"The Cove", not for the kiddies....And yes, Good Lord! That is four posts in one day!

The Cove is a Documentary.

It's about Dolphins.  It's about slaughter and buying of live dolphins, tangentially about Aquatic Parks, as they buy their "performers" from this place, and therefor support this practice with lots of $$$$.
 
This is not pretty, in fact it can really make you really sick.  But, it also has to be stopped.

This is a, "Psssssst!!  Just Do SOMETHING", sort of project.

Here are three sites to read

New York Times Article about The Tokyo Film festival

Get Educated

Things You Can Do

I haven't been to Sea World in 4 decades, nor will my family go there, nor  would I ever go to any other aquatic park.   There are times when I wish the dolphins were actually capable of flying up into the heavens and saying, "Goodbye, and thanks for all the fish!"

"We won't have a society if we destroy the environment."

Margaret Mead

Tibet

Tibet is now back in the news, but here is an article from 2008 about what is now apparently going to be Chinese policy towards Tibet.

The Hoped for Changes

The little prayer flags on my lamps that you sometimes see, are from the "Free Tibet" movement.  For me, the latest news from Newsweek, is good news indeed. 

Thanks to the millions around the world who cared, and those who put their lives on the line to get this grave injustice re-thought, Tibetan culture will not just be assimilated and forever lost.

California Single Payer Bill

 The big story.....

Amazing news.  Just Amazing.

I'm so pleased at the will and dogged determination of the California Senate and Assembly to stick to business and do this again!

If the Over Insured Governor, still bleating on about the cost of it all, and still being a BLATANT tool of the FOR PROFIT Industry middlemen, vetoes this bill, he will be nixing a HUGE chance to get this out of the hands of the middlemen and back into the hands of the REAL Health care industry, the doctors and hospitals.

He's a popular and likable actor.  He's a rotten Governor.

All I can say to the Republican obstructionists, is that this is not a left wing anything,  It's common sense.

"Leno argued the state-run plan would replace the $200 billion Californians already pay for their health care while eliminating insurance companies' share. He previously said the system could use existing state and federal money and a payroll tax, coupled with increased efficiencies from a government-run system."

"We are spending $200 billion currently," Leno said. "It is the same $200 billion used in a more efficient, cost-effective fashion."

Update on the Dog that was rescued, plus a lot of other stuff...

Sue, who sent the original dog story to me, sent this UPDATE on the dog itself.  What a sweet and happy ending.  Thank you Sue! 

I like what is said at the end of the story about life saving.  It's short but it's beautiful. 

You LAFD  guys may never see this but I'm going to say it anyway.... Thank you Steve Ruda, Joe St. Georges, and all the people who took part in this rescue!   Thank you for being there every day for us all, and for caring.

Knitting Report?:  I'm back to my knitting.  We had a fun day at the zoo, and day of cookie baking, oogling patterns in the newest IK, but and I'm still in recovery from the zoo.  lol. 

The Manly/Beastly is growing a bit a day, a very little bit.  I was going to do the Ravelympics but that won't be possible now.   I'll just stick to what I have on the needles and stay off the internet so much.  There are closets to clean out!  clothes to be re-cycled with brain engaged, and yesterday we trotted out to a neighbor's garage sale and scored two bookcases!  One is small for things like knick knacks but is deep enough for DVDs and CDs.  The other will eventually be in the kitchen for the cook books.  DH doesn't know it, and he doesn't read here so I can tell my stealth plans.   I want to make it the corner bookcase that never got built.  Hopefully this works out. 

Bye for now, as I'm getting the tape measure out.  I have an orange one that DH can never steal for the garage.  I bought it for ME!

Do you have these tool stealing issues at your houses?

Here Comes Spring, at the Zoo...

Large Spray of blossoms.

Same Blossoms but at the beginning of the cycle ( I think).

Agave Flower Spike

Fig tree Spring Sprouts


Today was a Zoo Day. We got there much too late to see the baby panda out and about. He must be quite adorable, since he's been described as "very playful". I tried to find any flowers that were out but couldn't manage the orchids, a bridge too far.  We did go down Fern Canyon which is always very beautiful. I'll post some pictures of that tomorrow

While DH and I sat eating our treat of kettle corn, a special truck, one with small all steel cages - no wire, just breathing holes, drove by us. About 15 minutes after the truck went by, a squad of macaws flew overhead - from the same direction the truck went - calling and getting everyone's attention. The special truck was part of a show, and the birds were flying back to the stage from being carried there. It was a magnificent sight to see these big, beautifully colored birds flying in a line above our heads. This almost made up for having missed the baby panda playing.

Sky Watcher.. End of Storm Wednesday

LIttle Shop of Horrors owner, Rush Limbaugh, confesses....

He just doesn't want to live anymore. 

Read all about it, HERE, and yes, it's a bit X rated.  You know, just like he is.

Little side Hobbies of a Rockhound

I collect bits and pieces of both old rusty steel and iron out in the desert, some old glass, too. Mostly it's old barbed wire, hinges, twisty bits of bailing wire, that sort of thing - melted bottles out of fire pits.

This piece, an old hinge, is from Arizona, and it looks, mostly, like a trio of bull dogs, maybe Bears, trying to squeeze out of the metal. I think it's really a beautiful find.

The visit is on again, bless em. And, my doctor's appointment has been postponed for a week or so. I told the lady from reception, who called this am to re-schedule, that it was ok if I didn't see the doc so soon. I'd had time to talk to my friends and they ALL told me to stop watching ANY news. She chuckled.

I think I'm going to settle into the chair with my knitting for what Edwardian ladies in England called a "rest cure". Some Gin and Tonic wouldn't hurt, but I don't drink. Too bad! But there is always chocolate. The Drama is over here and not a minute too soon.

This is wonderful. A dog is rescued

The rescue crew was correct.  They did it or they would have to rescue a human trying to rescue the dog.  People are that brave, trust me.

There is a  photo gallery at the Los Angeles Daily News, and here is one at the Los Angeles Times.

Oooops! Oh My....

Christmas is coming down, literally. I'm taking the trees down today and tomorrow. But the Angel got impatient. She wanted to go back in her box, so she tried to leap into my sister's arms on Friday. We observed a day of mourning, Saturday, and now I will put her away with a tiny glue mark and a new lace neck scarf. She actually had tried to die before, but somehow survived it. You just never know what an angel is thinking, do you?

There has been no knitting but a lot of mindless picking out of stitches at the top of some RTW pants that were ready to wear until they were washed and the elastic shrunk in the drier. I should know by now that you CANNOT wash elastic waisted pants and then DRY then in a dryer unless you made them yourself.

My brain is trying to digest other new and scarier things these last few weeks, so it's burping out a lot of tried and truisms collected and based in the antiquated crafts part of ( I hope) the cerebellum. Or maybe sewing is only a hibernating craft? Anway, the brain is marvelously able to get through the dust bins, usually, to make room for new thoughts and more relevant fears. This is normally considered a good thing but, generally speaking, there's nothing normal about my brain.

SoCal Coastal version of snow

It's round, and it sounds like rocks hitting the roof. No dainty snowflakes sounds come for this manly variety of frozen moisture. It's sort of fun if it's not bigger than this. Bigger than this and it dents the roofs of cars and RVs. Enlarge the photo and have a look at the catching scented geranium on the corner of the piccy. It looks like snowball bush, just a little. 

The smell of garlic hung in the air outside, as the ornamental garlic took a little bashing from this downpour.

Bizzaro has an Anniversary... The Big 25

Here's a link to Bizzaro's Blog.

He's always made it easier to slog through a day of  "Life As We Know It".  Even "Life As We Hate It" is more bearable for the captive Earthlings, like me and some of you all, because of having Bizzaro on board as "Interpreter" for all things, with the little hidden K2s and sticks of dynamite.  Well, yes, one cannot forget the pie!

Rissa from Rooted In Mississippi gave me an award in November of 2007.  I JUST NOW FOUND IT!

 About that time,  I'd gone off on a hard right turn, and gotten the feathers all fluffed out like a mother hen disturbed on her nest.  If chickens can be seen as Owls, which would make this next mental image more reasonable, I then started reading far too much political news than is healthy for the brain of chickens, owls or  homo sapiens, though some may prefer the classification, "Homo Stupidicus", for our species.

I don't like the word, but "Basically" because I can still hear Henry Kissinger saying it.  But, basically,  I am a Human Rights activist, and that puts a person, bodily, in the path of resistance to the monitary and military warfare of a nation on the way to world dominance.   The   sun went out, the hangman appeared, the cards were cast.

I don't think I deserve the "You make Me Smile Award" anymore.  But it is pretty interesting and you can see it on Rissa's blog, which is a great Needlewoman's blog.  Go have a peek!

And I am really going back to sky and flowers, as the excursion into the dark heart of US politics, the dark underbelly of insatiable greed of big players, and Global Economic warfare nearly made me lose my mind.  I have a dog to see through his new and happy little life..

The Aran sweater goes on and on.  But it's being worked on every day..  Every day, in every way, it is getting longer...awful,  I know..

Ted Talks.. Kalandar... dancing bears.

I knew of the bears, I knew of the people, but this, I didn't know about until dd1 sent it to me.

It's so beautiful what has been done...

Read it and Weep, no really, Read it and weep...

 Actually, it's, "Watch it and weep".

  I'm out of here for awhile.

First Robertson shooting off his big, BIG mouth about Haiti "deserving" what happened because they are "cursed by a pact with the devil", and now this bit of info.  I just can't stand the World.


Al Jazeera English aired this report on Sunday.  And if you donated to Doctors without Borders, well, good luck........

It's Monday...

One of those important hols that were moved to a Monday to help out the businesses who need a break.

Did you see Non Sequitur in the Sunday comics?  I've found the Path to Inner Peace!  So exciting!!!  I knew there was a good reason to get the Sunday rag.  Of course by Internet, I hope that doesn't mean Knitting Groups on the web!

If you wait more than a few days to use that link, Somebody's Genius program will try to grab you.  Beware the sign up sheet for Genius!  You just never know, they might try to suck your brain out.

The Wolf on the doorstep...or the top of the bed...

Wolfie has been bad and has been rustling around on the bed at night.  I think he is awake all night because he sleeps too much during the day.  So, today, I will let the little beggar out whenever he hears other dogs so that he can "defend" his back garden.

He and the dog-on-the-other-side-of-the-wall go back and forth along it, leaping at the corners to get at each other, which neither can actually do.  But Wolfie can jump halfway up the wall with the agility and energy befitting a mountain lion.   The lime tree limbs that are close to the bottom of the lime tree get a good ragging from him too,  He bites them and viciously shakes them, thereby telling the other dog just what it's in for if it should ever set foot on this side of the fence.  I can't believe this guy is not a terrier.  He's still digging holes whenever we do.  We pull up so much as a weed, Wolfie is right there to help out, front paws going like pistons, as he emits little growls of encouragement to his pack leaders. 

Back to the sleeping though.  He kept waking me up periodically last night, until 3 am when I finally pushed him away from my side and growled at him.   He's done the fussing around bit for several nights, now, and I'm so tired!!    I really didn't want to have him up on the bed.  We both thought that there was no way that he could get up there on his own, so thought we were safe.  In truth, there were several nights in the beginning when he hadn't got all the wind velocities and angle figured out.

But now, even with his stubby little legs, he can run and jump, cling to the side, and scramble up top, and it's about three feet high!  He gets the top of his body up,  his head ( big round, brown eyes glowing with determination) and one or both front legs clinging to the edge.  Once there, he just plows away  like a maniac to get the rest of his body up.  It's such a feat of engineering and physics on his part that we just started falling out of bed, laughing, and let him stay.

Knitting is going swimmingly but we are, after all, talking about an in the round Aran Sweater, here.  What can I say?  Progress is measured with a micrometer!  The Ravelympics are coming like a freight train, however, so I'll take time out for knitting little MochiMochiland owlets on a branch, two sets for my little nieces.  I hope they like them.  I think they are cute but you never know.

Ikea Hack yielding many incredibly stupid er... Stupendous YouTubes!

This is so fun!  I wish now that we had a real tree to launch, and the 50 acres, give or take a hectare, it takes to ensure that the neighbors' houses or outbuildings, to say nothing of our own, don't take a direct hit.  And that the cops would take at least a day to find any spoor, and, that the cows were all in the barn at the time.  Milk cows you know......

Um, I wonder if they are twins.  Twins seem to have an amplified ability to co-operate in things like this.

Biggest Goal

For this year, that biggest goal is to become more spiritual.

I sort of have a small rant, and then it's finished.  Finito!   

Since I'm now completely sure this world is really Hell, there is only one way out of it that I can see.  It's either Karma, or it's Christ, or both, that offer the exit strategy, I no longer have a doubt.   Since Christ talked about living by the sword and dying by it, that's good enough for me.  He was talking about Karma.  He was showing the way out.  The Way OUT. 

I am not going to talk about the sword anymore.  Not a single mention after this one.  It does not serve a purpose to rail against something that has proven to be a useless explanation for existence, saving by the sword.  It's idiotic to expect it to stop either, because it kills anything that stands in it's way, and serves the greedy and the power mad.  It serves the selfish.  It's death and it's the Way of Death.

It's also not knitting, or creative, and it's not flowers and it's not beauty in any of the myriad forms that we could and should be celebrating. And it sure as Hell isn't Life.

Need a Laugh?

We had a cat named Kato, after Jacques Clouseau's side kick..  That cat was an absolute maniac.

Someone else's rant... about jobs

While most of the news is focused on "The Bomber" and other unrelenting horrors of modern life, the new figures for lay-offs have been released.   Guess what?  The economy is one of the targets chosen way back in the year 2000.  Did any of you forget?  I sure didn't!

Since December's lay-off figures have just been posted, 85,000, give or take a few thousand souls who will now be trying to piece their lives back together,  I thought a look back over a year ago to this RANT at Democratic Underground was called for.  That was probably tens of thousands of jobs ago, eh?

Maybe we are all just too, too thrashed to understand what this means, I mean unless you are one of the ones who lost a job in the last year, or even this year, because companies are still shedding employees in this new month of this new decade.

Today the yarn I ordered in December came, one from Berroco, made in Italy, and four balls of Paton's, "packaged" in Canada, and made in china.  Well, well, now I know!

The bad news is that we are still not getting it right.  The government should be trying to piece together our image in the world, and thereby lessening the chance of more hatred.   Instead, they are hammering at us so that we will keep supporting failed public policies, like torture.  It doesn't matter that whole swales of ex military have stood up to say it doesn't work.

Onward and downward, folks.

The knitting stuff........................Much more important in the great scheme of things.  You can make a lot more people happy with your knitting stuff....

On the Berroco Sox, it's for a pair of long slouchy arm warmer mitts for one DD, and a little hacky sack from one of their free patterns at the Berroco site.  The Patons is for a pair of socks, and a pair of mitts for another DD, but the patterns haven't been chosen as of yet.

The aran Manly is just three inches to the underarm.  What a lot of stitches in that round Beastie boy!

I've kept the resolutions fired up, and in first gear, but they ARE moving me along, hopefully, to a dust free future.  *cough*

Wolfie on Christmas Eve

He is a very good boy, and so, he went to Christmas Eve with us for the family gathering.

He had a pretty good time, especially on walks around the neighborhood where there were new smells to investigate. On the ancestry, I did some research, and found that when the first Shih Tzu dogs were brought to either the UK or the USA, they were crossbred with Pekinese to improve the size, so many Shih Tzu's show Pekinese in their DNA. The ones that were of that ancestry have the turned out feet and the bowed front legs of the Pekes.

What I'm reading

I just don't have anything to say about today's news.

Tiny Button, Eating

Baby Button is a stealth eater, and it's not very often that we catch him eating. But today his favorite foods were on offer so he couldn't resist. The weeds are three inch high mallow from the garden, and dandelions, both of which he loves, and I tried some of my apple core on him. That is the round thing in the corner of the photo. He's really tucked into the dandelion flower!

Also, I offered him rose petals, which his siblings love, but he ignores, though sometimes he will eat the center of a rose. But now the roses are pruned back in a hard pruning that they really needed, so there won't be any more roses until perhaps early spring. So, that last rose came in from the garden a few days ago, DH handed it to me with a smile, and now the baby torts have had the petals it gave up today as their lunch treat.

A couple of times over the last few months, we've tried to get Button to be accepted by his "tribe", he is a full brother after all! But the others will have nothing of it. They have taken turns bobbing their heads at him, he bobs back, and pushing him around, and trying to bite him on the face or his little legs. I guess it will take some time. Churchy still shows aggro towards his 13 year old son, Lucky, and of course, this is the Tortoise Way. We have to protect Lucky from his Dad and his Mother. They both go after him, though the Mom, Poko Ono, is a lot less aggressive. She will calmly share food with her son as long as she gets most of it. I guess it's Nature's way of insuring that the ones with the best "stuff" (the eggs and little wigglies) get to stick around longer.

Christmas tree with bows..

As promised to you, R, Jazzie's bow tree with ribbons. That's a lot of bows he garnered over the years. His little hankerchief neck ties I am going to sew into a liner for a basket, for his toys.

And now, The EWWW GROSS department....

NYC has had enough of the Cola Companies!



Gosh, can you blame them?  Me, either!

Thank you, I think, very much, urp, Mr. Zippi!

Surprised Kitty video, and New Year's Day Cookies

This has been around the web for a long long time, but it's so cute that no one should wonder why cats/kittens are a woman's best friend.  This can make me happy for days and days.  I might not stop watching it for that long either!  Lovely way to start the new year.

Wolfie's tricks are pretty good, too.  He is a short dog, like any Shih Tzu, and he can be sitting on the floor next to my computer chair and the next second (literally) he's up in my lap, and that's 14 pounds of dog.  His back legs are like a bull dog's!  

Two days ago we went to see our friends who own a female purebred Shih Tzu from a shelter.  With the DNA record for the Wolf including so much Shih Tzu, all the humans sat around and compared notes and characteristics.   We took note of the way  both dogs lay flat out on the floor, go under the bed standing up, and try to lick lips if a person gets anywhere near their heads.  We are sure all this marks Wolfie as at least 30% Shih Tzu, as the DNA test says.  Wolfie's face isn't flat, but the base of his mouth is really wide, like our friends' little female.    And, the spectacular jumping can come from poodles but it's definitely Shih Tzu, too.

So, yesterday, as DH was digging in the garden, Wolfie was exercising his Siberian Husky and Saluki ancestry by digging a big, BIG hole under a Lime tree.  This must be how this little dog survived down in the "wilds" of the San Diego River.  He dug a den.  His paws are huge for his stature.  Wolfie certainly wants to dig a den in the bank in the back yard!  I love this little dog.   It's not the same intensity as my love for Jazzie, from whom I couldn't stand to be parted, but Wolfie is such a good and loving little guy, and is completely deserving of love, AND, he will get loads of love. 

I've knit almost up to the easiest part in the pattern again on Manly/Beastly, but am saving that part for when I can whip through it without thinking too much.  Or drinking too much.  lol  Drunken Cables!

UPDATED bit.......

Somehow I managed to lock myself out of the house this morning and spent a few hours in the rocking chair in the shade patio, communing with nature.   We knew we had a resident lizard on the wall but what we didn't know is that there's another one on the other side, and that the two of them meet at the top of the wall and scuffle!  I guess it's a tiny border war.  hehe.  The birds were all very active in the bushes again today, after DH pruned back the roses yesterday.  One of the hummingbirds came over to investigate me as I sat quietly musing about "Harmony" as the Navajo teach.   I felt very much in harmony out there amongst the reptilians and avian hordes. 

New Year's Day I baked some Dried Orange flavored Cranberry and Pecan cookies, using this RECIPE for a base and substituting Pecans for the unavailable Pistachios.   Since my experience taught me that slicing ice box cookies without chopping up the nuts and dried fruit was going to be a nightmare, I chopped them up.  Also made THESE for Christmas... and THESE for New Years Day.

The way I handled the dough for the cranberry orange cookies was slightly different, too.  I just rolled them without squaring them off, and chilled the rolls overnight.  Then I cut them in half - across the roll,  and rolled each halved portion through a pie dish with well beaten egg in it, and then some course sugar - cheap old Turbinado sugar, then cut the slices on the waxed paper that was used to chill the roll in.

The sugar and egg helps the sliced cookies hold together when they are baked, and parchment paper really helps in the clean up because egg and sugar can stick like super glue to a cookie sheet.

Oh are they ever good, and pretty easy, too. 

Resolutions Day, of course!

In Ravelry there is a group called Resolutions, and I posted these same resolutions there.  I've kept it very simple this year, I guess you call it, "learning one's limits."

1. Finish the Manly Sweater and other WIPS.
2. Clean out the two Studio rooms so I can work in them comfortably.
3. Learn to knit continental and see if I even like it.
4. Spend more time spinning on the spinning wheel.
5. Make a nativity set for me, and if my sister likes it, make one for her as well.
6. Make and KEEP a schedule for housekeeping.
7. Set up the industrial sewing machine and USE IT! 
   

That's the lot!  I borrowed the last two from some fellow Resolutionistas in the group.  Now to keep them all!  This should be easier than the long LONG strings I've made in the last two or so years of doing this; I have lain bare my soul before the tsk tskers of the blogosphere, and when the pratfall comes along, it really smarts!  Ha!