dSLR coming down the pike

I get to pick a dSLR for Christmas. Yippee! I've been beside myself with trying to pick between the Canon Rebel XTi and the 30D. Oh baby, baby! You have to get at least one lens too, ya know. When it says 'body only' it means no lens. Yipes. Well, I've done the research. I've decided on a Canon 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS ISM as my walkaround lens. That means everyday, general purpose, standard use.

We're going to a potluck tonight. We had such a good time at the first one. Husband is making deviled eggs and he bought a HoneyBaked ham today to take over there. I better go do my hair. Yeah, right after I write a little more.

We had teeny snow flurries in the afternoon. It's going to go below 32 degrees tonight. We'll see how well our heaters work in here.

I'm so lucky because a guy here who does photography saw my calendar and he told my husband I was at intermediate level and that I should really have a camera I can grow into. Wow. I felt so complimented. Very. And I think that's what made my husband think that I'm worthy of an sLR.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!

Oh no!

I screamed in the shower today. Really loud. It was a full scream, not half a scream and it echoed. It was an involuntary reflex action.

When I wasn't looking my wash rag fell on the shower floor. It lay there for probably two full seconds before I could snap it up. Can you say, "Ewww?" Ewww!

I stood still and listened for a couple minutes, but no one in the campground came. Actually I was glad nobody came, so I didn't have to explain that I was fine - it was just my wash rag that fell on the cement floor near the plastic mat that e-v-e-r-y-body stands on. I wear flip-flops in there.

Ewwwwwwww!

Life. Paths. Knitting.

Life
is
like
a
hand knitted
scarf.

Ernie wrote me back today. I was fairly floating after I read his email. We were friends in high school. People are so interesting. It's fascinating to hear of their past and I marvel at the paths they have taken to get where they are.

Last week I finished knitting a scarf that I'm overall pleased with. It turned out, may I say, beautiful. It's colorful. It's useful. And best of all, it's one-of-a-kind. Heh. And when I ran up the street to show it to Reta (she taught me to knit) the first thing I did was loudly announce that there were a lot of mistakes in it and the chenille covered them up well, and also I thought the knot where I connected new yarn to the old yarn really stood out. To prove it I tried to find the knot to show her. I thought I knew exactly where it was but it took me a good minute to find it.

Reta, almost 20 years my senior, watched me patiently then she told me in a very no nonsense manner, that no one else will see my mistakes. "Don't worry about them!" she explained. She said only I see every mistake and that's how knitting is. Everyone else will think it's a beautiful scarf. It was she who told me to keep knitting and stop pulling it apart and starting over every time I knitted an imperfect stitch. I immediately felt better about the mistakes that I imagined detracted from my work of art.

And in the very same way, I immediately felt better after I read Ernie's email to me. Ernie is very smart and intuitive. He gave me clarity.

Isn't life like that? Our mistakes are woven in, our imperfections part of the garment, but we can continue and end up with a beautiful life anyway; a life that's colorful, useful, imperfect, and one-of-a kind.

Oh no, holiday almost over

Is there only one day left? Sure has gone fast. I spent the day shopping and comparing online. Didn't buy anything, just read and read and read. I did go over to a friend's place to talk with a couple who is considering going full time (traveling full time in a trailer or motorhome) and they asked questions and I answered a few. I enjoyed talking with them. I must be changing this year because last year I didn't talk to anyone. They acted surprised that I'm 47 and said I looked younger but I think they're pulling my leg. I'm lucky I don't look like I'm my husband's mom or something. People always, I'm not exaggerating, act surprised that he's 65.

Our son today informed me that he is not a little boy and I am to stop calling him my little boy. He said Deedah (he's called his daddy Deedah since he could talk) can say it but not me. Thing is, Deedah never calls him his little boy anyway. Sigh. He's growing up so fast. I will miss him when he leaves. The time is flying by.

Which leads me to one of the saddest articles I've read in awhile. Fox News, 10 is the new 15 As Kids Grow Up Faster. I saw a lot of it in California which is part of why we left. Parents think it's cute but it's not. Sometimes it's almost pornographic what people let their little girls wear. It's the parents' fault. I'm so glad our child is getting a genuine childhood. Apparently having one is getting rare these days.

I have a new friend. She's an author. A published author. And she's nice. I met an author once in Tahiti. She wasn't nice. She was a psychologist and she hit on my husband - right in front of me! My husband was just a little lamb and acted like he didn't notice (ignored her, that is). I could not believe it. And she's supposed to be helping people with their lives? Sheesh.

What shall I write

I need an update for today. Hmmmm.

The only thing I can come up with is this. I was thinking what could I send in to PostSecret (linkage removed due to adult content). I thought and thought, then I got hungry. So I went and got my delectable bag of Donettes which by the way is spelled 'Donettes' and ate some. Then I needed a drink of milk. But it was a lot of trouble to open the cupboard (recall I had a sore finger) to reach for a glass and then walk 1.5 feet to the fridge, so I drank straight out of the milk jug. And I'm the mom of the family. I'm supposed to be the example setter. Well, everyone was in bed.

So then I knew I had a perfect postcard to send in to PostSecret. I can take a picture of some milk and then type in anonymous looking courier style lettering, "I drank straight out of the milk jug tonight." "And I'm the mother!"

Thanksgiving 2006

It's been the best one ever.

For one, this is the first time I've ever said a prayer straight out of my head that came out beautifully. Usually I spend an hour hunting for the right prayer online, print it, practice it, and tape it to the underneath side of the dining room table. When everyone sits down my husband says "How about a prayer?" and when everyone bows their head I surreptitiously unstick my prayer from the table and read it from my lap. I've never been busted! My husband knows I do this. He supports me. Heh.

This year I was all ready. Had to put the prayer in my back pocket though since the picnic table is a metal grate material - no place to tape a prayer out of view. I wasn't too keen on having to pull out my planned Thanksgiving meal prayer in front of everyone but I figured, no choice in the matter. The table was see-through.

I had to run up the street to the campground bathrooms right before we sat down. And in there a prayer came to me and I grappled with the idea of winging it and thought it would be nice but, no, I better not. I went back. We all sat down. Husband asked if anyone wanted to do the prayer and no one did, so he asked me to do it. I didn't reach for my back pocket, I hardly thought a thought. My prayer just came right out. The lady said it gave her a shiver. And when we left in the evening she thanked me for saying that prayer. I felt well about this. It's a first for me.

Everyone loved the cake I baked. Yay. I always worry that the food I cook will make someone sick and I dreaded the thought that someone might get a stomach ache. But no one did. What a waste of thought processes, eh? Boy, I have to get over that. A long time ago I baked an apple pie. Everyone got stomach aches after the meal and the hostess said it had to be the pie. I felt awful. I felt really bad. I was about 25 at the time and she was about 35 and she was rather mean. Apple pie is just apples, butter, sugar, some flour and shortening for the crust. I believed it was the pie then but now I think it was something else and she blamed my pie. Anywho, I've been uncomfortable sharing food I make with any other people ever since.

I couldn't wait until tomorrow. I just ate a turkey sandwich with cranberry sauce on it. Delicious.

Today I shall bake a cake

It will be my famous, though not beautiful, German sweet chocolate cake made from scratch. I make this once a year or twice a year if I make one at Thanksgiving and one at Christmas. However I have not made one for two years. I have my recipe that I cut out of the newspaper in 1999. It takes hours to make this cake.

It took me all afternoon and now I am in a bad mood. I try to like cooking. I did real good and had a very upbeat attitude. I made everyone leave the trailer because I need some peace when I make this cake. I have to concentrate!

.................................

We had a bit of excitement when the ranger came by today to let us see a baby beaver that she rescued. It was stuck in a pipe or something. She's so good with animals, and with children too. It was awfully cute and I've never seen a live beaver up so close. I heard its mother had been killed about two weeks ago. The baby has been okay to this point so I dearly hope that's a good sign for its survival.

Hmmm

What to do about the residual batter remaining on that spatula.

Ready, set, go

Wax paper is placed at bottom of each pan. In theory, this will make the cakes easier to get out of the pan.

Ready for the oven

But my oven is small so I had to cook one at a time. Fortunately the two layers that were waiting were just fine. Baking time: 30 minutes, but the last one I baked for 27 minutes and 18 seconds. FYI.

Done!

I hope everyone will like it. It's ugly, but it tastes really, really good.

We wait until tomorrow

Stored in a very fine top of the line plastic container. My nice crystal one is packed or got sold in a garage sale.

My friend Elke

I have a new friend, Elke. She is remarkable. She's a walking history book. She lived in East Germany when it was closed. Her mom snuck back two times under barbed wire to get some things from home, but basically they closed the door of their home and walked away. They rode in freight cars in the freezing cold and her mother's fingertips were open sores with frostbite. Her dad was an inventor, a physicist. I'm walking over to her place tonight to see her feed the birds. She gets a ton of birds over there.

She's highly in tune with nature. Even to an extreme, if that is possible. A bear once licked her on the cheek then walked away! It was a very big bear.

I'm making German chocolate cake tomorrow for Thanksgiving. This year we received three whole invitiations for Thanksgiving. That's never happened before! It was nice. I'm making candied yams too and husband is making mashed potatoes. I think I'm going to enjoy the holiday. There is a distinct possibility of this occurring. Highly unusual.

Late last night I dropped a line off to Ernie, a friend of mine from high school. Can't wait to hear back from him! He writes the best letters as I remember. We wrote each other a few times in the '80s, then lost contact. Or was it the '90s? He plays guitar, but he also played the drums in high school band and you know the guys who play drums are always the coolest. We girls would say "Ooooh, look at Ernie." Hehe! High school.

I must go wax my arms for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday now.

Snow geese wintering in New Mexico

I felt like I was in a National Geographic film. Never have I seen so many birds in one place at one time. The sound was incredible. Hundreds of birds. What you see in my lens is but a portion of what I could see at one time. They are to my right and left as well.

They winter in New Mexico at Bosque del Apache. I want to go there again! I could stay all day. The weather was nice. They were having the Festival of the Crane event and it was really nice. Lots of people were there and there were educational booths which is where I got some of the photos below.

When we walked down the ramp to the water I started to cry. The sight and the sound was such that I was momentarily overwhelmed. I had no expectations and so to set eyes upon all these birds. It was awesome. A Japanese guy (with a very fine camera lens) saw me and he moved and gave me his place to take photographs. I was all weepy and got a good photography location to boot.

One in flight

Barn owl

I had no idea this exotic looking creature is a plain old barn owl. All of these birds are rehabilitated and will never return to the wild. I think she has a wing that was broken and it didn't heal well enough for her to fly.

A burrowing owl! He is rehabilitated.

He was hit by a car and almost died. They saved his little life and now he goes to festivals and classrooms and teaches people about whoooo, whooooo, burrowing owls.

They live in old prairie dog burrows

A raptor

Red feathers on their head

Sandhill cranes in flight

If a picture paints a thousand words

Then this about sums up my day.

She's a tomboy

Anna, age 2. My friend and I took our kids to the park. Fed the ducks, played at the playground, ate sandwiches in the shape of bunnies, fish, and stars. She looks just like her mama.

This was my first best picture of a person outside my family. Snapshot taken with my first digital camera, an Olympus.

Photo taken Springtime 2002

The Wall in miniature

This one isn't made of black granite like Maya Lin's. It's a retired traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall made of black sheet metal and inscribed with all the names of the men and women who died in the Vietnam War. It was our history lesson this day. We'll go back sometime because behind the wall is a small park with granite podiums - each inscribed with a synopsis of every war the U.S. has ever been in. The one for Iraq/Afghanistan is still blank.

My cousin was going to go to Canada if he was drafted. He was/is a pacifist. He never got drafted. I was 11 so I didn't understand anything.

I knew a man who was in his late 40's and still had nightmares. He was a stout man, but he dreamt that he'd been injured in Vietnam, not killed, and that he was lying on the ground with dead all around him. The Vietnamese, in his dream, were going from body to body stabbing them with the knives on the end of their weapons (I forget the proper nomenclature) to ensure they were dead. In his dream he'd turn over quickly to his stomach so he could play dead, and in his sleep even as large a man as he was, he could turn to his stomach faster than you can imagine. Very quick. Quick like a dancer, but he was no dancer.

When he awoke from this dream he scared my friend sometimes. She was very careful to remain a few feet away from him until he was completely awake. It was a recurring nightmare he had.

Photo taken November 14, 2006
New Mexico

Roadrunner, the coyote's after you

That was such a funny cartoon. Our whole family would sit and watch it on Saturday mornings. Well, my mom, my sister, and me.

This was taken yesterday morning through the kitchen window. Luckily the window was clean! She was coming by every day for awhile, then we didn't see her for a few weeks.

At first she was sitting on the wood all puffed up and when she saw us she kept an eye on us and moved her tail up and down, then she took off. I want a picture of the male. We saw them both together at the Visitor's Center once. He has fluorescent orange markings next to his eyes!

I notice when you enlarge the photo her feet are cropped. I'm not happy about this.

Test

Humane Society

My fingers

Gosh, I have the most interesting subject titles in my blog.

My right index finger has been kind of sore. I was thinking, arthritis. I read about people having arthritis and I thought, maybe I have it too.

But I use one finger to pull on the handles of all the cupboards and since we're in a trailer which is built for bouncing on roads, the cupboards are hard to open. I don't know why I use one finger. I just do.

Husband said that's why I have a sore finger. He said don't use one finger anymore. So I stopped.

And now my sore finger is all better.

Flying Spagetti

This morning I received an email. It sounds fishy to me so I submitted it to Snopes.com. It's titled "What the Bible Says About Death." The HTML in the email is a nightmare of a mess, so I'm not pasting it. Basically it lists people who mocked God and how they died in awful ways, implying just and deserved payment from God for mocking Him: John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, and six other people whom I don't know. I don't like these kinds of email because I think with a little research another list can be composed naming people who mocked God and lived a life fantastic and went gently into that dark night. By a life fantastic I mean wealthy.

I did a search and didn't find reference to the email. Maybe it's new. Could that possibly be?! But in my search I tripped upon a very interesting site called Church of the Flying Spagetti! Very well done, lots of humor. The blogger is an athiest, I think. I would link to it but it does show a four letter word on the sidebar, and if it's there then there may be more.

Anyway, I have to go to a volunteer meeting though I'd much rather blog. My husband drove 70 miles and got me chocolate donettes this morning. I don't deserve such a good life.

I want to read more on the Flying Spagetti site later. The guy is a philosophy major (I think?) and his writing is spectacular. I want to discuss some of his ideas with our son. I have to think of how to make it the right size bite for a nine year old mind so he will understand the humor and the deeper issue as well.

Uh oh

I cannot upload any photos via Hello! tonight. This is not good. Maybe going with the beta version was a mistake. Oh noooooooo!

Today I went to the manager's office at the market. I had to walk through many hallways. I found him sitting at a desk and told him I need Hostess Chocolate Donettes. I told him I need them bad.

They only have powdered ones and I don't like those. There was one variety pack of regular size, three flavors (powdered sugar, plain, chocolate), and I was going to buy them. As I was holding the box I realized the cellophane was ripped. That's why they were the only ones on the shelf.

He wrote it down. He said someone else does the ordering and that shipments come in on Thursdays. I hope he wasn't shining me on because next time I may go mental.

Gordon Lightfoot - Canadian folk singer

Yesterday was the 31st anniversary of the downing of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Twenty-nine crew members lost in Lake Superior in 1975.

Star News Online

Lyrics. Read them here. Brutal and sad. >> http://gordonlightfoot.com/Lyrics/WreckOfTheEdmundFitzgerald.html

Totally

Can I possible waste an entire day any more thoroughly than I did today?

I don't THINK so.

However I did compose my bio for our alumni web site. Fantastic bio, if I do say so myself. The other peeps write one line as an answer. I can't possibly do that. Oh no. They'll be on the edge of their seats reading my bio.

I think I get to upload four pictures on my personal page too.

That'll take another day for sure.

Classmates.com

I had some spare time. Heh. Actually I have plenty of that after 3:00pm every day. So about midnight I googled my old hometown. Found the local newspaper online. What were the chances I'd trip onto an article written by a name I recognized. I never knew him personally but saw him around campus. He was a junior or senior when I was a freshman in high school. He wrote a long article about old times and referred to classmates.com, so naturally I ended up at classmates.com. My 30th reunion, egads, is in June 2007.

I wore a Mickey Mouse t-shirt on my first day of high school. It belonged to my best friend, Debbie, and I had to really persuade her to let me wear it. It was a very popular shirt. Or did she wear it and I wore the new clothes my dad and step-mom got me? Shoot, I don't quite remember. Anyway.

I signed up so now my name is there. Curiosity was killing me to see who was already signed up and the only way you can view names is to sign up yourself.

Some names made me chuckle and some brought back warm memories. High school includes some of the worst years of my life. I guess that's better than having them be the best years of your life because then life is all downhill from there, and how sad would that be! I went downhill, crashed and burned, then went uphill. Heh. Late bloomer. Strangely, I look back on the 70s with sweet nostalgia even though they were the worst years of my life!

You got to know when to hold 'em, when to fold 'em, when to walk away, and when to run. (What? Kenny Rogers already said that?)

I'm beta now

Hello, hello?

Okay, my links are still here. My posts are still here. My archive is fine. My pictures are still here.

I guess everything is okay.

I found a comment from June 13th that was never uploaded. After I changed to beta it was there.

New version of Blogger is ready?

Your new version of Blogger is ready!

The new version of Blogger now has all the original features you're used to, plus new post labels, drag-and-drop template editing, and privacy controls. And, it's a lot more reliable.

After you switch you'll need to sign in with your Google Account, but your blogs will stay the same. Their content and layout will not change.

Switch to the new version

What's this? I'm afraid to do it. It's on my Dashboard every time I go there. What if something bad happens. But, what IS going to happen when I do it? I haven't seen anybody do a changeover.

Workin' tomorrow

We're working in the afternoon in the Visitor's Center tomorrow. I think it might be busy with people coming in to camp for the Veteran's Day week-end.

Have to fix my hair nice. Husband bought me two roses when he went to Cruces and I think I'll put the baby's breath in my hair.

I trimmed a little off the tippy ends of my hair today at the very middle in back. Took off an inch or less. Just held it in a pony and SNIP. It doesn't particularly show but looks nicer in a subtle way.

Now I need a snack. Then I'm gonna go to bed.

Purple polish

I had a good time today looking at refrigerators! I love blogging.

Tonight I polished my fingernails. They're deep violet, almost a plum, with a layer of purple and blue glitter over the top and a clear top coat over that. The glitter is good because it hides any mistakes with the base color being so dark. I couldn't decide between the violet or blue. My nails are almost the perfect length. Yay. It won't last for long though.

Our son just woke himself up a minute ago from talking in his sleep. I gave him a hug and told him to go back to sleep.

When I was a kid I talked a blue streak in my sleep and sleepwalked too. Once when I was 10 I went all the way across the street to a neighbor's house in the dead of night. The father answered the door and could tell I was sleepwalking. He believed sleepwalkers shouldn't be awakened or some such thing and he talked with me and sent me home - watching to make sure I went in the house. My little sister heard me, woke up and told my mom there was a man in the house but it was just little me!

When I was a teenager I'd pull all the bedding off of my bed in my sleep. Everything down to the mattress cover. I'd wake up and be so mad because I'd have to make the whole thing or sleep with covers on a mattress for the rest of the night.

And I had a thing about ants. Still do, but back then I'd leap out of my bed and start brushing imaginary ants off of me. I'd thought they were crawling all over me.

My mom would laugh raucously when she'd hear me or see me. Slowly I'd wake up, realize why she was laughing and pointing at me and I'd get mad. I mean, I felt enraged as I awoke realizing how stupid I was being. It's not like I did anything about it. What could I do. It's good to have a mom and a dad together, as in married, not divorced, so they can correct and balance one another out.

When I first was married I jumped clear out of the bed from a dead sleep once, crouched on the floor, and told my husband to LOOK OUT THEY'RE COMING! He was was afraid he married a lunatic! We kid about it now. At the time I was terribly embarrassed. After a bad dream, if he tried to comfort me I'd get very irritated. He was bewildered with me. He was always very sweet to me about it though. I never felt bad with him. I never do feel bad with him.

If kids sleepwalk or sleeptalk they ought to be comforted back to sleep.

Contentedness

I had such a nice day. Didn't get out of my pajamas until 4:30pm. I did a search on the Web and found out my fancy-dan yarn is hard to knit. Duh. I was up till 3:00am trying to K1 *YO, K2tog* K1. I love doing yarnovers. They feel good. Knitting two together is harder though. Easy, but hard. Anywho, I blink my eyes and a slew of stitches slip right off my needle. That's not a good thing. So I had to change out of my pajamas and into real clothes to go to the store for knitting needles. Found out there are none to be had in this town. None a'tall. Well, it's a beeny (as in teeny) town.

So I have to get some wooden knitting needles to provide some friction and to slow down that lattice yarn. Also, I've deduced that larger needles are required. The size 9 simply will not make big enough loops for the pattern even if I knit loosely, so I'm having my husband get me size 17 (13mm) tomorrow. Hopefully he'll make a morning run to Cruces. It's only 70 miles away. Heh. Well, Mamma must have wooden size 17 needles.

On my drive to town some guys in a truck waved at me. I didn't know them. I'm from the city so I consider waving very suspicious behavior.

We have the shiniest truck in the county. I could swim in the shine of this truck. Husband washed and waxed it. I did the tires and wheels and put baby oil on all the black parts. I do miss city driving for showing off purposes. Yeah, that's really deep, I know. Here, we go driving and just get dusty.

Went jogging the other day and two guys said "Aye-chi-wah-wah" when I went by! Either it was a comment about the 1971 retrofitted camper van they were looking at, or 1959 me. I have no idea if it was a complimentary or derogatory exclamation, but it was said with feeling. In either case, my hair was in a bun held on by a sun visor. I run in a bun. :)

Son did a science experiment. He's studying the Rocks And Minerals unit. Crystals grow smaller if they cool faster and larger if they cool slower so he makes up his hypothesis (that means prediction) and he tests it. Husband spilled the glass with epsom salt that was in the fridge. Saltwater in my hiking boots, all over the inside of the fridge, down the outside of the fridge to the floor, and across the floor. Lucky for me I was gone when it happened. So now we have to do half of the experiment over again, not that our son will mind but I do.

Waning gibbous moon with craters

Send send send

Bloggerbot is giving me fits tonight.

Okay, I got a moon with craters tonight.

A knitter's prayer

I'm interested in making a prayer shawl. I found a prayer by Janet Bristow. This is the part I like best (it's not the complete prayer). It's good for knitting anything, not only shawls. I had a beautiful white prayer shawl once when our son was about three. He liked to sit and pray with me when he saw me use it. The dog chewed it up one day. It's not the same wearing your beautiful shawl after the dog chomps a few slobbery holes in it.

The idea of knitting prayers into a shawl appeals to me enormously. I like to find ways to incorporate prayer into our everyday life. Such a small thing like lighting a candle at dinner each night and saying "Jesus is the light of the world" keeps my family mindful in an everyday way that the soul transcends this earthly life. I want prayer to be everydayish for my family. I don't want it to be done only at night, in bed, alone before drifting off to dreamland. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I do it! Prayer is supernatural, but I want it to feel natural to my family.

When I get a cashier that I can't stand, like the one who rolled her eyes and spoke rudely to my husband, or when we got the cashier in the restaurant who rang us up and talked with her mouth full of food, I pray for them. It almost always works. I don't know how, it just does. At the very least it keeps me from having a minor meltdown! People sometimes behave awful because there's something bad in their life. Praying for them is like watching someone's mouth when they speak. Sometimes when people are speaking to us, we aren't really listening. We think we are, but it's not unusual to actually be collecting our own thoughts and forming our own reply while the speaker is talking, and thus we're not truely listening but thinking of how we will respond while we're listening. That's not really listening.

Tonight my son asked to learn how to knit! He adds depth and breadth to my everyday thoughts.

Good God

Guide me through the

knots,

kinks,

dropped stitches,

split yarn,

shredded fringe,

dye lot mismatches,

pattern mistakes,

errors,

and the myriad other “issues” that get in the way of my centeredness!

*

Help me to see that these annoyances:

knotted emotions,

kinked plans,

dropped dreams,

split relationships,

shredded hopes,

mismatched friendships,

mistaken assumptions,

errant goals

are actually metaphors of life!

Gull and moon

November's full moon 

Um, [cough] I still have five inches to go on my scarf. I don't know what happened to the day. Homeschooling took longer. I planned to visit Reta for a half hour and I was there two hours. Luckily my husband cooked crockpot stew and found fresh sourdough at the store so I came home to a piping hot plate. She's busy tomorrow and I don't know how to bind off. She can't see me till Wednesday.

The digital SLRs are coming down in price. They're looking mighty sweet. Do I want a sewing machine with serge or a camera? I don't know. The SLRs don't have 12X zoom though. I have to have big zoom. I took this moon pic last night since it was full and gorgeous and it called us to come outside. A gull was flying by. I barely (bang my head against the table) missed him flying past the moon. This is the best I can do with the moon. I'd hoped I could improve upon my moon pics of last year but this is it. My lil' camera, this is as good as she can do. I can enlarge it but at 100% it's slightly jaggy. I'm not a fan of the jaggies. I also missed a boat zooming through the reflection of the moonlight on the water. Bummerrrrr!

10:30pm - Knitting done! Now, how to bind off...

So close to done

I have five inches to go on my scarf! Of course I will take a picture of it when complete. At 3:30pm I'm goin' to Reta's house (that's Rita with an 'e') and she'll show me how to bind off and fold the bottoms up to make pockets. I'm so excited.

I already have yarn for my next scarf and I'm looking at it the whole time as I'm knitting this one. It's like candy in front of me. I think I will decide who it's for as I knit it. I will wait and let the knitting tell me who it belongs to. Perhaps it might be for my daughter-in-law-to-be?

Also, I'm going for my walk/jog now. I never do it in the morning. Hate the morning jog! But it's getting dark so early and I don't think I can visit with Reta, make dinner eat dinner, and jog all in the space of 4:00 to 6:00pm.

Going to give our son a 30 minute working break which gives me time to jog. All our campers are gone (we have ten in our row) so he and his daddy can go and rake and clean up sites for new campers while no one is here. It goes on his volunteer timesheet that he hands in each month!

This week we even had campers from Switzerland! Their English was good, with an accent. It sounded so neat. They had their rig shipped over here for $4,000.00. Wow! I'm disappointed that they left already.

The gift. Pink!

Ready to give 

I got to get a gift for a sweet lil' girl who turned four today. Thing is, the invitation specified NO Toys and requested money for college fund or clothes size 5T. Sadly, the cute sweater I found in a knit shop was not for sale. So, we decided to give the money. But how to give money to a four year old is the question. We made a treasure hunt. I wrapped the money in foil and 'hid' it inside the confetti in a pretty gift bag. We weren't there to see her open it. I hope the money doesn't make her cry.

Having two sons, I never have a reason to buy pink stuff. I had such a good time picking out the packaging.

The treasure

Hidden inside 

In foil is wrapped a ten dollar bill, a fiver, four crispy ones, two quarters, four dimes, a nickel and five shiny pennies.

The treasure hunt idea is my mom's. She does this for our son each Christmas and she includes one or two collector's coins too. He's building a neat coin collection with what she's sent him. Every year he goes on and on about getting Granny's treasure hunt present and he enjoys all the opening up.

Filled it up

With custom cut confetti 

I thought confetti was supposed to come in a bag at the store. I couldn't find any! I was reduced to cutting it out of tissue paper with my own two hands. Very hard work. :)

I put a bill at the very bottom too. Hehe! Underneath a couple sheets crumpled as a fake bottom so it looks like she's done, but she'll find one more.

Tomorrow for sure

We went to Cruces today instead of Monday! And I feel rich! Don't you love that feeling when you buy craft stuff. Yes! I bought fabric to make two baby blankets, materials for our son to make Christmas gifts, two balls of yarn to make my next scarf, and new, better circular knitting needles. My next scarf is going to have yarn overs, called YO for those in the know. It's going to be for my sister but I already want to keep it. The yarn is so pretty! The store I went to is a specialty store with hand dyed yarn and yarn made from alpacas and stuff. Avrilon is going to have alpacas someday. I'll tell her about the store and she can make yarn and sell it and I will buy it. Yeah, that's a good idea. She wrote me a fabulous five page email and now I owe her. Currently I owe everyone I know an email. My new knitting needles, size 11, are called Addi something and they are real good. Much better than the squeaky plastic ones I've been using. The package says they're turbo needles. I'm waiting for the turbo to kick in.

Christmas gifts. After much thought I found a project for the kiddo to do. He loves creating a hundred little items assembly line style so I'm having him make toaster tongs for EVERYone. First I'll have him make one for us and we'll give it a test run. Currently I use metal tongs when the toast gets stuck and I heard that's a bad idea. Heh. I don't know how best to have him decorate them though. Not sure what to do there. Drawing is not his strength so I'd like to think of something else.

Due to our impromptu trip I did not worsh my hair. I'm definitely looking forward to washing it tomorrow. Today I noticed a lot of goop on women's hair at Las Cruces.

Tomorrow is the week-end! I'm dead tired. G'nite.

Serenity Now

Serenity NOW! I'm emailing with my eldest son tonight about issues of the heart.

I may be more effective at this if I just go bang my head against the wall!

Serenity now, serenity now. :)

I'm going to wash my hair manana for the big measure-in. I always like to call it the BIG Measure-in. It makes it sound important which it is. I am officially, genuinely tail bone length now. I didn't feel honest to goodness tail bone length last month, but I do now. Yay! I've had almond oil in my hair all day. I meant to worsh it (they say 'worsh' in Illinois) but where did the day go? I didn't get it done.

My scarf is 40 inches long. I have to knit to 76 inches. Woo hoo. Progress! I'm knitting like a madwoman because we're going to Las Cruces Monday and I want to buy more yarn and make another something. I don't know what, but something.

Our youngest son's face is so beautiful to my eyes.

The Web is a gold mine

I have been finding fabulous crafty-people blogs. Gosh, it's amazing how crafty some women are, and so prolific.

Yesterday I started on my second skein for my scarf! I'm busting with pride. I've never gotten this far before and it looks like it's going to be cute to boot. That's a good thing because I really don't need an ugly scarf. I've found a hat I like. I'm not crazy about hats and but I like this knitted one at Lion Brand and its skill level says easy. You have to register to see the pattern but registration is a cinch. They have millions of free patterns! It's gold I say. Gold!

But I'm not finished with one thing and I'm dreaming about making another thing! The hat, yes, a heart quilt, yes, more triangle earrings, yes, and...baby blankets. I need a gift for Jennifer who's having her boy in January and I've gotten it in my head that it's got to be handmade. I'm finding the cutest handmade blankets online and I'm sure I can make one. LOOK at the sock monkey and bibs this lady made. They're to die for. So cute. I also like satin edges and I found a Kwik Sew pattern for blanket and bibs I could use. I sort of like this garter stitch baby afghan but baby fingers will get caught in the holes.

Today I started reminiscing about old songs and cruised over to You Tube. "Cherish" written by The Association (1966) reminds me of being nine years old in Pacific Beach, San Diego. It was a good year. Age nine came right before ten and ten is when the world came crumbling down. Heh. I like to get melodramatic about the past.

1969. I was 11. We lived in a large apartment building and one night someone put bubble bath in the full sized in-ground swimming pool at the center of the building. All us kids who lived in the building had a blast kicking our legs from the side of the pool and making huge mountains of bubbles. It was awesome.

Whoever put the bubbles in the water made sure it was a kind that didn't burn our eyes. That summer I'd wake up in the morning, jump in the pool and play all day. I got so tan that the hair on my legs was blond. Months later I found out all the grown-ups in the building had gotten together and did the deed during the night. Even my mom was involved! I was real surprised because my mom usually follows all the rules,but it was probably the ladies who said it had to be safe on the kid's peepers.

The apartment manager referred to our building as "The Zoo" because we had some wild people living there. It was fun.

In September, school started, things changed, stuff happened. The fun ran out. Tom, his wife died before we met him. They'd been married 20 years. He was dating my mom, but my mom wouldn't marry him and he killed himself. He let his two sons come home from school and find him. They were 14 and 16. Not long after, the 16 year old was busted for molesting a sweet, but silent four year old girl in our building. Little Jennifer. She sucked her thumb all the time. Her mom didn't give her any love and then this happened. We couldn't believe it.

What am I tonight? Sylvia Plath?