It's Great to be Home!

No news to report, other than we have made it home and are happily doing nothing for a couple of days. Will have pix and a full report of our adventures when the jet lag wears off

Nothing feels nicer than sleeping in your own bed!

Christmas Eve

We are queued to get into the carols service at St Paul's Cathedral this afternoon. A perfect place to celebrate Christmas in London!

Tomorrow, we will be lolling about our hotel, as nothing is open Xmas day. Hopefully, there will be a few holiday movies we recognize. We have seen most of our must sees in London, as there's a tube strike set for Boxing Day and we weren't sure we will be able to get anywhere.

My knees are sore today! A day of lounging will be appreciated

Quick Update

We made it to London safely, thanks to Katie's great driving and Pia's navigation skills. Our hotel for the duration is right by Wembley Stadium (nothing happening there tho) and an easy tube ride into the city

Today we took in the wonderful British Museum, it was easy to spend the afternoon there and not see everything. My favorite section is the early British artifacts with all the Celtic art. Gold jewelry never goes out of style does it?

We popped by Trafalgar Square on our way to a candlelight performance of Handel's Messiah at St Martins in the Field church. Beautiful

Tomorrow we hit Kensington Palace, the V & A museum and the Tower of London. We need to pack in as much as we can before the holiday.

Thanks British Airways for the free ticket!

We Love York

We are in Starbucks in York, finally have Internet so here's a quick update

Edinburgh was delightful. We slowed down a tad due to my cold, but toured Edinburgh Castle and the national museum. We discovered most of the good stuff is in the British Museum. Conquerors get the goods

I am in awe of Katie's driving skills. We rented a car and she has successfully gotten us to York! Thru roundabouts, left hand driving. I would have started sobbing in a block and abandoned the vehicle. Pia is manning the navigation. I am in the back seat where I belong

Today we are in York, and it's fab. Lots to see! Tomorrow is Stratford and the Harry Potter movie tour. Then London

Scotland!

We arrived in Edinburgh last night, a bit (or a lot) jet lagged but ready for our adventure to begin. We are staying at a nice little hotel close to the Royal Mile and there's an old cemetery next door (photo is the view out our window). Today is castles and museums!

Cara, I brought your cold with me

Almost Time!

It's almost time for our highly anticipated trip to England!  We leave tomorrow afternoon for Seattle, where we'll bunk down at the Bellevue Hilton (thanks for sharing your points with us, Pooh!), then we take off on Sunday for our trip.

I'm so excited!  10 days of touring with Pia and Katie (I'm going to make them sign a Peace Accord for the duration of the trip, so they won't be fighting on a daily basis...), starting in Edinburgh and working our way to London.  We are renting a car for a few days, which should be an adventure in and of itself :-)  Luckily, no one expects me to drive.

We have some fun activities already planned, including the Harry Potter Studio Tour, Stratford-on-Avon, a candlelight performance of Handel's Messiah at St Martin's in the Field church, a visit to the Dickens Museum, and lots more.  I'm taking the Barrister's Wig of course, and will be posing in it at various Victorian venues.  We watched a show about the royals and the new baby, so we plan to hang out in the street where we were assured Kate will be shopping for baby items :-)  Also heard that Suri Cruise is going to be in England for Christmas, so there's another stalking possibility.

So off to start packing!  Hopefully we will have internet access so I can blog about my adventures!

Happy Christmas to all!

A Perfect Gift

Pam said she had the perfect present for me. She was right! Adorbs!

A Cute Find

I bought a box of old magazines at an auction (note to self: don't bid on line on auction boxes)...and was going through them yesterday.  In a 1939 issue of Home Arts Needlecraft I found this cute squirrel square done in filet crochet.  I think I'll try to make it into a little pillow or something.  Hope Lulu doesn't go cray cray when she sees it, she does NOT like squirrels.

Hahaha!

I'm guessing this photo montage was prepared just after the royal wedding, and kept at the ready for the baby Cambridge announcement:

(check our favorite tumblr  for the rest of the pix!

My Palms are Sweating...

because it's dentist appointment day.  Lord, I dread going to the dentist!  Even if it's just for a routine teeth cleaning, I would prefer to be rendered unconscious.  Unfortch, my dental insurance is of the super-cheap crappy variety and I doubt they will cover general anaesthesia  for this.

Stomach butterflies commencing.

Why Didn't I Buy a Powerball Ticket?

Because I just won a set of Addi "Click" knitting needles from Paradise Fibers!  I've been lusting after a set, but couldn't really justify purchasing when I'm saving up for my TRIP TO ENGLAND THAT I ALSO WON.

Maybe I need to head to the casino on the senior citizen's bus....

A Date with the Twins

Good grief, Alex and Liam are so grown up!  12 years old!!!  But they're both still sweet little boys, the teenage years haven't kicked in quite yet.  In fact, Al held my hand the entire 2 miles of the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, loved it.  Bet he won't do that on Turkey Day 2013 though :-(

I met up with my fave twins on Sunday for a little holiday shopping.  The boys had a $25.00 Toys R Us gift card from their birthday, so we headed off to hell.  I mean we headed to the toy store.  They were a bit overwhelmed, I think.  But very well behaved, not greedy at ALL.  They were insistent that we not spend any of my money on toys.  We checked out most of the boy aisles, and settled on a big Spy Kit.  Which we all predict will be lost/broken by today.  But they were happy with it.

Next, we headed to White Elephant.  This store is a Spokane tradition.  Guaranteed to warm any kid's heart, with half the store filled with toys, and the other half filled with guns, ammo, fishing stuff, camping gear etc.  Plus the entire remaining stock of "Expo 74" tchochkes. There were a LOT of "big boys" over on the guns and ammo side.  We checked out everything on both sides and they allowed me to make a couple of purchases for their Christmas: Liam got a new fishing reel and 2 packages of bait.  Al picked out a pair of leather work gloves, which he decided to give to his mom for Xmas.  Awwww, sweet.

All that shopping made us hungry so we stopped at McDonald's.  Both boys assured me they could each eat four fruit pies, but we settled for 2 burgers for Liam, 1 for Al, some fries and a fruit pie each.  These guys are such healthy eaters, they didn't even want pop, just water.  And their bellies probably rebelled later on at the influx of grease and carbs.

Next Saturday, it's Mikey's turn for Toys R Us.  He has his catalog all marked up.  Wowie better bring a checkbook...

Merry Christmas 1981 Style

Pia needed a picture of her with Santa for some school thing.  I dug up this one, pretty cute gal.  She doesn't appear to be terrified of Santa, what's the deal with that?

So Cute!

I've waited a whole year for Knitpurlgirl to have this amazing yarn back in stock. My skein just arrived and I'm dying from the adorbs of it. It's hand dyed so that rows of Santas form as you knit! How? No idea but I love it.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/knitpurlgurl

Megan and Ryan, the Terrifying Dolls

Meg and Ry, it's a damn good thing for you two that I don't crochet well.  Otherwise, you'd totes be getting "Megan and Ryan", these dolls I just spotted in one of my crochet books (my customers do love to crochet these type of dolls.  So they have their fans):

You could use Megan and Ryan to frighten your children into behaving...

Finishing Flurry!

Folks, you would not believe the growing stack of finished projects around here.  Team Plack is in a knitting frenzy.

Tony has taken to knitting like you wouldn't believe.  Here he is modeling his very first cable scarf and a cabled hat.  Lots more where that came from too -- he just produced his first color work project, a hat with dragons -- and did an outstanding job.

Here are Cara's Mittens of Doom.  Poor girl had to reknit the second mitten three times.  But well worth the effort, they're adorbs.  And she only threatens to quit knitting forever once a night...

And here are my "Knittens" (mittens with knitting abbrevs.), which I had to finish up when I realized I do not have a single pair of hand knit mitts.  And I've only been knitting for 45 years..

Don't want to steal their thunder (and hoping they will post on their own blogs) but Katie just finished her first-ever sweater, and it's elegant, plus Peeps is working on her first-ever sweater, which is also going to be gorgeous.

I need to lay out all the projects the gang has knit in the last few months and take a pic, bc it's an impressive pile.

Good Lord, Season 6 Can't Come Soon Enough!

I finally caught up on my "Breaking Bad" episodes.  OMG.  Season 4 finale was EPIC.  The writers on this show are amazing!

Season 6 is the final season in the series, and it's shaping up as the ultimate Walt-Hank showdown.

Mary Beth, thanks for introducing me to Walter White and friends.  Who knew a high school chemistry teacher with lung cancer could evolve into television's most devious bad guy?  Hope you and Bob are up to date.  If not, MUST SEE TV for your holidays at the cabin!

First Snow of the Season

Nothing too exciting going on here.  We are getting our first snowfall of the year (which is supposed to turn to rain later on today, so ugh.  Mud)  We kept up on our leaf raking, with one last soggy bunch to rake up (Tony took care of them with the lawn mower, genius)

We also discovered our fireplace is REAL, not gas as we thought. Hopefully, the kids will get a load of wood from Grandma and Grandpa this weekend.  Tony, you should have kept your truck a wee bit longer...

It looks like an excellent day to snuggle inside under a warm blanket and knit...

Amazing

My very talented sister (Susna, I'm talking about YOU) knit this scarf.  It's incredible.  I would never tackle this project in a million years.

Hope you wore this proudly all day yesterday!

Awwww

Goodbye Sweet Girl

We're all down in the dumps today...

Lois/Lola/Sissy, the kids' sweet 9 year old lab hadn't been on her game for a few weeks.  No stealing of sticks of butter off the counter, not much carrying around of toilet paper rolls -- none of her usual hijinks.

Then she stopped eating.  Even when we hand fed her chicken and baby food.

So I took her to the lab yesterday for an ultrasound.  We got the worst possible results: an abdomen full of cancer.  After an evening of tears and going over the possible options (of which there really weren't any), the kids took her to the vet's today for the black needle.

We'll miss her a LOT!  She was the middleman between too frisky Lucy and too cranky Walt.  I don't know what he's going to do without his life-long companion.  And of course the humans who adopted her years ago are in mourning at the loss of their friend.

This is the tough part about pet ownership.  Death comes to us all, but we're never ready.  At least she is not in pain and I know she's in Dog Heaven, with all the sticks of butter she could possibly want.

Halloween Grinches

That was Team Plack last night.

We didn't buy a pumpkin.  We didn't put up any decorations.  We didn't get out my wooden hands for freaking out trick or treaters.

We bought no candy.  BOUGHT. NO. CANDY.

And we turned off the porch lights and ignored the one kid desperate enough to ring our doorbell.

Boo.  Not fun at all.  Next year, I'm going to hand out full size candy bars.

Happy Birthday, Baba!

Mr. Ray Giusti was born 112 years ago.  Still miss that guy "like sixty".  And if he were around, he'd be the funniest 112 year old ever.

This little family photo was taken in 1936.  That is one spiffy family!  Loving Baba's white slacks, and of course Toddie and Mom (Mom would have been 12 -- or 13 or 11 depending on what year she decides she was born lol) are all dolled up.

Yikes!!!!

I was working in my office this morning.  I heard a sort of big "WHOOSH" sound.  All of a sudden, Lulu was right next to me, trying to get in my lap.

When I went upstairs to see what mischief the gang had gotten into, I found this out in the back yard:

 

We knew this tree was dead but wow!  Wasn't expecting it to topple!  Thank god it didn't happen the other day when we were all out there raking and mowing! 

It's Good to Have New Knitters in the House

Because they have no understanding of WHY you have projects laying around that are nearly finished.  And they insist you drag them out and get them done.

Thanks to our resident nagger (that would be Cara), I have finished the Dale of Norway Sirdal Cardigan that has been sitting in a bag for 2 years.  And it's really beautiful.  Although I did mess up the buttonhole placement a bit.  But I'm not fixing it.  That would relegate the sweater to the bag for another 2 years and Car would never stand for that.

A Cute Trio

This must have been taken in 1958 or thereabouts.  Cute Dad, with cute little Laurie holding cute Baby Beezie.  Baby Beezie does not seem too happy with the holding, though.  Love my striped shirt!  And Dad was a handsome guy, wasn't he?

My Kids are the BEST

Have I mentioned this fact before?  :-)

I'm so lucky.  My kids have come to my rescue time and again over the past few years.  It's been a bit of a rocky road for me as I returned to single status, but they've been there every step of the way.

They took me in and let me live with them in exchange for dog-sitting, accepting UPS deliveries, some light chores and the occasional dinner of homemade mac & cheese.

They make sure that most days I have a car at my disposal should I be inclined to venture out (most days the pups and I just hang out at home, though)

They cheerfully accompany me on weekly estate sale/thrift store adventures.  Tony is now officially authorized to be my scout on his weekly sales route, and brought home 3 bags full of Value Village pattern book finds from Yakima.  THAT'S a good son, folks.

They took pity on me for owning a Blackberry (which I was constantly predicting was going to stop working the minute RIM went banko), and Katie gave me her iPhone.  Which I love and am up to typing about 2 words a minute now.

They took pity on me after they fried my laptop with a poorly aimed bottle of water.  The laptop they gave me a couple of years ago.  And Tony gave me his iPad.  Which I love.  And I'm now "swiping" and poking with my finger at any computer screen I attempt to use, after only 3 days with the iPad.

They took pity on me for being an Apple tard, and Cara & Tony reset up both the iPhone and the iPad so I can actually now download my own stuff from the iTunes store instead of Pia's, Katie's, or Tony's music.

Oh, and the computer I use for my work?  That is thanks to Pia allowing me to take over her Mac after my computer took a fatal dump.

The best, people.  The best.

Good One, Dems

If you want an explanation of Mitt's Tax Plan, click here

Knit-O-Rama

Pia & I spent a relaxing weekend at knitting camp!  We headed up north to Camp Spaulding for a retreat with the Knorthside Knitters.  No rustic bunkbeds or treks to the outhouse for us, we stayed in a lovely cabin with its own bathroom, and probably 10 times the floorspace that our London hotel is likely to have.

Here are the lovely ladies who retreated for the weekend:

A great group of gals, and including Susan & her pal Alice, who came all the way from Seattle to knit.  Lots of knitting talent in this group :-)

And here are Susna and me modeling the "BFF Cowls" we knit for each other (you can get the pattern here)

Geez, I am the WORST poser for pictures.  The cowls are cute though.

Summer: Done

So sad to see our lovely summer of fun end!  I will always remember this year as the one that brought the Virginians home (after our relentless campaign...which really had nothing to do with their homecoming, but Katie, Pia and I will take the credit nonetheless)

Here's my list of the best stuff of the summer of '12:

1. Cross-country drive with Tony plus our traveling companions Lois and Walt.  Poor Pooh Bear had to drive the whole way (NO WAY was he trusting me to drive his truck plus trailer hitched to the back).  We successfully navigated our way across the USA, only having to back the truck/trailer up once.  We also only ate burgers & fries ONE time the whole trip.  
2. Our move into our big new house.  It's so much fun to room with "Team Plack", I couldn't ask for better roommates.  Well, except for the occasional accident by a canine member of the team (Walter, I'm looking at YOU)
3. Having Tony & Cara all to myself for much of the summer while they job-hunted.  How great was it to have two pals at home all day?  SUPER GREAT.  
4. Card games!  We destroyed at least 3 UNO decks due to our relentless daily games.  We wore out the 4 C batteries in the card shuffler.  We moved on to "Phase 10" (fancy Books and Runs, Zaids)  Now that summer's over and we can't sit out on the deck, our pace has slowed.  Time to get a new game going.  "Fun Dominoes", anyone?
5. Teaching the ways of picking for vintage knitting & crochet patterns to my team.  You don't even know the years of teasing I've endured from these people as I insisted on stopping at any thrift store we passed.  The worm has turned folks.  I've issued a BOLO to all team members, and they do not hesitate to stop at any estate sale or thrift store that looks promising.  Tony has even taken on the Goodwill accounts at his new company (they stock the 'Will's candy display) just so he can get an "in" on any knitting stuff
6. KNITTING!!!!  All four of the gang are now knitters extra-ordinaire.  Tony & Cara are busy building their stashes with fabulous yarn, having immediately absorbed the lesson that there's no point in spending hours of time knitting with crap yarn.  They've inspired us to drag out and finish some of our long-dormant projects.  And you know nothing makes me smile bigger than seeing all four of them knitting away while watching TV.
7. TV: speaking of which, we've spent a fair bit of time catching up on some great series: Dexter (we had to skip Season 5? with the hideous Lumen in order to be ready for last week's new episode but all agreed we LOVED Trinity, greatest serial killer ever.  And I'm hoping Dex will get it over with and murder Deb, she's so annoying).  Game of Thrones (only have to wait til March 2013 for season 3!)  I'm only 1/2 season behind on Breaking Bad.  Cara is trying to convince us all to relearn to love Grey's Anatomy.  We are pretty sure she is the last person in America who still watches that show.

Anyway, it's been a wonderful summer and I'm sure autumn will bring new adventures and fun to the team.  We're already planning our trip to the Rose City Yarn Crawl for some serious stash enhancement.  Not to mention our upcoming Trip Of A Lifetime to England (though Cara & Tony had to bail due to new jobs = no vacation time.  Boo) at Christmas.

THIS Guy Should have been Moderating...

"I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the subsidy to PBS. I'm going to stop other things. I like PBS, I love Big Bird, I actually like you, too. But I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for.

The quote that launched a million joke tweets. Mitt Romney actually threatened to fire a guy onstage who is paid by an entity that uses .00014% of the federal budget. This is Mitt Romney's solution to help reduce the national debt. Shit on Big Bird."

And there was no mention of the words "47 percent", "women" "Bain Capitol" "legitimate rape"....huh.

And this:
"Tonight, the role of Mitt Romney will be played by some guy who would never have won the GOP primary.

Who the fuck was this guy? After a year and a half of campaigning on promises that if elected, he'll govern like Ayn Rand and Ronald Reagan's Mormon lovechild, when he took the stage last night, he spent 90 minutes pretending to be the guy who ran for Senate against Ted Kennedy in 1994, or for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. He denied that his tax plan says what it says and paid lip service to teachers while his plan would likely cut tens of thousands of teaching jobs"

And this:

"Apparently "domestic issues" don't involve women's health, equal pay, student loan debt, or immigration.

Last night's debate was supposed to address "domestic issues," but what we got was a 90-minute bicker sesh about Social Security, Medicare, and taxes with brief forays into education. This may have been because both campaigns assume that only old people watch TV, but Obama missed a huge opportunity to connect with the millions of young voters who were in the process of making the debate the most tweeted-about political event in history. Nothing about women's issues? Okay. I guess we should save that debate for The View, the place where ladies kvetch about their silly, fluffy economic well-being as it pertains to their gender and roles as mothers and caretakers."

My New Favorite Blog

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

You too can waste most of an afternoon browsing through this blog.  Fabulous Victorian photographs and lots more!

A Hibernating Project

Notes to Self:

1. don't knit a hat that requires one to have any sense of spatial relations.  The half twist baffled me for 2 years.

2. Don't wait 2 years to finish a project that needs another ball of yarn.  The LYS may have changed ownership and no longer carries said yarn.

Those obstacles aside, Cara shamed me into picking up and finishing this long-hibernating project (new knitters are SO annoying, they have no WIPS of their own to languish)

I now have most of a 2nd skein of this yarn, as I was about 40 yards short of completing the hat and had to purchase a 2nd skein.

LOVE this yarn (Malabrigo), so great for hats, so soft and not itchy at all.  I think Car is snatching this one from me.

We're Grumpy

It's just me and the dogs at home today.  Damn, it's quiet.  Other than the occasional hysterical barking by The Team when they spot a squirrel, everyone is laying low.

Walter has decided that hanging out in Grammy's office is a good thing:

He and I are both wearing the same crabby expression (think Carl from "Up")

Lulu immediately went to sleep on my bed, as she figured out we are back to our old routine (eat, nap, stretch, nap, a little tv watching, nap.  Repeat)

Lois seems unfazed by it all, she's a cool customer.  I believe she is out laying in her favorite dirt pile.

We are counting the hours until the Gang gets home.

Separated At Birth?

The Breaking of the Fellowship

It had to happen...

I've had a wonderful summer with all four of my kids here in Spokane (in the same house even!)  If you know me, you know there's nothing that makes me happier.

My "little buddies" Cara and Tony have been home every day while they were job searching.  Which meant daily card games, lunch together, knitting lessons, adventures in canning and cooking, and my favorite -- scouting every thrift store and estate sale in town in search of inventory for my store.

It's been heaven.  But it's over.  Tony headed to Montana today to start his new job (he's working for a company that stocks convenience stores, with his territory Eastern Washington, Idaho panhandle and W. Montana)  He'll be based in Spokane, but traveling several days a week.  Cara starts her new job as a service writer at the local VW dealership next week.  With horrible hours (M-F 7-7 ugh)

So it's back to me and the dogs at home all day.  Boo.  But I'm happy they both found jobs in this terrible market.  So there's that.

Mr. Knitter

Check out the knitter with his TWO finished projects!  Tony has taken to knitting like you wouldn't believe, and today he made his first big splurge on yarn (5 skeins of Madeline Tosh Vintage for a vest)

My baby has a yarn stash :-)

And although she won't allow me to take any photos, Cara is sailing along with her knitting too.  She finished her first scarf, is working on her second (with cables!) and has yarn for another.

I'm a proud Mom, four excellent knitters in the fam.

Okay the Photoshopping Skills Still Need Work

But the "B-Z Photobomb" still makes me laugh every time.

A Dream Come True

I looked over last night and this is what I saw:  all four of my kids sitting together, each with their knitting project.  I can die happy now. 

True.

" It's appropriate that the Romney campaign chose "BELIEVE IN AMERICA" as its slogan. You can't spell "believe" without a big "lie" in the middle."

This Is Why You Don't Mess With Us Knitters

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/09/05/20120905gilbert-woman-arrested-knitting-needle-attack-husband-brk.html

However, I suspect she's not a "real" knitter.  We wouldn't risk harming our valuable tools.

Pass Out In The Park

Cara says it's "too soon" to blog about this, but nah...

So we had big plans yesterday!  We had tickets to go see Bonnie Raitt, and stopped by our local Labor Day eat-o-rama, "Pig Out in the Park".  Cara had been feeling a bit under the weather all weekend, and the idea of eating greasy food surrounded by hundreds of hot, sweaty Spokanites is her idea of a nightmare, but she agreed to come along.

Not a good idea.  We were sitting in the Beer Garden eating our various meals when she started to turn a very delicate shade of ashy white/green.  She put her head down on the table for a few minutes, then decided she needed to go home.  Or puke.  We agreed home was the better plan.

So Katie & Tony proceeded to head to the car, followed by a pale shaky Cara.  20 feet from our table, they heard a "thunk" and turned around to see Cara passed out on the ground.

Pia and I heard a big commotion and recognized Car's legs sticking out from under a table so we dashed over.  Nurse Katie was trying to do "triage" (she does NOT DO TRIAGE) and fend off the drunk lady who was trying to pet Cara.

Two very nice police officers arrived and we explained that no, Cara hadn't just drunk 20 beers and passed out, but was indeed ill.  While T&K went to retrieve the car, they walked us over to the edge of the park and waited with us.  Officer Cutie #1 sat on one side of Car so if she passed out again she wouldn't hit her head on the rocks.  Officer Cutie #2 grilled us on exactly where we ate, so he could cross it off his list of food booths :-)  We had a bit more excitement when a little girl who was passing by reached out for Cutie #1's gun in his belt.  Her terrified dad explained at great length that this was not okay.  Cutie #2 got a chuckle out of it, saying "I had your back, but she didn't look like much of a threat".

We got our poor sickie home and she's fine today.  But swearing off Pig Out FOREVER.

It's Here!

I just got an email from Allie Hagan (we're besties lol) announcing that IT'S HERE!  You can buy Suri's Burn Book: The Book on  Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

I just bought my copy for my Nook.  And I'm getting a personalized bookplate from Suri, which I guess I will slap on my Nook.

Another Pupil for Knitting School!

Tony decided he was going to knit.  And knit he did.  My newest student remembered his childhood knitting lessons/GI Joe blanket skills quite easily and was cranking out garter stitch in no time.  He has ambitious plans which he wants to start IMMEDIATELY: a scarf of 220 stitches.

He and Star Pupil #1 Cara are already in the knitter mode: heading to the yarn store today for project bags and yarn.  My work is done.