It's TOTALLY Ironic...

...to awaken on your 56th birthday to a period. 

Seriously. I was just at my gyno and I asked him. He said, "You are among a handful of my patients that I term over-achievers so don't worry."

Thanks, doc. I appreciate that. 

Anyway, we have a cloudy, snow-ish day. We shall see how things go today. Of course, it was supposed to snow TOMORROW, so I have totally the wrong shoes on - I have the Shoo-booties on. They're fine as long as we don't get a lot of snow. One of my lovely professors, upon finding out that it was my birthday, handed me 2 squares of Ghirarelli dark chocolate. My kind of guy!

No big plans. Not planning a dinner. Having Raisa come on Saturday is probably all the excitement I need right now. 

We have her training set up, and she'll be going to Puppy Play at the end of this month, on a Sunday. We'll be training her alongside Quinn, so they bond a bit. Bobbie, our trainer, said that she doesn't recommend that Raisa go into a puppy obedience class, since our girls are 7 and 3 respectively. She should learn more about being around older dogs. 

Of course, being a Husky, she'll be smart. Stubborn, but smart. And I think she'll be fine at the regular Basic Obedience. By the time we get her there, she'll be almost 4 months old, so it will be ok. We just have to be careful to watch when it's about "heat" time. She'll be fixed after her first heat, so she gets the full benefit of all those hormones. 

Hopefully, as SHE goes INTO heat, I'll come out of it, right? 

Knitting...

 
The hat is coming along nicely. I started it out on 3 DPNs but since it's a DK weight, I really think the needles weren't long enough. So I did end up with the size 7 circular, even though it's a 24" cord. It works well, and I will still end up using the DPNs when I decrease.

What I can do, if I want, is make it a tad shorter. I'm supposed to knit 8" on the body of the hat, but I measured my head... I can probably do fine with 6" or so. But I'm really thinking I will probably do the 8". First, I have the yarn. Second, I did a 1" Garter Stitch band, so if I have to roll it, it won't be awful...It'll be Garter Stitch inside or out. I'd rather have that extra length because I want to wear this when it's cold! 

I still would like to knit a beret. If I could find a nice felted one, I'd buy one, but hey - I knit. I can MAKE one!

The afghan is in temporary limbo right now. 

And tomorrow, after my board meeting, my knitting friends are going to go with me to Le Mouton Rouge Knittery to take a peek. Doris needs some yarn to match beads and work up a shawl. I want to get a yarn bag. 

Yeah, I know - like I need one. But Kelly's got some good ones and I would like to pick up one of those, and perhaps that set of size 7 circulars with the 16" cord. If I'm lucky, maybe they'll have the square ones. 

I did finally go on Ravelry to see what was going on. I had an "ancient" message about some Cascade I had in stash. Well, I would had to have remembered WHERE it was in stash! I answered the lady, and it took her forever to reply. She found another yarn to do her project.

I may try to pull a cloche pattern out of my binder and do that as a felted hat. That would be cool. I saw one at Knitty Magazine that had kind of a shell design done in a contrasting I-cord that was built into the construction of the hat. It looked really nice and it seemed to be an easy-enough pattern. 

With this Kauri hat, I tried it on last night, and perhaps it might be a tad loose. I figure I can make a dart and add a really cool button. That would be a nice addition and a 'special' touch to a rather plain hat. I'll be bringing the hat with me so that I can find a button that I like. I would like to get one that obviously I can hand-wash, but also something unique. 

If I can't find anything, maybe I can get Kid #1 to make one out of glass for me. Or metal - if it won't rust. That would also be very nice. 

Full Moon...

Well, that's why my yoga students were all confused on Monday! It was nearly a full moon. So last night, as I'm driving home, I see this lovely moon. The sky really was that navy-blue color, it's not my crappy phone! The moon was low in the sky at that time, and I stopped outside a park gate (they close at sunset) and snapped this. 

It was lovely. I really like the full moon and especially when it was as huge as it was. The picture is deceiving, because you all know that what you see with your eyes is dramatically different than what you see through a camera. Though Hubby has a large telescope to which we can hook the camera, I think we've only taken it out twice. It's hard to do because the thing needs a vehicle of its own. And it's fussy. And, where we live, in order to really get the good pictures? We'd need to be out after midnight. Which doesn't work with our schedules right now. 

One day. At least I hope so. I'd really like, at some point, to take a weekend perhaps at Starved Rock State Park and maybe see if we can get some good photos. 

Politics...

Antonin Scalia is an idiot. Well, maybe you already knew that. But in case you didn't, he is. 

In today's Chicago Tribune, there's an article entitled Justices question need for clinic buffer zones - and it relates to a Massachusetts law that sets a thirty-five foot (35') buffer zone to prevent protesters from approaching women's health clinics offering abortions.

Opponents have, of course, called the law a "violation of free speech" and said that it hinders "peaceful conversations" on a public sidewalk. 

Proponents of the law defended it as a way to "deal with the violence and disruptions that have been seen at abortion clinics in the Boston area."

Justice Scalia, the lead conservative, said that his banc of justices feels that the law "clearly violated the First Amendment."

The liberals on the court wonder if it needs to be a wider buffer than the original 35' stated in the law. 

What fries my cheese is the quote from Scalia:  "Surely, you could have a law against screaming and shouting within 35 feet. ... These people want to speak quietly in a friendly manner."

The man has lost his reason. If he ever had any.

I have seen this up-close-and-personal. Back in the days when I lived in Virginia, in the town where I lived, my credit union shared space with a women's clinic. That was in the early 80s. Well before direct-deposit or online banking, right? So every 2 weeks, I'd stop by to deposit my paycheck. And every 2 weeks, there were protesters lined up with their signs, their banners, their garbage cans of "bloody babies" for us to look at as we went into the credit union door. 

At one point, I had Kid #1 with me. He was asleep, so I heaved him onto my shoulder to take him into the credit union so I could do my banking. Suddenly, he screamed and jerked... Some moron shoved a "bloody baby" in his face and started berating me for "going in to kill a baby."

I stopped in my tracks, whirled around and said something along the lines of "Get that out of my face or YOU will need a doctor."  My kid had a total melt-down, as most 2-year-olds would when so abruptly awakened by a stranger who was shaking a bloody, beheaded doll and screaming in his face. I mean, imagine. You're sound asleep, dreaming toddler dreams. Feeling mom holding you securely and feeling all safe and sound.

And then a total stranger starts hollering in your face and shoving something in front of your eyes. You don't know what's going on. You hug your mom's neck tightly and start screaming yourself because you're afraid. 

You readers who are moms out there - you tell me how YOU would react. I'd like to know. 

As you could imagine, the encounter got slightly worse and the security guard at the credit union had to come out so that I could go in.

Ultimately, there WAS no "quiet, friendly conversation" with ANY of us. If you were FEMALE and you were in the parking lot, you were "going to have an abortion." A lawsuit was brought by the credit union and at least one other tenant of the building because obviously, their clients were being harassed. 

I ended up having to give a deposition. They were subsequently barred from the parking lot. They could stand on the easement alongside the sidewalk, but they could NOT trespass on the sidewalk (which butted up against the parking lot), which had a hedge about 4' tall next to it. 

So... They stuck their "bloody babies" and their signs on 6-foot poles and waved them in our faces. Hey, THEY weren't in our way. But their signs were. 

It was incredibly disgusting. 

Scalia has obviously never been anywhere near (a) the outside; and (b) a women's clinic. Because some of these zealots would protest a women's clinic no matter whether they provided abortions or not. 

I mean, right now as this lawsuit stands, it could affect these kinds of zones which are now being used to protect government and military facilities... Really - you want a crazy near a military facility?? 

And let's be perfectly clear here: GW Bush had protesters put MILES away from where he was. Where was THEIR "First Amendment" right? Was that any different? Was him staying in his little "everybody LOVES ME" bubble more important? Apparently so... 

But women? Obviously, we can't be trusted to have a body and make decisions about that, even though we are making a lawful decision about a legal medical procedure. Or maybe just getting a check-up because we're poor. We felt a lump. We have a problem. Or we're just picking up birth control. You know, being responsible about our sex lives. 

Well. We can't have that. The protesters must have their pound of flesh. And if Scalia and the extreme conservative judges on the SCOTUS have their way, of course women will pay the price. As we always do.

Random Picture...

This is Sallie, my little stuffed alpaca. I bought her at a Stitches, I think. For a while, she was on my desk at school. But I brought her home and she's sitting on the shelf in my knitting room/office/yoga room/music room/studio/junk room/used to be kids room.  Really, it's my office. Well, in name. 

Actually, it's all those descriptors above, including "the place we wrap Christmas presents" and "the place we stash our junk when people come over." 

One of these days, it'll all be sorted and it'll just be my office, yoga room and studio. Or, when Kid #2 leaves, I will get HIS room and make THAT my yoga room! I can dream. He hasn't left yet. 

I don't suppose that Sallie means much to anyone, but I thought she was cute. She's very soft. The dogs thought she was their toy, but I quickly moved her out of their reach. Alpaca is actually one of my favorite fibers.

And in my "dream life" I have enough land to not only have a small herd of alpaca, but to have a canine rescue section. Oh, and a horse rescue. 

Oh, and a bazillion dollars to make all of that work!