Cathy meets Matt...

Matthew T. Hall, a reporter for the Union Tribune, wrote an article about the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 decision over whether the Congress had the constitutional authority to write Laws of the Land.  Any fifth grader knows that they do.  But that aside:

Cathy Clark, who fought hard and long for this day to be good for 30 million people, has a lot to say, in counter attack, to the naysayers of local politics, Brain Bilbray, who should know better, and Duncan Hunter JR., who is as close to a political hack as can be got.  Bilbray says - I'm quoting the article - "rising costs make it harder for small businesses to hire workers." Hunter says that - again from the article, "if Congress doesn't repeal the law, it will impose new taxes and higher costs on families and businesses."

In Mr. Hall's article, Cathy Clark says (and I concur) that these are "scare tactics".  Hall quotes her as saying of naysayers," You're entitled to your own opinion, but your not entitled to your own facts, and the fact is that this is going to save a lot of people's lives, and it's going to save a lot of people a lot of money."

In my opinion, the reason this is so is that it will gradually squeeze out a whole class of "middle men", the ones who now get between patients and their doctors.   No one should be making a profit somewhere in that middle.  They are agents of neither doctors nor of their patients, and they need to find other jobs!  Granted, it will not pay as handsomely as the ones they vacate, but at least the money that now goes to them will be better spent.

Thank you, Matthew T. Hall, for your kind permission to quote your article, and thanks also go to the Union Tribune for giving their consent as well.

Updated to insert a link:  HERE is the full article.

I love that she is encouraging others to get involved.  In her words, from the UT article:

" “Just saying, ‘Oh well, I voted,’ it seemed to me that wasn’t enough anymore,” Clark said. “If I could help engender that same passion in someone else and they could see that they actually did make a difference, then I’ve contributed something to society.” "

PS. Federer Survives...

I watched part of this "Thriller" match on the big screens at the gym yesterday, and let me tell you, it truly was brutal.   With many badminton ploys being handed back and forth across that net, it was fantastic to watch these two tennis stars.   Djokovic really had Federer down and I thought maybe, just maybe, he would win the match.  Amazing play!  I love tennis!

Saturday Komeekz

Ok, I threw this together yesterday just before discovering some bad news in a box.  It was while my mind was still racing around with lots of Fun Stuff inside.   I may tell you more about it later; some of you already know.  But it took awhile to do a search and destroy mission on some stubborn little lines of code and give them a Wedgie!  They so deserved it. Tawanda's DH has skills, I tell you!  God I love that man!

The first ever cartoon, and it needs lots more skills for polish but I hope the humor rings someone's bell.  It was hastily drawn on a piece of scrap paper. I'm just scared of stealing other people's work, even though it's So GOOD for laughing, which we all need much more of.

Knitting:

I got one row of both fronts done on the Noro sweater yesterday, my sister, DH and I had a wonderful chin wag, and I just can't do two things at one time.  These two swatches for the Pink today, while DH slaved away on the bugs inside the Machinetta.   The Manly Beastly, the blue sock and the second mitt rested and stayed out of my way.  They can tell when Mama's not in a good mood.

The swatch on the left is the right color.  The sun had moved for the second one.  But, the one on the right, knitted on size 6's came out the right size.  The left one is on 4's, as it's normal for me to drop down one size from the suggested needles.  The one on the right looks a little like drunken knitting, but I assure you, it's not.  I basically was trying to keep my breathing even while waiting patiently to carry dead bodies out of the house and burn them with my tiny torch.  I hate computer bugs.  To me, no matter where they come from, they are real, and they are all deserve cremation.  They are the only bugs I will knowingly hurt.

Quilting stuff:

I got all of Jazzie's and Wolfie's bandana's together in a basket, and from here they will go into a quilt when I find one a like, or when I make one up.  It will have a dog theme, of course!

And... a flower.  This one will bear fruit!

All the Opuntia are fruiting this year, well, the two really big ones.  I can't get close enough to take a picture of the backyard ones as I'm not allowed on the hill.  Boohoohoo!  Can I have a Pink Cadillac Margarita now?

Random Thoughts about everything and anything...

My sister's got new pain meds, specifically for her back, and they are working well.  The horrible pain she was having is now under control.  She still has to find out what's causing it, but it gave us the chance to have a very lively and happy chat this afternoon, like the good old days and about everything under the sun, including a project we both want to do.  We wanted to use an ink jet to make the transfers for a garden sign.  I found the way to do this on the web!  Didn't I just say recently that  I LOVE THE INTERNET!!   I could not believe how generous people are with their expertise on just about any crafting topic that you can think of to plug into a search engine.  It's mind boggling.  Modpodge will also do this sort of thing but is it still around?  I should Google it, eh?

Knitting Report:

I redid the sweater swatch for Ele's sweater with smaller needles.  I hope this bamboo/silk yarn is light enough to carry the pattern well.  It's a very beautiful color, and the pattern is lovely.  It's also a lot easier than I thought it would be.  WS is all purl stitch.  I'm thinking of knitting it in the round if my brain can wrap itself around to that.   Right now my brain is still working on that New Paradigm. 

G's Noro sweater is going to be an interesting thing to sew together, and I only wish that I could have knit the whole thing, and knit it in the round. I actually like sewing things together, but the band has to match perfectly, and if it doesn't, I'll tell her not to let anyone take any three quarter views of her wearing it.

I finally got around to uploading pictures to Flickr and using the new beta uploader which seems to work amazingly well.  My only complaint is that it's a real TRIAL to then get the file of photos into a new set.  It's like a maze of dark and muddy pathways to get that done.  Why did they not do better at connectivity for your files?  Oh well, I'm sure that I'll find something about how to do it more efficiently using the old up loader.  Grimaces and GRITS TEETH!!!

Speaking of New Paradigms,  I'm still trying to calm WAY WAY down.  I need to get that other person out of my personal tree.  It's only big enough for one person, and it's MY tree!

Today was an awesome day, with the Romney/Obama Care (after all Romney did it first) Blockade coming down, and the right of the Congress to actually MAKE LAWS being re-iterated by the Supreme Court.  Sadly there will be a spoiled rotten group, too many of whom are being treated to a lavish living by Lobbyists stuffing dollars in their suit pockets, in said Congress who will be trying to Repeal this Health Care Bill.

Why don't they all just say "Let them eat cake", so that we can say, "OFF with their Heads!!" ?

Matt Hall did a story about Health Care today that I will quote later on as soon as I hear back about permissions.  Great Story in the paper today!  Go Matt!



I leave you today with an example of Industrial Beauty.

Who ever designed this is a genius.

What the Borg are up to! Trans-Pacific Partnership meeting. Sierra Club Alert.

Sierra Club sent this out to its members this evening.  I figured that the rest of us deserve to know, too:

"Dear Sierra Club members,

The largest free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will happen right here in San Diego  June 30 to July 8.  This secret trade agreement between 11 Pacific Rim nations, with the help of over 600 corporate representatives, has almost zero public oversight!

Powerful corporate interests have official access and have been pushing for the TPP to:
·  Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally
·  Create new tools for attacking environmental and consumer safety standards
·  Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies
·  Further concentrate control of global food supplies, displacing family farmers and peasants and subjecting consumers to wild price fluctuations and un-labeled genetically-modified food
·  Undermine public health policies that reduce tobacco consumption and increase access to medicine
·  Give multinational corporations and private investors the right to sue nations in private tribunals.  These tribunals have the power to overturn environmental,  labor, or any other laws that limit profit, and award the corporations taxpayer-funded damages.
·  Encourage privatization of lands and natural resources in areas where indigenous people live

The agreement will impact just about every issue we care about: jobs, environmental protection, public health and safety, financial regulation, access to medicines, Internet neutrality, and most importantly, our democratic sovereignty. Please join us next week to say Stop TPP!

There will be two rallies, a major march with pots and pans, an educational conference, and more. Please join us for these three events:

·        Monday, July 2nd on your lunch hour: Noon - Press conference and kick-off rally, at the Hilton Bayfront and Convention Center (where the negotiation conference is taking place).  The event will include a featured speaker from the Sierra Club and sponsored by the San Diego/Imperial County Labor Council of the AFL-CIO.

·        Saturday, July 7th:  March and rally. Gather at 10:30 at the Civic Center (aka Freedom Plaza at the corner of B and 3rd Street downtown); March leaves at 11:00 and heads to the Hilton Bayfront for a rally at noon (coinciding with trade negotiators' lunch hour).

·        July 2,  3,  5,  6,  7 -- "People's Conference: A Better World is Possible" Evening discussions with international,  national and local grassroots organizers and experts.

For more information and details go to http://www.stoptpp.org/.

To get involved - contact us!

Thank You"

New Foodie Blog and lots of little chit chat.. Gnaphalium californicum, too!

First!  Fun stuff.  If you use Firefox, type this:

about:robots

into the address window of a new page...  Don't forget to Try Again.. lol  Thanks to DH.

Ok the foodie blog....

 A Latte With Ott, A


I will put it on the Foodie blogs on "Some of My Favorite Blogs" spot.

And, I stole this from Cathy's side bar. teehee.....

"You are Elinor Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are practical, circumspect, and discreet. Though you are tremendously sensible and allow your head to rule, you have a deep, emotional side that few people often see."  ( well, they don't usually see it unless the screaming for five minutes or more on the porch the night that Wolfie was hit by a car doesn't count.  Maybe it was more like HEAR it? )

Take the Jane Austen Character Quiz here!

Knitting report:  I got out all the sweaters in order to give them a shaking out and a "Howdy".  I'm aiming to get the Noro finished by Mid-August and get the Pink Stardust done right along with it. It's a smaller sweater.   Knitter's have to have goals.   I've put away the first mitt without a thumb, and will get going on the second one to do the two thumbs together.  Now if I can just get some time when I'm not too exhausted to knit.

I talked with a dear lady this afternoon, and found that she has been working like a stevedore to get so much done that it's amazing.  I was mentally challenged while talking because my old Nemesis was cranking up, and I had to figure out what level was damned red alert, or not.  So, after our convo, I walked for 30 minutes and things dropped back to normal. I think this is happening because sitting is bad unless I'm nekkid.

I say this because my spine has collapsed like a meander in a river, and all that is inside the torso part is duking it out for space.  Well, I want to notify my liver, spleen and space crazed stomach that the HEART gets first choice for the real estate!  Think any of them will listen?  The lungs are very co-operative, but that stomach doesn't like the bands of steel that I've been building around it (of course) and so it tries to do hostile take-overs to the North, which the Heart just won't abide.  Can you blame it?

That's just about as polite as gut talk ever gets, isn't it?   "Peace Within" takes on a whole different meaning at our house.  hee hee


Some floral Mystery...

Gnaphalium Californicum

I remember it from the foothills of Altadena, behind my uncle's house.  Then it seemed to totally disappear from anywhere, until I found it in the brush lands surrounding the Mission Hills Interpretive Center. I finally found what it's called, HERE and then found the page for it HERE .

Isn't the internet wonderful?  I just LOVE the internet.

Tuesday Tails....

I really don't have any tails to share, so this Hamster Dunce Cap will have to do.  I do love Hamsters but they are so dumb untrainable!  But the cuteness factor, especially when they knit, is pure joy, though I cannot imagine trying to teach one to do so.

Those crazies at the Altoids Constellation have come up with some immensely clever little papers to line their tins with, and this is my favorite featuring a Pet.   I like the very funny claims of what these hot little peppermints can cure!  They are purported to be so strongly flavored because one of the ingredients is the dreams of pregnant mermaids.  Join the fun at their facebook page.

Of course I save every one of the tins because they are perfect for many, many uses and can be decorated to look like so many things.  Would you believe small board games?  LOOKIE!
That's a link to the Instructables.com Page.  Check out all the other little teeny games that can be easily made from these tiny tin gems. 

Sister and I went to find out the verdict on her back and the news was very encouraging.  No stenosis or any truly bad stuff going on but more tests are called for.  So, I'm smiling a bit more.  :)

Oh, Do Cottontails count?

Can you see them?


PS.  By the way, I tracked down that pink flowering plant by the Lake, and I'm pretty sure it's a salt cedar, which is an invasive but beautiful little shrub.  They are gorgeous!

THIS PAGE about them explains the problem.

Music Monday... "Half Past four" Old Time Music, and a little walk with beauty

At the Clifftop 2007 Appalachian String Band Music Festival.  The Ratchet Mountain Rock Farmers play.

This is for Jimmie, who plays Old Time Music and Irish Fiddle, and Claw Hammer style five string banjo.

Enjoy! Tap those toes!





Now for the walk with beauty shot...

Blue Palo verde tree in blossom.
There are several of these trees, both Blue and Foothill varieties. 
They are blooming around and about town. I love them!

Sunday Matinee : "Hatchi, A Dog's Tale"

We cannot separate the joy of living  from the sadness of loss.  In a half a million years of living as humans in connected groups, we have never been able to do it.  Being a loving, loyal friend means we risk loss.

So, yes, as many say in this trailer, this is a sad story.  The film is an adaptation of a true story about the bond between a man and his dog.  If you've had this sort of love, I guarantee you will cry.   We watched the movie twice to get it into ourselves so it would stay there and inform our hearts.



We also watched the feature about the making of "Hatchi, A Dog's Tale", afterward.   It is an unusually well made short feature about the movie.

The magical nature of this film is only one of it's great beauties.  Lead actor, Richard Gere, is superb, as is the entire cast.   A lot of the comments on the film, in YouTube, said it was sad.  I agree, though I cried a lot, which is sort of normal for me, I heard a few manly sniffles from the Hubster.

This adaptation of the true story of Hachiko, the dog Hachi, from early 1900's Japan, is of an instant in Infinity, one that includes all the elements of Unconditional, perfect love, devotion and loyalty between two fellow beings.

G rated, and with some comedic scenes,  I am recommending that you watch this film if you haven't seen it already.  I'm really mixed about whether small children can handle it.

Knitting Report:
Because every inch of knitting is a small victory for me in these strange days, I'm showing you this.  I find myself getting irritated with Wolfie, so you know I'm on my last nerve.

Bee's Mitt.  It will be done by in a couple of days then I'll cast on the second one.
It gets a thumb so maybe longer than two days.
You know how those thumbs can be!

Three ferns, left to right: Leather fern, and 2 Dallas Ferns, My Grrrrls gone wild.
The Dallas Gals are extremely crowded.
Make the pik big!  It will do you some good if you need green to rest the eyes!

Tomorrow I plan to look for one more thing at JoAnn's.  Retail Therapy on a small scale for organizing all my card making stuff.   Do you cover shoe boxes?  I'm going to do that with the sturdiest of the ones that are left from clearing out.

Happy Knitting!  The Pink Stardust sweaterlette will be cast on soon.  I thought I'd never get that on the needles.

Sweet dreams.  Good night!

Saturday Komeekz

Art Imitates Life.  Don't you love the cockeyed comic look at life that Harry Bliss provides? Of course I love the dog.

I'm off to apply some fertilizer, fake fish, and fake organic, where were my glasses when I bought this stuff?, to my potted plants.  But first, a half hour of knitting while eating a COOKIE and drinking me tea!

Calming Nature shot:

Beautiful Pink swamp (?) plant at the edge of the lake.

I hope it's nice weather today so that you can take a flower walk around your hood, or take a bus to the park and sit there for awhile, watching the world go by. 

Day at the gym and a new

 Paradigm... sorry this got posted when I merely TOUCHED the "enter" key.. it was posted "empty"  so it had to be filled up....

Paradigm...defined as a pattern or model, an exemplar.  I need to shift out of the one that now rules my life.  I need to set aside things that I worry about in a major way and stop fretting to death over them.   My trainer aka Sensei has suggested that I try some sort of reality shift.  I'm so ready to do this!

The "Friday fill-ins" site (as of 8 pm) showed the same thing as last week, so I will practice not fretting about it.  Could this be the beginning of a paradigm shift?  Lordy I hope so.


Today we went to my sister's house and got some cookies from our favorite Vegan Bakery, Starry Lane Bakery.  The owner is so jolly and sweet that it's fun to buy stuff there.  And it's all delicious, too.   I found  out today that she makes apple pies, too.   

My sister feels more chipper knowing that part of her problem is on the way to a solution because it really sucks to have long standing physical problems exacerbating the neurological components of her existence.   We want/need to go to the library and the thrift stores and just spend an hour looking through beads at our favorite small bead store again.  You know, the good things in life.

Last week when we were done at the clinic, we stopped at another place that sells coffee and bagels, and I stupidly bought a coffee cake instead of a bagel.  I will never, EVER do that again.  I'll get my sweet tooth fix at Starry Lane from now on.


The sock and the mitt continue on in the crooked path to the finish line.  I really need a new paradigm that includes "BE HERE NOW!" and "STAY IN THE MOMENT!".  Ouch, it hurts when things shift but sometimes it's all to the good.  eh?


Good night.  I wish you a lot of Joy and Happiness, no matter how tiny it may be, may it be there for you, and protect you from getting run over by the "Model T of Paradigms" that is gaining on you every breath you take.

TAWANDA!

A day in the life of ....

Last night, after knitting in the thumb hole on the mitt, I put it away.  This morning I took it out again.  I cannot knit late at night anymore. 

This morning I dashed around after waking up late (because of being up half the night) so that the excursion force (Hubby) could be assembled.

First we went to JoAnn's to see whether all the patterns that I'd planned to nab were gone, and I was lucky enough to get them all, all three, and it was late!  I was surprised any Vogue was still there as they disappear fast!

The Sandra Betzina pants pattern had only ONE left in the drawer but I had no competition for it.  YayMe!    I also got a fabulous looking dress design by Sandra B. as well.  The hunt will be on through the stash for material suitable as soon as can be.   I know that I have a pretty big piece of browns and tans in a floral Challis.   But that is a lot of fabric in that dress.  It would be a shame if I had to BUY more fabric, y'know?  The many gored skirt is going to be made in the 3/4 length style.  I'm SO not into showing off my knee scar.

The pink polkadot box just grabbed me on the way to and from the pattern drawers.  I had to have it.  It spoke my language and had a bow on the front, what can I say.  My knees just went all rubbery, and I couldn't walk back past it with out snatching it up.

I  plan to spend the rest of my sewing days, after constructing a very special little girl's baby quilt, making carry-alls and bags for my  DDs, sister, nieces and Sista-friends.  I don't think brothers or nephews (or other guys) are into those things but I know that grrrls are!

The next stop was at THIS wonderful place.  Get Centered Clay Studio.  I got some Crawl Glaze, which will do amazing things, not quite the same as Slip Glaze, but I think I might be able to find that stuff somewhere.  The heart always hopes.   I think I'm going to love this place because I can get slab clay and other clay bodies there.  These were some of the pieces there.  

I got another wide angle shot of the whole wall in the entry part of the studio but with the camera that does clouds or flowers excellently but balks at indoor shots.  I'll put it up so that you can see how thrilling it was to step into this room.  But it's a crappy shot of gorgeous stuff.

Yesterday, while going through a box of stuff given me by my SIL, I found these:

OMG, Ponies!

Those, my friends, are a treasure:  48 Weber-Costello soft pastels.  I had thrown away layer upon layer of spent, too-old acrylics, and then saw that dusty box on the bottom.  I knew there was a Pony in that box! 

I will now curl up and go to sleep until any black (or mushroom) cloud goes away.   God help us, please, no mushroom clouds unless they are like the pretty ones in New Mexico just before a male rain.

The mitt to the thumb and other trash talk..

I've gotten to the thumb stitch set- aside.  Five little stitches onto one of those orange holders. Just ignore the one already dangling from the side.  It means nothing. 

The pattern shows up differently (or I've been knitting it wrong) with this Lorna's Laces yarn, but I still think it's pretty.

It will be three days before I can even  read the rest of my blogs.  But, I've found that trying to figure out something other than the Googles Friends Connect, which they officially DITCHED sometime in March, is almost a fruitless search.

I'm also still trying to solve the mystery of how to get myself off MY Followers list.  Since that list, which was easy and fun to use, is supposedly now defunct, Google, which owns Blogger, apparently wants everyone to pony up to their g+1 bar and drink the Kool-aid.  Well, I'm not going to.  I liked clicking on the icons my friends connected and being able to go to their spaces.  Oh well, things change.

Organizing:

Last night late, I was looking at the giant craft table.  It is an old conference table from when NCR called it quits the first time and sold off all their stuffff for a penny a pound; I'm hellishly proud of it since I got it for 20 bucks.

OK, back to the topic.  This big worktable is in the end of the big room.  I was wondering if I can actually get it cleared off without stuffing everything back under it.  I don't think so!   So, that's the next back breaking project. Everything must go back up on risers and back under the table.  BUT, I did throw away an old blender after contemplating selling it on eBay.  It's a collectible Hamilton Beach in Avocado Green.  Maybe I'll go ahead and put it on eBay.  Anyway, it's GONE off the work table!  It was going to be used for paper making.

While out there, I found that I've got three alcohol lamps . Two of them I inherited when the Rock Hound shop went belly up, and one I actually bought when I was a kid, starting out.  I've given another one away to my DD who makes jewelry.  I need to donate some more!

Sorry for being in a royal funk.  Tomorrow though, I get to go and look for glazes at a new shop.  Thursday is my day off !  I expect to like a kid in a candy shoppe, so I'm really going to be working overtime at reining in my insatiable greed  desire to own every colored clay product and Glaze that exists.

Re-organization, again:

I've been keeping busy on the two main parts of re-organization.  Mostly so that when I start buying anything new, or rather am tempted to, nothing I already have will be duplicated.  I bought these (and other) cutters over about say, 8 years using 40% off coupons.  Does this qualify me for a  "True Grit Award"? * (see at end of post.)

 It's time to go watch some Cops and Robbers, or maybe, "Whose Wedding is This?"  But this next is for you all to make big and just calm way back down.  You know, calm down and climb back out of your trees.  Enjoy.

Beautiful Shady part of the San Lorenzo River.

* True Grit Award.  Take it if you dare.....

Actually, take it if you like it.  Go ahead, give yourself an award for reading this far.

I love the way these little damsel flies stare right back at you, defiantly, even when you are about a billion times their body mass.  They seem to know that the you are too big and clumsy to be real.  And what's with that great, big, shiny eye and one little tiny eye next to it attached to your front legs.  What the hell is that thing, anyway?  Time for a nap.

a small sadness...

Good Bye to Baby Button. May you Rest in Peace our tiny friend.

These little guys are very hard to raise, and we've just been too freaking busy lately.

 So we missed some small signal over the weekend, or even yesterday, that all was not well, and you died this afternoon sometime after we checked on you and the time when we got back inside.  Just yesterday I cupped you in my hand, and you looked ok.   (This is when a human wishes most that we could still speak to animals, and understand them.)

Yesterday, Button ate his usual morning arugula with a good appetite.  I suppose that Nature must know best.  On the scale denoting the demonic wars with Scylla or the death of Rodney King,  this death is but a dot in the universe.  But no little tortoise was ever better loved.

May you find many delicious dandelions on the way Home, my tiny friend.  

Music Monday... Neal Diamond

This is one of three favorite Neal Diamond song performances... Enjoy ... Sweet Caroline







Painted Summer Toes, and Belly Flower darling little Daisy in the lawns at a park.

Walk with Beauty All Around You!
I love these teensy baby flowers!

Sunday Matinee and Happy Father's Day!

A couple of nights ago, BCat and I watched a two hour movie called, "The Saltmen of Tibet".   When we read that it was two hours long I said, " How much can there be to tell?  Half an hour is more like it, and the other hour and a half is going to be, what?"

By the first half  hour I-we- were hooked.  It was the perfect antidote to "Modern Hectic", our current lifestyle.  The NYT has a great review of it.

Go with the right attitude and it will do you a power of good to know that these people are out there, praying for you.  The film was too short!  I wanted to see them pick up their sick animal and arrive back home safely! 


Happy Father's Day, Pop!

Thanks for all the Adventures!
Love, Wolfie!

Fibromyalgia and CFS/ME

I know, three posts in one day.. pretty crazy..

New and important post on Mary M. Schweitzer, Ph.D.'s blog.... with my foggy brain I don't want to lose this link: 

http://slightlyalive.blogspot.com/

A personal note:

Fitness has been terrific for my well being.  But the day after is always a payback day, every time.  I want to say this for any who read here who have my same issues.  You will feel it, make no mistake; but the benefit, with careful training, is so good for your mind and heart.

I encourage you to try it.  Start slow and go slow.. Don't let someone think you are a ninny for not running  a half marathon because you just can't.  But you can do some things, with care, for your injured body to make it feel better.  

I am knitting the mitts and second sock.  I cut my hair.  Catching up on blogging buddies.  I'm happy with it all. 

Some how when trying to find out what happened to Jesse's Blog, I stupidly started following myself.  See?  It takes your brain, does stress and M.E.  I'm still trying to figure that one out..    

AS the World Burns... Long, get a cuppa...

The Daily Grind: Or, Why I feel like I'm living in the "Pickles" comic strip.

I had a good work out yesterday, and my trainer, whom I swear is a Buddhist Monk, helped me with my inner turmoil as well.  He also applied the foam roll to the darn muscles in my legs that vapor locked this last week. Our understanding is that when I grimace and grit my teeth, he get's to say, "This is all to the good!", and then we both laugh.

So, this isn't a completely beochy post.

Two days ago, Thursday, I took my knitting bag with me when we took my sister to a lab.  I took the knitting, but forgot the patterns were laying on the table under some stupid flyer that had been left on the doorknob.  Joy, Joy JOY!   At least the wait at the lab was not long because we had gotten there at the CRACK of DAWN!

So, when we got home from taking Sis  to get her very sore back ex-rayed, I put the knitting bag with the teddy bear on my shoulder (thanks Suzi!) as we came into the house, and I started looking for the phone that I take out to the area of the comfy chair in order to have it handy while knitting.  Alas, the phone had vanished!  So, after dashing around looking in all the usual places that phone chooses to lurk, I decided to call it, on my cell, to scare it out of hiding.  No luck, I could hear the thing ringing but it seemed to be behind something where it never would have been put; was it maybe inside a drawer?  I pulled out all the drawers.  Nope.

Then DH said, "shut off the machine and call it again."  After arguing for a few minutes over that tactic, I did, with the same result only this time I listened with more care.  The lost phone rang longer, thus proving DH right about it all, and as I turned, the phone kept ringing somewhere behind me.  I walked out to the chair and the sound of the phone followed.  WTFrak?

Yes, dear readers, I had put the stupid phone into the bag on my shoulder but had forgotten having done so.  Phone found, I took what remained of my befuddled brains and sat on them, in the comfy chair.  I did not knit.

Yesterday, Friday, I did almost "Dance in the Kitchen" as I tried to keep from falling on my face after having avoided DH, who came barreling through behind me while taking plates to the dining area table.  After my Robo-dancing cum stumbling around ceased, I was laughing so hard I almost peed my pants.

 Rho, does it count as dancing in the kitchen?   I asked DH, and he stopped laughing long enough to vigorously shake his head, "Yes!".
-------------------------------------------------
Huzzah!  And, "Let the games begin"!

The days have gotten long and hard;  I have a feeling that worry over this caused my own recent "Evac to the Zoooo".

Let Go and Let God.

I want to knit A LOT more ( A LOT MORE), and get those three sweaters finished this year (!!!) !  I want to get my house in order, as in, "tidy" as well as clean.  My favorite Aunt once said to me, "You are just a little untidy but you are clean.  Just work on keeping it all in order."  So I did.  The floor tiles need to be steam cleaned.  I need/want to get/rent a steamer.

Getting rid of business junk has been very hard.  It has to be handled in the proper way.  That takes time and care and so much mental energy looking through/at all the stuff!   Besides, ceramics is heating up again, or was.  We now have a big part of the power grid off line out here on the coast of Cali.  I'll just do the things I can do, and I'll wait 'til after summer to fire all of it if I have to.  The club has it's own kilns which is very handy for hobby stuff.

The San Onofre Nuclear Power Station, and it's possibly improper design, finally caught up with those higher on the food chain than mere shell fish and aquatic plant life.  This last development means that running the kiln will be very expensive.  Life in SoCal will again be like living through those long, dark days of multi million dollar crooks, speaking here of Enron.  This time it will be without, probably-maybe, some tasty little fraud in the mix.

The Truth about farm labor: Updated to set straight a misunderstanding:

Maybe it's because these kids are, as is the modern term labels them, "Hispanic",  but at least 400,000 American children (because either they or their parents were born here) work in the fields*, (see excerpt below) a lot of them working as much as a 30 hour week, and paid very little.  They get behind in school because they constantly have to move with the work, to the point that half of them do not graduate, and those who do so hardly ever do so in spectacular fashion.

Today at the gym, I listened for a few minutes to a couple of over privileged Old Farts yammering on about what Obama had done to grant legal status to immigrant children.   I think it's fantastic he's done this, and this is why:

What this does is start to help heal a cancerous sore that is on the body of workers who pick and put fruits and vegetables on our tables.  The next time you eat a strawberry, or slice up a tomato, I hope you will think about, and care about, all the children working in the field.  It's an American problem, and we need to solve it.

What the POTUS did today was to recognize the problem, put some muscle behind getting it solved, and raising  this iniquity up into the face of the Nation.  It will help the 400,000 American children working in the fields as well.   

Voices from the Fields by S. Beth Atkin

I got my copy from the Goodwill Stores online site.

* "10 years ago the ILO created World Day Against Child Labor, but for the 215 million children who work around the world this day should be their day every day. And this should be the day where we also remember the 250,000 to 400,000 American children who are systematically exploited every year as they harvest the food that we eat.

 They are there right now in our fields, working at far younger ages, for longer hours at exploitative wages and at greater risk to their health than any other children in America because of a loophole in Federal law that permits children as young as 12, and sometimes younger, to work in 100-degree heat in a tomato field for 16 hours, but may not permit that child to work in an air-conditioned office. And this should not be so."

The quote was taken from THIS SITE in a Guest post by Robin Romano, who produced the documentary film, "The Harvest"

If you watch this film, please keep an open heart and mind. The children are bi-lingual, because they are Americans, born here, and have learned English as a dual first language. Trust me on this. They learn it right along with Spanish.

 Also, in the credits are small biographical inserts of Americans who made it all the way to the top with so much against them as children of migrant workers. When some studies that I read in the early 60's were first published, migrant workers were poor white people or black people from the South and Midwest, or seasonal pickers among college age students.

Your treat for reading this far is a Sky Watcher Post.  Make it very BIG.  Love ya!

This is the Marine Layer, breaking up, as we headed home Thursday.
I love that cooling layer of clouds.

Saturday Komeekz

I love Pearls Before Swine, Stephan Pastis' comic strip.  This is one I couldn't resist putting up!  But it's maybe the last Saturday Komeekz.

Quote:

End Quote. (these tags are used in a joking way)

Before the internet I would clip comics, and save them in ring binders because I like the art, and the humor.  Then, when the internet rolled along and blogs were born,  putting comics on the blog was fun, because it was like sharing them with family and friends.  Now, though no one has ever raised the issue with me, I'm pretty sure it's not right to do it; it's not like a quote or anything.

What the heck, here's Wiley Miller on where the Monsters under the bed have gone....

 Life would be very drear and dire without these geniuses working to make us laugh at things.  God Bless Em!

Friday Fill in...

1. It's always nice when the Marine Layer moves in at night!
2. I like to hear Sea Gulls and Killdeer calling.
3. Positive thoughts- the world can be a better place; negative - those who are mean, selfish or greedy will never allow it to happen.
4. This is a quandary.
5. What I heard recently was a Mocking bird singing at night.
6. Often, I search for time to get things done.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to some Peace, tomorrow my plans include a tiny bit of knitting and more tossing out stuff, and Sunday, I want to eat some tacos!

Page on Killdeer

Walk with Beauty all around you.....

We walked by the lake a few days ago, and I paused to pick up a small smooth stone from the path.  In that shady spot was also a very small, delicate looking leaf, very battered by the many feet that passed that way and trampled it.  It was also decidedly heart shaped.

I thought, "Sometimes a human heart feels this way, walked on, and damaged, even with little bits torn off."  That made me think of what heals a broken heart - time of course is one thing but also forgiveness heals.  If you forgive something terrible or hurtful that happened to you as a child (or any age) it starts to heal your heart.

What it also does is it gets that part of your existence OFF the dread, relentless wheel of Karma, if such a thing truly exists.  No payback, no angst, no troubled mind.  It makes room for a perfect sort of Love, with a capital L, to grow within you.  You get that hurt or betrayal of trust out of your own mind and heart, to be replaced by an inner peace.   No matter if one is a Buddhist, Christian, or Muslim, you are taught this; Sufis know this.  All the Mystics know this.

Having had to do this rebuilding of my Psyche early in life, I've found that even when horror comes back to you as you watch others struggling with it, you can stuff it all back into the UGLY box, in shreds, and go on with life.  Go ahead, reset your Life.  Walk with Beauty All Around You.

Here's some Beauty for my friends.  The lovely fully flowered White an Lavender ruffled Violet.  Make it big!

When I tend my flowers, I think of you all.
Think of them as a Hug from me.

Climate Change and Home Improvement

....and the illigiteratti's sly sideways attacks on the Truth about what's happening. Truly, this is worth watching.

These are the sort of money's interests that will be telling lies to all of us so that we will become enraged and stop thinking.  Our need is to focus on the small blue dot on the edge of a galaxy out on the rim of the known universe - the little blue dot that we all call home.  I'm going to think of what's best for it, not for them.

They do this because they have stepped out of reality into a nether world only they, and their money, inhabit.  We can't let them have the real world back.  They have treated it, and all of us, very ill.

Now for real life..broom pushing and dusting...........

Since semi- Hyper activity has taken back over my life, I'm knitting away again, slowly, and tossing flotsam and jetsam from the sewing table.  I've bought a new and awesome organizer for threads, and plan more of them.  I'm clearing the ceramics work table, too.  I still go to my sister's house two days a week to help out since I've been given the green light for all activities.  So, in order to keep a 24-7 going with fitness, I started to walk 30 minutes a day when not weight lifting or otherwise engaged in "iron pumping" my way through a day. 

 My recent "dust up" with Fate has made me want things expedited in the garden, though I may not get to have the small patio, the walkway to the side garden/garage in this year.  But, if not, I'll just walk out there anyway.

 I plan to mark out and starting digging the foundation for the new raised bed.  I did it before and I can do it again, if that's what it takes.  My mother didn't raise me to not be a gardener.  I just read, probably in a cartoon, that "the time to plant a fruit tree was twenty years ago". So, I plan to mark out a place I want to plant butterfly bushes .

I have wanted Buddleia over there along that side since the elm trees were taken out around ten years ago.  So, I'll go get the bushes when they are available for best planting, but have the bed ready in the meantime.  I can't work fast but, since slow and steady wins the race, even for tortoises, I'll have the Buddleia over there, being beautiful, hopefully this coming fall, and just before the winter rains, or even sometime next Spring.  I just can't wait for cement work anymore.  Digging is fun for dogs, and humans love it, too.  Wolfie has his Saluki genes to explain his digging passion.  I have my Mother's gardening genes.

 Happiness is a do it yourself project!!

Tuesday Tails and Alberta Gnomes.

Tuesday Tails will be told here.  But first, something completely different:

Today, while looking for Alberta Gnomes in a search of those two words.  I found THIS thread on a truly manly site.... it's a gas!


I'm still looking for Gnomes for the garden, and not the pug ugly ones I can get locally.  Alberta Molds Company makes the best ones I've ever seen.  The web site for the "Gnomes Gone Wild" thread just happens to be in Alberta Canada, and the rest, well, as they say, was Kismet.  And, no, Gnomes have no discernible tail, maybe a nubbin one like humans do but nothing that shows on the outside.

Wolfie, however, does have a lovely tail.  That tail and the fact that he has no fingers on his front legs nor toes on the back ones (and all that multi colored curly hair all over aside) he has the look (big, round, brown eyes) of a child of 6 months, and the general intelligence of a one year old.  He even waves his short legs around (all four of them) very sweetly if we dare turn our gaze.  One thing we love about him is that he will lie on his back in our arms for at least an hour (if we let him), looking up adoringly into our eyes.  It's a steady, virtually unblinking gaze.  I was telling one of my doctors about this amazing behavior once upon a time, and she said, "That sounds just like my baby girl."

I think his vocalizing means mostly, "Please, please Hold me!", "Please PLEASE Pet Me!" or "It's time to feed Me, PLEASE, PLEASE!!"   There is also the leg clinging, "PLEASE take me with you!!",  accompanied by some serious vocalization.   There is no cunning in him, except that of being able to forage under the dining table after we have our evening meals.  He will go out to get a drink, then stop for "snacks" on the way back to his cuddler in the room we are in.  He's been chased out from under that table so many times now that he has resorted to stealth, and night recons.  By snacks, I mean anything that weighs so much as a micron.

Poodles are water dogs, and those guys have amazing noses.  The noses evidently work well on land, too.  Shi Tsu's are companion dogs, bred by the Tibetans for being ragdoll, hold like a baby little stare at your eyes face lickers.  You've got to love these little mixes.

Those Big Brown Binocular Eyes

Music Monday... Billy Joel.. "Just the Way You Are"

I love this Jazzy song...

c/o Suzi.  :o)

Sunday Matinee - "I am David"

I watch a lot of movies, because I think of them as an Art Form.  So, I'll tell you about one I scraped up from the indies, or maybe something brand new, but mostly they will be ones that had the musical score, the story telling, and the cinematological (let's make up some new words here) magic to sparkle the apple of one's eye.

Today, well actually yesterday, we watched "I am David".  Since I seldom read the paper and never watch TV,  I have no idea if this was a big hit missed by such a hermit as myself but I will tell you this magical film will stay firmly inside my heart forever.  It's scary for young children so be aware.  It's about a journey taken from post WWll Bulgaria and weaves through the lives of others as David makes his way to his final destination, given to him by his protector in Bulgaria, in Denmark.  He carries a sealed letter with him that he guards constantly.

Beware! Don't read the wiki spoilers so that you can feel this story with it's full impact.  It's beautiful.

The movie is based on the 1963 novel by Ann Holm which was once called North to Freedom but is now being published as, I Am David .   I think it's time for me to read the book.

Boy of boy do I need to get knitting!   That's why this blog was started back in the day.   I blame Color Vision and, of course, the biggest boogeyman of all, Flowers!  Politicians?  Meh!   More like Merde!  Oh dear, I feel good for some reason.  Swearing in another language is too much fun!  I have to stop it!

Happy Birthday Bee!

Happy Birthday from here.... from Auntie for you both, and from us, too.

Have a great Day!

Sorry about all the updates.. And a Happy Birhday too

While I Juggled all the info and waited a litle too impatiently for a final verdict!


A Peace Offering...

Happy, Happy Birthday, Elle!

Have a Lovely Day!

Friday Fil in, for my DH

1. I knew it was love when...DH took me in his arms and we danced for the first time!

2. My heart can be broken but you always heal over time, and with the help of others.

3. A dog is a sentient being, and one that gives a person unconditional love even when they clearly do not deserve it.

4. My how you have helped me to change, my lovely DH.  You taught me that some people can be trusted with a human heart. ♥

5. Can you see the changes you've made?

6. And the love you gave me is the reason for them.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to resting and knitting, tomorrow my plans include clearing the ceramics table and shopping for frits and glaze body,  and Sunday, I want to go eat some fish and chips!

Health Update: That "thing" at the beginning of the week was "most likely a Coronary Arterial Spasm", according to the Cardiologist.

Sort of a "shot across the Bow".
So, I don't do "political" now.
Some doggerel to celebrate
Not being in a coffin, prostrate.

I will still talk about Healthcare, Animals rights, Human Rights, Heroes for the Planet, Walk with Beauty and Accidental Art, and of course, Knitting and Ceramics and any jewelry I succeed in making.  That should keep me busy enough.*

Anyway, sooner or later, because the people can't be bought and sold by any amount of money or for very long, we will have our democracy back and money won't be buying it so blatantly.  If you are ignorant, then educate yourselves.

My advice is this : Don't watch Fox News, and always, ALWAYS, read the fine print and find out who is placing ads trying to get you to believe things on an emotional level rather than intellectual levels.  Stop letting them push your emotional buttons.  You are not stupid, not at all.  You have good instincts, and you are intelligent enough to sort through all the lies and meet the truth face on.  I love you for trying!  Thank you!  The Democracy depends on all of us thinking our way through things.  God Bless you!

And as for me, I'm looking forward to knitting, sewing, painting, sketching- since Bizarro gave me a clue today! (thank you Dan) Yay!- and making lots of interesting flower pots and/or lamp bases which I will share with you all.

Yesterday we ate some amazing artichokes- huge and round.  I've never seen these types before.   They are good without anything on them.  Delicious!

*PS: Yes, I am still going to read that 2 foot high stack of books by my bed but I'm also going to paste a picture of "Earth in Space" on the wall above that stack.  The tiny blue dot thing from Carl Sagan's Video of that name.  Piss Ant stuff, ya know?

Back to the Doc's, Eppies, Organization report, and knitting and Ceramic blahblah

Getting ready to get my final back today at my Doc's.  But, I go prepared.  I'm not eating anything until I get back here; then we decide whether I/we will risk the cholesterol laden Full English, or just one egg, over easy, with toast.

Since no one has read this yet, the jury is still out on what to do about it all.  I will just start walking again, and await further word.  The doctors have to communicate and write up a plan for my trainer to follow for me.  There is definitely something going on, and now it's more red yeast rice, so I sacrifice my brain for my heart.  Yes, it's that simple.

Knitting is really hard.  I stick with it but it's getting to be a bear of a task.  I'm sure things will change when I can keep my mind on it!  I've gotten a lot of practice picking up ribbing and dropped stitches.  Stubborn me and three inches to re-knit of a 3x2 ribbing is the cause of it.  I will NOT rip that all back -yet again!- and have to cast it all on again.  Not, not, not!  I'm going to go knit for the rest of the day.

Organization report:  This thing has been on going.  I've got more things thought through, in the garage I'll be going through one box at a time.  More room out there is needed for pouring ceramics, which I fully intend to do, using cache pot molds of mine.  I'm getting brutal now because really, one never knows about how much more jet fuel time one has left!  I love to jet around but now I'm more like a helicopter.  spinning...spinning. lol


Ceramics was great.  Once upon a time I did some experimental glazes, and I figured that out again.  So, I plan to make some flower pots, pouring my own, and using what I know.  One more piece of greenware for inside the house would be insane.   The birds are using the bird bath daily.  And the tiny birds are in it for drinks.  I keep the water really clean and cool for them.

OMG I found a place that has crawl glazes and pigments.. Yippie!   I think I'm in Heaven!

We also had a big chin wag while there at the club!  I did next to nothing but had a tour of the Galapagos Islands via a photo journal taken by one of the gals who just returned from there.  All I can say is, if you get the chance to go don't pass it up!  Great Birds, wonderful People, and a hat maker supreme dwell there or in Equador along the way.  There are Flowers everywhere in the markets in Ecuador.   And then you get to go out to the Islands which is a whole new world for most of us.

Two flowers today, both white and both eppies, but they are as different as night and day....

Day Bloomer that folds up at night
Blooms out again for a couple of days then drops.
This is also ruffled petals

Night Bloomer, stays one day and dies, round lobes

DH calls this my Interior Jungle.

I used to have over 40 house plants but now have most of them outside.  It was a problem of them getting enough light without moving all the house furnishings out under the eaves.  If he's happy then I am happy.

Monday Music. "The Voice".. Moody Blues.

Nights in White Satin got a lot of play, but this is my other favorite Moody Blues, the first being, "Questions".

It is so unbelievable good that they are still singing with passion and voices as beautiful as they were when they were so young.  Were any of us ever that young?  Wow!

Ceramics chit chat

I lost another post!  You would think that BY NOW  I would have learned to not post from this idiotic (Piece of Patak) netbook!  At least I know what to call it from now on! 


These are two examples of Roseville Rozane pottery, of which I had a lot to say, but, *emits high screaming sounds*  I was going to link the photos to their sellers but I've seen them all over the web this am, and my brain is obviously still in scrambled egg contortion. Grrrr.

Meanwhile, as I rebuild the post, you can look at this fun thing, a miniature airport added to the insanely huge model railroad in Germany.  Looks like fun to me!


Miniatur Wunderland on Devour.com

Try it?  This link comes c/o Mz. Pina, always fun.

Beautiful Rockville pitcher using ancient decorating technique

Catching up a bit...ceramics,belly flowers, Birdie blah blah

I missed the cartoon for today..  sorry but I have ones from "Non Sequitur" and "Pearls Before Swine", both strips are from the GoComics.com, if you are interested in hypergrabby sites,  which I'll try to post later.

We all need to laugh!  A day without the comic pages is like a day without water.  I love the cartoonists in this life!  I'd like to be funny and good enough to make my own but I've yet to find the talent in me.

But I have some ceramics from this week on Tuesday morning before all the Drama!  The tall pumpkin Halloween thing came out truly well!  I'm so happy to have it finished.

Whew!  It made it through a glaze fire the kiln!

 And the shell left from the accident to a large snail is very pretty.   It will go on the birdbath apparatus when It's finished in sometime this Summer or Fall.  First the outside, done with Crystal glaze called Autumn Leaves (what else?).  It was done with the left over glaze from that big African Violet Pot done earlier - last year.

Outside

Flipside!  :o)

The second shell.  It's done in Duncan's Ivory Balique glaze, and it glows.

This is the second shell to go on the birdbath and be filled with water for all the birds.  We got another Hooded Oriole for the last two days that sang his song to attract back his mate.  He has been alone for a few days, so I fear the worst.  Maybe they were just too young, sporting 1st year plumage and all.  The Chipping Sparrows are still here, which is nice.  They have started staying all summer.  They flock into the giant geranium just outside my window and search out bugs.

We have a lot of birds com to the garden: two species of hummingbird, and the little daily visits from the Bush Tits, Says and Black Phoebes, and a mockingbird that has a nest nearby, the doves whose babies fledged last week, and some others I can't remember.  They are very entertaining little visitors.  We both love birds.  Here's a picture of a Cassin's Kingbird taken on the way home from Ceramics, in a parking lot, right into a bright sky.  He was right at the top of a rather tall tree.

Lucky snap!

And now, a belly flower....

I don't know for certain what this is but it looks like a Speedwell.
of some sort or other!

Another tiny belly flower from the Rec Center.  People walking by probably think I'm deranged, as I walk along the side walks looking for what I know can be a treasure trove of belly flowers.  Anytime there are wild lands close by, in a canyon, for instance, you will find that birds can carry all sorts of interesting new flowering plant seeds up to the verges of a walkway. 

I am getting better.  The meds from my Adventure have worn off, finally, and I am full of energy but must rest for one more day.  OK, actually I'm a little tired.  Need Caffeine!  hehehe

I haven't knit at all.  But I think about it a lot!  There was a very neat article in the paper today about gardening for Oldsters, written by a local expert and nursery owner.  DH needs to read it so I can then ply him with requests to get another raised bed in the side yard. 

Off I go to rest and look for new birds in the Cape Honeysuckle bushes.  Oh did I mention the Towhee pair?  It comes for baths.  I'm old, I ramble.  I hope that all the spelling and punctuation is correct, but heck, I need to eat!  Tata for now!