Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the funny category.
Loads of stuff to blog about….
…unfortunately I’ve been knitting so much my hands hurt, so ix-nay on the yping-tay. And I have a cold. And so does the Force of Nature AND the Duke of Curl. And Bluto the cat has a sinus infection and something gunky going on with his eye…. I know: too much information.
Hopefully, we’ll all improve in a hurry and I’ll be back to writing SOON!
Meanwhile, you’ll find some absolutely hideous ( and NSFW I might add) handcrafts at Regretsy.com
We have a winner!!!
After 36 entries by 14 entrants, we have chosen a new blog name for *The Individual Formerly known as Homeschool Kid*.
THE DUKE OF CURL!
Charity is the winner. Yay! I actually met Charity in person before I knew her online – that’s fairly rare for me. You should DEFINITELY check out her Etsy shop, and her blog and the other site… (she’s way talented y’all). I’ll be sending off yer gift card soon.
Many thanks to everyone who entered! This was really fun; I think I’ll do contests oftener.
Just so’s ya know, I did ask The Duke of Curl to help choose his new blog name, and he chose that one.
I hope tomorrow to wrangle the Force of Nature back into her robot costume for the promised picture – I haven’t been able to get to it the last 2 days.
NaKniSweMo post tomorrow I hope.
Halloween wrap up
A little mood music?
Ok, so the Force of Nature got it into her head that she was gonna make herself a robot costume out of cardboard (her favorite medium to work in)….and that was 2 months ago. She has been staying up very late night after night painting, taping, fixing…I don’t know what all. She was gonna be something else for Halloween, but she’s been so obsessed there’s really not been time for her to work on anything else….
Last night, at nearly the last minute, she got to attend a Halloween party at the local science museum. They had a costume contest…and she WON! I promise a real picture with her in it tomorrow (she’s in bed now) but here’s a poorly lit cell phone pic to whet yer appetite.
We had some friends over for dinner and the kids went out trick or treating. We watching a bunch of silly things on YouTube, including this – which gets my vote as the CUTEST THING EVER FILMED.
A bit of silliness to get the week off to a good start
Oh yeah and a menu plan for Monday! I usually do this every week; I’ve just been forgetting to post them:
Mon- Tri-color Tortellonis
Tues- Fish
Wed- Hot Dogs on ze grill
Thu- Shepherd’s pie a la Cracker
Fri- Beef Stew
Sat- Chicken Cacciatore Stoup ( A Rachel Ray recipe)
Sun- Leftover or cheap eats out
If anyone is interested in the “Shepherd’s pie a la Cracker” recipe, leave a comment and I’ll either email it to you or post it here. It’s a much quicker weeknight version of Shepherd’s Pie, adapted from my memory of my Dad’s dish and quite a favorite with my kids.
Some chuckles for you Anglophiles out there
If you enjoy British silliness and/or wit about current events et al, you might enjoy listening to the BBC’s “Friday Night Comedy Show”. It varies from season to season; right now it’s the News Quiz with Sandi Toksvig. She and 4 comedians go over the news from the last week and make humorous comments. It’s become regular listening here.
It’s available by podcast at iTunes or you can listen directly at this web page:
SQUEEE!!!!!!!!!
Classic Elite Yarns, one of my favorite yarn & pattern companies, has put a ton of their out of print patterns up for sale via download on Patternfish! YAY! YAY!YAY!
If you like ganseys, cables, colorwork, you REALLY owe it to yerself to check them out. Plus they (Classic Elite Yarns) *just* published Jared Flood’s book (it is SO fabulous – I saw it today at Yarn Expressions) and they get much kudos fer that too. Dammit, can the man make anything that doesn’t turn out absolutely amazing? Us mere mortals (OK maybe just this one) tremble with awe and a wee bit ‘o envy…..
Finding these patterns available almost makes up for the fact I nearly broke my nose (in a very stupid way) today. Picture the scene: I am at the dining table/homeschool table, busily cutting apart Russian flash cards, as the Force of Nature is whining away about her handwriting assignment. I drop one of the flash cards on the floor; I lean over to get it…
I lean a bit too far and in slow-motion ……:::imagine long door creaking sound here:::: or better yet-play this:
-I tip over and bonk the bridge of my nose on the edge of the seat of the other ‘puter chair (and fall on top of dog, Natasha). Much blood ensued. I did hear a “crunch” and thought the honker was broken for a minute…but it was just cartilage noise at the time of impact. I’m glad it isn’t broken; my schnoz already makes enough of a statement without the help of new ridges, flatspots or deviations.
Friends and neighbors, always remember and never forget to keep a bags of frozen peas in the freezer. I’ma take a coupla Tylenol, then I’m off to bed.
Oh yeah – I need to post a silly picture:
A Word to the Wise:
NEVER schedule a meeting with husband and the marriage therapist on the day of one’s anniversary unless one is COMPLETELY certain that the husband will say nothing about one’s shortcomings.
Oh and MOST definitely try to reschedule said meeting if one’s own musical hero’s funeral is being broadcast live and one is wearing out the hanky, sobbing away.
How dumb can I be? Well……perhaps I shouldn’t invite comment upon that subject until I’m feeling a little more positive. Let’s just say it was a new low in the anniversary department – and that’s even before I burned dinner that night.
Fortunately, we will weather this storm too and not immediately seek out lawyers and such. Twenty-one frrrrreekin’ years. Oy.
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. 
)
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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).
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
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* 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…..
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.
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.)
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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……
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* 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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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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. )
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Actual knitting content to soon follow.
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:
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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
you can make.
There’s lots of really cool origami
That should keep you busy until Sunday maybe.
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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.
Catching up: Lux Interior RIP, Secret Pal, appliances, tree cutting, knitting, sleep study, twaddle…
I know I promised a post on Wednesday – I fell asleep! I’ve been thinking about posting every day…but I got busy. The Force of Nature got a bad cold and was sick all weekend, then I had the sleep study Tuesday night (more on that in a minute) then Studmuffin got sick. He actually stayed home from work for 2 days; this has never happened before! He was feeling better yesterday and wanted to go to work, but I convinced him to avoid coughing all over his workmates and to stay home. Then Homeschool Kid got sick yesterday……he’s still sick today and in bed right now, which is why I’ve got a little time to blog.
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Back in the summer of 1985, my friend Danny from Canada was telling me all about the bands he liked and he talked about The Cramps.
I had never heard of them. A few years later I was in college and a part of the college radio station crew and I looked up the Cramps. I loved them! So funny, weird and sexy and kitschy and good fun. Their lead man, Lux Interior (far left above), became a kind of hero for me. His bass player, Poison Ivy (in the sparkly pants), was a big part of the whole thing and she and Lux were married and were together for 35+ years – which isn’t what one usually thinks about with punks and the lifestyle.
Anyway, like we all do at some point, Lux passed away on February 4 at the age of 60, 62 or 64 (depending on what source you read) from a previous heart condition. Back in 1987, it was widely rumored that he’d died of a herion overdose and Poison Ivy started receiving condolences, flower wreaths, etc., which Lux at first was cool and then it turned “kind of creepy”.
The world is a stranger, more interesting place because of the Cramps – Studmuffin called me this morning after hearing on NPR of Lux’s death.
Here’s a couple of videos:
This one is MUCH harder to watch; the Cramps did a free concert at a mental institution in 1979 and it was captured on a handheld video camera.
Episode IV- the Return of “Catching Up”: Tree cutting and knitting
One of the things that attracted us to the neighbohood we live in was the number of mature trees everywhere. Studmuffin and I agree that we do not enjoy the raw look of new subdivisions, so that was a big reason we moved to Reston, Virginia when we did that and when we were looking for a house here.
(no this isn’t my picture or my tree, but it is a maple so you get the idea)
One of the downsides of having mature trees is that they die and need to be removed so they don’t fall on you, the car, the house, the dog, the neighbors, and so on. We lost the two beautiful maple trees in the front a few years ago to old age and the power company was kind enough to take those down for us for free (of course the knuckle from one of them is STILL sitting on our front lawn…but I digress).
The ivy covered maple in the back has been losing big chunks of itself every time we have some big wind and we knew we had to get rid of it too. Every now and again a tree service would come by and tell us that we needed to take the tree down and give us their card and give us a real big price. The removal would be dangerous and I knew that was reason for the big price. However Studmuffin has been deluding himself for a long time that he would do it himself (over my dead body! There’s a reason trees like that are called “widowmakers”), and so would never call anyone. Finally, one fella whose child goes to the school across the street just kept coming by and talking to Bill and gave him a price that Bill thought was fair. So yesterday, the tree cutting commenced. I was SO worried for the man doing it – that tree was really dangerous even though I was impressed by the man’s skill and experience (he had all his limbs and digits and has been doing this for years). Only one segment hit the roof at all – only the gutter was damaged, and the man was not hurt. Thank God! He stacked up all the cut logs out side the fence and by 8 pm last evening most had been taken by people driving by. Studmuffin thought we should have sold it (meaning that I would have sold it while he was at work – he hates selling stuff) but I was just as happy to see it all go. I also convinced Studmuffin that we should give the tree man more than the amount they’d agreed upon because it was so dangerous. Studmuffin was home sick from work yesterday, so he got to see it himself, and I think that was the clincher.
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Other than the Zigzag mittens, I made some other mittens this week;
Even though the pictures are pretty good, I don’t think they show just how pretty these things are.
Pattern: Mittenz
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Expression, 2 skeins red/orange, 1 skein grey/black (counts as a “super bulky” yarn)
Needle: size 10 US (6.0 mm)
Ravelry link: Mittenz for Kim
This is a quick knit and fun to do, since the construction is sideways.
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A very silly little something
From the Very Short List: George Harrison, (my favorite Beatle) on Eric Idle’s Rutland Television,….reveals that he really wanted to be a pirate.
If you don’t wanna watch “the Pirate sketch pitch” - just go to 1:40 and hear a very different version of “My Sweet Lord”. Gosh, I miss you, George.
YARN CRIME!
This installment of Yarn Crime is brought to you by the rather strange folks over at Rad Dudes who prove over and over (and over and over) again how horrible everyone looked in the 1970’s.
This is bad on so MANY levels…..and you know it has to be made out of acrylic. It isn’t even good knitting; I’m certain this poor young teen was scarred for life even if the only time she/he ever wore this thing was for the picture. I have to go lie down now – does anyone have a cold compress?
Riding With Mother – part 3
by Elaine Mead Currier Keniston
- Family Vacations -
Franconia Village and White Mountains; postcard from the 1950’s
Mother had a smart idea about how we could go on family vacations, something that others from more affluent situations did at least once a year. Why not pack the family car up and go? You could sleep in the car with blankets and pillows, stay in the various roadside areas, truckstops and state parks, and then motor along to see the sights. Back then in the 1950’s it became our method of getting a well-deserved break.
A quiet Halloween et al
Studmuffin was out of town all week in California for work and of course I had a cold. Am I actually getting wiser because I did NOT try to do everything I had on the to do list to try to rest and get better?
