Old Photo Friday

My sisters and I at Bear Mountain, probably 1960.

(standing in the back, Mary Ellen; sitting to her left, Nancy; 

in front with the white boots, ME!)

The first place I consciously remember living is Teaneck, New Jersey.  We used to go to Bear Mountain pretty frequently, and I remember loving it, but not much else about it.  I hope to go back sometime, to see if anything at all looks even remotely familiar.  I do, however, remember the hooded jacket I'm wearing here, and there are several pictures where I'm sporting it.  As I recall, it was dark green and white, large plaid.  I was a fashion plate even then ...

Have a warm and cozy weekend!

Docket #PA-0065-1008

In the morning hours between 10:30 and 11:45 on Monday, October 8, 2012, a homeowner who had been out running errands found that a food crime had occurred during her absence.  

At the time of her departure, there was approximately 3/4 of a loaf of home-baked pumpkin bread that had been baked the Saturday prior, on a plate with plastic wrap covering it on a table.  Upon return, she saw clear evidence that something untoward had occurred.

Exhibit A: a torn piece of plastic wrap, and a licked-clean plate on the floor below the table where the aforementioned pumpkin bread had last been seen.

The Primary Suspect:  Dug, aka "The Doodle Dog"

The Snitch:  Milo, aka "The Koodle"

When the homeowner walked in, "The Koodle" seemed particularly excited to see her, and happily led her into the next room, where he proceeded to prance over to show her Exhibit A.

At that time, the homeowner searched the room for suspects, knowing from prior experience that The Snitch did not like pumpkin bread.  On the other side of the room, looking quite guilty sat The Primary Suspect, with his head down.  Upon approach, he continued to look shamefaced and started to slowly wag his tail.  When he raised his head, there was an overwhelming scent of pumpkin breath.

Upon questioning, The Primary Suspect broke down somewhat and pleaded no contest, thereby saving the Commonwealth and its taxpayers both time and money.  

The Primary Suspect was given probation, as it was his first offense, and he has not before even faced accusation.  He departed from the court, and retreated to his crate for a nap before reappearing and making every attempt to act as if nothing had happened.

The Snitch retreated to the basement, where he was last seen chasing pill bugs.

This case is hereby concluded.

Furball Friday

Oh no!  A wet Doodle Dog!  

This summer, we realized that it was actually pretty easy to give Dug a bath on our deck - it's enclosed on all sides, the hose is right there, and for him, it was a chance to be outside and not on the leash.  He thought it was a very entertaining adventure!

Have an entertaining weekend.  :-)

Wednesday Word (First in an Occasional Series)

I read quite a few knitting blogs, and have also started perusing the occasional quilting blog.  It seems that a lot of the knitters have "WIP Wednesday" posts, where they show progress on one project or another.  I enjoy those posts, because most of the time, they are moving along at a fairly reasonable pace.

I considered doing that on occasion, but realized that so many of my WIPs stagnate for so long, I could be showing the same photo with the caption "No further progress" every week for weeks on end.  Plus, many of my projects exist only on the "someday" level, meaning I have not even bought yarn and/or the actual pattern!

So I have decided that I will post every now and then - sometimes weekly, sometimes not - a "Wednesday Word" post, where I will maybe share WIPs, but where I will write about whatever is taking up residence in my brain that "needs" to leave it and be written.

Here's my first Wednesday Word:  WANT TO.**

As in, there are so many things I want to knit right now.  I'm working on plenty of things, but geez, do I want to start some other things!  I keep thinking to myself that because I have so much yarn, I should really start making more things.  Which would be fine, except that for me it becomes a slippery slope to feeling overwhelmed by too many projects.  (Here's just one example of a Want To knit.)

How to deal with this?  I have decided that I will try to concentrate on things I already hope to make for others as gifts for the rest of the year.  I will not pressure myself into thinking I must make gifts for every single person, but rather will work with the ideas for a few things that I've already been considering for a couple of months.  Hopefully, this will get the whole I-want-to-start-something impulse under control.

It can't hurt, right?

**Yes, I realize there are two words there.  Work with me here, people!

Aaargghh!

Sigh.

Remember how I wanted to knit something for my new great-nephew Parker, who was born in May and lives in San Francisco?  Because his parents - wonderful people that they are - do not really appreciate knitted things, I didn't want to go out of my way to create an "heirloom."  So I decided to make a toy.  First, I decided to make Susan B. Anderson's Elefante.  Got all ready to do that, and decided it was too fiddly, and since it involved crochet at the end, and I don't know how to crochet, that was problematic.

But then I remembered - I had this pattern!  Perfect, right?  Well, I grabbed some yarn that would work well for it, and took off.  Then, there was an interruption when my osteoarthritis flared up in my right hand and it was hard for me to knit.  But, then I picked it up again.  Turned out, it was slightly fiddly, but I got it all knit.  Over the weekend, I went to stuff it.  Uh oh.

It looked, in a word, craptastic.  As in, awful.  I had followed the pattern as written, but had somehow managed to get the arms to be too big, and not level with each other, and the legs looked bizarre, as they were long and skinny!  Instead of a cute little teddy bear, it looked like a teddy bear that had been in a terrible accident, and re-created from found random teddy parts.

Aaargghh!!!  I decided to cut my losses, and unraveled it, hoping that someday the yarn can be something else.  And, well, back to the drawing board.

At the moment, I think that I will be knitting two pumpkin hats - one for a new baby (Doughboy's new baby brother), and one for Parker (oh I might as well make three, and send one to James, the "big brother" to the new baby ...).  I've made quite a few pumpkin hats, and they have always turned out.  Let's hope that record stays intact.

If for some reason it doesn't ... it might be time for a store-bought gift and a nice card.

I'll keep you posted ... :-)