Rosie, Vacations, Ghans, Dolls, and Doctrine

I never intended to be over two months between posts again. I don't like waiting this long between posts since there is always the chance I'll forget something I intended to write about. Part of the reason is that, with my having recorded so many old 20s to 60s movies this year from Turner Classic Movies on my DVR and having to keep up on watching them so the DVR doesn't fill up - and the DVR being in one room while the computer's in the other - it limits my time on the computer. I often finally get around to checking my E-mail around midnight and by then (especially on weekdays) it's too late to do much else. Even that takes long enough that I inevitably get to bed too late, and then it's on to my job which continues to be mentally tiring with all the constant shifting gears all day, every day. They've started a summer schedule where one of us works an early shift once a week on a rotating day. My day this week is Friday. So I'll get home at 4, which will be nice, but I'll have to get up not much later than 5, YAWN. So I decided I'll finally do this long-overdue post, put away the laundry, and then off to bed...

It's a shame that it took the loss of yet another sweet pet, the third this year already, to finally push me to write this entry. A few days ago, Rex said, "I think we're losing Rosie" - Rosemary, our pretty black and orange Abyssinian guinea pig, who passed away sometime during our workday yesterday. Her cagemate, Meg, died in late January. Rosie had seemed fine but she suddenly stopped eating and drinking water a few days ago. Rex knew there was something wrong when she just let her broccoli sit; she used to devour it. As with our other piggies that passed, we don't know what happened. She was about 4-1/2. She was one of our most skiddish piggies, always scurrying away whenever we tried to pick her up, but also one of the prettiest and with one of the loudest squeaks. We will miss this sweet little girl, and are now down to 5 piggies. Thankfully, they all seem fine, but this type of thing seems to happen quickly and with no warning....

I've gotten together with Dianne a couple times since writing last. When we got together in April, and inevitably ended up in a quilting store since she is now a quilter in addition to being a crocheter, I ended up falling in love with a purse pattern that converts from a handbag to a backpack, and buying the pattern and 3 beautiful coordinating fabrics to make it. I still have a sewing machine but have not used it for many, many years, having chosen to be exclusively a crocheter for a very long time. So when I'll ever get around to actually making this dang purse is anybody's guess!

The last time Dianne and I got together, it was to go on our mini-vacation to the Long Beach peninsula from May 16-18. I took Friday the 15th as a day off work and went to her house late that afternoon; we spent the evening crocheting as usual and left at 8:30-ish that morning. I meant to write this a few weeks ago so that I could remember more details of what we did. But in general, though it's always fun to see new places, most of the Long Beach peninsula was somewhat disappointing for both of us. Long Beach itself was cute but touristy, the towns of Seaview and Ocean Park were nice but not much to do, Ilwaco had a pretty lake and park but not a lot else. A highlight was Oysterville, most of which is a historic landmark and consisting of original homes and a cute little old church, mostly built in the 1800s. The place in Seaview which Dianne had found online that we reserved to stay at, to say it was a disappointment would be a gross understatement. It turned out to be very rundown, so much so that I was grateful that Dianne had the courage to make a long list of the various things wrong with the room and present it to the owner, who consented to refunding us for the second night which freed us to find better accomodations. We spent our second evening at a Christian-owned resort, Sunset View in Ocean Park; the room was very pleasant and the grounds were beautiful. It helped to make up for the first evening in the dump.

We had originally planned to stay at a pretty place called Anchorage Cottages in Long Beach, but Dianne wanted to bring all three of her tiny dogs and Anchorage would only allow two of the dogs, despite their all being well-behaved, age 10 to 16, and tiny. We didn't want to leave Chica, age 16, behind. But in retrospect, we should have. The poor girl didn't travel well; she was very nervous and peed in her doggie stroller at least three times. It also got tricky to handle all three when we wanted to go into stores. But you know what they say about hindsight! The other mistake was not getting a room with a separate bedroom. Dianne and I have totally different body clocks; she's a morning person and I am NOT. So, being in the same room where it was well past her usual bedtime and nowhere near mine, we drove each other nuts. Again, hindsight!

On the final day of our excursion, a Monday, we stopped in Astoria, Oregon before heading back to Dianne's place, since we were already so close to there. I hadn't been there for years and all I can say is that I didn't feel it lived up to its billing as "little San Francisco" in the promo material we read! At least the weather stayed nice throughout our trip - till my 35-mile trip home from Dianne's house, when it rained the whole time. I also wished I'd taken the following day off work as well; I got home after 8 p.m. and it was hard getting back to the old grind!

On to crocheting - let's see, when I posted last, I was finishing up the light green and pink Irish Roses ghan. I finished that, then I made a popcorn ripple ghan in burgundy, cream and light green. Then, for a final ghan for my home (I already have too many, but....), I very much wanted a mostly cream ghan with big burgundy roses with green leaves. I tried a couple of patterns but didn't like either. What to do?? Well, having seen after all these decades that I CAN improvise without a pattern, as I did on that final Barbie angel, I thought, well, COULD I start with someone else's flower motif and make up a square from there? Well, why not? So, when I was at Dianne's back in April, I looked through her patterns. I settled on a Maggie Weldon flower, motif #2 in the book, "99 Crochet Motifs". I made the flower and the row of green leaves surrounding it. I looked at it and realized that for the huge square I wanted to make, it needed another row of leaves. So I made one up, consisting of double and triple cluster stitches. THEN I switched to cream and carefully proceeded to make a four-pineapple design on a double crochet background, using my knowledge of how pineapple patterns are constructed. I edged the square in sc in the same green as the leaves, and finally, added chain loops for a "join as you go" square. Ta daaaaa!! This ghan is now done and it is gorgeous!! Below is a pic of that first original square. I'm delayed in photographing my recent ghans and dolls due to my digital camera needing better rechargeable batteries which I'll buy soon; they barely stayed charged for this one pic!



I'm now working on outfits for my few 16" to 18" girl dolls. These are being made of worsted weight yarn so they are going much faster than the thread Barbie gowns. I'm 98% finished with a burgundy Victorian outfit (ran out of the Bernat Berella cream for her overskirt; ordered more this week) and well underway with a dark pink outfit.

The last part of the title of this post has to do with my dilemma regarding my church. As I've shared here, I've been attending a Lutheran church that I love since last July and joined the church in Feb., despite some lingering questions about certain doctrinal issues, since I love the services and the people. I won't go into the specifics here, but my church is ELCA which is the largest and most liberal variety of Lutheran. At the same time my church is very traditional with weekly communion and beautiful old music, yet with a warmth I haven't found elsewhere. (I've become so attracted now to this style of worship as opposed to "a sermon and a few praise jingles on a screen" found in most evangelical churches, and even some Lutheran churches for that matter.) So it has more of the feel of an LCMS church, the variety I feel more in tune with doctrinally. Yet, it's not. The latest struggle for me is learning that the famous abortionist who was recently killed was an usher in an ELCA church. Now, I definitely don't feel it was right that this man was murdered. But I also wonder, why would a church welcome as a member someone who's been instrumental in the destruction of thousands of babies AND have him serving as an usher?? So -- a couple of weeks ago, I visited an LCMS church that's only a few miles further away than my current church, and I did like it. But should I leave a church I love because of my differences with its governing body? OUCH. I just don't know. I may need to sit down and talk to the pastor at this other church; he's presently out of town. As with so many other areas of my life -- to be continued!

The "L" Words -- and the "K" Word

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. That means the season of Lent (my first "l" word) has now ended -- a season which my former Evangelical church paid almost no attention to. I love the fact that is not the case with liturgical (another "l" word) churches such as my small traditional Lutheran (another "l" word!) church. A few weeks ago I asked Pastor Liz (yes, another "l") if Lutherans are supposed to give up something for Lent. She said it was optional, but I thought it would be a good thing to give up some of the carbs (which I will not specifically name here, but God knows what they are) I crave the most. So I did that. Then I started getting a major craving for one of them last week. I looked online to try to determine what day Lent ended and the answer appeared to be Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday. So at lunchtime, I gave in to buying my #1 craved carb (which didn't even taste all that irresistible to me - so I've again abstained since then). I hope I didn't err by breaking my Lent fast from this item too soon (even though it's not mandatory in my church) since I subsequently heard Lent didn't officially end till Easter. But it's one of the many things I can't undo!

We had a somber but very nice Good Friday service in which the youth read the Scriptures, and Rex entered the sanctuary a few minutes late, so he stayed in the back row so as not to be disruptive (I was already there since our choir sang at the end -- the beautiful "Tis Midnight and on Olive's Brow"). He didn't say a thing afterwards about the service. It's still too different for him compared to Evangelical services. I was hoping he would come with me for Easter but I felt he wouldn't, and I was right. Hopefully one day. We had a really beautiful and upbeat Easter service preceded by a yummy Easter potluck, for which I made a sausage, mushroom, egg andcheese casserole (all of which got eaten).

Another "l" word is Long Beach -- as in the scenic area on the Washington coast where Dianne and I hoped to stay for two days last year before things got too precarious with her parents' health. She kept going back and forth as to whether we should shoot for mid-May this year or wait till Sept. I kept hoping for a decision on her part, since the "Knit and Crochet Show" in Portland is the same weekend and there were a couple of classes there I was interested in taking. She was not interested in going, but I took a solo vaca to Portland in '05 and had a great time. I would have done that again this year, and thought I would when the cottage we hoped to reserve said they changed their rule regarding dogs and would only let us bring two of her three toy dogs. She would have had to leave Chica behind with Lisa, and I am very fond of Chica. I told Dianne, let's wait till Sept. to go away together, which would give us time to research somewhere else to go. But she was determined we would go to Long Beach in May and found 2 other places online. The first, uh, let's just say they don't cater to conservative Christians like us! But the other place sounded nice and did not list a limit on number of dogs one could bring. I called them and we ended up with a similar cottage to the other place at a lower price, and can bring all three dogs. So no Portland trip this year, but that also means I may look into a solo trip for a few days to Vancouver, BC for my birthday in Sept. (No more 105 in the shade destinations like Vegas last year!)

Another "l" word that's been on my mind is "life expectancy" (OK. that's two words) as in dogs. After Colby passed, I Googled "life expectancy Samoyed" and most of the sources said it's 12 to 15 years. We never knew Colby's birthdate since he was a stray, but his age was estimated at 4 when we adopted him and we had him just over 7 years. So that means he was a bit under the average life expectancy. I don't know if there's a lot we could have done about that. He stopped wanting to go on walks a couple years ago, which he needed to do since he was so overweight. So that could have affected his back end going lame like it did at the end. We gave him a good home and I trust he was happy with us, and aside from getting yappy most every night, he was a good dog. I then looked up life expectancy for Great Pyrenees. Most sources said 11 to 12, with a few going a bit above that. Rex and I feel our precious Heidi, who is now 11 years and 4 months, will beat those odds. She is trim, frisky and healthy, with no problems following the removal of that awful-looking benign cyst last fall. She is also my most special baby girl and I NEED to have her with me as long as possible.

Yet another "l" word is "lazy", which I have been in the whole area of exercising. I've finally been walking to the dock from the park n'ride and back each workday, with the weather finally cooperating. But I need to do more than that. I need to either take long walks or get on my stepper on the weekends, and I haven't done that for a long time. Today I decided I would "splurge" and spend the $5 to park in the lot at the ferry dock. I parked in the "back forty" since those machines accept cash payments, and rationalized that at least this way, I'd still get in over 20% of the full walk to the park n'ride. I didn't get to sleep late Saturday (the reason has to do with the "k" word, explained below) and also had to get up early (for nightowl me) Sunday to get the breakfast casserole in the oven and be at church for breakfast at 8:30. So I figured this would make an easier start to my work week. But at $5 a day, and with the lack of exercise that results, this is a "splurge" I won't often be allowing myself, though it continues to be SO frustrating that the evening walk (slightly uphill and with my being tired after a full day at work) exhausts me so. It wouldn't if I could ever lose this 6 gallons of milk I continue to carry around (one gallon weighing about 8 pounds). But my eating level remains such that the weight doesn't budge despite the 15-ish extra miles of weekly walking....

Now for the "K" word -- that other (and inexplicably more popular) yarn craft, the one I tried on my own to learn a few times over the years, mainly to see what the fuss was about, but also because I've often thought it would be nice to just know the basics and maybe even change off occasionally. In unsuccessfully trying to learn a few times in the past, it often occurred to me that it would be so much more of a hassle to try to coordinate two to four needles than just one hook. But yet, so many women swear by this other craft, and yarn stores cater to those who do it and barely acknowledge us crocheters. So I've often thought, I should have someone try to give me a private lesson, since I've been unable to learn from any videos or books, just to see, once and for all, if this is something I can do and want to do, or if I should officially just forget it! I was supposed to have a lesson with Beverly from my South Sound yarn and fiber group last year, but that didn't happen. Last month, I went to the first evening "K***-in" at the new yarn shop in my town, and virtually everyone was doing the "K" craft while I crocheted my Irish Roses afghan. After that, I said, OK, I'm going to have this lesson. That's the only way I will resolve this in my mind. After all, thousands of women do it and love it, so how hard could it be? I went to the shop two weekends ago and scheduled the lesson for 1:00 p.m. this past Sat., the 11th. They recommended I learn the Continental method which, as both a left-hander and experienced crocheter, they claimed would be easiest for me to learn. Then, assuming I would finally learn the basics, I spent a good amount of time at knittingpatterncentral.com finding several cute dishcloths I expected to soon be able to make.

The teacher called the evening before and asked if I could come at 10:00 a.m. instead of 1:00 p.m. which I agreed to even though it meant I wouldn't be able to lounge in bed half the morning. I won't go into all the gory details of how I couldn't even hold the needles the right way let alone figure out how to pick the yarn the right way and feed it through the other needle and off the first one to make an actual stitch. We didn't even get to the purl stitch, which she said was more complicated. I could see the writing on the wall after just a few minutes of this lunacy. (When something is just not happening, why force the issue?) After numerous tries, during which I made an actual stitch a few times just by accident but was not enjoying myself in the least and kept asking myself what I was doing here, the teacher said it appeared I was throwing the yarn (which is supposed to be the right hander's preferred method) rather than picking, and maybe I should take a lesson in English style rather than Continental. I told her I would think about it and that I would practice some more, while thinking to myself, "Noooooooo!" and being excited to now officially confirm what I suspected all these years:

I will never be a knitter. I don't WANT to be a knitter. I am SO absolutely fine with not being a knitter!!! I am a devoted, passionate, addicted CROCHETER -- and after trying in vain to be something I'm not, I love my beautiful craft even more than ever. I am more mystified than ever why yarn shops cater to knitters and treat people like me like the stepchildren of the craft world. I don't understand why so many women choose to k*** when they can CROCHET. I can crochet anything they can k*** and it will be prettier! I'd better stop ranting here lest I offend anyone; I honestly do admire people who can k*** beautifully and respect the love they have for their craft. But I am relieved that I don't have to waste any more time wondering if I can or would ever want to do it, and don't have to spend more money I can't afford on needles and k*** patterns. CROCHET RULES!!!! And I will continue to talk it up when I go to that yarn store and hope my craft, and those of us who love it, will begin to get the respect and attention we deserve.

I have not entirely ruled out the possibility of taking a private lesson in loom (another "l" word!) knitting, which supposedly can be learned by those of us who can't master fumbling with two or more needles. I wasn't able to learn that from a book either and don't know anyone who teaches it locally, but I found a gal online 2 hours from me who does, which would be a nice little overnight trip. I also am still interested in seeing if I can learn Tunisian crochet, which does look like knitting but uses just one hook.

As for my crochet projects, I mentioned the Irish Roses ghan. I'm now working steadily to finish it after just bringing sections of it on my commute while concentrating on the Barbie angels at home. I finished my fifth and final angel last week (well, 7 if you count the two I made for Dianne and for Val). I think she turned out best of all even though I improvised a bit. I wanted a fifth angel since that was the amount of room on top of our tv cabinet where they are displayed, but didn't like the stitch of the fifth pattern in the booklet. I tried two other patterns but didn't like either and ripped both out. I finally went with the Silhouette Dress, one of four Barbie dresses I used to sell at craft fairs, making the straight part of her skirt a few rows longer. Her wings and halo I made up as I went along, using the same stitch from the dress but the shape and size of the wings and haloes in the booklet. I used straw (light gold) #10 Opera thread and she's beautiful! I hope to take pics of all of them soon for my upcoming crochet page 4 on my site. Well, my lunch hour at work is long gone, so back to work....

And Then There Were Three.....

When I posted only 12 days ago about our Samoyed, Colby, showing signs of aging, I had no idea the end was so near. I guess we had a little more warning than with Farley, whose lame back end came with hardly any warning. But still, you think, he's just getting older. He'll be able to hang in there for some time. We don't mind having to lift up his back legs to get him up the steps; he's a trooper and he'll be fine otherwise. Then a couple evenings ago when we grilled burgers, he didn't touch his half a burger all the dogs get, so we thought, that's not a good sign. Then last evening after work, I wasn't able to pull him up out of the indentation in the ground he'd been laying in outside all day. Still, I figured, OK, when Rex gets here, he'll pull him out, he'll be OK. Rex got home and barely dragged Colby into the bedroom - where he remained, no longer able to move his back end and apparently with no desire to ingest anything except water. Rex has seen this type of thing with dogs at the kennel before and knew Colby was beyond a trip to the vet, except for that one final dreaded trip. WIth our regular vet not working weekends, he brought Colby to a vet his employer deals with for that final trip and is outside building a coffin as I write this. I went to the ladies' spring luncheon at church this afternoon where I tried unsuccessfully to hold it together. What a cruddy first weekend of spring this has turned out to be.

There's more about Colby and our life with him in the furballs section of evergreenrefuge.org. Unlike when we lost Gus, then Farley, then Tessa, we will not be looking for a fourth dog. A new girl dog could upset Heidi, who remains my most special baby at age 11 (but is thankfully doing great) -- and Archie and Jesse already don't get along indoors without trying to introduce another boy dog. But now we hope to be able to let Jesse sleep in our bedroom with us at night instead of his being cooped up in the utility room so much (he didn't get along with Colby either - and Colby needed to be in the bedroom with us due to his separation anxiety). So that will be a good thing for Jesse, and also for us to spend more time with Jesse. RIP, sweet Colby. You were a blessing to us since we adopted you as a 4-year-old on Feb. 26, 2002 (and especially to Heidi who you helped change from a "wild thing" to a calm and affectionate "furry daughter"). Love and kisses, your "mom"

The Winter That Never Ends

Well, I didn't intend to let several weeks go by again without posting here. I also would not have expected that when I finally posted again on March 9th, the hard winter we've gone through this season would still be continuing. Like Rex has often said, "I left Chicago to get away from this stuff!" The snow that fell Saturday night and again today didn't stick, but the fact that it did even snow (and came down hard for awhile there) and the lows are still in the low 20s, with spring only 12 days away on the calendar, has not been expected or welcomed, and has made this feel like the winter that never ends. We went to Daylight Savings Time yesterday, so I should be walking now in the evenings from the dock to the park n'ride, which I haven't been able to do since late Oct. due to the darkness, as well as walking from there to the dock in the mornings. But it's just been too darn cooooold! I imagine there will come a day this summer when it will get up around 90 (which thankfully is rare but does happen), and 20's with even a little snow will sound refreshing. But I am far from that point. I want SPRING!! At least we don't live in Snohomish County up north, where they got a few inches of the white stuff. And I do like that's it's light out now till after 7:00.

Several things have happened since I posted last. We received word that Rex's dear sister Val's husband Joe passed away on Jan. 28th at age 71. It wasn't a total shock, since we knew Joe had been battling cancer for several years. But I felt so badly for Val, who survived a heart attack last year, and who we couldn't afford to travel 2,000 miles to KY to be with her. I E-mailed her and told her I wanted to make her a Barbie angel and to please let me know what color hair and dress she'd like. At that time I'd made two angels for myself and a third that I'd decided to give Dianne for her birthday in Feb. Val said she would like a blonde with a blue dress. I'll eventually get pictures of all the Barbie angels placed on crochet page #4 on my site. But I'll go ahead and post Val and Dianne's angels here:


This is Val's angel. I was really pleased with how she turned out. Rex and I never knew Joe very well; he always kept to himself, really quite opposite of her. But they were married for a lot of years, so I know they had a great marriage.

The day after Joe died, we lost another of our sweet little guinea pigs, Meg. She was the one that, based on what I read online about agoutis (which was actually what she was; a South American relative of a guinea pig), I thought would outlive all the others. They are supposed to be much longer-lived than guinea pigs, but (if the age we were told when we adopted her was accurate), she was only 4. As with the other piggies we've lost suddenly in the past year, we don't know what went wrong. She was quite inactive compared to the other piggies, but we attributed that to her having a calmer nature and not to anything being wrong. So now we are down to six piggies, which thankfully all seem fine, including Meg's cagemate Rosie. I once again regret still not having gotten around to taking pictures of the piggies, even though I will never forget how each of them looked and acted, so I could share them on my "furballs 3" page on my site. I definitely need to do that before we lose any more.

Three of our four precious dogs are also fine. However, our Colby is beginning to show signs of aging. We know he is at least 11, since his estimated age was 4 when we adopted him 7 years ago (2/26/02) as a stray, and we also know he is very overweight. Lately, he has experienced stiffness in his back legs and sometimes gets stuck when trying to climb back up the three front steps to come back inside. We have to get behind him and lift his back legs slightly so that he can get up the steps. He also sometimes whimpers, which he didn't use to do, and we hope he's not in pain. We pray he doesn't wind up like Farley, who lost total usage of his back end when he was not yet 11 and we had to have him put to sleep. We're not ready to say goodbye to Colby yet.

Dianne and I had a great day together on Sat., Feb. 14th for her birthday. She wanted to go to Vashon Island, which she had never been to, but which I've seen 5 days a week since May '06 since, of course, I work there. But I figured it would be fun to go on a weekend and know I didn't have to rush back to the office, and it was. I told Dianne her timing was amazing, since the quilting store in town had just expanded and moved to the main business strip, and she has gotten into quilting the past couple years. So of course, we spent some time in that store and others, had a nice meal at the Green Ginger (my favorite restaurant on the island), and did some lovely sightseeing at Point Robinson lighthouse and Gold Beach. There is still much of the island we didn't get to see, so we will go back another time. Afterwards we went back to her home and crocheted, and she opened her presents from me which included a beautiful beaded evening bag I found on eBay (which she used for her birthday dinner with her family the next day) and the Barbie angel pictured below.

I now have also completed three angels for myself and started the fourth and what may be the final one. I have several other lovely Barbies to crochet for but will move on to other types of fancy outfits for them, including the bride I hope to complete later this year. I also want to crochet clothes for my 4 16 to 18" girl dolls and my newborn-size baby boy doll. I just acquired the 4th 18" girl doll; I found an imitation American Girl doll on eBay for a great price and she arrived today. She has red hair and is very pretty. I may take a break from the Barbies and create an outfit for her next.

In a long line of firsts at my new church (which I officially joined on Feb. 1st), I experienced my first Lenten service last Wednesday, and my first Ash Wednesday service the week before. I love going to a church where we observe Ash Wednesday, Lent and Advent. I continue to marvel at how beautiful and meaningful the Lutheran services are and how much they minister to me. I just wish Rex felt the same. It's still all a bit too different for him. I just donated 7 scarves and 4 hats to my church; the proceeds for the sales of any of them will go to the Relay for Life cause (cancer prevention). I will be walking in the wee small hours in this relay with a team from church. More on that when the time comes! Dianne and I are also supposed to be going on the trip to Long Beach, WA that we had to postpone last year, in mid-May, at which time I expect to be at my job three years. Hard to believe, after all those years of temp jobs, wrong jobs and layoffs. This job has been very stressful at times, but I like most of what I do there and it pays the bills (and it beats having to get up at 5:45 or earlier which I had to do for years - though I may still eventually need to do that again one day - but it's been nice to have a break from that schedule, especially with my insomnia getting worse in recent years. Speaking of which, it's 1:00 and I need to at least try to get some sleep now....).

White Christmases Are Overrated

I seem to recall that around last New Year's, I was writing a post I was almost done writing that suddenly vanished, and I had to sit and redo the whole thing. It just happened again. I was literally on the last few words of this post, which I decided to write from a Blogger "gadget" I put on my "My Google" page to save time, when for no reason, Google suddenly refreshed itself and my post was gone. I was just writing how I should go to bed, with it being a workday, but that as usual around midnight, I wasn't really sleepy. But now, with the prospect of writing this all over again, suddenly I am. But I may as well do this now, or I'll be laying in bed thinking about it and have to get up and do it anyway! (And this may go without saying, but I deleted the "handy" shortcut gadget.)

I started out by saying (at that time) Christmas Day was almost over, and though I hate to say it, it felt a lot like any other day off work, other than the fact that there were some nice Christmas music programs on tv last night. A big part of the reason for this was not being able to get to church for our Christmas Eve service, as well as the past two Sundays, as well as the caroling last Sunday (which was canceled) and the trimming of the church interior (which was not). This was because of a few storms which left over a foot of snow on the ground, the most since the "day after Christmas" storm of '96. Rex had to get me to the dock and back the past two weeks in his Jeep so I could get to work on the days that I did make it there since we both agree I couldn't take a chance on driving "Bianca" on the treacherous streets, even though it was really about all he could do to get himself to work. I took a snow day Monday the 22nd and again on Christmas Eve. I went in Tuesday and will need to go in today. Thankfully, the coming week will also be short, with 1-1/2 days off for New Year's. It will be hard after that to get back to 5-day work weeks. I only have 2-3/4 more vaca days till May 15 when they renew, but will get 5 more sick days after next week, in case I have a migraine or really need a "mental health" day or "not up to battling the elements" day. January is definitely my least favorite month, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that regard. But I keep reminding myself that though it won't be noticeable for some time, the days are getting the teeniest bit longer each day now, and NASCAR starts back up in only about seven more weeks!

I thought I would be alone at home for the second Christmas in a row, with Rex scheduled to work last Christmas and there being just enough snow that I didn't want to chance driving to his employer's Christmas dinner. But he wasn't scheduled to work today. So we spent the day hanging out at home, and in my case, finishing the cream-colored Barbie "Angel of Peace" outfit and selecting a dark-haired gal to permanently wear it. I stiffened the wings and halo with a mixture of clear craft glue and water, and as soon as they are stiff and dry, I'll glue them on and display her. I really enjoyed making the angel outfit and will be making more; there are five in the booklet. I started the second one with the matching slip that needs to go under each outfit, then I'll decide which style dress to go over it. This outfit will be made with Clea #10 variegated pastel thread. Who says angel dresses have to be white? We had cheeseburgers off the grill for supper; not Christmasy but tasty, and the doggies always enjoy them. I gave Rex the Cuisinart ice cream/yogurt/sorbet maker I got him, and he gave me a "Paris for Dummies" book. I also got myself some crochet patterns and purses off eBay with part of my Christmas bonus. I don't NEED more of either of those, but I love both, so..........

I think this is about all I said in the post that disappeared except that I hope and pray I can get to church this Sunday; I've really missed it. Rex and I did get there for the third and last beautiful Advent service of the season a week ago Wed., but other than that, it's been since Dec. 7. He's still going to the church we attended together since '01 and is not yet convinced to join me, though he's visited a few times, so I hope he will eventually come abroad. Well, six hours to time to arise for work, so I'll hit "publish" and hope for the best!

Heidi, Holidays, and Hookey

The fact that I realize I haven't posted to my blog for two months, despite the scare a month ago with our Heidi, is a clear indication of the extent of my brain overload caused by my job, which in turn caused me to take today off work despite this being a short week due to Thanksgiving. It's really not playing hookey; the H just fit in well for the title of the post! It's a mental health day to recover from a non-restful weekend. Usually I can recover mentally over a weekend from a crazy week at the job, but not this weekend. I drifted off in my recliner a few times both Sat. and Sun., despite desperately wanting to stay alert during the beautiful 1944 movie "Since You Went Away" and the terrific 10-hour History Channel special, "The States", featuring history and interesting facts on all 50 states, and I'd only caught two episodes several months before (and not enough room on the DVR to record them). I just didn't feel I could face another Monday. So I got up and dressed, but then went to Fred Meyer to pick up a few groceries and refill my Imitrex transaction, then I came home and am so glad to be here. I really needed this mental health day.

As for our Heidi, she is fine. But Rex and I were very alarmed to find a HUGE cyst on her right side back on October 18, under all that fur. We really only found it then since we noticed she was pulling hair out of her side. We expected to find some sort of abrasion. Of course, you go through all the thoughts of, PLEASE, God, let it be benign, and let us be able to borrow enough off our credit cards to afford to get her treated. So she went to the vet the following Mon. the 20th to get it biopsied, then, thank the Lord, we found out Wed. that it was benign. She had it removed on Thurs. the 23rd. The surgery went great, but the poor baby had a third of her fur shaved on that side and a long scar with stitches that had to stay in two weeks. Then she had to go back a few days later to have a bandage wrapped around her middle so she wouldn't pick at the stitches (which prompted Rex to call her "sausage dog"), then once more to have the bandage replaced, then actually two visits to remove the stitches since a few of them needed to stay in a few extra days. So it was several hundred dollars, but we didn't think twice. We love her SO much. I am SO thankful every day that Rex didn't listen to me in those first few months when Heidi had all this pent-up energy from living in a large cage from ages 2 till when we adopted her at age 4 in '02 and I told him she wasn't working out. I ended up growing closer to her than any other dog I've had or will probably ever have, maybe partly because I did go through so much with her, and I'm so very thankful to have more time with my girl -- who will turn 11 in a little over 2 weeks.

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is almost here and the year is almost over. Rex will again have to work that day, as there will be more doggies in the kennel than on non-holidays and they need to be cared for. So our dinner will again be postponed to sometime over the weekend. I also am supposed to be getting together with Dianne over the weekend - was supposed to be Friday, but I remembered it's payday and the pesky problem of having to stop at the office to pick up my check, with no direct deposit (unless I have my boss deposit it, which I did when I went to Vegas). There are also some great-sounding Bette Davis and Joan Crawford movies on TCM Friday, most of which I've never seen. So I'll play it by ear....

I still haven't started ny next Barbie dress, yet another indication of how very tired I've felt. I was going to start it over the weekend, but instead decided to start my third "symbols only" doily using a pretty pastel variegated #10 Clea thread that looks like sherbet flavors; called "Floral Showpiece", which I'm now going to sit back and relax and work on for awhile. Hopefully the dress will be next.

Dusty, Vegas, Hotpads and Handbells

We lost another of our sweet guinea pigs on Fri., August 29. As with Ozzie, it was unexpected. Not quite as unexpected as Ozzie, as there was NO warning with Oz, while Dusty started becoming much less active and not eating much a week before. But it was a surprise that he got sick. He was one of the more active and curious piggies we'd had. He would stand and stretch along the side of his cage, looking all around at the slightest sound or movement. We don't know what happened. We started putting vitamins made for piggies in his water, but he died that evening about an hour after I came home from work. He was pretty; looked like an albino with pink eyes except he had a dark patch on his face. Considering we acquired him and his late cagemate Rusty after they were abandoned in a home with four other piggies that already had died, at least we were able to give these two a good home for their final months. RIP, Dusty....

Thankfully, this was the only dark moment of the first of two long weekends, the following Mon. being Labor Day. The following morning, my new pastor, Liz, came over to visit and met Rex and the critters. (He still hasn't been to my new church; he continues to be scheduled to work Sundays.) I spent most of the weekend the way I usually like to spend them -- at home with the doggies and piggies, watching TV and crocheting, and also making plans for the following weekend, my mini-vacation in Vegas! Hard to believe that now, it's already been two weeks ago, and the first day of fall is almost here.

I got up at 4:00 a.m. (yawn) on Friday the 5th, had Rex drop me at the dock to take the 5:00 ferry to West Seattle, and from there took the express bus to the airport, getting there in plenty of time for my 8:00 flight. There was no problem getting my steel crochet hook on board the plane either coming or going, so I was able to work on a lavender and green pineapple doily on each flight. We landed a little early, at 10:15-ish. I had already started spending the $100 my boss gave me for my bd at Sea-Tac Airport, buying a summery aqua necklace, and now at McCarran Airport, here was a store with rows of very cute watches for $10! Having just broken the bangle watch I loved days before, what great timing! After some deliberation, I picked a pretty lavender one with a "croco" strap and silvertone trim.

This was the first trip where I ever rented a car; I usually choose to walk and take buses on trips, but with the 105 degree heat, I saw little choice, and I got a fabulous deal from Alamo. They were out of compacts so I got to upgrade to a nice silver Pontiac G6, which I enjoyed driving (they offered a minivan at first, but I've never driven one and didn't feel ready to start now). Heading north toward my hotel and driving through the Strip, even without the neon lights, I was in awe and had to keep telling myself to watch where I was going and calm down. At Sahara, the cross street where I would turn left for the Palace Station Hotel, was a large, tacky, but fun gift shop called Bonanza, so I had to stop in there. Kitty corner from that shop was the NASCAR Cafe and Gift Shop, where I already knew I would stop. Looking at the ladies' tops for awhile, I decided on two -- a black NASCAR Cafe tank that would be great to wear for the next evening's activity (more on that soon) and a nice long-sleeve black and gray (with orange Home Depot trim, natch) Tony Stewart shirt that was half-price due to his not driving that car after this season (since he will be a team owner then).

It was still a bit early to check into the hotel, so I decided to have lunch and then drive around a bit. I looked for a restaurant called Hash House I found online where I'd decided to eat lunch, but couldn't find it. So I ended up eating at KFC, which still hit the spot. I somehow kept making wrong turns though I usually have a good sense of direction. I stumbled upon a mall with a Michael's and went there for a red Sugar N'Cream yarn for hotpads. They had my Bernat Berella yarn for the incredible price of $1.49 and I decided to buy some and have my friend Mary (who I'd be meeting the next day) ship it to me (which would still be cheaper than paying $15 to check a bag). I bought 6 soft forest, 5 forest, 10 rich pink, and the one remaining skein of soft heather (cream).

I headed for the Palace Station, deciding I would freshen up and then take their shuttle to the Strip. I knew it was an economy room, but being Vegas, I assumed it would still be nice and have at least the basic amenities I'd come to expect when traveling. What a disappointment! The room was tiny (the two double beds taking up most of it), very plain vanilla "decor", no bathtub (only a shower stall), no refrigerator, and the most stunning to me -- no coffeepot and fixings to make morning coffee! I've never stayed anywhere that didn't have that. Also, it was advertised as being 2 blocks from the Strip -- at least a mile would be more like it. I would never stay at this place again if I went back, and would advise anyone else not to....

I took the shuttle to the Strip. There was only one stop (or as I learned, sometimes two, according to their whim). I sat next to a delightful young woman visiting from Germany, who was pretty enough to be in a beauty pageant. I wish I'd taken her picture. I got off the shuttle and started walking. It was still waaaay too hot for me though the sun had gone down; I had to stop and get a bottle of water. Then I saw there was a $2 bus that went all the way down the Strip and I decided to take that, but it took forever to get there. I finally got most of the way down the Strip and decided to walk much of the way back. I walked through a few of the fancy malls in the prominent hotels -- the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood was especially elegant and impressive. I took some pics of the neon lights of the Strip at night, and when I was almost done doing that, my danged camera battery ran out -- and I hadn't thought to bring the charger. I was surprised at how, at many intersections, the crosswalk is totally blocked off and to move forward, you HAVE to go up an escalator that leads into one of the famous hotels -- or you can turn and take the next escalator down, and it can be confusing. But I eventually made it back to the shuttle stop and returned to my plain little room to prepare for the next day -- my birthday!

I'd arranged to meet my E-mail friend Mary at Omelet House, another restaurant I found online (which offers a free bd meal if you bring a friend), at 8:00 a.m. I had probably the best omelet I ever had there, but it was beyond enormous. They must have used six eggs! I hated to waste half of it, but I had no choice since the danged hotel room had no fridge. Then Mary and I went to a yarn store she'd never been to. It turned out to be the typical small yarn store that caters almost exclusively to knitters, so neither of us were terribly impressed. Then we went to her home for a short while where I met her hubby, two of her sons, and her two cute dogs, Lady, a husky, and Coco, a chow puppy. We had a nice visit and it was fun meeting her after communicating online for quite some time. Her son took a pic (my battery having died) and I wish I could share it, but I look awful; my eyes are half-closed...

When I left her home, I drove around a bit, then I went to the hotel to shower and plan for the evening. After unwinding for awhile, I took the Strip shuttle and walked to Harrah's, where the shuttle bus was leaving at 5 p.m. for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway!! I'd decided a couple weeks before that rather than go to a show, I'd spend my last evening in Vegas touring the speedway and riding 3 laps at up to 165 mph in an exact replica of a real NASCAR! Each of us had to put on a fire-retardant suit like the drivers wear and a helmet, then wait our turn dressed like that in the 100 degree-plus heat. Needless to say, that part I could have done without. And it was over pretty fast. It was scary but fun! I guess I'm glad I did it. But for what they charge (plus an extra $35 for the pic of me in the car on a stone plaque), next time I go to a speedway, it will be to actually attend a race -- and in cooler temps! It did give me even more of an appreciation for what the drivers do. The hardest part was crawling in and out of that tiny window! Afterwards, we toured the garage and when I saw the exact replica of Tony Stewart's #20 Home Depot car, I lamented that my camera battery had died. So one of the ladies took my pic by the car and E-mailed it to me. It turned out OK, so I'll post it at the bottom of this paragraph. The bus dropped us back at Harrah's, and since I was required to wear closed shoes for the NASCAR ride, which weren't nearly as comfy as my sandals, rather than walking through the Strip some more, I found the shuttle and returned to my room. The shuttle nearly left without me; it stopped at a different spot than before and I had to yell and wave him down. Then the driver acted like I was supposed to know where he was stopping. This only added to my distaste for the Palace Station Hotel.

I purposely decided on a comparatively uneventful Sunday to conclude my trip. With my unlimited Alamo mileage, I decided to visit a Lutheran church on the far northwest side, which had its traditional service at 11:00. Before church, I went back to Omelet House for breakfast, but had French Toast this time. I took the "scenic route" to the church but still got there too early, so drove around some more. The service was a lot like those at my new church and I enjoyed it. Afterwards, I went back to the Michael's and retrieved the one skein of rich pink Berella yarn that had fallen out of my basket the other day (having given the other 21 to Mary to ship to me). I decided to gradually head to the outlet mall near the airport as my final stop even though my plane wasn't leaving till 7:27 p.m. I thought the mall would be on my right, then I saw the sign that it was ahead to the left. I thought, great, oh well, with this traffic, I don't feel like merging; I'll just head to the airport and hang out there. Then I saw another mall on my side of the road, Town Square, so decided to check that out. It was elegant, on manmade city "streets". I wanted to park and walk around despite the heat. But the parking spots were metered and I was almost out of change. I only had enough change for 12 minutes. I parked anyway but had to hurry back, being unable to think of something to buy quickly to get change. Then I couldn't find my way out of there; it was like a giant maze!! I finally found Las Vegas Blvd. heading south to the airport on the 4th or 5th try. I turned and thought, OK, I am dropping off this car, I've had enough of driving in this town! THEN came the sign, rental car return here, wrong side of road again!! O.....KAY..... I'll get to the next intersection, turn left and turn back around. I went to turn there -- and there was the outlet mall!! So I got to see it anyway. Then I went to the car return, then hung out at the airport for a few hours. I took the express bus to the ferry and got home at 12:15-ish. It was nice to not have to rush right off to bed and know I had the next day off to rest at home. Ironically, "Viva Las Vegas" was on tv, so I watched that. It was made in '64 and it was interesting to see how the Strip has changed since then.

Since returning home, I've mostly been working on CD hotpads. As I write this. I've made 16 so far. I'd thought about trying patterns for them for a long time, and had been saving free software and other free advertising CDs for that purpose. I have a couple dozen more of those CDs somewhere that I haven't found so far, but have about 2 dozen on hand to use, and the others may surface occasionally. The pattern I'm using is online, called Cluster CD Hotpad. I really enjoy making them and they will be nice to have on hand for exchanges, small gifts, or church fundraising. Once I use up the CDs I have on hand, I expect to start another Barbie dress, called Miss Holly, in dark rose, cream and hunter green.

The last part of the title of this post relates to this past Wednesday. I went to choir practice for the first time at my new church. The others were glad to see me, and the two sons we practiced were beautiful. It went very well and I really felt I fit in and was glad I went. After practice, Myrna asked me if I wanted to try handbells. Well, yes, actually, I've never gotten to play them and did want to try. Well.....I learned it's not for me. It's definitely harder than I thought and I just don't think I have the knack for it. The bells are heavy and there is a certain technique to how you have to move your arm to get the correct tone, and then there's the timing issue of knowing exactly WHEN to ring your bell, otherwise the chord could sound all wrong. I know everything takes practice. But I honestly didn't enjoy it. I hope that tomorrow, I can just tell her NO and not be made to feel guilty. Like Clint Eastwood would say, "A man (woman)'s got to know his (her) limitations!"

Finally....I didn't expect anything else from work for my birthday after Chris gave me the $100. But I was also given (from all the staff) a $40 gift cert for yarnmarket.com (Rex teased that was like giving my dad a gift cert for a tavern; I used it to buy several colors of Berrocco "Touche" yarn, which I haven't used but it seems like it will be very similar to Knit Picks Shine which I love for face or dish cloths) and we had a pizza party and chocolate bd cake on Wednesday. Between the pizza and the pretzels I'd eaten the previous two days, I got a bad migraine the next day and had to leave work at 1:30. So now my sick pay for the year is almost gone -- which would be OK if I could only control my eating! I know what certain foods will do to me when I overeat them but I do it anyway. Well, this is all that's fit to print for now!

Tired of Being Tired

It's just a little over two weeks before my birthday mini-trip to Vegas -- an air/hotel package I booked in April and would not have booked if I'd used my brain and thought about what the weather would be in late summer. It seems like they've had highs in the 100s literally since May. I'm not sure how the people who live there can stand it, regardless of whether it's "dry heat". I've continued to wonder how I, who can barely endure 85 degrees, will be able to stand it and avoid heatstroke. I generally like to take buses to neighborhoods and then walk through those neighborhoods when I visit cities. Realizing a few weeks ago that the unending heat would not permit me to do that, I began searching online each day for the best rental car deal possible. I finally found one no one could touch - a compact car from Alamo which, counting the online coupon, will cost me $40.18 for the entire 3 days (not for each day). The only additional cost will be replenishing the gas I use, but I'll just stay in the city so I won't use a lot. I have my city maps and points of interest, and it will be fun to zip around in a little air-conditioned car and will give me a lot more freedom as to what I will be able to see and do. I think I am still getting together with my E-mail friend Mary on Day Two (my bday), though I'm waiting to hear back from her as to where and what time we should meet.

So, I expect to have fun and am looking forward to this little getaway. At the same time. I am very discouraged about my weight, which absolutely WAS going to be OFF for months till now and instead is there, all extra 40 pounds in all its *glory", ruining my appearance, self-image and probably my health, and all because I can't control my cravings for pretzels, pasta, cereal and CARBS in general. God knows I need His intervention; I can't do this alone, and I continue to feel His help has just not been forthcoming. I also have continued to feel even more fatigued than usual, and more trouble getting any sleep each night, than has been the case. I still do the morning mile and a half walk from the park n'ride to the ferry dock five days a week, and I sometimes try to do the same walk in the evening after work (with the temp being warmer. the terrain uphill, and my brain mentally exhausted from 8 hours of shifting gears every few minutes at my crazy job). But more often than not lately, I just don't feel I have the strength (and am dragging like an old woman on days I do try it) and have to pay the van fare to my car, which is up to $1.50, which adds up. I bought some liquid vitamins I hoped would help my stamina, but so far they haven't. I also tried bee pollen granules and was taking them about a week and a half, a tablespoonful each night, when last Thursday I got a monster migraine that even my Imitrex couldn't help, complete with nausea, and I haven't had one of those for quite some time. It was so bad that I was forced to take a sick day Friday. While I don't know for 100% that the bee pollen caused this, it's the only thing I've ingested that's different from usual, and I also recalled that I proved sensitive to honey when I was drinking it in hot water in '03. It's discouraging to spend my limited income on something that I trust will help me and instead it backfires on me. I pray God will have mercy on me and give me the strength to do whatever the heck it is I need to in order to lose this disgusting weight, get some sleep and have some energy. I was supposed to go to Vegas looking like a fox (for my age) and instead I still look and feel like a middle-aged, fat, tired FRUMP. I can't believe that a year after I resolved to get to my goal weight, here I remain, a mere 17 pounds from my all-time high weight. God, PLEASE help me...............

I was just rereading my last post. I ended up not having that knitting lesson with Beverly; she had to cancel, and I still haven't and don't know when or if I will. I still think it would be nice to know the basics, but I also still honestly don't know that I would even enjoy doing it all that much, and when I adore crocheting as much as I do, does it even make sense to spend time trying to get into a craft that forces one to coordinate at least two needles (instead of one hook), is much more of a hassle to rip out if you need to, and would therefore not be very relaxing? Hypothetical question! I'm almost finished with the Dotted Delight beaded Barbie outfit which I chose to make in cream thread with multi pastel beads and a pink collar and trim, instead of white with red beads and trim as pictured. This Sat. when I get together with Dianne, I'll pick up the three tiny snaps, three tiny pink ribbon roses, and 1/8" wooden dowel (for her parasol) that I need to finish it. Tonight I started a light blue scarf for my crochet exchange partner Stephanie, who sent me a nice dark green knit scarf and was also kind enough to send me the size I lighted crochet hook I wanted. I'm also working on a charity or gift baby ghan in confetti (white with speckles) Cottontots in the "Sand Dollar" pattern (join as you go hexagon post stitch motifs; fun to make and elegant). We had a rare rainstorm today and I wondered if our power would go off and cause me to try it out sooner rather than later. But thankfully that didn't happen, and it is supposed to clear up by Sat. I've also continued to attend and enjoy the Lutheran church for the past 7 Sundays. Rex hasn't been there yet as he's had to work every Sun. Amazingly, no one from the church we attended the past 7 years has bothered to contact us to find out where we are. So that speaks volumes and makes it easier to make the change. Well, being after midnight, I'll wrap up for now and once again TRY to get enough sleep to function the next two workdays at the level that I need and want to, but which lately has eluded me.....

Second Half....

I didn't intend to take this long to post in my blog. Here it is, already the second half of the year, and here I am, at the same fat weight and totally disgusted with myself. I thought about going back to the TOPS chapter I'd attended for about 6 months. But the meetings are on Monday evenings, and Mondays continue to be stressful for me as it is without having to cut back on my food and not get home till 8:00 p.m. It's the busiest day at a job that I guess is working out in that I've been there over two years now, but which I continue to not be passionate about and wonder, at my age, if I will ever have a job I can truly enjoy instead of just existing during the week and living for the weekend - and then feeling lonely and without purpose over the weekend. At least that's how I felt this past Saturday. Then I went to my new church the next day and felt rejuvenated, at least for awhile. More on that soon.

Now it's after midnight, having just turned to Tuesday, and I again feel drained. But one of my favorite programs, the 90's crime series Homicide (on the cable network "Sleuth") again didn't record on its earlier telecast today; this has been happening a lot and I don't know why. So I'll stay up and listen to it while I type this. I won't sleep anyway if I do go to bed....But getting back to TOPS, there is a chapter closer to our home that I belonged to several years ago, and I discovered they meet on Thursdays (I don't think that used to be the case). So I'm thinking about going this Thurs. I have to do something; it's ridiculous that I still weigh the same, with the total determination I had (and still have) to lose the weight the first half of this year, and considering that I walk 3 to 4 miles most weekdays.

Before I get off the topic of TV programs, another of my very favorites is "Monk". As always, I was excited about the new season starting last Fri., even though the "season" is ridiculously short -- only 6 or 7 episodes, then wait another 4-5 months. I saw the coming attractions about Monk getting a new psychiatrist and was surprised that Stanley Kamel, the man who played Dr. Kroger, was either written off or resigned. Just before the new episode debuted, curiosity got the better of me and I searched Google to see why Dr. Kroger was replaced. I was stunned to learn that Stanley/Dr. Kroger had died of a heart attack over 3 months ago! I, who is on the Internet every day as well as keeping up with televised news, had not heard anything about this. What a shame; he was only 65. I can't understand why this was not publicized more than it was. It's scary as well as sobering to hear things like this happening to people who seemed fine who are not that much older than my husband - or not that much older than me, as with newsman Tim Russert. It really is a reminder to not let life get you down as it often has for me, since you truly just never know. At least Stanley got to bring a lot of people enjoyment, and I assume to experience much himself, through this supporting but integral character on a great TV show the last few years of his life. RIP, Dr. Kroger........

Dianne and I didn't get to take our weekend to Long Beach due to the declining health of her parents. That was disappointing; we were looking forward to it. She had a really cute little cabin reserved, and we would have been able to bring 2 of her 3 tiny dogs. But we plan a day trip to Centralia this Sat. I'll go to her place Friday after work and stay there so we can get an early start. Before going to her place, I'll be meeting with Beverly, owner of our local crochet group, for (I can't believe I'm doing this) a knitting lesson. Yes, the "k" word. It pains me to even type it. I guess I want to either prove to myself once and for all that I don't want to knit and won't think about it any more (and will continue to wonder why it usually gets so much more attention than my beloved crocheting), or there will be the outside chance that I could pick it up with someone actually showing me (as opposed to a book or video) since, after all, that's how I learned to crochet almost 29 years ago. I still might not like it. I keep hearing what a hassle it is to rip out and redo if you do make a mistake - and there is the need to coordinate two (or more) needles instead of one hook. Just doesn't seem that relaxing to me - and I feel crochet is every bit as versatile. But I'm going to try once more - and the third time will either be the charm or the third strike. We shall see!

Last time I went to Dianne's home, with some Bernat Satin yarn and an afghan pattern I'd been anxious to try, I came to a sober realization re my favorite lovely soft and shiny yarn. Namely, that it lacks what Dianne wisely referred to as the "body" to be effectively used for the particular pattern I had in mind. I realized this would be the case for other patterns I like also, and that this is why Bernat Berella ad worked so well for other afghans I've made. It does definitely have body and yet has a nice degree of softness. It also comes in a lot more colors than the Satin. So I will be going back to Berella as my afghan yarn of choice (or Patons Canadiana, which is very similar but tends to cost more). I used my supply of Satin to make two ghans - a cream, sage and burgundy spiderweb pattern ghan for my household and a navy/burgundy/beige star-shaped lapghan which will be a gift for someone I can't yet name (or it wouldn't be a surprise!). Prior to making these ghans, I whipped up a "pineapple swirls" Barbie gown of lavender #10 Cebelia. Now I've just started a "Dotted Delight" Barbie ensemble, which will include a hat and parasol in addition to the pretty beaded dress. The dress will be cream #10 Opera thread with pink #10 Opera trim, and the beads are pastel in five shades of blues and pinks. I started stringing the beads onto the thread this evening (that is, last evening!). Inbetween these projects, I made 18 dishcloths/face cloths for one of my charity lists, using a good-sized supply of Knit Picks Shine sport yarn from eBay (my favorite yarn for dish/face cloths, shiny and a dream to work with).

At the beginning of this post, I referred to my new church. I've attended there the past three Sundays. Rex has not yet been there, as he is back to working Sundays for now. It's a tricky situation, changing churches when you've gone to your previous church for over 7 years (and a couple years before that in the 90's), and are the webmaster and creator of the church's web site, and had been rotating on the worship team, and most of all, when you are so fond of the pastor and his wife, and a few other people at the church. I hope to continue to be friends with them and they won't take it personally. But I just wasn't being spiritually fed by singing the same 20 or so of what Rex calls "jingles on a screen", sometimes one "special music" song, a sermon, a closing song, a strictly symbolic communion once a month, sitting in the library (Rex is the librarian) till everyone left, and going home. I've increasingly felt the need for something deeper and more traditional and structured, something where I could feel I was participating more in the service, being able to observe the liturgical year. I feel I've found all this in a small Lutheran church where we sing the old hymns, recite the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, observe communion every week, and during greeting time (well into the service) instead of saying "hi", we say "Peace be with you!" I've left feeling fed and hungry for more, and that is something I haven't experienced at church for a long time. No one from the church we are members of has inquired yet as to where we are, but I expect that soon, I'll have to explain all this to Pastor Jim, and that will be hard. I think he will understand; other people have left in recent months, but it's still a tricky situation. But it's what I feel I need to do. I'll know better if this is right once Pastor Liz comes over in a few weeks and meets with both of us (yeah, a lady pastor - a first for me) but I do see myself (and hopefully Rex) eventually joining this church. Well, as usual, it's past my bedtime!

Where Does The Time Go??

Can it be that we have been in our lovely new manufactured home almost a year already?? It doesn't seem possible, but it's true. It also doesn't seem possible that I FINALLY got around to trying out my "new" (bought several months ago) digital camera today and FINALLY taking a few new pics of the outside of our home. I don't know why it took me so long to try out the camera (a Nikon Coolpix) but it is a lot more user-friendly than I'd feared; pretty much point and shoot. It has a lot of different optional "modes" to switch to, depending on indoor/outdoor, time of day, subject matter, close or far, etc. But for now, the default auto mode seems to work great! I also took some pics of many of my latest crochet projects, in preparation for soon adding the looooong-overdue crochet page #3 to my site. I didn't take a pic yet of the gorgeous 56-square peach and green "F and F" (friends and family) ghan that has 16 8" squares crocheted by me and the other 40 by Dianne, her mom Margaret, her 3 daughters and one of her youngest's April's friends (6 to 8 squares each). I couldn't get it laid out in a way to really get the whole thing (or even most of it) in the pic to do it justice, so maybe I will have Rex hold it up today or tomorrow. But anyway, I am really pleased with the little camera! And now I am going to attempt to get the new pics (which also feature my sweet '88 Mercedes, "Bianca") posted below, after I read the "help" section here on Blogspot to remember how to do it!

OK, that was easy enough! I also want to take some pics of the inside of our home to post here in the near future. But I need to do some picking up and straightening up first, and Rex has to get the rug shampooer rented; it's badly needed after 11+ months of 500+ pounds of large lovable dawgs sharing the place with us. I also did get a couple of pics of Archie (our precious 170-pounder) taken today. I may as well post them below. The other dawgs were laying behind something or otherwise not accessible to get a good shot, so may have to wait till they're outside.

I also will need to get some pics of our current brood of eight sweet guinea pigs. I still can't believe we lost little Ozzie sometime on Tuesday. I was home all day preparing for my routine colonoscopy the next day (which, thankfully, came out fine) and the last I checked on the piggies, he seemed perfectly OK. Rex found him the next morning. He was a pretty little shorthair tortoiseshell who came to us about 20 months ago with his cagemate, a beautiful Peruvian (longhaired) tortoiseshell, Harry. Several months ago we added Joey, a wonderful solid black Peruvian, to their cage, and they all got along well. Ozzie was one of our most docile piggies and liked to be held and petted. We check all the piggies regularly since we've lost four others - Harvey (a lovable, athletic tan Abyssinian), Salina and Speedy (both black shorthair) and Rusty (rust-color shorthair) since our original guy, Popeye, in '05 (we thankfully had him almost 5 years). I wish the little critters lived longer. They are such nice little animals. We hope to get to the bottom of why this has happened the last couple years. We take good care of the piggies and I don't know of anything we are doing wrong.

On the positive side, another thing that is hard to believe, after all the years of temp jobs, layoffs, and several wrong jobs I never should have taken in the first place (would love to turn back the clock and make a different decision on at least four...), I will be at my present job TWO YEARS next week - and I had a very good annual review two weeks ago. There have been some rough periods even at this job, and I still feel I will again seek a higher-paying job in Seattle or Tacoma down the road. But I'm glad things have settled down for now, so that I can further regain some appearance of stability, as opposed to the job hopper my present resume still makes me appear (despite some of that being beyond my control).

I haven't been back to TOPS since Feb. and doubt at this point I will return. I also doubt that I will have any "after" pics to post here this year. That could change, but I know that the longer I wait to get restarted eating less, the harder it will be. As to the wonderful world of crocheting, today I hope to finish assembling my sumptuous diagonal brick stitch ghan in "sand and sea" colors of Bernat Satin. I had to set it aside for a couple weeks, having run out of three colors of the Satin. Then I'll have to decide what edging to add, weave in the rest of the ends, photograph it and find a prominent place to show it off - likely in our living room. Am also working on three doilies - "Danube Centerpiece" (nine motifs in dark rose, cream and pink, with sage trim), another beaded doily to use up the rest of my jewel-toned beads (Welcoming Oval in sage; the pattern doesn't call for beads but I figured out a design to exactly use up what I have left) and "Heavenly Delight" to use the rest of the dark rose and pink. At least two more ghans planned next, and at long last, Barbie gowns! I got a little carried away buying a few more Barbies off eBay, along with panties and shoes (we can't have Barbie in a fancy gown with no underpants or shoes, now can we?). It will take quite some time making clothes for the 18 or so I have now! Well, that's all that's fit to print for this go-round! I'll likely wait to post again till Dianne and I take our little 3-day mini-vacation to Long Beach, Washington in three weeks.

Spring Has Sprung...

Well....I haven't been to TOPS for several weeks now. It just made for too long of a day on Mondays, which is the busiest and most stressful day at work - and I just wasn't developing close enough relationships with the others that would keep me there. I may look into transferring to the online version of TOPS. I also have continued to not really make an effort to cut back on the foods I crave, and have decided to not beat myself up about it. I will get restarted with my efforts, as I want SO badly to reach my goal weight, but have just not been ready yet. I have resumed walking to and from the ferry dock most weekdays, and though I have been afraid to weigh myself since leaving TOPS, I doubt I have gained much if any weight thanks to all the walking. But I continue to have chronic insomnia, have headaches more days than not, and feel much more sluggish than I should. I am on the verge of trying a brand of liquid vitamins I have read glowing reviews of, and which I understand were developed by a Christian. The vitamin pills I have been taking have done nothing for the way I feel and tend to get stuck in my esophagus half the time, ouch. I've also read that pills only have a 10 - 15% absorption rate and liquid have a 98% absorption rate. So I'm hoping this will be the answer to my regaining the energy I need, and to be able to sleep better, have less headaches and get back on track with weight loss. I had also been quite stressed by my job, but things have been better there now the last couple of weeks since we added a couple of new staff to take some of the pressure off me. I still am shifting gears all day, sometimes every few minutes, which often is very mentally tiring. But I suppose most office jobs are like that to one degree or another. Though I've updated my resume and sent out a few (and went on one interview last week, on a day I happened to be off work anyway), I don't feel I should jump ship just yet (at least not till I have my annual review later this month, LOL). I feel I need a higher salary in the long run to help us keep up with our mortgage (which will remain a challenge despite the recent refinancing). But it will take quite an increase in salary to cause me to want to do the longer commute to and from Seattle (and the hour earlier rising that will come with that) again........

I was very excited to find my lovely new blog graphics today on the web site pyzam.com. I have not been satisfied with the limited choices of blog templates available on my blog host, and pyzam.com has a huge choice of designs with literally something for everyone. When I found this one, called Natural Paint I knew I didn't have to look any further. Now I feel my blog really fits in perfectly with my home page evergreenrefuge.org. I also chose another template from pyzam.com, called "Just Meant", for my other blog, The Evergreen Refuge Home Chronicle (My Dream Realized), and it looks great also. I highly recommend pyzam.com to ANYONE that has a blog and wants to personalize and update its look. They have hundreds of choices, so you will find the perfect choice for your own blog. All I had to do was copy and paste the HTML for the new template where the old template HTML used to be, and ta daaaaa!!

Since posting last, I've made an additional beaded doily using the pattern "Shimmering Pineapple Doily", which is available free at epatterns.com. I'd bought a bag of very pretty beads in variegated shades of blue, purple and green, and was surprised that the package contained enough for three doilies. The funny-looking beading needles I bought, which are literally not much thicker than a human hair, were finally the answer for threading beads onto #10 thread with no muss and fuss. I made one with sage Opera thread, one with hunter Opera thread, and one with purple Royale thread, and the beads looked equally nice on all three. I will keep one (probably the sage one) and use the other two for future exchanges. Then I made a doily for an online exchange using #10 Clea thread, in a pretty variegated pastel, for the first time. I LOVE Clea thread! I bought it from an eBay seller in Paraguay, of all places, who sells 1,000 yard spools at reasonable prices and with FREE shipping. The 1,000 yard spools of Clea take up no more space than 400 yard spools of other #10 thread, since they don't use the cardboard roll in the middle. It is smooth, very soft and works up beautifully. I think Cebelia is still my favorite thread, and I have a lot of it on hand to use before I buy more thread. But Clea is right up there and may eventually become my main thread of choice. Lovely stuff!

I'm now finally making my first ghan using the luscious Bernat Satin, which I consider the gold standard of yarn. It is SO soft, comes in gorgeous colors (though I wish it came in more colors than it does) and has a beautiful sheen. The pattern I'm using is called "Diagonal Blocks". I'm using the colors admiral (dark blue), sapphire (lighter blue) and sable (golden beige) for a "sand and sea" look. It's 17" squares worked on the diagonal in brick stitch, which form a geometric squares pattern when combined. The squares are fun and relaxing to make, and the ghan will be very pretty and warm. The only drawback is, because it's all diagonal dc with no lacy areas, it uses a LOT of yarn. I will run out of the sapphire and sable before I get all the squares made. So I'll probably have to set the ghan aside halfway through till I can buy more....

I still haven't gotten around to learning to use my new camera to take pictures of my more recent crochet projects (OR my house OR my pets) and I really NEED to do that. But it always seems like other duties get in the way. Hopefully I'll get this accomplished this year, LOL.

Slow Start to the Year But It WILL Get Better...

I was rereading my last post and didn't realize at the time how whiney it sounded, yuk. But I was SO frustrated at the time at having to retype everything. And I again didn't intend for it to be this long between posts. I'm thankful my two least favorite months of any year are again (almost) over and that the days are getting longer. I will again start my regular walks next work week from the park n'ride to the ferry, and back again in the evening. It is actually light enough out to be doing it now. But after not being able to do the walks since the end of Oct. due to the darkness, am needing to get back into it gradually. I did do the walk to my car Friday evening instead of taking the bus, and I took a 5-mile walk last Saturday and the Saturday before. I have gotten on the stepper most weekday mornings for at least 10 minutes on the days that it has been too cold out to walk (which, in Feb., has been most every day). I also have continued to snack on carbs and as a result have lost no more weight since Nov. To say this is discouraging is a gross understatement. I have truly believed with all my heart and soul that I WOULD lose the weight once and for all in the first half of this year. In fact, if I had continued my slow but steady progress of last Aug. through Nov., I could have had the weight OFF by our anniversary/hubby's birthday in April. Instead, I have snacked on peanut butter and crackers, or pretzels, or gotten up in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep (which I still can't most nights...) and snack on an English muffin, crackers, or whatever carb is handy and would satisfy my craving, and hopefully get my digestive system to work and make me sleepy. This usually does work - eventually - but it shouldn't take a mostly healthy person hours to get to sleep and usually have to resort to a snack to do it.

I had decided a couple weeks ago that though TOPS got me jump-started, the total lack of progress in the last few months (some say maintenance is OK, but not when you absolutely planned to lose all the dang weight in the next several months and instead keep sabotaging yourself) caused me to decide to discontinue TOPS again, or at least take an extended break from it. But I got a letter today from one of the ladies urging me to come back. So I guess I will think about it. If it was easy, there would not be millions of overweight people, and there would not be a need for support organizations such as TOPS. Now that the weather is getting milder and the days are longer, I SHOULD start seeing some progress before long, provided I can start leaving the dang carbs alone. But I am just SO, SO disappointed and disgusted with myself for letting the ball drop YET AGAIN.................

My job continues to make me feel like the guy (gal) who got on their horse and rode off in all directions. I like being busy but am constantly shifting gears, constantly, every day, every few minutes, and generally leave mentally exhausted. I don't doubt this contributes to the tendency to want to relieve tension by snacking. But in the long run, the snacking has the opposite effect, and I KNOW that, yet I've done it anyway. Well, yesterday after work I went to Fred Meyer, and while I bought and ate a whole bag of my favorite snack addiction, and got the headache I knew would follow, I also bought herbal tea instead of more cappuccino mix, and bought no sour cream to make dip, and also bought several boxes of chopped spinach (which I LOVE) to eat with fish sticks. So it was like one final fling with my addiction combined with a resolve to (AGAIN) turn things around.

I finished the long filet and spiderweb table runner with a swan on each end, using the #10 light green Opera thread, and it turned out very nice. I decided to use it on the long coffee table in the living room and instead use the "Midnight Star" light green runner on my dresser, which it fits perfectly on. I made a couple more scarves and hats (for charity or exchanges) with the rose Wool-Ease I got from eBay and am now working on the last one of those. I also completed a beaded doily using sage #10 Opera thread (the pattern is Shimmering Pineapple Doily which is available at freepatterns.com) and decided to make an additional one for a future exchange using hunter #10 Opera, as I still had hundreds of the variegated green/blue/purple beads left and knew they would look equally good on the hunter. I think there are still enough of the beads left for one more of these doilies, but will take a break from making them for now. I still want to make at least one Barbie gown soon, and then I may go back to making a couple of afghans.

I also participated in a couple of online exchanges in the past few weeks -- and am still shocked that I was stiffed on both. One was a hat/scarf swap from the Crochetmania message board and one from a Yahoo list that mainly consisted of dishcloth knitters, since at the time I thought I would again try once more to knit (it had been around 20 years since my only other try, but I soon remembered why I didn't pursue it -- I realized crochet is my passion and I wouldn't like to knit even if I could learn it). The aforementioned Yahoo list was deleted by its owner with no warning, which was a shame that many nice people were penalized for the action (lack of action) of a few. In both cases, I sent my partner a very nice item (plus some extras for the dishcloth exchange) and not only received nothing in return but not even so much as a thank you or even an "I received it" even though I know they did, since I requested delivery confirmation. It really hurts that someone would do that when I put my heart into what I made these two women. I feel tempted to post their names here but I won't, and I will try again to join exchanges since I like to share items I create with others. But it would be nice to know ahead of time that I was being paired with someone who would at least show appreciation for the time, care and postage I spent to make something especially for them........

The last bit of news is that for whoever reads this, please send up prayers and/or good thoughts for my sister-in-law Valerie in Kentucky (hubby's sister) who had a triple bypass a couple weeks ago, that she will recover fully and be better than new. We have kept in touch over the years via E-mail and she is very dear to me. Hubby's other sister has shut all three of us out of her life, but Val makes up for the thoughtlessness of the other one. Maybe I shouldn't have said that, but it's how I feel. Also please pray my Aunt Bernice in Chicago is OK. She is up in years now and I haven't heard from her (or my cousin, her daughter) for a long time. Well, it's "only" 11:10, which to this nightowl is not late, so maybe I will think about going to bed at a reasonable hour tonight (or maybe not!).

Temporary Lapses and New Beginnings - and Reposting Everything, grrrrr.......

I can't believe what just happened. I'd written a whole LONG post - updates on weight (or lack of progress therein), highlights of the past year, Christmas, and crochet projects currently working on and being planned. I had the WHOLE thing written, and ALL I did was to highlight the whole dang thing so I could adjust the font and the size. I did NOT hit delete or anything else to cause Blogger to think I was erasing the WHOLE thing, but that is exactly what happened. I have been lax in updating my blog and felt a sense of accomplishment in finally doing so, and was just about to go for a nice long walk (it's already 2:25 and with the short days, I would have had just about time for my planned 5-mile walk). And now.......what do I do; do I start all over and forget my walk? Or do I do the walk and have to waste the time later to rewrite everything I wrote? I had just been writing about how, on the whole, 2007 was a good year. And it was, but then things like this happen which shouldn't be a big deal but do bother me and do hurt. God knew I was just about to resume my temporarily lapsed commitment to weight loss by taking a walk, and He knew that if He erased all the stuff I just wrote, it would not only hurt me but I would feel compelled to redo it right now and not be able to take my walk. But He did it anyway. Yes, I am stubborn and I am watching the "That's Entertainment" series on TCM, so yes, I am going to sit here and try to remember everything I just wrote and try to recreate it right now and not be able to go on my walk, and get on my stepper twice instead to try to make up for it. Dang it all already!!!

OK, so like I was trying to write before it mysteriously and inexplicably got wiped off the face of the earth, 2007 WAS a good year. We DO have our house and have lived in it going on 7 months now, our doggies and guinea pigs (NINE of them now in case I hadn't mentioned that before) are doing well. My job is going good after a rough spot last year, and Rex has been getting needed full-time hours at his, though that could be reduced somewhat now that the holidays are over. I got the 56-square peach and green "Friends and Family" ghan and the 20-square sampler burgundy/cream/green sampler ghan both assembled and they both look great in the living room. And I rejoined TOPS and did lose 20 pounds to date. However....that is over a span of 5 months. I should have lost at least 30 by now; that was the goal and that would have been absolutely doable. But December brought a small setback. Not a huge setback, and I WILL get back on track. But I indulged several times in my downfall of crunchy snacks and onion dip. I didn't get on my stepper every day to make up for the evening walking it is not safe to do after work with it being pitch black outside now by the time I get off the ferry from work. Then there was the 4-pound bag of pistachios my boss brought to the office in Dec. I must have eaten 3 of those pounds. No one forced them on me and I should have used more willpower, but DANG, they were good. But it's time to STOP indulging and sabotaging my efforts. NO more excuses!!! I MUST get on the stepper every evening that I can't walk outside, and I MUST stop giving it to temptation. I am VERY disappointed in myself that my original achievable plan to hit my weight goal by our anniversary in April is not going to happen. I've set a new final deadline of June 30 and if I lose it before then, great. I'm SO disgusted with myself that I need to change subjects now.....

Crochet-wise, I'm currently working on what was originally going to be a large dresserscarf for my dresser but which is instead going to be a runner for the oblong coffee table in the great room. It will likely consist of 17 Midnight Star motifs (5" six-pointed pineapple stars) in 3 rows of 6, 5 and 6, which will make it about 30 x 18", a nice size for that table. I love making these motifs and had originally considered making a bedspread using them. But I decided one huge thread project (the 55" square table cover finally finished several months ago) was enough for this life! There are too many other thread projects I want to make, and I have at least three more planned after this one is done: a dresserscarf which will tentatively be a beautiful long filet runner with a swan at each end (using the same #10 light green Opera thread as the Midnight Star runner), my first beaded doily which will be medium sage #10 Opera with variegated green/purple/blue glass beads (the funny-looking super-skinny beading needles do work like a charm for pre-stringing the beads - no more broken beads/needles/threaders or frayed nerves, but it will be tricky to not lose the needles which are not much thicker than a hair!) and a beaded Barbie dress (color TBD). After that, I may go back to making a couple afghans and hopefully a couple more hats/scarves for charity, but have really missed working with thread, so will stick with that for the next few months.

WELL, I got smart this time and adjusted my font before typing this whole dang thing, so here we go again. It's 3:00 and too late to go out for my walk, so I'm getting on the stepper!

Setbacks, Cravings, Short Days, et al

I didn't intend for it to be this long between posts on my blog. I've thought many times the past several weeks about posting and just didn't get around to it. So let's see....as far as the weight loss battle, I've lost a few more pounds since I last reported, but my rate of progress from several weeks ago has decreased. Going to Standard Time 4 weeks ago meant I could no longer walk after work from the ferry dock to my car a mile and a half away like I had been doing; too dark and dangerous. To compensate for this, I should instead be getting on my stepper for at least 20 minutes each evening, but I haven't done that. I have continued to do the walk to the dock on weekday mornings and will continue to unless the weather just gets too ugly. The sun is up (or at least close to up) by the time I park at 7:25-ish, so the only thing that will stop me is snow and ice.

Speaking of which, we have some today, over an inch so far. The Pierce County Crochet meeting was today, and I was thankful it ended early enough that I was able to drive home before it got dark. I would ordinarily go to that meeting with Dianne, but she and Margaret had one of their annual craft fairs today. Before the meeting, I stopped at JoAnn's in Tacoma and bought my first knitting loom, the small 10" rectangular variety, along with a small instruction/pattern booklet. Crochet will always be my passion and love, and needle knitting never will be even if I ever learn the basics. But looming is something I wanted to try since reading about it in a Crafter's Choice ad last month. I don't know if I will try it this month or keep plugging away at rewriting my recipes on the 4 x 6" cards and scanning them all on my nifty new Canon MP160 printer/scanner. But I'll report here on how it went after I do try it! The round loom is supposed to be a bit more versatile, but it recommends bulky yarn or 2 strands worked together, and I don't like working with something that bulky. So I thought I would start with the small rectangle loom that calls for standard worsted weight yarn, the weight of all my favorite yarns.

I also need to report that a few weeks ago, I got two sampler ghans assembled that I've wanted to get done for months. The first one consists of 20 12-inch squares arranged 4 x 5 squares, in various shades of burgundy, greens and beige/cream. Four or five were made by me and the others were obtained in online exchanges. The second is my magnificent "friends and family" ghan consisting of 56 8" squares that are all made from the following three yarns: Bernat Berella in soft peach and soft forest (a dusty pale green) and Bernat Mardi Gras in (dark) green. 16 of the squares were made by me and the other 40 were made by Dianne; her daughters Becky, Lisa and April; her mom Margaret and April's friend Shiloh. We each selected the yarn(s) we wanted and each of us made 6 or 7 squares for each of the others. My ghan is very beautiful and is being displayed in our living room. I plan to take pics of it as soon as I learn to use my new Nikon Coolpix digital camera, which I plan to do before the end of this year.

Another reason I have not made more progress on my weight loss the past few weeks does have to do with my cravings. When we had our housewarming, I was reintroduced to the combination of salty, crunchy pretzels or Triscuits combined with creamy, tangy dip. The combination, when that readily available, is too hard for me to resist. I've also eaten the whole dang box of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese in one evening a couple of times, which is ridiculous and I know better. I've only done it a couple of times because I absolutely have NO intention to undo the good I have done, with 19 pounds gone so far - which, while not outstanding for four months, is still forward progress. Yet, I need to do almost twice as well in the coming months in order to meet my original goal. That may not happen, especially with winter coming. But as long as I continue to go forward, even slowly, and not gain in December with all the goodies that abound, then I need to not beat myself up if I haven't reached my goal by April. It's not impossible, but I need to get back on track in short order. Hopefully I can report next time I post here that this will be the case.

My Housewarming, and Three New Things I Love

I haven't gotten around to posting to my new blog lately, so thought I would now even though it's 11:48 p.m. and I'm getting sleepy. I just had a rare 3-day weekend and don't want it to end, even though it pretty much has ended. It doesn't feel like I had a 3-day weekend, since I was busy preparing for our looooong-awaited housewarming yesterday on the 13th, then actually had the housewarming, and spent today pretty much wiped out and trying to recover. (I also worked hard to complete my peach "sand dollar" ghan before people came over; it turned out beautifully and I hope to have a pic of it on my site soon.) I also haven't walked long-distance since Thursday all weekend, which is the first time since the end of July I missed walking for more than one day. And I've been snacking on dip, chips and crackers left over from the housewarming, as the relatively few people who came didn't eat much. So I will be surprised if I lost any weight at all this past week when I get weighed in tomorrow night at TOPS. I most likely will have a small gain. As of last Mon., had lost around 16 pounds, and fully plan to continue to press forward and get this weight OFF. So this is just a small temporary setback. (I don't want to say much about work on a public online blog, but it's been especially stressful the past two weeks, which didn't help the urge to munch this weekend.....) Everyone who did come loved our home and was very happy for us that we finally have a nice place to live in (now to pay for it in our lifetime!).

Three things I love that I've wanted to mention here -- one being very new, one being a couple years old, and one being more like 14 years old, but all being new to ME. I'll start with the one I discovered first, a few weeks ago. We have Showtime and The Movie Channel on our cable system, at least till the end of the year, on a 3-month trial. I doubt we will renew them; too expensive, but it's been fun having the extra selection of movies. I had never seen "Elizabethtown" before (we have Netflix but somehow missed renting this one) and now have watched it each time Showtime has repeated it the past few weeks. It is the story of a young man who experiences a monumental job failure followed by a family tragedy, and has a chance encounter with a young woman who is unphased by both. It is a touching combination of family reunion, romance, travelogue, and just the right timing altering a situation that seemed hopeless. It has become my 2nd favorite movie of this decade, topped only by "The Majestic" and, as with that movie, I will never tire of it.

The next delightful surprise was being sent a complimentary issue that I did not request of Cooks Illustrated magazine. I looked at it and it was SO skinny (only about 32 pages) and I thought, what the heck! Well, it contains NO ads whatsoever and to my amazement, unlike every other magazine where I rip out certain stories or items I want to keep and toss the rest, this entire little skinny magazine is a keeper. NO filler whatsoever; everything in it is valuable. Each issue is literally like a little mini-cooking encyclopedia! They take classic dishes anyone would want to make such as lasagna, peach cobbler, etc. and explain to you in plain English what ingredients and techniques you need to use to make the recipe great and WHY these ingredients and techniques make the difference. It also contains Consumer Reports types of articles where they compare different implements, ingredients, etc. and tell you which is the best and WHY. For instance, in this issue they compared baking pans and explained why a $9 pan is vastly superior to a $95 pan! I told my hubby about my amazement with this magazine. He was already familiar with it and had just acquired a 5-year supply someone was giving away on Freecycle! I have not had a chance to look through them yet but sure look forward to doing so. I just found out this weekend that this little gem of a magazine actually originated in '93, since I acquired the first-ever issue on eBay today! Am amazed no one bid against me, but it could be most other people also haven't discovered it. Hopefully more people will, because it just doesn't compare to any other cooking magazine.

The last new thing I love is a TV show that just premiered on ABC less than two weeks ago. I may not have watched it except that I saw one of its stars discussing it with Jay Leno the night before and was intrigued. I can usually tell with new network shows in the first few minutes if I want to keep watching it or not. This one started out in an unexpected manner, with a British man narrating in the background as if it were a fairytale. It was just weird enough to keep me tuned in to see how it would progress. It didn't take long before I realized I was hooked. "Pushing Daisies" is original, innovative, funny, entertaining, offbeat, whimsical, unexpected, addictive, and delightful. The lead character, Ned (a piemaker who works in a pie-shaped diner called "The Pie Hole"), discovered as a child that he has a special power whereby if he touches a "dead thing" (person or animal), it becomes alive, BUT if he touches it again, it stays dead forever. Also, if he keeps something alive for more than a minute, someone else in close proximity dies instead. 20 years later, he discovered his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles ("Chuck") had been murdered. He seeks her out and brings her back to life. They are now in love and always together, but they can never touch or she will die. They use his special power to solve crimes by his bringing a murdered person back to life and asking who killed them. But because he only has a minute before making them dead again, it is never enough to get any more than a cryptic clue. And it all takes place with the British man narrating in the background. It is just so funny, different and entertaining. I just love it and hope it will get the attention it deserves to stick around!

Well, I need to log off for now and reluctantly bring my weekend to an end, but wanted to first share these three new unexpected pleasures!

Sloooooow Progress, But Progress......

I had mentioned last time how discouraging it was to have gone to TOPS a couple weeks ago and had their scale show no weight change, when my home scale clearly showed otherwise. But the following week, a week ago Monday, made up for it. This time it showed a loss of 3.75 pounds and I was tied for top loss of the week in the chapter! I sure wasn't expecting that. I got a basket with goodies such as 3 mini-bags of popcorn, 2 servings of Crystal Light, a can of tuna, 2 pieces of fruit and some change (you don't keep the basket, just what's in it). This week, I only lost a half-pound, which was disappointing considering I have literally been walking an extra 3 to 4 miles every day, including weekend days. But Rex did grill mushroom and swiss burgers one day, which are incredible but not exactly low-cal, and Dianne and I were together over the weekend and had a big appetizer platter at Applebee's for lunch on Sat.; not exactly low-cal either. So, though I have been doing good, I need to do even better. Rex has been very encouraging about all the walking I have been doing, and I WILL at long last lose this weight not just for myself and my health but for him; he's in great shape for, ahem, his age, and it's not fair that he should have had this sluggish tub of a wife all these years. I WILL have progress every week, and NOT just a half-pound!! He bought me some fruit (plums, nectarines and peaches); now the next trick is that I need to actually start eating it! Am SO bad about eating fruits and veggies.....

A week ago at work, Justin the IT guy walked in the door and startled me just as I was walking out of the kitchen with my yummy chicken-fried steak entree with potatoes and corn (which, I also used to have an English muffin with cheese along with it, oink, but no more). I dropped my yummy entree on the rug, which was bad enough since all I had to eat was a Zone bar and sunflower seeds, but some of the gravy dropped on my left ring finger and burned it (as in a second-degree burn). I hoped it would heal without the blister breaking, but it did break. So it's going to be quite visible for some time and take quite awhile to heal!

Have completed 87 rows of the green/teal/taupe ghan; it's going to have 140 to 144 rows depending on when a couple of the colors run out. The "sand dollar" soft peach ghan, I have 10 motifs done so far (worked on it a bit at Dianne's; the other ghan was getting too big to bring there to work on) so it's getting bulky to fit in my purse, but I can still work on one motif at a time on my commute up to the part of the last row where it gets joined. So I'll do that for awhile before starting the next small take-along project (possibly the spiderweb runner I want to make for my dresser). Speaking of spiders, a HUGE one was walking across the rug yesterday right by Rex's foot; I yelled and he stomped on it, ewwwww!! I keep telling him not to leave the danged front door wide open and risk letting in every insect in the neighborhood! I already lost count of how many dead bugs I've had to clean off the windowsills!

Haven't been to church now for three Sundays in a row, which I'm not happy about. The first two were mainly due to oversleeping because of having been so crazy-busy at work, which I realize is not a good excuse. This past Sunday, I did have a good excuse. I was staying over at Dianne's, and 15 minutes before I left, her mom called and was distraught due to tremors she was having, which in turn made Dianne distraught. So I went with her to mom's townhouse and prayed with her and mom and spent time with both of them. On one hand I felt I needed to go to church, but on the other hand I know this was more important.

Well, this Saturday was SUPPOSED to be our housewarming, but I realized a couple weeks ago we would not be ready. So I talked to Dianne about what Saturdays in Sept. or early Oct. would work for her. Sept. 22 won't work since she is getting together with a couple of high school friends, one of whom she hasn't seen for 40 years (!). Sept. 29 would have worked for her but not for me, since my employer is putting on THREE seminars the day before, so all the managers will be out and I couldn't have the day before off to prepare. Oct. 6 is her eldest daughter's birthday. Sooooo......I didn't want to go into mid-October, but Oct. 13 seems like it will work for both of us and give (I hope!) hubby adequate time to get the dogs' fencing repositioned to the side door/porch and get everything inside assembled, hung, etc. And the days still won't be too short or the weather too cold, and it's not too close to the holidays. So Oct. 13 it is, and I'm not moving it again! I requested the 12th as a vaca day to prepare, and I'm still taking off this Friday, which I originally scheduled when I thought the housewarming would be this Sat. Work has continued to be crazy and I NEED a day off! Looking very much forward to the upcoming 4-day weekend! And now it's 12:21 so I NEED to end this and go to bed!

More Hours in My Day, Please!

Well....I went to my second meeting on Monday at the TOPS Chapter I originally planned to join. I really do like it; the ladies are really nice, and I do think I should join. I was going to on Monday; I'd already filled out all the paperwork, and they gave me my membership binder. But I didn't turn in my dues yet since I am still so stunned by my weigh-in. I started walking from the park n'ride to the ferry dock and back most days at the end of last month, which totals about an extra 3 miles walking each weekday. The walk in the morning is relaxing (and getting up 1/2 hour earlier has been surprisingly doable) while the walk in the evening -- when I am tired, hungry, the sun is beating down on me, and there is an ever-so-slight upward incline -- is exhausting (especially a day like yesterday when it was in the mid 80s; today went better). But I vowed to do it each day I possibly can. I also have definitely cut back on my portions and snacking. I knew I had lost about 2 pounds, based on our new digital bathroom scale. But to my shock, their scale showed no change (a "turtle" in TOPS lingo). How does a person weigh themself on the same scale, with the same amount of clothes (or lack thereof) at the same time of day, and one shows a loss and one doesn't?? Makes no sense, and it was very discouraging for their scale to lie and show me no encouragement for how good I've been. I totally plan to keep on keeping on and do even more than I have been. At the same time, part of the reason one goes to TOPS is to receive recognition for what they have done right. But I'll go back this Monday and see what happens. I had even taken a 3-mile round trip walk last Sun. afternoon, and it's unheard of for me to do that on a Sunday. I really do like walking. But when the days get short and the weather gets wet and blustery, sadly just a couple months away now, I will need to shift my walking to my Nordic Track Walkfit for the next several months....

I just found out this afternoom that the lady my employer hired to handle the hotels and the conference sponsorships, who has been having health issues and has only been at work about half the time lately (if that), was advised to resign by her doctor. We have been very shorthanded as it is, with one of the Program Directors on maternity leave and not scheduled to return till late next month. A young woman had been hired to take over her work and didn't give the job a chance; she lasted two whole weeks. (Then she had the nerve to expect reimbursement for the bus/ferry pass my boss agreed to pay for when she was an employee.) Now my boss is on vacation this week, and the owner (his mom) is about to go on vaca. She and the office manager were running a seminar today and again tomorrow, leaving just the office assistant and me. I am trying to confirm the last few speakers for several conferences that are not going to get done on time (for marketing purposes), meaning none of us will get the extra on-time bonus for those, and dealing with two program chairs who are acting like primadonnas. I am doing my best and my bosses totally know that, but I hate missing those bonuses. But what can I do; we can't twist peoples' arms to join our faculty or doubt them when they say they have a conflict. I am also trying to get mini-bios written for several upcoming brochures, get the proper accreditations sent in for each, call speakers to find out when they are sending their materials for the course books, and somehow answer calls from people registering or asking questions, which the assistant usually does, but he has to watch the live feed from the current conference and handle issues regarding that. I do like my job and am treated well, which is a nice switch from other places I have worked, but this is one of those weeks I wish I could clone myself!

I just signed up with a new web host tonight for my site evergreenrefuge.org (and likely my church site olallabiblechurch.com as well), and I am already blown away by their service. I have been pretty much satisfied with 2mhost.com, the host I've used the past four years. Their uptime and customer service has been very good. But they are in Egypt, of all places, and sometimes there's been a bit of a language barrier when I've had questions. I also decided I wanted a Christian web host. And I wanted one that had the ability to host more than one site on one account, so I could consider moving the church site there too. After much online searching I found a small host called hostingtruth.net and was impressed with their prices and features. But I was even more impressed to receive prompt, courteous and understandable answers from the owner (!!!), Scott, at all hours of the day or evening!! I got my complete instructions on accessing my new file manager less than an hour after signing up! WOW!! I can already say I highly recommend hostingtruth.net, and likely wll have even more glowing things to say once I've had the pleasure of using their service!!

I was very glad to finally finish my pretty peach afghan with the burgundy popcorn flowers and green leaves (wove in the last of about 380 ends Sunday, yuk -- I think that's the last time I pick a pattern with that many ends to weave in). It came out really pretty. But it is still in a plastic bag on our new couch; I'm afraid to display it lest the dogs (especially Heidi) mistake it for a chew toy. So will have to decide what to do about that! Picture coming when I ever decide what to do about my camera situation! On the new ghan I started in the Fanfare stitch, which was supposed to be soft green, soft peach, deep teal and soft taupe, I ended up ripping out about 30 rows since I decided the peach (while beautiful on its own or with the soft green) clashed with the deep teal and the taupe. So now this ghan will be soft green, deep sea green, deep teal and soft taupe. I hated to rip all that out, but I like this combo much better, and plan to make a solid color ghan (likely the Sand Dollar join-as-you -go hexagons pattern) using the peach! Wel, enough of this gab for now and on to trying out my new web host!!

This and That

Well...I have had all positive responses to my short haircut. But I don't think I want to keep it this short. And the bad part about that is, it's going to be awkward to grow out. Well, if it starts looking really weird in the process, I'll have Valisa even it out. She did do a nice job; she always does. It doesn't look anywhere as full on the sides as the girl in the picture, but that's due to my fine-textured hair and not how she cut it. I'm not going to have a picture taken of me with this cut, what with being at my all-time high weight (well, about the same as the more recent pics on my site, but that's bad enough...). It's easy to take care of and will feel good in whatever remaining very warm days we have this season, but I prefer it chin length. This cut just feels too extreme. I always wanted it long, but don't see that ever happening, since I can't do anything with it when it gets past shoulder length.

On Monday I got a good idea for getting in a lot of extra walking before Rex gets my Nordic Track Walkfit ready to go (and while the weather is warm and the days are still long). I told him that night, "Tomorrow's the 31st, so don't buy my Kitsap Transit pass (to get the mile and a half from the park n'ride to the ferry dock. I'll get up a half-hour earlier and walk from there to the dock in the mornings, and walk most evenings unless I have somewhere to go or the weather's too warm." He thought it was a great idea and will also save us the $31.50 for the monthly pass (which. with the mortgage we have now, every cent counts). Even on days I need to take the bus in the evening and pay the $1.25, that won't be more than a few times a month. So I've done the walk the last three mornings and really enjoyed it. I allow myself plenty of time and the weather is so pleasant and cool that time of day. In the evening with the sun beating down on me, the walk is a lot harder. It got to 85 today so I took the bus today (but they still take the previous month's pass till the 5th!).

I went to the TOPS meeting last night. The people were very nice. But it just didn't feel right. I can't put my finger on why. But I felt I wanted to try at least one of the other local chapters that have evening meetings before deciding which to join. I contacted the Area Coordinator and told her the number given for the chapter I originally wanted to try (which is a bit closer and easier to get to) was out of service. She gave me the correct number and assured me that the chapter does exist. They meet on Mondays, so I will go there this coming Monday. I don't know if I have lost very much weight yet, but I plan to continue to be very careful with my portion control and continue the walking, which I can already feel in my legs. I pray I start seeing some results before too long, because I just can't stand to look at myself any more. I need to lose about 55 pounds to get to my goal. I WILL do it this time; I have to. Not just for my health and for Rex and others that care for me, but for my self-esteem. This has gone on waaaaaay, waaaaaaaaaaaay too long...

I have all 63 squares of my peach ghan with the burgundy flowers and green leaves completed and joined, and am working on the edging tonight. Then I will have about 380 ends to weave in, YUK! I always leave the ends till last; too much stopping and starting otherwise. So I'll chip away at that over the weekend. I also started another ghan today to carry along on my commute till it gets too big. It will alternate soft green, soft peach, deep teal and soft taupe (Bernat Berella) in the "Fanfare" stitch from my wonderful out-of-print "Adventures in Crocheting" book.

I'm concerned about (my best friend) Dianne's adorable little dog (a chihuahua/pom that looks like a chihuahua with a mask), Josh, age 7, who has been acting depressed and cries when she has to go out, which he never used to do. I urged her to see the vet today and she did. Will be anxious to hear what the vet has to say. I pray it's something that can be remedied quickly so the "pocket pooch", as I call him, will be his old self. She is SO attached to him...

I have some furniture news, but I will post about that in a few days on my other (home chronicle) blog that I'll be wrapping up soon! Back to my edging...

Welcome to my New Blog!

Well, I've been wanting to start a new "general purpose" blog for some time. I was originally going to have my blog at one of several Christian alternatives to MySpace, but I already have several online groups I belong to and not really time to devote to the extras that come with the networking sites. So I decided to go with just a blog. I created my home planning chronicle blog at blogger.com but also looked at other blog hosts, but decided to stay with blogger (blogspot). There is a way to move one's blog to one's own site and maintain it there, so when I have time (ha ha), I will look into that...

My aforementioned home planning chronicle (which I used to think I would never have a home to chronicle) is at evergreenrefuge.blogspot.com. Now that I FINALLY am in my home after all these years (thank you, Lord), I will be wrapping up that blog after posting a few updated pictures (which has been delayed due to trying to determine whether I can get a camera I already have to do the job or have to buy another) but keep that one available for myself and others to read. I wanted a new blog to just report on everyday life as time permits, report on what I am currently crocheting, and, God willing, report on my weight loss which I MUST do something about instead of just talking about it. Hearing on Friday that my husband (8 years older and 3 inches taller than me) weighs 10 pounds less than me, though I wasn't surprised, was a wake-up call of sorts. Then that night, the lightbulb went on over my head and said, "rejoin TOPS". I did make some progress when I went there weekly several years ago, due to the accountability factor and the possibility of winning prizes, and just being around others who are likewise fighting the battle (have tried online lists but it's not the same thing). Had a nice conversation that night with a lady who heads up one of the local chapters and will be expecting me Wed. evening. Will report back on how that goes.

The only other current news, besides the pretty "keeper" afghan I'm currently working on (burgundy popcorn flowers with green leaves inside peach join as you go squares; there are 7 x 9 = 63 squares) is that I had Valisa cut my hair shorter yesterday than I've worn it in years (the home page pic depicts my usual length). I just felt it was time for a change. The pic I brought her is on hairdos.com, click on "ultra short" (though I don't really feel it's ULTRA short), first page, #1347. I don't know that it looks as good on the girl in the pic as on me, but we'll see what people at church and work think. Rex doesn't dislike it! Well, back to my crocheting!