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Saturday, February 28, 2009

One Year!

I'm so on the ball.


I knew it was February that I started this blog. 
I remember knitting my first pair of socks at the Holiday Inn in Ellsworth over school vacation.

So I looked it up, and sure enough, the blog was born on February 6th. 

Hey, at least I remembered it was February!



Friday, February 27, 2009

Christmas in February

...and by the skin of my teeth, as it's the 27th of February.

But 'sall good.


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They were all fun to knit; I would even do them again.

But, you know, on to other things.

Like this!

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I took Natalia to the store to pick out her own buttons.

Then I left them with her for her Mom to sew on.

Ten bucks says the kid is wearing it without buttons.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

A Quickie

We made it back to the island, almost in one piece (minus one toenail...)


I suffered additional trauma Friday and Saturday while I obsessively checked and re-checked the weather forecast for Sunday's ferry trip.
The news was not good.
30 to 35 knot winds, with gusts up to 50!!!
seas 15-18 feet!!!

My limit is 6 feet. I can be pushed to 7, maybe even 8, depending on the wind direction.
But really, anything over 5 feet requires medication. (By the way, I had 2 c-sections, and never took a single drug after either surgery. Just sayin'.)

So, I spent all of Saturday night in a panic,  doing the "un-wind dance". You've read accounts of how American Indian tribes held ceremonies to ask the Gods for rain for their crops? Including the "rain dance"? I shake from head to toe, and we call it the un-wind, or no-wind dance.
I ask God, Jesus, Mary, and all the Saints (anyone who'll listen, really)to stop the wind. 

Sometimes they listen.

This was one of the times.

So we had a nice, smooth, uneventful ride home, spent two days unpacking and doing laundry, and getting back to normal. 
As much as I need to get off the rock once in a while, I really love to come home!

I gave out all my Christmas gifts (shut. up.), and can now show them to you (try to contain your excitement).
But first I must find my card reader. It's here somewhere...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Traumatized!

I'm on vacation.


I got to visit a lot of the family this week.
Including my 13 yr old nephew, Meathead.

Meathead wears size 11 shoes. 

He's gargantuan.

And yet, sometimes I forget how big he is, and start roughhousing with him.

And this time, while I was attempting to deliver a SuperSonic Wedgie, he stomped on my foot with those size 11's.

And ripped off the toenail of my big toe.

Damn right, ouch!

When I recover, he's toast.


Sunday, February 15, 2009

Reality Check

Recently, I mentioned the economic downturn in the state of the lobster industry.
Lobster prices are on the rise up and down the coast of Maine; they are nearly double what the low price was. For now.
This is a very good thing.


'Cause I'm just not up for a Depression.
Not right now. Maybe later.

The funniest thing to come out of all this recent financial drama (are you getting all this biting sarcasm, here?) is that sister2 learned to make soup. (She cooks, but less than sister 1 or myself. So I get to make fun. Plus I'm the oldest; I have seniority.)
Not just any soup.
Depression soup.

I'm intrigued. Please share.

Sister 2: Well, I had a roasted chicken for dinner one night, and I saved all the bones and stuff after we'd eaten all the meat off it, you know?

Yeah. I know. It's called a carcass. (and I have an idea I probably could have fed my family of 4 with what was left on those bones...)

Pretty word. Well, I saved it, and used it to make a soup!

No shit. Really? Can I just ask...how did you used to make soup? You know, before your profound revelation regarding the not wasting of the carcass?

With a whole chicken, or a few legs.

Yeah, way to waste a chicken. I'll bet that slow boiled meat tasted just great.

 
                       How bizarre. I've never even thought to use a whole chicken to make soup. And                           how did we grow up in the same house, and learn 'soup' so differently? I must get to                     the bottom of  this. 
                    I have no life.
                    I called sister 1.

And how do YOU make soup?

 Sister 1: What, are you taking stupid pills?

Humor me, how do you make chicken soup?

I throw a chicken rack in the crockpot with onions, celery, carrots, and some water....

Ok, just checking. And who taught you that? 

I don't know, why? Probably Ma. Or Mom. ** What's it to ya, anyway?

Never mind. By the way, your sister's an idiot. She may have been adopted. Or dropped on her head as a baby.

**lest some of you think we should audition for The Jerry Springer show, I don't have two mothers. MA was our Grandmother, now (sadly) deceased. MOM is our Mother (alive and hiding tupperware lids in all our kitchens).

Below is an excerpt from a post on Trent's Blog

"I’m a student of the Great Depression. I’ve talked to many people who lived through those years about their experiences and read countless books on the subject.

We are not living through anything that even compares to the Great Depression, and to even imply that we are is simultaneously deeply insulting to those who did live through it as well as woefully ignorant as to what it was like.

There are no block-long lines for soup kitchens. More than 90% of the nation is fully employed - not the 60% or so employment of the 1930s. There is no “dust bowl” - soil and water conservation practices have made such a huge loss of our nation’s bread basket impossible. People aren’t going to lose their money to bank failures - the FDIC has them insured."



And all I can think is, I'll bet they don't use whole chickens in the soup kitchens.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

What??!!

I swear to all that is Good and Holy...


all I did was sit in a chair and knit. 

I did let go of the needles to measure, but there is no logical reason for this to have happened:

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Seriously. I never left the chair.

I think I can bend aluminum with my mind.

Be scared.

(They still work just fine, thankyouverymuch. Though I probably won't use that particular needle to cast on anymore, just in case.)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Trials and Tribulations

I've sewn.


Not much, and not exceptionally well, but well enough.

But I can mend like the best of 'em.

So when I saw these blouses for $5, it was a no -brainer.
No, they were not my size, but I could fix that.
They just needed to be taken in, and hemmed. No problemo.

After all, I've been looking for a white, button-down, 3/4 sleeve blouse for about 15 years.
(I know! You wouldn't think it would be so hard to find, would you?)

So out comes this bad boy:

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dug out from the dredges of a closet I haven't seen the back of in at least 8 years.

While struggling with how to accomplish the 'fixing' of these blouses, I had to remove le machine, and all its paraphernalia from the kitchen table three times to feed the family. The cat is now sleeping on it/in it.

Aaaand then I discovered that these blouses have bust darts. So when I took them in, the darts were placed near my armpits. 
I have armpit darts.
I don't know how to fix armpit darts.

So, my $5 shirts are coming with me to Boston, to find a tailor, who hopefully can put darts where darts are supposed to live, for not a whole bunch of money.

Wish me luck.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Enablers

I saw these on one of the 300+ blogs I read, and I drooled.

Drooled, I tell you.

Now, when you read skim 300+ blogs, you cannot possibly retain all the info you take in. So I don't know who posted this recipe, but Thank You, whoever you are!

These were pretty easy to make, and were well worth the effort.


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Mrs. Finn and I played with these Superbowl Sunday while Mr. Finn and the rest of my crew played Wii. 

They are waaaaay too much fun to make.

And they taste just like the ones we used to get off the cart outside Jordan Marsh when we were kids.

I'll be making these again this weekend! 

And was it me, or did the Superbowl commercials stink this year? (except the Doritos one , that was great!) I thought they were pretty lame.

Crime and Punishment

'Scuse me? You there, on the yarn?

What is the cardinal Cat/Yarn rule in this house??


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No catnapping in the yarn!

You know the penalty....

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NOOOOOOOO!  You wouldn't! I'm 20!
gimme a break, man!





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the ultimate humiliation.


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don't look at me.I'm ugly.
i hate baths.
and i'm still gonna sleep on your yarn.


Wednesday, February 4, 2009

liars.

the 'light dusting' scheduled for last night turned into a solid foot of snow.


And I'm a pedestrian again today, as The Big Guy is taking the truck off the island to procure food. 

And it's still snowing.
sigh.

The upshot of all this, is that I have the house to myself this afternoon, once the kids go back to school after lunch.
And since The Big Guy won't be home until tomorrow...it's pancakes for supper.
(The Things and I love breakfast food for supper, but The Big Guy won't stand for it. So we look forward to our 'alone time' and have pancakes for supper. I live a super exciting life, I know.)

A snowy afternoon, with at least 3 hours of solo time???

Wonder if you can guess what I'll be doing??????

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I'm finished with Christmas presents, but now I'm onto Birthdays...and have yet to mail any of them.
Maybe tomorrow, if I don't answer the phone at all today.

It's 10:18.
Still snowing.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Tax Time...

...makes my hair stand on end.


And I'm not the only one!!


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