Ski Tournament Results

Before this big event, I predicted the outcome, to my friend's amusement. I rest my case.

This is always a weekend for GoodGuy to hang out with his brother at the ski hill and here, chatting about the things guys talk about. Such as the upcoming golfing season, books, funny things from the past, sports, books, cars, gas mileage of the same, books. You get the picture.

Sister in law and I haven't spent visiting time together since last summer out at the lake, so we talked about the things gals talk about. Family stuff, the grandkids, books, work, retirement, blogging, grandkids, books.

Man we are some boring folks. But we really enjoy being together. I feel so blessed to be able to look forward to family get-togethers in which you don't worry about people hurting each other's feelings, or somebody being boorish and embarassing everyone. (Perhaps we are so blase that we are beyond embarassment. But I doubt it.)

The other interesting thing, to me, is that I fixed barbecued pork for dinner on Saturday night with my own recipe, (as opposed to using Grandma's excellent recipe---a family tradition.) It was pronounced well worth the effort. The recipe I use is one of the first things I ever cooked successfully as a young bride, and the delicious aroma lured a friend down our driveway to check it out.

We are enjoying a February thaw, and the snow is really taking a beating. The skiers didn't have very long jumps due to the still, humid air and the sticky snow. The sport is highly dependant on the weather conditions! I guess that's true of all outdoor sporting events, isn't it?

If you're keeping score, though I knitted a long time yesterday, I still have about 35 rows to go before the sweater is completed. So I couldn't finish it in just a month. Tsk, tsk. I didn't work on it all the time at the library, since I had to find new books, help another knitter, and meet an interesting lady who's a fellow quilter. She's a very interesting and creative person and I look forward to knowing her better.

Hope you are all recovering from your wild and crazy valentine's day celebrations! Going to Walmart and buying rubber bands, indeed! Such wild behavior!

Quick Update Plus a Woo-Hoo

Well, my friends, meet the sweater project as of five minutes ago. The fronts are complete and I have the back arm shaping portion to finish this weekend. And then my Favorite Part! Sewing the project together. (NOT)

I started this on the 14th of January and it could be done in a month! I have astonished myself.

It's ski tournament weekend and we will have company by supper time. We have all decided to celebrate by having Thai food for supper. Our Thai chef has been in her homeland due to the death of her mother. We are delighted that she is safely back in her kitchen; her husband/employer took advantage of her absence to remodel her kitchen. I hope she loves it!

Our cold snap is supposed to turn into a thaw by Sunday. That would slow down our ski jumpers I think. The most dangerous weather for them is wind and the jumps have often been delayed or cancelled due to wind.

We are looking forward to our company. It seems like months and months since we've been together.

Have a great weekend, too.

In one word

Last summer I was part of a group that tried this experiment together. First, we tried to describe ourselves in just one word.

And after we spent some time visiting we took a break and tried to describe someone else in just one word. Fortunately, I drew someone I had prior knowledge of, so I had something to go on. She was "organized", and she wasn't that pleased about it.

I described myself as observant. I don't seek out crowds and when I'm there I don't say much. But I'm a heck of a listener. Part of that is trained, because nurses are supposed to observe and document.

But two of the compliments I treasure the most come from the one word description exercise. One friend called me honest, and one called me spiritual.

One of the guys who was part of our family life (my sisters and I) had to construct a little remembering exercise to keep the sisters straight. I'm the eldest----but I was designated the funny one, sister two was the pretty one, and the really young one was designated the smart one. The funniest part was that we each wanted to be another trait.

Needless to say, the poor guy got no end of teasing about that, and we still refer to it every time we can. He says now he never should have told us! Thirty years of teasing is about as much as any guy can take. He's going to designate us all as the Mean Ones.

Have a great Tuesday.
From the funny one.

Happy Dance!

Unless you've been in a coma the past twenty-four hours you've probably heard about the outcome of the Super Bowl game----unless you are reading this in Finland, or Bogota, or someplace away from the fray.

I am a Packer fan. I am overjoyed that the team I root for has won the Big Game and goes home with the Lombardi trophy. We can brag and strut until the next football season begins when the angst starts all over again. I am especially grateful to my sister, Jinx Jane, for not rooting for the Packers.

All together now, at the top of your lungs! Go, Pack, Go!! And congratulations to them, and to all of us who love to see them do well. Long live Lambeau! (My Packer flag is flying proudly, and I don't need to get discouraged again for months!)

Life is good, all the time.

Pondering "Influence"

Yesterday word reached me of Angie's death and I was surprised that I was so shaken by learning of it.
She and I were online friends only, but I felt that she was a good friend of mine even though we had never met in person. This led me to think about the influence we can have on others through the writing and sharing, and the encouragement we give one another.
Fairly recently, I got an e-mail from an old friend of GoodGuy's, an accomplished and educated man. He told me that he went on to get more education because of the encouragement he got from my husband when they were young, hanging out in California together.
My dad, an MS patient, died very young. (At this stage of my life, 57 is young.) Yet at his visitation, I was amazed----and delighted that so many young adults came to offer comfort, because he had touched many lives in support groups.
It all reminds me of this. "Wherever you go, there you are!" Whether you are touching people in cyberspace, or in line at the grocery store, be your best self. For your own sake, and for the sake of those who respect you. (And laugh. It's good exercise.)

Thanks for everything, Angie. I'll miss you like crazy.

Any excuse for a party!

And our excuse for today is that our animal companion, Sweetie, has been living here with us for five years.

She was living out in the cold on her own and took shelter in our garage, finally. I would see her out in the alley when she took shelter in a window, soaking up the sunshine at noon. She was an adult, but a very scrawny one.
Finally we got her into the house, so thin and tiny, and we couldn't get her to eat or drink. After she spent a couple of days at the animal hospital, getting checked out, she was rehydrated and declared amazingly healthy. Just needed some food and water. Wherever she was before, she'd been well taken care of, and had been spayed.

So nowadays she's still a small cat and she's supposed to be, I guess, because her paws are very tiny.

There's another cause for celebration, for those of you who are keeping track, and it is the progress I've made on the sweater project. I have no idea where "blogger" will decide to put this picture, but I'll have to rely on you to figure out which thing is the cat, and which thing is GoodGuy's sweater. Good luck. One sleeve is finished, the other is right next to it, and the body is knit as far as the pattern says to go before starting the 'above armpit' portion. He wants it much longer....

That's about all the mischief I can dredge up for today. But the day is young.

Hope yours is a good one!

Hooray, hooray! It's the first

Oh, yeah, it's only the first of February.

But that's OK, because somehow January flew past! We, here in the banana belt of Michigan don't have the snow accumulation of the beleaguered east coast, or the (shudder) Dakotas. Even Minneapolis, where I have some descendants, has had months now with no place to put the snow they shovel.



Is there any frustration quite like "trying new tricks with the computer" frustration? My sister and I had an hour of grumbling as she tried to make Skype work.



I see you but I can't hear you. I hear you but I can't see you. Fiddle, fiddle. Lose the screen completely. Feedback screeching in your ears. Use the phone instead. All this and she has a guy in the house who works with computer systems all his working life.

We weren't using it for ourselves. Her daughter is living far away and they would love to be able to chat using Skype. It'll happen. Somebody will help.

I never expect to be able to make things work. My "Brotherbob" is my computer "vendor" and when he set up our last desktop computer he named it The Great Unknown. Aptly put. Thanks to my mom, I can touch type---after a fashion. She insisted that I take typing and bookkeeping, in spite of the fact that I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I didn't excel at it, but I don't have to look at the keyboard and type with two fingers, at least.

But doing anything with the computers had to be learned as an adult. And GoodGuy suggested that I play with an Apple computer he had 23 years ago. It didn't do much compared to what computers CAN do, if you have a clue what to do with them. But it kept me off the street corners. Kids wouldn't even believe those glowing green screens of the past.

They are amazing in the hands of the experts. I suppose. Probably.....