Mike and I - Christmas in New Orleans 

Everquest Fanfaire

Now that we know that New Orleans has not blown away or drowned, we can start thinking about the Everquest Fanfaire to be held there over Halloween. Woohoo, what a great time to be there. I went to a fanfaire in Boston (right in my front yard) and had a great time. At the time, I was only a lowish level Paladin, but luckily for me, they put your class and your name on your name tag that hangs around your neck, but not your level. In RL, around my friends, co-workers, etc., the fact that I play EQ is known...but not understood. No one in my RL circle of friends could/would ever do it. No one could believe how wonderful our life in Norrath is unless they were there themselves! I met some really wonderful folks at that fanfaire and still send /tells to them in game (hellos). For the most part, Fanfaire takes one whole day, morning till late night, and there are crowds of people, all who have the same passion. I went to one workshop about tradeskills, and everyone there had 200 or over in all tradeskills. I mean, these folks were uber tradeskillers! I went to a GM event, where they took some huge mobs and trained the poor folks in Aviak Village. Afterwards, they made it all better, but for a time, the whole auditorium was cheering and laughing as this unheard of encounter plagued that zone and the hapless players who happened to be there. I hope they got prizes, I'm sure they did. There was a difficult scavenger contest which had people in teams, running all through the hotel complex looking for obscure items and clues. It was HARD! and very fun because it showed the depth of knowledge people have about all the lands of EQ. Incredible! It was great fun to have dinner with 1000+ other Eqers, and see the faces and be free to talk about EQ with joy and energy. Woot what a crowd. If you can get to New Orleans, and you love Everquest, I would move heaven and earth to get there for Fanfaire.

Michael's Afghan

I am working every evening on Michael's Christmas Present. I am very excited about working on this granny square afghan, and I'm enjoying each square. It is soothing for me to sit and work on a square, and I was even able to finish one at my weight watchers meeting last night. I have decided not to keep this present a surprise, since I will still be working on it during Thanksgiving, when Michael will be visiting us. I carefully gathered wool instead of the usual acrylic yarn, using some that I had in my stash, and buying some colors to make it beautiful. In choosing colors, I try to follow the rule "the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts". In other words, I want the color combination to have that certain something--a surprising combination of colors that makes it all work together for something charming and, well, magnificent. I had several false starts with colors. I chose dark purple, dark varigated teal, beige, coral and two shades of gray. For some reason, the color of the coral makes me think of Marilyn Monroe's lipstick. Mike loves movies, and I wanted to make an afghan that used "movie" colors. Colors with lots of contrast, yet deep enough to remind me of classics like Akira Kurasowa's "Rashomon," or Orson Welles "Citizen Kane". I make 7 different squares, about 7 of each one, to make it nice and big, and to add drama because you do not see the same repeated. The wool is nicer to work with, much more tender on the hands. I do not believe I have ever seen a granny square afghan done in wool before. It was not the most economical decision, but my hope is that it will be something that he will keep for many many years. The last afghan I made, my mother worked for a week weaving in the ends and sewing each one down with the matching thread color. Talk about dedication! I wish she could help me with this one when that time comes. I haven't figured out yet how to make that happen. As I crochet, I have often thought of Mike's kitty Taniko as I put together the squares. I'm sure she will love it too. Thank God for dry cleaners.

Good luck New Orleans!

The news about Hurrican Ivan and New Orleans and Biloxi is not good this morning. I am very worried. I love New Orleans and hope to go there a lot more. It is such a diverse and interesting city, and so hospitable to all who come there. The southern charm of the place exudes through it's antique pores. The idea of being 10 feet below sea level doesn't really sink (oops) in, until you realize that you walk UP several flights of stairs to get to see the Mississippi River. The whole place is one low-lying area. There are no hills to flee to. The folks that live in those smallish houses in the close nieghborhoods use public transportation, so they can't drive away. And I heard today there are no shelters. I suppose all the usual places where shelters could be set up would be under water too if the levees failed and the water reached the 12-18 feet they say is possible. Those unique and interesting shops on the French Quarter are very low, very packed with merchandise and antiques and I can't imagine how they can withstand a flood. I am very worried about my favorite city.

Biloxi is in the bullseye too. The casinos there are huge, and are situated on floats out over the water. They have not been tested by a hurricane yet, although they are designed to withstand high winds and water. The casinos are a lot bigger and more glamourous than I had imagined and the windows overlooking the water are huge--probably hundreds of feet high. How can they board those up? The chandeliers alone are as big as a house. This hurricane is really incredible with the damage it has done, and I'm very afraid there is a lot more to come.

I'm back for my laurel wreath

Ok. I am back from my exercise place which is only a few blocks from my house. I found a parking place right in front tonight. There are a bunch of good things about going. First, I no longer am interested in bonbons. I now am interested in drinking lots of cold water. I am sweating. Sweat is good. 30 minutes of hard sweating is my exercise goal. I stretched out some of my sore muscles, and that felt great. The place is air conditioned, there are lots of fans blowing cold air right on my face, and the music is peppy disco with silly words. The whole experience didn't take an hour. Easy. I was thinking as I drove home, it is so much easier to buy something that makes you look slim--than to get slim. It is so much easier to buy some makeup to make your skin shine--than it is to eat the right foods for a good complexion. It is so much easier to think about exercising--than it is to get your body off the chair and start moving! If I had spent half the time exercising in my life that I have spent putting on makeup or dressing in nice clothes---I would be an Olympic champion by now. Oops. No negativity shall creep into my little red head. I did it! Now I will rest on my laurels until tomorrow when I DO IT all over again!

Inspiration needed

I am looking for inspiration to exercise. I usually find that when I get to the place, I really feel good, the music sounds peppy and I'm invigorated. But getting there...ugh. I want to stay home and eat chocolate bonbons I guess. Not. I am leaving now. Whenever I want to become a computer chair potato, I am going to read this, and realize that if I continue to lose weight AND exercise three times a week...I am going to be so much happier and if I sit here and procrastinate. Oy. Why does this have to be so hard???? More when I return!

Spiders and scary stuff

I saw a show last night about poisonous creatures in Australia. One creature is the red backed spider which lays lots of eggs, spawning 100 new spiders each egg cycle. The tiny babies fly like bubbles through the air to their new homes. These black and red spiders are very poisonous and dangerous and live mostly where humans live because of their preference for cement areas and buildings. They showed one lurking in a cement drain pipe. This morning I talked online with my Everquest best friend near Brisbane and mentioned this. Although this TV show made it seem that the bite of one is deadly, Ixsta said that in order to really hurt an adult it would have to be a big spider, or a lot of bites. But he said that they are indeed very dangerous to children. An urgent trip to an emergency room for anti-venom is necessary in any case. They have a little boy, Jordan, who I have never met, but who I like very much and have seen pictures of. Then he said, "I have to go to the basement and see how many are still there, since we are approaching summer here." Sorry to say this, Ix, but that makes me a wee bit nervous. I would not like having poisonous things in my house. I asked him if there was any "poison" that could be put around to deminish these devils...and he said no, they say these cannot be poisoned. I bet they can't!

The show also had man eating crocodiles, and Ix said that they are further South. Thank God for that! The jellyfish are perhaps the most awesome of poisonous creatures, and Australia has them in the beautiful coral reefs too. I think that tropical climates have more interesting poisonous things than here in the North East US. But...maybe they are here waiting for me, but I would not know it. I know that Massachusetts has a mean case of poison ivy all along every road side, something to keep in mind if you ever have a flat tire.

As a teenager in Oklahoma, my brother, who I adored and looked up to (literally), would go down to the North Canadian River and shoot Cottonmouth snakes, a particularly poisonous, large, and really nasty snake that was pretty common along those red dusty riverbanks. He came home one day and said that he killed one that had just eaten a baby cottontail rabbit (poor wabbit), and saw the rabbit struggling to get free after the snake was already dead. Not sure if that is a "tall tale", but it made an impression on this nine year old that I have not forgotten. The world was "crustier" and more accessible then. Hunting was big sport in Oklahoma in those days. My brother used to take me to the fences and let me shoot cans off of them with his .22. He would hold the barrel of the gun for me sometimes and I would squint and aim. These days we just zoom by the fields and byways in our air conditioned big wheels and ignore all the fascinating stinging and biting critters that lurk in the crevices of the world.

So, my EQ friends Ixsta, Angelicca (a true angel if ever there was one), and my little friend Jordan, (hug), if you ever read this, you be careful over there in the Down Under....especially the down under of your own basement.

Lobster "shack".  

Get Well Soon, Mr. Clinton

I recently saw a blog dedicated for people who want to send greetings to President Clinton. I was tempted, but needed more time to think what to say. Shall I say, "Get well soon so you can help Kerry with more much needed advice?" Seems to me sometimes that Kerry looks a lot like a wind-up doll, and says pretty much what he is told to say. Polling his advisors to see what the next sentence should be. I'm not very impressed. My mother is a life-long Democrat and has donated to the Democratic Party. For her support, they sent her a nice framed picture of then President Clinton. She hung it in a prominent place in her kitchen. When Mr. Clinton "got in trouble with Monica", she was upset with him and turned the picture to face the wall. Clinton in the dog house. But she, like multi thousands of others, and like me, wish him a speedy recovery. Seems to me we all can wish that for each other no matter what our politics.

I wonder if he is still facing the wall?

Five big ones

Today I am happy! I went to my weight watcher meeting and I lost 5 pounds last week on their new CORE program. This program limits what you can eat, and takes some self control. Allegedly, you don't count points, but eat until your satisfied. For some of us who don't know where that line in the sand is...it is better for me to be careful about the restrictions AND count points. I did it all Labor Day weekend, and I did fine -- with a little planning, help and consideration of friends, and a lot of lugging an ice chest with "legal" foods in it. On Labor Day morning, I had Kashi cereal and skim milk at a picnic table outside of a Dunkin Donuts. That takes committment! No sugar, no refined flour, white rice, etc., and 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, limited lean meat, beans and brown rice ok. It is a good healthy diet and I rather like having limits on the kind of foods I can eat. Somehow, having 26 points in a day and using 10 of them up on a slice of pizza doesn't seem healthy. I'm sure my body wants more fuel than a slice of pizza to make it through a busy day. Yogurt and fruit makes me feel good. After limited pizza and other "goodies" for the better part of a year, I don't even crave that stuff anymore. Well, not often anyway. And in the beginning, one cup of spaghetti seemed like a paltry amount, but now I know it is enough. I am not hungry when I eat what I should when I should. Key word: WHEN. I don't want to skip a meal, because then hunger and the "baddies" start happening. I do miss being able to shop at a bakery, but I guess I will get over that after a while too. It is going to be good to be thin and like the Weight Watcher leader said, "Be like a postage stamp and stick to it until you get there."

5 pounds off in one week??? I'm stickin' to it!

Lighthouse and me 

Labor Day in Maine

Maine is beautiful. We drove from Boston, with stops in Kittery and at LL Bean in Freeport. Finding crowds and an un-airconditioned store, we followed Route One up to Camden and started looking for our landmarks to find our friends house. It was a lovely weekend, marked by good food, good conversation, and lovely scenery. The coast is not as rugged as I thought, but Pemaquid Lighthouse is very nice and the rocks are large and flat and good for exploring. We spent half a day going to Edgecomb Pottery in Edgecomb, ME. As well as inside a huge store, the pottery was displayed on a huge deck in the sunshine and I think I saw every piece. The potters are a man and wife team, who started this business in 1976 and leave their mark on every piece. There were also huge windchimes, 5 feet tall, and heavy, and other works of art in metal. I loved a turquoise teapot, but when I showed it to George, he very astutely decided that the lid didn't quite match and that it was a substitute and that is why this teapot was on the sale rack for $125. Next time I want to buy an expensive teapot, I'm going to check with him! I must have looked at it for an hour and I never even noticed the difference in hue and size.

We didn't have lobster until we got back home on Monday evening. But it is not because they didn't have it. Lobster is available at every turn.

We wrote down names of motels where we might want to stay on a return trip.

Pemaquid Light in Bristol, Maine 

Schooner Days in Camden Maine 

Boring or Dangerous or Just Plain Hard to Do

The headlines today are "Atkins Diet May be Dangerous, says scientists", and "Atkins Diet bores you thinner". Am I surprised? Eating too much of any good thing is just -- unbalanced. All meat, no bread. All fat, no vegetables. Now, that just doesn't make sense! Boring. What isn't boring if you do too much of it? Boring old carrot sticks. Boring old lemon merinque pie. When we used to have to get our sugar by climbing trees and knocking honey bees down...we only got to do that once a year when the honey comb was full. That kind of seasonality is what makes things interesting. Apples are best in the Fall, so it is fun to wait for them, even though we don't have to anymore. But eating nothing but apples would be plenty boring.

Alas, these are the things that never seem to be boring: cakes, cookies, biscotti, and lattes with whipped cream. I can read dessert cookbooks forever and never find them boring. Sometimes they look so alluring you want to eat the pictures. But...to make life interesting, I am not going to eat those things that are bad or dangerous for me. I'm moving on to the excitment of a varied diet of all things good for me: yogurt, fruit, vegetables, lean meat, whole grains and legumes. Sound boring? Not really. Too hard to do to be boring. I always say, when did you ever hear the doctor say that you need to eat more flour and sugar?

Thunder, my 12 year old kitty, and ruler of the roost, loves wool and knitting too. 

Mike and I at Thanksgiving time last year. 

Hurricanes and Tornados

A hurricane is headed to Florida today and I am concerned about everyone whose home and workplace are threatened. I have lived through several tornados in Oklahoma, but never one that hit my home. It is hard to believe that you hunker down in a hole somewhere, and when you come out, all you have is bricks and boards. In a matter of a few minutes, your whole life changes. I'm sure, with a hurricane, it is all about preparation, boarding up, gathering suppliers, and then....waiting. When and if your home suffers damage, then you come out of the shelter, and have to start all over again. I get upset if I misplace a skein of yarn somewhere. I can't imagine having my whole world around me blown away. When I was in Oklahoma in May, a tornado went by 6 miles from our house, and I was able to watch the TV warnings, run outside to see the black flat cloud that was feeding the funnel, and then into the livingroom to tell mother the latest news. Actually a trip to the fruit cellar seemed like fun then. Coming out of the fruit cellar afterwards is the scary part. In Oklahoma, they are so used to tornados that the tracking is specific. They tell you what streets! the tornado is going past now. People have cellars or know someone who does. This tornado was a level one, rather puny, and strayed into the farm fields and only did damage to a few houses and a roof of a high school. Rather anticlimactic actually. A fizzle, thank you Lord.

This current hurricane has the same name as my mother, Frances. She will make note of that I'm sure. We don't get to name tornados in Oklahoma, only date them. In 1976, a tornado measuring a huge one mile across hit Union City, Oklahoma, 20 miles from where my mother lives. It just mowed down the whole town, the schools, the brick Catholic church, the houses, everything. Nothing left except dirt. Sometimes tornadoes even take the topsoil with them. When I went back to my high school reunion years later, I met a classmate who is now the principle of the Union City Highschool. They rebuilt. I will pray for the carpenters who will help rebuild Florida and I will pray that with all these early warnings that everyone in Florida gets out of harms way.

Knitters and Tea Cozies

Those of us knitters who can get excited about a tea cozy need to stick together. I have a new book, called Mindful Knitting http://www.tarahandknitting.com/MindfulKnitting/PublishersWeeklyReview.htmand it is about meditation, and simple but nicely designed projects to do while you are practicing "mindful" knitting. I suppose this is the opposite of watching Pulp Fiction, or Kill Bill, while knitting. I don't know that it matters much to me, but I will try. I can knit in a traffic jam, at a stop light, at the beach, in a car, in a meeting, and especially at home camped in my favorite chair with a good light. But, I like the idea of being mindful about all kinds of things. Mindful cooking. Thinking about what you are doing and not mistaking baking soda for baking powder, makes for a much better cake. Mindful kitty litter box cleaning. Watching what you are doing, don't spill, all the while trying not to breathe. The author said that she studied under a Tibetan monk with a very long name, and even the Dalai Lama. I suppose that everyone in those crowds that listen to the Dalai Lama can say they have studied with him--and if I had ever seen him, I would too. Why not? But I have enjoyed reading the book and I will make her cute knitted tea cozy and try to listen to my breathing instead of to the Rolling Stones.

:-) oooommmmmm

(I bet Mick Jagger drinks tea.)

Knitting shouldn't hurt

Yesterday I started a shawl with two strands of yarn that I chose along with a new pattern. One yarn is nubby and the other is silky wool and something that makes it soft and shiny. (I need to be more specific I know. Sometimes I'm bad with the details.) I knew I was in trouble from the start. The pattern is a triangle in a lace pattern and called for casting on of 164 stitches. Triangle shawls should start with the point, so that you can quit when you decide the shawl is big enough or so you have a project that is finished when you run out of yarn. I was thinking while I was casting and counting that this is enough for an afghan, and that I had now idea what the guage of these two yarns together was, and therefore, no idea of how big the shawl hem would be. Turns out that was not the worst of my problems. The pattern was a lace made with *yo, k2tog(SSK)-psso, a common stitch, but one that should be used in combo with other stitches...not alone. I have knit variations of this stitch for years, but this one, because it was repeated over and over across the whole piece -- became moanfully repetitive, and worse....it hurt my hands! I didn't give up for 3 hours. I kept going. And my idea of a beautiful shawl looked like a long fuzzy green snake the color of pond scum. And my hands hurt.

Good knitters make good rippers, or vice versa. I pulled it off the needle and wound 3 hours of work back into a ball of yarn. Cut my loses, I said to myself.

That shawl is going to Maine this weekend...or bust. I will not finish it now, but I will at least be able to take the yarn and a new pattern along. Designing is hit and miss sometimes. I have learned not to be disappointed, that some projects just fly through your fingers and turn out lovely, and others fly and are mediocre, and others just land with a thud.

Hopefully, I will find a new pattern today, start again tonight, and not have a shawl to wear this winter that looks like pond scum. *

Cheers :-/ ]

Edit: I found a pattern by Lion Brand, with 9 rows, yarn overs, lace and scallops that I will try next. This will not be triangular, but I think it will be great. It is called the "Diva's Stole". They show it in two colors, but that is not necessary. On the other hand.....hum....