Purling Oaks

Maria who?

Thank goodness for fill in the blank.  I'm just plumb wore out between work and play.  Today feels like it has lasted a good 84 hours.  It is probably the result of sleeping in three different beds in less than a week.  Carry on.  I'll be home Thursday night.  Then off to play by Friday afternoon.  Midwest Fiber and Folk something or other Art Fair with my buddy, Charlynn.

Just for KnittyOtter:

Getting to Know you Contest Questionnaire:

1.) How long have you been knitting?

My mother and grandmother taught me to knit....I think it was about 1975, if I remember the house right.  I didn't do too much with it until about 2001 when I decided I would knit a sweater for my "new year start a new craft" project.

2.) How long have you been knitting socks?

I started my first sock in 2003 on the way to Yellowstone and I think I finished it in 2007.  :D

3.) What do you do with a problem like Maria?

I would probably just ignore her until she went away.

4.) What is your all time favorite sock yarn?

I haven't tried many yet.  Trekking XXL made my favorite pair of socks, so far.

5.) Toe Up or Cuff Down?

I'm still in process of the first toe up.  I think both ways are probably useful but the toe up seem less fiddly.

6.) What's your favorite color (this week or for all time)? Do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

I like mossy greens and muted colors,  soft orange, reds with blue casts (as compared to orange).  I don't like kelly green.

7.) Do you have a pet(s)?

Yes, four cats.  White Dot, Black Dot, Blue, and Fuzzle

8.) Babies: Oven Roasted or Barbecued?

Poached in Johnson's Baby Bath.  :D

9.) Besides socks what is your favorite type of thing to knit?

Sweaters and lace, I certainly have enough of both of them started.......

10.) What's your favorite scent?

Citrus, orange primarily.   My husband's t-shirts.  A warm furry feline.

11.) What music are you really loving right now? Like a song or a band?

Patti Austin's tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.

12.) How many pairs of socks have you hand knit?

Oh gee.  Four, I think.  Maybe five.  (Sad, I know.  If I were home I could count them up.  I'm just tired, now.)  Two pairs in progress on the sticks.

13.) What's your favorite treat? Salty or Sweet?

Both and either.  Chips and dip, kettle popcorn....stuff like that.   Generally, I'm a salt-a-holic.

14.) What was the most interesting thing you smelled yesterday. Not good or bad necessarily, just the thing that stuck out most so that you actually took notice of it.

Oatmeal raisin cookies baked by my nephew, Hunter.  Musty humidity in the garage of our cottage.

15.) Needles - DPN's: Wooden, metal or plastic?

Bamboo or wood.  Crystal Palace are nice.  Metal are too darn slick.

16.) What is your favorite sock pattern that you've knit? What do you recommend?

I like the resulting socks from the Jaywalker pattern but the pattern was a minor challenge when frogging.  I want to try Cookie's Cutter sock pattern next.

17.) The last Question: If you were stuck on a deserted island who would you want with you, what knitting would you want with you and would you ever want to leave?

I would definitely want my husband with me, lace knitting since I would have time to concentrate on the pattern.  Yes, I would want to leave after a while.  Semi-solitude is nice but my life's theme is change and travel.  Why buck the trend?

Friday's chives and a meme

I lifted this meme from Joan since I needed a bit of blogging material.  Thanks, Joan.

#1-What was I doing 10 years ago?  I was working in the same career/job/employment as I am now, living in Oshkosh, discovering the time-sink of the Internet - especially on dial-up, and puttering in my garden.  Single but committed to my (now) DH.  DH's father had just passed away.  My Dad, Aunt Nancy, and Grandma Nana were still living.  No feline friends shared my living quarters.  

#2-Five things on today's to do list:
1) Wait for "the guy" to arrive and fix the thermostat so the radiators don't run when the air conditioning runs.  O.o
2) Start a sponge for bread so DH will have some yummy bread when he comes home tomorrow.
3) Get a haircut.  Find out if my stylist's grandbaby has arrived yet.
4) Acquire about 6 bags of compost for the garden boxes. 
5) See if I can find some tulle (to keep the locks separate) for washing my Artemesia fleece.  Thanks for the link, Stacey.  Perhaps a trip to Madison will be required. 

#3- Snacks I enjoy:
Nutella on Townhouse crackers, herb and garlic goat cheese with crackers, chocolate covered nuts, radishes and kohlrabi (in the summer) sliced with salt, bing cherries. 

#4 - If I was a billionaire I'd....
Have a massage every day.
Set up a family education trust so that everyone could get an advanced education (technical college or regular university) at any age.
Fund a program to teach fiber arts and sewing to anyone but especially children. 
Spend more time with my family and friends.

#5 - Places I have lived:
In order -
Oshkosh, WI
near Larsen, WI
Minneapolis, MN
Madison, WI
Houston, TX
Aurora, IL
Oshkosh, WI
Madison, WI
near Poynette, WI (and I'm NOT budging from here.) 

#6 - Six people I'd like to know more about: All of you.  Play along if you wish.

Post? What's that?

It has been a busy week with work as usual but with a bonus day of meetings and getting prepped for a vacation.  I'm back home tonight trying to transfer stuff from my old mac to my new mac so the old one can go to a new home with my nephew.  Moving my music from the old iTunes to the new iTunes was bothersome so I just decided to use my old backup disks and that appears to be working. 

I must say I really don't have much worth while rattling around in my brain for a post tonight.  You'll be seeing a guest blogger for a post coming up this week.  There will probably be some posts on fibery (and other) adventures with Stacey coming up, as well, as long as I can find a high speed Internet connection.

I haven't made any measurable progress on Forest Canopy.  I am a bit disappointed about this but it is my own fault.  I'm experiencing a bit of an attention  and time deficit that I hope to remedy this coming week.

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Deborah tagged me with this book meme:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 or more pages.   Aerie by Mercedes Lackey (fourth and last of a series)  I haven't started reading this book yet.  I'm not too excited about it at the moment but I want to finish the series.

2. Open the book to page 123 and find the 5th sentence. "And we will need to call upon favors from other tribes to make up for our losses."

3. Post the next 3 sentences. 'We will not starve... but we will not prosper either, for some time to come."  That was an extraordinary admission from a Mouth of the Bedu, who were so notoriously secretive that they generally had only one person in each tribe -- the Mouth--to speak to outsiders.  "Starvation is a cruel death," the Mouth said, meditatively.

4. Then tag 4 people.  I won't tag anyone but feel free to tag yourself.  Thanks Deborah!

Meme and other stuff

Here's a meme that is going around blogland.  I saw it most recently at Cookie's corner of TypePad.  Here's the essence:  Go to www.wikipedia.org and type in your birth month and day.  List three events, two births, and one holiday.  You can choose to tag someone or not.  Here goes:

Events:

1602 - The Bodleian Library at Oxford University is opened to the public.

1899 - The Bronx Zoo opens.

1971 - The fourth album of British Rock Group, Led Zeppelin is released including the song "Stairway to Heaven."

Births:

1836 - Milton Bradley

1949 - Bonnie Raitt

Holiday:  Saint Michael's Day

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This is my last night of this trip to Lincoln, NE.  I plan to wake up (way too early) to catch the first flight to Minneapolis where I'll change planes and end up in Madison.  I'm flying Northwest Airlines so cross your fingers for me that none of my flights are cancelled.  As soon as I get home, DH and I are starting our vacation.  HURRAY!  Saturday, we will be helping to celebrate the engagement of DH's youngest brother, Paul, to Amanda. 

On Sunday, our vacation starts in earnest when we load the car to the gills and head north to Grand Marais, Michigan.  It is a wonderful place to visit and an easy place to let tension unwind from my spine and drift away.  DH and I honeymooned there and we have visited twice, I think, since then.  We will do some exploring and hiking.  DH will engage in a bit of woods-loafing (i.e., trout fishing) while I'll knit (certainly) and spin (probably) and perhaps work on a few other little crafty items.  The big plan, knitting-wise, is to finish Sonnet's sleeves.  Considering it is about a six-hour drive up there, I think that might be likely.  Of course, I'll be bringing the Nasturtium socks along and some spare projects, just in case.

We stay at a place with a little kitchen, so we will cook our own meals--another way to relax.  Most folks may think that is counter-relaxing but if they were away from home in hotels as much as we are, they may think differently.  I'm not sure what the Internet-connectivity level is at our lodging or in Grand Marais, so I may not be posting much if at all the first week of July.  We'll have to wait and see.  At least I'll be generating post material for the following week, right?

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I wanted to share this blog with you.  I love the photographs because they inspire me to stop and enjoy my breakfast rather than just consume it to ease my hunger.  I wish I would treat breakfast like that daily.

Seven Randoms

I was tagged by Jen. Here is how it works: Each player starts with seven random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog with their seven things as well as these rules. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. Remember to leave a comment for them letting them know they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1) For seven years, until I was 16 or 17 years old, I attended Richard's School of the Dance. I took tap, ballet, and jazz dance lessons and, once I started (*ahem*) maturing, I also was a Can-Can girl. Every June, we performed at both an afternoon and evening show at the local theatre. It was quite a production, very nerve-wracking and exciting all at once. The can-can costume hasn't changed at all in over 30 years. *g*

2) I have about thirty first cousins. I'm the oldest grandchild on my mother's side by about two months and I'm in the middle of the pack on my father's side.

3) I love to read Nora Roberts and also J.D. Robb (one of N.R.'s pen names). I started with the J.D. Robb "Death By...." books and then started reading her other novels when she didn't write fast enough to keep up with me reading about Eve and Rourke. I read a lot of other authors (mostly science fiction and fantasy) as well but knitting is cutting into my reading time.

4) I don't watch much in the way of television anymore (well, the Food Network doesn't count, right?), but Adrian Paul and Scott Bakula were always favorites.

5) I've lived in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, and Illinois. Although I travel quite often for work, this travel does not take me outside of the U.S. with the exception of one after-hours trip into Matamoras, Mexico. I've been to Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands (pre-hurricanes).

6) I'm a member of the Brothertown Indians.

7) I totalled my mother's Dodge Dart the August before my senior year of high school. I was driving to my waitress job on a Sunday morning when a spider dropped down from the sun visor and startled me. I slammed on the brakes, the front right tire blew out and the car flipped (in slow motion) over into a ditch, narrowly missing a culvert. I ran my pantyhose (no other injury) and surprised a farmer who was finishing up milking his cows. Lucky girl.

Thanks, Jen, for providing some blog content! I'm not going to tag anyone but please consider yourself tagged if you wish to play along.

The Letter "L"

Cara passed me the letter L. Thanks, Cara. The way this meme works is that you get a letter from someone and then you have to list ten things or themes in your life that begin with that letter. Let me know in the comments if you would like a letter.

"L"

Laundry. One of my favorite chores. While it is a chore, I would much, much rather do laundry than most any other household chore you or I could think of. (However, if this were 1907, rather than 2007, I'm sure I would have a significantly different opinion.) Clothes go into the washer in a smelly, dirty, wrinkled state and come out of the dryer or off the line smelling sweet and ready to be used. If we didn't do laundry, I would have to shop for clothes and that is a chore.

Lists. Without lists, I am a very befuddled individual. With a list, I have a plan and I know what I have to do next without spending a lot of brain cells trying to remember. I miss my memory.

Liatris. (also know as Indian gayfeather) I plan to plant liatris in a yet to be dug garden this coming summer. The flowers last a long time and there are some varieties that grow taller than I measure.

Library. I have not yet visited the local library since we've moved. It is a small one but it gets a reasonable amount of publicity in the local weekly paper. Now I'm curious and will have to put a visit to the library on my to-do list.

Lost. On October 12, G.G. (aka Grumpy) left the house with her siblings in the morning and she hasn't returned home yet. We've posted flyers, searched the woods and roads, and called neighbors and area pet shelters. No one has seen her. We have found nice people though. There is another much larger Siamese cat about 4 or 5 miles from our house that I've seen due to the thoughtful calls of strangers responding to the flyers.

Lemon. A favorite flavor of mine in hard candies, sauces for chicken scallopini with lemons and capers as well as steak carppachio. My Grandpa Ted, a tall and silent Norwegian, liked lemon sandwich cookies.

L. My middle name starts with that letter and it is a very popular name (middle or first) of the mates of my husband's brothers and cousins. Interesting.

Learning. I hope to never stop learning. My most recent learning experience is teaching myself to hold the yarn in my left hand (Continental style) and I'm still working on learning it. Holding the yarn in the left hand looks faster and I need all the speed I can muster. The placement of the yarn in my fingers seems to be the current challenge so I achieve the correct tension.

Lights. We are still in the process of replacing lighting fixtures in the house. Here's a close up of the new one hanging in the foyer. Next up for replacement are the kitchen and dining area lights. We take the old fixtures to our town garbage drop-off and there is usually someone who would like them so they are recycled.

Love. I am glad, wonderously glad, to have love in my life.