Fair and new podcast

Got one thing together for the fair.  To be honest, I made it ages ago and did use it to snuggle with on the couch.  I'd never actually done the finishing. According to the Knitmores, it's not done until its blocked, tails tucked and pictures on Ravelry.

That means that almost everything in my house is still in progress. Lol.  I have a sweater that's over 10 years old and well worn that still has tails.  Oops!  I love it and it wanted lots of pockets that it never got. Maybe eventually.  

Anyway, this shawl was a huge, crazy project. I spent 4 hours washing, soaking and blocking.  I'd found some simple galvanized wire for blocking wires, and they worked nicely for the top. The sides were done with hundreds of pins. Annoying and completely worth it. The fun part was that the fat cat got the idea that the wire was evil and needed to die violently. I wish that I'd filmed it!

Kicked the cat out of the house and finished stretching everything. It grew by more than half.  I always forget how much lace grows. The picture is the shawl pinned on the carpet on a queen size sheet folded in half. 

I won a blue ribbon!!!   I am thrilled that the local yarn store awarded me best in show and I have a gift certificate to use. 3 of the former judges came and said that I was best in the show.  The current judge didn't think so, but that's ok. I think it means more coming from people who's opinion that I value instead of someone that I don't know very well.

This was a post first written on my phone.  I really do like this new system.  Just have to figure out if anyone is still reading. 

Catching up

It feels really good to be back in a place where I can be doing the art stuff again.  I don't even want to make the list of what all I've done now. 

But I will be putting up some pics and telling some stories so stay tuned. 

It's going to be one of those mornings.  So far, I've shined my sink (shuddap).  I did clean the front of the dishwasher, and then the stove, and finished the counter.  Then, went back to clean up the ring that my own coffee cup made.  (See, it's EASY!  Why isn't the goof doing it??)

Bad stuff - computer death rattles.  Second "temporary" hard drive, loosing everything again.  Thank goodness I changed all of the passwords to something reasonable or I'd be locked out of my own internet crap.

Hot water heater - would you just live or die already, mofo?!?  I've held your hand at your bedside for a long time.  Your element got changed with much soap opera drama potential, and I've looked more closely at your innards than I ever thought I'd needed to do.  When I greet you in the  morning with steam and scalding love, much praise is said to dog.  When you breathe heavily and pause while I have shampoo in my eyes, vocabulary gets a better workout than my behind has had in a month.  When you fade off to nap before I'm finished, well...  That's the deal breaker right there.  I do have other ways to heat water, but I am not carrying the coffee pot into the shower with me just in case the water heater shoulda had Viagra.  It's time.  I'm checking into places for you to fade in peace, but I'm just not that civilized.

Good stuff - Have the pieces in a shopping cart for *MY* computer.  Ok, it's really going to be for daughter, but first OMG purchase in a long time.  (Since the awesome carpet cleaner which has already saved bacon!)

Have the list of community ed classes and just need to decide when and what I'm doing.  Yoga, Zumba or Tai Chi?

Blanket of never ending is on my lap and just about ready for some edging.  Panda hat only needs ears, pockets and claws.  I've moved three beginners into MAKE ALL THE THINGS, starting on two hats and a cowl.  Yay!  (working with Red Heart all evening - ACK)

Working on getting a better job actually has prospects.  I need a kick in the back pocket, but YAY!  Small progress!!

Meanwhile, now I've folding some laundry, gone over the mail, knitted a bit, blogged SOMETHING and shined the sink before 10 am.  Yay, me

(PS - Awesome stuff - not everything I write is for this or shared at all.  I sat down last week to do something flippant and silly about the reasons that a woman would still wear high heels in winter and fell on my face.  Some old splinter came out, made of my issues, other people's issues, anxiety, fear and winter blues.  Stunning part is that it came out almost whole cloth, seams, button holes and all.  Good feedback led to better feedback - so I put on the Big Girl Panties and sent it to a real pro who might be kind and pat me on the head.  Instead, I ended the day with a SONG in my email.  DUDE, I wrote a SONG!  I released it into the world and it came back a little different, a lot prettier and with a joke from the universe that still makes me giggle.  So, even if procrastination is sitting behind me snickering, I WROTE A SONG!!)

To answer a  PSA (Public Service Announcement) for a group of very interesting women, I had to tell a really good story.  This is a true story showing several life lessons.  Set down your drinks and hold on tightly.


The ER nurses know his name.  The surgical nurses ask me how he's doing.  Let's just start there...

He's got a man cave.  I try not to know what happens in the man cave until he has all of my silverware.  He's fixing up a Camry that his brother thrashed.  They've been talking about fry oil conversions, electric cars and hydrogen cars.  What would need to be done to convert this Nasty car that is now spanking clean, but still needs much work.

I have 4 proto-adults in the house, two are quite disabled - so I run around like an idiot most days plus my full time job.  Some days, I have the attention span of a gnat on meth.  He mentions that he has an electrolysis machine.  I hear a word that means, "Electrolysis hair removal is the only method approved by the FDA for permanent hair removal."  He does not mean this.  I remember asking, "Why would you want a bald dog?"   He took a jelly jar (bonus points for shrapnel) and made something that means, "One important use of electrolysis of water is to produce hydrogen.  2 H2O(l) → 2 H2(g) + O2(g); E0 = -1.229 V"

He used soda on the lid of the jelly jar because hydrogen production will be shown by the bubbles that are produced.  He didn't believe the bubble test because it was SODA.

I'm having a very busy day off capped by making omelets for 5 people.  William comes down and asks, "Mom, can I borrow a lighter?"  Since it's Will, I do ask.  I want full credit that my brain said, "DANGER!  NO FLANGE!!"  "Why do you need a lighter?"

"I need to test something."

In a kid that isn't a beer drinker, you don't get the magic words of 911 potential out of "Hold my beer and watch this."  Since I smoke, I just hand him a lighter.  I go back to torturing eggs.

BAMFFF.  It sounded like a huge monitor got dropped from a desk.  (I've heard that sound.  It could have been the sound of a ferrari hitting a maple tree for all I know.)  It did say, "BAMMF" like it meant MOTHERFUCKER!  And, there was the tinkle of glass ...  In the hallway.

In the 1/2 second that it took me to levitate the stairs, William was standing there shell shocked and starting to giggle.  Not the healthy giggle like the dog farted.  This was the giggle that means the start of evil scientist movies.  Giggling.  He's fine.  The room is fine.  The windows are intact (hush, it's winter in Minnesota - this is important).

I get reminded that electrolysis is good for something not called a Brazilian.  Oh.  I wasn't this stupid before I had children.  Child is fine.  Computer is fine.  Keyboard is covered in water.  Water cleaned.  I go down and finish the omelete in progress.  Will cleans.  There is glass EVERYWHERE.  We pick up the big pieces.  Vacuum.  Strip his bed.  Vacuum again.  Sweep glass out of the hallway.  Will is sniggering by now and progressing as the adrenaline hits the strange places.  He ends laying on the livingroom floor guffawing like he's being tickled.  Joking about writing this up on facebook like it's a school project.  (Oh LORD, protect me from the drama shitstorm of the ex husband seeing an explosion on facebook.)  Child is fine.  Hysterical, but fine.  His last pinkeye was from getting a piece of clear plastic stuck into his cornea - I look him over as closely as I can without "BAD TOUCH".  He's fine.  I examine his room and find SIX pieces of glass embedded in the drywall.  I pull them out so glass isn't found later in bad ways.

"Mom, am I grounded?"

"No, but you will be cleaning until I'm happy again."

The next day, he tells the girlfriend that he's grounded.  He's still got a major case of the giggles whenever certain words are mentioned.  Rare words for teenagers like WATER, JELLY JAR, ELECTRONICS.  He's the captain of his school's robotics team and skipped the first few meetings.  I don't blame him.

3 days later, he's taking out the trash.  A lid to a can of cat food was on the bottom of the bag and sliced the top of his foot open badly enough to need gauze and duct tape.  (yes, duct tape. Red Duct tape with Black Dragons on it.  At least it wasn't the hot pink with tiger stripes.)  After the 30 staples across his neck and shoulders this summer, we don't need to be back in the ER for AWHILE.

So, points to remember.  Hydrogen explodes.  Don't let children play with lighters.  Don't do experiments near a computer.  Don't scare your mother.  My son can blow shit up, but gets hurt taking out the trash.  Did I miss anything?  Want to hear the stitches story?

I'm still thinking and working on this project.  I'm plugging away at my big list and feeling like not much is getting accomplished.  Just little babysteps, so I'm thinking of cutting these up into smaller bites - like maybe I could cut half of Nessie's hair?  (grin)  I did pay a couple of bills, clean up, and get some more laundry accomplished.  I'm within a good movie or two from finishing the jade blanket, and I think a black edging would be stunning and different.  Also, just about finished reworking the alpaca cowl to be longer.  Still need to do panda ears on a hat, Niki socks, gauntlets, and finish spinning the silk or the Romney, package the Lincoln and clean the alpaca.  (eek)  I'm lusting after sock yarn and petted some lovely stuff yesterday.  Realistically, I can't afford it and do have quite enough stash already.

Sadly, our water is frozen, so I'm only getting the cup of coffee that was left in the pot from before son went to work last night.  Ack.  ACKACK.  The good side is that my woodstove has had much love and attention, so the house feels wonderful.  Just sent a son to fetch coffee - WOW, that is a nice part of having room mates instead of little children!

Not much progress on the Control Journal.  I have a really nice, large leather one that had everything in it.  I wanted a "Crazy Lady Planner", but it was quite expensive.  I built most of what I wanted, but LARGE.  It was too much.  I'm not a fan of the huge binder thing.  Right now, I have a couple of notebooks that I try to keep life in.  A small book for my pocket, a notebook size for knitting stuffs.  I still don't always remember to pull them out when I'm planning a day, but they're always there to get my back.

On the podcast front, I'm very proud that I'm totally caught up with NPR news.  I've listened to 2KnitLitChicks and like it.  I'm not loving it, but I'll give them time to get rolling before I critique.  Today, I have Sticks and String to catch up on, and oooh, his accent.

Not much done today, but I will put in a quick note to stay in the habit.  "I'm proud that..."  I'm proud that I did NOT dance on the bar last week, and I'm proud that this weekend - the creepy stayed away.  There were a few moments where I was in the bathroom, and heard my name outside the door.  Yea...  Or when someone came up to me and said that they knew me but I had no idea who the person was.  Yea...


The thing in my head today is DON'T MAKE IT HARD.  Don't take some little thing and blow it up.  Don't create drama, don't look for the drama.  If you want to clean the kitchen, that might be too big a project.  For right now, just wipe the counter.  You can then put away the clean dishes OR you  might do the floor.  Just do something without making it hard.  Do that one thing that will have the most results.  If you're terminally out of coffee cups, put them in the dishwasher.  If you can't find underwear, go wash them, or better yet, go buy nice, new ones.  


I'm looking at my huge list.  Thinking what I can delegate and what can just be ignored.  It's hard, and even harder to know that I have to do this stuff on my own.  I feel like I want to stomp my feet and whine, but that's not making any progress.  I want to curl up and watch tv with someone, or find a warm bit of shade to sit with a book.  I keep telling myself that those will come when I find the bottom of the list.  Or, finish the majority of the list.  (sigh)


So, speaking of hard things, I'm going to think about why blame and casting aspersions has been bothering me.  I should know better than to let hurtful opinions get to me or to listen to the people who are negative for their own reasons.  Yet, I'm no perfect PollyAnna - when a lawyer tells you that you worry too much, yea...  Hahahaha!  So, to kill the roadblocks and be aware of the ones that might be my own creation - I'm looking at another person's project.  It looks ABSOLUTELY LOVELY.  If nothing else, go look at this art.  I'm going to swing the "Sunday Challenge #3" that went by in my facebook.  It says, "

When you blame, even yourself, you’re saying that you’re powerless."

and "Because when you take responsibility without blame or the inevitable beating up of yourself, you’re finally able to have the clarity to see what it is you can learn from all that crap."

So, if you'd like to join me in the "Own It" Homework, just message and I'll let you know what I'm owning.  Right this second, I'm owning that I have to rush because I'm late for the shower - my fault and my problem.  I'll own that I should have finished bills and laundry already - Mine, no problem.  So, any time I feel guilty or see myself casting blame or negative crap - I'll be writing it in my little pocketmod.  Hopefully, it stays pristine, but I'll be watching!!

I did well with restarting my routine.  I've done everything up to the Vitamins, and am putting off the "ready" until I have to leave for work.  WIN!

Next will be the "Control Journal".  FlyLady means it to be a huge thing centered on Mom and job and Kids, but I'm going to take it other places as well.

Step 1 is to gather your supplies.  I have a stack of post its, so that's where I'll start.  ((FlyLady has a big list - Please do go over and click around her version if you want to run ahead))  Use what you already have - 3 by 5s, notebook paper, printer paper.

(I'll jump ahead for a second and fill you in on one of the best internet things ever - The PocketMod.  You just print it, and carry it.  You'll use it and get used to using it.  Then you'll lose it and wonder how in ... did you ever get so dependent on a piece of paper!  I print mine with a month "DeadLine Plotter," an "Appointment Timesheet" if I'm going to have a crazy week, use lines or small grid for planning, and fill the rest with a "week" calendar.  Best invention ever!  Plus, you  have the entire back to unfold and write things down on.  WIN!  Go directly to Create a PocketMod)