Helicopter

 

This one is done while rotating the top hand just a little around the vertical hand. I now know how to sign, "Look at the dirty Helicopter", "Look at the dirty tree", this is one that DH and I like to use when anyone complains about how "dirty" a tree is that is in their yard, and "Look at the dirty Bulldozer." I know a few other signs, too.

Someday it would be wise as well as expeditious to learn American Sign Language as DH and I age. It could save a lot of bad tempered remarks.

Anyway, out comes Gretchen, now. And the Drops Aran Sweater. I'm sorry for being such a slow knitter anymore. This hardly qualifies as a "knitting blog" at all!

ASL "Bulldozer"

 

The gloves are finished L. And that's one of the new signs I learned while watching the excellent "signer" who assisted all the talking heads, during thefire updates. She never once rolled her eyes, either. Very Professional! Even when a nameless, and shameless, Country Supervisor pushed her aside to make room from an upper mucky from Washington DC! The camera operator, bless their heart, changed the camera angle to cut off part of the supervisor and fully display the talents of the ASL Signer. Yay for little folks! A side note, this sign is done with little pushing motions forward and back.

Sweet 16

 

Guess who turned 16.. This amazing and tiny bromeliad came home from the Fair over 16 years ago. How's that for hardy? Or, maybe it's just lucky it's so close to a water faucet? It's never pupped and never bloomed but it did stay alive. Bless it's little heart.

Also, I'm no longer having to read Google in Finnish. You don't want to know.....

Knitting news. The short fingered glove has three fingers. Only three more to go.. er.. two more.. *counts fingers of her hand*. Yes, definitely! Two!

The Word Famous On Shore Winds are back

 

These moist winds are our friends here in San Diego. This was taken 15 minutes ago. If another Santa Ana doesn't start up at the weekend, we will be OK.

Today was our 45th Wedding Anniversary. DH and I went to our favorite hamburger joint for dinner, and then we chugged over to JoAnn's for me to snag some 50% off threads. He paid and picked up the bag. When he handed me the bag he said, jokingly, "Happy Anniversary."

Take care, you all. This is a very dry year for practically everyone, and that's no exaggeration.

A Bit of Beauty for a very Bad Week

 

As you know, we've had more than a full plate in the form of Wildfire this week. So there are a lot of fire pictures up for our County.

This bit of beauty is an Oriental Lily which was grown in Carlsbad, a little city that escaped the firestorm because of the efforts of hundreds of firefighters, animal rescue volunteers, orderly evacuations and top notch police and sheriff's work. They all worked hard everywhere the several fires raced, and saved lives and homes and countless animals as well.

*Insert Huge Heartfelt Standing Ovation.*

Hopefully this will be all behind us in a few more weeks and recovery can begin.

Goodbye summer, I hope!

It's officially goodbye to summer today but the weather has been in the 80s. I say official because yesterday was the first day that the flock of tiny Bushtits came by. Every year about this time in Fall, they are moving around because there are migrants in their usual haunts nearer the lake and the back country. If you hold up your hand and make an "O" with your thumb and middle finger, one of these tiny birds could fit comfortably into that circle. One of them could perch on the web of your thumb there with little room to spare. You can see them here. As they fly around our big Cape Honeysuckle and the citrus trees, they call to one another, making a very tiny, sweet "Psst" sound that keeps them in touch with the flock. Bushtits down by the lake also fly in mixed flocks with other small birds but the ones which come to our yard are all Bushtits, and the flock numbers around 25 birds. We get a lot of migrants through our yard and the resident birds are ever faithful. Since the elms came down we haven't seen a single downy woodpecker, or a sap sucker either.

Well the ever faithful kitchen stove is beyond repair. Good Bye old friend. I will keep your burner grates for pot stilts in the garden.

We will have to replace the stove, as the bill to fix is nearly half the way to a new stove. It's been a very good appliance, since it was bought in 1989, and it's sad that parts are now so costly that such a good stove needs to be replaced. I'm letting the cook pick out the next one. It's his kitchen. I think I'd root for a big, beautiful, stainless steele JennAir, but we will see what he decides. I'm limiting my involvement in the kitchen to baking breads or pies, or maybe pizzas, maybe even some cakes. It really is a "One Butt Kitchen" so it's best to not annoy the chef. ;o)

Knitting content is that I've been poking around in Ravelry and have got one yarn put up on the list. It was a little scary because it looked like I was willing to trade it, which I am not! I wheedle yarn about once every three months and I'm not trading it, oh no no no.... There is some black and white acrylic I'm just a little sick of.

The "book" is down to the knitty gritty. It's to the part where family farmers virtually disappeared. God I hate that part! Just hate what has happened to Family Farms! But two page rants are over for me.

On a happier note, some of them are doing fairly well, here and in the Santa Cruz area. I hope that this movement keeps expanding as it's very encouraging. DH found some beautiful Bosque and Asian pears yesterday at the Farmer's market, and some avocados, some flowers, as well as tomatoes, squash, fuji apples - all organic, and all local. This is one way we can fight the machine. I wish that all part of the country could do this but I do understand how hard it is for some to do. Did I ever put up the CSA ( Community Supported Agriculture) sites? If not, I'll do that in case any of you are interested. My daughters are all able to use CSA for part of their food supply.

I'm sorry there's not much knitting content. It's in the ebb tide now. I am buying some yarn tomorrow for the felting project. After the last flop, it's time to prove that I have what it takes!

Here you go Trish!

 

Pink! And these are Chris' Tree Peones. Lovely stuff! Thanks, Pink and Beauty all around us, too! Yes, B, I know you can't stand Pink. lol..

Tasmanian Sky, of an afternoon

 

Chris said she was, "just out for a walk". Thanks for a beauty shot, Chris!

The Pain that comes from defective multitasking

 

The mutant finger was amputed last night. All healed now, but the glove needs my full attention, apparently. Perhaps it was the choice of movie, "Enemy of the State"? A nail biter, that one. I'm no longer a multi tasker. DH gets the stare whenever he interrupts me even when I'm walking to get something from another room. You see, I have to keep a mental picture formed of what I'm going there for or all is lost.

Chris sends beauty from down under in the form of Tasmanian skies, My ubiquitous California snaps of palm trees just would be too boring now. So, that is knitting content and then some beauty to lift spirits in the piccy post coming up.

BTW, the book is almost like a blueprint for the Mob to take over the monetary system. I wonder if they have, with their hedge funds and dirty money in need of a Chinese laundry? Who knew?

Ravelry, wet books and the World Bank. World Bank?

At last. I can take over the stash before it takes over me! Ravelry caught up to me last week. Yay! I even have a buddy there already. It's very, very cool, that Ravelry place. Now there will be two Knitting places to entertain myself with on the long sleepless nights.

I'm still reading my book, and DH has already said that I should buy it. This I'm happy to be able to do because the library copy was borrowed by countless poor economic students, I presume, who have - in turns, underlined it in places, propped it up while eating Chinese take out or perhaps even chocolate bars, and #3, dropped it into the dish water while washing up. I did that with my Western Civ book one year. That was the year my mother taught me how to rescue a book from sure death, dry it out, and iron the most water damaged pages flatter. It was always a conversation piece in class, but at least it spared me buying another book with my readies, which were very, very slim pickings. You see, I know the ways of poor college students. ;-)

I've been reading all my old copies of Interweave Knits to lessen the impact of the self torture of learning too late about the deeply disturbing doings of the IMF and the World Bank during their infancy and their Grammar School years. I already knew that they were very, very wicked teenagers. If you think your teens are in anyway little bad *ssed bears, they have nothing at all on the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. Nuh uh... And, as the twig is bent, so they go on and on and on with the most egregious skullduggery, hidden away in their Granite buildings. Who needs to read mysteries about puny little one murder perps?

Does reading Interweave Knits qualify as knitting content? Or even Intent?

Ok, I'll tell a story. It's not about knitting. It's about mistaken intent perhaps. DH had a friend who wanted to cut down a tree. His friend wanted to borrow our hatchet. He was coming over soon to get it, so he said. So, I put the hatchet right by the front door so as to be ready for him when he came. Days went by, I moved the hatchet away from the door. A few days later, about mid day, the door bell rang. I dashed to the door, drying off my hands from washing up the breakfast dishes, took a quick out the door and yes, there was a guy out there on the step, but where was that hatchet? I looked all around and finally yelled out to the kids, "Where in the heck is that hatchet??!!!" They told me where it was, I quickly retrieved it, and opened the door. It of course was not our friend, but a salesman, who had backed all the way down the driveway and was standing there with his little clip board watching me with the hatchet in my hand. Words were never going to work but I did try......

Yes, I'm not KNITTING. I'm in recover from self torture

Photo courtesy of Amazon.com


I'm into self torture today, or the stars are misaligned? I'm reading ( trying to finish before the due date) a book that I should have read ten years ago but was not looking in the right direction. And, It is a gloomy day but part of it was rainy, so that part is good. My project for the day, to fit a machine into my new-to-me little sewing cabinet, has fallen on it's face. None of my sewing machines would fit into the cabinet, which was purchased at a garage sale friends were giving. So, now I will probably have to sell this sweet looking cabinet. I don't want to because it's nice looking and would make a pretty, and nice, small desk. DH doesn't exactly agree. I'm working on it. No I'm not knitting though I should be. If I were an emoticon, it would be crying, sobbing and beating it's little yellow face into the floor.

Every American should read this book. It's that pivotal to understand just how
our democracy has been ripped off. I was never much for Corporate Conspiracies, and this book isn't about that, really. In fact, it is all about what has happened having been more in the perps being mistaken in their theory, and clashing in the presentation of their goals than about out-right conspiracy. No matter WHAT side of the political fences, and there are several different ones, this book chronicles something for you to be pissed off about.

On the pissed off meter, rank me a ten. It's going to take a lot of chocolate for this one. I'm so glad that I'm off the Consumer Train forever...

The Bag..

 

The minute I saw these bags, I knew I wanted one. It's a knitter's dream tote with lots of pockets. Joie has been designing bags for a few years, and she is branching out with patterns at her LQS locations. I met her through postcarding.

New Tote for little old meme, and a tiny teapot

The date stamp is wrong on this thing. Maybe because it was a draft saved on the tenth....

Anyway, I will now try to attach a piccie of the tiny teapot. It's just a little commonware teapot but it's thrown on a wheel and has a handmade spout. I love it.




Today we are going to a funeral. Military Honors for a WWII vet. It's going to be beautiful and emotional. He was a very good neighbor and human being.

The other Jack O Lantern in the Skies of Ryzom

 

Well, after all, Halloween is coming soon!

Scary Halloween Moon from Ryzom

 

Perini and Jenari admiring a pumpkin

 

At least I think that is they. They are good friends. We will miss so many people.

Happy Almost Halloween

 

From Ryzom.

A Neoliberal Economist strikes!

I really was going to post some flowers to off set this slight rant, but all the snaps came out fuzzy.

Anyway, someone took exception to a post about Adam Smith's book. The first one to find the comment made, besides the commentator themselves, will receive a dyed Reagan tail feather! It's an anonymous comment. They probably have Adam Smith confused with a Communist. And when you find the comment, you will know that it's a modern person because they have a modern convenience. Toilet paper. Yes, that's a clue!

Quite the contrary Anon. And, yours is an opinion like any other. You have a right to it. But, I'm wondering. What sort of world would you like? Would you like to continue in this world of insatiable greed we are living in now? Or maybe you really would like to have one balanced between Democratic Governmental controls - for the good of all the citizens (labor), heed of Environmental Imperatives and physical limits - for the good of the land (earth), and Money- Capital. Also, do you not think that Adam Smith's book is an early version of that?

I'll always love this quote from George Bernard Shaw - "If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion."

I'm now reading Tony Hillerman's newest book. It's a helluva lot more fun than reading Modern Economics. Especially odious, to me, are those who adhere to the Chicago School of Economics who have abandoned Keynes entirely. Bah! Bloody Tories!

The glove is so near to completion. As soon as it's finished I will start on Gretchen. I'm hoping that it goes quickly though it is a rather large shawl. There are some very beautiful patterns, like "Print of the Wave" from HeartStrings for after the Drop's Aran sweater is finished. Knitting is going very slowly. A quilt and a coat have to be finished before the end of the year.

DH went to the Octoberfest with a friend, and the whole thing was almost all commercial, they said. People selling time shares, imported cheap clothing and jewelry. With the booth price being over $600 it doesn't surprise me that this is so.

My brother is coming down for a couple days. He is always fun to be around, and he likes to go to the local antique shops with my sister. DH and I might tag along. Maybe I'll find that tiny Japanese teapot that I liked. Of all the things to collect in Quakeland, ceramics and glass are not advised!

Have a great time and I do have a few pictures from the game I used to play. Enjoy them. It was a beautiful game!

The best game on the world is on it's death bed

I've played Ryzom for three years, almost three anyway, and it is such a beautiful game, visually and otherwise, that it's depressing that it couldn't make it. It was launched at a bad time for games in general - face to face with WOW- and it was from France, which took a huge hit on all burners, from North America. It's too late to save it, but I just had to give it a decent burial here in my blog.

Goodbye Beautiful Ryzom. Rest in Peace. I still hold out hope that a multi billionaire will rescue you, damsel in distress that you are, but it's a pretty slim thing that a billionaire would buy something that obviously keeps bleeding money from so many wounds.

So, Rest in Peace Beautiful Lady. Au Revoir et Amour.

Today has been strange

So, after moving my sister's gift china into the bottom of the hutch, I'm moving all the blogs just a bit at a time to get the benefit of the newer version of link lists and not have to fool with the old way anymore. I'm so glad that Blogspot listened and made link lists easy to do now.

Going to go tear into something else to use up nervous energy. I think it's the electricity from the dryness. Where IS my Zooomie Hat?