Friday Chicken Blogging

Just because I was getting tired of the cat blogging.

  

Yippee

My Boye Needlemaster knitting needle set arrived! Got it on eBay for a total (including shipping) of $30. Took me about 20 auctions to get it that low but I fianlly made it. I probably could have gotten it a bit cheaper if I wanted to keep trying - but I want to start my cabled ruana soon and I really needed this set. Think about it $30 for all those needled sizes/lengths when I could have spent over $10 just for one circular needle. Well worth it!

Am also waiting for a delivery of the best shoes I have ever seen - but I will wait and talk about them for when they arrive so I can model them.

Catch up

OK let's see... rain rain rain, more rain, warm rain, a downpour, sprinkles, some rain and a wee glinpse of sun. Then rain and rain and wind and rain and more wind and now clouds and wind and a threat of rain. That's about it.

Tulip is getting very old - just calculated th other day and it is as iff she were over a hundred. So the fact that her back legs are going shouldn't be a surprise. She spends most of the day sleeping but then at hight she wanders around and bumps into things. Crazy old girl. Won't eat much of anything anymore either.

I figured out a cable pattern for the ruana I am going to knit - I am basically making this up on my own - just taking the measurements from Big Girl Knits. Going to use Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Winter Night. It is brighter than I orginally thought about the ruana but after swatching that and the Ink color of Elann's Highland Wool I decided that the cables would benefit from a lighter color. And hey - the price doesn't hurt. Anyway hoping to get started this week - if the old lady will give me a break from digging and planting!

Life moves along

I know - I haven't been around lately. I think there have been so MANY things I want to blog about that I felt overwhelmed to even start.

So I am checking in with the world with some non-important things. I bought the "Big Girl Knits" by Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer, based on comments about its first section telling you how to change a pattern to match your own shape. It is a great book and I suggest for almost every shape. I also fell in love with the BluebelleRuana - I had never really know about ruanas and I like them so much more than a poncho.

So I decided that I would make this - but then there was the price of the suggested yarn - too pricy for me! And then I began to sketch out the pattern as there is no diagram for this pattern and i realized there was no way I would get through all that i-cord. Just not gonna happen. So I decided I would take the idea of ruana and design my own using cable patterns from the Viking Knits book from Elsebeth Lavold.

I have ordered two skeins of yarn from Knitpicks and two from Elann so I can swatch with 4 different colors and two types of yran to see what I like best. I may or may not ever finish this project but I am excited about it. It will be fun to see what I can design myself and since the ruana is basically a big rectangle with a slit in the middle I will end with little sewing.

Things we take for granted

What if you didn't have money for tampons or pads? I never thought about this but often women living in shelters don't. Seventh Generation one of my favorite companies) is helping to supply homeless women with menstrual supplies.

All you have to do it make a virtual donation by going to their web page and following directions. It won't cost you anything and only takes a few seconds.

They also have an interesting request up for people interested in spending the month of August traveling the West (Colorado, Washington, California and Oregon) "talking to women (and men) about menstruation, hand-delivering product donations to area shelters, and spreading the good word about the importance of natural feminine care while blogging, photo-snapping, along the way. "

To sign up go to the Applicate page and enter your info to receive contest details. If I wasn't all grown up and tied to a job etc I would be tempted!

Coop Cleaning Day

So I need to clean the chicken coop. Over the winter the chickens managed to pull apart 2 entire bales of hay. Which means I have a matted smelly poopy dusty job ahead of me. I hate the bi-yearly cleaning anyway - but the hay is going to make it that much worse. yuck.

Also it is 62 degrees already and muggy. Maybe it's too hot to clean the coop? What do you think?

all right, all right, I'm going.....

Spring's HERE!!!

I walked to work this morning and it was wonderful out. I love the morning even though I am not a morning person, actually probably because I am not a morning person.

And even though we are having a rather dry Spring I give you one of my favorite poets.

in Just-
spring when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and
the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

-- e. e. cummings

Great Quote

Thanks to Jeanne at Body and Soul

"War is a coward's escape from the problems of peace." -- William Sloane Coffin

I Hate The Damned Time Change

Just thought you would like to know.

Excitement -Part 2

So we managed to get some sleep for a few hours Sunday morning. It didn't help that it was change of daylight savings time to boot. Late morning we arranged to take Ken's mother into the hospital to visit his father and see what was going on. While I was outside moving my car etc the neighbors came over to see how everything was and so Ken and I got into conversation with them. In the meanwhile his mother was getting ready and finally came out saying she was ready to go. Ken said - but wait! I need some of my stuff from inside at which point his mother realized she had left her pocketbook inside and we were locked out.

OK - in retrospect it makes for an amusing tale - but not at the time. I trotted around the house behind Ken as he paced rapidly from door to window to door looking for a way in. It was determined that one of the windows in reach was open and Ken began to step on the outside water spigot. I mentioned sweetly that he was perhaps a little too heavy to stand on that. Luckily there were some large shrubs right there - nice old rhododendrons that could support me. So up I went and into the house. I have a nice line of bruises across my right leg as that took most of my weight as I balanced on the window sill. It's been a long time since I entered a house that way. Made me nostalgic for the good old days when my mother would forget and lock the back door. Of course I didn't have a crazy dog trying to bite me as I contorted myself to get a foot on the floor. Poor old Tippy was always more intent on biting people than on recognizing those he shouldn't bite.

After that adventure we headed into the hospital where we found that Ken's father had heart problems which is probably what made him pass out and fall down the stairs. He has been having heart pains for a year and didn't tell anyone! Luckily the cardiologist came in while we were there and we got the whole scoop. - Probably athrosclerosis; might need angioplasty or might need a heart bypass.

Well we found out last night that it is a bypass and so Ken has headed back down to MA as the operation is tomorrow. He plans to stay through tomorrow then come back here and head back to MA over the weekend so as to portion out his remaining days off for the year.

Oh these old people!

Excitement

I managed to send a few pictures to the blog (below) from my phone Saturday night. For some reason after NOT being able to make it work - it now finally posts them - but posts them in duplicate. Most that I sent posted double but one posted triple. Don't know what is up with that .

Saturday Ken got back home about 1:30 and went to rest for a while as we didn't need to head back down to MA until about 5. I took a nap too - which managed to make me all groggy, but once we hit the road my head began to clear. We made such good time that we ended up in Worcester just after 7 and had time to waste. So we got me a sandwich at D'Angelos and walked down Highland Street.

Got to Vincent's about 8 pm and that was still a bit early. So I started with a margarita and admired the decor. Lots of cool pictures - many old panoramic photos of Worcester. There are also lots of stuffed animals - some of which I had trouble identifying.

About 7 :15 or so George and Ernie arrived with Scott and Maro following shortly after. Maro and I had a good time talking - she loves Lush too. And she says that Scott likes it too - and will willingly go into the store with her!

The show was great - Ken was nervous but everything went really well. George had brought his family and I was amused for a while by his brother's girl friend - she was a pisser. Told me quite a few times that she was Portuguese - well yeah - I had kind of picked that up right away! She was amusing and I was sorry that they left early.

The time flew by and I was surprised when 1 a.m. rolled around. The guys packed up and we were off.

Unfortunately when we got back to Ken's house his mother had left a note that his father had fallen down the cellar stairs earlier in the evening and was in the hospital. That ended the night on a somber note. To be continued.

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Originally uploaded by Storm.

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Originally uploaded by Storm.

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Originally uploaded by Storm.

Can't think of a title...

Anyway. I am up. It has not started raining yet although it look semi-cloudy out. It does say we're going to have thunderstorms today. Looks like that is more likely here than in Wocester.

Watched Howl's Moving Castle last night. An odd movie. I don't know if something gets lost in translation or if Miyazaki is so into the visuals that he doesn't care if the plot seems to make any sense or not. Anyway - like all his movies it is beautiful. It really should be seen on the big screen.

And look what was on Make Magazine blog this morning! A link to a free download of a paper craft Howls Castle. Took me a bit to figure out what I was downloading from the Japanese site. And how knows if I will ever put it together but I have it if I want to.

Also I looked on PaperbackSwap.com and ordered one of Diana Wynne Jones's books. Not "Howl's Moving Castle" as they didn't have that - but "A Sudden Wild Magic". If I like it then maybe I will look for Howl's too.

So it's 8:30 and I have now been up too long to go back to sleep. I think I will get myself out for a walk this morning. My heels hurt - but I will do some good stretching.

Pretty good Friday

Possible new glasses
Originally uploaded by Storm.

There is nothing in the world like a sunny day! It makes me feel so good. And today it got up over 70 degrees! Crazy huh?

Anyway I took the old lady to an ENT appointment at 2:30 and did not have to go back to work. SO afterwards we stopped at the optometrist to drop off her glasses to have a new prescription put in and I tried on some glasses there. These are the ones I think I would like. I made an appointment to have my eyes checked - I know I need a new prescription. And they will probably try and talk me into bifocals. But I don't want bifocals - perhaps it is pure vanity, but I think I will put up wearing reading glasses separately for a while.

Tomorrow Ken should be back from MA to pick me up in the early afternoon and then we will head back down in time for him to set up for his show tomorrow night.

OH! I almost forgot - I EXERCISED tonight. Yes it's true I went out for a three mile walk. I don't think my heels can stand running anymore, but I did some speed walking. I feel pretty good and just may go out tomorrow morning. See what a little sunlight does for you?

Exercising!
Originally uploaded by Storm.

Time Flies

Where has the week gone? And yes I know it's Thursday but I keep feeling like it's Friday. A combination of the nice weather (finally) and the fact that Ken is off to MA this evening.

We've had a couple of weeks of ups and downs and ups. I end with up because I think we are on an up swing. After getting the old lady totally off Topamax - and sometime I will come back to this and document the craziness of that drug - we also got appointments back down in Boston. So April 7th we are back to Brigham and Women's to see - a cardiologist, a dermatologist and a Behavioral Neurologist. It's gonna be a full day let me tell you! Also started her with a new new primary care doctor up here at Grace Cottage. I am a little disappointed that he hasn't answered her call about her swollen feet/ankles though. AND I got her down to Bratt to see a ophtamologist. SO you can see why sometimes I simply freak out about the sheer amount of time I am spending away from work and taking her to doctors. OH and I didn't mention that she also had a CT scan the week before last at Dartmouth (half a day off) and I have to take her to an ENT tomorrow and leave work early again?

Anyhow as I mentioned last Friday Ken and his son and I went to see V for Vendetta. We had dinner out first at the Eagle Tavern in Newport NH. That was fun - B and I got to make fun of Ken together. B also got to make fun of me and I got to be all sarcastic - which I think he likes. Between that and the movie things went really really well. I do like the kid. He has a good sense of humor, he is dry and sarcastic, and yes kind of geeky. But underneath you can see that he is really a good kid and thinks a lot about what is going on. I think it was the most relaxed with him that I have been. And the most relaxed he has been around me.

Unfortunatly some other stuff happened that weekend so it wasn't a total sucess. But I think we are all coming out of that funk.

Ken and Cold Duck are performing at Vincent’s on Suffolk Street in Worcester this Saturday night. He's got a mention in Charlene Arsenault's column in the Worcester Magazine. (Thanks Charlene!) He has already headed down to MA so he can get a little practice in before the gig. He is coming back to get me Saturday morning ( as his car is in the shop and he's got mine). I wish I could have gone down tonight with him. But between the old lady and work it wasn't possible.

The one thing that sucks (and this is really bothering me) is that the weather this week has been GREAT but guess what? That's right - rain again on SAaturday. What the hell is going on? Last Saturday I was so happy to wake up and see the sun that I went right out early and raked the front garden, but as I went alog it got cloudier and cloudier and colder and colder. From Saturday noon on it was awful That flat cold depressing sky. I don't want another weekend like that.

What else has been going on? Oh I know - I have been trying to get my taxes together and done. I use Turbo Tax which I love, but the old lady doesn't trust me to do hers. Like H and R Block is going to be better. Hey - I have seen what they do now - exactly what I do with Turbo Tax. I am going to work on her to let me do them. Why pay H&R $200 when I can do just as good a job? Anyway that brings me to my shocking discovery of the day....

I stopped at the bank to get papers out of the safty deposit box so that I can at least pull all the old lady's tax papers together. While looking through them to find everything I needed I found Tulip's papers. Now all these years for some reason it stuck in my head that she was born in April, but guess what - her birthday is March 16th! The poor old thing is already 14 years old! And we didn't have a party. I feel awful. So here's to you Mrs. Schnoodleheimer - Happy Birthday.

Sleepy Tulip
Originally uploaded by Storm.

Schnoodle
Originally uploaded by Storm.

V!

Just saw V for Vendetta. Loved it. A lot.

Also had a lovely time with Ken and his son. Really a nice night.

But go see the movie.

At Loose Ends

I am both stressed and bored. - AS Ken said that's a dangerous combination. Unfortunately there are no bars around here any more and I am too lazy to go anywhere. Ken’s out at a friends. The old lady is sleeping. So it's just me.

So I am reading and commenting on other people's blogs. And looking at Flickr pictures. It is interesting to see pictures others have taken of the same things you have. I love Flickr!

I could blog about what's been going on lately - but I am too lazy. Suffice it to say that things have been up and way way down.

But I am working on it. Ken's a big help - more than a big help - he is the best thing ever happen to me. Sappy perhaps, but true. I think that there are certain people who just fit together well at certain times. 10 Years ago I don't think we would have fit so well. But now we complement each other perfectly.

Anti-Consumer

OK - I admit I am a bit of an anti-Consumer police person. NO! do not buy at Wal-mart! And you all know the Gap is evil too, right?

But here's some interesting facts - Urban Outfitter, Anthropologie and Free People are owned by the same company. And their president Richard Hayne is a big supporter of... wait for it... Sen Rick Santorum (ruff ruff).

And how about Chipotle, which seems so wholesome and good? Owned by McDonalds!

As the Common Dreams article says

"Rather than avoid every company on a list put out by a boycotting campaign, consumers should decide for themselves what their values are and which companies they do and do not wish to support. The trouble is, it's harder than it should be to find and keep track of the information it takes to make these decisions -- which is why consumers, even those who strive to shop ethically, find it so difficult to do so."

We can only do our best to decide which evil is the least evil. And perhaps join the Church of Stop Shopping and follow the Reverend Billy. Or at least use our influence on these companies to try their bext to be socially responsible,

Remember just because it's cheap or chic doesn't mean that it isn't hurting someone.