On The Road Again

Katie and I are heading to San Antonio TX tomorrow!  Never been there, and I'm sooo hoping that we can go see THE WORLD'S LARGEST COWBOY BOOTS...

Hoping the weather is warm!  It is Texas, that's a warm state right?

End of an Era...

I've 'retired' from my nanny-ing duties.  And I'm pretty sad :-(

I have been taking care of my boys on a nearly daily basis for five years.  They are so big now!  RJ is a totes tweener with the attitude to go with that.  The twins are their same crazy sweet selves, but at age 10, they have matured (at least a bit).  They still love playing outside, anything to do with animals, and snuggling with me in the morning (I miss that most of all).  And my Mike P. is a kindergartner now, spunky as all get out, and losing his baby roundness. 

Guys, your "Wowe" misses you sooo much.  It's been a privilege to be part of your growing up.  Don't forget me and all the fun (and not so fun) times we've shared!

Some Knitting Projects

Since I have nothing really to talk about, and this IS supposed to be a knitting blog, I'll show and tell some of my current and recently finished projects.

"Cables A-Go-Go" Pullover.  I'm knitting this for a store in Virginia, for them to use as a sample sweater.  It's a nice pattern and I'm enjoying working cables, which I haven't done for a while.

This is the Tea Cozy I knit for Pam, for our Cousins/Aunties Christmas Gift Exchange.  Don't know if she even drinks tea, but she can wear it as a hat if not...

This is another sample project, for "baby soakers" with an attached skirt.  I really wanted to get a picture of Carson modeling these, but we couldn't manage to meet up with his mama.

A shawl I'm working on, called "Galadriel's Mirror".  I love the yarn, the colors are beautiful.  This one is on the back burner till I finish the sample sweater tho.

And this is the "Advent Calendar" Lace Scarf I made during the holidays.  You were supposed to knit a section of lace every day during Advent.  I finished it on Dec. 28th so didn't quite make it, but it was fun.  And the yarn is a color called "Poinsettia", which I figure is perfect for this project.

 This is a 'chemo hat' (the Shedir Hat from Knitty) for Lorraine's mom, Eileen, who's just starting chemo.  She's the world's sweetest lady and I wanted to make her something soft and cuddly.  I love the yarn I'm using (Berroco Pure Merino DK yarn), it very soft and a pretty pale seafoam color.

I've got tons of things I WANT to start, but I need to get all this stuff finished first!

The Progression of Gary...

(Katie is insisting I blog, so you get what you get...)

Katie & I were watching our current fave channel, HGTV, and an ad came on about some kind of diet dog food.  The fat dog's name was GARY.

At first, we ridiculed the name.  Imagine yourself at the dog park, yelling "GARY!!! GARY!! COME GARY!!".  Sounds not so good.






Then I lay awake that night, thinking about GARY.  I started to secretly love the name.

Next day, I mentioned GARY to Katie, and she immediately said she, too, was embracing the name GARY.   We heart it!

So if I ever get a boy dog, GARY may be competing with SAM EVANS for the perfect name.

PS, that is Spongebob's snail, GARY in the picture. :-)

He's Baaaack...

The Mariners just announced their rotating team to replace Dave Neihaus and my old pal The Redhead, aka Ron Fairly, is back!

I've missed that old duffer.  The good news, Dave Valle is part of the team!  Yay!  Love Valls!

The Hydrophoby...

My fellow Olds: Remember in "Old Yeller" (best sad dog movie EVER) when O.Y. gets bitten by the rabid wolf and starts foaming at the mouth? (oops, spoiler alert)

THAT is exactly what I look like when I brush my teeth.  Try as I might, I can't brush without toothpaste foam cascading down onto my nightgown.

I've tried brushing with my mouth closed, using less toothpaste, and anything else I can think of.  I suspect I'm doomed to messy toothbrushing forever...

New Coffee Maker!

Cara and Tony lugged this fancy-schmancy Keurig Coffee Maker all the way to Roatan for my Christmas present.  Unfortch, the thingy on the side that holds the water got broken.  So I've been waiting for the replacement to arrive.

It came today, and tomorrow morning I'll be brewing a cuppa joe in my new machine!  It looks incredibly complex, but I'm hoping that it's easy to operate as I don't seem to have an instruction manual and I'm not real good with complicated machinery early in the morning.

Creepasaurus!

What would you do if you were confronted by THIS outside your bedroom door every morning:

Me?  I shudder with revulsion and terror. 

What is it?  A "Hoofer".  AN ACTUAL COW HOOF CUT OFF AN ACTUAL COW.  This is supposed to be a "dog treat", but it's the stuff of a living nightmare on Tekoa Street.

I'm mailing the 'twin set' to Lois and Walter.  Maybe their owners aren't as easily terrified.

TV Pals

I love watching TV with the girls.  They are always up for tuning in something utterly trashy.

My tastes generally run to PBS and the History Channel, but Pia & Katie have definitely turned me 'lowbrow' from time to time.

This weekend, we watched HGTV for about 24 hours straight, we heart Holmes on Holmes, House Hunters, Disaster DIY and any other home improvement/disaster/real estate show on that channel.

We are impatiently waiting for Toddlers & Tiaras to be "On Demand" so we can catch up with this season's pageant queens and their scary moms.

And to top the weekend off in appropriate fashion, we watched "The Craigslist Killer" on Lifetime.  OMG so trashy yet so watchable.  Lifetime, you've got the formula down.

Two Thumbs Up

The girls treated me to a movie yesterday (good thing, I about passed out when I saw how expensive tickets are now.  I'm used to the free kid's movies at the Garland)  We saw "True Grit" and it was great! 

Being an  old, I read the book and saw the original movie back in the 70s, and this remake is outstanding.  The acting is great and the script stays close to the book's tone (read the book, it's good too!)  The girl who plays Mattie is excellent and of course Jeff Bridges is awesome.

Couldn't Fit These in My Suitcase...

Or I definitely would have brought home a package of "Little Bundles" diapers for Carson!!

Intestinal Fortitude

Tomorrow is the big day: Colonoscopy! 

Hopefully it will just be a routine procedure with no snipping of polyps involved.  In preparation for the event, I went with the "colonic irrigation" option rather than the Go-Lightly, which makes me projectile vomit.  Without getting too detailed, the colonic is a super-enema...

Now to survive a day without anything good to eat or drink!

LOL!

This Virginia (yay VA!) license plate just got revoked.  Evidently, the DMV there has no sense of humor.  Of course, does ANY state's DMV have a sense of humor?

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig!

We made it home this afternoon, driving from Seattle, and changing drivers about every 50 miles bc we were all exhausted.

NOT excited to return to snow, ice and temperature in the teens.  But Lucy Lou was so happy to see her mama!  She is staying VERY close to Katie, just in case there's any sort of movement toward the door....

We had such a grand time in Roatan, what a beautiful island.  Most relaxing vacation I've ever taken, just as planned.

Some of the highlights of the week: Lounged in and around the pool, sat on the porch and admired the view of the ocean, read, knitted, played numerous games of Uno,  snorted marguerita out my nose laughing at Pia's rage when Cara and I cheated at Uno, loved being with the Longi's, tried weird "Quanty" juices, went kayaking with Cara and Tony (Tonsy and I were an awesome paddling duo), got a chance to use my years of nature show watching to correctly identify brain coral, swam in the ocean (VERY briefly and very close to shore), got bitten to death by no-see-ums,. got a fabulous new coffee maker and lots of fun Xmas gifts, worked the Great Shipwrecks jigsaw puzzle with Tone and Pia in record time, discovered that a bidet is a must-have if I ever build a house,  learned my son mixes a mean cocktail, enjoyed watching my kids spend a week together (don't we all immediately revert to childhood behavior patterns when we get together with our siblings?), realized that Patty and Big Tony are the perfect couple which makes me very happy, and much much more.

Thanks, my darling babies, for treating me to a perfect vacation, and Patty and Tony thank you for including me in the family celebration.  I love all of you, and let's do it again next year!