Funny!

I accidentally posted on my nephew's blog earlier. I don't know exactly how I did it. I had logged onto my blog to post on one of my sister's laptops. I wrote my post and then clicked "publish post". It popped up on my nephew's blog at that point and not on mine. Confusing to someone like me. My sister was surprised to see that her son had a blog. He'll be eleven on Wednesday.

I told him about the accidental posting later, so that he could go in and delete it. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember his password, so not only can he not delete it, he can't even post on it. Anyway, my nephew was telling his mom that he had asked her if he could start the blog and that she had told him that it was fine with her "as long as it didn't cost any damn money". I thought that was a hoot!

No Question Today

I'm out of town for a few days. I didn't bring the book with me that I get my Monday question from, so there will be no question today. Hopefully by Friday, I'll be home and I'll have my computer back and I'll be able to start getting my life together again. Cross those fingers and toes for me.

Sucker Punched

Most of the time, when your life changes, you can't look at one particular moment and say "my life will never be the same after this". You may be able to look back at some point and say that your life changed at that point and you wish you had been able to appreciate it, but you didn't know it at that time. Oh, there are the big things like birth and death that you know will change you, but there are most often subtle things that change our lives that we never realize are "that big moment" until much later.

Then there are the things that slap you up side your face while they kick you in the stomach like a two ton mule. The things that you know have changed your life. They have changed you. Like when your first love breaks up with you, and you know that you'll never trust in exactly the same way again because you aren't as innocent anymore.

Something like that happened to me yesterday. I'm still in shock from it. I don't know how to move on. I don't know when I'll get past it. I don't know if I'll get past it. I don't know how to trust again. It's just too soon to forgive and I'll never be able to forget. I lost a friend yesterday. Another friendship may be lost forever also. That is what I'm trying to figure out. Can I forgive and live with it? Can I go on with this friend as a big part of my life? It's just too soon to tell.

There is a part of me that wants to hate both of these friends for what they did to me. I want to share the information with their families and with facebook. I can be vindictive, after all. But the fact of the matter is that I can't do that to them because I actually love them. I don't want to hurt them like they hurt me. So, in order to save myself, I've cut one of the friends from my life and I'm trying to decide what to do about the other one. Lord help me.

Grandson

I was looking through older pictures on my hubby's computer and ran across this one of my grandson. I'd forgotten just how adorable he was when he was a baby!

He starts school on Monday. He'll be in kindergarten. Time sure does fly.

Computer Problems

I've been without my computer for several days now. I can use my hubby's to check my e-mail and a few of the blogs I love, but everything I want and need is on my computer. I feel so lost without it. Quite a change for a woman who used to refer to her hubby's computer as "his mistress". I didn't know a thing about them back then and didn't care to. All I knew was that the hunk of metal in the other room took all of my hubby's free time. I've surprised my hubby, more than myself, with my computer use.

My poor computer has "a really nasty virus". I have no idea how I got it and I'm grateful that my hubby will eventually fix it. No telling what all I'll end up losing in the process. The whole thing makes me sad and somewhat angry because someone initially set up the virus for their own amusement just to wreck havoc on the lives of others. What kind of person does that?

All of this is to explain why there will be no picture of the week today. I'll post it when I get my computer back. Hopefully the photos that I've taken will be still there.

Monday Question

I love to write for my blog. In fact, I'd really like to do it daily, but I can't always think of something to say when I want to write. So, today I dug out a book that I purchased a long time ago -- The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D. It says the first printing was in 1987 and this copy is either from the 10th or 5th printing. I don't know how to tell for sure, but those numbers are first and last in the line of "printings", so I'm pretty sure it's one of them.

Anyway, I decided that it might be interesting to ask some of the questions from the book in my blog on Mondays for a while. Hopefully, you'll want to answer the questions also -- in the comments section. I'll pick and choose which questions I like. For today, I've picked question number two.

2a. Do you believe in ghosts or evil spirits? I do. Here are the reasons why: I feel very certain that my father "visited" me after he passed (in December of 1995) on at least two occasions. The first was the day he died. I had finally returned home from the hospital and had laid down to try to take a nap. I was very upset and having trouble going to sleep. I was on my right side and suddenly felt this weight lean against the middle of my back. It was quite heavy. I could tell that is was my dad and I felt much calmer. I drifted right off at that point, knowing that he was fine. The next "visit" was a few nights later. My hubby was working and my son wasn't at home (don't remember where he was now). It was fairly late at night and I was alone with the three dogs that we had at the time. It was a very blustery, cold December that year. My dad had had a horrible time with the wind just cutting right through him. It was very painful and he just couldn't tolerate it. Well, that night, around 10 or 11 PM, my locked back door came open. All three of my dogs ran down the stairs barking their heads off, with raised hackles. As I crept down the stairs, the dogs stopped barking. By the time I got there, all three were standing, with their tails wagging, staring at the door, which was swinging in the wind! I'm sure they knew it was dad and, at that point, I did too. I remember telling my dad to "come on in and get warm, but to excuse me because I was just exhausted and I was going back to bed". I went and shut the door again and I checked to make sure it was indeed locked. I went back upstairs to bed. The dogs were quiet the rest of the night.

There were also several other times that I feel that a ghost, spirit or even an angel helped me. I worked in Dallas for a couple of years, driving the 75 miles one way to get to work. On several occasions, during a rough time in my life, I fell asleep at the wheel on the way to or from work. Each time, I had prayed for help getting safely to my destination. Each time, I was awakened by something touching both sides of my face. It tingled. I woke up and didn't fall asleep again during that trip.


2b. Would you be willing to spend the night alone in a remote house that is supposedly haunted? If the ghost was not rumored to be evil or hostile, yes, I think I would. I would not stay alone if it was not a friendly ghost. I've stayed several nights in haunted hotel rooms with my mother. It's something we like to do. I'll have to tell you about our visit during one of them at a later time.

Knitting Progress?

Well, I can't say I'm making a lot of progress on my learning to knit. At least not quality progress. I had to move the cast on stitches to the other needle because I somehow messed up and had the stitch I needed to start knitting on at the opposite end of the needle it was on. How did that happen?





After calmly and slowly moving the cast on stitches, I discovered that I had put the needle through at least two of the loop's yarn! So, I ripped out through those places and re-cast on. At that point, I started to knit with the knit stitch. I thought I was doing pretty good. I wanted to make a scarf. I had read somewhere that 30 cast on stitches were a good wide width for a scarf. I wanted mine a little more wide, so I had cast on 40 stitches. Looked like plenty of room with just the cast on stitches. As I started to knit, it took up more room.





For the first several rows of stitching, I counted my stitches and made sure I still had 30 on each row. Then I got cocky and stopped counting. After (what I think) is 10 rows, I counted again and I have 44 stitches on the needle now. I increased 4 stitches! Wonder how I did that?

Needless to say, since you can see by the photos, that the needle is a bit crowded. So, I've decided to rip it all out and start over with just 30 cast on stitches. I'll also count after every row to make sure I don't increase accidentally again. Hopefully, I'll be able to get my tension more even too.

Sorry about the dark photo, but I was trying to photograph the actual stitches.

I'm Learning to Knit

Several years ago, my friend Marianne attempted to teach me to knit. It was at my request, but I was still so very involved in quilting that I made little progress. In fact, I forgot everything she had taught me. We had talked about taking up the lessons again, but didn't get to it before she passed away. Needless to say, that made me want to learn even more. I don't remember seeing anything that Marianne completed as far as knitting is concerned, she was a very prolific quilter, but I will forever think of her when I knit.

I went out and bought a "Knitting for Dummies" book. I've found many great tips and I'm glad I bought it, but I was still having a lot of trouble. They had three ways to cast on and the one they said was the best for most knitting, was just not making any sense to me. Then I got an email from one of the ladies in my quilting friends group. Debbie Z sent an article telling us about the Sock Summit held in Portland, Oregon earlier this month. In it, one young woman said that she taught herself to knit via the Internet. I held on to the email and tonight reread parts of it. Then I hit the Internet and googled "knitting help". Found a great website at KnittingHelp.com that has videos, including a video of the casting on technique I had been attempting. I can now cast on! I've done it several times in an attempt to get as many stitches as I wanted without having too long a tail at the end. I'm just thrilled. I have these visions of teaching my granddaughters to knit and maybe even my niece B. Of course I haven't even taken a knitting stitch yet, I've only cast on, but it's never too early to dream big! This photo is of my cast on stitches. I love this baby poop green yarn!

Photo of the week 20 of 39 -- On My Table

I took photos of all the "tables" in my life this week. Well, actually, I didn't take photos of all of them, come to think of it. I have a couple of tables downstairs that I seldom use. One is an antique drop leaf table that I only use if I'm having a big gathering. The other is one that I used to sew on. It was used last when our son visited. He set up his computer there.

The photos I took were of my computer/sewing table upstairs, the table I had lunch on once this week at Chipotle's and the bar where we normally eat. That is the one I'm using for my photo of the week. The bar is our "table". It's cluttered. I decided to let you see what it really looks like instead of cleaning it off. I'll be honest, sometimes, it's cleaner than this but most of the time, it's much worse. Everything just seems to land here and then stay a while. The only time it's truly cleaned off is if I'm about to baste a quilt on top of it. It never stays cleaned off for long. There is almost always laundry and recycling on it, plus mail and other odds and ends. Just like this photo shows. It's us in real life.

Next week's theme is "temperature".

Welcome Home Pudge!!!

If you are a Texas Rangers baseball fan, you are a happy camper right now. Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez is back with the Rangers as of Tuesday! He's a veteran catcher and one hell of a ball player. I love to see him throw someone out as they attempt to steal second! He's one of my all time favorite ball players (along with Rusty Greer) and I'm just thrilled to have him back on my favorite team.

He'd been gone for about 7 years, I think. Playing for other teams. During his absence, I got this Pudge bobble head on eBay. It kept my smiles coming to bobble his little head and think of all the great plays he'd made for us in the past while I kept my fingers crossed that he'd someday be back with us and making them again. Now, he is!

My only complaint about the bobble head is that's too heavy to attach to my car dashboard. I'd love that.