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Jan 18th, 2011 by Diane T

Ronald and Geri having fun?

This week’s Ten on Tuesday topic: Ten favorite games from my childhood.

Well.

I don’t know if they were favorite, since my favorite past time was reading, but these come to mind.

We chased each other a lot. Games like 1) hide-and-go-seek at night in the fall when the air smelled like woodsmoke and it was dark and you’d come around the corner of the neighbor’s house and somebody would grab you and you’d scream because you were caught. That and because they’d just scared the bejesus out of you.

Or 2) Statue where you had to stay frozen in position until everybody had been caught.

Just plain old 3) tag was memorable this one night on our front lawn because it started raining, slicking up the grass. You were running and running  and just when you thought you were safe your feet would slip on the wet grass, the hand would land on your back or arm and damn you were it! again. We played until we were soaked and then it started thundering and lightening and still we played. When that last clap of thunder sounded like it was in our valley Mom decided maybe she should let us idiot children in the house.

In the winter, the chasing games turned into 4) Fox and Geese over on the Farnhams’ big front lawn where our pie-shaped paths broke up the smoothness of the latest pristine snow. When we were tired of that we got out the shovels and made 5) snow forts in the snow banks.

I remember playing 6) pick-up sticks with the cousins in the back parlor at my grandmother’s house during a family gathering. We usually won, but there may have been a little cheating going on; these were the city cousins who mocked us because we didn’t have sidewalks and went to school in a 3-room schoolhouse and well, we couldn’t lose face in front of the enemy.

Chess was too complicated but we played 7) Parcheesi (such an exotic name) and 8) checkers and 9) Monopoly by our own rules because the official rules were too complicated.

There were 10) card games galore: Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Old Maid, Slap Jack, Concentration. We learned to count 15-2, 15-4 and a pair of Kings from our Dad when he taught us to play cribbage and of course later on there was poker. When all else failed and nobody else wanted to play, there were endless rounds of Solitaire.

Not a video game in the bunch. I wonder if we were ever bored.

Go see the other games people played here.

Note: HTML reads the combination of the number 8 and the symbol ) to be 8) . Don’t have time to figure out how to fix it this morning so go with the flow babe.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Have you ever noticed

Jan 17th, 2011 by Diane T

That you always have one less tissue in your pocket than you need when you take a walk in the winter? That you spend the last half-mile sniffling and hoping you don’t meet anybody you know? If the wind is cold enough you start to consider alternatives like your coat sleeve or handknit mittens.

Kids sledding never have that problem, they just let it go. I came across a group of them today who were having a blast, from the pre-teen boys practicing their snowboarding chops to the two little girls who squealed all the way down the hill in the biggest adventure of their lives. They had nearly worn the snow down to the grass. It’s a good thing they got out this morning because it’s starting to rain. I expect the moderate temps (high 30s) and the rain will put an end to much of the white stuff.

It was a holiday for me today, the second short week in a row since last week’s blizzard gave me a work-from-home day. Except the tech stuff to allow me to work from home hasn’t arrived so there wasn’t much I could do but check phone messages. The rest of the week was a tech nightmare as well and it wasn’t until Friday that it was sorted out.  I expect tomorrow to be better — knock on wood.

It must be all the recent talk about organization because I had a spurt of productivity this weekend. The website is backed up and upgraded to the latest version; our checking account is mostly balanced (I can’t find a two-month discrepancy, it’s in our favor but still…), the last of the twinkly Christmas lights are put away, the birdbath was cleaned and refilled, food was shopped for and cooked and I even had time for a nap both days. Speaking of shopping I almost bought red cowboy boots and then came to my senses and bought conservative black boots with a one-inch heel suitable for work.

Oh, and I went here and bought myself a cupcake. Mine is deep maroon but I can’t find it right now.

I still think I need those red boots though. Don’t you?

Posted in Life | 6 Comments »

Ten on Tuesday — anybody seen my list?

Jan 11th, 2011 by Diane T

This week’s Ten on Tuesday topic is Ten Ways to Be More Organized. If you’re looking for helpful suggestions, you’d be go see what Carole has to say, since while I think being organized is a goal to strive for, I belong more in the camp of Good Enough.

If I can put my hands on what I need within a reasonable time then my organizational system is Good Enough to do the job.

We receive a monthly statement that needs to be saved for tax purposes. When those statements arrive I can put them in their own folder, in chronological order, neatly labeled and filed alphabetically in the top drawer. At the end of the year I can pull those statements out of their folder, staple them together and pull the info I need from them for the accountant before moving them to the archive drawer.

Or I can stuff those statements in one big blue divided tax folder, along with all the property tax receipts, medical receipts and pay stubs. I know where they are, they’re all in one place, so what if they’re not alpha/orderly? Who cares? It’s Good Enough.

Life is too interesting to spend it alphabetizing,

On the other hand, my knitting needles HAVE to be organized. I use them all the time, I want to find the proper size without using a needle gauge or searching through project baskets. So I have the circulars stored in a bag with a sleeve for every size. Some sizes are organized by length or material if necessary. I have a plastic tube for each size of my double points. Everything is labeled so I know what’s what and can pull out a needle — or put it back– in a jiffy. Good Enough is a little more rigid  here.

My spices are sort of organized. They’re in three spots: a wooden block of neatly labeled glass bottles; a drawer for odd shaped/liquid things like vanilla or cinnamon sticks, and then there’s the bags of spices that are thrown together in a plastic container in the pantry. The spices I use the most are the least organized but for some reason it’s still Good Enough for me.

My desk is the biggest challenge but it works Good Enough for me. There’s one pile for bills and things that need attention within the next few weeks. And the other pile is filing. That may not get touched for 6 months, but I know if I’m looking for something, that’s where I’m going to find it.

I do have spurts of organization — and who doesn’t love browsing the aisles of the office store coveting all the little doodads that are guaranteed to bring order to your life. It’s just that something else always comes along that seems to be more interesting than straightening the kitchen drawers.

I live with someone who loves to be organized. He ties his shoelaces before putting his shoes away in the closet. His clothes are sorted by sleeve length and color. (I tried that. It lasted about two weeks.) His receipts for the house are neat and orderly. His workshop is a testament to organization and efficiency.

Some days I don’t know how we manage to cohabitate.

Posted in Ten on Tuesday | 8 Comments »

Nothing to see here

Jan 9th, 2011 by Diane T

So it’s Sunday morning and the house is still sleeping, my favorite time of the day. I have the heater going under the desk, a cup of coffee on the warming plate and no place I have to be this morning. We got a dusting of snow last night so while it’s gloomy and overcast there’s a coating of white on everything.

For the last several months I’ve been struggling to keep the blog going. Not because I don’t have anything to say but because I have this idea that I should always start a post with a picture. If you find my words boring at least you’ll have something to look at while you think “get to the point already”.

While I like playing in Photoshop Elements I have a beginner’s level of understanding so processing photos probably doubles or triples the time it takes me to post. Especially when winter’s short days means I’m either using the flash for indoor shots or setting up a complicated arrangement for a light box which takes more time.

I find the winter challenging from a photography standpoint. How many times can you take a picture of a sleeping cat or snow in your backyard and make it look like anything other than the other 11-billionty pictures you’ve posted.

If I could get the cats to do tricks or  if I could transform them into sheep or llamas or even chickens, that would be a little different since not everyone can go to their local animal shelter and bring one home, but anyway, I can’t and they’ll never be anything but sleeping cats so I can either write and not give you photos or not write at all.

So I don’t post because I think you deserve photos to make up for the sloppy writing.

As an example, I had a good list for last week’s Ten on Tuesday, it’s all written and ready to go. I didn’t post it because I wanted to take pics of a few items. I ran out of time on Tuesday and then it was Wednesday and that was another disaster and Thursday and Friday were pretty much the same, and after that I reached the stage of “what’s the point?”

So no post, all the while I’m nagging myself that I’m neglecting the blog. I’ve reached the point in my head that I’ve considered whether I should take the blog down since I resent feeling like this is  another obligation I have to meet or that I”m not doing a good job.

However, my interest has always been more in the writing than the photography, probably because I’m better at the first than the second, not great, just better.

Therefore as an alternative to taking down the blog, I’ve decided to absolve myself of all guilt about not giving you something pretty to look at, and just sit down and write. Feel free to move along, there’s nothing to see here, if you’re so inclined.

Since quiet time is over, I’m going to post Tuesday’s damn list so it doesn’t get wasted, like the other dozen posts sitting in draft waiting for pictures that were never taken. Imagine there’s a picture of a tea mug, a pen, a book and eyeliner illustrating it.

So there.

Ten on Tuesday

Ten things I couldn’t live without. Technically some of these aren’t “things” but when I thought about what makes my life richer these were the ten things that bubbled to the top first (people and pets excluded).

  1. My glasses. I’m blind as a bat.
  2. Moisturizer. It’s winter, the air is cold and dry. ‘Nuff said.
  3. Computer/internet. I suppose I really could live without it, but who wants to?
  4. Four-wheeled transportation. Bus service and bike lanes in this town are non-existent and work is 15 miles away. Yup, a car keeps me in clover.
  5. My favorite knitting scissors. They once got mixed up with others and while I got back a pair that looked identical they didn’t cut the same. I knew it with the first snip. I threw a hissy fit until they were returned. I’m not proud of my behavior, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
  6. Tea in the morning in my favorite mug.
  7. The sound of birds in the spring. To more fully appreciate your sense of hearing live with a person who’s going deaf.
  8. Good knives. Paring, cook’s, slicing, serrated. Out of the block of knives those are the four that get used every day. I have been known to wrap them in towels and take them on vacation with me since I’ve never seen a rental cottage that has a decent knife. Jack sharpens them by hand and the only time I’ve cut myself is when I don’t pay attention.
  9. Books. All kinds. I don’t own an e-reader and imagine I’d probably like it but in the end, I’d miss the heft and smell of a book, the tactile sense of turning pages, being able to pick it up, open it at any spot and start reading. If we replaced all our books with electronic editions, I’d have to remodel the house because there are bookshelves in every room excluding the bathrooms — if there were space I expect we’d slap up some shelves in there too. A dinosaur in the making over here.
  10. A good pen. My current favorite writes well, is easily replaceable, fits my hand. I had a fancy custom gold pen that was a thank you gift for a seminar discussion I once led. I carried that pen in my purse for 15 years until I lost the cap at the grocery store. I searched for half an hour but never found it and ended up throwing the pen away.

There’s a bunch more I came up with. My stash of course. Eyeliner. Chocolate. Walking shoes.

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Posted in Life, Ten on Tuesday | 6 Comments »

Red hot new year’s eve

Dec 31st, 2010 by Diane T

redwool

I have a date with this pile o’ red and the Bug tonight and can’t think of a better way to spend the last evening of the year. It’s part of my 2011 goal to spin the good stuff. It’s not turning out like I thought it would but that’s part of learning. It’ll be worsted, maybe even bulky when it’s plied, which is a first for me.

For dinner, there are baby back ribs in the oven and mashed potatoes still to be made. Might as well finish up the holiday season in comfort-food mode before we turn over a new lettuce  leaf tomorrow, along with the turkey breast. We might watch a movie or just hang out with a football game on in the background and a good book in hand. There’s a bottle of wine chilling. Bedtime will be before midnight.

I’m not particularly sorry to see this year end, although it has ended on a better note than I would have expected. Our dramas this year have been personal and boring to all but us, but the general malaise (when will things get better?) has made it difficult to be upbeat.

Or maybe it’s just the short dark days of winter.

In any case, the new year arrives tomorrow so here’s wishing you all the light and warmth you can abide.

Now where’s the corkscrew?

Posted in Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Ten on Tuesday, the end-of-year edition

Dec 28th, 2010 by Diane T

Purse_Me

Ready for New Year’s Eve

Not resolutions, but ten goals for 2011.

  1. Don’t save all the good fiber until I’m a better spinner. Spin some of the good stuff now, the sheep are producing more every day.
  2. Spin and knit more from stash. It’s unrealistic for me to say I’m not going to buy yarn or fiber, but I can buy less and use more of what I already own. I started doing that this year but I don’t have a final tally on whether I succeeded(another blog post).
  3. Make realistic plans for the garden: I’ll have less free time and more demands on what’s left, so tone down the seed ordering.
  4. Seriously clean out the bookcases. This will be tough since they’re not all my books and the incentive to cooperate is low.
  5. Do some professional stuff for my career (boring stuff, I promise not to blog about it much).
  6. Tackle this one big honkin’ knit project that I’ve been ignoring for too long (another blog post).
  7. Get a physical. It’s been years (not counting the emergency room visit this year).
  8. Stop saving every plastic container that comes in the house. This will make Jack happy (so maybe he’ll throw away his old insurance textbooks) and convince me I’m not turning into my mother.
  9. Blog more often than Tuesdays: kill the zombies. Again.
  10. OK, so one resolution: Knock off the worrying, it’s the enemy of sleep and does nothing to solve a problem.

And that’s it. Not reaching for the stars but enough to keep me busy. What about you?

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Posted in Ten on Tuesday | 11 Comments »

St. Nick’s Day

Dec 24th, 2010 by Diane T

santa1

And it’s here.

After all the hustle and bustle, the shopping and wrapping and shipping, it’s Christmas Eve and my schedule is free. For the weekend we have the time to relax and enjoy ourselves.

There are a few presents to open and fondue to prepare for dinner but otherwise we’re not making plans beyond reading, watching a movie or two and treating ourselves to dinner out on Christmas Day — the start of  a new tradition.

I had only two wishes for Christmas this year: a little white stuff on the ground and a permanent job.

Both wishes came true this week.

I count myself one of the fortunate ones.

No matter how — or if — you celebrate these festive days of winter, I hope all your wishes come true. Stay well.

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Posted in Life | 7 Comments »

Ten on Tuesday, the big day is a-coming

Dec 21st, 2010 by Diane T

TenonT-Button1If you’re a Christian, you’re focused like a cat hunting toes on this coming Saturday when we celebrate that holiday of excess and exuberance, Christmas. Lists have been made, numerous trips to the mall (physical or virtual) have taken place, the oven has produced multiple batches of fruitcake and cookies, the dining room is exploding with wrapping paper and yet you’re still not done. There’s always that last minute item you need for a relative or the neighbor who pops up with an unexpected gift. So here are a few of my stand-by ideas.

  1. Books. This is one of my first-to-buy gifts as well since it’s like have a department store with every shape and size of pants you could possibly want. Our local big-chain also lets a local animal shelter raise money during the holidays by offering wrapping services for any size donation, always a blessing for Ms. Fumblefingers.
  2. Get thee to the grocery store. Buy a gift bag, a travel mug, a small sample size bag of coffee and find the kiosk with the gift cards. There will be one for a coffee chain. Or swing by your local java junction on the way home, pick up a mocha latte for yourself  and a gift card for your bud. Done and caffeinated.
  3. Flowers or holiday arrangement. You don’t need to even leave the house. Pick up the phone or go online and order something green and sparkly to brighten the holidays. Best of all, they deliver.
  4. Stop at a stationery shop. With so many people sending e-mails, giving a gift of note cards or small pack of stationery to have on hand will be an unexpected and useful gift. Don’t forget a pen and stamps. You’re likely to find cute little tchotchkes that need to come live on your gift shelf as well. Granted, there aren’t that many stationery stores left, but I can think of a couple locally that don’t involve braving the malls.
  5. DVDs — easy to pick up anywhere, including the book store, and if it’s for a child, you have something to keep them busy on Christmas Day once the adrenaline starts wearing off.
  6. Food, of course. Unless you really want to take the time to bake so close to the Big Day, I suggest a trip to the local bakery or chocolatier.  Or put together a soup mix with beans, rice, spices and a recipe, hie back to the grocery store (you were going there to buy beans anyway) for a soup mug and a wooden spoon and you’re done.
  7. Hobby stuff. I try not to do gift cards (except if it involves teenagers) as the main gift, but a gift card to my favorite yarn shop always fills me with greed glee. (When did this become about me? /ahem)
  8. Don’t forget your local garden center. It may be cold and snowy but the shop is likely to have bulbs for forcing, poinsettias if you like them, gloves and small tools, decorative pots, all enough to get your favorite gardener through the dark days.
  9. Hit the local museum gift shop for plenty of gifty items. Take a few minutes for the museum as well.
  10. Your skills and time. Offer your services to baby sit, shovel a walk, run errands, fix a leaky faucet or a floppy door. It’s all good.

And look at that. Ten last minute ideas for Christmas.


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Posted in Ten on Tuesday | 6 Comments »

Baby or not hat

Dec 19th, 2010 by Diane T

So I mentioned before that I was knitting a baby hat that was either cute or grotesque. It’s finished, washed and blocked and I’ll vote for cute:

rastahat

The pattern is the Rasta Hat (Ravelry link) with some modifications. Mostly I made the lamb’s tails longer as I went up the hat since I wanted something that would bounce and move around more than the short ones. My memory tells me the pattern has you cast on 8 stitches then immediately cast them off to create the little tails. In this yarn it made a very stubby tail without much movement. So I did several rows with 10 stitches and then moved up to 12 around the top of the hat. Much more fun.

Before I washed the hat the little tails had some body and stuck straight out making it a riot to wear. (Of course I tried it on, wouldn’t you?) But this is chenille and once washed it lost all its body and the tails just relaxed. It’s still a cute hat and the tails still corkscrew, it just doesn’t bounce like it did before washing.

I cast on 84 stitches and used size 5 addis/double points. The yarn is a nameless variegated that came in a kit I bought for another baby hat which I ended up ripping out because the pattern was full of mistakes. The colors aren’t quite as neon as the pic, but it was the best I could figure out in Photoshop Elements.

This is the only time I’ve knit with chenille and it will be a one-and-only experience. Hard on my hands, tough to pull the stitches through on the needles and grows after washing. I’m afraid to put it in the dryer since everything I read said all the little fuzzies would come off. Does anybody have a better experience with chenille?

Now if you’ve been reading and looking at the pic, you may have been going “but — but — but, this is supposed to be a baby’s hat. Yet it’s on an adult head.” Ayup, it more or less fits me (it’s not quite deep enough to keep my ears covered).  Unless there’s a baby out there with an unusually large head, this is so not going to fit a baby.

It was fun anyway. Off to stash dive for another hat yarn. As soon as I finish the gloves, the two pairs of socks and another hat for me.

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Posted in Knitting | 7 Comments »

Ten on Wednesday

Dec 15th, 2010 by Diane T

Clearly the #1 thing on 10 Things on my To-Do List is to stop procrastinating and post Ten on Tuesday when it’s actually Tuesday, not Wednesday.

I wrote this Tuesday morning, and then started whacking away at the list instead of posting it so some of these things are done. Now tempus fugit people.  (Loosely translated to time’s a-wasting.) So carpe diem.

Here’s what’s percolating to the top of the list this week.

  1. Sew the Minimalist cardigan together that’s blocked and ready to go.  (Nope, still sitting on the chair. )
  2. Finish the Christmas shopping. We just got back from breakfast out and hit a couple stores on the way home. (Did more shopping last night so I think I have just a few things to pick up before I’m done.)
  3. Write and send the Christmas cards. Haven’t touched this but did remember to buy stamps.
  4. Pick up two pairs of pants at the seamstress. She’s had them since before Thanksgiving, this will be the third trip to pick them up because they’re never ready. (Here’s a hint: this will be the last trip, ready or not.) ((They were ready, so the rant I had prepared went for naught.))
  5. Grocery shopping: remember to buy a cookie tray for tomorrow’s gift to the rehab center. (No grocery shopping, but found a cookie tray lurking in the cupboard. The cookies have been delivered and consumed.)
  6. Finish wrapping gifts and get them in the mail. (Partially done. The fruitcake is on its way, Geri and Fred!)
  7. Make an end-of-year donation to Harvesters for their Backsnack program. The local paper is partnering  to raise $100,000 for this program which sends kids home from school on the weekends with a backpack full of non-perishable food. Can you imagine the pain of not being able to feed your family this time of year, never mind being able to afford Christmas? I can’t believe we can’t do better than letting children go hungry. (Not done but soon.)
  8. Figure out what knitting to take to pass the time in the waiting room  on Friday. (Got it.)
  9. Bake the two batches of cookie dough sitting in the fridge. (Done. Cookies have been taste-tested, not that I really wanted any (ahem) and distributed to the recipients with most of the remainder frozen.)
  10. Start a pot of cat grass for Cleo, a girl needs her greens in the winter. She’ll go through several pots of grass this winter before the days of spring green up her favorite spot on the lawn. (Not done.)

And on and on.

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