Drives me nuts.
Nuts. One of the foods I can eat, and what a narrow target that's becoming!
First we have the diabetes mess and now it seems I'm also gluten intolerant. I have a few friends who are gluten intolerant and I always sort of halfway felt they were making it up, or rather their doctors were making it up. It does seem like there are fashionable health problems -- fibro seems to be on the way out and gluten/wheat problems on the way in. Sometimes I suspect that if your doctor is baffled by your symptoms, he just gives it the current *in* label and sends you on your way.
This is quite real, though, damn it. When I eat very carefully from my my little tiny short list, I feel fine. When I don't -- not so fine.
Right before we left for Texas (as David was packing and I was putting off packing, because I've done this so many times and for goodness sake I can throw it together in 15 minutes, which is one reason we squealed into the terminal just in time to board), I found a nifty little system called Diet Solution. I think. Anyway, it was one of those sidebar ads that don't look like ads on a page I often read called ... wait ... it was either The Nourished Kitchen or The Healthy Skeptic on FB and in any case this was the link: http://www.naturalnews.com/028578_grains_health.html
And there was this little ad and I clicked it, expecting it to be that guy who promises you earth-shattering knowledge about food and weight loss and then carries on about his abs for 15 minutes and never gets to the info and eventually you have to send him money. I always close the page before he gets to his pitch because life is just too short. But this guy, Jeff, was there with his friend Isabel, who has all sorts of certifications having to do with nutrition and together they worked out a system for eating right and losing weight and Isabel (who was, come on, admit it, just a little pudgy there in the beginning) lost 30 pounds and has kept it off for 10 years and just had a baby and still looks great. What I liked about them was that they didn't keep me hanging for 20 minutes. They actually gave me their basic info, and I like being given things. Who doesn't? When they got to their pitch at last and said they had all this support info, actually priced at $499.99, I knew that for the horse poo-poo it was, of course, but they quickly trimmed it down to $49.99 (just for today!) and when I thought it over and said okay, this time I'll bite, they jumped in to tell me that actually they only wanted $4.95 today and then in 21 days they'll take the rest and if I decide I don't like it before then, they won't and I can have my $4.95 back. Of course, at every stage of the ordering process, Isabel interrupted to helpfully offer me Yet More Stuff, and I turned all that down, patiently, and got all these books of recipes and menus and support strategies as downloads. They're sitting on my desktop because we're about out of ink and for that matter, our printer needs to be replaced. And we had to go to sleep so we could get up and go to the airport.
So that's kind of where we are now, except that I did read enough of it to get the general idea, which is:
1. Single ingredient foods are foods and you should (generally) eat them.
2. Processed foods with ingredients you can't pronounce are not really foods at all and you should not eat them.
3. Sugar under any name is your enemy.
4. Some fat is good fat. Some fat is evil.
With those four things to guide me, we went to Texas. All around me, from the spread at the reunion itself to the quickie marts where we stopped between the airport and Seymour to the cafes and restaurants and airport food-court, it was like blinders had been taken from my eyes. Points 1,2,3, and 4 were not news, but this time I was really looking. There was *food* everywhere and not a whole lot to eat.
Here's the Real Food available at the quickie mart: milk, eggs, butter, apple juice and orange juice (which I can't drink due to sugar content), four green bananas, six red *delicious* (not) apples, a few oranges, and some nuts, which were oversalted. There was also Hershey's Special Dark chocolate, but that's not *excellent* dark chocolate and the sugar content is still too high. Everything else in this crowded little store is toxic, including the rows of cheap bread, white or *wheat.* Ice cream, popsicles, candy bars, chips, deep-fried quickie foods, hot dogs, sodas of all kinds in all sizes ... shelves and shelves of stuff that is just plain nasty and makes us fat and sick.
Made me cranky. I went back to my bottle of water in the car and my traveling baggie of almonds and serious dark chocolate.
The food we had with the family was the sort of thing everyone has at church suppers and family gatherings. They had a brisket, which is actual food, of course, and would have been great except that I don't like sliced beef, especially not pinkish sliced beef, so I passed that up. And then everyone had brought side dishes and desserts. Many seemed to contain cool-whip and canned fruit. The pies were mouth-watering but forbidden (I had one bite of David's Derby Pie -- there are some things that have to be tried). There were deviled eggs and I ate several of those. There were watermelon chunks, not ideal but not processed non-food, either, so I ate those and some salads of various sorts and took some extra metformin. At the airport I found a little box of melons and grapes and packed it around with me like it was full of gold nuggets.
In Dallas on the last night we found a restaurant called El Fenix and I got fish tacos, which I loaded with guac, and a cup of incredible bean soup and an awful lot of light excellent corn chips, and had no reactions other than bliss.
So far it seems I'm fine with Mexican food except for flour tortillas, so hurray for that. Or, ole, with one of those little diacritical marks over the *e.*
I certainly didn't go hungry on the trip, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that I really noticed how we all, of habit and by custom, eat a lot of things that don't help us and often hurt us.
I wish I'd known all this forty years ago. I'm glad my kids are smarter about what they eat themselves and what they feed my grandkids. Not long ago I remembered a little snip of conversation I had with one of my relatives in Kentucky on a visit when I was very small. I was either eating a cake of some kind or spooning sugar into my iced tea (probably that) when she leaned over and said to me, "Now you be careful about all that sugar or you're gonna get the sugar diabetes like me." I thought getting a disease from sugar was a silly idea.
Growl.
Off to find some food for dinner.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Nuthin', Nuthin' ...
Just dropped by to update the On the Needles thingy. Wool everywhere and not a sheep in sight. :o)
No more PT, which is nice. I was told to expect to be trotting over there for months and it ended up being ... (pause to count on fingers) well, something around 3 weeks. Just like magic! My knee is still a bit swollen, sometimes quite swollen, sometimes hardly at all. But I can walk around okay, go up and down stairs (down is harder), get in and out of the car, and ... pack boxes!
Yay, packing boxes, packing boxes! We could actually have a white Christmas this year, if the weather cooperates! We could have Thanksgiving with some family in the house! Pretty sure we'll be spending Halloween here, but that's okay, there's always next year.
Fingers crossed and all that sort of thing for a quick sale of this house, followed by good fortune in finding a Real and Sound and Affordable House in the Denver area, something big enough but not too big. Two or three bedrooms would be plenty (one could be David's office and one could be my playroom/the guest bedroom, which is what we have here). I think two bathrooms would be swell. I'd prefer a great room sort of thing to separate kitchen/dining/living room -- I always used to hate being shut off away in the kitchen while all the fun was happening in the living room. A finished basement to store things in and set up the treadmill would be a plus. A fireplace. A back yard with a tall fence -- not a huge back yard, but enough to let the cats out, have space for a *dog so he doesn't always have to be walked, have a garden. A nice old tree for a birdhouse? Maybe I'm getting carried away. I won't mention a redwood deck with a hammock and a porch swing, or a babbling brook, then.
But yes, the packing continues and will continue to continue for quite awhile. It's kind of disturbing to realize how much stuff you forgot you have (or never knew you had, when combining households like we've done) and haven't used in years but are simply not willing to leave behind. I know perfectly well that the day after I give anything away, something will change and cause me to need it so badly that I'll go out and buy a replacement, so really, isn't it just simpler to put it all in boxes? Yes. (And I'm still grieving stuff that didn't make it onto the truck when we left NJ in 1995, don't get me started. I'm very attached to my 'stuff,' I admit it. I have a flaw. Just that *one.* There.)
At this point, about half the packed boxes are stuff we aren't going to miss at all between now and whenever we get moved into the Real House (David's college textbooks, for instance, or many many small balls of leftover sock yarn) and the rest are packed with stuff that I could not bear to lose or even be unable to get my hands on immediately (all eleven seasons of Frasier and certain beloved casserole dishes), on the theory that The Big One might hit and perhaps all we'll escape with (besides one another and the cats, of course) is whatever is already packed and all set to toss into a truck. Not that we have a truck. And not that I think we could load up and drive away if the ground started rippling and rolling, but I've made it this far by enjoying a Rich Inner Fantasy Life and I see no reason to stop if it's still working.
Carry on.
*Note: have not yet acquired dog. Remains a negotiating point.
No more PT, which is nice. I was told to expect to be trotting over there for months and it ended up being ... (pause to count on fingers) well, something around 3 weeks. Just like magic! My knee is still a bit swollen, sometimes quite swollen, sometimes hardly at all. But I can walk around okay, go up and down stairs (down is harder), get in and out of the car, and ... pack boxes!
Yay, packing boxes, packing boxes! We could actually have a white Christmas this year, if the weather cooperates! We could have Thanksgiving with some family in the house! Pretty sure we'll be spending Halloween here, but that's okay, there's always next year.
Fingers crossed and all that sort of thing for a quick sale of this house, followed by good fortune in finding a Real and Sound and Affordable House in the Denver area, something big enough but not too big. Two or three bedrooms would be plenty (one could be David's office and one could be my playroom/the guest bedroom, which is what we have here). I think two bathrooms would be swell. I'd prefer a great room sort of thing to separate kitchen/dining/living room -- I always used to hate being shut off away in the kitchen while all the fun was happening in the living room. A finished basement to store things in and set up the treadmill would be a plus. A fireplace. A back yard with a tall fence -- not a huge back yard, but enough to let the cats out, have space for a *dog so he doesn't always have to be walked, have a garden. A nice old tree for a birdhouse? Maybe I'm getting carried away. I won't mention a redwood deck with a hammock and a porch swing, or a babbling brook, then.
But yes, the packing continues and will continue to continue for quite awhile. It's kind of disturbing to realize how much stuff you forgot you have (or never knew you had, when combining households like we've done) and haven't used in years but are simply not willing to leave behind. I know perfectly well that the day after I give anything away, something will change and cause me to need it so badly that I'll go out and buy a replacement, so really, isn't it just simpler to put it all in boxes? Yes. (And I'm still grieving stuff that didn't make it onto the truck when we left NJ in 1995, don't get me started. I'm very attached to my 'stuff,' I admit it. I have a flaw. Just that *one.* There.)
At this point, about half the packed boxes are stuff we aren't going to miss at all between now and whenever we get moved into the Real House (David's college textbooks, for instance, or many many small balls of leftover sock yarn) and the rest are packed with stuff that I could not bear to lose or even be unable to get my hands on immediately (all eleven seasons of Frasier and certain beloved casserole dishes), on the theory that The Big One might hit and perhaps all we'll escape with (besides one another and the cats, of course) is whatever is already packed and all set to toss into a truck. Not that we have a truck. And not that I think we could load up and drive away if the ground started rippling and rolling, but I've made it this far by enjoying a Rich Inner Fantasy Life and I see no reason to stop if it's still working.
Carry on.
*Note: have not yet acquired dog. Remains a negotiating point.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Physical Therapy
So we got up way too early this morning and went to my first Physical Therapy appointment and it was NOT an Unspeakable Horror, as I had heard it would be.
Didn't really hurt at all, actually. I was afraid the remaining swelling was a bad indication, but the therapist (Ann, her name was, and a tiny little thing she is, perhaps in her late 40s) said it's actually not bad at all for 3 weeks post-op. She gave me some exercises to do at home and had me ride a stationary bike for 5 minutes, and said come back twice next week and then once a week for awhile.
Basically, the rules are:
1. If it hurts, don't do it.
2. It the swelling gets bad, ice it.
She said I should plan on icing it now and then for several weeks or even months yet.
I'm supposed to come over there every day (except weekends, when they're closed) and hop on the bike for 5-7 minutes and she even said I can drive myself to the sessions, which is a relief to David who has been taking off work to get me to various appointments. Ahhhh!!! As Abby would say. :o) But no driving on Vicodin or Percocet. Well, no, of course not! Silly lady!
Overall Ann said I'm doing remarkably well, much better than she would expect. She also said our two up-coming trips next month (to David's family reunion in Texas and then to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival) should be no problem and I will probably find I'm much improved from today by the time we go to Oregon.
Ohboyohboyohboy!!!
Now my biggest immediate concern is running out of Charlaine Harris books
(for instance)
before my stash of Laurie R. King's mysteries gets here.
And so forth. Oh, my nerves, is this woman good!
But in the meantime, there is much needful knitting to do. :o)
Didn't really hurt at all, actually. I was afraid the remaining swelling was a bad indication, but the therapist (Ann, her name was, and a tiny little thing she is, perhaps in her late 40s) said it's actually not bad at all for 3 weeks post-op. She gave me some exercises to do at home and had me ride a stationary bike for 5 minutes, and said come back twice next week and then once a week for awhile.
Basically, the rules are:
1. If it hurts, don't do it.
2. It the swelling gets bad, ice it.
She said I should plan on icing it now and then for several weeks or even months yet.
I'm supposed to come over there every day (except weekends, when they're closed) and hop on the bike for 5-7 minutes and she even said I can drive myself to the sessions, which is a relief to David who has been taking off work to get me to various appointments. Ahhhh!!! As Abby would say. :o) But no driving on Vicodin or Percocet. Well, no, of course not! Silly lady!
Overall Ann said I'm doing remarkably well, much better than she would expect. She also said our two up-coming trips next month (to David's family reunion in Texas and then to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival) should be no problem and I will probably find I'm much improved from today by the time we go to Oregon.
Ohboyohboyohboy!!!
Now my biggest immediate concern is running out of Charlaine Harris books
(for instance)
before my stash of Laurie R. King's mysteries gets here.
And so forth. Oh, my nerves, is this woman good!
But in the meantime, there is much needful knitting to do. :o)
Friday, July 16, 2010
What a Wonderful World ...
We're watching "Life," by the folks that gave us "Planet Earth" -- that is, the BBC filmmakers. :o) Narrated by Oprah. Looks like it was on The Discovery Channel, but as I may have mentioned thirty or forty times, we don't watch tv. At least, not here and not now. Anyway, we're getting it from Netflix and watching one or maybe two episodes a night and loving it. Loving it! I mean, I watch with little tears in the corners of my eyes because it's all just so incredibly cool and so beautiful. Yeah, so some of the animals eat others of the animals ... this is sad, but there it is.
And underwater? I'm always stunned by how amazing that world is. We have a friend who is currently on vacation in Hawaii and her FB updates are full of reports of snorkeling adventures. Yesterday she said there was a 30 ft drop off the edge of the reef and it was not to be believed. I greatly admire her courage for being out there -- almost as much as I envy her for what she's experiencing.
I wonder how much the cats would enjoy a salt water aquarium? I also wonder if they would enjoy some nice bright tiny little frogs?
Have settled finally on the Ornaments for this year, have a few done and a few more half-done.
And underwater? I'm always stunned by how amazing that world is. We have a friend who is currently on vacation in Hawaii and her FB updates are full of reports of snorkeling adventures. Yesterday she said there was a 30 ft drop off the edge of the reef and it was not to be believed. I greatly admire her courage for being out there -- almost as much as I envy her for what she's experiencing.
I wonder how much the cats would enjoy a salt water aquarium? I also wonder if they would enjoy some nice bright tiny little frogs?
Have settled finally on the Ornaments for this year, have a few done and a few more half-done.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Too Much Water Flowing By
Geez, I haven't blogged since April! A friend in Denver emailed me a couple of weeks ago and asked what was up with that because she doesn't do Facebook. Hi, Cheryl!! I meant to get right to it after that but --- here we are.
The wedding happened, it was wonderful and could only have been better if more of the kids could have been there. I'm an old married woman of about 6 weeks now and it seems to be working. :o)
My knee surgery got pushed from June 16 to July 1 because my internist thought he saw *an abnormality* on my EGK and that had to be checked out. There wasn't one. So the knee is fixed but not entirely functional. First available appointment for physical therapy is July 23. At 7:45 AM. Wonderful.
Our eldest cat Aletia (who was David's cat originally) died of a stroke about a week ago. She was sitting on the bed with us and Neo and Yarrow around midnight watching a Teaching Company lecture (happened to be Anthro) and nibbling bits of cheese as we had cheese and crackers as a very-late-night snack. Out of nowhere she let out this horrible loud yell and alarmed all the other cats -- Mawr came shooting in from the living room and yowled back, the others sat straight up and their eyes got huge. We thought at first that she was angry because Mawr had come up behind her and she's never been real real fond of any of the other cats. David tossed a pillow down to scare Mawr off but she kept yelling/yowling and then just collapsed on his lap in a weird *broken* sort of position. He tried to get out from under her to get the phone so we could call the vet (who is a 24-hour vet) and she fell off the bed and onto the floor. She was conscious and she looked at us and moved her head. When I petted her she licked at her chin, and one hind leg seemed to have just a bit of movement, but that was all. The vet agreed it sounded like a stroke and said to bring her in. It didn't take him long to check her out and tell us she had very little chance of recovery or of any quality of life. We decided to let her go, and David held her. She would have been 17 in September. It was all over within a couple of hours, and it was very sad, of course. David had her since she was a small kitten, and no animal was ever given better care. We've noticed that Yarrow, in particular, seems to understand that David needs more cat-love now and he's spending more time sitting with him and rubbing his head up against him.
And that's how I happened to be on FB at 3 AM local time with Ethan, discussing removing the 1980s. And the *given* answer to "what was the Beach Boys' best album?" is ALWAYS going to be Pet Sounds, but I wasn't that crazy about it. It was okay. I do think their best song, or at least the one that has the best associated memories for me, is "Sloop John B."
Toward the end of last week I was developing an intense case of cabin fever, so David said we should go out driving around over the weekend and maybe have lunch or dinner out, and I could pick where. Oh, my goodness! I thought it would be cool to drive down the coast and maybe find a place in Half Moon Bay or maybe Moss Beach, but after considering, I suggested we make the drive down to Sunnyvale instead and hunt up the yarn shop of Scott's girlfriend.
Scott does my acupuncture and is quite a good friend, and he's always talking about Nathania's shop. So we went there instead, on Sunday. It was my first real trip anywhere since the surgery (unless you count the vet), but the knee held up pretty well and I bought some lovely yarn and three inspiring books, including one on knitting with beads, which is something I'm interested in learning to do.
Oh, and I've very recently become gluten intolerant, which is entertaining, and Nathania was able to tell us that Chipotle's menu is quite friendly for that (apparently spreading) condition, and there was a Chipotle a couple of blocks away, so we went there for lunch. No ocean views, but it was a very nice afternoon and I no longer want to shoot things, which was the whole point.
The first thing I want to do with beaded knitting is a pair of Halloween socks, knit in black with a crystal beaded web on one sock and a spider on the other.
Oh, for cute! I bought the pattern a couple of years ago and then maybe a year ago i bought a tube of beads and more recently I got some solid black sock yard when I was buying yarn for other projects. I figured I'd learn how to do it when the time came. And now, with a book about all sorts of bead-knitting, the time is at least drawing near. It took me two days to find the pattern, and really just a few minutes to find the yarn. Can't find the beads.
I'm SURE I saw them in the drawer of the nightstand, not all that long ago. Yesterday I spent the afternoon cleaning out that drawer in search of them, threw away a bag of junk, sorted the various pain meds. I found a tube of turquoise beads, a tube of tiny forest green beads, a tube of tiny black beads, several tubes of rub-on pain reliever left over from when I had chronic back and hand pain (thanks, Scott!), a small stapler, a box of small staples (not near the small stapler), four bottle of white glue, some herbal sleeping pills, three bags of cough drops, several sets of ear-plugs, a box of toothpicks (spilling), three pair of scissors, two tarot decks, three kinds of stevia drops, two art gum erasers, several small paintbrushes, half a dozen various pens, the UNO deck, my collection of Mother's Day cards, and a pair of comfy bedsocks.
No crystal beads. But I think they should have been silver, anyway, so now I must get *new* beads. :o)
Oh, well, it's not like I haven't got other knitting projects. Going to look for something I can make lunch of. Of which I can make lunch. I told David I could go live in the woods with the bears because I do very well on nuts and berries.
The wedding happened, it was wonderful and could only have been better if more of the kids could have been there. I'm an old married woman of about 6 weeks now and it seems to be working. :o)
My knee surgery got pushed from June 16 to July 1 because my internist thought he saw *an abnormality* on my EGK and that had to be checked out. There wasn't one. So the knee is fixed but not entirely functional. First available appointment for physical therapy is July 23. At 7:45 AM. Wonderful.
Our eldest cat Aletia (who was David's cat originally) died of a stroke about a week ago. She was sitting on the bed with us and Neo and Yarrow around midnight watching a Teaching Company lecture (happened to be Anthro) and nibbling bits of cheese as we had cheese and crackers as a very-late-night snack. Out of nowhere she let out this horrible loud yell and alarmed all the other cats -- Mawr came shooting in from the living room and yowled back, the others sat straight up and their eyes got huge. We thought at first that she was angry because Mawr had come up behind her and she's never been real real fond of any of the other cats. David tossed a pillow down to scare Mawr off but she kept yelling/yowling and then just collapsed on his lap in a weird *broken* sort of position. He tried to get out from under her to get the phone so we could call the vet (who is a 24-hour vet) and she fell off the bed and onto the floor. She was conscious and she looked at us and moved her head. When I petted her she licked at her chin, and one hind leg seemed to have just a bit of movement, but that was all. The vet agreed it sounded like a stroke and said to bring her in. It didn't take him long to check her out and tell us she had very little chance of recovery or of any quality of life. We decided to let her go, and David held her. She would have been 17 in September. It was all over within a couple of hours, and it was very sad, of course. David had her since she was a small kitten, and no animal was ever given better care. We've noticed that Yarrow, in particular, seems to understand that David needs more cat-love now and he's spending more time sitting with him and rubbing his head up against him.
And that's how I happened to be on FB at 3 AM local time with Ethan, discussing removing the 1980s. And the *given* answer to "what was the Beach Boys' best album?" is ALWAYS going to be Pet Sounds, but I wasn't that crazy about it. It was okay. I do think their best song, or at least the one that has the best associated memories for me, is "Sloop John B."
Toward the end of last week I was developing an intense case of cabin fever, so David said we should go out driving around over the weekend and maybe have lunch or dinner out, and I could pick where. Oh, my goodness! I thought it would be cool to drive down the coast and maybe find a place in Half Moon Bay or maybe Moss Beach, but after considering, I suggested we make the drive down to Sunnyvale instead and hunt up the yarn shop of Scott's girlfriend.
Scott does my acupuncture and is quite a good friend, and he's always talking about Nathania's shop. So we went there instead, on Sunday. It was my first real trip anywhere since the surgery (unless you count the vet), but the knee held up pretty well and I bought some lovely yarn and three inspiring books, including one on knitting with beads, which is something I'm interested in learning to do.
Oh, and I've very recently become gluten intolerant, which is entertaining, and Nathania was able to tell us that Chipotle's menu is quite friendly for that (apparently spreading) condition, and there was a Chipotle a couple of blocks away, so we went there for lunch. No ocean views, but it was a very nice afternoon and I no longer want to shoot things, which was the whole point.
The first thing I want to do with beaded knitting is a pair of Halloween socks, knit in black with a crystal beaded web on one sock and a spider on the other.
Oh, for cute! I bought the pattern a couple of years ago and then maybe a year ago i bought a tube of beads and more recently I got some solid black sock yard when I was buying yarn for other projects. I figured I'd learn how to do it when the time came. And now, with a book about all sorts of bead-knitting, the time is at least drawing near. It took me two days to find the pattern, and really just a few minutes to find the yarn. Can't find the beads.
I'm SURE I saw them in the drawer of the nightstand, not all that long ago. Yesterday I spent the afternoon cleaning out that drawer in search of them, threw away a bag of junk, sorted the various pain meds. I found a tube of turquoise beads, a tube of tiny forest green beads, a tube of tiny black beads, several tubes of rub-on pain reliever left over from when I had chronic back and hand pain (thanks, Scott!), a small stapler, a box of small staples (not near the small stapler), four bottle of white glue, some herbal sleeping pills, three bags of cough drops, several sets of ear-plugs, a box of toothpicks (spilling), three pair of scissors, two tarot decks, three kinds of stevia drops, two art gum erasers, several small paintbrushes, half a dozen various pens, the UNO deck, my collection of Mother's Day cards, and a pair of comfy bedsocks.
No crystal beads. But I think they should have been silver, anyway, so now I must get *new* beads. :o)
Oh, well, it's not like I haven't got other knitting projects. Going to look for something I can make lunch of. Of which I can make lunch. I told David I could go live in the woods with the bears because I do very well on nuts and berries.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Moving Right Along ...
I forget the blogs are here half the time. Facebook is so much quicker and more efficient -- but also, alas, more shallow. Still, it's nice to keep everyone I've ever known (who has internet access, and a couple of people don't) right there, organized tidily, in a place where we can remain aware of one another. There's something metaphysically *right* about that. We're All One. :o)
Noah is here. He's not *here,* actually, he's out exploring and looking forward to Robin's arrival tonight. We just had a cloudburst (I don't think they use that word here) and I hope he was indoors somewhere, but he's got his cell and he didn't call to be rescued, so I expect he's all right.
David and I went out last weekend to do the wedding clothes shopping, which for me meant hunting for fabric because I couldn't find a suitable dress for a Round Hobbit Of a Certain Age. All I need to do now is ... sew. Which will be interesting with the bad knee making it hard to get on the floor to lay out the pattern and also hard to sit at the machine, but my former doctor made sure I had really fine pain pills for just such situations. In David's case the shopping trip meant picking out the first suit he's bought in years and years, and the first *dress shoes* since he went shopping with his father before he left Texas in ... I don't know, the late '80's, early '90's. We're casual, folks. But it all looks great. Now, as I said, all I have to do is sew ...
Two of my tomatoes have been moved outdoors to big pots that I hope will make them happy, and may they live long and produce much fruit! Three more are still to go. It seems like a lot of expense and hassle, but these heirloom tomatoes are $7.99 a pound here and we do prefer them (I do, actually -- David isn't a fan of raw tomatoes) and if even a few tomatoes show up here, fat and edible, we've saved money on them. And we're enjoying watching them grow. :o)
I've just downloaded my old Chad Mitchell Trio albums onto iTunes, listening to them now and remembering being about 13 and a very young rabble-rouser. In my heart. :o)
Knitting, working on Christmas stuff. (Yup, of course!) Reading, currently working my way through some of the Sookie Stackhouse stories.
Still watching 24, now on Season 7, determined to finish. (I have this thing about finishing.) Laughing at how often a character (usually Jack Bauer) says very seriously, "I/we didn't/don't have a choice." Honey, you *always* have a choice. Crazy show, easy to write -- you need a terrorist plot involving the destruction of a major American city, a dozen stock lines of dialogue and a revolving cast of characters which always must include an incredibly evil (usually dark-skinned) arch-enemy, a lot of minions who will be blown to bits soon, a secret organization or two (on both sides), a beautiful woman for Bauer to be devoted to but betray anyhow because -- wait for it -- he doesn't have a choice, and an uber-techy female geek who could run the whole show. Everyone but Bauer is expendable, but some of the dead come back in a season or two so don't get too sad too soon. Jack Bauer is a rogue agent, that's very important. The man needs to laugh once in awhile. He needs to come watch his show with me -- I'll get him laughing.
Kiefer Sutherland has the mouth of a sea turtle, has anyone noticed that? I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just an observation. I always kinda liked his dad, except for that last scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Noah has returned.
Noah is here. He's not *here,* actually, he's out exploring and looking forward to Robin's arrival tonight. We just had a cloudburst (I don't think they use that word here) and I hope he was indoors somewhere, but he's got his cell and he didn't call to be rescued, so I expect he's all right.
David and I went out last weekend to do the wedding clothes shopping, which for me meant hunting for fabric because I couldn't find a suitable dress for a Round Hobbit Of a Certain Age. All I need to do now is ... sew. Which will be interesting with the bad knee making it hard to get on the floor to lay out the pattern and also hard to sit at the machine, but my former doctor made sure I had really fine pain pills for just such situations. In David's case the shopping trip meant picking out the first suit he's bought in years and years, and the first *dress shoes* since he went shopping with his father before he left Texas in ... I don't know, the late '80's, early '90's. We're casual, folks. But it all looks great. Now, as I said, all I have to do is sew ...
Two of my tomatoes have been moved outdoors to big pots that I hope will make them happy, and may they live long and produce much fruit! Three more are still to go. It seems like a lot of expense and hassle, but these heirloom tomatoes are $7.99 a pound here and we do prefer them (I do, actually -- David isn't a fan of raw tomatoes) and if even a few tomatoes show up here, fat and edible, we've saved money on them. And we're enjoying watching them grow. :o)
I've just downloaded my old Chad Mitchell Trio albums onto iTunes, listening to them now and remembering being about 13 and a very young rabble-rouser. In my heart. :o)
Knitting, working on Christmas stuff. (Yup, of course!) Reading, currently working my way through some of the Sookie Stackhouse stories.
Still watching 24, now on Season 7, determined to finish. (I have this thing about finishing.) Laughing at how often a character (usually Jack Bauer) says very seriously, "I/we didn't/don't have a choice." Honey, you *always* have a choice. Crazy show, easy to write -- you need a terrorist plot involving the destruction of a major American city, a dozen stock lines of dialogue and a revolving cast of characters which always must include an incredibly evil (usually dark-skinned) arch-enemy, a lot of minions who will be blown to bits soon, a secret organization or two (on both sides), a beautiful woman for Bauer to be devoted to but betray anyhow because -- wait for it -- he doesn't have a choice, and an uber-techy female geek who could run the whole show. Everyone but Bauer is expendable, but some of the dead come back in a season or two so don't get too sad too soon. Jack Bauer is a rogue agent, that's very important. The man needs to laugh once in awhile. He needs to come watch his show with me -- I'll get him laughing.
Kiefer Sutherland has the mouth of a sea turtle, has anyone noticed that? I'm not saying that's a bad thing, just an observation. I always kinda liked his dad, except for that last scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Noah has returned.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Crafting -- Various
Well, not *all* that various. My friend Sam/Sioux, PhD in Making Stuff, made me this date book. As I understand it, she was intending this for Christmas but didn't get it done in time so it was a birthday present instead. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has resorted to that. :o) I think it's so cool that I wanted to show it to you, especially those of you who scrapbook. (That's a verb now, I guess.) Apologies in advance for the fuzziness of the photos -- they didn't enlarge all that well.
Socks so far this year, plus my first needle-felting project, which Jaz helped me with when she was here in January. Oh, yeah! Jaz was here in January, for my birthday! I do so love my friends, as well as my family. The colors in the red and blue socks look washed out (no flash used), but still, you get the idea. The blue ones are for David:
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Let's See ... What Else?
Usually last thing at night we watch two or maybe three video lectures from The Teaching Company. We get them on dvd and pop them into my laptop here and watch with pillows and quilts and cats. One night I said to Neo, who was in the habit of getting all over the keyboard and causing things to happen that we did not want to happen, "We're going to have some lessons on Medieval History, Neo! How about you come sit right here by me and see what you can learn?"
Damned if he didn't give me a comprehending look and sit right where I told him to. And he's come to lessons every night since, so who's to say he isn't getting something out of it? :o) He liked the Medieval class quite a lot, and he LOVED the Impressionists. He's been less enthused with the Vikings, but he still mostly pays attention. (Note: he doesn't give a fig for checking email or zooming around the internet and he's not a real fan of 24. Clearly, he's a scholar.)
Here's Neo learning about the Vikings:
And here was my little window garden (heirloom tomatoes only right now) a week ago:
First babies out of the ground, Black Krim:
and Brandywine:
Today we actually have one Green Zebra, but the Golden Monarchs and Black Cherries have yet to make their appearance. In fairness to them it's been mostly rainy and chilly since I set them out -- but if they don't show up soon they're getting replanted.
Still a bit of crafts updating to post, but not today. :o)
Damned if he didn't give me a comprehending look and sit right where I told him to. And he's come to lessons every night since, so who's to say he isn't getting something out of it? :o) He liked the Medieval class quite a lot, and he LOVED the Impressionists. He's been less enthused with the Vikings, but he still mostly pays attention. (Note: he doesn't give a fig for checking email or zooming around the internet and he's not a real fan of 24. Clearly, he's a scholar.)
Here's Neo learning about the Vikings:
And here was my little window garden (heirloom tomatoes only right now) a week ago:
First babies out of the ground, Black Krim:
and Brandywine:
Today we actually have one Green Zebra, but the Golden Monarchs and Black Cherries have yet to make their appearance. In fairness to them it's been mostly rainy and chilly since I set them out -- but if they don't show up soon they're getting replanted.
Still a bit of crafts updating to post, but not today. :o)
Been Working on This One for Awhile
And I'm still not done, but I think I may be *mostly* done, and I'm tired of keeping the page where I've been storing the results of the search open. (Of keeping open the page where I'm storing the search results.)
You all know I'm a genealogy geek and a British History geek and I know this does not interest many of you and that's okay. I don't get it, but it's okay. All the same, here's a little slice of family history for my kids.
This is Viantha Blair Taylor.
She was very proud of her flower garden. She was my father's mother's mother, which makes her your great great grandmother, and I met her on the visit when this picture was taken. I was three. There's a picture of me from that visit, also, but it's not available right this minute. Maybe later.
Anyway, apparently the Blairs are from Scotland and it seems they have a pretty incredible lineage. While working on them I kept noticing that the same death date appeared over and over, 9 September 1513. The Battle of Flodden. Rather a quick battle, all over in a few hours. I decided to comb through my records and see just how many of our Scots died in that short time.
(http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Flodden.html)
The Battle of Flodden Field was a decisive victory for the English. For the Scots it had been a disaster, with many of the most important members of Scottish society killed or slain in the conflict. The Scottish dead included twelve earls, fifteen lords, many clan chiefs, an archbishop and above all King James himself. It is said that every great family in Scotland mourned the loss of someone at the Battle of Flodden. The dead were remembered in the famous Scottish pipe tune The Flowers of the Forest;
We'll here nae mair lilting at our ewe milking,
Women and bairns are heartless and wae,
Sighing and moaning on a ilka green loaning,
The flowers of the forest are a wede away.
*****************************************************
These are our grandfathers who died that afternoon, following their King into battle.
John (Semphill) Samples (49)
Robert Colville (20)
Henry Sinclair (44)
Alexander Hamilton (38)
David Kennedy 1st Earl of Cassils (41)
Adam Hepburn 2nd Earl of Bothwell (21)
Matthew Stewart 2nd Earl of Lennox (41) (we're descended from him three times, through daughters Catherine and Margaret and son John)
William Johnston (53)
Gilbert Hay (53)
Sir John Hay, 2nd Lord Hay of Yester (43)
Sir John Somerville of Cambusnethan (50)
William Rollo (59) and his son:
Robert Rollo (34)
William Graham (64) 1st Earl of Montrose; led part of the Scottish vanguard; father-in-law of Robert Rollo
George Seton, 3rd Lord Seton (32)
William Borthwick, 4th Lord of Borthwick (54)
William Ruthven (35)
oh, and King James IV of Scotland (40)
(direct line twice, by daughters of two different mistresses: Margaret Drummond and Marion Boyd))
And if you go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flodden_Field
and look under Commanders over on the right, on the English side, you'll see two *Thomas Howards* (they're father and son) and a Thomas Dacre. They're all your grandfathers, too, but upline of my father's father. The older Thomas Howard was the grandfather of two of Henry VIII's wives, the two who were beheaded, actually: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The other Thomas, obviously, was their uncle, and you saw "him" if you watched The Tudors. Edmund Howard was Catherine's father, so he's sort of an uncle or a cousin several dozen times removed.
I thought that was worth passing along ...
Oh, and we scored our milk! :o) (see previous post)
You all know I'm a genealogy geek and a British History geek and I know this does not interest many of you and that's okay. I don't get it, but it's okay. All the same, here's a little slice of family history for my kids.
This is Viantha Blair Taylor.
She was very proud of her flower garden. She was my father's mother's mother, which makes her your great great grandmother, and I met her on the visit when this picture was taken. I was three. There's a picture of me from that visit, also, but it's not available right this minute. Maybe later.
Anyway, apparently the Blairs are from Scotland and it seems they have a pretty incredible lineage. While working on them I kept noticing that the same death date appeared over and over, 9 September 1513. The Battle of Flodden. Rather a quick battle, all over in a few hours. I decided to comb through my records and see just how many of our Scots died in that short time.
(http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/Flodden.html)
The Battle of Flodden Field was a decisive victory for the English. For the Scots it had been a disaster, with many of the most important members of Scottish society killed or slain in the conflict. The Scottish dead included twelve earls, fifteen lords, many clan chiefs, an archbishop and above all King James himself. It is said that every great family in Scotland mourned the loss of someone at the Battle of Flodden. The dead were remembered in the famous Scottish pipe tune The Flowers of the Forest;
We'll here nae mair lilting at our ewe milking,
Women and bairns are heartless and wae,
Sighing and moaning on a ilka green loaning,
The flowers of the forest are a wede away.
*****************************************************
These are our grandfathers who died that afternoon, following their King into battle.
John (Semphill) Samples (49)
Robert Colville (20)
Henry Sinclair (44)
Alexander Hamilton (38)
David Kennedy 1st Earl of Cassils (41)
Adam Hepburn 2nd Earl of Bothwell (21)
Matthew Stewart 2nd Earl of Lennox (41) (we're descended from him three times, through daughters Catherine and Margaret and son John)
William Johnston (53)
Gilbert Hay (53)
Sir John Hay, 2nd Lord Hay of Yester (43)
Sir John Somerville of Cambusnethan (50)
William Rollo (59) and his son:
Robert Rollo (34)
William Graham (64) 1st Earl of Montrose; led part of the Scottish vanguard; father-in-law of Robert Rollo
George Seton, 3rd Lord Seton (32)
William Borthwick, 4th Lord of Borthwick (54)
William Ruthven (35)
oh, and King James IV of Scotland (40)
(direct line twice, by daughters of two different mistresses: Margaret Drummond and Marion Boyd))
And if you go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flodden_Field
and look under Commanders over on the right, on the English side, you'll see two *Thomas Howards* (they're father and son) and a Thomas Dacre. They're all your grandfathers, too, but upline of my father's father. The older Thomas Howard was the grandfather of two of Henry VIII's wives, the two who were beheaded, actually: Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. The other Thomas, obviously, was their uncle, and you saw "him" if you watched The Tudors. Edmund Howard was Catherine's father, so he's sort of an uncle or a cousin several dozen times removed.
I thought that was worth passing along ...
Oh, and we scored our milk! :o) (see previous post)
Oh, My Nerves!
I actually go to bed every night promising myself I'll post a blog update in the morning. It's been over three months! Well, let's see how long it will be before anyone notices this. :o)
Where to begin, oh where to begin?
Christmas was GREAT! December was GREAT, one of the best in memory. In fact, I think Facebook had a lot to do with that. What with everyone talking about how good their kitchens smelled and what they were up to, it was as close as possible to celebrating with everyone I know. The visit to Jenna and her family the week before the official holiday was wonderful, just wonderful! Of course, I wish we could have the whole family for the holidays, but I don't see that happening. Still, I wouldn't mind. :o) Adding to the enjoyment this year, I finally brought my little stereo from the back room where it's been collecting dust to the living room and brought down all the holiday cds from upstairs where they (and the other cds and some of the old records -- vinyl, you know) had been doing exactly nothing, because there is nothing up there to play them on. I don't know what I was thinking when I put all the recorded music up there, except that it seemed like they ought to hang around with the dvds. Well, and there isn't room for them down here, really. Most of the cds are still upstairs and most of the records are still in the back room, and the stereo is stuffed underneath the piano bench, discs in a small crate alongside. ANYWAY, we had a lot more music in the house during this past Christmas season than we've had before, and I actually baked a few cookies even though that was not a good idea. It smelled like one at the time.
I've spent the past couple of weeks mostly sitting with my left knee ace-bandaged and iced and elevated. I think I have a torn meniscus, having consulted with Google and Dr Rick (via email), and I know when it happened -- well, no, not when. I've forgotten how many weeks ago it was but I know what I was doing: I had taken a carton of chicken broth down from the shelf at Safeway and then was doing a little Y-turn around my shopping cart and my left knee sort of snapped. For a second or two I thought it was going to go out from under me, but it didn't, it just felt ... compromised. I leaned on the cart and finished the shopping and went home. Since then it's been varying degrees of *hurt.* Finally a couple of days ago I took Dr Rick's advice and called a knee specialist he knows ("Left knee or right knee?" the receptionist asked when I said I wanted to make an appointment), and I'm going in to see him next Tuesday morning. Of course, as soon as I made the call it started feeling better, but I think it's just being tricksy. You hear about people's trick knees all the time. :o)
And speaking of Dr Rick, who is wonderful, the best doctor EVER, the one who actually listens to me and who calls me on his own time to say my labs look great and I'm a rockstar -- he's closing his practice the end of this month. I actually cried. Bankruptcy for the practice and for him personally. He hasn't drawn salary in a year. Seventeen hundred patients, many of them, this being the neighborhood that it is, with AIDS, many of those advanced and unable to work. I strongly suspect that he was doing for many of his patients what he had said he would do for me if I were unable to get insurance after leaving Comcast: "Don't worry, we'll work something out." So one of the partners is moving to another location, another partnership, and I'll just follow him over there, although -- it isn't that I dislike him, I just don't LIKE him. He's a doctor, not a friend. Rick may or may not begin practice again once he's done dealing with all this. I'm sad.
But -- what with one thing and another, we do have my diabetes under control, as they say, on oral meds. No insulin. So that's good. And Scott, our friend the acupuncturist who will make house calls, has apparently fixed the back pain I've had almost constantly for YEARS. Took him three weeks.
David is at his Italian class, last one for this series. This is homemade-by-a-genuine-Italian Tiramisu day, and I am pea-green. The Safeway order just arrived -- we're doing the delivery thing again because of my walking problems. (Safe-way, my eye -- I also tore something in my shoulder while snagging a carton of whipping cream from a high rack back before New Year's and that STILL bothers me). I like the ease of Safeway Delivery but I'm not wild about the results. Today they decided that since they didn't have any green leaf lettuce, I would like red, and since they didn't have little packs of tomatoes I would be happy to have a little pack of mini-peppers. I ordered vanilla organic yogurt because the plain is too tangy to be fun on oatmeal, but they sent plain. However, they also included two quarts of strawberries that I did not order, which is fine with me (and karmically, I think I deserve them ;o) ) but won't be so good with the customer who *did.*
When David gets home, there will be a trip to Rainbow, the hippie-dippie grocery, for the stuff Safeway didn't include, and *hopefully* some raw milk products. Jenna persuaded me to try raw milk and I did some reading and searching and found that California is one of a tiny tiny handful of states where you can actually buy raw milk products. You know, in a store. Some stores.
My dairy of choice delivers to Rainbow on Thursday and I should have made just that one small trip that day, but ... I didn't. Last night I learned that Whole Foods (which also has been carrying raw milk) is having insurance problems with it and pulled all of it this morning at 8 am. There are three Whole Foods in SF, which means all the people who have been going there for their milk are going to find out about humble little Rainbow and converge on it, so I'm worried.
It's always something. I think Gilda Radner said that.
Where to begin, oh where to begin?
Christmas was GREAT! December was GREAT, one of the best in memory. In fact, I think Facebook had a lot to do with that. What with everyone talking about how good their kitchens smelled and what they were up to, it was as close as possible to celebrating with everyone I know. The visit to Jenna and her family the week before the official holiday was wonderful, just wonderful! Of course, I wish we could have the whole family for the holidays, but I don't see that happening. Still, I wouldn't mind. :o) Adding to the enjoyment this year, I finally brought my little stereo from the back room where it's been collecting dust to the living room and brought down all the holiday cds from upstairs where they (and the other cds and some of the old records -- vinyl, you know) had been doing exactly nothing, because there is nothing up there to play them on. I don't know what I was thinking when I put all the recorded music up there, except that it seemed like they ought to hang around with the dvds. Well, and there isn't room for them down here, really. Most of the cds are still upstairs and most of the records are still in the back room, and the stereo is stuffed underneath the piano bench, discs in a small crate alongside. ANYWAY, we had a lot more music in the house during this past Christmas season than we've had before, and I actually baked a few cookies even though that was not a good idea. It smelled like one at the time.
I've spent the past couple of weeks mostly sitting with my left knee ace-bandaged and iced and elevated. I think I have a torn meniscus, having consulted with Google and Dr Rick (via email), and I know when it happened -- well, no, not when. I've forgotten how many weeks ago it was but I know what I was doing: I had taken a carton of chicken broth down from the shelf at Safeway and then was doing a little Y-turn around my shopping cart and my left knee sort of snapped. For a second or two I thought it was going to go out from under me, but it didn't, it just felt ... compromised. I leaned on the cart and finished the shopping and went home. Since then it's been varying degrees of *hurt.* Finally a couple of days ago I took Dr Rick's advice and called a knee specialist he knows ("Left knee or right knee?" the receptionist asked when I said I wanted to make an appointment), and I'm going in to see him next Tuesday morning. Of course, as soon as I made the call it started feeling better, but I think it's just being tricksy. You hear about people's trick knees all the time. :o)
And speaking of Dr Rick, who is wonderful, the best doctor EVER, the one who actually listens to me and who calls me on his own time to say my labs look great and I'm a rockstar -- he's closing his practice the end of this month. I actually cried. Bankruptcy for the practice and for him personally. He hasn't drawn salary in a year. Seventeen hundred patients, many of them, this being the neighborhood that it is, with AIDS, many of those advanced and unable to work. I strongly suspect that he was doing for many of his patients what he had said he would do for me if I were unable to get insurance after leaving Comcast: "Don't worry, we'll work something out." So one of the partners is moving to another location, another partnership, and I'll just follow him over there, although -- it isn't that I dislike him, I just don't LIKE him. He's a doctor, not a friend. Rick may or may not begin practice again once he's done dealing with all this. I'm sad.
But -- what with one thing and another, we do have my diabetes under control, as they say, on oral meds. No insulin. So that's good. And Scott, our friend the acupuncturist who will make house calls, has apparently fixed the back pain I've had almost constantly for YEARS. Took him three weeks.
David is at his Italian class, last one for this series. This is homemade-by-a-genuine-Italian Tiramisu day, and I am pea-green. The Safeway order just arrived -- we're doing the delivery thing again because of my walking problems. (Safe-way, my eye -- I also tore something in my shoulder while snagging a carton of whipping cream from a high rack back before New Year's and that STILL bothers me). I like the ease of Safeway Delivery but I'm not wild about the results. Today they decided that since they didn't have any green leaf lettuce, I would like red, and since they didn't have little packs of tomatoes I would be happy to have a little pack of mini-peppers. I ordered vanilla organic yogurt because the plain is too tangy to be fun on oatmeal, but they sent plain. However, they also included two quarts of strawberries that I did not order, which is fine with me (and karmically, I think I deserve them ;o) ) but won't be so good with the customer who *did.*
When David gets home, there will be a trip to Rainbow, the hippie-dippie grocery, for the stuff Safeway didn't include, and *hopefully* some raw milk products. Jenna persuaded me to try raw milk and I did some reading and searching and found that California is one of a tiny tiny handful of states where you can actually buy raw milk products. You know, in a store. Some stores.
My dairy of choice delivers to Rainbow on Thursday and I should have made just that one small trip that day, but ... I didn't. Last night I learned that Whole Foods (which also has been carrying raw milk) is having insurance problems with it and pulled all of it this morning at 8 am. There are three Whole Foods in SF, which means all the people who have been going there for their milk are going to find out about humble little Rainbow and converge on it, so I'm worried.
It's always something. I think Gilda Radner said that.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Not a Lot to Say
But if you're cruising through here, check out the little purple bar over to the right below where it says On the Needles. Yeah, Christmas Ornaments.
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Okay, I'll Play, Jenna
Five North American Cities in Which I'd Seriously Consider Living:
1. Denver, Colorado (like, kinda soon)
2. Boulder, Colorado
3. Seattle, Washington
4. Philadelphia (suburbs, including South Jersey)
5. Phoenix, but only in the event of Severe Global Cooling
Five Songs to Which I Know all the Words:
(So now I'm trying to think of impressive lyric-dense songs. "American Pie"? Maybe. "Subterranean Homesick Blues"? "Goin' Down." by the Monkees? I'd like to *think* I do ... I do NOT know all the words to "We Didn't Start the Fire," though. Ah, just five songs I like to sing:)
1. "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver
2. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Mama Cass
3. "Right Field" by Peter, Paul and Mary
4. "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" by Neil Sedaka
5. "Mountain of Love" by Johnny Rivers
Five Foods I'd Wish to Have in Unlimited Quantities on a Desert Island:
(this is a fantasy, right? no glycemic index issues?)
1. Fresh soft hot breads with butter :o)
2. Homemade cookies (includes brownies)
3. Cheesecake
4. Dark chocolate
5. Cheese Enchiladas
Five Chores I Should Be Doing Right Now Instead of Blogging:
1. Working on Christmas stuff
2. Vacuuming the back room
3. Walking on the treadmill (yeah, that's a chore)
4. Furminating the cats
5. Scrubbing the couch (see previous answer)
Five Childhood Friends I'd Love to See Again:
You know, my childhood was a long time ago and I really can't think of anyone I miss, except Sam and I am in touch with her even though I haven't seen her in a few years.
1. Sam/Sioux Hill
2.
3.
4.
5.
Now, five friends to tag (but please play even if you aren't tagged, and then let me know!):
1. Amanda
2. Abby
3. Sarah
4. Hannah
5. Micah
1. Denver, Colorado (like, kinda soon)
2. Boulder, Colorado
3. Seattle, Washington
4. Philadelphia (suburbs, including South Jersey)
5. Phoenix, but only in the event of Severe Global Cooling
Five Songs to Which I Know all the Words:
(So now I'm trying to think of impressive lyric-dense songs. "American Pie"? Maybe. "Subterranean Homesick Blues"? "Goin' Down." by the Monkees? I'd like to *think* I do ... I do NOT know all the words to "We Didn't Start the Fire," though. Ah, just five songs I like to sing:)
1. "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver
2. "Dream a Little Dream of Me" by Mama Cass
3. "Right Field" by Peter, Paul and Mary
4. "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" by Neil Sedaka
5. "Mountain of Love" by Johnny Rivers
Five Foods I'd Wish to Have in Unlimited Quantities on a Desert Island:
(this is a fantasy, right? no glycemic index issues?)
1. Fresh soft hot breads with butter :o)
2. Homemade cookies (includes brownies)
3. Cheesecake
4. Dark chocolate
5. Cheese Enchiladas
Five Chores I Should Be Doing Right Now Instead of Blogging:
1. Working on Christmas stuff
2. Vacuuming the back room
3. Walking on the treadmill (yeah, that's a chore)
4. Furminating the cats
5. Scrubbing the couch (see previous answer)
Five Childhood Friends I'd Love to See Again:
You know, my childhood was a long time ago and I really can't think of anyone I miss, except Sam and I am in touch with her even though I haven't seen her in a few years.
1. Sam/Sioux Hill
2.
3.
4.
5.
Now, five friends to tag (but please play even if you aren't tagged, and then let me know!):
1. Amanda
2. Abby
3. Sarah
4. Hannah
5. Micah
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Still At It -- Coming Up Briefly for Air
The One World Tree on Ancestry.com is FULL of glaring errors (the supposed link from us to Jean-Jacques Rousseau only works if you accept a mother born more than 100 years after her daughter, for instance). The Member Trees are better but a lot of them are also just plain (and badly) wrong.
When we get back far enough there are lines David and I (and probably half of America) have in common, and we spent most of last evening on one of those, trying to see how all those submitted trees that tied our guy (Count) Polotsk Rogvolod to Konstantinos VII (and was *his* father Leo The Pius or Romanus II?) could be right. We wanted them to be right -- but they weren't.
It's like people submit these names without checking dates AT ALL. We're sitting here with half a dozen screens open to various historical resources looking for matches or some sort of logic and too often it just isn't there. I was so bummed and it was so late at night that I pulled out all the bad info I had entered on this line (before I started checking the veracity of those previously-submitted trees) and then just started backing out through my tree, intending to come all the way back to myself and then shut down for the night. But as I was working my way out, I noticed Gundred, Countess of Surrey, born 1063, and I hadn't yet tried to push her line out, so I thought I'd just give it one little shot.
Bingo -- William the Conqueror. I told David I got a nice consolation prize after all the Byzantine frustrations. :o)
That one is on my mother's side. You're also descended from Alfred the Great (in a couple of places, as I recall), Charlemagne at least four times so far as I mentioned on FB, Henry I and Henry II of England, a mess of Scottish kings, a whole pack of knights and countesses and so forth. Geoffrey Chaucer is a Great Uncle (his sister Katherine is your multi-great grandmother) and, much more recently, Henry David Thoreau is in there, too. Today I'm going to see if the link to Alfred, Lord Tennyson is valid.
As I understand it, only nobility and royalty have records that go back this far so anyone who gets into the MIddle Ages has charts that look like this, dotted with coats-of-arms, and most people are going to connect back here one way or another but it's still cool to see the names and read the little stories -- and to be able to google your own ancestors. We're learning a lot of history by looking up all these people. You who are my kids undoubtedly have a similarly exciting list on your father's side, of course.
As does anyone else who gets into genealogy. Fun!
Now let's see if I can get the right names with the right ancestors ...
Malcolm III King of Scotland
Henry II of England
Aethelstan, King of the English
this one is probably *not* ours but I really love the idea of an ancestor in stained glass so I'm still working on it.
Alfred the Great
I'll get back to you on this one. Egad, I've lost him!
When we get back far enough there are lines David and I (and probably half of America) have in common, and we spent most of last evening on one of those, trying to see how all those submitted trees that tied our guy (Count) Polotsk Rogvolod to Konstantinos VII (and was *his* father Leo The Pius or Romanus II?) could be right. We wanted them to be right -- but they weren't.
It's like people submit these names without checking dates AT ALL. We're sitting here with half a dozen screens open to various historical resources looking for matches or some sort of logic and too often it just isn't there. I was so bummed and it was so late at night that I pulled out all the bad info I had entered on this line (before I started checking the veracity of those previously-submitted trees) and then just started backing out through my tree, intending to come all the way back to myself and then shut down for the night. But as I was working my way out, I noticed Gundred, Countess of Surrey, born 1063, and I hadn't yet tried to push her line out, so I thought I'd just give it one little shot.
Bingo -- William the Conqueror. I told David I got a nice consolation prize after all the Byzantine frustrations. :o)
That one is on my mother's side. You're also descended from Alfred the Great (in a couple of places, as I recall), Charlemagne at least four times so far as I mentioned on FB, Henry I and Henry II of England, a mess of Scottish kings, a whole pack of knights and countesses and so forth. Geoffrey Chaucer is a Great Uncle (his sister Katherine is your multi-great grandmother) and, much more recently, Henry David Thoreau is in there, too. Today I'm going to see if the link to Alfred, Lord Tennyson is valid.
As I understand it, only nobility and royalty have records that go back this far so anyone who gets into the MIddle Ages has charts that look like this, dotted with coats-of-arms, and most people are going to connect back here one way or another but it's still cool to see the names and read the little stories -- and to be able to google your own ancestors. We're learning a lot of history by looking up all these people. You who are my kids undoubtedly have a similarly exciting list on your father's side, of course.
As does anyone else who gets into genealogy. Fun!
Now let's see if I can get the right names with the right ancestors ...
Malcolm III King of Scotland
Henry II of England
Aethelstan, King of the English
this one is probably *not* ours but I really love the idea of an ancestor in stained glass so I'm still working on it.
Alfred the Great
I'll get back to you on this one. Egad, I've lost him!
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Your 32nd Great Grandmother, Gang
"According to legend, she obtained a reduction in the excessive taxes levied by her husband on the people of Coventry by consenting to ride naked through the town on a white horse. Only one person disobeyed her orders to remain indoors behind closed shutters; this man, a tailor known afterward as Peeping Tom, peered through a window and immediately became blind. The oldest form of the legend is in the 13th-century Flores Historiarum (Flowers of the Historians). A festival in her honor was instituted as part of Coventry Fair in 1678."
Lady Godiva!
I found this one all by myself. I'm so proud!
I seriously need to get dinner put together and work on the ornaments. :o)
Lady Godiva!
I found this one all by myself. I'm so proud!
I seriously need to get dinner put together and work on the ornaments. :o)
My Children, Say Hello
to your great great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather, on my father's side.
Sir Thomas More, *A Man For All Seasons,* author of "Utopia," beheaded by order of his dear friend Henry VIII for *treason,* which was a pretty broad category for Henry and in this case meant Thomas would not acknowledge Henry as head of the Church. I tracked it back and I'm convinced it's a valid connection and I'm so jazzed by this! I've been obsessively interested in Tudor history (or reinterested -- I was into this period of history as far back as my teens) ever since we saw Henry VIII, reading everything I can find and watching the related films, and now ... this!
There was a suggestion made that Sir Thomas was also my 13th great grandfather on my mother's side but when I went to track that one, there's a place where the leap someone made to tie generations just looks too *off* to me. (Ditto a check on a reported relationship to Jean Jacques Rousseau, which I would have liked to claim. But there are many others to investigate ... and I shall.)
I've done about 20 hours of work on Ancestry.com in the past two days and will very likely do more today. As a result I haven't paid much attention to FB or blogs, to say nothing of the dishes. I haven't even knit anything, which is sort of horrifying with the holidays getting closer, but just let me check this one more generation ...
Oh, and closer to home, a couple of other pictures some of you might like to have:
Edmund Lovell Ellsworth, your third great grandfather on my mother's side (obviously), the family polygamist with four wives (that I know of), one of whom was a daughter of Brigham Young. Edmund led the first handcart company across the plains.
This is the wife from whom you are descended:
Mary Ann *Polly* Jones
I sent you all invitations to my *tree* when I started it awhile back and a few of you accepted. You might want to go prowl through it now and see how it's grown. Oh, and add France to your list of your derivations. And Norway, but our Norwegians are Vikings and I suppose most everyone has them. :o)
Sir Thomas More, *A Man For All Seasons,* author of "Utopia," beheaded by order of his dear friend Henry VIII for *treason,* which was a pretty broad category for Henry and in this case meant Thomas would not acknowledge Henry as head of the Church. I tracked it back and I'm convinced it's a valid connection and I'm so jazzed by this! I've been obsessively interested in Tudor history (or reinterested -- I was into this period of history as far back as my teens) ever since we saw Henry VIII, reading everything I can find and watching the related films, and now ... this!
There was a suggestion made that Sir Thomas was also my 13th great grandfather on my mother's side but when I went to track that one, there's a place where the leap someone made to tie generations just looks too *off* to me. (Ditto a check on a reported relationship to Jean Jacques Rousseau, which I would have liked to claim. But there are many others to investigate ... and I shall.)
I've done about 20 hours of work on Ancestry.com in the past two days and will very likely do more today. As a result I haven't paid much attention to FB or blogs, to say nothing of the dishes. I haven't even knit anything, which is sort of horrifying with the holidays getting closer, but just let me check this one more generation ...
Oh, and closer to home, a couple of other pictures some of you might like to have:
Edmund Lovell Ellsworth, your third great grandfather on my mother's side (obviously), the family polygamist with four wives (that I know of), one of whom was a daughter of Brigham Young. Edmund led the first handcart company across the plains.
This is the wife from whom you are descended:
Mary Ann *Polly* Jones
I sent you all invitations to my *tree* when I started it awhile back and a few of you accepted. You might want to go prowl through it now and see how it's grown. Oh, and add France to your list of your derivations. And Norway, but our Norwegians are Vikings and I suppose most everyone has them. :o)
Friday, October 9, 2009
Geez, Another Picture Post!
First of all, I mentioned a Tibetan sand mandala that I didn't go see because of City Driving Issues (yeah, I know
we have a really good pubic transit system but I just don't like public transit *alone*). Happily, they left it (the mandala) in place through Saturday and we did get to see it:
It was done for Peace (Buddhist monks, of course it was done for Peace). They make their sand mandalas by using what looks like very fine cake decorating tubes, and then they sweep them up and away because preserving them would by a form of attachment. I was very happy to be able to see this one, up close and personal.
And since it was located in Grace Cathedral, I had to take one more picture of the Rose Window:
I LOVE stained glass! Wow!
And then we have Colorado. We had *such* a good time! I was telling my friends there that I hoped they would arrange for there to be colored leaves and that little nip in the air, and it was perfect! I think we missed snow by about one day in either direction, but it's too early for it to stay on the ground long and most snow disappears quickly in Denver anyway. Still, the guy at Dollar Car Rental tried his best to get us to upgrade to a bigger vehicle with four-wheel drive. We told him I lived in Denver for seven years and drove a Tercel for most of that, so no thanks, and he said, "Well, *I* wouldn't do it." Okay, fine, just point us to our little economy car. Which turned out to be a Ford. I dislike Fords (we had requested a Chevy), but it did fine for us, and there was no snow.
That was Wednesday afternoon. I was dead tired and felt pretty beat up by the time we got to our motel. On top of the usual bag-schlepping (and laptops are not all that light when slung over your shoulder, you know!) and sitting in uncomfortable chairs at the Gate and then having a futzy seatmate who did not want so much as an elbow to brush him (this was not David, of course - we took aisle seats opposite each other because we both prefer aisle seats), and an incredibly rough descent and landing (we rode an incoming cold front down off the Rockies -- whee!!!!!), I had this little adventure on the train. If you've flown into Denver, you know about the train. There is this little underground train that races you from terminal to terminal, with a few seats and some poles to grab onto and a couple of straps hanging down. It's a wild ride, complete with a jangly little tune that always reminds me of Gene Wilder on the boat in the original Willy Wonka. Anyway, we were on Frontier which is Terminal A and by the time the train reached us en route to Baggage Claim, it was pretty well packed with folks from Terminals B and C. We hurried on board and I looked around and there was nothing to hang onto and nowhere to move to where there might be. David said I could hang onto him, but I was quite sure that I'd pull us both down. He was able to reach the strap and that was the only thing I might have been able to grab but I'm too short. He helped me get a couple of fingertips around it, but I had to stretch, and the train was off and running, playing its cheerful little jangly song and the underground lights flashing past, and I was tilting and swaying and pivoting and really pretty sure I was going to fall and Create a Scene. The people next to us (both clinging to a pole that ran floor to ceiling, and how I envied them!) kept asking if I was all right, and I was not, but you know how you always say yes, you're fine? I said that. Remember Weebles? I'm pretty sure I looked like that. When we got to Baggage Claim, my right shoulder felt wrenched and so did my left hip from trying to balance. And then there was the shuttle to Dollar Car Rental and a long long wait in line. So on Wednesday, we drove to our motel, checked in, ordered pizza. I made some phone calls, took a deep hot bath and a Percocet, and we turned in early. But it was still very good to be there.
Thursday. Beautiful autumn day in my nice cozy familiar Denver:
It was amazing how quickly I felt like I'd never left. And one of those over-the-shoulder-without-looking pictures, quite surprised it came out this well:
Jen and Jonah:
At Micah and Kaiti's:
McKenzee was having nothing to do with us on this visit. When we first got there she came through the living room only a couple of times, and with a towel over her head so we couldn't see her, which was pretty funny. She snatched one single almond M&M from my fingertips as she passed, like she was a little squirrel, and scurried off to her parent's room, where she stayed whenever we were there. Micah took the camera back there and got photographic evidence of her for me.
But at the very end, when we were saying good bye and Madden was hugging us both and I was crying, she came out and climbed up into her mom's arms, and waved and said good-bye. Kids are interesting. :o)
Jen and Jonah at Micah and Kaiti's.
Friday we went to Boulder (and I forgot the camera!!) to visit Nina (who is doing SO amazingly well!) and then Nina went with us to check out the UC campus. I think it's UC -- anyway, the university there. David's looking for a place where he can do some advanced studies in Spanish when we retire (which could be coming up in as little as a year or so but may be delayed longer, depending on things like ... oh, the Ecomony). Boulder's been high on the list. The town is really appealing and so is the idea of having Nina and Billy right there close. We liked the school, the feel of it, you know, and we bought sandwiches and wandered through the bookstore to see their text books. David bought one in Spanish on Spanish Linguistics and I bought one called How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which I'm enjoying a lot and learning many things from. And dangling prepositions about.
The fly in this ointment is that housing is still pretty expensive in Boulder, even in the middle-class sort of neighborhoods. And the family in Colorado is in Denver/Lakewood. Further investigation reveals that the Spanish program available on the Aurauria Campus (of UC Denver) in Denver itself is also pretty darn good, and housing is considerably less expensive. We're not making a final in-stone decision yet, but Denver moved up a rung and I think I like that. :o)
Saturday we met Jaz at our old coffee/brunch hang-out, the Starbucks inside the B&N at Denver West. Ah, did we talk, or what? And I'm afraid I bought books. But they were classics, they needed to be bought. :;)
Sunday with family, including lunch with Noah at Hamburger Mary's. We opted for the patio because there was a football game on the tv inside and the cheering was so loud ... well, it was REALLY loud. I felt like I was in the middle of one of those soccer riots you see on the news. Anyhow, it was a cool place and the food was good and it was a great extra visit with Noah. (And we did actually see Robin - who was working a lot - but never when I had the camera up and going. I didn't realize I hadn't gotten a new pic of her till I got home. Rats.)
Monday with family some more, including Jen driving the two of us plus Noah out into the mountains.
Monday night we were there for Kaiti's candle-lighting and a chorus of Happy Birthday, which was fun,
Madden and Uncle Noah
and then it was sad, all the good-byes. But there will be a next time, and yeah, Micah, it's oh-so-very possible we'll be moving *home* before too much longer.
we have a really good pubic transit system but I just don't like public transit *alone*). Happily, they left it (the mandala) in place through Saturday and we did get to see it:
It was done for Peace (Buddhist monks, of course it was done for Peace). They make their sand mandalas by using what looks like very fine cake decorating tubes, and then they sweep them up and away because preserving them would by a form of attachment. I was very happy to be able to see this one, up close and personal.
And since it was located in Grace Cathedral, I had to take one more picture of the Rose Window:
I LOVE stained glass! Wow!
And then we have Colorado. We had *such* a good time! I was telling my friends there that I hoped they would arrange for there to be colored leaves and that little nip in the air, and it was perfect! I think we missed snow by about one day in either direction, but it's too early for it to stay on the ground long and most snow disappears quickly in Denver anyway. Still, the guy at Dollar Car Rental tried his best to get us to upgrade to a bigger vehicle with four-wheel drive. We told him I lived in Denver for seven years and drove a Tercel for most of that, so no thanks, and he said, "Well, *I* wouldn't do it." Okay, fine, just point us to our little economy car. Which turned out to be a Ford. I dislike Fords (we had requested a Chevy), but it did fine for us, and there was no snow.
That was Wednesday afternoon. I was dead tired and felt pretty beat up by the time we got to our motel. On top of the usual bag-schlepping (and laptops are not all that light when slung over your shoulder, you know!) and sitting in uncomfortable chairs at the Gate and then having a futzy seatmate who did not want so much as an elbow to brush him (this was not David, of course - we took aisle seats opposite each other because we both prefer aisle seats), and an incredibly rough descent and landing (we rode an incoming cold front down off the Rockies -- whee!!!!!), I had this little adventure on the train. If you've flown into Denver, you know about the train. There is this little underground train that races you from terminal to terminal, with a few seats and some poles to grab onto and a couple of straps hanging down. It's a wild ride, complete with a jangly little tune that always reminds me of Gene Wilder on the boat in the original Willy Wonka. Anyway, we were on Frontier which is Terminal A and by the time the train reached us en route to Baggage Claim, it was pretty well packed with folks from Terminals B and C. We hurried on board and I looked around and there was nothing to hang onto and nowhere to move to where there might be. David said I could hang onto him, but I was quite sure that I'd pull us both down. He was able to reach the strap and that was the only thing I might have been able to grab but I'm too short. He helped me get a couple of fingertips around it, but I had to stretch, and the train was off and running, playing its cheerful little jangly song and the underground lights flashing past, and I was tilting and swaying and pivoting and really pretty sure I was going to fall and Create a Scene. The people next to us (both clinging to a pole that ran floor to ceiling, and how I envied them!) kept asking if I was all right, and I was not, but you know how you always say yes, you're fine? I said that. Remember Weebles? I'm pretty sure I looked like that. When we got to Baggage Claim, my right shoulder felt wrenched and so did my left hip from trying to balance. And then there was the shuttle to Dollar Car Rental and a long long wait in line. So on Wednesday, we drove to our motel, checked in, ordered pizza. I made some phone calls, took a deep hot bath and a Percocet, and we turned in early. But it was still very good to be there.
Thursday. Beautiful autumn day in my nice cozy familiar Denver:
It was amazing how quickly I felt like I'd never left. And one of those over-the-shoulder-without-looking pictures, quite surprised it came out this well:
Jen and Jonah:
At Micah and Kaiti's:
McKenzee was having nothing to do with us on this visit. When we first got there she came through the living room only a couple of times, and with a towel over her head so we couldn't see her, which was pretty funny. She snatched one single almond M&M from my fingertips as she passed, like she was a little squirrel, and scurried off to her parent's room, where she stayed whenever we were there. Micah took the camera back there and got photographic evidence of her for me.
But at the very end, when we were saying good bye and Madden was hugging us both and I was crying, she came out and climbed up into her mom's arms, and waved and said good-bye. Kids are interesting. :o)
Jen and Jonah at Micah and Kaiti's.
Friday we went to Boulder (and I forgot the camera!!) to visit Nina (who is doing SO amazingly well!) and then Nina went with us to check out the UC campus. I think it's UC -- anyway, the university there. David's looking for a place where he can do some advanced studies in Spanish when we retire (which could be coming up in as little as a year or so but may be delayed longer, depending on things like ... oh, the Ecomony). Boulder's been high on the list. The town is really appealing and so is the idea of having Nina and Billy right there close. We liked the school, the feel of it, you know, and we bought sandwiches and wandered through the bookstore to see their text books. David bought one in Spanish on Spanish Linguistics and I bought one called How to Read Literature Like a Professor, which I'm enjoying a lot and learning many things from. And dangling prepositions about.
The fly in this ointment is that housing is still pretty expensive in Boulder, even in the middle-class sort of neighborhoods. And the family in Colorado is in Denver/Lakewood. Further investigation reveals that the Spanish program available on the Aurauria Campus (of UC Denver) in Denver itself is also pretty darn good, and housing is considerably less expensive. We're not making a final in-stone decision yet, but Denver moved up a rung and I think I like that. :o)
Saturday we met Jaz at our old coffee/brunch hang-out, the Starbucks inside the B&N at Denver West. Ah, did we talk, or what? And I'm afraid I bought books. But they were classics, they needed to be bought. :;)
Sunday with family, including lunch with Noah at Hamburger Mary's. We opted for the patio because there was a football game on the tv inside and the cheering was so loud ... well, it was REALLY loud. I felt like I was in the middle of one of those soccer riots you see on the news. Anyhow, it was a cool place and the food was good and it was a great extra visit with Noah. (And we did actually see Robin - who was working a lot - but never when I had the camera up and going. I didn't realize I hadn't gotten a new pic of her till I got home. Rats.)
Monday with family some more, including Jen driving the two of us plus Noah out into the mountains.
Monday night we were there for Kaiti's candle-lighting and a chorus of Happy Birthday, which was fun,
Madden and Uncle Noah
and then it was sad, all the good-byes. But there will be a next time, and yeah, Micah, it's oh-so-very possible we'll be moving *home* before too much longer.
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