over them.

83. I would like to visit Spain, Australia and Hawaii before I die.

84. Music is not that important to me.  It's wallpaper in my life, not the main event.

85. I have a (boring) tattoo.  But I did have to go out of state to get it because tattoo parlors were illegal in my state at the time.

86. I am not religious.

87. I like baking but not exercising ( and I look like it).

88. My soccer team won our division championship when I was in eighth grade.

89. My son goes to the same grade school that I went to.

90. I hate gum (I hate to chew it, I hate looking at or listening to others chew it, I hate finding it stuck under tables or stepping on it, I just hate it).

91. I love climbing things.

92 I love being up really early in the morning when no one else is around.

93. I love to sing.

94. I wish I sang better.

95. I wish my grandmothers had been in my life longer.

96. I have to sleep on my stomach.

97. My childhood career goal was to be a Physiologist (no boring, plain ol' doctor ambitions for me).

98. I can't whistle.

99. I am still in touch with a friend from preschool - we've known each other 36 years.

100. I am something of a rule breaker (what do you mean I can't walk across the grass?).

THE END! That was hard!

Somewhere Off The Coast Of Maine

I spent the weekend helping my friend move.  She has moved here:

To a cute, little house with a big yard (and blue stairs):

My kids were very helpful:

           

There were a couple snags.  Like, the landlord forgot to fill the oil tank.  But, there is a fireplace!

Actually, the kids turned off all the lights, so it looked more like this:

In the morning ('cause we stayed over) the kids all curled up on the couch with the dog:

Very cozy!

I was feeling very happy for my friend (and I still am) but I suddenly realized that I can't just pop over and see what the place looks like with boxes unpacked and furniture arranged without a drive and a ferry ride. Oh.

Well, I guess I know what I'm doing with my free time.

Wish her well, blogland!  I know I do. 

Same Old, Same Old

Scene: This Morning

Characters: Me, my daughter

Me: Five minute warning! [I do this every morning.  This means, five minutes until we have to leave to catch the school bus.]

Daughter: Okay! What!? Five minutes?!  I have to find my dress!

Me: What dress?

D: My party dress!  For the tea party! [I did actually know about this tea party - its the culmination of manners lessons that the kids have been having at school]

Me: Well, I don't see it.  Wear a different dress. [Aren't I fabulously sympathetic?]

D: No! That's my prettiest dress!

Now we have an enormous, fast search of the dresser, floor, clean laundry [no, its not put away], even the hampers - nothing.

Me: We have to go NOW!

D: [still searching] But my dress!

Me: In the future, if you want to wear something special you should lay it out ahead of time and not wait blahblahblah [even I am not listening to myself.  Why do we even bother? I'm pretty much guaranteeing that she will never plan ahead ever in her life just to spite me]

Me: LETS GO!

Finally, she gets dressed in the most sad combination of clothes - I wish I'd taken a picture.  Imagine a brown and rust stripped polo-collared dress with a blue flowered skirt over it with red ankle socks.

I told her she looked great and we made the bus, but boy, I hate mornings like this.

Even if it really is just the same old, same old stuff.

Typewritter

We picked this up at a yard sale last week.  It doesn't really work, but its fun to play with!

2:42 Meme

I found a Meme over at Magpie Musing who got it from Isis who got it from ... you get the idea.

The idea is that the perfect song is 2:42 long.  Make a play list.

Hmmm.  Well, I checked my itunes and I have exactly NO songs that are 2:42 long.

That Time by Regina Spector is 2:39

Yellow Submarine by The Beattles is 2:40

Tainted Love by Sof Cell is 2:41

I Walk The LIne by Johnny Cash and Waterloo by ABBA are both 2:43

Its So Hard To Say Goodby To Yesterday by Boys2Men is 2:45

What does this say about my taste in songs?  They are all imperfect.

Except that I notice that I have some repeats in my playlist, and the songs are different lengths. Maybe only off by a couple seconds, but still.

Maybe the original premise is flawed and not my music.

Yeah, you just keep thinking that.

Alarm Clock

"AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"

My eyes fly open.  What time is it?  6:27?  Oh, well no need to worry then.  That's just my alarm clock.

I have a great alarm clock.  Unfortunately, it doesn't turn off.  You can get one too, if you want.

Just get pregnant.  Preferably with twins.

Then you too can wake up every morning to the dulcet sounds of "Stoooooooooop!", and, "Aaaaahhhhh!", and, "She hiiiiiiiiiiiit meeeeeeee!".   

You see, if you don't vary the sound then your mind adjusts to it and you don't hear it any more. By varying the noise, my alarm clock guarantees that I will get up every morning, bright and early.

Aren't I lucky?