Massive Update

Yes, yes, it has been awhile. Suffice it to say that soooo much is brewing that I simply couldn't settle on what to feature that I would not regret months from now. So here is a safe update on all that's been cooking for the past few months.

#1 Son's Semester off

My oldest son is an actor. Has been all of his life, however, I wasn't one of those stage moms so he was not a profesional child actor or model. Last summer, as he was about to enter his junior year at college, he decided to actively pursue his career - for the summer. He was casted in a bunch of films and he was the standin for Corbin Bleu in a HBO tv series. Now he is working on another HBO show, How to Make it In America and I hope he gets on camara for that one.

#2 Son graduates high school and goes off to college!

The dreaded dorm shopping

Last day at a Savannah riverfront hotel before dorm move in

Vegas with #3 son

Jonathan played in a national basketball tournament in Las Vegas. That place is the debil.

Why does my child take coaching from his coaches with his full attention and I have to threaten bodily harm just to get him to stand still and listen?

A weekend vacation to French Town, NJ

I took a long weekend away to French Town. It is a really pretty place. I also drove to New Hope and Lambertville and they were nice too but it was in Frenchtown where I found this:

Visited the Spinnery

Spent quality time with dear friends

My Pal Phyllis and cat

My oldest friend, Amir

My buddy Deb

My foreign phantom friend Duma. I met Duma almost 30 years ago when he lived in the US in exile from apartheid South Africa. He returned after Mandela became president. Whenever he visits here on business, he always finds the time to give me a shoutout.

So you see, a lot has been going on. Have I been knitting? Oh sure,

Noro silk garden sock, yarn gifted to me by my pal Phyllis

A really grainy picture I took with my camera phone of my Malabrigo bolero. I love this! Fast and knit in one piece!

Whelp, that's it for now. Time does fly!

Jonathan, Marcus and Andrew - a long time ago

Marcus, Andrew and Jonathan - June '09

Coming in From the Cold

I've been missing in action, burying my face in CSPAN programming watching everything and anything associated with the new White House trying to convince myself that while the economic sky is falling it is way better than listening to those clowns from the former administration f%$#up the country. Now, with that said, and to keep from indulging in a full on pity party, this is some of what I've been up to.

went to visit son #1 in North Carolina to hear him sing with the North Carolina Symphony


This is a partial sound recording of the Carmina Burana. Not my favorite choral piece, sort of reminds me of a scary movie but it was my chile singing so...




Got caught in the historic nor' easter snow storm. Tried to get out of town before it hit and the lady at the airline checkin said, "honey, if anybody in North Carolina thinks it's gonna snow, we close down the city! Better find you a hotel and sleep in." Well, after I checked out of my very nice hotel with a great wine list and midnight cheese and fruit platter room service -


I found myself thankful for any room at the airport hotel. Even the crows were confused.

Made this gorgeous Radiating Star Blanket as a baby gift (pattern found on Ravelry).

Tried to follow the Harlot's advice with the stash...

FAILED

Why did I keep these??

There were months that brought me little or no joy - except for this occasional backyard visitor.

My pal Phyllis tried hard to lift the gloom, we explored yarn stores and old fashioned soda fountains. I had my first vanilla ice cream soda in many years!




She even baked me a cake and brought me some noro sock yarn and those cool square needles!

I pulled myself together long enough to host one of those local Obama house meetings.

There were a few of them around my town. My friend Arlene, a professional chef, did one with desserts and champagne!

Went to hear a Cornel West lecture with my boys. That was a really good day.

Attended my town's library's author luncheon. Guess who?

I auctioned off several baskets with baby hats. And, the poster below from the Democratic Convention's Women's Caucus that Michelle Obama presided over.

So, hope still remains and is perhaps all that is left when we succumb to our darkest worries and can't seem to see the light. Thanks to all of you who have written to encourage me to write again and to report on my whereabouts. I'm sorry I've been gone so long.

P.S. if you would like one of these historic posters, I have another that I would like to share so, just comment here with your name and I'll do one of those random selection thingies and send one to you, sorry, it is not signed and I won't be able to frame it.

Let 'em eat cake

All of this talk about money and the economy is making me grouchy. I don't like being grouchy, it is not my nature. But now, it has been suggested that my talents as a knitter don't transcend into my general domestic skill set. Unfortunately for us domestic workers, our jobs can't be outsourced. Talk about a budget crisis. Imagine if every man had to bring in private contractors to tend to all of their needs?? Yes it is true, some of them do privatize some aspects of their lives (see Elliot Spitzer and a zillion other politicians). We know how expensive that becomes for just one measly (well maybe not so measly) outsourced job!

At a recent budget conference, it was suggested that I review ways that I could cut back. Hmmmmm. Immediately, ideas came to mind. I could stop buying diamonds but DeBeers would probably go bankrupt which wouldn't be a bad thing except I haven't bought diamonds since I learned what happens to miners who work to get those lovelies out of the ground.

It was suggested that I not buy too many clothes. While I don't sew my clothes, I wonder just how much longer I could stretch my size 8 clothes into my growing, perimenopausal size 10 frame? Which brings me to groceries. Cutting back on groceries was seriously reviewed. If I didn't eat so much and encouraged others to do the same, we could save a mint (I used to grow mint but nobody really noticed). I am a bad domestic engineer it has been determined. I pay too much for food. I reluctantly had to agree this point due to the recent Whole Foods beef recall. I've been buying Whole Foods beef forevah thinking that the 50% markup helped ensure that I wasn't eating diseased, penned up and barely- alive- stock. So yeah, I could save with groceries by cutting out those nice juicy steaks and organic burgers. Did somebody say dollar menu?

Let's see, what else. Oh, right, the yarn. Which my shrink (if I had one) would probably say is the real source of the conflict. I could stop buying yarn. And by extension, I'd have more time to clean and cook and launder and contemplate "reclaiming the home". I contemplated drugs instead...


Then, the existential in me wondered, WWJD?

After close reflection, I realized that for twenty five years, I had been getting it all wrong. My one indulgence

could have been solved by just saying no. Who knew that Nancy Reagan was right afterall...

Anyway, is it obvious I'm in a funk? My Pal Phyllis came to the rescue. She brought some yummy wild blueberry muffins that she picked and baked...

Brought tears to my eyes...

And, Phyllis and I have been doing this sock KAL. Yes the yarn cost $11 bucks (a 20% sale at her LYS). Where else in America can you get great friendship, and stuff to do for 11 bucks and end up with a pair socks in the process?

Simply Lace Socks, Interweave, '06

My first attempt at the pattern was done totally wrong. When you are blind with rage, I guess lace charts can be misinterpreted. I had to frog it. Here is the improved version...


I was so excited that I was able to "self correct" and catch up with my buddy, I took the one sock out to the pool, and in solidarity with the USA's swim team's successes we took a dip -



Don't try this at home, the pool hasn't been chlorinated in days due to budget constraints so there was no real danger of bleaching out these lovely Louet Gems Opel orange tones.

Phyllis then suggested we go on a really cheap adventure to a local flea market to just enjoy looking at all of the old stuff...

Imagine having to wash clothes in one of these buckets? Talk about domestic servitude??

I bought a bag of buttons for a buck and two mason jars for two bucks! You see, I am good at this economics thing.

To shake off all of these worries, I've decided to throw myself into Ravelry's Olympics. Lots of knitting without buying new yarn, lots of hours watching some of the best physiques in the world and I'll get lots of finished garments in the bargain. So, stay tuned to my progress and what I hope to finish before China's closing CG ceremony. Sometimes virtual ain't so bad.

No woman no cry

Yup, it's been an adventure this summer so far and it's only early July. I've wanted to post many times but first I had to clean out the hard drive in order to load more pictures.

So what happened?

It started with a ginormous oak falling in my front yard. No detailed pictures, too depressing. It was 9pm at night when I heard this loud crack and bam! I guess I should be glad that it didn't fall on the house but at the time, I sincerely thought that it fell on something - a moving car, a couple walking a dog... Fortunately none of that happened but it did cost nearly 3 grand to get the dang thing hauled away and get the cables to the telephone and internets fixed.

all that's left

I think I told y'all that I have a mouse. Well, obviously there is no such thing as a "1 mouse" infestation but I can't even go there right now imagining the possibilities. One night, I think, a mouse got into my bird's cage trying to rob some seed and, I think, the male bird fought it back because the next morning the PETA college son (who is responsible for me not calling in the exterminator in the first place) woke me up yelling that something weird happened to the birds. The male was really beaten up. His wing was hurt and all of his feathers on the injured wing was gone. Who the hell knows what really happened but that adventure cost me $175 for the vet.

happier times

I finally got to open the pool. The pool guys informed me that the chipmunks turned my heater into a chipmunk hotel. It is totally destroyed. The little buggers chewed up and redecorated everything inside. A new heater will cost me $3 grand but guess what? WHO CAME UP WITH HEATED POOLS ANYWAY? Pools are for cooling off. It ain't a bath tub! My boys will have to get used to swimming in a chilled pool.

With all of that going on, my hubby had nothing better to do but to paint my house. On a Monday morning these guys show up and commenced to totally destroy all of my flower beds around my house. Hydrangeas, specially selected hostas, perennials, roses - all trampled over or splattered with paint.

Even with a gorgeous face like that, he can make me so mad!

And, if that wasn't bad enough, it was the sulky 13 year old's graduation day and last day of school. So all of my last day of school/graduation preparations plans got shot to shit because I'm fuming over painters.

Graduation or the NBA draft? You don't want to know what I went through to get him to tuck his shirt in and take off that do-rag!

In order to prevent myself from totally wigging out, I decided that I required some pharmacological intervention. I reached for the Ativan. But, as I was so blind with rage, dumb me swallowed a couple of Ambiens instead! I don't need to tell you what happened at the graduation not that I could anyway because I have absolutely no recollection!

It was all a blur...

Several days later, the painters return. This time with power washers. They are now going to power wash the deck. Now the perennials in my flower beds are destroyed - coreopsis, lavender, dahlias... too many to list. I am now in the market for zoloft...

Then my new friend, Beate, tells me that she is moving back to Denmark. There was so much going on but I had to find the time to get together one last day to knit with her. Here we are with her friend Erin.

Erin then organized a group dinner where we could all say good bye.

Beate

So, have I been knitting. Yes, absolutely. How else would one survive?

Dream in Color's Smooshy

These are Kirsten's Achillea.

Interweave Knits Cable Rib Socks in ONline Supersocke Cotton color Beach

What else? I'm also almost finished with my pinwheel sweater that I frogged, I made a nice lace cotton scarf and I finished my mother-in-law's shawl. I'll show you when I take more pictures.

Oh, did I mention that the painters destroyed the cables to the internet, the tv and the telephone. At first I refused to intervene and have it fixed. Let the hubby painter/contractor deal with it. But then the children waged an insurrection and I had no choice (and no zoloft) so I called in the repairs.

When I was talking to my pal Phyllis about not knowing what to blog about because so much crap has happened, she suggested I keep it simple and show you my socks. But, alas, I need pity. So, here I am, trying to survive summer with 3 teenage boys and two teenage nieces (a whole 'nother chapter I'll talk about later) and a hubby who feels he can now (after 20+ years) "get involved" with fixing up the house.

But, when I tally it all up something so simple made all the dilemmas worthwhile.

A lovely yellow finch. I'm so easy to please!