I Is For

Inclement weather, of which we've had plenty of late.

Music Monday

I know it's been a while since I've done a Music Monday, but this week, this song hits home.  Every time I hear it, I think of the Tornado victims throughout the South.  I also think how lucky, how blessed I have been that I, and my friends and family, escaped unharmed.  Still, the need is very great.

I have friends in Tuscaloosa.  I have family in Birmingham.  I have friends in North Mississippi, and East Mississippi, and Georgia.  They are all OK, but there are so many who have lost everything-- and more than 300 who lost their lives. 

One of the 150+ tornadoes touched down just a few miles from my house.  It hit close to home in more ways than one.

Please consider making a donation to the charity of your choice.  The Pioneer Woman is having a contest of sorts on her blog.  For every comment, she will donate a quarter to Tornado relief.  At the end of the week, she will choose 4 comments at random and donate $500 to the commenter's charity of choice.

Naturally, I can't afford to do that, but I can do this.  Make a donation to the charity of your choice, and it doesn't have to be money.  Our church is taking up clothes and bottled water to send down to Tuscaloosa.  If you know of an organization that is doing something similar, that is great.  Anyway, make a donation of your choice --any amount-- then leave a comment on this post (NOT on FB please).  Next Friday May 13th, I will draw one name at random to receive one hank of my new Cherry Tree Hill Sockittome Select sock yarn. 


Let's let these people know that we will stand by them. 

That we won't let go.

Delayed Entry and Leaving Home

*I didn't intend to take so long between posts, but, well, stuff happened.  Anyway, here is part 3 of my Navy Story.  If you missed the first two parts, the links can be found at the end of this post.

I had been sworn into the delayed entry program, and given a bus ticket back home with instructions to report for active duty on May 8, 1989. My recruiter picked me up from the bus station and drove me home. We talked a bit about the other girl, the one they'd sent home early.

"She should have just told them she was on the pill because she didn't want to get pregnant, "V said. I replied that if she'd known they would send her home, she probably would have done just that.

And so, I went back home and began making preparations to enter active duty. One of the preparations I had to make was to gain weight. Yeah, I know. The military had a minimum weight per height standard, and I was only 3 pounds above it. This caused V no end of worry.

"You'd better gain some weight, girl!" became a common refrain. He had a scale in his office, and I went in every week to weight myself. After several weeks, I was finally able to announce with some degree of triumph that I'd gained 2 pounds. That wasn't enough.

"You'd need to gain more than that!" was his admonition. Finally, I moved in with Aunt Martha and Uncle Lavergne for a few weeks, and gained 5 more pounds. By the time I left for basic training, I weighed a whopping 112.

Then a bit of a monkey wrench was thrown into the works. I went into the recruiter's office for my weekly weight in, and someone else was in V's chair, behind V's desk. When I asked where V was, I was told that he'd transferred to Beaumont, the next town over. Though this man was a nice guy, and gave me information when I asked for it, we never developed the rapport that V and I had had. But he was the one who advised me to go ahead and learn my 11 general orders to the sentry and the rank insignias before leaving for basic training. Still, it just wasn't the same.

Days went by, then weeks. Finally, that blessed, most glorious day arrived--the day I put in my two weeks notice at Wal-Mart. When I handed my written notice to the assistant manager, she asked why I was quitting. I told her exactly why--because they'd said I'd never make full time, and I needed full time employment. Immediately the apologies began. They were sorry I'd been overlooked. They'd make it up to me. What could they do to convince me to stay? Had I ever considered getting into a management trainee program?

"It's too late," I said. "I've already signed the paper, and taken the oath. I can't get out of it now, even if I wanted to." OK, I probably could have, but there's no way I was going to tell her that. My mind was made up. They'd had two years to make me full time, to get me into a management program, and they hadn't done it. I wasn't going to be an afterthought.

I quit Wal-Mart about 2 weeks before I had to report for basic training, to give myself time to take care of the last minute details. I still had to pack away all my stuff, sell my car, and find a home for my dog. That was the hardest part--having to leave THE BEST DOG EVER. But I did, and in the end, I got everything taken care of with time to spare.

The day was quickly approaching when I was to report to the MEPS, only I hit a little snag. The recruited disappeared. He must have gone on leave or something. To this day, I still don't know what happened to him. The problem was, I didn't have my orders, or my bus ticket, or anything. Maybe he'll be back, I kept telling myself. He must have known when I was supposed to leave, and planned on being back by then.

Finally, The Day arrived, but still no recruiter. I finally looked up V's number in the phone book and called him at home. On a Sunday. I didn't like doing that, but what other choice did I have? He drove all the way over to my home town, and got me my bus ticket and orders. Aunt Martha and Uncle Lavergne drove me to the bus station, and I was off to the MEPS, to begin my life as a sailor in the World's Finest Navy.

Part 1 of this story can be found here.
Part 2 of this story can be found here.

Kindling Along

I know I've been absent from the blog for a couple of days.  I just haven't felt like writing.  The more I watched storm videos, the more I saw photos of the damage, the more heartbroken I became.  The death toll now stands at 300+.   I feel kind of guilty squeeing about my new Kindle when so many have lost so much.

So, I made my little donation to The Salvation Army, and get on with my life, though my heart remains heavy. 

This is going to be a bit of a catch up post, starting with my new sock yarn:

This is Cowboy Way, which I bought from an Etsy Shop.  Now, you may recall, I had previously bought some in worsted weight, and when I discovered she has more listed, I immediately snatched it up.  This time I got sock weight, as if I needed more sock yarn.  But hey, it doesn't count as stash!

No, really.  It doesn't.

She also included this sample of some of her other yarn.

 

It is super soft, and there's probably enough there to make a blankie square. It's hard to see the color in that photo, but it's a really pretty purply color. 

Rylea has been gimpy today.  I heard her yelp during the night, but naturally, she couldn't tell me what happened.  The best I can guess is she stepped wrong and wrenched her bum leg.  I think she'll be ok in a day or two, though.

Me, on the other hand, spent the day in a flurry of house cleaning, in the midst of which I dug out my lace weight yarns.  The new Anniversary Mystery KAL starts next week, and I wanted to pick out which yarn I want to use.

These are Alpaca Cloud in Iris Heather, Gloss Lace in Mango, Shadow in Hot Rod

 

Gloss Lace in Dandelion, Shadow in Papaya, Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool Heather, and Shimmer in Sunkissed.

I immediately ruled out the Tide Pool Heather, because it's the one I did the '09 KAL in.  After much deliberating with myself, I finally settled on the Iris Heather.

It's more purple than this, but I can't ever seem to take a color accurate photo of it.

The rest of the day, I spent playing with my new Kindle.

I even sprang for the leather cover, which adds a nice touch, and more importantly, adds a measure of protection to the device.

And it's got a nifty little book light that pulls right out of the cover. Cool, huh?

So far, I've only spent .99 on downloads. It was for an e-book that had the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and several other historical documents in it, so it was worth the money.

I went back to Amazon.com today to download a Bible, and somehow got sucked in to the "Customers who bought X also bought Y" vortex. Before I escaped, I'd downloaded 150+ books-- all of them free! They're all classics that have fallen into the public domain, but they are good books. Shakespeare, Edgar Alan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jane Austen and the like.

Plus, I'm really loving the cool screen savers the Kindle has.

Funny thing is, I grabbed the corner of the Kindle trying to turn the page!  But don't tell anyone I did that. 

Twice. 

Let's just let that be our little secret, OK?

Sigh...

An Abrupt Change Of Plans

I had a nifty little blog post all pre-composed in my mind. Oh, it was going to be a good post, light hearted and fun. But when I came home and began watching videos of the tornadoes that hit yesterday, all I could do was stare at the screen in horror and fight back tears.



Suddenly, in the light of 150+ tornadoes, homes and business destroyed,families devistated

280 people dead...

even my Kindle didn't seem so important any more.

*Regular blogging will resume, after a suitable period of prayer and mourning.  

I Heard A Scarf Call My Name

I was sitting there in my chair, wanting to knit, but not knowing what to knit. None of my projects were calling out to me. I sat there, frustrated and restless. 

Somewhere, in the dark recesses of my mind, I heard a small voice whisper, "Fruit of the Vine".

Fruit Of The Vine. 

Oh, yeah.  That scarf I'd loved so much up at Hank's.  The one I tried to knit pink, but it insisted on being blue.  That one.

The only problem was, where had that darn thing gotten to?  I remembered it had gotten put away in a flurry of cleaning sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but where?  Well, there was nothing to do but go look for it.  So I did.

Long story short, the craft closet is now a mess, but the scarf has been found!

As an added bonus, I also found the Orkney Pi, which is barely begun.

And last year's anniversary mystery shawl, which I really ought to finish, since the next one starts in just over a week.  Naturally, I signed up for it. 

I was on the last section before the border when the mojo deserted me.  Maybe if I sit and look at it long enough, my mojo will come home.

And your parting shot for the day:  Storm clouds, just arriving. 

It's gonna be a rough night, folks. Or as my ol' Dad would have said, "Batten down the hatches, she's gonna blow!"

.

Baseball's Greatest Play Ever

An FO Of My Own Design

Well, sort of.  I finished the current iteration of the Roundabout Hat.

I'm pleased with the way it came out, except for the crown. It still needs work.

I like this one a little better than the last one I knit, but it still isn't quite right. The next time I knit it, I will tinker with a bit further. Once I come up with a finalized pattern, it will also get a new name.  I already know what I'm going to name it, and why, but I won't reveal it until I get the decreases the way I want them. 

One last thing before I go, the Easter Bunny was so grateful that I didn't squish him in the road, he left me a little basket!

The football basket will be just right to hold a small knitting project, say a sock or a scarf.  And aren't the little football eggs too cute?  Now, that's a rabbit that knows what I like!

Squishing Easter

I was driving to work yesterday morning, when I came around a curve and there in the road was a little bunny rabbit. I stopped and waited for him to hop on across the road and reach the safety of the bushes on the other side, because you know, rabbits are kind of spastic. You might think they've hopped out of the way, then they'll turn and dart right back in front of you.

I've had many a heart seizure from this happening.

Anyway, I waited for him to hop all the way across, and was thankful that I was the only car on the road at that ungodly hour of 5:45 AM. Somebody else might have squished him and not even given it a second thought.

Then the thought hit me. Whoa!

What if that was the Easter Bunny? 

I'm so glad I didn't squish him.  I'd have hated to be responsible for millions of children going without candy on Easter morning.

All right, then...

While I was walking the dog this afternoon, I ran across some mighty strange tracks.  They looked like Procompsognathus tracks.   I took a photo with my phone, but haven't yet figured out how to get it from my phone to my computer.  I tried to post it to Facebook as a message, but it hasn't shown up yet.  Maybe it will, soon. 

In better news, I got one of my credit cards paid off, so what did I do? I loaded it back up again. I finally broke down and ordered myself a Kindle. I'd been wanting one for a while, now, and decided I'd just go ahead and get one.  Then I went on to the Amazon website and put a whole bunch of free e-books in my basket.  And I made a Kindle specific wish list of books to buy. 

Last night I cast the Roundabout hat back on with an additional 8 stitches. It fits much better now. I have just about made it to the crown decreases, which I still have to figure how how to do so that I can maintain the pattern as long as possible.

But I'll do that tomorrow. Now it's time to go curl up with a creepy murder mystery--right before bed. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to sleep alone. Yeah, why do I do this to myself?

The world may never know.

Earth Day 2011

The Creation of Light
Genesis 1

¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

² Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
 ³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
 
 ⁶ And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷ So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. ⁸ God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.

 ⁹ And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
    ¹¹ Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. ¹² The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.

 ¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. ¹⁶ God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. ¹⁷ God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

 ²⁰ And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” ²¹ So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ²² God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.

 ²⁴ And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. ²⁵ God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
    ²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,^[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
 ²⁷ So God created mankind in his own image,  in the image of God he created them;
   male and female he created them.

 ²⁸ God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

    ²⁹ Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. ³⁰ And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

    ³¹ God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

A Small Dilemma

So, I was knitting merrily away on the Roundabout Hat, when I just happened to pick up the yarn label. I don't know why, I just did it.

I picked up the yarn label, and that's when I noticed it.

Where it said "weight", instead of the "worsted" I expected to see, it said "DK".  DK stands for Double Knitting, and is a weight slightly smaller than worsted. 

I'd been knitting a pattern devised for worsted weight.  I tried on the hat, and though it fit, it is very snug.  It would probably fit a child, but not a soldier. 

Therein lies my conundrum.  Do I finish a child sized hat, or do I rip and start over? 

Given that I am a) a process knitter, b) a perfectionist, I'll probably start over.

Besides, I'm out of hat yarn, so knitting it again might just hold me off until I can get up to Southaven next month. 

Weeeee!

It's Wednesday

and the wind is howling, and the rain is pouring, and I'm looking for discounts on gopher wood. 

Time to batten down the hatches. 

The Schedules Are Out

The NFL released the 2011 schedule this evening.  I'm still hopeful there will be a season this year. 

You can view your team's schedule here:  NFL Interactive Schedule.

Just a few interesting tidbits.  The Arizona Cardinals have the easiest schedule, and oddly enough, the Carolina Panthers have the toughest.  They had the worst record last season, and they get slapped by the toughest schedule.  Funny how that works.

The Cowboys are right in the middle at #15, just below the defending Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers.   The Cowboys also have the toughest schedule of the NFC East. 

The Cowboys at the Jets will open up Sunday Night Football on September 11. 

Fitting for the 10th anniversary of that. 

H Is For

Head.

In this case, a styrofoam wig head sent to me by my friend Kristen, and whom I've lovingly dubbed Charlotte.

OK, that's not entirely true. I lovingly dubbed her Georgette. She stubbornly insisted that she was Charlotte.

So Charlotte she is.

I didn't argue.  She's kinda creepy, you know.

For that reason, she's not allowed in my bedroom.  At all.

Ever. 

.

New Beginnings

I've always found the term new beginnings to be just a bit redundant. Aren't all beginnings new? Isn't the very definition of beginning to start something new, or when something new started?  Uh, moving right along...

So, you know I was planning on doing Wendy Johnson's Cable and Lace socks next. I tried to cast on earlier this week, but couldn't wrap my brain around a cast-on that I've done a gajillion times. Well, today, I was determined to get them cast on...

So, what did I do instead? I cast on another hat. Yeah.

This is a variation of the Roundabout Sock pattern, knit in Scarlet Fleece painted marino, color Favorite Jeans. 

OK, now before I head off to check myself into hat knitter's rehab, let me just show you that I did indeed get the socks cast on.

It still took me three tries to get the stupid cast on, but I persevered.  I may rip it out and do it again even now.  Her pattern has me casting on a total of 34 stitches--17 on each side, instep and sole.  (She writes her patterns for 2 circs, a method I despise and will never use again.  I'm adapting it to DPNs.)  When I knit socks cuff down, I usually decrease to 24 stitches, or 12 per needle.  This may make the toe just a bit too blunt for my foot, but we shall see. 

Oh, the yarn is Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Indian Summer.