The Johnny Damon pumpkin! 

Normal life? What's that?

The World Series is over and now we can get back to our lives. The local newscaster says he is going to spend the weekend trying to catch up on sleep and clean house. I know the feeling. For several nights I was awake late watching a game, and then coughing through the rest of the night, and still trying to get to work each morning dispite my bad cold. I'm feeling a lot better today, as is the rest of Boston I guess.

On to "life" stuff like carving the Halloween pumpkin, reading the mail, doing laundry, cleaning house, actually cooking dinner instead of ordering out, and maybe even watching a movie or logging into Everquest. Sounds like fun. Biting one's fingernails while watching another baseball game? Not fun.

Sox WIN!!

What a great team! 

Red light Curt

They wrote this week that Curt Schilling is no stranger to the red light of the camera, and likes to talk to reporters. I think he has proven that this week many times. But on ABC America this morning, he surprised everyone, his wife Shonda, and especially me when he said , "Remind everyone to vote...and vote for Bush". Ahh Curt.

Red Sox WIN!

We never gave up. 

Celebrations abound. 

Pedro was a happy camper throughout the game, long before any of us could actually BELIEVE. 

Johnny Damon's home run 

Sox WIN THE WORLD SERIES!!!

Boston is in a holy uproar and the Sox WIN!!! No one believed it could happen. Cautious optimism was thrown right out the window. We won. George and I were still holding our breaths in the eighth inning last night, and finally in the ninth I had to leave the room the suspense was so great. I peered around at the TV from the next room and when the final out was made it was really finally over! We won! George and I wore our red sox shirts over our pajamas and we jumped around the room like idiots.

I don't think I could have taken another night of terror-stricken baseball until the witching hour. Last night, there was an eclipse of the moon that we could see clear as a bell from our front porch. At the middle of it, the moon was red and white. A red sox moon. It has been a long exciting haul. The city has been a sea of red and white lately. Day in and day out, fans were excited and worried all at the same time. The buses from Logan with the players aboard are arriving in Boston right now. Crowds of fans have been there all night. The only decision I plan on making today is what Red Sox shirt I'm going to wear to work. None of us got a lot of sleep. No one cares. We are off to work today and we all have smiles on our faces.

The downside, if there is any, is that the street fans still misbehaved downtown last night, with a pretty silver sports car smashed in, and bottles thrown into the crowd. An ironing board was thrown out from a hotel window. Police formed themselves into lines as barriers, keeping the crowds of fans spilling out of the bars away from Fenway park itself, and still had to use tear gas and pepper spray. I am horrified at that. We saw a picture on TV of fans lighting bonfires. What neanderthals they must be down there. I'm just ashamed of all of them. Going to jail or the hospital instead of celebrating just seems so stupid and it is such a great day for us, why ruin it? But today we celebrate and forget all our woes of the past.

World champion Red Sox! What a great day!

Let's all go dancing! 

BON VOYAGE

Have a great time at Fanfaire in New Orleans Mike and Michelle!!! Woot!!!

Curt Schilling. The more I read the more I like him. 

Another day, another WIN for the RED SOX!!!

Oh ho hum. Who wants to talk about life, when the Red Sox are winning! There are only two subjects worth thinking about right now: when am I going to get rid of this awful cold from hell, and the Red Sox.

I went to a meeting in downtown Boston this morning wearing my Red Sox sweatshirt jacket. I figured, if not now, when? So, I fit right in with the other folks who have caught Red Sox fever. The game was wonderful last night, Pedro did a great job of pitching, and it all went our way one more time. I heard a sportscaster say, "If the Red Sox are winning, how come nobody feels happy?"

Boston fans are incredibly proud of our team, but Boston fans have too many bad memories to erase to be naively happy. We are sophisticated happy. We are trying to figure out what elation feels like. Happy is a new idea, and needs some exploring before we will give in to it. We are not at all like St. Louis fans. We are not clean and neat and our hair is not recently barbered and blonde. We don't sing country songs, or wear bright fright wigs, or sit with our cute knit hats and gloves on and clap like ladies. We stand up, stamp our feet, yell till we are hoarse, shout, boo, pound on the walls, get Red Sox tatoos and let our hair grow into dreads--and a few of us even push a few cars over after games for good measure (ouch). We are NOT about to sit back and be polite like those St. Louis fans. Did you see their faces last night? Pure dejection. That is a feeling that Boston knows well, but even facing loss, our fans still liven the place up with shouts and boos. For sure you are going to hear from Boston fans. They will not go down politely.

In fact, we are not going to go down at all. Sox RULE!!!

A fan's sign in center field last night in St. Louis 

Red Sox Fever comes to Boston 

yin/yang

On one side I am very happy to be feeling better, and on the flip side, I am upset that I have been coughing so long and have had so many nights when I woke up coughing every 30 minutes or so. A recent call to the doctor finally resulted in the nurse saying "we will have something for you at the druggist." Whatever it is, I will take it, but it would have been nice if she had been a little more specific, and it would have been even nice to get it four days ago when I was really sick in bed. So, people in my office are evading me, and I'm careful not to touch any one else's food. How George is going to keep from getting this I do not know. He has been a real prince in trying to take care of me and very patient with his sick little buddy.

Today we got word that a great Everquest friend, Stonehewer, is leaving our Healers United guild and going to the Lotus Cult raiding guild that is only for the top level of players. I congratulate him on this honor. We will miss him of course, but on the flip side, it is good to have folks that are doing what they want to do, and not doing something because they HAVE to. Everquest is a hobby, it is voluntary, and it should be fun. For me? Knitting, EQ, Knitting, EQ....

It is hard to be at work without much sleep, but it is good to be at work rather than home sick because life is more interesting when I have lots to do and people to talk to. And the lunches are better.

Red Sox fever will hit our household again tonight when they play the St. Louis Cardinals. They say that Curt Schilling has given red sock a whole new meaning. I thought this article was interesting, these sportscasters are so caustic sometimes to make themselves heard, and of course on the flip side, I am still a Curt Schilling fan no matter what he says. I am going to wear my shirt and hat and cheer them on tonight as long as I can stand it.

This and that, back and forth, flip and flop, yin and yang. There are two sides to everything, and lots of choices out there. Backwards and forwards, it is what makes the world go round and what goes around comes around, we all know that. May the circle be unbroken. Cheers all. Go Red Sox.

Red Soxdom

You gotta love these Red Sox. They are so appealing, so scruffy, beat up, with too much hair, and so much heart. They play scrappy, make errors, laugh it off, and WIN again. They are amazing and I have had a lot of fun watching their games and reading the sports pages. I have really come to be a complete Red Sox fan this year. Curt Schilling said yesterday that when he woke up he couldn't walk, and he thought he would never play last night. Another cut and paste on his ankle keeping the torn tendon away from the bone on Saturday made his ankle bloody and sore and the extra stitch they added hit a nerve. After they fixed that he said it felt like a miracle and they numbed it with painkiller injections and he pitched six wonderful innings. Wonderful because there wasn't a disaster. With the Red Sox, you drag out every superstition you ever had, and rub the rabbit foot and keep your fingers crossed. It is the sheer terror of defeat that makes us so happy to see them in the World Series. The Red Sox know disaster as well as triumph, and Red Sox fans are for the most part cautiously optimistic. In Meriam Webster's dictionary CAUTIOUS implies the exercise of forethought usually prompted by fear of danger. But, win or lose, we love the Red Sox, and this particular bunch of guys really has us caught up in Red Sox fever.

Back at work today and happy to be amongst people again, although I am staying in my office so not to threaten other people with my hacking cough. The new cure for colds is Veryfine Fruit2-0, a concoction of flavored water that is just right for sore throats. It has no calores, no caffeine, and has saved my life the last few days. It is made in Littleton, Massachusetts, and George and I took a trip out there and bought four cases of the stuff at half the cost of the grocery store. It is my newest obsession.

So, keep those cards and letters coming folks! Happy to have you on the blogger wagon, Ixsta, and the Red Sox are going to win the World Series -- BELIEVE it!

GO SOX!!! 

Go Sox!!!! 

TV in daytimeland

This past week I had more than the normal amount of time watching TV during the day. Out of 264 channels, there was nothing on. One afternoon I watched 3 very enjoyable hours of the Biography Channel. The first on Tom Clancy, the second on Stephen King, and the third on Anne Rice. All three are people who I really admire. Tom Clancy has a heart of gold I guess, even thought he acts gruff. Stephen King is just the hardest working writer ever and someone who I really admire for his frankness and his incredible talent, and Anne Rice was married to a poet and lived in Haight Ashbury for years. That in itself is very interesting. She was living there before and during the hippie times. She wrote a book, lost a child to cancer, hated San Francisco, and after a lot of perserverance, she sold her book, moved to New Orleans and wrote The Vampire series. Not an uneventful life. When we went to New Orleans, we visited the bookstore where she does her booksignings when her books first come out. It was a very small bookstore crammed with wonderful books, and I enjoyed being there very much and walked out with a calendar and an armfull of books. I will go back as soon as I can. New Orleans loves their Ann Rice, and the Vampire Lestat is one of the greatest characters ever.

Right now, on the PBS station, they are showing a series called Broadway, which is a history of Broadway musicals. I have loved watching it this week, hosted by Julie Andrews and featuring ALL the great shows and players, beginning with the Ziegfield Follies and ending with The Lion King. I especially loved seeing the segment on Sweeney Todd and Stephen Sondheim. Who would ever think that murder, mayhem and canibalism could be made into a musical? This history of Broadway is really fun, so tune in if you can.

Other than these two channels, they can keep the other 262.

Oh, yeah, the World Series starts at 8 tonight, so a reprieve on the sports channels for this week. You gotta BELIEVE. Go Sox.

A week at home

I have been home for four days now. My "virus", which is another name for a cold, I guess, is now moving out, and I am feeling much better. I can go for hours without wishing for a pillow. Being home, I have missed hearing others talk with excitment about the Red Sox, but have had a lot of time to think about how happy those players must be to have the playoffs over.

Being home, I also haven't had to hear the negatives and the criticism about this and that. Red Sox fans are so used to bad news I don't think they know how to act. The Yankees are stunned, and although I am not a Yankee hater, like a lot of Boston fans, it is nice to see our team come from behind and win. George bought me a National League Champions Red Sox shirt at a sports store who had a grand opening yesterday--how is that for good marketing strategy?-- and we bought two more Red Sox shirts last night to wear on weekends. Why not join the fun? Having a world series to look forward to is good for folks around here, and good for businesses as well, who are selling shirts and party goods and extra groceries for all the festivities.

We also have a downside to all this celebration. I am horrified at the belligerant crowds that we see around Fenway when the Yankees play and whenever we have something to celebrate.

College kids make up about half of Boston's population during the school months, and of course, living in small rooms in dorms and crowded houses, they are anxious to get out in public to celebrate and drink beer and act crazy. College kids cram the bars around Fenway. It is a dangerous combination, drinking and being young. The "party" activity around Fenway often gets out of hand. At the Super Bowl celebration, they tipped over cars, and a young man got killed. Police label them thugs, they have video cam pictures of these kids doing it, and they say they find them and expell them from school.

This week, the police were there in force, because they had been criticized for NOT being there after the Super Bowl, and they had cannisters of pepper spray which they shot into the crowd. One "projectile" from this spray hit a girl in her eye, and she later died. Shooting anything into a crowd seems very irresponsible. They also showed police using force to push kids down the street. The kids, of course, were not cooperating. The truth about this is that if you push someone, they usually push back. A young woman died. It is a shame. There is a cloud hanging over the celebration. The police department has accepted the blame, but say the rowdy crowd is really at fault. It is not a good place to be, out there where they are climbing up the outside walls of the empty ballpark, or tipping over and setting fire to cars. One kid climbed up the backside of the green monster - the high green wall at Fenway-- fell off and was bleeding from the head. These alcohol-fueled pranks are life threatening, but kids don't get it. No one could get to him to make him stop. This young woman was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But no one should be in that area when cars and burning and the police are in riot gear. This is not war, it is a victory celebration of a baseball game, for goodness sake.

Thousands of university students live in close proximity to Boston, and thousands are cramped into tiny spaces, with incredible pressure put on them to succeed. Add to that the fact that binge drinking is close to the norm at colleges these days and Boston has a problem. More drunk kids than usual. They are from everywhere in the world, but they are ours for as long as they are in our colleges. We are the ultimate college town.

I am very concerned about young people on college campuses. It is their first time away from home, and they have a lot to learn, and not just from books. I was appalled when I visited my son's dorm for the first time and saw the 12 steps of Alchoholics Annonymous on the dorm elevator wall. It is not something that I thought would be so public. College is a time to have fun, to make friends, to learn...not to gaze at a 12 Step Program mantra every day without a choice.

AA is wonderful, don't get me wrong, but it is usually anonymous and quiet and a place of refuge and hope for folks who are admitting they have a problem with alcohol. To post those 12 Steps on the wall where people have to read them whether they want to or not seems to trivialize them.

So, Boston won, and a young girl is dead, and the fans are rowdy as usual, and the bars still serve beer like it is water, and we probably haven't learned anything. The police are having meetings and press conferences, and we have the World Series coming up and the bars are still there. After that, we have the Patriots, and...maybe another Super Bowl. And we still have 100,000 college students in our town who can't wait for the next celebration.

May God watch over us. Oh yes,... Go Sox!

Home sick, but the Red Sox WIN!

I have having a hard time with this virus I caught. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemies dog. But, I woke up to turn on the TV and find out that RED SOX WIN!!! That is a very good thing. The whole team stuck together, worked it out, played well when they had to, overcame a lot of obstacles and came up to the top to beat the Yankees. Last night after the game, when an interviewer asked Pedro "whose your daddy now?", Pedro answered "God is my daddy". I couldn't be happier for Curt Schilling and the Red Sox team. And Stephen King was on TV this morning saying "there is no curse". This is a fun day for Boston. George is going to buy me a Red Sox shirt today. Maybe that will chase the virus blues away.

Schilling the Gladiator

Last night, Curt Schilling was the lead off pitcher for the 6th game of the Red Sox against the Yankees. He had an operation to stitch the torn ligament to the bone in his ankle in order to play this very important game. Reebok had made him a special pair of support boots, so people expected to see those, but he was not wearing them. As they panned the camera to his right ankle, you could see the rather large spot of blood above his red sock. It was pretty amazing to see, and thrilling to know the effort he had put in to make sure he could pitch this game. No one is talking about the details of the operation, but he had them cut into and stitch his leg to make sure he would be there for his team. Now, that's something!

The Red Sox need every pitcher they can get, the Yankees are a great team too, and it is a battle to the finish. Neither club knows how it is going to go tonight. I predict that Red Sox WIN. It is time. We deserve it. We outplayed the Yankees the last three games, and we can do it again. Heart wins!

If nothing else, these playoff games have made me a big Curt Schilling fan. He is a truly great guy, and I like everything about him. He gives a great interview, is not pompous or silly, and he is still interesting. He wants to win and he said that being part of this team is "really special". He is special too. Even if he didn't play Everquest, I would like him, but that is just frosting on the cake. Curt Schilling knew that he was needed if we were going to win last night, and he pitched 7 terrific innings with a bleeding ankle. Wow. He is one courageous fella.

This morning the local Boston station had a short interview with his wife, dressed in a very handsome hat and scarf, out in front of Yankee Stadium last night after the game. She too was amazed at her husband's dedication, saying "I saw the stuff oozing out of his ankle this morning and I couldn't believe it."

This Red Sox team is really a team full of heart and guts, and the excitement is so overwhelming it is hard to watch the games. More than once I have hidden my face in my hands rather than watch the next pitch.

One more night of this. Go Sox!!!

sore throat and flu shots

As a child, I was plaqued by sore throats and strep throat. My throat is my Achilles Heel. So, today I am home with a sore throat. Saturday I worked at church, and got very tired in the evening, and tried to recover on Sunday, but I still didn't feel well, and took a nap, which is rare for me. Now I know. I was getting a cold. We will not call this the flu, but it is more than a cold, because my throat is so sore and raw it is hard to swallow.

Speaking of flu, it is pretty sad that the elders of America have gone into a panic over flu shots. Elderly people are pretty interested in flu shots, and I hear about hers from my mom every year. I don't think I have ever even had one, but I know that they are important to her. So, when they announced that millions of folks would not get them this year, but that some Stop and Shop stores had them...lines started to form and old people stood in line outside for hours. One woman fell, and hit her head, and died. Several others collapsed. Yesterday, the head of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, said that elders should not form long lines, that everyone who needs one will get a flu shot. But that announcement came five days after the lines had formed. Five days is a long time when you are 80 or 90 years old, worried, and standing in a line at a mall. The reason they want flu shots is that they know they are susceptible to a fatal case of the flu, and they do not want to die! That is enough to scare anyone into standing in line.

Speaking of standing in line, I have another point to consider. My mother is 94, and when we go shopping, we notice that there are NO chairs anywhere in stores. Once in a while, at a Kohl's or Walmart, there is a bench outside. I know they don't want people to sit around, they want them to shop, but it seems that we have forgotten about the elderly and folks who have disabilities, or just sore legs and feet, who need to sit for awhile so they can continue their shopping. Why do we have to be so inconsiderate? Sometimes I have to make a scene to ask a sales lady to please find a chair for my mother while I bring clothes to her to choose.

Mother is now 94, and it is only lately that people have started to help her do things. Until she was 92 and had a stroke that affected her eyesight, she was still driving herself to the stores, she would be out in the parking lot of a WalMart lugging gallons of water into her trunk and people would just walk by her. Why don't people stop to help? It is just that we are not used to being considerate, so we rush by with our own agenda in our head, and forget to think about what the other person is going through?

So, commit a random act of kindness today and help an elderly person carry their shopping bags.

And don't catch a cold!

More! More!

I just read a blog about knitting. She writes: It's hard to tell when the yarn ends and you begin. I know what she means. Yesterday I stopped in at the yarn store and bought some fun yarns for even more scarves. This has got to stop. But I can't help myself. It is so much fun to find the right stitch for the texture of the yarn. I imagine different people wearing them and think about giving them as Christmas gifts, and if they are a little glam for most folks I know, I think about how to wear them myself. Where do I stop and the yarn begin? It is not easy to tell. I have a whole stash of yarns by the side of my chair for all kinds of moods. Right now, since I had a too busy and not so great weekend, I am knitting a scarf in the softest white fluffy yarn, like knitting with marshmallow fluff. It is easy and it makes me happy. Maybe maybe I will find the right person for this new creation and make them happy too.

Sometimes, playing a roleplaying interactive game like Everquest, it is also hard to tell where your character stops and you begin. Tonight Mike and I met and did a task together. My first time. It was really great to have him along. Running through lands of Norrath that others know well, but that I have never seen because I am a coward, he was very patient with me as I made sure I had camoflage, levitate, and assorted spells to ward off the unknown dangers. I am equal to the task, but I don't always believe I am. Self confidence is a real "in game" problem for me. We ended up running through the dragon city in Skyfire, and it was thrilling.

Sailing over the red lava rivers, I found the character at the end of the task and got money and experience as loot. I enjoyed it enough that we did another task right after, with much the same route, and the same result. Something that he found too easy I'm sure, but that is the way I like to do things.

At the end I took a wrong direction, ran right smack into an evil city, and Loral was for once, terror stricken enough that he typed out "mom!". That may not make sense here, but it was very funny afterwards. Where did Elfauna end and "mom" begin? It is very funny to me, this slip of the tongue. I looked at the word Mom as I was running, and didn't even know what that word meant. I wasn't expecting him to call me that. Elfauna quickly changed course and lived to tell the tale and will be happy to do the simple tasks for now.

I do not have to immediately move onto the next thing in order to feel challenged. Maybe that is why I have knitted 20 scarves lately. I like things in multiples of more.

Thanks, Michael. I had a blast.

Saturday mornings

I love Saturday mornings when I don't have to go anywhere. Even housework seems like a fun thing to do when you are used to sitting at a desk most of the week. I guess working every day really makes you appreciate weekends.

This Saturday I am going to knit, clean house, and go to a church family night to serve pizza and salad and desserts. George and I are in charge of setting up the dinner buffet. Oooh, the salad--I'm supposed to bring one. I have to run!

Elfauna in North Karana 

Strike Two

Curt Schilling isn't going to be able to pitch this series, and it is going to rain bloody murder tonight during the time the game supposed to be on. It is dark and dreary this morning, and the mood around Boston is...subdued. I know we are all very hopeful that the spirit of Fenway will help bolster our Sox enough to win tonight...if they play...but without our star pitcher it ain't going to be easy. I'd say the outlook is downright gloomy, but I'd probably be run off the road if I said that in public.

Curt Schilling is one super fella, and I hope he gets over this fast. There's always next year. Go Sox!!!

---------------------------------
On the Everquest front. I woke up at 3 a.m. thinking about the items that were given to me by a fellow player when he left the game, and then asked for them back when he decided to return. I don't blame him at all, and stuff is only stuff. But, the more I thought about it, I realized that I missed that stuff and had a bank full of money. So I shopped at the bazaar until 4:00 a.m. when all the vendors are there selling their wares and bought six of those items from vendors. I now have my big axe of the scions, my magnificent glimmering recurve bow, my amulet, my architect's scepter,a chitinous belt and an ice forged helmet. Elfauna rides again with all her beautiful gear. See you tonight everyone!

Baking Baskets

Yesterday George bought five tickets to his company's United Way Raffle and won the Baking Basket. It is just the basket that I would have bid on. The other baskets were "wake me up" filled with coffee, something with a lot of bottles of liquor and mixes(hehe), and another one called "barbecue" with a small keg of beer and barbecue things. I am very very happy with the "baking" basket. He said it was by far the largest of them all--and he had to have help taking the two huge baskets to his car.

I was amazed when I saw them. They are filled with all kinds of things for baking: bundt pans, rolling pin, flour, sugar, spices, cookie sheets, vanilla, cookie mix, cake mix, whisks, chocolate chips, sifters, pot holder mitts, aprons, a whole long list of things to make goodies with. I really can hardly believe all the stuff that is in those two baskets. They were certainly generous! He had the biggest smile on his face when I came home and he asked me to come to the livingroom. His secretary says he owes her some cookies, since she was the one who talked him into the buying the tickets. Woohoo! I can't wait to tear into the baskets and bake something. Just in time for Thanksgiving, Mike! Yay!

George bakes wonderful cookies. People love his cookies and I love to bake and have a brand new Kitchen Aid 6 quart mixer and this basket could not find a home in a better place! Lucky George almost always wins the raffle when one is offered. He has won the raffle prize at the flying field picnic so often he had to stop buying tickets because it was embarrassing.

So, see you in the kitchen.

Baskets George won in yesterday's raffle. 

Go Sox

I couldn't watch last night. The game went south from the beginning. Curt Schilling has a hurt leg, and I don't think he should have played, but what do I know? They said he has a big heart and has come back before...so they left him in. But his leg injury made pitching his game impossible. He said today if his leg doesn't get better he may be out for the series. That is a huge disappointment. It just seemed from the first pitch that everything was NOT going to be all right. I couldn't even stand to see it, and I went to bed early. Then I woke up at 4:30 a.m. to turn on the TV to find out the details. In the end, the Red Sox made a valiant effort, but not enough to win against the Yankees. Tonight is another night. Not too many people in Boston will be watching the debate, I know that. Go Sox!

Curt Schilling

Tonight Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling takes the mound against the Yankees in game one of the ALCS. I'm a big Curt Schilling fan because he plays Everquest, and is evidently really hot for games. Woohoo. I also am a fan because he is a hard worker, gets to the ball park 5 hours early, does his homework on the opposing team and writes down his pitches. And, he is a really nice guy. I think that it is really great that he knows Norrath and it seems like a perfect place to be when you have a job that takes you on the road all the time. Here is the interview he gave to Allakhazam. This intense rivalry is going to make this game pretty exciting. I can't wait to watch it. Go Curt!

Food for our neighbors

The folks at Redeemer have really responded to the idea of filling bags with the specific foods that the food pantry has asked for. Someone gave me the idea, and since I am not shy, I made an announcement one Sunday, called the food pantry to find out what they needed most, got the bags donated by a local grocery store, and then labeled the bags with foods like macaroni and cheese, cereal and canned fruit. Every Sunday, the back of the church is filled with bags of food. Our World Hunger Kick Off event is a big success, helping people in our own community who need help feeding their families.

Donations for the food pantry from the generous folks at Redeemer.  

A cozy shop called The Wool Room, in Antrim, NH, owned by my friends Anne and Brian, where I bought my first spinning wheel. 

The Wool Room spinning wheels 

Weekends

I feel really happy to have a three day weekend, and I don't have any trouble knowing how to spend it. A trip to the flying field, a trip to the New Hampshire Wool Tour, and a great time playing bells on Sunday morning.

Playing the bells Sunday morning 

I love the flying field, if only to watch 

George is a great flyer 

Poetry on our radar screen

When I was in highschool, I was given the title of poet laureate. A small fish in a small pond, but I was really pleased with that honor and I wrote a lot of poems in those four years of English class and some were even published. We are going to be hearing a lot more about poetry. A $100 million gift will hopefully help make poetry more important in our world. Today the New York Times is reporting on what they are actually going to do with all that money. Poetry in the news...what a novel concept.

Fashion funny paper

Ok. I try not to watch the E channel fashion stuff, and the gossippy fashion commentaries at the Emmys and the Oscars...but sometimes I can't help myself. It is not that I am interested in movie stars, or want to hear about their personal lives. I could care less. It is because I am interestesd in how very rich people, who could afford to buy anything, can make such fools of themselves and choose clothes to wear that are so ugly. Here it is, their big night in front of the fashion police, and they wear really rediculous outfits. I have a new appreciation for Joan Rivers, who no longer rides herd on the E runway. (She'll be back on another channel I hear.) She is over the top hard to take, but at least she doesn't let the emperor get away with his new clothes. I have found a blog that I think is hilariously funny in a harsh sort of way. If you can't stop yourself from looking at stars making fools of themselves, you may want to check this out.

Water

I used to think that spending money on water was the height of foolishness. Some folks I know well would still agree with that. But now I am a water snob too. The cheap stuff has no appeal for me anymore. I especially do not like Dannon water, which is owned by Coke, and which tastes worse than tap water. I'll drink it in a pinch, but...it does not "float" my boat like really good water does.

I am positive that drinking lots of water every day helps me lose weight. But I drink water for all kinds of reasons. When I visit my mother in Oklahoma, bottled water is a priority. The water in her town has been tested to be "safe" so they say, but every once in awhile, they are told to boil their water. Just the fact that they publish the safety of the water on the front page of her paper is enough to make me run to the Wal Mart for huge bottles of water to drink and to cook with. I wouldn't touch her tap water with a ten foot pole.

As a bonafide water snob, my absolute favorite is San Pelligrino, with Evian a close second. And I swear that one hot day in Paris, after tramping through Versailles in the heat, I was saved from a parched death by a small bottle of ice cold Perrier. I will forever be grateful to Perrier and think of that bright green bottle as a symbol of hope and world peace. Oh well, I am exaggerating. But it is true that at work I always have a bottle of water in front of me, and I know that drinking water helps me feel better. Even in church, the choir is encouraged to "hydrate the vocal chords", and we now take small bottles right into church with us. I think we all feel better and sing better, and we try not to be too obvious while we imbibe surrepticiously in our water of choice.

I especially appreciate true mineral water, not just the grocery store brand filtered water, hoping that I am getting some special benefit for the special price. Designer water tastes better. So I have now convinced myself that spending money on good tasting water is the smart thing to do. I no longer snicker at the yuppie carrying a bottle of water. Money spent on water is a lot better than spending money on many other things - like lottery tickets, cigarettes (horrors) or sodas and chips. I appreciate a restaurant that puts a nice bottle of water and glasses on the table for you. I'll even stick my neck way out and admit that I'd rather have water than wine any day. It costs a lot less, and its better for you! Such a deal!

So, Viva la France, viva la water. Drink more water and feel better fast!

Mr. Moose 

Fun Fur and Eyelash Yarn

I am having a ball with Fun Fur and other kinds of Eyelash yarn. They are on sale now for about $5 per skein of 72 yards or so, and it takes three skeins to make a scarf. Finding combinations of yarns to knit together makes for another whole look. I could stand for hours at the store looking at yarn. Knitting with this type of yarn is really fun and I am planning on making Christmas gifts of some of the scarves I make.

Recently, there are a lot more knitters! And there are hundreds of new types of yarn, a lot of it coming from Italy. The scarf craze of the past two years means that stores are carrying many more types of yarns, needles and knitting supplies. Suddenly, the aisles of the stores are full of women looking for yarn. I am overjoyed to see so many beginner knitters shopping for yarn. I am always ready to give advice or help when I am asked.

Scarves and shawls are easy to knit, and it is the combination of yarns that make the knitting interesting. I recently bought the September Vogue magazine to see if scarves and knit accessories are still the rage. They are. Hefting the magazine to read it almost hurt my arms. It is over 900 pages of glossy pictures and over an inch wide. I imagine the bindery folks jumped off the loading dock when they saw that coming. In fact, my magazine has several repeat pages, probably because of overtaxed binding machines. It is a wow of an issue!

Combining oatmeal colored eyelash yarn with an oatmeal cotton yarn, all in shades of black and beige, and using a seed stitch, I just finished my "oatmeal" scarf. Pictures to come. I finished the end of the scarf with ten rows of a different eyelash yarn in the same colors for a puffy edge to knot in front. Is this interesting to anyone else but me? Probably not. But it sure floats my boat. Maybe I should say "floats my boa".

Quiet as a rainbow

Today I am home in the quiet of my house. Yesterday morning, as I was getting ready to leave for church, I reached into the backseat of my car to get a jacket and when I pulled back out, my back ...stopped working. I don't know why they call it "throwing your back out." But, that is what I did. I have backaches from normal wear and tear all the time, but this is a bit on the south side of normal. I have spent the better part of the day reading on the heating pad. It is the only place where I feel really good. Golly daytime TV is depressing. Rather than watching soaps or commercials, I was watching Fox for a minute while they waited for Mt. St. Helens to blow, and then it did! Behold, now we get to watch commentators standing in front of pictures of Mt. St. Helens talking about whether it is going to blow higher and harder. In short, they want to know if anyone is going to get killed so they will have a bigger story. Watching dust and ash billow is not my idea of exciting TV, but it is on every channel.

One time I had a friend who went on a safari in Africa. Out on the Range Rovers, he said they sat in the sun and watched wild animals graze. He said it wasn't much different than standing at his farm in Indiana watching cows eat. Pretty boring he said, after the first five minutes. I suppose if you were Fox news on a safari, they would wonder when the rhinos were going to charge the jeeps.

So, now I am listening to the quiet of my thoughts and watching the rainbow on my walls created by my solar-powered window prism going round. It is more fun than watching cows graze.

Summer memories

Fall is here and soon the frost will be on the pumpkin. New England is a great place to be in the fall. It wasn't such a great place to be this summer. Actually, although we had a lot of fun on our vacation at the cabin, the weather did not really cooperate. This is a picture of the cabin we rented for a week in northern New Hampshire, 15 miles from the Canadian border. Because of the weather, we didn't even get to go out on a boat that week. The sun was out part of every day, but then rain would come through, and on the two days it was sunny all day, it was too windy for a boat ride. First Connecticut lake is deep and not the place to be when a squall comes through. The man who rents the boats was not eager for anyone to be out there. Certainly not city folks like us. So, we spent the week reading, fly fishing on the streams neaarby, fishing off the dock, knitting, and going for rides to see the moose who are plentiful along that stretch of the road between us and Canada.

Moose watching is big around there, and every evening we take to the road and drive 2 miles an hour to see where the moose are that night. It takes sharp eyes and patience. They are always there, but not in the same place. We saw little ones, big burly ones with huge antlers, and teenagers with little developing antlers. Every evening we saw at least two, and sometimes up to six. Some were big and healthy and some looked rather skinny. But, all moose are rather funny looking. They are gangly, slow moving, and very appealing. Everyone likes them and some evenings there would be a slow moving caravan of moose watchers on the road. The ice cream place at our hosts lodge is called Moose Alley Ice Cream. The specialty is moose tracks, which is caramel, vanilla and big chunks of chocolate. Yummy.

We had lots of fun fly fishing. The mosquitos were happy to see us out there too. Successful fly fishing to me is when I don't get my line caught in the tree behind me. We never caught a fish in the streams we fished, but I caught a large lake salmon, and two "suckers" off the dock. Since they were all going to be thrown back, the suckers were just as much fun to catch as the lake salmon, jumping and zinging the line as they fought. You have to be better equiped than we were to really catch serious fish in that lake. We didn't try very hard. The locals said it was too cold and the fish never came to the surface. Whatever. It was a great vacation in a cozy cabin, and the moose watching couldn't be beat.

Our cabin at First Connecticut Lake  

This is The Balsams resort at Dixville Notch where the first ballot is cast for every presidential race. 350 people reside in the village of Dixville Notch. Since it is near Mt. Washington, the weather is changeable and the clouds are always lurking. 

wildflowers and mountains 

A covered bridge makes for scenic fly fishing 

New Hampshire

I just thought I'd share a picture of my favorite fly fishing spot in Northern New Hampshire, and a picture I took from the road last July. This was near Colebrook, New Hampshire, about 30 miles from our cabin, where we go to get groceries. The wild flowers along the road were beautiful, and the view is of the White Mountains in Vermont.

I'll pass on the sugar, thank you.

General Mills announced yesterday that they are limiting the sugar in their breakfast cereals, and are going with whole wheat to make them healthier for children. This is huge. If they are really changing a product that is doing well on their market as is, that is a big breakthrough for corporate responsibility. Maybe it is like Oprah's big giveaway of 276 vehicles, that were actually donated by Pontiac. Did that seem like a rip off to anyone else but me? She gets the credit, they take the hit. I read that the recipients have to pay taxes, of course, up to $7000. That sort of takes the blush off the rose of that deal. Some how, some way, I bet this whole wheat campaign for General Mills is not just about the public good--this is going to be good for General Mills I'll wager. Even so, what's the downside? If it is better for our health, let them bring it on.

I am on a no added sugar/little to no flour diet. That means, if the ingredients listed have sugar in them, I can't have it. Until now, breakfast cereal without sugar isn't found outside the health food section of the grocery store. Puffed brown rice won't get you jumping out of bed in the morning with glee, but...it is okay. My gauge is if it tastes like birdseed it is probably good for you. I went to a health food restaurant for brunch in Belfast, Maine, and when the waitress asked me what kind of bread I wanted, I said, "whatever tastes most like birdseed." She looked at me like I was crazy and made a face. I guess that was not as funny as I thought. I ordered the 7 grain, close enough.

Oatmeal is suppose to lower cholesterol, and since I would do anything rather than take another pill, I think that is the breakfast food of choice. Hold the brown sugar. Raisins are good because they are natural sugar. Figs, dried fruits, are high in calories, but...no added sugar. Actually, whole grains make you feel like you've eaten something. Therefore, not only are better for you, but you aren't as hungry afterwards either. Krispy Kreme donuts don't have that quality. One doesn't seem like very much at all. They are unforgetttably sweet however. Quite yummy. Bad yummy. Just say no to yummy.

No sugar/no refined flour or white rice means that food shopping is a real challenge. If I had to go to the grocery store hungry I would break into tears I'm sure. I basically have to stick to the outer perimeters of the grocery store. First, I spend a lot of time in fruits and vegetables, then on to non-fat plain yogurt (hard to find in small containers), then on to lean meats and fish, fly past the breads and baked goodies as fast as my little cart will go, and on to the checkout counter. Missing about 95% of the store's offerings means a successful shopping experience for me.

Now, thanks to General Mills, maybe I can venture down the cereal aisle and read their ingredients lists. No sugar coated Frosted Flakes, Trix and Cocoa Puffs? What will we do?

The good news is that I have lost weight -- and I am losing more -- and my clothes fit and I feel better and I'm hoping my cholesterol will go down. I test that next week. Eating the right amount of the right stuff to lose weight isn't easy. So, coffee black please, hold the sugar, hold the cream. Maybe someday I will get used to this. After all, birds like birdseed just fine!