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      Under My Thumb…..

      April 24, 2007 /

      Finished Object:

      Chemo Cap #2

      I finished the second chemo cap for my co-worker; the yarn is Noro Lily (silk/cotton) and it’s simply scrumptious. It took just over one skein to make the hat. The pattern is the Amelia Earhart Aviator Cap and I think it’s super cute. The lines are really unique, and the pattern is VERY well-written. I love when a pattern says “repeat rows 2 & 3 thirteen times” – and then gives you the row-by-row steps anyway. It whipped right up over the weekend, and now I’m on to the third (and final) hat out of mercerized cotton. It’s like penance, really, all this knitting with cotton.

      Tonight’s going to be fun – the Wo and I are headed up to Sugar Creek to take our class to be certified KC BBQ judges! I have no idea what to expect, and I am a little afraid I will have to learn cuts of meat under pressure. I always have to look up the diagram to understand where exactly what particular cut comes from which section. Hope there isn’t a test at the end! Oh, lord. Now I’m over-thinking it and starting to stress out. Heh. I did a search yesterday to find the building where the class is located, and I landed on a web page that was titled, “Original Village People to appear at Sugar Creek Slavic Festival”. I seriously read the page three times, searching for more information about the Original Village People, because who doesn’t love the campy “YMCA” and the costumes???? Ohhhhh. They meant something else. They are just featuring PEOPLE. From a VILLAGE. ORIGINALLY. I tell ya, it just shows how we process information, we start with what we THINK we know and what we expect to see, and it can take you places far, far removed from the truth and reality of a situation! I must admit, the Slavic Festival seemed like a strange venue for the Village People.

      And last, but not least, Shanny had this on her blog, and I decided to take the little quiz. Turns out she and I are polar opposites, and are warned to beware each other. I guess it means you shouldn’t make your friends based on quizzes!!!

      You Are the Thumb

      You’re unique and flexible. And you defy any category.
      Mentally strong and agile, you do things your own way. And you do them well.
      You are a natural leader… but also truly a loner. You inspire many but connect with few.

      You get along well with: The Middle Finger

      Stay away from: The Pinky

      I’m simply shocked I’m not THE middle finger.

      Ah Do Declare…

      April 23, 2007 /

      I’ve long suspected that Kansas City has been fence-riding its membership in The South. Growing up in Northeast Iowa and living in Minnesota, I grew up thinking of the South as Alabammy. Mississippi. Weezeeyanna. Texas. States that touch the ocean at some point. States that had slaves. (Yes, I know. Missouri was quite the proponent of slavery, to the point of fighting Kansas, and forever instilling a border-war hatred.) Being a Midwest Yank, I had the accent to prove it, and still, all it takes is one conversation with another Northerner to bring the MinneSOtah accent out of the closet, with a dash of Chicahhgo vowel-flattening. Oh, yah! You betcha! Funny lookin how? Just funny lookin! (from Fargo.) So as we all tend to do, when I moved to St. Louis and subsequently to Kansas City, I started to notice the differences in how the people around me spoke. Take, for instance, the strange St. Louis quirk of pronouncing “quarter” and “forty” and “shorts” as though they were spelled “kwartr”, “fahhrty” and “sharts”. It should not suprise you to know that I made copious fun of it, in fact. Despite my belief that I was clinging to my Northern cadence, my father observed several years ago, while we were on the phone, that I was integrating a faint drawl into my speech. Nahhhh. I didn’t believe him at first. But it was true. And having lived in Missouri (or Mizzurrah, as you might say) for ten years now, I can no longer deny that I can drawl. And even say and write “y’all” with the carefree nature of a Texas denizen. But still, given all of this twang and mouth-fulla-grits, I still believed that Missouri was Midwest. Not South. Even in the face of McAlister’s and Chick-Fil-A moving to town, restaurants I believe to be “Southern”. Nope. Not us. We’re not South.

      And then this weekend, I saw it. On a McDonald’s marquee. And in four words, clinched it for me.

      “Now Serving Sweet Tea”

      Ay-yup. Sweet Tea is the tipping point. I officially declare it. We’re now part of the South. Y’all come and visit real soon.

      Knits ‘n’ Bits

      April 20, 2007 /

      I finished my summertime hat – I lurrrrve it – it’s knit out of Mango Moon viscose, and it shrieks, “Let’s go to Mexico! Drink things with wedges of lime in them! Now!”

      IMG_1132

      I adapted the Chick Knits Bucket Hat pattern, because my gauge and her gauge and the yarn ….. well, let’s just say I know how to knit & have done many a hat in my day, so her pattern provided a good template for me to jump off & make my own version. I then bought rayon-covered millinery wire & joiners on eBay, so I could make the brim stay out & in shape. Otherwise, it looked pretty goofy & ruffly. It’s just damn cheerful. And who could use cheerful? Me! I’ve had long stretches of Oh, Not So Cheery, and I feel like my aforementioned forest is starting to have some clearings and dappled sunlight and genuine laughter that doesn’t echo with undertones of sadness.

      I also knit a hat for my co-worker who is going through chemo. I am going to make her a couple more hats, because that is my coping mechanism. She has sailed through her treatment for the ovarian cancer, but now they think she might have thyroid cancer as well. So she needs some hats, and she needs the words “remission” and “all better now” and “relax and have fun”, and I can only do the hat part. So on and on I knit.

      The first hat I’ve completed is out of Rowan CashSoft, and I guess the color is called Bella Donna. It’s a beautiful shade of lilac! It’s the Lace-Edged Women’s Hat from Headhuggers – free pattern.

      IMG_1134

      All right, so with all that said, I have to thank Bekah for being industrious and being a super fan & super friend, because she has nominated my blog, and the company I keep within the hobby category is pretty lofty. I don’t pretend I’m even at the readership or skill level as the Yarn Harlot, so I appreciate her efforts to elevate my status in the Blogosphere…. She even made a cute button to promote me – seems to me like someone could have her OWN business designing webstuffs, in addition to her fabu photography skills! I can’t get the button to show up, so once I figure out where the code error is kicking me in the teeth, I’ll get it in here.

      UPDATE! Got the button!


      plazajen

      I do like that I have an “Adult Content” notation.

      Well, I gotta run to a meeting, lunch is over. Happy Friday & have an excellent weekend!

      Slap This!

      April 19, 2007 /

      The Wo outdid himself with a surprise yesterday….. I came home & eventually noticed my latest sock project was put on my chair. I said something, as I walked over to move it, thinking he had taken it off the tray table so he could use the table. Then I saw a crazy object underneath the knitting, and when I picked it up, it made a scraping noise. I shook it a little, and got even more scraping sounds. Since he is gearing up for turkey hunting, I muttered something like, “hmmmmm, and that’s a turkey call, never seen anything like THAT before, mmmmkaaaay” and he just stared at me.

      I clued in finally that this was something that maybe merited more attention from me. (Hey, I wasn’t called “Fogbanks” for nuttin’!) Turns out, I now own my very own VIBRASLAP.

      This is the instrument the lead singer of Cake is always whacking & it makes a delightful, long buzzing/rattle. I’m totally joining a band now. And because I can also use a diaphragm turkey call, I could really be a show-stopper. Cluckin’ and slappin’!

      (And in case you read the comments and wondered if some miracle had taken place, Momma Linda is James’ mom, my mother-in-law. She’s so great, and I’m not just saying that because she left me the nicest comment, ever. She just is.)

      Mouth Breathers, Unite!

      April 18, 2007 /

      I seem to be on a strange evolution involving my sinuses. It would be nice if the end goal were that I will grow scent pockets in them, akin to the bloodhounds, and be able to track things across water. Not that I have a great need for tracking in general, but it would be a nifty SuperSkill to have, I think. Can you tell I was influenced by this show on hound dogs over the weekend?

      So the trouble all started last January, and while I’ve kiiiind of stopped coughing at night – I did actually stop completely, but I have a bit of recurrence going on this week – I feel like my nose and sinuses have been packed with expand-o foam that would ordinarily be used to ship something fragile via your friendly box-kicking carrier. And my voice is rapidly dropping into the dulcet tones of Kathleen Turner, and I’m afraid I’m going to skip right past the tenor section to the froggy croaking section of the Oakridge Boys.

      And I’m mouth-breathing. Damn, it is so sexy. I imagine what my co-workers think as they pass by on their way to the supply closet (yes, my half-office-half-cube is almost a Harry Potter residence), and they HAVE to be thinking, GODDAMN! That woman is staring at her computer with her jaw gaping open, gaspin’ like a sexxy fish. She is soooooooo fine.

      Wait’ll I start singing. Giddyup! A boom boppa mouw mouw……….

      The Highs & The Lows & The In-Betweens

      April 17, 2007 /

      Yesterday certainly was a mish-mash of experiences – obviously everyone who doesn’t live under a rock knows about the Virginia Tech campus shootings, and even without any direct connections to those people, you still feel it. I reflected upon it last night, as I lay in my comfortable bed, that there were numerous people tonight, struggling to sleep, minds racing, grief-stricken, and I felt sadness for their pain, and for the unanswerable “Why?” – I think everyone shares the feeling that if you decide to unhinge your brain and you have a death wish, that we’d much prefer you just start with yourself, not take a bunch of innocent people along with you. Sigh. Plus, anytime there’s a shooting like this, I think of my husband as a schoolteacher, and while I’m grateful he teaches 5th grade, it doesn’t make him bulletproof, and the world today continues to morph into a nearly unrecognizable mass of wild violence, barely restrained by yards and yards of rules and political correctness, and stuffed with a healthy serving of abdication of responsibility. It just doesn’t make sense to me. I could go on and on, but we’d never get to the other points I want to make today.

      Yesterday was also a red-letter, banner day at work. We won the piece of business we traveled to Illinois to pitch, just under two weeks ago. This client is now our largest client, and everyone here is very excited, deservedly so. We went to O’Dowd’s to celebrate immediately after we got the news, and spirits were high. I’m excited because it means new work, and it also validates the work we put into the pitch and the thinking and the people I work with. Not that you can’t self-validate all you like, but it sure means more when someone not only says, “Yeah, we like you!” but they also give you a check for being smart.

      And the winds of change are upon us. The weather has turned, personal situations have changed, friendships have been ended, begun, adjusted and re-established. The Sopranos are winding to an end, and if you watch it, last Sunday’s episode was a bit chewy, given everything we went through with my dad the past year. My mouth was just open in astonishment. One of the mob bosses was diagnosed with lung cancer that had metastasized to numerous other organs & to his brain. (While they didn’t pinpoint “lung” in my father, it is very likely to have started there, or the liver, and his whole body was filled with cancer once they detected it.) They gave the mob boss 3 months…. and he died within the hour (of the show). Beyond the actors, kudos to the production folks and the director, because lordy, they nailed it. I didn’t cry, partly because I was so shocked to see such a direct parallel being played out on my mafia crime drama, and I finally said, “Man, my dad would’ve loved the fact that the very thing that killed him was featured in The Sopranos.” I guess/would like to think that my reaction is what healing starts to look like. Speaking of healing, and my dad, we bought and are going to plant five large ornamental grasses in our garden as a memorial to him. He loved ornamental grasses, and I still have the piece of paper he scribbled down numerous names and varieties for me to consider buying. They will grow, and return each spring, and I expect each year I will have a slightly different feeling when I see them. As much as I would like to think that grief is something you can pickle, suspend in a brine and know it will always have the same biting, sour flavor, I think instead it will constantly change in appearance, sensation, and intensity.

      And no matter what – death, shootings, new business, laughter – it will all be ok.

      Say What You Will, The Sky Is A Lovely Shade of Purple In My World…..

      April 16, 2007 /

      I was driving home last Friday, following a white car that had been rear-ended on the driver’s side at some point. While cognitively, I knew it was damage, my brain immediately thought there was an elaborate sticker wrapping on the corner of the bumper, and that sticker was depicting a black & white ink drawing of an anteater wearing a smoking jacket. You know, something a la Edward Gorey.

      Sometimes a dent is just a dent.... or is it?

      And you know how it is, once you get an idea in your head and you simply can’t see anything else? Well, for the remaining mile we spent together, I kept staring at that frickin’ anteater, dressed in his finest, and had to get the picture. Which does not do it justice, and like my husband commented on Flickr, may in fact make you believe I am dropping acid into my coffee, but I assure you, I am not.

      Anteater. Smoking Jacket. Purple sky. Or is that…haze?

      WoooooSAHHHH, with garlic breath.

      April 13, 2007 /

      That’s just a word of caution, in case you wanna woo-sahhhh with me in person. I had a slice of garlic bread at lunch and the vampires will be steering clear of me for the rest of the day, undoubtedly! God, I love me the Cupini’s…..

      I keep forgetting it’s Friday the 13th, and while I’m not terribly superstitious, I’m pretty adamant about nothing bad happening today. Or if it does have to happen, then it’s gotta be TODAY. I am ready for the past seven days to be over with, because they were drama-filled, stupid, and irritating. I keep erasing what I’d LIKE to say, because there’s nothing to be gained from it. I need to move on from the stupidity, I’m just going to let it go. Garlic Wooooooo saaaahhhhhhh. Having a clear conscience and the support of great friends helps a lot.

      I taught my class last night at The Studio, and Chelle, Molly & Julie all were great students. Laura was also a huge help! We had lots of laughs, I showed them a couple little tricks & shared my notes and thoughts on Lizard Ridge & things to keep in mind – and was so glad I had this blog to go back over, since most of my notes were in posts as I made it. There was a crazy moment when everyone had left & I was turning out the lights where I realized…. I’m alone. In a yarn shop. (Am I dreaming?) Usually when I go there, it’s over lunch or right after work, and there’s almost always a handful (or if there’s a sale, a gobful) of people there and sometimes you do the back-and-forth hustle dance with someone who’s coming the other direction and is also interested in the sock yarn :) It was so quiet, and if I hadn’t been hungry for dinner, I bet I’d have given some of my favorite yarns a zen-moment petting….. probably for the best I didn’t indulge, because right after I left, the manager’s husband showed up to take care of a couple things, and it would have been really dorky to be caught with my head in a tub of cashmere….. Hi there! Just me! Bobbin’ for Artyarns! aaaaand guess who’ll never teach in this town again?! (Can’t you hear the whispers? “She was on the floor with all the Noro….” “I heard she was wearing a Colinette kit like a wig!”)

      Today’s a bit languid – most of our work is going to hit next week with a vengeance, and both the bosses are out getting Lasik! We’ll be renaming ourselves the Eagle-Eyed Ad Agency if enough people here get it. I can’t wait to hear about their experiences. And, even though it’s going to be totally gross and SNOWY and yecchy, I’m looking forward to spending the weekend getting caught up on my shows, finishing my summer hat & starting on a chemo cap for a co-worker who will undergo three weeks of the nasty stuff. She’s going to do a blog about her experiences & I’ll link to it (if she’d like) when she’s ready. She & her husband just had a baby, and if not for the baby, they wouldn’t have found the cancer, so their little one’s a bit of a miracle bambino, and mom’s prognosis is great because the cancer was still in an early stage. It’s strange how the word “cancer” sometimes makes tears spurt out of my eyes, and then other times, it seems like just another word. I still cope pretty much the same way: knit, knit, knit.

      Have a wonderful weekend yourself, and if you’re carrying anger or irritation around in your heart, let yourself get rid of it, if even for only an hour, and see how it feels. We can make our own luck – and mental peace – even on Friday the 13th!

      woooooosahhhhhhhhhh and quit backing away from me. ;)

      ………….Tequila!

      April 12, 2007 /

      So the dinner last night was awesome. The food, the service, the atmosphere – everything was stellar. Money well spent, and again, I get no kickbacks or free meals, but if you are looking for a good Mexican restaurant that isn’t all about the goopy cheese and overly-fried things, Guadalajara Cafe is the place to go!

      In addition to our menu, we got a big sheaf of paper explaining how tequila is made, and then page-ads of the different tequilas featured in the drinks we would be having.

      Ever-on-the-lookout for marketing tie-ins, I said at one point, “The Tequila People MUST be involved in this shindig.” Too true. A man I had never seen at the restaurant was strolling around the tables, providing shots (shots!) of various tequilas in addition to your regularly-scheduled drink. Now, the drinks weren’t full-sized or doubles or anything, but I can tell you by the third course/drink, I started giggling uncontrollably at James, who was trying to explain turkey seasons between Missouri and Kansas to me. Something about hearing the old t-shirt saying in the back of my head: One tequila! Two tequila! Three tequila! Floor!

      By the fourth course, I was desperately trying to make eye contact with the couple at the table next to us. I looked at James and confided, “I’m trying to make friends.” He cracked up laughing as he replied, “Me too!”

      Sadly, we made no friends. And we are not professional drinkers by any stretch of the imagination. By the time we got to the flan & it’s accompanying Coffee Tequila Patron, we were losing some steam & buoyancy – even though the plates were small, the food was very filling and provided some ballast to offset the varying cocktails. They told us they’d be having another one towards the end of May, and I expect we’ll be attending! Hopefully with existing friends, so we don’t embarrass ourselves trying to make new ones mid-dinner.

      Midweek Random Orts

      April 11, 2007 /

      1. While I love Planet Earth, it does get a little hard for me to watch. JWo keeps saying “Survival of the fittest!” “Circle of Life”! And while I know it intellectually, I can’t help but root for the critters to escape the predators.

      2. The Easter Bunny is never going to come to our house again. Suzy caught and SWALLOWED a baby bunny. I told her she was NEVER going to get on Cute Overload with behavior like that. She remained unfazed and of the clear conscience, for she understands the Circle thing.

      3. Tonight’s our tequila-tasting dinner. Woo-hoo! Bring on the mariachi band!

      4. I hate this weather, officially. Chance of snow this weekend? Are you kidding me? Does this current weather mean we’re going to have a summer filled with 110-degree days to counterbalance the bone-chilling damp cold?

      5. I am not for the self-censorship too much, and I am also not for the making my blog private, because I know there are a lot of people I don’t even know who read my blog. I find myself grappling with the “I share myself on my blog space for my own therapy and enjoyment and the similar effect on like-minded others, with hopefully a laugh or six” with the “I then am sharing myself with the people who do not so much like me yet read me still” schools of thought. Reminder to self: Cannot control the world yet. Continue working on that. Keep being great. Everything else is fluff in the lint trap.

      6. I am officially in love with CVS. We are so serious, I have a Care Card and I get bonus dollars. It’s almost as good as a Woolworth’s, though I was sad they had little to no Easter candy left (my candy bowl at work gets raided throughout the day.) I loves me a bargain, especially on chocolate!

      7. I started the bucket hat over, with my new calculations for my gauge with the Mango Moon viscose yarn. It’s so perfect, and a riot of color, that it makes up for the fact there’s no elasticity/give, it’s just like knitting with cotton. And we all know how much I love knitting with cotton. HAH! I essplode with the laughters at you. Get it away from me, now, rapido, gigante, go!

      8. Long ago I mispronounced “Sabado Gigante” much to the amusement of my co-workers. Now I love to insert “gigante” as an adjective, noun, adverb, whatever. Gigante! Make it so! Gracias!

      9. I gave a friend of mine some advice the other day, and one line from my email to her jumped out as I re-read it for typos and clarity (I know, you are gigante shocked, what with the random sentence structure in this post):

      Sometimes I think we’re blinded when we’re in pain, and it’s because we simply can’t divide our energy between learning and healing.

      10. Never stop learning. Unless you’re healing.

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