Priorities

In the interest of full disclosure, I confess that I am not proud of this, but it is true, nevertheless.

My cousin let me know via e-mail that a member of her family on her mom's side has gone on to his reward and that they would be making the trip to be at the visitation this afternoon.  I don't know his family very well, but (briefly) considered going the 40 miles to attend for my cousin's sake.

Alas, this grim assignment is losing out to tournament basketball, and my difficult knitting project, which requires my full attention and is (finally) proceeding.

The team we've been following will be playing tonight at 6:30 and after a season of following them I don't want to miss out on the game, even if it is nerve-wracking.

I have another reason for avoiding post-death celebrations as well.  After being a hospice employee, I had my fill of funerals and visitations and vowed to avoid them in the future, if at all possible.

On a happier note, my walking partner and I went out today to start a season of walking together, I hope.  It felt good to get some fresh air---and buy the Sunday paper.

Oops, back to basketball.

Win a Quilt!!!

No, it isn't one of mine.  It's much more beautiful than that.

My buddy, Pam, is doing good all over the place, by raffling off a beautiful quilt and the proceeds are going toward providing a well in Africa to benefit an entire village.

But you have to act FAST.  You don't have any time to ponder and pray.  Just pray quickly and act at this link.
http://creativecrazygirl.blogspot.com/2013/03/clean-water-and-give-away.html

Go over there, check out the quilt and contribute.  You'll be so glad that you did!

March Madness Commences

Hey there, all y'all,

We've been commuting to Green Bay to watch the UW-Green Bay women play their Horizon League basketball tournament which they won---sending them along to the NCAA women's tournament.

That is all great fun, of course.  We stayed over the weekend to save ourselves some gas money, investing instead in a hotel stay.  So on Saturday we had a day off from basketball and spent it having the most fun in the whole year (so far).

Our hotel has wonderful choices for breakfast for both the egg/sausage/waffle crowd and the yogurt and fruit crowd, and the coffee is great too.  So we started off the day with the "included" breakfast.

Then we traveled through the new snow to visit with Good Guy's aunt, who lives just a short hop north of where we stayed.  We got to visit at her apartment for an hour or two without her having to feed us, which is some kind of a family record.  She's a wonderful cook and shows her affection by feeding people.  Hmm---maybe she doesn't like us any more.

After that we had lunch at IHOP and went to the matinee where we saw Quartet which is a wonderful movie.  See it, if you're a music lover, or if you like old folks, or ARE old folks, or just love Maggie Smith.  Reason enough for me.

Then we visited with my son who, eventually had dinner (supper) with us, and then took us to a concert which featured the Salvation Army Brass Band and the Dudley Birder Chorale.  That was great too.  They played to a full house in a beautiful theater with great acoustics.

But WAIT!  There's still more.  We stopped at The Son's house again and his dear wife and sons had gotten back from their day's activities, so we got birthday cake and birthday hugs in for the Oldest Grandson who is fast closing in on adulthood.  Man, that's scary!  The boys had been in Chicago, with the school band, marching in the St. Patrick's Day parade.
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What a fine day!  May you have a fine day, too.  (Thanks for not deserting me.)

March Entry

We now greet each other when we return from errands with this brilliant observation.  "It's Still Winter."  And it will still be winter here for another two months, easily.  This morning when we loaded our car to return home from a weekend away, it was +3 degrees.  There were some hardy souls out there on snowmobiles, too.

Last spring we got warm weather early, which coaxed out the lilacs and fruit blossoms and then got cold again and zapped them for the season.  Not good.

We were in northwestern Wisconsin for the weekend, and I was surprised to see signs along the road yesterday which warn of elk crossings.  If elk have been detected ahead there are lights on the signs that blink and warn us to slow down.  Elk???  Who knew?

We had a lovely, sunny weekend to enjoy traveling to and from our resort, and yesterday we hit some high spots in Hayward.  I browsed the craft shop, and the quilt shop.  Back in Cable we enjoyed a fine book store.

The Rookery had an amazing evening meal.  I wasn't hungry enough for an entree but enjoyed the French onion soup, and crab cakes from the appetizer menu.  Good Guy has a beautiful salad, and baby quail.  I don't believe I've ever seen that offered on a menu before.  It was very tasty--he shared a drumstick with me.

Keetha asked me if I've gone over to the dark side, meaning Facebook.  I do read what my friends are up to, but don't post much of anything there----rather like here.  When you have nothing to say, it's best to keep quiet.  I have groups I'm interested on the place for all thread benders to hang out together, though.  I can learn, share, talk about knitting and quilting without boring all of you to death.  I know you want to thank me.

There are groups of readers there as well.  I can find friends there (too) who love yarn, books, and cats. I am sometimes astonished at all the good, kind, sharing people there are----and then I wonder how the world can sound so screwed up.

Have a wonderful week.  I will try to accumulate something worth saying before April Fool's Day.

Fear, Fun, and Fragments

Good Guy and I set off for Titletown to celebrate Valentine's Day by having a tasty supper (this is the Midwest and we eat supper here), and then go to watch a women's basketball game.  The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women of the Horizon League decimated yet another conference opponent.

But the weather between 5 pm, and 6:15 pm when we headed for the Kress Center, cooled quickly and froze all the mist and moisture on the streets and roadways.  We could hear our tires spinning as we tried to get through intersections after being stopped at red lights.  I was a nervous wreck!

But due to Good Guy's careful driving, and answered prayer we made it without incident and the roads were better when we left to return to our hotel.

We have had season tickets, so we've watched the girls win a number of times.  This team has been the conference champions year after year, and have had bids to the NCAA tournament as well.  They are very well coached.  In fact their present coach returned to Green Bay from five years coaching the University of Michigan's women's team.  He was happy to return to Green Bay where he didn't get quite so much outside advice about how to run the team, and where there is so much community support.  Other teams are startled to find full grandstands and loud crowds for a women's game.

In other fragments, I earned some remuneration for a knitting project this week.  Eldest Daughter has a good friend who admired her lined knit hat---two cozy layers of knit fabric, so I told her I'd knit her one.  When ED came to pick up the cap, she brought me my pay.  Two big bottles of wonderful wine!  This knitting gig might really work out!

I had resolved to knit from yarn on hand, but today in Titletown, there was a fine sale accompanied by a coupon and I ended up coming home with four balls of yarn and three hunks of green fleece.  "The best laid plans of mice and men......."

This week's reading is John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany.  It's a good read, but I'm wishing the print were a little larger. It isn't a deal breaker, though.

Today while we were eating lunch we saw a huge old poster on the wall which showed the sleeper train route from Chicago all the way to way north to the tip of the Keewenaw Peninsula.  Sigh.  It would be nice to have trains that run again.

I'm part of a group online which began as a Reading/Knitting group with organized swaps for those who sign up to do so.  When we got home today I had a big envelope stuffed under my mailbox on the porch.  It was from a friend who isn't a swap partner, and she just sent me a neat surprise out of the goodness of her heart.  I got a puzzle, a beautiful knitting magazine, a pad of heart-shaped notepaper, heart-shaped foil wrapped chocolate hearts, and a red cotton square with a heart motif---way too nice to use as a working dishcloth.  Way too nice!

So if you've read this far, good for you.  I'm linking up with my friend, Mrs. 4444 who hosts Friday Fragments where we can empty our ashtrays full of yarn ends and snips and drabs.  You can do it too.

Have a great weekend!

Checking in and checking up

Hi People,

What a wacky winter, huh?  Snow, then rain, then slush, then freezing.  Wait a minute for the weather you prefer!

Thankfully, there are things to do indoors, and I've been cranking out knitting projects to occupy the winter time here.  I also have books.  Books, yarn, and chocolate.  Life is sweet.

Some of these pictures are reruns but I know how forgiving you are.

Plus that little hooded sweater I posted before.  I'm working on socks to go with that sweater and then I'll send the box off for the babies.  Baby socks are cute, but "fiddly" to work on.  

In the meantime I'm working on strips for lap robes for nursing homes, to use up the small balls of yarn that get left over.

I do need to get started on a shade of red project for a February swap too.  Decisions, decisions.

In other news, our annual ski jumping event went off quite nicely this weekend at Pine Mountain.  We had company, since Brotherbob and his dear wife were here.  The guys go out to the hill while she and I drink tea and catch up on family news.  Plus we spent some Sister Time together as well, with the other sisters that are here, so there was much laughter and occasional cookie eating as well.  

Do you have to do that Field of Vision exam at the eye doctor's these days?  I had to repeat mine, to my great distress----and it was okay this time.  He's doing long range planning and monitoring.  I told him that was heartening news for someone who's old enough to debate buying green bananas, and he cracked up.  Apparently he hasn't heard about my "extreme age" classification.  Or anesthetist's just categorize us differently.  

Well, that's all from here unless I go take more pictures, and you know how much I love to do that!  

Stay warm and upright on the ice.

Month # Two

In a fit of ambition, I've resolved to blog once a month.  (chuckle).

Now that I have realized that I get too few comments to bother much with a blog, I'm hanging around other social networking sites a lot more.  There's more interaction and way more feedback from other places, and what other people say is a lot more interesting than anything I say.

As Mama used to say, you can't learn anything if you're talking.  (Which never did a lick of good.  I was a terrible Chatterchops, especially in school.)

These are the months to knit and read.  We have found Louise Penny at last----many have recommended her books to us and Good Guy has been on waiting lists at the library to get to read her books.  This means we have NOT been reading them in order and that spoils some of the mystery, but she's a very good writer.

I've been knitting baby stuff for Pine Ridge.  My present effort is so much fun, I'll hate to finish it.  I love the yarn, I love the pattern.  It's Lillie's Little Sweater, designed by Joan and Carol of Cottage Creations in Carpenter, Iowa.    It's a treat and here's what it looks like.

I have enough yarn to make some little socks to go with it.

That's what I've been up to since we returned from Iowa, The Skating Rink of North America.  Wow, when they get ICE, they get it good!  Our trip home on Monday was uneventful---thank goodness.  The most treacherous part was getting from the motel door to our car about six feet away, and then busting through the snow to get into our own driveway which hadn't been plowed out yet.

Love that winter weather!

My best to you all, and stay warm and dry, and upright---if possible.
See you in March.