Sunday, July 27, 2008

Dear Cindy McCain

I saw clips of you on the Today Show several months ago saying that your husband would not do negative campaigning and you hoped that the Obamas would do the same. You said that your husband was an honorable man who did not believe in negative campaigning and would never resort to the tactics that were employed against him by the Bush machine in 2000.

My question to you after watching several months of this campaign is, do you have another husband besides John? Because the republican candidate I have seen is the most negative campaigner I've seen since 2004, when George Bush ran against John Kerry.


Your husband scares me, doesn't he scare you? Maybe just a little?

Monday, July 21, 2008

Why do people blog?

"This blog could be more exciting if you can create another topic that everyone can relate on."

First off, you never end a sentence with a preposition, it's just not proper English. Second, I'm really not that exciting of a person, and even if I was, I sure wouldn't put the details on a public blog.

The above quote was posted by lotto after I posted about attending my aunt's funeral. I'm not sure if lotto is a real person or a spammer and I can understand making a comment about being bored by the pictures of my new knitting project, but about some one's funeral? I just don't know.

However, the comment did make me think about why people blog. I started to keep track of what I was knitting and to learn something new. Most people blog to let others know how they are, what they are doing, and share their thoughts with like minded people. Political blogs are popular, but I don't care that much about stranger's political opinions.

So if you are reading this, why do you blog?

Friday, July 18, 2008

Mamma Mia

What a funny movie! Even at 9:30 a.m., I laughed my ass off. Well, I didn't really laugh my ass off, it's unfortunately still there. Darn it! You know the movie is good when no one leaves their seat until the lights come up. Finally it's cool to like ABBA again.

I think Batman must have opened today too, as the theater was very crowded for so early in the morning. Do people really go to movies early in the day? I cannot believe that a movie costs $9 and refreshments . . . OMG. There was a lady at the concession counter that paid $22 for two drinks and an order of nachos. I paid less than that for lunch for two of us.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Funerals and Family

Why is it that the only time we see our family is at funerals? It didn't use to be that way, because we used to have family picnics every couple of years. Now we get together in funeral homes or high school gymnasiums.

My aunt Nancy died and her funeral was last week. She was a really nice woman and barely 60 years old. I didn't know her well, as her husband was my dad's half brother and closer to my age than my dad's age, but whenever we got together as a family I loved visiting with her. Her sister looked so devastated at the funeral, it just made me very sad.

I did get to give my aunt Helen her Fluted Bannister socks. I had to stay up until 1:30 a.m., in order to be able to finish, but I think she really liked them; of course, I had to make her promise to wear them. The pattern was great and the socks turned out very good, if I do say so myself.

I also finished a hat that will be used to make money to pay for someone's chemotherapy. It's the same hat I made for Umma, and it turned out pretty good. Plus it only took me two days, which is even better. I'm going to make another hat, since that one went so smoothly.

I have chosen grumperina's Odessa as the pattern, I just need to make sure I have the designers okay to use her pattern. Because it is going to be used as a chemo cap, I won't add the beads; however, I plan to make one with beads eventually.


Sunday, July 6, 2008

Harry Potter on tape

Knitting has taken up a lot of my reading time, so I borrowed the first four Harry Potter books from Staci to listen to while I knit. There is nothing on television during June and I want to finish Helen's socks as quickly as possible, so I've been listening every evening. I must say that I like reading much more than listening, but that's just me.

After listening to the first two books, I went to Alibris.com and bought books five and six (on tape). Right now I am listening to book five, The Order of the Phoenix. I got book five for $4 (something) and book six for about $23.00 from bookarama through Alibris. The seventh and final book is over $40 so I can wait until the price goes down.

On the 4th of July, Apple Yarns in Bellingham has a 30% off sale on everything in the store. I didn't want to drive all the way to Bellingham, and since they allowed call-in orders, I got a needle holder and four skeins of yarn. Hmmmm, I wonder if they still call them skeins? They didn't have my first choice, but I did find some pretty (at least it looks pretty on the web) autumny colors. Now I just need to find a pattern I like.