Queen Anne's Lace and Lilacs

Living with Tornadoes

5:00 p.m., sunny, 68 degrees

Yesterday, I was watching a number of the videos of the Moore, OK tornado.  The news about those poor kids at the schools was absolutely heartbreaking.  Seeing the destruction and hearing the stories is sickening and overwhelming.  It is amazing that most people survived.  I don't know how you move on when you've lost everything. 

I also couldn't help but think of the tornadoes I've been through.  Growing up in the Midwest, I have a few stories. Nothing nearly as devastating occurred, as far as I remember, as what happened the other day.  It was always horrible enough just to hear the sirens going off and scrambling to the basement, hoping nothing awful would happen.

I lived eight years in the Kansas City, KS area, seven years in the Wichita area, about eight years in Nebraska, and 16 years in the Houston area.  I have dealt with tornadoes in every place I've lived, except for where I live now.  (When the kids were little, we'd spend the summers with my parents.  So, add Cherokee, IA to that list.)

I only remember a couple of tornadoes in Kansas City.  We were actually living in Shawnee, a suburb of K.C.   The first time, we were living in the little green house, out in the country.  It was part of a farm, and at one time had been some kind of a shed.  I don't know how my parents felt about that little place, but I have fond memories.  I was in kindergarten and thought it was great.  I should know the road it was on, since I've asked so many times, but I'm drawing a blank, right now.  Anyway.  The upstairs was the living room and one big bedroom.  Downstairs was the kitchen/dining area, which opened onto a patio in the back yard, and the bathroom, under the staircase.  I remember one time having to get into the bathtub, as there was a tornado warning.

The other time, I was in first grade, living in the house on Flint, still in Shawnee (we moved around quite often, as the church would rent different parsonages - fun for me, probably not so much for my parents).  It was a Sunday afternoon.  My mom had gone to the store.  In the evening, we would be going to church.  After mom left, the sirens went off, so my dad took my brothers and me to the basement.  I remember playing with my farm set.  As my mom  drove to the store, she looked ahead and saw a tornado.  She turned around to come back home.  Unfortunately, the front door was locked, so she couldn't get in.  She wasn't happy.

Right after third grade, we moved to Haysville, just south of Wichita.  There were a number of tornadoes in the years that I lived there.  We had a basement at our house, and the church had a basement.  The siren was on the water tower across the street.  People in the city would show up at the church when the sirens would go off, so my dad would go there to unlock the doors and stay until the storm passed.  Sometimes, it would happen during church.  We'd all just head down to the basement.  If a tornado occurred during the middle of the night, my dad would go over to the church, just a couple of blocks away,  and the rest of us would stay at home.  People living in the area would knock on the door and ask if they could go down to our basement.  So, there we would be in our pajamas with a bunch of people we didn't know.  My brother, Jerry Mark, would just be sitting there shaking, teeth rattling.  He hated tornadoes.

I attended Nelson Grade School, or Elementary, whatever they called it back then.  I was in fourth grade, and at the time, the fourth grade classes were held in the Hemphill Building next door to the school.  It was in the spring of 1969.  We were out at recess, it was an overcast day.  The teachers called us in from recess, early, saying we needed to have a tornado drill.   They took us down to the furnace room/basement and had us sit down.  Unfortunately, we couldn't all fit, so we had to go back upstairs and sit in the hallway.  At some point, a number of parents came in to get their kids.  Of course, not mine.  But my friend, Linda's, mom came and took her home.  Eventually, we were back at our desks, half of the class having gone home.  

Later, and I can't remember if it was days, months, or years later, Linda's mom, Pat, told me that there were several tornadoes spotted over the school.  Kinda irritated me when I remembered we were told it was just a drill.

Throughout the years, Haysville has had to deal with many tornadoes.  On May 3, 1999, a tornado would wreak horrible damage in Haysville, and if I had been living there in the same house, I think I would have been able to watch that tornado destroying part of the city. 

A couple of tornadoes in Nebraska, but it was in Houston that I had to deal with the most tornadoes.  And there are no basements/cellars in Houston.  There wasn't even a warning system.  Luckily, I was quite used to what tornado weather looked and felt like, so I knew to try to find out what was going on.  Eventually, The Weather Channel existed, but we didn't have that when I first moved down there.

I was telling my husband, Dale, that I couldn't believe, with all of the tornadoes, that there were no sirens, no basements.  And I don't think I'd lived there even a year, at that point.  He commented that basements were not possible, there, because they were barely above sea level, and anything underground always flooded.  Secondly, they very rarely even HAD tornadoes.  I said, "What are you talking about?!  There have been several just since I've been here!"  He said, "Well, we didn't really have any before you came."  Very funny.

One day, we were over at Grandmother's.  We were discussing tornadoes, probably because we had just had another one, and she said, "You know, come to think of it, we never really had tornadoes before you moved here."  Thanks.

We had many tornadoes while I lived there.  And we were like sitting ducks, hoping and praying nothing would hit the house.

Years later, when the kids were old enough to notice if I was upset, and the weather would get bad,  Evan would be pacing from The Weather Channel over to look out the front windows (looking just like his grandpa, my dad).  I'd have to sit there and act like nothing was wrong, everything was fine, to try and keep things calm, when I would have preferred to be screaming and crying.  Not fun!  I guess it worked.

I hate tornadoes.  I'm glad they're not much of a problem around here.  Still, I need to move home.  

Brett. Football Champion.

57 degrees, clear, chilly, 11:05 p.m.

Not much happened, today.  Spent almost three hours ironing, and that was the highlight of the whole day. 

Started watching the second season of "Foley's War." It's a British television series about the goings on in an Engish town during World War II.  Quite well done, I think.  There are a number of British shows we like, but it does get frustrating that it's difficult to understand what they're saying.  It's English, come on!  Enunciate! 

Brett's football team won their championship.  We've known about this game happening, tonight, for about a week.  I knew we should have either written it down or had Brett call us, today, because we totally forgot.  Sheesh.  In any case, congratulations Brett and Brett's Team!  I knew you guys would win.  Seriously.  I did.

Last night, we watched Candice Glover become the winner of American Idol 2013.  We watched the Giants game, first, and when it ended, Tim went to start American Idol, which I had recorded.  He meant to select American Idol and "start from beginning."  Don't know for sure how it happened, but it went immediately to the live show, which was a couple of minutes from being over, just at the point where Ryan Seacrest congratulated Candice for winning.  Huge bummer!  :(  Of course, I handled it with my usual calmness and grace.  Grrrr....

I had thought of something really wonderful to write about, earlier, but it is gone.  Didn't write that down, either.  I think it had to do with music.  Or my mom.  And I don't think the two were connected. I think I was thinking about it whilst ironing.  It's driving me nuts trying to remember. 

I have vowed, for the zillionth time, to quit watching and reading the news.  It's either depressing, infuriating, or scary.  Or all of those.  But, one has to know what is going on, these days.  Too much is happening. 

I am thrilled that I have discovered Alistair Begg, John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul.  They have tons of sermons, they're excellent preachers, and it's much better to be having that on during the day than the awful news.  Sproul also has an internet radio station, RefNet, that I listen to most days.  Good speakers/preachers and the music is quite nice, too.  Not always my style, but it's good to get a variety.

That's about it, I guess.  It's almost midnight, and we're still in the sixth inning of the horrible Giants/Rockies game.  I don't know what is wrong with these guys, this week.  Errors all over the place, AWFUL pitching, and losing.  Everybody looks terrible.  It's too weird to just be a coincidence.  IMHO.

Dambusters, Knitting, Basics 2013 Conference, Molly, American Idol

66 degrees, overcast, sprinkly, sipping Chick-fil-A lemonade

I was thinking about my using this blog as a place to write my little story - biography, if you will.  I believe I originally started this intending to use it like a journal/diary, anyway, so I'm going to go with that.  The odds of my coming up with some great topic to run with, well, obviously that doesn't seem to be happening, so Journal, it is.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Dambusters Raid in World War II.  I'm listening to BBC Lincolnshire, and they are doing a play-by-play of the whole thing.  Well, so far, they are playing interviews with some of the men who were there, some music from the time, some women who were living then.  At some point, when the bombs were being dropped, they will be covering what that was like, as well.  I'm also following, on Twitter, #Dambusters 70 and RoyalAirForceUK.  They are tweeting events as they occurred 70 years ago. 

I have started a knitting project that was to make up for the Mystery Game of Thrones Knit-Along that I got half-way through and then undid.  It had some techniques that I don't know.  I was going to start going through videos to find out how to do them when I saw the finished product.  It was quite unattractive, to me.  I happened to find this other pattern that had the part of the Knit-Along that I liked - without the unattractive part and the technique that I didn't know.  I ordered some yarn (Fiddle Knits' Bebop, Primary) that I thought would be good for Jayhawk colors.  Well, it turns out that there is much more yellow than what I thought there would be, but it's okay.  The pattern, however, is AWFUL!  I'm only continuing with it, because I like the cowl.  And I don't think I'll be doing anymore "mystery" projects. 

I started another project, about a week ago, with more yarn (Lang Jawoll Magic Degrade, greens) that doesn't look quite the way I had hoped it would look.  It wasn't quite as bright a green on the yarn shop website.  I never know what to expect.  I have ordered yarn, online, many times that arrived looking nothing like the website photo.  So, when I plan on that to happen, and in this particular instance, I was so hoping it was more blue than green - well, no, it's mostly bright and dark green.  Green isn't exactly one of my colors.

If I hadn't found this Dambusters thing, I was planning to listen to the sessions I had missed at Alistair Begg's Basics 2013 Conference.  I heard several, live, but the final day - morning - occurred WAY before I woke up (they are in Cleveland, three hours' time difference).  The sessions I have heard are quite good, and I'm sure the last couple will be, too.

Last night, I made a layout, starring Molly.  I am fascinated by the layouts/kits that look messy, yet artistic.  Well, I think mine looks like a mess with no artistic anything, but I tried.  I could make a couple just copying someone else's, but I've done that before, and whatever it takes to create such things just doesn't sink in.  There's a part of me that thinks, "When I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God WHY he didn't give me SOME artistic ability," but then I know that I'll never, in a million years, think about such trivia when I'm in God's presence.  The kit is Captivated Visions' Sunshine in My Soul.

Tonight, we'll be watching the Giants play the Rockies, I think.  It doesn't matter - they played two horrendous games in Toronto, last night and the night before.  I told Evan that his and Brett's four-year-old Cypress Y(MCA) teams didn't make as many errors as the Giants have made in both of those Toronoto games.  Seriously.  Missing balls, dropping, balls, just standing there, whatever.  Hopefully, that will all never happen, again.

And, tonight is the final night of American Idol.  I had said, on Facebook, back during the auditions, that Candice had the best voice.  So, no surprise that she made it to the Top Two.  She definitely has the better voice, but her song selection has been horrid.  The other girl, Kree, is country.  She's okay.  She's had a tough life.  Tim is going more for Kree.  I don't know about Bethany.  If there are no boys involved, Bethany doesn't care so much.

One of the songs Kree sang was Up to the Mountain, by Patty Griffin.  The first time I heard this song was on American Idol, performed by Kelly Clarkson.  It was their Idol Gives Back episode, years ago.  I loved the song, and I especially loved Ms. Clarkson's rendition.  It is fantastic. Gives me chills every time I hear it.  A bit of Janis Joplin.

 

From the Beginning

I was thinking, the other day, that I would write down my story for my kids.  I was planning on buying some kind of a journal.  Oh, I know!  I started reading a book, a diary, of a woman living in England during World War II, World War II London Blitz Diary Vol 1.  The woman's family found her journals and have published her writings, basically, as they appear in the journals.  I think that's what made me think of writing my own history down on something, as my kids really have no idea about my life before they came along.  In fact, they don't seem to remember that much of their OWN lives before five years ago. 

At some point, I decided, hey, why not just write about it on your blog.  After all, nobody reads that thing, anyway, so this will pretty much be just like the aforementioned woman's journals being hidden in the attic for decades.  I mean, my kids won't read this blog unless I bribe them.  And it had better be a good bribe, or they simply won't do it.  Same with my husband.  Although, since he is around me a lot more than the kids, I can make his life a lot more miserable than I can theirs.

Before I get started, I must mention that the decision has been made that the Sacramento Kings will NOT be relocating to Seattle.  The Maloofs have been threatening to move the team for years, so hopefully this will shut them up.  I hope they take the money and run.  I am most happy the Kings are staying.  We have been watching this team since we moved up here, to Northern California, for 13 years.  Every year, we try to get at least some of us to two or three games.  Many happy memories surrounding this team, so I was very much hoping the team would stay!  Not knowing how things would end up going down, I've watched several teams in the playoffs to see if there is another team that interests me.  Nope.  Well, there is always the Rockets.  But I'd like to be having a team that it is possible to get to an actual game from time to time.  So!  Yay, Kings!!!

Kansas City, KS

I was born during a snow storm in Kansas City, KS, at Bethany Hospital - the same hospital where my dad was born, 26 years earlier.  My dad was in school at the time - seminary, Midwestern Theological Seminary - and so we were living in the basement apartment of my grandparents' house, my dad's parents.  He, by the way, was working part-time in the shoe department at Sears' in the Crown Plaza (over in Kansas City, MO).  He also preached, on Sundays, at some church in Iowa.  My mom and I stayed in Kansas City, as she was the organist at a nearby church, maybe Grandview Baptist or Emmanuel Baptist.  I'll have to ask which one is correct.

My dad was the baby of his family.  He had two sisters and two brothers.  His oldest sister was the same age as my mom's mom.  My mom was the oldest of her siblings - two sisters and a brother.  Her family also lived in Kansas City, KS, just a few minutes away from my dad's parents.  We lived across the street from Kensington Park, my mom's family was over on Parallel by the water tower.  That is how I think of it.

All of my dad's siblings and families lived in the Kansas City area, except for Uncle  Buster and Aunt Betty (and cousin Terry - they lived in the Dallas, TX area .  Which was great, because we would go to visit them on vacation.  Not only were they extremely FUN, Aunt Betty and Uncle Buster [Terry was rarely there, as he was in college by the time I came along, so I never knew him, really], but we would go to Six Flags!!).  Aunt Tookie and Uncle "C" lived in Kansas City, KS, with their sons Ron and Don.  Aunt Babe and Uncle Don lived in Overland Park, KS, with their sons Frankie Don, Bobby, and Rusty.  Aunt De-De and Uncle Ray lived in the Turner area of Kansas City, with their daughter, Connie (a year or two after I was born, they would have a son, John Charles). 

As I said, my dad's oldest sister was my mom's mom's age, so a number of my cousins were about my mom's age.  Most of my cousins were in high school or college when I was a kid.  I thought they were so cool I couldn't wait until I would be older and they would talk to me and I would sit at the same table as they did when we ate.  I didn't realize that I would never really catch up to them, and then we moved away, anyway, so none of that happened, after all.  Plus, they started marrying and having kids, so that by the time I was in high school, they were in the same category as my parents.  Anyway, I've always regretted that I never really had cousins that were my age to hang out with.

I did have cousins on my mom's side, but they all lived mostly in Emporia.  I have only seen them a couple of times.  They're nice and friendly, but I really have never known them. 

My mom's siblings were still just kids when I was born:  Aunt Janis, Uncle Joel, and Aunt Ann.  They babysat me a lot, since they lived nearby.  I think my mom said they would sometimes walk over to our house.  In my mind, that seems crazy.  It was only a 5 - 10 minute drive, depending on traffic (I think - I haven't been there in decades, but in my mind, as a kid, it seemed like a relatively short trip), but we're talking major streets!  But, that would have been the early '60s, so maybe they did.

I haven't scanned many of my baby pictures, but I have this one, shown above, of Aunt Betty holding me.  It's Christmas Day at my Grandma's house.  I am seven weeks old.  Aunt Betty and Uncle Buster have come home for Christmas from Dallas.  Or Fort Worth, or Richardson.  What can I say.  They moved around a lot - to some really fantastic houses that I LOVED.  Anyway!

I guess that will do for this first entry.  The basics, I guess.  At this rate, I feel like I'll get through all of my decades in about a week, not having any diaries or journals, and just going by memory.  I think the next time, I will discuss my grandparents (I'm writing this, here, so that I will remember that I have decided on my next topic.  If I don't write it down....).

 

Go, Tigers! (Well, not Really)

Erica sent some pictures of their trip to a Detroit Tigers game the other day, so I decided to use them with this template.  I am SO not good at this digital scrapping, but I love these journal templates.  I think I could have found a better kit to use, although I do love this kit.  I think I'm going to try the same photos, again, with another journal template and a different kit.  Fun!  Bethany doesn't like that there is a photo of Erica with Ariana but not one with Erica and Aidan.  I can only use what I'm given, sheesh! Oh - and I'm also not the greatest at journaling in the world, either.  (Kimeric's "Paper Lovers 6 Template" with Studio Basic's "Me, Myself, and I" kit)

On the knitting front, I did finish the "Pink Short Rows Cowl" (made with Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Molly).  I haven't blocked it, yet, and I'm hoping that it will get rid of some of the unevenness, but I'm afraid THAT mostly has to do with my not doing the short rows very well.  I seriously need to find someone who knits who can help me with some of this stuff.  My few minutes of knitting instruction with Mrs. Tjaden, back in eighth grade Home Ec at Haysville Junior High, didn't prepare me for this.

My green "Mira's Cowl" just needs to be bound off.  That was a fun one to knit, so I'm planning on doing one in another color.  My "Foreign Correspondents' Cowl" is almost halfway done, as is the "Rosebud Scarf."  As far as that one goes, I will never understand WHY I decided to make something that uses yarn that is thinner than sewing thread.  Not only does it take FOREVER to get any decent amount done, but unless the lighting is fantastic, my not-quite-as-young eyes can barely see what I'm doing. 

I have found an afghan that I'd like to do, but I'm wondering if that would be better to do in the fall, when it cools off, again.  It can get a bit hot having an afghan sitting on your lap during the summer - hands get all sweaty, which makes the yarn damp, and well, afghan making is better when it's cool.  Anyway, it's the "Umaro Textured Throw," by Jared Flood.  I love his patterns.  In fact, it's his "Setzer Cowl" that I've made in black and, now, pink (the one shown above).   

While getting the photo of the pink cowl off of the camera, I noticed two other cowls that I'd photographed but not yet uploaded at Ravelry.  The first one is the "Mesa Buttermint Chroma Striped Scarf."  This is the third scarf I've made with Knit Picks Worsted Chroma.  You use two different skeins at once, alternating yarn every two rows.  The yarn feels wonderful, and I love the colors.  I need to go over there and pick a couple more to try! 

The second item is the "Darkside Cowl," using Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky in hickory.  

Nature!

Lots of excitement, today!  There is a bird nest in the tree outside Bethany's window.  Early this afternoon, there seemed to be a lot of commotion out there, so Bethany forced herself to get up out of bed to see what was going on.  A scrub jay and a couple of robins were squabbling over the nest!  She came and got me, we went outside, and when we looked up, there was a scrub jay in the nest.  I asked Bethany if she'd noticed was that a robin's nest or a scrub jay's nest.  I then had to describe which bird was the robin and which was the scrub jay.  Why?!  Anyway, she hadn't noticed. It was hard to tell.  There was another scrub jay squawking in the area, and the robin was flying toward the nest, backing off, chirping.

I remembered a time in Haysville, when I was a kid.  We had a decent sized, covered front porch.  There were several trees in the yard, several within just a few feet of the porch.  For a few days, one year, a bluejay had built its nest in the closest tree to the house.  Every time someone opened the door, that bird went berserk!  I told Bethany I couldn't imagine a robin messing with another bird's nest, but I COULD imagine a scrub jay (related to the bluejay) messing with someone else's nest.

At one point, the jay left, and the robin flew to the nest.  It flew back out with an egg in it's beak, and flew to another yard, got rid of the egg, and came back.  We were wondering if the eggs had hatched, but there wasn't any tiny little chirping.  We walked to underneath the nest, and there were several pieces of a very pretty blue egg on the ground.  :(

Bethany and I came back in the house.  Several minutes later, the birds were back at it.  They continued for a while.  Bethany wanted to do something, but I couldn't figure out what she could have done.  It's quiet out there, now.  I hope everything is okay, but I'm not having a good feeling about that. 

Odds and Ends

I've been trying to make one digitally scrapped page a week to exercise "that" part of my brain.  Clearly, I was not gifted in this area.  This week's page is a scraplift of someone else's page (that I can't find anywhere, or I'd give credit), using Sahlin Studio's April '13 template, and I threw on a few more things.  I liked the template and the kit ("Happiness Captured," by Blagovesta), so I found some photos to go onto it, but there's no specific theme, or anything.  

KNITTING - Well, I have finally just about finished the cowl that was giving me so much trouble in the last post.  I think i had to rip things out several more times, but I'm in the process of binding off, so - I'm glad THAT's over.  However, I'm thinking I should make it again, trying to get through it once without starting over 500,000 times.

I started another, easy, cowl (Sarah Fama's "Darkside Cowl," with Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky, in hickory), so that will be nice, especially since I'm dealing with a "Game of Thrones" Mystery Knit-a-long (MKAL).  I have knitted and re-knitted on this so many times, it almost makes me sick to think about it.  A couple of weeks ago, we had the short rows clue.  Last week, was just knitting and purling a bunch of rows.  This week.  Aaacckkk!  I CANNOT get the correct number of stitches where they are supposed to be, and I've reworked it several times.  The yarn is getting fuzzy.  :( 

The lady at Jimmy Beans Wool, who is designing the pattern and sending out the clues, said she would put out a tutorial, today, as several are having the same problem that I'm having.  Whilst waiting for the tutorial, I started looking at the short rows section and decided it looked messy.  So, I ripped out all the way back to redo them.  Since I just finished spending a couple of weeks doing nothing BUT short rows, I was quite sure I'd have no problem and get those 36 rows done in no time.  After 12, I noticed a mistake. So!!!  More frogging.  This thing is more trouble than it's worth, I'm afraid.  36 rows from two weeks ago, about the same from last week, and then to THIS week's debacle.  I hope that tutorial helps!

Other than all of that, I haven't seen Brett since Easter, almost a month ago.  Since he lives only about five minutes away, and is not in his sickbed, this is unacceptable.  I KNEW he shouldn't have moved out.  I see just about as much of Evan, who is living in Houston.  And, the Giants are doing pretty well - although, the pitchers are allowing opponents' pitchers to hit home runs.  :(  But, the Royals are doing great!!  :)  The decision as to where the Sacramento Kings will be in the future is still a few weeks away.  I honestly don't understand the hold up.  And I don't even understand why there is a question.  They need to STAY HERE!  I guess I should say something about Bethany - she's either at school, working at Chili's, or lounging with her multitude of cats and dogs.  Tim is all about work, either at work or around the house - and watching his Giants. 

Am I done complaining?  Yes, I think so.  Well, I don't think I was complaining, really.  Just pointing out a few things that have exasperated me, lately. I could go on about all of the great things going on around here, but that would take forever!  :)

Oh, and hey!  What is up with all of the babies being born the last couple of weeks.  I don't have that many FB friends, but I think half of them have either HAD babies or have become grandparents.  Ah, good times.  I miss the babies.

Short Rows...What's the Problem?

I was wanting to complain about Short Rows, and I was also thinking I should post something new on my blog.  I'm hoping I remember what all to do.  Here goes!

A few months ago, I knitted a cowl using a technique of which I had never heard.  Short Rows.  I scampered over to YouTube and found quite a number of handy dandy videos showing how to do these things.  It took me forever, and quite a few ripping out/frogging incidents, but I finished that cowl!  And, after I'd figured it out, I thought, "Short rows really aren't that hard, at all!"

I told myself that I should find a new project using that technique to reinforce it.  Unfortunately, I didn't listen to myself.  I did, however, order yarn - one of my most favorite things to do - to make the same cowl in another, brighter color (hot pink :) - the first one was black, which made it quite difficult to see the different parts of the stitches that needed to be dealt with). 

Finally, the other day, I decided to give it a shot.  Just a couple of weeks ago, I had run across short rows in a mystery knit-along and, while I had to go back and sit through some of those videos, I managed to re-figure it out.  THIS time, I decided to do that other short-row project, NOW, while everything was still fresh in my mind.

I should have known things were not going to go smoothly when, at the first time to wrap-and-turn, I already couldn't remember what to do.  Aaarrrgghhh!!!!  Needing only to observe one video for just a few seconds, I got back to it, things went swimmingly, and I was thrilled when I ended up with the correct stitch count!  I was quite proud of myself.  And then I looked closely.  Holes. 

I want to hurt myself.  Or scream.  WHY do I not know someone, around here, who knits?! 

The thing sits here, beside me, as I type (mocking me).  I know that I am doing this just to kill time.  I don't know what to do.  Frog the stupid thing...AGAIN...or finish it, order more yarn, and do it right.  The problem is, I don't really know what I've done wrong.  I FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS PERFECTLY.  I honestly don't know why I try to learn new things.  And how come I was able to do it correctly, before, when I had never even heard of short rows or wrapping and turning, and this time it looks worse?  Sheesh.

Lest this sound really negative, I truly am in a pretty good mood.  I've got good music going, Bethany has been back and forth, being, well, Bethany, which is pretty amusing.  Occasionally, I listen to Alistair Begg, John MacArthur, R.C. Sproul, which is not only uplifting but educational.  I would like to avoid the news like the plague, but that's been a bit difficult this week, unfortunately and very sadly. 

Well, no new ideas, yet, or clear direction.  Guess I can flip a coin.

Oh, and if you, too, would like to learn about short rows, here are a couple of videos I like:  VeryPink Knits and Cat Bordhi.

("Setzer Welted Cowl" pattern by Jared Flood at Brooklyn Tweed, pictured above using Shelter American Wool yarn in "Cast Iron")

Grandma's Front Porch

I was looking for a picture to use for my dad's birthday the other day.  I found one with him in one of his baseball uniforms, back when he was a kid.  Well, I say, "kid," but he's wearing his Ft. Riley uniform.  He played on the Ft. Riley team when he was in the army, so I suppose he wasn't a kid.  He was younger than my boys, though, so I'm sticking with "kid."

Anyway, as I was looking at this picture, I became aware of the front porch.  Since that moment, this is one of my most favorite pictures, ever.  Brings back the most fond moments of family get-togethers, Kansas City, my wonderful childhood.   

I spent a lot of time on that porch.  In fact, we lived in the basement apartment of that house, my grandparents' house, until I was four.  The porch in the photo is exactly the way it was the first several years of my life.  At some point, Grandma bought some new furniture that had floral cushions.  But, I remember sitting on these chairs, too.  That one on the end of the porch is a glider.  I think the chairs were also gliders.

Across the street was quite awesome, as well.  There was a tennis court, right across from Grandma's.  To get to it, there was a steep uphill as soon as you stepped off of the street.  The spot where most people climbed was well worn.  It was right under a huge, old tree.  The roots were sticking up through the grass.  People kind of used the roots as steps so that the grass was worn down to the dirt.  When I was still little, even those "steps" were a bit intimidating. 

The tennis court seemed old back then with lots of cracks.  Sometimes I'd ride my tricycle (and later bicycle) on the court.  The two ends were fenced.  The sides were not.  The side we usually entered the court on was just there in the middle of a grassy yard-type space (it was all part of a big city park - Kensington Park, to be exact).  The other side of the court dropped down a couple of feet right off of the court down onto a parking lot.  My dad always seemed concerned that we'd fall right off that side.  I don't remember that anyone did.  (The Google Maps photo shows that they have filled in next to the court, so that the ground is even with it instead of dropping off.)

If you kept walking past the tennis court, you'd come to a steep downhill.  At the bottom of the hill was a ball diamond, bleachers, and concession stand.  I think my dad played ball there before I was born.  I remember going over there to watch games, slide down the dirt hill, and climb on the bleachers.  Even when we weren't there to watch the games, just sitting on the front porch across the street, you saw the lights and heard all of the baseball sounds.  I love thinking about that.

On the other side of the ball field, there was a big hill going up to the next street over, State Avenue.  That was a good hill for sledding on when there would be a decent snow.

One day, I decided that if I were ever to see my old home again, it would probably only happen with Google Maps.  I was a bit disappointed to see what has happened to Grandma's house.  It was too cool to actually see that place (which I hadn't seen in person since 1983, I think) and the old neighborhood.  But, really?  Closing up the front porch?  And that fence?  Oh, well - I try not to think about it.

 

Russell Stover's Mint Dream

When I was in high school (Norfolk High, Norfolk, NE), during my senior year, one of my best friends was Pam.  It was 1976-77.  Pam worked at the Hallmark store at Sunrise Mall.  I often stopped by to see her and to purchase a Mint Dream. 

I loved Mint Dreams.  If a person wanted to make me happy, just throw me a Mint Dream.  Of course, apparently, not too many people were concerned about making me happy, so I just had to buy them for myself.  They were worth it!!!

A couple of weeks ago, we bought some ice cream, some minty kind with Moose Tracks, or whatever.  I asked Tim if I could have a bite, since I don't exactly need a whole bowlful.  It tasted like a cold Mint Dream.  I haven't had, or even seen, a Mint Dream in decades.  I decided to look and see if they are still around.  They are!  And you can buy them individually or by the case! 

I'm not going to do it.  I just can't.  But, if I happen to see one in some store, I'm going to buy it.  I encourage you to do the same.