Not sleeping well and still blue….

Yep. I’ve been up til about 3 or 4 am most every night for a week not sleeping.  I mean I’m tired but not sleepy – very frustrating. Hopefully tonight will be different.  )

And I’m feeling very blue still about Michael Jackson’s death.  I tried to explain it to my mother on the phone yesterday – she is sickened by the sort of media vultures picking over his bones, and I agree quite a bit: a lot of the coverage is tasteless and there is too much of it…now I’m adding to it.   :::sigh:::: I haven’t watched much of the TV coverage; mostly I’m trolling around YouTube watching performances and interviews and reading old articles.

more about "Michael jackson video by bluestar2009…", posted with vodpod

Studmuffin has zero sympathy for me – he was never a fan and feels pretty strongly that the allegations of impropriety with children were true, so that makes him almost incapable of seeing anything positive about MJ’s contributions artistically. I have my own opinions about the allegations; I encourage people who are interested to read the court transcripts for themselves.

For me, MJ has been SO much a part of my musical landscape and inspiration for my whole life, and as I’m listening to his music again while grieving for him, I’m struck anew at his phenomenal abilities.  It isn’t because he represents the loss of my youth or anything – I just adored his music.  I never got to see him in person and now I never will. And he could really really move….

I meant to go to Knit Night tonight, but I’d probably have such a good time that it would keep me up tonight again so I’ve stayed home.  I think I’ll go knit something.

Life is good and all; I’m just a bit down. I hope to be a little more cheerful by Wednesday.

Happy 5th of July!

I do so love the South Carolina Manhood Network……..

If you enjoyed that, let me suggest a couple of others:

Rusty & Larnold Go Camping and you can TOO!

And even though it’s July, it’s good advice for next year:

These guys do other stuff too; check ‘em out at Rhett & Link.

How I love the Weekly World News….

I just realized that they have a website: http://weeklyworldnews.com/

Some of the headlines this evening:

ED ANGER SAYS: LET’S INVADE ARGENTINA!

EGYPTIAN PHAROAH FLEW IN UFO

MICHAEL JACKSON FAKED HIS OWN DEATH?

MEGAN FOX IS A MAN

If your life is feeling too serious or heavy, cruise on over – yer bound to feel better after reading some of that….stuff.  I think my favorite part of the website is their subheading: The World’s Only Reliable News

Cracks me up.  )

—

So, ok, yeah, I promised a post by  last Thursday…but that was BEFORE.  “Before what?” you ask.  Well, take your pick:

A: Michael Jackson died

B: I fell on the treadmill at cardiac rehab

or

C: It got *so* hot that, in the words of one of the kids’ friends:  “My face is melting off.”

It’s probably a rather complex interaction of the above three factors contributing to my lack of motivation to sit in front of the ‘puter and write.  Since I brought them up, I suppose I oughta comment on all three.  I will, but first a picture:

Homeschool Kid (clutching green pillow) went off to Boy Scout camp this morning for a week of mosquitoes, whipporwills calling all night long, tent w/o air conditioning and parent-free time.  It’s his 3rd year and he likes it.  We’re happy he likes to go. REALLY happy.  Unfortunately, the Force of Nature *quit* Girl Scouts a few months ago (”too girly and boring”, i.e. not enough camping, whittling and Greco-Roman wrestling)  and is *not* off to camp this week…though she’ll be off to the West Virginia Grandmother’s place for two weeks later in the summer.  As you can see, the camera battery charger has NOT magically re-appeared, so I’m “stuck” with the camera phone still.

So back to the comments: I’ll go in chronological order and begin with “C”.

It should come as NO surprise to anyone that it is HOT and MUGGY in Alabama in the summertime, because it is like that EVERY summer and I love it.  However, we have had, starting in May or was it April? – over 40 days of daily rain which then turned to high temperatures and NO rain.

As previously reported, our AC died and we went 3 weeks without AC, using only fans, but it started getting up to 99 degrees, plus add in the fact that we no longer have the three maple trees that used to shade the house, so it’s been WICKED HOT which means I’m only good for sitting in front of the fan eating popsicles spraying myself with icewater.

About a week and a half ago, we bought 4 AC window units that have made the interior of Chez Oney much more bearable, but I still am not generally wanting to sit in front of the ‘puter to write….because all I would write about is how HOT it is and how my garden is faring in the heat (fairly well right now, thanks for asking).

Fortunately, this afternoon a slightly cooler front has blown in. YAY! Maybe all the cucumber plants won’t die now.

As for “B”; this week marked the past halfway point for cardiac rehab, and I’ve been feeling pretty good about it.  I think of this fella every time I go, though (especially what he says at 1:42).

more about “John Pinette – I dont do ups [Full Ve…“, posted with vodpod

I was feeling good that I hadn’t yet fallen on the treadmill.  Pride goeth before a fall, and on Monday, I fell when I tripped over my own ginormous feet.  There were lots of folks around to see it too- an added bonus.  And the nurses were really concerned – it took a lot of explaining, with additional confirmation from Studmuffin, that I really AM a klutz and I wasn’t dizzy, and I didn’t blackout or have a stroke, etc. I scraped a good bit of skin off my left knee/leg, but it was my right hip that has had the most sustained pain since then.  So I’ve been pretty sore, especially depending on my activity level.  Really, I’m fine overall and it did not stop me from going back to rehab on Wednesday or Friday, but I am still feeling it.

Lastly, here’s “A”:  MJ died.

I’ve been a huge fan of his artistry over the years and I learned of his death just before I went on the air Thursday night*.  I *am* sad that he’s gone….but I’m glad his suffering is over; the Michael Jackson that I loved and admired so greatly has been “gone” for a looong time.

As another local dj said Friday morning, since he was about 5 years old, Michael Jackson never had a normal day in his life.  Even Elvis Presley, who got rather weird and died before he was 50, had a fairly regular upbringing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now: fame is NOT good for people. If you’ve not had any, trust me: for most of us, it does NOT enhance our character at all.  So that has been rather depressing and has not made me wanna write a whole bunch.  I feel very bad for his parents, siblings and his children.

Of course I have to share a few of my favorite songs of his…these are ONLY a FEW.

more about “A few MJ favorites – MP3 Music Stream…”, posted with vodpod

I’ll post something a little happier perhaps tomorrow. Nighty-nite,y’all

______________________________________________________

*  I host a weekly radio program, “Blues Classics” on WJAB, 90.9 FM, Thursday nights from 6:30 pm to 8 pm (Central Time).  You can listen on the Interwebs here: http://www.aamu.edu/wjab/

A clevah mashup – Buffy does her thing

Enjoy! I promise a *real* post by Thursday…..

more about "Jezebel – Buffy Shuts Down Edward Cul…", posted with vodpod

Carrots and beets, sewing and knitting

How the stylish go gardening….

Gardening is in full swing here at Chez Crazie.  Plenty of weeds to pull,too hot to do it…y’all know how it is.  Yesterday I ate the 3 beets that came out of the garden (the birds ate most of the seeds this lvery wet spring).  The largest one was almost the size of my fist!.  Supa delish.  Plus we got carrots – about 25 actually edible carrots of some size.  Granted, I’d planted short carrots because of the overwhelming clay content of the soil but, I’ve never gotten carrots that one could really eat before since we moved here.  I’m basking in the little victories.  )  Pictures were taken, but they are the kind that need developing so good luck on ever seeing those babies……

The Force of Nature decided last week that there would be no more mucking about – she needed a charcoal grill of her very own.  She took about $50 from her savings account and went and bought herself a really nice grill which we as her parents are allowed to use occasionally.  Of course, since she’s 11, we must supervise her grilling attempts, but she wanted her own grill.  I *love* that girl!!  She has also informed us that, even though 2 months ago she swore up and down that she HATED and LOATHED summer camp last year, now she wants to go. Since I’ve not been sleeping well this past week, and my own ‘puter is still on the blink, I’ve not been able to research what I can do about this so late in the game.  Ahhhh- the capriciousness of youth…

Some sewing has taken place, altogether too slowly unfortunately.  The sewing area is in the garage which not only has no AC (but then again neither does the rest of Chez Crazie right now…and for the foreseeable future, heart surgery being rather expensive and all) but it has no insulation and no fans.  I’m still working on the toile for *the* summer dress I want to make about 5 times in different fabrics to wear a lot; it’s quite an easy pattern, but I am out of practice and then of course the wee bairns and the dog-a-boos all wanna be right in my lap while I work and asking 50 skidillion questions, which I as their mother must answer *immediately* or the sky will come crashing down….   Ummm, just for the record: the dog-a-boos ask no questions, but they do want to be petted right now and said petting continued until my arm falls off or they expire from old age.  After all, whatever could I be doing that could be more important than that?

Knitting is still a refuge though. Most everyone knows not to bother me overmuch whilst that is happening AND knows that they must wait until the end of the row unless blood or fire is involved.  Tonight I cast on a full size test swatch for the baby blanket I hope to make several times over for all the babies in the famdamily this October/November.  I’m using a new yarn for me – Caron’s Simply Soft  Eco.  Yes, it’s mostly acrylic (and so very washable; verra important) not terribly expensive and comes in some lovely colors.  It’s also got some post-consumer recycled plastic as part of the fiber content.  It’s a bit splitty, and I don’t have the actual pattern I want to use – I(’d have to buy the whole book for 1 pattern which I may yet do if this proves at all challenging to recreate – but I think it’ll be nice enough.  We shall see.

Did I tell you about  my purse getting stolen and then returned?    It, like my super-gushy post about the handspun that Sarah gave me last week (Sarah, I take it out and pet it often; I showed it to the mailman…), will have to wait.  Oh yeah, and I’m WAY behind in my swaps…….but life is good.  My heart is STILL beating and I have a wonderful family and beyond fabulous friends and the possibility of musicking fairly soon and enough yarn & fabric to swim laps in if I wished to, plus the new Knitty is out  AND Norah Gaughan has done a bunch of AMAZING men’s sweaters so there’s plenty  for me to smile about.

Sorry for the blog silence….

My ‘puter is still on the blink, still have no air conditioning, and somebody from China hacked my Paypal account.  But let me say this:

PayPal RULES THE PLANET!

They caught it and I didn’t lose any money.  But I do have to change ALL of my passwords, which bums me out just a little.  I can’t even remember what some of the places I’ve put that password are(various sites and all).

On the heart/health tip, my cardiologist is happy with me, and I’m off the hated blood thinners.  Dr. “L” said that it was amazing that we even found what was wrong with me.  So I’m glad to be alive.  I still have a small hole in my side – the wound care clinic has been very kind to me, and daily naps are now optional rather than a necessity as they were before.

Can you say tomatoes?

Yup, I’ve got green tomatoes all over the place (I mean on my tomato plants!); I can hardly WAIT for them to ripen.  I’ve started harvesting the garlic, and am gonna get those effing peppers into the ground!  Ahhh gardening….

Just outside where I’m sitting, we have a covered patio and every year a few birds nest there.  This year we have a pair of  some kind of thrush that are raising their second batch of baby birds.

(someone else’s picture; not “my” baby birds – the camera’s battery charger is still missing)

They make a LOT of noise!  But I enjoy hearing them anyway.  I think I’ve finally got Studmuffin trained to watch from a distance – we’ve had a couple of nesting pairs that abandoned their nests after he checked them out.  The pair of thrushes aren’t very big, but they’ve chased away several other nesting pairs of larger birds from nesting on our patio. It’s amazing to watch.

The blackberries and black raspberries are blooming, there’s grapes on the vine and OH!  I just heard some thunder, which hopefully means rain.

I’m still working on my toe-up Jaywalker socks.  There’s not much “give” in this stitch pattern so I have to make them much more fitted to my own feet than any other socks I’ve ever made.  I’ve finished one that will probably get frogged if the one I’m working on now fits better.  It’s kind of a fascinating experiment, and it’s a little too warm here at Chez Oney to work on anything larger.

And I actually cleaned up the stash a good bit and wonder of wonders!  made it possible to sew again.  I think I may cut out a pattern today – God willing and the creek don’t rise.  Anything to avoid fixing my computer…..

I received some FABULOUS handspun fron Sarah….but that deserves a post of its very own, so you’ll have to wait.  )

Sweat happens….

Our heat pump, which has never been very muscular in the cooling dept.  has pretty much decided NOT to cool the house and the heat of summer has arrived at last.  So, the house stays cool til’ about noon and then gets really HOT.  We are contemplating various strategies: yesterday we went to se “UP”  (please please please go see it….but NOT in 3d and bring yer hanky) and then we went to the Green Mountain Nature Trail ‘cos it was too early to go to dinner.

It turns 0ut that Studmuffin has *never* been to this place and it was just lovely.  But we walked the trail and I got all sweaty – and this was my day off from exercise.  Oh well.  On Saturday, we got up early, took the dogs and went to Wade Mountain greenway and walked almost 2 miles, so I was good on the exercise tip this weekend.

Today, I get to use a new-to-me piece of workout equipment at cardiac rehab.  Joy – I just hope I don’t hurt myself.  And Studmuffin is running late so we’ll meet there a little late, which is why I have time to post.  Tomorrow I’ve got several dr. visits and hopefully I can get off more of these meds.  I miss my vitamins……

The garden is coming along; I harvested some of the garlic yesterday.  It didn’t get huge, but we planted late anyhoo.  Now I can plant some beans and cukes.  All the tomato plants are looking good – gotta get the pepper plants in – maybe this afternoon.

And I wanna get a dress cut out, and I wanna do a meal plan, and I wanna go to knit night tonight, and…………………..I must be feeling better because the thought of all I need to/want to do isn’t making me want to go back to bed, and the last few days I haven’t required a nap.

Ta!

An update from the Studmuffin himself

The dear husband sent out a health update to some family members and I thought I’d  share it with you.  )

“We went to Nashville last Wednesday for Helen’s six week appointment with the surgeon.

Everything went well, they cleared her to drive again and took her off a couple of the medicines she was on.  We have to make another appointment with the cardiac doctor here in Huntsville for early June.  That doctor will decide when she gets to get off the remaining medicines.

She’s been going to a cardiac rehab facility at the Huntsville Hospital Wellness Center here in Huntsville.  She’ll go for 12 weeks total (we’ve done it for 3 weeks now), 3 days a week for an hour each day.  If she makes every session she’ll get a free month’s access to the Wellness Center.

Her wound is healing nicely.  We’ve got an appointment with the wound people during the second week of June, but I think that it may be completely closed up before then.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, believe me, that’s all the details you want to have.

School’s out on Wednesday, they had to do two days this week to make up for the closure during the Swine Flu pandemic, the pool opened over the weekend, and if the rains ever stops and the sun comes out again, we’ll be heading into summer.”

2 more things:
1.  Please say a lot of healing prayers for my cousin’s wife ,Shane.  She had a big operation last week and her recovery has been rather botched (imo) by the hospital.

2.  Go see the new Star Trek.  I’ve seen it twice and will probably go again….

Actual Knitting content…..

Guess what???!  It rained today.  I know yer shocked: it’s only rained just about everyday for the last 40 or so……  This morning,  Studmuffin and I tackled the numerous weeds in the garden.  We got thoroughly soaked but we also got most of the weeding done.  AND then we cleaned the garage.  I still have much work to do before I can actually use the sewing machine and serger for their dedicated purposes, but at least you can walk around now.  The Yarn stash has been multiplying while I wasn’t looking….but why can’t the cashmere reproduce instead of the acrylic?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Tomorrow, Studmuffin will run the 5K Cotton Row Run, so I’ll be up early to cheer him on.

The charger for the camera battery is STILL AWOL (I am really rather frustrated by this!!!) so you’ll just have to make do with awful camera phone pictures. Sorry.

Socks for Tangela

This is the Red Heart sock yarn with Aloe; it’s a pretty good yarn to knit with.  They are much more orange-y in person.  One of the best knitters I know admired them so you know they’re pretty good.

My first toe-up socks

The yarn is Plymouth’s Happy Choices (color 7)  which I received in a swap.  It is a really wonderful yarn to knit with! This pic is of my second attempt; the first attempt (which I’d knitted almost to the gusset) turned out too big!  That’s pretty amazing when you consider the enormous size of my feet (size 11).  The pattern, Diagonal Lace Socks,  is from the book Socks from the Toe-Up which I really like.  However, now that I’m past the heel flap and all, I’m thinking the yarn might be better as a pair of Jaywalkers (Ravelry link).

Noro Silk Garden scarf #4

Modelled so beautifully by Boris.  He’s such a sweetheart…very patient with me.  When I tell him to “STAY”, he surely does.  His sister, Natasha, couldn’t be bothered……

I’m also working on a cabled handbag, but I don’t yet have a picture of that.  Here’s the website for the pattern: http://www.figheadh.com
And I have a kind of secret project for a friend who is getting married…..

And I’m WAY WAY way behind on swaps…..perhaps tomorrow….funny how a little major surgery can just ruin one’s calendar!

I’m feeling better all the time…..

Hey y’all – sorry for the blog silence; I’ve been kept away from the ‘puter by my family but more importantly I have some actual knitting to take pictures of and cannot remember what I did with the special digital camera battery charger….so I was kinda waiting for that to reappear and 2 weeks slipped by.

HOWEVER, there are yarn crimes to report:

Even the model seems to have mixed emotions on this……

“Oh yes.  Just the thing to throw on when heading out to the chilluns’ soccer game….”

It’s hard to know even where to start on this garment: the alien eyes located over the nipple area, the see-thru skirt or the open areas over abdomen?  Boy oh boy, it sure does LOOK comfy to wear too.  Well, at LEASt it’s EXPENSIVE…….

Of course, this designer has even MORE designs to show you here.

(A shout out to Marin at her very funny blog for introducing me to these criminal garments.)

******************

As amazingly mindbogglingly awful as the above yarn crimes are, the item for sale that inspired this post is one I saw in person today.  My dear sister-in-law has been here all week helping me out and she has been just great.  I decided early on that we really needed to goof off while she was here and that has proved to be a wise (but highly fattening) decision.

She enjoys going to the mall and so we have been touring some local malls and today we went to the oldest mall in the city.  It’s been rather a while since I went there and many many of the stores that used to be there are gone and a few newer but rather less swanky shops have opened there.  While Homeschool Kid was drooling over the used games at GameStop, sis-in-law and I got something to drink* sat down and we were able to peruse the offerings at a rather cool new shop that does a lot of wonderful airbrush painting.  Of course, I was captivated by the TACKIEST thing they had:

It was the best pic I could get with my phone – I’m SO sorry you cannot see it in its full glory.  It’s an airbrushed toilet seat with a portrait of………………………

……………that’s right: JOHN WAYNE.

If this had been a pay week, I probably would have bought it myself.  Dad’s turning 70 in a few months and this may just be the commemorative item for that momentous occasion……

—-
*  I totally wigged out the girl at the drink counter when I asked her for an orange sherbert milkshake.  She’d never heard of such a thing, which isn’t surprising ‘cos I made it up years ago when I worked at the Mill Stream one summer.  It actually has no milk in it: orange sherbert, ice and orange soda all mixed together.  It tastes like a very sweet unhealthy Orange Julius.  Homeschool Kid finished the last third of it, making happy noises the whole time.

Yes, dear, the kind of soap does matter

I’m recovering from open heart surgery two and a half weeks ago – unfortunately I have a bacterium colony on one of my incisions which is slowing the healing process.

I’ve waited a couple of days so I could start to see the humour in this.  Let me tell you a little story……

I was gonna have some surgery in a different city.  I wasn’t HUGELY pleased to be doing the surgery in a different city – it’s a such a hassle going through the 1000 Acre wood – but OK, I was doing it.  Of course, I needed to go up to to meet the Great Sorcerer…er, surgeon…. who was going to perform this miracle upon my person;

even AFTER the Evil Gremlins….um, I mean to say the Insurance company …told us that the Magic Palace

(read: hospital) and Great Sorcerer were not of the anointed kind (read “preferred provider”)….which is freakin’ crazy because there isn’t a single magic palace or great sorcerer in the great land of A-ba-lama-ding-dong that does the kind of surgery I required, but OK!  We were prepared to spin some gold out of straw or something (the oldest son is too old to give away now) to accomplish said miracle.

During the meeting with the Magic Sorcerer, I had brought along King Studmuffin

to help me remember important things, write down important things and to ask questions and stuff that I know I would forget, which he did in his most kingly and studmuffinly way.

However, I DO recall the MS saying at least 3 times the specific kind of widely available magic elixir to use on the magic incision afterward to prevent infection.  It seemed important since he mentioned it so often, and since he mentioned it so often, I managed to remember it.

Fast forward to 6 days after the surgery and the  fabulous health fairies are going to release me from the Magic Palace to go home and finish recovering.  My parents had joined me in the other city to assist me (my mother is a magic health fairy by profession) and were also coming all the way back through the 1000 Acre Wood to help me at home for almost another week.

Just before leaving the Magic Palace, I asked King Studmuffin: “Did you get the Magic Elixir?”

He replies with a smile, “Yes.”

My mother, not hearing me ask the question before, about 15 minutes later asks King Studmuffin, “Did you get the Magic Elixir?”

He replies with another smile, “Yes.”

Just before I get into the coach (read: wheelchair) to be whisked away to the entrance of the M.P.,

the magic health fairy of the day (his name was Steve) asked King Studmuffin if he had the magic elixir, to which the King replied with a rather wintry,

“Yes.”

On the way back through the 1000 Acre Wood, King Studmuffin told me he’d gone out and bought a “big jug” of the magic elixir and already put it into a couple of unused vessels so it would be all ready for my use.  I beamed with joy.

After a week of happily using the soap, last Sunday I was feeling rather sore and I noticed the incision was looking red, yellow and drippy – NOT GOOD.  I showed it to the King and he agreed.  We called my mother and after talking to her we agreed that it was not an emergency, so I didn’t have to go to the local Magic Palace’s express lane right away, but I did need to see my regular conjurer on the next business day.  I started to worry a little bit.  After all, this incision goes all the way into my chest cavity!

Early the next day, I happened to look in the pantry (for something else of course) and I saw the big jug of magic elixir – it was the WRONG KIND!

I brought this to the attention of the King and he said it had the same active ingredients and it said antibacterial, so what’s the big deal?

WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL? WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?

TO THE MOON, Studmuffin, TO THE MOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

——————

Well, friends,  I hope to survive this – I now have the true magic elixir and a little additional ointment that seem to be helping. Actually, I’m 99.99999999999999999999999% sure I’ll survive this; but I have to say that if you have the swine flu, we can’t be friends until you’ve recovered, KTHXBAI.

I did tell King Studmuffin though:  if I die from this, I’m coming back to HAUNT YOU!

(And please say some extry healing prayers for me if’n ya don’t mind. Thanks.  )

—-

Actual knitting content to soon follow.

I made it

Just a quick post – the husband is keeping me away from the ‘puter – but I wanted to let everyone know that I got back home last Saturday.  The surgery went well – a repair instead of replacement – yay yay yay!  And Vanderbilt is simply a fantastic hospital; I received EXCELLENT care from every single person I came in contact with.

I’m rather weak but have been able to do some homeschooling and get some daily exercise.  I promise to write more soon.  And please know that those of you who’ve sent good wishes and prayers have my very deepest gratitude.

A silly something

Maybe I’ve not had enough sleep, but I thought this was funny…..

more about "A silly something", posted with vodpod

A southpaw story

I think I was 8 or 9 years old when I realized that there were men in this world that actually were right-handed.  I’ll never forget that moment of “Aha!” because I was watching The John Davidson Show one afternoon.  I loved watching shows like his and Mike Douglas’ – there’d be something interesting going on all the time: talking, then some music and then cooking and then some more talk – something for everyone.  Perhaps it was my innocence and now-hazy memories but it didn’t seem like everyone appeared on those shows to flack their latest project or product back then.  Anyway,  Davidson was singing.  I don’t remember the song at all but I remember what he was wearing (a beautiful cadet blue suit) and I suddenly noticed that he held the microphone in his right hand!  Wow! There are men who are right-handed??

All the men in my “family of origin” are lefties:  my dad, my 2 brothers, even my grandfather.  I say “even my grandfather” because my dad was adopted.  Growing up in a tiny town in the wilds of New Hampshire with a even tinier but close-knit Baha’i community, the other Baha’i kids were closer than my cousins, and Michael P., who was my age and in my class at school, was left-handed too.  I think my cousin Tom (or maybe Mike? Aunt Cyn, help me out) is a lefty – but I couldn’t swear to it.  So I think for me, guys being left-handed was just part of “the way it is” – like gravity and the sun coming up every morning.

As for me, I’m right-handed by default or “right-handed – mostly”.  I started out fairly ambidextrous, but over time and the fact this is a right-handed world, I’ve become more right-hand dominant.  Some folks are truly ambidextrous and can write with either hand – that isn’t me. I’ve never been able to write at all with my left. Then again, if you’ve seen my handwriting, you could make a good case that I cannot write at all with my right hand either!  But it is strange;  every now and again, I’ll go to write down something and I’ll pick up the pen in my left hand without thinking…

I think I must sort of gravitate towards left-handed people. Out of my three best girlfriends growing up, 2 are lefties. Out of my 4 best girlfriends now, 2 are lefties. My husband is one and so is his mother.  All of my children are right-handed and I regret (just a little) that we didn’t end up with at least 1 lefty.  I’m always noticing lefties out in the world because I know there are regular challenges for them since we’re so right-teous.  Heck, even orangutans are affected: I read a number of years ago that in the wild, orangutans are overwhelmingly left-handed, but raised in captivity, they are right-handed.  I don’t know if that is true, but it is believable to me, having observed lefties for so long up close and personal.

I’m a little comforted by the thought that my heart surgeon is left-handed. I noticed it when we met with him – he was taking notes with a beautiful fountain pen.  I was rather impressed by the fact that the left cuff of his superbly pressed shirt had no inkstains on it -not easy to do when writing with a ballpoint, much less a fountain pen.  I mentioned his left-handedness and I think he was a tiny bit surprised – perhaps his patients don’t notice that very often?  He said candidly that he does all of his surgeries with his right-hand because surgery is all right-handed (all the clamps and things), but it does “come in handy occasionally” to be a lefty.

It occurs to me that maybe he had to try just a bit harder to be a good surgeon because he’s a lefty, and perhaps that contributed to his becoming the chief of cardiac sugery at Vanderbilt.  I think about what it might be like to go through lots of years of schooling to be a doctor and then get to the actual slicing and dicing and find that one has to do it with the less dominant hand?  That’d be a shock and rather a significant disadvantage I would think.  Perhaps he’d figured that out years ago and it was no biggie to him.  If I had to suddenly play guitar for the rest of my life and every performance left-handed…. well, let’s just say it would be bad, and I would be more than a little unhappy about it -  and I’m not much of a guitarist in the first place.  I don’t know if I would’ve chosen a profession that would be all about my less dominant hand.  Still, I am happy that my surgeon didn’t let that deter him, and I’ve got no qualms about putting my heart into both of his skilled hands this coming Monday morning.  Even though he’ll be cutting and carving, sewing and stitching with his right hand, I think I feel a little better though, knowing he’s really a lefty.

Yarn crimes! & My new favorite website…

Hah!  You thought it was twitter?  Oh no….. It’s

CRAFTASTROPHE!!!

because handmade ain’t always pretty.

Of course I’ll always adore Cake Wrecks and have a real soft spot for Stitchy McYarnpants,  Rad Dudes and the Museum of Bad Art, but  Oh my goodness, do I love this site.  Here’s a few yarn crimes (some of which are not safe for work if you click through -you have been warned!).

A giant sock monkey with “accessories”

How chenille and knitting should NOT be used

What?!?!

Yes, it is ugly and yet STILL a crime on top of that!

This is amazing and weird – perhaps not a crime…..

Not only is this a yarn crime, it might actually be damaging to the children AND illegal: a real hat trick.

Enjoy, y’all.

Yarn Crime

This is a NEW pattern……………..just in time for Easter.

Why oh WHY are knit designers referencing the 1970’s for fashion ideas?  Didn’t we all agree that the clothes in the ’70’s were the result of all the drugs done and/or lots of bad ideas?  Urgh……I need an icepack for my head…and an icepick to “take out” the designer before he or she does something like this again.  I truly feel sorry 1)for the knitter who made these things, 2) the model who had to put these things on and the photographer who had to take the picture.

A Crazy Week & a Surgery Date

Finally! A date fer surgery. Now let the worrying commence!

It’s April 13th, by the way, and I’ll also be participating in an experimental drug trial as well. Turns out my surgeon is the CHIEF of Cardiac Surgery at Vanderbilt, so I’m feeling pretty confident. ) Perhaps he’ll be worth the wait….. We asked him what he thought was the cause of my mitral valve going bad, and he said that he couldn’t say for certain but it was NOT because I am so fat like Studmuffin has been thinking (although the doc acknowledged [and so do I] that I do need to lose a whole lotta weight); it is probably just degenerative valve disease that may have some kind of genetic component. The doc said the proper name of it twice, but I didn’t catch it. It began with an M….. I have to say that I was *happy* to find out that I didn’t cause this to happen by my ginormity (and therefore cannot be blamed for it by said Studmuffin).
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Something fun: And Here’s link to a whole bunch of really cute bunny pictures!
BUNNIES HERE
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Today, Homeschool Kid had to have a frenulectomy…I won’t go into it all, but he’s feeling sore and on mushy foods for a few days. The Doc was running late so it took all daggone day and I had other stuff to do……On top of that, neither our regular insurance nor our secondary dental insurance would pay anything AT ALL for this procedure, which made me wonder again: why do we give them our money? Is it all just a giant Ponzi scheme? :::sigh::: It has been an expensive day.
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Something fun
More bunnies: this time it’s video of SHOW JUMPING BUNNIES (I kid you not)

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The

No ‘S’ thing is going well

. Studmuffin & I both have lost weight and it is rather easy. But he’s an engineer and so loves to do charts and graphs (that boy sho’ does know his way around Excel), and he’s been giving me grief that I wasn’t coming up to snuff with my pound-a-week goal on his charts that he sends me via email (especially before we found out that it isn’t my overweight that’s cause the heart trouble). It was buggin’ me that he was buggin’ me – especially last weekend when he several things to say about it.

No , this isn't his chart...I just thought this was a funny graph....

That chart didn’t look quite right to me, so I put in the data I had: the day we started No ‘S’ing, the couple of times a week I’ve been weighing myself and made my own little chart in Word….

HA! HA! HA! His chart was WRONG!!!!

Y’all would be so proud of me: Tuesday night we were working on some other numbers (yes, we’re such nerds….) and I showed him my data and my chart and asked if perhaps he might’ve put something in wrong? He was in denial for a little bit and accused me of “cherry-picking” the data; I said that I certainly could be wrong, but would he please check it maybe tomorrow?

He sent me a new chart the next day…and it was fixed! And GUESS WHAT?! I’m doing rather BETTER than my weekly goal. Since he wasn’t here, I did my little happy dance of truth and justice. Always check the facts, y’all. Always. Even if somebody else minored in Math in college, you still gotta check the facts.
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Something fun:

The coolest dirty car windows

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I didn’t get to go out knitting at all this week (well, except in waiting rooms at doctors’ offices) and I miss my knitting buddies. I’ma have to miss them for at least a month after the “Grand Opening” so I don’t want to miss them before the event.
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Something fun:
If yer a Star Wars fan at all – click HERE
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There’s all kinds of other stuff that happened, but I still gotta practice some more music before bed. Hopefully I’ll post some actual KNITTING on Sunday. Won’t that be different?
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Something fun: And here’s an

origami Yoda

you can make.
There’s lots of really cool origami

at this site too.

That should keep you busy until Sunday maybe.
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A memory of Dan

In 2000 and again in 2003, the Regional Baha’i Council of the Southern States sponsored a big conference in Nashville, TN. I was lucky enough – not only to participate, but to sing – at both conferences. They were both big conferences, but the second one was HUGE!!

At the 2003 conference, I was singing with the One Human Family Workshop Choir during devotions. It began with all of us on stage but in darkness. Then the wonderful Laura Love Ware’s voice came out of the darkness over the PA, reading a very powerful quote about Baha’u'llah’s imprisonment in the Black Pit (Siyah-Chal) in Teheran. After this, the lights very slowly came up and we started singing a wonderfully Carribean-flavored song, “Holy Spirit”…….

Here we are rehearsing the song at the sound check the night before:

So anyway, right after we were done, we knew we had to get off the stage very quickly and sit in the seats in the front rows that had been reserved for us so the next part of devotions could take place, which was Dan Seals singing “Proclaim the Greatest Name”.

more about "Dan Seals – Proclaim the Greatest Nam…", posted with vodpod

I first heard that song so far back I don’t even remember when it was. It is very well known amongst Baha’is especially, but I didn’t know it was one of Dan’s songs until the late 1990’s. So I was sitting maybe fifteen feet away from him as he was singing this song, and almost immediately just all 5000 of us in attendance start singing along with him, especially loudly on the chorus:

“Baha’u'llah! Baha’u'llah! Help us all proclaim the Greatest Name!
Baha’u'llah! Baha’u'llah! Help us all proclaim the Greatest Name!”

On the second chorus, I was so close to him I could see the tears coming to his eyes and he stopped singing for a moment. I instantly understood that he was moved by all of us singing his song and Baha’u'llah’s name and his gratitude to be a part of it all, ‘cos that was the kind of guy he was. I felt and still feel honored to have been a part of that moment and to catch a tiny glimpse of what it meant to him.

This is not a picture from that event, but it is very similar to how he looked that day:

And here’s a picture from when Dan (on the right) and his brother Jimmy (formerly of Seals & Crofts) performed on the Grand Ole Opry about 4 years ago:

I’ll be singing in the choir at his funeral tomorrow. Sure wish there was no reason for a funeral…

The passing of a great man

I heard about Dan’s passing from other Baha’is.  I knew that he had been very, very ill lately and was in a great deal of pain.  I’ll post my recollections of him a little later – I just can’t do it right now.   Here’s some of my favorite music that he made:

more about "Helen Keniston Oney on IMEEM", posted with vodpod

This from CMT:

Dan Seals, the former pop singer who notched 11 No. 1 country hits between 1985 and 1990, died Wednesday (March 25) following treatments from lymphoma. He was 61. Seals was one-half of the pop duo, England Dan & John Ford Coley, which earned a major pop hit in 1976 with “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.” As a solo artist, Seals won a CMA Award in 1986 for “Bop,” the same year he and Marie Osmond won a CMA vocal duo award for their No. 1 hit, “Meet Me in Montana.”

Seals’ other No. 1 country hits included “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold),” “You Still Move Me,” “Three Time Loser,” “One Friend,” “Big Wheels in the Moonlight” and “Love on Arrival” — all of which he wrote or co-wrote with Bob McDill. His additional No. 1 singles included “I Will Be There” by Jennifer Kimball and Tom Snow, “Addicted” by Cheryl Wheeler and “Good Times” by Sam Cooke.

Other Top 10 singles included “God Must Be a Cowboy,” “(You Bring Out) The Wild Side of Me,” “My Baby’s Got Good Timing,” “My Old Yellow Car” and “They Rage On.”

Seals was born in McCamey, Texas, on Feb. 8, 1948. Although his father was an amateur musician, he played with country artists like Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb and Jim Reeves. Other musically inclined members of his family include his brother, Jim Seals (Seals & Croft), as well as his cousins, country singer Johnny Duncan (”Thinkin’ of a Rendezvous”), songwriters Troy Seals and Chuck Seals and former Little Texas singer Brady Seals.

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Another great man passed yesterday morning and that was John Hope Franklin. He was 94.

At Last – Forward Motion!

I’ve finally got an appointment with a heart surgeon up at Vanderbilt on March 25th.  The waiting has been …. frustrating, so I’m rather happy today.

Of course, now I’m starting to get a little nervous about the surgery; I just want it to be OVER.  But mostly I’m happy.

Yarn Crimes

Why does “Couture” mean “Silly”?  I mean it’s really nice yarn…but who in the hell is gonna knit this stuff?

I know so many of us who would look fabulous in this…NOT. But I think this next one HAS to be my favorite of the worst:

It’s just the thing to pop on when yer off to the chilluns’ soccer game…..Breasts need not apply.

Ugh.

Anglophilism, other stuff and Menu Plan Monday – 3/9/09

Monday – stuffed cabbage

Tuesday – Shepherd\’s Pie

Wednesday- Spaghetti

Thursday- Tacos

Friday- Sandwiches

Saturday- Cheap Eats fundraiser

Sunday- Romano Beans und Rice or leftovers

***

Tonight I hope to get to my Sit & Knit night over at B&N; I haven\’t been in several weeks and 1) I miss everybody & 2)  I\’m behind in my knitting.  The earlier daylight savings changeover is getting me all messed up – I wish they\’d put it back to where it used to be……  :::sigh::::

I wanted to tell everybody that my dear friend Cris in Kansas sent me a fantastic travel coffee thing with Hoops & Yoyo on it for Ayyam-i-Ha.  I was COMPLETELY surprised and it made me laugh and laugh.  Thank you again Cris!  I\’m really hoping to see Cris this summer; it has been years and she is one of my favorite people (and boy oh boy can she SING!)

Speaking of favorite people, I recently found the link to my friend Chris D.\’s (aka Baron Von D\’Lucci) blog.  It is SO GOOD to read what the royalty is doing these days….

http://bvdcosmicflux.blogspot.com/

Mi madre asked about the \”whingeing\” in the title of the blog. Fair enough – here\’s the explanation:

to whine :to snivel or complain in a peevish, self-pitying way

to whinge : to complain; whine. British and Australian Informal.

So \”to whinge\” is the same as \”to whine\” \’cept that the former is British slang, and since I grew up in New England where Anglophilism runs rampant, I like whingeing better than whining.  It sounds slightly more comical to me as well.  Now, if yer an Anglophile and can keep up with British accents fairly easily, you should listen to the BBC\’s News Quiz with Sandy Toksvig.  It\’s a current events program with Sandy and four other comedians and it is FUNNY.  You may not get all the references to the various government ministers, but I love this show.  You can get the podcast thru iTunes, but I like to get it directly from the website since they update more frequently.

***

It was 80 degrees yesterday and will be that again today, and the previous Sunday we had snow. (!) The Studmuffin took pictures that I hope to get on de blog by tomorrow.

A lovely little discovery for me

Organic V8 does NOT give me heartburn!

I’ve learned over the years than V8 is usually a “love it or hate it” thing and I’m one of the lovers.  But I haven’t drunk very much of it for about 10 years because I would always get this bad heartburn about 20 minutes after drinking even a small glass of it with food.  I put that down to “the adventure of aging” and resolved only to drink my beloved red stuff every now and again.

About 3 months ago at Costco, they has a really nice price on a package of 2 large jugs of Organic V8 juice and I decided to take the plunge.  For over  2 months, the V8 has sat in the pantry looking red and luscious – practically taunting me with its tomato-ey goodness.  I couldn’t wait anymore last night & I opened one.

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!

I had 2 glasses of it and then I waited for the ‘burn.  And waited and waited and waited:  NO HEARTBURN!  Such a simple pleasure to be had so easily.

If you’ve had trouble drinking V8 in the past (Mom-this means you), I recommend giving the Organic V8 a try.  You’ll know it is organic because it is written in BIG green letters on the label,  plus there’s a nickel-sized circle on the right hand side of the label that says “USDA ORGANIC”.

I just love this lady’s hair.  Amazing how that hairstyle on a 30-something woman (I’m judging that by her hands) makes her look 65+.  Not a glowing recommendation for tomato juice I’m afraid.  How *did* she get her hair to do that?  Could it have been the pesticide residue?  I’m pretty certain that massive quantities of Aqua-Net were involved at some point…..

Ten fer Tuesday – 10 things to make yer life better

1. laugh & be silly     

Are you smiling yet?

Really, if you aren’t smiling yet, you need to go do something silly immediately!! A few more for you “hard cases”…

2.   sing/make music/hear live music

Making music is a human birthright and do not let “performance anxiety” get in the way of that.  Listening to recorded music is wonderful…but it won’t make your life better in the way that making music does. Yer not performing at Carnegie Hall, so silence yer inner critic and make some music EVERYDAY.  And then make a date to go out and HEAR some live music; there’s just something about that energy that is good for the soul.

3.  STOP watching the news

Yup, you really can and still be a well-informed individual.  You can read the news and you’ll get more out of it I reckon.  I dare you to stop watching tv/online video news for a week completely and read all of your news from say the BBC. You’ll be well-informed, have more time, plus your life will be better.
4. get enough sleep

There are 3 things you can do to improve your health:  eat right, exercise and get enough rest.  The most recent studies show that of these 3 things, getting enough sleep is THE most important.  Now go take a nap.

Time for a smile break:

5.  work for a cause that is greater than yourself

Do I have to explain this? Really? Oh gosh…

In a nutshell:  as far as the Universe is concerned, yer a small being.  A noble and important being, but a small, short-lived being nevertheless. Even the tiniest cockroach can do almost everything that you can do: eat, sleep, make noise, defecate, procreate and so on.  But that cockroach cannot deviate one iota from its instincts – it is a prisoner of its own nature if you will.  Human beings are the only animal that CAN, and since you can, you SHOULD.

6.  exude love

Ever have a bad day, and then get treated with love and kindness from a stranger?  It was fabulous, wasn’t it?  Don’t you wanna do that for others?  Nuff said.

7. practice gratitude

When you practice gratitude, it’s a particularly wonderful way to live in the moment and yet rise above one’s daily concerns.  Be grateful for that hot shower, that cup of tea, that unencumbered breath, even that next heartbeat.  People that need a heart transplant and cannot get one would be VERY grateful for your heartbeat.

8. learn to knit/garden/do something with your hands
go ahead do it.  get a little dirty….

9. read really good books
10. get excited about the mystery of the future

There are wonderful things in store for each one of us!

So…is yer life better yet?

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You can read more of lists by going to: Ten on Tuesday

More music for Ayyam-i-Ha!

Well, Ayyam-i-Ha was officially over at sunset yesterday (March 1) but I had promised to post more music for y’all and since I got distracted by my life this weekend and didn’t post anything, I decided to go ahead anywayand give y’all some more!

Are you surprised by any of the folks on this list? On this list everyone is a Baha’i *except* the Procussions, but the featured vocalist is Tara Ellis and she *is* a Baha’i. And I am not completely certain that Buffy Sainte-Marie is *officially* a Baha’i, but she has performed at a number of Baha’i conferences over the years, is listed on Wikipedia as an adherent and there is video someplace of her accurate explanation of the Baha’i belief in Progressive revelation…so she if she isn’t officially a Baha’i, she’s one at heart and that’s what counts. )

more about “More music for Ayyam-i-Ha!“, posted with vodpod