What to wear? Decisions, decisions....

Spring, especially an odd, late one as we have been having here, makes planning what to wear difficult. That cute floral dress and strappy sandals that you wore last year in mid-April would have looked (and felt!) ridiculous as snow flurries fell and a slushy mess was under this year's all weather boots.

Even if weather isn't a factor, dressing for an event can be daunting. Do you wear your first choice or do you go through 5 or 6 outfits before choosing the right one?

No matter what you do, don't you wish you could you could change this quickly?

Friday Fun

Let's start with some unusual definitions:

Next, we have two things that are true of me, one just sort-of:

In case you are wondering, the first one is true, the second didn't happen to me in Target but often happened at Kroger when managers wore red jackets. I had a red blazer that I often wore to work with black or navy slacks or skirt and a white top. I often stopped at Kroger on my lunch hour or on my way home and inevitably a shopper would ask me where to find something or wanted to register a complaint.

Here are some grandma moments from this week. Hubby and I were at Colton's house (that place that his parents pay for but I think of as his  ) so that hubby could help our son with an inground flagpole installation. Colton was playing with his Little Tyke shopping cart that looks like this:

When we went in the front yard to stroll the sidewalk, he patted the "child seat" part of the cart and said "C'mon Gigi, sit".  Bless his lack of girth perception!  Yesterday he was here, playing in the play house and wanted me to join him. I cannot sit up in there as it is card table high. I was on the floor with just my head and shoulders inside, but he wanted all of me in there, feet too. I was laughing at his earnestness. He decided to help by pulling on my head! I think it is time to elevate the legs of the table with bed risers and add a gray felt foundation to the house! 

My son, also known as Colton's daddy, is a huge fan of the Detroit Lions. We don't know why, but he did fall on his head once as a child. Because he doesn't want to be alone in his fandom, he is raising Colton to be a Lions fan too. Colton certainly has the build for it. Yesterday was the NFL draft. This is how he was dressed:

I hope everyone has a happy weekend, or whatever the day might be that you are reading this. If you are a Gigi, Mimi, Grammy or whatever beloved name your grandchild or grandchildren call you, you may enjoy these too:

My son could loan me the shoulder pads!

 

Brain cramp!

Would you like to experience a brain cramp?  No? Perhaps you'd like to give one to someone else?

Here is your chance! Watch this clip and see if you can figure out how this was accomplished. There is no slight of hand (palming) or trick photography.


If you are like me, you will want to review this and try to figure it out on your own. To not ruin that for you but not leave you hanging and very frustrated, here is a link that will explain what happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzzct1We-38

I need to go massage the cramp from my brain. How about you?

43 years ago????

Today, April 22nd, is Earth Day. The first official observance was 43 years ago. I am in shock.

I am not as kind to the earth as I should be. My advanced biology teacher would be terribly disappointed in me, and trust me, she was a formidable woman that you didn't want to disappoint. I was a high school senior when I took her class. She taught me much more than biology, although I didn't realize it at the time. She took our class to the first observance of Earth Day at Wayne State University in downtown Detroit. I remember bits and pieces of that day, but not all the memories were scholastic or activist oriented. 

My shock isn't that Earth Day has been celebrated for 43 years, it is that I hadn't thought about the fact that come June 11th, I will have been a high school graduate for 43 years. My, my, how time has flown.

At times in my life these past 43 years, I have berated myself for what I am not. I've already said that I am not as green as I could be. I know people who fight for many causes that I casually support but don't feel like mounting a white horse and charging into battle. There have been times I felt guilty about that, but it is just not me.

Somewhere along the past 43 years I've learned that no one can be or do everything, and that is ok. My name isn't going to be found in any record book 100 years from now, but I haven't been looking for fame in this life so having it after I leave this earth isn't important to me.

What am I doing in my lifetime that is important? I love. I laugh. I try to show kindness to everyone. I try to understand more and judge less. That certainly isn't bad.

Creativity is good. Creativity and humor is really good. I like this kid's thinking (but I do eat my veggies)!

 

Cabled cushion

Cute cabled cushion? Perfectly purled pillow? Addicted to alliteration?

Don't mind me. I've had too much sugar, not enough sleep and am trying to make sense out of the senseless bombings at the Boston Marathon. I'm not going to write about that, other than to encourage people to remember there is always more good in the world than bad. Mr Roger's quote is a good thing to keep in mind as we ease our way through this.



 

As I wish everyone peace and comfort today, I will be gracious and offer you a pillow for your weary heads.
But not this pillow.
It is fresh off my knitting needles and I don't want your cooties on it.

The pattern is simply called Cushion and is available here at no charge. I used Louisa Harding's Aimee yarn, a 90% cotton, 10% cashmere blend.

The pattern called for a 16" pillow but I used a 14" because I had it on hand. I think it could have easily been blocked to fit a larger pillow but I am happy with it as is.



Grappling with graupel

I am in favor of using polite, political correct terms to avoid hurting anyone and everyone's feelings. Inanimate objects do not have feelings, so thank you Mr Meteorologist, but I don't care if that was graupel or neve on my car when I walked out of the store this morning. I went early to avoid the rain you said was coming later today. For those who are accustomed to my ranting writing, you know that I don't swear often. Today will be an exception. It is the middle of April for goodness sake! I don't care whether you call it graupel, neve or sleet, it is shit falling from the sky and it must stop!

Graupel (German pronounciation: ['gʁaʊpɛl], also called soft hail or snow pellets)^[1] refers to precipitation that forms when supercooled droplets of water are collected and freeze on a falling snowflake, forming a 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) ball of rime. Strictly speaking, graupel is not the same as hail or ice pellets.

Névé (pron.: /neɪˈveɪ/) is a young, granular type of snow which has been partially melted, refrozen and compacted, yet precedes the form of ice.

Definitions from Wikipedia, photo from Facebook

Why do I live where Mother Nature throws this stuff at us? Because no place is perfect. I have friends who spend part of their year indoors to escape excessive heat and humidity. I had relatives who routinely prepared their homes for hurricanes. Avalanches? You wouldn't willingly find me where they might occur. My part of Michigan isn't completely free from the threat of tornadoes, but don't have them as frequently as some parts of the USA.

What does keep us in areas where weather isn't playing nice? Airline regulations! Oh wait, that isn't it, that is part of a different rant best saved for another day. What keeps us where we are? Work. Our homes. Friends. Most of all, family.

When I win the bajillion dollar jackpot and buy a tropical island, my own jet and an infallible internet service provider, I will move all of my loved ones to paradise with me. Those who don't go willingly can kick and scream all they want, but as their superior matriarch, they will go and have a good time. We will nevah grapple with graupel again.

Until then, I remain Nanook Knitty.

That's one heck of a knitting needle, isn't it? Knitters will recognize this as the throwing yarn rather than picking technique. Do these pants make my butt look big?

Weary, dreary Wednesday

Be careful and specific in what you wish for. I wished for no more snow and have been heard so far, but I forgot to add "please bring lots of sunshine instead". Don't you think Mother Nature knows what I want by now?

Thank you for kind wishes after my last post. I had a root canal done yesterday, with more work needed to complete this in two weeks. I may have expected too much too soon. I felt much better after the work was done, but didn't expect to be in so much pain this morning. Prescription strength ibuprofen has kicked in and I will give it another day before calling the endodontist if the pain doesn't seem to be lessening by tomorrow.

I recently overheard two women, maybe ten years younger than I am, discussing what they had to do their hair (covering gray), what they had to purchase for their skin care (seemingly believing expensive was better than common drugstore brands), and what clothing they wouldn't be caught dead in.

While I firmly believe that everyone should do and wear what they feel is right for them, I was inwardly shaking my head at the mixed signal they were sending. They were very concerned with their appearance and trying to look youthful, but they forgot the least expensive and handiest beauty treatment in the world...a smile.

Do you care how old the women in this photo look? I don't. I love that they are smiling, laughing in fact. I'd rather sit with them than the glum women whose expressions aged them beyond their creams and fashion choices.

Onward and upward! With a smile on my face, an umbrella in hand and a pain pill in my pocket!

Meandering Monday

We finally stopped eating leftover Easter ham, mainly because I froze the remaining slices and the bone which will later be used for split pea soup. Or as a weapon. It was huge!

Here's a piece of unsolicited advice for you ladies: Don't schedule a physical three days after Easter if you are self conscious about your weight. The morning of my doctor's appointment, my rings didn't didn't fit right from retention. Ok, not all of that was fluid retention from the ham, some of it was Easter candy retention. And to clarify, my wedding rings always fit just fine. They never come off except to clean them but I do check them if my right hand seems pudgy. As we near 38 years of marriage, the indentation of my left ring finger is permanent, and I say that happily.

Migraine versus sinus headaches were discussed once again. Nothing is ever conclusive with me. Over all improvements in diet and activity were discussed. The very next morning plans for both were derailed by unexpected events. The following day after that was a family birthday party for an 8 year old. Surely Saturday would be a normal day again and meal plans and taking a walk would be possible.

Normal?

 Please note that the mother and daughter are knitting!

So how did Saturday become more un-normal than usual? With the birth of a probable toothache. Why probable? Because nothing is ever conclusive with me. It might be that my sinuses are so irritated, the roots of my upper molars are hurting. With my luck, it is both a bad tooth AND sinus inflammation. I see the dentist tomorrow morning unless their tentative 1:30 appointment backs out. (please! please! please!)

I have no idea what tonight's dinner will be. I am supposed to be somewhere at 6:00 tonight but I may bail if my discomfort it too great. Hot and cold foods and drink weren't issues over the weekend, but either my patience is wearing down or the problem is getting bigger. Maybe I can take a pill for dinner.

A pill for meal. Some days I think this would be perfect. No temptation with over indulging. Low cal, low fat, low carb, low taste would all be the same in a time released capsule. And let's not forget how clean the kitchen would be all day long!

Is your dear husband and family like mine? Ask for a suggestion as to what to make for dinner in the morning and they don't know. Ask after lunch and they're too full to think about dinner. At 5:00 when they ask what you're fixing, do you want to say "reservations"?

I am off (some might say way off) to find the meaning of life, or at least some pain relief until I can see the dentist. I've taken prescription quality ibuprofen and am going to knit while the dryer, which really is set on normal, finishes the load of towels.