HI!

Nothing special - just a quick HI!

It's okay Sweet Pea

Softball Game
The weekend went way too fast. Friday night godson's softball team "died". The game ended in the 5th inning with a score of 1 to 15. We were the "1". But it has been reported that they have played this team before several times and they are actually tied in total wins. The other team was incredibly hot Friday night. Leaping into the air and coming back with impossible catches. It was a fun game to watch. I must add the "1" was godson's making. He likes to run and slide. He managed to make a single into a 3 base run and slide home on the next hit. That was the first inning and well......... not much after that.

His Dad was supposed to fly in from New Jersey for the weekend but spent over 5 hours on the plane waiting to take off. He was supposed to arrive at 6pm but ended up going back home and getting there at 3am. I would absolutely DIE if I had to spend that much time in a plane and airport. YUCK! He plans to come next weekend so we'll see what other air traumas can happen to prevent all of us from seeing him.

Stash South
Last month I mentioned I have 2 yarn stashes. One in the current house and one up north (14 miles away) in my other house I haven't finished fixing to sell. And I haven't removed all my things until I clear out my parents things from this house. Anyway - Stash south got a face lift. I bought some of the metal grid cubes from Target and put it together. It's a 2 cube by 3 cube "wall" that contains yarn very nicely. I also got some plastic boxes to further assist with control. The yarn in the cubes looks very nice and in order. The problem is- I still have 6 boxes of yarn down here and about 2 full rooms in the other house. Yes, I said full rooms. Not a wall of shelves, not boxes under the bed. we're talking full rooms with shelving all over. One room is my personal stash the 2nd room is what remains of my shop supplies. I used to have a shop selling machine knitting yarn, machines, sewing machines, etc. I quit the shop fairly fast and didn't get around to having a clearance sale so I have yarn - yarn - yarn. And thread. And sewing notions. And patterns. and.....
Some day I'll get my act together and list some of the yarn for sale - cheap. But not today.

Greensburg
I've finished a few more blocks for Greensburg. That makes 7 so far. I need to make a few more before I mail them off. Postage is cheaper that way.

Reading
I started reading a book that may be hard to read. It's "Susanne's Garden" by Debbi Macomber. This book is in the middle of the Blossom Street Yarn books she has written. It's the story of a 50 year old who has to go to her parent's house to deal with her mother's failing memory since her father's death. Dad's not dead but with him not living in the same place as Mom, she's lost her support system and her memory is going fast. This book may be a bit too close to home or it may give me some ideas. Time will tell.

On the way to Iowa last week I got "The Thirteenth Tale" on CD to listen to. I have about 3 hours left and it's quite a tale. It's about 2 women - an older author and an amateur biographer. Both have secrets and flaws in their characters. It's written very well and has kept me interested. The 2 ladies that read the book do a wonderful job bringing it to life.

The Boys
I can't have a post without mentioning the boys. Chief has taken to waken my gently every morning when the sun comes up to snuggle next to me a pet my cheek. He does this for about a week every year a different times. I know know what starts it but it's nice to wake to a soft pet and purr!
Bert on the other hand has gotten whiny again. That's his trick. Every so often he decides we've left him and he CRIES! Not polite little kitty cries but loud harsh wailing. Cries that come from his inner most soul filled with sorrow. Unfortunately, it usually happens while he's in the hallway at about 3 or 4 am. I wake. I look into the dark and say,"It's okay sweet pea. We're in the bedroom." And he comes in and jumps on the bed. I give him one pat on the back, he wags his tail, runs off and is quiet the rest of the night. Go figure.

OH MY GOSH!

I'm this little blog. I get 5-15 visits a day. Nothing big. It's more my therapy in a basically crazy world. Then something happened yesterday. I sent Chris a note about Chief's tummy. She put a link on her blogs and WOOOSH! Over 50 hits today. The power of a popular blog!


So in honor of this and to make it up to Bert for not putting his tummy on yesterday I give you the Bert tummy pic and story to go with it.


Bert is a British Shorthair. They're the breed with the chubby cheeks - think Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. The "process" to get the chubby cheeks is to let a Brit come into manhood - at least for a short time. So Bert and I waited to get him fixed. Well, I waited, he was in NO hurry! As he grew up his backside grew out. I have never seen such a well endowed little boy. He was walking around with a couple of golf balls on his back side. That's a lot for an 8 lb. kitty!



We finally "corrected" his ability to walk straight with a little visit to the vet. No more golf balls but cute chubby cheeks. Then it happened. I lost the paperwork from the vet showing he was neutered. To get his papers from the breeder I needed to show I wouldn't be breeding him. I really didn't need the papers for anything but, why not. So I sent her an email explaining I lost the vet receipt but sent a photo as proof. She laughed and I got Bert's papers from her. So- here is the photo.




Tonight is godson's softball game so we'll have a fun night of watching other people sweat and going to the bar that sponsors them afterward. Friends are fun!

Tragedy in Iowa

Sad news in Iowa yesterday. It's all over the news down here. Rob Lowe was accused of murder. He's in Des Moines at a golf tournament and hit a bird mid-flight with one of his golf balls. As if that weren't tragic enough - it was a goldfinch - the state bird. Poor bird - Poor Rob. Actually it's kind of nice to be somewhere where the big news story is a bird getting killed by a golf ball and not a list of all the violence that occurred to people the day before. Nice quiet Iowa. Hate the drive to get here from Minneapolis - love the city.


The Victorian shawl I've been working on is at the bind off stage. I should be able to finish it tonight after I get home from Iowa ( 4 hour boring drive I may just go to bed when I get home!)

I have no pictures of knitting or the new pics of the boys for today so I'll give you 2 older pictures.


The view from the toilet in my old house - Chief loved this location!

(7:50 pm - Chief says he just found out Chris is getting everyone to show their tummy. "I showed mine and didn't even know it was the thing to do!")

One from my cell phone. Taken on the way to work one day.

Fate

I ran over to the library between meetings at a couple clients to catch up on email and maybe do a it of work but fate had another plan - I can get on the web but my VPN isn't connecting so I can't get to my work email. Darn - guess I have to babble on the blog for a bit.

Yesterday we had one of our team meetings Operations and Sales. It was a bowling tournament. I haven't bowled since Carter was in office and it showed. I used to bowl 150-180. Last night I did bowl better than my age but - we'll just leave it at that! I did not win the top score trophy. Nor the one for highest team average or most strikes or..... you get the picture. It was bad - really bad. I was not the lowest score (how I'll never know). I do have a few excuses. Excuses are good. They help us survive an occasionally unjust world. I couldn't bowl my best because the shoes really hurt my feet and I could barely walk. It wasn't my own bowl and the holes just didn't feel right. I'm old out of shape and couldn't bend over enough to release the ball smoothly. NO! Forget the last excuse. That can't possibly be the reason why. I'll stick with the shoes being bad - I like that one.

I have to head out to Iowa again tomorrow morning. Some strange is going on in Des Moines. When I tried to book a hotel room my three usual hotels were all booked. After doing some checking - every stinkin' hotel in DM is booked Wednesday night. There's obviously something going on but I have no clue. I ended up finding a room about 13 miles from the company I'll be working at. A least its a well known name and not some flea trap.

One good thing about the trip. I found a good CD book to bring with to survive the 4 hour drive each way. I also found Wendy's book. I like to check books out of the library and then end up buying many of them. Wendy's looks like a keeper- it will be fun to have a "friend" with me on the trip.

Well - off to my next meeting. Hope nobody had any vital emails for me cause I don't get to see them until tonight at home - if the VPN works right!

Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend. We did a little of this - Then did some more -

Chief joined in the activity -

After a bit it was time to check out the back yard -

But they didn't realize the action was in the front yard -

Finally all that activity meant needing a special treat -

One thing we did do this weekend was look at a new kitchen floor. I told the folks to forget about redoing the kitchen floor until I got moved in and I'd take care of it. Why put in a new floor only to move a bunch of furniture over it and wreck it in the first month! I'm thinking the snap together flooring that looks like tile because the rest of the house is 50 year old hardwood floor and I'd never be able to match it. I don't want real tile because I tend to drop things and dishes would break way too easy on hard tile.

Oh well - I'll think about that tomorrow and for now we'll go back to doing nothing! It's a great weekend!

Oh My Aching Back!

I finally decided my back ache that has been coming and going the past two months is not from the hard hotel bed alone. It's Mom and the thought of going to Iowa on business and the beds combined. Friday night was "Mom night". I tried to take her out Wed and Thurs but it didn't work out that way. Tuesday I talked to her to set up supper Wed and somehow during the 10 minute conversation she ended up really mad at me and swearing. Mom doesn't swear - ever - until the past 6 months. Our conversation was about her confusion regarding Dad at his place. Trying to explain my family situation is pretty tough unless you're in the middle of it, even then it doesn't make sense.

Mom

Mom has always had someone else do her thinking and decision making. First it was Grandpa, then it was Dad. She never had a time where she was independent until Sept last year when I had to put Dad in Memory Care. The past several year Mom's memory has been getting pretty bad but she had Dad to make decisions and she coped. Now - no Dad, at least in the decision making part of things. He's doing great. The people where he lives care for him well and keep him safe and comfortable. Mom isn't bad enough to be "locked in" so I'm trying hard to keep her independent. She's in a senior assisted living apartment. She gets her meals at the restaurant there if she doesn't feel like cooking, lives in the building next to Dad so she can visit him daily, and lives about 2 blocks from Target so she can walk over and get basic foods and other things she needs. What she doesn't have is much of a memory. She writes a lot of notes, forgets appointments, feels overwhelmed but- its still better than being locked up and not being able to leave the building.

So - back to Tues. night. She couldn't understand why Dad wasn't at his place when she went over. I tried to explain they have a calendar of events posted and that 1-2 times a month they go out on trips (drive around the lakes, a picnic, etc). She confused her calendar with his and got all angry when I tried to help her understand the difference. So- she hung up on me and I didn't get supper arranged.

Wed. night I called her and set up supper for Thursday before we started talking, just in case she tried to hang up again. So far, so good. I tried calling a few times during the day Thurs. but she was out- exercise or Dad or whatever. The nurse at her place called to talk to me. There's a nursing service available if you contract for it which we haven't but, Mom went down there asking if they could cut her toe nails. I'll have to look into why she suddenly did this. So I got to her place at 4:45 when I told her 5:00. No Mom. Probably at Dad's still so I snooped around her apartment. Clean toilet, No old food in the refrig. A strange note on the board telling Dad she missed him at his place and if he comes in to let her know. Wait- isn't Dad locked in his building and hasn't it been since before Christmas that I brought him over to her place? So- how is he supposed to read a note in a place he can't get to? After a while I decided she wasn't showing up so I went back downstairs to go over to Dad's to see if she was there. Got outside and she came out the restaurant door. She forgot all about our supper and had gone in to eat there. Didn't remember our conversation from the night before even after I reminded her. Oh well. How about Friday night supper.

We try again. I called a couple timed Fri. and left messages to remind her we were meeting at her apartment at 5:00 for supper Friday (tonight). When I got there at 4:45 she was there! But - all worried about her checkbook. This is another weekly (or more often) conversation. She also said she didn't have any money (cash) and she gave Dad some cause he didn't have any. Another weekly conversation. Mom- Dad doesn't need money, it only gets lost or stolen. Remember I pay all the bills and his meals are already paid for, etc.

I'd love to give her money but any cash she gets, she thinks she had to give Dad because he's the person who takes care of the bills. She just can't learn new things like he doesn't remember anything beyond 5-10 minutes much less be able to handle money affairs. Sigh! We went out to supper and Perkins. I decided what we would eat, she doesn't make decisions. I had to re walk her through step by step how to pay the bill with her ATM card, how to give a tip, how much to give, etc. Another weekly conversation. Sigh! I keep telling my cousin I should just put all these conversations on tape and I don't have to keep repeating them.

My latest approach with Mom is to have her look at what she can do instead of what she can't do. Our cousins daughter is getting married next summer so I got Mom a stamped cross stitch picture to work on to give to her. I hope this works. I told her to spent about 15 minutes a day on it until she felt like she could do more. I hope it will get her brain working in positive ways instead of oh poor me ways. We'll see...

My Back- OUCH!

Back to my back. I really think it's her.. I got a monster back ache about 1 1/2 months ago when my Iowa project started. I don't like hard hotel beds. Each week I'd start to get better and back to Iowa- back to pain. I haven't' been down there for a couple weeks and my back was almost better until late this week with Mom trauma. I bet I'm letting all my stress of coping go straight to my back. Of course it doesn't help that I'm WAY out of shape and about a thousand pounds over what I should be.

Free Shopping Trip

Enough "poor me" talk. I have been knitting and playing with the boys and getting somethings straightened out at the house. I got a bonus at work for one of the projects I just finished. It was a gift card at Target so off I went to shop for "free". Life is good in many ways. Shopping and not having to pay is no of them. Whenever I get a bonus I buy things I normally wouldn't. You just can't spend bonus money on toilet paper, it's just not right! I ended up getting a 2 piece cover for the sofa so the boys don't have to sleep on ugly stripes sheets anymore and I got a really good back massager for me.

The boys sleeping on the couch before the new cover - the sheets will be going away!

I also found a good tea pot. I like real tea and real tea needs a good pot to brew properly. Most of my brewing options are for 1 or 2 cups. This one will handle 4 cups. Happy happy joy joy!

Knitting

I have about 1/2 of the 2nd Sockotta mock cable sock completed. I also have much of my Victorian shawl finished. Finally I finished the Woolease quick try of my ascot tie scarf. I will write up the directions (hopefully tomorrow) and post them. I'd like a few of you to try the scarf and let me know what you think. When I originally made it I made it in Bemidji Wool with size 6 needles. This time I tried Woolease (it was laying around the house) and a size 8 needle. I'll give quickie instructions for both and you can let me know which you prefer.

Repeat picture of Bemidji wool version of scarf