The Spooky Will Get You...

Owl

OK, I'll confess that Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love to decorate, and it's just adorable... Even the super-icky decorations that some of our neighbors put out? I've gotta admire their creativity. Even as I look sideways at some of the displays! 

So I was talking about The Great Pumpkin - and I don't mean the Peanuts version. This pumpkin was actually in my dad's hospital room. My SIL brought it in for him once and set it on the window ledge. 

He promptly said, "Fer crissake - you could land a plane with that light!!" So I ended up taking it home. It's been on our porch every Halloween since. 

Skeleton Flamingo

Every year, I try to shake up the decorations; this year, though, we're kind of taking it easy. I did buy some new yard stakes; they don't glow in the dark, but the reflective paint reminds me of the stuff they use on the roads! 

Here are some shots of the various decorations. 

Call me morbid, but I get a huge kick out of the skeleton flamingo! Yes, I actually have the plastic pink flamingo yard art. And I have skeleton plastic figures, too, but I can't remember where I put them. 

I also stuck a wreath-ish thing on the door. Which nobody will see since our "front" door actually faces the "side" -- it's off the side of the porch. 

Oh well. I like it. And I guess that's what counts, right?

Therapy Dog Gig

Today is our therapy gig, but I am just waiting to see how the weather holds out. Unfortunately, Tippi does't like thunderstorms. So we'll see. Hopefully it'll all work out so that we're there and gone before anything comes up. 

Luckily, I have the "magic parking pass" and I can park up close to one of the buildings. We'll be doing our work INSIDE today! 

Autumn Wreath

Tippi's almost got her required 50 visits in to advance to the next level of TDI - and I'm excited about that. She still enjoys it, so we still go. 

Zonta -- Proclamation

Tonight is our annual "City Council Proclamation" meeting. Our Zonta Club (check here) comes before the City Council on or near UN Day to get a proclamation reinforcing the work we do as a local club and our contributions to the greater Zonta International effort to advance the status of women. Zonta International does such good work - Safe Cities programs, educating young women, providing funds for scholarships. 

We're lucky to have a vibrant club in our area. Our club also sponsors 3 scholarships for girls, and we do a lot of service work. Our current service work is with Habitat for Humanity - our local affiliate is Will County Habitat for Humanity. We love to be able to get hands-on with the projects!

Our current president has to make a speech; I'm just there to take the group picture! We're also going to be going to the local County Board meeting as well, but I am not sure I'll be making that meeting. We'll have to see. 

Knitting

No assembly work on the afghan today. Working on a white Fluffy Scarf. Can someone tell me why in the world they split the ball?? I had to iron a few feet of the yarn and double it up because they had a huge splice in the middle. Yeesh. 

It's coming along, though. Knitting while watching "A League of Their Own." I think we'll have to acquire a copy of it - even though I know it's not exactly PG rated. I'm not a big fan of cussing in the movies. Call me squeamish, but there it is.

Random Photo

Shower Cake

This is a "tropical theme" shower cake from my friend Jodie's wedding. She and her Hubby have just celebrated an anniversary. 

I made this and their wedding cake. This one was a yellow cake with no filling except buttercream. The fishes on the top represent the fact that their wedding was a cruise wedding; we didn't attend. I'm betting it was a great time; the wedding cake I made was actually for a post-cruise celebration, so that worked out well. They're a great couple! 

Their wedding cake served 300 - and I was going to put on a variety of stands, but since their reception was outdoors, in a stiff breeze, next to a sand volleyball court... we went with a table display! 

Reading

...well, kind of about knitting! I'm re-reading "Knitting Rules" by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - a/k/a The Yarn Harlot. I've read all of her stuff and she's really funny.

The Great Pumpkin

Also, on the Kindle, working my way through the Jane Austen collection. Mostly through "Emma" now. I may order "I am Malala" and either put that on the Kindle or order it as a "real" book.

Kid #2 wants a signed copy of "Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk. His favorite author next to Kurt Vonnegut. That'll be interesting. 

Which reminds me, I have to visit Amazon for some stuff. I'll have to stay away from the knitting books section! And the yoga books section... And the fiction section... (sigh)

Well, back to the Fluffy Scarf. Total of 7 and I've got 1.5 done.

It's Underway...

This past weekend was the first one in a long time that I had a "real" weekend. Normally, I'm working most Saturdays, while I have Fridays off. And about once a month, I'm up at "dawn:thirty" to go to a Friday board meeting... 

So there was a very optimistic To-Do list, and another fairly optimistic "Honey-Do" list... 

Working on my craft table...

Hubby accomplished his part: we have The Great Pumpkin out on the porch. No picture; I'll take one tonight after yoga. It's better at night...

Knitting

So it's underway: the assembly of the Elkhound Afghan. This will be auctioned off for charity - or done via raffle, I'm not sure what they want to do with it. 

I didn't make all of the squares; about 4 of us did. There's some lovely Tunisian crochet, there's knitting and crochet... and a problem! 

I had asked for 12" x 12" squares. Well........ Not all of them (including the ones I did) meet that criteria. So we have some "Fisherman" color (cream) yarn that I'm filling in with. This will likely leave the afghan an odd size, but hey - it's home-made. The finishing will include doing a single crochet all the way around this thing and then a scallop to polish it. I had hoped to do the edging in the cream; however our local JoAnn didn't have enough cream. I bought the light grey. I may try to see if they have more cream. It looks like this will take a couple of weekends to do, so I can perhaps find them restocked. 

Afghan on Table...

I'll do something with the grey: perhaps a couple of pillows. And I can either include them with the afghan or I can give them to the kids for Christmas.

The Fluffy Scarf project continues...

Church

We got our new choir robes! They're Cubbie blue... And they were supposed to be breathable, but I gotta tell you --- I'm fanning myself like crazy (and it was about 64* outside during our Mass) and Ken the Baritone says, "Can you move a little sideways?" I asked him why and he says, "So we can share your fan!" 

They need to be hemmed. I guess that the choir robe folks thought we'd all be singing in 3"  heels! One of our members is taking care of that, thankfully. I can hem. I just don't like to. 

Fr. Matt blessed them and said that he hopes they'll make us sing better...Of course, everyone laughed and he said, "Oh, not that they didn't sing well BEFORE!!" And of course, we christened our choirmaster as "Pappa Smurf." 

Oh, the Prayer Shawl Ministry folks appreciated my two big boxes of yarn. Hope to see some of the shawls. They put them out on a table at the front of the church, so you can take one if you need it. 

The List

The list included me exercising (not done); finishing the Other Fluffy Scarf (done); assembly of the afghan (in progress); and cleaning out two corners of the bedroom (not done). Oh, and shredding (done). Hubby did mow the lawn. But the garden boxes needed tending and we didn't get to that.

In my own defense, I got some of my stuff organized. I paired yarn + projects into bags and we did get the Stash busted for the Prayer Shawl Ministry folks. Whoopie! More room for yarn!! (whoops; that wasn't supposed to come out...)

And Hubby had an eye doc appointment; it was time for his eyes to be dilated. So we didn't even get on our bikes. Neither of us does the eye dilating well... 

Cobbler!

Food

The 2013 Christmas Cookie Baking List is done. Of course, it's always fluid; we may add a couple, but we're not likely to subtract.

I made risotto for dinner yesterday - Hubby and Kid #1 had it. I also did some kale and I ate that. 

Still working on the "cleanse" and it's difficult this time around. I feel like I'm eating more and I'm frustrated. 

Of course, completing the "exercise" part of my list would probably help... 

Lunch today was a huge salad, a ham wrap on a low-carb small tortilla, and unfortunately, a stroll past the Halloween pumpkin... Today is just today. It's not a sentence of failure. So I start again. Keeping at it; not giving up. 

I also helped Hubby make cobblers. We had fruit that was "almost." You know the "almost" fruit: in a banana, it's the ones you set aside for banana bread.

This is fruit that was in the bin and was at that point where nobody was going to eat it if it was left there. So he peeled it and I made a quick crumb topping. There are 2 pear cobblers and 2 plum. I think Hubby ate them all! 

Random Dog Cuteness

So today was Columbus Day (or Take Over a Nation and People Day... depending on how you do it...) and we were thinking about the things that weren't going to be open. Normally, Mondays are our garbage days. We put it out anyway, and there were initially 2 dogs in this picture... Both of them always check to make sure the garbage man doesn't take more than he's supposed to. But I swear Tippi can hear me pick up my phone and knows what I'm doing. This is Quinn... Maybe I can catch the two of them at some point. 

It was funny: when the afghan and I were at my small folding craft table, Quinn was in front of me "supervising" (a/k/a napping). And then I had to move to the dining room table. Hubby set up his nice Ott Light so I could see what I'm doing. 

Then Tippi stakes herself out behind my chair. "Supervising." (a/k/a "napping") 

Ideas for the Blog

Annecy Guitarist

I'm liking categorizing the various things I talk about. It seems to work well. What I'd also like to do is perhaps include a picture in each post (or several, depending). I would also like to maybe include some other kinds of writing. 

Kid #2 says "You write like a newspaper reporter." Probably because I was one? And also, I know things tend to sound like "meeting minutes." Probably because I take a lot of them?? I'm well past my secretary days (not that there's anything wrong with that; just giving you some context). But I still remember lots of shorthand and I also type fast. If I'm not writing minutes on a piece of paper, I'm sitting in front of my laptop typing pretty much as fast as you can talk.

For now, I'll just stick in a random picture - here's my guitarist from Annecy from our trip this summer. Still kicking myself for not buying one of his CDs...

Recipes...I don't know. 

Maybe I'll do a photo blog every so often. Heaven knows I have a ton of pictures. Any ideas are welcome. 

Fall Color

What fall color?? With the random weather, we haven't had much to speak of. Here's what it looks like out my back door. Normally, I've got photographers pulled up on a day like this, taking family pictures and generally enjoying the chunk of forest preserve land behind me. 

Fall color?

Not so much so far; and it's mid-October! I need to get out to the Arboretum so that we can see what that looks like. Maybe next Sunday. My next weekend off will be Thanksgiving. But I do have Sundays, after church. Maybe there's a walk in there somehow. 

Politics

Interesting article on Huffington Post about the government shut-down. Click here to read about it. Seems like the Republicans are changing the rules mid-stream. Not cool. 

We are being laughed at. And I'm not sure that it won't happen again. People here seem to be incredibly stupid. They only listen to stuff that reflects their own views. Journalism as I knew it as a kid? Pffffffffth. Gone. It's hard to find someone to speak objectively; I know - I just posted a link from HuffPo. But it's one of the better news aggregators that I've been able to work with. 

Hopefully, someone in DC will have a spine and will  not let us just default. I have to say, I hope that the voters remember this in 2014. The gridlock and partisanship needs to stop. The uber-right -- they need to remember that they're a relatively small percentage of this country. The regular right needs to get them under control. 

That all sounds incendiary, but think about it... The Speaker let a SMALL SEGMENT of his larger party engineer this shut-down. Eric Cantor is gunning for the Speaker's job. The fact that in Colonial times, one man was able to shut things down -- yeah that's part of our history. But that was in the way-back days when there were only 13 colonies.

We need to move forward with the times. Invoke the 14th Amendment. And as voters, we need to have a grass-roots movement to stop Citizens United, and stop SCOTUS from generating an even BIGGER fiasco by opening up private donations to elections. Our politicians are supposed to be elected. Instead, much like slaves, they're purchased. And being purchased, they are, in a large sense "enslaved" to their purchasers. 

It's funny. They're all bleating about "those people" who "gorge themselves at the public trough." But they don't see themselves: career politicians who are paid whether or not the government runs; with honkin' big government insurance; decent government pensions; other government benefits.

But. But. But.... they're not "those people who gorge themselves at the public trough."

Except that they are. And you know what's even more hypocritical?

We keep electing them. 

Yes, I Ironed It...

Ironing yarn...

I don't iron as a matter of course. I just use the ironing board as a place to pile stuff. 

Doesn't everyone??  Ahem...

Knitting

ANYWAY, my friend M, the president of our women's group, sent out a call to all knitters in the group asking if we were interested in knitting up one (or more) of those fluffy scarves so that we could use them as door prizes. She'd provide the fluffy yarn. 

I said yes. I know. Don't tell me. 

Beginning of fluffy scarf

I've already got The Fluffy Scarf Project for our choir. I made my mom one. And now this. 

So this project used Sashay instead of Starbella. Sashay is a pain in the keister... I had to iron it. Yep. Spent 1.5 hours of my knitting life IRONING this ribbon so that I could knit with it. 

But in the end, it was worth it. The project was actually done in 3 days - a total of maybe 8 hours of knitting time, but I do work. 

I have 1.5 of the Fluffy Scarf Project scarves done. I also have one more ball of the Sashay...so maybe I can iron that, too, and get rid of it. I was tempted on this one to wrap Tippi in it for a future Howl-O-Ween project, and I might yet. It would be cute. With her purple witch hat or her pumpkin hat. 

She's the world's most tolerant dog. 

So this was worked up on size 7 needles, used circulars because it's a stinker when the stitches all slip off your needles. I saw the YouTube in which they say "weave the ends in" or sometimes, most optimistically, "the ends will magically disappear."

Not so much. I pulled up the ends with a crochet hook and anchored them with needle and thread. Shook it out, took a picture and voila! I'm done. 

Charity Afghan

I'm planning to Stash Bust this weekend, most of which entails going through the totes in the basement and gathering up all the acrylic which I know I will not knit again. Our church has a Prayer Shawl Ministry, and they will use it more quickly than I will. It'll go to a good cause. 

I also have to start assembling the charity afghan. This is it in the unassembled state. There are quite a few Tunisian squares, and those are mainly in the center. Those will be sewn together and the rest crocheted. 


The Weekend

This is one of my rare weekends off. So of course, Hubby has his eyes dilated - messes with the bike ride we contemplated, BUT... I have a to-do list and I've already got a few things crossed off. Not exactly what I wanted to do, but you know you have to grab this stuff when you can. 

I shredded a bunch of miscellaneous stuff from my brother's estate. I finished the scarf (as you can see from the pics). I dusted my scale (I figure that's why it shows that I'm not losing weight...the dust is adding to my total. It works for me.). 

Fluffy scarf completed

I'm in the midst of "organizing the yarn corner" and "matching yarn to patterns." Hubby is building a box for me so that I can put all of my brother's uniforms and equipment in there and deliver it to his former employer. Right now, it's in a laundry basket, so I do need to box it up properly and drive it over there. It'll be cheaper to drive it than to mail it. 

I also have delusions about cleaning off said ironing board and perhaps the hope chest on the end of the bed...

Oh, and we want to finish up the Halloween decorations outside. Mostly putting The Great Pumpkin out on the porch and perhaps some ghosts in the yard. 

The Estate

I have to find the car title. We're transferring it (thank you God) and getting rid of it this week. The house is somewhat in limbo because there's a situation with the roof. The buyers' Realtor screwed up and caused a technical "default" in the contract. We're renegotiating it, which would normally annoy me, but since my brother's got a lot of bills owed, the money's going there. Technically, it's not even "real money" since the heirs won't see any of it. I just get annoyed at the principle of the thing. The buyers knew the state of the house (which, by the way, wasn't horrid. It's just an old house.), and they're getting one-year-old appliances thrown in. Deal with it... But the house does need a new roof. But, we also specified that the house is "as is." I'm confident we'll do ok. Our Realtor is a gem and she's also aware of the fact that we don't want the house to sit over the winter. Candles are lit, fingers and toes are crossed. 

I also have to pay his water bill. I will be very glad to get the house and car settled. Because then, all that remains is to wait till it's time for the attorney to file the final tax returns and we're done. We can close it out. 

I found a flash drive in the stuff for the estate, and I just checked it. It's all personal pics with him and his kids. I'll bring it to Thanksgiving and let them sort it out. That way, they're both there and they won't have any drama (ha) about who's gotten what.  

Food

Chocolate drop cookies

Check out the cookies! We had our final yoga training session recently, and it usually involves food and wine. The Chocolate Drops were my contribution. The Yogi cookies were delicious gingerbread. I'm going to get some of those cutters - they're adorable! 

We drafted our "Proposed 2013 Christmas Baking" list today. Kid #2 will "take a poll" and ask if there are preferences. Since Hubby may be going home for the holidays to visit his mom, we didn't put any of his family cookies on there, though I might try his mom's toffee, which is AMAZING. 

Made spaghetti squash last night with sauteed portabella slices and chopped leeks. That will most likely be lunch. 

We went to the grocery store and spent a boat-load of money. But we needed a lot; we'd been going "piece-meal" and you know that's just not efficient. 

Yogi Cookies

I'm trying some "organic" herb blend salad; baby greens with some dill fronds in there. Also have some kale; it's the big stuff, so it'll get chopped up and wilted with some garlic. It's almost "soup weather" but not quite. An interesting October so far, because aside from the cloudy day today - it's gorgeous outside. 

At some point, we realized that our fridge has attained its maximum capacity. I do have to boil some eggs, but I can put those back in the original carton, making sure to mark which are which, of course! 

It would help immensely if Kid #2 would finish off the juice that's about done...then I'd have room to work with. Right now, this big clunky juice bottle is taking up wayyyyy too much room!! 

Hubby wants to bake some bread. Today would be a good day, because the humidity will help it rise. But I adore - I mean ADORE - the smell of baking bread; that's going to be incredible temptation. 

Might be time to really concentrate on a knitting project if he does that! 

 Shoes


Yeah, I know. I have a Dansko fixation. I got a few more pair and this is the "Blue Marble" which, thank you very much, were on clearance. Great with denim. I also bought a pair of heels - ABEO with a nice arch support. As soon as I actually wear those, I'll show you. They're quite comfy and have kind of a "1940s tap shoe" vibe which is cute. 

I also have to go through some shoes. I gave a big bag of pumps to the folks at the local women's shelter; the gals there can use them as "interview shoes" and I'm glad they're being used by someone who'll wear them. I don't wear heels to speak of - at least not the ones I gave away. But I also have some worn out athletic boots and at least one pair of hiking boots that need to go. No sense hanging on to them if I'm not wearing them. 

What do you know? I've gotten a bunch of stuff crossed off the list and it's not even noon!! I can go fix my lunch and happily watch the Christopher Lee version of "Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde." 

Thursday Topics...

Who was it that thought hot flashes AND a period were a good combination??? Augh. As I gradually work my way toward menopause, I am still committed to not using HRT. I don't think it's a good idea... Though my mother feels vastly different. She was just at her new gyne (the last two  - men - retired and didn't bother to refer any of their patients; just "I'm leaving in June, thanks.") and she likes this gal. She's younger, so hopefully she won't bolt.

Anyway, I was shocked to hear that at age 76, my mom was STILL on HRT. I think that's nuts; but she says the doctor said it's ok. She said the doctor told her that HRT "was the reason you have all the energy you have." 

Hmmmmmmmm. Still not convinced. Thanks, I'll stick to a good diet (I mean habit of eating, not "diet" diet), yoga and meditation. Can't quite get used to the idea of using pregnant mare's urine to help me out.

Pregnant mare's urine = Premarin. Seriously. Google it. And on top of that, I'm ethically against how they get the urine. These mares are kept just like veal: in a box. It's nasty and I don't want to be a part of it. 

The whole "fountain of youth" thing is absurd. Your body was made to turn certain things off (do you HEAR that, uterus?????) and I think there's gotta be a more natural way of keeping your vim and vigor than ingesting hormone treatments made from horse pee. Call me crazy...

Semi-Rant on Politics, Terrorists & Education

OK, so I saw a clip of Malala on Jon Stewart. I will confess right now that I love "The Daily Show" but in spite of my enjoyment of the show, this interview will amaze you. This young lady has the Taliban shaking in their boots because... wait for it...

She wants to be educated. 

Go figure. See the clip here. Watch. Be amazed at this young woman's poise and ability to articulate something that nine tenths of American teens consider "a bore." Maybe I'm over-estimating that 9/10ths figure, but I know that American teens for the most part don't seem to appreciate the gift of education we have here. Even in the under-performing schools, they get more than many, many Third World countries get. 

Though I think under-performing schools have their own problems and the education system in general needs a kick in the butt. But not on a business model, thanks. Because people aren't widgets... One size does NOT fit all. Your learning patterns may change as you get older, but it seems to me that if you are one type of learner, you kind of keep that through your lifetime. I'm very visual. I can figure it out quite nicely from a book, but I like to *see* it. And I've always been that way, though I will certainly try other formats. 

I see it in the students I have here at work, and those I teach on a yoga mat. Some of them respond quite well to a verbal cue. Others, I've gotta SHOW them what I mean. 

So we can't just say "This is how we'll measure success" in education because the model is flawed. We can't consider that everyone learns at the same pace or in the same style. Some people freak out at tests. No matter what, they'll freak out. So we have to individualize the way we measure them. 

I'm not talking about handing out "feel-good" grades. Everyone does NOT get an "A" just for showing up. But you have to take into account how people process and then regurgitate the information back for measurement. That's all. 

And of course, be grateful that education is seen as an important opportunity. Because as you can clearly tell from Malala's story -- in many countries, it's not even on their radar. 

What to do?

So I was at my women's group meeting the other night. I have been the group's webmaster for 10 or 12 years; been so long I can't remember. Basically the year I joined, 6 months later I was asked to take over the site. 

For some reason, now that I've "been and gone" as president of the group, I seem to notice a level of cattiness that I didn't realize existed. I mean, hey -I know - women can be cattier than cats!

But at the meeting, one member seemed "off" - she's usually friendly, but lately, not so much. She asked about whether "topic X" was on the website, and I told her I hadn't done that yet. Actually, I was hoping someone in our PR committee would actually write the press release so I wouldn't have to... 

Then she says, "Well, when was the last time the site was updated?" in a very challenging and snarky manner. I said, "Well, let's see...the new yearbook is up there, and we just got that at the last meeting. The new board is up there, but no picture since I haven't been able to get every board member in the same place at the same time."

Mind you, she's involved in "topic X" -- she then proceeds to inform the group that there's an event concerning "topic X" -- coming up quickly. You'd think (at least I would think) that if she was so concerned that "topic X" was not on our site, she'd have shot me an e-mail a few weeks ago (having some manners???) saying, "Hey, can you put this on the website?"

But no. Snarking at me in a meeting is apparently more fun. So our current president said to the entire group, "You know, we could use help on the website since it's been the sole responsibility of only one member for so long... surely there's another techie person or two who'd be willing to offer help?"

Crickets. Particularly from the Cranky One. 

I suppose I could've been snarky back, but I believe that only escalates the situation. Not worth it. Again, let your mask slip - show your true witchy-ness in front of others. No matter to me. I'm just sitting there letting it roll. 

I used to enjoy the snark. But now I don't. I'm just tired of it being all "high school mean girls." But unfortunately, it's part of my job to be involved in service organizations and frankly - I just don't feel like I want to expend the energy right now to join a new one. Kind of "the devil you know" if you know what I mean.

Yoga

Last night, I was back at my regular yoga class, as a student. And the weirdness appears to have passed. Sweetly, my teacher thanked me in front of the rest of the class for teaching for her while she was gone. It was nice. 

And our after-class chat was more like it used to be. 

I'm subbing more (tonight and Friday a.m.) and thankfully, one of the other teachers stepped up to do Saturday -- one of our regular teachers has a child who's ill, and we're trying to keep her classes going because if you continue to cancel, you lose the students. 

We'll see how this works out. I don't honestly like teaching this much while I still have a full-time job, but I also don't like to see something whither away because nobody else will step up to help out. We're in this together. If the studio struggles, we as teachers and yogis struggle. 

Knitting

Almost -- ALMOST -- ready to assemble the charity afghan. I have about 4 - 6 more ends to weave in on the last square. Finally.

Then, I have to continue working on The Fluffy Scarf Project. And I made a huge - HUGE - mistake in the Cathedral Lace scarf.

Note to self: DO NOT TRY TO KNIT A ROW OF LACE when you have a migraine. It just doesn't work. And another note: DON'T TRY TO FROG IT WHEN YOU SCREW IT UP. Need to take this one to my knitting buddies because I think I really did badly and I'm not frogging the whole thing (my first impulse) -- I have about 8 - 9" on this thing already done and I just don't want to start it over.

So once that's all back underway, I can concentrate on ... more knitting!

I might actually be able to pick up the Teal Socks again. Or (gasp!) start something new! Or work on the Nephew Afghan. Or, as Kid #2 reminds me, "Your last son DOES NOT HAVE AN AFGHAN YET." Subtle, that boy... Hey, I have it cast on. 

I guess I'd better get some real work done. 

It Was the Oddest Feeling...

Last night, I took a yoga class. That's not the odd thing.

The odd thing was that last week, I was teaching that class. Let me explain.

My teacher took a sabbatical. She asked me to take over teaching the class for an unspecified time. I agreed; (a) because I love the class, and (b) because I've done that particular type of yoga for about 7 years, and was very familiar with it. 

So I went happily along, teaching the class since about June. She e-mailed me and said she was ready to come back, and was gracious enough to ask if I was ok with her taking the class back. Of course, I agreed... It's her class; I'm just filling in.

I didn't realize how weird it was to be on the other side of the studio. I've been teaching there since this summer, and even before as a sub for various instructors, and unfortunately, my practice time at that studio was confined to workshops (at which I did the administrative stuff anyway). 

I was happy to see my teacher back, but there was something "weird" about it - like it was a different relationship than we had when we were meeting more face-to-face. All summer, we'd been chatting over e-mail, but it's vastly different when you actually come back into that person's physical orbit. 

I confess, I made a faux pas.... I spoke up during class to clarify something for another student. And I shouldn't have done that. I'm not the teacher. Habits hard to break, I suppose. 

Red cotton blend

Anyway, we spoke a bit after class, but it was - again - not the same. I'm hoping that we get over this bumpy re-start and get back to our familiar relationship. Maybe it's just the re-entry. I know that can be hard. But it does pass.

Knitting

I have a crapload of this red yarn from my friend D. Not sure what to do with it. It's a lovely crisp red. Would make a nice t-shirt, so perhaps that's its ultimate destiny. It's a little light for a sweater and I have too much for a shawl. I can't remember the exact blend, but I know D is fond of the sport-weight for her sweaters. That would make it perfect for maybe even a Sally Melville tunic. I have to check yardage.

Ravelry, here we come.

I'm determined to finish a Fluffy Scarf today. I've probably got less than 2 yards of the yarn left in this current ball, so I want to get that one done and maybe start another one. If I can do one a week or so, that would be good.

The Charity Afghan -- I sent out a picture to our group and they like my layout, so as soon as I finish the last 2 squares (and the first of them is within 2 or 3 rows of being done), I can start assembling. 

Memorial Garden

St. Francis and Memorial

Here's a shot of our memorial garden with our cheap-o Menard's solar lights. Hey, four bucks a light, they're LED changing colors and crackle glass. If they last the year, no biggie. If they last longer, yippee!!

We've done this for a couple of years now, and I keep rearranging things. I like it. We don't keep the dogs' ashes, but we have memorial stones made for them. 

It might be silly. But our dogs are integral members of our family. If you're a dog person, you know what I mean. Even cat people get that...

On the other side of St. Francis (as you face this, it's on the right), there is a round stone with a saying about meeting in Heaven. That's also surrounded by solar lights, and I have a stainless steel rose that Kid #1 crafted for me. It's beautiful and I get a lot of comments about his talent with the flower. 

On the left, basically, is our A/C unit, and alongside that is the kennel. We made this area into a rock garden because it's an east exposure, and it got so hot at one point that nothing would grow.

Now, of course, the maple tree has taken over and 90% of the time it's in the shade...and only begonias will grow on my patio! The patio is a simple one; just 12x12 paver stones, and we actually don't even sit outside much. 

In this lifetime, I'd like to fence the yard, so that we can sit out there, and have the dogs in the yard with us. They do use the kennel, but we'd like to have some more interaction with them while we perhaps sit and spend time together. 

Shoes

Paint splatter Danskos

I think my Dansko clogs may actually be hurting my feet. Dang. They're very comfortable, but my arches are killing me. Yeah, I sound like I'm 100 years old. I have very high arches, which isn't a good thing; also arthritis in the feet. Also not a good thing. And I love to go barefoot at home. Another not-good-thing... Anyway, today I have the paint-splatter ones on, and I had to use some arch supports. They feel ok, but I wonder about it.

They're not cheap shoes; and they are worth every dime, but not if they're painful. I am fussy about my shoes. It's not worth it to me to spend money on shoes if I can't wear them. 

This is a very odd angle, since it seems like I don't have any ankles. Actually, I have decent ankles; it's just hard to take a "selfie" of your feet... 

I wore these when I was with my brother running around doing Estate stuff, and he finally noticed them. He said, "You mean you PAID for shoes to look like this??" 

Hey, you have to make a statement somehow, and I've gone past the "cute socks" phase. I now wear hand-knitted socks, thank you very much... 

Chai

Just in case you're wondering, Tazo's Chocolate Chai is the Devil's work... It's not quite tea. More of a spicy hot chocolate with the caffeine from the tea. I'm giving it up for Lent, starting now. 

I wish Tazo would make a low-sugar variety like Oregon does - I mean low-sugar in the sense of not using the fake crap, but just less sugar.

I need to start making my own again. It's easier and I can control the sugar myself. Maybe on The Google, I can find a chocolate chai recipe?? That would be nice!


Cute dog pic

Waiting for visitors

Because everyone needs a cute dog pic... This is Tippi in her most recent therapy visit, waiting for students to come visit her. 

Yes, she tolerates the headgear. For a moment. Luckily, she was distracted by the groundskeeper running a lawnmower. 

For Halloween, I have a purple witch hat for her. Yes, you can just imagine her enthusiasm...

Baking

Have to decide about Christmas baking. Yeah, this early. I think we might be able to do potica again this year; it's been a couple of years since we've done that. I have vacation time AND comp time to use, so I can take time off actually in the middle of December. One of the nice things about working in an academic setting is that things calm wayyyyyyyy down after Final Exams in December. It's a good time to take off, recharge and then get back to the swing of things after 2014 dawns.

Anyway, thinking about the baking now helps; I make a list and we stick to about a dozen kinds of baked goods, usually. It helps to (a) keep us from eating so much of it; and (b) keep in mind that while we give it for gifts, we don't have to go nuts heaping plates to the sky since so many folks we know are watching weight, cholesterol, etc. 

We usually do the "old favorites" and my guitar teacher has already put his bid in - I told him I had a new recipe for sugar cookies, and he said, "Well, include those with the old ones!" I love it when people appreciate the work. 

Hubby is going home for Christmas; I think that's a good idea, because my MIL needs to see him. He's been gone from home many years, and hasn't spent a Christmas at home in a long time. It'll work out perfectly because I can be home with the dogs. And the kids aren't kids anymore: we can have a Christmas brunch. 

Old Friends

So, I had to make a hard decision to basically let go of a friendship. I've known this person since second grade...most of my life. And while we'd drifted at one point, we reconnected when I came back to live in IL. 

What happened is complex. First off, I'd noticed in recent years (yeah, it's taking me a long time to come to this point) that she was more of a "taker." I was the one actually putting more energy into the friendship as time went on. At first, we were happy to be friends again. We did a lot of things together. We went on "girls' weekends" and we shopped. We called each other just to talk. We had common interests.

But then things changed. She started being more "it's all me" and would call only to ask me for advice (which she rarely took), or help with a problem or just to vent. Those are all fine things, but when I couldn't get a word in edgewise about MY life, it started to bug me.

Then, visits dwindled; at first it was still at least lunch on our respective birthdays. But then it got to be ONE lunch per year, if we were lucky. Calls did, too. Her daughter had a baby, and she is basically raising the child. Not because the mother is incompetent, and I don't know what I would do in that situation.

Hang on... I do know what I'd do. The parent has to raise the child. You had it, you raise it, barring ailment or very bad economic conditions... Anyway.

She stopped calling unless she needed Hubby to fix her computer, or me to untangle some legal thing - translate something for her, as it were, if she didn't understand it. Or to tell me how she hated her job. 

Then, we only saw each other at Christmas when she has an open house. Or at the grandkid's birthday. 

Then, my brother died. He died on the kid's birthday, so obviously, I wasn't going to the party; but I had hubby deliver the present anyway. I texted her the details of my brother's arrangements.

The day of the wake, she didn't show up. At all. Time went by. No phone call. No "How are you doing, how's your mom?" call or e-mail or text. 

I saw her at the doc's office when I brought Kid #2 in... she says, "So what's up with your brother?" THREE WEEKS AFTER THE WAKE/FUNERAL. Sorry, but what did you THINK was up??? I told her we'd buried him and she said, "Oh, I didn't know when the services were." 

"I texted you."

"I have a new phone. I don't know how to operate it yet."

Kid #2 just sat there waiting for me to blow... I just said, "Oh, well, you could've called me." She changed the subject.

I'm done. I'm not even going to go to her Christmas party. It's just energy wasted. 

I hate this... It'll be spun so as to be all my fault, but what do you suggest? Keeping a one-sided relationship up so that SHE gets to use ME? Or a discussion (which we've had a couple of times --- or at least *I* have tried to have) about how this should be a little more 50/50... 

I'm not asking to be "besties" where we know EVERYTHING about our lives. Or maybe I am, on some different terms. Not like teens, who're constantly in touch. But maybe once a week or two?? For a TWO-WAY chat? Where she asks me how things are going and actually LISTENS to what I have to say? And then I ask her how things are going - a whole two-way thing called a real conversation. 

I'd been trying, but maybe it's just run its course. I asked another friend of mine (and I do see this gal only about 4x/year, and we're good with that). She had this same thing happen to her with a long-term friend, and she told me, "You know what has to happen and no matter how you slice it, it's going to stink." 

She's right. 

On the bright side, it looks as if my 2 friends from Grad School will reconnect and we'll be a threesome again. It's time. 

Maybe this is a case of "lose one, gain two." I don't know. I've never had this happen before, at least with a friend of this duration. 

What would you do? 

October - Already?

So I join the ranks of those who are surprised that it's October already. It's 78* outside, and while I can see trees changing color, the temperature is telling me something else. 

Yoga

My last "formal" training session at Prairie Yoga is this weekend. Hard to believe it, but I'll just have a few workshops to finish, one sequence that I need to correct, and a thesis to produce. A 200-hour certificate is the end result of all of this. Oh, and I have to teach one "karma" class (to an under-served population) and 2 private lessons. Got those mostly covered. 

My thesis will be a video production of a sequence for hand yoga. Brought about for couple of reasons, obviously. First off, I have arthritis in my hands. Second off, the kids asked me.Kid #1 is a welder, and often holds a heavy torch for long periods of time doing precision welds. That hurts. Kid #2 plays bass guitar and practices for long periods of time. That also hurts. 

And the video? I looked in Prairie's stash of thesis documents and didn't see a video. I talked to my teacher and she said nobody she knows has ever done a video. Hubby is a video guy... And I can write a script. There you go!

Will begin research soon. Also, I have to read a number of books (4, I think) and write a short paper on each. The challenge will, most likely, be to keep it short. 

Also, down to teaching once a week. Thankfully. I love teaching, but with a full time job, it got a little hairy there - I was subbing for a couple of weeks, and it was 3 classes/week: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn't realize how exhausting that was.

Anyway, my teacher wants her Wednesday night class back, which is fine with me, since that's the class I usually take -- I taught it for her while she took a small sabbatical. Glad she's back!

Also, waiting on a reply for donations we took up. We asked, since September was National Yoga Month, for donations of mats, blocks, etc. We have a bunch of stuff; I e-mailed the contact, and I'm waiting to hear back. Hopefully, it'll be soon. Otherwise, I might have to start calling around the few prisons our governor has left open - to see if we can get the things to the institutions which might have a yoga program. 

Politics

Really. A shut-down and the spin on the (R) side is "if Obama can negotiate with Syria, why can't he negotiate with us?" Well, as Jon Stewart famously said recently, "...perhaps HE is not the problem."  Check this video out here and see what I mean. 

Not surprisingly, the right is frothing. And finally - FINALLY - the Average American is waking up somewhat to the high cost we'll experience if we sit on our rear ends and do nothing. The Huffington Post did an analysis of the cost for the poorest folks who use the Affordable Care Act's exchanges. See here -- $34... So no wonder the Republicans are scared. It's working. And they're petrified. 

They lost an election. So they're having a tantrum and insisting that the last "administration and a half" be wiped off the books. If some of the more hard-core folks had their way, history would be re-written to just make President Obama's two terms "disappear." 

They want to "negotiate" on points where there's no negotiation needed. The Affordable Care Act is the law. THREE distinct branches of the government said so. You don't get to hold the entire US economy hostage just because you don't like that the Black Guy is in the White House. And you don't get to make our nation a laughingstock. 

But that's what you're doing. You're deliberately doing it because some rich white guys are pulling strings in the background, hoping that Americans are too involved with the Kardashians or Real Housewives to pay attention - or that they're too fed up. Robert Reich wrote an interesting piece on that. Check it out here.  

The Democrats need to just sit tight. Caving in to the Teabaggy demands is not necessary. They didn't win the election. They don't get to make the rules.

Knitting

The Charity Afghan goes well. I'm on the next-to-last square. After I laid it out, I figured I needed 1 more row... so, here goes with 2 more "approximately 12x12" squares. I may crochet the last one. The squares will be put together via crochet, and I'll have to fudge it a bit, since some of our people had kind of a generous idea  of what 12x12 really is. Pictures will come as I do it stripe by stripe.

The Fluffy Scarf Project is proceeding. I'm almost done with the first one. I did remember, thanks, to bring a crochet hook to work. I can stitch up the ends on each of them when I get them home. I find that while the Starbella directions only call for using a crochet hook, I feel more secure if I just take a couple stitches at each end to anchor it. Since most people fluff the scarf by shaking the heck out of it, I don't want the things unraveling.

At some point, I want to get back to my socks, start a sweater for myself and work through some stash. Also, starting an alpaca shawl. I have the yarn, a lovely worsted-weight silvery-grey. 

Estate

Waiting on a call for the home inspection. I have to go turn the water on. I had a bad dream last night and woke up gasping, with a pounding heart...not good. I dreamed that the Nephew (the bipolar/schizophrenic one) was at the house waiting for me. I don't usually go to the house by myself; my brother or Hubby are with me, but in my dream, I was there by myself, because "all I was going to do" was turn the water on. Anyway, in my dream he ambushed me and I had to defend myself. Then, in another version of the dream (not sure where I was having 2 versions, but apparently I didn't fully awaken from one of them) my other brother had a gun... Suffice to say, it wasn't pleasant in either iteration of the dream. 

So at some point, Hubby will talk to Brother and determine the location of the water switch thingie, and we'll take a ride out there to turn it on. Once the inspection is done, we should be able to proceed to closing. Yay... 

Garden

My friend D will have plenty of "fried green tomatoes" material! I've also pulled a dozen carrots for my friend G. We should still have plenty to use for Thanksgiving Roasted Veggies. I may put a carrot or two INSIDE the organic turkey. 

Usually, when I make my turkey, I put in the following: 1 apple, 1 stalk of celery, 1 orange and 1 carrot. I quarter them all up and stuff the cavity. I also shove some fresh rosemary under the skin. We've ordered an 18-lb. organic turkey and I've already alerted Hubby to not have an attack when he sees the price! 

I think we're done with pickles. Finally.