Knitting, the cat and weekend meals

Lindz is always cold (she is also very skinny, only seriously eats breakfast, and rarely eats fruits/vegetables). She also plays the violin, piano and guitar and, as you can imagine, her hands get even colder when she has been playing for awhile. Of course, you will note in the pic that she is sitting around in shorts and a t-shirt with bare feet . . . hmmmm and she is always cold.

I made her this pair of gauntlets (Fetching from Knitty.com, Summer 2006). They work up quickly and easily. Lindz, not being patient, snagged the left one as soon as I finished tying up the loose ends on Saturday. The other one was done Tuesday evening. Because they never made it to any end prep, they are curling at the edges. She doesn't care and I'm not sure I could get them back from her to wash/block these babies.

Last evening, we discussed what to do differently. She would like the length to be a tad longer . . . and she wasn't sure that she wants the thumb area as long nor the finger edge.

So, I am going go make her another pair using Dave Daniels' Cabin Cove kaleidoscope in fingering weight on size 3(U.S.). I don't have a pic of the yarn but if you go here, the multi-colored skein is a pic of the yarn. It is very soft and lovely and I am already through the second cable on the first gauntlet.

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Okay, here is some non-knitting stuff. This is our cat. She is ten years old, will not come in the house but generally stays on the porch

and terrorizes the dogs next door. She also keeps the rodent population down which is really good for our garden or we wouldn't be able to eat this lovelies:

We made roasted vegetables on Saturday evening for dinner. Chop up a bunch of veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, sweet red pepper, onion), mix with a combo of olive oil and sesame oil (equal portions and 1 Tbs. roasted sesame seeds (roast the seeds in a bit of the oil in a non-stick frying pan for about one minute or so . . . they will brown quickly and burn in a blink of an eye). Roast veggies on aluminium covered jelly roll pan at 500 degrees for about 15 minutes. Again, keep an eye on these babies, they will go from perfect to burnt quickly. And, depending on your local fire department personnel, you may or may not want them to go to burnt. LOL.

We also had steak, caramelized mushrooms (thanks Dave). On Sunday, Sarah made Chicken Parmesan and tortellini (with onions and peppers) and Lindz made these babies to go with the rest of our dinner. This is a pseudo Red Lobster biscuit recipe. Very close. We keep trying for perfection (which might explain why I am failing at Weight Watchers). These were pretty close but we decided that they need a tad more garlic in the biscuit.

Anyway, dinner was fabulous, as opposed to what we normally eat during the week (i.e., Friday night the kids had corn dogs). Our weekends are turning into really good eating!

I am a terrible mother . . . and other open issues

This shoe versus this shoe . . .

My darling younger daughter is going to homecoming. Keep in mind that she attends an all-girls Catholic High School. So, why would they be having a homecoming dance? Seriously, follow the logic here.

The shoe on the left is the one I had in mind when we went shoe shopping yesterday. However, the shoe on the left is the one she got because, I am a terrible mother, and gave into the "but it will look so totally awesome with my dress . . . and after all, I am wearing a hand-me-down from Sarah . . . ." Oh, yeah, I fell for it. Of course, I figure that my darlin' hubby is going to get one good look at the outfit and ship her off to a convent . . . oh, yeah, never mind, that is where she goes now!

By the way, this is a pic of her older sister wearing the dress in question . . . the difference in their body types is that Sarah has curves and boobs. Lindsey is lean.

Sarah loves wearing soft, drappy things. Lindsey usually wears a sweatshirt which is a good thing because, once again, Dad is going to take a look at the shoes and the dress and wham, she will be in the sweatshirt.


The cool thing about the entire enterprise is the boy she is going with is very nice. She went to elementary school with him. At the end of the last school year, he was about an inch or two shorter than she. We saw him two weeks ago and he is about three inches taller than Lindsey. Oh, and I get to drive them to and from the homecoming.

I did offer to make her a sweater to, ummm, cover all her, ummmm, assets but was informed that hand-knit sweaters are sooooooo icky . . . ahha! another reason for me not to knit sweaters.

I did finish Lindsey's fetchings. I really like the pattern and am seriously thinking about making them in other things, maybe in Gray with beads.

Do girls still wear chastity belts? Anyone have a pattern?

What's in my drawer?

Dave Daniels was wondering what is in our drawers. Mine is very boring. Mostly pens, markers and pencils. Also, there are two tape measures (used for my knitting), staples, a red and black ink pad, a couple of stamps (address stamps for my home and my boss' home), a sinus rub from Bath & Body Works, DCT lip balm, oh and the blue bag includes hair clips, pont tail holders, etc. The crazy thing with this is that I keep them there but inevitably grab one of the pencils, twist my hair and shove a pencil through the center.

Now, if you really want an eye full, you should see what is under my desk . . .

The Official Site of The Cleveland Indians: Homepage

The Official Site of The Cleveland Indians: Homepage

A benefit and a boon

My darlin' hubby and I went to a benefit this weekend. It was a very nice little thing. A fireside chat with a local celebrity, with desserts and coffee. It also had a silent auction.

When we were perusing the silent auction items, there was a basket with a variety of yarns, needles and a pattern book . . . hmmmm . . . valued by the donor at $150.00. My DH wanted to bid on it but I told him to refrain. For that kind of money, I wanted to pick my own yarn.
On the other side of the room was another knitting item. It included the pattern for this bag:


seven skeins of Cascade 220 in a variety of colors, including a dark, almost black, blue, and a lavendar, plus one skein of a Chrystal Palace Fizz (for the centers of the flowers), and another skein of another yarn (which I forget what it was), the plastic handles and a $20 gift card to a LYS. Someone put the value on the item at $80 with a starting bid of $20. Hello? I won it for $45.

We also won two nights at the Put-in-Bay resort, two tickets to Clague Playhouse and dinner at the 100th Bomb Group and an incredible gift basket. Great fun.

The other thing that was great was that after the benefit (which ended by 8:30), we went out to dinner with a dear friend. Her husband has Alzheimers and she is the one who had invited us to the benefit. Her husband got ill over Labor Day and was in the hospital for a couple of days. She was not able to take him home but had to put him in rehab. He is not doing well and this evening was the first time that she had not been going either back and forth to the hospital or the nursing facility. We went to a very nice, quiet little restaurant that prides itself on its wonderful pasta dishes and service. All in all, the whole evening was great!

A contest but you've got to hurry!

Here is a great contest, found on Holly's blog. Entry is due by midnight tonight, so hurry!

And, yet, here is another contest hosted by Marsha in celebration of her second blogversary . . . you have to list three things you want to have on an island and why:

1) Entire set of Encyclopedia Britannica in large print -- it would keep me occupied forever . . . in large print for when my eyes start going bad (gotta be prepared).
2) Seed packets for vegetables and fruit appropriate to the climate -- cause you gotta eat
3) Sheep and my knitting kit (including my spinning wheel and drop spindle) -- for incredibly obvious reasons

So, no. 3 is a little more than "a thing" but hey, its only make believe. Right?

SWH and minimal knitting

Not much knitting this weekend. It was very busy. The girls, some friends and I went to Speaking of Women's Health at the Omni International Hotel. If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of these all day seminars, I highly recommend it. We have gone four out of the last five years (we didn't go last year because I had classes on Saturday). The cost is $35/person but there are two keynotes, a continental breakfast and wonderful lunch, plus all of the sponsors of the event provide products and goodies. The sponsors involved include:

Wal-Mart
Lifetime
American Greetings
Benadryl
Listerine Antiseptic
Purell
Kellogg's
L'Oreal Paris
Maybelline New York
Garnier
Cadbury Schweppes
Gardasil
All Small & Mighty
Dove Personal Care
Promise
Slim-Fast
Kleenex
Huggies
Poise
Dove Chocolate

plus many local sponsors. We walked out of the last keynote, loaded down like pack animals with wonderful products, bits of wisdom and sore ribs from laughing so much. Very cool.

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I frogged Lindsey's gauntlets last evening. I had to wait for her to go to bed. She is convinced that I will NEVER finish anything for her. I just didn't like the pattern and switched to Fetching from knitty.com.

I also continue to work on MS3. I have gotten through Clue 3 and am about five rows into Clue 4.

Earlier last week I swatched for Secret of the Stole . . . I was more focused on the beads and didn't pay attention to the pattern. Duh. Anyway, I used two different beads. The one showing up as white in the photo is actually an aqua lined white bead. The other bead is an amethyst triangle. It doesn't show up well in the photo but I like it better than the other. The yarn is Knitpick's Palette in Fog (a really nice grey).

The amethyst beads are towards the bottom and look more like darker spots on the swatch (I wish I knew how to draw arrows on my pics).
This is a pic of the swatch with the two containers. I think the aqua would show up better on a lace weight or with a lighter color yarn. The amethyst actually shows up better than the picture suggests.

anyway this one doesn't start until the beginning of October, so maybe I'll swatch it again and do the pattern correctly!

What I should have said . . .

In honor of my completing my MBA, my boss, his wife and a friend hosted a congratulatory lunch for me at a very nice private club. My darlin' hubby and kids were there along with several co-workers and friends. My boss said wonderful things. The former administrator of our firm (who retired two years ago) said wonderful things. And I, I started out okay and then lost it. So, this is what I am sending to those who attended who never quite got the verbal words from me:

I know that you were all surprised at my loss for words. I had given considerable thought to what I would say. The words escaped me and my emotions took over. So now, I am sharing all the things I intended to say.

I am the middle child of seven. Dad worked hard all of his life to put a roof over our heads and food on the table. Mom did everything else, reading countless books, painting, scrubbing, cooking, laughing, sewing, etc. Our home was filled with laughter, noise and love. We learned the value of family, hard work, education and volunteering.

Shortly before she died, Mom shared with me that she regretted that they had not been able to help us with college and we had to do it on our own. I would never advocate arguing with my parents, but I would disagree on this point. While paying for college was on our own, we did not “do it” on our own. I am blessed to have the support (tangible and intangible) of many.

My friends and co-workers have provided support, mentoring and encouragement. They have tolerated my unavailability and mumbling (usually over statistics and finance). They have cheered me on, cheered me up and eased my burden.

Sarah, Lindsey and Zachariah are wonderful children (usually) and have been patient even when I have not been. They also have come to believe that a stack of textbooks and a laptop computer is what every family schleps around, even on vacation. Zachariah still does not believe that I do not have class on Saturdays. Mom going to school is all he has ever known.

Dave is a saint. He is always encouraging, helpful, infinitely patient and a significant sounding board. Through this journey, he has gone beyond that, including reading boring papers and presentations and helping with hideous statistics problems. Dave, you are indeed my better half and I love you, forever and always.

Finally, I need to thank my parents. You did help us with college, instilling in us important values. By Mom’s death, Pat, Peg and Jacquie had all graduated, Jeanne was finishing up and Eddie was in law school; not bad, not bad at all.

By the way, my Mom was a doodler and scribbler, often writing down ideas and thoughts that touched her. I am still finding her “messages” in odd places (cookbooks, notebooks, address cards). Only, two weeks ago, I came across this quote in one of her notebooks, between her recipe for Pineapple Slush and one of her African Violet cronies:

Believe in the magic of your own dreams.

Thanks Mom, I do.