Putting the 'Me' back in Women

I find Michelle Obama to be an extraordinary woman. She's elegant, intelligent but also an everyday person, and I find that so refreshing for someone that has been thrust into the limelight. I'm pretty sure I want to be her when I grow up (at 30 who says I'm grown up?). This is an article on the address Michelle made urging women to do what makes them happy and be sure to make themselves a priority. I think this is sound advice for everyone.

The Three Faces of Me

I suspect that the Tivo thinks I have multiple personalities. My husband does use the Tivo to record shows but I am the main recorder in our house. It all starts with PBS. We don't have cable and I love PBS. I record documentaries, cooking and craft shows, British comedies and travel shows. I record A LOT off PBS. Then I sit at home and 'brainiac it ' up! And I also like things like Sex and the City and other sitcoms. So I do have varied interest in TV and like a lot of stuff most people would only watch under severe duress (like losing the remote).

The catch is that Tivo is intuitive and it records things that it thinks you may like. Our suggestion list ranges from Julia Child (good) and Katie Curac (OK) and Frasier (Very Good) to The Simpsons (Huh?) and That 70's Show (Really?) and 90210 (NO Way!!). Maybe I mislead the Tivo because I don't always thumbs down things right away because it is interesting to see what it picks for me based on the info I've given it thus far. Sometimes I think that it cannot possibly suggest The American Experience AND The Simpsons to the same person. On the other hand, maybe my alter ego gets up in the middle of the night, watches 'Jerry Springer', Dr. Phil and The Simpsons while eating Bologna and Wonder bread sandwiches (I'm a vegetarian). Who knows?

It's a jungle out there... take care of each other.

Mama's got a brand new bag...

On Saturday I decided to treat myself to a new knitting bag. I have had my eye on one on Esty (mdknits) for a while and finally decided to pull the trigger and order it. I can't believe it but it came today. Here it is...

It's fabulous with plenty of room for all my knitting and other extraneous junk I like to have with me.

News of the Weird

After hearing about the Libyan leader Gaddafi's bizarre address to the UN this week, I am at a loss for understanding of how some people actually get to be in charge of anything. I don't think this guy be in charge of a house plant let alone a country. But c'est la vie (such is life). Anyway, here is an article regarding Gaddafi's newest idea for Switzerland. He's got big plans for the land of neutrality.

Another One Bites The Dust...

The Christmas knitting seems to be coming along, well, knittingly. (I love word play, if you haven't noticed). I am getting ready to bind off this lovely face cloth to be paired with one of the many bars of handmade soap I recently purchased at a local farmer's market.

I put the finishing touches on two more gifts this morning. Today I also finished and delivered my last, I hope, non-Christmas knitting item. So, from now on its full bore Christmas knitting for me!

Did I just hear the faint sound of sleigh bells in the air? Fa la la la.

The Womb

Every Friday night I meet my girlfriends for dinner. We always go to the same bar, a small, dark wood paneled little hole in the wall that is steeped in history. It is beautiful, cozy and wonderful. We are so regular that the waitresses know us, our drinks and our food. The girls and I come together to lament about work, men, being left wing in a right wing town and events of the week. This is a safe place. This is where we share our secrets, our feelings, our defeats and our triumphs. I know within these walls, with these people; I am safe, I am accepted. I will support and care for them and they for me. I know this without hesitation. I know that these two hours of the week are precious and I would not trade them for all the riches in the world. Then at the end of it, we part with well wishes for the week and are expelled into the light, cold world. The world where people may not care for us or accept us. But we get through it to come together, share and be safe again.

It's a jungle out there... take care of each other.

Singing the Grocery Day Blues

Today is grocery day and I hate grocery day, but we're out of food. By 'out of food' I don't mean third world famine 'out of food', I mean I have half the ingredients to make something that I may want to cook but let's have cereal for dinner instead 'out of food'.



The total trip to the grocery is usually traumatic to me like I think they should change the term 'going postal' to 'going grocery', it's that bad . It's the making the list, trying to plan meals, make sure I remember everything, pack up my reusable grocery bags and off I go to the store.


Then when I get there, I usually end up running into the same people over and over (funny how that happens). They usually fit into one of three categories: The confused senior citizen that feels the need to stop their motorized scooter suddenly and frequently causing me to nearly run into them every time. When are they going to put brake lights on those things?; The time warped citizen fresh from Communist Russia that stands in the aisle glassy eyed, gape mouthed because this is the first time they've seen more than one brand of toilet paper. First time in a grocery store, Comrade? Then finally, there's the family reunion people. You know the ones that run into each other in the grocery and park in the middle of the aisle catching up since they last saw each other at Aunt Carol's youngest boy's, daughter's godchild's first communion party. GET ME OUT OF HERE!

I then try to quickly and efficiently navigate through the crowd in the aisles and gather everything on my list and try to remember anything I forgot. I pass the obligatory harried mother with a screaming infant (Which reminds me... do I need vodka for martini's?) anyway off I go to the checkout. At the store I go to they have a no limit self check out line that I always go through. I use the cloth reusable bags and when I am checked out by a person and want to use my own bags, I get a Look. Really, you sell them here. How are you surprised? I think it may be a Midwest thing.

Then when I get home, my husband helps me unload car. As we put groceries away my husband will say "Did you remember that we're almost out of..(insert Toilet Paper, Paper Towels, Cat Food here)? DAMN IT! We'll go back next week.

After all this, I am too exhausted to cook. Frozen pizza anyone?

War and Pieces

This is an absolutely amazing story on how the game 'Monopoly' helped to rescue POW's in WWII. I will never look at a Monopoly game the same way again. Enjoy!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Besides raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, (and thanks to Julie Andrews who doesn't) here are a few of my favorite things...

1) Laughing until I cry
2) Friday night dinners with friends
3) The smell of a new book
4) The sound of my purring kitty
5) Christmas
6) Sharing popcorn with my hubby at a great movie
7) Cool, crisp fall air
8) Fun socks
9) Casting on a new knitting project
10) Random acts of kindness


Remember, it's a jungle out there...take care of each other.

Friday 'Would You Rather..."

Every Friday I e-mail my friends a 'would you rather' question. Most of the time I try to keep it fun, lighthearted and thought-provoking. This week seemed a little more serious than I had intended. See what you think. Here it is:

Would you rather:
Find out that you life has been a scripted TV show and everyone knew but you, like Jim Carrey's "The Truman Show"
Or
Find out you were switched at birth and your real family are Carnies.

Morning Marauder

There is an early morning marauder in my house. It strikes most mornings around 4 am. As I slumber peacefully, there is movement by my head, followed by a faint noise not unlike a lawnmower from a great distance. Then there is gentle and tentative touch to my nose. I try to ignore the marauder in hopes of discouraging any further action. But then there is another gentle but more insistent touch to my head. Still feigning sleep, I try to ignore it but it has become relentless with all decorum gone now.
I open one eye to see a familiar furry face and inquisitive green eyes staring back at me as if to say "Breakfast?". I pry myself from the bed and stumble out to the dining room to the food dish that has been sitting out all night still containing food. I rattle the dish and the marauder comes running and settles down to have a small snack. I crawl back to bed lamenting "Who is really in charge here?" But I swiftly fall back to sleep for at least another two hours.

Youngest whisker kid Sullivan: Cuddly Kitty or Early Morning Marauder?

On the 100th day 'til Christmas, my true love gave to me..

Today is 100 days until Christmas. I am all a quiver with excitement. I love Christmas. I love decorating. I love buying/making gifts for others. I love the music and the movies. Suffice to say, I love Christmas.

The air was cool and crisp this morning and filled me with anticipation of fall and turned my thoughts toward Christmas. I usually start my shopping/planning pretty early. I think that is the reason why I love Christmas because I do hate a crowd.

I try to make several gifts especially for friends and extended family. My projects range from baking to knitting to various up-cycled DYI projects. This year one of my goals is to try and stimulate the local economy by doing more shopping at locally owned stores. This also helps me to avoid the dreaded altar of consumerism...The mall. So fake and plastic, I hate the mall and the soul sucking experience that it is and try to only go there if absolutely necessary.

Here are a few pictures of a couple things I'm working on for the Yude-tide season:

Here is the Irish Walking Scarf pattern I found on Raverly.

I'm going to turn these outdated floppy disks into coasters using scrapbook paper.

I have a bunch of projects in the hopper, so I'd better get started.

Signing off..

It's a jungle out there, take care of each other.

"Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner"

I am saddened to hear that Patrick Swayze died today after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Growing up in the '80's every girl wanted to be Baby to Patrick's Johnny. And who could forget him as the super sexy dead guy from 'Ghost'? We have lost an icon today. No one will ever fill out a leotard quite like Patrick Swayze did.

Take A Letter Maria...

Several weeks ago I was inspired by a very good friend of mine to write to my representatives regarding health care reform. So I did. I wrote to them stating that the lack of a health care system in the US was basically a violation of our inalienable rights as laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Those rights being Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. (I must say a little high school history goes a long way) Today, I actually received a response from Senator Richard Lugar (R). Now, I have always considered old Dick Lugar to be a bit of a donkey in elephant's clothing so I thought I might have a chance there.

Yeah, not so much.

The 'letter' in question was basically a copy of an address to Congress he made stating that his top priority is the economic recession, and then maybe but only maybe when that's over we'll consider possibly thinking about looking at health care IF there's nothing good on TV.

OK, so I paraphrased a bit. I agree the economic recession is hugely important. It absolutely needs attention and corrected. That being said...so many Americans are losing their jobs and along with it, their health insurance. These people cannot afford to go to the doctor so they wait and wait and wait until the problem is so large they cannot possibly afford to do what needs to be done to get well again. This is not helping the economy either.

This is the greatest country on earth but we simply do not look out for one another. It's sad for a country that started with a bunch of pioneers that had to help and rely on each other as a community to survive. Ah, how far we've come.

Remember...it's jungle out there, take care of each other.

Alone but not lonely...

Today I scheduled a vacation day from work for two reasons: 1) I wanted a day that I could sleep in (I hate mornings!) and 2) I wanted a day to spend by myself. That's right, a day just for me. Don't get me wrong I have plenty of friends, family and a husband that I enjoy spending time with and going places and doing things together. But once in a while I just need to be alone. So on my quest for alone time today I did a combination of things that I needed to do and things I wanted to do.
I stopped at the post office, shopped at Target (bought bras, definitely a NEED not want). Then I tried a local Mexican restaurant that had caught my eye. Eating in a restaurant alone is an interesting experience and I've been known to do often. My favorite thing is when the waitstaff suspects that you may be a food critic. I'm pretty sure it has happened to me before but not today. Today, when I walked into the restaurant the first thing the waiter/host said was, "Are you meeting someone?" Nope just me, pal. I ordered nachos because I was feeling on the thrifty side, realizing that while nachos are not the epitome of Mexican cuisine, they are simple, cheap and delicious.
Then once I was well fed and watered I decided as I was driving that I needed a bit of exercise. So, I stopped at the local historical cemetery for some peace, reflection and exercise. It may sound strange but this cemetery is one of the most beautiful places. Opening shortly after the Civil War it has more of a nature preserve/park feeling to it rather than a cemetery. It is covered with trees, and hills dotted with some of the most original markers I have seen. Some dating back to right after the Civil War. I then came to the realization that the markers are the last expression of the individual. They been there even before my grandparents, in some cases my great-grandparents and will continue to there after me and future generations. How's that for permency?
Then to finish off the day I went to a local coffeehouse and worked on a Christmas knitting project and settled in for some people watching. I do this at restaurants and other public places. I watch groups of people and see how they interact, what they talk about, etc. It never ceases to interest me. That's the original reality TV.
Now I'm going to kick back with 'Tink' the Tivo and my whisker kids, Sloane and Sullivan, for a quiet afternoon.