It’s Not Easy Bein’ Green

As I wrote earlier, I have taken up riding the bus to work. At first, I figured it would be just a couple of times a week, but I actually do it almost every day. In fact, I have only driven twice since I started. The one day I had Guild in the evening and the other I had to get to work really early (6 am). The earliest bus leaves the mall at 6:30. My husband still drives me to the mall, but I know that we have been saving gas money since he does not pick me up at the mall and the mall is much closer than my work. At first I was not sure that I was saving money, but I know I am saving wear and tear on my car, so even if I am not saving money on gas it self in the end I believe it to be a savings. Plus, I have been getting a lot of exercise. So that is a good thing. And more knitting is being done. That is also a good thing. I thought I would post some photos of stuff I see on my walk to and from the bus station near work. I am guessing at the bird species. Although my MIL is a hard core bird watcher, I have not picked up as much knowledge as I probably should have in the 20 years I have known her.

Here is a cedar wax wing in a tree. There were 6 or 7 of them when I approached, all on the ground twittering away. They all flew up in the tree when I came close. I still think it is a pretty good shot.


Here is a wood pecker I saw after work one day. He was a pesky little fella, hopping around the tree trunk while I tried to take a photo. Overall, I was amazed to get photo at all.


Here are some flowering trees in front of the church near my work. I think they are crab apple trees, but I do not know for sure. Botany is not my forte.


Here is a duck and a drake in a pond area near the bus station.


There is a lot of water between the bus station and my work. There are several fountains/ponds and a little run off area. I think it might be overflow from the lake across the street. Regardless, it attracts a great deal of wildlife. The one day I was nearly beaned in the noggin by an egret flying up from the run off area. I also saw a muskrat there one morning.

I failed to mention that last Monday was my anniversary. I have now been married for 18 years. My wonderful husband gave me this beautiful Longaberger basket.

Isn't lovely?
The Girl asked why we got married on Memorial Day. Of course, we did not get married on Memorial Day, rather the weekend of. I get asked this a lot. Not sure why, It seems a good time as any to get married, but there was an actual reason behind the date. My in-laws live in New Mexico. My husband was graduating from college on the Sunday in the Memorial Day weekend. Since we were going to get married that summer anyway, I figured it made the most sense to get married during the same weekend as graduation, that way his parents only had to make one trip up. So, we got married on Saturday, DH graduated on Sunday and we went to the zoo with my in-laws on Monday. I had to be back at school on Tuesday. So no honeymoon for us. However, I did not want a dance after the reception; my father did not always behave at such events and I did not want to scare off my in-laws. Instead, the wedding party went to see "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" at the local movie theater. Maybe we were too young to get married! LOL! It was great fun to see the cashier’s face when we came in and bought tickets wearing dresses and suits.


I just finished listening to Frankenstein on the Craftlit podcast. I am behind the on the schedule. I have read Frankenstein before, not when I a teenager, like so many people, but rather as an adult. However, it was several years ago, and it was before The Girl came to live with us. Listening to now, I realize even more deeply how wrong Victor is in abandoning his creation. If he had stayed and cared for the creature, could have he saved the creature from his rage and destructive nature? I would like to think so. By the end, I thought of parents who try to do the right thing and their child still ends up destroying themselves. Or even vise versa where the crappiest parent manages to raise a perfect adult, caring and loving even though they never were shown such tenderness. Perhaps the creature did not have a chance to be saved, but I think he is truly sorry for what he has done and takes responsibility for it at the end. He even mourns the loss of his creator. Victor does not take responsibility for anything. In the end, he just wants revenge, not to actually fix what he unleashed on the world. He blames the creature for his ills, when in reality; Victor was the cause of much of his own grief.
And the creature does have feelings of compassion to others before he is assaulted over and over again. It made me think of teenagers who are teased and bullied to the point of lashing out and hurting those around them. How much exclusion from the world can one creature take before it determines that the world does not want them? If the world does not want you, why would you take care of it?
I also wonder if when Mary Shelley wrote the book, if she thought people would sympathize with Victor, or even back then, he would have been considered an arrogant fool. I think she was trying to show the folly of hubris, but I also think it was a common attitude among the elite at the time. So I am sure there were those who did sympathize with Victor rather than the creature. But I think Shelley wanted people to understand the outcasts in the world.

What have you there my Pretty?

Look, I have finished stuff. Of course, I finished them last week, but last week was exhausting at work and I did not have the ambition to blog about the items.

Here is the Sheila the Sheep Tea Cozy:


Isn’t it darling? It was not hard to do. I will probably make up some egg cozies to go with, but I just have not been inspired to do it. You can make your, just order a kit from Blackberry Ridge. The yarn is really nice.

Here is the Tea Cozy I made for my MIL:

I really think it turn out quite nice. The color way, as I believe I have mention before, is carrot cake. So I also knit this little carrot cake cupcake to go with it.


Awww, isn’t that cute?
My MIL called last night to tell us she had received her package. This was made for a belated Mother’s Day. She was not sure what to do with the cupcake and my DH told her it was just decoration, so it went into her china cabinet next to my hubby’s aunt’s objete d’arte. So that is really cool. I made it into the art cabinet! Yeah for me!

For the past several days, I have been knitting dishcloths. Over the last week, I have made 5 dishcloths. It is a phenomenal number for me. I just have not been very inspired lately. I think I have been a little tired. It’s not like I don’t have stuff to finish up, but I really would like to start something new. I know, I know, I said I was going to finish up some projects I have already started. I have, however, made some progress in my WIPs, I have decided if I have started it and it does not appear that I will finish it, I am just frogging it. That is what I was doing last night while watching the conclusion of The Andromeda Strain on A&E. It was pretty good, although they changed the ending and I was a little disappointed about that. Oh well.

On Sunday night, the whole family went to the drive in. We saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Prince Caspian.
They were both very good movies for the drive in. Not too deep, but entertaining. Indiana Jones was the better of the two movies. Prince Caspian was not as good as the 1st Narnia movie and my DH said several times… “I don’t think that was in the book”. I don’t know if that is true or not, because I am pretty sure I never read Prince Caspian.

Blues Falling Down Like Hail

Today I am going to title all of my sections with lines from Blues songs. Just for fun. The header is from Robert Johnson’s “Hell Hound on my Trail”.

You may bury my body down by the road side, so my old evil spirit can catch a Greyhound bus and ride. (Robert Johnson)
I have started taking the bus to work. I discovered that a bus stops at a mall near my home and takes me within walking distance of work. It is about a 15 min walk. I figure even if I take it a couple of times a week, I will save wear and tear on the car, plus he can run The Girl to her appointments. However, I am not used to any real exercise and by Friday night, my shins hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I like riding the bus. It gives me time to knit and think, two of my favorite activities.

Run and tell Willie Brown, That I’m standing at the Crossroads and I believe I’m sinking down (Robert Johnson “Cross Roads Blues”)
Friday night I spent at Urgent Care with The Girl. On Tuesday, she was out riding on a friends motorcycle and she burned her leg. I looked at then and it was red, but not blistering or anything. Thursday night she said the blister had burst and it looked pretty bad, but she just wanted to put a bandage on it and move on. I honestly did not think much of it. Why? I don’t know. It didn’t look that bad. I mean it looked bad, because it was a large burn, but it wasn’t horrible. However, on Friday, DH received a call from the school that it was filled with pus and blood and that it should be looked at by a doctor. The Girl refused to go with DH to the doctor. Finally, I convinced her to go the Minute Clinic at the Mall. They refused to treat her because the burn was too big and it was getting infected. They said to go to Urgent Care. The Girl refused. After I got home I had to cajole her into going to Urgent Care. I explained that an infected burn could lead to gangrene and amputation and / or a very smelly painful death. She finally agreed to go. At 1st we checked into the Emergency room because I did not realize the Urgent care was open. After talking to DH on the phone we went down to Urgent care, where they were much nicer. However, we sat in the room waiting for the doctor for over an hour. Why? I don’t know, because it was not busy. Finally, the doctor showed up and cleaned her wound and scolded me for not bringing her in sooner. It was infected and so she is on antibiotics and a sulfur salve. I did not get home until almost 10. God, I hate kids.

Tell me another lie, You won’t tell me the truth. The more you lie to me, the crazier I get about you. (Artie White “The More you Lie to Me”)So the end of Lost’s season is almost upon us. It is a sad, yet exciting time. It is always hard to say goodbye to Lost for such a long time. I have many thoughts running through my head right now, so it is time for some speculation.
I still think that Jin is dead. Sun was so vengeful towards her father. If he was alive, there would be hope that she would see him again. She is acting like she will not see him again. Plus, he has redeemed himself, so The Island could take him at any time. Sun also paused when the reporters asked her if her husband survived the crash. I think he will die on the freighter when it explodes.
But what about Desmond. Will he die on the freighter? Is he one of the 8 that survive, but one of the 2 that “died”? Maybe he was on the boat that reached the island, but since he was not on flight 815, they had to make up something about him. Maybe Michael is the other one. Or maybe he dies on the freighter.
Or maybe Desmond dies. It doesn’t seem likely since they have set up such an elaborate story concerning him and Penny. Of course, that has never stop the Lost writers from doing something cruel. They did kill Libby for no good reason.
I also think Claire died in the house explosion, hence the reason Miles was staring at her. He knew she was dead and could not figure out why she was walking around. He obviously saw Christian in the jungle since he said she went with some guy she called dad.
Keamy must be destroyed. He will wreak too much havoc to remain alive. I am assuming that Ben will despatch him to the great beyond, but that will cause the freighter to blow up. Here are my thoughts… the Oceanic 6 that remain on the island will be brought to the freighter via the copter. Once there, they will see all the C4 and start to remove people via the life boat / zodiac. Where they would be heading, is unknown, but perhaps the freighter crew tells them another island is not far away. Or perhaps they are heading back to the Island and since the island moves, they can not get to it.

What is Happening Here?

I hate talking on the phone. Unfortunately, with my job, I have to spend a lot of time on the phone. I am a buyer. Yes, I know you are very jealous. Who doesn’t want to be a buyer? I am not a retail buyer, mind you, I buy for a manufacturer. So I am not buying fun stuff like shoes or toys, but rather dull boring stuff like load cells and bearings. Anyway, my job is not very interesting and I have to spend a lot of time at it. This has nothing to do with anything that is going on… I just thought I would let everyone know.

It was a big weekend. My husband and I went over to the Shepherd’s Harvest Festival on Saturday. We had a really good time. I was going to bring my camera and take pictures for this blog, but of course I forgot. So there are no pictures. Only words. Sorry. I bought 3 skeins of Llama yarn from Ra-chAl-pca, in 3 different colors. I am going to do a Fair Isle hat with it. I also bought some perfect yarn for my MIL’s tea cozy. It is in a color way called “Carrot Cake”. I am also going to knit her a piece of carrot cake to go with the tea cozy. I think she will appreciate it. As we were leaving the festival, my husband said he was going to learn to spin. He is just the sweetest thing. What more could a person ask for than a husband who would spin you yarn? I can not think of anything.

For Mother’s Day, The Girl made a HUGE breakfast for us all. It was lovely. My husband made beef tenderloin on the grill for dinner. And the whole day was mine. The Girl got off the computer when I wanted to go on and I got to watch what I wanted to on the TV. I was able to watch a crappy movie on the Sci-Fi channel (“Don’t Cry Werewolf”). Normally, I get a bunch of flack for such indulgences, but I was able to pull the Mother’s Day card! It was very exciting. Now, I enjoyed this movie, but it was basically a very poor version of “Fright Night” with a werewolf instead of a vampire. So it wasn’t a good movie, but it was fun in a cheesy way, so I liked it. Plus, it was free, so what more could a person ask for? And The Girl made sarcastic remarks about how bad it was, and that was very amusing.

It was an extremely good weekend.

I am working on a baby blanket for charity. It is made out of 2 strands of sock yarn held together. It was some yarn that I won. It is really kind of ugly. I might actually dye over the colors to tone it down a little. I still need to finish off the sheep tea cozy. I know, I am terrible at finishing objects. I don’t know why since doing finishing really doesn’t bother me. Maybe I just don’t like things to end… Who knows? Maybe I am crazy. Actually, I think the problem with the sheep is that I was not sure I liked the head. I have decided it is okay and I will get it done tonight or tomorrow.
I am going to start on my MIL’s tea cozy tonight. I had started it yesterday, but I did not really like it and then The Girl’s devil cat got a hold of it and drug it around the house and it had to be ripped up anyway. I found a different pattern that I think will be better. I will let you know.

She looks innocent, but don’t let that fool you, she is a spawn of Satan! And she loves yarn!

GRMN CH FDGE

This is the sign that was outside of the Culver’s today. What is it supposed to be? I figure the FDGE is fudge. So some sort of fudge concoction. Perhaps CH is chocolate; although that seems redundant since in most minds fudge is chocolate. Now I know you can have other types of fudge. My father used to make peanut butter fudge. Although, he was the only one who really called it that, just like he was the only one who would eat it. Here is his recipe, as far as I could tell: take a bunch of peanut butter and put it in a pan, heat; add Karo syrup and sugar. Cook until you get bored with it, dump it on a plate and let harden. Try to eat before it gets fossilized.
He never measured anything, just dumped what he had in the pan. It was actually really gross, but it is one of my fondest memories of my dad. He had very strange eating habits and this was just one of many quirks.
Okay, back to Culver’s… what the heck is GRMN? Is it graham, like graham cracker? If so, where is the N coming from? Can the sign writer just not able to spell? I can not think of anything else that would go with chocolate fudge with those letters. It caused me a great deal of puzzlement this morning on my drive in. Curse you Culver’s and your delicious butter burgers and your cryptic frozen custard of the day!
Just so you know, on those rare occasions that I actually get frozen custard from Culver’s, I almost always get vanilla with blueberries on top. It is absolutely deliciously. So really, what the custard of the day is should not matter to me. However, I find myself looking everyday to see and I am just a little disappointed when it is not yet posted. I know, I have serious issues.

Okay, I could not stand it any more and I went to Culver’s website and looked up what the flavor of the day is supposed to be: Almond Hooray. WTF? It is not even close. And yesterday’s was Turtle so it can’t be left over from yesterday. In fact, I see absolutely nothing in the month of May that looks like GRMN CH FDGE. Okay, that is just scary.

Upon further exploration, I found the flavor elsewhere on the website. It is German Chocolate Fudge: Our already delectable chocolate custard becomes abundantly rich when we add coconut, brownie pieces and streams of caramel.
Actually, that sound kind of good. Who would have thought of German? Of course, once I saw it; it made perfect sense. Good job Culver’s employees. I just hope no one is disappointed when the get to Culver’s and discover there is no Almond Hooray.

My husband did not make it into the improv group he tried out for last night. He was completely bummed. I told him that I thought he was very funny, but I guess it is like your mom telling you that, it is not as believable coming from a spouse. He really is funny though. There has been many a time in my life that he has saved me from myself through humor.

I knit my sheep tea cozy’s head. It looks way too small for the cozy. I might be because I messed up the decreasing of the wraps. I always seem to miss some and I can never figure out where. I just need to decide if I want re-knit it or not. We will see. It did not take a long time to knit up. I think I will put some stuffing in it and see how it looks.

Oh The Humanities!

Today is the anniversary of the crash of the Hindenburg in 1937. 36 people died. That was only 37% of the people on the Hindenburg. This, if you think about it, really is not bad considering that it ran into a power line, exploded and fell out of the sky.
I really don’t have any more commentary on the event. I was just surprised that so few people really died.

It is getting dark outside. It is only 1:30 in the afternoon. A storm is coming.

Last night I did absolutely no knitting. I did weave in the ends of my mom’s rug and my DH dropped it off at the Post Office today. I did not get anything knit for my MIL, but I told my husband to put in the card that I was working on something. I am going to make her a tea cozy. I told my DH that I wanted to pick up some yarn at Shepherd’s Harvest for it. He just looked at me and asked that dreaded question, “You don’t have any bulky yarn already?” Of course I do. I have yarn in every weight. I am a yarn addict. I just told him I wanted to buy special yarn for her since she is my MIL and she is going to be getting it late. I think he bought it. Whew!

He is actually already agreed to come with me to Shepherd’s Harvest this weekend. We will be going on Saturday. It should be a lot of fun. I had a good time last year, but I was all by my self. Everything is more fun if I haul my sweetie with.

Tonight, my DH is trying out for a novice improv group. He is very excited. I hope it goes well for him. I should be able to spend time knitting tonight. I will work on my sheep tea cozy. Hopeful, there will be pictures in a couple of days.

I AM IRONMAN

On Saturday, the hubby and I went to go see “Ironman”. It was awesome! It is one of the best action films I have ever seen. It really is a flawless example of what all action films should aspire to. Robert Downey Jr. was excellent as Tony Stark. He was able to go from a self centered spoiled rich genius to Ironman in a very believable manner. The special effects were perfect; they did not overpower the film. There is time spent in “Afghanistan”, I am sure they were not really filming there, but I have found when a good movie portrays Afghanistan, there is always great headwear. And Ironman is no exception. There were many lovely hats, some knit, some woven and some appeared to be crocheted. There was one in particular that I really liked, and I think I will try to make one for myself. And there was a scarf (one of those big ones that men in the desert wear) that I also really liked. Even though it was woven, I think I could make my own using slip stitching. I will have to think on it. If you are a comic book geek, like my husband and I, then you must stay until the credits end for a very fun surprise. I do not know that it would mean much to you if you have no knowledge of the Marvel Universe. However, you do not need to be a fan boy or fan girl to enjoy Ironman. It was just a stellar action film. Go see it in the theater ASAP. I give it 4 out of 4 knitting needles.

The only issue that came up in the film was that I was knitting during the previews and somehow I dropped 2 stitches. I found to one right away and was able to fix it, but the other I did not discover until I got home and it was too far gone for me to fix it. I will be the first to admit, that my knit fixing skills are limited at best and I did not know how to pull it up and keep it in pattern. So I just ripped back to the garter stitch section. Regardless, I finished the body to my tea cozy over the weekend and just need to do the head and sew it all together and I will be done. Yeah!.

Why bother?

Yesterday I managed to piss off several people.

I managed to get myself kicked off of the Yarnover committee. I did not really want to do it again, but I did not want to make anyone angry and apparently, that is what I have done. I don’t know if I am even going to be able to continue going to Guild, which I am really upset about because I like going to Guild. I am going to go to the next meeting to see how it goes, but if it is going to be uncomfortable, I will probably just give it up.

Then I pissed off my co-worker and she actually yelled at me. Who does that? Who yells at a co-worker? It is just bizarre. I really do not want to work with her any more. This is not the 1st time she has done something like this and she is REALLY paranoid. I am not able to deal with that sort of thing. I asked my boss if I could move, but he said no.

BECAUSE OF LOST

I really enjoyed Lost last night. Although I hate Kate, I found the episode great. Are they all dead, as Hurley stated? Now from the beginning the creators have said that it is not purgatory. However, what if it is that The Island is alive like in Solaris and the Oceanic 6 and the rest of the people on the island are in fact projections it uses to keep itself safe. Well, maybe not everyone on the island. Ben seems very real, although he does seem to know an awful lot of info about everyone he meets. This would explain Charlie and Christian Sheppard who keep popping up. Jack seems to know in the future that he was related to Claire. So how does he find that out? Perhaps Miles tells him. He obviously saw Christian with Claire. Why did Kate wait so long to contact Sawyer’s daughter? Because of the trial, perhaps, or has she had quite a lot of contact and that was just another meeting. I am assuming that was what she was doing for Sawyer since he talked about before. Maybe it is something else. Of course, it is just like Jack to point out that he left the Island and Sawyer didn’t. What a jerk. So Jack starts his decline because his dad is in the lobby. And he apparently thinks Kate is having an affair with Sawyer, who is still on the island? I suppose also the fact that Hurley had said Jack would be getting a visitor, making Hurley seem less crazy. Poor Hurley. I hope he will be okay. Of course, if they are all dead, none of them are okay.
Claire disappears, which probably explains why Kate takes Aaron off the Island. Because if you think about it, who else could take him to safety? Not Rose since she is not going to leave the island, not Sun since she is going to have her own baby and she could not pass Aaron off as hers, not Juliette since I don’t think she will make it off the Island.
And something from last week’s episode: Where the hell is Penny’s mom? She is never mentioned. I mean, even if she died, you would think she would come up at some point. I also think I am the only person in the universe who would not care if Penny was killed. I mean, she is okay, I don’t hate her like I do Kate, but she is sort of whiney and very dim. Plus, I think Widmore deserves it for killing Alex and Danielle.