You mean it's NOT all about me?

Two friends and my hairdresser cancelled plans with me this week. I could have gotten into a slough of despond thinking how you can't rely on people and everyone lets me down, and how come the whole world doesn't treat me like a royal princess as I deserve.  Fact of the matter though, one friend is a real-estate agent and she has to show when the customer calls.  The other two cancellations were due to illness.  No one snubbed me and I can have a hissy fit if I want but really, I'm not the center of the universe.  That is SO hard to remember!

My time was not wasted, though.  I re-worked the Mickey hat. This one will fit.  The ears are big pompoms (thank you, whoever left the skein of black acrylic yarn. It makes great pompoms.)  I'm rather pleased with the way this turned out, working without a pattern as I was.  (And yes, I DO love it when DH  says, "Roxie could make that for you.")

The next knitting project was a sample swatch for Teresa Ruch who dyes beautiful yarn and has a shipment of bamboo yarn to  show her customers.  As I was binding off, DH asked to handle it.  It has a lovely texture and he was squeezing it with pleasure, asking about the properties of bamboo.  IT's not elastic, but it's much cooler than wool.  Would you like a bamboo sweater, Darling Husband?  He's thinking about colors.  Squeee!  I adore being able to make things for him, and wool sweaters are just TOO hot!



Adventures in grocery shopping.  We bought a dragon fruit.  Anyone have any suggestions on how to eat one?   It's about half a pound of, "different."

We also bought cheeses.  Some days, things just jump into the shopping cart, you know? And today, there were lots of interesting cheeses  at good prices.  We're going to have broccoli and cheese soup for dinner tomorrow, so we had to buy some cheddar, and then we saw they had some manchego, and an interesting sheep cheese and some beautiful hard parmesan.  And a package of truffle pate demanded attention, so we had to get a baguette and some cornichons . . .

There were apples as well.

I love a picnic lunch, don't you?

Friday night, DH and I went to Mezza, a Lebanese restaurant on 55th and Woodstock.  We  had a great meal, and I posted a photo about them on Facebook.  My niece asked, "What was the special occasion?  Never mind.  You guys are special.  You don't need an occasion."  Isn't she a dear? So I answered, "It was Friday, and I'm not pregnant."  That's always a reason to celebrate!

failed experiment

When DH was in LA he visited Dizzyland with his nephew and great nephew.  Great nephew fell in love with a knitted  Mickey Mouse hat, and DH said, "Roxie could do that for you."  So I gave it a try.  The Mickey face turned  pretty successfully, but as a hat, well it's going to need considerable reworking.

It's a bit too big.  By about twice.  So I'm going to reknit this in half-size for the great nephew, and send it along with the big one for the dad.

happy cat

Ben decided that the yarns left over from the knitter's swap have been arranged just for him.  With the wind and the rain making the house rattle, a little timid cat NEEDS a nice basket to curl up in.  Actually, he would prefer hot laundry, but then, who wouldn't?

Since I was bragging about the good mileage I'm getting with the car, many people asked what kind it is.  I have a Prius C, and am still not getting the best out of it. It has an onboard readout that tells you how much gas you are using, and if you drive cautiously and slowly(not my style) your mileage improves.  I am more likely to roll down the windows, turn the radio volume up to "stun" and blast down the freeway playing "Tubular Bells!"

I am finally getting used to the shift lever being on the floor.  For weeks now, every time I go to put it in drive, I hit the windshield wiper stick because that's where my automatic muscle response is used to going.  Muscles learn slow, and never forget.  I think it's called autonomic reflex.  I am teaching myself to associate red car with shift lever on the right.  Contrary to what you might expect, I am trainable.

The toe and leg that were injured when the fig tree mugged me are now healed enough that I can get back on the treadmill.  Oh boy! More Firefly today!

Find Roxie's car

I do love my habanero red car.  On my trip over the pass yesterday, there were downhill stretches where I was getting 73 miles to the gallon.  Uphill, not so good.  More like 43.

I love my car.  I love my car.  Does that make me auto-erotic?

life is short

 ...and weather is changeable, so I grabbed a chance to drive over the pass and visit my oldest brother yesterday. Three hours one way and splendid sunshine as soon as I got out of the valley smog.  This is the country whereI grew up.  The flash of blue you see between the trees is Suttle Lake. The large cinder cone is Black Butte.  The dead trees are from a fire several years ago.

God made a lot of this beautiful country.  So much so that he had to kind of crumple it up to get it all fitted in. There used to be a fire lookout on top of Black Butte that was accessible only by pack mule.    The young man perched up there, alone all summer except for the weekly food delivery and the occasional intrepid hikers.  But. oh dear Lord, what a view he had!  I think the structure may still be intact, maintained, and available for rental if you want a really isolated getaway. Fire lookout was not a job for highly social people.  You were paid to scan the terrain for smoke, not to chitchat and play cards with the visitors.  The young men working the lookouts had to know where all the cabins and campsites were so they didn't mobilize the smoke-jumpers for every weekend vacation bonfire.  There was another lookout near our cabin that was accessible by road, and every few weeks Dad would load us kids up in the back of the pickup, grab some of Mom's home cooking, and pay the young fellow a visit.  Since all the heat was generated by a woodstove, and the lookout was responsible for cutting his own wood and hauling it up 6 or 8 stories to his lofty perch, as well as maintaining the building and the area, these hardworking,hungry, lonesome young men always made us and Mom's pies, fried chicken, and home-baked bread, quite welcome.  The aerie was about the size of a big walk-in closet, glass walls all the way round, crammed with charts, maps, telescopes, radio equipment, and one spartan bed.  What must it have been like, to be alone up there at night when a slam-bang thunderstorm rolled over you?  What must it have been like on the many clear summer nights with frost forming on the windows and the MilkyWay filling the sky with light?  And sometimes, spring and fall, clouds would roll in and the lookout would be enveloped  in mist so thick you couldn't see the ground.  We visited on a day like that once.  It was like being inside a pearl.

That was the time we brought my brother's boxer dog.  He was a very social fellow and happily followed us up the many flights of stairs, then walked around and around the outer balcony.  Something about his gait made the whole place rock gently.  Dad got a little green, and we never brought the dog along again.

It was so good to see my brother and his son. They have a small portable sawmill and are turning the salvageable logs on their property into lumber.  I would love to have something made from lumber from the cabin, but I can't think what.  It'll come to me, I'm sure.  I had a wonderful visit, though all too short, then mounted up and headed back over the pass for home.  It's probably going to snow this weekend, and I HATE to drive in snow, so it's good I grabbed the chance when I did.  And oh, the memories that have stirred up!

October walkies

LG came over this morning, and we took a nice walk in the sunshine.  This picture illustrates that time with LG is always good time for reflection (and for any other puns that strike our fancy.)  After a week's work of serious October rain, the world is fresh and clean, and the sunshine is so welcome since we know that it's going to be rare for the next six months.















It hasn't been really cold yet, so the leaves are not turning with the brilliance you could expect in New England, but still we are getting a nice dose of color


We finished off with a cup of tea at a coffee house just a few blocks away.  What a delight it is to have the time free to take advantage of a good moment for a walk, to have friends to walk with, and to have the spring left in my knees to walk at all.  Retirement is wonderful!

Thank you!

I love giving these monthly tea parties.  I love using my pretty china and linen.  I love planning and setting up.  I love the baking and I love sharing the goodies with my friends.  I love the merry music of their happy conversation and I love that they enjoy my hospitality.  But sometimes, on top of all the goodness that goes around, someone goes above and beyond.  Jenny embroidered a wonderful dishtowel just for me!  Isn't this just too perfect?  It makes me squee just to look at it!

And on the second Saturday

 Maple stars, pumpkin bars, chicken and rosemary  sandwiches, apple cake, chocolate bars, and Lynn gotridof her excess zucchinis by turning them into muffins and bagging them up festively. You might turn down a zucchini, but who can resist a muffin?

I can seat 10 people in my dining room.  If more than 9 people say they are coming, I set up in the living room as well. (My fantasy dining table seats 30)  And  it worked out pretty well today.  The new sofa is not one to swallow you whole, so people who are a mite creaky in the knees can still manage a dismount without a crane and tackle.  You need to think of these things as you age.

Living room diners.

More living room partyers .

 And the noisy crew in the dining room.  Feasting, politics, jokes, singing of happy birthday, yarn exchange, knitting.  I showed off my double knits.  Beth showed off the sweater she just finished blocking (still damp, this is a BRAND NEW sweater!) Jackie is learning how to knit a moebius scarf.

The yarn exchange didn't go quite as I had anticipated.  I wound up with a big basket of new yarn that no one loved enough to take home. Well, lots more hats for the orphans, then.  I can practically knit those in my sleep.

Two photos but just one hat.  I have been having such fun with double-knit.  But it is fiddly work, and this hat isn't perfect so not ready for  county fair competition.  The mittens in the background are double knit as well.  The picture on the right has one mitten with pink side out.

Aaaannnd it's a quilt!

MJ and I have been working on this quilt for her eldest for over a month.  Finally, today, I drove over to her house, picked up MJ, the quilt and her bicycle in my shiny happy car, and brought them to my house.  We went through my yarn stash and got just the right yarn, spread it out on the dining room table, and tied hundreds of knots to secure the batting inside the pieced cover.  He's a cook on a research vessel, so MJ decided to use commodities for a theme.  There are pineapples, potatoes, tomatoes, eggs, peaches, onions,beers and wines in the prints.  It looks-ahem - good enough to eat. 

Then I used the fabulous tomato sauce which DH has been making from the backyard tomato crop to make home-made soup (it tastes so FRESH!) And then, MJ, being the active and intrepid cyclist she is, rode her bicycle the thirty or so miles back to her home.  I was so motivated by her example that I did all the dishes, cleaned the festering letterboxes, did the laundry, and took out the re-cycling and the garbage, all beforeDH got home!  Woohoo!  Then he and I fell into our side by side lazyboys, started checking on the e-mail, and I fell asleep.  This bug really kicks the buns!  But every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better.

Today, I have blown most of the morning watching the recording of last night's Dancing with the Stars. Giles Marini is so freaking hot! I've watched his tango about three times and have saved the recordings for future reviews.  Fifty shades of Giles, baby!

On the knitting front, I'm finishing up a double-knit cap to co-ordinate with a pair of double-knit mittens.  And then DH wants me to make a MickeyMouse hat for our Californian great nephew.  Today, I'm going shopping for black, white and red wool.  M I C (see ya real soon) K E Y (why? Because we like you!) M O U S E !

finally

It feels so good not to feel so crappy! And the house has really fallen apart while I've been puny.  We had a plumber here to fix the slow drains and when he walked in, I suddenly got a look at the place through his eyes.  Holy crow, it looks like God has wrathed all over us!  Unfolded laundry covering the sofa,  festering litter boxes,  cat dishes soaking in the sink, and the space around my chair looks like a hamster nest with the detritus of recuperation surrounding me in piles.  Today, I'm gonna clean house!  Just as soon as I finish my tea.  And maybe catch just a little nap.

snorf, hack,hack

While DH flew to LA and attended a family funeral, I have been wheezing around the house, lying limply in the recliner and trying to find enough energy to hobble to the bathroom.  He is returning home today. (cries of joy and desire to dance in celebration.)  He sent me a picture from the LA airport to let me know the marvelous treats I have been missing.  His breakfast: egg-salad sandwich and medium mocha, cost $15.  Yeah,  they get you through screening, and you are at their mercy.  What's to keep them from charging $150 for a sandwich? Flying just isn't any fun any more.