Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Summer is upon us

It is hot. Now, when I say it is hot, I mean it is over 75° F. I hate the heat. I find the older I get, the more I can not handle it. I suspect that I have mentioned this before. All I know is, I will not be moving to Florida or Arizona when I get old. The thought revolts me. Please do not get angry with this statement. If you have chosen to spend your life in a hotter clime and you enjoy, good for you. My mom lives in AZ and I can not even stand to visit her in the winter when it is inhumanly cold here in MN. It just makes me sad. This is something else I have noticed in my life. Summer depresses me. All the sunshine is too much for my soul. I wish for the dark evenings. I am a homebody. I love to go home from work and put on my pajamas and relax. In the summer there is all this pressure to do “stuff” because the sun is out. I do not sleep as well because it is hot and I can not stand air conditioning. Bleech.

Movie Review
Last weekend, the whole family went to see “Get Smart”. It was really funny. We all laughed, a lot. Now, I do love Steve Carrell and I did not really like the original series so if either of these statements do not describe you, maybe it is not the movie for you. It is not a deep, meaningful movie; it is a comedy. You will see the plot twists from a million miles away. The whole cast is good, even The Rock, oh, I’m sorry I mean Dwayne Johnson. If you are looking for a little comedic escape from summer, I will have to recommend “Get Smart”. I am giving 3 out of 4 knitting needles, even without any good hand knits.

Knitting
My knitting has been lagging. I am working on 3 different projects, 2 of which are just seed stitch right now. I am soooo sick of seed stitch. This is not my favorite stitch and when ever I see a sweater or some large project in just seed stitch it makes me shiver. I can not image doing an entire sweater in seed stitch.
I was tired yesterday when I got on the bus to go home, I could not even knit. I actually started to fall asleep on the bus. I do have to get going on these projects because I want them all done before I go on vacation in July. It is my hope that on my trip I will be able buy locally produced yarn and knit it into afghan squares. I have an old pattern booklet for afghan squares. It promotes the fact that by the time you finish all the squares you will be able to knit anything.
On this note, if you can tell me of a good place to get local yarn in Buffalo, NY, I would really appreciate any help.

Work
Now I know that I normally try not to talk about work, but today one of the people I work with on a regular basis is leaving. It makes me very sad. I know it should not matter, because I have worked long enough that I have said goodbye to many people, but she was like an ally to me. I guess sometimes you find someone who you connect with and it is hard to say goodbye. I did give her a dishcloth to remember me by. Another gal had been teaching her to knit and she had only made dishcloths, so I thought it would be fitting. She was part of our work knitting group.

A Parting thought
Last night DH and I were watching I Love the Millennium (2001) on VH1. My DH loves these I Love… shows, they are like crack to him. Anyway… They were talking about Enrique Iglesias’ video for Heroes and one of the commentators said that it was a bad video and they should redo it. I piped up with “What’s wrong with this video, he is wearing that cute stocking cap”. My DH muttered under his breath something about me and my love of knitted objects.
Am I unusual in this? Do others notice nice knitted objects in films and TV? Do others want to buy a film on DVD so they can stop and stare at a sweater and figure out what stitches were used in order to perhaps duplicate it one day?
I am sure they do. I would have thought he would be happy that I have almost completely stopped pointing out really cool light fixtures.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

If Life Gives You Lemons, You Make Lemonade. And If Life Gives You Gators, You Make Gatorade

Letterman told this joke last night so I decided to steal it from him. It makes me do my snort laugh, so you KNOW it is funny. I am feeling a better today so I thought I would blog while things were going okay.

Last Friday, we had a therapy appointment for The Girl. It had been scheduled for some time. We decided it was the place to bring up everything I had discussed in my last blog entry. The Girl completely wigged out. She basically threw a temper tantrum. She yelled and cried and threatened to leave. We remained calm and I think over all it was a good thing. On our way home she said she was sorry. I think it was for the way she behaved at the therapist, but it was a huge start. I had been very concerned about our road trip this summer. I was worried about how she would behave and what she would do. I now think she is going to be okay. She said she would talk to her therapist at the next appointment, and she chose the date. So, fingers crossed.

Since I was concerned about the trip even taking place, I had not actually booked any rooms, so now I am scrambling to find places to stay. We are not going to go to Canada because DH can not find his documents and well, then I do not have to worry that The Girl will get us all arrested at customs. We are just going to spend more time in VT. I think it is all going to be good. There are only a few things that I feel we have to do so we will have plenty of time to drive around and just relax.

Over the weekend, The Girl and I went to see “The Happening”. I thought it was good movie. My main complaint would be that Mark Wahlberg is not in his under-britches even once. What’s up with that? That is one of the main reasons to see a Mark Wahlberg movie. It was an entertaining movie with some interesting characters. Wahlberg is very good in it. I actually really like him as an actor. Plus there is a scene where he sings and you realize what a terrible singer he is. How did he ever get a record deal to start with? I know this movie has been slammed by critics over all, I think this has to do with everyone wanting every movie to be “The Sixth Sense”. Now, I really was not all that impressed with “The Sixth Sense”, I actually preferred “Stirs of Echoes” that came out at about the same time. I really liked “Unbreakable” best of all. “The Happening” is not as good as that, but it was entertaining and had something to say. There were not a lot of hand knits in it because it takes place in the late spring. However, there is a scene where you see some little old ladies knitting with gas masks on which is kind of funny. It is good summer fare, not too deep, but it should help you escape the heat for a few hours. I am going to give it 3 out of 4 knitting needles.
Plus, you should go see it just to help poor M. Night out. You don’t want him to end up like Orson Wells… fat and bitter & doing cheap wine commercials… he is a terrible actor. And he did not give himself a role in this movie so that is a huge plus.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Life, Don’t Talk to me about Life

When do you give up on someone? I have had to do it in the past, but it hurts. I gave up on my little sister. When I was a kid, she saved me from drowning. However, when she was older, she took up with the drugs and alcohol and I could not save her from drowning in it. She died in a car crash; she was drunk behind the wheel at the time. It is very hard to save someone when they won’t grab hold of the line you are throwing them. So I eventually stop throwing it and let her go down. However, she took all of us with her. Her two children were divided amongst us, both have problems. I have siblings who do not speak to one another. It was like the only thing holding our family together was my sister being a bigger screw up than the rest of us. Now, I see The Girl going down the same path as her mother. Part of me wants to cut her loose now because I know where this road leads and the longer I walk with her on it, the more painful the abrupt drop off at the end becomes. But I did take on this responsibility to raise her and just because I am not very good at, should not mean that I give up on her.
I suppose I should explain what brought all of this on…
On Friday, my 1st Friday off of the summer, DH and I decided to go to an estate sale. We went to one out in the posh suburb of Minnetonka. It was a lovely house, the type I will never be able to afford unless I win the lottery. There was some nice stuff, mostly things we did not need, so we did not spend very much. Then we decided to go out to lunch and hit a yarn shop. On the way home, we stopped at our local thrift store. I should probably mention that I have been missing my cell phone for a while and my husband told me on Friday morning that he had found it, in the washing machine. So we did not have a cell phone with us. When we arrived home, there was a message from the school saying The Girl had not shown up to school.
On Thursday night, she insisted that this friend of hers spend the night and she decided to skip school and hang out with him. We finally got a hold of her and she was defiant and obnoxious and said she would not come home at all. Well, she had promised her brother that he could come up to our house for his birthday and hang out with her. She did come home at 1:15 am, with this boy that had been at our house on Thursday. He would not leave and The Girl threatened to leave with him if he did. So this loser kid was at our house all weekend. We tried to get rid of him several times, but he was too dense to take the hint. We finally extracted him from our house at 10:30 Sunday night. My nephew did come up for his birthday; I do not know how much fun he had since The Girl mostly ignored him. On Sunday, DH went into her room to gather dirty dishes and found a pipe. We did not confront her on Sunday because if she has an audience, she makes the most of it and I figured she would run off for sure. She has school through Wednesday and we are going to try to get her to class for the rest of the year and then we will have to see what happens. DH thinks maybe rehab. I do not know if it will do any good unless she wants to change, and at this point, I think she is not going to listen.
I suppose it doesn’t do much good to complain about this on my blog, but it makes me feel better. So I am sorry dear readers, you will have to come back on a better day for happier thoughts. Hopefully, there will be some soon.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

Episode 100

This is my 100th blog entry. Can you believe it? So I think everyone should have a big party in my honor.
It is very interesting to me that TV shows have a big celebration for their 100th episode. Basically, when they get to episode 100, it means that the cast gets money for reruns. Why should I care about that? Don’t know. I know that no one is sending me money for watching the said 100 episodes or any of the reruns, for that matter.
However, I am hoping that by pointing out that this is my 100th blog entry, the money will start pouring in! Oh yeah, I don’t get paid for this, it is just for my (and hopefully yours, dear reader) amusement.

WORK??!!
I started summer hours this week. That means that I am working four 10 hour days and I will be off on Friday’s. I personally think it is a really sweet deal. The only downside is that the bus schedule does not really correspond with my hours so I have to spend a long time down at the station after work. I have been thinking though that if I stay longer on some days, I can leave a little earlier and catch the 5:40 bus instead of the 6:40. It is not enough bother to make me stop riding the bus at this point. When it gets to be really hot, I might not want to sit down there for 40 minutes. We will have to see.
I have again been having attacks of ennui regarding work. I do not think it is where I work, because over all it is a good place to work, but rather having to work at all. I think maybe I need to sit somewhere where I can not see outside into the real world. I think it is bad for my attitude.

LOST
So we have seen the end of Lost until February. I figured I should discuss the season finale. I know that everyone loves my crazy theories.
Jin & Michael are both dead. I know there are a lot of people who believe that Jin is still alive, but I have a problem with him getting back to the island. How would he get back to The Island before the helicopter? He would be one hell of a swimmer to get there that quickly. Plus, he would have to stay on course. Most importantly, Daniel Dae Kim was arrested for a DUI and that usually leads to the character’s death on Lost.
As I have stated before, everyone will need to get back to The Island, which Ben confirmed in the last episode. Thanks Ben! You’re the best!
Did Faraday and the ship full of red shirts get transported with The Island? It seems cruel to leave 6 or 7 people out on the ocean to die. So I hope they get back, but I do not know that Faraday is going to be doing well in the future since Desmond was his constant.

Weather issues
Last Saturday night we received hail. It did not do much damage, except to my garden. It decimated my salsa garden. I am hoping it will make a come back, but I really do not know much about gardening. Generally, I just throw it in the ground and it grows.
There were also gusts of wind with the hail and it damaged one of our trees. Since the large branch did not actually fall out of the tree on to our neighbor’s house, we had to pay to get it out of the tree. It is just crazy.

I am going to leave you with a picture of my eldest dog doing what she does best; sleeping. Have a calm and happy weekend.