Last Post of the Year

Happy New Year to all who read. I hope that your year was great, but that 2009 is your best year yet.

I buried my dollar this afternoon, so I'm sure the stock market will start rebounding on Monday. You can thank me later.

I finished my last knitting project of 2008 at 10:00 a.m. Actually, I finished this morning about 1:00 a.m., but I had to tuck in the ends this morning. It's the Ground Flower Hat, by Phoeknits http://phoeknits.wordpress.com/patterns/ and I made it to match Kelli's coat. I used Knit Picks Essential sock yarn in Peacock.

As for resolutions, I don't make them. I do set goals (okay, it's not the same). Some of my goals are:

• Knit 10 - 12 pairs of socks
• Knit 10 - 12 hats (some for charity)
• Read 52 books (one a week)
• Be healthy by eating better foods and exercising more

Again, Happy New Year everyone.

Merry Christmas

Ho Ho Ho Today is the day, I'm going to be so brave! I'm going to drive my car to dinner, all 3 1/2 miles.

I grab my keys and open the garage door. I back out, trying to get the exact right amount of pressure on the gas pedal. I make it out of the garage and past the place I got stuck yesterday. I back all the way to the shop and turn toward the highway. I'm doing great, but this is just the practice run.

I go back into the garage and then let everyone know that I can drive to dinner. I'm sure they are all thrilled beyond words.

Now it's time to leave. I get my purse, put on my boots, and I'm off. Watch out world, I'm back on the road. I get to the very end of the driveway, about three feet from the main highway and get totally stuck. Walk back to the house and call my most wonderful BIL who says he will come and dig me out, says it won't take but a minute.

Scott (most marvelous of BILs) and Staci (most beautiful of sisters) come to dig me out. Scott dug as much as he could then Staci and I were going to push. Almost instantly two cars stop and four very nice, wonderful, kind, and beautiful men (and young men) jump out to help push (sorry to the one who Staci smacked in the head). I got out of the driveway and went to dinner (a little slippery in town). Kyle came home with me and I let him drive (hahaha "let") and he got stuck at the bottom of the driveway, he dug, then I dug (okay, I only dug a little bit) while he tried to drive. He made it to the top of my driveway, where he got stuck again.

I talked it over with the car, and it decided to stay where it is until the snow melts.

Snowed In

I can't take it anymore. It's been a week since I left the house. Well, left my house in a gas powered vehicle, I can still get out and walk next door and go out to get the mail. The stores are closing early, if they are opening at all.

This snow is unbelievable. When I go outside, the snow is up to my knees, making walking just a little difficult. This morning I went outside to knock the snow off the trees in the dogs' yard (so the branches don't break off on their little heads) and when I came in my legs were tingling and they stayed red for at least an hour.

I'm afraid to open the gas bill, because I'm sure it is going to be astronomical and I don't want to be tempted to turn off the heat. I'm tired of leaving every faucet dripping at night and starting the washing machine right before I go to bed, so the pipes don't freeze.

The icicles outside the bathroom.

Secular Progressive

Today, as I was channel surfing, I came across Bill o'Reilly. He was discussing the Washington Governor's decision to allow people with dissenting opinions access to the foyer of my state's Capitol Building. He calls Governor Gregiore a pinhead because she is trying to live up to the principles of the Founding Fathers. In my opinion, he is the pinhead.

When I hear Bill o'Reilly speak, the voice inside my head is Hermione Granger, and the words I hear are "what an idiot". I truly feel that the people that listen to Bill O'reilly or read his books, are idiots. I can't help it, but when that man speaks I feel sick to my stomach.

The only good thing that Bill o'Reilly has ever done, is give me a label. I think I am a secular progressive. I believe in the separation of church and state. I believe that if you allow one group to put up a display in a government building, you have to let everyone. I believe that nativity scenes belong in churches or on private property and nowhere else.

Sunday morning

Here I sit, surrounded by snow, watching Meet The Press, and missing Tim Russert. I am not happy with the choice of David Gregory as the newest moderator of MTP. I wonder why NBC didn't ask me for my opinion before they cast the moderator, I certainly had some good suggestions.

And then there is the snow. I can only remember snow like this twice in my lifetime. It just keeps coming and getting deeper and deeper.

What it is about snow that makes me want to eat more? Why is it that when I can't go anywhere, I want to go anywhere? It's not like I need anything. The dogs have food (thank you Scott and Staci), I have 84,000 books to read, enough yarn to knit 20 pairs of socks, my house could certainly use a good clean, but all I want to do is the thing I hate, shopping.

Butterfly Hats

I finished Elaine's Butterfly Hat, sure hope she gets it in time for Christmas. I mailed it on Wednesday (thank you Dawn for making it through this horrible ice and snow). The pattern turned out really nice and, once again, Knit Picks (knitpicks.com) has impressed me with the quality of their yarn.

Many thanks to Aliceindilbertland's blog for the pattern, which I found on Ravelry.com.

Speaking of Dawn, when the postal service says neither ice nor snow nor dark of night, they mean it. The garbage trucks can't make it to pick up the garbage, the paper is not delivered, but my bill is in the mailbox right on time. And she saved my butt by picking up my presents that need to go to the other side of the country.

Snow Snow and still more Snow

The roads are impassable and everything is covered in a foot of white. It's even too cold for the dogs to go outside for more than five minutes and I have to turn on the washing machine before I go to bed, in order to run hot water through the pipes to keep them from freezing. Hmmm that reminds me, I have jeans in the dryer.

It snows and everything shuts down, including the medical clinic. It always amazes me that there are people in other parts of the county are unfazed by this type of weather and yet here in Western Washington if we get two inches the schools close and most everyone stays in the house. Of course, there are also those people that use the snowfall as an excuse to stay home from work and then drive somewhere to go sledding.

I wonder if the mail will come today? Then again, I wonder if I will be able to walk through the yard to get the mail if it does come. Yesterday the snow was almost up to my knees and since then it has dumped about six more inches.

I am grateful that I don't have to go out. The kids don't want Christmas presents, do they?

Books I've Read in 2008

• Died in the Wool by Rett MacPherson
• Dead Man Running by Rett MacPherson
• Thicker Than Water by Rett MacPherson
  
• Killing Cousins by Rett MacPherson
  
• A Misty Mourning by Rett MacPherson
  
• Dyer Consequences by Maggie Sefton
• Comedy of Heirs by Rett MacPherson
• Hand of Evil by J.A. Jance
• Dragonwell Dead by Laura Childs
• Blood Orange Brewing by Laura Childs
• Chamomile Mourning by Laura Childs
• The Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs
• The English Breakfast Murder by Laura Childs
• The Mighty Queens of Freeville by Amy Dickinson ARC
• Shades of Earl Grey by Laura Childs
• Gunpowder Green by Laura Childs
• Return to Summerhouse by Jude Deveraux
• A Killer Stitch by Maggie Sefton
• Death by Darjeeling by Laura Childs
• A Deadly Yarn by Maggie Sefton
• Died in the Wool by Mary Kruger
• Knit Fast, Die Young by Mary Kruger
• Needled to Death by Maggie Sefton
• Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows b J. K. Rowling
• Miss Julia Strikes Back by Ann B. Ross
• Lean Mean Thirteen by Janet Evanovich
• Songs for the Missing by Stewart O'Nan ARC
• Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs
• Back on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
• Searching for Paradise in Paker, PA by Kris Radish
• Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas
• Plum Lucky by Janet Evanovich
• The Sister by Poppy Adams ARC
• Caroline's Journal by Katherine Stone
• The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
• Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich
• Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson
• The House At Riverton by Kate Morton ARC
• Miss Julia Stands Her Ground by Ann B. Ross

Last Hat

I improvised on my last hat for Nell and while I really like how it turned out, I'm not sure Staci will. I used the left over yarn from Staci's scarf and made stripes in the off white hat.

I have been thinking a lot about my blog and think that starting in the new year I will try to type more often and on a wider variety of subjects. I'm also going to learn to organize my posts better.

Finally

Today my mail lady (to be known from this day on as Dawn) brought a package to my house and I was finally able to give her the socks I knit for her. I think she was a bit surprised and I also think she really likes them. It was fun to give someone something that they weren't expecting, but I'm not sure I can convince her to wear them, as she said something about hanging them on the wall.

Staci (my sister) has a friend who is going through chemo and losing her hair. Staci asked me to make her friend some hats. She also said her friend (we'll call her Nell because that is her name) used to knit but couldn't remember how and asked if I would teach her. Why not?

So we went to Wildfibers to get hat yarn. Now Staci is the least crafty person around and I'm positive she had never been in a yarn store, so there was a lot of discussion on why some things would just not work. Finally, we narrowed down the choices and Staci bought three skeins of yarn.

A couple of days later at Thanksgiving dinner, I jokingly told Staci that Knot Just Yarn had a 20 percent off the next day. She said oh do you want to go, I said no way am I going shopping the day after, are you nuts. So anyway the next day she called me and said I'm going to the sale, will you meet me?

I wade through the traffic (30 minutes/four miles) and meet her and she's picking out yarn to use to learn to make herself a scarf. She bought this amazing Jewel by Universal Yarn that is mohair and ribbony and you know a pain to knit, which she sends home with me for safe keeping. Of course, you know that while I was there I had to buy more yarn for myself.

Monday we go to Nell's for the lesson. I take all my stuff in my wonderful Mackinaw Moon rolly bag and they each get yarn and needles from the bag. Both know the basics, but neither can cast on. I show them and we sit and knit (although poor Nell was not feeling the best). Then Staci decides her yarn is too pretty for her to knit on so guess who made scarf.

You had to see that coming, right?