Cleanliness

I am on the library rotation at my church. I was doing my hitch behind the circulation desk this morning and I had one patron in there with me. She was looking for her books, mumbling and muttering the whole time. I wasn't really paying attention to what she was saying. She got her books and came to the desk to check them out, still mumbling. All of the sudden, out of the blue, she looked straight at me and said, "I'll bet your house is spotless." I had to laugh at that. While I to try to maintain a semblance of order, my house is far from spotless--especially with a teenage boy, a dog, and a yard full of mud from all the rain we've had lately.

On FOX network, they have this show called "Trading Spouses." Two families trade wives for a week. (No hanky panky--the wife must have her own room.) On this latest episode, when the new wife walked in to the house, you could see the shock, horror, and disbelief on her face. This house looked like it hadn't been cleaned--ever. There was filth everywhere. Dirt and grime covered just about every surface of the house. Dead bugs and mice littered the window sills, cabinets, and floors. Live bugs crawled around in plain sight. Food was left out, rotting and covered in flies. Poop of unknown origin was scattered across the floor. It was digusting.

Needless to say, that wife spent her week making the husband and kids clean that house from top to bottom. I'll bet it doesn't stay that way, though.

My house may be cluttered, but at least it isn't nasty.
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January?

It has been so unbelievably hot today. My air conditioner has run all day long and my hands are all swollen and sticky from the heat. Not much has gone on today because the forecast predicted that it would rain all day. Cody and I rented movies, and I've knit most of the day. Though I'm only half way through with this sock

I went ahead and cast another sock on to my two circulars. I want to learn that technique as well as the magic loop. Though the yarn is undyed, I decided to go ahead and knit it in it's natural color. I didn't want to have to fool with dying it.

I feel like my brain is in a bit of a fog here lately. The allergist gave me some Allegra-D Tuesday when I went for my appointment. It has a decongestant in it, and they always make me so that I can't sleep. I didn't take it last night, so I slept a bit better. However, I've paid for it today, in being congested all day.

Cindy has a very good account of her recent visit over on her blog. While we're on the subject of snakes--sort of--last night was supposed to be Scarlett's first fuzzy meal. However, when I went to check on her, she was blue, so that feeding will wait until after she has shed.

And an e-mail from Angie:

January 11, 2007

OK, so yesterday I thought it was the 11th. My time clock is so messed up. I'm still adjusting to the time change. Today is the 11th for real. I've had an absolutely crazy day. As with yesterday I didn't get anything to eat until 7 pm this evening. I promise to do better. I only had time to pee once. This has to stop. I will get more organized. Anyway, Major General Fletcher from 3rd Air Force came to visit my patient MSgt Ewing today, so it was my job to meet him and escort him to the patient. We all had a very nice visit. Later MSgt Ewing's grandmother came to visit him since she lives in Stuttgart. What a wonderful lady. He is doing well and will probably go home tomorrow. I've been doing so much running. I don't know if I told you, but this hospital is only two floors high. It was built out instead of up so that if they were bombed, they'd still have plenty of hospital left to work in. This means a lot of walking. Taking the general to the patient's room, he turned to me and said "You didn't tell me I was doing PT today!" There is a lot of humor here as well as pain, but it's still the most rewarding experience I've ever had. I am now learning the German roads around here. Dayna is leaving on Tuesday and then I'm on my own. Actually, I'll just be the only Air Force Liaison, but there are plenty of Army Liaisons to help me out and they are such wonderful people. This is my first joint service experience. We like to tease each other a lot. I think we work hard, but we can also play hard. I am so tired at the moment. I am going to take a hot shower and go to bed.

Thank you to everyone who is sending me lots of e-mails. I don't have a lot of time to respond, but I'm doing what I can with these generic ones that I send out.

Good night (no I haven't learned any German yet)

Love you all,

Angie

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Gasp! Politics In My Blog!

Now, I know I said I wouldn't turn this into a political blog, and I don't intend to. However, every once in a while, I run across something that I just have to comment on.

“President Bush said last week that he wanted to work with the Congress to balance the budget in five years. But he also rejected any tax increases and obviously he’s not in a mood to reduce spending on the war... Can you [balance the budget] without raising taxes?” —CBS’s Bob Schieffer (emphasis mine)

Uh yeah. It's called cutting spending. There's plenty in the budget that you can cut besides the war. If you took everything that wasn't authorized by the Constitution out of the budget, the government could cut taxes by 90% (like that would ever happen) and they would still be rolling in dough.

Ok, enough of politics...

On to Global Warming...My sister sent me an e-mail today in which she said, "It is about 5 degrees out, so plenty warm enough for Nate to be out playing. " Yeah, they're warming alright. Last week it was -35.

Now, the e-mail that brought tears to my eyes:

January 10, 2007

Today I shed the first of what I am sure will be many tears. You may have seen on the news where three Air Force members were killed in an IED explosion and a fourth was injured. That fourth one is my patient. I visited him a couple of times today. The second time was with General Hobbins wife, Robin. She is a fantastic lady. She gave him very heartfelt, comforting words. There were also two chaplains there. The patient remembers everything that happened. The shrapnel went through his lower right leg and broke both bones. He has pins in waiting for the skin to heal, then he'll get rods put in his leg. One of the people who died in the blast was a friend of his of 16 years. The other two were young airmen. The young lady was engaged, but her fiancee will now be her pall bearer. You can tell he loved these people. We prayed together and cried. There are four beds in his room. The other three are empty. All he wants is to see his friends laying in those beds. I can't even begin to explain the feelings I have. Dayna tells me I won't forget my patients. She's been doing this job for four months now and is having a hard time giving it up.

Now I'm going for karaoke and beer. Don't worry....I won't be singing.

Love you all
Angie

I didn't do a sketch of the day today, since we had the day off. I got lazy and after grocery shopping, I watched TV and knitted all afternoon. However, in lieu of sketch, I bring you the

Feeding the pigeons in Florence Italy, 1992

I Finished One!

I finished one of the WIPs from my Stashalong goals, and my very first pair of socks ever! They weren't as hard as I thought they'd be once I got used to the double pointed needles. I'd made some Fuzzy Feet a long time ago, since the pattern notes said it was good for first time sock knitters. At the time, I though the pattern was complicated and confusing, so I decided that socks just weren't for me. However, in reading knitting blogs, it seemed that everyone was having so much fun knitting socks that I really wanted to try them. My experience with Fuzzy Feet made the prospect daunting, until I read some comments on one blog. I don't remember where it was, but someone said that the pattern was not the best sock pattern, and despite what the designer said, it really wasn't good for a first time sock knitter. So I started thinking about trying again. I found a KAL just for first time sock knitters, which had a link to a wonderfully detailed online sock tutorial. I worked up the courage to try again, and here is the result:





A pair of socks knitted with 100% worsted weight wool on size 7 DPNs. Yeah, there are some boo boos, but I'll get them worked out eventually. My kitchenered toes didn't quite come out right, so I'll have to work on those as well. But they are socks, and they are done, and I did them! I've already got another pair cast on.


Now, that leads me to this update of my WIP list:

• Prayer Shawl
• Irish Hiking Scarf
• Wavy Lace Shawl
• Red Heart Strata Scarf
• Branching Out Lace Scarf
• Texas Longhorn Scarf
• First Time Socks
• Monthly dishcloths--two per month
• Socks knitted from my Christmas yarn (two pair)
• One screaming stash project

There's something that's been bugging me for a while. Niggling at the back of my mind. I couldn't quite pin it down. I knew it had something to do with this post, and more particularly, this statement I made:

While at Wal-mart, I spent some of my Christmas money and bought the newest version of Pride and Prejudice on DVD. Sigh...Darcy...Why don't they make men like that any more?

Well, it finally hit me. They don't make men like that any more because they didn't make men like that back then either. Darcy isn't real. He is an ideal, dreamed up in the mind of Jane Austin.

I give her credit, though, that Darcy is more realistic that those men portrayed in those silly romance novels. Those things have caused untold grief to countless husbands whose wives read the book. The men in those books don't act like real men. They don't think like men; they don't express themselves like men; they don't experience things with a man's perspective. But what to they act like? They act like some woman's idea of what a man ought to act like. In other words, they act like women. Then these women read those books and sigh and say, "What a wonderful man." And they look at the poor soul sitting next to them on the couch with the remote in his hand and think, "Why can't my husband be like that?"

I'll tell you why, sister. Because your husband is a real man, not some made up fantasy character. He's going to act like a real man, think like a real man, and express himself like a real man. The sooner you stop trying to make a woman out of him, the better of you'll both be.

But I digress...So what makes men like Darcy so appealing? Well, I think at least for me, it's the clothes. Let's compare, shall we?

Darcy:

Earl:So, I think the question I should have asked is, "Why don't men dress like that any more?" If only they realized how sexy they would be...

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More From Angie

Here are a couple more e-mails from Angie in Germany:

January 8, 2007

Hallo from Germany....

I haven't gotten the information from Dayna yet on the phone calls, but she said it's actually 3 cents per minute. I do have an address. Mailing anything to me would be the same as mailing it to the US. Here's my address:

SMSgt Angela (deleted to protect privacy)

I bought a really cool t-shirt. It says "Did you just ausfahrt?" Gonna wear that one home!!!

I haven't really slept slept yet. I took two Excedrin PM last night and slept for about 1 to 2 hours. I woke up at 12 p.m. and someone was banging a suitcase up the stairs next to my room. Then there were a bunch of guys hanging around outside my window smoking (it's the entrance to the building). After an hour and 15 minutes 0115 this morning, I finally opened the window and asked them to talk somewhere else. I didn't fall asleep again until about 4 this morning. My wake up call was at 0530. I don't feel like I'm sleep deprived yet. I worked yesterday until about 7 pm. We had three patients--one with palpitations, one with kidney stones, and one was a psych patient. I hadn't eaten all day and was starving. The DFAC (dining facility) was closed so I walked to the LCC (Landstuhl Community Center) only to find out that the kitchen was closed because the cook didn't show up. I got back to my room at 8:30 and if I ordered something to be delivered, it would take them about an hour. There was only cereal in my room, so I had that for dinner. We're going to the commissary this afternoon after my briefing. There will be some kind of food in my room. I have a full-sized refrigerator/freezer and may be working some funky hours.

Tomorrow we have one patient coming in. This one is a battlefield injury, but I don't know what. I hate to see people injured, in pain, or sick, but it is a terrific feeling to be able to help them. I'm having a wonderful time so far. Although, I've been here since Friday and haven't even smelled a beer. Gotta put that on my list of things to do.

Love you all!!!

Angie


January 9, 2007

I realize that there are many of you out there that were very concerned about me being here so long without a beer. Please don't worry. I took care of that problem last night. Four of us went down to the LCC and drank beer. Don't ask me what the name of it was because it was German. I don't even think I tried to pronounce it, but it was good. Now the next problem is sleep. I'm hoping that I can take care of that problem tonight. I'd like to have a nap right now, but I'll make myself stay awake. We're going bowling tonight. That should be good fun It's $1 per game at Ramstein tonight....or perhaps it's at Vogelweh. Anyway, I'll be at one of those bowling alleys if you need me.

For those of you who liked the t-shirt saying "Did you just ausfahrt?" but didn't know what that means--ausfarht means exit. There are signs posted for you to exit the autobahn. Which leads me to the next thing I did today. I went to get my driver's permit. There I was driving the Mercedes on the autobahn--can't remember how fast I was going because I didn't take my eyes off the road. You'd have been so proud of me. We made it here in one piece. By the way, that Mercedes isn't sleek; it's a 9-passenger van, it just sounded good.

We ended up not having any patients today. Three flights are coming in, but none are Air Force patients. I went to get my army e-mail address set up and now I'm going back to my room.

Love you all. I'll write more when it gets exciting.

Angie

Allergist and A Strike

My visit to the allergist was a bit of a bust. My seasonal allergies flared up last night, and try though I might to resist, I ended up giving in and taking a Benadryl. I had to. I couldn't stop sneezing, I couldn't breathe, and my nose was running like a faucet. I will have to go back and do the skin test next month.

However, the visit wasn't a total bust, as we talked about some things, and he is going to work with me to get my seasonal allergies under better control. He gave me some Allegra D and some Nasacort samples to see if they help, plus a perscription for refills of both. We also talked about my reactions to aspirin and ibuprofin. He said to take Tylenol only. When I talked about one of the symptoms being tightness in my chest, he said that that is real, and not to be trifled with. He is not even going to test me for that allergy because if I had a reaction, even to the test, it could be serious. We are going to go with the assumption that I'm allergic for now, especially since they symptoms came on suddenly. If I have some condition that doesn't respond to Tylenol alone, then we would figure something out.

When I go back next month, we will do a skin test for my egg allergy. He said when we were talking about it, I'd brought up a point that most people miss. I'd said that we (meaning my regular doctor and I) wanted to find out if it was an allergy or simply a digestion issue. The allergist said that most people come in there with a reaction to a food and assume it is an allergy, but there some enzyme deficiencies that can cause similar reactions. I told him that I was getting close to the age where I would want to start taking the flu shot, so I would need to know which one it was. That's basically the reason I was there. The good news is, if it were a digestion issue, maybe we could fix it and I could eat eggs again. However, given that when I get egg on my skin, if I don't wash it off quickly enough, it will break out in an itchy red spot, I'm pretty sure it is an allergy.

When I was in the Navy, I had to take the flu shot. I always got deathly ill from them. I was just assuming the shot was giving me the flu. Now that I know better, I'm thinking that just maybe, it wasn't the flu, but an allergic reaction.

Ok, so after I left the allergist's office--let me just add that everyone there was soooo nice and polite--I found the little yarn store I was talking about yesterday. It was a small shop, but really nice. Everyone there was friendly, and one lady was giving sock knitting lessons one on one with a customer. I kind of wanted to stay, but I really wanted to come on home and lay down. I did get a strike on my Stashalong, but only a small one. I limited myself to four balls of sock yarn, the Magic Loop booklet and a set of Addi Turbos circular needles.

Buuut, the caviat is, I have to finish my current pairs of socks before casting on another. I started the mate to the first sock I made, and also started a sock with the yarn I got for Christmas. Those were both on my list. I'd best get cracking...

P.S. Forgive any misspellings. Spell check doesn't seem to be working today.

Angie

I tend to refer to Angie as my sister-in-law, though she is not now, nor ever has been such. I don't know why, but that is the relationship I feel like I have with her. Though we've yet to meet in person, from the first time I talked to her on the phone some 8 years ago, we had a connection. We do have a lot in common. Our children are siblings.

Angie is the woman my husband left me for.

(I'll pause while you collectively gasp... Done? Ok, on with the story.)

Some of you may wonder how I could be friends, much less consider a sister, such a woman. Well, it was not always so. For a long time I harbored anger towards Angie. I wondered how someone could be so callous as to take another woman's husband away from her--especially with her about to have a child. Did she think she'd won a prize? Did she think he'd be faithful to her, despite the fact that he'd cheated on me? For a long time, that was my one comfort. She'd get hers. If he'll do it with you, he'll do it to you. I knew that someday someone younger and pretter would walk by and he'd forget her just as quickly as he'd forgotten me. And I couldn't wait to gloat about it. My one conundrum was the girls. I wanted Cody to know his sisters, but I just didn't see how I could face their mother.

But then something happened. I was laying in my bed one night diligently nursing my bitterness, when the thought came unbidden to my mind, as if God had put it there:

"Did she even know about me?"

Seriously, as much as Eric had lied to me, had he even told her he was married? Had he told her about the baby? What excuse did he make to her when he flew over to Italy?

I got to thinking about these questions, and realized that she probably didn't even know he was married. After all, it's easy to hide a wife when she's halfway around the world. And I know he hadn't been wearing his wedding ring--not even the faintest of tan lines. The more I thought, the more I realized that she was just as much a victim of his manipluation and lies as I was. That's when my attitude changed. That's when I shifted the blame from her to him. She was not the homewrecker. He was.

Two days later, I got a call from my mother in law (ok, ex, but she's still Mom to me). She told me that Angie wanted to contact me and was it ok if she gave her my phone number. The rest, as they say, is history.

Angie is in the Air Force. (Pause while I patiently endure elbow jabs from Buck.) She has recently been stationed in Germany, and as been sending me e-mails. I asked her if I could share them with you, and she agreed. Since I'm a little behind, I'm going to post two today. Here they are:

January 5, 2007

So here I am in lovely Germany and very excited to be here. It's drizzly, but the air is fresh and crisp. I've had a quick, whirlwind tour of the hospital. I will be the Air Force Liaison for the wounded soldiers. It will be my job to drive over and pick them up from the airport at Ramstein AB and bring them to the hospital. Landstuhl is an Army Post and I will work at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. I will be on call 24 hours a day and will be very busy. I am really looking forward to this. MSgt Hall said it will be very difficult at times. I may have to be the one to comfort a soldier who has just lost his legs and his girlfriend back home has broken up with him. I may have to make the call back to the parents to tell them how their son or daughter is doing and that I will be taking care of their needs. MSgt Hall and CMSgt Robinson said that if I go back to my room and cry that I will not be the only one. We have to do our job and then let it out sometime because it will be stressful. I am looking forward to working hard. At least I will feel like I am finally doing something for my country. I think this is going to be very rewarding. MSgt Hall said I will leave here a different person.

The flight was fine. I got my room. I have to share a bathroom, but hopefully that's the worst of it. I met a girl named Lori here. We just went to dinner together at Subway (yeah) and now we're checking our e-mail. The shoppette is the next stop on the list.

Dayna is the girl I will be taking over from. She's from California and she's going back there in two weeks. I will have to find out the information, but her husband somehow calls her from California for a penny a minute. That's a great way to keep in touch with the kids. If you have access to DSN, the number is 491-4600 and my room number 24107. I am 6 hours ahead of you. I will be given a cell phone, but don't know the particulars on that yet.

I have to go to work on Monday. We apparently all get together Monday mornings at 0600 to go running. I don't have to do it this Monday because I haven't inprocessed yet, but I'm going to anyway. Gotta start sometime.

Well, gotta go get a shower and relax and sleep. Haven't found a beer yet, but I'm sure there's one close by.

Angie


January 6, 2007

Hey.

Good to hear from you. I don't mind at all if you share on your blog. I love to read it. I'm in the Cyber Cafe right now. It's open 24/7 for people to check their e-mail, but I can't connect my camera. Not that I've taken any pictures yet. Maybe when I get my office I'll be able to share pictures too.

I haven't inprocessed yet, but I'm going to help out tomorrow. Once Dayna leaves in two weeks, I'm it. There's so much to learn. I have to learn how to drive to different places and how to get clothes and uniforms for soldiers and airmen who have been taken straight from the battlefield and don't have anything. I'll have to call families back in the states. Dayna says there's going to be a lot of tears, but you wipe them dry and get back to work. She's says she's become immune to it, but still gets to her
sometimes. Anyway, there's a C-17 coming in tomorrow with a lot of Air Force people on it, so that will be a good experience for me.

I'll write more when I know more.

Love,
Angie

A Strike, Already

As far as my Stashalong goes, I'm about to get a strike already. You see, it's like this...

I live in a fairly small town in a rather rural area of a somewhat poor state. The only place in town that carries yarn is Wal-mart. Most of what they carry is acrylic. Ours carries a small--very small--selection of dishcloth cotton, but unless you want white or ecru, you'll have to settle for about 5 different colorways of variegated. As far as needles, Boye aluminum straights, and a very small selection of 29" circulars. That's about it. To get to a real yarn store, one has to drive 100 miles.

Tomorrow I have to drive 100 miles.

My appointment with the allergist in Jackson is tomorrow morning. The yarn store is only 7-10 minutes from the allergy clinic. I intend to go there. I've never been to a real yarn store in my life. So, I may just buy some yarn. However, in keeping with the spirit of the Stashalong, if not the letter, I will limit myself to dishcloth cotton and sock yarn. Other knitting accessories don't count toward the stashalong, so I may just buy some of those as well. I'll keep you posted...

Speaking of socks, I finished my first ever sock last night:

I know I need to do a mate for it, but I really want to try the sock yarn I got for Christmas. So this one's mate will have to wait.

I just got these pictures of my sister's other two sons, and didn't want them to feel left out, so here they are. This is Nate, who will be 7 in March, and Andrew, who will be two in May. These are Paul's big brothers.

The look so angelic here...

Showing off their moccasins:Nate and Grandma playing in the snow:Global warming? Not from where they sit. My mother said it had warmed up to about 3 below 0, so they decided to go outside and have a snowball fight. Warmed up to -3!

And finally, I bring you the Sketch of the Day:

An apple, done from memory.

I think I'm going to make a sketch of the day button and annoyingly post it each time I post a sketch. What do you think?

Paul Curtis Smoot

My newest nephew.

He looks like my sister.

With the proud parents

A New Arrival

But first, the finished KAL dishcloth. When I was growing up, my grandparents had some Christmas tree ornaments that looked just like this. Only they were wood. Some were natural colored and some were painted. But they were this exact same shape. I think this is supposed to be considered a snowflake. Not having seen much snow, I don't know.


And now, on to the sky:

It didn't look like this for long. About 30 minutes later, the entire sky was overcast. Cody and I had planned on going somewhere this afternoon, but J called and wanted him to come house sit today. He's been doing that, and I'm slowly getting the Christmas decorations taken down. I got a small plastic storage box from Wal-mart to put my ornaments in, and I'm throwing all the original boxes away. That ought to save a ton of room. The clever thing is, I'm using the garland for packing material, so no space is wasted. You have to think of these kinds of things when you have no storage space.

Now, on to the big news. My new nephew made his appearance last night at 7:58 PM. He weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz, and was 21" long. His name is Paul Curtis. The Curtis came from the uncle pictured here. You remember, the one wearing the Princess Tiara... This is appropriate since my sister was also named after this uncle. Him and my mother's grandmother. I don't have pictures of the baby, but I'll post them as soon as I get some.

Finally, a departure of sorts: Scarlett ate her last pinky today.

A pinky is the smallest size of mouse sold for food. They are called pinkies because they are the little newborn mice, and don't have any hair yet. Thus they are pink. The next size up is fuzzies. They are just starting to get their first little fuzz. I know some of you out there may think it's cruel to feed snakes baby mice, but that's what baby snakes eat. It's nature's way. The mice I buy are put to sleep, then killed in a CO2 chamber before I ever get them. That's not nature's way, but it is more humane.

Scarlett, if you'll remember, is the one who was throwing up all her meals a while back. I actually thought she was going to die there for a while. But thanks to some excellent and timely advice from Kathy Love, she has recovered and is flourishing. I have been feeding her very carefully, to avoid further regurges, and so she is still on smaller mice than her age mates would be. Blaze, who is the same age as Scarlett, is nearly 10" longer, and they were the same size when I got them. That shows how serious a snake throwing up is. Scarlett hasn't thrown up since September, and I think we may be beyond this. I hope so. The next test will come next Friday, when I feed her a fuzzy for the first time.

Wish us luck.

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Dumb Thing

"If they can get a paid holiday for Martin Luther King, why can't we get one for Henry Ford?"

Henry Ford?

"Yeah, you know, the president who just died."


True story. I swear.

In Walmart this evening while doing my weekly restocking, I was getting some Woolite off of the top shelf. I had to get up on my toes and stretch a bit to reach it, but I got it. Cody looked at me and said, "Mom, you should let me get the things off the top shelf for you."

Moving right along...

Here are today's KAL rows:

Andi already posted tomorrow's rows, but I'm going to be good and wait until tomorrow to do them, though I suspect half the list has completed the cloth already.

As promised, here is yesterday's sketch:

Obviously, I was tired of doing the chicken and decided to give this pumpkin a try. But my pencil wanted to act a fool. Actually it was the pencil sharpener that was acting a fool. It kept putting a little hook into the graphite. I even broke the whole tip off and started over, but it did the same thing. It was a cheap sharpener anyway.

Today, I did the same pumpkin, but decided to just do the stem:

I like this one a little better. Slowly but surely, my fingers are remembering their skill.

Every so often, I'll check my Site Meter, just to see who's dropping by. It'll show what google search queries were entered to lead folks here. Usually they are pretty ordinary, but once in a while, I get a doozy. This is the Search Query of the day:

What color is healthy poop for a snake?

I'll just let that one be.

Finally, a bit of good news--we worked today. All day. I'll have a 40 hour pay check for the first time since November. Yippee!

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It Has Finally Happened

I stood flatfooted on the ground, and had to look up at my son. My baby is now taller than I am. I knew it would come one day, but so soon?

Cody, of course, is thrilled with this bit of info. Upon it's discovery, he promptly decided he just had to e-mail everyone he knew and tell them.

Sigh, they do grow up, don't they?

Over in Portales, Buck is lamenting the fact that sometime the blogging well just runs dry. I, too, seem to be experiencing a lack of interesting things to blog about. Buck's son Sam has recently started a blog, and posted quite a bit on how he wants to write, and who his target audience will be.

While Cindy was here, we talked about blogging. She mentioned that she has decided she needs to put pictures and things on her blog. I mentioned that I like a more interactive blog, with photos and links and such. What we both agreed on, though, is that neither of us wanted our blog to become a log of our daily activities--a) got out of bed, b) brushed teeth, c) showered, etc, etc. I'm afraid that's what my blog seems to have become.

Another thing I don't want is for my blog to become political in nature. I feel there are already enough political blogs out there. I keep up with what is going on in the world, and I do have opinions, but this endless hashing and re-hashing just isn't what I'm in to. Heck, I didn't even make mention when the Butcher of Bagdad met his Maker. Until now, that is.

There are a lot of knitting blogs out there, too, most of which contain a laundry list of what the knitter accomplished that day. I just don't get that much done. Maybe if I had all day to knit like some of them do, I'd have a more interesting list, but some days I'm doing good to get any knitting in at all. Case in point, today's KAL rows are about all I've done today--and about 10 rows of the heel flap of my first sock. For your viewing pleasure--the dishcloth thus far:

Some people on the KAL have already finished this cloth. I suppose I could, too. I know what it is going to end up looking like, and it would be easy to extrapolate the pattern from here on out, but what fun is that? If I just wanted to knit cloths, there are thousands of patterns out there. To me, the point of a KAL is connecting with other knitters. Doing the same thing at the same time with like minded people. Almost as good as a local knitting group, but not quite.

So what do I want my blog to be? Well, I started it as a place to record my daily sketches. (BTW, I did do one today, but it is still out in the car and it is pouring rain. You'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it.) To fill in the gaps, I'd add information about karate, knitting, my snakes, my family--etc. Never in the life of me would I think people would actually read my blog. But people do read it, and I've made some very dear friends through blogging.

I've never been able to keep a diary or a journal for very long. I put off starting a blog for a long time because of this. I didn't want to start, blog a few weeks, then quit. But I see this differently. My diaries were private. No one ever saw them but me. My blog is public. Very public. I don't think of it as a diary.

It's more like a conversation with my friends. Thank you for listening.

Now, just a couple more things before I wrap this up for the night. Snakes do drink. I managed to catch Slider drinking and snapped this quick pic. This is remarkable because Slider is usually very timid. He must have been very thirsty.

Secondly, my nephew Paul was due today, but since I've had no word, I'm assuming he isn't here yet. Cody got a GoPhone with his Christmas money. What is cool is that he can talk to any other Cingular user without using any of his minutes. His grandma is in Alaska now, and he talked to her for 30 minutes the other day and it didn't cost anything but the $1 per day of use fee. Point is, I'm sure she will let him know as soon as Paul gets here.

And to cap things off, my cousin Jennifer has a new post up. I swiped this picture of my very patient uncle playing Princess with his great-granddaughter Alexa. Note the Princess crown and scepter. Snicker, snicker--aren't grandpas great?

Second Day

My second day back at work...I came home with a splitting headache. I mean a headache like I haven't had in a long, long time. My head hurt so bad that I was actually nauseated from the pain. Heck, I even took my temperature--just to be sure. A couple of acetaminophen tablets, a hot bath, and a couple of hours laying down, and I'm right as rain now. I didn't actually sleep--my head hurt too bad, but I did lay in the bed for a while. I got up around 6 PM, thinking that if I fell asleep that late, I'd never get to sleep tonight.

Ok, I've realized that I'm starting to sound like an old lady regaling all my aches and pains, so I'll stop now.

After I got up, I felt well enough to do my KAL rows and a pattern is beginning to emerge:

I washed the alpaca blend scarf I knitted, and it is a lot softer. I didn't block it, though. I just laid it flat to dry. I really do need to block it, but putting all those pins in gets rather tedious.

And now, the fourth try at sketching this rooster.

If I were going to do a detailed drawing of him, I'd do a grid and get all the proportions right and everything, but my purpose here is to try to improve my freehand sketching skills, that's why I do them on my lunch break at work. Depending on how fast I eat, I have between 10 and 15 minutes to sketch. The end of lunch buzzer imposes a deadline that cannot be fudged or pushed back. It provides the ideal opportunity to practice sketching quickly. My biggest problem with it is that I have to have a reference. I am not to the point where I can draw/sketch accurately from memory or imagination. Maybe one day I'll get to that point. Maybe I won't. But I'll keep working on it.

You know, I usually take my Christmas decorations down on New Year's Day. This year, I just wasn't ready to. Sitting there looking at the lights, with the lighted garland and wreath (which I got on clearance for $5) on the door beyond it, I wanted to leave them up just a little bit longer. Add to that the excuse that I want to buy some new storage bins, as the ones I currently have are some 11 years old and getting pretty battered...

Cody said we should leave the Christmas decor up all year long. No, that won't do. I don't want to get to the point where the tree blends in with the background.

Now I am sort of watching the Sugar Bowl. This presents me with a dilemma. My dear friend Buck is a Notre Dame fan, but my beloved son Cody is a big LSU fan, and...well, you know what they say: blood is thicker than water. Sorry Buck.

GO LSU!!!

No! No!

I don't want to go back to work!

But alas, I had no choice. It was back to the grindstone today. Sigh....Did I ever mention how much I envy those women who are blessed enough to be able to stay home?

I was going to start back to karate classes tonight as well, but I didn't . For one thing, it's cold here and my Jimmy has no heat. Secondly, my on again/off again chest cold seems to be on again. So I thought it best to stay inside.

What I did do today was to sketch again. I did this quick sketch in the 5 or so minutes left during my lunch break, after I'd finished eating. I know it's really light, but I ran out of time before I could finish with the shading and stuff.


This is actually my third attempt at sketching this rooster. I tried once last month, and didn't get but his beak drawn. A couple of days later, I tried again and here is the result.

I didn't like the way he was shaped in this one. His head seems too long. Oh, well. I'm going to keep on trying until a) I get it right, or b) I get sick of drawing him and move on to something else.

And last, but certainly not least:

Today's rows of the dishcloth KAL.

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Resolutions

I've never been one for making resolutions. I don't believe in them. I do, however, believe in setting goals for myself, and beginnings are a good time to do that, whether it's the beginning of the week, of the month, or of the year. Yesterday, I looked back at my blog for last Jan 1 to see what goals I'd set for myself and how well I'd done in meeting them. I was going to write a whole big, long post about them, but once I got there, I discovered I hadn't recorded any of them!


I do remember posting a list of goals on a drawing forum I used to hang out on, but someone hacked the server back in May, and all posts before then were lost. After the board came back up, most of the older members quit posting, and the board has been completely changed by newer members. It has changed so much that I don't even go there anymore. Before you tell me I should just give it a chance, I did stay for several months. But, somehow, it had just lost its appeal.


But I digress...


So what are my goals for 2007? I've already posted one of them--complete the Stashalong. That pretty much covers my knitting goals. I'm also determined to learn to knit socks.


My martial arts goals are as follows:

• Return to class
• Finish learning what I need to know for ni-dan (second degree black belt)
• Continue to improve on what I have already learned

My goals as an artist:

• Begin doing my sketches again, after all that was the whole reason I started this blog. I won't try doing a daily sketch. I loved the sketching part, but coming up with something fresh and exciting every day--and finding an appropriate reference photo--got a bit tedious. I will try to do one at least once a week.
• Continue working through the lessons in Drawing for Dummies, and on Drawspace.

My goals as a person:

• To spend less time on the computer, and more time living
• To resume my walks
• To reduce my credit card debt
• To deliberately seek instances in which I can show kindness and generosity to others

That's about it.

Cody and I watched the Tournament of Roses parade, but hardly watched any football. We spent most of the day watching M*A*S*H on DVD.

And being the first of the month, it was time to start on the new

My guess is that this one will have something to do with snow since she specified white or cream colored yarn, but I've been wrong before.

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