Phriday is Phor Phil-Ins
Yep, it's definitely Friday. And that means, fluff! From Janet at
Friday Fill-Ins comes this (my answers in mauve):
1. I'm looking forward to
warmer weather next week.
2. I don't handle
confrontation very well.
3.
Indian Food is something I could eat every day.
4. Warmth and sunlight
bring joy to my heart.
5.
Look out, rock radio, here I come!
6. I
have one tattoo
already and am considering a second.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to
working on music, tomorrow my plans include
working on music and Sunday, I want to
work on music!
For a musician, I'm so "one-note" in that last one. *cough*
And more fun. I nevah woulda guessed (first photo, 1995; second, last December):
Labels: memes, nothing important
A Couple of Quizzes
After working on a new song in Cubase tonight (the lyrics practically wrote themselves), I entertained myself with a few quizzes. These are the only results worth posting. The others were kinda dumb. Not to be judgmental or anything. (I love how Blogger's spellcheck catches "judgemental" even though as I recall, it is a perfectly acceptable alternate spelling.)
You Are a Life Blogger!
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Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary.
If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.
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You Scored an A
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You got 10/10 questions correct.
It's pretty obvious that you don't make basic grammatical errors. If anything, you're annoyed when people make simple mistakes on their blogs. As far as people with bad grammar go, you know they're only human. And it's humanity and its current condition that truly disturb you sometimes.
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Labels: quiz time
Who We Are Versus Who We Want to Be
THIS IS NOT WHO YOU ARE, BUT WHO YOU WANT TO BE.From
Be*Mused by way of
the Calico Cat, a quote from
Peter Walsh that he made to a woman on Oprah who was drowning in cookbooks and supplies she never used, in response to her telling Peter that she always intended to do more serious baking.
This is not who you ARE, but who you want to BE.If you are Peter Walsh, this is probably the go-ahead to start chucking the cookbooks and supplies, and letting go of the desire to be someone you "aren't".
Or is it?
I tend to disagree, at least in part.
Perhaps this should be viewed as a signpost, pointing to your deepest dreams rather than a castle in the sky to be torn down without a second thought!
I'm all for uncluttering one's life and eradicating unnecessary items, for stripping away things that do not fit one's ideal vision of their lives. But who is to say that the person one
wants to be is something that can never be attained?
Everyone lives in a state of denial, denying themselves the things they most want because limiting beliefs, negative past programming, and subconscious counter intentions tell them that they don't deserve it, they don't have the skills/talents, it's a waste of time/money/energy, it's extravagant, it's frivolous, it's too hard, it's too easy—and so on. We all have programming along these lines, particular to our own cases, thanks to our upbringing and what we've been exposed to throughout our lives.
But we will occasionally get nudges, glimpses into a better, brighter world, a world we want very much to trade up to and live within.
Maybe for the cookbook woman, the idea of being a more serious baker was the answer to a call coming from her soul telling her that her destiny is to BE a baker. Or a cookbook author. Or a network food chef. Or something related.
Maybe for her, it's the signpost pointing toward her deepest unrealized dream. Her destiny.
Or, perhaps it's a response to feelings of self-worth. Maybe she's trying to make up for someone in her life who failed to meet expectations. Maybe her mother wasn't "there" for her growing up, and she saw other mothers who baked for their families, and associated baking with love and nurturing. Maybe she feels a deep-rooted need to either fill the void in her own life that was created by her mother's ignorance of that role by going above and beyond expectations for her own family. Maybe she needs to bake to prove to herself that she's a better Mother/Wife/Nurturer than her own mother was. I'm speculating, of course. But it would make sense.
In the first instance, it would be wholly unwise for the woman to be told to chuck out her supplies and give up on trying to be that person. In this instance, she would be practicing even further denial of her own TRUTH. Instead, she should be encouraged to find out why she has been avoiding it, and work to overcome the limiting beliefs that are blocking her—then make "serious baking" a priority in her life.
Begin to live the life that she's dreaming of.In the second instance, it would be beneficial and life-altering for the woman to let go of the supplies,
if she has also become aware of the beliefs that lead her there, and lets go of
them at the same time. In this instance, letting go would bring about healing and allow her to see the rise of her own true self.
I suppose my response is not as simple as "No, that's wrong" or "Yes, that's correct". My response would be that one must go further than just saying "Oh, that's just who you want to be, but you're not, so let it go". One must delve deeply into their own psyche and find the reasons WHY they want to be this other person. Only then can they make a sound decision to allow themselves to BE the person they want to be, or to let that person go so that they can realize their own true dreams.
Labels: musings, positive thinking
Not Sure What This Photo Answer Meme's Called
Yeah, OK. It's going around. You go to Photobucket (because Flickr doesn't play as nice, I found out the hard way), answer each question, type your answer in the Search box, and the first photo that comes up is your "answer". I forget where I saw it first... on everyone's blog! LOL!
1. What's your first name?
2. What's your favorite food?
3. Where did you go to school?
4. What is your relationship status?
5. What is your favorite color?
6. Who's your celebrity crush?
7. Who are you listening to right now?
8. Favorite movie:
9. Favorite book:
10. Favorite Disney Princess:
11. Favorite Drink:
12. Where's your dream vacation?
doing this...
here...
13. Favorite dessert:
14. What did you want to be when you grew up?
15. What do you love most in life?
16. One word to describe yourself.
17. One word to describe your style.
18. What is your ideal home?
19. What is your favorite mode of transportation?
20. What are you passionate about?
Labels: memes
Obits
Thank you, Anonymous, for your kind comment. I would have replied in person, but... you're anonymous.
So I'm reading the obituary in today's paper for my friend's grandma, "C". Standard issue: age, birthdate, parents, survived by the long list of children, etc. All very generic and somber.
Until I got to the line following the list of grandchildren's names and saw this, and promptly lost it:
C is also survived by her spoiled cat, Lydia.
I'm still leaking tears... from laughing so hard.
Rest in peace, C. They'll be OK. :-)
02-23-1918
Happy Birthday, Dad.
No, I didn't forget. I just couldn't bring myself to type this earlier... and I was distracted by the news that a friend's grandma chose this as her day to depart the planet. But I've remembered. All day.
Today, you would have been 90 years old. How I wish you were here to celebrate it with me. I remember how surprised you were when you reached 88. You said with a look of wonder, "I'm eighty-eight! GOSH! I made it!"
You were fresh out of the nursing home, of course, having recovered from your fall, and we all gamely shuffled over to the steakhouse for dinner. Conversation was slight, though, because nobody could hear a thing. Chuckling at that.
In your casket, there is a birthday card from me for every year until you are 100. I wonder which one was for this year?
We miss you here up top. Or, I do. I can't speak for the others. I'm still up top but I get the feeling they don't miss me at all. Oh, well. OK, not to be a bummer...
Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I remembered. And that I miss you, every day, and love you more than anything. Say hi to Mom for me.
Love,
Your daughter
Labels: family time
Well, I Coulda Told You That
You Belong in 1983
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Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.
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Labels: quiz time
CPH Swatch Moment of Truth
So I took the plunge and knit a CPH swatch in lovely Old Sage Lamb's Pride Worsted (single-ply), 20 stitches across, including one cable, and topped it off with 2x2 rib at the end for good measure (no pun intended).
The freshly-knit dimensions:
4.25" wide x 5" longThe swatch experienced life in the lukewarm tub (can't be hot-tubbing it when you are partly wool) of Eucalan, then was gently squeezed out and blocked appropriately to the board. It languished overnight, drying.
The blocked dimensions:
4.5" wide x 5.5" longHmmm. That's a quarter-inch width dif and a half-inch length dif. My gauge initially was 4.25 sts/inch. Cast on 110. That means... doing the math... hang on...
OK, help?
OK... if a 20-st swatch measures 4.5" wide.... then 110 sts / 20 = 5.5 x 4.5" = 24.75" wide.
OK so if the finished dimension is supposedly 25", I'm close? But I want it to be a tad larger. A TAD. Not three inches. More like an inch or so. Do I go up one needle size to a #9?
Maybe I'm not ready for a sweater.
Of course the alternative is, if it's too small, I can always trim down until
I fit the sweater...
Labels: breaking news
Give ME the Time of Day, Willya!
But of course I am. LOL! Ironically, 3:15 PM is about the time I really feel motivated to start my day. Granted, I go to bed around 5:00 AM and wake around noon, so for me, this is the equivalent of rising at 6:00 AM to be functional by 9:00 AM.
Musician's hours.
I've been in situations where I had to adjust (when employed 9-5 or in school), but left to my own devices, this is the schedule to which I default. My Mother once told me, however, that as a baby, I was an extreme early riser, that she and Dad had to condition me to sleep in to a "reasonable" time. These were folks who got up willingly by 7:00 AM. And I was waking THEM up. But Mother thought they'd maybe been a bit too effective at retraining me, because ever after I was impossible to get to bed, thinking I'd miss something if I didn't get to stay up til 11:00 PM. As a four year old.
So there it is. Am I a night-owl because I was trained to be? OR because it truly is my nature? No matter, it's who I am NOW.
And for the most part, I love it. Except during winter, when daylight is a high-dollar premium because contrary to common (vampire) belief, I actually LIKE sunshine. I once thought moving to California would mean more sun. Until I realized that the days grow shorter in Cali just as they do in Ohio. But I'm not ready to pack for Alaska or Greenland, thankyouverymuch.
So it was 50 degrees and sunny/melty today, and just now it started pouring. Ohio. Love ya.
Anything good on TV tonight? Something I can knit through? I FINALLY restarted the CPH in different yarn. If you remember, the initial plan was to knit it with this:
And I got as far as this on the back before realizing the striping/pooling would not match on the fronts unless I tricked it out:
So I put it in hibernation while trying to determine whether to knit it all at once on circulars, maybe steek it, two balls at once, egads....
Then I ran across nine skeins of Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in Old Sage that I'd bought in the mid-90s for a sweater that I'd started. I found the first 8 inches of the sweater, too. As a new knitter doing her first proper garment, I was advised to choose an "easy" pattern. I was counseled strongly against the charted design I'd chosen but I bought it anyway.
No, it wasn't too complex for a beginner. The opposite. IT WAS TOO BORING. All it consisted of was rows of ridges formed by purling. So it was knit a bunch, purl a bunch, knit a bunch... they step as they go up but GAWD. After a few inches I'd gotten the hang of it, and I could not fathom continuing another 18 inches, then repeating for the front, then sleeves... so I stopped.
With me, they should have realized that MY first sweater should have been a fisherman's cabled monstrosity to keep my ADHD brain occupied and interested.
I thought perhaps this yarn (Lamb's Pride) would serve the CPH well—and save me having to buy an entire sweater's worth of new yarn (the Di Ve Autunno will eventually find its way to a different garment). The CPH is a nice knit—the cables break up the monotony, the pattern is easy to commit to memory (esp with stitch markers) so it's a good "public" knit, and it's still "mindless" enough that it can be done in front of the TV. So I cast on. Two repeats in and I frogged it because though my swatch said
OMG if I make the largest size it'll be like a tent on me, the next size down in actual stitchiness was absolutely undeniably too small.
OK, I'll admit I didn't wash or block the swatch.
I knit another swatch because, *ahem*, I, uh, wanted to conserve yarn so I, uh, *blush* frogged the first one. This time I swatched with the cable motif, AND I washed it AND I blocked it. I've already cast on the stitches for the back for the next size up, but only knit one row of ribbing. I'm about to pull the swatch from the blocking board and give it a measure.
Stay tuned...
Oh, PS: Happy to report that Tyler not only is no longer puffy-looking, but is back to his obnoxious, overly-excited happy little self thanks to FUS (Feline Urinary Supplement). He's a big pile of happycat now, and he comes running for his FUS "treat" when I shake the bottle.
Labels: CPH, nothing important, WIP
Just Call Me Clint
OMG!
This has been travelling around the internets for awhile now. I'm honored to have been included—thank you,
Knitasha!
The rules state:
Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware; you may get the award several times.Of course, I am a regular reader of
the Harlot,
Crazy Aunt Purl,
Franklin,
Rabbitch, and many other all-time faves. I feel that this award should highlight blogs that may not have that level of visibility but are, IMHO, just as interesting to read. It was a challenging decision. As I have well over 200 feeds in my Bloglines that I truly love to read (thank the Good Lord they don't all post daily!), I had to narrow it down to a Top 12. Two-thirds of them are fellow knitbloggers—they are all wonderful people and no further explanation is needed! :-) The last third is comprised of non-knitters and the reason they've been chosen appears in parentheses.
Dr. Joe Vitale (the guru of the Law of Attraction, Mr. Fire himself)
Knitasha Von Stashenskeins Knoobie Knitter Mows (if you love cats, you'll love this comic!)
Sheepish Annie Shim and Sons (her artistic aesthetic is astounding)
Skeins & Beans Stick's Adventures Stumbling Over Chaos T-Town Knitiot Tiennie Turtlegirl Unclutter (my personal clutter "support group")
It's good to feel loved. ;-)
Labels: breaking news, friends, gratefulness
Happy VD
I'm going to be different. Rather than references to medical issues, I would like to take this opportunity to point out what this day is REALLY about.
HAPPY VALIDATION DAY!!!
That's right.
Today is the day when others are required by H*llm*rk Law to provide tangible evidence that validates the importance of our existence in their lives.
The other "lesser" days set aside for this validation purpose are Birthdays, Anniversaries, and ChristmaKwanHukkah.
Therefore, I graciously validate that each and every one of my readers and friends is important to me.
In other news, I made a few adjustments to my sidebar. That horoscope feature was malfunctioning. It was talking about the week of September 2008 in the blurb next to my avatar, then when I linked over, it said something completely different. So I euthanized it. That I managed to do it without killing the avatar that
actually does look like me is a miracle. That I was able to convince the clock to play nice with it and share quarters is another miracle. The birthday cake was just too obnoxious having top hierarchy, so it got demoted.
What do you mean, I must not have any blog fodder? I have plenty of fodder. Just it's all personal, and none of it is appropriate for the blog. Sorry... you'll have to wait for the book to be published. Not that I'm publishing one. Maybe someday. I am keeping a journal of my fodder, however, and it has book potential. But no, don't get excited. Nobody has knocked on my door and offered to squeeze my ramblings between two sheets of pressboard.
Yet.
Happy VD, now go hug yourselves.
Labels: holidaze, nothing important
Grammar Moses?
Who knew?
How grammatically correct are you?
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You are a MASTER of the English language!
Huzzah. While your English is not exactly perfect, you are still more grammatically correct than just about every American. Others admire the way you speak and could learn a lot from listening to you. Still, there is always room for improvement...
Take this quiz!
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And in other news, because I find these so utterly fascinating...
Daily HoroscopeFor 12 February 2008Financial matters are particularly important in the development of direction and career interests during February 12-17. Good fortune smiles on you in more ways than one, making for a happy, successful period.
Weekly HoroscopeFor the week starting 11 February 2008Monday brings a close alliance between the Sun and Neptune so check where you stand with regards to any shared resource as otherwise you may be taken for a ride. There may be a mystery that needs solving regarding a legacy or connected to a loan or an insurance claim. Friday brings a helpful link between the Sun and Mars that could bring a substantial financial benefit that will be strongly connected to your distant past and one of your parents.
Labels: quiz time
F.U.S.
Feline Urinary Syndrome.
That's what Tyler has. The prescription was for Very Expensive Food, which is exorbitant when one has five feline mouths to stuff.
But
Stick to the rescue.
She recommended I try a product that worked for her bunch and got them off of the VEF. While I didn't get the exact brand, I did find a brand at my LPS that contains the exact concentration of ingredients, and, uh, the label art is stunningly similar—leading me to believe that the same manufacturer produces it, just distributes under a couple different labels. You do know that pies are distributed the same way, right? The apple pie put out by
Mrs. X's Fancy Pie Co. is the same pie as packaged by
Grandma Y's Homelovin' Pies; one company makes them, and the individual pie companies just add a different design on the crust and fancy boxes.
Anyway. I chopped up a tablet and Tyler enjoyed 1/4th of it. Blue snatched one of the quarters and gobbled it down, and little orange piggie Jake managed to swipe two. Oink. Neither Zander nor Ophelia was the least interested.
I'll try crushing and working into Tyler's wet food treat tonight to see if that helps. He'll probably need to be isolated to prevent the gobblers from attacking, but if it means he gets supplemented, it's worth it.
Anyone every try No Scratch spray? Does it work? Any home remedies besides double-sided tape (ick) or tin foil (sort of works)?
Labels: cats
Believe
What would you have to believe about yourself to now get the one thing in your life that you haven't been able to get before?This is the question posed by LOA coach Karen Luniw (
The Law of Attraction Center) in today's email. I invite everyone who reads my blog to take a moment and think about this question. The concept is that your past does not equal your future, a concept first posed by
Anthony Robbins, and holds that we are not who we were last year, five years ago, or even five minutes ago as we are constantly evolving—and everything ahead of us can be changed simply by altering our beliefs.
Would you like to know my answer? It surprised me—then again, it didn't. My answer was:
I'd have to believe that it's actually possible, even for me.That says quite a bit, doesn't it?
Happy trails...
Labels: Law of Attraction, positive thinking
Tpyo
Er, Typo.
Thank you for condolences re: MommaMonkey, but really, they should go out to the knitting world moreso than to me. The knitting world has lost a fantastic sock knitter and designer.
In other news... I took a typing test. I was disappointed. I used to type 90 WPM. But then,
74 words
...ain't too bad for someone with rampant carpal tunnel.
Labels: nothing important
R.I.P. MommaMonkey
My God in Heaven. I just found out through Ravelry News and
Lime & Violet that
Gigi Silva, aka
MommaMonkey of
monkey-toes.net and the creator of
Socktopia, has died from complications of a lengthy illness.
This is not just a shock because she was a fellow knitblogger (and confirmed sockaholic). It's a shock because last year I got to know her a bit through emails when I signed on to be a sock tester. She sent two sock patterns and yarn to me.
One bore the super secret codename
Flames. It became
Fawkes. My contribution is the orange one.
The other bore the super secret codename
Sleep Socks.
Their destiny and true name will remain unknown. They wound up in hibernation, awaiting pattern corrections that, sadly, will never arrive. As I posted in the
tribute thread on the Ravelry Forum (apologies to non-Ravelers for the link),
Every time I look at this yarn, I will think of the talented woman I came to know through blogs, emails and socks but not in person. Your family is in my prayers and you are in God’s Hands. Rest in peace, MommaMonkey. I hope there is knitting in Heaven.
Any other tidbits I had to blog about are insignificant at the moment. But I'll tell you that Tyler is doing well, eating fine, and evacuating as expected. He's rejoined the herd. I've also been turned on to a supplement readily available at my LPS (Local Pet Store) for Feline Urinary Syndrome (FUS) that does the same thing as the Very Expensive Food and it's like a treat. I'll let you know how it works.
Labels: breaking news, cats, ravelry, sockaholism
