70? No Way!

First let me preface this by saying that my older brother is very much older than me. I always say that my parents had my brother and sister and then came the war. We are talking WWII here. Then my dad came home and established his business. Later they had me and then six years later they had my younger brother. But still, when I got the invite to my older brother's 70th birthday party it put me in a state of shock. I mean he can't be that old. I think seeing it in writing just threw me for a loop. So tonight was the party and it was a lot of fun. He was completely surprised. My niece called and told him he had to come to her house as a pipe had broken. So here he came, with all of us hiding. He got out of the car, opened the trunk, and went and turned her water off. This is before he walked in the house. Then he headed into the house with a wrench in his dirty hands and everyone yelled surprise. Actually it was quite funny. Then he had to go back out and turn the water back on. Funny again. We had a great BBQ dinner and later cake. While we ate cake we played a game called is Kent older or younger than this historical event. That got to be pretty funny. I did not take my camera but thanks to cell phones I got this picture of me and my brother. He is holding flowers that I delivered from our sister JE who lives in Florida. Happy BD Kent!

New Hat

Here is the hat I have been working on during the Olympics. This was yarn that Allison picked out late last spring while we were at The Shabby Sheep. I had no idea what it was going to be and so the yarn sat in the yarn basket. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Handpaint Sock Yarn. It is so fantastically soft and the colors are wonderful. It is listed as color #7 but I think it looks like the colors of New Mexico. The pattern was one I found on HipKnitIzed's blog, http://www.hipknitized.blogspot.com/. It is called Trendy Eyelet Slouch Hat and was posted in December 09. The only change I made to the pattern was to knit 118 stitches instead of 90. I had cast on the 90 but felt that the weight of the yarn needed the extra stitches. I surprised Allison with it yesterday and of course had to have a picture. By the time we got done she was taking it off saying it was really warm which will be great outside but not in the house. I really enjoyed knitting this hat so I am sure I will be making more in the future. It looks lacey but was incredibly easy with only one row out of four having K2tog & yarn overs. Love it.

Play Day

Today was an inside play day. It was kindof misty and it was windy and cold so before we went shopping we went to the inside playground. This was Scout's first time at the playground and she had a blast. It was so much fun today playing with the girls. Tomorrow....knitting.

Gauge? What's That?

I hate gauge. I don't like figuring gauge. I don't do swatches. Yeah, I know. But today I have been "trying" to get the correct gauge for a shawl. It should not be that hard but I have one skein of Misti Alpaca Handpaint Sock Yarn and I want to make sure that there will be enough for the shawl. The yardage on the ball band tells me if I have gauge I will have enough, well, just enough with no room to spare. Did I mention I hate doing swatches? They seem such a waste of good knitting time to say nothing of that I am going to "tire out" that first little bit of precious alpaca yarn. My new mantra is going to be "check the rules for gauge in Yarn Harlot's book Knitting Rules". This is one of my most favorite books because in following her instructions for knitting socks I was able to accomplish knitting socks that fit. When Yarn Harlot was in Dallas at a book signing last year I asked to to autograph my book. She was gracious enough to let me take a picture of her holding the sock I was working on. She was my encouragement that I could actually make socks that fit. So today after trying to get just the right gauge, for the um-teenth time I got out the book and read the rules for gauge. If you don't have enough stitches per inch then go down a needle size. Well, I tried that. I laughed because it should be so simple to figure out. But have you ever been in the position of having tried everything and are ready to throw the knitting across the room and someone says hey do this. That is when you say oh, yeah, that's right. Yarn Harlot called it being "frayed at the edges". Yeah I was there. I only have one hank of this yarn. It is a small shawl. But I do not want to get to the last couple of rows and not have enough yarn. Hmmm. I cannot say what pattern it is because if I do not get this gauge thing worked out then I won't have to face the disappointment of explaining why I would be ripping out the shawl. So now that I have unloaded my thoughts, and miraculously without any cussing, I am off to see if I now can get the right gauge.

What The Heck?

I have a question. Do hospitals, doctors and/or pharmacies sell information to shall we say pill providers? I have noticed that in the last month since my little visit to the emergency room I am getting all kinds of, shall we say, crap on my email. I mean these go to my junk mail so I don't open them but what the heck? Today was the biggest yet. Usually you get one or two of the normal kind with a few of the ones that people hate to even talk to their doctor about. But today I got seventeen, yes 17 of these kinds of email. I mean offering me great deals on all kinds of pain meds etc. So is our personal info on what kind of meds we take being splashed across the world? Now yes I may have blogged about what I had to take due to the kidney infection and perhaps I am naive about the world, well not really, but holy cow. So since all this started after my little ER trip I am wondering if perhaps hospitals sell information or if people have nothing better to do than to sculk through websites, blogs, social networks and overload people's emails with their trash. I have a longstanding pharmacy where like Cheer's everybody knows my name. I am not about to buy from some unknown person on the internet. So this is just a little rant. I know we all live basically in a society where any info can be obtained but I am hoping that one of our most sacred establishments who see us at our physical worst sometimes are not out there hawking our info for extra money. Rant finished.

Winter Olympics

I really like the Winter Olympics. I can take or leave the Summer Olympics but the Winter Games are so much more interesting. You might find this strange when I tell you my favorite sport. I like all the ski events. I like the skating including the ice dancing. Anyone remember Torvill & Dean skating to Ravel's Bolero? I really enjoy the speed skating. Of course Apolo Ohno comes to mind especially since he just took the lead in overall medals away from Bonnie Blair. By the way was anyone else shocked to see Eric Hyden had some gray hair and Bonnie looked older? I believe that it was mentioned Eric won his big stash of medals in 1980. Is it possible it has been that long ago? But my absolute favorite sport is Curling. Yes, the game where they fling rocks across the ice toward what looks like a green and blue Target logo. Where people slide across the ice and holler at the top of their lungs to help the rock along. I am not sure when I fell for Curling. It was many, many Olympics ago. I will watch it every time it is on and since the Games are being shown on three different stations and Curling is on at a varied amount of times I am in Curling heaven. Sitting on the TV is my Olympic knitting. It is not a hard project just takes a bit of counting. Exact details will have to wait till it is finished. If you have not watched Curling give it a try. It is very cool, haha.

Now That Is Some Good Chicken Spaghetti!

Ok, recently Allison made The Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti. She blogged that this is not your mother's chicken spaghetti. Oh my goodness she is so right. This has to be the best chicken spaghetti I have ever tasted. Check the link on the blog to get to her website. If you have never made any of her dishes you are missing some yummy food. By the way Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls are great too. Thanks Allison for letting me steal this picture of your dish.

Snow & Sopapeoples

A week after our huge snowfall The Ponderosa still has snow in several spots. It was about 54 degrees and Jo and I were taking a walk and looking at the leftovers. Notice she has on a short sleeve dress but is sitting by the snow. We went to El Fenix and Scout had her first taste of the kids "sopapeoples". They are sopapillas cut into the shape of people. Very cute. We really did not think she would like them but as you can see she did.

Happy Birthday Corteney!

Today was Corteney's birthday. She is Matthew's girlfriend. She just turned 21. We got together for a surprise dinner. Matthew loves that sort of thing. Of course if it is a birthday Jo believes you must have cake. Allison made a Bart Simpson cake. With the adults we usually do something retro from their childhood so you never know what you are going to get. It was yummy. There was a dance floor at The TrailDust. No one was out there and Jo felt she needed to dance so she was the entertainment for the evening. I had a lot of trouble with my camera so hopefully Matthew got more pictures. Happy Birthday Corteney!

Winter Wonderland 2

Ok, I can't help it. I live in Texas. I have not seen this much snow since I was a little kid living in southern Illinois. Official DFW measure is 12 1/2". Interestingly I moved to Texas in 1963. February 1964 is when they set the last record for snow at 12.1".

Winter Wonderland

The final measurement is 8" of snow in my yard. It is so pretty. The carpet of white, the trees and the quiet of the early morning before anyone was brave enough to venture out. Beautiful.

More Snow

At last measure I have 7" of snow in my yard. Heard The Ponderosa at last measure was 9" and it is still snowing. We are on target for breaking the record set in 1978. Can't wait to get the final measurement.

5 pm Snow Report

The snow is still coming down. 6" here at the house. DFW Airport has had 6 1/2". I will check again in a couple of hours. Since I have not had to be on the road this has been a fun day.

Snow Update

Ok, it does not snow like this in Texas. Here is an update. Three hours after my first post I now have 4 inches, yes 4 inches in my front yard. More is expected so more updates are to come. Whoo hoo what fun!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

It's Snowing! Again! The weather people had warned us that it was coming and when we got up this morning it was here. Right now there is about 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" and it is just middle of the morning with more supposed to arrive throughout the day. My doctor's office called me and rescheduled my appointment. On the Weather Channel they they asked what is worse a foot of snow in the North or an inch of snow in the South. I think it is an inch of snow in the South. We just don't get enough of it here to know what to do in it. It is very pretty and I love the sound of snow. Really when you have snow coming down and blanketing everything it is the sound of silence.

Lost Needles

This week I officially lost a pair of circular needles. This has never happened before. Sometimes needles get misplaced but after a long search through projects, bags, and stash they are usually found. Not this time. I had a project I wanted to start that took size 9 needles. As I ransacked the house through closets and bags and boxes I finally found the size 9 circular needles. Well sort of. I found an empty needle package. I am pretty good about keeping things together so this was weird. Again I went through everywhere I could think that they might have gotten stashed. They were nowhere. So a trip to The Shabby Sheep had to be made to get a new pair. The yarn I am using needs to be knit on bamboo needles. I mean I must have had five pair of Addi Turbos in various lengths but they are too slippy for this yarn. When I got to Shabby Sheep I found the right size needles hanging on the wall but then a basket of needles sitting on the table caught my eye. They were HiyaHiya. I had not used them before but immediately the cost of them was a plus. They were very reasonably priced but I was unsure about trying a new brand. They felt smooth so cost won out. I got them home and cast on and I have to tell you I am in love with these needles. They are wonderfully fantastic. The bamboo is smooth and the yarn just flows over them. I highly recommend them. The project I started is not shown here because then the cat would be out of the bag so all you get to see is the new package the needles came in. Pictures of project to follow. In fact it may be finished sooner than I thought because it is just flying on these new needles.

Not A Super Bowl Get-Together

"The Fam" got together this last Sunday. Not because of the Super Bowl but because Uncle Daisey had been wanting wings and it sounded good to everyone else. Allison makes the best wings hands down. This time to make more of them at a time TJ cooked them out in his big fryer. They were fantastic and the fries were some of the best I have had in a long time. Jo iced her Valentine cookies that we ate for dessert. Everyone always has a good time at The Ponderosa.

Silent Poetry Reading

I was reminded today by Lene, http://www.theseatedview.blogspot.com/, that today was the Feast of St Brigid or Imbolc, the Fifth Annual Blogger (Silent) Poetry Reading. She has a wonderful poem on her site as does Strickerin. There are links to both here on my blog. Not very long ago while Joseph was still in the Army a friend of mine sent this poem by Khalil Gibran to me. It became a favorite of mine probably because I have four kids and five grandkids.

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
Which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.