Eleanor bit the dust

This is me frogging 11 skeins of Noro Silk Garden from Lady Eleanor. It took me all day. All Day. I just sat and frogged and it was not an easy frogging because the wonderful fibers of this yarn had done their job: entwining themselves amongst the other fibers nearby. I was not pleased with them this time. Can you see the tears coursing down my cheeks?


Yes, it was a long day:

Can you see my #2 as she cringes beside me? All day the kids berated me for undoing the work of many months. But I HAD TO DO IT! It was too wide, and with 11 skeins of yarn, it still wasn't long enough AT ALL. So, I started over.


I gotta forget that debacle, so I'll show you these: my new favorite shoes. I can wear them with extra long jeans and they look great. They are also very comfortable, which is a big plus. With these shoes, I've entered the new era of style, but I am sure the era has already passed and a few more have come and gone. But really, is a 40 yr old supposed to keep up? Not me! I am happy with these shoes, and I FEEL in style. So there! Now what do you think of #4's new shoes. Lovely, huh?! She can't keep 'em nice for even a day or two. We won't even speak of #3 (the son).

We went to Disneyland and California Adventure (thanks to their Wildfire deal) and see...we had fun!!!!!!!!!!

And tell me, have you ever seen the original "The Absent-Minded Professor"? It's is so funny, my kids all laugh out loud. Rent it! And do you like these silly tests? I do. How creative are you?

ou Are 53% Creative

You are a quite creative person. You're always involved in at least on interesting project. Keep it up and keep learning. Your creativity may bring you great things someday.

How Creative Are You?

Kid love (and frogging):

Moby Dick Almost Killed me

(I can't believe I never finished this post!!!! I just found it in my drafts folder from 11/15/07 - oops)

Yes, Moby Dick did almost kill me. It was NOT a joyous addition to my literary education. It was a knock-down drag-out war just to finish the weighty tome. Really. I would fight with myself just to convince myself to get through every page.

WHY?????? Why would I do this to myself? Well, it didn't start out that way. I picked it up with the thought of investing a little in the beginning, you know - pushing into the beginning a bit until the story really got going. So I pushed a little. It was fun at first, with plot furthering itself fairly quickly. Then it got bad; stupid. So I pushed some more. It was ponderous, with many long, hulking discussions of whales in general and whaling in general and many inane ideas and descriptions. So why didn't I stop????? WHY??? Silly me, I thought I had invested so much by then (half-way through!) that I couldn't stop. I started skimming the longest descriptive portions. Sue me. But I persevered. I did finish it. I emerged out of the watery depths with the famous whale and rejoiced in the killing of Ahab. At least his death meant the book was over. Thankfully.

Oh, and did you SEE the blog level I reached up there at the top of this post??? I was intrigued by Donna's Quiet Life when she posted about her blog's reading level. I thought it was so funny. She writes so very well.

When I received the reading level of genius, I laughed. I did actually test as genius when I was young, but I can't think very well , or remember anything of value anymore. I am actually the best joke around the house. It is sad, but true.

Anyway, I decided to make this post sound like it had a genius reading level. How'd I do?

Oh, and don't pick up Moby Dick. You'll be sorry...

The Holiday by the Numbers

This holiday season, Thanksgiving through New year's Day, was the best I can remember since we combined our family units through marriage.
By the numbers, it was far, far calmer than usual, but the numbers are still staggering. Or at least, they left ME staggering and you'll see why knitting was done only for that precious baby born to my cousin.

We won't get into the usual large gatherings for Christmas and Thanksgiving full of truly lovely family here at our house. They didn't happen. Instead we had all those great gigs at other people's houses. Thank you everyone for hosting this year!

Here's the numbers:

We had ONE Thanksgiving this year. Only one. This is a record. And my mom hosted it. Wonderfully. Those of you who know me well will realize that this is a miracle number.

I organized Two book clubs for the school with my good friend Rena and pulled them off without a hitch. We did have to "wing" the second one - it was the Monday after Thanksgiving and we all forgot about it until 3 hours before the meeting. It was the best one ever. Sorry, no pictures...we forgot the camera.

We had Three actual parties hosted at our house between Dec 21st and New Year's day. Not family events, but actual parties.

We had Seven straight days of multi-family bonding with
Eleven children and various and sundry insane adults (myself included of course).

DH and I completed a college course with a very heavy reading load, with excellent grades and we worked together to complete a total of Twenty-Five pages of a project paper at the end (Dec 20th).

Now for the big one: I realize after counting up the number of books read in 2007 that it went to 56. Fifty-six books, not counting the bazillion pages for our class. Check it out here.

That boy with the kisser up top is one of those many family members getting together for that week. We sure had fun, can you tell? That evening, the boys were having fun making faces for the camera. For that photo I had just told his cousin NOT to kiss the camera, so of course he had to give the camera a big smooch! Isn't he full of fun (and beautiful skin!)? They provided me with much laughter and a reason not to help with meal prep for the whole gang for dinner that night.

Last, but not least is the number of balls of yarn I removed from Lady Eleanor: well, I think I'll save that one for another post.

A whole bunch to catch up on:

There is so much to say, I am going to have to do it in several posts.

First of all, it's well past New Year's Day, but....We still have our Christmas Tree up. No, not because we are so enthusiastic about the tree, but because we just haven't had the time to take it down. Honestly, we seem to be a bit late on things this year. The important things got done, but we never even decorated the tree. See?It did look beautiful on Christmas and the Eve, with pretty lights and...I put the leftover pre-made bows all over it, with all of them that were left after the present-wrapping-bonanza. I mean the one which lasted till 5 am on the 23rd and the one till 11 pm on the 24th.

The the important happening around here is that my cousin Katherine had her baby, a whole 5 weeks early and she is perfect and wonderful and we are all so happy for them. She was born on Christmas Eve. I got the call while shopping in Borders for books for my children. As you may know, I love books and I relish the opportunity to increase the number of them in my house. Just give me a reason, and I will go into book acquisition mode. So my mom called my cell phone and told me the news and I just started crying. For joy. In the middle of the bookstore on Christmas Eve.

Now comes the knitting good news: I finished the baby blanket for her a day or two before the baby was born (although several weeks after the baby shower - we won't count that as late, right?).I had so much fun making this baby blanket.

I used the pattern from the Berocco Comfort pamphlet #269 and used the color "seedling". I figured that it was perfect yarn for a baby because of it's softness and it's washer and drier friendliness.

I did modify the pattern, to make it smaller, baby size. I loved the pattern to knit with and I love the stitch definition.

While my cousin was still in the hospital, other lovely relatives hand delivered to her, some 500 miles away from me.

Needless to say, Christmas Eve was a wonderful surprise.

Now for the leader to the next post: I did not do any Christmas knitting. You'll see why.

Coming back soon!

The computer's been down again, and the class is over, and the huge knitting projects are done....SOOOOOO I will soon be blogging again. with pictures. Yeay! I just have to wait until the computer is fully back up. I think Windows Vista might just be the underlying problem. XP was thje greatest.
J

Crawling Out

Due to the generosity of a dear friend, I was able to get my invite to Ravelry a couple of months ago. Now, I have an invite of my own and I'd love to pass it on to someone who could use it. Anyone ready? Let me know.

Until I hear from you, let me tell you that I am slowly crawling out of my knitting funk. The Fences Blanket is making progress and I haven't made any more mistakes. But more importantly, the weather has turned much colder in the mornings and evenings and I am wearing my knitted items and receiving compliments, always gratifying.

In addition, I've gone back on my diet and am making progress again.

These pictures are from a trip in July. I only include them here because they make me smile. And that's a good thing. The water in Pinecrest lake is cold, as #4 here is delighted to show. Then my own hunky DH is hamming up the hero pose for me. This is love.