Some pictures from the Columbus Zoo and Oliver Winery in Indiana

the frog/waterfall and fish are at the winery. All others are from the zoo trip. I got many lovely pictures and I think I am going to make an online photo album for easier viewing and i'll post the link here if i accomplish that.

hobby lobby, my trip, and some advice to future grandmothers

we got home yesterday afternoon, and all is now well. I had 3 spats with the MIL and she's crazier than ever, but we all survived teh trip. Grandpa who's 100 is doing well, although he's still a racist. He took umbridge with missM's black cabbage patch kid. I'm sure he'll send a very expensive white doll to replacve the cheap black one as a christmas present. that black cabbage patch doll really offends old people where ever we go.

I LOVED my 15 mins in hobby lobby and was sorta miffed that they sent me in with the MIL to babysit her while yarn shopping. Michaels and Joanns are the two craft stores near me and they're kinda crappy. My sister has an AC moore and a Benjamin Frankloin near her and they're pretty good, I think i mostly visit her so i can go to either one of those stores. Today i looked hobby lobby up online to see about shopping online and guess what? there are 2 planned hobby lobby stores near me! i don't know when they'll open, but i'll be THERE when they do. I noticed several midwestern stores are starting to move east and i saw a few eastern stores crop up in the midwest since last year.

on our way to bloomington i made a shawl for myself and while there i made some more clothing for the cabbage patch kid mentioned above and on the wya home I made a checkers game that needs a bit more work and will be done. I need to work on 2 baby blankets but everything else i previously mentioned in older posts is now completed. I listened to "My Antoina" and "PErsuasion" while in the car. Since librivox is all volunteer, some of the readers aren't very good, but i liked it just the same. The woman who reads jane austen is top notch and could get paid to do it. There were 5-6 different people who read the willa cather book and some were great and others okay, but I can hear the loe of the work in their voices and the fact that it's free is nice.

I am starting "uncle Tom's Cabin" and a work of classic short stories. After that I'm going to DL some agatha christie and perhaps some more cather?

I do have one small wors of advoice for you broards who will be grandmas in the future (most of you). NEVER OFFER advice about parenting unless the person out-right asks. Many of the people I know are older than I am, which is fine, but I'm starting to get tired of all the Free Advice that's piled upon me. Free advoice is worth what you pay for it. I think this trip was extra taxing because my MIL's mental state is worse than ever and she's lost the ability to butt-out. I finally had to tell the old bitch that I do one thing every day, all day and that's be a mother. I'm the world's only expert on Mandolin, and as such, I don't need or want any help from her or anyone else. If I ask for help or advice, then by-all-means, but if I don't speak those words, STFU.

Because the in-laws are in their mid-70's and haven't had toddlers since they were in their 40s, they oftne forget what is appropriate for a 2 year old. They wanted to engage in several great touristy things that were not 2-year-old activities. I had to have a mini-shouting match in the middle of the Columbus Zoo for them to understand that yes, the trained animal show is neat, and if they want to see it, they should go see it, but a 2 year old will not sit for 30 mins for that. They have strange notions, and one of them is that when one goes on a group trip, one may only engage in activities that ALL members of the group can do together. In short, I spent 7 days with 5 other people every second of the day, 3 of which have mental health issues and one of which is 2. In a mini-van.

The other short parents spot was over food. MissM is now in the "i'm never eating again" stage of life. It's normal and I'm not worried. Every 5-7 days she'll eat a good meal and most of the other days she'll eat 1/2c apple sauce and mayve some crackers and be done for the day. Fine. One day she asked for lunch and we bought it for her and she refused to eat it. I told her she wasn't getting one bite of food again until dinner and left it at that. Awhile later I caught the MIL feeding ehr and we had a fight. When I say "NO FOOD" it means no food.

So ladies, listen to me, when you're blessed with grandkids, do NOT go back on the ruling of the parents. "Grandma's" or "Granpa's" privilidge only goes so far. The MIL was informed just what would happen if she fed the kid again. She went into a lengthy speech about how her son (my guy) had a stomach illness that almost killed him (i'm well aware of this) when he was 2, so when he wanted to eat, she'd feed him, no matter what it was he wanted to eat. Fine, that's how she felt she needed to do things. that's not the situation I'm in and that's not how I do things. Get on board with me or get off.

anyway, i'm going to cut that rant short and I promise some pictures soon.

gone but i hope not to be forgotten

at about 7:15 am eastern time on 7/14/10, we're headed off on the 'ole family road trip to the midwest to visit our elderly kin. it's me, the guy, the kid, the b-i-l, the m-i-l and the f-i-l in a mini van for a week.

if i don't kill myself or others, i'll be back next tuesday. if i can, i'll update you on this comedy of errors as it's happening.

new Pics and stuff

Here are some pics. I made this red hat for myself. It's a lily sugar 'n cream cotton yarn free pattern found here:

http://www.sugarncream.com/search.php?key=hat&searchResults=&PATTERNS=Search

I made mine in a becoming shade of burgyndy and I had to pull the pattern out 3 times and ended up taking 4 tries and HEAVY modification to fit my head. the pattern, as made in the directions with the hook they state one should use, comes out to be the appropriate size for a giant. But, I like my hat as I finally made it and will be using the crab stitch and the crossed dc pattern again in the future.

I also made a pattern for a phone holder and a camera holder. My firend like my phone holder and camera holder so much I made her a pink phone holder and a blue camera pouch like mine.

This is my new pink purse and holds all my junk and is cute. I am going to make a few flowers and safety-pin them on as an easily removed decoration. Another friend got a similar, but a bit larger, purse in beige and has asked me to make her a few trees from the book "Crochet Adorned" and attach those for her. It should be quick and easy.

I am making a boy's baby blanket for a friend's soon-to-be-born grandson. Their big rednecks, so I picked 2 shades of cammo, an oatmeal and a chocolate brown and am making 16 8"x8" squares and then will crab stitch a border in oatmeal or chocolate. I have 1.5 oatmeal squares and then 4 chocolate squares and then assembly and border and i'm done. The original pattern can be found here:

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/80854AD.html?noImages=

I changed it heavily by adding 2 colors, 4 squares, and a border, but really, why have a baby blanket that's 24"x24"? That's almost sueless for a kiddo. This one will be about 32"x32" and he can keep for ages after he's out of the infant carseat.

I have been playing with pattern making but need to rework my idea. I got a cute grannysquare heart from here:
http://www.crochetme.com/media/p/94308.aspx

but they made it into a scarf. That scarf must be huge as each heart I did came out to 5.5" inches at the alrgest point. making 50 of them and then sewing them together in boxes must be a HUGE scarf. I think if I made her scarf, I'd have to use a hook that was 2-3 notches smaller and possibly smaller ply yarn. the hearts should be 2-3inches if you're going to make boxes and sew them together!

Anyway, my blanker: I have made it in 4 different colors and one granny square and am attempting to attach them all and border it about an 1" to make a square that's about 12"x12". 9 of these together with a 1" border will make a pretty blanket. I need to take out the hearts and re-attack ut leaving the dent in the middle of the heart un-attached to the square so they look like hearts, not spades.

MissM LOVES this square and likes to carry it around the house saying "here's my blanket, I like my blanket. Mommy, finish this blanket, not that one!" when I work on the cammo blanket and not her blanket.

Here's a pick of the hat and scarf I made for MissM last winter to match her shoickingly hot pink pea coat. The hat no londer fits, so I need to get some more pink yarn, undo the hot pink hat and make it bigger. The hot-pink coat will be used again this winter, and the scarf still matches, or i could just make her a new set and give this one away? I don't kow any little girls who'd want it.

We're leaving on the 13th for the yearly trip to Indiana to visit grandpa who's 100, so I need to get my tail in gear and get all my car-work ready. I need to upload all my ipod stuff to my cellphone so my guy and i can each have an mp3 player for the trip, I need to get MissM's car activities together, I need to shop for the food I'm taking (i forsee a lot of McD's stops and I can't touch the free breakfast at the hotel in the AM). I also need to plan what crochet projects I want to do in the car. I've been downloading books read onto podcasts from librivox and listening to them while I corchet. I can still hear MissM and keep her in sight, but I like it the most because I don't have to choose between reading or crochet, I can do both at the same time! right now i'm reading some Willa Cather

http://libravox.org/

rules?

is there some law written somewhere that states that a woman can no longer enjoy time in the bathroom by herself after she's achieved the status motherhood?

excuse me?

Story I.

so tonight i went to giant to get my produce for our shindig on the 5th. most places aren't open tomorrow and i want to clean house tomorrow, so tonight after the rush was the best time. I went to giant, even though it's out of the way, because they have this scanner thing you can ring all your groceries up yourself as you go along and then when you get to the register, they scan your club card and you pay, saving a lot of time, and i get to bag things myself, which is a plus. Teenagers rarely know the art of bagging food. One young man tried to put my peaches in a bag with draino last week.

Anyway, I'd completed my shopping and had it all bagged the way i wanted to and then got in the self-check out line. It's an open area with 4 stands. You're supposed to stand in a queue where the first person in the open area waiting is supposed to go to the first open machine etc. Today they didn't have the little "wait ehre" sign, but I'm well versed in this holding pattern, so I was chilling with MissM waiting my turn. The next slot opened up and here come this biotch out of nowhere starting to ring herself up.

Now, usually, i'd just let her go, but I've been having the periods to end all periods, I have a sinus migraine that won't quit, I was hungry and tired AND I already had to wait in line with a 2-y-o for more than I should have (Pawpaw and MeeMaw Clampet took forver to ring up their 4 watermelons and used 2 check out stands to do so. I'm not kidding!) MissM wanted supper and I wanted something cool to drink and some sinusPM pills, so I said "Ma'am, you cut me in line."

Was she polite? No, she responded with

"Well, you weren't in line at this register, how should anyone know that you were next?"

Really? because all of the OTHER people in line were in line behind me too, and we were all in the middle waiting our turn where the missing sign is traditionally.

She did move over to the side so I could have my turn, but she bitched loudly and long to everyone in line.

Whatever happened to "Oh, I didn't realize, I'm sorry, you go right ahead?"


Story II.

Oh and at the park yesterday, two little boy who appeared around 8 were throwing rocks. The park in my 'hood is usually busy, but I rarely see a kid being bad or kids without an adult so this was bad news.

I take a lawn chair with me so I can sit near where MissM plays. I've been to many playgrounds in the past year and haven't found one yet near me that has benches near the junglegyms facing in a direction to watch your kids. This is an easy solution for me.

Anyway, I was sitting next to a middle-aged couple who had a whole passle of kids with them (about 8) and we had a nice chat etc. when I looked up and saw some kids tossing rocks. I asked the couple if he was one of theirs and they said nope. So we started to ask around at the other adults in the area if those kids were with them. At this point, the kdis were in the bab/toddler area throwing rocks the size of apples. I had MissM with me and I started yelling at the boys to quit it and some of the other parents joined in. After 15 mins or so the boys kept doing it. Suddenly a car window rolls down in the lot, about 200 feet away, and a woman sicks her head out and shouts at the boys to quit it. The boys respond by finding bigger rocks and then proceed to wrestle as well as toss rocks. The middle-aged woman went nuts and stormed over to the car and let the mother know that if any of the kids were injured, she'd be sued and that when she brings her kids to the park, she needs to get out of her car, turn her phone off and WATCH them. Her husband stayed at the park to watch the kids, but we had a chat and he said "look at the mama, it's no wonder they're tossing rocks." I replied "look, we're lucky she didn't just drop them off for 8 hours and then come back" he laughed and said "you're right about that."

I took the time to explain to the kids I was now pushing on the swing (I always end up pushing every kid in the park on the swings!) that tossing rocks isn't the thing to do and if they do it, they have to go home. MissM seemed to take this to heart, but a few of the little boys seemed to think that tossing rocks must be great because those other boys had been doing it.

I was warned away from this park because it's so close to the ghetto, but this was the first bad patch i've seen and I've been bringing MissM to this place since last fall. But becasue it is so close to the ghetto, and I'm not trashy, a lot of the people won't socalize with me and I really have to go out of my way to get people to warm up to me. One woman explained to me that the only white people they know are the ones they work with or have to deal with via various government agencies. I laughed and explained that I wasn't from social services and I don't care if someone's getting a check for anything, I just want to take my kid to the park!

it's official, i killed another one

So in 46.5 weeks i've killed 5 food scales.

Okay, I've only killed 4 and maimed one.

Well, okay, th 4th scale was maimed by my cat, but since he's mine, the blame is mine.

GusGus ate the #1 button off a $40 scale. This scale wasn't mine, it's my friend's scale that I was borrowing because she isn't currently weighing her food because she hasn't had time to cook any food at home in months. She loaned the scale to me 2 months ago. After he ate the #1 button, he then knocked it to the floor. It was sitting on the counter next to the sink. GusGus likes to sleep in the kitchen sink. I guess the scale sitting next to the sink just made him mad.

Anyway, I picked the scale up fearing doom and then turned it on to see if it lived (one of the 1-4 I killed died in a horrid fall from the counter, so this was a worry!). I was so happy when the digital scale turned on and then started hitting buttons to see if all was well. When I got to the #1, I noticed the mangeled rubber and got pissed. I contacted the company that makes the scale to ask about a new #1 button (this option is the cheaper option) but they think I'm some crazy lady and I was informed I should just buy a new scale. See, I know a new button would be a LOT less than $40, and since I broke this top-of-the-line scale, I should replace it with the exact same thing.

I called my guy in a fit of frustration and rage to vent my spleen and he just laughed and then asked me if the button still works. Well, if you use a pen or pencil, you can poke it in the hole and it will real the #1 or letters "C,D,E" so he said "Oh, well buy her a new one and you keep that one. You wanted to get one for yourself anyway." Well, whata if I don't want a broken one, I want a nice one? Apparently that doesn't matter because he said buying me a new scale would be a waste, if he wanted to waste money, he should just burn the $40 at the rate I go through food scales.

I really hate it when he's right.

Doreen:
I don't have any recent pictures of me. I could post an old one, but even ones from a month ago don't really look like me. I will start harassing the people around me to take an updated pic for you to see.

MY guy got me a cure skirt from Old Navy and a pretty top to go with it, and none of it fits anymore, I could only wear it for about 4 weeks. I loved the surprise, but looking back at the $50 he spent on the outfit, I could have had a new food scale (to kill)! [i'm joking here] : )

So my committment to just buy consignment clothing until I've decided to quit losing weight has been renewed!